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

 





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.

Now here IS a Bishop

There has been criticism in some places of Bishops who do not 'give a lead' on major issues such as the undermining of Marriage. Well, here in Portsmouth we have a Bishop who is ready, and able, to take on the liberal ascendancy - not least that part of it which calls itself "Conservative". In case you missed it, here is what Bishop Philip Egan has written:

David Cameron has said that he is an enthusiastic supporter of marriage and that he does not want "gay people to be excluded from a great institution." Yet however well-intentioned, and despite huge opposition from Christians, Jews and Muslims alike, by attempting to change the natural meaning of marriage, he seems utterly determined to undermine one of the key foundations of our society. Such a change is of immense significance. By this change, he is luring the people of England away from their common Christian values and Christian patrimony, and forcing upon us a brave new world, artificially engineered. To "extend marriage to gay people", he intends to impose the will of a tiny minority on the vast majority. If the Prime Minister proceeds with these intentions, he will pervert authentic family values, with catastrophic consequences for the well-being and behaviour of future generations. He will smother the traditional Christian ethos of our society and strangle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church in Britain to conduct its mission. I would like to ask Mr. Cameron: What about the rights of Christians? Will you exempt the Church, its preachers, resources and premises, from having to support your harmful ideology? Will Catholic schools, societies and institutions be free (and legally safeguarded) to teach the full truth of Christ and the real meaning of life and love? The institution of marriage has had its ups and downs, but will we ever forget that it was the leader of the Conservative Party who finally destroyed marriage as a lasting, loving and life-giving union between a man and a woman?