One By One...

Archbishop Bernard Longley has become the latest Catholic Bishop to speak out on the issue of same-sex "marriage." He has sent a Pastoral Letter to be read out at all Masses in the Archdiocese of Birmingham for the Feast of the Holy Family. Unfortunately, the letter isn't yet up on the website, so there are only a few snippets in a report by the Daily Telegraph.

I am very encouraged by the fact that, one by one, the Bishops of England & Wales are realising that they cannot remain silent on the issue of the redefinition of marriage. And it is a redefinition - it has absolutely nothing to do with equal rights and discrimination. Civil partnerships provide every legal "equality" that could be asked for... which then begs the question, why?

Why the urgency to push this legislation through, when it wasn't in any Party manifesto? Why are all the possible contenders for Tory party leadership (should Mr. Cameron be rejected) suddenly in favour of the legislation? Why is the success of this legislation so critical that the use of the Parliament Act is being flagged up to dissuade any House of Lords rebellion?

Why is it happening now? And, given that there appears to be support from the leaders of most of the political parties, who, exactly, is pushing for this?

Christmas Toys...

After Rosary & Benediction on Thursday evening, an altar server couldn't resist showing one of his Christmas presents to His Hermeneuticalness...

And, needless to say, "Fr. Gadget" couldn't resist trying it out...

A Missed Opportunity...

Yesterday was the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. Chatting to Annie Elizabeth today, I discovered that we had both missed the opportunity to get our wine supplies blessed. The chaps at Papa Stronsay were much better-prepared, and arranged for the blessing to take place in the refectory...

As Annie Elizabeth pointed out - next year we will bring a whole car boot-full... each...

Midnight Mass At Blackfen...

We were truly blessed to be able to have a Solemn High Mass at midnight on Christmas Eve. The sacristy team had worked tirelessly to decorate the church, and the senior altar servers (particularly Zephyrinus and Matthaeus) had helped to arrange and light candles... I managed to take a few photos before everything started...

The carols started at 11:20pm - with Leutgeb making the whole musical director thing look effortless. The night was truly magical, the sermon moved me to tears, and the Senior MC had arranged mulled wine and mince pies for all the helpers. Unfortunately I was driving, and so had to forego the mulled wine but I was allowed to imbibe the aroma for about three seconds (all that the MC would allow, as he wanted to drink it!)

You can see a few more of the photos over at my Flickr page (yes, I managed to rescue them after all!)

Christmas Capers...

After Midnight Mass, two of the altar servers were very keen to demonstrate how they had managed to sneak their decorated socks past the (usually) eagle-eyed Senior MC.

To be fair, I think that the aforementioned Senior MC had his hands full with the four clerics he was shepherding through the intricacies of Solemn High Mass...

In any case, I think that the two servers were trumped in the sock department by a younger member of the congregation who had what looked like a dog attached to his socks...

Uh-Oh...!

In this technological age, it is very easy to forget the basics. Like the inconvenient fact that things take time to transfer from one machine to another...

I used to take photos on my mobile or camera, then I'd upload them onto my computer using a USB cable. I would convert them to smaller versions for the blog using Photoshop Elements, and save this as a separate folder. I'd often save them on Picasa too. Then I would upload selected photos to Flickr. Time-consuming. But I always had several copies of my photos...

Now, my mobile phone automatically copies my photos onto Dropbox. I then upload copies from Dropbox onto Flickr... Sometimes I will also upload them to my own computer. In theory, everything should be much, much easier...

Unfortunately, I am a very "organised" sort of person. I hate having lots and lots of shortcuts on my desktop. I like folders. Lots and lots of folders. All neatly labelled and arranged. The mobile phone's way of just adding more and more photos to the camera is annoying. I like to group my photos.

So, overnight my mobile uploaded the photos I took during Midnight Mass to Dropbox. And this evening I tried to move all the photos into a folder on Dropbox prior to copying the folder to Flickr. And then, having moved the photos, I proceeded to delete them from my phone...

Only the photos didn't actually appear to have been moved... oops.

I think I deleted them too quickly. Or something like that. Fortunately Dropbox appears to have some sort of experience with klutzy behaviour. I discovered a "restore" button on the website (though not on the downloaded version) so its not quite the catastrophe I first feared...

A Happy Christmas...

Prayers and best wishes to all my blog readers for a happy and holy Christmas...

Photos from Midnight Mass will be posted in due course!

A Christmas Present...

Deo gratias! The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has finally been given a church! The parish of The Most Precious Blood, Borough, is to be cared for by Fr. Pearson of the Ordinariate.

I have to say that I'm surprised it has taken so long for the Ordinariate to be given a church... in America, the Ordinariate were given a base almost before they'd been formed. I'm also surprised that the Ordinariate haven't been given a church in Westminster... but, hey, Southwark seems to be a little more organised.

I've been to the church in Borough - about 15 years ago. It's very close to London Bridge, so isn't as horrendous a location as it sounds (I mean, who has heard of "Borough"??) and I'm sure that the Ordinariate will be able to do great things there.

UPDATE:  It seems as if the parish hasn't actually been "given" to the Ordinariate, but has just been entrusted to their care. This is really unbelievable - the Ordinariate ought to be given their own church to serve as a base for Monsignor Newton as the Ordinary. The Bishops of England & Wales need to be much more supportive, as they have been encouraged to by the words and example of the Holy Father.

Gaudete !

Yes, slightly late... but the last week and a bit before Christmas is just manic. Anyway, better late than never - you can see a few photos from the Solemn High Mass and a photo from the Carol Service over at the Flickr page.