Nippon Kirisuto Seikoukai

Perhaps someone would be able to answer the following question, received from a reader after an appeal by Fr J.P.Y. on the blog today?

… could you give us any information about the Nippon Kirisuto Seikoukai? Are there any plan to join the Australian Ordinariate for instance?

Japan.

I suspect the Ordinary of the Australian Ordinariate, the Very Rev Harry Entwistle, however would be the best person to ask (and answer). Zenit (Jan 2011):

The new ordinariate will include a group of former Anglicans in Japan who are led by a retired prelate.

Or perhaps Fr Lawrence Wheeler, come to think of it?

So was the Nippon Kirisuto Seikoukai not once (or still) part of the The Traditional Anglican Communion in Japan?

Well, I had to go back into the mouldy archives (also 2011) of (the now defunct) The Anglo-Catholic blog to jolt the memory. (Go down to the comments section.) But still, I’m none the wiser… 

Another ACCA (TAC) to be Ordained in the Ordinariate, Australia

Via Psallite Sapienter:

Latest news from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross:

Please pray for WARREN WADE to be ordained priest by the Most Rev David Walker, Bishop of Broken Bay, by letters dimissory from the Very Rev Harry Entwistle, at 7:30 on Wednesday December 12th in Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara, NSW.

He will be the eighth priest and ninth cleric of the nascent Ordinariate.

According to records of the TAC’s Anglican Catholic Church of Australia, Warren Wade is their priest for the parish of St Mary the Virgin, which currently meets in North Turramurra, one of the northern suburbs of Sydney (and thus within the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay).

Furthermore, an Ordinariate group is forming in north-east Victoria, around Benalla.

 

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross Website

The new website of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross is up and running here.

‘New World Order’ as Anglican Priests Move to a Catholic Environment

What a strange headline… although I suppose it is The Age (au):

 

Christopher Seton leaves one job on September 2 and starts another six days later. In one sense it is exactly the same job, and in another it is completely different. Father Seton is one of four Anglican priests who will be ordained into the Catholic Church in Melbourne on September 8.

Father Seton holds his last service at All Saints Kooyong on September 2. Then he and – so far as he is aware – his entire congregation will regather a week later at the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Caulfield South. There he will minister to the same people (and, doubtless, some new ones), using the same liturgy and singing the same hymns. But now they will be on the opposite side of a once-bitter sectarian divide.

”In a sense, we are just moving office,” Father Seton said yesterday. But he, along with Fathers James Grant, Ramsay Williams and Neil Fryer, will now be priests in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, the Catholic Church’s new Anglican wing set up by Pope Benedict for those who felt disenfranchised by the ordination of women and other developments in the Anglican Church.

Clergy in the ordinariate may be married, as is the Ordinary (the head), Harry Entwistle, who was a bishop in the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion, but a married priest cannot be a bishop.

The ordinariate began with Father Entwistle’s ordination on June 15, and the creation of a 60-strong parish in Perth.

Father Seton believes it is ”a safe place” for Anglicans with Catholic inclinations.

”So many of us have tried to find a space within established Anglicanism, but there’s really no space for us any more. If you don’t embrace the new religion they don’t want you. You’ve got to believe in same-sex marriage and women priests, things that we just can’t embrace.”

He says traditional Anglo-Catholics have been portrayed unfairly as misogynists, and treated by some liberals as ”a bit of a joke”.

”But we are taking our patrimony with us – the Anglican way of doing things and the spirituality and the theology.

”We will be pretty much what we always were.”

 

Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross: Some More News

Via David Schütz:

Dawn Shaw recently sent around this information. It contains all the detail about the establishement of the Melbourne Parish of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross that you will need to know.

Also, some have been asking re the identity of some of the priests to be ordained on 8th of September. Perhaps one of the lesser known is Ramsay Williams. The most recent edition of the Kairos has an article interview with Ramsay here.

James Grant, another of the candidates, is personally known to me. We worked together in Jewish Christian Muslim Association at its inception, and he has also studied at the John Paul II Institute. A good man!

