Last Round-Up

Bishop Crispian and Southbourne Ordinarians

Should I risk naming names again?  Well, why not, there will not be another chance like this.  The round of Ordinations is almost at an end.  Now, if you want serious photographs of today's Portsmouth Ordination, almost the last in the current series for the Ordinariate, then you will find them on the Diocesan website.  I just managed to snap some who drifted into the bunfight afterwards.

Msgr Keith and a Bass

The Ordination itself was a lovely occasion, full of Anglican Patrimony alongside the Romanitas of the Liturgy.  Msgr Keith told us it was his eighth such event in three weeks, and that he knows the rite by heart — as he must surely know our theme-song, "Praise to the Holiest" which was the Introit.

Fr David Elliott

The Gloria was Sumsion in F as was the Agnus — and during the party I discovered that George Chapman, member of the Isle of Wight group, had been managing the Bass part, augmenting the Cathedral choir.

Fr Graham Smith

Paul Inwood, director of music at the Cathedral, conducted not only the choir but also the congregation, and produced a lovely account of his own psalm setting "I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord" [Psalms 88/89] and parts of his 'Gathering Mass'.  At Communion we sang "Soul of my Saviour" and left the Cathedral to Michael Saward's "Christ triumphant, ever reigning" — surely one of the best hymns of recent years.

Bishop Crispian and Reading Ordinarians

Bishop Crispian once again spoke warmly of the new priests' former ministry as Anglicans, while welcoming them into the wider presbyterate of the Catholic Church — and Msgr Keith underlined this, saying they were Catholic Priests first, and only after this Priests of the Ordinariate.  His wish was that all of us would cooperate fully with out Catholic brethren — as indeed we all mean to do.  In Lymington our parish priest is under pressure, and it will be a joy to celebrate SS Peter and Paul for him on Wednesday in his Brockenhurst church.

The three priests ordained today represented three Ordinariate groups.  Fr Graham Smith cares for those in the Southwest part of the diocese, the Southbourne clan.

Fr Jonathan Redvers-Harris

Fr Jonathan Redvers-Harris has the Southeast in his care, overseeing those in Portsmouth as well as his home base in the Isle of Wight.

To the north, Fr David Elliott ministers in Reading ('fast trains from Paddington').  None of these groups is large, but they were all well represented in the Cathedral today.  Tomorrow life starts for them in earnest, as they join their priest at his first Catholic Mass, and then begin to discern the future.

Fr Ron Robinson & Family: supporting cast

That future was foreshadowed today by the support given the new priests by visitors from  beyond the diocese, but especially by members of their former congregations who are, at present, remaining as Anglicans.

SSC support

We pray that this friendship may continue, helping us all to understand one another better and offering a welcome to those who seek another ecclesial home.  It will not be a one-way traffic; but from my own experience I can promise that anyone seeking to join the Catholic Church by way of the Ordinariate will find it a wonderful and welcoming experience.  Oremus invicem — let us all pray for one another.

Support from Fr Christopher from Southwark and ubiquitous Dn Bradley

Related posts:

In case you missed it…What a Day!Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush…The Home StraightRelaxed in Portsmouth Bishop Barnes read theology for three years at Oxford before finishing his studies at Cuddesdon College (at the time a theological college with a rather monastic character). He subsequently served two urban curacies in Portsmouth and Woking. During his first curacy, and after the statutory three years of celibacy, he married his wife Jane (with whom he has two children, Nicola and Matthew). In 1967, Bishop Barnes received his first incumbency as Rector of Farncombe in the Diocese of Guildford. After eleven years, the family moved to Hessle, in the Diocese of York, for another nine years as vicar. In 1987, he became Principal of St Stephen’s House, Oxford. In 1995, he was asked by then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to become the second PEV for the Province. He was based in St. Alban’s and charged with ministering to faithful Anglo-Catholics spread over the length of Southern England, from the Humber Estuary to the Channel Islands. After six years of service as a PEV, Bishop Barnes retired to Lymington on the south coast where he holds the Bishop of Winchester’s license as an honorary assistant bishop. On the retirement of the late and much lamented Bishop Eric Kemp, he was honored to be asked to succeed him as President of the Church Union, which office he still holds.

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