THE
P RTAL
November 2018
Page 12
Ordinary days in London
David Chapman reports
L ondon. 15th October
. It’s been a very ordinary week – and it’s only Monday! On Sunday,
I was privileged to be at a wonderful Mass at Precious Blood, Borough, celebrated by one Ordinary,
Bishop Steven Lopes, during which another person was received into the Church and a recently-married
couple welcomed as they also joined this rapidly growing congregation. At a convivial lunch afterwards, the
Ordinary count went up to three – and you can’t get more Ordinary than that!
Three was also the count on Monday at Our Lady
of the Assumption, Warwick Street for an event
organised by the Friends of the Ordinariate. There
was a good turnout of Ordinarians, Oratorians and
other assorted people to hear The Very Revd Ignatius
Harrison speak on ‘Blessed John Henry Newman: Our
Guide for Tomorrow’. Fr Ignatius is Provost of the
Birmingham Oratory and Actor and Vice-postulator
of Blessed John Henry Newman’s cause. He began his
talk with the prayer beginning “Almighty God, unto
whom all hearts are open...” I won’t quote it all – you
already know it, of course!
Speaking of the future, Fr Ignatius identified two
perils facing mankind. One is irresponsible meddling
with human biology – genetic engineering, cloning
and so on. Though there might be short term benefits,
long term effects were unknown. We should beware
the difference between making humans better and
making better humans – the latter being a form of
idolatry. JHN always addressed our dependency on
our maker, insisting that only that relationship makes
us whole.
Another peril is our aspiration to ‘gad about the
cosmos’ and the foolishness of space missions. The
suggestion that everything in the universe is explicable
and can be discovered and rationalised is a new form
of Gnosticism. We have been made stewards of THIS
world and JHN asserts the supremacy of our known
world and the world of the end times when the veil will
be lifted. Newman was not, however a Luddite or in
any way anti-science. Science and religion together will
help us to prepare for the future, and that is the task of
the Ordinariates - to prepare for the future. Newman’s
leadership in the founding of Anglo-Catholicism has
borne much fruit – and the Ordinariates are such fruit.
Lunch with the Ordinaries at at Precious Blood, Borough
Now ‘Divine Worship: the Missal’ has gone some way
to address that loss, but it should be viewed as a ‘work
in progress’ and be subject to review. Now is the time
to stand back and take stock. He suggested that it
might be opportune to re-engage with he Tridentine
Mass, but in the vernacular, not in Latin. Pope Francis
would approve of this, he thought. Divine Worship
permits many of the traditional features to be used
– in English. He urged the Ordinariates to rejoice in
their distinctive liturgical patrimony – ‘…and again, I
say, rejoice!’ But it deserves to be USED.
Concluding, Fr Ignatius urged us all to pursue with
tenacity our relationship with God – as John Henry
Newman did.
Fr Ignatius spoke of the ‘Strange Case of the Elusive
Patrimony’. He maintained that Anglo-Catholics,
X
X
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especially English ones, lost the plot in the 1960s and
1970s when they rushed to emulate modern Roman
Fr Ignatius next updated the meeting on the Cause
Catholics. Had they continued in the use of the for canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman.
English Missal they would have the best of patrimony. The miracle of healing of a woman in Chicago Ø