Tu es Petrus

Given that there are more than a few postings scheduled for this blog over the next few days (due to rather special Ordinariate events), we have decided to post this article two days earlier than we might have done.  It would never do for those who have joined the Catholic Church in search of the Unity called for by Christ Himself and assured by the Successor of St Peter to omit to mention Friday's great Solemnity.

When the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul arrives, as well as remembering to attend mass (some of us in our group at St James's, some of quite possibly at St Mary Moorfields), let us give particular thanks for the priestly ordination 61 years ago that day of our Holy Father Pope Benedict.   

Let us give thanks for the life and witness of this truly remarkable man, this Pope of Christian Unity, who has done so much to reunite the scattered flock - something of which we members of the Ordinariate are particularly aware.  Let us ask for the intercession of Our Lady, St Peter, St Paul and all the saints, that with renewed strength in the Lord, our Holy Father might continue to work valiantly and succesfully for the unity of all Christians and for the greater glory of God. 

We reproduce below a text that we included on this blog very recently, taken from an Angelus address given by the Holy Father in August 2008, in which he describes the particular role of the Church and of the Pope within it.

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven". This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

It seems to us that the Petrine ministry is such a tremendous gift to the Church and to the world.  It allows us to move away from a fragmented, dismembered vision of Christianity, ever ready to fracture itself further, and instead, in union with Rome and the other ancient churches, to move together towards greater unity. 

Songs of Thankfulness and Praise

There has been some wonderful news for the Ordinariate.  Our previous post reflected briefly on the Sacred Heart and its importance as a devotion recognising the unbounded love of Our Lord for humanity, and so it is most appropriate that in this the month of the Sacred Heart, we as new members of the Church should feel not only the love of Our Lord, but also the love of our Holy Father and of fellow Catholics for their new brethren.  Today, there has been an announcement that, in Monsignor Newton's own words :

....is a further sign of our Holy Father's love and warmth towards [the Ordinariate].

At the plenary meeting for Ordinariate clergy held at Allen Hall in London today (the photo below comes from the Ordinariate's Facebook page), it was announced that the three other former anglican bishops serving now as priests in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham have been raised to the rank of Monsignor by the Holy Father in recognition of their long and fruitful ministry undertaken in the Church of England.

It is yet another sign not only of how much the Holy Father is keen to show his support for the Ordinariate, but also of how enthusiastic he is about recognising the immense value of the service that Ordinariate clergy have previously given.  All the polemic put about by some, with a degree of stridency (and we suggest error) worthy of E P Thompson or even Richard Holloway, to the effect that the Catholic Church requires prospective Ordinariate clergy to renounce their past, is put to utter ridicule by news such as this.

Congratulations then to Monsignor Edwin Barnes, Monsignor Robert Mercer and Monsignor David Silk.  We rejoice with you that together we have found our place in the Catholic Church, and that our Holy Father Pope Benedict continues to value so highly, and to recognise so publicly, not only the Anglican Patrimony that we bring with us, but also the undisputed value of our previous Christian life.

We are of course particularly delighted to read of Monsignor Barnes's honour.  In the Marylebone group, we are devoted fans of Monsignor Barnes's blog (to which a permanent link is provided in the right hand sidebar of this blog), and readily admit to having "borrowed" a couple of photographs he posted on his blog, including in this post.  We also have a couple more of his photos stored up ready for a future post.  Here though is a picture (copyright Fr James Bradley, and taken from the Ordinariate's own Facebook site) of Fr Barnes taken on the day of his priestly ordination.

There is a personal connection between the Marylebone group and Monsignor Barnes.  In the interregnum at Bourne St that ended with the appointment of the current Vicar, one of our group was a St Mary's churchwarden, and as such, in consultation with the assistant parish clergy, co-ordinated the list of visiting preachers.

One of those preachers was the great Fr John Hunwicke, whose powerful sermon that day can be found here.  We all know of course of this erudite, charming and holy man's upcoming priestly ordination in the Catholic Church, and indeed some of our group intend to make the journey up to the Oxford Oratory that day.

Another of the guest preachers was scheduled to be Monsignor Barnes.  However, events took over, such that, following the faster than expected establishment of the Ordinariate, it was no longer possible to secure his speaking presence among us.  We were utterly charmed by our interaction with Monsignor Barnes during those discussions, as we were when we had the pleasure of meeting him again at the Ordinariate Anniversary celebrations in January this year. 

Taking into account that not everyone at Bourne St was quite as catholic in their sensibilities as we were, in the interests of fairness, celebrity cleric Giles Fraser was also invited.  Given his fascinating views on Holy Saturday (as mentioned here), as on some other subjects, perhaps it worked out for the best that, although he accepted the invitation, a date could not be agreed. 

Another visitor was Dr Robin Ward, Principal of St Stephen's House in Oxford.  Wearing a mozzetta that would befit even the grandest of monsignori, he preached extremely well.  This, of course, was exactly as expected.  A more intelligent, thoughtful, witty and able preacher does not exist in the Church of England.  A few months before Dr Ward's visit, we had very much enjoyed reading the sermon he gave at the 125th Anniversary Celebrations of Pusey House, including his reference to Blessed Pius IX comparing Dr Pusey to a church bell, ever summoning people to church but never entering it himself.  Fr James Bradley has already commented very effectively upon this sermon on his blog (to which we provide a permanent link in the sidebar), but we can certainly confirm that the sheer intellectual force of Dr Ward's argument in that text was no small factor in our decision to accept the Holy Father's invitation to follow the Gospel's call to Christian Unity. 

Dr Ward is, of course, one of Monsignor Barnes's successors at St Stephen's House as Principal (Monsignor Burnham was Vice-Principal at one time, and Bishop Peter Elliott, the Australian bishop responsible for supervising the establishment of the new Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, is a former student).  Who can say whether Dr Ward might one day share another of Monsignor Barnes's titles by himself becoming a monsignor in the Ordinariate.  A "larger room" for that very fine mozzetta, perhaps. 

