THE
P RTAL
December 2012
Page 11
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane meet
Dr Edward Norman
Driving around
the M25, Essex was damp, but clear. On the Kent side of the Dartford Crossing
the weather was still damp, but a thick fog made driving very difficult. Dr Norman lives on the north Kent
coast, but we saw little of sea or coast because the fog was so thick.
a distinguished career
Dr Norman’s comfortable
flat was warm and the lunch
we enjoyed at the local pub,
delicious. Dr Edward Norman
has had a distinguished career
in the Anglican Church, but
was recently received into the
Ordinariate of Our Lady of
Walsingham. He attended Pre-
School in Kent, “Now I have
returned,” he said.
drawn attention to the creeping
secularisation of the CofE. Its
senior clergy are appointed from
a rather narrow range of people
and have a narrow range of
cultural knowledge.
‘I do not approve of
your opinions!’
I wrote a weekly piece for the
Spectator as well as articles for the
Daily Telegraph until I was fired!
I did not expect any favours from
I worked in education
the CofE. I was approached to
“For most of my life, I worked
go to York Minister as Treasurer.
in education at all levels; Infant
Archbishop George Carey told
School, Solihull School and many
me on my appointment to the
more as a Governor. My first
Cathedral reform commission, ‘I
job was as a Supply Teacher in
do not approve of your opinions!’
East London. This gave me a life-long commitment ‘Treasurer’ was a grand title for what was really the
to education. I do not believe in specialised ministry: Chaplain to the Cathedral community, from stone
ministry is ministry. As a Fellow of three Cambridge masons to school children. I hope I was of some
Colleges, undergraduates formed the core of my assistance. I retired; after six months I was back as
ministry, but I was also concerned with all involved Chancellor.
with the College.
The Archbishop asked me to write
creeping secularisation
a report on Clergy Training. It was a
“York was an unexpected appointment.
large work, some 80,000 words and
After thirty years in Cambridge, I
ignored. It recommended an end to
became Chaplain at Christchurch,
the “liberal arts” approach to clergy
Canterbury, a Teacher Training College,
training. Instead ordinands would be
now a University with 20,000 students.
taught doctrine and dogma and an
When I arrived there were 2,000, mostly
intelligent use of Scripture. In fact:
girls.
professional training. Clergy should
not be cut-price Social Workers,
At Peterhouse in Cambridge there had
because that is not their vocation.
been just 200 students! Christchurch was
full Communion
my second example of teaching people
with the Catholic Church
from a wide range of backgrounds. I
“Eight years ago I finally retired
enjoyed it, but thought it would be my
last job. At one time I even ran a course on midwifery! from York and intended to become a Roman Catholic.
It was about the moral side of midwifery, and no-one There were many delays until Pope Benedict XVI
was available to do it, so I did it myself. It was not invented the Ordinariate. Mgr Keith Newton admitted
me to full Communion with the Catholic Church.
successful.
“My occasional writing had not endeared me to attack ideas rather than people
the CofE. These, and my Reith Lectures of 1978, had
“I have no regrets whatsoever. My feelings for the