Today is not only first day of the new year, it is also day that the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter [Hereafter P.O.C.S.P.] (http://www.usordinariate.org/) has been established in the United States.
Now, you may be asking, "What is the P.O.C.S.P.?" This is a reasonable question to ask. You see, the P.O.C.S.P. is new "diocese" for all Anglicans wishing to come into full communion with the Catholic Church in the United States. This stems from the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus [Hereafter A.C.] which was published by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. A.C. makes it easier for entire communities of Anglicans to come into full communion with the Church, clergy and lay people. The P.O.C.S.P. is the "diocese" that comprises the entire United States for helping these Anglicans in becoming Catholics.
Why does all of this matter to Eucharistic Ecclesiology? All of these Anglicans are trying to find a home in a Church that they actually feel a part of. The Anglican Communion, the Church of England and the other Anglican or Episcopal churches throughout the world, are in disarray because there is no unity between them, save their collective identities as Anglicans (or Episcopalians). The problem with the Anglican Communion, and other churches like it, have accepted the inevitability that they have to disavow anything traditional or conservative about their faith. I am not just speaking of their liturgy, I am speaking mostly about their doctrine. The some members in the Anglican Communion are not happy about the route the Anglican Church is taking, primarily favoring abortion and women's ordination.
The Catholic Church, the Church founded by Jesus Christ, has truly remained a moral beacon in the world and continues to be that way. These new Catholics of the Anglican Use see the Church that has survived many hardships, especially in the last twenty years. They see the staying power of the Catholic Church and the unity it embodies.
When the new Catholics of the Anglican Use come forward to communion (if they have not done so already), will be expressing in a very symbolic way their unity as members of the Mystical Body on earth. Communion, the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, is not just a meal or a sacrifice, it is those things, but it also expresses our communion as members of Christ's Body, the Church. When Catholics go up for communion, they are explicitly expressing their unity within Christ's Church, the Catholic Church. When these former Anglicans, if they have not already done so, present themselves to our Lord in the bread and wine, they will explicitly be saying in their action, "Yes, I am a member of Christ's Mystical Body on earth, the Church, and I, as a Catholic, accept the teachings of the Church because they are the teachings of Christ."
In the coming months, let us all pray for these new Catholics and pray for those who are discerning the process of converting. May God be with them in their discernment process.
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us!
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