Ordinariate Evensong in Oxford next week

On Wednesday May 28th the Oxford Ordinariate Group  - or Mission as it is now styled - will celebrate their termly Solemn Evensong and Benediction at Blackfriars at 7.30. The service will be a votive of Our Lady to mark the Marian month of May. 

The preacher will be Fr Daniel Lloyd, and the music provided by the Newman Consort.

There will be refreshments afterwards in the Priory.

If you have not attended one of these syntheses of the Anglican office in the context of the Catholic Church and appreciate fine music you will be assured of a warm welcome.

 

Image: Ordinariate website

Ordinariate Evensong on May 29th

Next week, on Wednesday May 29th, the Oxford Ordinariate Group will again celebrate Solemn Evensong and Benediction according to their approved books in the church at Blackfriars in the city. The service will be at 7.30, and the office will be a votive of the Blessed Sacrament, to coincide with the traditional eve of Corpus Christi.

The music will be provided again  by the Newman Consort, who have developed a formidable repertoire of early modern music in the service of the Ordinariate's liturgies.

If you are free to attend please do so, and if you have not attended beforehand at on eof these services you are assured of a warm welcome.

Ordinariate Evensong

This evening I went to the Oxford Ordinariate Evensong and Benediction at Blackfriars. The sermon was preached by Mgr Burnham and in it he looked at the aims and intentions of the Year of Faith. The service was sung by the Newman Consort, who have established themselves with a considerable repertoire and style in the musical life of Catholicism in Oxford.

At the reception afterwards I was talking to someone from an Anglo-Catholic background who is considering joining the Ordinariate. I clearly encouraged this, and talked to him about my own experience of conversion and reception over seven years ago. What was gratifying was his obvious appreciation of what the Ordinariate offers to people like himself, and I not only hope and pray he makes the transition, but that others may do the same. This is not only the Year of Faith, but this is supposed to be the year in which the Church of England finally(?) makes up its mind about legislating for women bishops - though maybe I won't hold my breath on that one.

Ordinariate Evensong May 30th

On the evening of the Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost - for such it will be in the Calendar of the English Ordinariate - that is May 30th, there will be another Solemn Evensong followed by Benediction and celebrated by the Oxford Ordinariate Group in the church at Blackfriars here in the city at 7.30.

The preacher will be the Rev’d Professor Allan Brent. He is the assistant Chaplain at Fisher House in Cambridge and the Professor of Early Christian History and Iconography at King's College in the University of London, as well as being Professore Invitato at the Augustinianum in the Lateran University in Rome.

The music for the service will be provided by the Newman Consort, the Oxford Ordinariate Group's own schola.

If you have not previously attended one of these occasions and are able you would be made most welcome and have the opportunity to see what the Ordinariate groups can offer and appreciate Anglican patrimony in the form of BCP propers in a fully Catholic context.

Ordinariate Evensong in Oxford next week

Next Wednesday evening the Oxford Ordinariate Group will celebrate Solemn Evensong and Benediction at Blackfriars at 7.30 by kind permission of the Prior and Community. The officiant will be Mgr Andrew Burnham and the preacher his deacon, the Rev. Daniel Lloyd. The music will, I understand, be mainly by Tallis and Purcell and will be sung by the Newman Consort. If you are able to get along I would recommend it as an opportunity to see the Ordinariate's concept of a continuing Patrimony in action. The previous such Evensongs at Blackfriars have been very successful and well attended.

Pictures and sermon from the Ordinariate Anniversary Evensong

The Ordinariate website now has links to pictures of the service of Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St James Spanish Place in London last Sunday at Images on Flickr . There is also the text of Mgr Newton's Sermon.





Image: Ordinariate website

Ordinariate Evensong

After Mass and lunch in Oxford yesterday I went up to London to attend the Ordinariate's Solemn Evensong and Benediction to mark the first anniversary of their erection as part of the Church. This proved to be a splendid and striking event, and which proved to be very well attended.

Now let us be clear - St James Spanish Place where the service was held is, as one might say, a seriously tasty church - fine gothic revival architecture, splendid furnishings and all those Spanish royal connections. It is the sort of church that reaches parts other churches don't. So we were off to a good start with such a location.

The interior of St James Spanish Place

Image: Paul Lew on Flickr

Furthermore this was a great reunion with many friends - long standing fellow converts from Pusey, more recently acquired Oxford Ordinariate friends, cradle Catholic friends, and some faces from years ago, plus new friends. In other words, the usual suspects were there. I was hailed in the street as I walked to the church by one freind, and on the steps of the church beforehand and afterwards there was a buzz of greetings, enquires as to what one another was doing and swapping of information and banter.

