Two Nations Divided

The playwright, G.B. Shaw is credited with originating the saying that 'Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language'. It is also true that language accounts for some of the differences between the Ordinariates. There are more fundamental reasons, though, that we seem so different from each other.
The way the English  (and it is in this case just the English, not the Scots or Welsh or Irish) have been Anglicans and the way it has happened for Americans is generally quite different. Americans have always had a great choice of different versions of Christianity, and seem to have chosen which one to join. Many of them have seemed happy to move from one denomination to another, depending on friendships, liturgical likes and dislikes and so on. The Anglican Church they have some across has defined itself by its use of the Book of Common Prayer in the most recent American version.
On this side of the Atlantic it has been very different. Only non-conformists (Protestant or Catholic) have chosen their denomination. For most people, C of E has been the default setting. Only the very zealous Catholic or Puritan Anglican has chosen which church to attend. For most, it has simply been the nearest - and that has usually been the geographical Parish Church.
My own parents were like many in this regard. I was baptized at Holy Innocents, South Norwood, my grandmother's parish church. Though the family seldom attended, they had the right (which all the English have) of being baptized, married or buried there.
We moved around during the war with my father, depending from which port his convoy would be sailing. So we managed to be bombed in Devonport, where we lost most of our possessions, and Birkenhead, where we nearly lost our lives, and Greenock where we only had to change digs after the place where we were living became uninhabitable from the Blitz. In each case I went to Sunday School in the nearest parish church; which included one Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) church. Just like the Queen, you might say, who is Cof E South of the border but Presbyterian once beyond Carlisle.
It was when we eventually settled in Keyham (Devonport) as the war drew to a close that I began to discover the variety within the Church of England. St Thomas' Keyham was distinctly Anglo-Catholic, and there I was taught the faith, presented for Confirmation, and became an altar server.
When at last after the war we move to a home of our own rather than a rented flat I attended the parish church at Higher St Budeaux (which ecclesiastically was much lower than St Thomas'). Sung Mattins followed sometimes by the Sacrament, or failing that the early celebration. All very BCP. I went there, though, because the Anglo-Catholic priest who had taught me said that we should always attend our Parish Church.
Oxford came as a great relief; besides attending college chapel you could choose where to go; and that was generally Pusey House. Great preaching, good music, and the catholic faith.
For most, the Church of England has meant the building near their home. It might be an ancient mediaeval bulding, ravaged by Protestant Vicars with a liking for guitars, multimedia preentations and very odd translations of Holy Writ (provided on each upholstered  chair. It might be a similar building decked out with roodscreen and hard pews with kneelers and a high altar in the distance beyond the robed choir making an attempt at Gregorian chant. When families were less peripatetic, the churchyard was where generations of the family were interred. Their loyalty was to the building, because Vicars with their funny ways some and go, but the Church stands firm.
What was assured was that the Vicar or Rector or Curate was the real thing. He might stand at the north end of the Lord's table wearing a black cassock and preaching bands, or he might be in Mass Vestments attended by servers with candles and thuribles. What we understood though was that however he dressed and whatever he taught, the Holy Communion was always the same sacrament, as ordained by Christ as the Last Supper.
The reason many in England joined the Ordinariate was that those old certainties had disappeared. We were not hankering for the language of the old prayer book. In my case I had last used it in my title parish in the 1960's. Some were accustomed to the Roman Rite (the prayer book with bits of Latin muttered surreptitiously by the priest) far more were used to Series I or II or Rite A, B or C; diversity which undermined the supposed unity of the Church of England. Far worse, clergy had come increasingly to doubt the most basic elements of the Faith. You have your truth, I have my truth.  When Rome through the person of dear Benedict XVI made the offer of joining the Catholic Church as a group, we jumped at it because whatever individual priests (orbishops - or even Popes) might believe, the faith was the faith was the faith; that is, the Faith once delivered to the Saints.

St Osmunds, an 'Arts Centre' - hence the totem pole.

Because it is not the Established Church, it seems that American Episcopalians can sometimes buy the building they have been used to and bring it with them into the Catholic Church. That is never possible in England. Churches may become redundant and sold off to become nightclubs or private dwellings or even Mosques, but never (up to now) can they be acquired by the Ordinariate. The sole exception I know of is in Portsmouth where Fr Dolling's St Agatha's went first into the hands of the Royal Navy, and so did not have to be acquired directly from the Church of England.
Episcopalians then have an experience of the Anglican Church very different from that of former members of the Church of England. The English Ordinarians are seeking the truth, quite separate from the language in which it is expressed. For Americans, it seems as though the language is of the esse of their faith. So forgive us, American friends, if we do not share your concern for such things as  plainchant or maniples or Tudoresque language. Some of us will have a hankering after these things; most of us do not. We are happily at home in the Catholic Church with Novus Ordo. What we still long for is a parochial system which does not just minister to those who have chosen to join but reaches out to an entire community. It may be impossible of achievement; but it is an honourable goal.
Forgive me if I have misrepresented anyone. I am happy to have comments made to redress the balance of what I have written here. And, in the words of Tiny Tim, God Bless us, every one.

