Ancient Richborough

Busy, busy...

2012-02-05T22:17:00.006Z

Almost like being a Vicar again; Fr Gerry, our Priest in Southbourne, has been poorly (they think it is 'flu) so this has been a long day. We set off at 8.40 from home for the 9.30 Mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace. A quick cup of coffee after Mass with our Ordinariate gang, then it was the second house; a pretty full one at that, for the 11am Parish Mass. I'd only heard yesterday that I was to celebrate and preach at this so I rewrote my intended sermon last evening in the hope that it might make sense to the regular congregation.

Then two of the Ordinariate had invited us home for a bring and share lunch. Great food, great company. A power snooze after that and it was off again for Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 4pm. We were home around 5.30. Tomorrow, the Queen's Accession, is also the second anniversary of my passing the statutory retirement age for Catholic Priests. Somehow, today did not quite feel like retirement. For lack of time to write anything else I append my sermon from this morning - it's all right, you don't have to read it.

'I have made myself the slave of everyone' [I Corinthians ix.22]

Recently a letter was discovered from a former slave to the man who had been his master. It has caused quite a stir in America, where the descendants of slaves remember what their forbears suffered.

The master had offered to employ his former slave: this is part of the very dignified and temperate reply: “Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can …. I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children … go to school and are learning well. .. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores.”

It is hard to recall how recently slavery ended in the USA: even in our own country, it is relatively recent history. And in some places it continues, this notion that one person can own another. St Paul lived in a society where slavery was not just common; without it the Roman Empire could not have survived. When Rome went to war, as it often did, slaves were part of the proceeds, the Victor’s perks. So knowing as he did what it was like, it’s amazing to find Paul saying “I have made myself the slave of everyone”.

In other places you can read how he stood on his dignity. He was arrested in Jerusalem and charged with starting a riot, and they were about to torture him with whips, but Paul said “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman Citizen, and uncondemned?” At which they hastily backed off, untied him and suddenly became very civil towards him.

But then, that is just what we should expect from him, it is what he was writing about in today’s Epistle – he will do anything to get a hearing for the Gospel. If it meant behaving like the meanest servant, he will do it; if it meant throwing his weight about, telling the Jews that he trained under Gamaliel a leading Pharisee scholar, or telling an upstart Roman official that unlike him he Paul is a freeborn Roman Citizen, then he will do it. Look at the Acts of the Apostles, and his letters to the Churches. There is nothing Paul will not do for the sake of the Gospel. “To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law; to the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, in order to save some at any cost.

I think it is something of that same spirit which guided the Holy Father when he instituted his brilliant idea for enabling former Anglicans to come into the Church as Groups, not just as individuals. So often the Church sends out the wrong signals – “we are right, everyone else is wrong” it seems to say. It was just amazing that Pope Benedict spoke of the gifts which Anglicans might bring into the Church. He was not specific about it, he just spoke of the Anglican Patrimony. That readiness to accept whatever was best in our tradition meant a great deal to many of us.
You might think we should have got over our excitement; after all, some of us have now been Catholics for a year or so. But the fact is, the novelty has not warn off; and we see our former colleagues desperately trying to save what they can of catholic tradition in the Church of England ..... We must pray for them in this difficult time; but we must also prepare to welcome some, perhaps many, who very soon now will see that their much loved church has changed beyond recognition. They might also see that the best of what they knew and loved can be found in the Catholic Church, and that they can leave a lost cause and join people who appreciate and value them.

You can imagine it is not easy, trying to preserve and develop the best of our traditions while at the same time being totally and entirely Catholics. This Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace has done a great deal to help us. It is very encouraging that today, when he is unwell, Fr Gerry was prepared to ask me to stand in at one of his Masses. We all pray for a speedy recovery for him.

One of the elements of our Anglican heritage which we are trying to preserve is a tradition of singing; not just hymns, but also psalms and canticles. This afternoon we will be joined by some singers from a local Anglican Church who will help us celebrate solemn Evensong and Benediction.

We are aiming to do this once every couple of months, hoping that other Anglican might join us occasionally – and also that some long-time Catholics might like to come and support us. You see, we too are trying in our small way to copy St Paul, and the Holy Father, in using every means to win others into the Church. That, after all, is not just part of our Anglican Patrimony; it is a part of being a Catholic Christian – that for the sake of the Gospel we might by all means save some.

Happy Birthday!

2012-01-15T23:12:00.017Z

Just a year old, but we had a very busy day celebrating the first year of the life of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. It began early, with a beautiful dawn. We had to drive over to Bournemouth in good time, for the car was laden with new goodies. First, the very handsome Lectionary, provided for us by the parish of St Mary the Virgin, Arlington, Texas. The Lectionaries had been awaiting collection at Allen Hall, and I fetched ours on Thursday when we met there with Msgr Keith.

Then with the Lectionaries were some new hymnals - well, new to us. They are copies of English Hymnal which the Anglican Parish of Holy Trinity Millbrook in Southampton has kindly let us have. They had to be offloaded before Mass could begin.

We also had visitors; Ronald Crane and Jackie Ottaway, editors of the Portal (now the OFFICIAL on-line publication of the Ordinariate in England and Wales) came to interview some of us, and take photographs after Mass.

It is too tedious to make another home trip to Lymington, so we stayed in the Church Hall of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, for an hour or so, then had a picnic lunch before setting off in our mini-coach.

One of our Ordinariate priests expressed surprise that we were coming all the way from Hampshire for the Ordinariate's birthday celebration. His group is based within twenty miles of Central London, but it was too far for them. Very strange thing, that when you are in or near London distances appear to multiply.
We left Bournemouth at 1pm and arrived at St James' Spanish Place in Marylebone (just north of Oxford Street) by about 4.30, and no-one thought the journey too long. Certainly everyone thought the worship well worth the effort. Others will no doubt blog about that, so I may save one or two pictures for the Anglo-Catholic.After Mass, a very jolly reception where we caught up with old frinds from Maidstone and Folkestone, Deal and Faversham, Essex and even a few from London.

The pictures here are just to encourage others to make the effort to get to any events commended by Msgr Keith. The next one, I believe, will be a Chrism Mass at 11am on April 2nd, also at St James' Spanish Place; details subject to alteration, but you could make a pencilled note in your diary now. See you there!

The Spring is Sprung, the Grass is Ris....

2012-01-09T23:15:00.016Z

Acer x Conspicuum Phoenix
And so it was today at Hilliers' Gardens, just twenty miles north of us near Romsey. Spring really sprung - though Ogden Nash was not entirely right; there were plenty of boidies singing their hearts our today.

Most striking of all was the colour. We are supposed to be in midwinter, but it has been amazingly mild this year ('Oh, we'll pay for it later', say the pundits) As for me, I just like to enjoy it while we have the opportunity.

So here are a few pictures from our day out today, a good way of continuing the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord.

Not just the bare stems of dogwoods and maples for colour, though; there were great shows of berries still, and well ahead of their time witch hazels, snowdrops, camellias and even daffodils. Altogether a very cheerful afternoon.

Portsmouth Neighbours

2012-01-07T21:04:00.013Z

The reception of Bishop Robert Mercer CR has already been covered in the Anglo-Catholic blog. But since I was there, and have a couple of pictures so far unpublished, it may be worth saying a little more about the event.

Bishop Mercer has been a leading figure among "continuing" Anglicans, and was for some years Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. His reception into the Catholic Church represents the first Bishop from the TAC grouping (the Traditional Anglican Church) to join an Ordinariate. Now we look forward to his ordination as a Priest - and perhaps too to the Episcopate, as the only celibate former Anglican bishop within the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. That is only speculation on my part. He may be considered over the hill, being past the supposed retirement age for Catholic clergy.

I was especially glad that we had a fair representation from our Bournemouth Group. Those who do not know the South Coast readily confuse Plymouth and Portsmouth (about as far apart as London and Leeds) and assume that Bournemouth, between the two, must be next door to both. In fact from our Ordinariate Church to its neighbour in Portsmouth is around fifty miles, much of the route heavily congested. So well done those who made the journey.

It was good to hear once more familiar Prayer Book words - the Prayer of Humble Access, albeit bowdlerised, and other phrases from what Geoffrey Kirk is wont to call "Dr Cranmer's little compendium". Better still to know that those words were being used in a fully Catholic context, and that the Mass was more pre- than post-Reformation.

All credit to Fr Maunder of the TAC and his faithful flock, who made us so welcome and put on a first-rate reception after the Mass.

Party Time

2012-01-02T17:29:00.020Z

Today we had Open House for members of the Bournemouth Ordinariate Group. Some are away, some down with a dreadful cold, two had car trouble on the way, others again had no transport. Fortunately no one had an ox to try out, nor had anyone married a wife, so in the end more than a dozen managed to find us and squeezed into our little house in Lymington. Accordingly, full justice was done to Jane's cooking.

It was especially good that Fr Danny McAvoy, our local parish priest, joined us.

We furthered our plans for the great visit to London on Jan 15th - Evensong and Benediction at St James' Spanish Place (hope to see you there - 5pm Mgr Keith presiding) and before that a more local event also involving our Ordinary.

On Saturday next at 12.15pm Mgr Keith will be celebrating Mass, and receiving into the Catholic Church Bishop Robert Mercer, CR. This is at St Agatha's Portsea, one-time church of Fr Dolling. If you wish to attend it might be helpful to let Fr Jonathan know (j.redvers_harris@virgin.net)

Washing Up Volunteers

Let's enjoy these small domestic events. When numbers grow, as surely they will during this year, we shall be using Church Halls rather than private houses. We should make the most of these more intimate occasions while we can.
Posing by the puddings

A Jewish Mother

2012-01-01T18:48:00.013Z

The internet is abuzz with news about the new arrival. Fr Jeffrey Steenson is to be the new Ordinary of the latest Ordinariate, of the Chair of St Peter. My own particular delight is that another former student of St Stephen's House achieves high office in the Catholic Church. Fr Scott Hurd trained with us there and now he is to be a top gun in the Ordinariate; Vicar General, no less. It couldn't happen to a nicer chap.

Here our little Group in Bournemouth is planning a coach for Jan 15 to take us to the Ordinariate Evensong & Benediction at St James', Spanish Place. There are still one or two seats left, so if you are interested let me know. We are hoping there may be a few from the Salisbury Group joining us, too.

This morning, we worshipped with the parish congregation of Our Lady Queen of Peace. Fr Gerry invited me to concelebrate and preach: and here is what I had to say on this happy day:

As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Mothers have a great gift – the gift of embarrassing their children. When the son brings a girlfriend home for the first time, there is mother with the photograph album, ready to let the girl see just what a geek the son was with those braces on his teeth. It is not done with any malice; it is just that to a Mother, her son is always that, her boy. And she remembers so much from his childhood, since it was so important to her. When she was in her nineties my own mother would speak about me. How old is your son now? they would ask. ‘Oh, about forty’ she’d say - very flattering, when you’ve already had your seventieth birthday; but she could just as easily have said “about twenty” or “about fifteen” – that’s how she remembered me.

So it was nothing extraordinary that Mary remembered the events surrounding her Son’s birth – every mother does it. But every mother does not give birth to the Son of God, and the time of Jesus’ birth has been remembered not just for a lifetime but for two millennia. And whereas the day I fell out of the pram, or the day I learned to ride a bike are just the sort of thing that happens to everyone, the day the shepherds came to the stable is eternally significant. Yet unless Mary had treasured these things and pondered them in her heart, they would have been lost to us.

So Mary is a typically proud mother, indeed a proud Jewish mother; but her son never studied to gain an ology (do you remember Maureen Lipman in the BT ads?) What Mary had to remember about Jesus was vastly more important; this child, she was told by Simeon, is set for the rise and fall of many in Israel. She was to be the Mother of her Lord, the Mother of God himself.

There was a Muslim scholar speaking on radio recently, trying to show how inclusive and reasonable Islam was; “but we believe the Bible”, he said, “we honour the prophet Jesus and his virgin mother.” Don’t be deceived. Like every heresy throughout history (and Islam is a heresy, a distortion of Christianity) Muslims pick and choose which parts of Holy Scripture they will believe and which they will ignore or deny. It was like that way back about four hundred years after the Resurrection, centuries before Mohammed was born. There was a false teacher, a monk called Nestorius, who refused to give Our Lady the title “Mother of God” – or rather its Greek version, Theotokos, the God-bearer. For two hundred years that had been how orthodox Christians spoke of the Blessed Virgin; she was the God-bearer. The person who first used the phrase was Origen, and it caught on as a perfect description for the role of Mary in the Christian story. She brought the Son of God into the world; she bore God in her womb. Well, Nestorius did not like it; to him it sounded as though this was damaging Jesus’ humanity. He was fully human – and Mary gave birth to a human son. Eventually it took a Council of the Church, the Council of Ephesus, to decide the matter. That decision we firmly hold, as Catholic Christians; that Jesus is fully human, and fully divine. The Blessed Virgin did not give birth to two sons, but to one, Jesus, and her Son is properly called Son of God and Son of Man.

In all this, the Church relied on what Mary had remembered and what St Luke and others had written from what she told them. She who had seen and heard and experienced all these things treasured them, and pondered them in her heart. She is, before anyone else, the first Christian theologian, the one who contemplated the mystery of Jesus’ birth and realised that this was, indeed, Son of God.

You will find Christians who shy away from the word ‘theology’. They say they are simple Christians, and they are worried by dogma. Theology, though, is simply an attempt to find out the truth about God, and give a coherent account of Him. Doing this, we also have to discern the truth about his creation, especially about human beings. That was the aim of those who wrote scripture; from the first page of Genesis, the question is how mankind came into existence, and how we are connected with our Creator.

The Nativity of Jesus is the greatest step in this journey of discovery; that is what this whole festival is showing us. When the appointed time came, as the Epistle tells us today, God sent his Son, born of a women, born a subject of the Law; that is, he was fully human, governed by the laws of nature as we all are. Unless he had been like us in this, we could not have become like him. But he is truly Son of God, who is sent into the world; and so the Spirit who is in his Son can interact with our spirits, enabling us to cry Abba, Father.

This is why theology matters. The Church’s teaching about God and man is based firmly on Holy Scripture - and especially on how Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. When we pray, when we work at the meaning of the words of Scripture, when we wrestle in our minds with the teaching of the Church, we are honouring Mary – for this is what she did, and our praying and pondering continues her work in this generation. So you see after all this Jewish mother is concerned about an ology. Not Sociology, like Beattie in the ads; but theo-logy; the study and knowledge of God himself.

If Mary had not treasured all these things, from the visit of Gabriel to the birth in the stable, from the visit of the shepherds to the need to become refugees in Egypt, if she had not pondered these things and entrusted their meaning to Our Lord’s disciples, our knowledge of God, our theology, would have been very deficient. As it is, we can trust Mary the theologian more than any other teacher; and part of her lesson is that we can become a little like her if we will treasure these things, and ponder them in our heart too.

Welsh Festivities

2011-12-30T23:39:00.017Z

Ancient Cross in the Church in Wales' Parish Church in Llantwit

Months ago, before I had the responsibility of caring for an Ordinariate Group, we arranged a Christmas break with family in South Wales. Thanks to Fr Gerry, our parish priest in Bournemouth, I was able to fulfil that commitment, and our Group worshipped with the parish on Christmas Day. So we shall again on January 1st, though this time I will be able to preach and concelebrate.

Llanmihangel Church
In Wales you are in the land of the Saints. It is even said that in the ancient Monastery attached to the Church of St Illtyd in Llantwit Major, both Patrick and David received their education. Our daughter lives a few miles away in a hamlet called Sigginstone, where there is only a pub and a handful of houses. The Church of St Michael (Llanmihangel) is a mile away down a lane, and very lovely it is, hidden in its dell from any Danish marauders.

Our Lady & St Illtyd Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is rather more modern, but greatly loved by its parishioners. Fr William Isaac, the Parish Priest, invited me to celebrate the midnight Mass - he was at one of the two other churches in the parish, in Bridgend. Later on Christmas morning Fr Tim, his assistant priest, celebrated and preached and I concelebrated with him. Then on St Stephen's day I said Mass once more in Our Lady & St Illtyd's - and told the congregation a little about St Stephen's House in Oxford, and how it continues to provide priests for the Catholic Church (as well as a few for the Church of England). Now our Ordinariate Group is laying plans for 2012, beginning with Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St James' Spanish Place in a fortnight, and continuing with several of us joining the Ordinariate pilgrimage to Rome at the beginning of Lent. Meanwhile Jane is cooking endlessly, ready for an invasion this Monday, January 2nd, when we are declaring Open House for our Ordinariate Group. Hope we are strong enough!

The Catholic Church in Wales is not a separate entity from the Church in England; [Scotland, of course, is another matter altogether]. I found it interesting to discover that the Province includes Herefordshire, over the border in England, with the Archbishop of Cardiff caring for them all. So when the Ordinariate grows in the Principality, it will simply be another part of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. May that development begin very soon!

Westward Ho!

2011-12-09T23:14:00.020Z

On a day of foul weather we headed West to join in the Ordination of an old friend. It was some years since Paul Andrew left the Church of England. Now at last he is a Priest in the Catholic Church - not in the Ordinariate, but a Diocesan Priest of Plymouth Diocese. This means he is on home ground, being in origin a Cornishman.

The Parish Church of the Sacred Heart is a very grand Gothic Revival pile, a worthy neighbour to the Cathedral just a few hundred yards to the East.

I have posted another blog about the occasion at the "Anglo-Catholic" site,so this is just an opportunity to show a few more pictures from last evening.

Mercifully the gale had subsided and the rain ceased by the end of the Ordination Mass, and so many were able to make their way to the Pastoral Centre for splendid refreshments and barely any speeches. Good to catch up with old friends, some in the Ordinariate (Fr Robin Ellis is one of my longest-standing friends - we were undergraduates at Pembroke, Oxford, in the 1950s - and yesterday was his birthday, too). The diocese of Plymouth seems to be largely staffed by former Anglicans, some in the Ordinariate but many who made the journey some years ago.

Of forty priests present last evening I would certainly count fifteen, and probably more, who had once served in the Church of England. How will those numbers alter during the next year, as the CofE moves on its inexorable path towards 'ordaining' women as Bishops? Will many who said "a Code of Practice will not do" live up to their words and join the Ordinariate when no real Jurisdiction is afforded them?

A very pleasant surprise was the hotel where we stayed the night; an ancient coaching Inn which has retained much of its character. The sculpture is in white marble; it is a trick of the camera (perhaps reacting to pigeon guano) which has turned her pink - but she's a jolly image to conclude this blog.

Inculturation

2011-12-01T22:21:00.023Z

The Ordinariates have to remain distinct: yet also they are a part of Catholic life in this country. So today I joined priests from the Bournemouth, Avon and Stour Pastoral District on their Advent day of Recollection.

It was a very happy experience. There was some input from one of the brethren, Fr Bill Wilson, and everyone seemed ready to contribute to the discussion which his talks provoked. It seemed a very good way to begin Advent, and we look forward to a similar occasion at the start of Lent.

We met in very comfortable surroundings, Wisdom House in Romsey. This occupies part of the site of a one-time French Convent. It was good to be at home so quickly with fellow priests, only a few of whom I'd met before today. One though, my namesake Fr Bruce Barnes, worked in the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth soon after I served my Title there, and it was very good to catch up with him again.
It is a stone's throw from another former Monastic building, Romsey Abbey. That church, one of the loveliest in Hampshire, is now the Anglican parish church of the town. The famous local family is the Mountbattens and Lord Louis, cousin of the Royal Family, was laid to rest here.

Portsmouth Catholic Diocese has created a great facility in Wisdom House, and I look forward to coming here again in the future.

I can't leave Romsey without showing you its greatest jewel, the Rood which though much damaged is still magnificent. This early representation of the crucifixion pre-dates the distorted suffering figures of the Middle Ages. This Christ is not victim but Victor, his arms apread out to embrace the world, his feet side by side as though he stands erect. It was the inspiration for the silversmith who created the pectoral cross which I wore as Bishop of Richborough. To have an opportunity to continue in Ministry in old age is a great privilege - to Christ be the glory!

Saxon Rood by the Northeast Cloister Door into the Abbey

Busy Day

2011-11-28T21:21:00.023Z

Introducing Fr John Hemer MHM
A busy day in London Town began at Our Lady of the Angels, Bayswater, where members of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy met to hear Fr Hemer on Catholic Scriptural Studies in the light of the teaching of Benedict XVI. It was so good to be reminded that the Scriptures are written "that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name". So much Biblical scholarship in the past Century and more has been undertaken by non-believers. They purport to take an unbiased approach; in fact, theirs is a post-Enlightenment stance which fails to acknowledge the whole purpose of Sacred Scripture. It is written "from faith to faith", not just meant to be dissected as a mere exercise in linguistics. To treat it as such an exercise is rather as though medical studies stopped short with anatomy, and never considered living patients; or as though misicologists studied scores, but never listened to music.

