Frtedsnews

It was truer than I thought!

2012-01-31T10:41:00.003Z

Today on my diary page I wrote "The Victorian Churches site needs some restoration work, and Chopin-Festivals some advertising!"

How true that was. Most Victorian churches have needed or need some restoration work - after a century or so they all do!

Then, how big would the audience be, if Festivals didn't advertise.

Have a look yourselves: www.victorianchurches.com, and www.chopin-festivals.com

Best wishes all round!

back to work

2012-01-23T09:57:00.002Z

Hello everyone!

It's back to work and again a new novel started in the "Ad Templum" series.

I shall be needing some volunteers as readers.

Any offers will be be kindly considered.

Best wishes to all,

Fr. Ted

Fr Ted’s New Year Message

2011-12-31T12:16:00.003Z

What Ho! Just one “Ho” as Santa has taken the other threefor his “Ho,Ho, Hoing “ all over the shop.

So what of 2012? Well, first of all it hasn’t happened, justa teeny, weeny, teansy bit, depending on the day you are reading this.

2012 the pundits say will be difficult. Any more difficultthan other years, I wonder? I think not. Our orthodox brothers and sisters havea splendid idea that life, especially the spiritual life, is always a struggle,a contest in the arena, amply used by St. John the Divine as the setting forhis horrifically imaginative description of the contest, with its final scenesof triumph for those who have got through successfully.

So, my brothers and sisters, friends, all of you enter 2012with the sure knowledge that this world is the arena in which we display ourability to succeed against whatever odds circumstances pile up around us.

Curiously for those in favour of odds, I believe we have a superb“odds-on” situation whenever we slot into the teaching of Our Lord. We are “ona winner” what eve5r is happening around.

Just in case I seem too gloomy with thoughts of struggle andso on, we have the splendidly expensive treat in 2012 of the London Olympicswhich is not all about winning but about enjoying the contest. There are so many arenas, in terms of contestthere are some which are about reaching out and moving towards perfection andbeauty – the synchronised swimmers, ice dancers, floor exercising gymnasts, anddressage horses and riders. My brother and I were lucky in being given ticketsto the 1948 Olympics in London. One of the pervading images was of the sheerbeauty and elegance in motion of the great Dutch athlete, Fanny Blankers-Koen,winning the 220 yards (it was pre-metric then, I seem to remember), blonde hairstreaming behind her.

So let’s all enter 2012’s arena with style ourselves, readyto give it all we have, and to enjoy it. For sure something beautiful and worthhaving will emerge for us 8if we do.

Time for a Change

2011-11-27T20:28:00.001Z

Hi folks,

The old computer went off-line and collapsed generally giving a fortnight's break before the new became operative!

The main problem is that as yet I cannot upload onto the "spiritual-reneal.com" site. However for the monthly message from Medjugorje please go to "http://www.spiritual-renewal.org". Once there click on the last page where the latest message will have been loaded.

I trust you are all busy enjoying Advent. May it be a blessing to you all and a time when Christmas is not anticipated too much!

The news from St. Matidla's is that the congregation as a whole has decided to ally itself with the "Society of St. Wilfred and St. Hilda" in addition to Forward in Faith as an additional safeguard for its traditional but forward looking stance.

Lots of Blessings!

Fr. Ted

Autumn Leaves and Lost causes

2011-10-29T12:08:00.005+01:00

Dear friends,

Today we put our clocks back - or rather not today but just after mid-night tomorrow! Soon the big changeover to winter duvet and thick pyjamas will take place along with the usual dry cleaning of things and clothing left needing a good clean by the summer's activities. So I shall enjoy the extra hour in bed!

I noted an unreported irony in the reopening of St. Paul's Cathedral on the Feast of SS Simon and Jude, those apostles whose activities are almost unknown. St. Jude is the Patron of lost causes. I can hardly think of a more appropriate day for the reopening but am not sure whether the Dean and Chapter or the protesters will take it to heart. After all, as someone pointed out in my newspaper this morning, St. Paul was a tent maker.

So winter approaches. The great Halloween fest-park will take place on our recreation ground. This enterprise between assorted fair ground attractions, our Community Committee, the local Police and the Public House, has been popular and allowed fun to take place in a concentrated fashion in previous years so that it is all in one place (more or less) and the locals are less bothered.

Let's hope this year is the same.

The house is beginning to look its part, tidier, new carpets due in the next weeks, and so forth.
It may seem depressing but isn't. My late wife used to comment that "We humans need to hibernate a bit, too." So I am really getting ready to snuggle into the warmth of the home and enjoy pleasant, domestic, activities.

