Ordinariate Conference in June

Members of the Ordinariate are very excited to be gathering for a day together at Buckfast Abbey. To be in the Ordinariate itself still feels like a great honour, even a year on, and gathering together to meet and get to know one another better is always a treat. On top of that it is a great privilege to host such a well respected theologian as Professor Tracey Rowland, especially as she is in the UK for only a brief few days, on her way home (in Australia) from Rome.

One of the exciting things about being a member of the Ordinariate is being conscious that one is part of something being formed by the Holy Spirit in the Church. Our dream to be in the full communion of the Catholic Church has been fulfilled, but we are not to sit on our laurels. God has called us to Apostolic Work for that is why we have been given the church structure we have been given (not a society or prelature). The exciting thing is that while we are confident God knows what He is about, we have not yet fully discerned His purposes for us. We hope very much that Professor Rowland will help reflect on our calling and the meaning of the Ordinariate in the context of what the Church calls, the New Evangelisation.

Most of those booked on the day are members of the Ordinariate but we would welcome both our Anglican and diocesan Catholic brothers and sisters to join us if they wish. Already about a dozen Anglicans have booked places.
There are still plenty of places so book now with me at  buckfast@ordinariate.org.uk 
Fr Ian

The Day's programme

  9.45am    Arrivals begin
10.15am    Mass
10.45am    Coffee
11.00am    Talk 1 - Prof Rowland
12noon      Angelus
12.05pm    Lunch & free time (packed lunch or The Grange)
 1.30pm     Talk 2 - Prof Rowland
 2.30pm     Question time
 3.00pm     Free time
 3.30pm     Evensong & Benediction  in the Abbey
 4.15pm     departure

Directions to the Conference centre: http://www.buckfast.org.uk/page-directions.html

The Conference centre has its own parking, although the Conference centre is part of the Abbey site. Put simply drive past the normal entrance for visitors, turn right where the road dips and rises a little, and turn right again. Follow the wiggly lane until you come to the car park.

We look forward to seeing you.
Bookings with Fr Ian:  01752 266523  or  buckfast@ordinariate.org.uk
                Christ the King Presbytery, Armada Way, Plymouth, PL1 2EN

Ascension of our Lord



Giotto's The Ascension ca.1305



We celebrated joyfully the solemn feast of The Ascension of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Buckfast Abbey. We sang "Alleluia! sing to Jesus" to Hyfrydol, Vidi Aquam for the sprinkling, the Missa de Angelis Gloria, "Rejoice the Lord is King" to Gopsal for the offertory, and "Praise my soul the King of Heaven", after mass proper we sang English version of the Regina Caeli in front of the statue of Our Lady.

The Abbey Church is currently undergoing lots of works. The whole of the North aisle and transept are boarded off, and there is lots of cement dust in the air. The cleaners must be working on overdrive to keep things clean. In an effort to reduce growth of this dust on precious parts of the Abbey furniture various items have been boxed in perspex, e.g. the font and reredos.

The Statue of Our Lady is now situated on the south of the Altar in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and it is a pleasure to sing the Regina Caeli there each Sunday.

Sermon by Fr Ian

"God goes up with shouts of joy..."

I wonder how we should imagine the Ascension in our thoughts? A friend told me that during a pilgrimage to Holy Land the local guide led them up the mount of ascension to point to an indentation in the rock saying that our pushed off the ground with such might at the Ascension that He left behind a foot shaped indentation in the rock! Should one imagine a kind of Superman?

Or at the Anglican Shrine Church in Walsingham, if memory serves me correctly, if one looks up in the Ascension Chapel one sees a pair of feet sticking through the ceiling. Again I am not sure it is very helpful.

The word "ascension" is used not to suggest that Jesus went into the sky like a rocket, but that the risen Christ was raised, body and soul, to a higher and ultimate form of existence. "Why? Surely the resurrected Lord had acheived all that was necessary for salvation?"  Well the answer is "not quite".

Yes, Christ had risen victorious from death and evil, but His human nature was still attached to the Earth and had yet to reach the climax of existence - the fullness of life in the Trinity.

So what we celebrate is the climax of salvation history; for in Christ, humanity was brought into the Godhead!  In His divine nature Christ is always at the right hand of the Father, but in emptying Himself of His equality with God and the taking on of humanity - Christ walks humbly through His human existence so enabling us to follow. So ultimately, in the Ascension, after conquering death, the enemy and evil, He draws His humanity (body and soul) to the right hand of the Father.

So we can now grasp that one of the Persons of the Trinity, the Son of God, the eternal Word, Jesus Christ, is in His human nature as well as His divine nature, fully part of the divine perfect communion.

So this celebration reveals to us the ultimate destination for our following of Christ. It is not a disembodied existence we look forward to, but a resurrected bodily existence in the fullness of the communion of God.

It is in the context of this aspect of the Ascension, that we also remember that Christ sent His disciples out into the world: making disciples of the nations and baptising in "the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Our mission is in the context of knowing our ultimate destruction and longing for all people to find it in Christ.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.