REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up Birmingham & Black Country Louis Maciel 0739 223 2225 birmingham@lms.org.uk birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ I am pleased to report that most of the EF Masses in the region have resumed after lockdown, with numbers broadly in line with what they were previously save perhaps for a brief reduction due to those shielding or self-isolating, but nonetheless comparing favourably with equivalent Novus Ordo Masses in the same churches. The Oratory has resumed its usual schedule of a weekday Mass at 5.45pm, a Mass on Saturday at 9am and High Mass on Sundays at 10.30am with an overflow Mass celebrated in the Upper Cloister Hall if capacity is reached. The 5.45pm Mass was replaced with a High Mass at 7.30pm on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Feast of St John Henry Newman. The third Friday Mass at St Dunstan’s resumed in July and is now being celebrated on the new main central altar, which contains a relic of St John Henry Newman which was kindly donated by the Oratory. Although Fr Tomas has moved to the Cathedral, he is returning to Sacred Heart and All Souls on first Fridays to continue celebrating the Mass in Acocks Green. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton continues to live-stream Mass on Fridays at 6.30pm for those who are unable to attend in person. Birmingham North Staffs Alan Frost A happy though fairly rare event in North Staffs was the celebration in August by Fr Chavasse of a Traditional Rite Nuptial Mass for the wedding of a young couple in his parish church of Our Lady of the Assumption at Swynnerton. The couple are regular attenders of the Old Rite Mass. Unfortunately, the following month Fr Chavasse, who has suffered quite a lot in recent times, had to be admitted to hospital with heart trouble, but, Deo gratias, was able to be taken home a few days later and, in early October, is recovering, and has resumed some parochial duties. The weekly 6pm Sunday EF Mass continues with Fr Stefak (Stoke) or Fr Goodman (Wolverhampton) standing in. Fr Stefak visited his native Poland in August and on his return resumed the weekly Wednesday 7pm Old Rite Mass at St Augustine’s, Meir, Stoke. He continues to promote and explain the Tridentine Rite Mass in his parish bulletin (which includes two other churches he is in charge of). A Low Mass was celebrated at a former regular venue for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and Eve of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, at the splendid Oulton Abbey Benedictine chapel, and another Mass will be offered here on the evening of the Feast of All Souls, 2 Nov.
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Birmingham (Worcestershire) Alastair J Tocher 01684 893332 extraordinarymalvern.uk@btinternet.com extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook: Extraordinary Malvern A great deal has changed since my last report in January. Although the introduction of weekly Missae Cantata at Little Malvern was viewed as a success by those attending, it was sadly not a view shared by the parish priest and consequently the Traditional Latin Mass ceased being celebrated at St Wulstan’s from mid-March. I had initiated discussions to celebrate replacement Masses at a neighbouring parish instead but then there was Covid-19 lockdown, since when no tangible progress has been made. Once lockdown was eased there was at least some good news on the horizon – or perhaps more accurately over the horizon in neighbouring dioceses: the formerly weekly Sunday Low Masses at both Ledbury (Cardiff) and Prinknash Abbey (Clifton) were each to be increased to weekly and each moved to the prime late-morning slot. This has enabled at least some of those formerly attending Little Malvern to attend Masses at Prinknash or Ledbury instead. It has also been possible to arrange for some Masses at Ledbury to be sung: one by a solo cantor, a second by Schola Gregoriana Malverniensis which formerly sang at Little Malvern, and with a few more tentatively planned. The parish priest at Ledbury, Fr Adrian Wiltshire, also took the opportunity to celebrate all his daily private Masses as Low Masses. Prinknash Abbey however found itself simply overwhelmed by the increasingly large numbers arriving from many miles around and has quite understandably consequently had to suspend all public Sunday Masses. Elsewhere in Worcestershire Fr Jason Mahoney (Redditch) has been celebrating private Low Masses whenever possible, and Fr Christopher Draycott (Evesham) has continued to celebrate midday Low Masses on Mondays, albeit now privately though broadcast on YouTube. No public TLM’s have been celebrated by Fr Douglas Lamb at Kidderminster.
Most Holy Trinity, Ledbury
WINTER 2020
