Our Cycle of Prayer – February 2016

We invite you to join our international praying community by using the intentions from our Cycle of Prayer in your personal prayers (by clicking on the link below). The Pope’s Prayer Intentions and some suggested prayers are included on the second page, as every month.

Ordinariate Expats Cycle of Prayer – 201602

EWTN will broadcast Bishop Lopes’ Ordination live

The website of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter has announced:

The Ordinariate is thrilled to announce that EWTN’s “Cathedrals Across America” will broadcast the Mass of Ordination of Bishop-elect Steven J. Lopes on Feb. 2, 2016.

Please check your local cable provider’s schedule for access to this historic liturgy, which will be broadcast live from the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Houston at 7 p.m. CST on Tuesday, Feb. 2 on EWTN.

Stay tuned to http://www.ordinariate.net and to ewtn.com to also access video of the Mass.

Ordinary visits Portugal for the launch of our Priest Affiliate’s book

A couple of years ago Fr João Vergamota, a Portuguese priest studying for his Licentiate in Canon Law, chose to write his thesis on the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the legal provision for the establishment of the Personal Ordinariates. Fr Vergamota, who is the parish priest of Encarnação, Lisbon, is now a Priest Affiliate of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and part of our Ordinariate Expats group of members and friends.

Fr Vergamota’s supervisor encouraged him to publish his thesis as a book, and Fr Vergomata asked Mgr Newton to write a short forward to the published volume, which is entitled in Portuguese “A Constituição Apostólica Anglicanorum Coetibus – uma Resposta Jurídica no Caminho Ecuménico”.* (By clicking here you can read Mgr Newton’s Preface in English as well as the Preface, Contents and Introduction in Portuguese)

Mgr Newton was invited to attend the launch of the book at the Catholic University of Lisbon, along with around 100 guests including the Papal Nuncio for Portugal and the former Rector of the Catholic University of Lisbon, Prof. Braga de Cruz.

Pictured with Mgr. Newton on the platform are Fr Vergamota (left) and his supervisor, Fr João Seabra.

*João Vergamota: A Constituição Apostólica Anglicanorum Coetibus – uma Resposta Jurídica no Caminho Ecuménico is published by Universidade Católica Editora, Lisbon, at a price of € 11 (ISBN: 9789725404942).

P.S. Another of our Ordinariate Expats friends, Fr. Christian Wirz, Officialis of the Diocese of Hildesheim in Germany, has also published his licentiate thesis as a book. It is called “Das eigene Erbe wahren – Anglicanorum coetibus als kirchenrechtliches Modell für Einheit in Vielfalt?” (Preserving their own Patrimony – Anglicanorum coetibus as a canonical model for Unity in Diversity?) and costs € 36 (ISBN: 978-3-87497-276-5). The publishing house is Wingen Verlag, Essen.

The new icon of Our Lady of the Southern Cross is finished

The blessing and dedication of a new icon of Our Lady of the Southern Cross by Michael Galovic for the Australian Ordinariate took place today during the 9:30 am mass in the principal church of St Ninian and St Chad, 11 Susan Street, Maylands, Perth.

The Ordinary, Msgr Harry Entwistle, was the celebrant and Fr Stephen Hill the preacher.

Refreshments were served after the service.

We are now waiting impatiently for the image to be made public. Below is a photo of how work began on the icon in October 2015:

St. Agnes’ Day at Most Precious Blood

We recently reported the appointment of a new Choral Director at Most Precious Blood, The Borough, London.

Churchwarden Christopher Smith has now written to us about last Thursday’s feast of St. Agnes. He writes:

MPB’s regular weekday offering has been greatly enhanced musically by Miles Ashdown, their new Choral Director, and continued on Thursday which happened to be St Agnes’ day. The London (South) Ordinariate group originated at St Agnes’, Kennington, where Fr Christopher Pearson was the incumbent for over 15 years. This is also the week of prayer for Christian Unity and underlines the mission of the Ordinariate in realised ecumenism. This was the programme:

Thursday 21st January – St Agnes, Virgin and Martyr.
6pm Choral Evensong
Responses: Tallis
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis “Short” Service – Tallis
Anthem to Our Lady: Alma Redemptoris – Plainsong

6.30pm Mass in the Ordinariate Use
Setting: Mass for four voices – Byrd
Communion Motet: O sing joyfully – Batten

A light supper and refreshment was served after the Mass.