Here is Dawn’s round up of info:

Dear Members of the ODG, ASK Parishioners & Friends:

1. The Melbourne Parish of the Australian Ordinariate will come into being over the weekend of 7th-9th September, 2012.

Friday, 7th September at 7.00 p.m. Laity coming into the Personal Ordinariate will be Received by the Australian Ordinary, Mgr Harry Entwistle at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 707 Glen Huntly Road, Caulfield South.

Saturday, 8th September at 10.00 a.m. Ordinations to the Priesthood at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, East Melbourne. Archbishop Denis J. Hart will preside. Candidates for the Ordinariate: James Grant, Neil Fryer, Ramsay Williams and Christopher Seton. Candidates for the Melbourne Diocese: Andrew McCarter, Benneth Osuagwu, Jerome Santamaria and Kevin Williams.

Sunday, 9th September at 11.00 a.m. Mgr Entwistle will Concelebrate Mass with newly Ordained Ordinariate Priests at Holy Cross Catholic Church.

2. Fr Christopher Seton has advised that he will resign as Parish Priest of All Saints’ Anglican Church, Kooyong on Sunday, 2nd September, 2012.

From Sunday, 9th September, 2012 the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Melbourne Parish, will reside and worship at Holy Cross Catholic Church, with the initial Service times of -

High Mass 11.00 a.m.; Evensong & Benediction 7.00 p.m.

3. The Ordinariate Discussion Group (ODG) will continue to meet at All Saints Kooyong (ASK) on Monday evenings 6th August, 13th August, 20th August and 27th August.

Mass will be at 6.00 p.m. as usual with the meeting to follow at 7.00 p.m.

From Monday 3rd September, meetings will be held at Holy Cross Catholic Church (NO Mass on the evening of 3/9/12 – Meeting to commence at 8.00 p.m).

(Note new times) From Monday 10th September Mass will be at 7.00 p.m. with the meeting to follow at 8.00 p.m.

4. Reminders: This coming Monday 6th August at 7.00 p.m. Bishop Peter Elliott will present: “On the Way to the Ordinariate” (1 hour followed by 30 minutes for Q&A)…

 

Very Rev Harry Entwistle: Coats of Arms

Church heraldist Fr Guy Selvester:

Above we see the coat of arms of the Very Rev. Harry Entwistle, recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia for former Anglicans who are now coming into union with the Roman Catholic Church.

These coats of arms were designed by Richard d’Apice of the Australian heraldry Society in consultation with me and rendered by Sandy Turnbull also of the Australian Heraldry Society.

The top image shows the personal arms of Fr. Entwistle which are composed of a hand grasping a fleur de lis taken from a personal crest of a family with the same name and from the same part of England and, on a red chief the cross of St. Chad because he attended St. Chad’s College in Durham for his formation. This is ensigned with a crozier as an indication of his rank as Ordinary of the jurisdiction. In fact, he will also be granted the use of pontifical insignia despite not being promoted to the rank of bishop in the Catholic Church. Just as Abbot’s also ensign their coats of arms with a veiled crozier as a sign of their jurisdiction as Ordinary of the their monastery so here we have employed the same symbol but without the sudarium (veil) attached as this is primarily a monastic symbol and would erroneously give the arms the appearance of those of an abbot. In addition, at the moment Fr. Entwistle, although empowered to exercise Ordinary jurisdiction still holds the rank of simple priest.

Following the precedent of the coats of arms of Vicars General and Episcopal in the Catholic Church who also exercise Ordinary jurisdiction but may not possess any rank higher than simple priest the arms are decorated with a black galero that has black cords and 12 tassels. As in the case of Vicars General and Episcopal who constitute a kind of “black prothonotary” by virtue of their jurisdiction the hat is black as befits a priests but has 12 tassels like other prelates. This is also the same kind of galero used by abbots as well.

The bottom image shows the arms of Fr. Entwistle impaled (i.e. joined together on one shield) with those of the Ordinariate (also designed by the same team mentioned above).

In the case of the other two Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans in the world, The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham for the UK and the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for the USA, the Ordinary was promoted to the rank of Prothonotary Apostolic (i.e. the highest level of prelate addressed as “Reverend Monsignor”) shortly after being named Ordinary. If this happens for Fr. Entwistle then the galero would then be purple and the cords and 12 tassels red. The motto ”Par ce signe” (in French) is a dual allusion to the Entwistle family motto and the (St. Chad’s) cross as representative of the symbol which appeared to Constantine in the sky just before the Battle of Milvian Bridge against Maxentius on 28 October 312 and “in hoc signo” from the legend.

