THE
P RTAL
February 2018
occasion, for not only was the will to form
a group cemented, but in attendance at
the pub was also a well known character,
Mike Forbester. Mike has a long history in
providing traditional liturgical music either
by himself or through his most excellent
choir, the Rudgate Singers. Plans were
John Konstantin Tee
beginning to form in my head.
“Mike and I had long associations with the
oldest church in York, St Mary’s, Bishophill
Junior. They in turn have a long tradition of
welcoming those of other traditions. Could
I dare ask the Vicar and PCC of an Anglican
church to host official Catholic services?
Certainly it lent itself to Catholic worship,
being beautifully appointed by generations
Richard Hawker
of Anglo-Catholics. I was not
without trepidation.
“I began to start asking permissions.
I wanted authorities both Catholic
and Anglican to grant approval to an
Ordinariate group using St Mary’s for
both Mass and other services. With
these speedily obtained we planned
our first regular service of Evensong
according to the Customary of Our
Lady of Walsingham. These were to Tony and Peta Hill
occur every Friday and started in
July 2017.
“The very first service we didn’t want to
advertise as Mike Forbester and I wanted a
‘dry run’ just to make sure we had everything
in place and literally were singing off the
same song sheet. From week two on we
decided to advertise and the Sung Evensong Mike Forbester
very quickly became a Solemn Evensong
with smoke and sermon.
“Numbers began to increase and presently
there are approximately twenty faithful who
have been in attendance at our services but
up to ten on any given day. (There were
fourteen on the evening The Portal attended).
This has largely been done by a considerable Robert Smith
amount of networking, particularly amongst
the students of York University. We now
have a Facebook page and are represented
on the main Ordinariate webpage.
“The Divine Office only has so much kerb
appeal but our fledgling flock have become
quite enamoured of it. That said, we then
turned out attention to the celebration of Syra Cheeseman
Page 13
Holy Mass. The Friends of the Ordinariate
of Our Lady of Walsingham were good
enough to supply us with our very own
Order of Divine Worship Missal and Fr
David Stafford came over to celebrate our
first Mass on the 24 th of September 2017. This
occasion went very smoothly considering
myself, as Master of Ceremonies, and
Duncan Scott had not previously officiated
at an Ordinariate Use Mass.
“Mike
Forbester
provided
the
accompaniment for our Missa Cantata and
there were a goodly number in attendance.
I think I must add at this point that our
congregation is largely made up of regular
Catholics, some Anglicans and those of
no religion at all. Everyone agreed
that the Mass was most beautiful
and enjoyed the convivialities
afterwards. The fact that this was
the first ‘Catholic’ Mass in the oldest
church in York probably since the
Reformation, or at least since the
days of Queen Mary, did not go
unnoticed. It was quite emotional.
“And so we continue. Solemn
Evensong each Friday followed by
communal fish and chips and a bottle
of sherry. (A bottle of sherry! There was
more than one bottle when we were there!)
Planned monthly Masses are in place as we
go from strength to strength. I have been
slowly amassing our own kit as we do not
want to impose on the graciousness of our
hosts and if God should bless me to serve at
the Altar again as priest, we would be able
to offer a weekly Mass.
“We have come a long way in just a few
short months and at some point in the future
we would most warmly welcome an event
in the North on behalf of the Friends of the
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
I would like to thank all who have come
together to make this Mission possible;
rarely have I met with so many people of
such goodwill. We are truly blessed. Oh, and
by the way… we now have our own key!”
This was a wonderful visit. It was one that
we enjoyed. It was holy. It was devout. It was
fun. We are grateful to the York Group for
their welcome, and we promise to return for
a celebration of mass.