the p r tal · 2020-07-31 · the p rtal august 2020 page 3 the growth of the ordinariate will...
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R TALTHE PThe PorTal is the monthly review of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
August 2020
John FogartyStella Maris Port Chaplain
to the Medway and Dover Ports
is the monthly review of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
RTALTHE PAugust 2020 Volume 10 Issue 116
ContentsPage 3 Portal Comment – Will Burton reflects
Page 4 Opening up – Joanna Bogle
Page 5 Participate – Snapdragon
Page 6 Catechism: Bell ringing – Fr Matthew Pittam
Page 7 Apostleship of the Sea – John Fogarty
Page 9 Thoughts on Newman – Revd Dr Stephen Morgan
Page 10 A Trip to Nottingham – Ronald Crane
Page 11 The way we worship now – Christopher Smith
Page 12 News from the Ordinariate – around the UK
Page 13 Calendar and Prayer Intentions
Page 14 Finding us at prayer – in England, Scotland and Wales
Page 17 Alone of all her sex – Fr Michael Halsall
Page 18 Year of the Lord’s Favour – review by Fr Simon Ellis
Page 19 Our window on the CofE – The Revd Paul Benfield
Page 20 Aid to the Church in Need – John Newton
Page 21 What is Truth? – Hilary Andrews
Page 23 Bring back Betrothal Rites – Simon Dennerly
Page 24 Do you kneel in church? – Ronald Crane
RTALTHE P Registered Address: 56 Woodlands Farm Road, Birmingham B24 0PG www.portalmag.co.uk
Co-Editors: Ronald Crane, Jackie Ottaway - [email protected] Board: David Chapman, Bverely Cooper. Gill James, Ian O’Hara, Fr Matthew Pittam, Cyril Wood
The views expressed in The PorTal are not necessarily those of the Editors or the Ordinariate
Advisors: Fr Len Black, Fr Neil Chatfield Fr Aidan Nichols OP, Fr Mark WoodruffAdvertising: [email protected]
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The Growth of the Ordinariate Will Burton has been thinking about evangelisation and the Ordinariate
SPEAking To ordinary lay members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, I am often struck by their approach to the growth of the Ordinariate. This seems to be “As the CofE moves
further away from what one might call ‘orthodox Christianity’, more people will wish to join us”.
My thought is, and always has been, that this is a mistake. Those of us who entered into full communion with the Catholic Faith back in 2010, in what became known as the ‘first wave’ and those who did so a couple of years later in the ‘second wave’ have done so. That is obvious. But since then there has been no more than a trickle of people entering into full communion with the Catholic Faith, not all of them to the Ordinariate.
There are, I suppose, two general approaches to church growth, or to give the correct name, evangelisation. The first is passive. We are here. The doors are open. Anyone, and everyone, is welcome. Anglicanorum coetibus is based on this approach. Groups of Anglicans petitioned the Vatican for help, and they responded. But there is a second, more active approach; to go out and search for those who may be interested. After all is the Ordinariate being petitioned by those who wish to join?
To apply the first approach to the growth of the Ordinariate presents a problem. It would be quite wrong actively to go out and “poach” members of other Christian Bodies for membership of the Ordinariate. Yet it must be admitted that the passive approach to evangelisation does not produce results.
Indeed, this approach may well have something to do with the decline in UK Christianity since the Second World War. As congregations become smaller, they become remote from the area they are meant to serve, and less relevant to those who live there. It is the law of diminishing returns, and it has plagued British Christianity.
For the Ordinariate such an approach may well be pointless. Surely, we need to look at the second,
more active, approach to evangelisation? “To go out to the whole world….” is Our Lord’s
command. But we are afraid to do so. We do not know enough. We will be mocked
or laughed at. Our friends and neighbours will keep their distance. Surely, you are not suggesting we use the tactics of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses? No: I am not.
Often the best way is through service; through meeting some need in the local community. In
previous generations this might have been through a youth or sports club, schools or various other social activities - these days often fulfilled through the local council or by other secular bodies. Today there are still a great many needs in UK society that cry out for somebody to tackle.
One such is loneliness. Before the coronavirus lockdown, loneliness was an issue for many. Has the lockdown made the position worse, or has it prompted people to seek out the “lost”? Who knows? What is certain is that, like the poor, the lonely will always be with us – if you see what I mean?
In every area there will be other needs. Maybe our job is to discover them and set out to meet those needs.
To rely on disaffected Anglicans joining is just not good enough. The UK is full of people with little or no religious background at all. What about them? What about all those people who once went to church, but who go no longer? The founder of the Church Army, The Revd Wilson Carlile, told his followers to “Go for the most lost!” It might prove to be a good motto for the Ordinariate.
Portal Comment
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writes
Auntie
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Opening up – with prayers and courageJoanna Bogle
THiS HAS been, and looks set to continue to be, a dreary time. As the nationwide coronavirus lockdown lifts, new problems
and worries emerge daily: we see the wreckage of abandoned projects, unemployment, disappointments, and broken hopes forged in these weeks of cancelled events and closed churches and schools.
The only thing to do is to take Padre Pio’s advice “Pray, hope, and don’t worry” and above all to focus on Christ’s own words, repeated so magnificently by St John Paul the Great, whose centenary we mark this year: “Do not be afraid!” As things – slowly, tentatively, with hopes too thin to voice clearly, and with readiness to accept further disappointments - here are some projects to note:
London’s Catholic History Walks have started a late summer season. They include walks along the Thames from Richmond to the childhood home of St John Henry Newman at Ham. Information from: www.catholichistorywalks.com
In a new venture launched this year, the leading Catholic women’s organisations in Britain unite for a special Mass under the title Catholic Women Praying Together. The theme is “Praying for our young people”. This year, it will be, DV, on November 4th with Bishop John Sherrington celebrating. Mark the date and venue: London’s famous Farm Street church. Info from: www.catholicwomenprayingtogether.org
The horrible plans for “Relationships education” promoted by various lobby groups promoting lesbian and homosexual lifestyles have been placed on hold for a short while because of the school closures and disruptions caused by the virus. There is faint hope that this might mean a re-think on the part of officialdom. Pray about this. Get in touch with the Values Foundation. You can email them easily: [email protected] or check out their website: www.values.foundation
FAITH magazine – which I edit – has had a recent boost and welcomes more new readers. You could write for a free sample copy: FAITH magazine, 58 Buckingham Way, Wallington SM6 9LT. Or get information from the website: www.faith.org.uk
Entries for the annual Schools Bible Project, run by an ecumenical group, Christian Projects, normally close in June, but this year the deadline has been set for October. There are attractive prizes including cash awards for schools.
Contact them at: www.christianprojectsocu.org or email them: [email protected]
And while on the subject of education, there is an excellent new Directory of Catechesis out from Rome. This is important: it offers guidelines which are challenging and direct. This is what must be taught in Catholic schools and parishes. Get your copy from the Catholic Truth Society: www.ctsbooks.org.
And, just to repeat: Do not be afraid!
You are invited to join the Rosary FellowshipFor full details and an application form please contact Br Robert Augustine at:
The Retreat of Our Lady and St Benedict, 63a Wells Road, Walsingham NR22 6DX
[email protected] 01328 820130
Please could clergy bring this initiative to the attention of any of your people who do not have access to this publication
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Participate in every mainstream political party or so says Snapdragon!
iT wAS the splendid Victorian composers of light-opera W.S.Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan who originally coined the expression that every child born was either an
instinctive ‘Little Liberal’ or ‘Little Conservative’. Of course, the famous lyrics do not mean that every baby conceived turns out to have a binary political persuasion; it may be cultural or emotional (assuming Englishmen are cursed with emotions!).
It will not surprise my esteemed readership to hear that ‘Snapdragon’ was never under any illusion as to which angel picked his proclivities.
One of ‘Snapdragon’s earliest memories is of the family nobly searching for the matches to address another power-cut endured during the Three-Day Week of the 1970s. The author of this column does not recall exhibiting any inconvenience or even childish excitement, but he was righteously appalled that the trades unions had plunged the nation into darkness.
Fast-forward a decade and, at the grand old age of 16, I was privileged to savour a garden-party held at the family-home of the 12th Earl and Countess Waldegrave (the parents of former Conservative Cabinet Minister William Waldegrave) at Chewton Mendip, Somerset. Arriving early, His Lordship set me to work moving furniture. I was happily convinced the peer had innocently mistaken me for the son of one of his estate workers.
Modern-day Millennials - or those without a sense of humour- would no doubt claim to be “outraged” and “humiliated”. ‘Snapdragon’ just obtained a profound sense of satisfaction that he had been found worthy of being part of the seamless rich tapestry of our Island Story. In truth, I relished the belief that I was deemed an authentic character in what was subsequently celebrated by Julian Fellowes in ‘Downton Abbey’!
Shortly thereafter, the curriculum in my then History ‘A’-level (when they really were the ‘gold standard’ of the education system!) class moved to the Romanovs and the path to the Russian Revolution. ‘Snapdragon’ was strangely gratified to discover that he was alone among the pupils in judging the Romanovs “dangerously liberal”!
However, the ultimate accolade bestowed upon me came years later when my late-father approvingly granted me the equivalent of a knighthood when he declared: “We were very lucky. You were never a teenager growing-up.”
