Significant Anniversaries

Not sure where they have gone, but this year Jane and I clock up fifty years of marriage. So today we responded to an invitation from Bishop Philip of Portsmouth, and attended a great celebration in Basingstoke.   There were hundreds of couples there, and it was a great surprise and a real pleasure to find Margaret and John Quarterman among the 50 year brigade. John and I were at school together in Plymouth, now he is battling with Parkinsonism but keeps his familiar cheerfulness. They come from the other end of the diocese, in Wallingford. There was also a server and his wife whom I recognised from Our Lady of Lourdes, New Milton, where I say Mass most Thursdays. Besides these familiar faces, we also managed to meet some new friends during the very lavish bun-fight which they prepared for us at St Bede's.

 Margaret & John waiting to greet the Bishop

 

In blazing sunshine the Bishop stood for almost two hours, speaking to everyone and taking a personal interest in all of us. The Parish had really gone to town to make us welcome - we even left Church in a shower of confetti.

 

 

 

St Bede's is on a large site which includes a primary school. With ample parking and very pleasant indoor spaces it provides the sort of facilities which it would be hard to match at the Cathedral - beside which it is more accessible than Portsmouth for large parts of the Diocese. You cannot miss the building ; a great Pyramid or Ziggurat. It has in it features you will either love or loathe. There is a (to my mind) fine crucifix - I have seen other work by the same sculptor in Winchester Cathedral, and in the Bishop of Winchester's chapel at Wolvesey. Some of the parishioners told me I should see the Blessed Sacrament Chapel before I left. The Sacrament House is a metal container set  in the middle of an arrangement of metal leaves. They tell me it represents the burning bush.

 

The blessed Sacrament Perhaps it would grow on one; I found it a bit idiosyncratic. There is also a  constantly running font, which is fine in principle, but I'm not sure Bless how practical it might be - at least though it is situated near the entrance, which is far better than having (as in one nameless Catholic church) a blow-up children's paddling pool in front of the sanctuary.  But enough quibbling, today was wonderful, and it was good that there were so many children and grandchildren of the anniversary couples sharing the day with them. We are so fortunate to have our Bournemouth Mission in Bishop Philip's diocese. He goes out of his way to be inclusive towards us Johnny-come-latelies of the Ordinariate. I think one or two in Church today were a bit mystified to see a clerical collar among the worshippers - some, I know, supposed I was a Deacon. Another time I should have a placard with "Reformed Ex-Anglican" on my back. Many though already know something about us (there are five Ordinariate Groups which meet and worship in Portsmouth Diocese) and even when people have only vaguely heard of us they are invariably welcoming.

 

The Bishop began his homily with a very funny and very un-PC story about a dead mother-in law... (which I will use another time) but went on to give us good advice direct from St Paul (bear with one another - always be thankful - forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins). He spoke about how currently Parliament is "attempting the impossible; to redefine the natural institution of marriage". He asked where this might lead - Polygamous marriage? Designer babies? Unions with several partners? - "As Catholics we must hold fast to the full truth about being human, revealed in Christ, and we must do our best to communicate that truth with real joy and conviction. For the Church's vision of sexuality, marriage and family life is splendid ... and you are witnesses to that."

 

Today's celebration will certainly have encouraged many in seeking to live out the fulness of our Christian Marriages.

 



St Bedes

 





Fareham Licensing

Bishop Keith Presiding: Fr Woodman setting the Altar

Once again the powers that be have downgraded a major parish by licensing a priest in charge instead of inducting a new Incumbent. This time it was in the Parish of SS Peter and Paul Fareham, and I am not sure what the excuse was for suspending the living. Something, no doubt, about 'pastoral reorganisation'; or perhaps the diocese in in the process of selling off the Vicarage, and does not want there to be an incumbent with the power to stop it. Fr Christopher Woodman SSC comes to Portsmouth from Chichester diocese.

