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OTTAWA: Pope's Offer of Ordinariate put 'on hold', says ACCC leader
Almost no Canadian parishes prepared to take plunge, VOL told
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 9, 2011
An offer by Pope Benedict XVI of a personal ordinariate for North American Anglicans looking for "corporate reunion" with the Roman Catholic Church while also preserving elements of a distinctive Anglican patrimony is "on hold", sources have told VOL.
A Deacon who attended Mass last Sunday at The Cathedral Parish of the Annunciation, Ottawa, a constituent Member of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) and the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), heard Suffragan Bishop & Rector, The Rt. Rev. Carl Reid say that Rome has placed the matter of Ordinariates and dialogue concerning same "on hold" until further notice.
This was stated preceding the sermon delivered by Bishop Carl Reid.
The source told VOL, "I believe the information he imparted came from the Church of Rome. Apparently it was so 'hot off the presses' that the reflections of the TAC Primate were not yet known. The long and the short of it seems to be that the impression is that the entire project is 'dead in the water'."
VOL has been told that a letter will soon be issued to all Canadian clergy stating, in effect, that the Ordinariate is being put "on hold" indefinitely.
There are several reasons for this, but almost no Canadian parishes have stepped up to take the plunge, VOL has been told.
In July 2010 in Surrey, BC, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada voted overwhelmingly to unite with Rome. At that time, the ACCC voted to establish a Canadian Anglican Catholic Ordinariate.
Present on that occasion was the Canadian House of Bishops (Bishop Peter Wilkinson, Metropolitan and Bishop Ordinary; Bishop Craig Botterill, Suffragan for Atlantic Canada and Chancellor; Bishop Carl Reid, Suffragan for Central Canada and Apostolic Commissary; Bishop Robert Mercer, Assistant Bishop; along with the TAC Primate, Archbishop John Hepworth); eighteen members of the House of Clergy; and thirty members of the House of Laity; together with a number of observers and guests.
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