To bring together the themes of Our Lord's love for His creation, and the Church's and the Holy Father's love for all humankind and in particular for those considering joining the Catholic Church, we might mention very briefly a book that over the past few years seems to have helped many in their journeys "across the Tiber" into the Church founded by Our Lord Himself.  It is very hard to read this book (and one chapter in particular) and not to feel a bout of Roman fever, as the Anglo-Catholics say, coming on.

Pope Benedict's book, Jesus of Nazareth, is designed to reunite the artificially separated concepts of the "Historical Jesus" and the "Christ of Faith".   By focussing too much on the first - as important a concept as it undisputedly is - we lose sight of the second, we risk obsessing about minutiae rather than pondering the momentous nature of the Son of the living God's presence among us.  If we focus only on the second, we fail to consider sufficiently the very glory of the Incarnation, that God was made man at a specific point in time and in a particular place.  In his book, the Holy Father said it rather more eloquently, of course :

What can faith in Jesus as the Christ possibly mean, in Jesus as the Son of the living God, if the man Jesus was so completely different from the picture the Evangelists painted of Him, and that the Church, on the evidence of the Gospels, takes as the basis of her preaching?

The chapters move through different aspects of Our Lord’s life and teachings, often grounding the analysis in details from each of the synoptic gospels, building on the context that was set by the introduction’s explanation of Deutoronomy’s promise of a new Moses: not merely a miracle worker, a sufferer of trials or a leader, but in fact someone close to God.

Former Anglicans now in the Ordinariate are understandably very interested by the chapter on the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration. We see that Peter is recorded in all four Gospels stating clearly his confident belief that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, but from our perspective we perceive very lucidly that there is both a confession and a commission, a creed from Peter but a commission from Our Lord, a calling in response.  It is almost a challenge : you say you believe this, well this is how you exercise that belief.

Peter and others were witnesses to the Truth.  They saw it, recorded it, reported it.  They were not a committee or a general synod that debated what the Truth was: it was before their very eyes, and in Peter's confession he made it clear that he had recognised it.   Truth, not opinion.  It is on this Truth, and on this rock, that the Church is built.  Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram, aedificabo ecclesiam meam.

In some of the articles on this blog, we have touched upon that theme of Tu es Petrus, and with hindsight it seems extremely fortuitous that we have talked of a journey into Unity, and of a continuing journey thereafter.  For example, in this post we mentioned the journey towards joining the Ordinariate, and in this post we highlighted the eternal yet immediate invitation, indeed the call, towards Unity that is issued to many different groups who lie outside the full and unimpaired visible communion of the Catholic Church.  In this post, we referred to the power of a particular piece of music to drive people along the road of that journey.

We cannot claim that this consistent language of journeying was deliberate, but happily it reflects something that the Holy Father talks of in the chapter on Peter's Confession.

The great period of preaching in Galilee is at an end and we are at a decisive milestone: Jesus is setting out on the journey to the Cross and issuing a call to decision that now clearly distinguishes the group of disciples from the people who merely listen, without accompanying him on his way – a decision that clearly shapes the disciples into the beginning of Jesus’ new family, the future Church. It is characteristic of this community to be “on the way” with Jesus – what that way involves is about to be made clear. It is also characteristic that this community’s decision to accompany Jesus rests upon a realization – on a “knowledge” of Jesus that at the same time gives them a new insight into God, the one God in whom they believe as children of Israel…

… The disciples are drawn into his solitude, his communion with the Father that is reserved to him alone… They are privileged to see what the “people” do not see, and this seeing gives rise to a recognition that goes beyond the “opinion” of the people. This seeing is the wellspring of their faith, their confession; it provides the foundation of the Church.

When the Holy Father talks of "the Church", we know very clearly that he talks of the Catholic Church.   The Catholic Church, founded by Christ Himself, which presents the Truth today as then, not as one of a suite of alternative theories from which we can select as we choose, but as divinely revealed Truth.   This is our call today, we are called to be members of that same Church, to accept that same Truth.

Joining the Ordinariate was a journey for all of us: a journey of faith, certainly, but clearly also a journey of trust.  This is so for all who left behind happy years with long-established friends in Anglican churches across the country, but it is perhaps most so for those brave clergy who left behind established careers and career paths, housing and membership of a pension scheme to follow their consciences.

There will be some uncharitable souls who, in response to the above, will mutter that those of the Ordinariate clergy who were already retired did not give up as much as the others.  Well, unkind and somewhat snide remarks of that nature fail when we remember that our three new monsignori laid down episcopal status to serve the Lord as priests in His Holy Catholic Church.  They gave up a comfortable position among the "great and the good" of retired Anglican bishops (status among the "great and good" is very popular in some quarters), and they gave up direct exercise of the role of a Successor of the Apostles, a most honourable calling whether retired or not.  This is not something that can be easily dismissed, either by the more worldly or the more spiritual of the deniers.

So, once again, we give thanks to Almighty God for giving all of us that sense of trust and that vision of unity, such that we have become capable of being brought at length, by the Power of the Divine Will, into One Fold and under One Shepherd.

Monsignori: congratulations, and thank you.  Please be assured that what you have done is right, and that we offer our prayers for you and for all the Ordinariate clergy, as well as for all those still wrestling with their response to the call to unity.  Your journey into the Catholic Church is an example to all, and is no less than you playing your part in the work of this our Pope of Christian Unity.

Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  In response, Peter received Christ's commission, part of which was to gather together all who believe in one fold.  Let us rejoice that our lives as Christians, where we already shared in Peter's confession, have been made more whole by our response to Our Lord's commission to Peter, through joining that same Church built on that same rock.

The Holy Father, in an Angelus address given in August 2008, once again expressed all this far more eloquently :

"Upon this rock I will build my Church"

The Lord directly questioned the Twelve: "But who do you say that I am?". Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: "Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!". Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true "treasure" (Mt 13,44) for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the "Son of the living God", the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven". This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

As we are still in the month of the Sacred Heart, I think we can be permitted one further example of the fine hymnody that is associated with this devotion.  A few days ago, we included O Sacred Heart.  Today, we include the hymn that was sung after Mass at St James's last Sunday To Jesus' Heart All Burning.  This is followed by a very familiar setting of the Te Deum, in thanksgiving for the love, support and recognition shown by the Holy Father to his flock in the Ordinariate, and no less in thanksgiving for the long years of service given by Monsignors Barnes, Mercer and Silk in their Anglican days.

