4 minute read
A new beginning Fr Henry Whisenant on the start of a regular Old Rite community at Withermarsh Green on the southern edge of Suffolk
A new beginning
Fr Henry Whisenant on the start of a regular Old Rite community at Withermarsh Green on the southern edge of Suffolk
One can see why the Dedham Vale was once a Recusant hideaway; the closer you get to the locality of Giffords Hall, which hosted secret Masses down the centuries, the narrower the roads become and the higher the hedges. I think of this area as the Dedham “Veil”, because everything is guarded from view by ubiquitous foliage.
And it is here in Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Edmund, King and Martyr, a place of hidden Catholic history, that a chaplaincy has been established once again. Thanks to the proposal of my bishop, His Lordship Alan Hopes, and thanks to the hospitality of the Fenwick family who own St Edmund’s chapel, we have the privilege to start a regular Old Rite community in this part of East Anglia, on the southern edge of Suffolk.
Admittedly, when the Bishop first proposed the site and I had the chance to mull it over, I was uncertain as to how it could work. All very well for Recusants who wanted their doings to remain hidden, but how would the faithful get here, and how would they find it? It’s not even in a village!
Of course, I underestimated not only the usefulness of the Satnav, and the attractive tranquillity of the location, but also the tenacity of those looking for the Traditional Latin Mass. From the start we have had 60 congregants regularly coming for our Sunday Masses, praise God; 80 attended the first Mass we held outside the church on the Feast of the Assumption, despite a decidedly discouraging forecast and no chance of provisions afterwards.
I am reminded of the film Field of Dreams, in which a farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. “If you build it, they will come!” says the voice. Perhaps the Bishop also knew that if he offered a regular Latin Mass anywhere in the Diocese, people would come! Indeed, they travel not just from the nearest towns of Ipswich and Colchester, but even from King’s Lynn and Cromer on the other side of the Diocese, a two hour drive.
Why do they take such pains to get here? Why do they get up early, dress the little ones in good time, drive long distances, and eat pack lunches on a wet afternoon after the liturgy? Because they believe that the richness of the Old Rite will more than repay their efforts. In their own words they tell me the same thing: that it strengthens their prayer life, makes tangible the articles of the creed they profess, holds the attention of their children, and encourages them at a time of uncertainty in the wider world.
At the moment, we are occupied at St Edmund’s with setting up many of the basics: acquiring items for the sacristy, organising the weekly flower and cleaning rota, creating a website, and - very importantly now that we have daily Mass - training altar servers. Eleven men came to our first training session, half of whom have never served before, so that is a most promising start.
I’ve noticed a real enthusiasm among the faithful here for getting stuck in, and those who are new to the Old Rite seem bent on learning as much as they can as quickly as possible! So, at the request of some of the congregants I have decided to use the Sunday homilies to explain different aspects of the Traditional Latin Mass, especially for those who are new but also for “old hands”. Here I find myself indebted to the FSSP with whom I spent the past year at St Mary’s Warrington, and where I learned so much about the older liturgy that I can now gratefully pass on.
As I write, and following the Bishop’s own visit to install me as chaplain and celebrate a Pontifical Low Mass (very ably assisted by Fr Andrew Southwell), the next stage for this chaplaincy is my move into the presbytery. This will mean we have a convenient place on the site of St Edmund’s for catechesis, and (once the current national guidelines are relaxed) for tea and coffee after Mass. Other things on the agenda are finding a confessional for the church; at the moment confessions are heard in the old stables outside. And we hope to find a local cantor or two familiar with plainchant so we can start to have some Sung Masses!
For all our various needs we have a Holy Hour every Saturday, as well as a daily resolution to say three Hail Marys and a prayer for the souls of those who are buried in the nearby cemetery (with the expectation that those in Purgatory will pray for us in return!). Any fruit of this apostolate will surely be due to the efficacy of the communion of saints between this world and the next, and indeed every day when I come to the Memento for the faithful departed in the Canon of the Mass, I think of the Recusant laity and priests who persevered in the practice of their faith here for centuries when it was forbidden, and I am aware that this chaplaincy today stands on their shoulders.
The first Mass, for the Assumption, held outside to accommodate numbers
