Twice Blessed

Q. Why should anyone attend two Chrism Masses on successive days?

A. Because he is a priest of the Ordinariate, who also has responsibilities in a Catholic Diocese. So on Monday it was St James' Spanish Place at 11am, presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to the United Kingdom, His Excellency the Most Reverend Antonio Mennini, with our Ordinary, Mgr Newton, receiving our renewal of vows and preaching.


My, that was a rush; our train was impeded by a broken-down freight train. By Divine Providence the Nuncio was also delayed, which gave me just time to dive into a chasuble and join the procession.


After a sandwich lunch, Mgr Keith addressed his priests (and what a good turn-out there was; more than fifty already ordained, and a number of others hoping for ordination later this year). He and Mgr Broadhurst spoke of the financial situation, how we are doing better than we were, but that there is still a need for more committed giving - not least because we have the resonsibility of paying pensions for our priests. I had to dash off before the meeting ended, since I was on duty in the evening hearing confessions as part of the Penitential Liturgy in Lymington.


Although the liturgy was the same, the feel of the event today in Portsmouth was quite different. Whereas in London a choir sang historic settings of Sanctus and Benedictus, in Portsmouth the entire eucharistic prayer was intoned by Bishop and concelebrants. The sermons, too, were both very inspiring, and both quite different from each other. Bishop Crispian began in Portsmouth "When I preached at this Mass last year, I was confident that it would be for the 23rd and last time. However, as they say, man proposes and God - and the Vatican – disposes and I am still here to celebrate with you my 24th Mass of the Oils. I am as certain as anyone can be that I won’t be here this time next year, though you never know!" There is clearly great affection between him and his clergy, and warm applause greeted what he had to say. You can read it for yourself at http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/bishop/homilies/2012_Sermon_for_the_Mass_of_the_Oils.pdf. Equally, Mgr Keith's sermon is available at the Ordinairate website, along with many pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/sets/72157629723790149/show/
The ones in this post are taken from that set, by the kindness of Dn James Bradley.

A Happy Portsmouth Day

As Bishop of Matabeleland, and then as a Bishop with the TAC, Robert Mercer C.R.brings great wisdom and experience into the Ordinariate. Bishop Alan Hopes came to Portsmouth Cathedral on Lady Day to Ordain Robert a Catholic Priest. I began to write about this on another blog, but a gremlin entered the works, so I shall try to put into this post some of the pictures from the day. (Click on the photograph below and you might spot Fr Robert just ahead of Mgr Keith's linen mitre.)


Very good that there were two C.R. priests from Mirfield to support their brother. Equally, there was a good turnout of TAC members from St Agatha's Portsea (where Fr Robert will now exercise his ministry) and Ordinariate priests from the diocese of Portsmouth and beyond. Good, too, that Mgr Broadhurst was there with Judy giving their support to ex-Anglican Bishop number 6 in the Ordinariate.


Fr Peter Geldard quipped about welcoming this new blood into the Church - he made the move from Secretary General of the Church Union to Catholic University Chaplain in Canterbury many years ago - in time to give great hospitality to those fighting a rearguard action against the forces of 'modernisma' at the '98 Lambeth Conference. With his in the photograph is another pioneer, Fr Christopher Colven, now Parish Priest at St James' Spanish Place in London, but for many of us a real pastor when he was Master of SSC in those troubled years on the '80s and '90s. Certainly some of us have taken too long to see the light: but we also have a good influx of younger members in the Ordinariate who have woken up and smelled the coffee (as they say)more quickly than we did.



Now we have to get organised for our first Ordinariate Holy Week and Easter, and get ready to welcome the next influx of erstwhile Anglicans. What a great time this is to be alive!

What a Day!

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.

Get Me To The Church On Time!

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

Two Cathedrals

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).

Calm down, Dears

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.