Our Lady of the Angels is a very grand neo-Gothic edifice, with a history going back to that famous one-time married Anglican, Cadinal Manning.

It dominates its corner of Bayswater and makes a grand foil to the Victorian villas facing it across Sutherland Place. We met in the Father Michael Hollings Centre, where we shared a meal and good company - for of course fraternity is one of the purposes of the CCC. We spent half an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, so between those devotions and our Biblical lecture we managed to show something of the two other elements of the Confraternity, Fidelity and Formation.

After lunch, rather than rushing back to Waterloo, I diverted to Two Temple Place. I had read about it in the press last week, and thought I should get to see this, one of the last works of the great gothic revival architect, J.L.Pearson.

He was commissioned by William Waldorf Astor to build the house, and what an extraordinary piece of work it is - a little Renaissance Palace quite unlike any of Pearson's famous churches. At present it is filled with an exhibition about William Morris, "Story, Memory, Myth". Check with the website (www.twotempleplace.org) before setting out, since occasionally the House in closed for Private events. But if you can get there before January 29th, it is well worth the journey - and what's more, it is free!

Where's that Patrimony, then? Part 2.

2011-11-13T16:31:00.011Z

Oh dear: I thought the first half of my address to SVP [yesterday's blog] listed some of the things commonly thought to be the essence of 'The Patrimony' - ancient language, beautiful liturgy, rich hymnody &c - and then added BUT THESE ARE NOT OF THE ESSENCE because they are, or should be, the common concern of all Catholics, not just former Anglicans. Clearly I was misunderstood, since some have asserted that I was giving these priority. I don't; and I hope I said in the second part of my talk just what I DID think was at the heart of our Patrimony. It was about our concern for those beyond the walls of our churches... but judge for yourself, here is how the talk concluded:-

And here we do begin to get to a distinctive element in our Patrimony. Whereas Catholic Parishes count hundreds, even thousands, at Mass, Anglican Parish churches have been used to congregations of seldom more than a hundred. At its best, that has meant that the Vicar has a better chance of knowing his people. It does not mean, though, that he necessarily has an easier time than his Catholic counterpart. When an Anglican clergyman is appointed to his parish, he is inducted to his living. His parish is a geographical area, and until recently all marriages, baptisms and burials in that area were his concern. All the people in that parish were his to look after - and until recently many Anglican clergy tried to visit across the whole of the parish, not simply caring for nominal Anglicans. It is this sense of responsibility beyond a congregation which is, I believe, at the heart of our mission.

By being part of the ‘established church’, whatever that means now, the Anglican cleric has had the time to be a pastor to a whole community. At its best, that has meant that he would visit anyone in hospital - not just Anglicans, certainly not just his own flock - and from those encounters there would occasionally be a real conversion. So too with funerals. If in doubt, a person would be put down as ‘C of E’ – and that too gave, and gives still, great opportunities for genuine evangelisation, when bereaved families are visited before and after the funeral.

When we moved to our retirement house ten years ago there was still a hospital over the road. They built a new hospital, and gradually houses were built on the site opposite us, forty-one of them in the end. It gave me a conscience that I had no right to visit them. In my parishes I would have seen those newcomers as both responsibility and opportunity. If I’d not called myself, someone from our visiting team would have been there while the boxes were still being upacked, with a parish magazine to leave so that they knew when we met for worship. We had people keep en eye out for removal vans across the parish. The first few days after arrival were the best time. No one wanted you to stay very long, but you could answer questions about the neighbourhood – the doctors, the schools, the bus service – and your visit was often remembered many years after. A young couple were in my study preparing for marriage. ‘I used to be in the police’, she said. ‘I remember you visiting the Station soon after you arrived. We did not know why you had come, but we were glad you had’. It was as though being part of the Church of England gave us a right – and a duty – to do such things. I hope when eventually we get our Catholic parishes we shall continue in this way. I am sure some of the Ordinariate priests already are doing so. It is second nature to them.

Being part of "The Church of England by Law Established" gave us confidence to do this. Now if we believe that the Catholic Church really is meant to be the Church of this land, perhaps we can all rediscover this attitude, this sense of responsibility for entire communities - not just for those who happen to come to mass, or who had an Irish grandmother. It may be there are Catholic parishes where this happens; I hope so, and it would be good to hear your experience of this, and whether I am being quite unrealistic.

Last week they showed something of the funeral of Jimmy Saville. Typically, the BBC said nothing about how his fund-raising for Hospitals was inspired by his faith - and that is annoying. Then, when it showed the Procession coming out of Leeds Catholic Cathedral the commentator said something about it being “the City’s Cathedral” – once again I began to be annoyed. Then it occurred to me that perhaps this was of a piece with the way in which Archbishop Vincent is often asked for a religious slant on a news item when in the past it might have been the Archbishop of Canterbury. They say the Queen used to refer to Basil Hume as “My Cardinal”. It may be that gradually the Catholic Church is filling the space which was once claimed by the Church of England as the National Church. The Anglican Church is finding it ever harder to address the nation, and when it does, as in the St Paul’s affair, it does so with confusion. We should be getting bolder in using the media, expecting Catholic voices to be heard. I think there is a group of laypeople who are doing just that nationally. Perhaps we need to have more people locally making frequent contact with the local press and radio and TV; and if you are already doing it, hurrah, and let us know about it.

If, after all this, you say “But that is nothing different from what Catholics have always done”, that’s fine. It simply means our so-called Patrimony is less distinctive than I thought. But I believe it is an attitude to the outside world which the Holy Father wants us to develop - "The Church in the market place" - and something for which our Anglican experience has particularly qualified us.

Yet the truth is, we are Catholics. This week I have celebrated two masses for the Ordinariate – both of them straight from the new missal – and three masses in local catholic churches, where our parish priest is very hard-pressed. Our Group Council has decided that we should only have two masses each week which are billed as being ‘ours’, on Sunday at 9.30am and on Wednesday at 10.30am. The only difference between them and other masses celebrated in the parish is that we name our Ordinary, Keith, in the Canon, besides Crispian our Bishop. If we go to Mass on other days, we join our local Catholic parishes.

It is a delicate balancing act we are engaged in. We try to be as supportive as possible to our local churches, while keeping a distinct place for Anglicanorum Coetibus, groups of Anglicans. In our Ordinariate worship we are often joined by others, friends from St Joseph’s in Christchurch where the priest prepared our people for reception into the Church, from Our Lady Queen of Peace itself, and from other parishes – people who want to discover what we are about. What we are hoping to do, little by little, is invite current Anglicans to come and see for themselves what is going on. So many good members of the Church of England are very confused just now, especially those who would call themselves Anglo-Catholics. They were promised that they would always have an “honoured place” in the church of their baptism, but that promise is being ever more frequently broken. As they get more and more marginalised, and as the consecration of women as bishops draws nearer, we are trying to create a place of welcome for them.

We still have a great deal to learn. Our clergy are engaged in an ongoing course of instruction based on teaching at Allen Hall in Chelsea, at Maryvale in Birmingham, and at Buckfast Abbey. Young men with families are adapting to living on less than they were used to, and money is a constant concern for our Ordinary. But none of us regrets the step he has taken, and we are very grateful for the warm welcome and practical help given us by the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Somehow, together, we have to get on with the evangelisation of our nation.

Members of SVP beginning to gather in the Milner Hall

Where's that Patrimony, then?

2011-11-12T15:48:00.010Z

The Society of St Vincent de Paul{SVP}in Winchester invited me to speak to them about the Ordinariate and how we see it from the inside. My address to them was rather long, so it had better make up two posts, Here is Part I - and I'd be grateful for comments, especially from fellow Ordinarians. It is the first time in six months that I have really tried to wrestle with the notion of Patrimony. We met in the Milner Hall, which began life as the first Catholic Church in England to be consecrated after the Reformation. Now this splendid church (below) is its replacement, standing almost next door to its predecessor.

The Ordinariate and Anglican Patrimony

There is a little group of former Anglicans who worship in the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blessed Margaret Pole. As with all such Groups, and there are now dozens up and down the country, there is a constant struggle to maintain our identity, and yet be clearly a true part of the Catholic Church. When the Holy Father, only two years since, produced “Anglicanorum Coetibus”, and startled the ecumenical world, there were two things the documents stressed.

One was that this was for GROUPS of Anglicans; that is what Anglicanorum Coetibus means. Some of us were meeting this week at Allen Hall, as part of our ongoing formation as Catholic priests. We spoke about the different situations from which we came; and found that no two were exactly similar. At one extreme was a strong Group in Kent, which represented almost the entire congregation of a local Anglican church. They and their Vicar had sought admission to the Church in one body, and the Catholic diocese had offered them the use of a small building a few miles out of town which had been no more than a Mass Centre for a larger town church. This group has become so established, and has built up such good relations with the Catholics they were joining, that it is likely the former Anglican Vicar will become the Parish Priest of a new parish based on that little mission building.

At the other end of the spectrum was a priest who had joined the Catholic Church with only a handful of parishioners. Another local Vicar had brought more of his people with him, so all the former Anglicans were put into one Group, and the priest with the handful was left without any. He was asked to go to a Catholic church a few miles away to minister to the existing congregation. To his delight, though, he has begun to find there are local ex-Anglicans worshipping with him. They had been travelling many miles to an Ordinariate Group – though only eight or ten at present, they look forward to building their numbers and so gaining some group identity.

Our three Groups in this diocese also differ from each other. On the Isle of Wight the core members came from one Anglican Church with their Vicar, and gradually others in the Island are joining them. There are, though, a few Ordinariate Catholics on the Portsmouth mainland. They are worshipping with existing Catholic parishes, and only occasionally does the priest come over from the Island, with a number of his people, and celebrate with them. In Reading, it is a former Vicar with a small number who join him for Mass at a local Catholic Church; and he is earning his keep by teaching at the Oratory School. In Bournemouth, no Vicar has yet relinquished his living. There have been, though, three of us who were retired, and between us we have gathered a group from a number of different parishes around the area. We worship on Sunday and Wednesday at Our Lady Queen of Peace. One of the priests has lately moved on, and another is awaiting his Catholic ordination, so I am holding the fort in the meanwhile, though I retired as an Anglican Bishop ten years ago.

The second thing the Holy Father was seeking was an injection of some of the best of Anglicanism, what he called our Patrimony, into the Catholic Church. But what are the distinctive marks of our Anglican heritage that we bring with us, that Patrimony of which the Holy Father spoke? Some Catholics, I know, have been a little suspicious of us. They had heard other Anglicans call us backwoodsmen, old fashioned Christians who were frightened of women and wanted nothing but the security of the language of the 17th Century Prayer Book. If that had described us you would have been right to be worried. We opposed the Ordination of women to the priesthood, certainly, but that was on ecumenical grounds. It was putting up an insuperable barrier between Anglicans and both the Catholic and Orthodox churches, without any basis for it in Scripture or the Tradition. We believed it was not a matter to be resolved by just one tiny fragment of the Universal Church. What’s more, for most of us the old Prayer Book with its THEEs and THOUs is more a historic document than a source of current worship – though it must be said that Thomas Cranmer translated Latin Collects far better than the authors of the now superseded English Version of the Latin Missal.

So if those are not the matters that we want to preserve, what is this mysterious Patrimony? The Holy Father seems to have great admiration for the English Tradition of church music, especially Choral Evensong. Some of our Groups are trying to maintain a little of that with a sung service once a month or so. That service, though, is usually Solemn Evensong and Benediction.

To understand this, you need to know a little Church History. After the first founders of the Oxford Movement, Newman and Pusey and Keble, there came another generation very concerned with improving the liturgical practice of the Church of England. Choral Services had survived in many Cathedrals, but now parish churches began introducing robed choirs, and they spiced up Choral Evensong with incense, and ceremonial taken directly from Rome. They were also engaged in making a sung Eucharist their central act of worship. Since vestments and ceremonial had all but disappeared from the Church of England’s worship, many of the leaders in this Ritual movement looked to Catholicism, and especially to continental Catholicism.

For this they were persecuted. Some of them went to prison for their activities. A Bishop of Lincoln was put on trial for lighting candles on the holy table in his chapel, and for mixing a little water in the wine of the Chalice. In particular, bishops were infuriated by the practice of reserving the Blessed Sacrament, and there were court cases to try to get it banned. Equally, they were opposed to other so-called Popish Practices, especially Confession, which its opponents thought would be a way for priests to seduce the women of England.

Because of the persecution, for Anglo-Catholics these became the touchstones of authenticity; confession, the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, and a Sung Eucharist as the centre of their worship. Imagine our surprise on finding that in the Catholic Church these things were less valued than in our part of the Church of England! I caused some little stir in a local Catholic Church when I preached about confession. I told people that when I was asked in retirement to care for a little Anglican congregation I announced times for confession before Christmas and was delighted and not a little surprised to find a queue for the confessional. Equally surprising to me was the Catholic congregation which, on coming into Church after an Ordinariate Mass, flung open all the doors and windows to get rid of the incense! We had thought it was only Protestants who developed an aversion to holy smoke.

So is it our vocation to remind cradle Catholics of the value of some of the things you have lost? I don’t think so. That would smack of a terrible superior attitude; the very thing we wanted to leave behind with Anglicanism. It may be that the care with which we conduct worship is a mark of a former Anglican; but it is also surely the mark of any good Catholic. We enjoy singing hymns, and generally we have not gone for the vacuous little ditties which you would find in many Evangelical Anglican Churches – and also, I fear, in some Catholic ones. But that surely is something which the Church is tackling, in the wake of the new Translation of the Missal. It’s said our preaching is longer – I wouldn’t say better – than in Catholic Parishes. But that is maybe a function of being less rushed than most Catholic priests.

And here we do begin to get to an element in our Patrimony. [To Be Continued....]

Is it Autumn?

2011-11-06T18:15:00.016Z

There has been, we are told, snow in the Eastern United States; yet here on the South Coast of England we still wait for our first frost. The picture above is of a rose in our garden - the Yellow Banksian Rose - which usually flowers in May. Then this afternoon we went to the Coast (Barton on Sea is just six miles from home) and saw these escapees from cliff-top gardens; I believe they known as Cape Fig, usually blooming in Summer - yet here are one or two precocious yellow blossoms.

For all that, the sun is very low in the sky, and there is not much warmth left. We reached not much more than 12 degress C today, though without a breeze it felt quite balmly.

Still, winter approaches. In the Bournemouth Ordinariate Group (some of them seen below after Mass this morning) we are making plans for Advent and Christmas. We shall be joining the Parish for Midnight Mass and on Christmas Morning. Our Servers are very pleased to have been asked to assist at Midnight. We were a bit unsettled a couple of weeks back, with the announcement that our Pastor, Fr Graham Smith, felt he must move on. Msgr Keith reluctantly agreed, and has asked me to look after the Group as a temporary measure until such time as we have another former Anglican priest ordained. We have resolved to have fewer Masses (just Wednesday at 10.30 and the Sung Mass on Sunday at 9.30) but most of the Group seem to think this is a good arrangement, giving them the chance to worship in their local churches on other days.

Click on the pictures for a larger view

Clergy Colloquium

2011-10-29T23:10:00.013+01:00

Mgr Wadsworth was not the only Mgr - nor the only Liturgist - at the Colloquium

An extra hour in bed tonight, so time for a late night post. Just back from an amazing live telecast of Don Giovanni from the Met. Two days ago the entertainment was a little different - Mgr Andrew Wadsworth, genius of ICEL and the New Translation, speaking to a group of clergy at the Oratory School near Reading. We heard too from Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, and from the Australian part of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett. You can see more about it on the Anglo Catholic and elsewhere, but it gave me a focus for this Sunday's sermon.

‘They do not practise what they preach.’ : a sermon preached at the Ordinariate Mass on Sunday October 30,at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Southbourne

Jesus challenges every priest with his words to the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. We have far better news to share than ever the Pharisees had. They taught the Old Testament law, we are entrusted with the Good News of Jesus Christ. But as the Gospel is better than the law, so the judgment on those who do not practise what they preach is so much the harder. And how can any priest live up to the words of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

Very well, you could say, that is for you and for Fr Graham and Fr Gerry to worry about. You are the ones who must preach, and must practise what you preach. but what does it have to do with us? We don’t preach, we have only to listen. Well consider this. For two days last week a group of priests met at the Oratory School near Reading, to consider our vocation and the way we live it. We were challenged by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mgr Mark Davies. He reminded us of St Jean Marie Vianney, the Cure D’Ars. That humble faithful little priest, who spent his whole ministry in that remote desolate French village, was instrumental in renewing the whole life of the priesthood, not only in France but far beyond. He was not particularly gifted, no great orator, no scholar; but as St Paul reminds us, it is our failings and our weaknesses that God chooses to use. So when Fr Jean-Marie spoke about his poor self, he did not want us to think he was exaggerating. Bishop Mark recalled us to our first stirrings of vocation. The saints often write of their own first call. The bishop spoke of the priest who encouraged him to consider whether he might have a vocation – when he was just twelve years old. When first we hear God speaking, as the child Samuel heard him calling when he was sleeping in the Temple, it is always a call to love. “The priesthood”, said Bishop Mark, “is the love of the heart of Jesus”. We are constantly to stir up that love in us.

Now the People of God have a very active role in this recall to love and holiness. Since becoming a Catholic Priest, only a matter of months ago, the affection of lay people for their priests has touched me. In previous ministry people have sometimes expressed their thanks; but never as regularly as now. Say a mass at my local parish church, and invariably people will thank me for it. It is as though the Eucharist, the thanksgiving, naturally overflows; as we have been giving thanks to the Father, so thanks continue after Mass, and are addressed not only to God, but to his priest.

Which is, or should be, very humbling; for we are only doing what we must do; as Jesus teaches us, when we have done all we have to do, we are to say “I am an unprofitable servant”. There is huge encouragement from the people towards the priests. It is not just explicitly in words of thanks that this is conveyed. As Bishop Mark expressed it, “Penance has a pedagogical influence on the priest as confessor”. That too I knew in my Anglican days. There is great grace given in hearing confessions – and especially the confessions of the very old, and of the very young, can challenge us. Can we be as honest, as straightforward, as trusting, when we make our confession? The penitent becomes the teacher, and the confessor the one who is taught.
This is why the Gospel tells us today “You have only one Teacher, the Christ.” So we do; and it is through our encounters, especially with our fellow Christians, that he teaches us. Similarly, when people address us as “Father” we know this is only because of our priesthood, not from any great virtue in us. He permits his priests to act on his behalf, to stand in for him – only in this sense can we be “Father” to the people of God.

So it is interacting with the family of the Church that a priest begins to learn what it is to be a priest. That means that although Our Lord’s words are addressed today to the Preachers, they are meant for all of us. The laity can encourage, or shame, or nudge priests into becoming what they should be, by having very high expectations of us. You will, alas, be let down. Priests are frail earthen vessels and things of no worth; but still you must persist in praying for them, and showing just how high a calling they have. That above all, his calling is to imitate Christ – in his humility. For today’s Gospel ends with Jesus saying “Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted”.

The Parish Priest fulfils an Office; but the priesthood is the shared gift of the holy common people of God. ‘For you also’, says St Peter (I Pet. 2.5), ‘are built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ’. Certainly support your priests through your prayer; through your attendance at Mass, through your participation in the sacrament of reconciliation.

Fr Marcus and Fr Peter, two of the originators of the British Province of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy.

..Books in the Running Brooks...

2011-10-23T16:01:00.012+01:00

Our little Ordinariate Group in Bournemouth is going through some teething troubles just now - so we would value your prayers, dear reader. We'll say more about this another time. Meanwhile, for a little refreshment, Jane and I walked across the Salterns. Salt was what made Lymington its money - real money in the 18th Century, in one year alone this local industry paid £40,000 in tax - at a time when £4 a year was a decent wage!

The saltmarshes are now a nature reserve, and there are just a few places where some of the old industrial buildings survive. They were used to boil the brine after the saltwater had evaporated in the saltpans - whose outlines are still traceable here and there. These barns are very ancient, and were probably used for storing salt before it was taken away on barges.

There were lapwings and curlews, and great flocks of geese - probably Canada geese, they were a little far off to identify them postively. There was also this elegant Little Egret. Only a few years ago they were great rarities; recently, we have seen thirteen in one day.

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Today's bird was especially elegant.

Except when the wind blew to ruffle his feathers, when he looked more like a dishmop than the suave hunter of fishes.

I suppose we can all look a bit stupid when our feathers are ruffled. Then we need time to compose ourselves and put a brave face on the world once more.

