Borough’s Precious Blood RC church entrusted to former Anglicans

Tuesday 8 January 2013

The Salvatorian community, which has served the the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Precious Blood for three decades, has left Southwark and the church has been placed in the care of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Just before Christmas parishioners learnt that the church in O'Meara Street would be entrusted to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The Ordinariate was established in 2011 to enable former Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic church whilst retaining some of their distinctive liturgical traditions.

Members of the Ordinariate in South London have been worshipping at the Church of the Precious Blood for nearly a year. Regular services include Anglican-style Evensong on Thursday evenings.

Last Sunday marked the end of the tenure of Fr Richard Mway Zeng SDS as parish priest and the Sunday morning Mass was followed by a farewell party to commemorate the end of the Salvatorians' 30-year association with the parish.

The new priest-in-charge is Fr Christopher Pearson, who until spring 2011 was the vicar of the Anglican parish of St Agnes Kennington Park.

Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, said: "We are very grateful to Archbishop Peter Smith and the diocesan authorities for making this possible.

"It represents a positive moment in the life of the Ordinariate, as we grow towards the establishment of our own parishes and communities."

• Mgr Keith Newton will preside and preach at the 11am Mass on Sunday 13 January

source: http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/6529

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Archbishop of Westminster, England to dedicate Soho church to UK Ordinariate's use

Statement from the Diocese of Westminster
2 January 2013

Pastoral Care

1. Many people come to the Church with the hope of finding understanding, compassion, mercy and truth. The Church endeavours to respond to their hope through the provision of pastoral care. For many years now the Diocese of Westminster has sought to extend the pastoral care of the Church to those who experience same-sex attraction. This care has been motivated by an awareness of the difficulties and isolation they can experience and by the imperative of Christ’s love for all. In recent years this pastoral care has focused on the celebration of Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street...

3. At this point, and after six years of the pastoral care offered at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, it is time for a new phase. Two considerations give shape to this new phase. The first is to recall that the original aim of this pastoral provision at Warwick Street was to enable people with same-sex attraction ‘to enter more fully into the life of the Church’ ‘specifically within the existing parish structures’ (Diocese of Westminster press statement 2 Feb 2007). The second is the importance of recognising that there is a distinction to be made between the pastoral care of a particular group and the regular celebration of the Mass. The Mass is always to retain its essential character as the highest prayer of the whole Church. This ‘universal’ character of the Mass is to be nurtured and clearly expressed in the manner of every celebration. The purpose of all pastoral care, on the other hand, is to encourage and enable people, especially those who are in difficult circumstances, to come to participate fully and worthily in the celebration of the Mass in the midst of the whole Church, the people summoned by the Lord to give him, together, worthy service and praise...

5. At the same time, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption is being dedicated to the life of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham for their groups in central London. I hope that the use of this beautiful Church, in which the young John Henry Newman first attended Mass, will enable Catholics in the Ordinariate to prosper and to offer to others the particular gifts of the Ordinariate.

6. These new arrangements are to come into effect during Lent 2013.

Read the entire statement of Archbishop Nichols, which includes background and recent history and future provisions of pastoral care for those who experience same-sex attraction at The Catholic Herald.