Unity in Diversity

Fr Christopher Stainbrook offering an Ordinariate Mass in Niagara Falls, October, 2016

‘I believe the very existence of the Ordinariates is a manifestation of the determination of the Catholic Church to pursue the quest for Christian unity in the face of mounting difficulties. Your bond with the Successor of St Peter is an expression of his role as “the first servant of unity”. To those outside the Church you give a witness of the unity in diversity, even within the visible expressions of the Latin Rite. Within the Church you are a sign of the presence of the Universal Church in the particular Churches. Moreover, within the full communion of the Catholic Church you are called to share in the mission of evangelis­­ation, bringing the specific gifts that form part of your patrimony.
 
...[A]ll of this can only be achieved if we understand communion not simply as a theological or canonical notion, but as something that has be lived and expressed in practice in sharing our daily lives with each other and with the other more traditional structures of the Church. It is our ongoing response to the suggestions of the Holy Spirit calling us to the perfection of charity, to holiness’. 

from a talk by Fr Gerald Sheehan at the 2015 Ordinariate Festival
​Church of the Most Precious Blood, London Bridge