Based in Houston, Texas, with the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham as its principal church, the ordinariate includes 38 parishes and missions with 8,000 members in the United States and Canada.

[7][8] The ordinariate describes itself as "a structure, similar to a diocese, that was created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic.

[11] However, the Vatican announced on December 7, 2012, that after consulting the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), it was extending the ordinariate to include Canada.

[11] Initially, the Vatican named all married ordinaries as apostolic protonotaries – that is, monsignors of the highest rank – soon after the respective appointments to that office.

[13] In the early 21st century, a number of bishops from the Church of England and the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), a global "continuing Anglican" body, independently approached the Vatican seeking some manner of corporate reunion that would preserve their autonomy and their ecclesial structure within the Catholic Church.

[16][17] In response, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, permitting erection of personal ordinariates equivalent to dioceses, on November 4, 2009.

The same week in the Diocese of Victoria in British Columbia, another 23 Anglicans, including Peter Wilkinson, until then the Diocesan Bishop of the ACCC, were received into the Catholic church.

[22] On June 26, 2012, Randy Sly, a former archbishop in the Charismatic Episcopal Church, was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Paul Loverde in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

[24] On February 4, 2015, the ordinariate dedicated a new chancery building, on property adjacent to its principal church (which would become its cathedral with the installation of its first bishop in 2016), Our Lady of Walsingham, in Houston.

The other remaining Pastoral Provision parish, the Congregation of St. Athanasius in Boston, also joined the ordinariate pursuant to the Vatican's decree.

[4][14] In his pastoral letter, "Come, Holy Ghost," released February 14, 2020, Bishop Lopes revealed the ordinariate would become the 14th Latin Church episcopal jurisdiction in the U.S. to make the reception of eucharist normally follow confirmation.

"[31][32] In late 2020, the ordinariate published an Anglican Use form of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Worship: Daily Office: North American Edition.

[35] On January 26, 2013, Carl Reid, a former ACCC bishop, was ordained by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast at the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ottawa.

It is nearly identical with the two current versions of the Roman liturgical calendar for the dioceses of the United States and Canada, but it has retained some elements that form part of the Anglican patrimony.