Even after that, the visitor had still more questions, including, "Are there tabernacles in their churches? How would the Sacrament be reserved?" Wikipedia has a good answer:
Some Anglican parishes use tabernacles, either fixed on the altar, placed behind or above it, or off to one side. . . . Among those Anglicans who identify as "Anglo-Catholics," the Protestant Reformation is often considered one episode in church history which no longer defines their faith as Anglicans. After the Oxford Movement, reservation became commonplace in large parts of the Anglican Communion, and some parishes also perform services of solemn benediction and/or other forms of Eucharistic adoration.I would say, though, that in the last part of my working career, I traveled extensively and went to Episcopalian churches in many areas. Tabernacles and reservation of the Sacrament were uncommon, and since they are always optional, this was never an issue.
In fact, on a work assignment in Connecticut, I went to an Episcopal parish that, in New England style, had plain glass multipane windows. Beyond that it had no altar, just a wooden communion table on a dais. (it's worth recognizing that before the Oxford Movement in the 1840s, this was very much the norm in Anglican churches. No tabernacle, it goes without saying.) However, it had enormous paintings of the 14 stations of the cross along its walls, a distinctly Anglo-Catholic feature. But during the announcements, in Episcopalian style at the offering, a congregant stood up to offer testimony. This is all perfectly Anglican.
Another visitor became quite exercised at my depiction of Anglicanism -- and it's worth recognizing that I was explicitly answering the first visitor's questions about Anglicans and their response to the ordinariates, not Catholics. One thing that puzzles me is that this angry entity didn't identify even as one of the 57 genders, but instead in xer e-mail address self-identified as a phytoplankton. Whatever.
The phytoplankton objected:
{Y}our correspondent asks, I also wonder how confession is done in the Ordinariate.However, the full question was different:By going into a little room with a grate, kneeling down, confessing one's sins to the priest, and receiving absolution according to the sacramental norms of the Roman Catholic Church.
I also wonder how confession is done in the Ordinariate. I'm assuming that there can't be a rite from the Anglicans. Do Anglicans confess to their priests?I responded to the full question by saying that Anglicans only very rarely observe the sacrament, and Anglican priests are not trained in it. (For instance, Anglicans have no equivalent standard usage like "Bless me, Father. . .") This was the basis for my answer, and it was in the context of saying that an ordinariate priest who had come over from an Anglican denomination would be no more familiar with confession than a lay convert.
But then the phytoplankton supplied the answer I "should" have given: "By going into a little room with a grate. . ." Of course, the little room with the grate is sometimes used in the Catholic Church. I believe, however, that Catholics have the option of confessing behind a screen or face-to-face (respecting the preference of the priest), just as they have the option of receiving the host in the hand or on the tongue. And even in a parish (like ours) with the traditional grates, if there are too many people in line, or if it's a penance service, face-to-face in the open is perfectly acceptable, no little room, no grate.
The phytoplankton then went farther,
I understand that your concern is about the catechesis provided to incoming members of the Ordinariate, and all I can say is that Ordinariate priests and laity that I've encountered in my diocese appear to be more orthodox in belief and practice than an equivalently sized random sampling of their non-Ordinariate brethren.This left me puzzled as well, since ordinariate priests in almost any diocese are the thing which is not. He seems to know many. And these seem to be of the behind-the-screen variety (but how many ordinariate facilities even have traditional screen type confessionals, since many use diocesan parishes?) I have a sense that my phytoplankton correspondent -- I assume he is actually human, since the Church is not meant for phytoplanktons -- is of the chapel veil, communion kneeling-on-the-tongue persuasion.
But these people seem to think Anglicanism -- actually "Angelicanism" -- is some sort of cure for what ails the Church. They have a picture of Anglo-Catholicsm as something that the Catholic faithful should emulate, not understanding that this is largely an observance of form alone, and quite often a campy observance of the form at that. And it's something optional for Anglicans that, in their little alternate-universe groups, they seek to make compulsory for Catholics.
And, if my phytoplankton correspondent is any sample, they're angry. Just like the "Angelicans" I know.