Beyond the End of Our Noses

A few days ago, someone left a comment on our blogpost The Extraordinary Form in Hong Kong, asking what the contents of that post had to do with the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.  A response was provided, stating that, as explained in the opening paragraphs of the post, the Ordinariate was part of the Catholic Church, and that it was a good thing that Ordinariate members were interested in what was going on in the Catholic Church.  It would be ridiculous for us not to be.

The person who left the comment didn't leave any clues as to their identity, so we cannot know if it was someone quite genuinely asking a question without any preconceptions or prejudice, or if the comment was an uncharitable attempt at a snide remark. Given that doubt, it should be made clear that the rest of this post refers to a general phenomenon, and is in no way an assault on (nor a guess at) the views of Anonymous of a few days ago.

I must confess to having been rather irritated by the question raised in the comment: I know, I should know better than that.  What irritated me is that it reminded me of a habit amongst some of delighting in fantasising that the Ordinariate is somehow pointless.  Those prey to this phenomenon criticise the Ordinariate as not being Anglican enough ("What's the point of it?") and yet simultaneously and no less ill-informedly criticise the Ordinariate as not being Catholic enough ("Why don't they just become 'proper' Catholics?").   Anonymous of a few days ago brought all this to mind because his or her remark seemed to imply that Ordinariate members should only be interested in the Ordinariate.

When they leave polemic aside and reflect calmly, I wonder what these people believe that those like me thought we would be signing up to when we joined the Ordinariate.  I wonder what they think our motives were.  They cannot seriously imagine that we wanted to create a little ghetto for disgruntled ex-Anglicans to hang about in, a ghetto in which we could ignore the rest of the Church.  They must surely know that we were answering a call to Unity in the Catholic Faith, in the Catholic Church, in communion with the Successor of St Peter.  No longer do we sojourn in a halfway house.  They cannot be under the misapprehension that we were called upon to renounce anything of our Anglican past, they must know that indeed the contrary was asked of us, that we should bring our Anglican Patrimony with us so that this might become part of the wider treasures of the Catholic Church. 

Ordinariate members are fully part of the Catholic Church, and we are full of joy to be so.  We are not Ordinariate members first and somehow members of the Catholic Church second.  We are delighted to have come into the full communion of the Catholic Church: joining the Ordinariate was a wonderful means of achieving this, it was not itself the goal. 

We do indeed look beyond the end of our noses, and realise with great happiness that we are part of the Church, part of an "organisation" that is present around the world and has over a billion members.  We are not interested in obsessing only about our little constituent part of the Catholic Church. 

Ordinariate members do not (and should not) spend their time focusing solely on their own immediate environment, ignoring the wider Catholic Church around them. The shortest of trawls of Ordinariate-related blogs makes this perfectly clear. Fr Ed Tomlinson talks regularly of the joy of unity that the group of Anglicans he led out of St Barnabas Tunbridge Wells and into the Catholic Church now shares with their now fellow Catholics in Pembury, and of what has been achieved for his group by both Monsignor Newton and by the Archbishop of Southwark and his Area Bishop John Hine. Fr Edwin Barnes frequently highlights joint events with diocesan parishes, indeed one of his recent posts talked of how he had attended two Chrism Masses this year, the Ordinariate Chrism Mass and also the Portsmouth Diocesan Chrism Mass.

As Anglo-Catholics, we for many years managed to cling on to the belief that the Church of England was part of the one Universal Church, separated from the wider Church only by misfortune and accident of history.  This was the vision that was shared for generations, but it was also a vision and ecclesiology that crumbled around us, a phenomenon that caused Dr Eric Mascall and many others great anguish.  Now that we are undoubtedly fully part of the Catholic Church, why would anyone think that we would not rejoice in being in that wider communion, why would anyone think that we would not be interested in the Catholic Church as a whole?

Two follow-on comments :

• Criticisms of this nature are often accompanied by melodramatic sweeping comments such as ".....and I know lots of Catholics who are very worried by the Ordinariate."  Well, perhaps such people do, but from personal experience, I can only say that I have encountered nothing other than joy and welcome from my fellow Catholics.  Members of the Marylebone Ordinariate Group were especially touched at the support shown to the Ordinariate's First Anniversary Evensong and Benediction by members of the St James's parish congregation.
• There are some who rather mystically decree that the Ordinariate is not about Unity.  Their logic escapes me entirely.  It really does.  Unity is about people coming together, not about finding new and exciting ways in which to split Christianity.  This marvellous initiative from Pope Benedict, who is truly showing himself to be the Pope of Christian Unity, is a real gift. 

In one of our earliest posts on this blog, The Universal Church, we referred to how when we were Anglicans we thought we knew all about the concept of believing in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam, we even sang those words every week, but now that we were truly part of the Catholic Church, we had realised that we had a lot to learn.   What a joy it is to learn about being part of the Catholic Church, and to come across its treasures across the world.

This is the Appropriate Moment

Anglo-Catholics might be interested in an open letter that was sent earlier this week, on the Solemnity of St Joseph, by Monsignor Nicola Bux (Consultor to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) to Bishop Bernard Fellay and to all the priests of the Society of St Pius X.  Christian Unity is high up the agenda in Rome. 

The letter contains much that is entirely specific to the situation of the SSPX.  However, if one excludes those sections, could the text not equally be addressed to some of those in the Anglican Communion pondering their futures?  The letter, driven by the efforts of Pope Benedict XVI, this Pope of Christian Unity, to reunite the flock in one fold under one shepherd, contains points that will resonate deeply with many in that situation.

You can find the complete text in English on the website of the Rorate Coeli blog, but here are some relevant extracts of their translation from Monsignor Bux's French original. 

........Christian brotherhood is stronger than flesh and blood because it offers us, thanks to the divine Eucharist, a foretaste of heaven.

