THE P
RTAL CofE Ups and Downs
The Revd Paul Benfield tells us about the trials and joys in the CofE in Advent
January 2017 Page 11 Anglican News
Many of you will know Fr Damian Feeney SSC , who was Vice-Principal of St Stephen ’ s House before taking up his present post as Parish Priest of Holy Trinity , Ettingshall , Wolverhampton , and Mission Advisor to Catholic Parishes in Lichfield Diocese . He is also a member of the Catholic Group in General Synod .
As we approached the season of the Advent antiphons he said on Facebook that he thought he had ‘ discovered a new O antiphon , O Xerox …’. I said that mine would be ‘ O Toshiba ’. Little did I realise …
The ancient parish photocopier had come to the end of its life and we looked around for a replacement . Having made various enquiries , we decided to go with Parish Buying , the purchasing scheme of the Church of England and the Church in Wales . We already use them for our gas and electricity and are saving considerable amounts .
Parish Buying use Toshiba for printers and copiers and , being rather out of date , the magazine editor , the chief magazine helper and I visited the Toshiba offices near Warrington . Things have moved on somewhat from our ancient old machine .
Apparently , one no longer gets clouds of toner everywhere , but has smart clean cartridges to insert . After a helpful discussion with a salesman , who genuinely wanted to sell the right machine for us and not offload the most expensive or most fancy , we made our choice and were pleased that it would cost a lot less than we had budgeted and had PCC authority to spend .
Virtually everything that could go wrong with the delivery and installation did go wrong , some of which was avoidable and some of which was just unfortunate . I will not bore you with all the details , but suffice it to say that my Advent has involved daily contact with Toshiba . But at least all the Christmas photocopying was done on the old machine in good time . I apologise if this all seems rather insignificant and parochial , but such is often the life of a parish priest . Unlike bishops , we do not all have PAs and other staff .
Speaking of bishops , it has just been announced from 10 , Downing Street ( on the day I write this )
that the Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Prebendary Dr Woyin Karowei Dorgu , MBBS , BA , MA , Vicar of St John the Evangelist Upper Holloway , in the Diocese of London , to the Suffragan See of Woolwich , in the Diocese of Southwark in succession to the Right Reverend Michael Geoffrey Ipgrave , OBE , MA , on his translation to the See of Lichfield 10 June 2016 .
Dr Dorgu was a GP before ordination and is married to Mosun , also a doctor . She is a consultant child psychiatrist who works for the NHS and they have two grown-up children .
The appointment of a BAME bishop ( Black and Minority Anglican ) should be welcomed , but already there has been complaining in some quarters that a woman was not appointed , despite the fact that since it has been possible to appoint women approximately 50 % of appointments have been women .
Meanwhile , the new line-up of the staff at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is taking shape . Bishop Philip North , Bishop of Burnley ( and a former administrator there ) has succeeded the Bishop of Chichester as Master of the Guardians and Fr Kevin Smith SSC , formerly Vicar of Horden in County Durham , has been installed as Administrator . Fr Philip Barnes , who has served as Interim Administrator remains to help with the transition .
The new Shrine Priest is to be Fr Andreas Wenzel , curate of Horbury and Horbury Bridge , near Wakefield ( now in the Diocese of Leeds ). He replaces Fr Graham Lunn , who has gone to be priest of St Michael ’ s Beckenham in the Diocese of Rochester .
So the merry go round of appointments continues . What will 2017 bring ? A new Bishop of Sheffield , and a new Bishop of London , amongst others .