On the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham website:
Three more men have been ordained as priests for service in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Fr Kenneth Berry, Fr Paul Gibbons, and Fr Donald Minchew, were ordained to the sacred priesthood by the Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Reverend Peter Smith, on Saturday morning.
During his homily to a packed church of Our Lady of Reparation, West Croydon, Archbishop Smith recalled the particular ministry of the ordained priest in the service of Christ and his Church.
Fr Minchew and Fr Berry served as Anglican clergy at St Michael & All Angels, Croydon, which is across the road from the church of their ordination, and will now lead the Croydon Ordinariate Group. Fr Gibbons served in Maidstone where he will now serve the Ordinariate as pastor to a group of faithful there.
Amongst the clergy present at the ordination were the Ordinary, Mgr John Broadhurst, Mgr Edwin Barnes, Mgr Robert Mercer, and Ordinariate priests resident in the Archdiocese of Southwark. They were joined by local diocesan clergy and by a seminarian of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers from Liverpool, who as a young Anglican was encouraged to consider ordained ministry by Fr Minchew.
A spokesman for the Ordinariate said, “Today we witnessed the ordination of three men whose lives have led to this point – the fulfilment of the call from Christ to serve him as priests of the Catholic Church. As priests of the Ordinariate, serving the local community and the wider Church, their fidelity to a vision for unity and truth has been borne out; they now continue the task of proclaiming that vision to the world”.
After the Mass, a celebratory luncheon was given in the parish hall, joined by the Ordinary and the Archbishop.
Photo source: Fr Ed Tomlinson
It is perhaps worth noting that in the first 20 Months of the OLW Ordinariate, this brings the total number of priests ordained to its service to 80. Seven more ordinations are scheduled for this month. This is of benefit to the whole Church and diocesan bishops struggling with a shortage of priests are increasingly appreciative of the contribution the Ordinariate clergy make.
OLW Ordinariate has also 4 seminarians.
Indeed, and as you will see from this month’s Portal Magazine they are Oxford based – studying at Blackfriars Hall and living with the Capuchins at Greyfriars.
The Blackfriars Ordination Course costs about £4,500 a year and therefore the total cost of sponsoring these young men through to ordination will be very significant and it therefore good to know that the EW Bishops Conference is funding the cost.
I am sure you could also make a donation!