REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up Arundel & Brighton Annie-Marie Mackie-Savage 01323 411370 aandb@lms.org.uk Masses continue to be regularly said in the Diocese, details of which can be found on the A&B blog. There is a new regular Mass said at Christ the King, Eastbourne, every Tuesday morning at 7.30 by Fr Thomas Mason, and now every fourth Sunday at 8.00 am. We are very grateful to him for this. This means there is now a Latin Mass every Sunday, if you are able to travel. If you have knee trouble, I advise you to take your own kneeler. Actually, take one even if you haven't. Any extra Masses will be advertised on the blog. I am sad to report the death of Fr David Goddard. Mr David Brown writes: "It was a sad but beautiful Mass on a filthy night in a jam-packed church. It was the wish of Fr David to have the EF Mass. Fr Matthew Goddard was the celebrant with FSSP brother priests as deacon and sub deacon. There were at least ten priests dressed in cassock and cotta in choir on the sanctuary. The beauty of the Mass will live in the memory. Fr David Irwin, a long-time friend of Fr David and frequent visitor to WG, gave the oration at the end of Mass. Tom Haggar and his schola were as expected brilliant. This was a fitting memorial to a wonderful priest and a great champion of the Traditional Mass." May he rest in peace. Birmingham & Black Country LR: Louis Maciel; Tel: 0739 223 2225 E: birmingham@lms.org.uk W: http://birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ All Souls fell on a first Friday, which meant it saw around a dozen EF Masses celebrated over five parishes, including a special 8am Low Mass at St Dunstan’s, in addition to the regular Friday Masses at Wolverhampton and Solihull, and special Masses at Wednesbury and the Oratory, the latter offering a Low Mass every half hour between 8am and 11am and a High Mass at 7.30pm. The following week, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton celebrated the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica with a High Mass at 7pm. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour also celebrated three Rorate Masses at 7am on the three Thursdays during Advent. The Oratory could only celebrate one on the Saturday before Christmas as the other two Saturdays coincided with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Oratorian Blessed Anthony Grassi, for which there was High Mass and Sung Mass respectively. Christmas itself saw three regional EF Masses celebrated: an 8am Low Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, a 9.30am
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Sung Mass at St Mary-on-the-Hill in Wednesbury, and a 10.30 High Mass at the Oratory. The rest of Christmastide saw two EF Masses celebrated every day until Epiphany, mainly at the Oratory and Wednesbury although there was a Low Mass at Holy Cross, Lichfield on New Year’s Eve celebrating the transferred feast of St Thomas of Canterbury. St Mary-on-the Hill celebrated several additional Masses for various Feasts, including the Immaculate Conception, the Epiphany and several Saturday votive Masses of Our Lady. There is a change to the Mass schedule in the East Birmingham and Solihull deanery – following the departure of Fr Daniel Horgan to Ireland in September, the first Friday Mass at St Augustine’s has now been discontinued, with the last Mass in February. However, there will be a fourth Friday Mass at Sacred Heart and All Souls in Acocks Green which started on the Feast of the conversion of St Paul. As this is a new Mass you may wish to check with the parish before travelling - please see the Mass listings for further details. Birmingham (Little Malvern) Alastair J Tocher 01684 893332 malvern@lms.org.uk extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook: Extraordinary Malvern The last quarter of our first year at St Wulstan’s saw a significant increase in Mass attendance at our twice-monthly Sunday Masses. The Sung Requiem on the centenary of the Armistice in particular saw over 50 in attendance and it was a pleasure to see the church so full. The Ordinary of the Mass was Victoria’s lesser known Missa pro Defunctis a 4. The parish’s ornate catafalque candle stands had been stripped and resprayed in good time for the Requiem and the original parish funeral pall cleaned up and patched, having not been used for many years previously. A similar Requiem Mass for next Remembrance Sunday is already planned. By the end of the year we were able to buy our own Altar Missal. In addition, an antique white Roman-style Low Mass set has now been acquired and restored and made available for our Masses along with green and violet copes for the Asperges. We have recently also acquired a fourth server who had previously served regularly at Spetchley. Having recently discovered a set of torches in the parish store room I would nevertheless still welcome more servers so that we might return the torches to their proper liturgical use. Lastly thanks as ever to our chaplain, Dom Jonathan Rollinson OSB, our servers and singers for their tireless and enthusiastic support.
SPRING 2019
