THE
P RTAL
November 2015
Page 12
An Inspiring Visit
This month Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane have been
to darkest Kent, to visit an inspirational Ordinariate Group
T
hose of you who follow the Catholic blogs, will be familiar with the name Fr Ed Tomlinson and the
Parish of St Anselm, Pembury, in Kent. Indeed, The Portal has visited this Ordinariate Group before.
Much has changed since our last visit.
The church building is not
inspiring; a red brick, dual
purpose structure that doubles as
a play school on weekdays. There
was no hall and nowhere to have
coffee after Sunday Mass. Not to
be outdone, they decided to have
post-mass coffee outside. We David Reilly Jayne Baldry and Lize Blande
shall never forget standing under
umbrellas, outside church after
mass, as the rain fell. The laughter
and fun of our fellow mass goers is
something we shall remember for a
very long time.
Marie Grech is a mother of four.
She used to attend St Augustine’s.
She met Fr Ed’s wife, Hayley,
as their children were friends
at school. “All our children are
friendly,” she told us. “Hayley is
Godmother to my youngest son.
Fr Ed instructed my husband
Darren and he became a Catholic.
Indeed he was baptised two years
ago. Darren would be here today, but
he has ‘man-flu’!
“I am a Cradle Catholic, now a
member of the Ordinariate. I have
always been devout and believed. At
St Augustine’s I was on a plateau and
not really growing. It is the reverence
here that struck me. The mass is a
real sacrifice. The whole thing, it is not
merely robotic. The teaching we have,
it is the real truth. It is to the point,
no nonsense and it is straight and not
watered down.”
But it could not be allowed to
last. Fr Tomlinson and the people
Lydia Johnson
at St Anselm had to make other Fr Jack Lusted
arrangements. This is just what
they have done. They built a hall.
Most people would have built the new
edifice beside the &W6V