Royal River

For a birthday treat, la Masignora chose a visit to London, with an exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich its focal point. If you are able to get there, do. It's only on for a few more weeks. It is just marvellous, leading us through time from the Tudors to the present day and showing how each generation had its favourite home on the river, from Windsor in the west to Greenwich in the east. The greatest palace builder of them all was Henry VIII, and a recent commentator said he had contributed more to English Architecture than any other monarch - without also saying that he had destroyed some of the greatest buildings in the land, including Fountains Abbey and the other great Monastic Houses in the North and so many other wonderful buildings. In Oxford work on Christchurch ceased under Henry, and the planned Cathedral was abandoned; all Henry left that poor diocese was a shorn off fragment of a Nuns' church which also has to serve as a college chapel. But more of that another day, perhaps.

The curator of this exhibition (the "Guest Curator" he is called) is the historian David Starkey. Perhaps it only strikes a member of the Ordinariate just how many of those connected with the River were Catholics, from Henry VII and Cardinal Wolsey to Pugin whose crockets and finials make the Palace of Westminster so memorable.

For Pugin it was his faith which inspired his architecture. Few people have had such an effect on English buildings, from the Houses of Parliament to parish churches, railway stations, Civic Halls - every 'gothic' building from the 19th Century to the present owes something to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

There were some marvellous juxtapositions. The stern of the 'Royal Prince' is on display in England for the first time since the dastardly Dutch made off with her. Nearby stands a portrait of Charles II's brother James, depicting his Naval prowess; he led the fleet which defeated the Dutch at the battle of Sole Bay. Then it is up river again to Hampton Court, with the additions to Wolsey's great Palace (appropriated by Henry VIII of unhappy memory) made by William and Mary.

So next to the last Stuart King is the unspeakable William of Orange. He might at least have asked his fellow countryment to have returned the 'Royal Prince'! Little is said about the very last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, who was such a benefactor of the Church of England. Yet she is famously associated with Hampton Court by Pope (not THE Pope; the other one, the English poet.) "Close by those Meads for ever crown'd with Flow'rs, Where Thames with Pride surveys his rising Tow'rs, There stands a Structure of Majestick Frame, Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its Name. Here Britain's Statesmen oft the Fall foredoom Of Foreign Tyrants, and of Nymphs at home; Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey, Dost sometimes Counsel take--and sometimes Tea." (Alexander Pope: the Rape of the Lock.) Wren began builsing the Royal Naval Hospital (site of the present Museum) in Mary Stuart's reign, and it was being built throughout Anne's reign, only completed under George I (and the Chapel finished even later).

There is much in the exhibition about the Hannoverians, with their fondness for domesticity at Kew - it was the retreat where Royal Princes could escape their fathers. All the 18th Century Georges, it seems hated their sons, who reciprocated enthusiastically.

It is ironic that this exhibition, created to mark the Queen' Jubilee, should also have so much about successive Royal Yachts. The Victorian Yachts had the most splendid fitiings and furnishings, the very last of the line, Britannia, was a favourite of our present Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Had the yacht remained in service until the present day, it is unthinkable that there would not have been a replacement. The mean-spirited decision to decommission and not replace her in 1997 is unlikely to be reversed (despite promises to do so by various Conservative leaders) in 'the present financial climate' - excuse for so many unfulfilled Government promises.

For me an outstanding feature of the exhibition was the Lord Mayor's Procession. Until 1857 this was a great River Spectacle; all the Livery Companies had their own barges, with uniformed crews vying with each other. Now the Lord Mayor's Show is all on dry land, and a poor substitute for those great waterborne events. Many of the livery companies have surviving relics of their barges; and amazingly several of them had figures of their patron saints. To carry an image in procession now would certainly give rise to charges of "Popery" - yet from well before the Reformation right until the reign of Victoria life-size images of many saints were processed along the Thames to escort the Lord Mayor. Above you may see Peter, of the Fishmongers' Barge, the gilded St Dunstan of the Goldsmiths, and Catherine of Alexandria, of the Haberdashers' Company. Will there be a Lord Mayor who will reinstate the Saints in his Lord Mayor's Show?

ps HACKED TO PIECES

IF YOUR EMAIL IS IN MY ADDRESS BOOK IT IS LIKELY YOU WILL HAVE RECEIVED A SPAM MESSAGE ABOUT CHRISTMAS GIFTS; I fear the address book has been hacked. Is there anyone who can advise me on what to do about it? Or shall I have to find another Server and start all over again... HELP!

The Ordinariate Grows

The grass was still being mown at the Church of the Holy Redeemer, on the outskirts of Salisbury, as we arrived. In the distance Bishopsdown glowed in the evening sun. David Boundy was to be ordained priest in this church by Mgr Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, to serve in the Ordinariate. It is good that Fr Keith Robinson, the Pastor of that Group, will now have a colleague.

