Saint Ignatius Loyola

Collect:
O God, who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in your Church
to further the greater glory of your name,
grant that by his help we may imitate him
in fighting the good fight on earth
and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer of Saint Ignatius Loyola
Teach us, Good Lord,
To Serve Thee as Thou deservest;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To labor and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND IN 2013

A JOINT PILGRIMAGE FOR ST. AUGUSTINE’S RUSH GREEN and ILFORD HOSPITAL CHAPEL.WITH FATHER MARTIN AND FATHER MERVYN

Brochures are now ready for the Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2013.  We are stopping at two excellent hotels and all entrance fees, three meals a day, and all gratuities are included. We plan to visit all the well-known holy places including Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Tiberius, the Sea of Galilee, the River Jordan etc. using air-conditioned coaches with an excellent Tour Guide. There will be a Daily Mass.  Travel Insurance is extra if needed (many people have an annual policy so don’t need the cover offered by the travel company) This is a trip of a life time organised for us by one of the best and most experienced travel companies McCabe.
The Pilgrimage is open to all who are interested so if you would like more details contact Father Mervyn or Father Martin .

EMPTY SEATS

I was very disappointed when I discovered that I had managed to secure none of the tickets I had applied for, for the 2012 Olympics. It is therefore rather annoying to see rows of empty seats at various events. It now appears that not all seats were sold and that some are still available.Figures released today indicate that between 100,000 and 120,000 remain unsold. Looking on the Olympic Website to investigate I discovered I could buy a ticket for £205 for swimming but no way could I afford that, and even if I could I would be asking the question as to whether I should spend that on a ticket. Of course, there are some even more expensive.

I have been surprised at how the lottery for tickets worked because it seems to me that not everyone had an equal chance. How can you explain how some managed to get so many tickets whilst others got none at all.

PAID BY CASH

Tory Minister David Gauke has condemned people who pay tradesmen in cash as they can avoid paying VAT or Income Tax. He says families who settle bills cash-in-hand are as bad as tax avoiders. But are there any options? Since cheque guarantee cards were abolished  by the banks I’ve found more and more traders ask for cash. To quote a few examples: our window cleaner, my local tyre garage, my local car servicing garage. None of them take payment by credit or debit card so there is no option and all insist on cash. The implication is that any trader who takes cash is on a tax fiddle and whilst I don’t doubt there are some I don’t believe for one moment that they are all like that and I personally object to the inference that by paying tradesmen in cash I, and many thousand others, are as bad as tax avoiders.

It is interesting that the Daily Mail features this information about the Minister:-

“David Gauke has branded those who avoid tax as ‘morally’ questionable – but he is open to charges of hypocrisy.

In 2006/7, Mr Gauke used his parliamentary expenses to ensure that taxpayers bore the cost of his stamp duty payments when he moved house.

He claimed £10,248.32 in ‘mortgaged payments’ on his second home that year. That broke down as ‘Inland Revenue Stamp Duty’ of £8,550. 

The rest was accumulated solicitors’ fees, land registry and property searches.

He was later cleared of any wrongdoing and has not had to pay any of the money back.”

SUNDAY TRADING LAWS RELAXED FROM TODAY

From today the restrictions on shops opening on Sundays are ended until after the Olympics. This, the Government argues, will boost the income of retailers. But, as many small shops have pointed out, the only benefit will be to the large shops and supermarkets and this will be detrimental to the smaller business.We have been reassured that this is only a temporary relaxation but is this really true. The reassurances were made by George Osborne initially in the March budget but his record on changes to his budget proposals are well known.

THE BBC REPORTS “Under current legislation shops of more than 280 square metres (3,000 square feet) can open for a maximum of six hours on a Sunday, and only between the hours of 10:00 and 18:00.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said larger shops would be "free to choose their opening hours on a Sunday" with "no restrictions on these hours" until the Olympics and Paralympics were over on 9 September.

Chancellor George Osborne said the move would help maximise the economic benefits of the Olympics”.

I believe this is the thin edge of the wedge. Retailers will assert that this “relaxation” has been a wonderful success and put pressure on a sympathetic Government to make this temporary change become permanent. When the restrictions on Sunday Trading were first lifted  I warned about the effects and campaigned against them as, of course, did the Keep Sunday Special Campaign. Sadly, since those days, we have seen the nature of a Sunday as a day for the family, a day for attending church, radically change.

