THE
P RTAL
January 2018
Page 7
Looking back at 2017,
and forward to 2018
Arnold Herron looks back ... and forward
A t
T he P ortal , we began 2017 with a visit to the Basilica and Shrine at Walsingham. Zyg Rakowicz, the
Director of Evangelisation, told us of plans to improve things there in the future. Some of these plans
have already been put into action, others will come to fruition in 2018.
insightful interview, and Bishop Richard
was as candid as he was impressive.
Jackie and Ronald were not the only ones
on travels, our History Correspondent,
Eliza Trebelcock, had also been out and
about, to The Vyne at Basingstoke to be
exact. She unearthed a Tudor Mass sung
in the beautiful chapel there. We hope
many of you also went to hear it. Jackie
and Ronald were on the other side of
the table when the Revd Dn Stephen
Morgan interviewed them about The
Portal, and their role in its foundation
and organisation.
In February we went ‘up north’ to see Fr
Ozzie and Margaret Aisbitt at their lovely
home in Ulverston in Cumbria. Theirs is
truly an outpost of the Ordinariate, but
no less important for that. Good work
is being done in this northern town,
not least in the wonderful charity shop.
Continuing the northern theme, we also
saw Francesca Massey, the Sub-Organist
at Durham Cathedral since 2011, and Dr
Gill James reported on the refurbishment
of the basement at Warwick Street. More
good work by the Ordinariate.
His Excellency, Archbishop Antonio
Mennini, the Papal Nuncio, left the UK
in March and we expressed our gratitude
for all he did for the Ordinariate. We were
grateful to Bishop Robert Byrne, who
celebrated our Chrism mass at Warwick
Street.
April was a mixed month. We offered
prayers and support for the CofE Bishop
North, who was not welcome in Sheffield.
Our Editors, the Ordinariate priest Fr
Simon Ellis, and the Anglican Fr Paul Benfield all
had articles in this edition. But all was not gloomy
on the ecumenical front, because Ronald Crane had
been to Walsingham for the Ecumenical Marian
Pilgrimage Trust Biennial Pilgrimage to OLW. This
was a really encouraging event and thanks were due
to Fr Mark Woodruff and the trust that organised it.
More encouragement came in our interview with two
of the Ordinariate’s seminarians, Jonathan Creer and
Thomas Mason, both ordained Deacon now. They are
a real inspiration.
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane were off on their
travels in May. They met and interviewed The Right
Reverend Richard Moth, Bishop of Arundel and
Brighton, but as far as T he P ortal was concerned,
the Bishop for Prisons. This was a heart moving and
as a hermit.
We did our bit for the General Election
in June, publishing the advice to voters
produced by the Bishops of England
and Wales. We pointed our readers’
thoughts forward to the Ordination
of ten Deacons, visited Mgr Andrew
Burnham at East Hendred, congratulated
Torbay on becoming the Ordinariate’s
first parish, reported Our Lady of Fatima
coming to Warwick Street and supported
Brother Robert Augustine, taking vows
The Ordinariate was in the thick of terror attacks
in Manchester and London in the shape of Fr Andrew
Starkie and Fr Christopher Pearson. We had their
stories. A happier story was our account of the Annual
Ordinariate Pilgrimage to OLW, carrying a special
four page supplement to celebrate it! We visited the
Ordinariate Group in Darlington, and joined in with
the celebrations for twenty-five years of public service
put in by Richard Eddy.
Every month we have a report sent to us by
Murcadha O’Flaherty of Aid to the Church in Need.
His reports are often disturbing, telling of trouble
and trauma suffered by Christians around the world.
But in August, in addi tion to Murcadha’s report, we