The Group shares the church with the local parish, and evidence of the generosity of the Parish Priest, Fr Michael Fitzpatrick, is the notice on the church door announcing the Ordinariate's times of services. Perhaps other parishes will follow suit? Or maybe most already do and it's just that I have not experienced it. Fr Keith was previously Vicar of St Martin's Salisbury, and Fr David had assisted him there in his retirement, so it is good that the same team is now working together in the Ordinariate.

There were four Deacons of the Mass, and ten concelebrating priests. The diversity of chasubles indicated old friends of Fr David from the diocese of Plymouth (David had parishes in west Cornwall and north Devon), from Clifton (where the Cathedral is in Bristol, but the Diocese covers Somerset and stretches as far east as Salisbury), from Portsmouth and London and, of course, from the Ordinariate. Servers came from all the Catholic parishes in Salisbury.

Making a dash for the Reception after Mass

Afterwards there was a photocall; Fr Keith is on the left here, next to him Mgr Andrew Burnham, then Bishop Declan and the newly ordained Fr David.

Spinnaker Revisited

Part of Portsmouth Harbour seen from the Spinnaker Tower

If you follow 'the Anglo-Catholic' you will know there have been some problems (for me) in downloading pictures. There I was, halfway through a fascinating travelogue, only to have the system jam on me again. I hope this blogpost will work, since the views from the Spinnaker Tower are just wonderful.

Here first is the Ordinariate Church of St Agatha, the redbrick building with three lancet windown in the centre of the view. The tower in front of it is part of the Navy's barracks (though I fear the RN has lately adopted the transatlantic jargon and now calls it a "Naval Base") and a little beyond it the grey stone turret is on All Saints, one of the City Centre Anglican Churches.

St John's Catholic Cathedral is also redbrick, and again the turret and dome of another building partly obscure it.

The Anglican Cathedral of St Thomas of Canterbury is just beyond the ferry harbour in this shot, with beyond it the green grass of Southsea Common. Today there was a slight heat haze, and the windows of the Spinnaker have given all the pictures a strange blue glow - but I hope you can discern some of the land and sea-marks.

You should be able to make out HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, at present awaiting the reinstatement of the top of her masts and rigging - probably for the twentieth time or so since she was put in dry-dock here.


The Narrow Harbour Entrance.

The Isle of Wight in the background







PS: I see there is a post on the Anglo -Catholic site asking for us to vote on what rite we want to use, the new Translation of the Missal or some as yet unseen version of Dr Cranmer's interesting little experiment. Since only 24 have so far voted the result is hardly overwhelming. If you are not completely fedup with the result of voting in Synods and such, do go to the Anglo-Catholic site and add your cross to the ballot paper.

End of a Marathon

Today Her Majesty's Jubilee Tours come to an end - presumably to give room for the Olympics. Over the past months she and the Duke of Edinburgh have visited most corners or the realm. Today, she brings it to a glorious conclusion on the hottest day of the year (remember the cold wet River Pageant?) with a visit to the New Forest Show.

Butcher's delivery cart

We went there yesterday, with grandson, to ensure that everything was ready for the Queen. It is a very Horsey occasion - she will surely enjoy that. There were of course the showjumpers and the dressage horses; I somehow prefer the more workaday animals, dray horses and even the knacker's cart - though at the show they are all polished and perfect.

And being so near the Solent, you could buy boats as well as tack.

I hope the Queen and the Duke enjoyed their day at the Show as much as we did; they were accompanied by this year's president, Alan Titchmarsh - surely Sir Alan before very long? He seems to be there greeting the Queen even more often than Lords Lieutenant. :Last year the President was the Bishop of Winchester, so the Show's Charity this year is Winchester Cathedral. They should do well from it; the crowds seem set to break all records.

I found my perfect niche at the Coop Funeral Service's stand; I am told the hearse with Chinese Dragons is only for display. Shame. What away to go!

Keeping Busy

When an Ordinariate Group is as small as ours - not many more than twenty of us, originally from half a dozen different Anglican churches - we need everyone to pull together. And goodness, they do - often supported by a few longstanding Catholics from neighbouring parishes. So it was last Saturday, when to our astonishment we managed to raise £260 from a two-hour coffee morning. Brian Harrison took the photos, which you will find on our Ordinariate website. http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/bournemouth No sooner was that over than we began planning for our next great moment. Together with members of the Portsmouth & Isle of Wight Group we have the task of arranging the Ordination for our two deacons; John Maunder from Portsmouth and Brian Copus from Bournemouth. That will be on September 22nd, not in either of the churches where our Groups normally worship but in the much larger central church in Bournemouth, Sacred Heart, Richmond Hill - by kind permission of the parish priest, Fr Bruce Barnes. We will update you on this nearer the time; at present we are deciding on musical setting (favourite at present are amended Merbecke for Kyrie and Gloria, and a setting by our own Organist, Peter Cook, for Sanctus and Benedictus and Agnus ... but we have a little way to go yet.
Meanwhile we have a few enquirers who, we hope, will soon become firmly committed to joining the Catholic Church and our Ordinariate Group. Your prayers would be welcome for them and us.

