Homily Msgr Andrew Burnham at the Ordination of Deacons

At Westminster Cathedral for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on Saturday past.

Msgr Andrew Burnham’s Homily.

 

Anglican Delegation to Interview Archbishop Tutu on his “endorsement” of Abortion Clinic

A delegation of Anglican clergy has been appointed to interview Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu about a “report in the media that suggests” that he “has given his support to a clinic that offers abortion on request”.

The decision follows a resolution by the Anglican Diocesan Synod in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, to send a delegation to Tutu for his comment on the report which was published in Gateway News on December 14, 2011. The three-yearly Synod met at The St John The Baptist Church, in Walmer, last week, to deal with various church-related matters.

Tutu’s reported endorsement of Marie Stopes Clinic (a chain of abortion clinics) was brought to the attention of the Synod in a motion tabled by Reverend Lawrie Wilmot, in which he proposed that the Synod should publicly disassociate itself from the implied Anglican approval that Tutu had given to the practice of abortion on request. He also proposed that the Synod should reaffirm its 2005 resolution that abortion on request was murder.

Wilmot and Arch-Deacon David Stansbury, who seconded the motion, both emphasised that while they personally respected Tutu they believed it was important for the Synod to distance itself from his stance on abortion. Wilmot showed the Synod a photograph of a billboard that had been taken in the Marie Stopes Clinic in central Cape Town. The billboard featured a photograph of Tutu below the clinic’s slogan “Choice, Not Chance”. It also displayed the following message: “Marie Stopes South Africa is doing invaluable work. Through their programmes they are raising awareness and understanding of sexual and reproductive health. They are empowering people and by providing information and access to sustainable high quality services that are giving people the opportunity to make informed decisions about their future and a choice. –Signed Archbishop Desmond Tutu”

Wilmot said a public relations representative of the clinic had told him that the billboard had been used exclusively at a Marie Stopes strategic planning meeting last year. He said that he had not been able to get comment from Tutu on the billboard issue.

During debate on the motion various speakers expressed high regard for Tutu, and said they were reluctant to support the motion without first hearing the views of the former head of the Anglican Church in South Africa on his reported support for Marie Stopes.

The Synod finally voted in favour of an amended motion which reads: “The Synod takes note of a report in the media that suggests that the Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, has given his support to a clinic that offers abortion on request

Resolves:

1. To confirm the resolution passed at its Synod in 1995, relating to our Diocese’s stand on abortion and sanctity of life.
2. Respectfully to request the Bishop to send a delegation to the Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, for his comment on the report.”

Wilmot confirmed in an interview that he is a member of the delegation that has been appointed to interview Tutu.

 

Why Jerusalem’s Old City is Unique

It is holy to Christianity,  Islam, and Judaism – faiths that communally clinch faintly above half of the  human race.

Jerusalem tips & insights

Religion viewpoints

The world’s three major religions view the significance  of Jerusalem in three special ways:

Christians

It is where Christ was crucified and ascended to Heaven.

Jews

It is the home of the Wailing Wall (remains of the Second  Temple).

Muslims

It is the site of the Temple Mount where the prophet  Muhammad rose to Heaven.

Best known sites

Jerusalem’s many notable holy sites include the Dome of  the Rock on the Temple Mount, the Wailing Wall and the Church of the Holy  Sepulcher.

Jerusalem preservation

The old city has been preserved to retain much of its  antiquated architectural character. This city in Israel is grandly enclosed by  high, yellowish-limestone walls pierced by eight historic gates. Each of its  four tradition-named residential quarters (Armenian, Christian, Jewish and  Muslim) has a twisting maze of narrow cobble-stoned streets.

History in brief

Jerusalem means City of Peace in Hebrew, but  it hasn’t been exactly like that during its agitated 5,000-year history.  Jerusalem has seen more than its fair share of fighting – by the Roman,  Byzantine and Crusader forces, to name but three. The 20th and 21st centuries  have witnessed the Arab-Israeli conflicts.

Source

Archbishop of Canterbury: Who’ll Get the Impossible Job?

The question is tackled here.

 

Msgr Keith Newton on the Future of Ecumenism

A video of the talk given by Msgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham given on Thursday past.

 
HT: Fr Ray in an email.
 

Bishop Harry Entwistle (TAC) to be Ordained to the Catholic Priesthood

And so it begins in Australia:

Upcoming Ordinariate Ordinations

You may recall that Archbishop Hart announced that the Australian Ordinariate for former Anglicans would commence on June 15.

Well here is something to make that a bit more concrete.  I’ve been told that Bishop Harry Entwistle of the Traditional Anglican Communion will be ordained to the Catholic Priesthood at 7.00 pm on Friday 15 June 2012 at St Mary’s Cathedral Perth – ie the “start date” of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.  Also, members of his TAC flock will be received into the Catholic Church.

So Perthites, please do make a note in your diaries, and show them your support!

And if you know of upcoming ordinations/receptions into the Church elsewhere, please do let me know and I’ll publicize them too!

Please keep all concerned in your prayers.

 

For the Ordinariate, A Flock of Fathers

Whispers in the Loggia:

Much as Pentecost marks the “birthday” of the church, it’s rare that this 50th Day of Easter actually lends itself to seeing a community of the faithful take shape and grow in real-time. This year, though, that just so happens to be the case in our midst.

