REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up
ARUNDEL & BRIGHTON Anne-Marie Mackie-Savage 01323 411370 We have recently been lucky enough in the Diocese to have enjoyed Missa Cantata in West Grinstead, Seaford, and Eastbourne in addition to our regular monthly Masses. Thanks to all the priests who give so generously of their time! We sadly lost another member of the LMS recently. Miss Barbara McIlvenna was one of the first members of the LMS, and profoundly knowledgeable regarding all things traditional. A wealth of wisdom and information, she is missed by all her friends. It is also incredibly sad that she did not receive the Requiem Mass she stipulated. In spite of her wishes, her family overruled them. It's an uncomfortable truth that for many of us with lapsed or NO family, this may very well happen to us. Even when clearly spelled out, people are not getting the Requiem Masses they request. Personally, I think I need to be more pro-active, and a re-write of my Will might be in order. Unless I am given the Requiem I ask for, Aid to the Church in Need or another worthy cause will receive any inheritance I might be able to leave. So please, if you want a Requiem, don't assume it's a done deal, not everyone sees its importance.
BIRMINGHAM (City and Black Country) Louis Maciel; Tel: 07392 232225 louis.maciel@gmail.com birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk This quarter saw two rather special events at the Birmingham Oratory: firstly, on the spring bank holiday High Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form for the first time on the feast of their patron, St Philip Neri, which was possible because the feast in the Ordinary Form fell during the Octave of Pentecost. On Pentecost itself, Fr Dominic celebrated the weekly 10.30am High Mass as his First Mass, after being ordained the day before during the Royal Wedding, the first time a First Mass has been celebrated in the Extraordinary Form at the Oratory and possibly uniquely outside the exclusively Traditional Orders. The Sacred Heart was well celebrated, with Low Masses on the Friday at the Oratory, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton and St Mary on the Hill, Wednesbury, and High Masses at St Augustine’s in Solihull and, as an external solemnity on the Sunday, the Birmingham Oratory. The Mass at St Augustine’s could be known as the Mass of three choirs, successfully combining the church choir with a chant group from St Dunstan’s and a Palestrina Mass sung by the choir of St Alphege. St Dunstan’s also celebrated a Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart a week later. Corpus Christi and SS Peter and Paul saw the now regular pattern in the region of a Low Mass at St Mary on the Hill
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and a High Mass at the Birmingham Oratory. The former also celebrated Low Masses for the feasts of SS John Fisher and Thomas More, the Transfiguration, and several votive Masses for the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays during June. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour celebrated its quarterly High Mass on the Feast of the Visitation. The regular Friday Mass was moved to Saturday morning during the novena.
BIRMINGHAM (North Staffordshire) Alan Frost 01270 768144 Masses continue each Sunday and Saturday (fortnightly) at Our Lady’s, Swynnerton, courtesy of Fr Paul Chavasse, Cong. Orat. An unusual addition to the Saturday Masses was the celebration of the Mass by an Oratorian brother of Fr Paul’s in July - Fr Richard Bailey, based in Manchester, Fr Paul being a member of the Birmingham Oratory. Fr Bailey brought along confrere Br Gerald, as well as a number of the congregation who attend the weekly EF Mass at St Chad’s in Manchester (Cheetham Hill). Fr Chris Miller continues to offer the Traditional Mass each First Friday at Sacred Heart, Tunstall in Stoke-inTrent, though, like Fr Paul in recent months, he has medical surgery to undergo in the near future. Nevertheless, he will be celebrating a Requiem Mass in the EF at Sacred Heart Church on the Feast of the Holy Souls. We might pray for the success of the operation Fr Miller has to undergo, and also for a dear friend of the LMS and celebrant of the EF Mass for many years, Fr Joseph Tynan, who is seriously ill. BIRMINGHAM (Oxford) Joseph Shaw 01993 812874 oxford@lms.org.uk NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS The Oxford area has seen many Traditional Masses in the last quarter, including our annual Mass in Milton Manor House and, over the diocesan boundary in Portsmouth Diocese, occasional Sung Masses celebrated by Fr Philip Pennington-Harris in the English Martyrs, Didcot, which are gradually attracting more parishioners. In the next quarter the annual LMS Oxford Pilgrimage takes place, on Saturday 20th October, in honour of Oxford's Catholic martyrs. There will be a High Mass in the Dominican Rite in Blackfriars at 11am, and other devotions. All the important feasts will be marked by Sung Masses at SS Gregory & Augustine at 6pm: see the Mass listings. Regular Masses continue at the Oratory, SS Gregory & Augustine's, St Birinus, and (in Portsmouth Diocese) Holy Rood, Abingdon Road.
AUTUMN 2018
