THE
P RTAL
May 2017
Page 21
Why T he P ortal ?
The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan speaks to Jackie Ottaway
and Ronald Crane about the origins of T he P ortal
Stephen Morgan (SM) I’ve been writing for T he
P ortal for more than four years now and yet I don’t
really know where this online magazine came from,
how it works and why you do it. Ronald and Jackie,
you have kindly agreed to let me interview you to get
to the bottom of my questions. I am sure the answers
will be as interesting and informative to the readers of
T he P ortal as I hope they will be to me.
Let’s start at the very beginning - as Julie Andrews
sang - it’s a very good place to start. Tell me from
where the idea for T he P ortal came.
Jackie Ottaway ( JO) We were in the car. Ronald
was driving us back from Brean.
Ronald Crane (RC)
Jackie seems to have a
hundred new ideas every day. The key is to work out
which four can be turned into reality. She suggested
that a magazine about and for the Ordinariate would
be a good idea.
Latin Gate” but ever since Watergate, names of that
sort have the wrong connotations. I don’t know where
it came from but the name T he P ortal just popped
into my head.
SM It’s an interesting name. The Catholic Church in
JO I knew that the Ordinariate was coming and Truro is called Our Lady of the Portal. It’s a traditional
that the clergy and lay faithful would need to have title for the Blessèd Virgin, as well as its modern
something that could tell them about it and about internet use.
the communities that joined it. Having ideas comes
naturally to me but I think I’m a bit lazy. I knew that RC We didn’t originally think that it would be
Ronald would be able to bring the idea to fruition. anything other than printed, but cost was always going
It didn’t occur to me that the magazine would be to be an issue. All the start-up costs came from Jackie’s
anything other than a printed publication, but it was and my own savings and publishing online is very
suggested that Fr Len Black in Scotland would be able much cheaper.
to give us some pointers regarding what it might look
So, originally, T he P ortal belonged to Jackie and me
like and how to get it in print.
but we subsequently gave it to the Ordinariate: not so
RC So we flew up to Inverness and as Fr Len took us that it could be an “in-house” magazine but so that
on a trip around the beautiful Black Isle just north of everything would be transparent.
Inverness, we shared the idea with him. The following
day, before he took us back to the airport, he asked us SM What happened next? I know these projects can
to come to his house, where he showed us a mock up be quite labour-intensive.
of the magazine.
RC We needed an editorial board and we didn’t want
JO The only thing it lacked was colour, because Fr it filled with “yes men”.
Len doesn’t see colour, but otherwise he’d done all the
graphic design and lay out. It was exactly what we were JO We thought there might be eight jobs or so to do
and so we set about finding individuals who could do
looking for.
them.
SM And is that where the name came from?
RC The advantage of doing everything online is that
JO No. That was me. Ronald wanted to call it “The you can do all the editorial work remotely.