Of Anniversaries

The Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe

and the River defines London

More travels; this weekend it was Rotherhithe; the occasion, a 20th of priesting. But Fr Nicholls who was the birthday boy was actually born in the year of my deaconing. The 50th anniversary of that is on Saturday next. O tempora, O mores! Especially the tempora bit.

So, since it was Corpus Xti, I spoke about the passing of time, and the need to keep our Wills up to date (how good the Visitation of the Sick is about keeping our affairs in order). Then, naturally, to the Last Will and Testament of Our Blessed Lord - who gave it to us at the Last Supper.

What a great Sanctuary; though it would be easier using it as intended, Eastward facing. For all that, the whole occasion was lovely, with a Procession and Benediction to conclude.

I spoke about Executors; no use relying on friends, they can die before us. Institutions like Banks can be very expensive - and as we have seen recently, they may well not survive. Our Lord relied on his friends, but not just them; on their succession. Which brings us, of course, to the problem of who is and who is not a bishop. I left the question hanging - for the people and their priest to resolve. What a lovely and diverse bunch they are there on the South Bank of the Thames; and mercifully untainted by "South Bank Religion".

I'd like to be buried in a graveyard with a slide in it.

The National at Walsingham

So many bishops, so few of them diocesans. In 1992 there were thirteen bishops, most of them diocesans, who voted against women's ordination. At Walsingham this year there were John Hind of Chichester, and Nicholas Reade of Blackburn - no other English diocesan - except, of course, for the Bishop of Norwich who was there in cope and mitre; but not as a concelebrant. There was a time when he was one of us - not any longer. There is a couple of others still in office who reckon to be Catholics; Europe and London, I suppose. But the 'honoured place' we were promised does NOT extend to appointing new Catholic Diocesan Bishops. So here are a few of the retireds, suffragans and such who still make it to Walsingham for the National; so far as I can discern them, Richborough, Ebbsfleet, Burnley, David Silk, Pontefract and Chichester with, on the throne, Whitby. On the other side of the altar was another handful, and here they are:


I may be wrong, but I seem to discern Blackburn, Burnley (again), Edmonton, Horsham, Beverley, Ladds and a certain colonial bishop.








Then there were other great and good figures around - you could not miss the Master General of SSC, and here he is with Bishop Martin Warner and the Principal of Pusey House, Fr Jonathan Baker.
In the Anglo-Catholic blog I said this might be the last such occasion many of us would attend. One of our American readers was upset at this; he seemed to think Walsingham would disappear. Not at all. I am sure we will still be going there; but as members of the Ordinariate we are not very likely, except perhaps as ecumenical guests, to be at the Anglican National Pilgrimage.

One of the Guardians, (not, I think, in this photo) gave the impression he would not be joining the Ordinariate. He did concede, though, that if he were to become Lord High Chancellor and wear a full-bottomed wig he might reconsider... so clearly we must try to arrange this for him.

Bishop Lindsay kept a very low profile, sitting with the ecumenical guests and the Guardians. I think the contender for the Chancellorship may indeed be in this last picture.

[I have amended the list of bishops after a helpful comment from a reader... thanks. +E]

For those in Peril...

St Saviour on the Cliff

The SSC Chapter of SS Peter and Paul meets overseas sometimes; that is to say, on the Isle of Wight. We include brethren from the two dioceses of Portsmouth and Winchester. There is a ferry to the Island from Lymington, where I live, so the journey to St Saviour on the Cliff, Shanklin, was not very onerous.

Though I served in the Diocese of Portsmouth for my first three years in the Ministry (and was made a Deacon in Portsmouth Cathedral just fifty years ago this Trinity - my, how time flies when you're having fun!) I'd never before been to St Saviour's. It is an impressive Victorian pile, which has clearly had some wealthy benefactors. The former Vicarage was sold off when the parish was joined with its neighbour of Lake, but fortunately two church families bought it from the diocese and are generous in letting the parish use the garden from time to time. Today, it was a member of one of those families, a Churchwarden, who helped serve us with a ploughman's lunch (though if ploughmen ate lunches like that I doubt if much ploughing would have been done in the afternoon!)

We began with half an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, then celebrated Mass, ate our lunch in the North Aisle (which serves as a meeting place until the Victorian hall is restored) and then had a good and lively discussion on the matter of the Ordinariate. It is clear that in our chapter at least there will not be one single opinion; some are very keen to take the Holy Father's option at the earliest opportunity, other think they might have to be in the second rather than the first lifeboat. We were all concerned, though, to try to understand one another, and "to keep the brethren of the Society united in love and in faith" as our SSC prayer says.

Window of Christ the King
in the Chancel of St Saviour on the Cliff.

We are fortunate in having Bishop Keith as our PEV, and many of us are looking forward to following his lead at the right time, unmoved by those who mock us saying we are too timorous, or that we are waiting for a better offer from the Synod. I have outlined some of the reasons why the PEVs cannot rush our application to the Holy See. They need our continuing prayers for a calm sea and a prosperous voyage.