And although they don't fit in with this piece of sermonising, here are some of the fruits of the forest;

acorns, so plentiful in the New Forest this year that the pigs are being turned loose for longer than usual to consume the pannage - if the pigs don't eat them the ponies will, and acorns are poison to horses. This little herd on the Salterns looked very excited in the windy conditions.

Whereas some stick-in the muds were quite unmoved.

A Bit More Patrimony

2011-10-16T22:23:00.010+01:00

Concerning Eikons - the picture above being from Eikon Basilike of Charles I.
Life has been busy; daily masses either in Lymington or with the Ordinariate, and my first Funeral Mass as a Catholic. So I am turning to that great stand-by of clergy bloggers, the sermon. Today's, preached for the Southbourne Ordinariate Mass, concerned Jesus' response to the Pharisees.

Whose head is this? Whose name? [MTT xxii.20, JB version]

We’ve heard a good deal about our Anglican Patrimony these last months; without ever discovering just what it includes. Surely one element is the desire to find out just what Scripture really says. Fortunately, those of us who have become Catholics in the past year have joined the Church just as she too is concerning herself with the real meaning of words. That is why the new translation of the Mass seeks to be much more accurate when it quotes the words of Holy Scripture; for instance “Behold the Lamb of God”, quoting John Baptist, rather than the old words “This is the Lamb of God”.

So far, in the readings from Scripture we are mostly using the Jerusalem Bible – but the Church has authorised other versions, and one, the Revised Standard Version, is usually far more accurate than the looser paraphrase that we hear read – this morning, for instance. Now often the differences don’t matter that much; but sometimes we miss something really important if we do not have an accurate translation of what Jesus said.

We heard him say today, holding up the denarius, “Whose head is this; whose name?” Sorry, that is not what the Greek of the New Testament says. He asks about the EIKON: and eikon does not mean “head” – the Greeks had a perfectly good word for “head”. No, EIKON means an image, a representation. It is a word which keeps coming up throughout the Bible.

In the law given to Moses, for instance, we’re not forbidden to make heads: we are forbidden to make images; in the Greek version of the Old Testament that word is EIKON. But there is an even more important place where the word is used – and even the Jerusalem Bible translates it properly there. In the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read how the Lord decided to create human beings; and he said, “Let us make man in our own image”. And, just as he had decided, “God created man in his own image: male and female created he them”.

So back to today’s Gospel. The Pharisees have been trying once again to trap Jesus; we have heard about the way they went about trying to trap him in the Gospels for the last few weeks. Now it’s ‘Is it right to pay tribute to Cesar or not?’ Say yes, and he will be branded a traitor to the Jewish people. Say no, and he will be reported to the Roman authorities as an agitator. Catch 22, you could say. So Jesus asks for a coin; not just any coin, but the one they paid their taxes with. Until the Roman invasion, the Jews had had their own coinage, and in obedience to the law of Moses, those coins did not have any human face depicted on them. The Romans were having none of that second-rate stuff; only good Roman money would suit them, so the taxes had to be paid in Roman coins … which to a good Jew would seem blasphemous, with its picture of the Emperor. They hand Jesus a denarius. Whose head is this, he asks; no, he doesn’t, he asks WHOSE EIKON, whose image is this? Whose name is here, he asks? Well, no he doesn’t, not exactly; he asks whose EPIGRAPH, whose WRITING, whose SIGNATURE is on the coin?

'Caesar’s', they answer. 'Very well then, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s; and to God what is God’s.' Fine, that means we have to pay our taxes. But what about God: what are our dues to Him?

Look round you. Whose IMAGE, whose LIKENESS do you see? On the coin there is just one face: around us are many faces – the faces of our fellow human beings. In the image of God made he them; male and female created he them. Each of us carries God’s likeness, not in our pocket on a coin, but on our faces. And what inscription, what signature, appears there? Well of course when we were Baptized we were given a signature; we were signed with the Cross. That is the epigraph, the signature, on us.

So if we take the Bible seriously, and try to discover what it really says, we will find many connections like this, links between the New Testament and the Old, which will enlighten our understanding. We think we know the Bible so well. To be honest, we can even get a little bored hearing the same stories time and again. But if only we will work at them, seek out the connections, discover the echoes from one Book of Scripture to another, we shall constantly find new treasures. And Jesus tells us that the wise house-holder is the one who brings out of his treasures things old and new. This does not mean that each of us needs to learn Biblical Greek to understand; all we need is a good version of the Bible, preferably two or three, to compare them; if your Bible has footnotes and references, so much the better. Look them up, and follow the links.

So - just a coin; we handle them every day. The one Jesus took to show the crowd, though, taught us more than we supposed. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s – pay your taxes, even while you grumble about it. But render to God what belongs to him - and what is that? It is us, made in his image, our bodies designed to be temples of the Holy Spirit – here we offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice…. That is from the Anglican prayer book, part of our patrimony; and it echoes Our Lord in today’s gospel; render to God the things that are God’s. So often we judge people by their wealth; the image of Caesar in their pockets and their bank accounts. Far more important, how they care for the image in which they are made – the image of God himself, the image we shall offer back to him at the last.

Mary & the Patrimony

2011-10-07T10:44:00.004+01:00

Our Lady of the Rosary at St Anne's Brockenhurst - what could former Anglicans add to that from our Patrimony? A church dedicated to the Mother of the Lord, and a Mass of Our Lady. Well, at the end of this morning's Mass I began singing the Angelus; and found I was operating solo. It was a great surprise to me that the tone I supposed everyone knew was unfamiliar to a Catholic congregation. They were very kind, though, and even said they would like to learn it! This just confirmed a conversation I'd had a few days ago. 'We thought', said this cradle Catholic, 'that the Church of England disliked such Roman things as "praying to the Virgin Mary" - yet we find you are far more Marian that we are!' The truth is, Anglo-Catholics have had to fight for a proper place to be given to the Mother of Our Lord - and in doing so we have probably become 'more Catholic than the Pope'. Now that we are in Communion with the Holy Father, we no longer have to fight in that way.

But it is still surprising to find that part of the patrimony we are bringing with us is devotion to Our Lady. At our Ordinariate Mass on Sundays in Southbourne we end by singing the Angelus - and again, those who join us from the Parish congregation seem delighted that we are using something which once was so familiar to them, but has largely been neglected in recent years.

I believe Our Lady has a great concern for the Ordinariate. The first of them here in England is dedicated to her under the title of Our Lady of Walsingham. For me, the process began years back, when we started the Ecumenical Friends of Fatima (EFFA), and I was asked to lead Pilgrimages there. At the end of the Procession on May 13th the Bishop of Leiria/Fatima generally calls four or five bishops forward. The crown is removed from the Image of Our Lady, and these bishops are invited to touch the Spina, the bullet set in the top of the crown. On our first visit it was intensely moving that Bishop Seraphim included me, an Anglican bishop, in that little group. The bullet was the one which had so nearly killed the Holy Father; that attack had happened on May 13th, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady in Fatima. In thanksgiving, the Pope gave the bullet to the shrine. It might seem a curious gift, but Mary's protection was something John Paul II valued hugely.

In all her conversations with the Little Shepherds, Our Lady emphasised the importance of praying the Rosary. Our Anglican Group, EFFA, has taken this call to prayer very seriously, and each day our seventy or so members pray one of the Mysteries in turn, asking Our Lady's prayers for others in the Association. Those prayers are still being answered. So far, thirty of us have come into Communion with the see of Rome. Perhaps part of our Patrrimony involves reminding our fellow Catholics that Mary is mother of us all, and calls us all to prayer with her.

Portsea

2011-10-01T15:52:00.016+01:00

Was it cheek or ignorance which led an Ordinand to ask "Father, did you know Father Dolling?" Since that great hero of the faith had died a third of a century before I was born, I did not immediately take it as a compliment. Yet it is true that I sometimes went on a little about Robert Dolling's work in Portsea. One of my home Communicants had been prepared for Confirmation by him, so I did feel a real link with this Portsmouoth legend. So many St Stephen's House ordinands came from London parishes and knew nothing of Anglo-Catholicism in the provinces. Yet Portsea was a slum every bit as much as London Docks or Pimlico, and Dolling's heroic work was still remembered sixty years later during the time of my second curacy (and another home Communicant threw me when she said her Grandfather had been a drummer boy at the Battle of Waterloo!)

Today was a great delight. Thanks to the generosity of Fr Maunder, who looks after St Agatha's and ministers there to a TAC congregation, the local Ordinariate Group was able to celebrate mass in that amazing building. I shall say a little more about it on the Anglo-Catholic blog, but thought my faithful readers must not be denied some report of today's event. Fr Jonathan Redvers-Harris ministers to a Group on the Isle of Wight, besides a handful of loyal Ordinarians on the mainland of Portsmouth. His is the next group along the coast from ours in Bournemouth; the third group in Portsmouth Diocese is Fr Elliott's in Reading. On the hottest October day on record we were joined by a few of the TAC congregation, together with Fr Maunder and Bishop Robert Mercer C.R. How we hope that their application to join the Ordinariate will be able to be expedited in Rome.

After Mass we sat in the ruined splendours of the vandalised South (Lady) Chapel - partly demolished after the Dockyard expansion scheme had engulfed St Agatha's, and new roads were constructed as the old slums (the few spared by German bombing) were cleared away. There we ate lunch, met some new friends, and looked forward to even great glory days when the Ordinariate is growing and flourishing. Fr Maunder (second from right above) has done heroic work in restoring St Agatha's, and the Lady Chapel is on his list whenever funds become available.
The need for Catholic mission is no less than in Fr Dolling's day, but the evils we combat are not the obvious ones of prostitution and drunkenness - rather the smug forgetfulness of God as we become more overtaken by the creed of acquisitiveness and 'rights'.
It was good to be joined by Fr Jonathan's parish priest in Ryde, Fr Anthony Glaysher (caught drinking tea in photo above), who is such a support to the Ordinariate Group.

Another Step for the Ordinariate

2011-09-29T22:15:00.025+01:00

We country cousins have to ask our metropolitan friends to help us when we have an overnight stay in London. It was noble of Fr Rob Page to give hospitality to Jane and me this week, on the very eve of his move to the new parish. So (above) you will see our genial host, contemplating moving from his spacious Vicargae kitchen into something rather smaller in his Presbytery. Our overnight stay though was only one instance of the logistics of organising meetings for all the priests of the Ordinariate.

Getting fifty and more priests together from the corners of the Realm is an expensive business; just one of the many worries besetting our Ordinary. Mgr Keith's sunny demeanour, though, (here he is on the left) betrayed none of his financial worries when he welcomed Cardinal Levada today. The Cardinal, hot-foot from the enthronement of the Patriarch of Milan, spent two days in England first encouraging the newly former Friends of the Ordinariate, and then today, encouraging the Ordinariate's priests.

For many months now we newly ordained priests have been instructed in various aspects of the Faith at the Seminary of Allen Hall. Today Cardinal Levada addressed us about the hopes of the Holy Father for the Ordinariate. We have known in theory that Anglicanorum Coetibus was Pope Benedict's special concern, indeed very largely of his own devising. Now we are reassured by His Eminence's visit that what we are engaged in is very dear to the Pope's heart. The Cardinal generously answered questions (some of which are at present unanswerable - only time will produce the solution). Most of all, he showed us the caring face of the Catholic Church, and the warmth of his address to us gave many of us new heart.

(Click on this picture to see the Cardinal & Mgr Newton, right at the back of this group)
The Cardinal's visit was important for the life of Allen Hall - as a former theological college Principal I know how important such occasions can be - and it was good to see Cardinal Levada greeting so many of the seminarians individually. For us of the Ordinariate, it was a huge privilege to be able to celebrate Michaelmass with the man who, after Pope Benedict, has done most to further the Ordinariate not only in England but across the world. Having him with us at this time will surely enliven our prayers, and spur us on to make the Ordinariate an instrument of Unity and Evangelisation which the Holy Father wants us to become.

Bella Italia

2011-09-11T16:27:00.040+01:00

Villa La Rotonda by Palladio (and copied at Chiswick)

Seven days, to see Vicenza, Padua, Venice and Verona! Madness... but it was lovely. Until visiting the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (aka the Arena Chapel) I had never quite seen why Giotto was reckoned so outstanding. The Frescoes in Assisi are all very well, but they do not have the impact that the Padua frescoes make. They are such a coherent story, from Old Testament to New, from the Nativity of the Virgin to the Life of Christ. Such pathos in the faces of the weeping women - never before captured in paint. How Giotto's contemporaries must have been astounded - art could not be the same again.

So Padua was one highlight. In Vicenza, the attraction was the star among architects, Andrea Palladio. We see him second-hand in England, first through Inigo Jones - that 'finest barn', St Paul's Covent Garden; and the Queen's House in Greenwich, the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall, followed by a thousand imitators in the next three centuries. Even now, in the polite watered-down classicism of Brentwood Cathedral (archt Quinlan Terry, beloved of the Prince of Wales) there are the faintest echoes of Palladio. But the real thing is just knock-out.

In Italy, though, it is often the unexpected that manages to bowl you over. I had never heard of the Church of Santa Anastasia in Verona; yet it is an absolute wonder - here is just a detail of the ceiling decoration.

To say nothing of being able to pray at the tomb of St Antony (of Padua, as they call him in Italy; but in his homeland, Portugal, he is Antony of Lisbon). And devotion to Our Lady results in some magnificent, florid, loveable images of the Virgin.

Speaking of the unexpected, we hit Vicenza on the night of a great Parade celebrating the Rua. No, I'd not heard of it either. It is, in effect, a wonderful fairground ride. Painted in outlandish colours, it probably represents the sort of impact our mediaeval cathedrals would once have made (think the West Front of Exeter or Wells, Salisbury or Lincoln, all done in these colours - as originally they were). Fortunately Italy is not overwhelmed by 'good taste'; so the Rua is magnificently OTT, daring to stand as it does before two of the great works of Palladio.

What fun it must be, to be Italian! Perhaps that is what the Ordinariate is seeking - a bit of vulgarity in our religion.

Click on some of these images, please, to see a larger version.

Yeah but, No but...

2011-08-28T21:35:00.012+01:00

Blogs are a little thin this silly season; so, like some others, I am presuming to post this morning's sermon - chiefly because it enables me to give you a picture of the delightful Ms Pollard.

'If anyone wants to be a disciple of mine' .... A sermon for the Ordinariate Group in Southbourne

"Want to be a disciple? Oh, come on Lord, you know we want to be your disciples! Why do you think we have left the security of our former churches and come here if we don’t want to be your disciples?" Now that is a good response; not unlike the reply Peter gave when Jesus asked him, 'Simon, do you love me?' 'Lord, you know that I love you….' And you know us, Lord, and you know how we really to want to follow you.

But how hard it was for Peter to discover what discipleship entailed. In last week’s gospel, he must have been so elated. He had said that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; and Jesus had told him “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”. Wow! Terrific! We heard that a week ago, - but in St Matthew’s gospel what we read last week is immediately followed by the very different words Jesus had for Peter today. Then he was the Rock, a firm foundation; now he is the Tempter, Satan’s agent. What a come-down.

Have you noticed that so often a great spiritual experience leaves us vulnerable to the devil’s attack? Some will have found it like that after pilgrimage to a holy place, Fatima or Walsingham or Lourdes – a terrific high, followed by a real low. Others of us will have been oscillating wildly ever since the start of the Ordinariate – or rather, if you are like me you will have done. It is a wonderful offer the Pope has made, and it is great to respond, yeah, but…

We’re a little like Vicky Pollard – 'yeah but, no but': we are trying to justify ourselves. Those buts, those hesitations, are very understandable. 'If anyone wants be my disciple' says Jesus, 'he must deny himself – renounce himself - and take up his Cross, and follow me'. And all the time we are wanting to excuse ourselves, give our reasons for finding things so difficult .. yeah but, you see, it’s the others… not me. Well, we do not have to answer for anyone else. Only for ourselves. And we do not have to waste our breath making excuses; just admit how time and again I am the problem; not someone else, but me. What’s more, I am the only one who can do anything about it.

So back to Peter. Flattened, quite deflated; one minute told he is reliable as a rock, the next being compared to Satan himself and all just because he was trying to help and tell Jesus that the future he foretold of suffering and death, he must avoid at all costs.

Peter might have learnt his lesson; but he did not. In the garden of Gethsemane, first he fell asleep when he was asked to watch and pray. Then he drew his sword on the high priest’s servant, and once more the Lord had to tell him off. Worst of all when it came to it, he was the one who denied Jesus, said he did not even know him. Yet the Lord restored him, made him into a shepherd, told him to feed his sheep; told him how once converted he must strengthen his brothers.

But Peter did not change all at once; and even after the resurrection we find Paul telling him off for falling back into the old structures of Judaism.

If anyone should be able to encourage us as we go through the ups and downs of helping to establish the Ordinariate in England, it should be Peter. However often we fail, it seems Peter has done as much before - and yet still he is the one Jesus relied on, and relies on still in his successor. And Popes have failed too. Our fallings out, our mistakes, are necessary. We are to learn from them. Of course we have given up so much; our beautiful churches, our established place in British society, the people we knew so well and who were so supportive – and now seem so distant. But it is all right. These are such early days.

Think back, if you are a parent, to the baby days of your children. It was all so exciting; but you made so many mistakes. Would your child ever forgive you? Well, they did, and they do – just as we forgave our parents though they seemed unfair to us at the time: and they forgave us, though we were so rebellious and unloving. We forgive one another, because Christ first forgave us. We come to love one another, because he loved us first. He is the one who has given us the opportunity of finding him in the fullness of the catholic faith.

Peter was meant to be a rock; no one knew better than he did that often he failed, and had to be forgiven yet again. Perhaps though that is Peter’s greatest gift to the Church; showing, not just saying, that he knew what it was to be forgiven - not just seven times, but seventy times seven. He wept over his own inconstancy, over his impatience and readiness to blunder on without thinking. But Our Lord saw in these traits of character, the things Peter thought of as his failing, the very things that he needed to build up his church. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners – sinners like Peter and James and John, sinners like you and me and all of us in church today. Not many wise,not many mighty, just ordinary old sinners like you and me.

And see how today’s gospel ends; ‘the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each according to his behaviour’. For all of us, just as for Peter, that behaviour will require constant repentance, constant forgiveness. It was a way of life for Peter as it is for us. In the end, though, Peter was faithful, and heard the words “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord”. May those words welcome each of us too, when all the trials of this life are over, and we shall have gone a little to way renouncing ourself, taking up our cross, and following Him.

Happier Times?

2011-08-08T22:40:00.007+01:00

I have just posted on the ANGLO-CATHOLIC site (see side-bar for a link) so shall not repeat that. It was good, though, to have a great Civil War site put the present-day rioting in Tottenham &c into an historical perspective. I should also like to post a couple more photographs from today's visit to Corfe, so treat this simply as an appendix. I expecially liked seeing the steam train from the Castle battlements. Is an affection for steam trains part of the Patrimony?

Hard on such a day to imagine the murder and mayhem of less than four centuries ago - but then, it is even hard enough for us who lived through it to remember the destruction and loss of the war. Pray for the priests and people of Tottenham, Walthamstow, Brixton and all the other places where looting and rioting are taking place - and pray too for the Police - and for the Media that they do not simply incite further violence by their breathless reporting.

Cowes Week

2011-07-31T21:21:00.021+01:00

Lymington is full of Yachtsmen - and women - most of the summer; but especially just now as Cowes week begins. A couple of days ago we paid another visit to the Island (the Isle of Wight, that is) and the return journey through fleets of competing boats practising I guess for this week's competitions must have tested the Captain of the Ferry.

We have had many visitors this month, and they always give us an excuse for returning to favourite places. So we took an old school-friend of Jane's to Osborne, to be reminded of Victoria and Albert, and the impact they had on this little Island. Albert had a hand in designing their hide-away; some visiting crowned heads though the place far too modest. It set a fashion for neo-Italianate villas, just as Balmoral spawned many turreted baronial semi's and tartan wallpaper. It is still a treat to enjoy a meal at the restaurant on the terrace at Osborne, sitting where the Queen Empress might have sat.

It also created an opportunity for us to see friends on the Island. Fr Jonathan Redvers-Harris and his wife Wendy have moved from a spacious vicarage into a slightly smaller house. The plus side though is that this house, which the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is renting for them throughout the next year, has a large garden, with distant views of Portsmouth Harbour. It was good to catch up with them both, and elder son Jack - the only one of the five children at home the day we called. We heard about the way the Island's Ordinariate Group is beginning to take off thanks to the generosity of their local Catholic parish. In our own Bournemouth Group we are experiencing similar friendliness, and at this morning's mass some of the their regular congregation joined us, or simply called in to say "Hello" as we took refreshments just before their 11o'clock Mass began. Next Sunday afternoon we are experimenting with Evening Prayer and Benediction at 4pm, and Fr Graham, our Pastor, is issuing invitations to join us then.