Real Worship

Verdun

Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one … but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf Hebrews 9.24

I don't usually post my sermons. Perhaps you will forgive this one-off exception for 11 am on 11. xi. 2018.  The text from Hebrews is printed above.

We have had all sorts of stand-ins for the dead of the first world war, some more poignant and moving than others. In other years there have been floods of poppies. seeming to pour over ancient castle walls. This year, torches burning in the moat around the Tower of London. An Artist has made thousands of liitle figures, each different from the next, but all in shrouds laid out in lines. In parish churches, there have been cut-out figures, some in metal, some in cardoard or perspex, occupying the pews where they might on the internet. Perhapsyou will forgive this exceptio have been in life. All have attempted to bring some sense of the scale of the losses in the first world war, but also the individuality of those who died.

The Church has decided there can be a requiem mass for the fallen on Remembrance Sunday; but only if the Mass of the day is also celebrated. Since we have only one mass for the Ordinariate, we are bound to try to combine remembrance with this Sunday's ordinary worship; and it is not difficult. What can help us most with making the connection is in the second reading, a passage from that most enigmatic of New Testament letters, the epistle to the Hebrews. It is not clear who wrote it. At times it has been attributed to St Paul, but it is totally different from everything else he wrote. At other times there have been attempts to remove it from the Canon of Sacred Scripture; but here it is, and today we should be grateful that we have it.

The author looks at the worship of the Old Testament, the worship offered at the Temple in Jerusalem before that was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. He contrasts it with Christian worship, making it clear that what Jesus instituted was both a continuity with old Israel and also quite new. Today he is telling us that Jesus is the mediator of a new Covenant with God, a new Testament.

The old worship required endless repetitions of sacrifices, of animals and birds. You remember that after the birth of Jesus his parents went up to the temple to take part in that sacrificial worship, offering just two young pigeons rather than the sheep or goats or cattle which wealthier people might have given. It was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things, the Temple and its Services, to be purified with these rites, says the letter to the Hebrews. But that was when worship was only a copy, a stand in, a cut-out replica for the worship of heaven.

Quite different is Christian worship. That is the sentence which began this sermon; Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one... but into heaven itself. It is this true worship which we continue Sunday by Sunday, week by week. Not a repetition of Christ's one, true perfect sacrifice, but an extension of it, a continuation of it. We participate in the death of our Lord when we celebrate Mass; as St Paul puts it, we show forth his death until he comes again. That is why the eucharistic bread and wine, consecratd by the priest, are not stand-ins for the body and blood of Jesus. They ARE the Body and Blood. Just as he said, the IS my body, this IS my blood.

As we offer mass for the departed of two world wars, and the many others who have died in conflicts around the world, we do not need perspex cut-outs to stand in for them. They are here, and with them we are together the Body of Christ, in heaven and on earth.

Nor, says the epistle today, was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own, the blood of slaughtered animals. But Christ has appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Then the writer to the Hebrews gives us this amazing insight; Christ, he says, having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly awaiting him. Not to deal with sin, which he has done: but to save those who are eagerly awaiting him. It is a remarkable sentence; look it up in your Bible at home. It is worth reading again and again this last part of chapter 9 of the letter to the Hebrews.

That is how we should see our departed, then, and the fallen of the wars. Not pathetic bloodstained corpses, or figures in shrouds, not perspex cut-outs but young men and women eagerly waiting.... waiting with us for Jesus, victor over death and sin, himself risen and triumphant.

Piero della Francesca: the Resurrection

We can't yet know how this will be accomplished, this resurrection at the last day, any more than we can know who will be received into heaven on that day. We certainly know though, for scripture witnesses it, that it is his will that all should be saved; and what God wills is not frustrated by the wiles of men or of the devil. So pray, and pray fervently, that his will may be done, and that we, with our dear departed, may be partakers in the general resurrection. As St John assures us, 'it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is'. Death does not have dominion over them or us. Thanks be to God for his promise of the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

WORLDWIDE ORDINARIATE

Walsingham was the right place for clergy of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to meet the three Ordinaries of Australia, the  US and Canada, and our own Mgr Keith. As a bonus we also had with us Fr Tad, from the CDF in Rome, who was able to bring us news of how the Ordinariates are viewed by the Vatican.

USA,  Australia & UK ordinaries: Mgr John Armitage, and Fr Tad of CDF
Photo courtesy of Fr Ellis

There were about forty Ordinariate priests present from England and Wales, together with a number of priests' wives. A scholarly presentation on the theology of Thomas Aquinas was the first major event on Tuesday, after the Noon Mass which we concelebrated in the Shrine Basilica on arrival. Others will post on Facebook and elsewhere and you need to read these to gain a balanced view of the twenty-four hours in Walsingham. For me, the absolute highlight was the morning session on Wednesday when the three Ordinaries and Fr Tad addressed us, and even better responded to our questions and comments.

What struck the loudest chord for me was Bishop Lopes' insistence that the Ordinariate can only flourish,  develop. attract new members and become a real weapon for evangelisation when it has its own buildings. We heard from priests who felt themselves hamstrung by being obliged to another diocese for their place of worship. In private conversation with fellow priests this restriction is plainly a real burden for many. Diocesan priests are afraid their congregation might be attracted to this rival concern of the Ordinariate and some of them go to extreme lengths to ensure this cannot happen. For instance, they run an Alpha course, several Anglicans join in, but they are never even told that there is a local Ordinariate - they have to go through the RCIA, though it is often not the best tool for bringing former Anglicans into full communion.