Obviously, one should rightly avoid politics when writing a column such as this. However, I’m sure ‘Snapdragon’ can be excused mentioning a current political figure he admires. One such is Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP for North-East Somerset and the present Leader of the House of Commons. In an age increasingly devoid of traditional decency, courtesy and the soaring language of Shakespeare, this individual stands out as a glorious exception. Even his worst enemy would not deny that he is unfailingly polite and considered in what he says and the way he says it. He is always immaculately dressed in dark two-piece suit or country-tweeds, and recently bemoaned that the ‘Lockdown’ ban on hair-cuts made him resemble the character celebrated in the pop-song “A Long-Haired Lover from Liverpool”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is unashamedly Catholic and upholds the traditional faith of the Church. He and his wife have six children (named after Popes and/or Saints), prays the Rosary regularly and worships at the Tridentine Mass. During the divisive Single-Sex Marriage legislation, he famously remarked, “I take my moral guidance from the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, not the Tory Whips’ Office.”
Asked about his public perception of being the ‘Member for the early 20th century’, Jacob responded by saying he did not understand why the term was supposed to refer to him since “the 20th century is so modern” and protested that he should be styled the
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Snapdragon ... continued from page 5
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Bell ringing – Anglican Patrimony?It is according to Fr Matthew Pittam
i LivE in a village with a very fine and imposing medieval priory Church. Its Cathedral-like proportions dwarf our humble little Catholic church which is
tucked away at the other end of the village. The Anglican parish church has always been famous for its ring of bells, with many ringers travelling long distances to ring peals and visit the tower.
The sound of bells feels very much part of the village and of the Anglican tradition in this place. Our little church was built in the 1990s and whilst there was a small bellcote on the roof, there were never any bells. However, a couple of years ago, after much discussion, we had a bell system fitted.
We were unable to have real bells because of the weight of them in the building and so we went for a digital system which rings the Angelus three times each day and calls the faithful to Mass. It has made a real difference and has changed the feeling of our worship and also alerts those across the village that we are gathering for worship.
Church bells are an important witness to the faith and form both part of our Anglican patrimony and also have been a central part of Catholic life for centuries. It is such a shame that so many of our modern churches were built without provision for this important call to prayer.
Church bells are thought to date back as far as 400 AD when a Italian bishop in Italy, Paulinus of Nola, introduced bells as part of the liturgy. Later, in 604 AD, Pope Sabinian sanctioned the ringing of church bells which introduced the custom of ringing them during the celebration of Mass and to announce times of the daily offices. By the early Middle Ages, church bells were common in Europe and especially England. They became one of the first forms of Mass communication.
Over time, church bells also were used to mark secular occasions, such as the end of a war, the accession of a monarch and the death of a local or national figure. John Betjeman always said that there was no sound that reminded him of merry England more than the sound of change ringing.
In our village, the bells have generally been positively received. When we first fitted them, I was asked by several villagers about the Angelus and so was able to explain its significance to Catholics.
At times, we can also play hymns on the bells and this also enabled us to remind local people that the Church is present and alive. During the lock-down, the bells continued to sound and so whilst public worship was suspended there was a constant reminder that the Church was here offering worship on behalf of everyone else. In a gentle way the ringing of bells can be seen as part of Evangelisation.
They proclaim the presence of the House of God and joyously call his people to come to our holy places for worship.
I am glad that we had bells fitted. I always wished we could have had the real things but even so it has made a huge difference to the feel of our worship and our presence in the village. Perhaps Ordinariate groups could explore this as part of their patrimony?
“Member for the early 18th century.” Sentiments which endear him to ‘Snapdragon’.
Of course, in our increasingly Post-Christian nation,
none of us can afford to be a ‘Little Liberal’, ‘Little Conservative’ or the possessor of any narrow party-label. Instead, we must participate in every mainstream political party and fight for our faith!
August 2020 Page 7RTALTHE P
Apostleship of the Sea during lockdownJohn Fogarty tells his story
BACk in the 1980s, if you travelled by train, I may have been the driver as my career started at Birmingham New Street as a trainee train driver. At the age
of 21, after a 5-year training programme, I qualified as the youngest driver in the London Midland region. I spent forty years working on the railways, beginning as a trainee train driver and ending up as Professional Head of Operations on the Crossrail construction project in London. After 40 years’ service to the railway industry though, it’s the sea, not the railways, that I’m involved with now.
I am the Stella Maris (Apostleship of the Sea) port chaplain to the Medway and Dover Ports. Among the ports I cover along the Kent coast are Sheerness, the Isle of Grain and Dover. I have eight ports in total. I became a port chaplain last year, and soon saw parallels between the maritime and rail industries. Even though I had to learn a lot about different types of vessels at sea, I found the environment very similar to trains. Ships are a lot bigger, of course, and there was a lot I needed to learn. However, working in a highly regulated safety environment all of my working life, I found that there were many skills that I could transfer.
So how did I become a port chaplain? Well, I had been in touch with Stella Maris for a couple of years before I became a chaplain. I was contacted and asked to visit its office for a chat. We discussed the possibility of my becoming a trustee, but as I was coming up to early retirement, I did not want to join another board at that time.
A few months later, Stella Maris contacted me again to see if I might be interested in becoming port chaplain to the Medway. After spending some time with my predecessor to get a feel for the work, I decided to apply for this sector ministry position.
The shipping industry has existed for hundreds of years, during which time ships have been the main means of delivering goods around the world. The seafarers I serve as a Regional Port Chaplain, are the main labourers in this industry, and currently there are approximately 1.5 million seafarers operating the world’s fleet. Each year about 5,000 ships visit ports on the Medway, with about 80,000 seafarers on board. The ships carry everything from fish and meat to fuel and wood.
The last three months have been very difficult for the seafarers because of the Coronavirus. Airlines refusing
to fly to certain countries because of the coronavirus is a disruption to the lives of many, but if the same happened with cargo ships carrying vital supplies, the consequences for our daily lives would be much more serious. Seafarers can suffer from all sorts of things.
Not seeing their families for such long periods can produce anxiety and loneliness. If there is a problem back home, they can’t be there to sort it out and they miss out on their children growing up. Coronavirus has added to that anxiety and it is one more thing to deal with. As well as this, they work long hours, there can be problems in getting paid, and they have to endure severe weather conditions at sea.
Before Covid-19 struck, when I climbed the gangway to a ship, I carried SIM cards and mobile Wi-Fi units with me. I do this usually on the first visit to a ship, as some seafarers haven’t spoken to their families for 50 days or more. The seafarers live a very different type of life to those working 9-5. They leave behind their families for months at a time and exist as kind of nomads, sailing from one country to another and, because of the nature of the modern maritime industry, having little time ashore.
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Many ships have no internet access, or limited access, which is why the first thing a crew want to do when they arrive in port is to contact their families back home. Around a third of the world’s seafarers come from the Philippines, with large numbers also coming from Kerala and Goa in India.
Seafarers also often want to stock up on essential items before the ship’s departure. Where possible, and again before Covid-19, I would arrange transport to local shops, and, if they had more time, maybe a visit to London to see some of the sights.
Over the last 12 weeks we (Chaplains) have been restricted in what we can do, at least in terms of visiting ships. Our daily cycle of prayer for seafarers and their families continues of course and very often our contacts via Facebook and Twitter continue as before. The conversations are different now and it is usually around the fact that most seafarers are stuck onboard ship for many months even after their original contracts have expired, renewing once or in some cases twice. This of course brings a lot of worry and concern for the seafarer and their families at home where very often they have not seen them now for as long as a year.
When I get a call now to come on board, I have to explain that at this time I cannot, but I can go as far as the gangway to talk to the seafarer, with both of us in full PPE and face masks. I always go armed with phone cards so that they can at least stay in touch with family and friends and I also bring clothing and soap/shaving lotions in case they have run out. I always offer prayers, as this is the most important and powerful gift that we bring, and of course, it is totally free!
In the port of Sheerness there is a small seafarers’ centre, which Stella Maris opened in 2015. It is currently closed, but when it reopens, it will give seafarers a place to get away from their ship during their brief stay in port and it also provides internet access, a pool table, and religious booklets. In Sheerness it’s always very busy with trucks coming on and off different vessels, cargo being unloaded and loaded, and cranes moving overhead. Amongst all of this, I have to locate the vessels, safely follow the authorised walking routes and get on to the ship to carry out my ministry.
Dover port, on the other hand, is both a freight and passenger port, so when walking around, at least in “Normal” times, one would come across many holidaymakers as well as crews on passenger or cruise ships and freight crews also.”
I can of course find myself having to deal with difficult situations. I have attended a vessel where two seafarers had left their ship because of bullying on board, and another where I had to help resolve a situation between the captain and the ratings. I have attended a death on board a ship where I led a communion service and prayed at the spot where the crew member died.
We live in interesting and unusual times and I never know what the day will bring. After donning my hard hat and high-vis jacket, I always pray to God to guide me in the various encounters I will have each day. I spend much of my time driving between the eight Kent ports I cover, and I try to plan two days in advance. I find out what vessels are coming into which ports and I also touch base with any of my ship visitors in the ports, often meeting up for a coffee and a catch up. I would also try to go to Mass if I can and to meet with any priests in the areas I visit.
Becoming a port chaplain has opened my eyes as to the work of seafarers as I had never given a lot of thought before regarding how much we rely on the people of the sea, who can be living at sea for up to nine months at a time, and in some cases in poor working conditions.
The most rewarding thing about being a chaplain, is the diversity of the people I meet. I am meeting all nationalities, colours, and creeds and hear all of their stories. I also meet local people who support the people of the sea by knitting hats and scarves, local clergy of all denominations, and fellow chaplains and ship visitors. We all have a common mission, and that is to walk alongside the people of the sea.