How to welcome a Pope

Our first sight of Pope Benedict was in the newly built basilica, where he addressed nine thousand priests and religious. Through the good offices of the Bishop of Leiria/Fatima, our contingent of bishops and priests were admitted to this event; and bishop Keith and I had privileged seats at the very front of the assembly. Press photographers and security men were everywhere, yet we had a very good view thoughout. This photograph I took as he was leaving the Basilica. He went on into the crowds around the shrine, where he led the recital of the Rosary. This devotion is especially associated with Fatima, where the children who had the vision were told that the Lady they saw was the Lady of the Rosary.

The centre of the visit was the Mass celebrated on the Recinto, the site of the vision which the shepherd children received of the Mother of God. That occurred first on May 13th 1917, so it was on Thursday May 17th that the Holy Father took his place at the altar built in front of the 1930's basilica, where the bodies of the three visionaries are at rest.

It is difficult in words or pictures to convey the sheer size of the crowd gathered to honour Our Lady of Fatima. Generally there will be around 400,000 of the faithful; this year, the estimate was half a million. They are enthusiastic, greeting the arrival of the Holy Father with repeated shouts of "Long live the Pope!"; yet throughout the Mass this great throng is quiet and focused as they concentrate on the action taking place before them - for many, in the far distance! The National TV network covered every part of the Papal visit, from his arrival in Lisbon, throughout his time in Fatima, and his last day in Porto. As pictures appeared on the screens in the church the night of his arrival, great cheers greeted his arrival by helicopter.

Our party included a dozen clergy - on the left, Fr Malcolm Gray, who organises us. In the centre, me and bishop Keith. We were assigned seats in the colonnade, very near the Altar. On an unusually chilly Fatima day the wind blew through the columns and kept most of us awake.

Fatima is not all fun and games, though. When the Ecumenical Friends of Fatima were established some ten years ago, we asked the Bishop what work he would suggest we might share in; his answer was the Community of Life and Peace, where former drug addicts are rehabilitated. Here is some of our group visiting Vida & Paz, in order to present them with our most recent donation towards their work.

It would be good to think that some part of the enthusiasm of the Portuguese for the Holy Father might be repeated in England this autumn. As Anglicans, we have a special responsibility to try to explain why we find his such a sympathetic figure, one who has proved to be a Father in God to many of us who have been treated with less than fatherly care by some of our own bishops. More still, we have a duty to pray for the Pope, and for his visit when he will be honouring one of our own, John Henry Newman.

Like riding a Bicycle

This is what Harold Macmillan might have called "an uncovenanted mercy" - the pleasure of being able to conduct a wedding. I thought I might have forgotten how it went, but, like riding a bike, once done you don't forget. The bride had been baptized in infancy by the recently retired parish priest of St Francis, and was probably more than a little disappointed that he was not still around to officiate at her wedding. It was a great happiness for me, though; and a good dress-rehearsal for another marriage of a god-daughter which I shall conduct later this summer.
I just love those little hobble skirts of the bridesmaids; very 1920's! Lianne and Douglas have been (as they say) together for six years; so I acknowledged that, and said that this day was sealing their commitment to one another - and a time for family to stand back. They took it very seriously, and although the congregation had been a little high-spirited before we started, once we we underway everyone, even the tiny flower-girl and almost equally tiny groomsmen, were immaculately behaved. It reminded me how much I missed parish ministry when I first moved to St Stephen's House.
The day was a first for the Churchwarden and others who assisted her; they carried it off very well, even to ensuring that there was Registrar's Ink for the pen. FOUR witnesses (at the bride's request) rather than the required two meant a long signing. The string quartet did bravely, and we even managed to get all twenty-eight signatures (bride, groom, witnesses and me on each of four documents) in the right places. My, but it was exhausting. Tomorrow will be a very light day; just an 8am BCP-ish celebration (called in this parish "the early communion") with a sermonette. Then packing cases and checking passport ready for a very early start on Monday for Heathrow and Fatima; still supposing the volcano and BA Aircrew allow us to get to Lisbon and back. Pray, brethren!

A Code of Practice Will Not Do

As was widely predicted, the Church of England has chosen the day after a General Election to bury its bad news. Tomorrow the various reports concerning women in the Episcopate are to be published.* Meanwhile we have to make do with Ruth Gledhill's blog, where she leaks as follows:

"As the Bishop of Manchester indicated to General Synod in February 2010, the draft legislation continues to provide special arrangements for those with conscientious difficulties by way of delegation from the diocesan bishop under a statutory Code of Practice.
The legislation has been amended in a number of detailed respects.
Provision for statutory declarations by bishops unable to take part in the consecration of women as bishops or their ordination as priests has been removed as has an obligation on the Archbishops to nominate particular suffragan sees to be occupied by those who do not consecrate or ordain women.
Added to the Measure are new provisions requiring each diocesan bishop to draw up a scheme in his or her diocese that takes account of the national Code of Practice and provides local arrangements for the performance of certain episcopal functions in relation to parishes with conscientious difficulties.
A further new provision allows such parishes to request, when there is a vacancy, that only a male incumbent or priest-in-charge be appointed. It is expected that much of the July group of sessions of the General Synod in York (9-13 July) will be devoted to debating the Revision Committee’s report and conducting the Revision Stage of the legislation. "

There will, alas, be some priests and parishes who are taken in by this. 'Oh, we shall still be able to have a male priest here, so that's all right!..' No, it is not. First, note that all bishops must participate in the consecration of women bishops. No conscience clause for them. And when a man is consecrated there will doubtless be women bishops joining in the consecration even before we have our first women Archbishop. And do you suppose any priest opposed to women's ordination could be instituted? And how could he swear allegiance to the Bishop of X and her successors...?

