More Members for the Ordinariate

We received Diane and David Rogers into membership of the Catholic Church for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at Shrewsbury Cathedral on Wednesday 21 March. Coming from Llanarmon, Wales, Diane and David are some of the first members of the Ordinariate from the Principality.  Let's hope and pray that there will soon be many more.

Archbishop Of Canterbury to retire into academia

Archbishop Rowan Williams has today announced his acceptance of the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge with effect from January 2013. He will therefore be stepping down from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of December 2012.

Dr Williams’ intentions have been conveyed to The Queen, who is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and who formally appoints the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Williams was appointed the one hundred and fourth Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002. He said today:

It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision.  During the time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers and support in this period and beyond.  I am abidingly grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry.  I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best I can in the years ahead.

Dr Williams will continue to carry out all the duties and responsibilities of the Archbishop of Canterbury, both for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, until the end of the year.

The Crown Nominations Commission will consider in due course the selection of a successor.

Selwyn College - Cuppers winners!

Congratulations to Selwyn Rugby who thrashed Churchill 24 - 5!   It was a brilliant game!
Photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/selalum/sets/72157629226522132/
Well done Selwyn!

Pugin’s Church becomes An Official Catholic Shrine of St Augustine

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has formally established Pugin’s church of St Augustine in Ramsgate as a shrine of the ‘the Apostle of the English’. In an official decree the Archbishop grants the shrine canonical privileges and designates it as a place of pilgrimage.

A shrine to St Augustine existed on the Isle of Thanet before the Reformation and so this new place of pilgrimage recovers an ancient tradition. St Augustine’s is a Catholic church already dedicated to the saint and stands closer than any other to the place of Augustine’s landing, his first preaching and his momentous encounter with King Ethelbert of Kent in 597AD.

The official day on which the foundation of the shrine will be remembered is 1st March. This is Pugin’s birthday and recently the day of popular bicentenary celebrations held in his honour. This day links the erection of the shrine with the church’s founder who is buried within. The cult of St Augustine is fully in tune with the heart and mind of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852). He states in his letters that he selected the Ramsgate site because ‘blessed Austin landed nearby’ and he personally chose the dedication name and wanted the church to be a memorial to the founding identity of Christian England and its early saints.

There already exists a strong local interest and devotion to the saint.  His feast day each year in celebrated in Ramsgate with a festival of Catholic history and culture called ‘St Augustine’s week’. Prayers are said and hymns sung in his honour. St Augustine’s has already functioned as a quasi-shrine and pilgrims already journey there from all over England and beyond to learn about the conversion of the English and the beginnings of Christianity in this land. In 1997 thousands descended upon the St Augustine’s site to celebrate 1500th anniversary of the Augustine landing. Hundreds of Monks joined Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Bowen in the pilgrimage. In the year 2000 St Augustine’s was a ‘Jubilee Shrine’ and had special indulgences attached. This continued a long pilgrimage tradition surrounding St Augustine in Ramsgate and Thanet.

St Augustine’s attracts a huge number of Christians from other churches and communities who are interested in learning about common roots in the faith of Christ. Many secular visitors come to enjoy the architecture, the art and the atmosphere of the place and thereby enhance their relations with the Catholic Church. Local schools have a visiting programme to learn about the saints and about Pugin. The building is highly catechetical and new resources help to make a visit to St Augustine’s an opportunity to deepen one’s faith and knowledge. The church is adorned with a collection of images of St Augustine in the finest stone and stained glass including a ‘Hardman Powell’ series of windows above Pugin’s tomb relating the story of Augustine’s mission and especially the moment of setting foot on a land explicitly demarcated as ‘Thanet’.

Fr Marcus Holden the parish priest and custodian of St Augustine’s commented, ‘This is amazing news for us. Pugin’s church is secured by this added living identity which also fulfils many of his own dreams in honouring the English saints and St Augustine in particular.  There was need here not only to rescue the church as a great work of art but also to find a fitting spiritual significance for the future of the site. Through his decree, the Archbishop has done just that. The shrine will now draw pilgrims keen to learn about the early saints and to pray for an evangelisation of England in our own times’.

The church is presently being restored and brought back to its former glory and major celebrations are planned this year surrounding the feast day of St Augustine.

End of the world?????

A pair of scorching explosions on the Sun's surface is sparking the biggest radiation and geomagnetic storm the Earth has experienced for years.

The storm, expected to hit Earth Thursday and last through Friday, may disrupt power grids, GPS systems and satellites, and has already forced some airlines to change their routes around the polar regions.

See you Saturday????? Perhaps!!!!!

More persecution of Christians in Iran

The Iranian authorities are rounding up Christians across the country in a wave of arrests targeting ordinary church members – including a 78-year-old woman – and leaders.

An Iranian Christian being baptised

Since Christmas, security agents have conducted sweeps of house churches in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan, Tehran and Kermanshah. Some officially registered churches have been targeted too. Christians have also been seized in their homes and workplaces.
In one incident, 78-year-old Giti Hakimpour was arrested in a raid on her home in Esfahan at 6am on 22 February. Officers searched the active church member’s apartment and confiscated some of her belongings. Giti, who had recently undergone knee replacement surgery, was not in good health; her doctor had ordered that she needed special care and should not be subjected to stress. Following persistent efforts from church leaders, Giti was released on 25 February.
Hekmat Salimi, the pastor of another church in Esfahan, was arrested on the same day as Giti. His home was ransacked by security agents, who seized his computer, books and other personal belongings.
Elsewhere, in Kermanshah, Masoud Delijani, a Christian convert from Islam, has been jailed for three years. He was charged with being a Christian, holding illegal house church gatherings, evangelising Muslims and action against national security. Masoud, a school teacher, was not given the opportunity to defend himself in court.
Following his arrest in March 2011, Masoud was held in custody, mostly in solitary confinement, for 114 days, during which he was subjected to severe mental and physical pressure before being temporarily released upon a bail payment of around US$100,000. 
Entire congregations have been gathered up in some swoops. On 21 February, the authorities raided a house church in Kermanshah and arrested all 13 Christians who had gathered for worship. According to latest reports, three remain in custody.