In addition, I take part in the preparation of a weekly video with my colleagues at Southampton and we send them around the country to different cruise liners for Sunday worship. I also meet with my other Chaplain colleagues twice per week via “Teams” or “Zoom” for chaplaincy meetings and any training that needs to take place.
Finally, and I think this is important too. I have been visiting, keeping social distancing rules, my ship visitors who are also at home right now. This can be very worrying for them and thinking about mental health I like to keep in touch and bring them up to speed on what is going on. I also e-mail several Parish Priests that I work with to make sure that they are safe, and I offer them my thoughts, love and prayers.
Please keep me in your prayers as I travel around the ports in Dover and the Medway and please keep a special time of prayer for the wonderful people of the sea who serve us all so well.
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Thoughts on Newman
Newman on At seaDr Stephen Morgan
iT iS said by soldiers that there are no atheists in foxholes. The experience of being dug-in and under fire brings men – and when we were still a civilised country it was only men (more of that in a minute) – face
to face with the reality of the fragility of their existence and evokes a, perhaps desperate, need for God, or so it is said.
That may be true, although the evidence of the existential nihilism that swept across Europe during the twentieth century in the aftermath of two World Wars convinces me that it is not remotely true. Indeed, it was precisely in the wake of those terrible conflicts that resort was had to the attempts at the man-made false-utopias of those twin-bastard off-spring of Hegel and Marx, National Socialism and Communism, in what we can see was doomed to fail.
The legacy of this is that broad sense of the pointlessness of human existence that has so undermined the foundations Christian society that stand on the bedrock of hope in the benevolence of an all-loving God. The complicity of Christians (and even churches – e.g. “Gott mit uns” of the Nazi-appeasing Lutheran Reichskirche during the Second World War) in so much of the industrial-scale evil of those wars hardly lent credibility to any alternative visions that we might have proposed. In these societies, whose secular creeds depend upon the inevitably fallible human, a profound sense of hopelessness has led to the divided societies of identitarian politics and to a forthcoming demographic winter (see the 14th July 2020 article in The Lancet).
When there is no well-founded hope for the long-term future, having children becomes simply another consumer choice and one which is hard to justify or explain in the terms of public discourse, given the financial and emotional cost – a cat, a stylish lifestyle and fat bank balance, are goals so much easier to explain.
These are the societies that have separated womanhood from motherhood and made those who, by nature and grace, would be the mothers of the generations to come, into combat troops. Such is the deconstruction of society that we see before us and it is a product of two whole generations of men from formerly-Christian nations sheltering in trenches and foxholes between their attempts at killing one another.
There is, however, a parallel expression that those who have seen the power of the ocean often use – I heard it myself first as a young Midshipman in the North Atlantic: ‘there are no unbelievers becalmed or in a full gale’.
The power that simply overawes one into belief stems not from human evil but from the indifferent might of a nature that places both human significance and the nobility of our adventures in a tension that might have been designed to germinate our natural religiosity.
The great Portuguese poet of the sixteenth century, Luis Camões noticed it in Os Lusiadas, as did his English near-contemporary Shakespeare in The Tempest, but quite the best expression of it comes in a poem written when becalmed, a calm before an unknown and unknowable storm – not a storm at sea but a storm of faith – that was soon to embrace its author.
In a manuscript simply dated, ‘At Sea. June 16, 1833’, Newman composed the poem The Pillar of Cloud. The words filled with a real and reliable hope are known to you, in their setting to the tune Sandon by Purday, and could, despite some of its imagery, almost only have been written – believe this old salt – at sea:
Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,Lead Thou me on!The night is dark, and I am far from home,Lead Thou me on!Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step enough for me.
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A Trip to NottinghamRonald Crane goes to an unusual parish
wiTH THE ‘lockdown’ being eased a trifle and public celebrations of Holy Mass once again permitted, we thought we could visit an unusual celebration of Divine Worship. I headed for Nottingham, where
Fr David Palmer, an Ordinariate priest, but without a group, ministers at St Paul’s, Lenton Boulevard.
The parish has a large student population and it is these students who normally provide the regular congregation for the Sunday 6pm mass. Perhaps they slept in that morning and found 6pm convenient, or it may be that they enjoy the liturgy, as it is Divine Worship. The normal Sunday attendance for this mass is around forty. There were forty when I visited, despite there being no students, and it was “church full”, with distancing.
Fr David Palmer celebrated the mass beautifully, with a reverent server. The congregation made all the right responses, in the correct places. They stood when they should, sat when that was directed, and knelt at the appropriate times. It was a real joy to be present, especially as the homily was “a real cracker!” I was told that this standard was usual.
Isaac Cahill is 12 and is to be confirmed, when possible, by Mgr Keith Newton in the Ordinariate Rite. This will make him – and his family - eligible to join the Ordinariate. He normally attends the Divine Worship mass and I asked if that was because mum dragged him there or if it was his choice. Isaac’s reply was emphatic. “I want to be here. I prefer this liturgy. It’s a lot more prayerful; very much cross-centred.” He has served Mass since we was about seven, for the past two years only at Divine Worship. His mother, Ivana took up the story. “The first time I came to this liturgy it was a massive shock. It struck me how beautiful it was. I was moved to tears. Having that special language for God makes it beautiful.”
Donal Foley told me, “I started to come two years ago. It’s a peaceful and prayerful time. There’s a great reverence. It’s like the old Latin rite, but without the language barrier.” Donal is a cradle Catholic but absent from the church for some years. “I enjoy is the fact that the prayers before communion slow you down and make it more meaningful. It would be good if there were more celebrations like this. I think if that was to spread, and then hopefully it would have a positive influence on the
church. The world now is so anti-Christian, anti-spiritual, that you need something really spiritual to make a difference, otherwise it is not special, and God is special.
I made my way to the pub where members of St Paul’s gather after mass and met David and Louise Aldred. David is an ex-Anglican but hasn’t joined the Ordinariate yet. Louise is a cradle catholic. She told me, “My mother was, but the rest of my family were Anglican.” I asked if it was the Ordinariate that brought them
to the 6pm mass, or the Rite? David said, “For me the words of divine worship are important. There is a sense of the Catholic Church rediscovering the riches of English Catholicism and the fact that Catholicism can be English. Rediscovering our pre-
Reformation Catholic culture is important. There’s also the glory of Cranmer’s English, but of course he was translating prayers that were already there in Latin. “I particularly like the penitential section because the Rite is fully developed.”
I enquired how they had got on during the awful lockdown. They told me they had been impressed at the number of times mass had been streamed and
available. They had not known that their cathedral had been streaming mass for couple of years. The number of churches which have suddenly discovered that they can use technology in that way is really impressive. David added, “Being a techy myself, it’s quite a stretch for people to do that; it’s been a big step. The Aldreds are impressed by the quality of homilies at St Paul’s and that Fr David is really organised.
Part of the Anglican patrimony they would love to see brought over into the Catholic Church is the structure of churchwardens and lay responsibility for the church. It does after all originate in Catholic Pre-Reformation England. In the Catholic Church, the priest is now responsible for every last little bit of property and expenditure, which is Catholic Canon law. Why would you actually trust your laity to do anything? It would be better if the laity took more responsibility.
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David and Louise Aldred
Isaac Cahill and Mum, Ivana
Fr David Palmer
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The way we worship nowOrdinariate Clergy have responded magnificently to the challenge of providing for the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral needs of their people throughout the Coronavirus emergency. Livestreaming has become embedded in the life of the Church. Greater visibility brings opportunities and challenges. We asked Christopher Smith to take a virtual tour.
THoSE FAMiLiAR with the Ship of Fools website will know that it regularly features
reports from a “Mystery Worshipper”. The MW visits a Church service and leaves a card in the collection plate recording their visit. After a few days or weeks of anxious waiting, the report is published with marks out of ten for, amongst other things, the preaching. It’s a fascinating archive with several familiar names and places making an appearance.
In the pre-internet age the legendary Anglican Priest, Fr Peter Eugene Blagdon-Gamlen, compiled the “Church Travellers’ Directory” (Church Literature Association, 1973) to assist Anglicans to find somewhere suitable for worship when away from home. He visited several thousand churches during his lifetime and used parish magazines or notice boards to extract some basic information; by their notice boards, so shall ye know them!
He used a coding system in the book; D=Daily Celebration of the Eucharist, S=Sung celebration on Sunday, C=Confession at an advertised time (“by arrangement” wouldn’t do!) and R=Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. A Parish might be “SCR” or “S” and this was the clue to the churchmanship. Catholic-minded Anglicans would seek out “DSCR” parishes but it is interesting to note that these account for only 25% of the entries in the book which in turn covered only around 20% of parishes in the country. Even in the 1970s only perhaps 5% of Churches were DSCR, a fact worth remembering when considering how potential converts from the Anglican Communion might view the Ordinariate.
Much as one admires the industry of PEB-G and the reports on Ship of Fools, the Lockdown has created
many new opportunities to worship and observe. One can hear (and see!) Mass several times a day, the livestream and recording technology has freed us from the usual constraints of time and place – now we can all be Mystery Worshippers without moving from our armchairs.
For the Ordinariate this is a God-given opportunity to make ourselves known beyond our limited number of physical locations. It is a chance to break-free of the shackles of territorial parish and diocesan boundaries and to be true to the personal nature of the Ordinariate. Things are not going to go back to how they were anytime soon; nor should we. We have all now experienced the heartache and loss which the sick and housebound feel when deprived of the opportunity to go to Mass, Evensong or even visit a
Church for quiet prayer.
