The Ordinariate at Gainford

As mentioned in the previous post last night I was due at the ordinariate May Festival in Gainford. This is way down south, somewhere near Darlington, and my sat nav told me it would take 70 minutes to get there. I`ve never been to Gainford before but had heard good reports from Fr Michael Melia who used to live there in retirement. I was somewhat alarmed when heading down the A1 to be welcomed to North Yorkshire as I thought it must at least be in Co Durham but eventually the side roads took me back into Co. Durham and I arrived on a lovely spring night which fortunately remained dry for the outdoor procession.

The Mass was lovely, the singing amazing. If you are ever near Gainford on a Sunday morning do go and you will hear something you will never forget. The Mass was simply that from the OF Roman Missal but everything was done with great care and attention to detail. After Mass we processed to the newly-restored grotto to sing the Salve and then went back to church for Benediction.

There were a number of the original Catholic congregation from Gainford at the Mass and the vicar of St Helen`s, Bishop Auckland with some of his flock. The church was almost full, At the refreshments afterwards I was able to speak to members of the congregation and was pleased to hear that the ordinariate congregation is growing with a number of converts to be received on Pentecost Sunday. The total membership of the ordinariate congregation at the minute is 71.

I am a great fan of the ordinariate and wish it had happened back in the 90`s. The question always arises what is the Anglican patrimony they seek to preserve so as to be a bridge into Catholic unity for the Anglican tradition? Well the Mass last night was straight from the Roman Missal but there is an ethos which made it distinctive. Catholics can be reluctant singers but this congregation raised the roof and like to sing all the verses of hymns. I`ve heard Catholics even complain about the ordinariate because they like to sing. Also the altar servers were impressive in their seriousness and attention to detail. All of this could be done in a mainstream Catholic parish but there is something about the ethos of our parishes which is not open to music of this sort outside of cathedrals or a few parishes in central London. I know because I have tried with introducing chant here at the 10.30 Sunday Mass at Forest Hall. Apart from complaints about having a Latin Gloria at all people expect the repertoire they have grown used to an I don`t know how to expand that.

As regards the ordinariate one thing which I would have thought was part of the Anglican patrimony was a married clergy. It is interesting to read that the ordinariate in England have accepted a married man for seminary training as is allowed in the provisions of Anglicanorum Coetibus and it is somewhat disappointing that Fr Bradley says this is a one-off. I hope the ordinariate will offer a familiar home to Anglicans looking for a bridge to enjoying full communion with the Catholic Church and won`t be overly-Romanised as has happened with Eastern Uniate groups in the West at times.

May Festival

Things have almost ground to a halt on Forest Murmurs and there are things I have in mind to mention. This is very late but just to say I`m getting ready to go to the May festival at  the local Anglican Ordinariate parish at Ganford near Darlington. I`m honoured to be asked to preach especially as I wouldn`t say I was a natural orator. However it looks like benig a splendid evening with Mozart`s Spatzenmesse. The ordinariate website is here.

Work finished

Back in 2006 I contacted Sr Petra Clare to ask her to create some icons for my two parishes. Now at last they are complete. Just before Easter Sister sent two roundels for St Mary`s one of a dove and one of a crown to accompany the icons of the Annunciation and Coronation of Our Lady. So here are pictures of the finished items. Many thanks to Sr Petra Clare.

This was where we started in 2005 and I dare say some preferred this but I hope some parishioners have grown to like the present arrangement.

 

Offerings for the Infant King

Mention of the Institute of Christ the King reminds me I have been asked to mention to devotion to the Infant King promoted by the Institute. Offerings to the Infant King take place from the 17th - 25th of each month. Everyone submits their intentions by the 14th of each month and they are then included/remembered in that month's Infant King Novena and a few special Masses by the priests. Flowers and/or candles can be offered with one's prayers. More information can be found on the website.

New vocations` crisis

There appears to be a new vocations crisis plaguing the Catholic Church in the UK: a shortage of vocations to the episcopate! I can`t remember there being anything like this before but the situation is getting very serious. Sees needing a new bishop at the minute include East Anglia, Brentwood, Leeds, Liverpool, Hallam, St Andrews and Edinburgh, Paisley and Dunkeld. The Catholic Hierarchy site provides a quick guide but its list of vacant sees does not include Hallam and Brentwood where the bishops have passed the retirement age so I include those too.

I think most readers of this blog would have been excited by the appointments to Shrewsbury and Portsmouth not least because bishop Davies introduced the Institute of Christ the King to his diocese. Conversations with groups of priests often touches on the lack of recent appointments: East Anglia has been vacant since July 2011.

So something else to pray about as the English bishops attend a retreat at Villa Palazzola this week.

Proof the shroud is not medieval

Good news from Andrea Tornielli on the Vatican Insider site. New tests have identified the Turin Shroud as being of first century AD provenance. The article is here. An excerpt:

The new tests carried out in the University of Padua labs were carried out by a number of university professors from various Italian universities and agree that the Shroud dates back to the period when Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem. Final results show that the Shroud fibres examined produced the following dates, all of which are 95% certain and centuries away from the medieval dating obtained with Carbon-14 testing in 1988: the dates given to the Shroud after FT-IR testing, is 300 BC ±400, 200 BC ±500 after Raman testing and 400 AD ±400 after multi-parametric mechanical testing. The average of all three dates is 33 BC  ±250 years. The book’s authors observed that the uncertainty of this date is less than the single uncertainties and the date is compatible with the historic date of Jesus’ death on the cross, which historians claim occurred in 30 AD.

More in the Telegraph.

`Can you say that I'm too old, when the angels have stolen my red shoes?`

I wasn`t too fussed that Pope Francis had decided not to wear the papal red shoes. After this post by the FSSR I`m beginning to think again. I didn`t think papal non-liturgical garb was formalised in the first millennium but I want to look into this more. If it`s true I`d be very sad to see the end of a tradition with such long roots.

On the other hand I can`t get this song out of my head at the minute.



Apologies to all those who don`t like Elvis Costello.

The FSSP and Longbenton

Sadly this is not to announce that the FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St Peter) have been given a church in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. While we have a few redundant churches I think we will wait a long time before our diocese catches up with the universal Church and is open to Ecclesia Dei societies. No, what it is is that I recently received the new issue of the FSSP quarterly magazine `Dowry` and was surprised to see a photo on page 8 of children from St Stephen`s primary with their inspirational headteacher, Mr Fallon, at Twickenham for the papal visit in 2010 as part of an article on Catholic education! The whole magazine is available online and can be found here.