I read today an opinion which said that as we now live in a multi-cultural society, a society which has many different religions, the majority of which don’t regard Sunday as a day for religious observance, we should enable total abolition of Sunday Trading Law as soon as possible. It then said Britain is no longer a Christian country. WRONG! Britain is a Christian country which has welcomed members of differing faiths but has never rescinded its Christian heritage.

WHAT ECTASY?

I thought some readers may have missed this interesting piece of information which is to be broadcast on Channel 4.

“This week in the church press from the BIBLE SOCIETY NEWS WATCH

A female vicar agrees to take ecstasy on live TV show

An, as yet, un-named member of the clergy has agreed to take the drug along with a former MP, actor Keith Allen and a disparate group of participants, including policemen and soldiers. They will take 83mg of MDMA, the pure form of ecstasy, to explore the effects of the banned substance. The programme is called: Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial. (Read more, Premier, 19/7)”

To my way of thinking this is a totally irresponsible gimmick and will fulfil no useful purpose whatsoever. One wonders what we can expect to see in the future.

THIS WEEK (so far…………………)

On Tuesday Ann and I went to the Institution and Induction of The Revd. Father William Obedoza as Vicar of St. Barnabas, Woodford Green. Father Williams appointment ends an interregnum which has gone on for over 3 years. During that time the parish has been cared for by retired priest Father Donald May with assistance from other local priests (including me). The service was conducted by the Bishop of Barking and the Bishop of Richborough who preached a really first-class sermon. As this parish is under Royal Patronage the Crown was represented by the Deputy Lieutenant of Redbridge. Amongst the congregation were the Mayor and Mayoress of Redbridge, The Consul General of the Philippines Embassy, the local MP Lee Scott, the Police and Fire Brigade and many clergy, friends and members of Deanery Chapters and Churches, members of SSC, and the St. Barnabas Congregation. Father William’s training incumbent Father David Waller was present with Father Robert Page who are both now members of the Ordinariate and it was good that they felt able to be present and robe to support Father William. Afterwards it was good to see so many friends at the reception.

Yesterday evening I celebrated Mass for the Redbridge & Havering Ordinariate Exploratory Group.which was attended by 12 with 2 apologies. We discussed the recent happenings at General Synod and in the USA.

Today I celebrated and preached for the lunchtime Mass at the Ilford Hospital Chapel.

15th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Today I concelebrated and preached at St. Augustine’s, Rush Green where we had a full church with many children. A brief summary of my sermon is HERE,

Have you signed the Petition yet? If not please do so HERE. Over 1,300 have done so.

The Prayer for England

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
and our most gentle Queen and Mother,
look down in mercy upon England, your dowry;
and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in you.
By you it was that Jesus, our Saviour and our hope,
was given to the world; and he has given you to us
that we may hope still more.
Plead for us your children whom you received
and accepted at the foot of the cross. O sorrowful Mother,
intercede for our separated brethren that, with us,
in the one true fold, we may be united to the chief Shepherd,
the Vicar of your Son.
Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works
we may be counted worthy to see and praise God,
together with you, in our heavenly home.
Amen

The State of the Episcopal Church of the USA

The following article by Deborah Gyapong appears on the Anglo-Catholic Blog. It really shows the sorry state of the Episcopal Church and the way the CofE could be heading unless the liberal agenda it seems to espouses is curtailed.

“A most interesting observation from Charlotte Hays over at The Corner at National Review about "The Episcopal Church's" 77th General Convention in Indianapolis:

Can there be anything left to change after Indianapolis? Indianapolis voted for provisional liturgies for uniting same-sex couples (rings are exchanged), ceremonies for pet funerals (I guess my little cat died too soon), the ordination of transgender people to the clergy (why not — women and ex-women welcome?), and an apology to American Indians for having introduced them to Christianity.

It is interesting that so much of what happens at the General Conventions revolves around sexual issues. Sexual behavior, almost more than any other facet of our lives, involves an urge to do what we want to do, regardless of the rules. The Primal Episcopalian, Henry VIII, split with Rome because he wanted to do what he wanted to do with regard to a sexual issue. Women were allowed to be ordained because, well, women wanted to be priests. A Gospel or Tradition that says you can’t do this must be ditched in favor of a new discernment.

