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 September 2017 edition of THE PORTAL on our sister community’s website.

This month’s edition includes:

• Portal Comment: “Catholic Women of the Year”
• “LOGS, Political Correctness….” by Joanna Bogle
• “Snapdragon has been dreaming – again!”
• “Robes and layout” by Fr. Mark Woodruff
• “A Catholic Country Parson!” by Fr. Stephen Lambert” by Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane
• “Ordinariate Festival 2017” —  Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane report from Westminster
• Thoughts on Newman: “Converts: Newcomers should remember their station or should they?” asks the Reverend Dr. Stephen Morgan
• Anglican News: “Transgender and the CofE — the Reverend Paul Benfield reports on a General Synod debate
• Ordinary down under: Monsignor Keith Newton reflects on the meeting of the three Ordinaries
• Ordinariate Groups around the UK
• “The Ordinary’s Diary”
• News from the  Ordinariate: Ratcliffe College and Ordinations to the Sacred Priesthood
• “Booklet published for Novena in Honour of Our Lady of Walsingham”
• “A stone uncovered,” a review by Fr. Simon Heans of Freemasonry and the Christian Faith by Fr. Ashley Beck
• Aid to the Church in Need: “With God’s help we will rebuild” by Murcadha O Flaherty
• “Tips for the growth of an Ordinariate Group” by Shane Schaetzel.
• RIP Monsignor Augustine Hoey
• “Loyalty and its consequences” by Ronald Crane
• “Are practising Catholics welcome in public life?” by Geoffrey Kirk

If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your October issue soon. You can also read it here on our website as well as all of the back issues.

This issue includes a sermon by Fr. Bradford and articles and writings by noted authors, as well as news and notes for our combined community and congregation, and announcements of upcoming events:

• Notes from the Chaplain: “The Middle East: A Church in Need,” a sermon by Father Bradford
• “A Church Fishing for Souls,” an article by the Provost, from The Oratory Parish Magazine, London, England
• “Building Up Orthodox Belief,” an excerpt from an article by Rod Dreher in the New York Times
• “Great Conversion Stories,” an article by John Janaro in Magnificat

As part of our twentieth year anniversary celebration, Fr. Anthony Aarons, TOR, was our preacher on Sunday, September 24 at our 11:30 AM Mass and at the Evensong at 4:00 PM at Stonehill College.

A native of Jamaica, Father Aarons was an Anglican Priest before being received into the Catholic Church. He became a Franciscan and is a member of the Third Order Regular. Father Aarons was one of only 126 Americans selected by Pope Francis to be Missionaries of Mercy during the recent Holy Year of Mercy.

In this video recorded last Friday for the CatholicTV Network, Fr. Aarons discusses his conversion to Catholicism, his friendship with Fr. Bradford, the Congregation of St. Athanasius, and his being appointed a Missionary of Mercy.

You can view the video here:

Please note that Fr. Bradford is also a priest at St. Theresa’s Church and has an office there, but the Congregation of Saint Athanasius worships at Saint Lawrence Church in Chestnut Hill.

If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your September issue soon. You can also read it here on our website as well as all of the back issues.

Father Bradford describes the founding of our congregation and the background of and relationship with the priests who will help us celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the congregation on September 29th. It also includes a sermon by Fr. Bradford and articles and writings by noted authors, as well as news and notes for our combined community and congregation, and announcements of upcoming events, especially the events to celebrate our twentieth anniversary:

• Notes from the Chaplain: “How It All Began” and “Twentieth Anniversary Events” by Father Bradford
• “Surrender Everything but Your Faith,” an excerpt from a homily on St. Matthew’s Gospel by Saint John Chrysostom
• “Divine Freedom,” an excerpt by Fr. George Florovsky, a Russian Orthodox priest and one of the most influential Orthodox theologians of the mid-20th century
• “Absence Has Consequences,” a sermon byFather Bradford
• “Our Destiny in God,” a sermon preached at Evensong by Fr. Thomas M. Morris
• “To Live Out of Deep Conviction,” a message by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

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 September 2017 edition of THE PORTAL on our sister community’s website.

This month’s edition includes:

• Portal Comment, Will Burton’s monthly round-up
• A Walsingham summer by Joanna Bogle
• Ecumenism on the high seas: Snapdragon has had an ecumenical experience
• Catholic Liturgy is Diverse by Fr Mark Woodruff
• “If music be the food of love, play on” by Keith Brown
•  Silence at the heart of the Faith by Fr Julian Green
• Thoughts on Newman by the Reverend Dr Stephen Morgan
• Anglican News by The Reverend Paul Benfield
• Visit to Wales by Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane
• Finding us at prayer around the UK
• News from the Ordinariate around the UK
• “I do not do nice!” by Ronald Crane
•  Offered, blessed, broken and shared, the Mass by Arnold Herron
• Honouring the memory of El Salvador’s martyrs by Murcadha O Flaherty
• Anglican Papists and Reunion by Sheila and George Campbell
• A hymn by Peter Aberlard appreciated by Ronald Crane
• Who is ganging up on the Holy Father? by Geoffrey Kirk

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 August 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.