THE P RTAL
“There was a short time when we were
insecure because we did not know where we
were going. We came here as a temporary
measure and the Archbishop invited us to
stay and appointed Fr Stephen as Parish
Administrator. There was no choir, so we
formed a Singing Group.”
May 2014
Maurine James
Clive Goble is a retired Company Director
who became a Catholic thirty five years
ago. “When I heard about the Ordinariate,
I thought it was great.”
Philip Jones is a painter and decorator, a
former soldier in the Royal Scots. He has
been in the Ordinariate from the start. Malcolm Berry
“We were the first church to say we’d join,”
he said, “and I have no regrets. I love it!”
With refreshments over, we drove the short
distance to the Mayfly at Hawkinge for lunch
with Fr Stephen and Trish Bould.
The money at church is divided between
Ben Millbery
Parish and Ordinariate: The free-will
envelopes being white for the Parish, and
blue for the Ordinariate.
We observed that there must have been
difficulties in taking over a well-established
Catholic parish. Fr Stephen said, “Everyone
knows that Catholic priests are not married.
I am married, so how can I be a Catholic Jamie Houghton
priest? Yet I am a Catholic
priest. For lots of diocesan
Catholics, this is the spectre
at the feast of the Ordinariate.
There have been serious
problems with some members
of the congregation, and it’s
sometimes very difficult: ‘It’s
not the sacrifice of the Mass when you do
it.’ ‘You’re not really a priest, because you’re
married.’ There is a degree of reservation of
assent in some people.”
standing upright
We asked about the good things, and he
Philip Jones
responded, “Where do I begin? Every step I
take I’m grateful. It’s like being able to stand
upright in a room where before - in the C of E
- you were always knocking your head on the
ceiling. You can reflect, think, and pray, with
proper perspective, standing on simple and
solid ground, with roots that go deep. And
living in the Church – it is clearly, palpably, Fr Stephen
a communion of people from every nation and Trish Bould
contents page
UK Pages - page 13
and tribe and people and tongue. She
belongs, not to nation or monarch, but
to the Father, and you are - along with the
congregation entrusted to you - participating
freely in the sacrifice of Christ, and living in
the sanctifying and celebratory grace of the
Spirit.
The range of people, the psychology and
the characters, is so much greater - and more
interesting, too! In Folkestone parish, as well
as Anglo-Saxons, there are Irish, Filipino,
African, Indian, French, Polish, Czech,
Hungarian, Italian and even Scottish (he
pointed to Trish) people. And this diocese,
Southwark, has been very generous to the
Ordinariate, and the clergy of the deanery I’m
in (Dover), though all different, have worked
hard to include me and Christopher (OOLW
priest Fr Christopher Lindlar, of Mongeham)
into their midst. No regrets!”
The conversation moved to a discussion
of pastoral practice. Fr Stephen thought,
“It is different in that Catholics generally
- much more than Anglicans – accept that
the Church is liturgically and sacramentally
based. It’s considered right that it should be
so. It’s not socially and moralistically based.
You may not like it, but as a minister in the C
of E your work is socially and moralistically
based. Not so in the Catholic Church.
Though of course those
dimensions are not absent,
the base is the liturgy and
the sacraments. The Catholic
Church and the Church of
England look similar, but they
are very different.
“What happens in ten years’ time? What
is the future of the Ordinariate, not just in
Folkestone, but nationally? Well, what do
we bring? The ‘best of Anglicanism’, what is
that? Isn’t it the longing for the unity of the
Church? Well, that door has been opened
and we have walked through. Others haven’t.
It’s still open. Let’s pray they will.”
This had been a real “Portal” lunch. Our
regular readers will know what that means.
It finished about 4:30pm! Thank you Fr
Stephen and Trish. We really enjoyed our
time in Folkestone and with an Ordinariate
Group that is very much integrated, but not
absorbed.