About the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at St Mary’s College, Oscott, at the end of his 2010 State Visit to the United Kingdom, said the Ordinariate…”should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all“.
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was erected by decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in January, 2011 and the then Father Keith Newton was appointed by the Holy Father as its first Ordinary. On Ash Wednesday 2011, about 900 laity and clergy of the Church of England ceased public ministry in the Anglican Communion and began a forty day period of preparation to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
Three serving bishops of the Church of England: the Right Reverend John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham; the Right Reverend Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet; and the Right Reverend Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, made public their intention to join the Personal Ordinariate when it was established.
On January 1, 2011 these three men, together with two of their wives and three former sisters of the Society of St Margaret in Walsingham, were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church by the Right Reverend Alan Hopes, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, in Westminster Cathedral.
On January 13, 2011, the three former Anglican bishops were ordained to the Diaconate by Bishop Hopes in the chapel of Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea and to the sacred priesthood by Archbishop Vincent Nichols on Saturday 15 January 2011.
During Holy Week 2011, almost 1000 men, women and young people were received into the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. After Easter the former Anglican clergy were ordained to the Diaconate and then, around Pentecost 2011, they were ordained to the sacred priesthood. More than 80 former Anglican clergymen have joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham since it was erected, and most being ordained as Catholic deacons and priests.
For the first time in its history, Anglican services, such as Evensong, are now being celebrated in the Catholic Church by canonically recognized groups of former Anglicans.
About the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Gregory in London:
The origins of the church lie in a chapel established in the 1730s at the Portuguese Embassy on Golden Square. At that time, with the English Penal Laws in force, most Roman Catholic chapels existed under the protection, and within the precincts, of foreign embassies. Responsibility for the chapel passed to the Bavarian embassy in 1747, but the chapel was destroyed in the Gordon Riots in 1780. (The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment).
The replacement church was designed by Joseph Bonomi the Elder, an Italian architect and draftsman, who had moved to London in 1767 to work in the practice of Robert and James Adam. The church was built between 1789 and 1790. It is the only surviving eighteenth century Roman Catholic chapel in London. The church has attracted many prominent Catholic worshipers, including the young John Henry Newman.
The Church has a Shrine to Persecuted Christians:
The Shrine features an icon of Our Lady with the words “Mother of the Persecuted” written in Aramaic. The icon was painted by Sister Souraya, a Syrian nun of the Basilian order. You can read more about Sister Souraya here (external link, this page will stay open).
Although it probably hasn’t happened (yet) in your country, there are many areas of the world where Christians are discriminated against, churches burned (even in Canada) and persecution does take place in various degrees. This Shrine is a place to pray for those who are discriminated against…or even killed..for The Faith.
Currently the church does offer the Solemn Mass in the Ordinariate Use on Sundays at 10:30 am, but be sure to check their website below for any changes. Other masses are Novus Ordo Masses.
Finding the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in London:
The church entrance is located on Warwick Street, between Beak Street and Glasshouse Street, just off Regent Street. The nearest tube station is Piccadilly Circus.
Church Address: Warwick St, London W1B 5LZ
Office Address: 24 Golden Square, London W1F 9JR
Tel: +44 020 7734 9313
E-mail: london.central@ordinariate.org.uk
Click here for the official website of the Ordinariate Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in London. (Lots of great information…not only Mass times but especially about St Gregory the Great)
