The ordinariate has its own approved liturgy, incorporating the sonorous prayers of Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury. But Masses in parishes run by ordinariate priests aren't always celebrated according to the Ordinariate Use.
Ever since the ordinariate's creation, critics have accused it of being "top-heavy" with clergy. Newton said that was a fair criticism, but pointed out that ordinariate priests serve not only ex-Anglicans but also the wider Catholic community through the parishes.
Another common criticism is that the ordinariate has failed to attract the number of Catholic-minded Anglicans that it was expected to 10 years ago. Again, Newton accepted that there was some truth to this.
"If you look at the Church of England, probably many Church of England people just followed what their local parish did and didn't really have the sort of deep feelings about union with the Catholic Church that many of the priests had," he reflected.
As an Anglican drawn to the Catholic faith, Newton felt frustrated that Catholic-Anglican dialogue didn't appear to be leading to greater unity between the two communions.
"In fact, not only was it not coming to anything, but the distance between the Catholic Church and Anglican Church just seemed to be getting larger rather than smaller," he said.
"So when the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, published the apostolic constitution, it was for us an answer to prayer. It was the fulfillment of our hopes that we could be in union with the Holy See and yet still honor the background which had nurtured us in the Christian faith."
Newton noted that ordinariate members were "slightly nervous" when Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, just two years after founding the ordinariate. Would his successor take the same interest in the new structure?
Newton said that Pope Francis turned out to be an "encouraging" figure, although there were few Anglicans in his native Argentina.
"He's promoted a missal for us. He's changed some of our norms to enlarge our mission. So it continues in the same way, really. It's part of the Catholic Church now. It's a constituent part, a structure which belongs to it," he said.
"We still relate to the Holy Father through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and they're still very supportive."
The ordinariate received a morale boost in October 2019, when the pope canonized John Henry Newman.
"To see Newman's image above some St. Peter's Square, a person who -- rather more dramatically than us, I imagine -- had also been an Anglican clergyman and made the journey to full communion, to be canonized as a saint was an amazing experience. And of course he's also our patron, so that's also doubly important for us."
Newton said that since the canonization more Anglican clergy had contacted the ordinariate inquiring about the possibility of becoming Catholic priests.
"They've been younger priests rather than older ones," he said.
The coronavirus crisis has forced the ordinariate to put its 10th anniversary celebrations on hold, though Newton will celebrate a Solemn Mass and Te Deum on Jan. 16, livestreamed from the ordinariate's London church at noon local time.
The ordinariate has set out its vision for the years ahead in the document "Our Calling and Our Mission." It focuses on strengthening the ordinariate's communal life, vocations and formation, and evangelization.
Newton believes that the ordinariate can make a distinctive contribution to the "new evangelization," a term popularized by Pope John Paul II.
"I think we can always remind the Catholic Church that evangelization is a lot more than simply getting lapsed Catholics back to church," he said. "Often that's the sort of language we hear when actually the Great Commission is to go out to everybody."
"And in our country, you have many people who've got no faith, or have lapsed from any practice of the faith, and our evangelization is about all of them."
"And I think that's one of the things that former Anglicans understand. When we were Anglican priests, we had a ministry to the whole parish, not just to the congregation. And I think that's an aspect of evangelization that we ought to keep in front of people."