Wendy, son Jack & Fr Jonathan

Another old friend who was with us earlier in the week is the sole begetter of EFFA, the Ecumenical Friends Of Fatima Association. It has becomed ecumenical in ways we could not have envisaged when we set it up a decade and more ago. Then it was an entirely Anglican body; now about a third of the membership are in the Catholic Church, and of these twenty or so are members of the Ordinariate. I am sure Our Lady of Fatima (and of Walsingham) had a hand in this. On this visit Fr Malcolm Gray was only with us in Lymington for a couple of nights, but we still managed to sample one local hostelry, as you see from the picture below.

FOR YOUR PRAYERS: We heard this week from Bishop Crispian (our local Catholic Bishop in Portsmouth) that he has to undergo major surgery later this summer - please pray for him at this difficult time. Then today I learned of the death of an old friend, Canon Roger Greenacre, well remembered for his work in establishing the link between the dioceses of Chichester and Chartres. Requiescat.

Summer Sunday

2011-07-24T19:02:00.005+01:00

One of the benefits of the Ordinariate in Bournemouth is that Mass begins at 9.30 in the morning; which leaves a good part of Sunday free to be a real day of rest. For us today that rest took the form of a visit to a Food and Drink Festival at a local Country House. Oh, and I had celebrated and preached at the Vigil Mass in Lymington; but more of that later. Throughout Mass, and all weekend, Norway was on all our minds. Was it coincidence or some warped bit of extra wickedness that had such an outrage perpertated on the Feast of S Brigitta of Sweden, Patron of Europe? At least maybe we can now understand a little the outrage felt by Muslims when atrocities are committed using their name as a pretext.

Pylewell is an 18th Century House with considerable later additions. Its setting on the Solent Shore is wonderful, with views from the House across parkland to the water and the Isle of Wight.

Later this week there is the New Forest Show - which means that Lymington will be virtually inaccessible by road from the North. This was a smaller affair, but very enoyable. Music of every sort; the Champage and Seafood crowd were entertained by a couple of elegant young ladies on Violin and Cello - very South Hampshire. From there it was all downhill (literally) towards the water's edge, with tastings of local wines and many others, from S Africa and Uruguay and elsewhere. Cheeses, sausages, meat and fish and all manner of delicacies were on sale, along with plants and handicrafts. We ate our modest picnic while watching a food demonstration by a chef from the White Star in Southampton.

Last evening I doubted if I would even be at Mass, let alone a food fair; but a duty doctor at a local Health Centre saw me (at 9.45pm), diagnosed a serious infection (erisipelis, I think it is) and put me on a high dosage of antibiotics. I've since discovered that S John of the Cross died of it, so I am in good company. But he did not have antibiotics. Now the swelling is going down, and I look a little less bruised. It was someone in the congregation at the Vigil Mass in Lymington last evening who persuaded me that I must see the Doctor - and I am glad I did. We sometimes complain about our National Health Service, but it really does seem to do its best in emergencies. The Doctor on duty said I had made his evening worthwhile - apparently my symptoms were especially interesting. Good to be helpful.

Singing in the Rain (2)

2011-07-17T14:38:00.020+01:00

"Come, ye thankful people, Come!" we sang this morning in St Anne's Brockenhurst. On hearing the tune I was a little perturbed. First, it is a very long hymn - but I need not have worried, this was a Catholic congregation so we only sang two verses (is long-winded hymn-singing part of the Anglican Patrimony?) Then, it is a harvest hymn and are there not yet two months and then the harvest? Certainly we saw them reaping some of the early barley in Norfolk on Friday, but all is not yet safely gathered in... I look forward to my figs and apples in a couple of weeks or months, even though the currants and berries are mostly in the freezer. But of course, it was tied to today's Gospel - "Wheat and tares together sown"; somehow "wheat and Darnel together sown" just not does not work, though I daresay Estell M White would have thought it scanned perfectly.

Enough of this. Sufficient to say we were in Norfolk on Friday and yesterday because of the Ordinariate pilgrimage to Walsingham. And though they could get the Combine Harvesters going on Friday, yesterday they certainly could not. Walsingham was wet, very wet; that did not daunt the three or four hundred of the Ordinariate who attended the Mass in the Catholic Shrine, or those who joined the prooession to the Village from the Slipper Chapel, as thousands upon thousands had done from the eleventh Century until the desecration of Holy Places under Henry VIII of unhappy memory in the mid sixteenth Century. Msgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary, had announced that he was to celebrate the Mass of Reconciliation in Walsingham this weekend, so we came together from all parts of his Ordinariate. I know there was a Yorkshire priest there, and so was a Devon priest with his nine progeny - a couple of them were leading the procession - in the photo at the top of this page.

If you want to know about the weather, you can read more about that in my other blog at the Anglo-Catholic. And if you want pictures of the Mass, then the place to go is the Sevenoaks Ordinariate site. Some of the participants turned up a little late; the pair on the left said they were stuck in traffic; I think behind a muck-spreader. No comment is necessary. Here I shall just add a few maundering thoughts, and some pictures from what was a most memorable and happy day.

There were happy meetings with old friends.

Here my wife and Fr Mark Elliott-Smith were catching up on the news. Forgive the sickly yellow cast; that is thanks to the sodium lighting in the Catholic Shrine Church. And here is part of our Hants and Dorest contingent waiting for Mass to begin (similarly jaundiced).

They look a little more healthy in the open air; this [below] is at the Anglican Shrine, where the pilgrimage ended with sprinkling from the holy well, and a joint blessing by Msgr Keith and the Shrine Administrator, Bishop Lindsay Urwin.

In all the Churches and Shrines there were flowers; it is the 950th anniversary of Richeldis' vision, and the 50th of the fire in the parish church. Here [below] is the seven sacraments font, duly enflamed with flowers.

So good, to get the Ordinariate together, in company with other Catholics. We must do this more often - but perhaps for Msgr Keith's sake not in the same week that he flies home from Texas.

Across the Pond

2011-07-09T22:25:00.002+01:00

Isn't technology wonderful? We can watch our Ordinary addressing a conference in Texas as he is doing it, and we can listen to John Hunwicke's humour (not 'humor' surely) direct from that same Anglican Use/Ordinariate gathering. You can go there via the Ordinariate website, or directly at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/anglicanorum

There were one or two little glitches (I believe that is the technical term) - people asking questions without using a microphone, so that we could not hear them though plainly those in the hall could. Or my pressing the wrong button and hearing Msgr Newton and an organ recital at the same time. Still, it is worth persisting. Nor is it just present members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham who should listen to John Hunwicke, or see what Texan locals such as Fr Chuck Hough have to say. Anyone remotely interested in relations between the Catholic Church and the Church of England should tune in. The Anglican Use has flourished in the States for a couple of decades now, and we in England can learn from them, whether we belong to the Ordinariate or to the Church of England. So some of our groups in England are small? They were small in Arlington or San Antonio at the outset; now their congregations are numbered in the hundreds, even the thousands.

Of course, our situation is different; we have left a Church by Law Established, and at present there is little chance that we shall have the use of any of our former church buildings - but that might not always be the case. There will come a time when the Church of England may have to share what it inherited from our common Catholic past. Today the papers report that General Synod has been debating how to check the decline in worshippers - some even predicted the total demise of the Anglican Church. This is not just a problem for the Church of England. In our secularised society, all faith groups have similar battles. We can learn a great deal from the Churches in the USA.

Our Ordinary was very well received in Arlington. He gave his hearers advice that we must all keep in touch with one another, not just with Ordinariate groups around the world, but also with our former colleagues at present remaining in the Anglican Church. The link with the Arlington Conference is one more way of doing just that.

(The picture at the top of this blog is of Fr Allan Hawkins, Convenor and Host of the Arlington Conference, at his lectern during a visit I made there earlier this year)

Day One

2011-06-26T22:09:00.015+01:00

Yesterday, three priests were ordained for the Ordinariate in Portsmouth Cathedral. You will find some pictures on flickr taken by the Diocesan Photographer, Barry Hudd, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80797397@N00/sets/72157626924521195/ and some from the reception on the Anglo Catholic site http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2011/06/last-round-up/ That was yesterday.

Today, all three began their new ministry. In Southbourne, Fr Graham Smith celebrated and preached; and with him were Fr Gerry, the Nigerian missionary priest who runs the church of Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole - and me. It was a very happy occasion for members of the Ordinariate based in the southwestern corner of Portsmouth Diocese.

We processed with the Blessed Sacrament at the end of Mass, and I was privileged to give Benediction - for of course today we celebrated Corpus & Sanguis Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Afterwards, we enjoyed one another's company in the Church Hall, and some of the regular members of the congregation came to join us.

A great day. These few pictures from the bunfight may give a flavour of it.

Plymouth Ordinations

2011-06-18T17:46:00.017+01:00

What will replace these Ordinariate ordinations once they are concluded in a week or so? They have been terrific social occasions as well as hugely important ecclesiastical ones - great for catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. It is a 300mile plus round trip from here to Plymouth - yet even people in London seem to suppose that Plymouth and Portsmouth are next door to one another, and both equally far from London. When eventually we persuade them to make the journey to Lymington they are amazed to get here in about 90 minutes. To Plymouth by road from Lymington is over 3 hours - or it was in the downpours yesterday, and back again today.

Waiting for the Kick-Off

Vaut le voyage, though, as the Michelin guides say. Particularly since about a third of the Catholic clergy of the diocese seem to be former Anglicans - including the Administrator of the Cathedral. Now they have a further seven who, while belonging to the Ordinariate, will also be available to lend a hand in the diocese. With them, too, was one genuine Plymouth candidate.

Seeing the congregation out

It was good, too, so see a number of Anglican priests from the dioceses of Exeter and Truro in the Congregation, and to hear their plans for being in second or subsequent waves. Good, also, to catch up with other old friends. Robbie Low (heading for Ordination at last, by the 'ordinary' route) and Sara his wife were there, as were others I've known even longer. Peter Glazebrook and Robin Ellis read Law at Pembroke, Oxford more than half a century ago - I was an exact contemporary of Peter's, reading theology. Now Peter is retired, though still keeping a finger in the pie at Jesus College Cambridge where he was Law fellow for many years, and last night Robin (formerly Archdeacon of Plymouth) was ordained a Catholic Priest. His son Simon is among the candidates in Nottingham this evening.

Two Lawyers and a Theologian from Pembroke in the 1950s

Msgr Keith was in good form - though he is facing even longer journeys, with an Ordination this evening in Nottingham. Next week he will be back down here in Portsmouth for three more priestly ordinations. It was very good of Keith Haydon and his wife Kathy to put me up overnight in Plymouth. We have been good friends from way back when he was Vicar of Cowley and I was down the road at St Stephen's House. Now he is running a Plymouth parish with four churches while being, in theory, a retired house-for-duty priest. Very sadly his Vicar died shortly before Easter, and Keith has been shouldering the burden ever since.

I hope others will publish photographs from the actual Ordination. As a concelebrant I was only able to get a few before and after the event ... (and apologies for the blurry picture of my overnight host)

Deepest Hertfordshire

2011-06-05T16:57:00.015+01:00

The A Team

This morning we were in Hemel Hempstead, where I'd been asked to celebrate Mass for the Ordinariate group. It was a very happy occasion - as of course it should be, for it is the Ascension!
Good to catch up with old friends from former Anglican parishes in the Richborough patch - people from Luton and Marsh Farm as well as the core group from Hammerfield.

The Group meets at St Mark's Church, part of a large Secondary School complex, and the Catholic parish has two other churches. Besides the Parish Priest there is a Polish Assistant Priest, and a very cheery Deacon who come to introduce himself before the Ordinariate Mass.

Fatima Friends may recognise some faces here

Next Friday, after the Ordinations in Westminster, there will be two more priests in that parish, the current Deacons Fr Tim Bugby and Fr Gordon Adam. It was the latter who looked after me today, and who (a real treat, this, not to have to do it myself) preached - a fine Ascension Sermon.

After meeting people over parish refreshments, Jane and I decided to call in at Wisley. We had a snack lunch there, and enjoyed seeing how things have developed in the area around the Millenium Glasshouse.

We expected a Douanier Rousseau Tiger

Then it was a pleasant bowl down the A3, while the lanes in the other direction were choked with Londoners returning after a half-term break.

A worm's Eye View of Alliums

Singing in the Rain

2011-05-31T22:13:00.016+01:00

"Do you ever see the Dominican Sisters in Sway?" asked one of the Ordinariate nuns today. We were at a pre-ordination quiet day in Kensington, the Carmelite Church. "But of course! I was with them yesterday". So here are some pictures to prove it.

We have had two months without rain here in the deep south; and though London had heavy showers today, no rain reached Lymington. But yesterday, being a Bank Holiday, it rained. Not wholeheartedly, but drizzlingly, and enough to make life difficult at the Priory in Sway.

The Sisters coped splendidly, however, and the plant stall proved very tempting. There was bric-a-brac, and a very good tea. So a couple of pictures will reassure you and the former Walsingham Sisters that I was there, where the Sisters look forward to a visit from the Ordinariate Religious asap.

Jane had not seen the Chapel, so before we left I took her to see it - inspired, I am told, by the Chapel at Elmore - now, alas, no longer the home of the monks of one-time Nashdom, who have retreated to the former college Principal's House in Salisbury Cathedral Close. I find the chapel at Sway quite lovely - I hope you do.

Oak Apple Day

2011-05-29T22:55:00.008+01:00

In another place (the Anglo Catholic Blog) I have reminded readers of the significance of today, Oak Apple Day. Until the reign of Victoria, this day had been kept as a memorial of 'the King's Restauration'. That is, the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Oak Apple, because Charles hid in an oak tree (The Boscobel Oak) fleeing from the Commonwealth troops. Perhaps our dear Saxe-Coburg Gotha Queen did not want her subjects to be reminded of Charles Stuart - though her Hanoverian predecessors had put up with it. Yet in a few places, notably Great Wishford near Salisbury, it is still celebrated with enthusiasm.

The Propers for the day are terribly long-winded. In the Anglo-Catholic blog I have printed out the two collects to be said at Morning Prayer. There are others, though, for the Communion Service, replacing the customary Collect of the King, and the Collect of the day. Here is the second, a model for those preparing a liturgy of the Ordinariate:

O Lord God of Our Salvation, who hast been exceedingly gracious unto this land, and by thy miraculous Providence didst deliver us out of our miserable Confusions, by restoring to us, and to his own just and undoubted Rights, our own most gracious sovereign Lord, thy Servant King Charles the Second (notwithstanding all the power and malice of his enemies) and by placing him in the Throne of these kingdoms; thereby restoring also unto us the publick and free profession of thy true Religion and Worship, together with our former Peace and Prosperity, to the great comfort and joy of our hearts: We are here now before thee, with all due thankfulness to acknowledge thine unspekable goodness herein, as upon this day, shewed unto us, and to offer up our sacrifice of Praise for the same, unto thy great and glorious Name; bumbly beseeching thee to accept this our unfeigned, though unworthy, Oblation of ourselves; vowing all holy obedience in though, word, and work, unto thy Divine Majesty; and promising in thee and for thee all loyal and dutiful Allegiance to thine Anointed Servant now set over us, and to his Heirs after him;who we beseech thee to bless with all increase of grace, honour and happiness in this world, and to crown him with Immortality and Glory in the world to come, for Jesus Christ his sake, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Today, Oak Apple Day, is the fiftieth anniversary of my first celebration of Holy Communion in the Church of England... but I was not permitted at that eucharist to resurrect the service in Thanksgiving for the King's Restauration - which is probably a mercy. [There is an even longer Collect ordered to follow the Prayer for the Whole Estate of Christ's Church]. But don't you just love the parenthesis (notwithstanding all the power and malice of his enemies)?

Following Peter

2011-05-26T10:34:00.009+01:00

Long-time Catholics have been giving a wonderful welcome to us johnny-come-latelys in the Ordinariate. Just a few have found it difficult, though. Indeed one commented on a posting of mine in the Anglo-Catholic blog. Maybe today's Mass reading from Acts 15 can help.

Peter and Barnabas were faced with a group of hard-liners from Judaea who wanted the Church to impose the whole Jewish law on Gentiles converting to Christianity. They had "no small dissension and disputation" with them - so the matter was referred to headquarters, in Jerusalem. There, it was a group of Pharisees who wanted to press the hard line, "to command them to keep the law of Moses". So the Church met in Council, the Apostles and elders together.

Peter reminded them how "God put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith". It was James, leader of the Church in Jerusalem, who delivered the Council's decision. "My sentence is, that we trouble them not, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God".

That same generous spirit has worked in Benedict as it did in Peter and the first Apostles. There may be some who think it improper that former Anglicans had only Lent for a eucharistic fast, or that former Anglican priests are put on a fast track - just six months from leaving the Church of England to Ordination as Catholic priests. In that time, though, they have undergone rigorous assessment, and have begun a course of training to 'make up that which is lacking' in their former priestly formation. It is undoubtedly generous of the Holy Father, to receive us in this way. Some would assert it is a risky procedure. But the Pope is willing to trust the Holy Spirit - and refuses to 'put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples' (note the word which Peter uses of the new Christians) 'which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear').

If this fails to persuade you, then perhaps you might continue from the first reading for today, to the Gospel?

Nearer God's Heart?

2011-05-20T21:17:00.022+01:00

When life was getting a little fraught a few months ago, one of the PEVs advised me to "stick to the garden". He feared I might breach some protocol of which I was unaware, and plainly he thought the garden was safe blogging territory. So here, a bit late but in dutiful obedience, is a garden blog. Today Jane and I went to Mottisfont, the National Trust's great rose garden near Romsey. It is already wonderful, and in the next two or three weeks will be overwhelming. Meanwhile, in case you cannot get to Mottisfont, [and you certainly should if you can] I thought a few images from my own modest plot might cheer you up.

I enjoy beachcombing, and the pink globe in this picture is a fisherman's float washed up on a local beach - and contrasting happily with, I think, the Hybrid Musk Rose Felicia.

Yellow roses are among my favourites. Canary Bird and Banksia Lutea are already over, but this is the great Arthur Bell, the so-called climbing variant which is really just a very tall shrub rose; but you can train the branches down onto supports, and then it happily produces a second crop latger in the season. The scent is typically crisp, as seems to be true for most yellow roses.

Some people seem to think a garage is a place for a car: what a waste! Ours is full of gardening essentials, and in front of it are pots with everything in them from eight-foot trees (a pine or two and a young birch) to alpines. Above, though you will see Hydrangea Petiolaris guarding the garage entrance.

Our plot is not exclusively roses: here near the front door is the dogwood, Cornus Mas; better this year than I can remember.

The white rose which is so prevalent in our garden is all from a cutting of a Hybrid Musk rose, I think called Moonlight. Sadly, it is unscented: but that is more than made up for by Zigeuner Knabe, the deep purple rose in this picture, with a heavenly perfume. And on the right a Rowan (no relation) from a marvellous nursery near here, Spinners. The Rowan in question is Chinese Lace, and if you click on the picture to enlarge it you might be able to make out some of its deeply cut leaves (lower right)

Team Photo

2011-05-18T10:51:00.003+01:00

As promised (courtesy of © Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham - not, as I had thought, Fr James Bradley - but then he is in it, so..) the team photo from yesterday's meeting at Allen Hall.

Heavy Day at Allen Hall

2011-05-17T22:37:00.017+01:00

My, we've been worked hard today. First there was our homework; studying ethical questions with the help of Donum Vitae (produced by the CDF) and Familiaris Consortio of John Paul II. To guide us through these documents, and lead us beyond them, we had the help of Fr John Wilson (left) of the Diocese of Leeds (and formerly of Ushaw College). Many of us former Anglican clergy are married, so the questions raised were particularly personal to us and our families. For me, the pastoral approach of successive Popes in considering these matters is what predominated.

Then, we had our Ordinary with us - he celebrated Mass with us at the end of the afternoon. (here at lunch with the Archbishop)

The icing on this very rich layer-cake was a visit by our Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nicholls, who spoke to us and answered questions in the half-hour before lunch. It is good to know that the Ordinariate is so high on the Archbishop's agenda that he found time to visit us in this way (and there will be a team photograph to prove it).

Msgr Keith also spoke briefly, comparing and contrasting his experiences of the House of Bishops of the Church of England and the meeting of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. From my own time in office I would agree that the Anglican meeting was not one to which I ever looked forward with enthusiasm. Clearly his experience with the Catholic Bishops in Leeds last week was an altogether happier occasion.