Assuming my computer does not run out of space, I shall be updating lots of things. I am not taking part in Chris Baty's "National Novel Writing Month" this year. There are too many novels unfinished or awaiting editing and revision for starting anything new. However I wish all participants good fun and good creative experiences!

Here we have had glorious autumnal colours in the woods and heathland which is so enjoyable. New England? Why not try West Surrey from mid-September to mid-November? Just as good! The last few days have needed a scarf and a blouson, but the imagery around is still the same and beautiful!

More soon,

Ted Baty

St. Matilda's Parish - News and Gossip

2011-10-18T13:24:00.006+01:00

Hi Everyone,

There is now a news and gossip page for my virtual parish, in its virtual diocese, in its virtual location. You should click here to see it.

As a taster this is a copy of the first posting of the page:

================

"News
An update of gossip and news from around the parish and the diocese

Women Bishops Ahoy!

The Diocesan Synod has voted in favour of allowing women to become Bishops in the Church of England and instructed its representatives in General Synod to reflect that in their speeches and how they vote.

However, Hugh Brassingbridge the Co-Chairman of Forward in Faith in the Diocese has taken a very strong view on the matter and says that he will demand proper, legally binding, provision for those who cannot go along with this but wish to remain as faithful Anglicans. His comment that Synods were not soap operas and that we did not have to wait until the GRAS lady sings did not go down very well with several well-appointed (shall we say!) matrons fluent in the French language.

We await his contribution to the various debates, fairly agog with excitement as to where his rhetorical skills will lead him. However well-intentioned his campaign to retain the Provincial Episcopal Visitors in some form may be, we have a feeling it may not succeed.

Our leading feminist has commented "Dear old Hugh! I hope that no one hits him with an umbrella" adding "But he has a point. We could do with far fewer pressure groups and a bit of decent evangelism in the Church of England."

Autumn Events

The November Fayre will be held this year at the Village Hall in Potherton on 19th November from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sir Roger Fairweather, Bt, will be opening it. We look forward to a visit as enjoyable as his last one three years ago.

Study Group

The autumn study group is meeting on Wednesday evenings in the Vicarage. Mass precedes these meetings and starts at 7.30 p.m. The study group itself meets from 8.15 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. All are welcome, but please bring along a Bible and let us know you are coming.

Gossip Piece

We hear that the Bishop is examining a whole deanery-full of clergy along the lines of excising the seven deadly sins. We hope he means society at large and not the learned and reverend ladies and gentlemen of the town under scrutiny! It is understood that this rather unwarranted visitation may well be a reaction to the unfortunate events in the Bishop's predecessor's time surrounding the visit of the ABC "Jack the Mack."

We would assure His Lordship of our complete faith in the Church's ministers in the town concerned.

Items for inclusion on the St. Matilda's Gossip Column and the News Page may be handed in at the Vicarage at any time (during working hours!)"

=============

For new readers, the foundations of much of the gossip are detailed in several novels, still in the process of writing, revision, or editing prior to publication.

In conversation with my son recently I commented that writing was a wonderful way of venting one's spleen. So you have been warned!

However I do follow advice from my training therapist whose remedy for anger against someone was to write a strong, abusive, letter using any kind of bad language that was appropriate, but to do it late at night, so getting it out of the system and onto paper. In the morning, she said, we can tear that up and write a polite, pointed, note instead, or just speak to them!

Watch this space!

Best wishes to all,

Fr. Ted

9/11 remembered 10 years ago

2011-09-13T22:51:00.002+01:00

Ten years ago we held our Patronal Festival with a Solemn - and enjoyable - Eucharist of Our Lady followed by a parish lunch.

The weather was pleasant and as part of the festivities guided yours were made for the benefit of visitors. A week later - in great sadness I wrote the following essay, received well in, among other places, NYC itself.

The Maw of History
(A Meditation written one week after 9/11)

'It is the most ancient of Christian sites in the country.' the guide said. 'The Phoenicians were here first, apart from a few ancient Brits with whom they traded.' 'Look, here is our oldest parishioner.' A Jar was taken from a shelve in the chancel. 'He gives the Vicar less trouble than anyone else!.' It was a grey pot, cracked and stuck together again, the inside stained by ashes. 'He was Christian. We know that. First, because the pot has wavy lines around it to tell us he had been baptised. Second, the urn was found on top of the altar stone there,' a cursory nod towards the shelf and a small piece of stone with crosses on the corners. 'The date has to be around 150 AD'.

We marvelled at such antiquity being on display as the parade around the church continued, stories of ancient tombs, courtiers - for this was a royal church, Saxon princes, Tudor ladies still resplendent and perfectly preserved until the fresh air got to them.

