THE
P RTAL
November 2012
Page 4
Those dreaming spires!
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane
visit the Oxford Ordinariate Group
Oxford is
a romantic place. It has the country’s oldest and senior University and is a bustling
industrial city as well. The view over the city from Boar’s Hill gave the city the title that we have used for
our visit. Dreaming Spires indeed! We visited the Ordinariate Group at Holy Rood Catholic Church at Folly
Bridge, Oxford OX1 4LD. Strangely perhaps it is in the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. This was the first
time we have visited a Group of which we ourselves are a part. Jackie is the Secretary-cum-Treasurer of this
Group, so she was visiting herself!
Haydn’s Nelson mass
most of Saturday just getting here. It was
a sacrifice, but it was one I was prepared
to make.
The Ordinariate Mass is at 6pm on
Saturday evening. On the day we attended
there were just shy of forty people
present. The music was magnificent:
Haydn’s Nelson mass no less. If the whole
experience was more “gown” than “town”,
it was nevertheless wonderful.
tea and home-made
cake
a strong loyalty
Thomas Mason
“I think Ordinariate numbers will hold
steady. Where the Ordinariate Mass time
is inconvenient, people will attend the
Diocesan one. But I sense a strong loyalty
to the Ordinariate. People are
committed to the project.
After Mass and over tea and
home-made cake, we spoke with
Thomas Mason. Thomas is a
Seminarian studying at Oxford.
He lives with a group of Friars
in the city. Prior to this he was
Registrar at Buckinghamshire
New University. He has travelled
to the Oxford Ordinariate since
Elizabeth Ferido-Bohlin and Monich Vahnan
its foundation.
Thomas Mason
an integral part of
the New Evangelisation
“This is important. Loyalty is
important. If the Ordinariate
had not happened, I would not
be a Catholic now, although I
would be eventually I expect. The
Holy Father sees the Ordinariate
an integral part of the New
Evangelisation. We have to play
our part in it.”
“The Group is eclectic and very
Mgr Andrew Burnham
friendly. I have made friends
Later over supper we spoke
quite rapidly, although we are a
with Mgr Andrew Burnham, the
gathered community. We do not
Oxford Group Pastor. He told
all come from one C of E Church,
us. “About a dozen of the group
some of us have been Catholics
received into the Catholic Church
for a few years. We have received
in 2011 remain in Oxford and
a strong welcome in the Catholic Fr Daniel and Alex Lloyd
they have been joined by other
Church. In fact I have attended
a Catholic Church for some time and when I was former Anglicans, and by Catholics who particularly
received into the Church, they gave me a lovely gift. care for the kind of liturgy we celebrate, one in which
People are very excited about the Ordinariate, in my music of the highest standard is sung, and a high value
studies I meet undergraduates and graduates who are placed on ceremonial and preaching.
excited about it.”
“The Group has lost a little ground as people have
a sacrifice
moved away but the typical size of congregation,
Thomas continued, “ This is true of the Friars with a couple of dozen, is reasonable in a city where
whom I live. Now I live in Oxford Mass here at Holy everything is on offer and where there is not much
Rood in very convenient. Before it was not. It took up Saturday-night mass-going.