THE
P RTAL
November 2015
Mike Smith is the Group’s
Treasurer
and
a
retired
accountant. “I also do the RC
Parish accounts as well as the
Ordinariate’s. I was at St Barnabas
and joined the Ordinariate with
Fr Ed. Lovely building at St
Barnabas, but I don’t miss it now.
There was so much turmoil. The Dawn Johnson
Bible says about ‘kicking the
dust from your feet’. It was just
like that.
Ed, Hayley and their three lovely
children. We asked him first
about the new hall.
Fr Nicholas Leviseur
“We have worked very hard
here at St Anselm’s. We have a
big debt to repay on this lovely
new hall, but we shall do it
Frances Lee and Aidan Lee
because we have great leaders
in Fr Ed and Fr Nicholas.
“I do not regret the move,
not at all. We see the Maidstone
Group from time to time and
Precious Blood, of course. As to
the Ordinariate nationally, we are
trying to get people to see what
we are for. But nationally, we are Geoffrey Ravenhill and Martin Green
progressing. Most heartening are
the Ordinariate priests who have
taken over diocesan parishes. The
people are coming back to mass.
There is a movement among lapsed
Catholics.
Martin Green is the architect of
the new hall and a member of the
congregation. “Yes,” he said, “I did Haley with Fr Ed Tomlinson
the hall. We have a church now.
The hall was just a means to an
end. Now we can go in and out
of the hall without going through
church. The budget was zero!
The trick was, it is a
prefabricated building. It was
made off-site and delivered in
panels and assembled on site. Michael Blande
The quality is good. Disruption was minimal. It took
four days to put the frame up. We changed the way
in for everyone, disabled and all. Now everyone who
comes to church walks past the Calvary. The church
is beautiful now, and all because of this new hall. We
have pews and other things that go with church.
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“We had a money from the
Friends of the Ordinariate, grants,
the diocese, private donations
and parish loans. The vision was
not to build a hall but to create
a space for worship. We now
have a pulpit, a tabernacle and
a permanent church.
The next phase is a gradine
and to continue to beautify
the church building. We are
growing and our average age
has plummeted. Twenty five
percent of our congregation is now
under twenty five.
“We use the Ordinariate Use
‘Divine Worship’ on the first
Sunday of the month at 0915. This
may well extend to every Sunday
at that time. We had thirty two
children to our Holiday Club.
Hayley and Joanna Bogle ran the
‘Our Father’ project in twenty two
Primary Schools in Kent.
“One afternoon a week I work at
East Park Women’s Prison. I love this.
They are so open and understand
their need for grace and healing.
“As a Parish, we are a warm and
close community. People all do
things. We are about to paint the
inside of the church. We have a
lot of doers! People are passionate
about the truth. There is no ‘them
and us’, everyone comes together
the whole parish.
“We are about God’s work
Tom Davis
here. We have had opposition,
particularly to the new hall; anonymous letters and
nastiness. This makes us realise that we are about God’s
work. We are full of energy and life. Since coming here
we have produced five priests for the Catholic Church.”
This was a tremendous visit. We were privileged to
witness something of what the Ordinariate could be in
All too soon, it was time for people to go home. years to come. Thank you to Fr Ed and the people of St
We made our way to the Presbytery for lunch with Fr Anselm’s, Pembury.
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