Dulverton Ramblings

A sort of ending

2010-11-22T14:54:00.002Z

As the liturgical year comes to a close so does this blog.....

Here is my sermon of yesterday:

REMEMBER ME
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” Luke 23.42

Yesterday we remembered an early English king whose adherence to his Christian faith led to his martyrdom. He was Edmund, king and martyr, now commemorated in the city and cathedral of St Edmundsbury. He refused to renounce his faith in Christ when the invading Danes defeated his army. They tied him to a tree, shot him with arrows, and finally beheaded him. England is still ruled by a Christian monarch. Both Edmund and Elizabeth’s rule is under God. They are servants of Christ, the immortal and universal King.

Today’s Feast of Christ the King is a wonderful way to end the Church’s liturgical year. We have worshipped Jesus as the Babe of Bethlehem, as the Man of Galilee, the Saviour of Calvary, and as the Risen Lord. At His Ascension He returned to Heaven. At the right hand of the Father He reigns over a Kingdom that shall have no end. Hallelujah! Amen!

A month ago, when I last preached here, we saw the prayer of the humble tax collector in the Temple as a model for our prayer as we approach God - ‘Lord, be merciful to me a sinner’. Today we find the prayer of the penitent thief on Calvary a model as we approach Christ, the Eternal and Universal King – ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’. When we look upon the Crucified we do not see a common criminal being executed but a crowned King on his throne. We fling ourselves at His feet, as unworthy subjects, and trust His promise that we too will be with Him in Paradise – today, tomorrow, and for ever. Some crucifixes represent all this as ‘Christus Victor’, robed and wearing a crown rather than naked with thorn wreath, as in the chapel at Parcevall Hall, the Bradford Diocesan Retreat House, where I presided, preached, and prayed frequently in days gone by.

There is a legend about the penitent thief that he wasn’t meeting our Lord for the first time on Calvary. Their first meeting was when Mary and Joseph fled from Bethlehem to Egypt with the infant Jesus and they are attacked by brigands. One young brigand could not bear to lay hands on the beautiful baby and pleaded with his fellow brigands to let the Holy Family go free. When they agreed he addressed the child: ‘O most blessed of children, if ever there come a time for having mercy on me, remember me and forget not this hour’. The sequel is in today’s gospel.
The word ‘Paradise’ is a Persian word meaning ‘a walled garden’. When a Persian King wished do a subject a special honour he would invite him to walk with him in his walled garden. To be in paradise is to be in close and intimate company with the King.

As our eucharist proceeds we shall use the special preface for today’s prayer of consecration which includes these words ‘Father, you have anointed Christ the Lord, your only Son, to be our great high priest and king of all creation… with all the heavenly host we proclaim your glory and join in their unending hymn of praise:’ Then we shall be invited to ‘draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament’. May I suggest we think of the petition of the penitent thief as we come saying in our hearts ‘Jesus, remember me in your kingdom’. Let us see Him Crucified and call Him King. Let us receive Him in Communion and go out to love and serve Him.

Blog update

2010-11-15T15:38:00.002Z

It is two months since my last blog.

I am now into a new settled pattern of using a library computer facility three times a week.

Maybe the approaching Advent will prompt me to come to some decision about future contributions.

Comments welcome.

Blogging Crisis

2010-09-14T15:52:00.002+01:00

The gap in my daily blog after an unbroken number of years is due to dulverton computer not functioning. Maybe sometime before it is corrected or we get a replacement. This note being added at local library facility.

Perhaps the time has come to review and restart on a new , less frequent basis. Make a positive from a negative.

Rwandan Archbishop

2010-09-02T15:14:00.000+01:00

Call for The Anglican Mission to fast and pray for
the election of new Rwandan Archbishop
The Anglican Mission Prayer Leadership Team

On September 17, 2010, there will be the election of the next Archbishop of Rwanda. Our bishops function as missionary bishops of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and they serve under the authority of the Archbishop and the House of Bishops of Rwanda. Therefore, let us as a body humbly join together with our brothers and sisters in Rwanda to seek the face of God for the man who is to be the next Archbishop.

Throughout Holy Scripture and church history the people of God have come together to pray as one, in times of great decisions, in times of change, and in times of challenge to the people of God. We find ourselves in such a time as this. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is threatened on many levels in the world and tragically even in the church. We now call Anglican Mission in the Americas, as a body of followers of Jesus Christ, to a focused time of devoted prayer and fasting during the weeks before, as well as on the day of this election.

We ask that the prayers for this election be offered up each Sunday during the Prayers of the People or wherever the individual church decides is the best for them. We also ask that individuals and groups be encouraged to add this to their regular prayer times and that fasting be encouraged. The following is a prayer point suggestion that may be used during individual prayer times. There also is a prayer that may be added to the Prayers of the People on Sundays. We ask that the Holy Spirit would guide each church in responding to this call.

Prayer Points:

1. Praise and Thanksgiving: for all that the Lord has done in the past through Archbishop Kolini and Freda and for what the Lord will do through the new Archbishop and his wife.

2. Confession of Sin: for personal sin and for the times when the church has fallen short of the will of God; things done and things left undone.

3. The Wonder of God: for His calling Anglican Mission into existence and His faithfulness in leading and directing us this past 10 and more years.

4. Faith: for our trusting the Lord to direct our future together.

5. Petition: for the man of God’s choosing to be raised up, elected, and anointed by God for the office of Archbishop of Rwanda.

6. Thanksgiving: that the Lord hears the cries of His people and moves on their behalf for his purposes.

Suggested prayer to be used every Sunday until the election of the new Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda:
Sovereign God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, we ask that you guide and direct those who will choose the next Archbishop of Rwanda; an archbishop who will continue to have your heart, listen to your voice and guide us in the fulfillment of your kingdom purposes.

African Conference Statement

2010-09-01T15:30:00.000+01:00

Preamble

The second All Africa Bishops Conference, organised by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), met in Entebbe, Uganda, from 23rd to 29th August 2010. Participants included 398 bishops representing the following Provinces: Burundi, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa and the Diocese of Egypt. Also in attendance were some invited partners and guests.

The Anglican Provinces of Africa would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to Our Lord God for His mercy and guidance during this conference; our host Archbishop Henry Orombi and the members of the Church of the Province Uganda for their kind hospitality and warm welcome; to the President of Uganda His Excellency Yoweri Museveni and the Right Honourable Professor Apollo Nsibambi Prime Minister of Uganda, and the Government and people of Uganda; the leadership of CAPA especially the Chairman the Most Rev Ian Ernest supported by the Secretariat.

The first conference, with the theme ‘Africa Has Come of Age’, was held in Lagos, Nigeria in October 2004. The theme for our second conference in Uganda was ‘Securing our Future: Unlocking our Potential’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). Its aim was to mobilise bishops to overcome obstacles to their ministry and mission and provide them with the information, skills and tools to accomplish their ministry.

Our meeting was honoured with the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Anglican Communion, The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams; the Chairman of the Global South, the Most Reverend Dr John Chew (Primate of South East Asia) and the Most Rev Bob Duncan, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.

Our conference was rooted in the context of daily Eucharistic service, and challenging Bible reflections on the Beatitudes and on the formation and development of New Testament churches.

Presentations on the theme included:

1. Nurturing Family Life and Building Healthy Populations.
2. Nurturing Harmonious and Dignified Communities.
3. Securing Our Economic Future.
4. Empowering the Vulnerable.
5. Making Leadership work to secure our Future and unlock our Potential.

Commitments

1. The Anglican Churches in Africa have continued to witness growth so that the centre of gravity of Christianity today appears to be shifting to the continent. Nonetheless, the church’s relevance and impact on global mission and to social, economic and political transformation of the continent remains a challenge.
2. The Anglican Churches in Africa will maintain its stand on the protection of Anglican orthodoxy and authority of Scripture as a rule of developing a Christ-centred life to uplift human lives and dignity.
3. The Anglican Churches in Africa recognises its historic contributions to the growth of Christianity right from its inception and propagation of the gospel throughout the continent and, in particular, the role of the African Church fathers and martyrs. We also recall its immense contributions during the missionary era to the provision of social facilities such as education, healthcare and the production of the African elite. Based on this, the Church mobilises its resources and takes its responsibility in shaping the Christian minds of the church worldwide in the third millennium.
4. We affirm the Biblical standard of the family as having marriage between a man and a woman as its foundation. One of the purposes of marriage is procreation of children some of whom grow to become the leaders of tomorrow.
5. Whereas we accept the rationale for an Anglican Covenant, we realise the need for further improvement of the Covenant in order to be an effective tool for unity and mutual accountability.
6. There is a more urgent need today for bishops to listen to their flock if they are to make this the African century of the Christian Church in terms of energy, growth and vision. To this end, lay participation in the ministry of the church is to be vigorously enhanced.
7. While we will always be prepared to listen to voices from other parts of the global Communion, it is pertinent that the rest of the world listens to the unique voice of the Churches in Africa. In this context, the Anglican Churches in Africa commit itself to a renewed engagement in global mission, recognising that in the 21st Century mission goes from ‘everywhere to anywhere.’
8. The African continent continues to grapple with the problem of religious intolerance which, in many cases, negatively affects the rights, the ministry and the welfare of the church. While the conference calls upon Christians in Africa and elsewhere to be tolerant of other faiths, we must stand for the defence of the human and constitutional rights of Christians and churches in various countries. We will not compromise the commitment of the church to global mission.
9. After a long period of African underdevelopment and misconceptions of African identity, it has become increasingly pertinent for Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. By setting and achieving their own strategic goals, based on the Biblical model of Christ’s mission, African Christians can define their own identity, recover their self-esteem and reach their potential under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
10. We must be actively involved in working with partners at all levels to ensure equal access to medical care, food security and promoting good health practices to prevent the major causes of death on the continent, with particular attention to primary health care for African families, especially mothers, children and elderly.
11. We call for and actively work to bring about an end to all forms of abuse and forms of slavery. We demand the protection of our people, particularly our women and children, from human trafficking, sexual immorality, abuse and violence, and structural, cultural and domestic violence.
12. The successful hosting of the World Cup by South Africa, and other achievements in the continent, demonstrated how Africa’s potential can be unleashed. This should inspire and motivate the Church as well as political leaders to proactively promote and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
13. The Anglican Churches in Africa must join the global movement that refuses to stay silent about the current socio-economic and political state of affairs. We should stop agonising over the deplorable state of African underdevelopment and start organising towards a proactive, pragmatic engagement with good governance and infra-structural development.
14. The prevalence of poverty and underdevelopment on the continent is due mainly to mismanagement of resources and lack of effective leadership across the continent. For Africa to take its proper place among the continents of the world, our political leaders are urged to have a hard look at the style of leadership that has so far engendered corruption, poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment, and endeavour to exhibit the charismatic, visionary, and patriotic style of leadership. We encourage the leaders who are already making efforts in this direction.
15. We will build on our previous commitment to respond to HIV and AIDS realities by reducing stigma, shame, denial, discrimination, inaction and ‘mis-action’, and by promoting moral practices such as abstinence and marital faithfulness as well as access and availability of treatment, voluntary testing and empowerment of communities, in addition to other public health measures.
16. The children and the youth are the embodiment of the future and the church seeks to unlock the inherent potential in this generation. Therefore, the Church in Africa commits itself to providing biblical upbringing of children and youth and give a special attention to their needs and rights.
17. Africa is also suffering the devastating impacts of climate change: rivers and lakes are shrinking, animals are dying in large numbers, crops are failing, major flooding and an increase in killer diseases. With its reach and influence the Anglican Church in Africa, in collaboration with its partners, will use its resources and energy to mitigate this major threat to our people. It will promote existing successful environmental conservation initiatives including tree planting and bio gas schemes, particularly through establishing ‘knowledge centres’ at the community level.
18. The Church has a crucial role to play to develop a theology for the total transformation of African communities. The existing inherited model of theological formation and education has been identified to be inadequate in addressing the emerging socio-cultural realities of the African Church. To this end, the church will develop theological curricula that will empower her leaders to be more relevant to the practical and spiritual needs of contemporary society.
19. The Anglican Church in Africa, guided by the Holy Spirit, will continue to work for unity among ourselves by growing actively in prayer and home fellowships in order to be able to reach out to the unreached and to work for unity with our ecumenical partners. In that manner, we can bear a visible presence of hope and healing among communities.
20. The Anglican Church in Africa is committed to a transforming servant- compassionate leadership that is determined to work tirelessly and diligently to reduce suffering on our continent by challenging all abusive structures and relationships.
21. The Anglican Church in Africa is grateful for the assistance it has received from its partners worldwide. We encourage the Church at all levels to make efforts to explore the various investment opportunities available so as to be financially self-sustaining in order that it can carry out its holistic mission successfully.
22. We express deep concern that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan could be undermined by unfulfilled commitments. We therefore call upon the international communities, particularly Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the United Nations to put more pressure on the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement to hold a free, fair and peaceful referendum on the 9th of January and to respect the decision of the people of Southern Sudan as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. We also call upon the various rebel factions in Darfur and the Government of Sudan to return to the negotiating table to agree a peaceful solution to the conflict.
23. The Anglican Church in Africa is deeply concerned about the last bomb attack in Kampala, Uganda, that killed many innocent people. We take this opportunity to present our condolences and sympathy to the Government and the people of Uganda and especially to the families of the victims. We condemn in strong terms such criminal acts and will passionately pray against future acts of violence.
24. The Anglican Church in Africa expresses deep concern over the continued sexual violence against women and children by armed groups operating in the Eastern Congo. We call upon UN forces to do more in protecting civilians and assist the Government in stabilising the region.
25. We are concerned about the problem of insecurity, lack of democracy and freedom in Madagascar and appeal to the international community to support the ongoing peace process undertaken by the Malagasy actors.
26. Recognising the loss of life and great pains in Kenya associated with the post-election violence after the 2007 elections, we commend the recent peaceful referendum and the promulgation of the new constitution.

Appreciation

We give thanks to God for the ministry of our retired or retiring fathers Most Rev Bernard Malango – Province Central Africa, Most Rev Peter Akinola - Province of Nigeria, Most Rev Njonkulu Ndugane – Province of Southern Africa, Most Rev Bernard Mtetemela – Province of Tanzania, Most Rev Remi Rabenirina – Province of Indian Ocean, Most Rev Fidele Dirokpa Balufuga – Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Most Rev Robert Okine – West Africa, Most Rev Benjamin Nzimbi – Province of Kenya and Most Rev Emmanuel Musaba Kolini – Province of Rwanda. We pray for their continued good health and ministry.
We also honour the memory of the late Most Rev Joseph Marona – Province of Sudan.
We also want to express our profound appreciation of the Chairman of CAPA the Most Reverend Ian Ernest, CAPA’s Secretariat and the Organising Committee, and all delegates, facilitators, rapporteurs and other guests.

“Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

(Matthew 5:1-12, NIV)

The document is then signed “On behalf of the CAPA Primates”

by

(The Most Rev.) Ian Ernest , CAPA Chairman, and (The Most Rev.) Emmanuel Kolini, CAPA Vice-Chairman

African Bishops

2010-08-30T16:11:00.002+01:00

Love your culture, say African bishops

By Stephen Otage
Monday, August 30 2010

Kampala

The second All African Bishops conference ended yesterday with the primates calling on Africans to stick to their culture and reject Western ways tearing the church a part.

While addressing a press conference yesterday, the clergy men, led by Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, said Western cultures like homosexuality should be shunned. He said they will not change their stand on homosexuality, saying the practice is against the scriptures.

Archbishop Orombi warned people going to polls today and in the general elections next year, to resist being bribed with material things. “In choosing your leaders you should know the importance of your ballot.” “Every leader should know that there is accountability. It is not about just going to get allowances.”

The archbishop said he was disappointed by the behaviour of some leaders who are not working for the people but their own interests and called on every Ugandan to pray for peace. The conference which was organised by the council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, started on August 23. About 400 bishops from all over Africa attended.