Christ invited us to experience communion, this is what our "I" is made of. Communion means loving one's neighbor a priori, because we have the one Savior in common with him. Based on this fact, communion is ready for every sacrifice in the name of unity; and this unity must be visible, as the last petition addressed by Our Lord to his Father teaches us - "ut unum sint, ut credat mundus" -, because this is the decisive testimony of Christ's friends........

.....With Saint Catherine of Siena, we wish to say: "Come to Rome in complete safety," next to the house of the common Father who was given to us as the visible and perpetual principle and foundation of Catholic unity......

......How not to think of the contribution you could give to the welfare of the whole Church, thanks to your pastoral and doctrinal resources, your capabilities and your sensibility?

This is the appropriate moment, the favorable time to come. Timete Dominum transeuntem: let not the occasion of grace the Lord offers you pass by, let it not pass by your side without recognizing it.

Will the Lord grant another one? Will not we all one day appear before His Court and answer not only for the evil we have done, but above all for the good we might have accomplished but did not?

The Holy Father's heart trembles: he awaits you anxiously because he loves you, because the Church needs you for a common profession of faith before a world that is each day more secularized and that seems to turn its back to its Creator and Savior hopelessly.

In the full ecclesial communion with the great family that is the Catholic Church, your voice will no longer be stifled, your contribution will be neither ignorable nor ignored, but will be able to bring forth, with that of so many others, abundant fruits which would otherwise go to waste........

........On this day dedicated to him, may Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patron of the Universal Church, inspire and sustain your resolutions: "Come to Rome in all safety".

How else to follow something like that but with one of our favourite youtube clips, certainly provided here before, and featured as a permanent video on the right hand sidebar of this blog.

Tu es Petrus: et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam.  Et portæ inferi non prævalebunt adversus eam: et tibi dabo claves regni cælorum. 

Here We Go Again

Old issues keep cropping up, time and again.  Although in some places a constructive and engaged dialogue continues, in other places there is merely shouting (or as the French, in their unashamedly un-pc way, say un dialogue de sourds).  Currently, there are two very different examples of this phenomenon that are floating around the public consciousness (one rather more than the other), although there was a third example, to my mind in no way less important, which has been obliterated from the forum.

The first topic is the one that is all over the UK media, being the question of same-sex marriage and its near certain introduction into the English legal system (indeed the government now tells us that it doesn't matter how many people say they are for or against it, it is going to happen, come what may).  I am not going to dig a hole for myself by getting involved in that debate (and so it is unlikely that any comments will be published) : there are already plenty, far more eloquent and informed than I could ever be, on both sides of the discussion, who have made their case, just as there are those on both sides of the debate who have merely shouted at each other.  However, I will say a couple of things, writing purely in a personal capacity.

It is to be hoped that people on both sides of the debate understand that people on the other side do genuinely feel strongly about their position.  They each very honestly believe that they are putting forward a case that is robust, just, and in many ways, they feel, so obvious that it barely need be spoken.  That last part being the reason why the debate often gets so heated.  Some express themselves better than others, some show a deeper awareness of the contrary arguments than others, the words of all of them alike are twisted into grotesque (yes, I know the reference I am making, and no, read the original, Cardinal O'Brien did not say that anyone was grotesque) soundbites by the media, but underneath it all, they know that they sincerely hold the views they express and they know that their debating partners are no less sincere in their belief.

There are times when this slips and the situation turns unpleasant, though I won't name names : we can all think of examples on both sides. 

It should be emphasised that whatever else it is doing, and whatever else it may be perceived to be doing, the Catholic Church is not throwing itself into an attack on any particular group in this debate.  Those who like to deride the Catholic Church sometimes talk about its "unhealthy" obsession with sin, and how it imbues an enduring sense of "Catholic guilt" in its members : well, that in itself is an old debate, but in this context I would answer the "charge" by saying that all Catholics are indeed taught that they all sin, every one of them, each in their own ways, that none of them should feel superior to anyone else in this regard, and most importantly that they can all, if they want, receive God's forgiveness.  In support of this assertion, I could cite a familiar Bible text about motes, but in addition I would draw your attention to this recent homily given by the Holy Father.

The Catholic Church is defending something, not attacking something.  The letter from the Archbishop of Westminster and the Archbishop of Southwark read out in parishes last Sunday morning was a reasoned and calm, but very clear, defence of the traditional understanding of the institution of marriage. 

One big fear - and you don't have to agree with the Catholic Church's understanding of marriage to see this - is that the government just hasn't thought this through in detail.  The implications are not insignificant (for example, an interesting debate recently about something as basic as vocabulary, will the words husband, wife and even mother and father become politically incorrect?).  There is a special concern in the Church of England, whose statement yesterday points out the naivety of imagining that the dividing line between civil and religious marriage is quite as neat and tidy as seems to be assumed in the case of the established church, whose clergy are licensed to perform marriages.   

If the change is brought in, and it must be said that it seems very likely that it will be, it will probably be manageable for the Catholic Church to find a way to work with the new realities.  It will be messy, it will be difficult, but it will somehow be achievable.  There is after all the precedent of the mariage civil  and the mariage réligieux, as well as similar precedents from a few other countries, even if those do not quite replicate the context we will find here.  The time will surely come when even this will not be acceptable, and one can foresee the day when the government demands that any organisation that conducts marriages should do so for any who ask, regardless of how the request fits the organisation's own criteria for marriage. When that day comes, it might be necessary, as was suggested on the Valle Adurni blog a few weeks ago, for the Catholic Church simply to stop conducting any marriage ceremonies at all in order not to be in a position where it breaks the law where it "supplies services" to some but not to others.

The poor old CofE will have a tougher time, partly on account of its established status, but also on account of its rapidly growing body of evangelicals, who will struggle to come to an accommodation on this with the liberal wing, many of  whom would have no issue at all with conducting same-sex marriage ceremonies.

It must be conceded that those who have no religious belief must find it immensely frustrating that a group of people, however large, and based on whatever history and tradition, is perceived as trying to restrict some of those who have no interest in them. It behoves those advocating a traditional understanding of marriage to bear that in mind, just as we would ask those looking to bring same-sex marriage into existence to take account of the genuine reasons why people do not agree with them, rather than just lazily assuming that it must be down to one kind of prejudice or another.