There are times when Ordinariate pastors have a celebration which would usually be according to the Ordinariate Use, with the celebrant facing East; but because it is a day (perhaps some day of Obligation) when it will be convenient for members of the parish congregation to join them, the pastor is fearful of upsetting the parish priest and so uses Novus Ordo and adopts the bartender position at the altar. Small wonder that many of the catholic laity say such things as 'I don't know whay you can't just be ordinary catholics .. there doesn't seem to be any difference'. Where the Ordinariate has its own building (as in Torquay or Portsmouth) or even where its pastor is also the parish priest, but has some control over the way the building is used, as at Pembury or London Bridge) then catholics begin to see the point of the Ordinariate, and it is able to undertake its real purpose of evangelisation.

We were also profoundly saddened by the revelations of sexual immorality in the Church, and even more by the very inadequate response so far given from Rome. Here the American Church seems to be giving a lead in ensuring that this  is dealt with firmly and consistently.

The challenges of Australia have to do with the immense size of that country, and the distances between Ordinariate groups.Yet there are New Zealanders looking to see the Ordinariate working in that excessively 'liberal' region, and even small beginnings in Japan. Little wonder that, past retirement age, Mgr Entwistle is looking for the day when a younger successor will be appointed.

In the formal question and answer sessions, and in conversations with other clergy and clergy wives, we learned a great deal about the way the Ordinariate works; and why in some places it seems not to work so well. It is a very young plant; the first of us only came into communion with the See of Peter  a little over seven years ago. Under God, we are deeply indebted to all those who have encouraged and supported us, above all our former Pope, Benedict; we still have great support in Rome itself, as Fr Td witnessed. Most of all though it is our three Ordinaries who have borne and are bearing the heaviest burden. They deserve our  thanks - but even more our constant prayers.

Kinquering Congs their Titles Take

I was reminded of this silly spoonerism of (attributed to Dr Spooner himself) when I read a long and trivial correspondence in the Anglican Ordinariate's site. 'What is the correect form of an address for a Bishop?' it asked. And every sort of answer was given. Apparently Catholic Bishops should be addresses as "Excellency", Anglican ones as "My Lord", and Anglican Archbishops as 'Your Grace'. Now you would suppose Americans would be rather more egalitarian, After all, they can address their Presidents simply as 'Mr President'. But the questioner and most of those joining in the conversation on the Ordinariate Site seem to be Americans. Why do you, dear American friends, get your knickers in such a twist over trivia? 

The Queen at her coronation flanked by the bishops of Durham and Bath&Wells.

A friend of mine when a young Ordinand of Canterbury Diocese had to meet his Bishop. This was Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, who presided at the Queen's Coronation in 1953.  He addressed Dr Fisher as 'Father'. Fisher exploded. 'I am not your father. I am old enough to be your grandfather'. So the lad tried once more - 'I am sorry, My Lord' Again Fisher exploded. 'Nor am I "My Lord". I am "Your Grace" or "Sir". Fisher had been a Headmaster, and that was how many of his clergy saw him.

Archbishop Fisher and his wife arriving in America.

Bishops in England get called 'My Lord' because they are reckoned equal in status to members of the peerage; and at one time all diocesan bishops sat in the House of Lords. Even the holder of a new suffragan see (say Richboroough) could be addressed as 'My Lord'. Archbishops, being highest in rank, are also put on a par with the highest ranking peers, and so like Dukes they are addressed as 'Your Grace'.

A Duke's Coronet

But what flummery and nonsense it all is. Fisher was the last Archbishop to insist on the wearing of gaiters, frock coats and hats with strings on. When I was given the title of "Monsignor" in the Catholic Church, the citation from the Vatican was accompanied by a letter telling me what Monsignori might no longer wear. no elaorate dressing up, no buckled shoes, no mozettas, feraiolas &c. Just a plain black cassock with coloured piping and buttons and a plain coloured cincture - no frills and furbelows, no fringes. For which we should all be grateful. Remember whose we are and whom we serve; the one who said "The kings of the Gentiles Lord it over them. It is not to be so with you".  Bishops are not meant to be Lords over their flock, and they are seldom Excellent. But if they win the title "Father" from those they serve, they should rejoice.

An Ordinariate Day

With our Pastor, Fr Keith Robinson, away I have been holding the fort for a few days. This morning with my wife Jane and I went to Braemar Lodge, a residential home just about half a mile away, to conduct their monthly ecumenical service.

Braemar Lodge

We took the Transfiguration as the theme, and used some familiar passages from the Book of Common Prayer. So we began with the Collect for Purity (from the beginning of the Eucharistic Rite - also in the Ordinariate Use) and concluded with the General Thanksgiving. We also prayed the 'Hail Mary' together. I had printed these on a single sheet, along with a few verses of two hymns; "'Tis good Lord, to be here" and "Now  thank we all our God".  Jane read the Lukan version of the Transfiguration, and many of the residents and staff who were present joined in prayers and hymns with enthusiasm. It is good for the Ordinariate to be able to use its experience of both Anglican and Catholic worship to bring together.well-remembered prayers from both traditions
Then this evening I said Mass according to the Ordinariate Use in the little Pugin church of St Osmund in Salisbury. As usual, there were a few members of the Parish who joined us. We commemorated St Dominic, and prayed for the Dominican Sisters at Sway. They were particularly supportive of us in the Ordinariate when I lived near them in Lymington. Altogether a very good and happy day.