Sick but still preaching

2010-08-29T08:46:00.001+01:00

Luke 14.1, 7-14

1On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.

7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. 8‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place,” and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’

12He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

Sermon by Bishop of Whitby (heart attack on holiday in Italy)

DID THE monk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, actually

come from Rochester,

just under 30 miles from London and about the same

distance from Canterbury itself?

This is not an original suggestion.
Anyone who knows the interior of
Rochester Cathedral will be
familiar with its 13th-century mural,
which depicts onthe wheel of
fortune the rise of the humble and
theunseating of the proud (left). So
perhaps it is obvious to ask whether
this painting is what inspired
the monk's tale:

In Tragic Manner I will now lament
The griefs of those who stood

in high degree

And fell at last with no expedient
To bring them out of their adversity.
For sure it is, if Fortune wills to flee,
No man may stay her course or

keep his hold;
Let no one trust a blind prosperity.
Be warned by these examples,

true and old.

Our less-than-cheerful monk is

preoccupied with calamity.

He starts with the fallen angel,

Lucifer, turns next to Adam,

warms to his theme with Sampson,

and on he goes in

the same vein. Only one woman

features in his list: the

third-century Queen of Palmyra,

Zenobia. Those

interested in gender issues might

also note with interest

that it is a woman, Fortuna, who

controls the wheel that

raises some and topples others.

Chaucer's host prods the monk into telling his tale, noting: "Why,

look! We've almost

got to Rochester!" Was this because the monk came from

the ancient Benedictine

monastery there, or was it because the Bishop of Rochester

at that time, Thomas

Brinton, was a stern critic of monastic laxity? We shall probably

never know, and it may

not matter. What is of interest is the extent to which the wheel

of fortune was a common

theme in medieval decorative and devotional art.

This theme draws on an aspect of life that Jesus outlines in

today's Gospel, but recurs

throughout his teaching. Investment in the esteem of this

world is folly: in God alone can

lasting value be found. Later in his Gospel, Luke records

Jesus saying that "all who exalt themselves will be humbled,

but those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 18.14).

A similar point is made by the many sayings that use childlikeness

to illustrate the character

of the Kingdom. Jesus is quoted in Matthew's Gospel as saying

that "whoever becomes

humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"

(Matthew 18.4). Indeed,

the image of self-abasement is the example Jesus himself sets:

"whoever wishes to be

first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came

not to be served but to

serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20.27-28).

What is interesting about the fresco at Rochester is its location at

the head of the

monastic quire that is still in use and preserves stalls that date

from 1227. The painting

was done about 20 years later. The Rule of St Benedict requires

its followers "to look

death daily in the eye". Benedict describes death in this instance

as "suspectam",

something suspect and unreliable, striking at any moment

without warning.

This could appear to contrast with the regular pattern of monastic

life, which seems to

guarantee security and even status within an ordered community.

But, passing the

fresco on the north wall of the quire several times a day, the

monks at Rochester were

reminded that status bestowed by fortune in this world, even in a

monastery, is a fickle

thing. It is a lesson Benedict had learned in the Gospel as we

heard it today, and wished

to pass on to his spiritual children.

Although Luke presents the story of how to behave at a

banquet as a parable (Luke 14.7),

the content of what Jesus says is commonly found elsewhere

in advice on table manners.

The observation from Rabbi Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus,

about meal-time

behaviour is: "My humiliation is my exaltation, and my exaltation

is my humiliation."

Jesus is also asking his disciples to learn the manners of what

it means to behave

in a way

that characterises a kingdom of service, not supremacy.

One imagines that the painting of fortune's wheel in the

monastic quire of Rochester

was intended to inspire the members of that community to

learn good manners.

These would be manners that reflected the behaviour of people

living and building a

civilisation of love.

Jesus turns ordinary comment on table manners into a parable

about the value

system of the Kingdom. We might respond by asking what good

manners we should

practise, in church and beyond, in order to reveal these values.

In a religious community, eating together is the extension of

praying together. Courtesy,

the needs of others, the pace of the slowest, patient requests,

and gracious thanks -

these considerations all contribute to the regulation of the

common life in Christ.

What are our basic manners like? Who models for us the good

manners that honour

the weakest and calmly resist deference to the strongest?

And how does our liturgical

and devotional life foster these discipline among us?

Love Sick Josie Quits

2010-08-28T16:17:00.000+01:00

The bubbly Bristolian left the house this afternoon through the fire escape in the garden and accidentally bumped into John James who was visiting the studio to record a video message for her.

The pair enjoyed a smooch as Josie told him she couldn't handle being on the show anymore: 'Thank God you were here when I came out!'

John James replied: 'You're so stupid! I love you so much!'

She said: 'I can't handle it no more, honestly. I'm so glad you were just there then.'

'I just thought f*** this it's not worth it.'

She apologised to producers saying: "I'm so sorry guys. They're all really nice people don't get me wrong, I'm normal I'm not a celebrity I'm not like that.

Josie won Big Brother 11 on Tuesday with a whopping 77.5% of the public vote but, after leaving the house for just 20 minutes to be interviewed by Davina McCall, she re-entered to take part in Ultimate Big Brother.

Despite having won the show though, the winner claimed that leaving and returning was harder than she thought it would be and has begged show bosses to let her speak to John James, to try and make her feel better.

Josie had spent the day laughing and joking with her new housemates but it was clear once night time had fallen, her mind was back on seeing her friends and family.

Complaining in the diary room last night, she said she ‘can’t handle’ the show any longer.

After her chat she went into the bathroom where she continued to cry in the shower and was then called back to the diary room by a concerned Big Brother to see how she was doing.

‘I feel really trapped in here. I just want to go. I really want to go,’ she sobbed.

Josie hugs John James after she quits Ultimate Big Brother

Bp Martin ill

2010-08-27T09:50:00.000+01:00

Bishop Martin Warner taken ill

Tuesday, 24th August 2010

We've received the news that Bishop Martin Warner collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest yesterday while on holiday in Florence. The Archdeacon for Italy, the Ven Jonathan Boardman has visited Bishop Martin in hospital, and reports that he is seriously ill and in intensive care, but is being looked after by an excellent team of doctors and has made some progress. We will let you know more information as we're made aware - please keep Bishop Martin and his family in your prayers.

Blessed Dominic and Cardinal Newman

2010-08-26T08:49:00.002+01:00

Welcome to Blessed Dominic Barberi

Our church is situated at Cowley Road, Littlemore, OX4 4JX
Tel and fax: (01865) 778454
Directions: (from the Littlemore roundabout on the ring road) A4142 turn south into Oxford Road down to mini roundabout and turn left into Cowley Road, church is past a school on the right.

Here we see Dominic Barberi greeting Newman. Dominic Barberi has just come in from the wet and cold. It is late at night and Fr Dominic is trying to dry himself in front of the fire. Newman is on one knee requesting of Dominic Barberi that he be received into the Church......

The College where John Henry Newman lived from 1842 - 1846 and was received into the Church, is entrusted to the care of the Spiritual Family The Work, a family of consecrated life of pontifical right. Visitors are welcome every day (except the last Sunday of the month) to Newman's room and oratory and to a museum and library for Newman studies and research.
Contact: International Centre of Newman Friends c/o The Work, Ambrose Cottage, 9 College Lane, Littlemore OX4 4LQ
Tel:(01865) 779743 Fax: (01865) 773397
e-mail: thework@uk2.net

Blessed Dominic Barberi

Also known as: Dominic of the Mother of God
Apostle to England
Memorial: 27 August
Profile: Born to a poor farm family, orphaned by age eight, and raised by an aunt and uncle on a farm in Merlano. An uneducatedshepherd boy, he spent his time with the flocks in prayer. Met many Passionist priests exiled from France during the repressions of Napoleon. During prayers with them he received a divine message that he would work in northern Europeand England. One day in 1814, just before he entered into an arranged marriage, he slipped away from his family and joined the Passionists, taking the name Dominic of the Mother of God.

Though he had no education, Dominic proved to be an excellent student, quick to grasp philosophy and theology. Ordainedin Rome on 1 March 1821. Teacher and spiritual director, writer on theology and homiletics. One of his works was based on the idea of bringing modern science to philosphical studies; condemned in its day, it's now seen as preparing the way for some of the reforms of Pope Leo XIII. Feeling always drawn to England, he worked to learn English, and met with any English visitors to Rome that he could find.

Delegate to the general chapter of his Order in 1833. With Father Peter Magagnotto, Father Seraphim Giammaria, and Brother Crispin Cotta, he established the first Passionist presence at Ere, Belgium in 1840, the first Passionist monastery outside Italy. Dominic, however, continued to press the need for work inEngland, and he was finally assigned to work there, establishing the first residence during Holy Week of 1842. Tireless preacher and home missioner, working for the return of anti-Catholic England to unity with Rome. Received many to the faith including John Henry Cardinal Newman's conversion to Catholicism andFather George Spencer's entrance to the Passionists; both their Causes for beatification are being investigated.
Born: 22 June 1792 at Viterbo, Italy
Died: 3pm 27 August 1849 at Reading, Berkshire, England of a heart attack
buried in the Passionist church in Saint Helen's, Lancashire, England

BB Runner Up

2010-08-25T08:41:00.003+01:00

Josie wins Big Brother and rightly so but she goes straight back in for Ultimate Big Brother whilst Dave the Christian comes second and returns to his family and his church which is very encouraging.

The Telegraph reports:

The 25-year-old has won £100,000 with 77.5 per cent of the public vote – making her one of the most popular winners in the show's history.

Gibson, who lives on a farm in Bristol, was the bookies' favourite to win the contest.

She developed an on/off romance with the Australian contestant John James during the time they spent in the house, with their relationship becoming one of the main features of the last series.

The 2010 winner will now spend a further two weeks in the house with well-known names from past series of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother.

She will battle it out against the former weathergirl Ulrika Jonsson, the rapper Coolio and the racing pundit John McCririck for the 'Ultimate Big Brother' title.

Also rejoining the series for the next fortnight are former housemates Brian Dowling, Makosi Musambasi, Nadia Almada and Nikki Grahame.

"Nasty" Nick Bateman, who notably became the first person to be kicked out of the show during the first series in 2000 after trying to influence nominations, will also be a contestant.

Dave Vaughan, a Spirit filled Christian in Big Brother house

Its so awesome that Dave Vaughan is in the Big Brother house! Dave, a personal friend of ours, really loves Jesus and is one of the most on fire, enthusiastic, genuine Christians we know. God has opened a door for him on this show which is watched by millions! This is sowing seeds in millions of lives! He has already been very open about his faith in a passionate and fun way and is being a great blessing and encouragement to the housemates. For example, on Friday 11 June he prophesied over one of the housemates, Sunshine, and this was broadcast on TV the following day! On 20 June he offered to pray for Steve's legs and then read in the Bible what Jesus said about building on the rock. Maybe the best one yet. Go for it Dave!!

On Monday 14 June he was nominated for eviction but then won the task from Big Brother the next day so Rachael was up for eviction instead and she was voted out! On Monday 21 June he was up for eviction again, however Govan was evicted on Fri 25 June with over 70% of the vote, and so it is such a blessing that Dave is still in the house. On Monday 5 July none of the housemates nominted Dave! The favour of the Lord and the people who vote is clearly on Dave at the moment! Please pray that he will be in the house for the amount of time the Lord wants him to be there. 20 August: Dave has made it to the final!! Please vote as many times as you can (calls cost about 50 each) on 09011 323 004 and lets help Dave win.

Highlights from the house each day are shown on Channel 4 and E4 several times a day, including around 9 or 10 each night, and what is happening in the house is shown live in the early hours of the morning. You can watch it live with a 15 minute delay, 24 hours a day for a small fee. You can also watch edited versions of the previous episodes here: http://realitytvfan.org/category/big-brother/big-brother-uk-11/. Some crazy things have happened in the house, but lets see God's glory shine out through Dave, so please pray for him and pass this on to all your praying friends, and add your encouraging comments here. You can also join the official facebook fan group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133664876650049.

Big Brother 2010: Profile of Dave Vaughan

Dave was the sixth housemate to enter the Big Brother house tonight. In his VT he said:

“I love Jesus and I am a Christian minister. For 3 or 4 years I was on drink, drugs sex and rock and roll. For the last eighteen years I’ve become a different person. At times I get so overwhelmed by Gods presence and if people get around me they get transformed.”

Age: 39
From: Pontypool, Wales
Occupation: Minister

This ex-postman/ex-pest controller is now a Christian Minister who lives at home with his wife of 17 years along with his four kids, three dogs, six chickens and lots of rabbits. David recently organised an extreme religious event on Barry Island called Sloshfest which attracted hundreds of people from around the globe.

Top of the class at junior school David went off the rails as a teen, drinking and taking drugs. But on October 11th 1992 he met Jesus. Since then he has thrown off the shackles of drink and drugs getting drunk on “Godka” instead.

As well as God David believes in UFOs and ghosts but only as an extension of his understanding of the scriptures. He says he doesn’t want to go into the house to preach but to be himself, claiming to be funny, bright and likeable when he is relaxed.

David enjoys hunting, fishing and Cardiff City FC. He says he spends a lot of time doing very little but does travel through time and space in the spirit realm and the weirdest thing he’s done is “visit the sun.”

He says “I didn’t want to go on Big Brother and I feel weird about the whole thing”, but since wondered if God’s opening a door to the show for him. Whilst in the house he says that he is up for having fun but won’t do “anything of a sexual nature, or that may harm my Ministerial integrity”.

St Bartholomew, Penn

2010-08-24T09:47:00.003+01:00

Our celebrant here this morning is ex Penn...

A Brief History of St Bartholomew's Church, Penn by Rachel Hampton
The first church was built here by Sir Hugh de Bushbury, in 1200 A.D, but it is believed that Christian worship began on this site much earlier - from about 1025 A.D. In 1912 the round base and broken stem of a more ancient churchyard cross were discovered beneath the existing churchyard cross. This stood close to the South wall of the church and was being relocated after the South aisle of the church was enlarged. The round base and stem are believed to be the remains of a cross of Anglo-Saxon origin, set up by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, the husband of Lady Godiva, when he was Lord of the Manor of Upper Penn. He and Lady Godiva are known to have built churches or set up preaching crosses in the manors over which they had Lordship.
Further evidence which would support this being an Anglo-Saxon Christian site is that the original churchyard appears to have been circular and about one acre in size - the shape and size of Anglo-Saxon churchyards.
The cross would have been set up in the middle of this. The remains of the cross at Penn seems to have been at the centre of what we think to have been the original Christian site. An ancient track passed the site, so it was a good place for monks or itinerant priests to preach the Gospel. The church built by Sir Hugh de Bushbury in 1200 stood on the site of the present western end of the North Aisle, the part of the church nearest to the new extension. It is believed to have been about 14 metres by 7 metres. In its early days the church was dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The original church may have been a wooden structure quickly replaced by a stone building. Early churches had no seats for the congregation. An altar would have stood at the East end possibly in an apse. As in many rural communities, the local population may have stored some of their harvested crops in the church during the winter. They would certainly have had to give 1/10 of their crops in tithe to pay the priest.
Although the evidence is circumstantial, it would seem that the parish of Penn was caught up in the religious turmoils of the 16th. and 17th. centuries. In 1553, at the accession of Mary Tudor, the Vicar of Penn, the Rev. Slaney was dismissed from his benefice at a time when Queen Mary was purging the church of married priests. The change in the dedication of the church to St. Bartholomew, (the date of which is unknown), could well have been an indication of the sympathy of leading members of the congregation towards the New Learning and the Huguenots in France, killed in a massacre on St. Bartholomew s Day in 1572. The acquisition of the pulpit in the 17th Century is an indication of the growing importance felt by the clergy to educate the congregation in the christian faith. The Rev Charles Wynn, who left the proceeds from his estate to found a school in Penn and to buy Bibles for the children of the village, was carrying out the aims of Puritan leaders to educate children to read the Bible. Since Charles Wynn was Vicar of Penn throughout the time that Oliver Cromwell was in power, he was probably also responsible for carrying out Cromwell s order to throw the font out of the church. In 1682, the font, presumably lying unused in the churchyard, was turned upside down and made the base of the parish sundial. It was discovered by a later Vicar and brought back into its proper use in 1855.
During the 18th. and 19th. centuries Penn was an attractive rural community, where wealthy families wanted to live, away from the heavily polluted industrial and mining districts. The people of the village benefited from the generosity and caring of such people as Dr. Sedgwick who endowed five Almshouses for the elderly poor of the village. The population increased and further extensions were made to the church. In 1 764-5 the Tower was cased in bricks and heightened. The door into the Tower became the main entrance, instead of the porch on the south wall where the Vestry existed and had been reached through a lych-gate. In 1799 a long chancel was built at the expense of Mrs. ElIen Purshouse and her brother Thomas Bradney. A south aisle was added in 1844, but this proved to be unsatisfactory as the altar was out of sight to those sitting there. So a further major extension was made from 1871-2. The nave and the south aisle were extended eastwards and a completely new chancel was built. The organ chamber was added in 1901 and the Vestry in 1958. So over the years the church has been enlarged to meet the needs of the growing population.
The building of the Church Hall enabled the church in the 20th. century to provide activities in the week for children and adults as well as facilities for a Sunday School and church meetings. In the church, the positioning of an altar at the western end of the Chancel and the repositioning of the screen in the 1970s, opened up the Chancel and made the services more accessible to all. A new wing of the church was opened by the Bishop of Lichfield on 22nd October 2000. This contains a Parish Office, a meeting room called The Oak Room, a kitchen and toilets. These new facilities enable the congregation to enjoy clubs like Painting in Penn and learning, Such as the Start and Alpha Courses and allow them to take up the challenge to extend Christian mission further into the community of Penn
Oops! 0ur resident is from Penn near High Wycombe and not this Penn....