A Stonewall lobbyist remarked that Catholics who are not in favour of same sex marriage should simply be careful to ensure that they don't enter into such an arrangement.  Some people found that flippant, but I must admit that I found it quite funny.  In return, a mildly amusing anecdote about the famous Labour MP Tom Driberg, later Lord Bradwell (immortalised in a rather unkind, if funny, 1977 Derek and Clive sketch about an exchange between taxi drivers that is definitely not for the faint of heart). 

Driberg, despite never making a secret of his homosexuality, decided to get married in 1951.  In a ceremony at St Mary's Bourne St in June that year (described as "outrageously ornate" by his biographer), at which his bride was first baptised and then entered church to the accompaniment of an organ arrangement of The Red Flag, Driberg made vows that he didn't end up keeping in front of a full house.  Among those present, so (possibly apocryphal) Bourne St legend relates, was Winston Churchill, who is said to have remarked unkindly of the bride's looks "Well, buggers can't be choosers."

On a more serious note, Driberg left instructions for the sermon to be given at his funeral.  It wasn't at all a celebration of how wonderful he was, of what a joyous and exuberant life he had led.  It was a powerful address, given by the Revd Gerald Irvine, on how Driberg had fallen short in his life, how he (exactly like everyone else, no better, no worse) was a sinner, which of the Seven Deadly Sins had plagued him most.  All of us can learn a lesson from Driberg in that respect, an awareness that no matter what our own little cocktail of pecadilloes might be, we all fall short, every one of us.

Interestingly, although Driberg maintained his lifelong Anglo-Catholicism (Lancing to Pusey House to St Mary's Bourne Street and onwards), he was supportive of someone whose life's path crossed his own on many occasions but who left Anglo-Catholicism.  Evelyn Waugh did what in 1930 was, even if not criminal, barely less scandalous socially than were Driberg's pastimes - he became a Catholic.  Did Driberg reject him as a bigot?  No - Driberg was Waugh's only guest upon his reception into the Catholic Church, and Driberg gave Waugh column space in the Daily Express subsequently to defend himself against charges of blasphemy from The Tablet (now doesn't that sound strange to the modern ear).

************

Another old issue that crops up again and again is the path to reunion between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.  Everyone with even the slightest interest in Christian Unity rejoices that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Holy Father jointly attended Vespers in Rome, and that together they gave thanks for the mission begun by St Gregory the Great of sending St Augustine of Canterbury to increase the spread of Christendom in the British Isles and to strengthen the links between the Church in England and Rome.  That Rowan Williams goes to Rome so often, and continues to be invited back, is a very good thing.  Christian Unity is a Gospel imperative, and however distant it seems, we must all seek it.

Still, there are those who see this as proof that everything can carry on exactly as before, that there are no new impediments to Christian Unity being gleefully erected by parts of the Anglican Communion.  I regret that those people would seem to be in Egyptian mode.  A strange comment on this was made by the American Episcopal Church's Pierre Whalon, who took the opportunity to have a little go at the Ordinariates formed under Anglicanorum Coetibus, declaring that they had no ecclesiological basis and that as pastoral measures would only last a decade or two.  Well, as an American he ought to know that the US Pastoral Provision, creating the Anglican Use in the Catholic Church in the USA was brought in 32 years ago. Furthermore, as the head of ECUSA's European branch, which overlaps with the Church of England's Diocese in Europe, he ought to know something about the endurance and ecclesiology of multiple jurisdictions of the same denomination co-existing in the same geographic territory.

This film of the event by Rome Reports shows the clear and genuine affection and respect that exists between the Holy Father and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  However, even though Pope Benedict XVI is most definitely the Pope of Christian Unity, the debate has moved on and there can be few who seriously believe that any kind of corporate reunion is possible in their lifetime (even if there were many who believed precisely that even twenty or thirty years ago).



************

Finally, the third old story that came briefly to public attention, yet has quickly been displaced by the two old stories above, particularly the first one, is abortion.  That, in itself, is sad.

However, the saddest thing is that those academic ethicists who argued (even if in the context of academia) that infanticide (or if you prefer, post natal abortion) could be justified did not expect the reaction they got.

We all know the difficult cases where there are heart-rending tales used to argue in favour of and against abortion.  The victim of rape who can't bear the thought of a permanent reminder of the awful crime that befell her.  The mother of several children who cannot see how she could possibly cope with more children without causing severe difficulties for her existing children.  The adult who might so nearly have been aborted when in the womb but wasn't.  The disabled child who brought joy to their parents.  We all understand the difficulties here, all of us know that glib answers just won't do, and we all know that you can find people for and against any such cases (even when Church teaching is very clear). 

However, is the world really such a horrible place that shock and revulsion at the very idea of infanticide come as a surprise to some?

Catholics Joining the Ordinariate

Some press coverage has been given recently to a "clarification" given by Bishop Alan Hopes, an Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Westminster and the episcopal delegate to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.  The story can be found here on the website of the Catholic Herald.

In fact, what Bishop Hopes said is not really a clarification on the subject of who can join the Ordinariate, it is more of a statement of the long-established facts.  This being said, his having brought this issue back into the public arena is useful and welcome, and gives non-Ordinariate Catholics who were formerly Anglicans a chance to express their support for the "outstanding achievements"** of the Holy Father in the field of Christian Unity, and for his appreciation of the value of the Anglican heritage, or Patrimony, that every former Anglican brings with him or her.

Article 5 of the Complementary Norms of Anglicanorum Coetibus states the following in respect of the laity. 

The lay faithful originally of the Anglican tradition who wish to belong to the Ordinariate, after having made their Profession of Faith and received the Sacraments of Initiation, with due regard for Canon 845, are to be entered in the apposite register of the Ordinariate. Those baptized previously as Catholics outside the Ordinariate are not ordinarily eligible for membership, unless they are members of a family belonging to the Ordinariate.

In short, this says that if you have come into the Catholic Church from the Anglican communion, whether through the Ordinariate or not, you may express your wish to belong to the Ordinariate and be entered in the register of the Ordinariate.   In practice the exclusion on baptized Catholics means that those who have been brought up in the Catholic Church are not eligible to join the Ordinariate, unless they have a family connection of some kind. 

