A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans,[1][2] shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,[3][4] is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in order to enable "groups of Anglicans"[5] and Methodists[6] to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony.
Created in accordance with the apostolic constitutionAnglicanorum coetibus of 4 November 2009[7][8][9][10] and its complementary norms,[11] the ordinariates are juridically equivalent to a diocese,[12] "a particular church in which and from which exists the one and unique Catholic Church",[13] but may be erected in the same territory as other dioceses "by reason of the rite of the faithful or some similar reason".[13]
Three personal ordinariates were established between 2011 and 2012:
^... we are learning to call them the 'Anglican ordinariates'" - Aidan Nichols in Andrew Burnham, Heaven and Earth in Little Space (Canterbury Press Norwich 2010 ISBN978-1-84825-005-5), p. xv
^"Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." "Pillar Horse Race". www.pillarcatholic.com. 11 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
^Note: The Latin title of Anglicanorum coetibus means "Groups of Anglicans".
^In the Annuario Pontificio such structures are listed under the heading "Personal Ordinariates" followed, in small print, by "in accordance with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, 4 November 2009" (Annuario Pontificio 2012, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2012 ISBN978-88-209-8722-0, p. 1034).