Don't Panic, Don't Panic!

Once again, for the second time this year, Salisbury has been attracting the Media, There has not been such excitment since the town moved from Old Sarum down into the watery valley where the rivers Nadder, Ebble, Wylye and Bourne join forces. Or perhaps since June Osborne was appointed Dean of its Cathedral. Once the move down the hill had been made, and once June was wished on the poor folk of Llandaff, life settled down again in Salisbury.

Now the excitement is all happening again - apparently because a couple of poor drug addicts picked up something missed on the clean up after the first Novichok scare - at any rate, that is what we are being told.  It is perhaps remiss of me, but I can't get terribly excited, any more than I can join marches for or against Brexit. Corporal Jones of  Dad's Army has the right words for us - Don't panic, don't panic,

Perhaps it is the result of a long life that leaves me pretty unmoved. I can just remember the anouncement on the wireless (radio, to you) of the declaration of war in 1939. My father served on destroyers on the Russian convoys, [ironic that he was helping save the Russians?] and was metioned in despatches. We went to whichever port he was in. Thus we were bombed out of

Father, Commissioner Gu er in 1944

our digs in Birkenhead and almost killed, and bombed out again in Greenock. Meanwhile our belongings left behind in Devonport were all lst through bombing, as was my first school. I changed school eight times between the ages of four and eight. After the war father was invalided out of the Navy, his health permanently shatered.

Those of my generation lived through the war and the austerity peace. We heard about the Bay of Pigs and the threat of the Hydrogen Bomb - but then we had sheltered in concrete bunkers and in tin huts in the garden, we had carried our gasmasks to school, we had heard bombs falling and seen doodlebugs hurtling out of the sky onto some poor unsuspecting souls, and the Festival of Britain .and the Coronation lifted our spirits. The again, we have lived through the self-destruct period of the Church of England, choosing to ignore its catholic heritage and  gladly accepting bondage to the spirit of the age.

Yes, we have prayed for the first victims of the Novichok nerve  agent, and shall pray for the more recent two now in Salisbury Hospital. We shall pray too for the overworked hopspital staff, for the police drafted here from their homes in other parts of the county, for the cameramen and broadcasters who are bored almost to death waiting for something to happen, for the scientists at Porton Down and for the small traders in Salisbury who have been losing business ever since March. 

The Blackboard has a longer view than the telephoto lenses - a pub which was the Guildhall of the Shoemakers.

Perhaps most of all though we need to pray for a sense of proportion in our Nation. A nerve agent attack is disgusting, but it is not a reason to go to war. Brexit may be tedious, but within a few years we will have adjusted to whatever outcome prevails. Lady clerics came and go. Another rather tedious religious lady, Julian of Norwich, made her motto something like Corporal Jones'; "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." So don't worry, and don't panic. If you want to help Salisbury, come and visit us here (not a long journey from Waterloo); marvel at

Pity the Coppers in this heat

the Catholic Dean and Chapter who had the nerve to build the Cathdedral in the early 1300's, [but don't pay to go into the Cathedral; it is just an empty shall, a carapace as Dr Stephen Morgan has it] enjoy the Market (Tuesdays and Saturdays) with its charter almost as old as the Cathedral, the Mediaeval sreet plan and the half-timbered shops. As for me, I am saying Mass at 7 this evening in St Osmund's our Catholic Church opposite the Cathedral, but beyond the precinct wall. I shall try to ask our Good Lord to put our little tribulations into some sort of perspective for us - sub speciae aeternitatis.

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The Very Stones Cry Out

St Martin's Tarrant Hinton

Throughout her post-reformation history as a Protestant Church, there have been individuals and groups within the Church of England who have tried to retain part of the catholic past. The Oxford Movement was one of the high points of that attempt; and by the mid-twentieth century, it even seemed as though there was a prospect of catholicism becoming the mainstream within Anglicanism. Now, with so many protestant novelties taking root, that dream is increasingly seen for what it always was, just so much romantic nonsense.

Font at the main South door

Yet always there have been witnesses to the catholic past.  Among the most effective witnesses are the buildings which survived, albeit stripped of much of their former beauty. Since arriving in Wiltshire I have been gradually discovering some of those witnesses. In neighbouring Dorset, Tarrant Hinton is fairly typical. A stone-built church mostly of the 15th Century, yet including evidence of long continuity - particularly through its Romanesque font. The walls which once would have been plastered and painted are stripped back to the bare flint and stone. The ancient stained glass has gone. The image of the Good Shepherd is modern, as are the crosses and crucifix. The brackets for images of the saints are empty. And yet, it survives.