Torbay, Eastbourne, groups in Kent and Wales (the singing was particularly good from Wales!), Reading, London, Salisbury and others took to the airwaves. Clergy with wives and families had an advantage, a ready-made congregation often with servers and singers too. The sick, the housebound and those shielding
were able to watch the Mass online and, as restrictions were lifted, receive the sacrament later in the day. There were also examples of priests, isolated by shielding, being able to continue their work. Monsignor Burnham has, subject to the vagaries of BT Internet connections in rural areas, been able to livestream and thus maintain his pastoral duties and lead worship.
Although there is great focus on Mass we should not forget the recitation of the Offices – particularly Matins and Evensong. Throughout the lockdown some Priests, Frs Starkie and Woolnough in particular, faithfully recited the Daily Office online. This was supplemented by weekly Compline from Scotland and Choral Evensong and Benediction from the Borough. During lockdown the livestreamed “sitting-room” or Church-based recitation of the Offices by clergy of the Ordinariate have sanctified these difficult days. A layman in the USA, John Covert, who has set up a dial-in and online system which has been operating
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The Ordinariate Tartan face-maskDuRing LoCkDown the Ordinariate in
Scotland celebrated daily Mass online from Divine Worship, the Missal, until restrictions were lifted with up to 120 people joining in every day. People from throughout the UK, from Southend to Stornoway, also joined in the Office of Compline every Wednesday via Zoom and proved so popular that it was decided to continue this each Wednesday at 7pm indefinitely. If you would like to join the growing numbers of Ordinariate members and others for Compline, you can register at www.ordinariate.scot/compline.
Last year a new tartan called The Ordinariate was registered by the Ordinariate in Scotland with The Scottish Register of Tartans, to mark the 10th Anniversary of the publication of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and the Canonisation of Saint John Henry Newman. The design takes inspiration from the Coats of Arms of each of the three Ordinariates and the symbolism in the vestments for the clergy of the Personal Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham. The intention was to raise funds through Crowdfunding to weave the tartan, but
circumstances intervened and we now await things returning to ‘normal’ so that we can proceed with the project.
As face-masks became compulsory in shops in Scotland and then England, over virtual Hot Chocolate after Compline recently, the suggestion was made that we produce The Ordinariate tartan face-mask. They are shaped cotton masks, two layers of high quality woven pure cotton. The
inner layer is white and the outer layer is printed with The Ordinariate tartan design. Washable at 60°C. They have elastic loops to secure the mask over the ears and a concealed aluminium strip to allow the mask to be moulded to the bridge of the nose
You are invited to support the Ordinariate in Scotland by buying The Ordinariate tartan facemask for £7.50 each. Contact [email protected] or place your order on-line at www.ordinariate.scot.
News from the Ordinariate
... continued at the foot of page 16 Ø
A trip to Nottingham ... continued from page 10
Finally, I moved over to where Fr David Palmer sat, with beer glass in hand. He told me he was an Anglican Vicar prior to becoming a Catholic, but that was a good few years before the Ordinariate started. He said, “My final place was Clifton in Nottingham, and that’s where I became a Catholic, being received in 2005 by the Catholic parish priest, Father Chris Thomas, now
secretary of the Bishops’ Conference. Then I served as a Catholic lay prison chaplain for seven years. I had been getting disillusioned with the Anglican church. I actually spent some time in General Synod, which was a big mistake because I suddenly realised how political the Church of England was and how ‘party’. The Church of England was really
Woolly Hats - a plea from the EditorsYou MAY remember that a couple of years
ago, we visited the Chaplaincy at Tilbury Docks. Elsewhere in this edition of the Portal, there is a report from John Fogarty, the Chaplain at Medway and Dover Ports. Our chaplains do a wonderful job for workers who can go for months without seeing – or even hearing from – family. However, as many seafarers come from hot countries, they find the cold of the northern hemisphere challenging. To help them, from November onwards, Chaplains give out woolly hats as Christmas presents. It keeps them warm whilst at sea.Do help us by knitting some woolly hats, and send them to us. The pattern is to be found on our web site: www.portalmag.co.uk > Resources > Woolly Hats. You will find all the details and our address there so if you knit, please knit some Woolly Hats for us to send to the seafarers.
St Margaret Maryin PERRY Common, Birmingham begins Mass
once more, with a mass at 11am according to the Divine Worship rite on Sunday 5th July 2020.
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DAILY INTENTIONS AUGUST 2020
The Maritime WorldWe pray for those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen and their families
DEVOTION FOR JULYThe Immaculate Heart of Mary: For a greater devotion to Our Lady
1 S St Alphonsus Liguori Bp and D Birmingham Group: Fr Simon Ellis2 S X TRINITY 8 (Week 18) YOUR LOCAL ORDINARIATE MISSION/PARISH3 M Feria (Wales: St Germanus of Auxerre) The Black Country Group: Frs John Greatbatch; John Lungley; Chris Marshall
and Dn Mel Harwood4 T St John Vianney pr Parish Priests, Bournemouth Group: Fr Darryl Jordan5 W Feria (OLW S Oswald) The Ordinariate in Bradford: Fr David Stafford (Dedication of Basilica of St
Mary Major)6 T Transfiguration (Feast) Our Pastoral Council7 F Feria (St Sixtus II, Pope and Comp) (St Cajetan pr) Buckfast Group: Fr Ian Hellyer 8 S St Dominic pr The Order of Preachers, Cambridge Group: Fr Allen Brent9 S X TRINITY 9 (Week 19) YOUR LOCAL ORDINARIATE MISSION/PARISH 10 M St Laurence Dn M (Feast) Our Governing Council11 T St Clare V Sr Jane Louise and Sr Mary Joseph12 W Feria (Saint Jane Frances Chantel) Cornwall Group: Frs David Lashbrooke and Ian Hellyer13 T Feria (SS Pontian and Hippolytus mm) Coventry Group: Fr Paul Burch14 F S Maximilian Kolbe Pr M Freedom of Conscience, Croydon Group15 S Our Lady on Saturday Darlington Group Fr Ian Grieves16 S X THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY (Solemnity) YOUR LOCAL ORDINARIATE MISSION/PARISH 17 M Feria Exeter Group Fr Colin Furness18 T Feria Guildford Exploratory Group19 W Feria (St John Eudes pr) The Hereford Exploratory Group Fr John Pitchford20 T St Bernard Ab Dr The Ordinariate in Huntingdon Fr Ivan Weston21 F St Pius X Pope The Ordinariate on the Isle of Wight Fr Redvers Harris22 S Our Lady, Mother and Queen The Ordinariate in Portsmouth Fr John Maunder; Mgr Robert Mercer23 S X TRINITY 11 (Week 21) YOUR LOCAL ORDINARIATE MISSION/PARISH 24 M St Bartholomew Ap (Feast) The Rt Revd Mgr Keith Newton, Our Ordinary25 T Feria (Saint Loius IX of France and Saint Joseph
Calasanz)Presteigne Group Fr Brian Gill
26 W Feria (Blessed Dominic Barberi of the Mother of God) (In Wales St David Lewis M)
Reading Group Fr David Elliott
27 T St Monica, Widow Salisbury Group Fr Jonathan Creer28 F St Augustine Bp Dr The Ordinariate in Sheffield; Fr Jonathan Konstantine Tee29 S The Beheading of John Baptist The Ordinariate Parish in Torquay: Fr David Lashbrooke (Parish Priest) Fr
Colin Furness, and Fr Michael Galloway30 S X TRINITY 12 (Week 22) YOUR LOCAL ORDINARIATE MISSION/PARISH 31 M Feria (St Aidan and the Saints of Lindisfarne) Our Finance Council
Wednesday19th August 2020 is the Optional Memorial of St John Eudes pr. Born in Normandy in 1601, he attended the Caen Jesuit college. He joined the Oratorians against parental wishes, was ordained and cared for plague victims. He was an outstanding missioner, preacher and confessor. He opposed Jansenism, and became interested in helping fallen women, funding a refuge for them in Caen. He founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists). Papal approval was refused but the Bishop of Coutances invited him to establish a seminary and his Sisters were recognised as a new congregation. He founded seminaries at Lisieux and Rouen. In 1666 the Refuge sisters received Pope Alexander III’s approval as an institute to reclaim and care for penitent wayward women. John established new seminaries at Evreux and Rennes. He shared with St Mary Margaret Alacoque the honour of initiating and popularising devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary. He died in 1680 and was canonised in 1925.
