The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a distinctive part of the Catholic Church, established to enable Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving and sharing the best of their Anglican spiritual, liturgical and pastoral heritage. It was established by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 January 2011, following his historic Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. It was the first of three Personal Ordinariates subsequently established for former Anglicans around the world.
The Ordinariate is fully Catholic. Its members are Catholics of the Latin Church, profess the Catholic faith in its entirety and are in full communion with the Pope and the wider Catholic Church. They are not members of the Anglican Communion. At the same time, they bring into the Catholic Church what Pope Benedict described as a precious gift and a “treasure to be shared”: elements of the Anglican tradition which have nurtured Christian faith over many centuries. These include its distinctive language of prayer, sacred music and choral tradition, spiritual writings and particular traditions of worship and pastoral life.
Canonically, the Ordinariate is similar to a diocese, but membership is personal rather than geographical. Its clergy and faithful therefore live throughout the country while belonging to the same Ordinariate family. Today there are more than fifty Ordinariate missions across England, Wales and Scotland.
The Ordinariate has its own distinctive Catholic liturgy, Divine Worship, in which elements of the Anglican liturgical tradition have been adapted for Catholic use and approved by the Holy See. Ordinariate communities may also celebrate according to the Roman Rite, while traditions such as Evensong have found a recognised home within Catholic worship.
Under the patronage of Our Lady of Walsingham, the Ordinariate has a strongly missionary purpose. It seeks to provide a pathway into the Catholic Church for Anglicans, to work for the restoration of Christian unity, and to contribute the riches of the Anglican patrimony to the life and mission of the whole Catholic Church.