THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Page 12
An Ordinariate Hermit
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane visit Fr David Butler at his home
We met
up with Fr David in his bungalow in Lancashire and began by thanking him for his invitation
to meet, telling him we were honoured that we could chat with him. He is, after all – a hermit – albeit
one that lives in an urban area.
Welsh Chapel tradition
He told us, “I was brought up in Kent and baptised
in the Congregational Church. I became an Anglican
at a later stage. I went to the local grammar school.
My parents were believing and practicing Christians.
Mother came from the Welsh Chapel tradition,
but father had been brought up Anglican. In the
Congregational Church they could worship together.
St Stephen’s House, which was arranged before I left.
Parish life in Manchester
“After ordination I was offered a very middle class
London parish for my title, but I wanted something
different. David Thomas, the Principal at SSH, said
to me, ‘What about Manchester?’ I said, ‘Where’s
that?’ He said, ‘Next door to Birmingham.’ So I did
my curacy in inner-city Hulme then became Vicar
“I have a younger brother who lives in North Wales. of a parish in Eccles. I was there for five years and
The Welsh strand is very important; it gives one a then I began to move towards this kind of life. That
different perspective. My grandparents lived in an area would be 1994-1995. At the time it seemed a bit
in South Wales very much like this so I feel at home complicated, but looking back it all fits together. God
here in an old mill town.
was leading me on.
“I worked full time for a couple of years, remaining
“Much later on, I spent some time in India and I
found it very easy to adapt because it was just another a non-stipendiary priest and, along with some parish
group of people with a slightly different way of going and community work I was gradually developing this
weird form of life as a vocation to live the eremitic life
about things.
– a desert life, a hermit if you like.
Pusey House
“At University I spent three years studying history,
and was confirmed an Anglican at Pusey House. That
is where I wondered if the Ministry was something I
should be thinking about. I couldn’t decide, so put the
thought aside, thinking it would return if it was real.
So I became an accountant in London and helped out
with a Youth Club in the evenings.
“I became a Catholic in 2009, before Anglicanorum
Coetibus, because I decided that I couldn’t do this
without support and guidance and I found this
was coming from Catholic sources, which in itself
was telling me something. But I’d also had a helpful
connection with the Anglican Crawley Down
monastery for twenty years. It became clear, though,
that community life wasn’t for me.
“After the local curate, Fr David, had left the area I
rang him to ask if I could go and see him. He asked if the eremitic life
“I was trying to find my way towards the eremitic life
it was a social, pastoral or vocational visit. I said that
funnily enough it was a vocational visit. He said, ‘I and other people too were recognising it. When I first
met Mgr Newton in 2013 I was established within the
wondered when you were going to get round to it!’
Catholic Church as a lay person leading an eremitic
“It must have been a successful interview, but I then life, though without formal recognition. The local
spent a year hesitating, in India.” Jackie suggested, Catholic diocese didn’t seem to know what to do with
“God had a job with you didn’t he?” Fr David replied, me! Then somebody said, ‘Why don’t you join the
“I think he still does! I was working as an accountant Ordinariate?’ I didn’t know then that I was entitled to.
in a big hospital which was drawing grants from
Britain and the USA. It was North of Delhi. English the right place for me
was a common language, as people came from all
“I’m now very happy in the Ordinariate. I think it’s
over India. The Pakistani community round here are the right place for me to be and it also seems that in a
all from Punjab, near where I was. The young people sense I bring my priesthood with me, fulfilled in the
here do speak Urdu but they are most comfortable Catholic Church. Perhaps the Ordinariate, being new,
speaking English. “I returned from India to a place at can be more flexible about unusual situations.
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