Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Press Release from the Friends of the Ordinariate

Saturday 5 January 2013

Press Release from the Friends of the Ordinariate

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release : 3 January 2013

A Special Ephipany Celebration in Chelsea

Friends, supporters and members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham are gathering next Thursday (10 January) at St Mary’s Church in Cadogan Street, London, for an Epiphany Service intended as a true expression of the Holy Father’s vision of allowing the traditions and heritage of Anglicanism a place in the Catholic Church.

The Ordinary, Monsignor Keith Newton, will preside and music will be provided by the well-known Schola Cantorum of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. Readers will include His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, the Catholic journalist Peter Stanford and the novelist Piers Paul Read. The service – part of a wider campaign by the Friends of the Ordinariate charity to raise awareness and funds for the Ordinariate – follows yesterday (Wednesday)’s announcement from the Most Reverend the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols that the historic church of Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Gregory in Warwick Street, Soho, is to be handed over to the Ordinariate next month.

The chairman of the Friends, Peter Sefton-Williams, said: “The New Year has got off to a wonderful start for the Ordinariate and all those who want to see it grow and flourish as the Holy Father intended. First we had the announcement that the Precious Blood Church near London Bridge in Borough is to be made available to the Ordinariate. Now Archbishop Nichols has also generously designated Warwick Street as an Ordinariate church. These churches will give real focus and direction for the great spiritual energy within the Ordinariate.

Next Thursday’s service at St. Mary’s Cadogan Street, which begins at 7pm, will include Epiphany carols as well as readings taken from scripture and from Anglican authors. It will conclude with Pontifical Solemn Benediction. Admission is free but there will be a collection for the Friends of the Ordinariate. “We hope that as many people as possible, both Catholics and Anglicans, will come to celebrate with us and see this showcase of the Ordinariate”, said Peter Sefton-Williams.

Later in January, at the invitation of the Apostolic Nuncio, His Excellency the Most Reverend Antonio Mennini, the Friends will hold a fund-raising reception at the Apostolic Nunciature in Wimbledon. They are also organising a programme of visits from Ordinariate clergy to Catholic parishes to inform congregations about the Ordinariate and to appeal for funds. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has to provide financial support for its clergy, many of whom are married with families. It also needs funds for the training of priests and the upkeep and beautifying of the church buildings which are now entrusted to it.

Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

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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!

Saturday 5 January 2013

Press Release from the Friends of the Ordinariate

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