These sessions at Allen Hall are proving hugely valuable for all of us newly or soon-to-be ordained. It is good to be looking in some depth at questions of human life and reproduction which seemed to occupy so little thought in our former communion.

To be able to direct the faithful to authoritative summaries of the Church's teaching is a great gift - to be able to explain them clearly to our people, in the confessional or in sermons, is a huge responsibiity. The informal discussion we have over meals or in the short breaks between lectures are very important for the creation of a coherent pastorate within the Ordinariate. Though it is an expensive business getting up to London week by week, it is not something I would want to miss.

Patrimonial Hymns

2011-05-07T12:16:00.008+01:00

Great mirth at Allen Hall this week when, to the question "any difficulties you've met?", came the answer "the music". Why is it that the Catholic Church is so prescriptive about its liturgy, yet seems to allow any hymns/songs/ditties at Mass? I have been coopted to the little group in my local catholic parish which selects hymns for Sunday worship. The problems seems to be (1) the available hymn book and (2) the congregation's small familiar repertoire. Perhaps Ed Tomlinson has the answer; appeal for copies of English Hymnal. That could be right if you are setting up an Ordinariate church. But many of us will be trying to bring something of our Patrimony into an existing Catholic congregation. There seems to be genuine goodwill among many of those congregations to improve their standard of music - and the answer cannot be Gregorian Chant all round. Yet when on Easter Day the best anyone can come up with is "This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made that the Lord has made" ... and so on ad nauseam, there really must be something better.

Will the rite eventually approved for groups of former Anglicans include any help over the matter of Hymnody? Surely it is part of our Patrimony; not just because there are good tunes and decent verse, but because we have learned the faith from our treasury of hymns almost as much as from Sacred Scripture. Perhaps the Ordinary could make a start by banning all hymn books which contain more by Estelle M White than by Charles Wesley?

Today, though, great encouragement; the Organist at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Southbourne, where our local Ordinariate Group will make its home, has written in our parish newsletter "God gave you the voice you've got. Use it to praise Him! It doesn't matter if you don't think you can sing.. if you are still singing a hymn on the way home after Mass, you are carrying on with your prayer." My only addendum would be "provided the Hymn you are still singing is addressed to God, about God, not focussed on 'me' and 'I'".

PS does anyone else hate "here I am, Lord - Look at me, Lord..."?

De Gustibus ...

2011-05-02T11:11:00.010+01:00

Curious how we English can get thoroughly sentimental (banks of flowers for Diana, colour supplements for Kate) yet somehow shmaltz in religion leaves us cold. Or is it just me? Doubtless commenters will tell me.

I find that Bernini of the vision of St Teresa of Avila rather repellant - marble porn - though to some it is the apogee of Baroque art. Even more off-putting, though, is the imagery concerning "Divine Mercy". I saw it first on a poster at a bus-stop in St Albans, and thought it must be the product of some U.S. sect. Now I discover it is thanks to newly Blessed J-P II that we have this devotion. It's not devotion to the Mercy of God I find difficult; just the way it is depicted.

So is part of the Patrimony an approval for "less-is-more" - one simple image of the Crucified being more moving than a church full of plaster saints? It is easy to write this off as Protestant Puritanism - but is is there in Catholicism too, not just in Savonarola but also in the chasteness of Cistercian architecture.

But of course, there is no arguing where taste is concerned. Just disagreement.

Enduring Values

2011-04-30T10:23:00.011+01:00

That wedding has stirred up a great deal of conversation; some concerning the need in our lives for ritual, and even religion. So I thought you might like a picture or two concerning our religious and ritual roots. We collected our young grandson the other day for part of his half-term break. We met him and his parents halfway between here and his South Wales home and finding ourselves near Avebury devided to make the diversion. This central England of chalk downland and river valleys holds within it some of the most magical elements of prehistoric times; burial mounds, henges, Silbury - largest man-made hill in Europe. There are stone avenues heading off across the plain. English Heritage cares for the site, and provides lectures on Shamanism and Druids and all manner of invented stories. The stones themselves speak more eloquently.

This great arrangement of ceremonial stones still evokes wonder: how did those prehistoric people erect such a monument, and why? It was good to see so many families there, playhing, picnicing, and simply wondering at it all. The Avebury circles predate Stonehenge, and even the Pyramids of Egypt. It is hard to grasp the scale of such a construction, which encircles a whole village. Although many of the stones have been removed, broken up for building materials, even buried over the centuries, what remains still speaks of the human need for meaning in life. So just look at the stones, and enjoy them.

[Click on the photos for a larger version]

No Ordinary Easter

2011-04-24T23:45:00.009+01:00

Ed Tomlinson gives out a notice (right)

It was great being able to share in the Triduum in an Ordinariate setting; not a parish yet, since its priests await Ordination - but certainly a wonderful group of people, eager to begin the task of Evangelisation as members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Jane and I were given great hospitality in Tunbridge Wells. Soon-to-be Father Nicholas Leviseur (formerly NSM assistant at S Barnabas', and alredy assisting Ed Tomlinson in setting up the Ordinariate, to be based in Pembury) is a great host, and with his wife Mary and their four children they made us hugely welcome.

Since Ed, in his own blog, encouraged me to do this, I am posting a version of my sermon from the Easter Vigil Mass. Printed sermons never quite do the job - they need to be spoken and heard - but for what it is worth here it is.

Towards dawn on first day of the week, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to visit the sepulchre. Mtt 28.1

The more we look forward to something, the longer the waiting can seem. Do you remember that interminable time when you were a child, and grown-ups would say “Christmas will be here very soon”. It did not seem soon to you; and if you were awake on Christmas Eve, the night was endless. Now though we are grown-up and we’ve been getting good at waiting. Though truth to tell we have not been in the queue very long. Others who have joined the Catholic Church have undertaken much longer preparation; and especially this is so for priests. I hope to be at a friend’s Ordination next December; and he became a Catholic four or five years ago. But Lent will have seemed long this year for all that, Lent without the consolation of Communion. And for your two pending priests, Eastertide will seem a long stretch.

The women who came to the tomb had a shorter wait, but then they were not looking forward to what was to come. Dreading it, probably. It had been a rushed job on Friday, just a couple of hours between taking the body off the Cross to getting it as decently entombed as possible before the Sabbath. No chance to put flowers on the grave; no proper ceremony, washing the body, spices and prayers. Just a couple of cloths to wrap him in, and his blood was congealing and staining those wrappings.

So they expected a gory sight, if ever they managed to get the stone rolled back. Perhaps the guards would help? They would not be able to do it by themselves. There had been a gang of soldiers to obey orders on Friday .. just a day and two nights ago. They had been told to make it secure; and so they did. Not just with that great boulder to shut it up, but official seals to secure it, and a guard to ensure there was so tampering with it. The authorities were prepared in case his disciples came to steal his body.

That is what is convincing about the Easter Gospel. What they confronted on Easter morning was totally unexpected. Death and decay and depression is what they thought would meet them; and it was not like that at all. Instead, an open grave – something incredible had happened.

Would you say that already in the Ordinariate you are beginning to find another sort of resurrection? We were fearful – well, maybe you were not; I certainly was, and so was my wife. How would these cradle Catholics treat us? After all, we are a strange bunch; arguing all the time until only a few months ago (and how we did argue) that the Anglican Church was a model for all Christian Churches – we even heard our Archbishop telling that to the Pope. Then getting disillusioned and jumping at the Holy Father’s offer; only to wonder just what we had let ourselves in for. Last Tuesday, for us, Jane and me, was one of those little resurrection moments.

We had been at the Chrism Mass, and that was great, and the music better than we dared hope. But there was an ordeal to come; lunch with the clergy. Eighty long-established celibate Catholic Priests, and us. We need not have worried. Priests came to introduce themselves, and the moment we said the word 'Ordinariate' they would say 'Welcome', and their smiles showed they meant it. Then we came upon four former Anglicans, two of them married men, who had all joined the Church a few years ago. They and their wives seemed happy to show us off to their friends. The fear of what we would meet was replaced by a prospect of new and wider friendships than ever we had known in the past.

Now of course it is foolish to compare our happiness at becoming Catholics with the pure astonished rapture of the women at the tomb, and the disciples. Our experience has just affected us; theirs has changed the whole world. Except, perhaps, that these little beginning, here in Pembury or with our Portsmouth Ordinariate groups are a new flowering of the Resurrection; little events which will give hope and confidence to more people than we can imagine. Easter is always the same, but always different. For you the differences are very plain; no cavernous spaces of St Barnabas’ to help lift up your hearts. Until now you have been able to rely on the generosity and the prayers of those who preceded you in that place.

Now, it is for you by your love and your prayers to make a new home, a place where many will feel welcome. It may be, too, that St Barnabas’ had served its purpose. We who were familiar with it thought it friendly; but that was not always the first impression of those going into it for the first time. There, it was possible to be satisfied with keeping things going; here, there is a job to be done. We need to keep in touch with our former Anglican friends, to ensure by our kindness that we don’t put up barriers. We will be looked at by many to see just what sort of a go we can make of being Ordinariate Catholics. It is a hugely exciting resurrection task that faces us; but we were not just seventy-two who came here. With us, ahead of us even, came our Blessed Lord, who well knew in his time on earth about having nowhere to lay his head. Now He is here, He is with us, He is risen! This is how it was the first Easter; filled with awe and joy the women came quickly away from the tomb – and went and told the others. Let that be our experience too this joyful Eastertide; filled with awe and joy, let us go and tell the good news to everyone we meet.

The Triddum was completed today with a visit by the Coadjutor Bishop in Southwark, Mgr John Hine. Here he is flanked by the parish priest and me, and the two priests-in-waiting, Ed and Nicholas.

What a Day!

2011-04-19T18:08:00.019+01:00

The Chrism Mass in Portsmouth was very special today. Eighty or so priests, twenty deacons, and a Cathedral full to bursting with the faithful from across the diocese: from South Oxford in the North to the Channel Isles and the Isle of Wight in the South. It could be a little daunting suddenly meeting a huge bunch of priests, hardly any of whom I had encountered before today - but I only needed to say the word "Ordinariate" and there was a great welcome from everyone.

It was also a special occasion because it was (as he said, "probably") the last time Bishop Crispian will celebrate this Mass for the Diocese. By next year, he should have begun a very well-earned retirement.

The Music was a real treat today. Not just familiar and great hymns - "Christ is made the sure foundation" (a little bowdlerised ... no 'vouchsafe', for instance - not a great loss). 'Soul of my Saviour' (happily unamended) and then at the end the Ordinariate's theme, 'Praise to the holiest'. All that was wonderful. Even better was the singing of the entire Canon of the Mass, in a simple, dignified, and very prayerful setting, by Bishop and Concelebrants. The diocese is greatly blessed in its Musical Director and choir.

Then, during lunch, Jane and I caught up with several old friends. Fr John Barnes and Fr John Catlin, Fr John Humphries and his wife Alison, Fr Paul King and his wife Elizabeth. All of us had served around the same time, half a century ago or so, in the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth. We forget what a steady movement there has been over the years, not simply since women's ordination and all that. Of course, I should not drop names, but there was another Curate in Portsmouth back in the early 1960's. He was serving in the Catholic parish of Corpus Christi - one Cormac Murphy O'Connor. I believe he did pretty well after his time in Pompey.

It was so good to be renewed in priesthood just a few weeks after being ordained. Good too to hear that this year there are nine new men beginning the discernment process on the road towards Ordination. And this week too the stream of former Anglicans is being welcomed into the Catholic Church. May it soon swell to a flood. Come on in, the water really is fine; and the welcome just tremendous.

Nearer God's Heart

2011-04-11T19:26:00.008+01:00

There are gardens, and gardens. The one next door to us is a constant source of interest to passers-by, especially children. Our neighbour Brian puts huge effort into providing interest and amusement, creating windmills and caravans and houses, and populating them with plaster animals and Disney characters. Always something new at Number 3.

Brian's Front Garden

By contrast, ours is what I'd call a plantsman's garden; at present, mostly contrasts in foliage, as the daffodils and magnolias are going over, and only a few tulips are out in pots to liven things up. And this garden rarely gets a passing glance.

Our front Garden

Contemplating these two very different front gardens, I'm put in mind of the strong views being expressed in the Catholic Church just now over the Mass. There are those who are delighted that the Latin Mass seems to be regaining ground, and others who find the whole prospect of anything but simple English quite daunting. Along with these two views go similarly polarised opinions about music; Gregorian Chant, over against Estelle White and "Jesus, How I Love You"...

The fence by our Drive

Now there is a concern about the rite to be specifically for the Ordinariates. Will it be gnomes and Disney, or varieties of Hostas and Capability Brown? We understand Mgr Burnham is in the driving seat producing a rite which will, surely, include a hint of Cranmer and a dash of the Caroline Divines. His own first Mass as a Catholic Priest was, we are told, in Latin. But what a task! How can you meet the needs of those who love the Celebration Hymnal and those who are wedded to Plainchant. Certainly those working on our own version of a "book of divine worship" need the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, and the prayers of us all.

"One is nearer God's heart in a garden" ... but what sort of garden did Dorothy Gurney cultivate, who wrote that line?

Margaret Grace Wainwright - 1924-2011

2011-04-01T22:38:00.010+01:00

She is the Patron Saint of a North Cornish village, and her shrine (above) is one of the few to survive the Reformation. Yet Endellienta was not the reason for our hasty visit to the West. The Church (St Endellion's) [North Aisle, below] has within in a famous hostelry, the Cornish Arms at Pendoggett. Yet neither was that why we visited, except in a roundabout way.

Almost half a century ago, we moved, my new bride and I, to the parish of Woodham in Guildford Diocese. The Vicar of All Saints was Fr Alan Wainwright, and I was his curate (in those days of second curacies) fresh from working in the team of nine - a Vicar, a Nun, and seven Curates - in North End, Portsmouth. Woodham parish had been a late 19th Century attempt to bring the catholic faith to the Anglicans of Woking, then as now a VERY Protestant part of the world. After the war, the London County Council bought a swamp and drained it, and decanted a few thousand Londoners into the country. They lived in the Sheerwater Estate, and Woodham parish was asked to look after it. A timber temporary church was erected, and a succession of bright(ish) young(ish) men in their second curacies went to pound the streets and care for the souls of the Sheerwater Estate, as assistants to the Vicar of Woodham.

After I left, Fr Alan decided he'd had enough of Parochial Church Councils and the burden of running a large parish. He told Bishop George Reindorp that he wanted to be a Curate again. 'Nonsense,' said George, 'you must take on bigger responsibility'. Now Maggie and Alan had a friend living with them who had a little money; and it was this friend, Nigel, who enabled them all to side-step the Bishop. They moved to Cornwall to buy and run a Hotel on the north coast. After a few years they took on the Cornish Arms (picture below), and later built themselves a house next door to it. It became famous for good food and drink, and great company. During his time as Landlord, Fr Alan would continue to wear his clerical collar, and he said he heard more confessions in the bar than ever he had in his parish churches. Certainly he and Maggie became well known and greatly loved throughout Cornwall, not least because Fr Alan was ready to step into the breach whenever there was a vacancy in a living, or illness or any emergency.

Throughout Maggie was a great hostess; she taught my wife a great deal about the art and craft of being a priest's wife, and from our first meeting we all were and remained good friends - which is more than every curate can say of his one-time boss!

Alan died a little while ago, but his widow Maggie survived him, and fought bravely these last years with Multiple Sclerosis and a number of other ailments. So today we gathered, son Hugh and daughter Pink, their children, old friends, many locals who had become friends, in beautiful St Endellion's to give thanks for Maggie and pray for the repose of her soul. The hymns were sung enthusiastically, beginning with "Praise my soul the King of Heaven" and ending with "Thine be the Glory". The Vicar, Prebendary John May, reminded me he had spent a Sabbatical with us in St Stephen's House. A former Vicar, Prebendary Michael Bartlett, delivered a eulogy, telling us of Maggie's time as a WREN (in the Women's Royal Naval Service which she joined at 18). She had worked at Bletchley Park, dealing with coded Japanese messages; which stood her in very good stead for running the Mothers' Union. We all laughed, and cried a little, as he helped us all to remember just how remarkable this Christian woman, wife and mother and friend, had been.

It was good to hear many of the familiar words of the Prayer Book in this very holy place. Maggie had left her body for medical research, but we commended her with great love to her Father and ours. May she rest in peace. Pray too for Nigel, in fragile health and now without the support of his two greatest friends. He bore up bravely today, and was an encouragement and inspiration to us all.

A Windswept Prebendary May greets people after Church - here with Fr Robin Thomas, who had put us up overnight in Truro

Texas

2011-03-22T19:02:00.032Z

Very big, Texas. And big-hearted too. Just back from a week spent in the Pastoral Provision parish of St Mary the Virgin, Arlington, it might be good to try to hand on a few impressions while they are still fresh (if fresh is the word after a night-flight to Heathrow). (top: Fr Hawkins in his Church before Mass)

Numbers. Numbers of churches. Drive anywhere in Arlington or Fort Worth or Dallas, and you will run out of fingers for counting the churches. Every sort of denomination, many immense Baptist meeting houses, large Catholic Churches, and in between every sort of God-botherer you can imagine. All seem to be well attended. St Mary's is a former Anglican (Episcopalian) Church which became a Catholic Church when Fr Allan Hawkins and most of his flock were received back in the early '80s. Last Sunday they had around five hundred at one or other of their Masses; and this is a small-ish church. (above: some of the children after Devotions - before the Parish Mass)

Many Catholic parishes number their congregations in thousands, even tens of thousands. So it was good to find that the Diocese of Fort Worth has a good number of men in training for the priesthood; (left: a poster showing those currently preparing for the Priesthod in Fort Worth) besides many who are waiting to join the Ordinariate from the Episcopal Church, once the American Ordinariate is established. When that happens, the Anglican Use parishes like St Mary's will also be part of the ordinariate. That is a great strength, for it means the new Ordinary will not be starting from scratch; there will be a number of parishes already established and funding themselves, on hand to help those just joining. It is rather different from England, where the Ordinariate is having to rely on long-established Catholic Parishes to come to our help.

And they do have bunfights in Texas - bigtime - after Sunday's Parish Mass
I was given great hospitality by Fr Hawkins, who was a fellow Ordinand with me half a century ago at a theological college called Cuddesdon - no connection with the present institution on that site, "Ripon College, Cuddesdon". His son Giles and daughter-in-law Felice were most generous, too. You might like to see Felice beside a herd of long-horns - less dangerous than the real thing, they are in bronze, recalling how Fort Worth was the end of the trail and a great meat-packing centre for the USA.

Latterly, oil has become its greatest industry, and there are new rigs being established to bore into the oil-bearing shales which have not been worth exploiting until now.

I blogged about him earlier, but here you can see Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth (above)sitting at his player-piano surrounded by cases of piano-rolls. He gave us a lively account of a Gershwin number as played by the composer - and also took us on a tour of his Cathedral (below), which has been re-energised since he became its Diocesan.

Earlier he had greeted us in a bright green jacket - but then, it was St Patrick's Day. The Pastoral Centre being built (below) is going to be very grand indeed; and Bishop Vann has further plans for further developments on the site which houses Rectory, Cathedral and former Convent School, besides adding spires to the Cathedral and commissioning a new Organ.

There is no doubt that the Catholic Church is alive and well in Texas; and they are all greatly looking forward to the erection of the Ordinariate for the USA. Pray that it might be soon.

Fr Alan with his son Giles outside Fort Worth Cathedral - the Bishop's House ('The Rectory') on the right.

Player Piano

2011-03-17T22:45:00.011Z

No time for long blogging from here in Texas: just a note to let those who are interested know that I'm still around, enjoying huge hospitality, and that today I met the Diocesan - Kevin, Bishop of Fort Worth - who is a PLAYER PIANO buff. I will try to post a photograph of him in action when I return home next week. Meanwhile, congratulations to my Monsignori (I miei signore?) former colleagues, Keith, John and Andrew.
All those I meet here are anxious for the American Ordinariate to be set up and its Ordinary announced. Pray for them, please, especially for priests of the (Anglican) genuine Diocese of Fort Worth (as opposed to Mrs Schori's rival show).
Tomorrow, I am to do what I've been asked here to do, give one element of a Lent Course in the parish of St Mary the Virgin Arlington (an Anglican Use Parish). More of all this in due course.
Meanwhile, enjoy what's left of S Patrick's day (it is only 6pm here, and very warm)

Newly Elected

2011-03-13T22:14:00.006Z

The Rite of Election yesterday was a great event; I wrote about it on the Anglo-Catholic blog. But now, I have been sent such a marvellous picture taken by Barry Hudd, the Diocese's official photographer, that it seemed churlish not to share it. So above you will see Bishop Crispian addressing the new members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, groups from Ryde and Portsmouth with their shepherd, Jonathan Redvers-Harris, from Reading with David Elliott, and from Bournemouth & Christchurch with Raymond Smith. It really did feel as though some of the wounds of the Reformation were being bound up, and a historical moment of the Ecumenical Journey was beginning. Now I must abandon blogging for a while to attend to an engagement in Texas: more of that in a week or so, I hope. Meanwhile, to pack.

