Birmingham: Eight men ordained for Ordinariate

image: James PJ Turner

On Saturday, 30th June, eight men were ordained priest for service in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Birmingham, the home of the Shrine and Relics of Blessed John Henry Newman, the Ordinariate's patron.

The Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, carried Newman's crozier as he celebrated the Mass according to Divine Worship: The Missal; the rite given to the Ordinariates across the world by Pope Francis, drawing on the riches of the British Catholic heritage. The packed church heard the Newman Consort (an Ordinariate choir from Oxford) enhance the celebration with music from the great English tradition - Taverner, Byrd, Tallis and Pearsall. The new priests made their promise of obedience to Mgr Keith Newton, their Ordinary, who assisted Archbishop Longley in the Mass.

Two of the new priests, Fr Jonathan Creer and Fr Thomas Mason, were the first to complete their formation entirely within the Ordinariate, studying at Blackfriars' Oxford and St Mary's College Oscott. With the six former Anglican ministers - Fr Timothy Boniwell, Fr Leonard Cox, Fr David Hathaway, Fr David Jones, Fr David Prichard and Fr Michael Ward - ordained alongside them they bring the number of Ordinariate priests in Britain to exactly 100.