Scottish Inclusive Language

2010-08-23T08:55:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Episcopal Church’s College of Bishops has approved inclusive language prayers, authorising optional changes that remove “Lord”, “He”, “his”, “him”, and “us men” from its 1982 Eucharistic Liturgy.

On Aug 2, the SEC published a list of seven permitted changes. Spokesman Lorna Finley said the changes were offered by the College of Bishops as an “interim measure” as the General Synod Liturgy Committee prepares new Eucharist rites.

The permitted changes include altering “God is love and we are his children” in the Confession and Absolution to “God is love and we are God’s children.”

In the Gloria the phrase “and peace to his people on earth” becomes “and peace to God’s people on earth;” the Nicene Creed is revised with the phrase “for us men and our salvation” making way “for us and for our salvation;” while the opening responses in the Eucharist Prayer change “it is right to give him thanks and praise” to “it is right to give God thanks and praise.”

The Christological Prayer in Eucharistic Prayer IV changes from “He renewed the promise of his presence” to “Your son, Jesus Christ, renewed the promise of his presence.” Eucharistic Prayer V allows revisions to the phrase “Give thanks to the Lord for he is gracious, And his mercy endures forever,” with “Give thanks to our gracious God, whose mercy endures forever;” and substitution of the phrase “which is your will for all mankind” with “which is your will for all the world.”

Ms. Finley said the revisions incorporate changes suggested by the clergy after a questionnaire was distributed in 2007. “The use of inclusive language was one of the key comments arising from this questionnaire,” she noted, adding the permitted changes prepared by the Liturgy Committee in consultation with the Faith & Order Board of General Synod and the College of Bishops “help bring our common texts in to line with the English Language Liturgical Consultation recommendations.”

However, the Rev. Stuart Hall of the Scottish Prayer Book Society on Aug 5 urged the Primus and College of Bishops to rethink the revisions as “some of the tinkering” to the liturgy “are going to do some incidental damage.”

Dr. Hall, Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History at Kings’s College London and Honorary Professor of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews stated he believed there were problems of doctrine and aesthetics with the new liturgy.

The revisions “disturbed” the liturgy’s musical settings and upset the rhythm of the verses. The “compilers and revisers of the 1982 [Liturgy] have from the start been culpably indifferent to music,” he observed.

“The absurd thing is that the whole difficulty, if such there be, could be avoided with reference to all the ancient originals from which the Eucharistic dialogue was translated,” Dr. Hall said.

The Latin Dignum et iustum est or Greek axion kai dikaion is translated in the Book of Common Prayer as “It is meet and right so to do,” he said, asking “Why could our translators not have avoided the whole issue of God’s sex and stuck with ‘It is proper and right,’ or preserving the rhythms of the original Greek and Latin, ‘Proper it is, and right’.”

Changing the words of the Nicene Creed was problematic, he said. “On principle, liturgy-writers should not tamper with the text of ecumenical creeds,” and omitting ‘men’ has doctrinal consequences, he said.

The Greek words tous anthropous in the creed uses ‘men’ in the sense of all humanity. “If you leave it out, the reference might be taken to mean us Christians, or even us Episcopalians,” Dr. Hall said, adding that Hooker had to defend the phrase ‘that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men’ in the Litany “against dissenting critics who thought we should pray only for the Elect, not for everybody.”

In the original Creeds, the same word anthropos is applied to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is not just enfleshed, ‘incarnate of the Virgin Mary’, but puts on total thinking humanity, enenthropesen, ‘made man’, Dr. Hall explained. “So there is a balance: for us humans … he became human. And his fleshly humanity is entirely derived from the Virgin Mary: her manhood becomes his. If ‘men’ applied to ‘us’ excludes women, then Christ is said not to have become human, but to have become male.”

Prudence Dailey of the Church of England’s Prayer Book Society told CEN she was “sorry” the SEC “felt the need to be squeamish” about gender specific language in relation to God.

“I would hope that the authorised liturgies of the Church of England will never go that far down that particular path. The Prayer Book Society would not wish worshipers to be encouraged to feel uncomfortable with the traditional usage of masculine pronouns, as found in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662,” she said.

First and Last

2010-08-22T08:50:00.001+01:00

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1

Is 66:18-21

Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations:
to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
to the distant coastlands
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD,
on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

Ps. 117:1, 2

Responsorial Psalm

R. (Mk 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Heb 12:5-7, 11-13

Reading 2

Brothers and sisters,
You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.”
Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as sons.
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.

Lk 13:22-30

Gospel

Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”

New Liturgy

2010-08-21T11:05:00.000+01:00

Cardinal George Announces Vatican Approval of New Roman Missal English-Language Translation, Implementation Set for First Sunday of Advent 2011

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Francis George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has announced that the full text of the English-language translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, has been issued for the dioceses of the United States of America.

(No date has yet been given by the Bishops of England and Wales for the publication and use of the new translation in England and Wales. However it is expected publication will take place sometime before the summer of 2011.)

Papal Masses in England will use new English texts

Catholic News Service reports that

People attending Pope Benedict XVI's Masses in Scotland and England in September will get a chance to hear and sing a few of the newly translated Mass texts, according to the pope's chief liturgist.

Msgr. Guido Marini, papal master of liturgical ceremonies, told Catholic News Service Aug. 19 that the prayers sung in English at the papal Masses in Great Britain will use the translations from the new Order of the Mass approved by the Vatican in 2008.

Mgr Marini seems to draw a distinction between those texts that have already been approved:

"The songs from the Order of the Mass -- for example the Gloria -- will be from the new translation, which was approved a while ago," he said.

and those that have not already been approved:

The words for the rest of the Mass prayers "will be from the text currently in use," he said, because when the papal Masses were being planned, the Vatican had not yet granted final approval to the bishops of Scotland, England and Wales for the complete English translation of the Roman Missal.

Cistercians

2010-08-20T08:56:00.000+01:00

(St Bernard) (Rievaulx and Fountains)

The Order of Cistercians (O.Cist. Latin: Ordo Cisterciensis or, alternately, O.C.S.O. for the Trappists [Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance]) is a Catholic religious order of enclosed monks and nuns. They are sometimes also called the White Monks, in reference to the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn. The emphasis of Cistercian life is on manual labour and self-sufficiency, and many abbeys have traditionally supported themselves through activities such as agriculture and brewing ales.
The term Cistercian (French Cistercien), derives from Cistercium,^[1] the Latin name for the village of Cîteaux, near Dijon in eastern France. It was in this village that a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme founded Cîteaux Abbey in 1098, with the goal of following more closely the Rule of Saint Benedict. The best known of them were Robert of Molesme, Alberic of Citeaux and the English monk Stephen Harding, who were the first three abbots. Bernard of Clairvaux entered the monastery in the early 1110s with 30 companions and helped the rapid proliferation of the order. By the end of the 12 century, the order had spread throughout France and into England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Eastern Europe.
The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Rule of St Benedict. Rejecting the developments the Benedictines had undergone, the monks tried to reproduce life exactly as it had been in Saint Benedict's time; indeed in various points they went beyond it in austerity. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, especially field-work, a special characteristic of Cistercian life. Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture^{[by whom?]}. Additionally, in relation to fields such as agriculture, hydraulic engineering and metallurgy, the Cistercians became the main force of technological diffusion in medieval Europe. The Cistercians were badly affected in England by the Protestant Reformation, the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII, the French Revolution in continental Europe, and the revolutions of the 18th century, but some survived and the order recovered in the 19th century. In 1891 certain abbeys formed a new Order called Trappists (Ordo Cisterciensium Strictioris Observantiae - OCSO), which today exists as an order distinct from the Common Observance.

Carthusians

2010-08-19T08:48:00.002+01:00

(Mount Grace Priory)

The meaning of "being a Carthusian"
Among the religious families, there are those like the Benedictines and Cistercians, who live more in community. Others live in greater solitude. Camaldulites and Carthusians belong to the latter. The monks and the nuns of the Carthusian Order, while living separately in their own monasteries, share the same rule and follow a unique model in the person of their founding Father, Saint Bruno.
The Carthusian does not live alone as the Carthusian monastery is a community. Nevertheless, he will pass the greater part of his life in his cell where he prays, works, takes his meals, and sleeps. During the course of the week, he only leaves three times a days for offices and communal mass: in the middle of the night, the Night Office, the morning Eucharist and Vespers towards the night.
The Carthusian can be a cloistered monk or a brother, two different ways of living the same vocation of solitude.
This solitude is not lived for its own sake, but as a privileged means of attaining intimacy with God.
No one can follow this path if not called by God. The discernment of this call (vocation) asks that we make a retreat of two weeks at the monastery. Other than this, Carthusians never receive retreatants.
Almost all our homes were built along the same basic principles: a grouping of hermitages (or "cells") linked to one another by a cloister which ends at the communal grounds: church, refectory, and the Chapter, separated by the entrance door by the workshops and the lodging of the monk in charge of the day to day running of the house. There are the "main" homes (like La Grande Chartreuse, with over 30 cells) and the "lesser" homes (like Portes, in the French region of Ain, which retains many primitive aspects of a charterhouse)
At la Grande Chartreuse the Museum of la Correrie allows one to have an idea of the Carthusian life.
The Carthusian Way
The goal: Contemplation
Discover the immensity of love (Statutes 35.1)
The only goal of the Carthusian way is CONTEMPLATION, by the power of the Spirit, living as unceasingly as possible in the light of the love of God for us, made manifest in Christ. This implies a purity of heart, or charity: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Mt 5:8) Monastic tradition also calls this goal pure and continuous prayer.
The fruits of contemplation are: liberty, peace, and joy. O Bonitas! O Goodness, was the cry which issued from the heart of St. Bruno. But the unification of the heart and the entrance into the contemplative rest assume a long journey, which our Statutes describe as such:
Whoever perseveres without defiance in the cell and lets himself be taught by it tends to make his entire existence a single and continual prayer. But he may not enter into this rest without going through the test of a difficult battle. It is the austerities to which he applies himself as someone close to the Cross, or the visits of God, coming to test him like gold in the fire. Thus purified by patience, fed and strengthened by studied meditation of Scripture, introduced by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the recesses of his heart, he will thus be able to, not only serve God, but adhere to him. (Statutes 3.2)
All monastic life thus consists of this journey towards the heart and all the meaning of our life is oriented towards this end. It helps the monk unite his life to charity, introducing it to the depths of his heart.
Truthfully, it is not this end which distinguishes us from other contemplative monks (Trappist, Benedictines, etc.), but the borrowed path, of which the essential characteristics are:
solitude
a positive mixture of solitary and community life
Carthusian liturgy

Carmelites

2010-08-18T08:43:00.000+01:00

(St Therese of Lisieux)

The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites (sometimes simplyCarmel by synecdoche; Latin: Ordinis Fratrum Beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ de Monte Carmelo) is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name.

The charism, or spiritual focus, of the Carmelite Order is contemplative prayer. The Order is considered by the Church to be under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thus has a strong Marian devotion. As in most of the orders dating to medieval times, the First Order is the friars (who are active/contemplative), the Second Order is the nuns (who are cloistered) and the Third Order consists of laypeople who continue to live in the world, and can be married, but participate in the charism of the order by liturgical prayers, apostolates (ministries), and contemplative prayer. There are also offshoots such as active Carmelite sisters.
Carmelite tradition traces the origin of the order to a community of hermits on Mount Carmel that succeeded the schools of the prophets in ancient Israel, although there are no certain records of hermits on this mountain before the 1190s. By this date a group of men had gathered at the well of Elijah on Mount Carmel. These men, who had gone to Palestinefrom Europe either as pilgrims or as crusaders, chose Mount Carmel in part because it was the traditional home of Elijah. The foundation was believed to have been dedicated to theBlessed Virgin Mary. The conventual buildings were destroyed several times, but a monastery of Discalced Carmelite friars was built close to the original site under the auspices of Fr. Julius of the Saviour and duly consecrated on 12th June 1836.
Some time between 1209 and 1214 the hermits received a formula vitae "in keeping with their avowed purpose" (Rule Ch. 1) from the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and Papal legateSt. Albert of Jerusalem. Albert had been responsible for giving a rule to the Humiliati during his long tenure as Bishop of Vercelli, and was well-versed in diplomacy, being sent by Pope Innocent III as Papal Legate to what was known as the Eastern Province. As an experienced prelate he created a document which is both juridically terse and replete with Scriptural allusions, thereby rooting the hermits in the life of the universal Church and their own aspirations.
The original Carmelite Rule of St. Albert addresses a Prior whose name is only listed as "B." When later required to name their founders, the Brothers referred to both Elijah and the Blessed Virgin as early models of the community. Later, under pressure from other EuropeanMendicant orders to be more specific, the name "Saint Bertold" was given, possibly drawn from the oral tradition of the Order.
The rule consisted of sixteen articles, which enjoined strict obedience to their prior, residence in individual cells, constancy in prayer, the hearing of Mass every morning in the oratory of the community, vows of poverty and toil, daily silence from vespers until terce the next morning, abstinence from all forms of meat except in cases of severe illness, and fasting from Holy Cross Day (September 14) until theEaster of the following year.

Moving On

2010-08-17T12:31:00.006+01:00

'Now is the hour, for me to say goodbye'......as sung by Grace Fields, Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, Sanatra and many others.

They came, they stayed briefly, they moved on......

St Stephen of Hungary

2010-08-16T08:55:00.001+01:00

First King of Hungary, b. at Gran, 975; d. 15 August, 1038.

He was a son of the Hungarian chief Géza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he married Gisela, a sister of Duke Henry of Bavaria, the future Emperor St. Henry II, and in 997 succeeded to the throne of Hungary. In order to make Hungary a Christian nation and to establish himself more firmly as ruler, he sent Abbot Astricus to Rome to petition Pope Sylvester II for the royal dignity and the power to establish episcopal sees. The pope acceded to his wishes and, in addition, presented him with a royal crown with which he was crowned at Gran on 17 August, 1001 (see HUNGARY: History). He founded a monastery in Jerusalem and hospices for pilgrims at Rome,Ravenna, and Constantinople. He was a personal friend of St. Bruno of Querfurt and corresponded withAbbot St. Odilo of Cluny.

