THE P RTAL
November 2016 Page 6
A Wonderful event in Preston
Fr Mark Woodruff , Chairman of the Society of St John Chrysostom , gives us an eyewitness account
On 9th October in Preston North End ’ s stadium , the latest of three special Catholic dioceses to serve across Great Britain was founded . Dr Joseph Palackal , Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Urbaniana College – the missionary college of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of the Peoples - was consecrated as the first bishop for the 40,000-strong Syro-Malabar Catholic community . This Church ’ s origins go back to the mission of the apostles sent eastwards from St Peter ’ s first see of Antioch , through northern Syria and Iraq , and into Persia and beyond , of which St Thomas is the father .
The new Cathedral is the former Jesuit church of St Ignatius , famous in Lancashire as one of the first after Catholic Emancipation in 1829 to be constructed in Preston , historically a centre for English recusant Catholicism . Few Catholics now live in the city centre , so the much loved landmark has been declared the principal church of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain , at the heart of its future life , re-invigorated organisation and mission .
The ordination liturgy was attended by over 10,000 of the Syro-Malabar faithful , supported by the bishops , priests and lay people of the Latin Church in the region too . It was a vision of the Church ’ s universal vocation . There were mandates and messages from the Congregations for the Eastern Churches and Evangelisation in Rome ; the Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly in Kerala , “ Father & Head ” of the Syro-Malabar Church across the world , Cardinal Alencherry , was principal consecrator ; Bishop Michael Campbell of Lancaster , who has led the Latin Catholic welcome of the Syro-Malabar Church ’ s establishment in Britain , and who donated the historic new Cathedral , was a co-consecrator ; there too was Bishop Hlib Lonchyna , the much-loved Bishop of Eparchy of the Most Holy Family of London for the Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Britain , and Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham .
To see two English Catholic bishops of non-Roman Catholic Churches side by side , together with the Ordinary , was a vivid message that the future of the Church in Britain has before it a many-handed mission to an array of cultures . Conserving traditions and keeping alive the life of the Church for those who belong to them is one thing , but imparting faith in Christ to a society composed of people of so many backgrounds in diverse communities and religions - and to those who have discarded the memory of faith in their families and communities , as well as those now
brought up with roots in no religion at all – shows why Britain has been sent , in Bishop Joseph , both a pastor and an evangelist .
Significantly , prior to his ordination , he venerated the Shrine Image of Our Lady of Walsingham who had made the pilgrimage specially , and the relic of Blessed John Henry Newman . The Basilica at Walsingham , whose Virgin Mother patron is at the heart of the Ordinariate , is in renewal as a place of spiritual encounter with Christ . Blessed John Henry looms large over all English Christianity as its prophet of the need for one Church under one Shepherd to make sense of England ’ s distinctive religious history and culture to address convincingly a society that has forgotten its religious mind ; and the Ordinariate is not only to hold this memory in its life and worship , but to restore and re-animate it
The Ukrainian Church is a Church in resurrection . After half a century of liquidation under the Soviets and the martyrdom of its bishops , from a mere 700,000 exiles in 1990 , it is now a Church of 4.6 million , of whom 12,000 are in Britain . It has re-founded the first Catholic university in the old Soviet Union , established 12 new dioceses , and published an inspiring new Catholic Catechism , steeped in the faith and spirituality of the East , Christ our Pascha , to sustain their current mission and renewal , based on “ the vibrant parish ”. Recently its Archbishop in Kyiv , Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk , has said , “ You don ’ t have to have Ukrainian origins to belong to our Church , or to speak Ukrainian . All you have to do is live by the gospel of Matthew : Go and make disciples of all nations .” You could say the same of Anglican patrimony from England , or Malayalam and Syriac from Kerala . For the Lord went on to say , “ I am with you always ”, and these - and many more for the sake of our country ’ s peoples and the always coming Kingdom of God - are how .