Next Mass in Hull

The next Latin Mass in Hull will be on Wednesday 4th January at 6.30pm in the Church of St Charles Borromeo.  The celebrant will be Fr Mark Drew, who is parish priest of Hornsea and Marton.

The Russians are at it again

There have been 1265 pageviews to this blog emanating from Russia in the last week, 690 of them being yesterday.  I don't know what has caused this surge of interest.

Ad Orientem in the Novus Ordo.

Referring back to the previous post, I am still unaware of any parishes in England or Wales that have heeded Cardinal Sarah's suggestion of adopting ad orientem for novus ordo Masses.  However, according to a report in the blog, New Liturgical Movement, the practice has been taken up to some degree in Croatia.

If anyone knows of any parishes that have heeded Cardinal Sarah's suggestion, please leave a comment.

Advent

The first Sunday of Advent has come and gone, and I have been looking into the extent to which parishes have have heeded Cardinal Sarah's suggestion that the new church year would be a good time to start celebrating the novus ordo form of the Mass ad orientem.  In England and Wales, I have come across no examples, although I am sure that there are a few.

In the USA, things are a little different.  Two bishops, Bishop Robert Morlino of Maddison and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln have publicly stated that they will be celebrating ad orientem at their personal Masses.  No doubt many of the priests in those two dioceses will be doing likewise at least on some occasions.  Fr Zuhlsdorf reports on his blog that, according to one priest, there are 10 priests in the Diocese of Lacrosse who are adopting the practice.  It would seem that in the States novus ordo Masses are beginning to be celebrated  ad orientem in a significant number of locations.

Of course, in this country Archbishop Nichols has all but ruled it out in the Archdiocese of Westminster and at least one other bishop has acted similarly.  However, I often say that what happens in America frequently happens 10 years later in this country.  So maybe we will have to wait a while for Cardinal Sarah's suggestion to be adopted here.

Thursday 8th December The Immaculate Conception

There will be a sung Mass at 6pm at St Wilfrid's Church in York on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  I understand that this will be the last occasion that the choral scholars will be singing before the Christmas break, which is a very good reason for attending.

Wednesday 7th December

The next Latin Mass at St Charles Church in Hull will be on Wednesday 7th December at 6.30pm. This will be the feast of St Ambrose.  As usual the celebrant will be Fr Peter Mulholland.

Requiem Mass for Bishop Wheeler

The annual Requiem Mass for Bishop Wheeler, Bishop of Leeds from 1966 to 1985, will take place in St Anne's Cathedral, Great George Street, Leeds, LS2 8BE on Saturday 19th November at 3pm.  It will be a Sung Requiem followed by absolutions at the catafalque, with music provided by the Schola Gregoriana.  Fr Michael Hall will be the celebrant.

Bishop Wheeler did a great deal to support the Latin Mass in the Leeds Diocese in the years following the Second Vatican Council, at a time when provision on other dioceses was scant or non-existant.

Requiem at Marton

A reminder that there will be a Requiem Mass at the Church of the Most Holy Sacrament at Marton on Saturday 5th November at Noon.  I understand that it will be a Sung Mass.

Mass in Hull - All Souls Day

Wednesday 2nd November is the Feast of All Souls. It is also the first Wednesday of the month, so there will be a Requiem Mass for the faithful departed in St Charles Church at 6.30pm.  The celebrant will be Fr Peter Mulholland.

Church Attendance

I usually take the collection at the noon Mass on Sundays at St Wilfrid's Church in York.  As part of that job, I have to count the congregation each Sunday in October.  I presume that the figures are added to the figures at the other Sunday Masses and passed on to some department in the Diocese of Middlesbrough, which in turn passes them on to to the bishop's conference.  Regrettably,  neither diocesan or national figures have been published in recent years.  I understand that this is because many parishes either fail to make their return, or make one that is incomplete, or make one that contains figures that are obviously far from correct.

In contrast, the Church of England publishes very detailed figures.  Although the accompanying press release attempts to to present them in a very positive way, anyone wishing to delve into them can do so.  The statistics for 2015 have just been published, and I have extracted what I believe to be the key figures.

Average Sunday Attendance      October 2014       829,100
Average Sunday Attendance      October 2015       810,600

Decrease                                                                    18,500
Or expressed as a percentage  2.2%

This figure must be fairly worrying for the CofE, as they have many churches that are Listed Buildings and are difficult to close.  Also, with so many churches, they need to maintain the number of their clergy.

When one comes to look at individual churches, there is even more to worry about.  Of the 5% of churches with the smallest average October attendance, the average size of the congregation is 4.  The average size of the October congregation at the smallest 25% of churches is just 14.  One womders how long this can be sustained.