Bishop x 2

2011-03-06T13:12:00.013Z

Bishop Crispian and Fr Keith Newton flank the new priest and Jane

Yesterday he laid hands on me in Ordination; today he was visiting the Parish as part of his farewell tour of the diocese. So of my three Catholic masses, two have been concelebrations with Bishop Crispian - the other was at Brockenhurst, where they told me apologetically that everyone was away for the end of Half-Term. With sixty communicants and a good number of children it did not seem very empty! Maybe they are used to a squash most Sundays. There certainly was not room for many more at Lymington, where latecomers usually find they have to stand throughout. There was a great farewell reception for Bishop Crispian after the Mass.

We had the Sevenoaks photographer Fr James Bradley, in attendance, so until I get copies of the official Portsmouth Diocesan photos, here is a link to a great series of pictures he took and has published on Flickr:
http://ordinariateportal.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/photos-from-the-ordination-of-fr-edwin-barnes/

I have written about an aspect of the Ordination at the Anglo-Catholic blog (see link at the side of this blog). Meanwhile, since some of my American readers still seem to misunderstand what a Bunfight is, here is a picture of the one they put on for the Bishop today in Lymington. Very good it was, too.

Fr Danny was a little nervous, I fancy, before the Bishop's visit; but all went very well, and the Bishop reassured us all that he was not here to tear us off a strip! Below you will spot Fr Danny in the doorway, trying to shepherd some of the flock into the other room where a presentation was to be made to the Bishop.

First and Last

2011-02-27T16:58:00.010Z

Brockenhurst, this morning; the Catholic Church of St Anne (l) is run from Lymington, so today I was there for a first visit - and my last as a Deacon. Next Sunday, God willing, I shall be back at St Anne's to celebrate Mass for the first time as a Catholic Priest. Then there will be a mad dash back to Lymington, where Bishop Crispian is making his last visit before his retirement - and I will hope to concelebrate with him and our parish priest, Fr Danny McAvoy. This morning Fr Danny asked me to preach in Our Lady of Mercy in Lymington for the first time. "Think of us as Christ's Servants" said St Paul to the Corinthians - so I spoke about being a deacon, and how it was not a demotion as some supposed from being a bishop to becoming a deacon. Quite the contrary. Being a deacon, a servant, is the epitome of the Christian's call, the very thing Jesus tells us all to do; and inasmuch as we have done any service to one of the least of our brethren, we have done it to him. I might have said something about the bishop wearing the deacon's dalmatic beneath the chasuble, to remind him and us of his servant ministry - but you can't say everything all at once. There will, I hope, be other opportunities.

Just to cheer up anyone who has stumbled on this blog, here are a couple of local New Forest residents whom I met on the way to Mass in Brockenhurst. They don't look terribly happy, despite the sunny morning - perhaps because they were heading away from church rather than towards it.

Get Me To The Church On Time!

2011-02-21T20:27:00.007Z

Thanks, John-of-Hayling, for reminding us about Portsmouth on a Saturday. Especially when Pompey are at home. On Saturday March 5 they will be playing Sheffield at Fratton Park (funny, I thought Sheffield only played on Wednesday?)
So here is what our helpful commentator had to say: 'Assuming that you can't get a place in the Cathedral car-park, then the best solution is to head for the Cascades shopping centre car-parks (£5).
From the M275 keep left at two roundabouts until you see that the left lane is marked Cascades Car Park.'

He is right, the Cathedral car-park is very small, and apart from a few reserved places it will be first come, first served. The Cathedral is approached by road via a one-way street (Edinburgh Road)and its car-park is on the right. There is a park-and-ride scheme from just off the M27 but I have no experience of it. Some such schemes are very unreliable. The best solution would be to let the train take the strain; maybe park at some station on the Waterloo-Portsmouth line such as Liss or Haslemere - or somewhere East or West of Portsmouth, like Chichester or Fareham. At all events, the station for the Cathedral is PORTSMOUTH & SOUTHSEA and it is only a few hundred yards from there to the Catholic Cathedral.

From the front of the station, cross Commercial Road, go down the street ahead of you (Stanhope Road) and so first left into Edinburgh Road, where the Cathedral is on your right.
Kick-off at Fratton Park is 15.00 hrs; we are half an hour earlier at the Cathedral, 2.30pm. There is to be some sort of bunfight afterwards - I hope if you make the journey you can stay long enough to say "Hello!".

You might like to print this page and file it for March 5th

Buckfast Ordination

2011-02-20T13:03:00.020Z

The clans gather: the Ordinary in their midst

It was a tribal gathering on Friday at Buckfast. The Bishop of Plymouth has an area which includes three Anglican dioceses, right across the SW peninsula from the Scilly Isles to Dorset. It is the old territory of the Dumnonii (Exeter in Latin was Isca Dumnoniorum) and many from across the region and beyond gathered to witness the Ordination the the Priesthood of David Silk.

The Candidate, with another deacon's wife

With breathtaking speed, David Silk was advanced from the Diaconate which he attained on Tuesday to the Priesthood on Friday. The Abbey Church at Buckfast was filled with friends of David and Joyce, and it was unusual to see four mitres being sported, and only two of them by bishops.

Bishop Hopes, The Abbot of Buckfast, and our Ordinary, Keith Newton (l-r)

The first was Bishop Christopher Budd of Plymouth, who ordained David, the other Alan Hopes, Coadjutor of Westminster, who has been the link between the Ordinariate and the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales. The Mitred Abbot of Buckfast was the third, and it was very good to see the Ordinary himself properly attired. Quite like old times.

If you have not visited Buckfast (“the fourth most popular Tourist Attraction in the West Country”) then you should at the earliest opportunity. When the religious life was re-established on that Holy Ground, the monks themselves erected the Church following the plan of the long-demolished Cistercian Church which had been swept away in the unpleasantnesses of Henry VIII of unhappy memory. It is an austere building within, but the sanctuary, filled with concelebrating priests on this occasion, glows with light from a huge lantern suspended over the sacrarium.

Despite struggling with a rebellious sound system,
Bishop Christopher was warm in his welcome. To mark the very specially nature of the occasion he carried the pastoral staff which David had been given when he was bishop of Ballarat; it was a gift to him from the linked diocese in Papua New Guinea, and looked like the sort of weapon which could have felled at one blow any number of rebellious inferior clergy

After the razzmatazz of Westminster (was it really only a month ago?) Buckfast was splendidly restrained – but then, it has often been claimed that Anglicanism continued some of the better features of the Benedictine tradition. It certainly felt as though some of the Anglican Patrimony was already becoming apparent. “Praise to the Holiest” rang out for the Entrance, and “We pray Thee, Heavenly Father" was sung at the Offertory. These and other hymns made a lovely contrast with the singing of the Abbey Choir under their Director, Michael Vian Clark. They sang the Gloria from Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, and led us in responsorial psalm and plainchant Alleluias, Sanctus, Veni Creator and Agnus Dei. The Motet at Communion was again by Byrd, his Laudibus in Sanctis.

Joyce assisted in vesting her husband in the Chasuble – this seems to be a habit (no pun intended) – perhaps it will be different in Portsmouth. With some of her family she was in the Easternmost block of stalls, facing some of the Monastic Community.

Once again there were more seeking a Blessing than receiving Communion; if they are preparing to declare themselves for the Ordinariate there will be a great shot in the arm for Westcountry Catholicism in the next few months.

The New Priest in mischievous mood

At the end of Mass David stood at the East end of the Choir, while a long queue formed seeking the new priest’s blessing. There was much hilarity over lunch, some of David’s closest friends joining the family in a small upper room over the Granary Restaurant. So the Ordinariate progresses, in joyful steps. If this was one man’s ordination, what will it be like at Pentecost when dozens are to be ordained?

The Church House Inn at Holne: highly recommended!

It was all a trip down memory lane for me; I hiked across Dartmoor as a Scout when I was at school in Plymouth, and had camped at Holne Chase in the hills above Buckfast more years ago than I care to remember. So Jane and I took the opportunity for a little break, staying at the Church House Inn at Holne. There we had dined once before many years back when Archbishop Michael Ramsey and his beloved Joan were at a neighbouring table. It was good to see a picture of the pair of them in the Bar of the Inn.

Dartmoor's Eastern Edge in Springtime

Dartmoor was heart-wrenchingly beautiful in the early Spring sunshine. It is less than 150 miles from home, but seems another world, unaltered in centuries. We returned to Lymington full of hope for the future, ready for my own forthcoming priesting in Portsmouth Cathedral. I am trying to find out about parking (they tell me Pompey has a home match, which will make the approached to the City more crowded than ever) - maybe if you are coming you should get into the City early and find some lunch before kick-off in St John's.

More Revs

2011-02-11T17:23:00.001Z

Today was very good. Bishop Crispian of Portmouth made us very welcome, and although there was only a handful of us in his private chapel for my ordination to the diaconate, we had some good music. For Our Lady of Lourdes, we'd chosen a bit of the Anglican Patrimony. We sang as an introit: Bishop Ken's "Her Virgin Eyes saw God Incarnate born", to Lawes' tune 'Farley Castle'. I was not the solitary deacon on parade; Stephen (good name for a Deacon) Morgan, who is finance secretary to the Diocese, propped me up and ensured I did not fall over my feet. He is the handsome chap on the Bishop's right hand. To his right is the Chancellor of the Diocese.

Jane, formerly known as the Flying Buttress when I was a Flying Bishop, was also present but as ever wanted to take a back seat. She was eventually inveigled into a photograph. We had a very jolly lunch after the Ordination. Bishop Crispian is clearly keen to make the Ordinariate work in his diocese, and has given great encouragement to the three groups in his territory which are in process of formation. As he pointed out, my duty and that of my fellow priests is not to him but to our Ordinary, and he was only able to Ordain me because he had been asked to do so by Fr Keith Newton. For all that, he is doing everything he can to ensure that we are made welcome by all the catholic clergy and laity within his diocese. For ourselves, I must say Jane and I have felt a great warmth of affection and a welcome we could not possibly deserve. If anyone is holding back from the Ordinariate fearing that a clergy wife might not be welcome, please speak to Jane or any of the other bishops' or priests' wives who have made the journey. I hope that even after our local Anglicanorum group is running, I shall still be some use to priests and parishes in this southern part of Portsmouth diocese.

Core Values

2011-02-07T09:38:00.018Z

The Prime Minister has been asking everyone to sign up to the Core Values of our Nation. Great. And where do these core values come from? Just look at some of them; respect for other people, tolerance of other faiths, a willingness to put others before oneself? Oh, surely they are just our national characteristics, learned on the playing fields of Eton?

A headmaster of Eton was once asked by a parent, cross that so much time seemed to be spent on religious education, "What do you think you are preparing our sons for, Headmaster?" "Death, madam", came the reply.

Eton College Chapel

And where did that Headmaster get his values? His concern to prepare his pupils not just for earning a living, but for eternity? From his Christian faith - which is to say, from the teaching of Jesus. We give way to others, reckoning them better than ourselves, because Jesus taught his disciples that when they were invited to a meal they should take the lowest place. He spoke of the value of those of other faiths when he taught the parable of the Good Samaritan, or when he said of a foreign woman "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel".

You cannot have the core without the fruit; you cannot have the fruit without the tree. In England, even our atheists are Christian atheists; that is, they share common values which ultimately come from two millennia of Christian teaching. Those who have come from other cultures, and other faiths, should find a welcome here. But to expect them to share all our values without understanding where those values come from is asking a great deal; and to ask them to share the roots of our culture is to invite them to discover the Christian Faith. That is what we have done in Britain without embarrassment until fairly recently. We have spoken up for Christianity, believing it is the goal to which all religions must tend. We have been evangelists. Now, in a misguided 'multiculturalism', pretending every religion and none is equal to every other, we have tried to ignore, even cut ourselves off from, our roots. What the Holy Father asked us to do on his visit to this country was to make our voice heard in the market-place of public debate. If David Cameron is, however timidly, encouraging this to happen, then it is for the Churches to grasp our opportunity.

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree

I'm weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree

Two Cathedrals

2011-02-02T21:35:00.015Z

Just over fifty years ago I was ordained deacon ('made' a deacon, we used to say) in Portsmouth Cathedral. Next month I am due to be ordained a Catholic Priest in the other Portsmouth Cathedral. Thought you might like a couple of pictures for comparison: St Thomas of Canterbury, the Anglican Cathedral, was a small and very pretty 13th Century building. Nicholson added a nave in mock Romanesque, and Dean Stancliffe completed the job during his reign with pepperpot turrets. When I was made a deacon there the Box Pews survived They have disappeared, but work continues and, as you see below, they are still beautifying it....

Laudian Cover and vestments provided by the Friends of the Cathedral.

St John's Catholic Cathedral, by contrast, is a 19th Century brick building with timber vaulting. Its interior has been simplified with a design appropriate for the modern liturgy.
This is not a beauty contest so you will not be asked to vote; but I think I shall be very happy indeed to be ordained in St John's (though if everyone comes who says they're coming it could be a bit of a squash on March 5th).

1833 and All That

2011-01-30T17:22:00.010Z

National Apostasy, Keble called it, when Parliament set about abolishing some Irish bishoprics. This is how Pusey House's website explains the effect of that Assize Sermon "... the theme was crucial. Was the Church of England a department of the Hanoverian state, to be governed by the forces of secular politics, or was it an ordinance of God? Were its pastors priests of the Catholic Church (as the Prayer Book insisted) or ministers of a Calvinistic sect?" The history of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England since 1833 has been a long battle trying to ensure that the Church was not simply an arm of the State - not the Conservative Party at Prayer as some have reckoned it, nor an arm of red revolution as others believed after 'Faith in the City', but part of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church which it proclaimed itself to be.

Now Frank Field and others in Parliament are trying to remake the Church in their own image, insisting that it must conform to the current fashionable belief that women are not just equal to men, but identical and interchangeable with them in every respect. Field begins by welcoming the Church's moves towards ordaining women as Bishops. His motion then says that should the dioceses approve (the question has been sent to them from General Synod) but Synod fail "through a technicality" to pass the measure, it "calls on Her Majesty’s Government to remove any exemptions pertaining to gender under existing equality legislation".

He knows very well that bills can fail in Parliament "through technicalities" - such as being talked out, or failing to win the approval of the Lords. Yet rather than putting his own House in order, he seems determined to interfere in the way the Church conducts its business. The "technicality" which might make a measure fail in Synod is that it does not win adequate support in all three Houses, Bishops, Clergy and Laity. The rumour is that there are now insufficient votes in the House of Laity to pass the measure for women in the episcopate, and so Field an his allies are trying to outflank the Church by removing its protection under the present equality legislation exemptions.

Will he, do you suppose, want this to be extended to Islam? A women-only list for selection as an Imam, perhaps? No. And neither, I imagine, could he succeed in trying to apply it to the Catholic Church. But the CofE is "by law established", and is ultimately under the control of Parliament. So perhaps Keble was wrong all along?

The curious element in all this is that Frank Field was a member of the Ecclesiastical Committe of Parliament in the early 90's. He persuaded that Committee that it must ensure there was proper financial and other provision for those who left the Church of England for Conscience' sake when women were ordained to the priesthood. It was a matter of justice. Surely he must do as much this time? No good saying "you've lived with women as priests; there is no difference with them as bishops". For many, and especially for many Evangelicals, it is very different indeed to have a woman in a position of Headship. Of course, it would be a very costly business indeed to pay them off - not just in cash to be paid out, but even more in the reduction of income from evangelical parishes which pay such huge quotas. It could, indeed, as others have suggested, lead to disestablishment of the Church of England. Perhaps that is what Frank Field and his friends want; but if so it would be better if they said so straight out.

Under the Greenwood Tree

2011-01-27T21:42:00.010Z

We live in what is grandly called "Queen Elizabeth Avenue", and "Avenue" presupposes trees. Not to Hampshire County Council, it seems. We are almost next door to the Police Station in Lymington, and there have been some good trees along the front and side of it. A couple of years ago two mature 'false' Acacias were pollarded, for no very good reason. One of them died as a result, but the other recovered and last year put out some good branches. Today, men from the council came and removed the stump of the one tree, and the whole of the other. "It was dead" they said. It certainly was not. The trunk which they lopped into bite-sized pieces was sound throughout. Then they went on to hack at a very fine Cedar; no, they were not going to take it down, they said, just pruning it. My picture (above,l) shows them stopped in their labours eyeing the photographer suspiciously.

I spoke to a tree person at our local Council, the New Forest District. 'Not us, Guv; the police station is a County Council property'. So I emailed Hampshire County Council's tree person. I eagerly await his reply. I am told it can have nothing to do with making the Police Station site more saleable for development. We shall see.

All this is particularly a matter of concern just now as the Government, in the cause of the "Big Society" (and nothing, of course, to do with raising some ready cash) intends flogging off our Forests and Woodlands - ours, not the Government's. Oh, well, local groups can get together to buy them. What, buy the whole of the New Forest? What of the Verderers and their ancient rights, with HM the Queen as Head Verderer? What of the thousand years of history of this ancient Forest, by no means all of it woodland, much open moor and secluded glades? Who will have the resources to care for it, as the Forestry Commission and the National Parks Authority have done? It will be very tempting for someone with a large wallet to buy up sections of the Forest and sell the timber, or develop the open areas for yet more golf courses.

Open land and Forest

There is a 'public consultation' just beginning, and you can find it at the DEFRA website; http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/news/2011/01/27/englands-forests/ or you can make your views known to them direct by emailing them at diversity@forestry.gsi.gov.uk. It will probably be useless, even though it seems some 80% of the population is opposed to this sale, since the Government is hell-bent on raising this cash, but at least we should not stand by and wait for it to happen.

Oh, and on that website DEFRA asserts that 'Heritage and community forests which provide high public benefits will be protected by inviting new or existing charitable organisations to take on ownership or management'. Have they any idea who will staff such undertakings? The running of the New Forest, or the Forest of Dean, or any of our other great National forests, is not something to be funded by jam-making and staffed by volunteers from the retired community which is already over-stretched. I know, for I am part of that community.

It Shouldn't be Allowed

2011-01-23T22:20:00.013Z

What shouldn't be allowed? Godchildren growing up, that's what. How can a Godson of mine be having a 50th birthday? But he is, and it was fun. The disco was a bit hard on the eardrums last evening, but today's pub lunch was great. You might like to see the birthday boy himself, with his dad... (dad is on the right)

Here is his lovely sister (flown in from Oz for the occasion) with one of their nephews.

Now all this happened in Tunbridge Wells, so Jane and I had to sort out somewhere for Mass; and we went to St Augustine's, a large modern church where even for the first 'quiet' evening mass at 5.30 on Saturday there were a hundred or so of us present. The celebrant was a Nigerian priest, and the preacher a Deacon. He spoke about Christian Unity, but seemed to have the impression that the Ordinariate was a symptom of division in the Catholic Church. I tried to reassure him after Mass that this was the very reverse of the truth.

Since we are in Unity Week, we thought we should visit an Anglican Church, and hit on that typical middle-of-the road C of E parish church, St Barnabas' (proprietor, the Revd Ed Tomlinson). His Hon Assistant, who is also Chaplain to the Guards (and a lawyer to boot) celebrated, and Fr Ed preached. It was very good meeting old friends afterwards over Birthday Cake and wine, celebrating Margaret's 18th (or had Fr E misheard and was it actually her 80th?) In reality, she looked about halfway between the two. Here is Fr Ed discussing the finer points of his phone; which, you may be surprised to learn, takes photographs. Finally, to cheer everyone up, here is another version of the master blogger smiling to camera, with his follow priest modestly in the background. They have taken quite a battering over recent weeks, and it is good to see them holding up so well; but most of the congregation are hugely supportive and (as I learned in conversation with several of them) very ready to make the step which Jane and I took last week and accept the Holy Father's offer.

Thanks!

