The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham includes the United Kingdom. It was the first of the Personal Ordinariates and was established in 2011. A monthly magazine, THE PORTAL, is for those in the Personal Ordinariates of the Catholic Church,  Anglicans who are interested in the Ordinariate, and all Catholic friends of the Ordinariates.

Click here to view the July 2017 edition of THE PORTAL on our sister community’s website.

This month’s edition includes:

• PORTAL Comment – Will Burton reflects
• Newman’s London – Joanna Bogle
• On the Ocean Wave – Snapdragon
• Patrimony: Is it important? – Fr. Mark Woodruff
• Syria and the Middle East – Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane meet John Pontifex
• The Transfiguration, the Assumption and the moral teaching of the Church – Fr Julian Green
• Thoughts on Newman – The Reverend Dr Stephen Morgan 
• Anglican News – The Reverend Paul Benfield
• Visit to Southend – Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane 
• Finding us at prayer – around the UK
• News from the Ordinariate around the UK 
• Joyful celebrations – in Clayhall, Ilford
• Aid to the Church in Need – Murcadha O’Flaherty 
• ‘Cracking Concrete’ – Fr. Simon Ellis
• Letter to the Editor
• Child abuse scandal – Geoffrey Kirk asks some awkward, but important, questions

In September the congregation will observe the 20th anniversary of its erection in the Archdiocese of Boston. The actual date was Sunday, September 28, 1997 when 29 men and women were received and confirmed and the Congregation of St. Athanasius erected and given parish status. We have observed the anniversary ever since on St. Michael’s Day, September 29th.

This year our observance begins one week earlier with the visit of Fr. Anthony Aarons, TOR, as our preacher at Mass and at evensong in Stonehill College at 4 pm on September 24th. Fr. Aarons is a native of Jamaica, a convert from Anglicanism, and was among 125 priests from the united States selected by Pope Francis to serve as a Missionary of Mercy during the year of Mercy.

Visiting us from September 29 to October 1 will be Fr. Joseph F. Wilson, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and a longtime friend of our congregation who has been our celebrant, preacher, and retreat leader on many occasions. Fr. Wilson was the founding chaplain of the Anglican use Society, and has been the Legatus Chaplain in Manhattan.

Watch for details of both visits, but please save the dates now for these celebrations.

If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your copy soon. You can also read this and all of the back issues on our website.

In addition to notes for our parish and news of upcoming events, August’s issue features the following:

• “Great Conversion Stories,” an article by John Janaro, Associate Professor Emeritus of Theology in Christendom College
• “Place Our Hope on the Event of Christ,” an excerpt by Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, a Puerto Rican theologian, scientist, and a leader of the international Catholic movement, Communion and Liberation.
• “Two Sides of the Same Coin,” a sermon by Father Richard Bradford
• “God Does the Most Essential, excerpt from Edith Stein’s Self-portrait in Letters; she was St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a German philosopher and convert to Catholicism from Judaism, and put to death at Auschwitz in 1942
• “The Head and Body of Christ” by Saint John Eudes, who gave a firm doctrinal basis for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• “Truth in Advertising,” an excerpt by Reverend Prof. Stephen Noll, an Anglican clergyman who taught for many years at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., and in Uganda
• “Christ Counts for Us,” an excerpt from Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts, by Pope Benedict XVI

Father and Mrs. Bradford hosted a brunch for us at their home after Mass on Sunday, July 16th. Chef Paul Uttaro started preparing the food while we were at Mass so it was ready for us to eat when we arrived. He served various frittatas, garden salad with his special dressings, scones, and coffee cake. This was followed by sumptuous dessert cakes and pies with fresh fruit.

An enjoyable time was had by all.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham includes the United Kingdom. It was the first of the Personal Ordinariates and was established in 2011. A monthly magazine, THE PORTAL, is for those in the Personal Ordinariates of the Catholic Church,  Anglicans who are interested in the Ordinariate, and all Catholic friends of the Ordinariates.

Click here to view the July 2017 edition of THE PORTAL on our sister community’s website. This month’s articles include:

• Will Burton: What a Saturday Night!
• Joanna Bogle: The Ordinariate at London Bridge
• Snapdragon: I have news for you!!
• Fr Mark Woodruff: The Maronites
• The Ordinariate has ten new Deacons!
• Fr Julian Green: Our Lord’s Precious Blood
• Dr Stephen Morgan: Risk Taking
• Visit to Darlington
• The Annual Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham
• Our Lady of Fatima visits Warwick Street … and stays overnight!
• A Eucharistic Procession to remember
• Christine and Barry Barnes: Walsingham Whispers
• Fr David Lashbrooke: The First Personal Parish
• Aid to the Church in Need
• Twenty-five years of Public Service
•  The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham
• Geoffrey Kirk: Procession and Party

If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your copy soon. You can also read this and all of the back issues on our website.

In addition to notes for our parish and news of upcoming events, July’s issue features the following:

• “Siding with the Lord,” a sermon preached by Father Bradford based on Mark 5:21-43
• “A Prayer for Our Country” by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York
• “Running Along the Way” by Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
• “The Fount of Joy” by Father Servais Pinckaers, OP, and Professor of Moral Theology at Freiburg
• “To Believe What God Has Revealed” by the Provost, from The Oratory Magazine, the parish paper of the Brompton (London) Oratory
• “The Climate Change Debate” by Simon Caldwell, published in The Daily Mail

The archives of all of the issues back to the first issue in 1998 are here.

To receive Contra Mundum by mail, send an email with your address to Steve Cavanaugh.

Since we have been joined by the members of the Ordinariate Community of Saint Gregory the Great, we have been using as our pew Missal, Divine Worship: The Missal. 

Bishop Steven Lopes, First Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, recently presented the Hillenbrand lecture on the origins of this Missal at the Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. You can read the text of his lecture here and view our pew Missal here.

Handsome leather-bound copies of Divine Worship: The Missal, and Divine Worship: Occasional Services were presented to Father Bradford after Solemn High Mass on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. Father Bradford wishes to thank The Most Reverend Steven J. Lopes, Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, members of the Chancery, and all who had a hand in making this wonderful gift possible. Their kindness and support is very much appreciated.

With Fr. Bradford away, we welcomed our good friend, Fr. Jurgen Liias, as our celebrant and preacher at Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on Sunday, June 18, 2018. Fr. Liias was the founding pastor of our sister congregation of St. Gregory the Great. It was good to catch up with Fr. Liias at the coffee hour after Mass.

With Fr. Bradford away, we welcome our good friend, Fr. Jurgen Liias, as our celebrant and preacher at Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi at 11:30 am at St. Lawrence Church in Chestnut Hill (directions).

Fr. Liias was the founding pastor of our sister congregation of St. Gregory the Great.

Mass will be followed by coffee hour with fellowship and refreshments.