Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Tidings of Joy

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Tidings of Joy

This morning, the Ordinariate announced its list of candidates for Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood. Congratulations to all on the list: our prayers are with you, and we share your great joy and thankfulness that the shared journey we have made together into the full communion of the Catholic Church is now leading you onwards on the long and challenging road towards priestly service.

There is one name in particular on that list that causes us to rejoice. It is, of course: Hunwicke, John William. It is wonderful news that this learned, holy and charming gentleman is moving forward in the process towards being ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church. What has happened is not official confirmation or agreement of Ordination, it is simply the publication of a list of candidates, but even so, even if it is no more than a small step forward as part of continuing deliberations, it is to be wholeheartedly welcomed.

Many of us in the Ordinariate owe a lot to the learning that Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes has given us. Those of us who have met him, even if on only a few occasions, are even more in his debt. He is a scholar with an in-depth knowledge of all the best of Anglican Patrimony (and of so much more), who has an unswerving loyalty and devotion to, and love for, Holy Mother Church. He is also a truly lovely man, who has made sacrifices to play his part in answering Our Lord's call to Christian Unity, and who has continued to wait patiently on the Lord while the wheels of process turn.

Fr Hunwicke has featured on this blog before, indeed in one of our most popular ever blogposts. He very kindly agreed to give us permission to reproduce in full a sermon he gave in October 2010 at St Mary's Bourne St. It is an extremely inspiring sermon, on the topic of Our Lady of Victories and the Battle of Lepanto, full of details and wisdom, but entirely accessible even to those less familiar with the subjects covered. Do take the time to read it.

The day after his visit to Bourne St, he posted a very favourable report of his trip to London on his own blog, the comments on which include a few interesting points from Bourne St regulars, on the origins of the sung Angelus in particular (now there's Patrimony for you). His report charmed all of those at Bourne St who read it, indeed my wife and daughters were among those most thrilled to have been mentioned in such a kind way in so elevated a forum.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we posted an article on the First Mass of Fr Daniel Lloyd of the Oxford Ordinariate Group. The eagle-eyed among you might even have spotted a photo of Fr Hunwicke reading the Prayers of the Faithful that day. Since that group might one day soon, Deo volente, have another priest, as our newest member (a former member of the Oxford group) jokingly notes, it could soon be on its way to being fully resourced for a Pontifical High Mass.

We concluded the blogpost on Fr Lloyd's First Mass with the Haydn Te Deum. Time to post it again, in joy and thanksgiving for this wondrous news. Small steps forward in a positive direction. Prayers for, and congratulations to, all the Ordinariate's candidates for Ordination. What a tremendous sign of encouragement, development and growth that there is a list, let along such a long one. Let us hope, as the process continues, that all these candidates proceed to Ordination, and that the Lord will send us many more priests to serve in His Holy Catholic Church.

Deo gratias!

5 comments:

Conchúr9 May 2012 at 12:57
Axios!
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Marylebone Ordinariate Group9 May 2012 at 13:28
If things continue to move in the right direction, certainly the Marylebone group will be there, silently saying their own ἄξιος at the appropriate moment.

An example of the nearest Western equivalent is perhaps the spontaneous ripple of applause that rang out around Westminster Cathedral on 15th January 2011, at the end of the Ordination Mass for the three Ordinariate monsignori. The applause was all the more powerful for having come from a group of people that would never ever have thought that they would feel an urge to clap in church, but the joy that day simply overwhelmed them.
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Victor9 May 2012 at 15:38
Not one to nitpick, but "God willing" would, of course, be "Deo volente" in Latin.

And the news about soon-to-be-again Fr Hunwicke is indeed splendid!
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Marylebone Ordinariate Group9 May 2012 at 15:50
Thank you, Victor, you are quite right. How embarrassing to have failed to spot that in a post that mentions an august classicist. I will correct it asap.

Let us hope that all goes smoothly for all the candidates announced on the list. The process of deliberations continues, so nothing is "in the bag", but this is surely a positive step, and we must all rejoice in that.
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Peter2 June 2012 at 22:00
This learned, holy and charming gentleman . . .

I can't think of a more accurate desciption of Fr. John Hunwicke.

I only wish I could be at the Oxford Oratory on 27 June for this great occasion.

Tidings of joy, indeed !

Gaudeamus et laetemur.
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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!