By Anthony Barich
THE way the Celts Christianised pagans in England in the sixth century will be the model of how Anglicans will attempt to Christianise a society that is paganising Christianity, the leader of WA’s Anglo-Catholics said.
A fully-resourced monastery with daily prayers and Mass was the central “powerhouse” from which monks evangelised the pagan countrysides of Ireland, Scotland and parts of Wales and Northern England, Bishop Harry Entwistle told the 26 February festival at Como Catholic Parish introducing the Anglican Ordinariate (non-geographic diocese) in Australia.
The laity were critical of this plan also, as monks would gather groups, often running informal prayer meetings at the junction of car tracks. As these lay groups – which were often peasants “eking out an existence on their land” – became established, they were resourced by the monastery, he said.
Similarly, the Church of Sts Ninian and Chad in Maylands would be the centre of the Ordinariate in WA, with other smaller Ordinariate groups to be established in major regional centres including Geraldton, Bunbury, Albany, Kalgoorlie and Esperance.
Initially, those who form them may be former Anglican converts to the Catholic faith who still value their Anglican heritage, and would “use their skills, gifts and faith of the ministry of the lay faithful to organise its life and grow the mission”, he said.
“We know of such a group of former Anglicans within the Catholic Church in New Zealand who are anxious to exercise such a ministry,” he said. An Ordinariate Mass would be offered periodically and other gatherings organised, but the Ordinariate members would continue their Christian life within the local Catholic parish on a weekly basis.
To do all this, the Anglo-Catholics will need more vocations to the priesthood and still others to live the Religious life in the world in communities like the Society of the Sacred Cross or as lay oblates and associates of other Orders.
The Bishop said he sees a similarity between the emergence of new Religious communities within the Church and the way Celtics operated, and added that the Anglo-Catholics can learn from both.
Often consisting of young people living in small houses and communities within parish communities, these new movements seek to evangelise by bringing God’s presence into the everyday lives of those whom they meet, “communicating the Gospel in ways they can understand”.
Similarly, the Celtic Church placed people at the centre of its mission, communicating the Gospel to them in ways that enabled the local population to relate to the faith, Bishop Entwistle said at the festival introducing the Ordinariate.
The Celts, who came from Northern Europe and occupied Ireland, Scotland and parts of Wales and northern England, were a Christian community before the Augustinian mission in 597.
The Celts Christianised pagan shrines and places, and above all focused on the Holy Trinity – as an alternative to the pagans’ various gods – as the one, true God who is involved in the whole of life, he said.
“Hence, Celtic prayers were said for virtually all of life’s activities because everything came within the domain of the Holy Trinity,” he said.
He stressed that Anglicans entering the Church via these Ordinariates must not “build walls around ourselves like the Pharisees in order to protect the pure form of Anglicanism”.
“Our purpose is to bring the treasures of the ‘Anglican Way’ into the fullness of the Catholic Church and those treasures include the experiences of the Celtic Church, of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church in England and the reformed Church of England,” he said.