The Portal Archive May 2013 | Page 17

THE P RTAL May 2013 Page 17 Letter from Australia Historic Ordination in Broken Bay Cathedral by Debra Vermeer When Fr Warren Wade became the first person in the Diocese of Broken Bay to be ordained a priest for the Anglican Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, he saw the move not as a rupture with his past, but as an affirmation of what he is – a priest of the Universal Church. Fr Warren, who has been an Anglican priest for 51 years, was ordained by Bishop David Walker during a beautiful Ordination Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara on December 12, an occasion he describes as “truly blessed”. Fr Warren is among a small group of clergy from Australia’s Traditional Anglican Communion to so far make the move to being ordained for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. Fr Warren says that after half a century of ministry, he is looking forward to this new chapter in his life. In recent years, Fr Warren has ministered to a small congregation of Traditional Anglicans at North Turramurra, who, he says have increasingly felt, like him, that they are not at home in the Anglican Church as it exists in Australia today. “So I think it’s not just an ordination for me, it’s an ordination for them, because it gives them an opportunity for commitment to what they already are,” he said. Fr Warren with Bishop David Walker A period followed where Warren worshipped at St James, King Street, before he was accepted for ordination by the Bishop of Bathurst. “After ordination in 1961, I joined a congregation called the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd. We were known as the Bush Brothers. We used to minister to far-out places, beyond Born to parents who were nominal Anglicans, Fr Bourke and out into the Northern Territory.” Warren was exposed to a range of religious experiences as a child. His mother’s uncle was an Anglican priest “Our ministry was bringing the Lord to people in and Rector of St John’s Darlinghurst for 32 years. farflung places, staying on properties and celebrating But the rest of his mother’s family belonged to the Mass the next morning. People would come from 100 Plymouth Brethren. mles away. It was fun. Great fun.” As a young man, Warren searched for a parish home, spending some years worshipping in the Anglican parishes at Coogee and Randwick. “But I started to feel unsettled, so I began looking around at other places and I ended up at Christchurch St Laurence and ‘boom boom’, I was back.” After leaving the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd, Fr Warren became part of the diocesan clergy, with appointments at All Saints Cathedral Bathurst, St Stephen’s Church, Peak Hill and Cudal. It was during this period, in the 1960s that he married his wife June. They had two daughters, Anna-Maria and Christina. “One of the things that attracted me there was the High Mass which was absolutely beautifully celebrated and very ethereal and there was this great sense of mystery and it really intrigued me. Evensong and Benediction on Sunday night was really something.” After a period of some frustration in ministry, Fr Warren took a job as a Probation Officer with the Department of Corrective Services, a job he stayed in until he retired a little over 10 years ago. Over the years he has undertaken periods as honorary priest and