Trying to be Helpful

Expensive business, getting to London for Synods and Committees. Just occasionally there is a bonus spin-off; the Royal Academy provided it yesterday, with its wonderful exhibition from Budapest. After a Church Union committee meeting, Jane and I met and spent a couple of hours in the RA. The Goya young girl used in their publicity poster (above) is wonderful. There is also some magnificent Church art, much of it collected by the Esterhazys.

There was, though, one later painting which particularly caught my eye. It is by Philip de Laszlo, a portrait of Pope Leo XIII. Now we have a new society, named after those two great Romanisers, SS Wilfrid and Hilda. Why not add this great Pope, progenitor of Apostolicae Curae, as a third patron? He would sit very well with the other two Saints. You can't say I don't try to be helpful.

And if you possibly can, get to the Royal Academy to see the Treasures from Budapest. Perhaps you could squeeze a visit in during the Forward in Faith Assembly?

It is a large exhibition: a smaller one at the V&A might appeal:

Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel 8 September – 17 October 2010
Free ticketed admission - pre-booking is strongly advised as ticket numbers are limited

The tapestries are displayed alongside the full-size designs for them – the famous Raphael Cartoons. This is the first time that the designs and tapestries have been displayed together –something Raphael himself never witnessed. The tapestries have not been shown before in the UK. More details on the website of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Watch it!

Chichester explains

I never thought I would say it, but WATCH (Women Against the Church, or some such thing) have written something sensible. Mind you, it comes in the midst of a deal of rubbish about how Hilda of Whitby would have really been ordained and so on; still, credit where it is due, when it comes to writing about the 'Society Model' they are almost as accurate as Fr Hunwicke. This is what they wrote:-

'The “Society model” (which this proposal seems to embody), was discussed in depth by the Revision Committee when it looked at how best to provide for those who would not accept women as bishops. It was rejected because, ‘Crucially the majority of us came to believe that there was some risk of creating a society that was an even weightier body than a Diocese. This was because some of the representations made to us seemed to envisage that jurisdiction would in some way be conferred on the society itself and through it to its bishops… we therefore voted by 11 votes to 7 that we did not wish the draft Measure to be amended to give effect to a society model.’ (Report of the Revision Committee, page 22 paras 110, 115)'

Now Fr Houlding, at least, knows all this, because he made the report which the Revision Committee threw out. So why was he supporting it (albeit very luke-warmly) at the "Sacred Synod" last week?

(rt)The Bishop of Ebbsfleet enthralled by Fr Houlding's defence of the Society Model

BTW, is it only me who thinks of Christine Keeler when they say "Society Model" ?

Bishop Andrew hits the spot

+ Fulham (l) and + Richborough (r) attentive to Bishop Andrew

Once again, it seems to me that Bishop Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet) has succinctly discovered the weakness of those labouring to delay or undermine the Ordinariate. He wrote this in response to a posting on the Anglo-Catholic, but rather than giving you the labour of seeking that out, here is what he said:

"Fr Tomlinson's mistaking of the source of the press release, corrected by Fr Marsden, and the postal address of the Society being the same as FiF's encourages me to pass on the questions asked by some groups at the Ebbsfleet Lay Conference on Saturday 25th September. Isn't FiF the very Society we need and which we have already got? There were reminiscences of the language of 'seizing' what is not granted and 'our bishops' consecrating new bishops over the border. Why would FiF, re-inventing itself under new episopal leadership – the Society's named bishops, including the chairman of FOAG, instead of the 'old guard' of Fulham and PEVs – and called a 'Society' succeed now at 'seizing' where it previously failed? This is what the laity asked.

My own reflection is that when Bishop Mark talked at the Sacred Synod of a Society 'within the Church' he put his finger on the trojan which may destroy this project. 'Within the Church' means interchangeability of sacraments and ministers, dependence on a parent model. It is exactly the difficulty of those issues which has led the Church of England to reject traditionalists' proposals six times (Guildford, Gloucester-Guildford, Manchester Group, Synod 2008, Revision Committee, Synod 2010) and I don't think the Society proposal disguises the difficulties sufficiently to allow traditionalists proposals to slip through the seventh time round.

I offered a paper on the various solutions, including the Society model, five years ago and I discussed it then with bishops, including both archbishops (one of whom was a bishop at the time in the area Ebbsfleet serves), and subsequently by some of those on the Revision Committee. The problem then -and ever since – has been the same old issues of interchangeability of sacraments and ministers and relationship with the parent body.

