THE P RTAL
June 2012 Page 12
The Portal visits Father Robert Mercer
Fr Robert MerceR , a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield , actually lives in a beautiful ground-floor flat in Sussex . A native of Zimbabwe , he was the fourth Bishop of Matabeleland before joining the TAC and working in Canada . He has recently been ordained priest in the Ordinariate .
He laughs at the suggestion that there might be regrets at leaving the Anglican Communion , “ No certainly not ! It is what I have prayed for since I was in my early teens . This is what we always wanted . Not individual conversions . I said ‘ Alleluia ‘, and jumped in with both feet !”
He holds four citizenships . Born in Zimbabwe of South African parents , he lost this citizenships when he was “ thrown out ” of Zimbabwe and had his South African citizenship withdrawn when he was deported . He holds Irish citizenship from his Grandparents and has since acquired Canadian citizenship .
His decision to join the Ordinariate was not one to leave the Anglican Communion . Of course , he is sensitive about being called C of E ! he never has been C of E . He is Anglican . He maintains he has not left anything . Wesley , T S Eliot , Evelyn Underhill are still important to him . “ I have not left anything ” he said , “ I have become a better , a fuller , more complete Anglican in Communion with the See of Saint Peter . We are repairing a deficiency . The Archbishop of Canterbury has a Pallium on his coat of arms , we are making that real .”
He is part of the congregation at Saint Agatha ’ s Portsmouth . This is Fr Dolling ’ s Church . For forty years it was used as a warehouse by the Royal Navy . Hitler had destroyed the parish during the second World War and no one lived in the area any more . Nevertheless Fr John Maunder , the Group Pastor at Saint Agatha ’ s , rescued the Church and re-opened it . It has been used by the TAC who have set about restoring it to its former glory . Indeed they are hanging a new peel of bells in October .
Fr Robert is unapologetic about the worship at Saint Agatha ’ s . “ If you want modern Roman , you can have it down the road at the Cathedral ,” he declares , “ We provide something quite different . We would prefer
Byrd , Tallis and Mozart as fare . Mission and Evangelism are , for us , complicated . We attract people to church by doing the culturevulture thing . After the war only the Church was left standing . Now we are surrounded by roads , although we have nearby parking .
Despite the fact that nobody lives near Saint Agatha ’ s , we do attract people because of the nature of the church building . We hope to produce an outreach programme based on this culture-vulture thing .”
Like most people , he has been welcomed into the Catholic Church with great warmth and generosity . “ It is humbling how we have been welcomed . The Dean of the Catholic Cathedral has been very sweet . Many Catholics love Saint Agatha ’ s and when they see it say ’ wow !’ The TAC felt for a long time that they were denied the oxygen of publicity , and there has been some old English anti-Roman Catholic feeling from some TAC Christians .”
Saint Agatha ’ s is owned by the Hants County Council and a group of local Trustees look after it . Their Chairman is the Parish Priest ; Fr Maunder . The congregation pay the Trustees for the use of the building . So we have a Trustee Treasurer and a Parish Treasurer .
Saint Agatha ’ s has always looked as if it would die out . It has been like that for the past thirty years !
Although there are other Ordinariate Groups in Poole and Eastbourne , their only real link is with the Group on the Isle of Wight . They enjoy a Saturday Mass together once a month .
Fr Robert has no idea where they will be in ten years time . “ Who knows ? I am not worried about the future , let God take care of it .”