THE
P RTAL
June 2018
Page 13
engaged in December and married in June (the Copts myself and not just because I wanted to be in the same
catered for their wedding!). After four and a half years church as Alan. We joined the Ordinariate and got on
they moved to the UK, to Cambridge.
the mailing list of interested people. Alan attended
a meeting in a church in North
Alan is a Computer Programmer
London and eventually a group
and Franziska is studying Geology.
was being prepared at Gordon
We asked what made them join the
Square. It was all a bit hush-hush.
Catholic Church in the Ordinariate.
We were admitted at Newman
There was a long pause before Alan
House, the University Chaplaincy
said, “Umm… Pope Benedict XVI,
in London. Our names were on
when he became Pope… we saw
the Central London Group. But it
it on the German news. I wanted Franziska and Alan Norman
was impossible to keep going to
one of his books, and I bought a
London, so now we attend Our
collection of them! Each one I read got me hooked.
Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge.”
“It was also serendipity, when in Berlin, a few doors
down from the church was a Women’s Order of
Roman Catholic Nuns. They had Perpetual Adoration.
Franziske took me and I just wanted to spend time
there being with the Blessed Sacrament. I had theology
from one source and practical advice from another.
On the Sunday morning we went with them to Our
Lady and the English Martyrs. It was packed with over
three hundred people present. All was just wonderful:
music, liturgy, homily, all drew us to the very gates of
heaven. Afterwards we were able to have a brief word
with the Rector, the Right Reverend Monsignor Canon
Eugene Harkness. He was supportive and welcoming.
“Long before the Ordinariate came along I was
beginning to feel uncomfortable with some aspects of
Well, two groups of Ordinariate members in
Anglicanism. When the Ordinariate was announced, I Cambridge. T he P ortal has managed to put them
felt it was in some way a personal invitation from Pope in touch with each other. Maybe the future will be a
Benedict. Franziska interrupted to say, “Although bright one for them all.
I followed Alan, now I would make the decision for
Mgr Keith Newton,
Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham,
I nvites you to the ordination to the priesthood of
Timothy Boniwell
Leonard Cox
Jonathan Creer
David Hathaway
David Jones
Thomas Mason
David Prichard
Michael Ward
by the Most Rev. Bernard Longley
Archbishop of Birmingham
on Saturday, 30th of June 2018
at 12.30 pm
at the Oratory of St Philip Neri
141 Hagley Road
Birmingham, B16 8UE
——— Please advise if attending. ——–
[email protected] The Presbytery
24 Golden Square
London, W1F 9JR