Then out into the churchyard. More tombs, a Roman Basilica now hidden below the nave and out across the churchyard to make a mound for the daffodils, 'Stinking Willy' the butcher of Culloden, with his butler and alleged catamite laid in the ground across the bottom of his feet, bits of Captain Hardy, Nelson’s own 'Kiss-Me-Quick,' (was it really ’Kiss-me’ or Kismet’ - who’s to know or care, or spoil a good story?) Christina Rossetti, he said, in best stone modelling an angel on a gravestone. We pictured 'See, amid the winter’s snow', and the photographers among us made a note to return the when the snow came, and brightened and whitened and enlivened her stone-grey hair.

So we re-entered and returned to the church’s latest extension - a modern Chapter House, built with proceeds of the land, now a Theme Park next door, and a Millennium grant. Here met Church Councils, Diocesan Committees, the Sunday School, and the Vicar’s various groups. An adjacent room was to house the parish office and our counselling centre. In the modern magnificence of the main room registers were signed after Weddings, as newly-weds and their witnesses tidied each other, went to the loo, and moistened dry mouths at the parochial kitchen. Hither after Mass on Sunday, we came ourselves for coffee, a biscuit, a gossip and chat. From time to time parties are held here and refreshments for those attending concerts and lectures in the main church.

Thus we finished our refreshments, and returned to our cars or to walk home, regaled by two thousand years of history in these 'Ancient and Modern' monuments around our spiritual home.

A week later, the 'Stars and Stripes' flew at half-mast above the mellowing brick of the Tudor tower. The Queen had graciously given her consent to it being flown, here alone, for our American colleagues.

Never before had anything so un-British been flown above a public building. More history. Around this we could not wander in deference. History had moved us. It challenged and consumed us. From its jaws oozed blood and the grey dust of New York and Washington. It swallowed our hearts, and from its maw we could not escape. Many friends and family were directly involved.

History had taken us into itself.

(The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, 18th September 2001)

July closing down quietly

2011-07-28T20:41:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone,

I had a great clear out on Friday - five days ago - ensuring that my garden shed could be entered again.

Large loads of packing and plastic went into the recycling bins and some nice pieces of clothing into the clothing bank. These had kept very dry.

However, the result is "Writer's Block" once more.

For some reason the whole affair drained both my energy and my creativity.

"Back to the drawing board" again or rather back to doodling and checking through the watercolours as I bring the maps of my series of novels up to date again.

Slowly but surely back to the real world!

I hope you are all doing rather better!

Yours ay,

Ted

Best wishes,
Ted

Real Progress

2011-07-23T18:07:00.002+01:00

Hi all!

The fine weather has allowed some reporganising of the house.

All being well this will facilitate some real progress in the future, so make sure you keep in contact!

Best wishes,

Ted

Novels on track

2011-07-22T12:21:00.002+01:00

The last month has been busy rewriting completely the first of a series of books on a common theme, the Church of England as I see it, and experienced it.

They are in fictional form in an imaginary diocese somewhere in the South of England.

In a way they are my response to Susan Howatch's "Starbridge" series. However, they seem to be more Barchester or P.G. Wodehouse than anything else. My Bishop, an ex Regius Professor at Cambridge wanted me to allow him to put my name forward for the Starbridge Lecturership, so I feel I may have a duty to follow this exercise of writing historical novels instead. I withdrew my name as I was unable to afford the time away from the parish and other duties. The post went to the Bishop's other nominee, someone whose work I admire and who would probably have been appointed anyway.

In time these drafts will be finished and I hope published. As for now, enjoy the website dealing with the area.

God be with you all!

Nevertheless it is an attempt to outline what life was like in the Church of England at the various times depicted.

The Novels continue

2011-07-02T22:47:00.003+01:00

Hello,

The experience of writing a novel the Chris Baty way was exhilarating and an enjoyable process overall, with a resulting offering for the reading public that might be low-grade, but held together well.

Much more difficult is the process of bringing up to date or finishing books which began to be written some time ago - e.g. ten years or more, in the normal manner. These seem prolix in the extreme at times. Some of them are two computers old. They exist not only on the present computer but on hard copy from two previous computers now defunct, wiped clean, and probably crushed. Maybe on some distant tropical, third country beach someone is cheerfully readin the bottom most section of a hard drive and enjoying what they find. More likely is that they were taken to pieces and recycled.

However I hope that the rewrites will be done fairly soon and available for whoever wants to read them.

In the meantime, please look at http://st-matildas.tripod.com for the context of this series.