My own conclusion is that those Anglicans who are not convinced by the ministry of Peter – beautifully proclaimed in the visit of the Holy Father to the UK this month – should remain with the untidiness of Anglicanism and relate to the rest of the Anglican world as they are directed to by bishops and synods – for that is the Anglican system. Those who accept the ministry of Peter should accept his warm welcome into full communion, a welcome re-iterated in the published speech to the Catholic bishops at Oscott College. There are two routes: one for groups ('the caravan') and the other for individuals journeying alone ('solo swimmers'). Despite press excitement, we have no timetable as yet for the first – though there are groups preparing themselves – and the second route is always available and is even open, at present, for married priests, though whether that would continue alongside an Ordinariate provision we have yet to discover.

We must not rain on each other's parades but there is much work to be done by the Society of Wilfred and Hilda before it is self-evident that it is viable. And it does need to be clear about its attitude to the Holy See and Anglicanorum Coetibus. Several have pointed out that both Wilfrid and Hilda were zealous supporters of bringing a fragmented British Christianity into a proper relationship with Roman conventions and the Latin Church. Is that its aim or among its objectives?
+Andrew"

Hither and Yon

I abandoned the 'Sacred Synod' on Friday before it ended; to get home to welcome four dinner guests. When they left I posted a blog for the Anglo-Catholic http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/09/here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush/

(it seems to have caused a little interest), packed for the weekend, and went to bed a little after midnight. At seven am on Saturday we were on the road to Bury St Edmunds, where I was honoured to preach for the Revd Dr Michael Peel's 5oth anniversary of priesting.

Fr Peel was on good form

Jane had found the journey rather tiring

Michael, when I first met him, was Warden of the Homes of St Barnabas in Sussex, but he already had a long and distinguished parochial ministry behind him. Also behind him, as ever, was his wife Daloni - their Golden Wedding is in two years' time.

Their sons and families supported them, as did many old friends. Fr David Palmer (now a Catholic Priest) gave one of the speeches; another was by a former Curate, Fr John Sclater (left), now a Priest Vicar of Wells Cathedral. Fr Michael himself celebrated the Mass in time-honoured Prayer Books style (albeit with Incense and some modest ceremonial).

At the end of Mass

Fr Peel's wife, Daloni (rt), welcomed guests to the after-Mass drinks at the back of Church.

The Church of St Peter, Thurston, is a large imposing East Anglian edifice; its tower fell dramatically in the 19th Century, demolishing the greater part of the nave. Amazingly, within eighteen monthsof the disaster it was completely rebuilt!









After a great reception we drove southeast into Essex from Suffolk, to the parish of Thorpe-le-Soken. There Fr Jeremy Dowding was in mid-festival, and we joined the parish that evening for a marvellous concert - the outstandingly good Tenor, Andrew Bain, had been a chorister at St Peter's and like his fellow artist the Soprano Natasha Shipp, gave his services freely to the Church, as did also their accompanist Helen Allison.

The party that followed the concert went on in the Vicarage until three am. Jane and I made our excuses and retired around midnight. On Sunday morning, I preached at a confirmation when the one Candidate, Patricia, was supported by her daughter and grand-daughter.




It was a lovely occasion, in the church decked with flowers and produce for Harvest, and there was a large congregation. In the past year the regular communicant numbers has grown by around twenty - while all around churches are in decline. We were joined for lunch in a nearby pub by Fr Jeremy and his wife and four of his leading parishioners. When we made our getaway in mid-afternoon we headed into torrential rain and traffic returning from other weekend jollifications, so it took us four hours to cover the 190 miles home. So much for retirement - but I would sooner wear out than just rust away. You might like one or two pictures from the weekend. Below is the 16th Century tower of Our Lady and St Michael, Thorpe-le-Soken; most of the rest of the church is 19th Century rebuild.

Little fish, big pond

A little relaxation yesterday before a busy weekend: Mottisfont, to catch the last of the roses (the house is undergoing restoration, as you can see), then after our picnic lunch back home for a little harvest festival as we gathered in most of the apples from our two more productive trees. Later in the afternoon a quick swim in the English Channel - not many more opportunities this year, I fear. Now I see that we have clocked up 100,000 hits on this blog. Fr Ed Tomlinson achieved this in about three weeks of blogging, and this has been going on for almost a year. What's more, I guess half that number are me looking to see who else is updating blogs in the righthand column. For all that, it is a milestone of sorts.

Then today it was a celebration in the Lady Chapel (perversely called 'the Courtenay Chapel' because there's a theory that it has some connexion with the family of the Earls of Devon; big deal; I'd sooner it had a connection with Our Lady) in St Thomas', Lymington. Note St Ubaldesca in the bottom right light of the window (beneath what are nearly the five joyful mysteries). She has something to do with St John of Jerusalem and the Knights of Malta - as did the lady in whose memory the window was given.

