Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Holy Week

I`ve been asked if I`m celebrating any Holy Week liturgies in the Extraordinary Form. Thanks to the chant group from Jarrow I`m glad to able to say that there will be a Good Friday Commemoration of the Lord`s Passion according to the 1962 books at St Mary`s, Forest Hall at 5pm on Good Friday. However there will be no sung Mass for Easter Sunday at Longbenton although it is the first Sunday of the month.

In previous years we have been able to celebrate Tenebrae but this year that will not happen. Most of the schola who were involved have moved away from Tyneside over the last few years and the reinforcements from north of the border are now in the happy position of being asked to sing Tenebrae in the cathedral in Edinburgh. Congratulations to Alan and the St Margaret Schola of Edinburgh (which has a blog here) : I hope all goes well.

A list of Holy Week liturgies in the Extraordinary Form taking place in England and Wales can be found here thanks to the LMS. It is good to see there is so much on offer.

18 comments:

The cat lovers said...

We will think of you during all your Holy Week things. What a shame about Tenebrae. I suppose it would have been nice to take a trip up there to attend but you will have too much to do at this your "busy time of year".

Martin said...

Sounds like you are getting lazy, dude! We are having two EF Masses in my parish on Easter Sunday: Low Mass at 8.30am and a Missa Cantata at 11am (Puccinni: Messa Di Gloria). St Mary Magdalen's, wandsworth, London.

Thomas More said...

It is very sad to hear that there is to be so little traditional liturgy for Holy Week in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

I can remember 20 years ago the full pre-Bugnini ceremonies (including Tenebrae and all the little offices) being celebrated (albeit by a priest 'not in good standing'). Such a phenomenon would be unthinkable today.

More recently than that I can remember you, Father Brown, celebrating 1962 Good Friday liturgy, sung mass on Easter Sunday and having Tenebrae for Thursday Friday and Saturday.

What has gone wrong?

Has Summorum Pontificum produced unintended consequences in that there is now less traditional liturgy available than before?

Or was part of the aim of SP in fact to reduce and eventually eliminate the traditional liturgy by allowing itself just enough rope on which to hang itself?

It is extraordinary that we are still waiting for the Pope to celebrate a Mass using anything orther than Paul VI's Novus Ordo.

And that he appoints as bishops those who are at best indifferent to or more usually hostile to traditional liturgy.

And it is telling that five years into this pontificate there are still just two low Masses in the traditional form, early in the morning, available in central London.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Martin, interesting to hear about your Esater schedule. Do you also have OF Masses to say?

Fr Michael Brown said...

Thomas More, I`ve answered these points before.

Rubricarius said...

I would contest the comment that the good Dr. Glover was not in 'good standing'. At the time he had never, formally, left the Congregation of the Oratory and was also incardinated into an English Diocese.

At the moment the lucky man is in Gran Canaria.

Thomas More, the old rite and the 'Glover praxis' lives on: there will be several old rite Tridua in the south - some by clergy in 'good standing' others not.

ScepticalBeliever said...

In 1990 (Thomas More's "20 years ago") Fr Thomas Glover was still reigning at Newcastle's Station Hotel having staged a coup detat there in 1984 when the SSPX was ousted. The then bishop of Hexham and Newcastle repeatedly attacked the Statiion Hotel group and so Fr Glover was certainly not in good standing in that diocese either then or when it was set up in 1975. (nor was he by then in "good standing" with the SSPX!)

ScepticalBeliever said...

That bit in my posting (nor was he by then in "good standing" with the SSPX!) should have said "nor was he by 1990 in good standing with the SSPX!" Apologies for any confusion - but I am amazed that I have not been already corrected!

1569 Rising said...

Can I intrude on a private conversation?

a) Who is, or was, Fr Glover?
b) What was he doing at the Station Hotel?
c) What was the coup d'etat at the Station Hotel? I don't remember reading about that in the Telegraph.
d) Was the Bishop ever prosecuted over his attacks at the Station Hotel?
e) What is "Glover Praxis"?
f) If he has run off to Gran Canaria, can he be extradited?

You see, I am a simple soul: I did not realise the importance that splendid example of late Victorian railway hotel architecture had for so many people. And I was unaware that a "praxis" carrying on there caused our Bishop to commit acts of violence. Please tell!

Rubricarius said...

Sceptical Believer,

Strange how Dr. Glover should have been involved with the process by which the late Cardinal Hume granted faculties to the SSPX for confessions etc considering your comments.

