Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Processions and Banners

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Processions and Banners

Last week's Procession of the Blessed Sacrament from Westminster Cathedral to St George's Cathedral, Southwark was a great success. This great act of public witness was carried out to mark in thanksgiving the first anniversary of the Papal Visit and of the Beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman. Joanna Bogle reports on the day here, here and finally here, including a link to another report with a couple of excellent photos. Photos of the procession arriving at St George's can be found here, on the Flickr photostream of the Catholic Diocese of Southwark,

Processions are something that those of us in the Marylebone Ordinariate Group are very used to. They were, and remain, a regular feature of the liturgical year at our former Anglican parish, St Mary's Bourne Street. We were delighted to see that St James's, Spanish Place marked this year's Assumption with a Procession of Our Lady of Fatima, a rather grainy picture of which is shown below.

Building on the success of last Saturday's procession through London, we wanted to remind everyone once again that this Saturday there will be a Rosary Crusade of Reparation, with a statue of Our Lady being carried in procession from Westminster Cathedral to Brompton Oratory. The event has been run for the past 26 years, with around 2000 people taking part each year.

Members and friends of the Ordinariate should note that this year the procession will be led by Monsignor Newton, and so the organisers are particularly keen for members and friends of the Ordinariate to participate.

People should gather at Westminster Cathedral by 1.45, with the procession concluding at the Oratory with Prayers, Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Benediction. Proceedings will have finished in good time before the 6pm Mass at the Oratory.

This footage of the 2006 Rosary Crusade of Preparation gives some idea of the scale of this event. What a wonderful example of public witness.

Then this film from 2010 shows the procession at the conclusion of its journey, coming into a very packed Brompton Oratory.

In all these photos and video extracts, one thing that springs to our mind is that we think there should be more banners! Perhaps this is an example of Anglican Patrimony, processions should have more banners. We know that this was a view shared by several Ordinariate members after last Saturday's wonderful procession, and indeed the Ordinariate Portal posted a Facebook update on this very point. It would not surprise us if bannermakers started to receive orders from Ordinariate groups across the country - no doubt Ordinariate groups will be quite correct in ordering one banner for processions of Our Lady and general processions, and a different one for processions of the Blessed Sacrament (for which, strictly, only images connected to the Blessed Sacrament should be shown).

Check your diaries for Saturday, and please pray for the success of the event whether you can be there or not. Please link this blogpost to any of your friends who might be interested in attending on Saturday.

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Blessed John Henry Newman on the hope for Reunion

… I gather up and bear in memory those familiar affectionate companions and counsellors, who in Oxford were given to me, one after another, to be my daily solace and relief; and all those others, of great name and high example, who were my thorough friends, and showed me true attachment in times long past….

And I earnestly pray for this whole company, with a hope against hope, that all of us, who once were so united, and so happy in our union, may even now be brought at length, by the Power of the Divine Will, into One Fold and under One Shepherd.

Apologia pro Vita Sua

Blessed John Henry Newman's Prayer for Unity

O Lord Jesus Christ, who when Thou wast about to suffer didst pray for Thy disciples to the end of time that they might all be one, as Thou art in the Father and the Father in Thee, look down in pity on the manifold divisions among those who profess Thy faith and heal the many wounds which the pride of man and the craft of Satan have inflicted on Thy people.

Break down the walls of separation which divide one party and denomination of Christians from another. Look with compassion on the souls who have been born in one or other of these communions, which not Thou, but man, hath made.

Set free the prisoners from these unauthorised forms of worship, and bring them all to the one communion which Thou didst set up at the beginning – the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Teach all men that the See of Peter, the Holy Church of Rome, is the foundation, centre, and instrument of Unity. Open their hearts to the long forgotten truth that the Holy Father, the Pope, is Thy Vicar and representative; and that in obeying him in matters of religion they are obeying Thee, so that as there is but one company in heaven above, so likewise there may be one communion, confessing and glorifying Thy holy Name, here below. Amen

Fr Ignatius Harrison, the former Provost of the London Oratory, on Unity

Another of the Holy Father’s outstanding achievements is his inspiring work for Christian Unity in setting-up the Ordinariates for former Anglicans. What a brilliant way of cutting through the plethora of mealy-mouthed verbiage and foggy thinking that has characterized so much ecumenical activity in recent decades, verbiage and fogginess which may indeed have had the very best of intentions, but which nevertheless achieved so little in real terms.

Let us also pray with all our heart and mind and strength that our vitally important ecumenical journey with our Greek and Russian Orthodox brethren will continue apace, that our charitable and respectful dialogue with them will bear much fruit, so that the universal Church might once again breathe with two whole lungs, and so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Domine, ut sit!

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Processions and Banners

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