Now gearing up for tomorrow's sacred Synod in London; a friend has emailed to say it will be very costly (it certainly is; the London crowd never consider how expensive it is for us yokels to get there - well over £30 for me, and much more for those coming from the Isle of Wight) and it will do little for those of us concerned to join the Ordinariate. It is likely to be all about how we must support those standing for General Synod, and how with one last heave we might get some crumb of a concession which will enable one or two more dressing-up 'Anglo-Catholics' to remain loyal members of the CofE plc. We'll see. I doubt if I shall have time to blog about it, since early on Saturday it is heigh-ho for St Edmundsbury and Fr Michael Peel's 50th of priesting, and then on Sunday a confirmation on behalf of +Keith in Thorpe-le-Soken (the parish before the end of the world in Frinton). Home on Monday, we hope.

When we join the ordinariate we shall have to become accustomed to being very small fish in a very large pond; so thought you might like to see some of the fish from Mottisfont. The image at the left of this blog, of the Lady Chapel in St Thomas', shows the blank section of wall in the centre of the window where I feel sure there would once have been an image of Our Lady - and certainly not of the Earl of Devon!

Joining the Ordinariate

+ Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet and PEV for the Western half of Canterbury Province, has published the third of his series of pastoral letters. Since I am constantly being asked how things are going towards the Ordinariate, and constantly have to say "Be patient; wait on the PEV's", now that a PEV has spoken, it is good to be able at last to quote direct from the horse's mouth:

Bishop Andrew Writes:

In this, the third of a series of Pastoral Letters, I promised to address the issue of the English Ordinariate. In August I looked at what had happened at the General Synod in York and in September I looked at the business of electing a new General Synod. Those who join the new Ordinariate, offered by the Pope in Anglicanorum Cœtibus in the autumn of 2009, will do so for one of two reasons. One reason would be that, looking hard at the General Synod, past and future, there seems little prospect of adequate provision for Anglo-catholics in the Church of England. We don't need a glasshouse with a special climate, or an Indian Reserve where we can do strange dances round a totem pole, follow strange customs, and wear strange clothes. Still less do we need some kind of nursing home where we can live out our days in peace and quiet. In our view, the Anglican orders of bishop, priest, and deacon, and Anglican sacraments, are either the ancient orders and sacraments of the Church, as they have been handed down to us from the time of the apostles, or they are not. You can't muck about with orders and sacraments! If Anglo-catholic orders and sacraments are not the same as those of other Anglicans, we are not proper Anglicans, and if Anglican orders and sacraments generally are not the same as those of other Catholic Christians, East and West, then our orders and sacraments are not Catholic. Our main problem is not with our own orders and sacraments at this present moment in Anglo-catholic parishes, but what has been happening with other Anglicans. This has already begun to affect our orders and sacraments and what they will be in the future.There are stories of people no longer being baptised 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit'. There are stories of people - even a dog! - being admitted to Holy Communion without being baptised. There are stories of people no longer using wheat flour and grape for the Eucharist or making up the order of service as they go along. There are stories about lay people presiding at the Eucharist. There are marriages of two people of the same sex. These are mostly stories from overseas but, leaving aside what is happening in the Anglican Communion, we are now challenged in England by the prospect of women bishops, an unscriptural development. In short, the first reason for joining the Ordinariate might be that Anglo-catholics are no longer confident that they belong to the Catholic Church whose Faith and Order has been handed down from the apostles. If we finally came to that conclusion, that would be a good reason to seek to join one of the ancient branches of the Church, East or West. If we made the decision to explore the ancient branches of the Church, that, in turn, might be a reason to choose to join the Ordinariate, part of the ancient Church of the West. The second reason for joining the new Ordinariate is, I think, a better one. It is not about leaving anything behind but about joining something new. It is not about leaving a body which has gone astray and belonging to a more reliable body. The second reason works something like this. Anglo-catholics have always thought of themselves as separated from Rome - from the Pope - by circumstances of history. Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife was made possible by divorcing the whole English Church from the Holy See. The King was to be in charge of the Church and not the Pope. It is for this reason that we have been brought up on a diet of 'No popery!', the propaganda of the Tudor state and of Stuarts imperilled by the gunpowder plot. It is for this reason that the heir to the British crown cannot be a Catholic. Anglo-catholics have generally regretted this and seen it as necessary to do all they could to bring about a reconciliation with Rome. No one has been more enthusiastic about the work of ARCIC, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, this last forty years, than Anglo-catholics. And yet as the work of ARCIC goes into its third phase, Anglicans and Roman Catholics have grown further apart. It is for this reason that the Holy See has responded to the plight of Anglo-catholics with the offer of an Ordinariate. In short, the second reason to join the new Ordinariate is because it is the way - and for the foreseeable future the only way - that groups of Anglicans can become reconciled with Rome, and embrace the ministry of Peter. It is the only way of pursuing together our ecumenical agenda, the urgency of which becomes more obvious, the more Christianity is under attack by secularism. Joining the Ordinariate is not a matter to be considered lightly. Clergy who do so put their stipends and pensions, their homes and their security at risk. In some cases the response of laity will be so enthusiastic that whole congregations might be able to move together, with their parish priest. In most cases, the Ordinariate groups will be church-planting new congregations, congregations of perhaps only thirty or so people to start with, but thirty enthusiasts nonetheless. Such congregations of activists will probably grow rapidly, but there, of course, lies another risk. There are many clergy and laity who would love to possess the courage for this pioneering venture but they simply do not. Not everyone is at heart a risk-all pioneer. Not everyone can be: we all have real responsibilities to families to balance against the radical demand of the Gospel. And where do Ebbsfleet congregations, their clergy and people, stand in relation to all this? I want people to make decisions about the future carefully and prayerfully. I set out a prospectus for some of this a few years ago. There are, I think, three different responses to the present emergency. None is right for everyone. One is what I called the 'non-jurors', those who soldier on, know that they are a dying breed, but are content to be witnesses of what they have always believed and practised. Some mainly elderly clergy and congregations are of that view. The second group are the 'solo swimmers', individuals who go off on their own and join the local Catholic congregation. The third group is the 'caravan'. By this I don't mean a holiday home. The 'caravan' in biblical times was something like the trek of the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, via Mount Sinaï. The caravan is large and ramshackle, camels and people trudging along, children running around and playing . There are new-borns in the caravan and people dying. People join and people leave. The beginning of the caravan is somewhere ahead of us, over the horizon. The back of the horizon is way behind us, further than eye can see. This, I think, is, for many, the Ebbsfleet journey. This was the theme, the Exodus theme - Marching towards the Promised Land: a Land of Milk and Honey - at our joyful Festivals of Faith. May God bless you as you faithfully seek to serve him in his holy Church.
+Andrew.