The last years of his life were embittered by sickness and family troubles. When on 2 September, 1031, his only son, St. Emeric, lost his life on a boar hunt, his cherished hope of transferring the reins of government into the hands of a pious Christian prince were shattered. During his lifetime a quarrel arose among his various nephews concerning the right of succession, and some of them even took part in a conspiracy against his life. He was buried beside his son at Stuhlweissenburg, and both werecanonized together in 1083. His feast is on 2 September, but in Hungary his chief festival is observed on 20 August, the day on which his relics were transferred to Buda. His incorrupt right hand is treasured as the most sacred relic in Hungary.

Season of Harvest

2010-08-15T08:38:00.000+01:00

Luke 1.46-55

46‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Sermon by Bishop of Whitby

TAKING ON the responsibility for a vegetable garden is a new experience for me. How produce emerges from neatly ordered rows of plants is still a source of surprise. Courgettes come from something quite unexpected. Nor was I prepared for the painful discovery that gooseberry bushes have slender, vicious thorns.

The relentless task of garnering a profusion of fruit and veg has brought home to me the significance of August as the month of harvest. This domestic realisation is compounded by the impact on local traffic of farm vehicles busy about the industrial harvesting of grain.

August is also the month in which the Church celebrates a festival of Mary. Evidence suggests that the Eastern origins of this go back to the sixth century, when a festival was established by the Emperor Maurice, and that it was well established in Rome by the end of the seventh century.

The festival focuses on the end of Mary’s earthly life, and a belief that this is unintelligible without reference to the work of redemption accomplished by Jesus — our bodies conformed to the likeness of his resurrection life (Romans 8.9-11).

For many people, this festival presents the more difficult aspects of devotion to Mary. It seems to suggest a heavenly identity that removes her from the mundane and the human, the very things that guarantee our redemption. And if Mary’s ordinariness is not real, what God takes from her flesh is unrepresentative and less than human.

Perhaps some of the anxiety that hovers around today’s festival finds its roots in the alternative first reading from the book of Revelation that refers to “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars” (Revelation 12.1). Even among the Church’s early theologians, there was uncertainty about the identity of this figure. For some, she is an image of the Church; for others, she is to be identified with Mary.

In time, the latter interpretation prevailed, leading to an iconography of Mary that places a crown on her head and surrounds her with stars. But this is not the only reference to scripture that we might use to assert the realisation of Christian hope in Mary at the end of her earthly life.

Heinrich Bullenger, one of the more influential Continental reformers in the 16th-century English Reformation, had a strong sense of Mary’s perpetual virginity. It is a statement that is emblematic of her special identity as a human being graced by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

Bullenger also makes a connection between the end of Mary’s life and the passing from this world of another Spirit-filled character from the Bible, Elijah, who is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2.11).

Bullenger sees this as a statement about the distinctive character of the bodies of the saints, and states, in relation to Mary: “because of this, we believe that the pure immaculate chamber of the God-bearer, the Virgin Mary, is a temple of the Holy Spirit, that is her holy body, borne by angels into heaven.”

How are we to make sense of this in a way that honours Mary as our sister, but also takes into account the persistent tradition of Christian devotion to her as one who already shares the resurrection? Perhaps this is where the month of August as the season of harvest is of some help.

In the Gospel parables, Jesus often speaks of the harvest as a symbol of the end time, when the Kingdom of heaven is brought to its fulfilment. The harvest is an allegory for the proclamation of the Kingdom that brings healing (Matthew 9.35-38).

It also functions as a reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus, when he is revealed as the stone rejected by the builders, but ultimately exalted as the chosen cornerstone (Matthew 21.33-44). Earlier in Matthew, Jesus had spoken of the harvest as an allusion to judgement and the revealing of the righteous “who will shine like the stars in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13.30, 43).

In a similar way, St Paul describes the signs of the life of the Holy Spirit as fruits — a harvest. This distinguishes them from the “works” of the flesh, things that are done by human agency. It is like the distinction that we would now make between “organic” and life-enhancing produce, contrasted with destructive mass-production (Galatians 5.19-25).

By placing the celebration of Mary’s life in August, the harvest season, we seem to be connecting her with a destiny that realises the transformative effects of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1.35). Not only does Mary witness this in the birth of Jesus, the word made flesh, but she is herself the fruit, the harvest, of the work of salvation that he accomplishes.

So for Mary, as for us, the heavenly harvest is when we are enabled, in the words of Evelyn Underhill:

To pluck the rosemary
we cannot reach
With the mind’s span,
And so at last
Breathe the rich fragrance
of our horded past
And learn the slow unfolding
of the plan.

Next to Her Son

2010-08-14T14:41:00.000+01:00

Leader: A development received? (Church Times)

ALL GENERATIONS shall call her blessed. The festival of the Blessed

Virgin Mary this Sunday is one that has usually been associated with the

ending of her earthly life. This event is, as it must be for all saints, a joyful

one, meriting a celebration.

The Eastern Church calls it her dormition, or falling asleep. There is little
to object to in that, even though it is not recorded in scripture. To speak of
her “assumption”, as the Western Church did without defining it as bodily,
or as an article of faith, until 60 years ago, was to say a little more — but
not necessarily much more than many Christians say of their own mothers
who, they hope, have “gone to heaven”. John Brown’s body, after all, lies
a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul is marching on. And yet not all of
today’s theologians who live in “sure and certain hope of the Resurrection
to eternal life” are happy with later words in the 1662 burial service: “Almighty
God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord,
and with whom the souls of the faithful . . . are in joy and felicity. . .”

Our Lady’s body is not John Brown’s body: it had a higher vocation; there is
no tradition, as there is with other saints, of relics: what happened?
Historians have little to go on. But on 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII
declared it a matter of divine revelation that Mary “having completed her
earthly course was in body and soul assumed into heavenly glory”. Thomas
Ken had written: “Next to his throne her Son his Mother placed.” But this was
not a dogma. Such a definition would be an ecumenical mistake, argued two
Roman Catholics, Victor Bennett and Raymond Winch, while they were still
free to say so (The Assumption of Our Lady and Catholic Theology, SPCK, 1950).

Since Vatican II, it has proved a lesser obstacle than expected. True, Barthians
do not like it. But John Macquarrie’s Mary for All Christians (1991) gave a positive
C of E critique; and the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, in
2005, affirmed “the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the
fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture, and only to be
understood in the light of Scripture”. When Anglicans speak of unwarranted
developments these days, they are more likely to be talking about disputes
among themselves. Indeed, the charge of setting the bar too high for communion,
levelled against Rome in 1950, has a topical ring to it. The question of reception
is on the table again. Are Anglicans still willing to take their stand on the principle
that there are developments, however reasonable to those who ad vance them,
that cannot be deemed final and binding upon all?

Welcoming Benedict

2010-08-13T14:37:00.001+01:00

The Very Rev Dr John Hall hopes that Pope Benedict will have an ‘opportunity to talk about the centrality of Christianity within our understanding of the nation’

What do you feel is the significance of the Pope visiting Westminster Abbey in particular, rather than another prominent Anglican place of worship such as St Paul’s?

In 1982, Pope John Paul II of course came to Canterbury and so he met the Archbishop of Canterbury there. That was a very significant and important occasion.

That was a pastoral visit. This is a state visit, so he’s coming partly as head of state, as well as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and every head of state is invited to come and lay a wreath at the grave of the unknown warrior.

So actually both heads of state on state visits and heads of government on government visits generally come here – they don’t absolutely all come but generally they come. There’s a ceremony which lasts maybe 20 minutes to half an hour at which we stand at the grave of the unknown warrior and they lay a wreath, before a brief tour of the Abbey.

Quite often their state television and media cover it. It’s very rarely covered here, but it always happens. On the first day of the state visit, that’s the general pattern: after lunch they come here and so that’s the first thing they do after they’ve met the Queen, and it’s significant because of course the grave of the unknown warrior, that’s the original unknown warrior and it’s therefore important that the Pope should come and pay his respects there. So he won’t be laying a wreath, but he will be saying a prayer, a prayer for peace, and I shall welcome him to the Abbey and we shall stand there and pray for peace.

Now, this is of course also the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, king of England from 1042 to 1066, and so he will also pray at the shrine. He’ll pray with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the shrine, and I’ll be there supporting them, as it were.

But it’s also the great ecumenical event of the visit, and there’ll be representatives of all the churches across the United Kingdom, and I hope the congregation of 2,200 people will represent very effectively the diversity of the Christian community, and so there’ll be church leaders being presented to him from all sorts of different backgrounds. So it’s going to be a great occasion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope will both speak and will have evening prayer with a version of choral evensong. So it’ll be a great occasion.

What are your feelings about the Pope visiting Britain more generally, and the Abbey in particular?

Well, I think the Pope is very welcome, and I’m very pleased he’s coming. It seems to me it’s a good thing that the Pope is coming. I know that the papal visit in 1982, before it happened, was marred by a certain amount of uncertainty because of the Falklands War.

But when the time came it was tremendously important and successful, and I think it led to a new stage in the relations between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.

But those relations have been difficult, and continue to be difficult: despite the growing friendship. There are still obstacles to our working together and I hope that this will simply remind us of what we have in common, remind us of our common mission to the people of these shores, and of the ways in which we can collaborate effectively in the work of God’s mission, despite the various things that unhappily divide us.

Almost half a day in this four-day visit is given over to ecumenical events with the Church of England. What do you feel is the significance of this focus on relations between Rome and Canterbury?

I’m very glad that the Pope will be going to Lambeth Palace. Obviously Pope John Paul II met Robert Runcie in the old palace in Canterbury, but Lambeth Palace is in a sense the heart of the thing as far as the Archbishop of Canterbury is concerned.

And I understand he’s giving a talk.

They [Benedict XVI and Dr Rowan Williams] will have a private conversation together and there will also be a gathering of all the bishops of the Church of England and indeed of Anglicanism in these islands, with the Roman Catholic bishops as well. And I think that will be a very important and potentially significant.

Then, in a way more interesting for the wider interests of civil society, he’s going to give an address in Westminster Hall, and the Speaker and the Lord Speaker will welcome him, so this is very formal, very important occasion. No doubt Westminster Hall will be full. He’ll be speaking to civil society – not just members of Parliament but to representatives of civil society in the broadest sense.

And I hope that he’s got an opportunity there to talk about the centrality of Christianity within our understanding of the nation, and the deep embeddedness of the Church in our society, and I hope that he’s able to advance the mission of the Church in the broadest sense through his engagement in Westminster Hall.

When he comes here to Westminster Abbey and visits the shrine of St Edward the Confessor he is going to pray in the presence of the saint, canonised in 1161. St Edward, as I’m sure you know, was King of England and established his palace here in Westminster and rebuilt the abbey. Now, we know that there was an abbey here before. There was a monastery certainly from 960, when St Dunstan was bishop of London, just before he became Archbishop of Canterbury.

He certainly brought monks here from Glastonbury where he’d been abbot, so he either re-founded or founded the monastery here. But the great thing was that between 1042 and 1065 Edward the Confessor built his palace here and re-built the Abbey, and we’ve got some remains of Edward the Confessor’s Abbey. Some of the outbuildings remain here.

The great Romanesque church, which he built before the Norman conquest (because his mother, you remember, was a Norman), was almost on the same scale as the current church. The current church was built, of course, from the 13th century onwards.

But nevertheless it enshrines St Edward, who wanted his state, his palace, here to be bolstered, buttressed, supported and underpinned by the Church. And that’s the nature of the state that we continue to be, where the state is in relation to the Church, the Church in relation to the state. And that’s not in a way that makes either in Babylonian captivity to the other, but it’s a genuine engagement – and that’s what we represent here at Westminster Abbey.

That’s what the shrine of St Edward the Confessor represents to us as a nation. That’s the message that people get almost without having it articulated: it’s in the very stones of Westminster Abbey itself. Anyone coming here can’t fail to perceive that, because of the nature of the memorials and shrines, and the people who are here, as it were. This is our national shrine and here is our national saint. I don’t contest St George being our patron saint but St Edward was before and he is a person of great significance.

So all of that is encapsulated on that very significant afternoon. It’s a chance for the Pope to address issues, which I know matter to him, about the embeddedness of Christianity within our culture. They matter to us, too.

What do you feel is the significance of John Henry Newman’s legacy to Anglicans?

Well, I don’t believe it’s possible for someone who’s lived a long time as an Anglican utterly to evade his Anglican heritage. And there is absolutely no doubt in the case of John Henry Newman that he means a great deal to Anglicans as well as to others – not just Anglicans in the tradition of the Oxford Movement. Keble stayed, Pusey stayed, Newman went. That was a painful time for people in 1845: the parting of friends, and we can’t imagine what the parting of friends would have felt like in those days. They would have lived quite separate lives and didn’t see each other again, many of them, ever. Some of them, of course, they saw many years later when Cardinal Newman was welcomed back into Oxford as (I think) an honorary Fellow of Trinity. But nevertheless, that was a moment of enormous significance for him, I think, and indeed for the wider understanding.

So he continues to mean a lot for Anglicans. He certainly means a lot personally to me and I’m very happy he’s on his road to canonisation, because I think he’s also important for the Roman Catholic Church. I think the position he took in 1870 around Vatican I was very significant. Clearly he was also a great inspiration to Vatican II, a great inspiration to the Pope.

It’s extraordinary that the Pope is coming here to beatify Cardinal Newman. As I understand it he doesn’t normally beatify anyone now. They’re beatified by local prelates. So this is a most significant thing. He sees it as such. We see it as such. And I believe that Cardinal Newman can be a sign of our common heritage and our common labour in God’s mission.

So it’s really Newman’s ability to remind us of our shared heritage?

Well, it’s not just reminding us of our shared heritage. That’s all true, but he also, I think, points us forward.

So you think he shows a path to unity.

Well, we all have the goal of unity. The Pope is clear about the goal ultimately being one of unity. How could anyone who reads John 17, who hears the words of our Lord, not have a clear goal for unity, a passion for unity?

What I alluded to earlier was the way in which friendships have grown, whilst obstacles remain between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church and they sometimes appear to be increased by the decisions that are being taken here and there. Nevertheless, subtly, quietly, gently, what I think is sometimes called “the dialogue of life” has developed, and friendships are very strong. I was myself immensely privileged to attend the inauguration of Archbishop Nichols’s ministry as Archbishop of Westminster, and I was there with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London and then again at the centenary of the consecration of Westminster Cathedral, and again, I sat just behind the Cardinal, very near the high altar, and felt tremendously humbled and honoured but also tremendous thankfulness for the friendship that’s grown up between us. Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are friends.

Will Newman’s beatification affect this at all?

There’s no doubt in my mind that we have different processes for recognising the holiness, the sanctity of individuals. There’s an Anglican route, which is quite different, and we raise people to the altar by a different process, but the process which the Roman Catholic Church uses is well known and well understood. It’s not universally accepted, or understood completely, but nevertheless it is inevitably influential. We’ve raised Newman to the altar simply by his inclusion in the calendar. Certainly we’ve raised other Oxford Movement people to the altar. We commemorate him on August 11. So he is in the Anglican calendar as a pious, holy person who is commended to our edification. We have him in our calendar as “John Henry Newman, priest, tractarian, 1890”. That’s the year of his death.

The promulgation by the Pope of Anglicanorum coetibus, allowing for the potential large-scale conversion of some Anglo-Catholics, seemed to cause some annoyance in the Church of England. How has this step affected Anglican-Catholic dialogue?

I don’t think fundamentally it has affected Anglican-Catholic dialogue. I remember that it was very clearly said that this was a pastoral response to an approach made by a group of Anglicans. Whether and in what way an Anglican Ordinariate, or a group of Anglican Ordinariates around the world, will be established is a matter for speculation at the moment.

