THE
P RTAL
December 2012
Page 18
Ordinariate News
Arnold Herron reports ...
St Agatha’s Portsmouth
It was
a bright Autumn morning as we gathered
from the southern region at the late Father Dolling’s
great basilica of St Agatha’s Portsmouth.
A gaunt brick building with a hefty Byzantine outline,
close to the Catholic Cathedral, now totally bereft of
the slums it was originally designed to serve. The angle
of its Lady Chapel unceremoniously sliced off for a
road during the time when it served as a naval store.
Liturgy, the words familiar. The Book of Divine
Worship used, for a Solemn High Mass, with Deacon
and Sub-deacon. Was there anything at all that would
have been different in his day? The main difference,
was that we were now all in communion with the See
The occasion was an unusual one: the Blessing of a of Peter. Praise the Lord for that! And that made it all
new peal of eight bells! How often, one wondered, does very moving.
that happen? This was an opportunity to see the interior
of the only English Ordinariate building managed by
The Ordinary presided, and preached an appropriate
its own congregation, and, into the bargain to see it homily. Each bell was named individually and
liturgically in full fig. Given the building’s significant personally (Mary the smallest to Anastasia the
place in Anglo-catholic history, and its subsequent largest), prayed over, asperged, censed externally and
neglect and abandonment, what we witnessed that internally and then decorated with white ribbon. The
morning was miraculous.
hope is that the peal can be hung ready to be rung on
the Patronal Festival in February next year, but more
How Father Dolling himself would have rejoiced! money is needed for that.
He would also have been entirely at home with the
It was a significant occasion, in most respects
untypical of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of
Walsingham. It was also very Anglican in ethos,
reminiscent of the 1920s or 30s. Certainly
the priests and people of St Agatha’s are to be
congratulated for so imaginatively looking to
the future.
Annunciation Tympanum in St Agatha’s
At the same time it brought home the
challenge that all Ordinariate congregations face
of bringing into the Catholic Church treasures
new and old without simply sinking back into a
comfortable time warp.
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Not to be missed: a 12 day Tour and Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land Led by Derek C W Vogt from
Thursday 8th - Monday 19th May 2014.
Open to members of the Personal Ordinariate of our
Lady of Walsingham. Spiritual Director: Father David
Lashbrooke, Ordinariate priest. All are welcome
further details and brochure from : Derek C W Vogt
01392 271943 or World Wide Christian travel 0845
548 8308.