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BiRMingHAM St Margaret Mary, 59 Perry Common Road, Birmingham B23 7AB MASS: Sunday: 11am (Divine Worship). COnTACT: Fr Simon Ellis: 0121 373 0069 - [email protected]
BLACk CounTRY Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Cannock Road, Wolverhampton, WV10 8PG MASS: 3rd Sunday of the month: 12 noon (followed by refreshments), also on Wed 10am COnTACT: Fr John Greatbatch: 07799 078164 - [email protected] - [email protected]
BouRnEMouTH St Thomas More, Exton Road, Bournemouth BH6 5QG MASS: Sunday: 11.15am and Wed: 10.30am COnTACT: Fr Darryl Jordan: 01202 485588 - [email protected]
BRiSToL St Joseph, Camp Road, Weston-super-Mare BS23 2EN MASS: 2nd Sunday of the month 12 noon (Divine Worship), followed by shared lunch and Benediction at 2:30pm (subject to change in the summer months) COnTACT: Deacon James Patrick: [email protected]
BuCkFAST St Mary’s Abbey, Buckfast TQ11 0EE MASS: Sunday 2pm (Divine Worship) followed by Tea/Coffee - Mass usually in St Michael’s Chapel, plenty of parking, restaurant on site, also bookshop and monastic produce for sale. COnTACT: Fr Ian Hellyer: 01752 600054 - [email protected]
CHELMSFoRD Blessed Sacrament, 116 Melbourne Avenue, Chelmsford CM1 2DU MASS: Sunday: 9.30am and 11.30am, (on 1st Sunday of the month, specifically Ordinariate), also on Mon to Sat at 9.15am with RC community COnTACT: [email protected]
CHiCHESTER St Richard, Cawley Road Chichester PO19 1XB MASS: Saturday 4.15pm Sung/Solemn (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Graham Smith: 07710 328685 - [email protected]
CoLCHESTER St John Payne, Blackthorn Avenue, Greenstead CO4 3QD MASS: 3rd Sunday of the month: 4pm COnTACT: Fr Jon Ravensdale: 01206 870460 - [email protected]
CoRnwALL St Augustine of Hippo, St Austell, PL25 4RA MASS: Sunday: 5pm, also on Wed 7pm
COnTACT: Fr Fr David Lashbrooke: 07427 107304 - [email protected]
CovEnTRY The Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ & All Souls, Kingsland Avenue, Earlsdon, Coventry CV5 8DX MASS: Sundays 10.30am, Mon-Wed 9.30am, Thu 7.30pm, Fri-Sat 9.30am - all Masses currently live streamed COnTACT: Fr Paul Burch: 02476 674161 - [email protected]
CRoYDon At the moment the Croydon Group does not have any Ordinariate Masses, but it is hoped thinks might begin again soon - for further information COnTACT: Jackie Brooks: 0208 777 6426 - [email protected]
DARLingTon St Osmund, Main Road, Gainford, County Durham DL2 3DZ MASS: Sundays 9.30am Parish Mass, 11.30am Solemn Mass; Mon 12 noon; Tues 10am; Wed 10am; Thurs 10am; Fri 7pm; Sat 10am, Holydays 7pm. Confessions after Mass on Thurs, Fri, Sat. COnTACT: Fr Ian Grieves, PP: 01325 730191 - [email protected] - www.darlingtonordinariate.weebly.com
DEAL St John the Evangelist, St Richard’s Road, Mongeham, Deal, Kent CT14 9LD MASS: Sunday: 11am, 6pm Evensong COnTACT: Fr Christopher Lindlar: 01304 374870 or 07710 090195 - [email protected] or [email protected]
DERBY/noTTingHAM St John the Evangelist, Midland Road, Stapleford, Nottingham, Notts NG9 7BT MASS: 1st Sunday of the month: 11am St Paul, Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2BY MASS: every Sunday: 6pm (Divine Worship). COnTACT: Fr Christopher Cann: 01889 569579 - [email protected], Fr Peter Peterken: 01332 766285 - [email protected], Fr David Jones: 01162 302244 [email protected]
EASTBouRnE St Agnes, 6 Whitley Road BN22 8NJ MASS: Sunday: 4pm (Divine Worship) Our Lady of Ransom, Grange Road BN21 4EU MASS: Mon: 7:30pm (Divine Worship) Christ the King, Princes Road BN23 6HT MASS: Thur 8pm (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Neil Chatfield: 07718 123304 - [email protected] Fr Thomas Mason - [email protected] - www.eastbourneordinariate.org.uk
Ordinariate GroupsWhere to find us at prayer in England, Scotland and Wales ...check before travelling, as not all will have returned to normal times
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FoLkESTonE Our Lady Help of Christians 41 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1EF MASS: Sunday: 11am (with parish) COnTACT: Fr Stephen Bould (Group Pastor), Fr James Houghton - [email protected]
HARLow The Assumption of Our Lady, Mulberry Green, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0HA MASS: Sunday: 10am and 6pm, Evensong and Benediction 5pm (last Sunday of month) COnTACT: Fr John Corbyn: 01279 429388 - [email protected]
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD St Mark’s, Hollybush Lane, Hemel Hempstead HP1 2PH MASS: Sunday: 8.45am, Wed: 7.45pm COnTACT: Fr Simon Chinery: 07971 523008 - [email protected]
iSLE oF wigHT St David’s, Connaught Road, East Cowes PO32 6DP MASS: every Saturday: 5pm (Vigil Mass - Divine Worship). COnTACT: Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris: 01983 292726 - [email protected]
LEYTonSTonE/wAnSTEAD St John Vianney, Clayhall, Ilford IG5 0JB MASS: Sunday: 10am (Solemn Mass), 12 noon (last Sun of month Solemn Mass, Divine Worship) 4:30pm (Exposition), 5pm (Low); Daily (except Mon) 8:30am (Exposition) 9am (Mass); Holy Days 9am (Low), 8pm (Solemn); Confessions: Sat 10am or by appointment. COnTACT: Fr Rob Page: 020 8550 4540 - [email protected]
LonDon, CEnTRAL Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London W1B 5LZ (Nearest tube: Piccadilly) MASS: Sunday: 10.30am Solemn Mass with choir (Divine Worship), Weekdays: 8am and 12.45pm (Novus Ordo in English), Feasts and Solemnities as advertised. COnTACT: Fr Mark Elliott-Smith 07815 320761 - [email protected]
LonDon, SouTH Most Precious Blood, O’Meara Street, The Borough, London SE1 1TE MASS: Sunday: 8.30am, 11am; Mon-Fri 1.05pm, Thur (term time) 6.30pm (Divine Worship); Walsingham Mass: 1st Sat of the month 10am (Divine Worship); Holy Days: (additional) 6.30pm (Divine Worship); Evensong: Thur 6pm (term time); Confessions: Sun 10.30am, Mon-Fri 12.30pm COnTACT: Fr Christopher Pearson 0207 407 3951 - [email protected] - www.preciousblood.org.uk
LonDon, wALTHAMSTow Christ the King, 455 Chingford Road, Chingford, E4 8SP MASS: Sunday: 11am COnTACT: Fr David Waller: 020 8527 4519 - [email protected]
MAiDSTonE MASS: Sunday 11am, Thur 11am (Divine Worship). COnTACT: Fr Alister Ferguson for location: 01892 725009 - 07887 925356 [email protected]
MAnCHESTER St Margaret Mary, St Margaret’s Road, New Moston M40 0JE MASS: Sunday: 10.30am (Divine Worship) MASS during the week please check the Sunday notices on the website COnTACT: Fr Andrew Starkie: 0161 681 1651 - [email protected] - www.ordinariatemcr.com
noRTHAMPTon Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 82 Knox Road, Wellingborough NN8 1JA MASS: First Saturday of the month: 6pm (Sung Mass) COnTACT: Mgr John Broadhurst: 01933 674614 - [email protected]
oXFoRD Holy Rood, Abingdon Road, Oxford OX1 4LD MASS: Saturday (of Sunday) 5pm (Divine Worship), Sunday 11.15pm, Wed 9am, Thu 7.30pm (Divine Worship), 8pm Adoration & Confessions, 9.40pm Compline and Benediction, Fri 12.30pm (Latin), Sat 9am COnTACT: Fr Daniel Lloyd: 01865 437066 - [email protected] or Mgr Andrew Burnham: 01235 835038 - [email protected] - www.thamesisis.org.uk
PoRTSMouTH St Agatha, Cascades Approach, Portsmouth PO1 4RJ MASS: Sunday 11am (Solemn), Mon, Fri (Requiem) and Sat 11am, COnTACT: [email protected] - www.stagathaschurch.co.uk
READing St James, Abbey Ruins, Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 3HW (next to old Reading Gaol) MASS: Sunday: 9.15am. COnTACT: Fr David Elliott: 07973 241424 - [email protected]
SALiSBuRY Most Holy Redeemer, Fortherby Crescent, Bishopdown, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 3EG MASS: Sunday: 11am, 6pm Evensong and Benediction (2nd Sunday), Wed: 7pm (in St Osmund’s, Exeter Street, Salisbury SP1 2SF) COnTACT: Fr Jonathan Creer: 07724 896579 - [email protected] or [email protected]
SouTHEnD St Peter’s Eastwood, 59 Eastwood Road North, Leigh on Sea SS9 4BX MASS: Sunday: 10.15am (said 8:30am and 6pm), 1st Sunday: 12noon (Divine Worship), Mon-Sat (except Tues) 9:30am followed by Rosary, Thur 7:30pm (check website), Confession: Sat 10am COnTACT: Fr Jeffrey Woolnough (Group Pastor): 01702 525323, 07956 801381 - [email protected], Fr Bob White: 01268 543910 - [email protected], Deacon Richard Cerson: 07910 388795 - [email protected] - www.stpetereastwood.org www.Ø
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jeffwoolnougholw.blogspot.co.uk
ToRBAY The Personal Parish and Church of Our Lady of Walsingham with St Cuthbert Mayne, Old Mill Road (junc of Ashfield Road), Chelston TQ2 6HJ MASS (Divine Worship): Sunday: 10am, Mon: 12 noon, Tues: Adoration 5pm, Mass 6pm, Wed: 12 noon followed by lunch, Thurs: 10am, Fri: Adoration 5pm, Mass 6pm, Sat: 10am COnTACT: Fr David Lashbrooke: 07427 107304 - [email protected] - www.ourladyofwalsingham.com
wALSingHAM Dowry House Chapel, 47-49 High Street, Walsingham, Norfolk NR22 6BZ MASS: 1st Sunday: 3pm (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Gordon Adam: 01553 777428 - [email protected] Dcn Shaun Morrison: 07880 600094 - [email protected]
SCoTLAnD - www.ordinariate.scotEDinBuRgH St Columba, 9 Upper Gray St, Edinburgh EH9 1SN MASS: 2nd Sundays: 2.30pm (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Len Black: 01463 235597 - [email protected]
invERnESS Oratory of St Joseph, 49 Laurel
Avenue, Inverness IV3 5RR MASS: Sunday: 11.30am (Divine Worship) MID-WEEk: Tues, Thurs, Feast Days: 11.15am (Divine Worship) please check www.ordinariate.scot for times. COnTACTS: Fr Len Black: 01463 235597 - [email protected], Fr Cameron Macdonald: 01663 453867 - [email protected]
wHiTHoRn St Martin and St Ninian, George Street, Whithorn DG8 8PZ MASS: Wednesday: 11am (Divine Worship), Sat 5pm (with parish) COnTACT: Fr Simon Beveridge: 01988 850786 - [email protected]
nAiRn St Mary, 7 Academy Street, Nairn IV12 4RJ MASS: 1st Monday: 10am (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Cameron Macdonald: 01667 453867 - [email protected]
wALES: SouTH EAST Ss Basil & Gwladys, Tregwilym Road, Rogerstone, Newport NP10 9DW MASS: Sunday: 11.30am (Divine Worship) COnTACT: Fr Bernard Sixtus: 02920 362599 or 07720 272137 - [email protected] - www.ordinariate.org.uk/groups/wales-se.php
Please help us and let us know of any changes . . . email us at [email protected]
A Trip to Nottingham ... continued from page 12adversarial. There was nothing about it guided by the truth; it was which party got the most votes. Then the more I came to appreciate the sacraments, the more I realised that many of my fellow vicars had absolutely no sacramental understanding. The last thing for me was that there was a woman in my parish in Clifton in Nottingham who came up to me and said ‘Father I think I’m thinking about becoming a Catholic. Could you give me a reason why I shouldn’t?’ I sat there, and I could not think of a single reason. I thought, if I can’t argue a case for her being Church of England, why am I?