The officiant was the Ordinary and amongst those sitting in choir was Bishop Peter Elliott, the Australian bishop responsible for the setting up of an Ordinariate there, and the new US Ordinariate was commended to our prayers.

The grandeur of the setting was matched by the music - Howells, Parry - "I was glad"always makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise - and Stanford - and its performance. In the music and the staging of the liturgy one saw what I consider the essence of "patrimony" - a way of doing liturgy and worship rather than specific forms. As I have written before I really do prefer traditional Vespers to Anglican Evensong, but the similarity was close.

After a sermon from Mgr. Newton which quoted Bl.John Henry Newman writing in 1848 to the father of the future Cardinal Bourne, as in the Apologia, of his spiritual relief at finding himself secure within the Catholic Church and applied it to the members of the Ordinariate, and their gratitude for all that has been achieved there was a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. Escorting the Sacrament as canopy bearers and supporters were Knights of Malta - those in Solemn Profession, those in Simple Profession and Knights of Grace - an impressive display of support for the Ordinariate.

In addition to those in the church I had a strong sense that we were joined in communion with those who rejoiced upon a different shore at what has been achieved and is being achieved through the Ordinariate.

Whatever the size of the individual groups as they start out on their pilgrimage of faith, here, gathered together was positive evidence of personal commitment and the support of many others within the Catholic Church.

The reception afterwards packed out the undercroft of the church in the best ecclesiastical tradition - and after a few minutes there I went off with friends to the Angel in the Fields, a hostelry close to the church which provided us with excellent Tadcaster beer to sustain and enliven our conversation.

All round a jolly good evening and very well worth the effort to go up to London.

Photographs of the service were being taken and will doubtless appear on the web.

Ordinariate Solemn Evensong in Oxford

Last night I attended the Ordinariate Solemn Evensong in Blackfriars here in Oxford. As Mgr Burnham pointed out this was the first specifically Ordinariate liturgy to be celebrated anywhere, as opposed to the Roman Rite which they use for the celebration of Mass.

There was a sizeable congregation drawn from the Oxford and Reading Ordinariate groups, from local Catholic parishes and from Anglicans who were clearly very interested to see what was going on within the Ordinariate. There were also Catholic clergy in choir and the congregation as well as two Knights of Malta. Also present - well it is his current base - was the indefatigable Fr Lawrence Lew O.P. with his camera, and you can see his fine set of pictures here from his Flickr photostream. His article for the New Liturgical Movement with some of the photographs can be read at Solemn Evensong & Benediction in Oxford. On one picture the unwary can indeed catch a glimpse of myself in the congregation. Apart from that the set gives an excellent impression of a service with fine singing and music and with splendid ceremonial.

The liturgy was according to the Book of Divine Worship, as the legitimate approved text, although that will undergo revision. As a result the suffrages sounded a little unfamiliar, but otherwise this was Anglican patrimony in terms of language and form, but with Anglo-Catholic patrimony in terms of ceremonial and vesture ("choreography by Fortescue, but libretto by Cranmer") indicating how the traditions have intersected.

Reflecting the Anglican heritage was the decision to have a votive Evensong of the Holy Spirit, celebrated in red, and evoking the old Pentecost Octave, rather than the green of Week 11 of Ordinary Time.

The Incensation of the High Altar during the Magnificat.

Image: Lawrence Lew on Flickr

This point could be seen further in Benediction, which is not provided for by the BCP, but did become part of the Anglo-Catholic heritage.

Mgr Burnham bestows Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

Image: Lawrence Lew on Flickr

Afterwards at the reception there was a sense of bridges being built and new links forged, and a sense that the Ordinariate had taken a significant step forward both in numbers and in asserting its identity, as well as demonstrating its liturgical heritage and skills.

The hospitality of the Prior and community of Blackfriars was greatly appreciated as well as the loan of the celebrant's cope, as well as that of other vestments from the Oxford Oratory.

Ordinariate Evensong Wednesday June 15th

From the online newsletter of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:

Next week's historic celebration of Solemn Evensong & Benediction by the Oxford Ordinariate Group has been warmly welcomed by the Catholic journalist, William Oddie. Dr Oddie, himself a former member of the Church of England, said "[W]hen I left the Church of England, I grimly turned my back also on some priceless treasures. Now I have been given them back without even asking for them".

The service, in the Priory Church of the Dominicans in Oxford - Blackfriars - will take place on Wednesday 15 June 2011 at 7.30pm and will be followed by strawberries and refreshments. Music will include works by Stanford, Howells, Byrd, and Gibbons and the preacher is Monsignor Andrew Burnham. All are welcome and further details can be obtained from the Revd Daniel Lloyd by email. Directions can be found here.