Tied up in Notts

A flying visit to the Ordinariate Group in Nottingham at the end of last week.

Fr Simon worried at what I might say

Fr Simon Ellis had cunningly invited me about six months ago to speak to his people on 'the Year of Faith', and it is hard to plead a prior engagement at such notice. So on Friday the Cross-Country train took me up to Stapleford, where Simon and Kate's long-suffering daughter Anastasia turned out of her bedroom for me.

On Saturday morning we were off bright and early to go into the centre of the city, to the Cathedral. What a wonderful pile it is, one of Pugin's great works for the Catholic Church, with a very convincing attempt at Early English Gothic Architecture. It is no mere pastiche, though, but a lovely building in its own right. There is a house for the Cathedral Staff next door, and a good new building providing conference facilities.

We met first in the Conference Centre to begin to get to know one another. We were a marvellously diverse bunch, with a few of the
regular Cathedral congregation who joined us for the day. There were people with  roots in Port Talbot and Liverpool, Hong Kong, Hertfordshire and Derby. Indeed, there are some who live in Derby but worship regularly with the Ordinariate Group. Unfortunately the Group is not able to have a Mass every Sunday, but besides the weekday Mass there is worship together on one Sunday each month. I do hope a way is found for them to have Mass together Sunday by Sunday - certainly in our Bournemouth Group I think we could not have survived and kept together without this.

After a time of prayer in the lovely Blessed Sacrament Chapel we went to our meeting room to share our picnic lunches. Good to find other old friends there, not least Fr Peter Peterken who has been such a support for Fr Simon - despite being somewhat older than the Holy Father.

In the afternoon I did my spiel, speaking about the opportunities which the Ordinariate has - provided it is genuinely humble in its approach. We thought about the way our background shapes us - my own schooldays in Plymouth asserted that Francis Drake was a great hero; to those brought up as Catholics his reputation is rather less sunny. We looked at small ways in which the Ordinariate can encourage Catholics to move out of a ghetto mentality into Mission mode. All the participants were very kind, and though I was not home until after 10pm (and the following morning, today, was preaching in Bournemouth at 9.30am) it was well worthwhile - for me if not for them.



 

Some of the day's participants

This afternoon our Bournemouth Mission celebrated Evensong and Benediction, conducted very splendidly by Fr Brian Copus and our teams of servers and musicians. On Tuesday Bishop Philip Egan has invited some of us from the Ordinariate to join his priests in a day on "The Clergy and the Curial Review" - a review shich is taking place in Portsmouth Diocese now that the Bishop has been here long enough to have his priorities clear. It is good to be seen as relating to the Diocese, even if we have to be a little tangetial to it.

Getting to know you....

Today Bishop Philip Egan began his tour of the Pastoral Areas of Portsmouth diocese. He started in the far west, with Bournemouth and Avon/Stour. Very kindly, he is including priests of the Ordinariate, so today Fr Brian Copus and I were invited because our Group meets in Southbourne.

Bishop Philip with our Host Fr Bruce Barnes

We began with half an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Bournemouth. Then into the palatial Presbytery, where Fr Bruce had laid on tea and coffee and cake.

Fr Brian Copus coffee cup in hand, among the brethren.

Bishop Philip started by removing some of the more extravagant press accounts of what he is like; he is not intent on putting the clock back to 1952. Rather he is intending the be like the householder commended in the Gospel for bringing out of his treasures "things new and old". He went on the say that his first concern was with his clergy, priests and deacons. This is why between now and Christmas he is intent on getting round the whole of the pastoral areas (and they stretch North as far as cis-Isis Oxford and as far South as the Channel Islands). Besides this he is making time for individual meetings with each of the clergy.

And it really was tea or coffee...

Then he gave us a parable, which certainly spoke to me. He had seen salmon leaping to clear great obstacles in a river, making their way up to the place where they originally came from. All of us know where we belong; our home is in heaven, and our life is a matter of making our way there - our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. But swimming against the current is not an easy matter, and increasingly the Church finds herself having to be counter-cultural.

Answering a tricky question

That picture I think will inform the prayers and thoughts of many who heard him, during this Year of Faith. After a time for questions and comments we said the Angelus together. On the way home in the car four of us were agreed that he had made a great beginning, and we look forward to being his co-workers in the years to come.

Recognition for the Tradition

Fr Michael Gollop, writing in his "Let nothing you dismay" blog, commented on the Holy Father's decision to create three more former Anglican Bishops "capellani" - that is, they are nominated to be among his Chaplains; and that has the result of according them (us) the title of Monsignor. Here is part of what Fr Gollop had to say: "These latest honours seem intended as a recognition not only of former individual Anglican ministries, but of an entire tradition".

