THE P RTAL
March 2014
Page 8
Our Ordinariate Friends
Jackie Ottaway speaks to Nicolas Ollivant
Nicolas Ollivant
is the Chairman of the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of
Walsingham. We met in his London flat. This is on the top floor of some wonderful buildings near
Westminster Cathedral. The ancient lift reminded me of Hercule Poirot. It was exciting to draw back the
gates and step inside, before ascending to the top floor where Nicolas was waiting. Coffee served, we settled
down to chat.
Nicolas had an Australian grandmother; his father
was in the Royal Navy so the first three years of life was
spent in South Africa. Eventually the family settled in
London and that is “home”. He was at Stowe School
before reading Latin, Greek and Russian at Bristol
University. He lived in Chicago for eleven years and
then Moscow, with periods in London.
All Saints, Clifton
Brought up an Anglican, he attended All Saints,
Clifton in Bristol and All Saints, Margaret Street in
London. “Chicago is the biggest Catholic Archdiocese
in America so all my friends there are Catholics. When
I came back here, I decided to put things in order. I
saw Fr Ignatius at the Oratory and was received into
the Catholic Church in August 1993.”
I find it very comfortable there. The other thing is that
the Friends of the Ordinariate was set up to encourage
non-Ordinariate Catholics to support the Ordinariate
financially and also to help non-Ordinariate Catholics
to understand what the Ordinariate is all about.
provide support
“The initial impetus for the Friends was Michael
Hodges and Peter Sefton-Williams. Just after the
Ordinariate was set up originally, they spoke with
Mgr Keith Newton, and said they had this idea that
there should be some kind of outside group helping to
provide support. They thought there would already be
something in place, but there was not!
“It was their idea to set up the Friends. At that point
the key focus was raising money, and a secondary
“I thought the Ordinariate made perfect sense. One issue was explaining the Ordinariate to people, and
of the problems in the Church of England is that there publicising it.
are so many people in it not attached to the theology
that underlies it. They are attached to the buildings and
“If we organise an event like the Epiphany Carol
the liturgy and the sort of Englishness of the Church of Service or a fund raising event, we try and publicise
England, and the music of course. It’s a sort of cultural it as widely as possible: the Catholic Herald has been
religion.
very helpful from that point of view. We use any media
available to tell people to come along and see.
“We shouldn’t be too critical about this because if
you have an established church, then everyone in the the Ordinariate is main stream
“I think it’s important that people see the Ordinariate
country is part of that church and within it you get all
sorts of different views. Once that sense of a National as main stream. We have Fr Ignatius from the Oratory
Church starts to disappear, it is no longer the National in Birmingham as one of our honorary Vice Presidents,
as well as the Duke of Norfolk and the Duchess of
Church and you ask what it was there for.
Somerset and we appreciate their support. We have
He continued. “We may thank God and thank Pope some other well-known names too.
Benedict that we have a gateway into the Catholic
“That’s important, we don’t want to be peripheral,
Church that is rather bigger than the gate there used
but at the same time this is a very diverse group with
to be, and if we can bring laity with us, that’s great.
links to all parts of the country. Last year we had a
not a member of the Ordinariate
fund raising party at the Nunciature, and we had about
“I’m not a member of the Ordinariate, because I’ve fifty people there. The Nuncio has very kindly agreed
been a Catholic for twenty odd years; I didn’t see any to host another party this year, in June.
particular reason to do that. I am quite happy going
“It’s very important that journalists should write
to the London Oratory where I know the Provost, Fr
Julian. He’s an inspiring leader of the Oratory and I about H