"But we will still have the PEVs to protect us!" Oh no you won't. The Archbishops will not have to retain the sees of Ebbsfleet, Richborough or Beverley for those opposed; and so any safeguard there is removed. How could a new PEV accept office in the first place, though? He would have to accept that he was part of a college of bishops which included women whom be believes are not bishops; but he would not be allowed to say that, and women bishops would participate in his consecration. Since at least three of those functioning as Episcopal Visitors are committed to joining the Ordinariate, there would just be the PEV of the Northern Province hanging on until forced to retire by reason of age just four years from now. This is not the provision we asked for, "for our children and grandchildren".

So what shreds of a fig-leaf are left? Any special arrangements are by way of delegation from the diocesan bishop. A woman bishop would have to draw up a code of practice in her diocese which would "take account of a National Code of Practice". As a PEV until nine years ago I had the 'protection' of something much stronger than a code of practice. Yet even those legal provisions of the Act of Synod were largely ignored by many bishops. Now at least two of the women straining at the leash to be consecrated have said that when they are bishops they will do all they can to ensure any such code would be a dead letter. And even if they do make provision for those benighted parishes which do not accept their ministry, how will it be achieved? Will they ask a neighbouring male suffragan bishop, who himself fully approves of women bishops and joins in their consecrations, to take confirmations in that parish? What is that but pure misogyny.

The fact is, we are not (as is falsely alleged) 'opposed to women'. Many of those most firmly against women in the episcopate are themselves women. What we assert is our belief that women may not and should not be bishops in the Church of God. It would be very much easier for us if we could accept them; but, as Archbishop Rowan has recognised, we cannot, and this is a matter of conscience.

What is to be done, then? Far better end the pretence, scrap the fig leaf, go ahead with consecrating women and tell us to go. After all, the fig leaf is not for us; we have told you, A Code of Practice Will Not Do. Its only purpose is to try to hide your own embarrassment.

And, dear Synod, while you are about it, remember that you are breaking all the promises you so solemnly gave us when women were first ordained. You are ignoring the conclusions of the Eames Commission, that the Anglican Communion by itself could not resolve the question of whether women might be ordained. You are setting aside the decisions of the last two Lambeth Conferences, that those opposed to women's ordination have an opinion of equal value to the opposite opinion. And as a new Parliament is elected, you seem to forget that the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament required you to make proper financial provision for those who were being driven out of their livings by a decision they could not, in conscience, accept. Until that was promised, the Measure could not pass into law.

Go ahead, but don't pretend your Codes of Practice hold any interest for us. It is only you who need them, to cover your naked ambition in striving for your own will and intention. Forget the Codes; let us part honestly, as fellow Christians. Don't patronise (or even matronise) us any longer.

*The reports are now published, Sat 8th, and dismal reading they make. You will find a link to them at Fr Ivan Aquilina's blog (listed alongside this posting: St John's Sevenoaks)

The Elect

"One lot of sinners out, another lot in" a wise priest used to say, and he was right. So will you be staying up all night to check the results as they come in? I really do not recommend it. Get your beauty sleep and let others worry about how soon we shall be told the news of drastic cuts all round. "We had no idea of the depth of the problem; now that we are elected we shall have to abandon all the promises we made during the campaign". As for our constituency here in Lymington, I am told that if the sitting candidate (Tory, how did you guess?) were unseated, the result across the country would be three Conservatives left in Parliament. It is, you might say, a safe seat. Which is why I'd be glad of some sort of PR, then at least there would be some point in voting here.

I've been trying to concoct a little blog for our American chums on the Anglo Catholic site, letting them know how I see the present state of the C of E locally. I certainly don't blame our local clergy; they are the product of the present system of training (Salisbury/Wells and Wycliffe Hall) which has the support of the current load of Bishops. But it's certainly not the Church of England as I knew her.

This was Fatima on May 13th last year; a moderate congregation.

There will be many more this year, since the Holy Father is to be present.

Now I am packing my bags for Fatima, and trying to get a few addresses together for that Pilgrimage. We are off on Monday, Volcano permitting; and due to return the following Monday, Volcano and BA staff permitting. I hear they are ballotting for another strike. Well, there are worse places to be stuck than Portugal; the Porto Branco is delightful. Orate pro nobis. +Edwin