At one time the parish probably had its own Rector. By the 1980s it had become part of a group of eight parishes.Today the Chase Benefice includes twelve former separate parishes, each with its own church, - one in private ownership - but only one full-time Rector, assisted by a number of retired clergyand various 'Local Licenced Ministers', most of them laypeople. It seems Tarrant Hinton has neither Churchwarden nor Pastoral Assistant, but the building is well cared for - it even has CCTV on the tower to deter would-be lead thieves from stripping the roof. The windows contain mostly non-representational glass, though St Edward (the Confessor) flanked by two other saints is in a South Aisle - so the Oxford Movement must have had its effect even here.

Remnants of an Easter Sepulchre

...UBI POSIT ERAT DOMINUM (DN)

For me, the most remarkable and most moving element in the church is a recess in the north wall of the  chancel. It is the frame of the former  Easter Sepulchre. That much is clear from the beaurifully carved  Latin inscription, Venite, Videte.... 'come and see where the Lord was laid'. On the wall above are two censing angels. Such sepulchres had a vital role in the Easter Triduum. Another such is at Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire. There, carved sodiers sleep below the tomb slab. In other places, an actual tomb provided the resting place for the Corpus on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Classical Capital and Angel in a roundel beneath the frieze

The  quality of the carving, and the classical details show that this was a costly addition ot the church, made probably only a few years before the devastation of the 'reformation'. It reminds me of 'Voices from Merebath', when the Vicar provides new vestments which will also be made useless by the 'reformers'. How much art, how much beauty, how much scholarship, how much pastoral care, how much great architecture was vandalised, all so that Henry VIII could buy his supporters, fight off Catholic Europe, and marry his mistress. Ichabod, the glory is departed.

Nothing succeeds like Excess

After a Novena of prayer the Salisbury Ordinariate decided to try something new. We need to reach out to Christians of other denominations; and so a trial run was held last week at our Pastor's home. It went well, but with only a very small number present because of the short notice.

Not the biggest dining room in Salisbury

This week is part of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity; so we decided that we would invite people to Chateau Barnes to celebrate St Paul's Conversion. Wisely my wife included an 'RSVP' slip. Now it looks as though we shall have a dozen or so attending; and our largest room will only comfortably accommodate about eight. Accordingly the occasion might be a trifle packed - but no doubt the Lord will provide. If  he could feed five thousand in Galilee he can no doubt cope easily with a dozen or so in Salisbury. Watch this space.

BRONWEN ASTOR Praying for Christian Unity

Today the Telegraph posted an obituary of Bronwen Astor, born Bronwen Pugh. She was, we were reminded, a famous model, daughter-in law of the fearsome Nancy Astor and chatelaine of Cliveden when it became notorious. I remember her though as a good friend in Godalming, where after her husband's death she had retired to a lovely country house.

The local Catholic priest had asked me, at that time Rector of Farncombe, if they might use a room in our church school for a weekly Mass. I suggested it would be far better if they were to use our church. Everyone seemed to think this was a good idea - except for two bishops, the Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton and the Anglican Bishop of  Dorking (holding the fort during an interregum in the See of Guildford). Rather reluctantly they gave their permission.

St John's Farncombe

In Farncombe we had an ecumenical community, a group of ladies led by the formidable Carol Graham, many of them (like her) returned missionaries. Their Charism was praying and working for unity, and their House was the former home of the Revd Somerest Ward, noted Anglican spiritual director. They were greatly supported by Bronwen. She had set up a Retreat House in her home - she was a fairly recent convert from the Church of England to the Catholic Church, and was very concerned for all things ecumenical. When she heard of  the difficulties we were facing she used her considerable influence to persuade both bishops to permit this sharing as an 'experiment'.

Catholic Parish Priest of Godalming, present Rector of Farncombe, and me

 And so it happened that in December 2014 Fr James Rattue, Rector of St John's, invited me back to preach, That evening we celebrated forty years of the still-continuing 'experiment'. Catholics and     Anglicans in Godalming and beyond owe Bronwen Astor a great debt of gratitude 

  May she Rest in Peace.

Jesu, Mercy.

Mary, Pray.

                                                 

LONDON. Are you surprised?

News of the appointment of  the next Bishop of London, Sarah Mullaly, has come as an early Christmas present for some in that diocese. For others it appears to have come as a shock and a distincly unwelcome gift. No doubt, though, they will find a way of living with the latest new reality, some by emulating the Bishop of Horsham and discovering they were wrong all along, others by drawing yet another line in the sand as they retreat up the beach, back towards an unyielding cliff face.

When the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established, many of us who took the opportunity given us by the Holy Father were surprised. Friends who had previously declared themselves staunch Anglo-papalists discovered reasons why it was impossible for them to make the leap just now. In a year or two, when conditions in the Cof E became unbearable, they would jump, but not just yet. There was the children's education to consider, or the wife's work, or the need to build up a larger pension. Few admitted that their incumbency was too comfortable just now, or that they might have to amend their lifestyle.

As an Anglo-Catholic I had taught and believed that the Church of England was what it claimed to be, 'part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church' and that our task was to persuade the rest of the C of E that this was the case. Even when the ordination of women to the priesthood happened, we convinced ourselves (because we were told it constantly) that this was an experiment which could be reversed in future.