I don’t see myself a great sign of a rush towards such a thing from my friends in the Anglican-Catholic tradition who are not willing to accept the ordination of women bishops. But that legislation process is still going through and no one knows what the outcome will yet be.

There are, as we all know, quite a large number of Anglicans who’ve become Roman Catholics over the years, and quite a large number of Roman Catholics who’ve become Anglicans over the years. So there is a two-way traffic.
Some very dear friends of mine have become Roman Catholics in the past – some parishioners of mine. And some parishioners of mine were Roman Catholics who’ve become Anglicans. And it’s not a difficult process, really. I think it adds to our mutual understanding.

There was a lot of talk in the press about “poaching”, and you don’t feel that’s justified?

I didn’t see the word “poaching” myself. If anything, I think there was a certain feeling that the way had not been sufficiently prepared for the announcement and it came as something of a surprise to people in this country.

From my point of view, we shouldn’t see it as a sort of fundamental assault on Anglicanism, because it was backed by very clear statements here and elsewhere about the importance of the continuing dialogue and relationship between our two churches.

What do you think Anglicans stand to gain from the papal visit?

If the papal visit manages to raise, in the right sort of way, for debate the questions which I’ve referred to earlier about the fundamental relation between Christianity and our nation, then I believe we shall all have gained from it.
We should all see our country as being founded on Christian principles, and the life of the Church is deeply embedded in our country. That doesn’t mean to say that we don’t welcome those of other faiths. Of course we do.

And we want a good respect and proper dialogue between people of all faiths, and indeed of none.

That’s important, but nevertheless, we can’t simply slough off our history, and regard ourselves as a secular state. That is not what we are. We are a state that’s founded on religion. And the papacy was a very strong supporter of that for many centuries.

Since the 16th century things have gone slightly differently, but we’re all talking about the same things. And very often the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England in this country speak with the same voice on issues – not absolutely universally, but very often. And it’s much stronger when it is with the same voice.

So you feel there is a strong possibility of cooperation on moral issues on which both communions agree?

I’ve always believed that. When I was the Church of England’s chief education officer, one of my best colleagues was the director of the Catholic Education Service, and the strongest relationship of my bishop chairman was with Vincent Nichols when he was chairman of the Catholic Education Service. We would all go together to meet Secretaries of State for Education to discuss education matters, and we were stronger together.

Have you read any of the Pope’s books? What is your impression of his theology?

Well, I thought his first encyclical was profoundly moving, and very impressive, and the way he focused on the primary issues. I’ve also read the first volume of his Jesus of Nazareth, which I found very moving and powerful. Clearly there are issues on which we would diverge, but I think his is a powerful voice.

And do you feel he has much to say to Anglicans as a theologian?

I think the dialogue between Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians is extremely important. Because Rowan Williams and the Pope are both devotees of St Augustine, I like to think of them sitting down in a quiet moment having a purely theological conversation around some of the ideas of St Augustine. And I believe that when we get back to fundamentals then we are very close indeed.

And do you feel that you have gained much from reading the Pope’s books as an Anglican?

I think we all gain as Anglicans or Roman Catholics by reading books from slightly different traditions. I think that the Pope has his place within that sort of hierarchy of people it’s interesting to read.

How would you say his theological outlook compares with that of Dr Williams?

I wouldn’t seek to contrast them. I think they both have important things to say.

Priestly Celibacy

2010-08-12T08:41:00.005+01:00

Bishop John Jukes of Southwark was one of the leading lights – and best brains – of the Catholic Church when I (Damian Thompson of the Telegraph) was still at school. Today, much to my surprise, an email from this remarkable Franciscan appeared in my inbox, asking politely if I’d be interested in his thoughts on 87 years of celibacy. Having reported so negatively on the antics of various Catholic bureaucrats, I’m delighted to reproduce his article, whose defence of this ancient spiritual tradition is in such contrast to the sneers and incomprehension of the Church’s critics.

I have always enjoyed the company of women. Their way of talking, the often – to me – apparently illogical style of reasoning, coupled with their physical appearance, have provided fascinating objects of wonder and interest. So you will understand how great was the step I took when I was 28 to freely take a life-long vow to God that I would never marry. It was a vow that I am still keeping in this year of Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain. I am still keeping this vow that I took under the example and inspiration of St Francis of Assisi because by it I am more closely linked to Jesus Christ, son of Mary of Nazareth and Son of God. Now as I celebrate my 87th birthday I reflect upon celibacy as I have experienced it and how this gift of God has placed me at the service of the Catholic Church and the people of God.

The choice of life-long celibacy is made by many hundreds of thousands of individuals in the life of the Catholic Church. Some do so, men and women, by electing to take a vow of perpetual celibacy as a member of a religious Order or Congregation. Other men seek ordination to the Catholic priesthood and thereby accept the discipline of perpetual celibacy which has been the rule in the western or Latin rite part of the Catholic Church for many centuries. While each individual will have personal and individual motives for undertaking what is by usual human standards a considerable sacrifice, yet all combine in a common conviction that they are seeking to place themselves at the side of Christ Our Saviour. We seek thereby to present in a distinctive way to the human race through the ages the Good News about Jesus Christ. I am convinced from my own experience that the gift of life-long celibacy has given me a great advantage in presenting Jesus and His teaching to mankind.

I was ordained to the priesthood in Liverpool in July 1952. I have spent my life since then serving in parishes, preaching parish missions, lecturing to church students and as an auxiliary bishop of Southwark with responsibility for the area of Kent. During this time I served for 38 years in the Tribunal for dealing with claims for nullity of marriage. In all these varied duties and activities, it became increasingly clear to me that the gift of celibacy has been an essential element in my response to the intellectual and emotional challenges arising from the needs of the people seeking my help.

I hold that each and every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. While each of us is responsible for our own decisions that will determine our individual eternal destiny, there is under God a shared solidarity between us, so that we are called to aid each other in achieving our fulfilment with God. Thus while each of us has our distinctive personhood, yet all human beings are in need of other human beings to form a web of relations in which we live and develop. Sadly, sometimes in developing our relations with our fellow human beings we do so solely under the impulse of self-gratification. In such a cases, a major opportunity to develop according to the mind of God is lost. For me, the commitment to life-long celibacy has proved a constant reminder to me of Jesus Christ who came to our world to give of Himself even to suffering death as an act of loving service of me and fellow sinners in ensuring the achieving of eternal salvation for all.

In addition to these rather abstract theological considerations, there are the day-to-day practical elements in my life as a celibate that have shaped the way I live for over fifty years. For the majority of the fifty years I lived in community with my brother Franciscans, immersed in a daily round of prayer, housekeeping and constant reflection on how to meet the needs of the people we served. When I became a bishop thirty years ago I entered upon a much more solitary existence, but with a similar duty of encouragement and reflection with the priests in my area of the Southwark diocese who, like me, were committed to celibacy and unrelenting priestly service of the people in their care.

It is suggested by some people that the life of a priest must be lonely. This has not been my experience. I have been blessed with an awareness of the presence in my life of Jesus Christ at my side. When in community life human relations have become a burden, when my efforts to serve the people have been rejected or ineffectual, Jesus has helped by reminding me of the rejection He had to sustain. When I have seen the good news of the Gospel spurned I have turned to Jesus. He has never deserted me. He has led me out of the sorrow of failure to remind me that He has sustained me in my celibacy. So I trust in the mercy and generosity of God, embodied in Jesus Son of God and Son of Mary, that has enabled me to live a celibate life of joy for the 87 years of my dwelling in this creation.

Filey yesterday

2010-08-11T08:49:00.002+01:00

Lunch at the White Lodge Hotel and a sunny walk through the gardens, along the sea front, and around the town.

53 Years Married

2010-08-10T08:26:00.002+01:00

....also Ruth's 51st birthday.

For the first time ever we have bought each other the same anniversary card.

First to chapel and then out to Filey for fresh air and food.

Tall Ships

2010-08-09T12:23:00.004+01:00

Scarborough citizens travel north by road, rail, and sea....

Even Bigger Crowds for Tall Ships
Spectacle

Even Bigger Crowds for Tall Ships
Spectacle
THE Tall Ships Races 2010 in Hartlepool hit new heights yesterday
(Sunday August 8) as an estimated 350,000 visitors flocked to
the site.
The figure, up 100,000 on Saturday’s 250,000 total, took visitor
numbers for the first two days of the event beyond the half
a million mark.
The highlight of the day was the impressive Crew Parade, a vibrant
pageant of music and costume.
Mayor Stuart Drummond said: “We have had some fabulous
feedback from people. The highlight of Sunday was undoubtedly the
Crew Parade, a fabulous display involving all of the crews which
was enjoyed by everyone.
“We are delighted with the way the whole event is going, and the
question I am already being asked is when can we have the Tall
Ships Races again!”
There are 57 vessels in port and the event is well on course to
attract up to one million visitors over the course of four days.
As well as the Tall Ships, there is a busy programme of live music
throughout the four days of the event. Tonight (Monday) will see
Echo and the Bunnymen and Doves take to the main stage. Other
highlights include a World Market, celebrity chefs, street theatre,
a folk festival and the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory.
The last of three fireworks displays will take place this evening
at 9.45pm.
Hartlepool is the only UK host port for the Tall Ships Races 2010,
with the vessels having sailed from Kristiansand in Norway in
the second and final race.

Unexpected Visitor

2010-08-08T12:31:00.000+01:00

Luke 12.32-40

Jesus said to his disciples, 32‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’

Sermon at Dulverton

An Unexpected Visitor

Back in 1987 the Collins Biennial Religious Book Award went to ‘God of Surprises’ by the Jesuit spriest spiritual director Fr Gerry Hughes, whom I know and with whom I have been privileged to work.

Today’s gospel reading is headed in the Jerusalem Bible by a summary of its message as ‘On being ready for the Master’s return’. Our Lord suggests to his followers that they would be wise to remain ready and alert for his return for he could well turn up on their doorsteps ‘at an unexpected hour’. ‘Standing ready’ appears to involve a detachment from money and material possessions, basic dress appropriate to serious work, and a preparedness for his arrival as a surprise and at a time unexpected – even under cover of darkness or at an approaching dawn.

Most bible commentators naturally place this teaching of the Lord as relating to his return at the parousia or at the hour of our death but, following the thesis of my friend’s book, I want to suggest a somewhat different application. Fr Gerry starts with the idea of the contemporary Jesus not being so much ‘out there’ as ‘in here’ ie.dwelling deep within. It is from there that he waits to reveal himself to us. The stance of readiness relates to the spirituality of desiring to be ready for him through self exploration and prayerful reflection. He may well be there clothed in the darkness just as in the light that we find within ourselves. In the preface to the book the author writes “I dedicate this book in gratitude to all with whom I have walked the inner journey and who taught me by sharing their own inner experience.” He goes on “I thank the Society of Jesus which introduced and guided me through the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, which permeate this book.”

“Through the painful in-breaking of the God of Surprises the truths of the Christian faith begin to take on a new meaning. As God breaks down the cocoon of our closed minds, he enters in. No longer remote and out there, no longer dwelling only in tabernacles and temples of stone, we meet him smiling at us in our bewilderment and beckoning us in our confusion as he reveals himself in our failure and disillusion as our only rock, refuge and strength”.

Over the last 4 weeks there has been a new comedy on bbc2 on Monday evenings at 10 called simply ‘REV’. It has received quite a lot of appreciation in unexpected church circles from the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards. It is all about the struggles of an inner city vicar. He is trying to overcome the problems of a tiny congregation, to deflect approaches from atheist parents attempting to gain places for their children at the church school, whilst contending with the church’s behind-the-scenes politics. At the same time he has to try and lead a normal married life with his wife in the vicarage and community. He tries to pray honestly wanting to do his best for God and the people. The archbishop describes it as ‘really rather good’ whilst the bbc admit ‘a sort of gratification from messages telling them that some vicars have found it too painful to watch. It ends with the vicar finding himself and God as the police rush him to to the bedside of a dying parishioner to minister to her and her husband. If you missed it I recommend you to look out for any repeats.

We should never give up on God in our lives and experience. He may seem absent or hidden but in fact he is nearer than breathing and could very well reveal himself at an unexpected hour and in a most unusual manner if we remain ready to welcome him.

Blogging Problems

2010-08-07T15:47:00.004+01:00

Sorry if I am not able to maintain my daily input.

The computer available to me maybe coming to the end of its useful life.

It is a community provision and if this is the case I am not sure where I go from here.

Transfiguration

2010-08-06T16:03:00.000+01:00

A Prayer for the Feast of The Transfiguration

O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end.

Sacred Hearts

2010-08-05T18:22:00.003+01:00

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunnant

At 16, Serafina enters the Ferrara convent of Santa Caterina as its prisoner, screaming like a madwoman. She’s one of a nobleman’s two daughters, but there is only dowry enough for one suitable marriage. In a time of political and religious ferment her dowry to the convent makes her especially desirable, but she is moreover possessed of a heavenly voice that will add to the lustre of their famous choir. In time, Serafina will, like the rest, accept that convent life is preferable to the brutality of the world outside, and turn to the ideal bridegroom, Christ. What they do not know is that she is already passionately in love.In Sacred Hearts, Sarah Dunant’s third historical novel set in Renaissance Italy, Serafina, stroppy and silent, seems reminiscent of many modern teenage girls, but finds it harder not to form a relationship with the humane, scholarly herbalist Suora Zuana, whose pupil she becomes. By telling her story through the eyes of two heroines, a resonant narrative tension between youth and age, science and superstition, love and chastity is set up. The convent’s all-female world is deformed physically in many cases, but also morally and intellectually. Yet it contains goodness and compassion. Threatened from without, the worldly Abbess also has an enemy within in Suora Umiliana, a fanatic who believes that the ancient Suora Magdalena’s stigmata are a sign of insufficient piety. Inevitably, when describing a life of privation and routine, there are some longueurs. We learn a good deal more about Zuana, her opinions of sex and her memories of her dead father, than the fiery young teenager who is central to the plot. There are stomach-churning descriptions of foul breath, bodily ills, starvation and putrefaction. Serafina’s attempts to contact her lover outside the impassably sheer convent walls seem unrewarded until, 150 pages in, the moment that will have Hollywood panting after the film rights. Gathered together to sing invisibly for the city behind a grille, the choir’s “best songbird” opens her mouth – only to be effortlessly outclassed by Serafina’s voice, soaring unexpectedly above it. She knows that her lover is in the congregation; but the convent believes their novice has opened her heart to Christ. Then, we’re never in doubt that Serafina is going to try to escape. It’s a battle of wits, feminine duplicity and politics of a kind that readers adore, and whereas Dunant’s previous historical novels were energetically sexual, this more limited palette is, rewardingly, about two expressions of love. There are the usual hysterical fits, visions, fainting and incarcerations we expect from what is virtually a subgenre, and also the comical details that delight: the posh, indoor nuns whose relations smuggle in silver trays to act as mirrors to aid in the removal of facial hair. Yet what you remember most is the painful maternal passion the nuns pour on small dogs – and the intellectual ability directed into musical composition and a culture which, in 1570, is doomed to be repressed by the Council of Trent. Historical fiction is no longer considered middlebrow – rightly if you remember War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities or Possession; wrongly if you consider Jean Plaidy, Anya Seton and numerous modish pasticheurs. Sacred Heartscould be dismissed as a feminist romp about a nun on the run. Yet the power of Dunant’s imagination, the vigour of her scholarship and the lucidity of her style make this a novel that, in addressing unfashionable questions about the price of religious faith, is as intelligent as it is enjoyable.

