THE P RTAL
July 2014
Australia Pages - page 9
Growing an Ordinariate Parish
The experience of one Ordinariate Group in Victoria, Australia,
is chronicled by Fr Ken Clark
E
arly in
October last year we were looking for a place to worship. What a difference six months
makes in the life of the Ordinariate in Gippsland. After Fr Ken Clark was ordained, Bishop Christopher
Prowse, the then Bishop of Sale, gave permission for the Ordinariate parish to use the Heyfield Church on
Sunday mornings at 10am. Heyfield is a neighbouring town to Maffra in the Catholic Diocese of Gippsland,
Victoria, Australia. The town has a population of 2099, and is about 206 kilometres east of Melbourne.
active Catholic presence
St Michael’s Church at Heyfield has
been a blessing as it gives the Ordinariate
a permanent home, and a place to
worship. The local catholic congregation
prefer a Vigil Mass on the Saturday
night which allows the Ordinariate to
have a Sunday Mass. This gives an active
Catholic presence on Sundays in the town
of Heyfield, and already our congregation
is growing, slowly, but surely.
Our congregation started with no
music. However, almost from the first
day at Heyfield, we had an organist
sitting in the congregation. Carmel, a
local catholic, had played for the Catholic
Church before, and was a worshipping member of the Ken and his wife manage the Maffra Motor Inn.
Catholic Church at Heyfield. Carmel and her husband
People often ask why Fr Ken does not work full-time
Joe, appreciate the Ordinariate style of liturgy, so they
as a priest and leave the running of the Motel to his
now worship with us.
wife
To have organ music means that we can have hymns,
The reason is that the Ordinariate is very young in
and the Merbecke setting for Mass, and also a regular
sung Evensong and Benediction. Truly wonderful, and Australia and has no sustainable finances to pay any
form of stipend, though there are hopes for this in
we are truly blessed.
the future. The only way that ministry can be funded
perfect small Catholic Church
here in Gippsland is to have a priest engaged in secular
Fr Ken had heard that the small town called employment compatible with his priestly ministry.
Cowwarr, ten minutes’ drive from Heyfield, was used (Anglicanorum Coetibus, Complementary Norms, Art
only every second Sunday. We went and had a look at 7:3)
the perfect small Catholic Church in Cowwarr. With
the permission of the Parish Council, and Fr Hilarion, open to the movement of God’s spirit
PP, it was arranged for a Mass to be celebrated every
The Gippsland Ordinariate at this point of time is
Wednesday at 10am, followed by half a