2011-01-21T15:13:00.008Z

Jane and I would like to thank everyone who has remembered us in prayer for our Reception today into the Catholic Church. It was a lovely occasion; a beautiful, cold morning, and a very good number of the faithful in church. Anglican friends had turned up (one couple having set off very early indeed from Caversham), another couple who are preparing to be received came from Bournemouth. To my amazement there was a choir, augmented with singers from the Catholic Church in Brockenhurst. Fr Danny, the parish priest, generously stood aside to let Mgr Peter Ryan celebrate the Mass and Confirmation. Peter was an Anglican priest himself, but became a Catholic many years ago and served in Liverpool. Now, like us, he is retired in Lymington. He kindly undertook the task of preparing us in a 'crash course'. He spoke to us this morning with great warmth, and with affection for the Church of England.
I had asked Norah, one of the regular congregation at Our Lady of Mercy, to act as my sponsor; Jane had an old friend, yet another fomer Anglican now a Catholic Priest, to sponsor her, so Fr John Catlin drove over from Winchester to support us. After Mass we had a great reception in the parish room, with tea and coffee and home-made cakes and biscuits; a bun-fight to remember!
It is so good to be in Communion with the Catholic Church, to be part of it. We were so warmly welcomed, not least by two Dominican Sisters from their House in Sway - the picture above is of their Chapel. Thanks to everyone; but above all, Thanks be to God for his loving care for us and for all his children.

Money, Money, Money

2011-01-19T14:39:00.007Z

Whenever we get together to talk about the Ordinariate, the question of Finance always arises. In his first Press Conference on being appointed as the Ordinary, Fr Keith spoke of the way members of the Ordinariate would have to get used to supporting the ministry of their clergy. It is very good, therefore, to be able to reproduce (from The Anglo-Catholic - thank you, Christian) the following information:

"The Catholic Bishops' Conference has advised that a Restricted Fund has been established to hold donations towards the formation and support of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales, under the auspices of the Catholic Trust for England and Wales (CaTEW). There may be a facility in the future to make donations by standing order, but for the present, donations can be made by cheque, made out to CaTEW, and sent to:

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
39 Eccleston Square
LONDON
SW1V 1BX

Donors are asked ensure that a note is enclosed with the cheque indicating that the donation is for the Restricted Fund for the Ordinariate".

I have posted off my first cheque today, with a note asking to be told when the Standing Order facility is available; and also saying I would like tax to be reclaimed on this and future payments. If all of us heading for the Ordinariate were to convert our present donations to the CofE into a regular payment to the Ordinariate, and add more as we are able, it would show just how serious we are about getting the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham off to a good start.

Ancient and Modern

2011-01-16T19:32:00.006Z

Well, it was a lovely Baptism, and Amy Louise behaved impeccably, as did older sister Caitlin. Here they are with mum and dad in the magnificent Norman parish church of Faringdon. There was something of a family service which led up to the Baptism, which was not quite my cup of tea. However, the Vicar must be doing something right for the place was crowded (and not just with our extended family) and there is clearly a good deal of youth involvement. When they one day discover the joy of simply sitting in the presence of the Lord in the Reserved Sacrament - 'He looks at I, and I looks at E' as the old farmhand is reported to have said - then they will have a marvellous balance. At present there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between Ancient and Modern; summed up for me in the picture below of a Tudor lady, removed from the context of the family tomb, and trying to say her prayers and not get distracted by the drum kit next to her.

Out of the Ordinary

2011-01-15T21:39:00.013Z

Not so very Ordinary!

The blogging paparazzi were out in force in Westminster Cathedral today. There was Fr Ed, looking as though he owned the place, and he already has three postings! But then, Jane and I did have to travel further - and longer. The Railway had decided to play its customary weekend games, so we had to drive to Winchester to avoid being replacement-bussed and took the train from there. Even forty-five minutes before kick-off, the place was heaving. So many friends, it was beginning to look like a Forward in Faith Assembly - but bigger, much bigger.

Fr Bradley was wielding his camera, so I shall not post any of my feeble efforts from half-way back in the Cathedral. Instead, you might like to see Fr Keith, our new Ordinary. He spoke for us all at a reception in the Archbishop's House, thanking particularly Bishop Alan Hopes, who has borne the heat and burden of the days - and nights - of setting up a new part of the Catholic Church in record time.

Bishop Alan Hopes
It was good to see the other two new priests - but I only managed to catch Bishop John with my camera (together with some of his vast family) surrounding Archbishop Vincent as they listed to the Ordinary.

The Archbishop had greeted the crowds as they left after Mass; here I think it was some of the contingent from Bridport saying their thanks. It had been so good to hear him, a Liverpudlian, announcing the name of the new Ordinary, no less a Merseysider. I shall have to polish my CV ... let's see, we were bombed in Birkenhead during the war - does that count?

Bishop Keith thanked the Archbishop, and everyone at the Cathedral, but most especially the Holy Father Pope Benedict in taking this historic step. We had been reminded in Archbishop Nichols' sermon that this was a historic day; and it certainly felt like it. Such a joyful occasion, tinged with sadness because some of those present are not yet able to join the caravan. But they will, surely they will. My own best memory will be the three former Walsingham Sisters, delighted to be taking part and even more delighted that the Ordinariate has been named for Our Lady of Wlasingham. There's Patrimony for you!

Calm down, Dears

2011-01-08T18:12:00.008Z

Signs of over-excitement in the blogosphere. Since my last posting it has had over a thousand hits a day - which shows there must be a few people interested in the Ordinariate. Oh, I know Fr Ed will regularly get two thousand hits per diem, but you don't come here looking for controversy. Let's just take Michael Winner's advice in the ads, and calm it.

So today is nice and sober. Some thirty or so, including four clergy, met this afternoon in a Catholic Church just over the Dorset border in Christchurch for our latest session on the Ordinariate. After an Anglican eucharist, celebrated by Fr Brian Copus, Fr Graham Smith was able to give us all news of the Timetable for those seeking to join the Ordinariate. My own experience of the eucharistic fast (before being Received and Chrismated in two weeks' time) was explained, to help some realise just what was meant by not being able to receive Communion throughout Lent. In preparation for all this the Bishop of Portsmouth is calling together members of the various groups exploring the Ordinariate in his diocese. We shall be invited to St John's Catholic Cathedral on Saturday March 12th, when this stage on our journey will be marked liturgically.

The completion of this period of fasting will be on Maundy Thursday, when the Group will be received together into the fulness of Communion in the Catholic Church. Through Lent too those former Anglican priests joining the Ordinariate will undertake a special course at Allen Hall, the Catholic Seminary in Chelsea, as part of their preparation. The five former bishops will participate in this, too.

It is a busy and exciting time. Several at the meeting are planning to be at the Ordination of the three recent PEVs in Westminster next week, and any day now we should know who is to be our Ordinary. To me, this seems like the fulfilment of what the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation both set out to achieve - the renewal of the Faith. This time not through schism but by beginning the work of re-uniting Christ's Church, his Body. I lived through the seond world war (just); these events seem to me every bit as historic. Never has persistent prayer been more necessary.

Amazing (G)Race

2011-01-06T14:10:00.007Z

* * * * * * * * * St John's Cathedral, Portsmouth * * * * * * *

Forgive the punning title, but it does seem to have been a sprint rather than a marathon, heading towards Catholic priesthood. Certainly there has been much grace involved, on the part of the Catholic authorities, from the Holy Father via the Diocesan Bishop and our Parish Priest to the local congregation here. Everyone has done everything possible to smooth our path and make us welcome.

So it is good to be able to announce that the intention is that Jane and I should be received here in Lymington, at the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph, at the 9.30am Mass on January 21st. Bishop Crispian says he will ordain me Deacon in his private chapel on the morning of February 11th, and my ordination to the Priesthood will follow three weeks later at 2.30pm on Saturday March 5th in Portsmouth Catholic Cathedral.

It would be helpful if any Catholic priests who wish to concelebrate in the Cathedral could let me know, so that I can send their names on to the Bishop. But whoever you are reading this blog, please be kind enough to remember Jane and me in your prayers at this exciting and slightly nerve-wracking time.

Words, words, words

2011-01-03T17:13:00.008Z

'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me'; except that they do, sometimes they hurt more than physical wounds. Religious words are constantly taken over and given negative meanings in the secular world. We don't like being told off; so we say we don't want to be preached at; or we find an argument too hard to follow, and we call it theological - the media are especially good at this, when the word they want is theoretical.

There is one word which seems to be used by everyone when writing about the Bishops who are leaving the Anglican Communion. That word is 'defecting'. Now you might expect those who dislike the Catholic Church - the BBC, much of the Press - to delight in such a pejorative term. It is a little surprising, though, to see it in more friendly reporting - the Telegraph uses it, and so does "America; the National Catholic Weekly" and other Catholic journals.

The meaning of the word itself is bad enough; "to fail, fall short, become deficient or wanting, to fall off from (a standard &c)". So the Oxford English Dictionary. The associations of the word, though (like theological and thoretical) are worse. They connect with 'defective' (maybe mentally or morally defective) or having a defect, being faulty.

It may be this is what some people think of those who, for reasons of conscience, can no longer stay in the Church of England, and who are persuaded that the Catholic Church is the home which they seek. It surely is not the way our friends think of us, though? If they need a word to describe our action, I would suggest one which is at least neutral. A good word might be CONVERT. It is neutral, inasmuch as it is used to describe, for instance, changing from one sort of electrical supply to another - from Alternating to Direct Current, maybe, or from 240 to 110 volt supply, or from FM to DAB radio.

It has, too, happier subconscious connections; Conviction , Constant, Conscientious.

In feeling compelled to leave the Church in which I have served for more than fifty years, I am doing so not out of pique. It is with great sadness that I perceive that once-great church to have fallen away from its standards of belief and of morality, and to be taking ever easier options. For instance, once it was not possible for those remarried after divorce to be ordained. Now, that has been changed; and soon (perhaps already, I am not up to speed with the legislation) it will be possible for such people to become bishops in the Church of England.

So I am converting, moving from a church which has to my mind abandoned its catholic principles into one which stands firm. I hope that this action might yet persuade the Church of England to look once more at its foundation documents, and decide that, for example, St Paul's first letter to Timothy, Chapter 3, gives better moral advice to its clergy than decisions of a General Synod. If there has been a "falling off from a standard", that may apply more to the Church of England than to those who, with great sadness, are leaving it.

Mush!

2010-12-27T22:13:00.013Z

Very traditional Boxing Day (aka the Feast of Stephen - only this year he was moved aside for the Holy Family): a family walk. The temperature overnight had been minus seven degrees C, which is horribly cold for Southern England - hence our daughter was wrapped like a mummy as we went through Highcliffe woods.

On the beach it became marginally less cold, so the sunset can stand as a reminder to show how we are waiting for the new dawn in 2011.

After January 1 the former PEVs will, I believe, declare themselves (though two of them are already pretty up front about dates and such). After that a timetable should become clearer for the two retired bishops (David Silk and me) who are joining them in the caravan; and then things really get moving. So do you say "mush" to camels? In this weather it somehow seems appropriate What a year 2011 will be.

Roundup of the Year

2010-12-22T21:22:00.022Z

As Night Falls: summer holiday in Falmouth

Well, the media do it, so why shouldn't we? Just a few of the highlights of an extra-ordinary year. The Scots have been denied a PEV, so there was a visit North of the Border, for a Mass of the Chrism.

Immediately after it, there was Florence for Holy Week - that was pretty special, with a confirmation as part of the Triduum celebrations.

Then there was Fatima for the May Pilgrimage. Everyone I know seems to have seen the Holy Father in England; but to see him in Portugal was very special - not least because thanks to Fr Gray we, Bishop Keith and I, had pole position for his visit. Wonderful.

There were many events in England too; a great celebration at St Michael's Croydon, for St James' day, will have to stand in for all the rest - too many to recount.

Walsingham National, our first in three years, was lovely, and a great time for meeting old friends.

Most recently, the great joy of being with our son for his Degree Ceremony; for a lad who dropped out of school at sixteen, and then rose through the ranks of bar-tenders to run the most prestigious pub in Oxford (the King's Arms) achieving the degree of Master of Science was more than we expected; and still he continues, working towards his doctorate.

As the year draws to an end, so does my ministry in the Church of England; all fifty years of it. But it is such a privilege to be at the start of something utterly new. No telling how it may develop over the years, but it is good to be able to say we were spared long enough to be here, in the first wave of the Ordinariate. Now, onwards and upwards to 2011.

.

Snowbound

2010-12-18T16:04:00.011Z

Before the Papal Mass...

Today was to have been fun; a trip to Nth London for Fr Malcolm Gray's 40th anniversary of priesting. So the least I can do is post a couple of pictures of Father in his natural habitat, viz. Fatima. They were taken in the summer, when Pope Benedict visited Fatima in order to meet Fr Gray - and to join in the Pilgrimage with half a million others. I am sure today will also have been a great occasion, despite the snow which seems to have enveloped most of England and will have prevented some of his friends from joining him.

While I am blogging, may I draw your attention to the Ordinariate blog for Wales? The situation for catholics in the Church in Wales is dire (shall I be threatened by the Grand Mufti of Llandaff for daring to say so? Oh, I tremble...) Those in the Principality who are seeking to join the Ordinariate for England and Wales deserve all our support. You will find them at welshordinariate.blogspot.com/

...and after the Papal Mass

Permit me to boast...

2010-12-16T22:45:00.004Z

Time Honoured Lancaster
Silent blog for a few days, having taken off for Lancaster, where our son is now in his fifth year of University (and his forty-second since his birth). Along with a few hundred others he was receiving his degree, a Master of Science in Informatics - this as a result of a year spent since attaining his BSc. (No, I don't know what Informatics is either, but it seems he does). Now he is starting his three-year doctoral course, so the degree ceremony was a good opportunity to visit him and inspect his newly acquired flat.

Proud Mother & Son
I hope you will forgive this little bout of boasting - good to be away from ecclesiastical politics for a while.

For your consideration

2010-12-08T18:41:00.006Z

Thanks to Simon Cotton for bringing this to my attention: it deserves to be read - and your signature would help. We need to demolish some of the follies of politically correct medical & social services which, with the best intentions, destroy families and undermine individuals:
http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/the-orwellian-present-%E2%80%93-never-mind-the-future/

A Conversion Course

2010-12-07T20:57:00.010Z

'For the avoidance of confusion I have to say that as far as the Diocese of London is concerned there is no possibility of transferring properties'.
So Bishop Richard Chartres at his Diocesan Synod last week.

By contrast, here is the Property Page of the Daily Telegraph four days later:
'A recent survey conducted by a property website declared that churches are the nation's favourite conversion'.

Now London, of course, is a special case. Not that its churches are bursting with eager worshippers; indeed, it is reckoned that the average worshipping congregation across the diocese numbers fewer than forty people. No, it is its bishop which makes London different. He has fought to keep churches open, even in the City where there are few residents, and for this determination he deserves much credit. But...

In his address to the Synod the Bishop related unhappy experiences of attempting to share a church building. 'The late Cardinal Hume, whom I greatly revered, brought to an end the experiment of church sharing after the Synod’s decision of 1992'. On the evidence of that handful of failed experiments the good Bishop is prepared to condemn every attempt at church sharing.

There was similar episcopal resistance nearly fifty years ago when in a Surrey parish we dared suggest to our Bishop of Guildford and his opposite number of Arundel & Brighton that our parish church might be useful to the Catholic community. Eventually, and a little grudgingly, the two bishops permitted the experiment. So it was that between our 8am celebration and the later Parish Communion, Catholics met in the Anglican Parish Church to say Mass.

Some of the friendships which developed from this modest experiment continue to this day. I am not sure if the sharing arrangement still flourishes; but it certainly did so for more than thirty years.

It takes a very special sort of leadership to feel unthreatened by such events yet when they are entered into with generosity and charity on all sides they can produce great results, so that even non-churchgoers can begin to say "How these Christians love one another!" - and say it, for once, with no trace of irony.

The present Bishop of London is famously implacable in his views. How stoutly he recently defended the Royal Family when one of his Suffragans dared to suggest they did not always produce the most stable of marriages. There is little prospect of any of the churches in his dioceses playing host anytime soon to a Catholic Mass; even though in many of them it might appear to be the Catholic Mass which is celebrated. There are seven years before age will force him to hang up his mitre if neither he nor the Almighty has decided it should happen earlier. Then will it be economic or ecumenical pressure which determines the fate of the underused churches of London Diocese?

A shared place where Anglicans and Roman Catholics have worshipped

Everything Looks Better in the Snow

2010-12-02T15:09:00.008Z

Our latest visitors proved how foolish it was to say "though the rest of the country is snowbound, we never get snow here in the South". Frs Page (from Leytonstone) and Elliott-Smith (from Tottenham) came for an overnight visit, and with them overnight came the snow.

The trains are running, though, and Lymington looks much better for its sprinkling of snow. The United Reformed Church has just had a major restoration, and looks better than ever before. Sadly, I hear that the minister there has just died after a very rapid cancer. She had not been here very long. Requiescat.

St Thomas', the parish church, is also improved by a dressing of tinsel.

Italian interest

2010-12-01T16:33:00.002Z

Since the visit of the Pope to Britain, many overseas have shown an interest in what is happening in this country. I was asked some questions by an on-line journal [Il Sussi Diario] - if you would like to check it out, the English version is at
http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/English-Spoken-Here/Culture-Religion-Science/2010/11/29/U-K-Women-Priests-and-the-Discomfort-in-the-Church-of-England/1/129934/
It will appear in an Italian version in due course.

Patrimony & Newman

2010-11-26T10:38:00.009Z

We know about the Holy Father's devotion to John Henry Newman; perhaps this passage from the Apologia planted the seeds of Anglicanorum Coetibus? In the final section of his Apologia he writes how "national influences have a providential effect in moderating the bias which the local influences of Italy may exert upon the See of Peter". "Catholicity", he says, "is not only one of the notes of the Church but... one of its securities". Yet after considering America and the influence of the French in the church there, he hopes that "all European races will ever have a place in the Church". Then he comes to the passage which attracted me especially:
"I think that the loss of the English, not to say the German element, in its composition has been a most serious misfortune. And certainly, if there is one consideration more than another which should make us English grateful to Pius the Ninth, it is that, by giving us a Church of our own, he has prepared the way for our own habits of mind, our own manner of reasoning, our own tastes, and our own virtues, finding a place and thereby a sanctification in the Catholic Church".
It seems to have been an awareness that, despite the restoration of the Hierarchy to England, Pius IX's objects have not been completely achieved which has encouraged Benedict XVI to complete that work. Many have been puzzled to discern just what is the Anglican Patrimony of which Anglicanorum Coetibus speaks. We could do worse than follow the lead of Blessed John Henry by determining to bring with us into the Ordinariate 'our own habits of mind, our own manner of reasoning, our own tastes, and our own virtues'. That will be far better than chasing down the blind alley of Prayer Book versus Sarum Use or of the English Missal versus the American Book of Divine Worship. Liturgy is a sideshow compared with the breadth of the Patrimony which Newman adumbrates.

Surface & Texture

2010-11-22T20:58:00.010Z

On his halfterm visit, we'd taken out ten-year old grandson to Southampton Art Gallery - where there is an exhibition of Bridget Riley's work. To our amazement, he said, "Oh yes, Op art; we did that in school last year". He was enthusiastic about the way her works seemed to move, though they were just paint on a flat surface. She was influenced, it seems, by pointillism (Seurat and all that), and the way the juxtapostion of different shapes can give life to a surface. Initially her work was in black and white.

Later she moved into colour. So our day today started in Southampton Art Gallery to take an old friend, a cousin of mine, to the same exhibition. Then, in the afternoon we went to the coast, where the points of light on the sea and the colours of the sunset quite eclipsed anything any artist has ever done, even Turner; "And all for free!" said my cousin, wisely.

As a change from the internecine battles of the churches I thought you might like to have some views today, and a share in the evening light over the South Coast. But if you can get to the National Gallery, there is a Bridget Riley exhbition there for the next few weeks. Just be ready for your eyes to be out of focus for a while afterwards.

[To appreciate the surface of the water, just click on either of the photos for a larger version.]

The Church of my Baptism

2010-11-20T17:32:00.010Z

An old priest friend sent me a very moving card today, in which he wishes me well but said that, for himself, he would "remain in the Church of my Baptism". That sentiment is echoed by many who at present feel unable to join the Ordinariate. We all owe so much to the Church of England; she taught us the catholic faith, she supported us when we sought Ordination, she has been, for many, a good Mother.

Yet things have changed. As I have confirmed Candidates in recent years, I have wondered where they would end. Would they always be able, as some of us have done, to find a good catholic church in their neighbourhood? Would it be a place where the Eucharist was regularly and faithfully celebrated, the daily Offices prayed for the whole parish, the people visited when they were sick or dying? Such churches seemed to be the rule forty years ago; now they are exceptional, and their priests reckoned oddities. Yet when Forward in Faith said "A Code of Practice Will Not Do" it was because we wanted a secure catholic future for our children and grandchildren.