“After working as a Catholic lay prison chaplain, the Ordinariate started and Fr Bill Gull phoned me. He suggested that I sought ordination through the Ordinariate so that’s what I did; I was ordained priest in the Ordinariate. I already had a connection with Nottingham diocese and Bishop Malcolm gave me the parish here. I had a conversation with Mgr Keith, of course, and I’m actually on a 10 year loan to the diocese. I have two churches. The other church is Saint Mary’s. The building is Victorian, but St Paul’s is the larger and in the middle of the student area. In term time, we get lots of really young and vibrant people. It is also very multicultural which is very good. It’s a good parish, a very friendly parish. We get about forty or so people. We’ve got a good bunch for whom this is their main
mass, but others will come once a month, even from other churches. My personal feeling is, and I know this isn’t the popular view, that I don’t think the Ordinariate can survive by simply depending on Anglicans coming across to join us; they’re not coming, But I think if it becomes something that’s actually open to other Catholics, there will be Catholics that like it and come.
“What I want to say to your readers is that I think the Ordinariate Liturgy is something that has a much wider appeal than just us. It’s the whole thing that Benedict said about the riches that we bring. I think that you know there are many people who come to us at 6pm on Sundays as their ordinary mass every week, a lot of them are young people, a lot of students. There is something that we have to offer to the Church. We need a bolder strategy, actually using the liturgy. There are too many Ordinariate Groups that just use the normal mass. You think, well what are you offering? Our liturgy is beautiful. There are many people who are not Latin mass people, but they do want reverence, they do want tradition. I think we’ve got something really important to offer them.”
I dragged myself away from these lovely, holy, vibrant people, and drove home. It had been a wonderful experience. Let us hope we may visit another, equally stimulating, group next month.
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Fr Michael Halsall writes:
Alone of all her sexTheological reflections on the Assumption
AuguST iS the month when we commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which used to have its own Octave, like Easter, Pentecost, and many more, ending on the feast of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. Sadly, this Solemnity is not as well attended in our parishes as it might be, owing often to people being away on holiday, and some disappearing off to the Marian shrines, where things are done ‘properly’.
However, how do we understand this unique event, in light of her unique vocation relating to God’s divine providence? How do we make sense of the dogmatic statement of Pope Pius XII in his 1950 Encyclical Munificentissimus Deus?
The Catholic author J R R Tolkien provides some interesting and profound reflections. In a note added to an unsent letter, dated 14th October 1958, Tolkien demonstrates his keen understanding of the dogmatic statement when discussing the incorruption of the Elves:
The Assumption of Mary, the only unfallen person, may be regarded as in some ways a simple regaining of unfallen grace and liberty; she asked to be received, and was, having no further function on Earth. Though, of course, even if unfallen she was not ‘pre-Fall’. Her destiny (in which she had co-operated) was far higher than that of any ‘Man’ would have been, had the fall not occurred.
Tolkien’s own reflection on the Assumption relates to original and restored states of grace, and Mary’s role in the redemption of fallen humanity. Her unique vocation required that state of grace as if the fall had not happened - in her singular particularity. This may be said to be a logical outworking of the dogma relating to her Immaculate Conception, and that despite the Fall of the mass of humanity, she was spared both physical and moral corruption. Tolkien continues:
It was also unthinkable that her body, the immediate source of Our Lord’s (without other physical intermediary) should have been disintegrated, or ‘corrupted’, nor could it surely be long separated from him after the Ascension.
The Incarnation event required a free agent in terms of her decisive fiat, and that her body be free of the corrupting elements associated with the Fall.
As the Creator of all creatures, God accounts for all the perfections that they have and aim for, and that these reflect him as their maker. When we recite the first line of the Apostles’ Creed in the Daily Office, we say something profound and deeply mysterious. When Tolkien, therefore, sees beauty in the Blessed Virgin Mary – not beauty in the physical sense - he does so in the sense that she is also good (after God), and in being Beauty she reflects that Beauty which is analogous to God.
We cannot call God Beautiful because we see beauty in a thing, but we can name God as such precisely because God has those transcendent qualities as part of his superessential being. That which is desirable in humans is but a participation in those self-same superabundant attributes as they exist in God.
At her life’s completion, she is also in that state of actuality or completeness which is the realisation of her full potentiality as a human being. In her Assumption she is now completely human in her unique existence, and also in her unique proximity to the Trinity. She is most truly the Mother of God in her Assumption.
Given Tolkien’s entirely orthodox reading of Mary’s Assumption, we can see from this kind of ‘theo-logic’ why in his Middle-earth writings the Third Age is the ‘Age of Men’: the coming of the Messiah inaugurates the latter days in the history of the world. The ascent of the human race into heaven has begun.
Fr Halsall is the Director of Vocations and Formation for the Ordinariate
of Our Lady of Walsingham, and is a member of the permanent
staff at Allen Hall Seminary. He may be contacted as follows:
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Year of the Lord’s FavourYear of the Lord’s Favour: A Homiliary for the Roman Liturgy, Volume 2, The Temporal Cycle, Advent and Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide by Aidan Nichols, OP ISBN 978 085244 792 5
Review by Fr Simon Ellis
MAnY CLERgY and interested laity would welcome the opportunity to be provided with this doctrinally-based preaching aid, furnishing texts for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Eastertide, in this,
a second volume. Little did I expect to find myself leaning so heavily on the daily offerings quite so much, as the Church went into lockdown by Lent III and we were all scrambling to present materials and homilies under radically different conditions, for a people experiencing a pandemic. As if to prepare us for it, Nichols, writing for Ash Wednesday, reminds us that we rarely say ‘I too shall die’, but for a moment, in this liturgy, we shall say, ‘Yes, I too shall die’. Sobering stuff.
If our main worry in this lockdown was communication, Nichols, in his Christmas Day offering, helpfully contrasts the Christian faith with Islam. When pondering the depths of the Prologue to John’s gospel, he writes that ‘In the beginning was communication’. God is in his own life essentially communicative. His word exists as ‘sheer communication’ because it is the Word of God. Relationship is not something God sets up beyond himself if he chooses, as Islam holds. Rather it is inherent in his being; it is essential to who he is.
Similar themes of identification leap out of the pages throughout Lent, and one was particularly drawn to the meditation for Lent V on the tears of our Lord for Lazarus. Nichols reminds us of the medieval description for Christ, ‘our very human Redeemer’ (humanissimus Redemptor) and takes us to the Mount of Olives, where a church, Dominus flevit, stands today as a monument to Christ’s tears, (although I have always understood that that particular building commemorates Jesus weeping for Jerusalem - Luke 19.37-42 - rather than the Lazarus incident). In the vale of tears we find ourselves in, during this coronavirus pandemic, these words from Nichols were pure balm.
When we arrive at Palm Sunday, we are reminded that we’re wearing red because ‘redemptive blood is about to soak the Church in its flow. This is royal blood, the blood of the Messiah…sacrificed in triumph, not defeat. The red we wear is the red of regal triumph.’ By Good Friday, Nichols reminds preachers ‘to be brief ’, because ‘at the end of the Passion, then the Word of God is humanly dead, the Church herself has few words left to say…She has only to intercede, and, above all, to be united to Christ.’