Along those lines, while an early-month briefing on the global Anglican Ordinariate effort said that the first priestly ordination for the venture’s North American branch would take place on June 3rd in South Carolina, to use a Roman term, the report has been superseded.

According to a Friday announcement from the Houston-based Chair of St Peter and the archdiocese of Mobile, the first priesting for the key papal project will instead take place a day earlier, as a 31 year-old former Episcopal cleric is ordained alongside the Alabama church’s own quintet of candidates.

His clearance for orders received from Rome just prior to the weekend, Matthew Alan Venuti will be ordained a transitional deacon tonight by Mobile’s Archbishop Thomas Rodi in the chapel of a local parish. The married father of one became an Episcopal priest in 2010 and was received into full Catholic communion last September.

As previously noted, the first cleric ordained for the new structure — now Deacon Jon David Chalmers — will become a priest on Trinity Sunday in the Palmetto State.

Said to be on-track to receive 30 new priests just over the summer months (with just as many elsewhere in the pipeline), the twin lone ordinations will take place alongside at least two sets of mass additions to the Ordinariate’s clerical ranks just within the next week. On Tuesday, Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth will make transitional deacons of six former Episcopal priests; including a father and son (Charles Hough III and IV), the North Texas group will become priests on June 30th. And next weekend in Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl — the CDF delegate for the domestic Anglicanorum project — will ordain five metro DC candidates as transitional deacons.

The capital group includes Randy Sly, a lead editor of the Catholic Online portal, and Mark Lewis, the once and future rector of St Luke’s, Washington’s lead Anglicanorum hub, and one of the few groups able to make the journey while keeping its building.

Wuerl will ordain at least two of the men to the priesthood on June 23rd in St Matthew’s Cathedral; the others should likewise have their journey completed by month’s end.

Meanwhile, the shot above comes from across the Pond as the founding arm of the project — Britain’s Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham — ordained 17 transitional deacons yesterday in London’s Westminster Cathedral. The group are part of an eventual priesthood class of 30 in the structure’s second wave.

 

Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the  blowing  of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house  where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that  separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with  the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them - Acts 2:1-4.

And a prayer:

Almighty God, who on this day
didst open the way of eternal life
to every race and nation
by the promised gift of thy Holy Spirit:
Shed abroad this gift throughout the world
by the preaching of the Gospel,
that it may reach to the ends of the earth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth
with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

- BCP

Ordinariate: Ordination to the Diaconate

The above photo of 17 new Catholic deacons – soon to be priests - is up on the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham website.

Their making took place at Westminster Cathedral earlier today.

Congratulations.

 

Antiochian Church Interested In St Alban’s Site

And pray that they get it: yet another a disused Anglican Church building. That, or it it becomes a  block of flats.

The Antiochian Orthodox Church has expressed an interest in taking over the St. Alban’s Church site as a base for its congregation.

A group of representatives from its Council of Management visited the Acton Green site yesterday (Thursday, May 24th).They were accompanied by a representative of the London Diocese of the Church of England who own the land.

The property is the subject of a controversial planning application by a developer who wants to turn the disused church building into ten flats. Local residents want it to be retained for community use and say they have three parties interested in the site, either for use as a church, theatre, or new primary school.

In a letter to Ealing Council last month, the Hon. Sec of the Council of Management of the Antiochian Orthodox Church (a Christian church with roots in the Middle East), Mr. Simon Abdel-Nour said that the church had 500 members on its books many of them living in Ealing, but others local to the site.

If the Antiochian Orthodox Church acquired the premises it would build a community hall on its southern side to replace the temporary one already there. This would be made available to the local community for use-it is used as a nursery at present.

As the church building would be mainly used on Sundays, there would not be an issue of parking congestion, the letter stated. It called upon Ealing Council to reject the application to transform the church premises into residential units .

A decision on the controversial development was expected to be made at a planning committee meeting at Ealing Town Hall last November but deferred. A report by a council official has recommended granting planning permission to the developer, subject to conditions, but the Chiswick-based group,SACA has collected a petition of 4,500 signatures opposed to the plan, and wants the building to be kept for community use.

St. Alban’s, a Victorian red-brick structure which was built in 1888, ceased to be a functioning Church of England parish church in the late 1990s and was then used by evangelical mission the Oak Tree Anglican fellowship, which relocated to Acton in 2006, finding it unsuitable due to the need for renovation and difficult accessibility.

In recent years there has been a growing fashion for former churches to be converted into residential accommodation as the church-going population declines throughout the UK.

The current application before the council is for conversion of the disused church building into ten residential flats and the demolition of the former church hall building and second outbuilding, currently occupied by the Caterpillar Montessori group. This would be replaced with two two-storey’ pavilion’ type structures, one to provide a replacement nursery school facility and the other a detached house. It is understood there is a contract for sale subject to planning permission between the Church of England and a local developer. In 2006 when the vicarage of St. Alban’s was sold it fetched a price of £3.2million, the highest price ever paid for residential property in Chiswick at that time.

The application to convert the building was made last December.

Defending its decision to sell for residential development at the time, the London Diocese issued a statement to Ealing Council explaining that the Church of St. Alban’s, one of three in the parish of Acton Green (the others are St. Peter’s in Southfield Road, and the All Saints Church Centre in Bollo Bridge Road) was no longer required for worship due to “diminishing attendances”.

Source