REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up Arundel & Brighton Huw Davies aandb@lms.org.uk 07954 253284 This summer saw the happy return of the LMS pilgrimage to Our Lady of Consolation and St Francis at West Grinstead, where around 60 people (of whom one-third were children) were pleased to join with Fr Thomas Kent for his first public Mass, a sung votive of Our Lady of Consolation. We were lucky with the weather to then share some refreshments outdoors, before the afternoon ended with the Rosary and Benediction. Thanks must go especially to Thomas More Hagger for organising a choir in fine voice, as well as those who travelled from afar to serve, and the parishioners of West Grinstead for their warm welcome. It is expected that the pilgrimage will return in 2022, but before then there will be Sung Masses at West Grinstead on both Remembrance Sunday and Advent Sunday at 3pm. At St Hugh of Lincoln in Knaphill, the co-op of St Joseph for seven home-school families commenced in the parish in September with an inaugural Low Mass, and there is now weekly Adoration and Benediction for the children. Please keep this important new initiative in your prayers. In Eastbourne, at Our Lady of Ransom, there is still the welcome provision of two weekly Masses offered by Fr Bruno Witchalls and Fr Tristan Cranfield, with the Saturday morning Mass now having moved to Friday evening at 6.30pm, preceded by Benediction. All other Masses in the diocese remain as per the usual schedule, but it is always advisable to check parish websites or social media in case of Masses on Holy Days. Birmingham & Black Country Louis Maciel 0739 223 2225 birmingham@lms.org.uk birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ This quarter’s highlight was probably the High Mass celebrated on 9 October for the Feast of St John Henry Newman at the Oratory he founded in Birmingham. Falling on a Saturday this year, it was celebrated at 11am, replacing the usual 9am Low Mass. This followed a High Mass on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, tinged with sadness this year given that it used to be celebrated in thanksgiving for the anniversary of the now abrogated Summorum Pontificum taking effect. At the time of writing, the Masses for All Saints and All Souls have not taken place, with the celebration of the former slightly complicated by the Feast being transferred to Sunday by the Bishops of England and Wales in the new calendar, coinciding with the Feast of Christ the King in the 1962 Missal, preventing the celebration of an external solemnity on Sunday. The normal Mass schedule continues at the Oratory and at the other churches in the West Midlands area: 11.30am Sunday at St Mary-on-the-Hill in Wednesbury for the Walsall deanery, every Friday evening at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in the Wolverhampton deanery, third Fridays at St Dunstan’s in the South Birmingham deanery, and first Friday at Acocks Green in the East Birmingham and Solihull deanery, although it was
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not possible to celebrate one in October. Please show your appreciation to the priests offering these Masses by attending them while you still can. Birmingham (North Staffs) Alan Frost A special Mass was held on 15 August as it is the patronal Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, to whom the parish Church in Swynnerton is dedicated. Approaching the village, one sees a bold sign proclaiming its Royal Charter granted by Edward I, and Fr Chavasse informed us that the King authorised an annual fair as part of the Charter, to be held on this Feast, beginning 15 August 1307. The Catholic Church of the time still stands impressively in the village centre. Opposite is the delightful chapel of Our Lady built by the ancestors of the present titled Stafford Family: Maria Teresa Fitzherbert, in 1868, commissioned Gilbert Blount, a pupil of Pugin, to create the gothic style church near their seat of Swynnerton Hall in memory of her husband Francis. Her son Basil was very much involved in the planning. It was opened in 1869, and mercifully never reordered. The weekend before, the first Saturday morning Mass (a fortnightly event now resumed) was celebrated since before the original lockdown. Elsewhere, after a short break in August, Fr Stefek resumed the weekly Wednesday Mass in Stoke-on-Trent at the beginning of September. The following week (on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows) he celebrated the Mass as his first Missa Cantata, his second on the Feast of St Michael the Archangel, thanks to the help of the Scorey family and the singers. A note about the Mass at Swynnerton on 14 November being Remembrance Sunday. It has special significance for parish priest Fr Paul Chavasse, Cong. Orat, as in the first World War the cousin of his grandfather, Noel Chavasse, was one of only three men ever, the only one in WWI, to be awarded the VC twice. Birmingham (Oxford) Joseph Shaw oxford@lms.org.uk oxfordlmsrep.blogspot.com/ Regular Masses continue, with All Saints and All Souls being celebrated in the Oratory and in SS Gregory & Augustine's. Of particular note is the Sung Votive Mass for the Unity of the Church at 6:30pm on Wednesday 3 November, over the diocesan boundary in English Martyrs, Didcot. Birmingham (Worcestershire) Alastair J Tocher 01684 893332 malvern@lms.org.uk extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook: Extraordinary Malvern This quarter has seen the return of more former Masses in Worcestershire: September saw the return of 1st Sunday Missae Cantatae at St Ambrose’s, Kidderminster celebrated by Fr Douglas Lamb; and October saw the return of 1st Friday
WINTER 2021
