How To Join the Anglican Ordinariate

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Published: February 6, 2012

“No one is automatically a member”

Head of new Anglican Ordinariate in U.S. provides details on “how to join”

(Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from a Jan. 31 pastoral letter from Fr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. A link to the full text of the letter is provided below.)

How To Join the Ordinariate

There have been many questions regarding how one joins the Ordinariate. Our founding document, Anglicanorum Coetibus gives us direction regarding membership in the Ordinariate.

AC IX. Both the lay faithful as well as members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally part of the Anglican Communion, who wish to enter the Personal Ordinariate, must manifest this desire in writing.

As the document indicates, no one is automatically a member of the Ordinariate. Rather, it is required that anyone who wants to belong to the Ordinariate needs to submit a petition in writing for membership. All membership request letters need to be sent via the US mail so that the Ordinariate has a hard copy record with both names and signatures. We also request that any other documents or lists sent to us electronically need to be in PDF format and sent as attachments. A sample membership letter can be found on our website, as well as the community profile questionnaire and a clergy information form…

Currently our focus and priority is on the identification and creation of stable Ordinariate communities. However, we are also aware that there are individuals or single families who will want to join the Ordinariate. Assigning individuals to the various local communities is going to take time; we first have to see where our communities are going to be located and get them established before we can begin connecting more isolated individuals/families to our existing communities. This means that our individuals are going to need to be patient with us as these communities are created. We do not want anyone feeling neglected, however with limited time and resources our priority must be getting our communities established and our clergy ordained before we can turn our attention to our individual members. Nevertheless, we are maintaining a database of everyone who desires to join the Ordinariate to keep track of the names and locations of our members so that we will eventually be able to connect individuals with communities in their geographic area.

Particular Situations

If you are an individual or single family who currently has your letter with an Episcopalian or Anglican Church, we need you to send us a letter stating your intent to join signed by you/and your family (please have your name(s) printed as well so we can legibly read your names). If there is an Ordinariate community within a reasonable distance from you, we may suggest that you join them to do your preparation to come into the Church. If not, we will ask you to attend your local Latin Catholic Church and come into the Church through their RCIA program. Upon accepting your request, we will try to assign you to the care of the closest Ordinariate community, though this may take some time for us to get this organized.

If you are in a local parish RCIA program, after you have joined the Church send us a letter declaring your status as a member of the Catholic Church, and you can be formally enrolled as a member in the Ordinariate. It is likely that some of our individual members will not be in close proximity to an established Ordinariate community. Therefore we would ask that you worship in your local Latin Catholic parish, but maintain a tie with the Ordinariate parish that is closest to you.

If you are an individual or family that has already joined the Catholic Church but you are of an Anglican background, please send us a letter stating your intent to join signed by you/and your family (please have your name(s) printed as well so we can legibly read your names). We will then send you a letter of acceptance, and assign you to the care of the closest Ordinariate community within a reasonable distance as soon as we are able. If the community is of such a distance that it is not practical to worship with them, we ask that you worship as you can with the community, but that you continue to use your local parish as your primary place of worship.

We know that it is likely that there will be individuals assigned to the care of groups that could be more than a hundred miles away. We suggest that communities keep in touch by online communication such as parish bulletins, being notified of community events, meeting in various places and having morning/evening prayer, etc. As communities develop, we hope that we will be able to have communities in closer proximity to our members. After we are more organized, we may be able to find ways for members who are geographically close to each other to be in touch. Until we have more numerous formal groups, communities and parishes, this is our best solution for meeting the needs individual members…

If you are an Anglican parish that is interested in corporately joining the Ordinariate and you have not already done so, your rector needs to contact Fr. Scott Hurd to begin the process by identifying your parish and filling out a community profile questionnaire. If you are an Anglican community or group (but not a formal parish) who is considering joining the Ordinariate, and you have not done so already, your members need to individually or as nuclear families submit letters to us regarding your personal intention to join the Ordinariate. The leader of your group (or a designated member if there is no formal leader) needs to contact Fr. Scott Hurd to identify your group and request a community profile questionnaire for your community to complete. If your leader is an Anglican cleric, then he needs to contact Fr. Scott Hurd and get specific information on how to proceed.

If you are a Catholic group of former Anglicans, each person or nuclear family must submit a letter stating your intent to join signed by you/and your family (please have your name(s) printed as well so we can legibly read your names). In addition, your leader needs to send a letter to Fr. Scott Hurd identifying how many members you have in your group that are submitting their names for membership. Also, please let us know if you have a particular Catholic priest who is assisting your or guiding you as a group, and/or if you have a diocesan contact person, along with all his or her contact information.

If you have a group of mixed Latin Catholics and Anglicans, your members also need to send the Ordinariate individual or family letters stating their desire to become a member. Your leader must also fill out a community profile questionnaire, and contact Fr. Scott Hurd regarding how to proceed, if the group or community has not already done so.

If you are a member of a Pastoral Provision parish or community, each person or nuclear family must submit a letter to the Ordinariate stating your intent to join signed by you/and your family (please have your name(s) printed as well so we can legibly read your names). Membership in the Ordinariate is separate from membership in your parish. Please be aware that decisions about the status of pastoral provision parishes will be made by the local diocesan bishop, in consultation with Fr. Steenson and your community’s leadership.

Finally, if you are a Catholic priest of Anglican background who is currently incardinated and functioning in a Latin diocese, we would like to know who you are, and if you are interested in assisting or having some form of association with the Ordinariate. At this point we are only able to compile a list of names and contact information. However, if groups are forming in your area with no clerical shepherd, and if your local bishop consents, we may ask for your assistance.

To read the pastoral letter in its entirety, Click Here.

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