Just as interestingly, Article 4 of the Complementary Norms provides for the Ordinary to incardinate into the Ordinariate not only members of the Ordinariate but also former Anglican clergy who are now in the Catholic Church (whether or not ordained as Catholic priests already) but who are not in the Ordinariate.

The Ordinary has the faculty to incardinate in the Ordinariate former Anglican ministers who have entered into full communion with the Catholic Church, as well as candidates belonging to the Ordinariate and promoted to Holy Orders by him.

Therefore Bishop Hopes could, should he wish to, and should Monsignor Newton agree, join the Ordinariate as a Bishop.  I'm sure we all know many very fine Catholic clergy who were once Anglican clergy and who are not in the Ordinariate, who, should they ever wish to, could do the same.  

That discussion leads on to the question posed by one of the commenters on the Catholic Herald piece mentioned above, being why a former Anglican who is happily installed in the Catholic Church but not in the Ordinariate would wish to join. 

Well, first of all, clearly there is absolutely no obligation on them to do so, nor any expectation whatsoever that they ought to.  It would be entirely a matter of personal choice, and no-one suggests otherwise. 

Second, I would suggest that that comment in particular reflects the ongoing obligation on all Ordinariate members, as mentioned by Monsignor Newton in his sermon at our recent Anniversary Solemn Evensong, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, and indeed in this and also this recent blogpost of ours, to explain to non-Ordinariate Catholics what the Ordinariate is all about.

Beyond that, a former Anglican who is now a non-Ordinariate Catholic would be expressing their support for the Holy Father's initiative contained in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, and expressing thanksgiving for the value that through it the Holy Father and the entire Catholic Church place on the Anglican Patrimony that all Anglicans joining the Catholic Church bring with them.  They would also be expressing their shared desire for the reunification of Christendom, particularly of Catholics and Anglicans, the path taken by Blessed John Henry Newman, by them, by Ordinariate members and by many others over the centuries.

Given that the Ordinariate is a full part of of the Catholic Church, their "worship life", as it were, would not need to change at all.  If they wished to participate in Ordinariate events, they would most certainly be welcome, as fellow members of this body of people dedicated to the goal of Unity.  However, they could continue to be together with their existing parishes.  Members of the Catholic Church are free to attend services held in, and to receive the Sacrament in, buildings/parishes run by Ordinariate clergy, Diocesan clergy, Oratorian clergy, Jesuit clergy, Servite clergy......

Nothing in this blogpost is intended to criticise former Anglicans who are now Catholics but not in the Ordinariate, most definitely not.  Our direct experience is that all the former Anglicans we know in the Catholic Church outside the Ordinariate have been hugely supportive of the Ordinariate, and we should certainly like to express now our gratitude to them for all they are doing and have done.

All we are saying here is that the Ordinariate is open to all former Anglicans in the Catholic Church, just as it is open to all Anglicans wishing to come into the full communion of the Catholic Church, even if for obvious reasons, most discussion usually focuses on the latter group rather than on the former.  However, all those who wish to bring those elements of our joint Anglican Patrimony that are consonant with the teachings of the Catholic Church into the spiritual armoury of the Catholic Church, and who wish to express their support and thanks for the Holy Father's wonderful initiative, are eligible to join.

Joining the Ordinariate, either as an incoming Anglican or as an existing Catholic is a simple way to express through your actions your being at one with Dom Lambert Beaudoin's wonderful 1925 concept of l'Eglise Anglicane Unie non Absorbée, unity without absorption. 

That final remark leads us to one small, but important, clarification of our own.  Not having seen the original text of Bishop Hopes's piece in The Newman, we are not sure if this is due to authorial shorthand of expression or to editorial amendment at either of The Newman or The Catholic Herald, but clearly the following extract is prone to misinterpretation.

As for the future, it may be God’s will that it should be the present structure, but maybe in 50 years’ time the ordinariate will become fully integrated into the Catholic Church. Who knows? We must wait and see.

I think I recall reading Monsignor Newton commenting on the same point, that no-one quite knows how the Ordinariate will look in 50 years from now, but the way it has appeared in the Catholic Herald's quotation of Bishop Hopes's article in The Newman could be subject to one of those wilful misinterpretations that can be found all too readily on the internet.

The Ordinariate very clearly is fully integrated into the Catholic Church.  That is an incontestable fact.  However, it has a structure that allows it to sit alongside and not inside the structure of the geographical dioceses in whose territory it operates.  For example, we in the Marylebone Group attend mass with our friends at St James's, who are members of a parish run by diocesan clergy, yet our Ordinary is Monsignor Newton whereas theirs is Archbishop Vincent Nichols.  What counts is that we are all in full communion with our Holy Father Pope Benedict, the Successor of St Peter, and that the shared heritage we now build together in the Catholic Church enjoys the benefits of both their Patrimony and ours.  That is a powerful practical expression of steps being made towards Unity.


**  From parish notes written by the Provost of the London Oratory, the text of which can be found (at the time of writing this blogpost) at this page.  The relevant extract is reproduced below :

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.

Christian Unity

So here we are.  The end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012, we have come from the feast of the Chair of St Peter at Rome on the 18th to today's feast of the Conversion of St Paul.  The Holy Father will mark this by celebrating Solemn Vespers this afternoon (perhaps one year, when Rome and Canterbury finally reunite, it will be Solemn Evensong and Benediction).

The Ordinariate is, at its heart, about heeding the call to Unity that is expressed in the prayer of Our Lord on the night that he was betrayed that all might be one.  That is why Ordinariate blogs go on and on (and on) about how important Unity is.  Those of us who follow Ordinariate news on Facebook or Twitter have been kept very efficiently up to date with events in Rome this week for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (if you haven't signed up to follow Ordinariate news, then you can do so at #UKOrdinariate or http://on.fb.me/fZWBJ5).  Unity is a topic that Ordinariate members most definitely follow.

