THE
P RTAL
November 2016
Page 9
Where are the laity?
After the wonderful festival and pilgrimage of the Ordinariate
to John Henry Newman and Birmingham,
Ronald Crane has been looking at the photographs of the event
Iwas brought
up on wonderful stories of brave, holy and courageous clergy who spent their entire
ministry serving the working class poor in some of the most deprived areas of our country. They took the
gospel into the darkest areas of English life. They spent themselves for their flock.
These accounts inspired me. In due time, I found
myself as the CofE Parish Priest in an inner city,
working class parish in one of our great cities. Looking
back over the history of what came to be called the
Anglo-Catholic Movement was as depressing as the
stories of its founding Fathers were inspirational.
The Anglo-Catholic Movement had become the
Anglo-Catholic Clergy Standpoint. The laity had
been forgotten. They were little more than observers.
Just when the CofE was introducing Synodical
Government, Anglo-Catholics had become clerical.
Photograph: Eric Pittuck
This is not to denigrate the CofE, and far less AngloCatholics. I have nothing but admiration for those
Anglo-Catholics who have remained in the CofE amid
the overwhelming liberal, and protestant, direction of
today’s CofE. My friend Fr Benfield writes each and
every month in The Portal of how things are in the
CofE. His articles are important for us, as I trust, are
the other articles in The Portal, for him and his CofE
friends.
Photograph: Jozef Lopusxynskl
to Blessed John Henry Newman at Birmingham
Oratory and St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham was
a photograph of The Right Revd Mgr Keith Newton
flanked by two deacons and preceded by a seminarian.
All the photograph shows of the three or four hundred
laity present, are the backs of their heads!
Although there are some fine pictures of the laity on
the Ordinariate web site, there are far more of clergy.
In fact, there were some one hundred and thirty laity
at Solemn Evensong in St Chad’s Cathedral on the
Friday evening, and between three and four hundred
present at the Oratory the following day. Where are
they in the pictures?
So often pictures of great events show us the clergy,
and we should have pictures of our clergy. Without
them, there would be no Eucharist. But we need
pictures of the laity as well, for without them there is
no Church. To be blunt, who pays for it all?
I pray with all my heart that the Ordinariate will
be successful in helping the re-Evangelisation of our
country, and this will mean bringing the people back to
However, it seems to me that a failure to take the laity the ancient Catholic Faith, to the full joys of the gospel
seriously has contributed to the demise of the, once that sets us free. Clergy are, of course, important in
great, Anglo-Catholic Movement. I may be wrong, and this task, but so are the laity.
indeed, I hope I am; but my fear is that the Ordinariate
could be heading in the same direction.
The Portal has, as one of its objectives, to be a
magazine produced by the Personal Ordinariate of Our
Perhaps it is because I am now no longer a CofE Lady of Walsingham for its members, for members of
priest, but a Catholic layman, but my heart sank when the CofE who are interested in the Ordinariate and for
I opened page ten of the Catholic Herald published our non-Ordinariate Catholic friends. In all this, we
on 21st October 2016. Accompanying a lovely and have the laity in the forefront of our minds.
supportive article about the Ordinariate Pilgrimage
(Fr Julian Green will be back next month)