Busy weekend

So after the Day of Recollection it was not home to the slippers, but rather a 6pm Vigil Mass in Lymington, filling in for our Parish Priest who is having a short breather. Then this morning off bright and early to Bournemouth for the Ordinariate Sunday Mass. In the course of it, the Confirmation of Teresa (who added the Christian Name Mary). For the first time we had all four parts in our singing group, so had the treat of the Communion Motet Hide not thou Thy face from me. It was particularly good to have friends of Teresa present - and also another new family seeking a spiritual home.

After Mass a short instruction on "The Doorway of Faith", and then a dash across town to the Anglican Church of St Francis, where the Priest in Charge laid to rest the ashes of Teresa Mary's father, Ray. Ray had been Head Server at St Francis' and Lord-high-everything-else for many years. His widow's ashes were already there, so it was fitting as his final resting place. Fr Wastie and many old friends from the parish greeted us warmly, which made up for the bitter cold of the morning.

 

The Priory Chapel

Somehow I had not expected retirement to be quite so busy; but it is very enjoyable. Oh, and at the end of today's Mass we had our three Rome pilgrims line up for a blessing. They set off  tomorrow morning together with dozens of other members of Ordinariate Groups on a journey which will take them to Pope Benedict's last General Audience in St Peter's Square (watch it on Zenit) and to Assisi.

I think you will see from these photos that yesterday was a pretty laid-back
occasion - not too much heavy theology, rather a consideration of where we are at present, where we have come from, and how we fit in the grand scheme of things. Best of all, it was enjoyable, and we all got to know others in our Group rather better. Our intention is to be welcoming, so that anyone coming to Mass with us, or to coffee after Mass, will soon feel at home. This seems to be our special calling in this Year of Faith, taking part in the New Evangelization.

My system was unable to cope with the pictures of St Dominic's yesterday. Today our Computer Wizard brought a memory stick with them on, so I am posting a few here for your interest.

Some but not all of the participants

 

 

Our Lady of Sorrows

Mgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary, preached very movingly and simply on the Sorrows of Mary on the Ordinariate's pilgrimage day in Walsingham (r. the Slipper Chapel, part of the Catholic Shrine). For all that, the keynote seemed to be one of joy. Such a brilliant sunny day (compensation for last year's deluge); a great turnout of the faithful (some had to stand throughout the Mass for lack of room); some forty concelebrating ordinariate priests. We had a great deal to be thankful for.

Jane (rt) with Daloni and Michael Peel

So after our 450 mile two-day round trip, I thought I should post at least a few pictures for those of you unable to be present. It was only through the kindness of our old friends Dr Michael Peel and his wife Daloni (formerly i/c the College of St Barnabas) that we were able to break the journey with an overnight stop at their home in Suffolk.

Mgr Keith greeting members of the congregation after Mass.

Fr Aquilina from Sevenoaks with Mgr Broadhurst
Settling down for a picnic - some of our Bournemouth Group in the forefront

A merry post-prandial trio of priests

a South London seminar sur l'herbe.







and a pair of Ellises comparing notes

Bishop Lindsay Urwin welcomes us to the Anglican Shrine where he is the Administrator

The National at Walsingham

So many bishops, so few of them diocesans. In 1992 there were thirteen bishops, most of them diocesans, who voted against women's ordination. At Walsingham this year there were John Hind of Chichester, and Nicholas Reade of Blackburn - no other English diocesan - except, of course, for the Bishop of Norwich who was there in cope and mitre; but not as a concelebrant. There was a time when he was one of us - not any longer. There is a couple of others still in office who reckon to be Catholics; Europe and London, I suppose. But the 'honoured place' we were promised does NOT extend to appointing new Catholic Diocesan Bishops. So here are a few of the retireds, suffragans and such who still make it to Walsingham for the National; so far as I can discern them, Richborough, Ebbsfleet, Burnley, David Silk, Pontefract and Chichester with, on the throne, Whitby. On the other side of the altar was another handful, and here they are:


I may be wrong, but I seem to discern Blackburn, Burnley (again), Edmonton, Horsham, Beverley, Ladds and a certain colonial bishop.








Then there were other great and good figures around - you could not miss the Master General of SSC, and here he is with Bishop Martin Warner and the Principal of Pusey House, Fr Jonathan Baker.
In the Anglo-Catholic blog I said this might be the last such occasion many of us would attend. One of our American readers was upset at this; he seemed to think Walsingham would disappear. Not at all. I am sure we will still be going there; but as members of the Ordinariate we are not very likely, except perhaps as ecumenical guests, to be at the Anglican National Pilgrimage.

One of the Guardians, (not, I think, in this photo) gave the impression he would not be joining the Ordinariate. He did concede, though, that if he were to become Lord High Chancellor and wear a full-bottomed wig he might reconsider... so clearly we must try to arrange this for him.

Bishop Lindsay kept a very low profile, sitting with the ecumenical guests and the Guardians. I think the contender for the Chancellorship may indeed be in this last picture.

[I have amended the list of bishops after a helpful comment from a reader... thanks. +E]