At the Easter Vigil – with the Church this year engaged in a debate as to whether we had cooperated responsibly with the secular authority or caved in to
demands to stay away at the time of greatest need - Nichols quotes Saint John Henry Newman, in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine: ‘It is true there have been seasons when….the Church has been thrown into what was almost a state of deliquium [i.e. total eclipse]: But her wonderful revival, while the world was triumphing over her, is a further evidence of the absence of corruption in the system of doctrine and worship into which she has developed.’ The point, reminds Nichols, being that the Body of Christ, his Church-Body, can never get away from the Easter story. He concludes, with a marvellous summary of the Catholic Church in UK for the past fifty years:
“We have come to the end of an era in the Catholic Church in our country when it was easy to be a Catholic either because the institution was so successful, as in the 1950s, or because reforming it was fun, as in the 60s and 70s, or because Cardinal Basil Hume made it so popular, in the 80s and 90s. We have left an era when it was easy and are entering on a new time, when our motto will have to be ‘Dead to Sin and Alive to God….Continuing conversion…that is the only way the Church-Body can follow to the Resurrection her glorious Head.”
There are so many more beautifully crafted sentences which one can see many a preacher, if not lifting verbatim, using in some way the kernel. For example:
‘Peter is strong on enthusiasm, but insight is not his forte’.
‘John is the faith of the contemplative, the mystic, the saint….a faith that springs from a response of total intellectual-spiritual love’.
‘In the Samaritan woman we are to find ourselves: compromised, muddled, shifty, our theology often not all that it might be, but capable, nevertheless of admitting Jesus Christ into our lives.’ ... continued on page 20 Ø
Our windowon the CofE
August 2020 Page 19RTALTHE P
Bishops Male and FemaleThe Revd Paul Benfield
ARCHBiSHoP JoHn Sentamu, Archbishop of York, retired on 7th June 2020, three days before his 71st birthday. He entered an empty York Minster, closed because of the Covid 19 Pandemic, and laid
his pastoral staff on the High Altar.
On 9th July his successor, Bishop Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, had his election as 98th Archbishop of York confirmed in a ceremony conducted entirely by video conferencing. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided from an armchair in a room at Lambeth Palace (not the kitchen from where he presided at the Eucharist on Easter Day).
Although called a service, it was, in fact, a court of law which pronounced that all the legal preliminaries had been complied with. It pronounced its judgment and the Bishop Elect legally became the Archbishop.
The 15th July 2020 would have been my father’s 100th birthday had he lived. But the date is more likely to be remembered in the future as the day on which three bishops of the Church of England were consecrated under new arrangements.
Because of the Covid 19 restrictions, the consecrations were held at Lambeth Palace Chapel with very limited numbers attending and all of them wearing masks. There was no singing and not even organ music. These measures were, of course, temporary and one hopes that it will not be long before consecrations can return to cathedrals.
However, other features of the consecrations are intended to be permanent and came about after consultations between both Archbishops and the Bishop of London and conversations with the House of Bishops. It has been agreed that the Metropolitan (the Archbishop of the relevant province) will normally ask another bishop to be the chief consecrator. Two other bishops will join in with the laying on of hands and other bishops will be present and associated with the consecration but not lay on hands.
So it was that on the morning of the 15th July the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed those gathered in his chapel, introduced the rite and received the Declaration of Assent and oaths from The Revd Hugh Nelson and the Revd Ruth Bushyager who were to be
consecrated as, respectively, the Bishop of St Germans (in the Diocese of Truro) and the Bishop of Horsham (in the Diocese of Chichester). After a prayer of penitence for the divisions within the Church, written by a Roman Catholic priest, Archbishop Welby moved to his stall at the West end of the chapel.
The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullaly, then began the rite and presided over it. She was joined in the laying on of hands by the (male) Bishop of Dorking and the (female) Bishop of Dover. The Archbishop preached and at the end of the service presented the newly consecrated bishops with their pastoral staffs.
In the afternoon of the same day the Archbishop performed the same functions at the consecration of Prebendary Will Hazlewood SSC as Bishop of Lewes (also in the Diocese of Chichester). Fr Hazlewood is a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic who will become a member of the Council of the Bishops of the Society under the Patronage of St Wilfrid and St Hilda. Those laying on hands were all members of that Council – the Bishop of Richborough presided and the Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Fulham joined in at the laying on of hands.
Inevitably WATCH (Women and the Church) issued a press statement complaining about the arrangements, arguing that all three bishops should have been consecrated at the same service presided over by the Archbishop. They thus showed once again that they fail to understand the significance of the 2014 Settlement and the Five Guiding Principles which separate the jurisdictional from the sacramental.
Forward in Faith welcomed the arrangements, pointing out that ‘at the moment of consecration all candidates must experience the sacramental assurance and joy of full communion with the bishops who ordain them’.
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Aid to the Church in Need
Following the paths of the sea around the Solomon Islands John Newton
AS wE pray this month “for all those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen and their families”, let us spare a thought for the priests and Sisters ministering to the faithful in the
Solomon Islands.
Located in the South Pacific, about 450 miles east of Papua New Guinea and 1,600 miles north-east of Australia, the country is made up of six large islands and more than 900 smaller ones – which makes the work of the priests and sisters there challenging, to say the least.
Take, for example, the work of the Catholic Diocese of Gizo. It covers 40 islands that span 190 miles. Three native priests and 12 missionaries from various Asian countries minister to the diocese’s eight parishes and look after the faithful at 118 mission stations. To reach the faithful, they must travel for several hours by boat – before trekking through the bush by foot to reach their destination.
When Bishop Luciano Capelli turned to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for help for new outboard motors so that the diocese could continue its pastoral ministry, the charity was only too pleased to offer its help. As the bishop explained, the outboard motors have suffered serious wear and tear – so they often break down. This not only hampers the diocese’s
mission work it also potentially endangers the lives of those serving the Lord’s faithful.
Knowing that the motors won’t routinely fail gives them one less thing to worry about. As for everything else – they place their travels and their cares in the hands of God.
Verse nine of Psalm 88(89) reminds us that the Lord is king of the oceans. As Monsignor Knox renders it in his timeless translation: “It is thou that dost curb the pride of the sea, and calm the tumult of its waves”.
Aid to the Church in Need - www.acnuk.org contact: [email protected] or call 020 8642 8668
Year of the Lord’s favour ... continued from page 18The creed ends ‘I believe in the resurrection of the
body’….John Damascene reminds us that we do not worship matter but ‘worship the God of matter who for my sake stooped to become material and through matter effected my salvation’. Nichols concludes: ‘so matter matters.’
Nichols’ contribution to our understanding of theology cannot be overstated. Whether it is our understanding of Anglican history and ecclesiology, or the work of GK Chesterton, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Pope Benedict VI and John Paul II, he has been described as the
world’s most prolific theologian. But with every great theologian, he can help us to see clearly and simply, and to grow ‘in living more generously’ (p. 120, reflecting on the encyclical Veritatis splendor and the place of law) living by grace in the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church, Nichols concludes in an offering for Lent, found that love has no boundaries, only a horizon: the horizon of God himself, who, as St John says, ‘is love’. To see an image of it, he says, go to Gethsemane, go to Calvary, look at the materials of the Mass: broken bread and outpoured wine. To say that God is love, says Nichols, ‘is not only to reassure, it is also to disturb.’
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What is Truth?Hilary Andrews
SinCE THE tragic event in Minneapolis, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign has emerged. These words may appear to be self-evident. Of course, all lives matter, but looking at history, we can see that in many
cases black lives did not matter.
The history of slavery is long and varied. Members of the Christian church tried to grapple with the problem over the centuries, for the most part feeling uncomfortable with it, making excuses for it and not doing much about it. Saint Augustine had proclaimed it as a ‘sin’ but many Christian writings were ambiguous or accepting of the situation. Most Christians would state that every person was equal in the sight of God and would salve their consciences by trying to make the lot of slaves a little easier.
For the present-day Christian, the situation is much clearer. Slavery in any form is wrong. Christian leaders of all denominations have condemned it. In 1741, Benedict XIV condemned it outright and subsequent popes until Pope Francis have continued to condemn it.
For the people of Britain that means that the slave trade and the ownership of slaves by our ancestors is to be utterly condemned. But is that enough? For the Christian, the person of Christ is ‘The way, the truth and the life’. In our history lessons at school, we learnt about the iniquities of the slave trade but we also learnt about the glories of the British Empire. It was considered a very worthy enterprise to build railways and telegraphs and trade routes in poor, ‘uncivilised’ countries.
The painful truth is somewhat different. In his book, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, William Dalrymple, exposes Robert Clive and the founders of British India as rapacious plunderers, extortionists and mass murderers on an astonishing scale. He reveals that the Raj was built on ‘a supreme act of corporate violence which systematically exploited and impoverished India.’
There are many, many examples of such atrocities in all parts of the empire but the scale of the transportation
of Africans to the American continent for the express purpose of slavery on which much of the prosperity of Britain depended is scarcely acknowledged. The
nineteenth century was seen as a time when Britain was ‘great’. The “West India interest” was essential to the lives of the rich. It is important to note that many of the heroes of the Victorian era made their money from the ownership of slaves. Gladstone’s father made his fortune from slave-owning in the West Indies. Gladstone and
Peel, though opposing the slave trade, felt that the slaves should not have their freedom until they were ‘civilised’ and showed ‘moral improvement’.
George Canning and the great hero of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, were both ardent supporters of slavery. The list is endless and many of the great landowners of today owe their fortunes to their slave-owning ancestors.
Some of us have taken consolation from the fact that Britain was the first to abolish slavery. This is also not true. Revolutionary France abolished slavery in 1794 and Haiti declared it illegal in 1804. Much of Spanish America also pre-empted Britain in this respect.