Best wishes all round.

A Novel Approach(es)

2011-06-15T23:20:00.003+01:00

Dear Friends,

The first draft of the newest novel is now complete, to be set aside to marinate in the depths of my psyche, and gather some dust on the desk.

So I have to think of how to get things moving more effectively around the house. So while the brain leaves the new work to its unconscious workings, I shall be sorting out a variety of cupboards in the hope that it will make things easier come the winter weather.

In the meantime other weightier matters begin to take effect. It is being suggested that my brave mother-in-law who fought against the Nazis from within Germany and in exile in France between times should be enrolled among the "Righteous among Nations." Having written her memoir a year or two ago I can see why. She helped shelter and support a Jewish friend in Unoccopied France, rescuing him quite audaciously after his arrest at one point, and being a support strength and encouragement to her fellow prisoners in and from Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp. She was killed by allied bombing, alas, one of the ironies of war.

We shall see. Looking at the papers relating to the application, it is very moving for the family and an inspiration to them.

I suppose that brings my comments up to date.

My best wishes to all.

Summertime

2011-06-05T17:17:00.005+01:00

It has been back to the grindstone again, but with a difference. Instead of the disciplined problems of writing non-fiction in which I have to get the facts right, I have turned to fiction. It is a splendid change. I find that I still have to get the facts right in the background but that is as far as it goes.

The memoir of my late wife was brought up the time when we got engaged. As it is autobiography from then on, I have put this to one side while I get inside the new frame of mind.

At present the challenge is to get something finished. Having learned how to finish it off - pardon the phrase - I should be able to turn to the series of novels half-begin most of them rather than half finished about the church in the twentieth century and the beginnings of this present one.

Meanwhile the inquisitive can find some updates in the usual places. May I draw the attention of you all to the update on St. Matilda's - visit http://st-matildas.tripod.com/

I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Meanwhile I take note of the goings on in the Ordinariate, The Society of St. Wilfred and St. Hilda (if that is the right way round) and maintain my sanity with the news from Walsingham. As for our General Synod, I begin to wonder whether there shouldn't be a short theological examination for all elected candidates (especially the clergy as it would help the Bishops and Downing Street decide who was fit for which particular bit of promotion, or place of effective exile!).

More later in the month.

Yours ay,

Fr. Ted

St. Matildas goes forward

2011-05-17T11:03:00.006+01:00

The "virtual" parish of St. Matilda's has been online for some years. It represents my view, or version, of the Church of England as it is today along with concomitant matters.

The parish was never in much doubt about the ordinariate, roughly half wishing to move, including their parish priest, and the other half wishing to stay within the Church of England.

At St. Matilda's Anglican comprehensive had ruled for many years. It was no surprise, therefore, when the congregation agreed not simply to divide into Ordinariate style Anglicans and continuing Anglicans but to demand, fairly forcibly, that those in the new ordinariate community should be allowed to use the parish church for their weekly Mass and, by agreement with the PCC, other services and gatherings.

Such harmony seemed unheard of and causes many mutterings among canon lawyers, and senior clergy. However the way ahead looks clear and may provide an example of how the two great communions and their respective partners can work together for the benefit of all.

"St. Matilda's" can be seen at its website (and only site in reality!): http://st-matildas.tripod.com/ As at St. Matilda's itself, visitors are always welcome!

Developments will be kept in mind and I look forward to many new postings on the St. Matilda's website.

Self Worth

2011-04-25T22:31:00.002+01:00

YOUR OWN WORTH SHOULD BE WORTH IT!

Do you really know what you are worth?

Often we sabotage ourselves. Here are the "Search and Rescue" programmes to stop this from blowing your self worth out of the water.

Any average person can learn these easily, practice them. They may be simple but they are all-important!

1. Always know exactly what you want, and allow your whole being to strive, without wavering, to follow the path to your plan.
2. Design a good plan, and don't let it lie dormant for any waking moment.
3. Develop the ability to turn away from negative thoughts whenever you encounter them. Learn to avoid them, and become oblivious to them. Make a habit of consigning them to a dustbin far away from your thoughts!

The phrase "If only" is well called "the national anthem of the neurotic personality." *It leads to all sorts of perceived difficulties, creates alibis, formulates excuses, and achieves nothing more than a huge increase in the size of the chips on our shoulders!
"If onlys" need dumping. I put them into the same bracket as the intrusive "just," so beloved of the informal prayer group. This is the word "just" inserted into prayers, and limiting the scope of what is asked. "I just wanted to ask you Lord for …” is a prayer which may well evoke the reply from the Lord, "I had something far more important in mind." The word "just" limits our thinking. Indeed the only place for "just," "if only," and such like is in remorse and repentance. "If only I hadn't done it, Lord …" that sort of prayer. Penitence and confession is a huge dumping ground for all the negatives of life. Confess and get rid of them! The Lord forgives the truly penitent.

