Snapd
ragon
THE P RTAL
February 2014
Page 5
The Ordinariate is an
Instrument of Unity
It was
all very nice – a friendly welcome from the host clergy, good music, a sermon
that contained all the things you would expect to hear on such an occasion and a reasonable
turnout.
I’m referring to a recent ecumenical
service I attended during the Octave
of Prayer for Christian Unity, one of
the better services of that kind that I
have been to, I have to say.
as welcome as water
in a leaking ship
At the end of the service people mingled in church,
though sadly no refreshments, over which we might
have chatted to one another, were available.
Still, people hung around for a while and made an
effort to make conversation, during which time I had
an encounter with a cleric which was more awkward
for him than for me I think, but which left me feeling
as welcome as water in a leaking ship.
Like a good host, the Anglican cleric was attempting
to get around as many guests to his church as possible,
I do believe in Christian unity and I like Anglicans
having a couple of minutes of conversation with each,
and Baptists and Methodists…. But I left this one
for which all credit to him.
feeling that in the view of some present, belonging
When came my turn I was asked the question I to the Ordinariate somehow places me out of the
was fully expecting – “And which church are you ecumenical picture.
from?” My questioner hadn’t banked on the answer he
received – the awkward ‘okay’ and rapid movement to I believe passionately in unity
Though many have tried to convince me that I
the next person told me so.
became a Catholic solely to escape what I could not
whether I blurted
stomach about the Church of England, the truth is
something really offensive
otherwise. I became a Catholic through the Ordinariate
I thought I had answered that I was once an precisely because I b