Bishop Crowley Resigns

Bishop John Crowley has resigned as Bishop of Middlesbrough. This has been accepted by the Holy Father. Read the story here. There are no details of why the Bishop has chosen to resign but it is presumably linked to his recent poor health. Please remember him in your prayers.

Servers, Musicians and Singers

The introduction of Sunday Masses will bring a need for more Altar Servers. Ideally there should be at least 4 servers (an MC, a thurifer and two acolytes) at a High Mass. We would be grateful to hear of any men and boys who are able to serve or who would like to serve at these Masses.

We could also do with an experienced organist and singers to join the choir. Members of the Rudgate Singers are spread throughout the North of England, the Midlands and Scotland, so we need more local people to join us! Anyone with the appropriate skills who wishes to join should contact me via our website www.rudgatesingers.co.uk

St Margaret Clitherow Society

The Latin Mass Society has adopted St Margaret Clitherow as one of its patron saints. She was a citizen of York and consequently particularly associated with our Diocese. By coincidence, at the same time as St Margaret was adopted as a patron saint of the society, some traditionalist Catholic students at York University formed the St Margaret Clitherow Society. This is a most welcome development and demonstrates that there is interest in traditional Catholicism amongst the younger generation. We know that there are already several members and that the society is planning some activities for the summer term. Their first outing is likely to be the Mass at Everingham on 13th May

We also know that there is a group of young people in Hull who wish to learn to sing Gregorian Chant. We shall try to help them in any way that we can

Frank Highfield

The funeral of Frank Highfield took place recently. Frank Highfield's wife Molly was the representative of the Latin Mass Society in the Diocese before they went to live in Liverpool a few yeras ago. Fr Hudson of the Institute of Christ the King said the Requiem Mass for Frank in Liverpool on Sat 10th March and then came to Middlesbrough on Mon 12th March for the interment and a further Requiem Mass at the Church of St Andrew, Teesville. There was a very good attendance and it is very gratifying to know that Frank was able to have his funeral in the Old Rite.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE

Solemn High Mass at Everingham

There is to be a Solemn High Mass at the Church of St Mary and St Everilda in Everingham at 11.30am on Sunday 13th May.

Fr William Hudson of the Institute of Christ the King will be the celebrant and the Rudgate Singers will be singing Palestrina's Missa Brevis and other polyphonic motets as well as the Gregorian Chant Propers. This magnificent church was built as a private chapel by the Constable-Maxwell family in 1836 and stands alongside Everingham Hall. It is in the style of the Italian Renaissance and is regarded by many as the grandest Catholic private chapel to have been built in England since the Reformation. It served as a parish church until a few years ago when it was closed by the Diocese of Middlesbrough. Since then, it has been largely disused, although the Guest family, who are the current owners of the Hall, have done their best to keep it in a decent state of repair.

Since this will probably be the first time that a sung Tridentine Mass has been celebrated on a Sunday in the diocese for more than 30 years, we intend that it will be a memorable occasion. the church can seat about 200 and we would like it to be full; so please come along and bring your friends. As an added attraction, and because many will be travelling some distance, we will be serving some light refreshments after Mass.

Everingham is a very small village about 5 miles south of Pocklington; and is signposted from the main A1079 York to Beverley road. The church can be found by taking the road out of Everingham towards Harswell and Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. The entrance to the Hall and church is on the left as you leave the village. If you are uncertain of how to get there, or if you require a lift, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We already know of several people in York who would like to attend but do not have a means of transport to get there. So please let us know via the website if you are able to offer a lift. It may be that there will be sufficient people to organise a minibus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ss_Mary_&_Everilda,_Everingham

Petition for Iraqi Christians

This is not a usual topic of discussion amongst the traditionalist community but I feel it is of some importance and would like to draw it to your attention:

“Many Christian refugees arrive from Syria on mountain paths used by smugglers, bringing with them little more than a suitcase or two and harrowing stories of rape, kidnapping and murder. Upon arriving, the first place many of them go is the Assyrian and Chaldean churches.”

If you are a UK citizen you can sign a petition to help Iraqi Christians (the vast majority of whom are Chaldean rite Roman Catholics). The deadline is 23 April so there is not much time left. You need to submit a valid e-mail address (which is not published) and then click on the e-mail they send to verify it otherwise your name will not be included.

