A friend of mine, who is an Anglican vicar, is in charge of one of Yorks historic churches, in fact, the oldest church foundation in the city, St Mary's, Bishophill Junior. This church is in use only early on Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings for services, Monday evenings for a choir practice [not connected to the church] and the local Orthodox Community use it every first Saturday in the month. The regular congregation is very small, and Andrew, the vicar, is desperate for the church to be used more often and to be seen to be used. With this in mind, he has absolutely no objection for Traditional Catholic services to be held there. He even had a key cut for me such was his enthusiasm for more use being made of the building.
I was asked whether it would be feasible to have Mass here, before we got the good news about St Aelred's, but it's still an Anglican church, and a Catholic priest may be unwilling to celebrate Mass there if we were lucky to find one. However, parts of the Divine Office can be done without the need for clergy, hence I am keen for Compline and occasionally Vespers to be celebrated more often - in the Traditional Rite of course!
I was asked whether it would be feasible to have Mass here, before we got the good news about St Aelred's, but it's still an Anglican church, and a Catholic priest may be unwilling to celebrate Mass there if we were lucky to find one. However, parts of the Divine Office can be done without the need for clergy, hence I am keen for Compline and occasionally Vespers to be celebrated more often - in the Traditional Rite of course!
The Schola Cantorum of the Rudgate Singers began by singing Compline on 12th January. We currently sing weekly, every Friday at 8pm with the exception of the First Friday of the month, as I have singing commitments elsewhere, in Manchester to be precise, at the monthly High Mass at St Chad's on Cheetham Hill Road.
The Rudgate Singers have used the church before, for a couple of Carol Services. Each time we've attracted 3-4 times the numbers of the regular congregation, but they have mainly been Anglo-Catholics. It's still very early days but I would like to think that if we were to have regular advertised services we might begin to attract Catholics and others too, who have been deprived of any kind of Traditional Liturgy in this city for far too long :-)
The Rudgate Singers have used the church before, for a couple of Carol Services. Each time we've attracted 3-4 times the numbers of the regular congregation, but they have mainly been Anglo-Catholics. It's still very early days but I would like to think that if we were to have regular advertised services we might begin to attract Catholics and others too, who have been deprived of any kind of Traditional Liturgy in this city for far too long :-)
Needless to say, we shall also sing at St Aelred's, which works out rather nicely, as it means we shall be singing in York most weekends. For more details of the Schola and the main choir please see our web site http://www.rudgatesingers.co.uk/