Fr Brian proposes a toast

I am sure he is right; and our Group in Bournemouth on Sunday toasted the Holy Father, and thanked him for all he is doing to enable us and so many former Anglicans to find a home in the Roman Communion. As the next crucial Synod comes ever closer for the Church of England, I hope those of us who have joined the Ordinariate will pray for them. Perhaps the worst possible outcome would be yet another delay - but that is their business, not ours. All we can do is offer our prayers that all we knew which was good in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion may somehow continue and flourish - and only the Good Lord knows if that is possible, and if so where and how it might occur.

[I am indebted to Brian Harrison for the picture he took in the Hall after our Ordinariate Mass.]

Joining in

'It must be a bit of a balancing act', said Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton (above.). He was speaking about the Ordinariate, and our need to preserve our identity yet also be seen to be no less Catholic than the parishes around us. We were at a celebration in Sacred Heart, Bournemouth. Fr Bruce Barnes, the parish priest, had invited me and members of our Ordinariate Group to join his parish for the Feast of the Sacred Heart. He himself had been an Anglican (he was a lad in the parish where I served my Title in Portsmouth) and was ordained into the Catholic Priesthood back in '97. At one time he was Fr Peter Doyle's colleague in St Peter's Winchester - hence the invitation to Bishop Peter to celebrate and preach, It was a marvellously multi-cultural Mass, with a reading in Portuguese and the Gospel repeated in Polish. Besides Fr Peter who ministers to the Polish Community in Bournemouth we had a Mill Hill Father with us concelebrating who is off to Kenya later this week.

That was a great occasion; and Fr Bruce explained that Catholics were not as good as Anglo-Catholics at celebrating Patronal Festivals. So he has retained that part of the Patrimony, together with a liking for incense, good liturgy, and congregational singing led by a very good choir. Those of us who attended from the Ordinariate felt entirely at home, and met many of the congregation at a bunfight in the palatial Hall after Mass.

Then the following day we joined with the Parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace for a Jubilee Party, which involved more eating and drinking, and a Quiz! It was all very jolly; but the night seemed pretty short for I was still preparing notices for today at Midnight, and we were back in Southbourne at 9am this morning ready for our Ordinariate Mass. Later today many of our Group were at a 70th Birthday Party, where we were joined by old friends who (at present) remain in the C of E. There I had the pleasure of blessing the new home of the Birthday Boy, Trvor Vendy, one of our stalwart band of servers.

The best thing of all today was the news that our Deacon, Fr Brian Copus, is to be ordained Priest by Bishop Alan Hopes in Bournemouth at Noon on September 22nd - but more of that later. For now, just put it in your diary.

[There may be more photographs added to this blog later - some of the Group were clicking away at all these events]

The Intemperate Zone

A packed three days in London, just as the temperatures passed 80 Fahrenheit. It was a little unkind of Allen Hall to give Fr John Saward the graveyard slot on Thursday - two hours after a very filling lunch. By the end of his lecture even he was clutching a bottle of water.



So far as I can tell it was a masterly account of St Thomas Aquinas on the Incarnation and the Sacraments - fortunately his talk was recorded and will be available on line from Allen Hall, so we shall be able to fill in the bits when Morpheus overtook us.



Perhaps though I was the only one whose eyes became a little heavy at times - certainly in the shot above we are all very alert and bushy tailed.
So that was Thursday in Chelsea.

Jane had come up to town with me, and we went to Croydon for two nights staying with a cousin of mine. We returned on Friday to do our cultural bit - the Zoffany exhibition at the Royal Academy.



A revelation - I had thought of him as a court painter to George III, which he was, but he also travelled widely, even as far as India, and produced some wonderful images there. Then too he was enchanted by the theatre, and gave us images of Garrick and all the great thespians of his time. If you are able to get there soon, do: and the catalogue is greatly reduced and a wondefful bargain. We also went to the Queen's Gallery to see the Leonardo anatomical drawings - which produced in me a degree of visual overload.



Today it was London for the third day running, this time Westminster where seventeen former Anglican clergy were admitted to the Diaconate of the Catholic Church. Bishop Alan Hopes ordained, our Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, was a benign presence throughout, and Mgr Andrew Burnham preached splendidly on the Diaconate. Above is a picture from the moments before the Mass began. Frs Page and Elliott-Smith were no doubt glad that today, unlike Thursday, the tube did not let them down. They had struggled to get to Allen Hall and missed much of the morning session.

Many of those being ordained are old friends of mine, and it was particularly good to have Brian Copus from our Bournemouth Ordinariate Group once more properly dressed in clericals. Good too to have two other residents of Portsmouth Diocese among the candidates - John Maunder from St Agatha's Portsea and John Hunwicke (for he lives in Oxford on the Portsmouth side of the Thames). After Mass, members of the Bournemouth Ordinariate repaired to the Victoria Pub, to drink the new deacons' health.



Here on the right of the picture are Fr Brian and his wife Bärbel. On this occasion the new deacons' wives were welcomed to the sanctuary and given a special blessing just before Mass ended. What a great day! Now we eagerly await news of when Fr Brian is to be ordained priest - some of those deaconed today will be priested in their home parishes or local cathedrals as early as next week.