Saturday 7 November 2009

Confirmation According To The Usus Antiquior

A couple of the Confirmation candidates in my class this year had opted to go to St. James', Spanish Place, to be confirmed in the Traditional Rite. As catechist, I wanted to "see them done" and so I went along: it was another "first" for me.

The church is beautiful, with more statues and stained glass than you can shake a stick at...

Fr. Tim was either deacon or sub-deacon, I'm not sure which, and rather a lot of the servers seemed to be from Blackfen - eight or nine, I think. Their families came along too, and so we formed quite a respectable group!

I had problems keeping the camera still (I forgot my trusty monopod) and so messed up more than my usual number of photos. Still, I managed to get a reasonable selection to show...

Bishop George Stack, one of the Auxiliary Bishops in the Westminster Diocese, conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation (I think that is the correct term), and gave Benediction afterwards. Fr. Andrew Southwell was either deacon or sub-deacon (whatever Fr. Tim wasn't!)

Another new experience for me, and I think it will have to be a regular feature of my own personal calendar... hopefully I'll get better photos next year!

4 comments:

Idle Rambler said...

Lovely photos Mac and, as you rightly say, a beautiful church - according to the photographic evidence! I have never been myself although our older son has been several times for Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

Liam O'Hara said...

You could work out who is doing what, if you can spot who is wearing a maniple.

gemoftheocean said...

Fr. Tim must have been the subdeacon, because for one thing he is to the left of the bishop at the benediction.

Ben Trovato said...

We were there too: Charlie was confirmed (the third of ours to be confirmed there). A magnificent ceremony, and great singing. Shame the booklets were so scratty!

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