THE
P RTAL
August 2016
Page 22
church history was remarkable but he
was Russian Orthodox and he converted
to Catholicism a year ago. He likes the
Ordinariate and he comes when he can.
stick at it and then the Ordinariate
came. I was a member of Forward in
Faith. If the Apostolic Constitution
hadn’t been published, I think I’d have
probably had been off within a year so
the timing was perfect for me.”
“I feel for Fr Len, he comes a long way.
He has had so much trouble in the sense
that when he was an Anglican priest he
“I was active in the Independence
was persecuted and hounded by the
Referendum trying to keep Scotland
Anglican Church and it was out of the
united with Britain, knocking on
frying pan and into the fire because he
people’s doors etc.”
met amazing animosity in Inverness
when be became an Ordinariate
We wanted to know Michael’s views
on the future of the Ordinariate in Scotland. He was Catholic. When we were all down at Westminster
frank in his answer, “I don’t know how much is known Cathedral last year for the Festival, we met several
and how much is public knowledge. We started off people who said that they had had trouble.
with one priest, we now have two and we hope that in
“Our future in Scotland is on a wing and a prayer
the near future we will have two more, doubling the
number. We lost a young ordinand of course who had really. Being a realist, if we forget for the moment
actually done two years training for the Ordinariate Pope Francis’ suggestion that people who enter the
Catholic church from the Anglican Church could
but decided to sell IT with his mother instead.
join the Ordinariate, there’s not a big current pool of
“That’s the clergy; in a sense, as far as lay people are Episcopalians. However, those of us in the Ordinariate
concerned one has to be realistic. The Inverness group in Scotland remain positive and put the future, our
is OK; they have about a dozen people. Here in Stirling, future, in God’s hands. If Pope Benedict believed the
Fr Len gets quite a lot coming because they like it, Ordinariate was God’s will, who are we to disagree.”
but in Edinburgh I’m one of only three Ordinariate
Thank you, Michael. We left Scotland with the
members. That said, we do get Diocesan Catholics
who come along. There’s now a guy called Alan who thought that with people like Michael as members, the
comes to Edinburgh by bus from Dunfermline, twenty Ordinariate there will have a positive future.
miles away. He was a Church of Scotland Minister for
ten years. Occasionally we get people coming in; for
example, two months ago we got a Russian lad, a post
graduate, and I must say his knowledge of Scottish
by Ruth Black
E
cclesiastical embroidery
Catholic does not only mean Roman
... continued from page 6
west across the mountains from the rest of Ukraine,
170,000 in the Czech Lands and 80,000 in north
America. This Eastern Church is unique because its
Metropolitan is established not in Europe but, because
of conditions in the Soviet era, in Pittsburgh, Ohio –
in a country evangelised by the Latin West.
All these Churches live beside their fellow Catholics
of the Latin Roman Catholic Church, at home
and in diaspore. The dioceses overlap, but their
worship, tradition and mission are distinct and yet
complementary within the Catholic Church as a
universal whole. Next time, we will look at the story of
what happened to the Carpatho-Rusyn Catholics who
came to the United States and founded a “Western”
Eastern-Catholic Church.
Fr Mark Woodruff is Catholic Co-Secretary of the
Catholic-Orthodox Pastoral Consultation in England
and Vice Chairman of the Society of St John Chrysostom
www.angelforce.co.uk/vestments
Custom made traditional vestments and paraments designed
and hand made in the Highlands of Scotland. Celtic
inspired designs are a
speciality. Each vestment
is designed in consultation
with the client. Machine
embroidery is combined
with hand stitching and
quality fabrics to create
beautiful vestments that are
full of symbolism.
The Workshop
Inchmore
Kirkhill
Inverness
IV5 7PX
T : 01463 831567
M : 0777 177 4172
[email protected]