Perhaps you should write to the Apostolic Visitor of the Congregation of the Oratory and complain about Dr. Glover's standing. Would that make you feel all 'tingly' and superior?

Whilst there clearly is an issue, in theory at least, with a priest operating in the territory of a bishop without the consent of the same I would challenge you to demonstrate that either Hugh Lindsay or Ambrose Griffiths took formal canonical steps against Dr. Glover. However, Dr. Glover's superiors in the Congregation of the Oratory never sought to make his status irregular.

As to not being "in good standing with the SSPX" one would have thought that a badge of orthopraxis. Heaven preserve us from such a wicked and aliturgical sect.

Twenty years ago Rome told people they could not fulfill their obligation by attending an SSPX Mass - there has been some considerable revisionism since then!

Tom Glover, I am pleased to say, is a good friend. He often remarked on the mean-spirited and extremely tight-fisted attitude of the people to whom he ministered. "The abolition of the half-penny was a great blow to the Geordies" he once remarked.

Well Sceptical Believer, you are now thankfully free to choose from the vast range of liturgies on offer to you now that the 'old rite' is freely available. I hope you are not dazzled by the huge choice on offer.

Enjoy your freedom. People like you never deserved someone of such calibre as Dr. Glover in the first place.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Rubricarius I think in your zeal to defend your friend, which is understandable, you are being rather harsh on SB and the North East. After all even though the Oratory had not exclaustrated him he was hardly in good standing by working in a diocese where he had not sought the permission of the local Ordinary. Now you have got me going back to my canon law books to discover how Cardinal Hume could grant faculties for SSPX priests when they were suspended!

Rubricarius said...

Fr. Brown,

Of course, you are quite right. I am sorry if I have caused offence.

SB please accept an olive (& palm) branch.

To answer 1569 rising, if I may:

a) Dr. Glover was ordained a priest of the Roman Oratory. He taught Canon Law at Econe and worked with the SSPX before going 'independant' and serving four Mass centres in the North East until his retirement in 1995.

b) The Station Hotel in Newcastle was the principal Mass centre, later taken over by the SSPX before they acquired a church in Gateshead.

c)I don't know all the facts about that others may. Dr. Glover was invited to run a mission in the North East by a group of traditionalists.

d) I have no idea.

e) Dr. Glover, uniquely, at the time celebrated the complete Triduum at the Union Debating Chamber of the University of Durham with all of the Offices including the Little Hours - doing the lot, and getting it right/rite is what I meant by 'the Glover praxis'. It was rather wonderful and very much missed.

f) Dr. Glover has not run off anywhere. He retired in 1995. He is currently in Gran Canaria on a holiday.

A blessed Triduum and Pascha to you Fr. Brown and your readers.

ScepticalBeliever said...

Rubricarius, you did not cause offence and I am happy to accept both an olive branch and a palm branch but I must point out that I do not ever feel 'tingly and superior' over these matters (sometimes after a drink or two in the Cumberland in Byker, maybe)

However, your assertion that the SSPX took over the centre at the Station Hotel is not quite correct. THey were instrumental in founding the centre in '75 and served it until Fr Glover took it over in 1982 (yes, he was invited to do so) whereupon a goodly number of followers left in protest. The SSPX returned when Fr Glover suddenly departed in 1992 (or '94?)to pursue his other interests.

Perhaps we didn't deserve Fr Glover, as you say. But, had we sinned that much? Golly! But, he was certainly a grand preacher, always perfectly prepared and interesting (and never less than uncharitable in his remarks about Bishop LIndsay). On a personal level I found him snobbish.

1569 I am somewhat surprised at your lack of knowledge about those stimulating times in Newcastle those few years ago. My thanks to Rubricarius for partially enlightening you!

Thomas More said...

Whatever Tom Glover's faults may have been, either personally or canonically, the fact is that he inspired people to put together, year after year, the full ceremonies of the traditional (pre-Bugnini) Holy Week.

It was all unofficial and illicit of course but it attracted a future director of music of the Birmighnam Oratory to direct the music and it reamins a touchstone for many who took part in it.

Augustine said...

Hang in there, Father. Have a very good Easter if I don't see you.

Sadie Vacantist said...

No EF Triduum in Leeds over Easter. Thursday home parish and gruesome. Friday local convent and even worse. Saturday forced to go to Holy Name Manchester for the NO. At least it was ad orientem and one could kneel for communion.

Anonymous said...

Would anyone be able to put me in touch with Tom Glover (in Gran Canaria or not!)

07949594392

Fr Michael Brown said...

I`m told his number can be found in the BT on-line phone book.