Christ the King

The FSSP celebrates thirty years of existence, and one year in Bedford, as Barbara Kay explains

It was thirty years ago, on 18 July 1988, that the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) w as founded. One of its newest a postolates in this country, Christ the King, Bedford, came into being just one year ago on 8 October 2017.

The Traditional Mass came to Christ the King in August 2015, thanks to a number of factors. Firstly, the graciousness of Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, w ho allow s the Traditional Mass to be celebrated in his diocese. Secondly, the willingness and support of Fr Patrick Hutton, Parish Priest at Christ the King, who not only welcomed the Latin Mass to his church, but who with his wife, Rita, regularly attends it. Thirdly, the faithfulness of visiting priests , who often travel long distances to say the Traditional Mass. And, last but not least, the hard work of several people behind the scenes who set things up in the early days, and now keep them running.

All went well for the first two years under a rota of visiting priests, although trying to find a regular celebrant each week was at times challenging. In July 2017 the holiday period with its lack of celebrants threatened to leave Bedford without a Latin Mass. The Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, with its southern England apostolate based in Reading, had agreed to help out if necessary, and thus it was, that in July 2017, Fr Matthew Goddard and Fr Ian Verrier celebrated several of the Bedford Masses. Within three months, as from 8 October 2017, the FS SP had agreed to say the Sunday Mass each week, on Holy Days of Obligation, and additionally on Ash Wednesday and All Souls.

It is reassuring that we know we will have a celebrant each week; even snow has not prevented the FSSP priests from making the trip from Reading to Bedford to say Mass. To enable them to say the Sunday Masses at Bedford, at Reading and at Chesham Bois, an additional priest, Fr Patrick O’Donohue, joined the Reading apostolate in September 2017. The congregation at Bedford was told that he would need to be funded and they responded generously, donating over and above the amount required, much of it by way of standing orders.

Numbers steadily grew and congregations are now regularly in the 60s and 70s, with many young families coming from near and far, including one family from near Norwich, a distance of around 100 miles, Bedford being their most convenient regular Sunday Mass. Many friendships have been forged over a cup of coffee in the church hall afterwards.

Since the arrival of the FSSP, there have been other developments: Fr Ian Verrier with his musical expertise gathered together a group of singers to train them in Gregorian chant. The schola sung its first Mass in February 2018 and continues to sing one Sunday a month.

One Saturday in April, two of our congregation, Justin and Grace Bozzino, arranged for representatives from Rorate Caeli, an American home-schooling academy, to give a presentation in the hope that the first U K academy could be set up. Some 50 people attended the initial meeting. The signs of the academy becoming a reality are looking good, with the hope to open its doors in September 2019, and several families are considering moving into the Bedford area to be part of this.

One of the participants at the initial Rorate Caeli meeting was Matthew Schellhorn, who is well known in Traditional music circles. Matthew expressed a willingness to become involved in the music at Christ the King and offered to play the organ and sing for the Mass the very next day! It was not long before the FSSP had entered into an agreement with Matthew to sing the Mass twice a month, with the schola singing a third Mass each month, giving a total of Sung Mass three Sundays a month as from September 2018.

A Women’s Group, a Men’s Group and a Young Adults’ Group have started; we have had a series of five First Saturday Family Catechism days, and catechism continues after Mass on Sunday mornings. Our social event of the year is the Big Catholic Picnic, which includes Mass, and we held a very successful Barn Dance in July which raised funds for the parish and the FSSP.

We reached a record number of 82 people attending Mass on Pentecost Sunday 2018; we had started three years earlier with 16. We would never have expected a 400% increase in numbers in this time and are very grateful to both the earlier rota of priests and those from the FSSP for their ministry among us. Deo gratias and Ad multos annos!