Since then the Church of England has been challenged with many other developments in society, easy divorce, abortion on demand, the Royal Family not just tolerating but celebrating adulterous relationships. and now the ability for anyone to change gender at will. Soon more in the Church of England will be celebrating same-sex 'marriages'. Yet it seems nothing will convince those who still call themselves Anglo-Catholics that the game is up, that there is no catholic future within the established church. What once seemed a local expression of the Universal Church now is quite clearly an utterly erastian, protestant body, sometimes dragging its feet but in the end determinedly copying society in the vain hope of appealing to the masses. A 'catholic' sect, a society for those who like that sort of thing, might be permitted for another year or two, before it is crushed under the weight of the zeitgeist and political correctness. The treatment of Philip North over Sheffield was not a one-off aberration; it is destined to become the norm, despite Philip Mawer.

There is no joy in writing this. I recall a church which could once claim to be stupor mundi, a scholarly compassionate body which was founded on the Apostles and the ancient Fathers and was prepared to speak the truth to power.  Ichabod, the glory has departed. So why will anyone with integrity still try to prop up this decaying corpse?

Thank the Good Lord for the new springtime of the Church, for Pope Benedict and his foresight in enabling the Ordinariates to happen, and for the Catholic Church which has welcomed home so many of us who were feeling bereft. There is still time for the rest of you; don't leave it too late. The message of Advent has never been more appropriate ... "while it is still today".

Saints of England

Back in the day there was in the Church of England's Calendar a celebration on November 8th for "Saints and Martyrs of England". The propers for that day came under "Group Commemorations" in 'Lesser Festivals and Holy Days' .. and you might have used those same propers just nine days earlier to celebrate (commemorate?) The Reformation. The Collect was unspecific: "Almighty God, you call your witnesses from every nation and reveal your glory in their lives. Make us thankful for their example and strengthen us by their fellowship that we, like them, may be faithful in the service of your kingdom.' Luther, I suppose, and Zwingli and the rest. So far, so bland.

Alolng Offa's Dyke

It is perhaps part of our Patrimony that has us (in the Ordinariate) celebrating a Feast on Wednesday next called simply "All Saints of England" (or if you are across Offa's Dyke "All Saints of Wales"). So I started researching the propers for the day. Maybe the Ordinariate web site could help? That simply announces Whilst we await the publication of the Divine Worship Missal, Ordinariate Groups and Missions have access to the Order of Mass and the Ordinariate Calendar but not to the Propers
The Ordinariate Missal is kept in St Osmund's, to which I do not have ready access, and the Lectionary is an American publication so misses out anything specifically English (such as the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham); not much joy there, I suspect. If there ARE propers in the Ordinariate Missal I shall, of course, use them. Meanwhile a little liturgical ingenuity (another part of the Patrimony?) might be required.

Now the Irish are pretty good at keeping up their national end. They have, in the Roman Missal, propers for All Saints of Ireland on November 6th. Readings, Psalm &c can happily be lifted from this, recast in RSV (American Catholic) usage and printed off. Prayers will have to be 'thee-d' and thou-d' to fit in with the Ordinariate's notion of Tudor English, but it will probably work.

Someone's notion of Tudor architecture

Still I have a conundrum over the collect. There are two given us in the Customary, a third is in a collection called "supplement of Canticles and Collects", then there is the Irish one. Here they are for you to compare and contrast.
1. (Ireland) Lord, grant us your grace more abundantly as we keep the feast of all the saints of our land; we rejoice to be their countrymen on earth, may we merit to be their fellow-citizens in heaven.
2. (Customary #1) We beseech thee, O Lord, to multiply thy grace upon us who commemorate the Saints of our nation:that, as we rejoice to be their fellow-citizens on earth, we may have fellowship also with them in heaven.
3. (Customary#2) O God, whom the glorious company of the redeemed adore, gathered from all times and places of thy dominion: we praise thee for the Saints of our own land, and for the lamps that were lit by their holiness; and we beseech thee that, at the last, we too may be numbered among those who have done thy will and declared thy righteousness.
4.(Customary supplement)  Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God; that we may in all things be comforted by the intercession of holy Mary, Mother of God, of all the holy Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins, and all the Saints of England; and that like as we do call to mind* their godliness of life; so we may be effectually defended by their help.

No D----d merit

I expect Fr Hunwicke will tell me exactly what I MIGHT have done; and I expect Mgr Andrew will instruct me in what I SHOULD have done. And others will complain that I am washing linen in public (though it seems pretty clean to me).
If I had a choice, I think 2 is favourite: just a straightforward bit of half-timbering applied to the Irish collect, with no mention of MERIT (it was King Edward VII, I think, who said he liked the Order of the Garter above other decorations because "there was no d-mn-d merit in it".) 4 is altogether too florid and wordy, and makes the Saints of England (whom we are celebrating) just an appendage to the Glorious Company of the Apostles ktl. But I expect I shall use it, since it seems to be the one we are meant to use at Mass that day. Oh dear - Cranmer was alway so much more succinct.

*'as we do call to mind' indeed! Very Tudor-bethan; very half-timbered. Why not just "as we recall"or "as we remember". And what does "effectually" add to the sense in this prayer? Grrr.

Why St Pancras?

