ROME, JULY 5, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The first liturgical texts approved for the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans have been promulgated by the Holy See. They are the Order for Funerals and the Order for the Celebration of Holy Matrimony.
There are now three ordinariates established: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the United States and Canada; and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia.
According to a report by Vatican Radio the texts are drawn from the classical Anglican prayer book tradition and incorporate elements of the Anglican patrimony, now in the full communion of the Catholic Church.
“This is an important moment in the development of our distinctive liturgical and ecclesial life,” said Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in a July 3 press release.
The liturgies were promulgated by the Congregation for Divine Worship on June 22, 2012, the feast-day of the English saints of the Reformation, John Fisher and Thomas More
The new texts were developed under the guidance of Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia OP, who served until recently as the Secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship. Archbishop DiNoia was recently appointed to the position of Vice President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and has also been re-appointed as chair of the Holy See’s Anglicanae traditiones Commission, tasked with developing the new liturgical texts for the Personal Ordinariates.
The Reverend Uwe Michael Lang, CO, who also just stepped down from a post with the Congregation for Divine Worship, will also continue his role in the development of the texts.
“We welcome with gratitude these texts, which bring into Catholic liturgical life some of the most beloved and memorable texts in the Book of Common Prayer,” said Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, in a press release issued the same day.
“These texts have blessed and comforted generations of English-speaking Christians and will be deeply appreciated in the Ordinariate communities,” he added.
