THE P RTAL
August 2017 Page 23
Letters to the Editor
From Richard Eddy
I am indebted to the editorial team of The Portal for generously including coverage in your excellent July 2017 ‘ bumper ’ edition of my Silver Jubilee Choral Mass , marking 25 years of service on Bristol City Council .
It was always my intention that this event ( which was dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham ), as well as reflecting my personality , liturgical tastes and musical preferences , should be an opportunity to ‘ showcase ’ what the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham can offer , not only in our part of the West of England but throughout the Englishspeaking world .
Not only did I have civic and political guests from our part of the world , but many other guests came from a diverse range of ecclesiastical backgrounds , from Free Church and Evangelical , through ‘ Broad Church ’ and orthodox Anglo-Catholic Anglican to ‘ Cradle Catholics ’ and Ordinariate Catholics .
I was privileged that our Ordinary , Mgr Keith Newton , nobly agreed to be the Principal Celebrant , aided by concelebrants Fr Michael Healy ( who received me into the Catholic Church six years ago ) and Fr Peter Clarke ( Bristol Ordinariate Group Pastor ), and Deacons James Patrick ( my Master of Ceremonies ), Kevin Moloney and Mark Forge .
Our Bristol Branch servers provided the crucial serving support and my friend , Jonathan Price , Master of Music at the Ebbsfleet parish of Christ Church , Bristol City , brought his church choir to lead the music .
Deacon James Patrick ( as well as putting up with my endless nit-picking interference ) gave us his typically humorous , but spiritually insightful , preaching - mentioning in his homily that we knew one another from the days when we were “ both Young-Fogey Anglo-Catholics in tweed in our early twenties ”.
Perhaps the most encouraging and upbeat feedback I received afterwards came from the Parish Priest of the Anglican Church , which had splendidly ‘ loaned ’ us its men and boys choir for the Silver Jubilee Concelebrated Choral Mass .
He wrote : “ Thank you for such a very happy and inclusive occasion . It was a thoroughly rewarding ecumenical , civic and musical occasion .”
Let ’ s not hide our light under a bushel . The world out there wants and needs to hear from us !
Richard Eddy Bristol
The views expressed in these letters are not necessarily those of the Editors Letters for publication should be sent to :
The Editors , The Portal , 56 Woodlands Farm Road , Birmingham B24 0PG
editors @ portalmag . co . uk
Patrimony : Is it important ? ... continued from page 6
Three Orthodox churches had their division crystallised during the First World War , when an Ottoman-sponsored Patriarch of Antioch tried to convert full communion into direct control of Malankara assets in British India .
Those who remained loyal to Antioch and those who formed the Indian Orthodox Church are nowadays in full communion ; but because of the initial rivalry , several bishops sought stability through restoring communion with Rome . They received assurances for the integrity of their Church life and worship , and ecclesial communion was granted by Pius XI in 1930 .
The formal organisation of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church followed , and another ancient body of Thomas Christians – the Knanaya , or Cananaeans - joined them in 1939 . In 2005 , the Metropolitan was recognised as the “ Major-Archbishop ”, the equivalent of a Patriarch , finally restoring the full self-government of an Eastern Catholic Church . It has 450,000 members – twelve missions serve 300 families in Britain , along with a Knanaya parish in Birmingham .
English Christians coming into communion with Rome insist their Anglican patrimony is vital to their identity and story . They follow a path trodden by their Syriac Malankara fellow Catholics four hundred years earlier .