St Pancras Station, Gothic Revival fantasy

St Pancras New Church

Say "St Pancras" to an Eglishman and this is probably what springs to mind - the great  Railway Station on the Euston Road and George Gilbert Scott's Midland Hotel. If he thinks a bit harder he might even come up with and idea of the church a little way along the same road. That Church has a ridiculous Greek Revival version (in Coade Stone) of the Caryatids on the Acropolis in Athens. Those fearsome women have nothing to do with the boy-martyr St Pancras though perhaps they predict something about the Church of England.. Then again, if the person you asked is local to Somers Town, he might direct you to the Old Church to the north of Euston Road; a church which looks as though it really belongs in a country churchyard - and which gives the district, and the station,its name.

St Pancras Old Church

But why St Pancras? The boy martyr, who stood up to the Roman Emperor, became hugely popular throughout Europe, and it is even possible that Old St Pancras in Somers Town is on the site of one of the first churches ever built in England. That does not explain why, just fifteen years after the Norman Conquest, the first ever Cluniac monastery in England was also dedicated to St Pancras.

William de Warenne was charged by the Norman Conquerer, William, to subjugate a great part of Southern England. He established his power base in Lewes, which guarded the approach from the South, the cleft in the South Downs giving access from the coast towards London. On the hill he built a great Fortress.

Lewes Casstle Keep

In the valley, he established a monastery, the Priory of St Pancras.  It was the first Cluniac house in England; following the reformed Benedictine rule established a century before at Cluny in Aquitaine. French, of course. But again, WHY ST PANCRAS? The steadfastness of the teenage Christian boy Pancras against the Emperor Domitian had resulted in his becoming the patron saint of oath-takers. William the Conqueror based his claim to the English throne on his insistence that Harold had sworn an oath that he would support William as King of England on the death of King Edward. In that great propaganda publication, the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold is shown taking his oath on a sacred reliquary - containing, it is said, the bones of St Pancras. So the Priory, like the Castle, is establishing the claims of the Conqueror to the English throne.

Harold swears to support William's claim - on the bones of St Pancras the oath-keeper

Five centuries later another king with a tenuous claim to the English throne, the Welshman Henry Tudor, also set about dominating the kingdom by force. The Priory of St Pancras in Lewes, one of the wealthiest religious houses in England, was demolished by Thomas Cromwell, employing an Italian skilled in attacking cstles. He undermined the walls, set fire beneath them, and brought the entire building to the ground. Cromwell sold off the building materials at great profit. Less survives than of almost any other monastery. There is a corner of the Monks' dormitory and a fragment of the Reredorter, the lavatories - that's all that stands above ground. The Priory was so huge that you  might gain an impression of how immense the other buildings must have been if this was just the loos.. Henry VIII also enlisted a Saint's aid - by removing him from the Kalendar. That was Saint Thomas Becket, named by Henry 'Thomas Traitor' - but that's another story.

Remnants of  Lewes Priory

Lewes Town chooses not to remember its monks, who ran schools and hospitals and cared for the poor. Instead they hold Bonfire parades, burn the Pope in effigy, and make much of the seventeen Protestants burned at the stake in Mary Tudor's reign. That is rather how history has been taught in England since the Reformation - it is written by the winners.  Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' supplanted all memory of what was lost through the suppression of the Monasteries and the breach with Rome. Mary is called 'bloody', while the blood on the hands of Henry, Edward and Elizabeth is conveniently forgotten and the Catholic martyrs expunged from the record. If you want to start to get the record straight read Eamon Duffy* Diarmaid MacCulloch* and other modern historians. They throw a rather diffent light on "Merrie England".


* Eamon  Duffy: Saints, Sacrilege & Sedition; Voices of Morebath;Reformation Divided; The Stripping of the Altars &c.
* Diarmaid MacCulloch: All things made new; The Reformation - a History. The Later Reformation in England &c

Money Talks

A brief visit to Oxford gave me a chance to call in at my former College, Pembroke. The porters were most welcoming, and expressed amazement that I had matriculated such an aeon ago - in fact in 1955. Now you may not be able to name many of the alumni of that place. Michael Heseltine was an undergraduate there, though it is said that he would slip across the road to Christ Church on every opportunity to give the impression that "The House" was his real home. Among my own contemporaries, Dick Lugar was a Rhodes scholar who became a leader in the U.S. Senate. Then there is a plaque outside the library commemorating a great benefactor of America, James Smithson. If you have been to the States you cannot have missed the many branches of the Smithsonian, from museums in New York to the Zoo in Washington D.C. Again, if you are a devotee of Victorian Church decoration, you will also know the name of Charles Eamer Kempe, whose stained glass occurs in so many churches.


The greatest Pembroke man of all, though is undoubtedly Sam Johnson, the grand Cham, Doctor Johnson of the Dictionary. Because of his poverty, alas, he was only at Pembroke for a very short time, and far from getting a Doctorate then he went down without taking a degree. Yet the College makes much of the association, and even had reproductions made of his tea mug - a vast thing, he must have had wealthy friends by the time hecame to consume such quantitites of tea.

In recent years it was decided to rename the College Chapel. There is a painting in the Reredos of  the risen Christ, so you might have supposed it would be called the Chapel of Christ.That might have led to confusion with Wolsey's college over the road, since it is no longer called Cardinal College/.At any event, it was determined that the name should be "The Damon Wells Chapel".

