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.