page_title: Personal ordinariate
section_title: Australia and Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Personal ordinariate / Regional development / Australia and Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: Official representation of the Coat-of-Arms of The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.
context_page_description: A personal ordinariate, sometimes called a "personal ordinariate for former Anglicans" or more informally an "Anglican ordinariate", is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in accordance with the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of 4 November 2009 and its complementary norms. The ordinariates were established in order to enable "groups of Anglicans" to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony. They are juridically equivalent to a diocese, "a particular church in which and from which exists the one and unique Catholic Church", but may be erected in the same territory as other dioceses "by reason of the rite of the faithful or some similar reason".
  Three primarily Anglophone ordinariates were established between 2011 and 2012:
  Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
  Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter
  Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
context_section_description: At the end of November 2010, Peter Elliott, an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, Australia, said that the Australian bishops intended to follow the example of England and Wales so that an initially "very small" ordinariate could be established in that country, with specific churches designated for its use, by Pentecost 2011. A former Anglican layman, Elliott is designated as the delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a liaison to the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. He expected that, once established, the proposed Australian ordinariate would attract "a much larger number of people". An Australian ordinariate implementation committee was formed in mid-December 2010.
  A national Australian ordinariate festival was held in February 2011 at Coomera in Queensland. The conference was hosted by Elliott and Archbishop John Hepworth of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.
  People from the Catholic Church attended, as well as members of the Anglican Church of Australia, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, the Church of Torres Strait and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, as well as some Anglican religious who wish to be part of the ordinariate. The implementation committee had its inaugural meeting after the conference.
  The consensus of the festival was that unity can be achieved while also preserving the distinctive Anglican heritage of the churches. Elliott said that membership in the ordinariate by interested persons is sought by a formal application in writing. All clergy transferring to the ordinariate will require a Catholic priest as sponsor and ordination within the Catholic Church.
  In a radio discussion on 20 February 2011, Hepworth said that some 800 people of his own church, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, were committed to joining an ordinariate and that he believed, once implemented, it would grow strongly. The possibility of the Church of Torres Strait (some 9,000 people) joining was also discussed on the radio program.
  A conference and synod of the Church of Torres Strait, held from 3 to 5 June 2011, decided unanimously to accept the idea of the church becoming a Catholic ordinariate and set a target date of the First Sunday in Advent in 2011 for its implementation after first finding out how many of its membership wish to join the ordinariate.
  In his address to an ordinariate information day in Melbourne on 11 June 2011, Elliott said that the Australian ordinariate was expected to be established in 2012. He also confirmed that the petition of the Church of Torres Strait had been sent to Rome.
  However Hepworth, a former Catholic priest who has been married twice, could not be an ordained bishop of the proposed ordinariate. A statement issued by the TAC's College of Bishops following a meeting in Johannesburg in March 2012 stated that the body had voted to remain Anglican, despite Hepworth's efforts.
  As announced by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference on 11 May 2012, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith established the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross on 15 June 2012. The 72-year-old Harry Entwistle, who had been the Western Regional bishop (based in Perth, Western Australia) of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia was appointed the first ordinary and was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church on the same day.
  Since its inception, the ordinariate has grown to include twelve Australian congregations in Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and New South Wales. In February 2015, a congregation of the Traditional Anglican Church of Japan was received as the Ordinariate Community of St. Augustine of Canterbury, the first ordinariate community in Asia. Another community in Hiroshima has since joined.
caption: Arms of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
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