The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the homosexual bishop of New Hampshire, whose consecration in 2003 almost split the Episcopal Church, looked to be everywhere at the Indianapolis convention. At one point, the Right Reverend even took to the floor to deny nasty rumors that there was trouble in paradise between himself and his “beloved Mark.”

Thanks for sharing, Gene. Glad my mother didn’t live to see it, though. The Right Reverend spoke endlessly about his pet subject: sexual identity. “One striking point, at least to this writer, was the fact that there was no reference in any of the Bishop’s comments to the one aspect of sex that is relevant to the survival of the human species, namely, human reproduction. For all we know every other aspect of ‘sexuality’ is purely the result of human socialization,” a report in Virtueonline, a traditional Anglican website, noted.

In a way, that sums up the sad proceedings in Indianapolis: sterile.”

THE PANACEA?

I remember being told, twenty years ago, that the remedy for the ills of the CofE was the ordination of women to the priesthood. We would, we were assured, see an influx of people into the worshipping community; this innovation would bring new life and new people into the church. The church would be renewed and invigorated. In fact, the reverse was true; Sunday attendances declined, marriages in church decreased, baptisms became fewer. The brave new world forecast never happened.

Now we are being told that the panacea needed is that women should be admitted to the Episcopate as a matter of justice and equality. This will herald the brave new world for the CofE. We only need to look at the declining numbers in the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA),where women have been bishops for several years, to realise that this is not true. Membership has decreased year on year; for example in 2009 it was 682,963 and in 2010 it had decreased to 657,831. It has been forecast that by the year 2030 on this basis, if the trend continues, the Episcopal Church will cease to exist.

One of the interesting facts is that churches which are growing teach and preach the Gospel as delivered to the apostles and maintained through 2,000 years and have nothing to do with the liberal agenda of women priests and bishops.

HOLY LAND 2013

 

Today Father Martin and I have been to McCabe's in Balham to spend time planning our proposed pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2013. We will be holding a meeting at St. Augustine’s Church, Rush Green on Sunday 22nd July following Evening Prayer at 6.00 p.m. when we will show pictures of some of the places we hope to visit. Anyone who is interested in coming with us, is invited to the meeting but if you are unable come contact me, or Father Martin and we will arrange for you to have a brochure as soon as they are printed. This is a 10 day trip of a life time, staying at excellent hotels, with a daily Mass and the cost includes breakfast, lunch and dinner and all entry fees and gratuities with a first class tour guide.

PETITION

For another way to sign the Petition click HERE

PETITION

If you would like to sign the petition which has been started by the Revd John Richardson for the Bishops to keep Clause 5 (1) c click here.

NO ROOM?

As had been widely anticipated General Synod voted to adjourn the Debate on Women in the Episcopate until November. It was a move by people such as WATCH to get the Bishops to remove what they saw as a clause which would, in their opinion, make women second class bishops. There were several good speeches encouraging Synod to reject the adjournment including one by Father Philip North which posed the question “Is there any room for Anglo-Catholics and Conservative Evangelicals in the Church of England:” He pointed out that the Bishops had inserted the clause with the objective of keeping the CofE together.

One hopes that the Bishops will stand firm and not allow themselves to be brow beaten into a humiliating withdrawal of the clause which provides a bare minimum of protection for those who believe that women cannot be either bishops or priests.

General Synod – tomorrow

 

The debate and vote on Women Bishops could end with either the debate being adjourned which is what a number of Women Bishop supporters want as they don’t like the additional clause added by the Bishops or it could fail to reach the necessary two thirds majority in all three house (Bishops, Clergy and Laity). If it fails the earliest it can come back is 2015. However if the debate is just adjourned it will come back in a special session in November when a final decision could then be made. However this could depend on the Bishops withdrawing the clause which has caused some women such problems. The argument is that the additional clause makes consecrated women second class bishops. In fact, it does nothing of the sort; it provides a bare minimum of protection for those opposed to women bishops on theological grounds – just a bare minimum!

