THE P RTAL
November 2017 Page 8
told us , “ This may come as a surprise to you , but I occasionally visited the local pub and the land lady was a good friend of mine . This guy arrived in the neighbourhood while I was away in the States for the summer , and she thought he ’ d do for me .
“ She made a point of talking to him every night so no one else moved in on him . But it took ages before anything came of it . Eventually we got married at the end of 1976 . Patrick arrived in June of 1987 . When I was nine months pregnant , Ian was diagnosed with cancer . He was coming to visit me in hospital then going off to be treated in another hospital .
“ Our son Patrick was 15 months when Ian died . That was a pretty interesting couple of years .
“ I was a professional tennis player , but I stopped when I got married . Back then , there were two role models : Billie Jean King who saw her husband for half an hour periodically in an airport , and Margaret Court whose husband travelled around the world carrying her bags . I just didn ’ t fancy either of those .
“ When Patrick was a baby I worked for the Lawn Tennis Assosciation in the training department . It became a nightmare . In the end I was doing a part time job in the morning and Patrick was at nursery , then I would go pick him up and do my coaching in the afternoon . And that became such a mess , that when I was offered a full time job in the nursery right around the same time as I was offered a full time job in the place I worked in the morning , that I thought someone is speaking to me here so what happened . I chose the nursery option .
“ My faith is important , I couldn ’ t have done without it .” We wondered when the Catholic faith kicked in . Patti said it was when she was at school . “ From the age of 13 I always had somebody important in my life who was a Catholic who I could go to Mass with .
“ When I was travelling playing tennis , it was really easy to go to Mass because there was a posse of Catholics on the circuit . It is amazing how many Catholics are involved with professional sport .
When the Ordinariate came along Patti realised it was something important , because of what Pope Benedict had said to the bishops at Oscott at the end of his visit in 2010 , so she went along to the first ordination in Westminster Cathedral . “ I don ’ t think I realised what a big deal it was going to be until I was actually there . I thought this is quite momentous .”
“ I went looking for the Ordinariate . I already knew Joanna Bogle ; we had been on the committee of the Association of Catholic Women for years .”
“ It was either at that ordination or shortly after that I met Fr Chris Pearson . I seemed to keep bumping into him . That ’ s how I kind of knew Precious Blood Church was on the cards .
“ We used to go there before it was actually theirs . We used to show up on a Thursday night before Evensong and walk around the parish saying the Rosary trying to claim the territory .
“ With regard to the Ordinariate Rite , the Tudor language I like to think , picks up the history of our Church in this country , how it went through the time of the Reformation and some people hung on to the Catholic faith .
We commented that Patti seemed quite happy at Precious Blood . She replied , “ Yes , but you do know that ’ s just a side line . I ’ m actually the sacristan at the Holy Redeemer down the road .”
Jackie said , “ So you ’ ve never became Ordinariate ?” “ No I ’ m not eligible - I ’ m just tolerated !!”
“ But you can be an associate member .” “ Is there such a thing ?” “ Indeed there is !”
We are grateful to Patti for her welcome and frankness . She will be in our prayers , as we hope we are in hers .
The Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church ... continued from page 6
Those of Anglican tradition should be proud of their bond with the Armenians . After 1915 , when Ottoman Turkey Massacred its Christians by the million , the Church of England boldly spoke up for the Armenians to the world powers .
In 2015 the Armenian Church canonised its
500,000 martyrs . And in a beautiful embrace of the patrimony of another Church as part of the Tradition shared by all , Pope Francis not only declared them to be martyrs of the whole Church : he made the Armenian spiritual master , St Gregory of Narek , revered by Orthodox and Catholic alike , a Doctor of the Universal Church .