Divine Worship:The Missal

[gohjedrek]

I attended my first Mass at the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia as a high-church anglican. The things that struck out to me was the beauty of the mass. There was a little pamphlet of the order of the mass, that detailed the rites in the mass.

The differences with the novus ordo mass I have noticed are: 1.There was greater participation in singing the hymns. Everyone sang the hymns together with the choir, with an energy that reminded me of the anglican church. 2. The prayer of humble access was also found in the anglican use mass liturgy, which reminded me again of the anglican church. 3. We prayed the angelus at the end of the mass. 4. Members of the church were highly evangelical, a couple walked up to me and wanted to get to know me better. The ordinary took the time to tell me about the history behind the anglican ordinariate and was open to answer questions of faith. 5. At the end of the mass, the members encouraged me to come back for evensong in the evening (anglican version of the vespers).

With these differences in place, it still definitely is a catholic mass bearing many similarities with the novus ordo conducted in middle english.

I think the mass was not only beautiful in liturgy, but the members and clergy that made up the church. There is a strong common identity in the parish, each person having made the decision to leave their protestant roots (mainly anglican), to come into union with the Holy See and to partake in the mass. As compared to the ordinary novus ordo mass, it can be difficult to converse with catholics, especially those who were cradle-born, their experience will be largely different from the converts. However, in this parish alone, it is easy to interact with the priest, especially since he had came from an anglican background himself, as well as the layman.

 

[C.Ray]

I’ve long wanted to go to an Anglican use parish but there aren’t any nearby… yet. My prayer is that the Anglican use overtakes the NO but I think it’s a long shot. The anglicanorum coetibus society puts out a monthly newsletter that is worth subscribing to if that kind of thing interests you.

 

[gohjedrek]

Yeah, it certainly isn’t easy to find an Anglican use parish, I only have the NO mass in my country. Despite that, I know some who have made the difficult decision to migrate from their country, Indonesia to Australia, just to be received into the catholic church via the anglican ordinariate. They were ex-anglicans, who left their previous communities and home to come over to Australia, because they felt called by God to do so.

I think it’s unlikely that Anglican use overtakes NO, but perhaps the more likely way is that churches in the anglican continuum, no longer in communion with the anglican church, accept the communion with rome such as the anglican catholic church. There’s more possibility of new churches joining the ordinariate in the UK/US, but currently in Australia, the proximity to attend the anglican use mass isn’t a big issue, especially since each major city has at least 1 church dedicated to the Anglican Use.

Perhaps, a more pessimistic view to this, is that it’s harder for current churches with the anglican use mass to expand out due largely to ageing congregation and a net outflow of ex-anglican converts to NO mass. So, it could serve to be a problem of church expansion in the future, but in the meantime, the church population is small (20-25).