And this is what the future has in store:

Thursday 28th January – St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
Communion Motet: Bethlehem Down – Warlock

Thursday 4th February – Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis – Stanford in C and Sumsion in F for the Mass

Change of Pastor in Greenville, SC

The St. Anselm’s Ordinariate Community is thrilled to announce that in early February, Fr. Jonathan Duncan will move with his family to Greenville where Bishop-Elect Lopes will be appointing him priest administrator of St. Anselm’s. His primary position, during the week, will be as chaplain of St. Joseph’s Catholic School, but in addition to that he will be taking over for Fr. Chalmers, assisting at St. Mary’s and leading St. Anselm’s.

Following is a bit of background from Fr. Duncan himself:

I was raised in east Arkansas and my father was a rural Baptist-turned-Pentecostal preacher (think Robert Duvall in The Apostle) and door-to-door furniture salesman. My teen rebellion was becoming a liberal Episcopalian. I left home to attend the University of the South (Sewanee, TN) where I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Medieval Studies. It was at Sewanee that I met my now wife, Elizabeth. She grew up in Durham, NC with much of her family being from South Carolina. Elizabeth has a B.S. in Biology, working on a Masters in School Counseling. She has a background in museum education and currently teaches Middle School science. We were married after college and moved to Wisconsin where I trained at Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary. In 2008 I was ordained an episcopal priest for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and Elizabeth and I moved to Arlington, TX. There, I served as curate at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church until 2010 when I was called to be the rector of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Cleburne, TX. Following ordination I also served as an adjunct instructor in Liturgy/Church Music at Nashotah House. In 2013 I was received into the Catholic Church with my family and several parishioners and since then have been serving as administrator of St. John Vianney Ordinariate Community in Cleburne, Texas. Elizabeth and I have been blessed with three children and a fourth due this May. I can’t tell you how excited we are about beginning this new chapter in Greenville and about the future of St. Anselm’s.

As for Fr. Chalmers, he is returning to Birmingham, AL, to become president of Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, a private school which is part of a network providing education to disadvantaged urban youth.

(EPMS asks whether this means a new Ordinariate group will be forming in Birmingham.)

Father Ed also writes on Pre-Lent

This Sunday is an unusual one at St. Anselm’s. Because it is one of the rare occasions when Divine Worship (the liturgy of the Ordinariate) requires something markedly different to the Novus Ordo. We will therefore need different liturgical colours for the 9:15am and 11am Mass and a different set of rules governs each. What fun it will be…especially for the sacristans!

The reason for the difference is that Divine Worship brings a return to Septuagesima Sunday. A word derived from the Latin for “seventieth” which marks the start of a special liturgical season in preparation for Lent. A time for prayerfully planning how a good Lent is to be kept. In other parts of the world Septuagesima also marks the start of Mardi Gras- the great Carnival culminating in Shrove Tuesday. After Septuagesima comes Sexagesima, Quinquagesima and Quadragesima which mean “sixtieth,” “fiftieth,” and “fortieth” respectively.

At the 9:15am Mass then, as during Advent and Lent, the Gloria and Alleluia are no longer said. Septuagesima also marks a return for the Ordinariate to the liturgical colour of violet. But because the liturgical books revised after the Second Vatican Council omitted Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays, and treat this period as part of Ordinary Time, it will be quite different at 11am. Here we will still wear green vestments and the omissions are held off until Ash Wednesday.

The propers also bring a different focus to each mass. For those interested in liturgy I offer a small sample of the texts for comparison:

THE INTROIT (sung in Latin at St. Anselm’s for the 9:15am only)

Divine Worship: The sorrows of death came about me, the pains of hell got hold upon me, and in my tribulation I made my prayer unto the Lord, and he regarded my supplication out of his holy temple.

Novus Ordo: O sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord, all the earth. In his presence are majesty and splendour, Strength and honour in his holy place.

THE COLLECT

Divine Worship: O Lord, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy name; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Novus Ordo: Almighty ever living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure, that in the name of your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

THE PRAYER OVER THE OFFERINGS

Divine Worship: We beseech thee, O Lord, graciously to accept these our prayers and oblations: that we being cleansed by these heavenly mysteries, may obtain of thy great mercy the fulfillment of all our desires; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Novus Ordo: Accept our offerings, O Lord, we pray, and in sanctifying them grant that they may profit us for salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

THE COMMUNION ANTIPHON (sung in Latin at the 9:15am only)

Divine Worship: Show thy servant the light of thy countenance, and save me for thy mercy’s sake: let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.

Novus Ordo: Look toward the Lord and be radiant; Let your faces not be abashed.

Fr. Ed Tomlinson