Pope Benedict XVI truly is, as we argued in a post last October, the Pope of Christian Unity.  In that blogpost, you can see a picture of the Holy Father walking side by side with Bartholomew the Ecumenical Patriarch, which surely points to progress in healing the greatest of the rifts in Christianity, something about which Blessed John Paul II was particularly passionate.  While we on these shores focus on the Ordinariate in certain circles, and while many of us, perhaps more so in Ireland and Scotland, focus on a Protestant vs Catholic divide, all this, even if desperately important (not least on a personal level to us Ordinariate members), is small in scale compared to the need to work for resolution to the millenium old divide between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

It is sometimes tempting to think that if we in England had a wider of sense of international perspective, the Church of England's General Synod would not consider matters of Unity as being of so little importance.  It's too easy to say "We don't care what those awful Romans say, they'll come round in the end once they've understood that we are right, and anyway we prefer Orthodox spirituality".  Add a little bit of the English cultural undercurrent of suspicion towards Catholicism into the mix, and Synod's alacrity in forgetting about Unity is easily explained.

We have talked recently about the views of Metropolitan Hilarion (of the Russian Orthodox Church) on some of the developments in the Church of England.  Everything that General Synod does to move away from Unity, it does not only against Unity with Rome and the Church in the West, but also against Unity with the Orthodox.  The sole moves that General Synod seems to want to take towards Unity seem to be towards unity with a small band of like-minded national churches (the Porvoo Communion, for example), a process that bizarrely seems to be evolving into overtures from some connected to the US-based Polish National Catholic Church to disaffected members of the Church of England who cannot yet accept the idea of reunion with Rome (the PNCC has recently established a small presence in Norway and smaller ones in Germany and Italy).

Some people who in one breath will dismiss Mormonism will with the next happily state, without a hint of irony, that yes indeed the truth, the right way forward (in total contradiction to what has gone before) is being revealed to them and to them alone, leaving hundreds and hundreds of millions of other Christians (mostly the non-English speaking ones) in the dark.  Francis Wagstaffe is alive and well, and God is an Englishman.

Even if someone hates everything that Rome says and does (which is certainly not the attitude of faithful Anglo-Catholics remaining in the Church of England), they must surely concede that there can, quite simply, be no Christian Unity without Rome.   Through history, through tradition, through the Gospel appointment of St Peter and through his successors, Rome is at the heart of Christianity : it is the "rock from which we were hewn", as Anglo-Catholics have been so fond of saying.

Unity is important, vitally so.  Christianity should not be seeking new and exciting ways in which to hack itself apart: it should be seeking ways to increase mutual understanding and co-operation with a definite goal of reunion.  Ecumenism, in its now somewhat tarnished sense of everyone having a nice cup of tea and talking pleasantly to each other while pretending not to disagree, is not a bad thing of itself as long as all involved are well-intentioned, realistic and sincere : however, if it leads nowhere, and if it becomes less and less likely that it ever will lead anywhere, then serious thought needs to be given to whether it is in fact more of a distraction than something that serves any useful purpose.  True ecumenism, true moves towards unity, are always useful and are most certainly vital.  We must never abandon our attempts to work together and to reunite, but we must always ensure that our efforts are appropriately focused and directed.

As ever, Fr Colven's parish notes at St James's this week included a very apposite and interesting reflection on the theme of Unity and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Here it is :

Maria Gabriella Sagheddu was born on the island of Sardinia in 1914: though brought up in a Catholic atmosphere, she had no great desire for God until, at the age of eighteen, the death of a sister brought her a moment of conversion: life was literally turned around, and Maria began an intense life of prayer which led her to enter the Cistercian monastery at Grottoferrata just south of Rome in 1935. Around that time – mainly inspired by the efforts of Abbe Paul Couturier – religious houses throughout Europe were inspired with a new impetus to pray for the unity of Christians, and the community at Grottoferrata offered a novena for that intention. Sister Maria Gabriella felt called to offer her life for the cause of Christian unity and asked permission of her superiors to do so: on the very night that permission was granted, the young Cistercian (who until this moment had been vitally healthy) felt the first pains which indicated the onset of the tuberculosis from which she would die just eighteen months later. We hear much today about spiritual ecumenism – and here is an example of what his can mean. It is right that theologians and church leaders should talk and study together to find common ground and understand the history of our disunity, but all this effort is as nothing without praying hearts that really share the pain of Christ in his fractured Body.

The Cistercian community of which Blessed Maria Gabriella (so designated by Pope John Paul in 1983) was a member had forged strong links with a number of Anglican Benedictine houses in England, and this enclosed nun from Sardinia, who in all probability never met a Christian from another tradition, consecrated her life in a very definite way to draw Anglicans into the full unity of the Church. Perhaps the recent establishment of the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham for former Anglicans is, at least in part, due to Blessed Maria Gabriella’s intercession – it must certainly have rejoiced her heart to see the four hundred people who were here in Spanish Place last weekend to celebrate Solemn Evensong arranged by local members of the Ordinariate.

As Roman Catholics, during this annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18th-24th January), we do have particular insights to offer. On the one hand, an older model of re-union (a sort of ecclesial federation based on an extended European Community model – famously satirised by Monsignor Ronald Knox) seems less and less viable, while our vision remains that of the Catechism when it says: “all are called to this Catholic unity of the People of God, and to it in different ways, belong, or are ordered, the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ and finally all mankind, called by God’s grace to salvation”.  Our understanding is that: “this Church constituted and organised as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the Successor of St Peter and by the bishops in communion with him”: If we sincerely believe that the fullness of Christianity "subsists" (is to be found existing) and the means to salvation – orthodox belief, nurtured by the sacraments, expressed in a life of charity – are offered  in a unique way within Catholic communion, then (and this in no way, denies their existence, to varying degrees, in other expressions of the Christian tradition) to borrow some words of Cardinal Herbert Vaughan: “of course we desire to convert all – especially our own countrymen – to the Catholic religion. Could it be otherwise?”

Unity means the Unity of all Christians, including Rome.  This is the cause of Catholic Unity that is celebrated on the Halifax Memorial on the wall at St Mary's Bourne Street, and it is this Unity that the Ordinariate is working to build.