Saint for all priests

2010-08-04T18:25:00.000+01:00

Saint for all priests

In this Year of the Priest it is a special pleasure to consider the Patron Saint of ALL Priests, St. John Vianney. He had been the Patron of ParishPriests but our Holy Father has extended that patronage to all Priests.St. John Mary Vianney was born in France in 1786. His childhood coincidedwith the terrible French revolution. He was devout even as a boy and quietly taught other children their prayers. He would be ordained a priest in 1815 but struggled mightily through seminary and was a poor student. He had a very difficult time with Latin. There was even talk among his superiors if he should be ordained or, if ordained, be allowed to hear confessions. They decided to ordain him but gave him one of the least desirable of assignments: to the little town of Ars. The young priest was told that the faith was all but lost there and so he would have little to do. “Then I have everything to do!”, he exclaimed.Upon arriving in Ars the conditions were as foretold but this good priest knew that the holiness of the people would first need a holy priest and so he took upon himself not only his own seeking of personal holiness but also severe penances for his flock. He fasted continually and only slept a few hours a night, spending most of his time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.His prayers and penances began to pay off. He spent time waiting for penitents in the confessions and little by little they began to come. The town began to change and people began to return to the practice of their faith. The time needed in the confessional grew and grew until it was up to 16 hours a day! And the people began to come from other places as his renown as a confessor became widely known.Supernatural gifts were granted to him and he would even wrestle with the devil in the literal sense for the evil one was furious that so many souls were being snatched from his grasp. Oh, if only the evil one could at least keep the people lukewarm but this priest was leading them on the path to holiness and sanctification! When miracles occurred at his intercession he would always give the glory to God or ‘blame’ Our Lady or St. Philomena. Worn out by his labors this holy man of God died in 1859. He was canonized in 1925 and is the Patron of ALL priests. May they follow his example of holiness.

Turner finalists

2010-08-03T12:39:00.001+01:00

We hope to be in London for the final and to visit Tate Britain.

Hendrix's Last Basement by Dexter Dalwood Photo: PA

Twenty-six years after it was first awarded (to the painter Malcolm Morley in 1984), Britain’s once reliably controversial Turner Prize risks slumping into early middle age and being greeted with indifference – and not simply because all of the shortlisted artists for this year’s prize are in their forties.
One of Tate director Nicholas Serota’s most eye-catching moves (aside from the creation of Tate Modern) was the deal that he struck with Channel 4 in 1991 to televise the Turner Prize. In the years that followed, many British artists made brash, splashy and provocative work that knowingly incited the media, and made for great television. Newspapers and broadcasters loved reporting their provocations, and artists loved dreaming up ever more outrageous antics to provide fodder for newspapers and broadcasters. It was a potent symbiosis.
More recently, however, things have quietened down: last year’s winner, for instance, was Richard Wright, who makes gentle, exquisite wall paintings that are a world away from the headline-grabbing work of the YBAs who, championed by Charles Saatchi, dominated the 1990s.
It’s as if collectively our attitude to contemporary art has mellowed and matured. A sneaking suspicion that much contemporary art is a load of blather and baloney still lingers among large sections of the population. But I believe that people are now happier to accept work made by living British artists than they were even a decade ago.
The result is that these days it’s hard to get het up about the Turner Prize. This year is no exception. We can’t fulminate about the death of painting, because the shortlist contains two painters (Dexter Dalwood – easily the biggest name on the list – and Angela de la Cruz, nominated for an exhibition at London’s Camden Arts Centre). It seems churlish to revisit the old “But is it art?” argument in the case of Scottish sound artist Susan Philipsz, when sound art has been mainstream for years now.
Only the multi-disciplinary Otolith Group, founded in 2002 by Londoners Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, and named after the part of the inner ear that helps us to balance, might sound baffling and pretentious.
The great triumph of the Turner Prize was that, during the 1990s, it won a large audience for contemporary art in this country. But, now that this battle has been won, it faces a tricky problem: how can it sustain widespread interest when it no longer feels appropriate to describe the work that is shortlisted each year as “shocking” or “controversial”?

Pastoral from 15 Bishops

2010-08-02T16:55:00.000+01:00

To the priests and deacons who signed the Open Letter

Dear Brothers and Sisters, July 2010

‘God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will tell you the good and proper way.’ (1 Samuel 12:23)

These are grave times in the Church of England especially for those of us unable in good conscience to accept that any particular church has the authority to admit women to the episcopate. While we certainly accept the good faith of those who wish to make this change believing it to be God’s will, we cannot rejoice with them, not least because of the disastrous cost to Catholic unity.

Our concerns are not only about sacramental assurance though that is of profound importance. If the legislation now proposed passes, it will not provide room for our tradition to grow and flourish. We will be dependent on a Code of Practice yet to be written, and sadly our experience of the last almost twenty years must make us wonder whether even such an inadequate provision will be honoured in the long term.

Neither the Report of the Revision Committee nor the legislation itself shows a proper understanding of our reservations, however carefully these have been presented through the consultation process and in the College and House of bishops. It remains a deep disappointment to us that the Church at large did not engage with the excellent Rochester Report and paid scant attention to the Consecrated Women report sponsored by Forward in Faith.

We must now accept that a majority of members of the Church of England believe it right to proceed with the ordination of women as bishops, and that a significant percentage of those in authority will not encourage or embrace with enthusiasm the traditional integrity or vocations within it. Nor is it their intention or desire to create a structure which genuinely allows the possibility of a flourishing mission beyond this generation.

However, the closeness of the vote on the Archbishops’ amendment for co ordinate jurisdiction, concerns though there are about its adequacy, suggest at least a measure of disquiet in the majority about proceeding without a provision acceptable to traditionalists. The Catholic group fought valiantly on the floor of synod and we are grateful for that, and while many in the Church and press are speaking as if the legislation is now passed, final Synodical approval is still some way off.

Whatever happens in the Synod, there are some Anglo Catholics, including in our own number, who are already looking at, indeed are resolved to join the Ordinariate as the place where they can find a home in which to live and proclaim their Christian faith, in communion with the Holy Father, yet retaining something of the blessings they have known and experienced in the Anglican tradition. Of course the Ordinariate is a new thing, and not all of us are trailblazers or can imagine what it might be like. Some will undoubtedly want to wait and see how that initiative develops before making a decision.

Yet others will make their individual submission and find their future as Roman Catholics.

Were the present proposals not to be substantially amended or defeated, many more of us will need to consider seriously these options.

A number will remain, perhaps even reluctantly because of personal circumstances, family loyalties, even financial necessity, but with a deep sense of unease about the long term future, an unease that is surely well founded. There are faithful Catholic clergy and lay people, though deeply opposed to the likely Synodical decision who cannot currently imagine themselves being anywhere else but within the Church of England. They wonder how they can stay, yet cannot imagine leaving their much loved church and parish. They do not want to be forced out of the Church they love and will persevere where they are, whatever the theological or ecclesiological ambiguities, and seek God’s blessing on all they do.

Those who are not actively seeking a home elsewhere must work to defeat the currently proposed legislation. It is essential that traditionalists engage in the debate and discussion in their diocese and are active in the election process for the next quinquennium of the General Synod when the two thirds majority in each House will be required if the legislation is to pass. Whatever our individual futures, and however disheartened we might feel, the Church of England needs strong catholic hearts and voices.

The text quoted at the beginning of this letter was the one used by John Keble in his famous Assize sermon, often regarded as the starting point of the Oxford Movement. It seems remarkably apposite, and gives a clue to an appropriate attitude of heart for this process: prayerful and gracious, but clear.

We are all bishops united in our belief that the Church of England is mistaken in its actions. However, we must be honest and say we are not united as to how we should respond to these developments.

Nevertheless we are clear that each of the possibilities we have outlined has its own integrity and is to be honoured. We are resolved to respect the decisions made by laity, bishops, priests and deacons of our integrity, and call on you to do the same. It would be a sad and destructive thing indeed if we allowed our unhappiness and wondering to drift into unguarded or uncharitable criticism of those who in good conscience take a different path from our own. We must assume the best motives in one another, and where there are partings let them be with tears and the best wishes of Godspeed.

You will we hope know of the clergy meetings in both provinces to take place in late September when there will be opportunities for discussion and an exchange of views about the future. Be assured of our prayers as you reflect about how best to respond to the challenges which face us, and we ask your prayers for us too as we seek to be faithful to the Lord, and to the Faith once delivered.

Please share the contents of this letter with your people, and indeed with any who might be interested to know of it.

The Rt Revd John Hind, Bishop of Chichester

The Rt Revd Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Europe

The Rt Revd Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn

The Rt Revd Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough

The Rt Revd Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley

The Rt Revd John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham

The Rt Revd Peter Wheatley, Bishop of Edmonton

The Rt Revd John Goddard, Bishop of Burnley

The Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet

The Rt Revd Tony Robinson , Bishop of Pontefract

The Rt Revd John Ford, Bishop of Plymouth

The Rt Revd Mark Sowerby, Bishop of Horsham

The Rt Revd Martin Warner, Bishop of Whitby

The Rt Revd Robert Ladds

The Rt Revd Lindsay Urwin OGS

Rich before God

2010-08-01T08:42:00.000+01:00

Gospel

Lk 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”

St Saviour Sermon

“Rich in the sight of God”

What does it mean to be “rich in the sight of God”? It certainly calls to mind that other word of Jesus “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven”.

Only the other day I was reading about Tom Monaghan, who founded Domino Pizza, one of the most successful companies in America. In 1998 he sold it for a billion dollars and has since dedicated his life to serving God and the Church. He got rid of his Sikorsky helicopter and his corporate jet, his Rolls Royce and Bentley Turbo, as well as his 190ft yacht and his prized and rare collection of artefacts that had belonged to the great American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. His love of the world and its wealth were replaced by his desire for the beauty and treasure of Christ.

Throughout history men and women have been inspired to renounce everything for Christ and the gospel. They have wanted to be free of this world’s attractions in order to follow an inner impulse to penetrate more deeply into the riches of the mystery which is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Take St Francis of Assisi. My ordaining bishop, John Moorman of Ripon, was a world renowned scholar on St Francis and he wrote a number of books about him. His title for one of them, taking from a phrase in the First Life of St Francis by Thomas of Celano, was ‘Richest of Poor Men’. Francis was brought up in a wealthy home; but gradually step by step, he was led to give up everything and adopt a life of such extreme poverty that he literally owned nothing. Struck by our Lord’s words in the gospel reading whilst attending mass in a little church just outside the walls of Assisi that “whoever does not renounce all cannot be my disciple” he gradually proceeded to get rid of everything that he possessed in a process that ended up with him giving back to his father not only his money but also his clothes, so that, for a moment, he stood naked and totally destitute until the Bishop of Assisi wrapped him in his cloak. The Franciscan poet, Jacopone of Todi, wrote in later years: “Poverty is to have nothing, And to desire nothing; And yet to possess everything, In the spirit of liberty.”

Yesterday, was the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits or Society of Jesus. Following his recovery from war wounds, when he left the military world to become a soldier of Christ, partly as a result of reading a life of Christ and a life of St Francis, he set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. First, he tells us in ‘His Own Story’, that he stopped off at the Spanish monastery of the Black Madonna at Montserrat (near to Barcelona) to make his confession and consecrate his future to the Lord. He had brought with him a garment made of rough prickly sacking and a pilgrim’s staff. He gave away his mule, his garments to a poor man, and left his sword and dagger hung on the altar of our Lady in the church. He disposed of his income and thereafter begged for food and alms. He was detached from this world’s goods and attached to the wealth of Christ. When he came to write his Spiritual Exercises he made certain that converts to his consecrated style of Christian living also learned to embrace Lady Poverty, in the spirit of Francis and our Lord himself, as the first step to sanctity and service in the crusade for Christ.

If we always persue wealth, and constantly cling to worldy possessions, we may become deluded that we can cushion and control our own destiny. We are in danger of demoting God and neighbour in the priorities of our lives. We may ultimately be in denial about the inevitability of death. On the other hand, being rich in the sight of God, takes us to the truth of our existence and its meaning. We are dependent upon God , the source of all good, for everything. Our real salvation, and security, is to be found in him. We learn to trust our selves into his hands both for the here and the hereafter and along the way afford to be generous in time and love towards those around us whatever their needs. This is to be rich in the sight of God.

Ignatius of Loyola

2010-07-31T17:11:00.000+01:00

On July 31, the Universal Church will mark the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Spanish saint is known for founding the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, as well as for creating the “Spiritual Exercises” often used today for retreats and individual discernment.

St. Ignatius was born into a noble family in 1491 in Guipuzcoa, Spain. He served as a page in the Spanish court of Ferdinand and Isabella.

He then became a soldier in the Spanish army and wounded his leg during the siege of Pamplona in 1521. During his recuperation, he read “Lives of the Saints.” The experience led him to undergo a profound conversion, and he dedicated himself to the Catholic faith.

After making a general confession in a monastery in Montserrat, St. Ignatius proceeded to spend almost a year in solitude. He wrote his famous “Spiritual Exercises” and then made a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land, where he worked to convert Muslims.

St. Ignatius returned to complete his studies in Spain and then France, where he received his theology degree. While many held him in contempt because of his holy lifestyle, his wisdom and virtue attracted some followers, and the Society of Jesus was born.

The Society was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, and it grew rapidly. St. Ignatius remained in Rome, where he governed the Society and became friends with St. Philip Neri.

St. Ignatius died peacefully on July 31, 1556. He was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622.

The Jesuits remain numerous today, particularly in several hundred universities and colleges worldwide.

On April 22, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI presided over a Eucharistic concelebration for the Society of Jesus. He addressed the fathers and brothers of the Society present at the Vatican Basilica, calling to mind the dedication and fidelity of their founder.

“St. Ignatius of Loyola was first and foremost a man of God who in his life put God, his greatest glory and his greatest service, first,” the Pope said. “He was a profoundly prayerful man for whom the daily celebration of the Eucharist was the heart and crowning point of his day.”

“Precisely because he was a man of God, St Ignatius was a faithful servant of the Church,” Benedict continued, recalling the saint's “special vow of obedience to the Pope, which he himself describes as 'our first and principal foundation.'”

Highlighting the need for “an intense spiritual and cultural training,” Pope Benedict called upon the Society of Jesus to follow in the footsteps of St. Ignatius and continue his work of service to the Church and obedience to the Pope, so that it's members “may faithfully meet the urgent needs of the Church today.”

Sacramental Assurance

2010-07-30T08:50:00.001+01:00

Why sacramental assurance matters

Simon Killwick explains why Catholics set such store by a priest’s ‘pedigree’

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory is mine!” Anglicans, especially Catholic An glicans, find “blessed assurance” and a “foretaste of glory” in the sacraments of the Church. After the General Synod debate on women bishops, Stephen Barney wrote asking for an explanation of the doctrine of sacra mental assurance (Letters, 16 July). Others have questioned whether sacra mental assurance is an Anglican doctrine.

I would like to try to explain it, and to show that it is an Anglican doctrine. The doctrine of the Church of England is to be found particularly in “the Thirty-nine Articles of Reli gion, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal”, according to Canon A5; I will refer to these sources, among others.

Article XXV teaches that “Sacra ments ordained by Christ . . . [are] effectual signs of grace”: they effect what they signify; they truly bring us the grace of God; they are the means by “which [God] doth work invisibly in us”. This gives the Church of Eng land a Catholic doctrine of the sacra ments.

The teaching of the Article is ex panded in the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, which states that the sacraments are “a means whereby we receive [grace]”, and “a pledge to assure us thereof”. We have therefore the assurance that we receive the grace of God in the sacraments, provided that the right conditions are met.

Traditional Catholic teaching re quires the use of bread and wine at the eucharist, and the presidency of a priest ordained by a bishop in the apostolic succession. Both the Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship require the use of bread and wine, and the presidency of a priest ordained by a bishop. Article XXXVI refers to the Ordinal attached to the Book of Common Prayer, which re quires that priests be ordained by bishops, as did the Act of Uniformity 1662.

The preface to the Ordinal makes it clear that the Church of England intended to continue the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, as the Church had received them, going back to the time of the Apostles. In other words, the C of E explicitly intended to continue the ordained ministry of the Catholic Church.

