I am speaking of Anglican churches here: I am also curious about this. Generally speaking, high church Anglican (Church of England) churches have been using Novus Ordo. Similar high church Anglican churches in the US, whether part of the Episcopal Church or some splinter group, have been using the Book of Common Prayer with some additions, either in its 1928 or 1979 incarnation.
For many outside the highest church of these parishes, it has been our impression that they are going far to look “catholic”. Examples are the use of button front cassocks and birettas, that for all the world look rather Roman, and antiquated Roman at that. Even the present Archbishop of Canterbury wears a button front cassock, given his own high-church inclinations. Similarly, many high church clerics wear the shorter surplices in choir office, following the Roman practice of not wearing preaching scarf and hood.
One thing to remember about the Book of Divine Worship is that it is based on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church (it also, delightfully, provides the 1928 Prayer Book’s service of Holy Matrimony). Therefore, it would not necessarily resonate with UK Anglican Use churches. One interesting historical reason is that the Episcopal Church got its first episcopal ordination from the Scottish Episcopal Church, not from the Church of England, and as a result, the US Book of Common Prayer has been based on the Scottish prayerbook, not the English one.
It appears to me, from examining photos of **Ordinariate **activites in the UK, that there is very little “Anglican” about the “Anglican ordinariate”. The obvious question becomes “what is Anglican anyway?”.
This is, to me, an important question. I am an Episcopalian who is keenly interested in the Ordinariate when one is established in the US. Quite frankly, I am not ready to just become Roman Catholic. When the Ordinariate presents itself as a viable “home”, I would probably be willing to accept the Marian doctrines and Papal infallibility (I already accept, on an historical basis, the primacy of the Pope.) Being a viable home, to me, means being Anglican in practice and Roman Catholic in doctrine. I want to see Anglican attitudes toward worship, not the kind of watered down Roman Catholic style worship I have seen in high church parishes in the US. This authenticity is important, I suspect, to many fence sitters like me.