Two final comments. 

First, apologies that I have completely failed to post a piece of music today.  I had tried to find a setting of Magnus Sanctus Paulus (perhaps the Palestrina), but I could not find a suitable youtube link.  I then intended to post Mendelssohn's How Lovely are the Messengers from Paulus but again drew a blank in both the English and the original German (Wie Lieblich sind die Boten) versions : the recordings I could find were either of not especially good performances, or were technically of poor quality.  There will be more music some time soon.

Second, we believe we have some more photos of last week's celebrations at St James's, marking the first anniversary of the Ordinariate's existence.  If we manage to track them down, we will post them on Flickr.  These photos include shots of the church but also of the reception afterwards.  In the meantime, if you go to this blogpost, you will find some links to other photos. 

O thou, who at thy Eucharist didst pray
that all thy Church might be for ever one,
grant us at every Eucharist to say
with longing heart and soul, "thy will be done."
O may we all one Bread, one Body be,
through this blest Sacrament of unity.

For all thy Church, O Lord, we intercede;
make thou our sad divisions soon to cease;
draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
by drawing all to thee, O Prince of Peace;
thus may we all one Bread, one Body be,
through this blest Sacrament of unity.

We pray thee too for wanderers from thy fold;
O bring them back, good Shepherd of the sheep,
back to the faith which saints believed of old,
back to the Church which still that faith doth keep;
soon may we all one Bread, one Body be,
through this blest Sacrament of unity.

So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
may we be one with all thy Church above,
one with thy saints in one unbroken peace,
one with thy saints in one unbounded love;
more blessèd still, in peace and love to be
one with the Trinity in Unity.

The Pope of Christian Unity

The ancient churches of the east have long fascinated me.  I found that one of the most interesting parts of Diarmaid MacCulloch's BBC documentary A History of Christianity was his opening section on the east, not only the Syrian Orthodox Church, but also the very early progress of Christianity in China. 

On a more personal level, I had the good fortune to spend several months in Armenia in 1998, where, thanks to the insatiable appetite for knowledge and thirst for history of my French boss at the time, I visited and attended the liturgy at a number of ancient churches and monasteries, including of course Echmiadzin and the astonishing and beautiful Khor Virap, which sits right on the current Turkish border with spectacular views of Mt Ararat.  Khor Virap is where St Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned in a cave for many years before finally being released and converting the King of Armenia, making Armenia the first country to declare itself formally Christian (in 301AD).

The reason for indulging myself in this trip down memory lane is that today is the Feast of St Frumentius, the Apostle to Ethiopia.  The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, like the Armenian Apostolic Church, is very ancient, and is an Oriental Orthodox church.  These churches split from the Western Church long before the Catholic/Orthodox divide that arose in the eleventh century.  The fundamental difference between these Oriental Orthodox churches and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the west is a disagreement that crystallised at the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD. 

In the west, we refer to the Oriental Orthodox Churches as Monophysite, meaning that they believe that Christ had one single nature, whereas western teaching is that Christ has two natures, being, as the Divine Praises say, "True God and True Man", being wholly divine and wholly human.  The Oriental Orthodox reject the label of Monophysite, preferring Miaphysite, meaning that their definition of one nature really means a union in one form of two different natures.  These differences, which in this short summary and even in their underlying origins, turn on very subtle interpretations and in some cases on differences in translations, have kept the Oriental Orthodox and the Western Churches apart for over 1500 years, and it is only in the most recent times that small steps towards greater understanding have been made. 

A high point in the move towards greater understanding and reconciliation was the visit of Coptic Patriarch Pope Shenouda III to the Vatican in 1973, where Pope Paul VI presented him with a relic of St Athanasius (of whom a little more below), which relic is now housed in the Coptic Cathedral of St Mark in Cairo.  We must hope and pray that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, the "Pope of Christian Unity" as he is being called, continues the good work that has been started.

St Frumentius, having found himself shipwrecked in Ethiopia, was eventually sent to Alexandria, where in 328AD he was ordained Bishop by St Athanasius, who for so long was credited as the author of the Quicumque Vult, a text that is not as well known any more as it should be ("Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith....").  From Alexandria, Frumentius returned south as Abune ("father") of Ethiopia, thereby starting a tradition that endured until 1959 of the Coptic Pope naming an Egyptian Copt as Archbishop of Ethiopia.  Like St Gregory the Illuminator, he baptised the King, and converted the country.

No post on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church can be complete with something on Lalibela, the series of churches carved out of the rock, each being quite literally monolithic, ie one single stone.  Here is an extract from a documentary about these astonishing buildings.



For me, gaining more and more understanding about the ancient churches of the first millenium, and seeing that, even if very very slowly, efforts are being made to explore ways to bridge our gaps, is ever so slightly bittersweet.  It is of course wonderful that these things are being done, these are clear examples of work and prayer being put in with a view to finding ways to come closer to unity of Christians.  Who does not rejoice at seeing this photo of the Holy Father with Bartholomew the Ecumenical Patriarch, symbolising in one image small steps that, while still fraught with difficulty, were thought impossible within living memory?

Yet the label of bittersweet still applies, because it reminds us that our former home, the Church of England, is not moving in the same direction, but in the opposite, towards some sort of increasingly formal affiliation with the national protestant churches of Scandinavia, rejecting more and more the idea of unity with the ancient Church of East and West : some kinds of Anglicans, in saying something anti-Papal, forget that the Orthodox Churches view developments in their church no more positively than does the Catholic Church.

We must pray with Pope Benedict XVI, the Pope of Christian Unity, with St Gregory the Illuminator and St Frumentius for the unity of all Christians.  On a day when the Holy Father is gathering around him not only the leaders of other religions, but also the leaders of Orthodox and Protestant Christianity, this seems doubly appropriate.

Let us also offer a prayer for those in the Ethiopian Catholic Metropolitan Church, who are in communion with the Holy Father, and who follow an Ethiopic Rite, especially those in Eritrea, whose ecclesial structure became an Ordinariate in 1930, later being raised to an Exarchate and thence to an Eparchate under the Metropolitan See of Addis Ababa.