 

Mass at the Principal Church of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

As reported over at The Anglo Catholic:

A West Australian friend has been attending Sunday Mass at the Principal Church of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross for the last several weeks, ever since the happy day of the reception into full communion of many incoming Anglicans, and the ordination to the priesthood of their leader the new Ordinary, Monsignor Harry Entwistle, in Perth last month.

For all interested readers, then, here is an account – extracted over the telephone – from my correspondent (who is himself a former Anglican, and thus particularly sympathetic to the Ordinariate) of Mass this morning in Perth.

The Church of SS Ninian and Chad (which I have peeped into myself some years ago) is quite small; it was full for the 9.30 am Sunday Mass, which means a congregation of perhaps seventy. As well as the recently-arrived Ordinariate members, quite a number of other Catholics were in attendance, including (I am told) some familiar faces from my years in the West.

As should be expected, Mass began with full-throated hymn-singing (Patrimony! Catholics can’t sing like that!), and the music was excellent throughout, including the organ-playing.

Mass was conducted in the Ordinary Form, with two notable (approved) additions: the Collect for Purity at the outset (between the salutation and the Penitential Act, I understand), and the Prayer of Humble Access at Communion (just before “Behold the Lamb of God”, at the place when the priest says a private prayer for worthy reception). Mgr Entwistle remarked at the very good bunfight afterward (Patrimony!) that to Anglican laity, the use of those two prayers are the sine qua non of Anglican liturgy, and I think I may as an interested observer agree: the first is of course Sarum, and the second is Cranmerian but certainly orthodox.

One tiny variant was also quietly pleasing: whether “official” or not, the congregation very devoutly said “And with thy spirit” throughout, and who can but applaud this?

The readings were taken from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (the so-called Ignatius Press Lectionary); apparently the ACCA has been using the RSV for some years prior to the establishment of the Ordinariate in any case. The sermon was good, solid, and of fair length – more Patrimony! (If Catholics can’t sing, neither in the main can the average Catholic priest preach, after all, so may these good people diffuse their gifts widely and quickly…)

The prayers of intercession were not, as I had surmised, recited using the Anglican Prayer for the Church. As I have said, only two prayers from the Anglican tradition supplemented the liturgy. The celebrant said the Roman Canon on this Sunday, but I am informed that he has used other Eucharistic Prayers from the Roman Missal on other days.

There were two servers, and incense was used – this being the first time in my friend’s experience of attending Ordinariate Masses there. Why so? SS Ninian and Chad being a very small church in truth, the sanctuary is not suited to large services, and this accounts for the restrained but reverent liturgical style there – in such a small church one cannot expect the sort of liturgical pageantry that larger churches can put on. In other words, SS Ninian and Chad is not the Brompton Oratory!

Mass was, of course, said ad orientem, and everyone knelt for Communion at the rail. My friend was careful to remind me that Communion was given in Both Kinds, and that the chalice was administered by being held to each communicant’s lips, in the usual Anglican fashion, so that the communicants did not themselves handle the chalice. This would be entirely new to average Catholics!

(Since at present the Monsignor is the only priest of the Ordinariate – though I hear that ordinations in Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide, and so forth will occur fairly soon, as least as regards the first city named – it has seemed prudent to use the Ordinary Form, just slightly supplemented, rather than the Book of Divine Worship’s Eucharistic liturgy, the only other approved Anglican Use Mass at present, since if a local diocesan priest has to say Mass while Entwistle is off on Ordinariate business around Australia, it would be difficult for such a supply priest to celebrate a liturgy to him unknown.)

The Ordinariate is still but newly-born; the Ordinary has very slender resources, and so matters will progress slowly at first. One might say that Our Lady of the Southern Cross indeed holds a precious infant in her arms – one of Our Lord’s youngest brethren, still literally infans, unable to speak (having no website for the moment)! We know that she will dearly care for this her latest adopted child.

Given this, it is unsurprising that these recently-arrived Ordinariate members have been happily received by the wider Archdiocese of Perth, and feel very much welcomed. Holy Mother Church rejoices in these members now fully united to her!