I am hugely grateful to Bishop Andrew for spelling this out. I think there are still some questions; for instance, I hear from isolated Anglicans who want to belong to the Ordinariate but can find no group near them which they can join. That is something for all the PEVs, and the Ordinariate itself, to tackle with urgency. Perhaps they already have the answer; on Friday there is to be a meeting for clergy in London which might make things clearer. Meanwhile, keep the prayers going. The Holy Father's visit has been a wonderful encouragement. He has given us the offer of the Ordinariate. We must not let him down.

Staggers Reunion

St Matthew's Willesden is a back-streets Anglo-Catholic gem; so it was a delight to be invited there by Fr Daniel Humphreys for their Feast of Title; and a great kindness of Fr David Houlding to convey me there from Waterloo. Without his sat-nav I would still be looking for St Matthew's. Imagine, arriving on time with Fr Houlding ... wonderful. Since this was my Sunday Mass, earlier in the day I was able to assist (in front of the Tele) at the elevation of John Henry Cardinal Newman to being a Beatus. What a triumph Pope Benedict's four days in England have been.

An added bonus was to have so many old friends in choir at St Matthew's - not concelebrating, for this was a good solid High Mass - Eastward facing and all. Great singing (Praise to the Holiest, of course) and a super supper. Where there are West Indians (these mostly with their roots in Grenada, I'm told) the food is always wonderful. Curried goat is a special favourite. And Fr Humphreys produced an undeserved present, a bottle of Sancerre, saying it was a wine I had mentioned on my blog. It is certainly a favourite... perhaps I should be careful what I say, though, about single malts or premiers crus!

Among others who were present perhaps I might mention two old lags from St Stephen's House, that very selective blogger Fr David Clues, and the guardian of the Episcopal Sofa (ask him) Fr Colin Patterson. The whole evening was just lovely, a great way to end the Pontiff's visit to England. Now I must prepare sermons for next weekend in Essex - a 50th of Priesting and a Confirmation. The St Matthew sermon from this weekend should be on the Anglo-Catholic blog before long.

You will find more about St Matthews at http://www.stmatthews-willesden.org.uk/