The commitment to truth is present in every aspect of our lives. It is vitally important that we should demand the truth from our politicians. This is of particular importance in the context of ‘Black Lives Matter’. The ‘hostile environment’ for immigrants and the Windrush scandal should have no place in a civilised country.
The Ordinariate has St John Henry Newman as its patron. His life was spent seeking after truth and many members of the Ordinariate have followed his example by seeking what they believed to be right at the cost of their own comfort. The truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’ is surely part of the Ordinariate mission.
August 2020 Page 22RTALTHE P
for several years but the time difference means that Matins disconcertingly occurs just after lunch in the UK. Could the Ordinariate of OLW develop a daily cycle of livestreamed Evensong celebrations – same time but different place each day of the week?
As might be expected from the “God of Surprises”, this God-given opportunity is also accompanied by challenges. The particular challenge for the Ordinariate, set out by Pope Benedict XVI in Anglicanorum Coetibus, has been brought into sharper focus: “Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.” (Article III of AC)
The whole of this is of core importance but remains, even 10 years on, ill-defined and haphazardly shared. Watching a livestreamed Mass tells us only a little of the pastoral and spiritual traditions but we do see clearly something of the liturgical tradition. There is great variety, possibly too much for the Ordinariate to appear as a coherent unit. Lots for “High Church” Anglicans but rather less for the middle of the road majority.
Our Ordinariate Use is the result of a pre-Tridentine Roman Use being adapted and adopted, firstly by Cranmer, then by others, and allowed to develop for a few hundred years in an Anglican context. Metaphorically speaking, the fruits of a cutting from the Catholic vine being raised in Anglican soil and now grafted back onto the original vine. As wine-lovers will know, the terroir makes a distinctive contribution to the growth of the grapes and the character of the ensuing wine. The challenge for the Ordinariate is to gather all the fruits of that harvest grown in English soil from 1549 onwards. It’s tempting to narrow our focus on to what Anglo-Catholics were doing from the Oxford Movement onwards which started with a “Back to Gothic” movement followed by a “Back to Baroque” in the early 20th Century followed by a wholesale adoption of the new liturgical forms from Rome in the 1970s. In the 21st Century there has been a revival of interest and enthusiasm for other forms of the Mass. There’s something for everyone in the “Anglican” rag-bag of aesthetic and liturgical forms and styles, a triumph of Parochial exceptionalism, but how much of it was widely adopted or, crucially, proper to the Anglican tradition?
Both the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite are proper to Diocesan and certain specialist societies and congregations. Anglicnorum Coetibus does not exclude their use in the Ordinariate context. For example, it’s perfectly possibly to have an Ordinariate Mass in the Ordinary Form by naming the Ordinary in the Canon of the Mass. However, our unique challenge and contribution relates to those “liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See”. Have we already conformed too closely to existing Catholic liturgical forms rather than exploring and celebrating those things which were proper to Anglicanism?
It has been a rare opportunity to take part in worship in this way. It has raised questions but it has, above all, brought admiration of the clergy who, within just a few days, made their first steps towards livestreaming services. We should not underestimate the steepness of the learning curve which priests were often having to tackle without the usual parish support mechanisms. Once the phone or webcam was set up there were then refinements to make in positioning and, crucially, achieving a good sound-feed. Then there was something to learn about producing material for broadcast. Was it to be “fly on the wall” or a more interactive and direct approach?
Pope Francis was an inspiration; who could but fail to be moved by the sight of him giving the Urbi et Orbi Benediction in an empty St Peter’s Square? The absence of people in the square made our virtual presence all the more real - we all knew that this blessing was uniquely for us, knelt in front of our television and computer screens, fearful for the future yet trusting that the Lord would not abandon us.
The spiritual and pastoral aspects of our common life have not been neglected either. Online devotions, visits to shrines, a chance to binge-watch EWTN or Bishop Robert Barron and to read more. Phone calls from clergy and laity, particularly to those without Internet access, have all been part of the new way of operating. I attended a weekly Zocial – a social event on Zoom – it soon became a highlight of the week and a good excuse to “bring a bottle”. It has been heartening to see priests grow in confidence and to turn online Church into something far more than a mere spectator sport.
As congregations return to Church, the next stage is learning how to engage with those who are still watching online so that they too feel fully included. Our clergy will learn and adapt. We all have to; it’s the way we worship now!
The way we worship now ... continued from page 11
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Bring back Betrothal RitesA plea from Simon Dennerly
wHEn i was engaged, I wanted to give my Beloved an extra special day - so I organised a Betrothal Rite, an ancient yet scarce practice. Betrothals are different from just being engaged - where being
engaged is a private arrangement between a couple, even if it is announced publicly, to be Betrothed is a deeper commitment to marry before both God and Church.
In the Bible we see many examples of betrothals; the most striking example is at the time of the Annunciation. Mary and Joseph are betrothed; in Jewish tradition they were as good as married, requiring a divorce to break. While Betrothals used to be common practice in the West, slowly they were merged into the Marriage Rite, so technically many Catholic couples are betrothed and then immediately married.
While I am aware there is a Betrothal Rite for the Extraordinary Form, there is no formal one for the Ordinary Form or for Divine Worship. So with the permission of my Ordinary I put my liturgy training into practice and drew on the texts of the tradition to put together a Betrothal Rite in the ancient English Catholic tradition.
I drew on many sources including the Pre-Reformation Sarum Use, the first Book of Common Prayer (BCP) 1549, subsequent BCPs, and the Divine Worship liturgy of the Ordinariates. I was surprised that over almost a millennium you could see how consistent the liturgical tradition was - from the original Sarum Use in Latin, to what was used in Anglicanism for centuries until eventually that tradition was brought home into the Catholic Church via the Ordinariates.
Although Betrothal Rites are not traditionally done any more, the one I put together was in the ancient English tradition of the Anglican Patrimony. Where there was room too I chose different wording to the Betrothal elements in the Divine Worship text to avoid repetition at the wedding.
The strange thing was far more people came to the Betrothal Rite than did the wedding, and it was very well received. I believe many of our Catholic friends not only came to support us, but to see something ancient yet new to them. The Betrothal Rite was held at the end of a Sunday Divine Worship Mass at our Ordinariate community, which was the first experience of that liturgy for our 100+ guests.
Afterwards we had a community shared lunch in the under-croft in celebration - although what my Beloved and I were not expecting was a table full of presents for our future life together. It was a very different experience proposing to my now wife and standing in front of a Church full of our friends, family and parish community to make a public declaration we intended to marry.
One aspect I added from a US Episcopalian Betrothal Rite was asking those present, our nearest and dearest, to pray and support us in our marriage, as strong marriages make for a strong family, Church community and society.
I would like to see the Personal Ordinariates add an official Betrothal Rite to the Divine Worship liturgy which I believe would be a powerful aid to marriage preparation, and a good excuse for a community celebration and some ‘liturgical tourism’ - but most of all I would like others to have the special joy I was able to give my Beloved. (A copy my Betrothal Rite will be published on the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society Blog)
Forms of words for making a bequest in favour of the Personal
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in your Will
I GIVE to the PERSONAL ORDINARIATE OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM, 24 Golden Square, London W1F 9JR, the sum of _________ pounds (£ ) and I DIRECT that the receipt of the Treasurer or other proper officer of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executor. or
I GIVE the residue of my estate to the PERSONAL ORDINARIATE OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM, 24 Golden Square, London W1F 9JR, and I DIRECT that the receipt of the Treasurer or other proper officer of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executor.
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Do you Kneel in Church? To kneel or not to kneel, that is the question: Ronald Crane expresses a personal opinion
AS A Catholic, I am shocked every time I assist at Mass to see how few people kneel for the Eucharistic Prayer and for Holy Communion. Sitting seems to be the preferred option for the former and standing
is almost universal for the latter.
At Adoration I was taught to do a double genuflection when entering or leaving the Church, and always to kneel for Benediction. Indeed: many people do not look at the very act of Benediction holding that some things are too holy upon which to gaze.
You will see then that kneeling, prayer, adoration and Almighty God are irrevocably linked. I kneel for God, but I do not kneel for any other purpose. Of course when I drop something on the floor, I do kneel to retrieve it, but with this practical aspect aside, kneeling denotes prayer and adoration of Almighty God.
You see I am puzzled by the by the ease sportspeople have embraced the act of “taking the knee”. I confess that I do not entirely understand it. I have seen a picture of Martin Luther King kneeling on one knee with another man. The two are praying. That I understand. That I would join.
What is obvious is that the sportspeople who “take the knee” prior to their sport, are not praying. If I were in any doubt, the fact many make the black power clenched fist salute, confirms the absence of prayer. This is a political gesture, pure and simple.
Now I have a problem. I cannot turn my bodily position for prayer and adoration to and for Almighty God into a political gesture. That would be quite wrong. But, were I in a position where it was expected that I take the knee, and I do not: the assumption may well be that I do not support the fight against racism. That would also be wrong. I do support the fight against racism. Racism is not only wrong, it is a grave sin.
I have spoken to two young men involved with Association Football: both have white English mothers and ethnic minority fathers. Both said they would “probably sit in the dug-out” rather than “take the knee”. They are uncomfortable with political gestures of any kind at football. Both are solidly against racism.
My worry persists though. To go against the tide in today’s social media climate can be dangerous. Free speech and freedom of conscience are threatened as never before.
Do I believe that black lives matter? Of course I do. Black lives matter in the USA, in the UK, in the womb, when they are Christians under persecution in Nigeria, Arabs in Syria or Afghanistan: wherever.
No: if and when I am required to “take the knee” I shall stand erect, cross myself and pray forgiveness for racism in all its forms.
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