 

Fr Harry Entwistle at the Melbourne Information Day

A talk by Fr Harry Entwistle on the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross at the Melbourne Informtion Day.

Download it in pdf. here.

View this document on Scribd

HT: Conchúr

UPDATE:   Australia: Is no news good news?

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia has now been up and running for 5 weeks, but news from down under is few and far between.

We know that Very Rev. Harry Entwistle is the Ordinary. (This post will include below an interview with Fr. Entwistle from the end of June and a recent talk.)

We know that St. Ninian and St. Chad, Maylands, Perth, is the principal church or Pro-Cathedral.

For some time we have known that the Ordinariate Group in Melbourne shares Holy Ghost Church in South Caulfield with the diocesan congregation.

We also learned some time ago that Fr. Warren Wade leads an Ordinariate Group of some 10 faithful in North Turramurra.

But that’s about it. There would seem to be no Ordinariate website yet, no Ordinariate groups, fraternities, communities, fellowships, sodalities or societies are immediately findable on Google, little news has been made public. And what about the Church of the Torres Strait?

Rest here.

 

Australian Ordinariate Head Wants Group to Grow, Evangelise

The Catholic Weekly:

Fr Harry Entwistle says his conversion from Anglican to the Catholic faith can’t be explained by anything other than the Holy Spirit’s “wicked sense of humour”.

As the inaugural head of the personal ordinariate of Our Lady of the South­ern Cross, a jurisdiction for former Anglicans in Australia, he said it’s “an awesome responsibility because it means that I have to lay the foundations of the Ordinariate to enable it to grow and flourish and be an evangelistic tool for the Church”.

“Apart from the legalities of erecting the Ordinariate, we’re getting enormous help from the Catholic Bishops Conference to set that up, it does mean with a shortage of few clergy we will have initially we have got to get the message out to others that we exist,” he said.

“Although we exist as an erected body that doesn’t mean that everybody knows about us. We will be hoping to encourage the Catholic bishops to spread the word. It will be a slow growth because groups will need to form. There is a group already forming in Melbourne, and hopefully soon in South Australia, and a group exists in Sydney. So it’s a question of now that the Ordinariate exists then other people may come and enquire about what it means, and whether they can be part of it.”

Ordained an Anglican priest in England in 1964, he immigrated to Australia in 1988 before joining the Traditional Anglican Communion in 2006.

A father of two, the 72-year-old’s “amazing journey” came full circle when he was ordained as a Catholic priest by the Archbishop of Perth, Bishop Tim Costelloe, at St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth, on 15 June.

Fr Harry described his ordination as an “amazing experience” and “something I never thought would happen”.

“I was brought up as a young man in Lancashire, England, in quite a sectarian district, where there was the great divide between Catholics and non-Catholics,” he said.

“Non-Catholics just covered everybody who wasn’t a Catholic. And while relationships would be described as sort of pleasant, they were rather like the Cold War. I wasn’t in an area where there was actually out and out fighting, but there was no doubt about which side of the divide you were on.

“Preston (Lancashire) was a very strong Jesuit area. There were a lot of manor houses around that area and so there was this very strong Catholic element. The population was almost 50 per cent divided, but there was no real ecumenical endeavour of any sort. And that was my upbringing. And so to find myself in a Catholic cathedral, being a Catholic priest can’t be explained by anything other than the Holy Spirit’s wicked sense of humour. The ordination was a wonderful experience.”

When asked about the differences between the faiths, Fr Harry says in the Catholic culture there’s a “greater sense of community”.

“Each parish belongs to a community and there’s less of the individualism that there is to a great degree in Anglicanism,” he said.

“Also I have never had such support and welcome from a hierarchy. They have been amazing in facilitating the process towards the Ordinariate.”

Words. Words are important. And saying (or suggesting) that the Holy Spirit has a ‘wicked sense of humour’, is not a good choice at all. Theologically, it’s in point of fact, a disastrous choice. Why? He cannot be wicked. That’s impossible. God and wicked are two impossible opposites. Nor would the occassion (or following His leading) give causes for amusement. But hey, that’s just my humble opinion.