You can sign the petition here.

Aid to the Church in Need is running a special Middle East Appeal to provide urgent support to Iraqi Christian refugees. See here.

Back to The Office

While we wait for the snags which are delaying the York Mass from going ahead to be ironed out, I'm happy to report the the chanting of the Divine Office goes from strength to strength. Not only have we acquired a new and very enthusiastic member of the Schola - take a bow, Seishi :-) - but last night for the first time, we sang on a Saturday evening, as I'd wanted to do something during the Octave of Easter.

What made yesterday evening so special, was the fact that we were joined by a good friend, Chris, who brought two other people with him, bringing us up to 6 singers! Chris is the Director of music for an Anglican church in Ilkley (St Margaret's), who rehearse on Friday's and sing on Sunday evenings. As these are the days when we have normally sung, it would mean they would miss out on chanting the office with us - so for the foreseeable future, unless other events, concerts etc are taking place, we're going to sing on Saturday evenings.

Yesterday's chanting was excellent, apart from one or two minor mishaps, due to the fact that the Office differs somewhat from what we're used to in the Easter Octave. If you're in York, and want to experience the singing of Gregorian Chant in the context of true Liturgical worship [This IS the Catholic Office by the way, despite the fact that our wonderful hosts are Anglicans!] then please do come and take part. We do have orders of service so to speak where everything is written out in both Latin and English, so you'll know what's happening even if your Latin is only basic... ;-)

Depending on how many of us there are, we occasionally 'retire' to a local pub afterwards, where we either discuss, the service, future plans, what's happening locally - the Moto Proprio is a hot topic at the moment - or anything else that comes to mind. You would, of course, be more than welcome to join us there too!

All dates and times of services and other events can be found in our Calendar on the website http://www.lms-middlesbrough.co.uk/

St Margaret Clitherow

Today is the memorial of St Margaret Clitherow, martyr, known as 'The Pearl of York'. Earlier this year St Margaret was adopted as one of the Latin Mass Society's two patron saints for her devotion to the Holy Mass and her active involvement in the Church.

A Reminder

This coming Sunday 11th March, 6.30pm at St Mary's Church, Bishophill, York

1st Vespers of St Gregory the Great sung by The Schola Cantorum of the Rudgate Singers.

Forthcoming Services

Rather than list each individual service one by one, I thought I'd provide the link to the Calendar on the website, so you can see for yourselves how busy we are!

http://pub3.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=217070521

Worthy of note is next Sunday when we shall be singing First Vespers of St Gregory the Great.

I'll quote from the St Andrew Missal.

St Gregory, justly called the Great, is one of the most outstanding popes in the Church's history. The English owed their conversion to his sending a group of Roman monks to make "the Angles angels". .. He watched equally over the sanctification of the clergy and the maintenance of Church discipline.... The liturgy owes him some of its most beautiful prayers, and the very name of "Gregorian Chant" recalls his part in the development of church music. His commentaries on sacred Scripture and other writings excercised a great influence on Christian thought in the Middle Ages, and won him a place with St Ambrose, St Augustine and St Jerome as one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. He died on March 12, 604 and his body rests in St Peter's at Rome.

So you see the connection with Gregorian Chant, which is why it was too good an opportunity to miss :-) There may be the odd blemish, as Ben and I haven't sung Vespers for a while, and never together. We'll also have a new recruit singing with us who's never sung Vespers at all [Compline this Friday will be his first service] so I hope those of you who can make Sunday evening will forgive us if things go astray somewhat!

In addition to the Office at Bishophill, there are TWO Masses coming up, one just outside the Diocese, but well within reach for people in the York area. It's just over 30 minutes driving time away, and it can take almost that long, just to get from one side of the city to the other, so if you have transport, there's NO excuse for you not to go unless you have pressing needs that keep you in York. I'll quite happily provide directions upon request... [For everybody else who reads this, who doesn't come from the greater York area or who doesn't have transport , this obviously doesn't apply to you, so can safely ignore the above!]

OK. Mini-rant over ;-) the second Mass is actually in York itself on Palm Sunday. We're not so sure yet about the venue, but I'm sure when Paul is in a position to confirm it, he'll let us know!