Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I have just returned from our annual Ordinariate Festival, held this year in Eastbourne. As always, it was a great few days as people from around the country gathered to worship, grow in faith and socialise. We are greatly indebted to Fr Chatfield and all those who contributed to making it such a success.

We have now held festivals for 5 consecutive years and they have become a key event in our life together as the Ordinariate. Each festival is hosted by one of our Ordinariate groups, using the local Church and Hall, there is a modest charge to cover meals etc. Participants arrange their own accommodation. Each year there is a theme – this year it was “Beauty, Truth and Goodness” and our speaker spoke powerfully about Christian art and, in particular, Iconography.

We celebrated mass and the daily offices together each day using the Ordinariate missal and office book; our worship was supported by a good choir made up of volunteers from different groups.

It was a joy for me, as your bishop, to be able to be with so many different people, all of whom are a vital part of our Ordinariate. There were those who have been to every festival and who come looking forward to seeing old friends and to making new ones; there were many who had not been to a festival before, including some who had only recently been received into the Church through the Ordinariate. I was particularly delighted that our seminarians had negotiated time away from the seminary to join us and I know that those gathered found it very beautiful to talk with them and hear about their journeys and vocations. Many priests and deacons were there – it is always good when clergy and laity are able to spend time away together.

Several people have commented that, at the festival, we saw the full strength and beauty of the Ordinariate. Whilst every group and individual has a role to play, and there are many wonderful things happening around the country, there is always a risk that we will not see the wood for the trees. We can sometimes become a little congregationalist – only understanding the Ordinariate in terms of that which is immediately local to ourselves. I have the great privilege of visiting most communities but the Festival gives that experience to a wide group of people. We are part of an exciting project as Catholics called to live and serve Our Lord in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We have been given a role and opportunity for which so many gone before us prayed. The Festival reminds us of the amazing grace of God, of the beauty of His church and of our calling to celebrate and proclaim the Good News in the context of the Anglican Patrimony.

Let us be glad and rejoice in our identity and look forward to next year’s festival in Birmingham.

In Christ,

+ David