 

Ordination of the Very Reverend Fr Harry Entwistle, Photo and Homily

Via the Archdiocese of Perth:

The Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of Perth, ordained to the Priesthood on Friday 15 June in St Mary’s Cathedral Perth the Very Reverend Harry Entwistle.

Above: Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, Bishop Peter Elliott, Fr Harry Entwistle, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe and Bishop Donald Sproxton

Immediately prior to the Ordination Mass, approximately 40 members of the Traditional Anglican Community were received into the Catholic Church by Monsignor Kevin Long. These and many of their friends were also present at the ordination Mass. Fr Entwistle was himself received into the Church at St Charles Seminary last Sunday, where he was also ordained a Deacon by Archbishop Costelloe.

The significance of the ordination Mass was added to when the Most Rev Peter Elliott rose after Communion and read the Decree of the Erection of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury, issued by the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith on the 15 June 2012.

Bishop Elliott was particularly pleased to be present and read the Decree of Erection as he has worked assiduously as the project delegate for the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to prepare the way for the erection of the Ordinariate.

After the announcement of the Ordinariate, Archbishop Costelloe was pleased to read a Decree from Pope Benedict XVI announcing that the Very Reverend Father Harry Entwistle had been appointed the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. This announcement was greeted with great joy by the new members of the Ordinariate. Fr Entwistle will be based in Perth but will be responsible for the Ordinariate throughout Australia.

In a media statement prior to the Ordination, Archbishop Costelloe said he welcomed the announcement of the establishment of the Ordinariate for groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining elements of their own Anglican patrimony.

Archbishop Costelloe said, “Those people from the Anglican tradition who have decided to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded to them by Pope Benedict XV1 have done so after a long period of careful and prayerful discernment.”

“The Catholic community will welcome them with great joy and generosity of spirit. We look forward to fully sharing with them the richness of our faith. At the same time we hope to gain from the witness of their own faith and the beauty of their liturgical and spiritual traditions, which they will bring with them.”

And the homily:

+ + +

Homily of the Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB

on the Occasion of the Ordination of the Very Rev Harry Entwistle

 

On the 11^th of November, 2009, Sr Maria Boulding, a Benedictine nun of Stanbrook Abbey in England, died after a prolonged battle with cancer. Sr Maria was a renowned writer and spiritual director whose life and work have touched many people.

In 1982 Sr Maria edited a collection of essays in which monks and nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation shared the story of their journey into and in religious life. For many of them it was the story of a journey into communion with the Catholic Church first of all, and then, once at home there, into a new and deeper experience of faith through their commitment to the monastic life.

One of those stories, written by Dom Alan Rees, concludes with a beautiful prayer, part of which I would like to share with you this evening. While it is a prayer which simply reflects one man’s experience of God’s presence in his life, tonight, on this historic occasion, I suspect that it might catch up the thoughts of Harry and his wife, Jean, and the thoughts of the people of Harry’s community who themselves have been received tonight into full communion with the Catholic Church and who for that reason are rejoicing both for themselves and for Harry. Perhaps too it will enable all of us to reflect on the strange but faithful ways of God who calls us into life in ways that we don’t always anticipate and certainly don’t always understand.

Father, you have always been there, even from my earliest years, gently leading me on. You have always been there, Lord, leading me out of darkness into your own wonderful light; from ignorance into truth; from the isolation of self into the community of love.

Despite my wanderings, despite my complaining, despite my unwillingness to go forward, you have never deserted me. You have always remained faithful in the midst of my infidelity.

In the day time of my joy, your hidden brightness, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, has gone before me and drawn me after it; in the night-time of my isolation, despondency and fear, your pillar of fire, the refining Spirit, has been there working in my heart, thawing my iciness and purifying me.

But, Father, pilgrim that I am, I still wander into the byways of pride, self-pity and fear. Forgive me as I turn my eyes back to you. Sharpen my awareness of your Son, Jesus, my Brother, who takes me by the hand and pulls me along in my reluctance.

Lord God, how thankful I am that you are continually searching for me; how thankful I am that your grace prompts me to recognise you and to give myself to you even in my imperfect way. Lord Jesus, how thankful I am that your love, stronger than death, will never let me go.