If the debate is adjourned It is just possible, that the Bishops will have the courage to stick to their decision but I will not be holding my breath.

However it seems to me that those women who see their future as bishops want to rid themselves of any sort of opposition and want the opposition to leave.  As The Revd. Rose Hudson-Wilkin said recently: “The Church is desperately trying to hold everybody together, and we haven’t understood that this is not going to be possible. To try to do that is to put on a sticking plaster that is going to curl at the edge and fall apart. It cannot be sustainable. The whole thing is a mess. We need to say, as a Church, 'We ordain men and women.’ Full stop. All the way to the top. For those who feel that they can’t live with it? They’re adults. By all means, go to Rome. Join the Ordinariate. Don’t stay and make demands of the Church. It’s wrong.”

What she, and others like her fail to understand is that those of us called traditionalists are endeavouring to maintain the apostolic faith which has been maintained by the church since its inception by Our Lord.

BANKERS

The revelations that LIBOR has been gerrymandered by various banks including Barclay’s is a matter of the greatest concern. Many financial institutions including credit card agencies and mortgage lenders set their own rates based on LIBOR. . It means, that some people paying mortgages, for example, have been charged more than they should. Accusations have been made that previous government ministers have been involved. Why did the banks want to do this; the one word answer is greed.

Barclays have already paid £290 million in fines over this and their Chief Executive Bob Diamond has had to resign.The present Government have set up a Committee to investigate what has been going on but I don’t think a Parliamentary Committee will have the ability to get to the bottom of this scandal. We have already witnessed Bob Diamond at the Treasury Select Committee evading all the questions.What this needs are two things; an investigation by the Fraud Office and prosecutions where necessary and a full blown judicial review with witnesses under oath and QC’s asking probing questions so that people like Diamond cannot prevaricate as he did at the Treasury Select Committee.It seems that Diamond is expecting to receive over £20 million as compensation for losing his job. In my opinion, he should receive nothing at all.

The Holy Land 2013

Yesterday, there was a meeting of the SSC Chapter of St. Helena at Prittlewell. On the journey there Father Martin and I were able to discus our plans for a Pilgrimage in 2013 to the Holy Land. By co-incidence we both received a large envelope this morning with many details about organising a Pilgrimage. We hope that this will be a joint pilgrimage for the people of St, Augustine’s, Ilford Hospital Chapel plus any others who would like to join us.

We hope to have more details soon but in the meanwhile there is to be an evening on SUNDAY 22nd JULY with Evening Prayer at 6.00 p.m. followed by and illustrated presentation about the Holy Land at St. Augustines.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED PLEASE COME.

CBS - A FURTHER POST

I would never have expected the amount of vitriol from some people after the Charity Commissioners decided that the CBS Grant made to The Ordinariate was not within the remit of the Trustees to make. Not only that, the Trustees must have known when they made their decision to give away over 50% of the total CBS assets, that the meeting was inquorate and as a consequence the decision was invalid anyway. That being so it is surely no surprise that the decision should be declared invalid.

As I said in my previous post on this, I congratulate The Ordinariate in repaying the £1 million plus interest with such alacrity. Now that this matter has been resolved, the previous Trustees have resigned and new have been appointed. The new officers are:-

The Rt Rev'd Roger Jupp	Superior-General
The Rev'd Darren Smith	Treasurer-General
The Rev'd Edward Martin	Secretary-General
The Rev'd Preb Sam Philpott	elected 2012
The Rev'd Canon Barry Fry	elected 2012

With a new Superior-General and Trustees, members should give the CBS their support and prayers. Perhaps now we will be allowed to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the founding of this wonderful society which had been disallowed pending the decision of the Charity Commission.

To the Garden Centre

Yesterday Ann and I went to a Garden Centre near Harlow which is some way away from where we live but which has a wonderful stock and an excellent cafe. We were able to spend the last of the vouchers I was given when I retired now 4 years ago and we now have a brown fig tree, a small bay tree, a water butt and several pots of herbs.On the way home, we found a Farm Shop which sells almost exclusively organic products and we found they were no more expensive than our local supermarket and, in some instances, even cheaper.

Today I preached at St. Augustine’s, Rush Green; to read a brief report visit here