The requirement of a priest, or dained by a bishop in the apostolic succession, to preside at the eucharist is a requirement of Anglican for mularies. One could cite various Anglican divines who took just such a Catholic and Anglican position — Jeremy Taylor, Lancelot Andrewes, John Cosin, and William Laud, to name but a few.

The problem for traditional Cath olics in the Church of England is that we do not believe that in ordaining women, the C of E is continuing the orders of bishops and priests as the Church has received them. By “Church” here, we mean the un divided Church of the past, together with the present-day Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, and a number of other Anglican provinces.

The ordination of women to the priesthood therefore initiated a pro cess of reception in the Church of England and the wider Church. Reception is not a new concept in the history of the Church: it refers to the reception of the decisions of Councils of the Church by the whole people of the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Because the C of E claims that her orders are those of the whole or universal Church (Catholic, Ortho dox, Anglican), the new development in the ordination of women must be subject to reception by the whole Church. Otherwise, our Church’s claim about her orders would be in jeopardy. Recognition of the need for reception underpinned theologically the provision that was made in 1992-93 for members of the Church of England not to receive the priestly ministry of women.

The introduction of women bishops would introduce a new phase into the process of reception, calling, theologically and practically, for provision for members of the C of E not to receive the episcopal ministry of women. According to Anglican ordinals, priests have to be ordained by bishops. Those who are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops cannot receive the ministry of those who have been ordained by women bishops, because ordination is an essentially episcopal ministry.

The problem then, particularly for lay traditionalists, would be how they can be sure that a priest presiding at the eucharist has been ordained by a male bishop, in a line of bishops and priests which is an explicit continua tion of the orders of bishops and priests as the Church has received them. Without that assurance, they do not have the assurance of the grace of God in the sacrament.

This is not to denigrate the minis try of women priests, or to say that the grace of God is not present when they preside at the eucharist. But it is to say that the same sacramental as surance is not available when women preside at the eucharist, or ordain priests — because there is doubt that, in their ordination, the Church of England is continuing the Catholic orders of the universal Church.

Bishop Kenneth Kirk wrote in a paper for the Church Assembly in 1947 that “where the sacraments are concerned, the Church is always obliged to take the least doubtful course.” For this reason, we cannot receive the priestly or episcopal minis try of women.

It is sometimes objected that Article XXVI says that the “un worthiness of ministers” does not hinder the effect of the sacrament. If we read the Article in full, however, we see that the unworthiness referred to is not an issue about holy orders, but serious moral unworthiness: “wicked ness”.

Indeed, the Article teaches the principle of sacramental assurance, namely, that the grace of God is present in the sacrament when it is rightly and duly administered, in accordance with the teaching and practice of the undivided Church. This requires the continuation of the orders of bishops and priests as the Church has received them, going back to the time of the Apostles.

Canon Simon Killwick is the Rector of Christ Church, Moss Side, Manchester, and chairman of the Catholic Group on the General Synod.

Lolita

2010-07-29T08:29:00.002+01:00

Last night we watched the film 'Lolita'.

Lolita is a 1997 drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze, and Frank Langella as Clare Quilty. It is the second screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov. The film concerns the story of an English professor's obsession with his landlady's flirtatious daughter and his attempts to possess her. Lolita was originally filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, when much of the novel’s content was toned down significantly due to censorship restrictions. In a less conservative era, British director Lyne began filming his own adaptation.
With the central theme of Humbert's hebephilia, the film had considerable difficulty finding an American distributor^[ and premiered in Europe before being released in America, where it was met with much controversy. The film was picked up in the United States by Showtime, a cablenetwork, before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The performances by Irons and Swain impressed audiences, but, although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative, the film received a mixed critical reception in theUnited States. Following its theatrical release, the film was distributed on VHS and DVD byPathé, both of which are now out-of-print.
Plot summary
In 1947, Humbert Humbert, a European professor of French literature, travels to New Hampshirein the United States to take a teaching position. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze, largely because he sees her adolescent daughter, Dolores (variously called "Dolly" or "Lo"; age 12 in Nabokov's novel, but shown as slightly older in the film), while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of this age (whom he calls "nymphets"), partly because of an early sexual experience and tragic loss, Humbert marries Charlotte for the sake of access to her daughter.
Charlotte's untimely death, shortly after she discovers his preference for her daughter, frees Humbert to pursue a sexual and emotional relationship with Dolores, whom he nicknames "Lolita". The two travel the country for a few weeks or months, staying in various motels but eventually settling in a college town where Humbert takes a teaching job. However, Lolita's increasing boredom with Humbert, as well as her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension between them. Humbert's desperate affections for Lo are also rivaled by another man, the playwright Clare Quilty, who has been pursuing Lo from the beginning. Quilty's name and identity are at first unknown to Humbert, and when Lolita runs away to him, Humbert's search for her is unsuccessful.
Three years later, after a receiving a letter asking for financial help, Humbert visits the now 17-year-old Lolita, married to another man and pregnant. Humbert, who still loves her, asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money and information about her inheritance from her mother. He also discovers the name of his nemesis, Quilty, whom he hunts down and murders.
After being arrested, Humbert dies in prison in November 1950. Lolita dies in childbirth a month later, on Christmas Day.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков,pronounced [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nɐˈbokəf]; 22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1899^c – 2 July 1977) was a multilingual Russian-American novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made contributions to entomology and had an interest in chess problems.
Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as among his most important novels and is his most widely known, exhibiting the love of intricate word play and synesthetic detail that characterised all his works. The novel was ranked at #4 in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels.Pale Fire (1962) was ranked at #53 on the same list. His memoir entitled Speak, Memory was listed #8 on the Modern Library nonfiction list.
Nabokov's afterword
In 1956, Nabokov penned an afterword to Lolita ("On a Book Entitled Lolita") that was included in every subsequent edition of the book.
One of the first things Nabokov makes a point of saying is, despite John Ray Jr.'s claim in the Foreword, there is no moral to the story.
In the afterword, Nabokov wrote that "the initial shiver of inspiration" for Lolita "was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage". Neither the article nor the drawing has been recovered.
In response to an American critic who characterized Lolita as the record of Nabokov's "love affair with the romantic novel", Nabokov wrote that "the substitution of 'English language' for 'romantic novel' would make this elegant formula more correct".
Nabokov concluded the afterword with a reference to his beloved first language, which he abandoned as a writer once he moved to the United States in 1940: "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian language for a second-rate brand of English".

Pastor's Bloated Ego

2010-07-28T12:12:00.002+01:00

Sign Language special: religion
A special collection from our Sign Language archive: our favourite religion-themed signs.

Personality cult
Location: USA
Spotted by: Dan Sadler

Trouble at the Oratory

2010-07-27T12:30:00.001+01:00

Parishioners of the Birmingham Oratory have written an open letter to the Oratorian priest acting as the Vatican’s delegate to the Congregation, asking about the fate of two priests and a brother who – though not accused or suspected of any sexual impropriety – were mysteriously sent into exile in May.

This is a complex business, but it strikes me that the Birmingham Oratory really needs to display some transparency now, rather than let the matter fester until Pope Benedict XVI visits them in September. As The Times reported on May 21, the then Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, Fr Philip Chavasse, had left his post amid allegations of a “close but chaste” relationship with a young man. But he was not the only Oratorian forced to leave:

Father Philip Cleevely, Father Dermot Fenlon and Brother Lewis Berry have been told “to spend time in prayer for an indefinite period” by Father Felix Seldon, the priest appointed to conduct an “apostolic visitation”.
The Tablet reports today that Father Cleevely has gone to Pluscarden Abbey, Moray, Father Fenlan to Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, Leicestershire, and Brother Berry to somewhere in France.

But why were these three Oratorians given this savage punishment? Their supporters have been trying to find out, to no avail: all we have to go on are rumours about “disputes over the beatification of Newman”, which could mean anything. If these Birmingham Oratorians are innocent of wrongdoing, should they really be excluded from the greatest moment in the history of their Congregation?

I’ve just spoken to a senior (and non-partisan) lay Catholic who felt that this apparent injustice should be highlighted despite the dangers of rocking the boat so soon before the papal visit. So here is the open letter. Time for some answers.

An Open Letter to Father Felix Selden CO, Delegate of the Apostolic See for the Confederation of the Oratory, from parishioners of the Birmingham Oratory and members of the National Association of Catholic families.
We are grateful to Father Felix Selden for having had the courtesy to reply to our letter of 1st July, in which we enquired about the return of Father Dermot Fenlon, Father Philip Cleevely and Brother Lewis Berry to the Birmingham Oratory. Unfortunately none of our questions were answered. His argument appears to be that as mere lay people, we have no right to know what is going on at the Birmingham Oratory. However we are parents, chosen by God to discharge the duty of protecting vulnerable young people in a society at war with our values. We have seen the inexplicable removal of two priests and a brother who have exerted themselves heroically in the defence of our Catholic families. Consequently, our family and others are now left much more vulnerable. I am afraid that is very much our business and indeed intimately affects our families: we have every right to a coherent explanation of what is going on, and an assurance that these priests and brother will be returned to their ministry with us forthwith.
Father Selden expresses concern that lay people are protesting the conduct of the Apostolic Visitation and suggests that this is creating scandal “and might dangerously harm the Church and the Oratory of Birmingham”. It is very difficult to read this in any other way than as a veiled threat. Is there a threat here of direct action against the lay protestors, or indirect action against the two priests and brother concerned if the lay people cannot be silenced? We are bound to point out that the scandal was absolutely not of our own making. We will not easily forget the look of bewilderment on our children’s faces when they heard from the pulpit the announcement of the expulsion of these three holy men with no explanation, and the difficult task we have (and continue to have) in trying to mitigate the enormous scandal that has been done to these little ones. There is a very ready remedy: bring back those of our good pastors who are innocent of any wrong doing (as we have been assured is the case with these three).
No threat will convince us as parents to remain silent: the threat from the immoral culture all around us, which in many sad cases has infiltrated the Catholic Church even to the extent of compromising some of her pastors, is far more deadly to us than anything that might be done to silence us. We love the Catholic Church very much but cannot elevate Church reputation and image above our children’s moral safety. Our children’s very souls are at stake and we will not be silence.
We ask once again: are these three holy men going to be returned to Cardinal Newman’s Oratory where they belong or not? If they are to return, when will that be? (damian thompson)

Is nothing sacred?

2010-07-26T16:51:00.001+01:00

Vicar gives Holy Communion to dog

An Anglican church in Canada has become the focus of controversy after a vicar gave Holy Communion to a dog.

The priest gave the Host – considered by Christians to represent the body of Jesus Christ – to an Alsatian cross called Trapper.

St Peter's Anglican Church in Toronto has since been deluged complaints from Christians all over Canada.

Donald Keith, the dog's owner, said he had taken his pet to the church because he had been told animals were welcome.

He said that because he was newcomer the vicar invited him up in person to receive communion.

"The minister welcomed me and said come up and take communion, and Trapper came up with me and the minister gave him communion as well," said Mr Keith.

"Then he bent his head and said a little prayer," Mr Keith said.

"I thought it was a nice way to welcome me into the church," he said. "I thought it was acceptable." He added: "There was an old lady in the front just beaming when she saw this.

"Ninety nine-point-nine per cent of the people in the church love Trapper and the kids play with him." He said one member of the congregation was unhappy about the vicar giving the dog communion and complained to the archbishop, Colin Johnson.

The dog has since been banned from receiving the sacrament.

"It was just one person who got his nose out of joint and went to the head of the Anglican Church," said Mr Keith.

"Holy smokes. This is small stuff. I thought it was innocent and it made me think of the blessing of the animals.

"This has blown me away. The church is even getting emails from Catholics," he said.

Peggy Needham, the deputy people's warden at the church, said that no further action would be taken.

"The backlash is from just one person," she said.

"Something happened that won't happen again. Something our interim priest did spontaneously.

"This person went to the top and emailed our bishop to make a fuss and change things. But he misjudged our congregation."

Prayer Pointers

2010-07-25T16:50:00.000+01:00

Gospel

Lk 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Dulverton Sermon

Prayer Pointers

One of the strongest motivations for good parents, is doing their best for their children in terms of life style, education, and provision. We may think that sometimes this is taken too far with children being spoilt and expecting their every wish to be granted with little effort on their part. We may judge that too much emphasis is being placed on the provision of material possessions to the neglect of personal time and spiritual nurture but we cannot deny that the parental instinct to do ones best for ones children is good.

In today’s gospel Jesus picks up on this universal human trait and uses it to illustrate how God wants to relate to us: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” I believe that in these words Jesus gives us three pointers for the life of prayer.

First, he tells us that the person petitioned in prayer is “the heavenly Father”: Last Monday I spent some time with a friend from the Coptic monastery at Langdale End. As we travelled together in his car he told me that he had a recent experience that brought him much joy. He is a very caring man who has helped many people and is much respected as a priest. His friends call him ‘Abuna’, the Coptic for ‘Father’ but he had recently received a letter from someone he had been helping in which he was called not ‘Father’ but the Coptic equivalent of ‘Daddy’ indicating a relationship more of intimacy and love than simply of respect. It reminded me of how Jesus taught his disciples to call God ‘Abba, Father’ which is roughly the same idea in Aramaic. The true nature of God, whom we address in prayer, is not some remote respected father figure but a close trusted friend who more than anything wants to give us what is truly good and best for us.

Secondly, in our text, Jesus tells us that the best approach of those praying is “those who ask”: “Ask, and it will be given to you” says Jesus. “For the one who asks always receives.” Christian prayer should always an open, confident, simple, and clear expression of what we want from “the heavenly father”. In his story about knocking up the neighbour in bed to borrow some bread Jesus also tells us that prayer should be persistent. Do you remember how he challenged blind man sat by the side of the road as he passed when he shouted out for help: “What do you want me to do for you?” – an invitation to request whatever he likes. The essence of real Christian prayer is desire – telling your heavenly father exactly what you want. “What do you want? What do you really want? What do you really really want?” We should come as children who are confident that their father is able to grant what we ask him and wants to be positive and generous in his response to our requests. There is just one proviso. He doesn’t want to give us a stone when our real need is for bread. So perhaps he may delay giving us what we first ask for and ask us over and over again what we really want to help us appreciate our deepest needs can only be met by spiritual gifts.

Then thirdly, in our text, Jesus tells us that the best present he has to offer us is “the Holy Spirit”: The Holy Spirit is Himself, God with us, God within us. St Paul reminds us that if we receive God himself as a result of our asking he will bring with him gifts and fruit. You can find the gifts listed ICor12 and they begin with the ability to confess Jesus as Lord and then to witness to him effectively through wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and the ability to interpret tongues. The fruit are in Gal5 and are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. All this is what God “our heavenly father” wants to give us along with himself when this is what we really want. And after that the only prayer we shall need to pray, to mimic Oliver Twist. Will be ‘Please, abba, can I have some more’.

Open Air Theatre

2010-07-24T16:40:00.002+01:00

A spectacular opening concert starring two of the world's biggest opera stars, José Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, with music by the Opera North Orchestra. Hosted by Brian Blessed and includes the acclaimed Huddersfield Choral Society. Not to be missed the gala will be one of only two concert dates in the UK for José Carreras this year.

A spectacular firework display will end the evening.

Book now! Call ticketline on 0844 888 9991 or on site at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre ticket office, Burniston Road, Scarborough, YO12 6PF (10am-6pm).

Tickets £55, £45 and £35, VIP waterside from £65

St Peter, Scarborough

2010-07-23T12:30:00.004+01:00

Today, on the feast day of St Bridget of Sweden, I have been to mass at St Peter's for two reasons - to accompany my friend Dorothy celebrating her 90th birthday but also to persue the relationship between Cardinal Newman and the first priest Canon Walker.

