During the week I was talking with two former Anglican clergy who now work as priests in this diocese and asked them whether through their contacts they knew of any Anglican clergy in the North East who were considering joining the Ordinariate. It seemed not. However today I noticed an article on Jeffrey Steel`s blog about the parish of St James the Great in Darlington. I`ve heard quite a bit in recent years about this parish and its worship. The vicar of 22 years standing is Fr Ian Grieves. In his newsletter he writes the following:
The Ordinariate provides us with an opportunity to stay together as priests and people, worshipping, loving and serving our Lord Jesus Christ through the Catholic tradition and our liturgical and musical heritage and enter into full communion with the See of Peter. We pray that the Church of England will be as generous as the Holy Father and allow us our buildings; buildings we have restored and refurbished at great cost to ourselves (we have raised over £150,000 to restore the church hall & almost £600,000 to restore the church). We have indeed come a long way in the last twenty odd years and we have much to give God thanks for - not least the renewal of our parish and congregation which now needs a secure future.
I hope you all will join me at Mass on Sunday 13th February 2011 at 10am, and afterwards in the Church Hall for a meeting to consider the Ordinariate. The principal speaker will be Father Keith Newton, formerly the Bishop of Richborough, who has given up everything to enter the Ordinariate, and who will give us: information, explanations, answer questions, and address concerns on the Holy Father's historic and generous offer to Anglicans.
So it seems there is some interest here and I`m very glad to hear it. Do go to De Cura animarum to read the whole story. Let`s pray that all goes well for the parish of St James and its exploration of the Ordinariate on 13th February.
4 comments:
Dear Fr. Brown,
I was going to ask if the church of St. Willibrord would be part of the Ordinariate, however, upon investigation I found it was Old Catholic. Visited the place once and was informed they had had a pilgrimage to Rome, met with JPII and received his support.
Of course many of the pit villages had [real] Anglo-Catholic clergy, as did sea-ports Cardiff for one]. Therefore they minstered to top the top and bottom of the scales.
3 yrs ago, as a once off traveller from downunder, I toured UK on the family history trawl. I was impressed by the number of beautiful churches in C of E hands that were prereformation, still bearing distinct architectural features of their catholic heritage (like holywater stoups) With the dawn of the Ordinariate, why is it not proper for these churches and associated property to be returned to the Church from which they were stolen 500 yrs ago?
All over the world cultural heritage claims are being entertained where the cause dates back even further, why not here?. It seems to me that the agreements have been framed to discourage the exercise of conscience and recognition of truth by the faithful anglicans who have been custodians of this heritage in that time. mcgod from aus
I have known the Reverend Ian Grieves of Saint James's, Darlington for many, many years, and I have the utmost regard for him. I am not remotely surprised that he is joining the Ordinariate and, although I see little or no practical chance of this, wants to bring his citadel, or at least its congregants, with him.
The all-too-frequent theological and pastoral problems with what we are proposing to ingest certainly do not apply there. But where he, it and they are all concerned, I really do have to ask: "What Anglican Patrimony?" Why don't they just come over into the local diocese, plain and simple? They really would not need to change a single, solitary thing.
Whereas whatever happened to the Traditional Anglican Communion, of which many things may be said, but one of them is not that it only ever uses the Modern Roman Rite? The TAC made the initial approach that led to the provision for Ordinariates, it negotiated the terms of that provision, and in fact it contains at least three potential examples of thriving Ordinariates (in India, in South Africa, and in the Torres Strait). Yet the TAC has disappeared from this story, supplanted by a constituency for which that provision is wholly unnecessary. What is going on?
The Darlington Ordinariate Group has moved a long way since January. Details can be found at:
www.darlingtonordinariate.weebly.com
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