THE
P RTAL
August 2015
Page 24
Bricks and Mortar
The Ordinariate congregations
have begun life in the Catholic Church
as squatters in borrowed accommodation
... Geoffrey Kirk wonders
if bricks and mortar is the way forward
‘The Church
is not the building; it is the gathered people of God.’
Perhaps so – and certainly the emphasis in the early days of the liturgical
movement on the community gathered round the altar – and on the church building merely as a roof over an
altar - was salutary. But there was, as always, a downside.
Too often the necessary re-emphasis resulted in
tawdry, unsuitable, second-rate buildings. Whose
heart has not sunk on entering one of those dualpurpose ‘worship spaces’? Whose heart has not bled
for the poor priest condemned to’ playing churches’
every Saturday night, setting up an altar for the
following day?
of Ordinariate Catholics are ideally placed to help
revitalise failing churches and to give them new life
and purpose. Thirty or forty talented activists can
make all the difference.
a lively engine of parish life
Now that it is abundantly clear that ‘The Spirit of
Vatican II’ – as understood by a deracinated generation
buildings of surpassing splendour
- has run its course and largely failed, it is time for
The catholic movement in the Church of England ‘Anglican Patrimony’ to play its part, not as a tolerated
knew the necessity of bricks and mortar. It covered local curiosity but as a lively engine of parish life.
England with buildings of surpassing splendour – the
greatest testimony to Christian faith since the Middle
Ages.
By contrast, we in the Ordinariate have necessarily
begun our pilgrimage as sojourners – as squatters
in borrowed accommodation. But there are faint
indications that this state of affairs may not be
inevitable.
permanence and independence
In Pembury and Torquay we can perhaps see the
beginnings of a ‘second stage’, which looks towards
a period of permanence and independence. And
in those places, like Precious Blood in the Borough,
where an existing parish has been placed in the care
of the Ordinariate, we can see a different but equally
hopeful pattern emerging.
space to be themselves
What cannot be doubted is that without buildings
and the independence and flexibility they bring, the
Ordinariate will not flourish and grow. Congregations
which are seeking to fulfil the vision of Benedict XVI
of Anglican Patrimony within Catholic Unity need
space to be themselves.
That space is, to my mind, ideally an existing church
given over to the care of the Ordinariate. Groups
contents page
St Agatha’s Portsmouth
Saturday 26th September 2015: Our Lady of Walsingham
High Mass at 11am ~ Newman Consort
Mgr Keith Newton to celebrate, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali to preach