St. Bridget of Sweden
The most celebrated saint of the Northern kingdoms, born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373.
Early life
She was the daughter of Birger Persson, governor and provincial judge (Lagman) of Uppland, and ofIngeborg Bengtsdotter. Her father was one of the wealthiest landholders of the country, and, like her mother, distinguished by deep piety. St. Ingrid, whose death had occurred about twenty years beforeBridget's birth, was a near relative of the family. Birger's daughter received a careful religious training, and from her seventh year showed signs of extraordinary religious impressions and illuminations. To hereducation, and particularly to the influence of an aunt who took the place of Bridget's mother after the latter's death (c. 1315), she owed that unswerving strength of will which later distinguished her.
Marriage
In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was united in marriage to Ulf Gudmarsson, who was then eighteen. She acquired great influence over her noble and pious husband, and the happy marriage wasblessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the greatcharity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. She was acquainted with several learned and pious theologians, among them Nicolaus Hermanni, later Bishop of Linköping, Matthias, canon ofLinköping, her confessor, Peter, Prior of Alvastrâ, and Peter Magister, her confessor after Matthias. She was later at the court of King Magnus Eriksson, over whom she gradually acquired great influence. Early in the forties (1341-43) in company with her husband she made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. On the return journey her husband was stricken with an attack of illness, but recovered sufficiently to finish the journey. Shortly afterwards, however, he died (1344) in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastrâ in East Gothland.
Widowhood
Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religiousundertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her, and she wrote down therevelations she then received, which were in great repute during the Middle Ages. They were translated into Latin by Matthias Magister and Prior Peter.
St. Bridget now founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour, whose chief monastery, at Vadstena, was richly endowed by King Magnus and his queen (1346). To obtain confirmation for her institute, and at the same time to seek a larger sphere of activity for her mission, which was the moral uplifting of the period, she journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. In August, 1370, Pope Urban V confirmed the Rule of her congregation. Bridget made earnest representations toPope Urban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She accomplished the greatest good in Rome, however, by her pious and charitable life, and her earnest admonitions to others to adopt a better life, following out the excellent precedents she had set in her native land. The year following her death her remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena. She wascanonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX.
In 1835 Canon Walker was appointed to Scarborough, and for 40 years devoted himself to the work of the mission. He opened a school for the children of the congregation in his own house, and enlarged the chapel. Finding the accommodation still insufficient, he decided to erect a new church, and convert the old chapel into schools. The church was begun in 1856, and comprises a nave, apsidal chancel, and lateral aisles terminated by chapels. One of the most striking features of the interior is the chancel arch, the piers of which are square, moulded on the angles, and set back to the line of the arcade, so as to afford the best possible sight of the chancel, The chancel is lighted on the sides by windows of two lights each, filled with medallions. There are two side chapels. The one on the east is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The window is of stained glass, representing in the centre light the Blessed Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. On the right is represented an incident in the life of St. Edward, and on the left the legend of St. Elizabeth. The tracery is occupied by angels, and the armorial bearings of the donor of the window, E. Petre, Esq., on the right, and on the left, those of Lady G. Talbot, his wife. The chapel on the west side is dedicated to St. Michael. The nave is a bold arcade of five bays, circular columns and arches of two orders, with a clerestory pierced by two-light windows of pattern glass. The aisles are lighted by geometric windows of varied design. The church was opened in 1858, when the late Cardinal Wiseman preached. The church, though opened, was not completed in all its details for some years afterwards. First it was enriched by the gift of the present noble high altar, the gift of the late W. Potts Chatto, Esq. The altar is of Caen stone, and contains, in the centre, a medallion of the Crucifixion, with angels on each side. The tabernacle is surmounted by a richly carved Baldacchino and pinnacles rising to the height of about 25 feet, and has a handsome brass door, richly engraved, and inlaid with precious stones. There are several stained glass windows, and a very handsome pulpit, as well as a baptismal font, all in keeping with the rest of the furnishings of the church.

Burnby Hall Gardens

2010-07-22T12:41:00.003+01:00

Today Cynthia and friends from Dulverton visited the national water lily collection at Burnby Hall.

Burnby Hall Gardens & Museum.
The ornamental gardens, the lakes with a National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies, and the Stewart Museum are the creation of Major Percy Marlborough Stewart (1871-1962).
Major Stewart’s family was descended from the Earls of Galloway, and through them the Spencer-Churchills; his godfather was the Duke of Marlborough and he was a 2nd cousin of Winston Churchill. From 1904 when he and his wife bought the estate, the Major devoted his life to creating these gardens of outstanding beauty; interspersed with eight world tours between 1906 and 1922, when he, often with his wife, visited every continent, explored remote regions and collected a remarkable range of cultural and religious exhibits (now housed in the Stewart Museum).
On his death, his wife having predeceased him and there being no children of the marriage, Major Stewart (knowing that it was also his wife’s wish), willed that the Gardens and the Collection should be left in trust for the benefit of the people of Pocklington. It is this Trust that now manages the estate as a charity.

Tweeted Communion

2010-07-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

Plans are under way for the first tweeted com munion service on Twitter, the internet social-networking site.

The online service, which is being organised by the Revd Tim Ross, a Methodist minister, will take place on 14 August at 22.00 BST. Twitter-users can take part by finding TimRossMinister, clicking on the “follow” button after his name, and being ready with bread and wine (or fruit juice). Mr Ross will post a eucharistic prayer in the form of seven “tweets” (the short mes sages shared by Twitter users), culminating in the instruction to take the bread and the wine.

The idea for holding such a service on Twitter came about after Mr Ross signed up to the site and picked up about 200 fol lowers. He said: “The extremely brief nature of tweets means that creating a communion prayer for Twitter has been a particular challenge. Sharing in this unique event offers Christians from all denominations the opportunity to show that, despite the doctrinal differences of their individual denominations, they are one in their determination to show the love of Christ to the world.”

He said that he hoped Twitter com munion would become a monthly or bi-monthly event.

www.twittercommunion.co.uk

Ewe Cote Cottage

2010-07-20T16:35:00.003+01:00

yesterday Fr Bishoy and I visited

Ewe Cote Cottage

Tabor House

house of fellowship

Whitby.

Ewe Cote Cottage is a two story building in the secluded hamlet

Off Ewe Cote near Whitby.

It is managed by the St Damian’s Trust.

Establish by Arthur Cuff a pioneer in

Christian Community life-style.

Ewe Cote cottage is a Tabor house. Where haste and noise is avoided and external distractions are reduced- there is no tv,radio or internet.

It is a special location, the environment is rural Yorkshire and quiet. Individuals and small groups are invited to share in its life and vision.

The cottage has three bedrooms, double, twin and single. Down stairs is the sitting room, kitchen, study/library.

There is a small garden and a garage for one car.

Guests are invited to consider short-term visits, from a few days to two weeks.Contribution to cover house expenses will be agreed beforehand.

Of particular importance is our welcome to those who themselves contribute and respond to the ethos of the house.

We invite you to make contact to share the beauty, peace and simplicity of a

Tabor house.

The area is rich in history and the Chapel of the Holy Paraclete is within walking distance.

Enquires:

Directors .

St Damian’s trust

Ewe Cote Cottage

Whitby

Yo213qw

Email: mearnsrick7@yahoo.com

St Damian’s Charity number 266710

Company No. 1139397

(visit Carrselltrust.org.uk for brother mearns work in Ireland)

Sunday Half Hour

2010-07-19T12:36:00.003+01:00

...and it still continues to give much pleasure to many of us

Anniversary edition for Half Hour

by Bill Bowder

IT WAS first heard in the months before the Blitz, and will be recorded

again in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, this Sunday.

BBC Radio 2’s popular hymn programme, Sunday Half Hour, will be

broadcast in a special anni versary edition at 8.30 p.m. on 17 July, 70 years

after it was first broad cast from St Mary Red cliffe, Bristol, on 14 July 1940.

Sunday Half Hour was then described as a programme of commun ity

hymn-singing, intended to boost the morale of troops serving abroad

during the Second World War, the BBC said this week.

The series, formerly hosted by Canon Roger Royle, is now presented by

the Irish Passionist priest Fr Brian D’Arcy, who interweaves announce

ments of listeners’ anni versaries and family events with well-known

hymns, a reading, and a prayer.

The director of music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Andrew Earis, who

conducts the 70th- anniversary event, said on Monday that the choir

for the day would be composed of members from several choirs who

had previously been on the pro gramme.

“St Martin-in-the-Fields was where the first ever religious broad cast

was made, back in the 1920s, and Sunday Half Hour is one of the

longest-running programmes on the BBC; so this is a very appropriate

venue. . . It will be a celebration, and it’s going to be great fun. The church

will be packed, with 800 people. The choir will rehearse all afternoon,

and then the congregation will be admitted at 6.15 p.m., and we will

run as live at 7 p.m., though it won’t be broadcast then. The Vicar,

the Revd Nicholas Holtam will give the bless ing at the end.”

The Choir of St Martin-in-the Fields will be joined by singers from

St Andrew’s, West Tarring; Portsmouth High School; the Holy Redeemer,

Billericay; St Martin’s, Dorking; and Bracknell Choral Society, Reading

Phoenix Choir, and Thames Phil harmonic Choir. They will sing

“Great is thy faithfulness”, “Love Divine”, “How great thou art” and

“Dear Lord and Father of mankind”. Martin Ford will be the organist, and

the show will be produced by Janet McLarty.

Is God terribly busy?

2010-07-18T10:41:00.002+01:00

Luke 10.38-42

38Now as Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ 41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

Sermon by Bishop of Whitby

IS GOD terribly busy? Our intercessions in public worship sometimes suggest that we think so.

It would be wrong to imply that the divine compassion of God does not embrace with redemptive love the torments of poverty, disease, conflict, and death. A conviction that this earth, in all its minute detail, is entirely open to God is, after all, what prompts our prayer of intercession.

But our quest for God in intercessory prayer is also where our changeability is confronted by God, whom we describe as unchanging. Much of what we change, we damage. Intercession seeks the God who is consistently compassionate and re-creative.

The story of Mary and Martha in today’s Gospel reading puts me in mind of these aspects of the nature of God. The story has sometimes been used unhelpfully, I think, to suggest that a contemplative focus on stillness is somehow incompatible with dutiful and busy engagement in the responsibilities of daily life.

We might think we are being asked to make a choice between Mary and Martha, but perhaps we are actually being asked to resist preferring one above the other.

I suspect the truth about most of us is that we feel more comfortable with Martha’s practical “doing” than with Mary’s reflective “being”. But resistance to an either/or assessment of what God asks of us is essential for our spiritual health.

It is worth noting that in the Rule of St Benedict much importance is placed on the value of manual work — the Martha stuff — in order to sustain the appetite of the human mind and spirit for God — the listening to the word of God, or lectio divina — chosen by Mary.

It seems that Mary and Martha might represent two sides of a single person. So the important point is the challenge of how any of us can sustain a healthy balance between activity and a still, listening attentiveness to God in today’s world.

Advice on this challenge should not be rigidly specific, since people’s needs and circumstances differ so greatly. But these are among the important things we would want to say: Every human being has some capacity for the portion of spiritual awareness chosen by Mary.

As Christians, we believe that this capacity leads us specifically to God, whom we know as Trinity — the creator, revealed in Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is characteristic of us as human beings that this search for God uses a variety of media — music, poetry, art, drama, and so on.

We generally seek wise advice and encouragement from each other, especially from those who have an obvious gift of spiritual awareness.

The regular practice of any spiritual discipline that is attentive to God’s presence deepens the appreciation of our capacity for God.

The second reading appointed for today directs us to Jesus as the point of intersection between the unseen, unchanging character of the life of God, and this visible, mutable world. “He is the image of the invisible God,” the letter to the Colossians asserts confidently. Perhaps at this point we could deploy the medium of art to illuminate how our lives might embrace both the activity and the still attentiveness that lead to deeper experience of God.

I saw for the first time recently the new font in Salisbury Cathedral, designed by William Pye. If ever you get an opportunity, go and see it for yourself. It is astonishingly beautiful. It has a quatrefoil shape, like the tracery of a medieval window. The surface of the water forms a mirror in which the image of the pillars and vaulting of the nave are captured, bringing heaven, which is what the architecture of the ceiling depicts, down to earth.

Of course, when this still mirror of water is disturbed by the activity of being used for baptism, the life of heaven does come down to earth. The image of the risen, ascended and glorified Jesus is then indelibly marked upon us. The elemental matter of water is used in symbolic and ritual action to reveal something invisible: disturbance of the mirror begets the mystery of new being in Christian identity, so that heaven can be reflected in us.

In this working symbol, the Salisbury font shows us a vital relationship between activity and identity, “doing” and “being”. But there is further instruction on the character of stillness that captures the reflection of invisibility — heaven. The mirror is formed on water that overflows the font through its four ends. Its stillness is dynamic, moving, or, we might say, living. This seems to me to come close to what we want to say about God, whom we might describe as dynamic stillness.

Nor is this simply a question of theory or playing with words. If stillness can be understood as dynamic and not simply dead inertia, then the activity of our restless minds, imaginations, and bodies can also be allowed, with care and direction, to reflect heaven.

Disturbance can be a vehicle for deeper attention to the word and presence of God. Practise it, and see. If you don’t know how to begin, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Slap in the face

2010-07-17T17:11:00.000+01:00

The Vatican's decision to declare the attempted ordination of women a "grave crime" has been fiercely condemned by women's church groups in the UK.

Pat Brown, of the group Catholic Women's Ordination, said she was deeply shocked and called the change to Church law "a slap in the face to women".

She said of the Pope: "He is not doing himself any favours."

The Vatican says ordaining women is "grave" as is sex abuse, but denied it was equating the two.

The Pope was "talking about paedophiles and talking about women wanting to be priests as a crime against the faith. I cannot understand that language," said Ms Brown.

The Catholic Church teaches that as Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles, women cannot legally become priests.

But Catholic Women's Ordination says that argument "does not ring true" as women, in particular Mary Magdalene, were among Christ's closest followers.

“Start Quote

When he comes to Britain, there will be people who are deeply offended”

Pat BrownCatholic Women's Ordination

Sally Barnes, of the Anglican pro-women bishops' group Women and the Church, took the unusual step of speaking out about another denomination's issues, to lend support to women in the Roman Catholic Church.

"We are aware that there are a large number of women not just in England but across the world who have a vocation to the priesthood. There are equally a large number who support them - men and women," she said.

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor caused controversy in 1999 when she became a priest at a ceremony staged by the breakaway Latin Tridentine church in Lourdes.

Pope Benedict XVI is due to visit Britain, at the invitation of the Queen, later this year.

But there are now fears the Vatican's position on women priests may heighten tensions, as the Church continues to struggle with the scandal surrounding child abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.

"When he comes to Britain, there will be people who are deeply offended. I feel offended by it as a woman," said Pat Brown.

On his four-day trip in September, the Pope will visit London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham - in the latter he will attend a Mass to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman.

His will be the first official state visit by a Pontiff to the UK and the first papal visit since John Paul II's trip in 1982.

Demonstrations are expected but Catholic Women's Ordination - which works within the Church to encourage debate about making it more inclusive - stressed it would not be among them.

'Vulnerable people'

The new Vatican document was released on Thursday, just days after the Church of England's General Synod voted in favour of legislation to consecrate women bishops.

The new measures are expected to be interpreted as a pointed message to Anglicans.

The BBC contacted the Church of England for a reaction, but it said it never commented on the proclamations of other churches.

In the document, the attempted ordination of a woman is listed as a "grave crime" to be handled by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, just as sex abuse is.

Vatican sex crimes prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna said that including the two issues in the same document was not equating them, but was done to codify the most serious canonical crimes which the Roman Catholic Church handles.

"They are grave, but on different levels," he said on Thursday.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference, a permanent assembly of Catholic bishops in England and Wales, said it welcomed the publication of the document.

"Among several revisions to the original text of the 2001 Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, the norms clearly demonstrate the Church's concern for the safeguarding of children and all vulnerable people," a Bishops' Conference spokesman said.

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