You say Tomayto, I say Tomahto

In the 'Catholic World Report' recently Anthony Esolen wrote about 'Paint by numbers' hymns. He compared some of the modern efforts as nothing better than the paintings which are sold as printed sheets with numbered spaces; just fit the colour to the number.

"We do have a rich treasury of hymn-poems to read, to sing, and to keep close to the heart. Some of them are almost as old as Christianity itself. They come from Latin and Greek, from our own English, from French and German and all the languages of Europe. Some were written by saintly divines with a fine ear for poetry: John Henry Newman (“Praise to the Holiest in the Height”), Charles Wesley (“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”). Many were written by the great Dr. Isaac Watts, who set the psalms to English meter and rhyme. Some rose up from an anonymous lyricist among the folk: “What Wondrous Love Is This.” Some entered our language by the skill of great translators, like John Mason Neale and Catherine Winkworth. Some were the work of pious laymen who meditated upon Scripture all their lives: so the blind Fanny Crosby gives us “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.” Just as many of our most beautiful melodies were written by the finest composers who ever lived—Bach, Handel, Haydn—so too many of our hymn lyrics were written by poets of some renown: George Herbert, Robert Bridges, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Milton.
So why, then, why do we have verse-by-numbers lyrics posing as real poems in our hymnals? Why, when we have such a trove of the great, the profound, the beautiful, the memorable, the poignant, the splendid, do we have to endure what is banal, clunky, clumsy, dull, vague, and silly? "

That's a view I very much share; but his very first word, "We", set me thinking. It is used so often and so lightly; in the comment on a blog it was asserted that "We" do not want certain usages which the writer thought were specifically Anglican. Blogging as mediaMouse she(he?) wrote for the edification of members of the Ordinariate; "we don’t speak ‘of ‘priestings’ and ‘deaconings’ in the Catholic Church. That kind of language only alienates you more. We don’t want that and you certainly don’t!!"

Happily another cradle Catholic put him/her right, asserting that the verb "to priest" was pre-Reformation and had continued in use among Recusant Catholics. But it is hard to know just which words and phrases perfectly natural to some create problems for others. There is just such a usage earlier in this very paragraph... I suppose many people writing today would have said "another cradle Catholic put them right" since "them" and "they" has become the politically proper way to avoid using a gender-inclusive pronoun ('he') or the cumbersome 'he/she'.

Those of us who learned English Grammar before it became unfashionable find it hard to use a plural pronoun where the original subject was in the singular. We have other difficulties - even with the new Translation of the Missal, which is generally so much better than the former version. In particular, in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) I have to swallow hard before saying "which we offer you firstly". The adverb, I was taught, was "first", and "firstly" was a barbarism. Then, in my prejudiced way, I supposed this innovation must come from across the Atlantic. Not so. How helpful are Google and Wikipedia! It seems that "firstly" is not much heard in America - it is a genuinely English grammatical error, now in common usage - very common, my old English teacher would have said.

It is supposed to be G.B.Shaw who said England and America were two countries divided by a common language. Perhaps something similar could be asserted of long-standing Catholics and us more recent imports. We knew we had a great deal to learn; the instruction on receiving the dignity of Monsignor spoke of mantelletas and farraiolos (not happily for those of us of low degree) - but I would not recognise a ferraiolo if one bit me. Other Anglicans, both former and present, are more learned in such things. Even the word "Ordinariate" does not trip easily off the tongue - and that word has different pronunciations. Some of us would say it like "airy" while in Tunbridge Wells it is an 'ordinahriate".



We are learning so much - shall we also have to unlearn even more? Never again to distinguish between the Making of Deacons, the Ordination of Priests and the Consecration of Bishops? Where did that come from originally - is it pre-Reformation, like "priesting" and "deaconing" or is it something fondly invented by dear Doctor Cranmer? Are we genuinely bringing something of the Patrimony of the Church of England into the Catholic Church, or are we spoiling it with our funny ways? We can only find out as time goes by - and as we let each other know what things we find charming, and which just irritate us.

...for that which was lost is found!

Thanks to everyone who asked so kindly after my camera (see previous blog). It has turned up (at Allen Hall) so I hope to trip up there on Friday to collect it . Now I know how the woman felt who lost the coin - I would invite everyone in to rejoice with me, but what with this dreadful weather and all....