The parish has fairly recently passed the third resolution, so Bishop Keith was there resplendent in cloth of gold to celebrate the Mass. The licensing took place within the celebration, but instead of simply getting over the legal requirements we were subjected to the CofE's notion of 'commitment': to Renewal and Growth - a little walk to the font where a Churchwarden had to say "We, the people of this parish, for our part must, by word and example, encourage those who are baptized to be active .... and so on and so on." Then, a walk to the Lectern (there being no pulpit - is that legal?) and another little quintet (it would be better set to music) for Bishop of Dorking, Area Dean, Priest-in-charge designate, churchwarden and lay chair, leading into another choral offering by The People of The Parish "We will, with the help of God".

Kenneth Stevenson, lately retired, was of course a leading light in modern liturgy, so no doubt most of these golden phrases came from his erudite pen. The See is now in vacancy, and it was for the Bishop of Dorking, Ian Brackley, to operate (for the last time, he said) as Commissary.

We had further commitments; to Prayer. As I recall this used to happen at a litany desk; you don't come across them much nowadays, so the procession was to "the body of the Church" - that is to say, the Nave.

The bit about the Eucharist was called "Commitment to Unity". This had been the theme, too, of Bishop Ian's sermon; how the parish must play its part in the town and among the other parishes. The catholic element in the CofE was very important, he averred, and "we" were doing everything to enable catholics to remain loval Anglicans. Bishop Keith did not look terribly enthralled by what the Commissary was saying - and told him so in very direct Liverpudlian after the mass.

The new P-P

I did notice one happy phrase; something about "Don't just find the beauty of holiness in catholic worship: find the beauty of human beings touched by grace" - it was a faint echo of Frank Weston's words at an Anglo-Catholic Congress. But of course what Weston envisaged was a Church of England reclaimed for the Catholic faith. Since that is now no longer possible, we must all look elsewhere to find our Catholic home.

It was good that there were SSC brethren there to support the new parish priest. Fr Graham Smith, local Vicar of the Chapter, assisted at Communion. Fr Ron Gwyther, the ancient of days, has helped greatly in the parish for many years, and it was good to see him in conversation with Fr Kenneth Forster. Kenneth had been an NSM priest in my Hull parish decades ago and now he too is landed in Fareham, where he has family. Good, too, to have Fr Waller from S Saviour Walthamstow gracing the procedings.

Altogether, a curate's egg of an evening. Some good hearty singing - but a turgid bit of Taize, a well-ordered Mass, and at the heart of it those increasingly impossible claims that "The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church". I hope Fr Woodman kept his fingers tightly crossed as he made the Declaration of Assent.

Free at Last!

Free as air

As Synod fades into memory, one emotion remains; grateful thanks that the speculation is ended, and we know we are not wanted. "Oh, but the Archbishop has said ...." Forget it. What the Archbishop said has been ignored, and will be again. "Oh, but the dioceses are to debate the proposals..." To what end? They cannot amend anything, only approve or disapprove; and the certainty is that they will all approve what is before them. "Oh, but the final vote is not for eighteen months, there will be a new Synod, they need a two-thirds majority.." So what! If it were to fail at that hurdle it would come back very swiftly, with even less concessions to traditionalists. No, we have been given a one-way ticket, and the sooner we use it the better.

Spire of Ryde All Saints

So yesterday, taking a day out to the Isle of Wight (see the Anglo-Catholic blog) was wonderfully refreshing. Especially seeing All Saints Ryde in the pastoral care of the Bishop of Richborough, and so a constant thorn in the flesh of Portsmouth Diocese plc, standing proud on the skyline.

Quarr on the skyline

Then Quarr Abbey, where my former colleague among the college Principals, Dennis Lloyd of Mirfield, took refuge after leaving the C of E. We had a lovely day on the Island, and Osborne is worth a long journey.

English Heritage are doing a great job restoring Osborne house and gardens to their former glory. This is also an excuse to show you some pretty pictures from the Solent in Cowes week.

Portsmouth Harbour Entrance, the

Spinnaker on the right

If you have been to Portsmouth lately you can't have missed the Spinnaker Tower. We can glimpse it from Lymington, twenty miles away. Close up you get some impression of its size; the top three floors are glazed [they appear black in the picture above: click on the picture to enlarge it] and way up there you glimpse tiny figures of spectators... terrific. Knocks the Angel of the North into several cocked hats.

The base of the Spinnaker tower, with the Masts of Nelson's Victory in the distance.