Was the great Damon Wells perhaps one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales? Not so. Then who was he? Google the name and you will find a dozen claimants. This one is a former member of the college, apparently. On a fund-raising visit to the States an atheistically minded Master of Pembroke was, it is said, a little embarrassed to return to Oxford with a great endowment from the said Damon Wells - earmarked for the Restoration of the Chapel. He contnued to be very generous. We cannot know whether his generosity depended on the renaming of the Chapel, but at any event the Chapel now bears his name.

There was a temporary notice planted at the Chapel's entrance on one particular Gaudy night, bearing

Pembroke, John Betjeman's favourite Oxford College.

the new name. And curiously that was removed during the course of the celebrations - I cannot imagine who did such a thing. Yesterday, on visiting the College, I discovered a permanent notice affixed to the building announcing "The Damn Wells Chapel" - no, sorry, it read "The Damon Wells Chapel". Do visit when you are next in Oxford. But if you go ignore the notice and enter the Chapel. You will see the organ case (Wren's work from the Sheldonian) and a great deal of stained glass, plaster ceilings, and painted statuary, all the work of Kempe. Once there, perhaps you can say a prayer for former students; and include among them, of your charity, Damon Wells. I'm sure he needs it.

A section of C E Kempe's ceiling decoration.

Kempe's Glass - much more dense and heavy than his usual church work.

Annunciation

Welsh Requiem

At rest in Abergavenny Priory Church of St Mary

Today, among the ancient splendours of the priory church of Abergavenny, hundreds gathered to pray for the last and only PAB ofWales. The initials stood for Provincial Assistant Bishop; but Dai Thomas used to delight in telling us that 'Pab' was also the Welsh for 'Pope'. He was appointed just as several of us in England were designated PEVs - Provincial Episcopal Visitors. But whereas those posts continue in England, at least in name,  in Wales the bishops refused to appoint a successor to David Thomas.

St Mary's Abergavenny

So today the many Welsh priests and people who gathered to mourn a wonderful Father in God were also mourning the death of something else; the Church in Wales itself. There had been in Wales a remarkable flowering of the Catholic Revival in the Anglican Communion, Today many asked me what they were getting in the newly appointed Bishop of Llandaff. Since I live in Salisbury they supposed I must know the Dean who was soon to become their chief pastor. In fact as Dean I only know her by repute - I have only been in Salisbury since January. But I certainly came across her when I served on General Synod. I could not, in all honesty, say much to encourage the Llandaff clergy, for she has been an enthusiastic supporter of all things 'liberal' in the Church of England, from women's ordination (naturally) to the claims of the so-called LGBT community - though I understand those initials are no longer enough; they do not include the whole gamut of those who suppose their sexuality is fluid, to be chosen or discarded according to whim, Anything new seems to commend itself to the Very Revd June.

'John the Baptist' according to the caption on a metre high exhbit currently in Salisbury Cathedral

 
The idea of this being a requiem for the Church in Wales is not mine; several people independently said this was how they saw today. No more scholar bishops of David's calibre. No more genuine pastors who cared for their clergy. Just diocesan apparatchiks appointed because they went along with the spirit of the age.

One priest said "Ah, but though this is a death perhaps there will be a resurrection?" I could only point him to three former Provincail Bishops who attended today as 'ecumenical visitors'. Keith Newton, John Broadhurst and I were all present to pray at the funeral of a much loved former colleague. David had attended many meetings of PEVs when we were trying to discern how we could save something of the Catholic nature of the Church both in England and in Wales.  All three of us have discerned that the only hope of preserving the best of Anglicanism lies in responding positively to Pope Benedict's generous offer to us in 'Anglicanorum Coetibus'; the opportunity for bringing some of the treasures of Anglicanism, not simply liturgical words, but a syle of worship, and a pastoral spirit learned over the years - in the Church of England and also in the Church in Wales.

Some Welsh clergy I know are worried about whether they would be ordained as Catholic priests; there might be something which could become an obstacle for them? But none of us now in the Ordinariate had any certainty of being 'recycled'. The first essential was that we believed what the Catholic Church believed. We were then received into the Roman Catholic Church. Only then could the process of discernment begin. All I can say is that the process has been unfailingly generous towards us, and that we all are sure we made the right decision, I know, because I have lived in Wales myself at various times and have family living there now that as David Thomas used to say "Things are different in Wales". Indeed they are - but no longer, I fear, for the better. The future looks increasingly bleak for orthodox Christians in the Principality. Yet with an enthusiastic leap of faith the Ordinariate could grow from its small beginnings - there is currently a group which worships in a chapel in Cardiff Cathedral - into something which the English Ordinariate would come to admire and even envy.

John paying tribute to his father.

I have to say I was almost in tears today as David's son John spoke of his father, and led us in singing. That spirit is something the whole church needs; part of the Welsh Patrimony which is at present missing but which will be a gift to the entire Catholic world, For us to be a part of today's celebration was a real privilege, Diolch yn fawr - as always, you were very kind and made us 'ecumencial visitors' feel at home. Do know that in your turn you will be very welcome with us. You are needed. Join us in this great catholic renewal.