THE P RTAL
June 2018 Page 12
Cambridge Ordinariate
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane visit Cambridge
It is true to say that the Ordinariate Mission in Cambridge has had its problems . It has never been large . That is not to say it is pointless , far from it , to have a presence in such an important centre of learning .
Ordinariate member Keir Martland told The Portal , ” Our Ordinariate Group in Cambridge is relatively small . Since The Revd Professor Allen Brent ’ s year as Acting Dean of St Edmund ’ s College , during which time the College had a well-attended weekly Evensong and Benediction with supper afterwards , not all that much has happened . But since the reception of Michael Miller – a theology postgraduate at Jesus College – and myself – a history undergraduate at Selwyn discerning a vocation to the Ordinariate priesthood – the Cambridge Ordinariate Mission has slowly but surely been revived .
It is thanks to the enthusiasm of Fr Allen as Group Pastor and the support of Mgr Mark Langham at Fisher House , the University Catholic Chaplaincy , that Michael and I could do anything at all .
Organ Scholar at Homerton College , gave us Merbecke , some hymns , and some H . H . Parry . A representative from ACNUK gave the after dinner speech and we raised £ 450 .”
This led to an invitation to Mgr Keith Newton to celebrate Pontifical High Mass on the 5-6 th May . It was also decided to use the Customary in the Chapel for Noonday Prayer . Now , at noon on most days in the week , a few students come down into the Chapel , and sing the Angelus or the Regina Caeli , followed by the Mid-Day Office .
The mass with our Ordinary took place and was well received and celebrated . While Keir and his colleagues were getting on with this important work , other Ordinariate members in the Cambridge area were ploughing a lone furrow .
“ Michael and I began in February 2017 by attempting to meet on a regular basis to use the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham for Matins . This was not a tremendous success , but a first step had been made . A rather more successful enterprise was Michael ’ s Caroline Divines Reading Group .
“ Once a week , Michael , myself , Fr Mark , Fr Allen , and a good handful of others would sit down in the Great Chamber at Fisher House with a bottle of wine and a text from an early seventeenth-century High Anglican divine for about two hours . These discussions brought a number of us closer to each other and closer to an often-neglected area of the Anglican Patrimony . The discussions continued for another couple of Terms .
“ With the New Year came another step towards an Ordinariate presence in our fine university town . Our first fundraiser was to be for those persecuted in the Holy Land . For me , this was a liturgical opportunity too good to miss ! In February this year , Fr Allen celebrated the Sung Mass at St Edmund ’ s College Chapel before our first fundraiser dinner – in this case for Aid to the Church in Need – from Divine Worship : our very talented friend Christopher Baczkowski ,
We first met Alan and Franziska Norman on the Ordinariate Pilgrimage to Lisieux . They invited us to visit them at their home just outside the University City . Franziska is a native Berliner , Alan is a cradle Anglican who grew up in Stirlingshire and Surrey . They were members of the Ordinariate Group in Central London , but their story begins in Berlin . Alan , who had recently been confirmed at Ely Cathedral , was working there and went a couple of times to St George ’ s Anglican church .
He told us , “ I felt it was a bit unfriendly , but I decided to give it one more chance . After my third visit a group was going to an Italian restaurant ( actually run by Coptic Christians from Egypt ). I asked if I could go along , and was invited . A lady with a car offered me a lift and I sat in the back seat with another lady . We chatted and at dinner sat opposite each other . We didn ’ t talk much as another guy talked so much we couldn ’ t .”
The lady was , of course Franziska . She found Alan “ strangely attractive ”. Later it was announced that she was leading Bible Study . Alan went and stayed on afterwards and was the last to leave . Things developed and they married . They met in September , were