Post the Host

(Jonathan was curate in next parish to mine when I was incumbent in Bradford)

Archbishop Jonathan Blake, a former Anglican priest who is now a bishop of the Open Episcopal Church, has hit on a neat solution to the problem of worshippers who cannot get to his Eucharists. He consecrates the host, then pops it in the post to allow members of the public to say their own "Masses" (minus consecration).

Blake, who blessed Jade Goody's marriage to Jack Tweed, has posted a series of videos to YouTube showing the different ways you can celebrate the service once the host has dropped on to the doormat. (Hat tip: Max from Ship of Fools.) The liturgy shown above is his "Street Mass". Here is part of the text, which reads as if it was written by ICEL before Rome reformed it:

Alright God, Sorry if we messed up. Trying 2 sort things out but cummon, give us a break.

Absolution: OK. Hang on in there.

JC said: I am the bread of life. Whoever eats this bread will live 4ever. JC if u can do that, then i wanna get involved, yea I believe in the real stuff. The inventing, rescuing, empowering God and the blood. Nailed on a cross,banged in a tomb + then popping up all over the gaff. The jet wash 2 + life beyond. So here I am God, giving some respect to the guy on the donkey and all that shizzle with the poor and the pushed over. u were on the street, u know what it was like, thats mad.

Blake, who is his denomination's archbishop of greater London, also caters for the other end of the liturgical spectrum. Here's his "Latin Mass", which shows a less than perfect command of the rubrics of Fortescue:

Blake is prepared to send you consecrated hosts at the following rates:

FOR 1 CONSECRATED HOST           £2

FOR 10 CONSECRATED HOSTS        £4

FOR 50 CONSECRATED HOSTS       £6

FOR 100 CONSECRATED HOSTS      £8

FOR 500 CONSECRATED HOSTS     £10

THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO PAY...

Once the host arrives, there's no need to construct a tabernacle: "People can carry a Host with them on a neck chain or in a specially adapted wallet for emergencies or just to have that sense that Jesus is with them throughout the day."

As I say, Blake is an ordained Anglican priest, albeit effectively excommunicated and now no longer a member of the C of E. I won't comment further, except to say that it's reassuring that, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, the wafers he is sending through the post are just that: wafers. (Damian Thompson)