As we gather tonight in the Cathedral to witness, and even more to be a vital part, of this extraordinary moment as our friend, brother and, for many of you, your Father in God, receives the precious gift of priestly orders within the Catholic Church, I am sure that Harry can echo every word of this prayer. The mystery of God’s strange ways continues to unfold for Harry as he opens himself yet again, as he has done so often before, to the insistent call of God, of Christ, to “come follow me.” After all the call to the priesthood is one that Harry first heard long ago, and one to which he responded when he stepped forward to be ordained as a priest within the Anglican communion in 1964, forty eight years ago. Who knows how many people’s lives have been transformed by God’s Holy Spirit, working through Harry’s ministry as an Anglican priest and later as a bishop? Tonight, as Harry receives the gift of the priesthood within the Catholic Church, both he and we give thanks for his many years of faithful service and ministry within the Anglican tradition. We give thanks, too, for the ways in which the beauty of Anglican spirituality and worship has nourished and formed Harry and enabled him to hear and respond to the voice of God, calling him to this new path and this new ministry. Father, you have always been there, even from Harry’s earliest years, gently leading him on.

For many years Harry was a prison chaplain, first in England and later here in Perth. That ministry, I’m sure, brought Harry many moments of struggle and challenge but hopefully too many moments of joy and gratitude as he saw God’s grace bringing hope into hopeless situations. This is the life of every priest and it has been yours, Harry, for many years, as it will continue to be in the years ahead in the new and demanding ministry you take up tonight. Father, in the day time of Harry’s joy your hidden brightness, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, has gone before him and drawn him after it; in the night-time of his isolation, despondency and fear, your pillar of fire has been there working in his heart.

Those moments of joy and of darkness were not restricted to Harry’s life as a prison chaplain. In 2006 Harry again heard the voice of God this time calling him into the Anglican Church of Australia, the Traditional Anglican Communion, where he was ordained a bishop and appointed Western Regional Bishop. It was, I suspect, a decision formed in the crucible of confusion and suffering, as well as hope. You must have wondered, Harry, about the strange ways of God yet again upsetting everything and asking of you more, perhaps, than you thought you might be able to give. The decision to say “yes” to God is not one that we make once and then forget about. It is a new decision every day and your life has been marked by a deep conviction that giving your “yes” to God every day is at the very heart of what it means for you to live your life with integrity and faith.

Now in 2012 the Lord has once again invaded your life calling you to let go of so much in order to be able to receive all that he now wants to offer you. Last Sunday you entered into full communion with the Catholic Church just as your community has done tonight. It must have been a bitter-sweet experience for you as I’m sure it is for your brothers and sisters who have joined you tonight. The rich Anglican tradition has formed and nourished you all and has been the home in which you have discovered the beauty and the call of God. It is hard to leave something so cherished, but it is perhaps the genius of Pope Benedict that he has opened a door for you to enter into full communion with Peter, and retain, joyfully and proudly, the Anglican heritage of liturgy and spirituality which you bring as your special gift to us. Lord God, how thankful we are that you are continually searching for us; how thankful we are that your grace prompts us to recognize you and to give ourselves to you even in our imperfect way. Lord Jesus, how thankful we are that your love, stronger than death, will never let us go.

With your ordination as a Catholic priest tonight, Harry, you become the first to be ordained for the new Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which comes into being today by the will of the Holy Father. The gifts you bring, so many of them formed and nourished by your Anglican tradition, will now be strengthened and deepened through this new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You will be reshaped by God’s grace so that, even more than in the past, you will be a living sign that Christ is among his people as their good shepherd. As you have for so many years, tonight I simply want to encourage you to continue to keep your eyes fixed on Christ. In the challenges and storms which lie ahead it is he who will reach out his hand, take you by your hand, lead you to safety and calm the storms around and within you, just as he did for Simon Peter as he came to him across the water through the wind and the waves.

We all rejoice as we welcome Jean, your wife, and your community among us and as we welcome you into the brotherhood of the priestly ministry in the Catholic Church. We thank you for your courage, your fidelity and your profound openness to God’s call. We promise to accompany you in the years ahead with our prayers, our affection and our support, and we ask you to remember us each time you come to the altar of God.

We now invited you to step forward with open hands and open heart to receive the wonderful gifts of God.