Permit me to boast...

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

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

'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

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

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

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

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.]