When the parish where we live was last vacant, I wrote to the bishop and said that since it was likely that the new incumbent would see me out, I hoped he would be a priest who would have a care for the dying. We have, I think, done pretty well in that regard; our parish priest is a dear and loving man, who cares for the people in his cure. That the question had to be raised though, indicates how the Church of England has lost its catholic moorings.

Those who are committed to SSWSH are no doubt going to try to reverse this, and bring the C of E back to her roots - they believe that the newly elected Synod will make this possible. Those who are committed to the Ordinariate are sure that this is a lost cause, and that the only hope for a catholic future is within the Roman obedience - the best any Synod could achieve is a stay of execution. We all, though, have a duty to respect one another, pray for one another, and continue to work for the Unity which Our Lord wills.

Oh, and about my Baptism - it was at Holy Innocents, South Norwood, which at that time was in the detached part of Canterbury Diocese. GF Bodley was its architect, who also built St John's, Iffley Road in Oxford, the last church for which I had direct responsibility. Holy Innocents always seemed to me a good dedication for a church welcoming one into the Church of God. Now it is in Southwark Diocese, Nicola has been its incumbent for the past five years, and Anna is her curate. One day, it will be easier for me to relate to them ecumenically than, as at present, within the same ecclesial body.

Prebendary Houlding's Interview

2010-11-19T21:45:00.012Z

As the details begin to emerge of the Ordinariate for England and Wales, there is a danger of losing sight of how other people feel. Fr David Houlding gave an interview to Ruth Gledhill. It has been on U-tube, but it is difficult to grasp an interview at one hearing - and it is not easy to hear in all its details. So I have transcribed it, in the hope that it will help others to understand just where one of the proponents of SSWSH stands. Those who have already read it on the Anglo-Catholic blog must forgive me; but it is too important to be lost. Here is most of what Fr David said:

"I am concerned by the direction the Church of England seems to be going. That's one of my reasons for staying in the Church of England. I do believe in the C of E and I love it very much.

We don’t want it to appear as though we are criticising our friends…who have decided they have to move to the Catholic Church to seek communion with the See of Peter - that it is a very honourable catholic thing to do. So I think we have not been able to say anything.

But nor do we think we are betraying the cause by staying in the C of E. We’ve still got a job to do for the church, and we’ve still got to fight for the catholic understanding of the church. And therefore that’s where we are: it’s important that we carry on and don’t just give up.

R.G. I think people well be very relieved - people such as myself for example - that the church is not losing its entire catholic wing. But yet Fr Broadhurst intends to remain as chairman of FiF?

Yes. He is. Now whether that will last I think is very difficult because Forward in Faith, whatever he says, is an Anglican organistaion; it is a political body fighting for a catholic future within the C of E. If you actually feel that is no longer achievable for perfectly good, understandable reasons. then you do have to leave it behind; I think sometimes the things that you love… Bishop John has loved Forward in Faith. It’s been his life - he probably finds it very hard to leave it behind

R.G. And of course members of FiF love Bishop John; but are you really saying that he should resign?

Yes.. because he doesn’t have any integrity by staying. I don’t think it will help him to move things forward in the CofE if he does stay.

R.G. Father John?

This is not to criticise him, this is not personal. He’s been a friend of mine for many, many years. I think for him he is doing the right thing. It is not a criticism of any of the bishops. Rather it is an endorsement that they must leave things behind in order for us to move things forward

R.G. Are they all in FiF?

Yes they are.

R.G. Do you hold a position in FiF?

I’m a member of the Council. No more than that.
We have a lot of work to do. We have to move things forward. But we can’t do it if you like with a mixed agenda.

R.G. And is it the view of the Council that they should all resign?

I think it’s the view of the Council that we need to put a new leadership in place to move things forward. I think that’s generally the overall feeling that I pick up..

(Spy cartoon of Bishop of London: and of Fr Mackonchie)

That’s Fr Mackonochie and he started up SSC. And I’m now the Master of the SSC.
Of course I looked at the Roman option with interest; for the catholic position as it were comes from the Roman Catholic church and there is obviously going to be an obvious closeness; That means that we don’t just make the rules up as we go along, that we do look for authority from the wider catholic church in the decisions that we have to make in the C of E. There is something about that Church of England its identity and the reason for its existence that is catholic; it is the Catholic Church in this land.

R.G. I know you’ve been among those working hardest behind the scenes. to try and create some sort of provision which is acceptable to all sides in this. But at the moment it doesn’t look as though it will work. What will you do if it just goes though without provision?

Well that is of course the 1000 dollar Question. I don’t know the answer I cannot believe that things will….but I agree with you. It does look very difficult at the moment. Because we don’t want to create a separate church on the one hand which is in danger of doing that….

R.G. It’s a sort of 45th diocese rather than a free Province?

Yes that’d be would be a very nice way of putting it.

R.G. We’ve seen this beautiful vicarage. What period is it?

Oh it’s 1894 –designed by the same person as the church.

R.G. Now various World war analogies have been flying around.; Wallace Benn said he thought we were in January 1939, John Broadhurst said the Church of England is fascist …. Do you believe we are in a war situation?

I think we are in a situation where we have to struggle for survival. I think when you are cornered - human being are after all only human - when you are cornered you do feel very threatened and you’re angry. I get very angry about this issue sometimes. You do say things that are a little bit too forceful.

How many do you think will go to the Ordinariate?

I think at first it will be small; because we’re still not sure what the Ordinairate is or what they are offering. Some people are ready to go; if that’s where people are I have no problem with it, they should go. But there are other people who aren’t ready to go; people like me who still feel there is still something to do in the Church of England, it is business as usual…We need to carry on doing our work. I don’t see the need to go at this particular point. And especially if you are involved in the discussions and the arguments like I am, and in the Synodical Process …I don’t think its helpful just to back out now."

There was a little more about Fr Houlding's parishioners, but above is the gist of the interviews. I am tempted to comment; but I think that is best left to readers of the interview, especially those who know Fr Houlding and heard him trying to commend SSWSH at the 'Sacred Synod'. And now, let's just be happy because we have the details of the Ordinairate for England and Wales, and what we are being offered is more than generous. Laus Deo!

Early One Morning....

2010-11-14T16:54:00.009Z

So, being not quite retired but not permitted to function as a priest, and having attended a mass last evening, this was to be a morning in. Bliss. Then late yesterday I was asked to do a radio interview. I should have said 'No' at once; but thought it could do no harm, it was only local radio, at an hour when no-one would be listening. So, foolishly, I agreed.

The programme was to go out live at 7am today. I would be rung, and interviewed over the phone. Accordingly, rather than a lie-in I was up betimes, the Office said, ready for Radio Solent. Spot on 7 the phone rang. The young lady was terribly sorry, but there was some breaking news in Portsmouth - alas, the item was chopped. I might have asked what the important news might be, but decided it was better not to know; probably a cat stuck in a tree or a fire in a waste-bin.

It did make me realise how the Church's news which so engrosses us comes way down the list in the world's interests. I thought some of my readers (well, one of the two of you) might enjoy this little joke at my expense.

While I'm on, though, there was a very good letter sent to me which had been intended for publication in New Directions. They must have been pressed for space, since they did not print it. Here in part is what Fr Heans had to say:

I recently came across the following from Newman’s Certain Difficulties Felt By Anglicans in Catholic Teaching (1850). He is addressing his friends who are still hanging on in the C of E:

“I know how it will be… the news that the anticipated blow has fallen, and causa finita est. A pause, and then the discovery that things are not as bad as they seemed… a contested election, or other political struggle, theology mixed with politics… and a sanguine hope entertained of a ministry more favourable to Apostolical truth. My brethren, the National Church has had experience of this, mutatis mutandis, ... before”.

At the risk of being called unkind, I wonder if this rings any bells? Oh, and if you should be in striking distance of Beckenham you would be very welcome at St Barnabas' Church (Oakhill Rd, BR3 6NG) this Wednesday at 7pm where Fr Peter Geldard will be speaking and answering questions on the Ordinariate. Fr Geldard is Catholic Chaplain to the University of Kent in Canterbury, and was at one time Secretary General of the Church Union.

SWISH of the Curtain

2010-11-13T10:40:00.016Z

Ever since the Society Model was announced, there has been something nagging in the back of my mind about acting. Something on TV maybe? No, now I have it. There was a serialised radio play on the BBC called "The Swish of the Curtain". According to the Beeb, who revived it as recently as 2007, it was an 'astonishing story' ..'Pamela Brown's 1940s tale of stage-struck children who start their own theatre company'. It even gave rise to a Theatre School in Bournemouth - their logo appears above, I hope they are glad of the publicity.

So there we have it: Our Lord spoke about "children in the market place saying 'we piped for you and you would not dance'". Neither John the Baptist nor Our Lord himself could satisfy them. Now there's another little group, a 'society' which wants us all to play their game.

Fr Hunwicke has posted a devastating account of where this Society Model has come from - a product of the dream-world of Chichester. Perhaps, though, there is also about it something of 'The Swish of the Curtain'; stage-struck children, setting up their own company. Of course we wish them well; but I fear it is going to end in tears when the theatre management tells them their little show is not going to appear. It will be patronised for a while by those who would use it to undermine Anglicanorum Coetibus; but it will not be allowed to have any independence, any jurisdiction. Just patronised. Still, children grow up, and eventually they will be looking for a more authentic and enduring company. The longest-running show on earth has an opening for them - the Ordinariate will always be there to welcome them.

Recycling on a Grand Scale

2010-11-09T14:27:00.013Z

'The times are too sensitive; just blog about Gardens and Stately Homes'. I always listen to PEVs, so in obedience here is just such a piece: about Highcliffe Castle. I have mentioned it before in a blog, but it is worth revisiting.

After the French Revolution, some great churches (like Cluny) were simply blown up in order to cart away the materials. Equally, some grand houses were just left to rot. This was a great opportunity for English Milords to cash in; and few did it better than Lord Stuart de Rothesay. Starting in 1831 he had many tons of stone shipped over to England from Normandy, chiefly from the Abbey of Jumieges and the Chateau of Les Andelys. His architect, William Donthorne, pieced them together and made a magical palace on the cliffs to the east of Christchurch.

Royals were entertained there, her Ladyship had a parish church built just over the road in the best Anglo-Catholic taste, and for almost a century it was a jewel in the crown of SW Hampshire, rivalling Highclere in the north of the county (as seen on TV as "Donwton Abbey"). The interiors too were reputedly of great splendour, with plasterwork and boiseries, and an amazing window for the entrance hall (taken from a church in Rouen). That hall was dominated by a grand stone staircase.

By the end of the second World War, even the Rothesays could not afford the upkeep. Theirs was a branch of the family which had rebuilt Cardiff Castle, created the folly of Castel Coch, and had as their principal residence Rothesay Castle on the Isle of Bute. Coal and Slate had kept them wealthy, but death duties and the war reduced their state.

In 1949 the contents of Highcliffe were sold, and the house itself became first a children's home, and then a seminary for Claretines. These religious clearly needed to keep their aspirants busy, for they demolished the stone staircase to rebuild it as a path down the cliffs to the sea. The hall thus emptied became their chapel. They did not stay long, the house fell into decay, there were fires which destroyed most of the interiors and eventually, when it was almost too late, Dorset County Council purchased the house and began to restore it (for the County Boundary had shifted, and Highcliffe was no longer in Hants).

The Needles from the Garden Front

Now it is mostly used for exhibitions and 'civil ceremonies' (aka pagan weddings). The great window has survived, though it is set above the main entrance which faces north, so the spectacular fifteenth century glass is never seen with the sun shining through it. Curious, that parts of a once-great Abbey should have come to this. It is still worth a visit - worth a detour, even.

I am attaching a few pictures - the one above is the stone frieze over the garden entrance. Perhaps another blogger from Oxford will render it into an elegant Georgian couplet. I think it's something about how pleasant it is to stand here on dry land and watch as a gale batters shipping onto the Needles .. well, not quite that, but certainly there's a bit of schadenfeude about it. Perhaps it will be a motto for those of us who escape into the Ordinariate while watching the struggles of remaining anglo-catholics from afar. I think not, though; for in reality we shall still sympathise with them, and pray for them, and hope they will not leave it too long before recognising that alia jacta est - or, as someone once said, the game is up.

Anniversary

2010-11-08T10:43:00.002Z

Tomorrow, November 9th, is the seventh Anniversary of the death of the first and greatest of the Canterbury PEVs, John Richards. I still miss his fatherly advice in that gravelly voice down the phone "Now then, Edwin, what you want to do is ...." - and the advice was always right! Pray for the repose of his soul, please; and for his family, and those to whom he ministered. Requiescat.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2010-11-07T22:54:00.008Z

The Golden Evening Brightens in the West

Somehow I felt we all needed a bitof a lift; so here are some pictures from Exbury .

The Beaulieu River

Today was the last day of its summer season (there will be a few Santa Specials on their lovely little railway before Christmas).

Azalea Praecox

So here are a few pictures showing autumn and encroaching winter; and a promise of spring to come.

Cloud-cappedTowers

London Ordinariate : not before Time

2010-11-05T23:08:00.003Z

I am told that the London clergy are beginning to get their act together regarding the Ordinariate. Accordingly, I am very happy to direct anyone living in the Great Wen to the Ordinariate Watch site at:

http://ordinariatewatch.blogspot.com/

Was 'Watch' a deliberate choice of title? Could be confusing.....

A Priest in Every Parish

2010-11-04T21:57:00.014Z

The Church of England still contends it is just that; the Church for our Nation. Yet where are the priests? Where will they come from in future? I understand there is only a handful of candidates at Mirfield this year, and St Stephen's house is not much better. But should this come as a surprise?

The Church Times recently published statistics about Ordinands. Now I was ordained just fifty years ago, and in that year there were around six hundred new deacons. This year there were 564, so we are doing well, aren't we? No, we are not.

In 1960 the overwhelming majority of new deacons were men under thirty, with a possible forty years of ministry ahead of them. They were almost without exception stipendiary, full-time clergymen. The then archbishop said that if we kept those numbers up, we would just about replace those dying or retiring. This was not in the days of George Herbert and his ideal of the country parson; it is recent history.

In 2009, of the 564 being ordained, only 309 were entering full-time stipendiary ministry. About half of them will have been women, so the number of full-time male deacons ordained is down from 600 to about 160. Well, that's pretty good, isn't it, since we have reduced the parishes by amalgamations.? No, it is not good. Compare the years of service to be expected now with 1960. Most of us then could look forward to forty years in the priesthood. Today, the number of candidates under the age of 30 is only 74. Seventy-four younger full-time priests - half of them female. Small wonder our colleges are struggling. And where will our Anglo-Catholic parishes get their priests?

Of the remaining candidates, the number between 50 and 59 being recommended has risen to 126. Go on a course at 55, complete three years training, and at 58 you are ordained; with, at best, eight or nine years of full-time ministry ahead. When set against years of ministry, it is vastly more expensive for the church to ordain older candidates. It is not many years since no-one would be considered for ordination over the age of forty. Now that is considered young.

This is a vicious spiral; ordain older candidates, and the young will have no model of priesthood to attract them. The Dean of Leicester said she was looking forward to a time when the church of England would be feminised. That is happening very rapidly; but the ministry is also becoming geriatric. Still there seem to be no misgivings at the prospect of young priests leaving the Church of England to join the Ordinariate. "There will be an influx of women to fill the gap". That was said in 1992. It has not happened. For how much longer will the Church of England be able to claim to be a Church of the Nation, with every soul in the care of a Vicar or Rector? Someone has to wake up, and start working, paying and praying for younger ordinands.

If the Church of England were to fail, it should be found in my parish

2010-11-03T20:51:00.006Z

Grateful thanks to Fr Michael Gollop in his blog for reminding us of Keble's assertion; and how (although I heard it repeated in different words at a clergy meeting today) it can no longer hold. "It'll see me out until I retire" is not much of a mission statement. No need for me to waste space blogging about this: just a chance to show you a picture from Canterbury, and to refer you to Fr Gollop's piece on his own blogspot or on the Anglo Catholic site. The Canterbury picture is first a reminder that this is the Church of England which HAS failed: and is designed to encourage you to see my account of All Saints Day which I spent in Harbledown, just up the hill from the Mother Church of the Communion. [Also on the Anglo-Catholic site a day or two ago.]

http://www.theanglocatholic.com/

All Saints Galore

2010-10-31T17:12:00.010Z

St George had borrowed another's shield

We pushed Halloween aside this morning at St Francis' Bournemouth, and celebrated All Saints. Some of the children represented certain of the Company of Heaven; I was introduced to St Sebastian with a tennis racquet - patron saint of Sportmen, I was told - I suppose it was because he became a dartboard for his persecutors. Then we had Francis (of course) with a collection of furry animals, St Vitus (in tutu) as Patron of Dance, and a very regal St Adelaide. I'd had to google her; born 931, daughter of Rudolph of Burgundy, betrothed as a child to Lothair of Provence. When Lothair died, leaving her with a young daughter, she was imprisoned for refusing to marry the son of Beringarius who succeeded Lothair. It is all exciting stuff .. and she is also called Adelheid. But no doubt you knew that already.

We sought for Saints in the Congregation

Then we got down to the business of talking about who is and who is not a saint. The epistle teaches us that we are children of God; and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So we went through the congregation finding potential saints... since Saints is what we are all called to be. We wondered about John Henry Newman; had be been a Saint all the time? Surely he had; the Church simply reassures us about this when it Beatifies or Canonises its saints. And today is for all the thousands which no one can number, unbeatified, un-named, yet all part of that company which no man can number - the Company of Heaven who share the Bread of Immortality with us, at the Table of the Lord.

Tomorrow it is All Saints again, this time in the approaches to Canterbury... a confirmation at Harbledown.

More good news

2010-10-25T16:22:00.014+01:00

Outward Bound

Half-term continues; so does the weather, and courtesy of Gran (aka the Flying Buttress) we set off on the Island Princess for a trip to the Needles. What a day for it!

Approaching Hurst Castle

We were afloat for little more than two hours, and on every hand there were wonderful views.

Fort Albert

Seemed a pity not to share them so, though I've no profound thoughts, the scenery should speak for itself.

Western Tip of the Isle of Wight

The Needles from one direction appear just menacing great lumps, from another side you can see just why they were called Needles. They are the result of long-term erosion; once there was a landbridge Westward to southern Dorset.

Taking in the View: the Needles & the Battery

It was a bonus for us that there is a repaircrew at the foot of the Lighthouse, so we could wave to them and also get a better idea of the scale of everything.

Good news....

2010-10-24T14:50:00.014+01:00

Since no news is good news, here is some no news. A wonderful sunny day in Lymington, and a free Sunday! Our daughter brought 10yr old grandson yesterday to stay for half-term (looking pensive on the right). She has now gone back to Wales but after attending an 8 o'clock said Communion at St Thomas' - very BCP for Trinity xxi - it was good to stroll along the cliffs and on the beach just a few miles Southwest of home. Very restorative. There was even one hardy family with a toddler paddling!

If I weren't an anglo-catholic, I think I'd be a blue-domer. Notwithstanding the claims that science has 'disproved' God, the sea and the sky always set me wondering. The tide has been going in and out from whenever it was that water and land were separated; and when I consider the heavens, the works of His fingers, the moon and the stars that He has ordained; well "what is man that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

Even empty beachhuts can look lovely in such weather. Next weekend will be less restful; three sermons in two days, and a trip to East Kent into the bargain. But that will be All Saints, which is a great time.

Many or Few Revisited

2010-10-23T15:40:00.008+01:00

I have been properly rebuked for the harshness of what I said in the last paragraph of "By Many or By Few" , so I have amended it.

I've been too ready to criticise those who have not yet been able to decide in favour of the Ordinariate. Theoretically I have known it's been much easier for me, in retirement; but in practice I have still been horribly judgemental. I am very sorry for that.

I suppose after thirty-five years of being on, or following, General Synod, I have become a bit case-hardened. I have seen that body grow progressively more illiberal, and have come to the conclusion that we can expect NOTHING of any value from it for Traditionalists. The offer of the Ordinariate came as such a relief to me that I failed to appreciate the difficulties for many others. As a result, SSWSH appeared to me as a last straw, an attempt by the Establishment, under the guise of being 'catholic', to undermine what the Pope is doing for us.

Others have thought much the same (for instance William Oddie) - but it is not the whole truth. There are honourable men among those setting up SSWSH, and some doubtless genuinely believe that the Church of England will back down and give anglo-catholics their own bishops (as in the former Act of Synod) but this time with Jurisdiction. I think they are wrong, but it is clearly a hopeful shelter for those who cannot yet accept the Ordinariate. So, we go on praying, for those who are deciding (some at great cost to themselves) to seek to join the Ordinariate, and those who still trust in the generosity and good will of the Church of England.

For myself, once again, I ask pardon of those I have offended by harsh and judgemental words; I will try to do better in future.