He is extremely worried about the deeply neurotic!

There is a very large psychic dustbin and waste disposal unit ready for every negative. Let's look at a few, alongside their antidotes.

HOW MUCH IS A GOOD ALIBI WORTH?

* If only I had enough money ...
Antidote - "enough never is"
* If only I had enough time ...
Antidote - "You've got all of twenty four hours, just like the rest of us"
* If other people only understood me ...
Antidote - "Would you really like people to know all that about you?"
* If I had no fear, what would they say ...
Antidote - "Wow! ... probably"
* If only I was given a chance ...
Antidote - "Look around. How many more do you want?"
* If only I had the talent to do what I want to do ...
Antidote - "Try it another way"
* If I dared to stand up and assert myself ...
Antidote - "Why don't you have a go?"
* If my family only understood me ...
Antidote - "Problem is - they do!"
* If I could just get started ...
Antidote - "I'm not stopping you!"
* If someone would just give me a break ...
Antidote - "Break a leg!"
* If I only knew where to find out all about it ...
Antidote - "It's right there in front of you."
* If I knew how, everything would be so easy ...
Antidote - "So, do what you can - all that you do know!"
* If good luck came my way, I'd be rich ...
Antidote - "Compared to what?"
* If more people would only listen to me ...
Antidote - "Try listening to more people instead!"
* If I had the right education ...
Antidote - "For what?"
* If I had been given a better chance ...
Antidote - "Better than which chance?"
* If I could meet the right people ...
Antidote - "Say 'Hello' more often."
* If I didn't have to take care of the house and kids ...
Antidote - "So you're already running a domestic business."
* If only I had someone to help me, I could get started ...
Antidote - "Have you asked anyone?"
* If only I had the personality to start a business ...
Antidote - "What business?"
* If I didn't owe so much money ...
Antidote - "Stop spending it then!"
* If I only knew how to do it ...
Antidote - "I think you do - the next step at any rate."
* If I were sure of myself, I would start tomorrow ...
Antidote - "Today might be a better time."
* If I had a business of my own, I'd have it made ...
Antidote - "Have what made?"
IF ... you're truly a sincere person ... do you really have the courage to see yourself as you really are?

All You Need to Know About (Some) Liturgy

2010-12-28T09:44:00.006Z

It's many thanks to Fr. Hunwicke's scholarly and Latinist blog that I was led to to the website of The New Liturgical Movement.

It is full of wonderful goodies, nicely presented and wonderfully researched

With my life history of serving the church as an organist and chormaster, then a parish priest, and with my academic bits and pieces being in the History of Art, Architecture and Design (including the history of musical insturments), this is a website on which to wallow grateful for the wonders to which the divine beneficence has led us.

Warmly recommended!

Here is the link: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org

Website - Reworked in Some New Directions

2010-12-20T13:28:00.009Z

At long last I have reworked the St. Matilda's website so that it reflects my life in general and not just since retirement. I have brought it to date including a fictional reference to arrangements about the ordinariate of Anglicans in the Roman Catholic fold.

It is set in the genre of historical fiction. Like all such it has to be based on fact and takes care to avoid reference to people actually alive today, but tries to be accurate about the past, as in my descriptions of various founding fathers and a variety of saints. The website refers now, less to the immediate past than to an imagined and realistic image of the Church of England as it is.

The past nature of the Church of England is described in the novels I have been working on for the past years, off and on. I was asked once to accept my bishop's nomination of me as an academic at Cambridge along Starbridge lines. The circumstances of the time meant I was unable to accept, although I would not have been to first incumbent of my then benefice to have taught in the University. These novels are, in a way, my "Apologia Pro Vita Anglicana" to make up for my being unable to contribute through that appointment.

"Watch this space," therefore, for the time that someone decides to publish them. They form a series of ministerial chronicles (the “ ... Ad Templum” series ) a chronicle of over lapping periods, mainly twentieth century:

“Divinely ad Templum” deals with normal parish life in the 1990s, with reminiscences from the previous half-century, the characters displaying a variety of distinct psychological profiles as used in the Clinical Theology Association for whom I taught for many years. It reflects also the Church of England as she tries to come to terms with the ordination of women to the priesthood, and the increased influence of the "liberal tendency";

“Victims ad Templum” is a description of the impact of the two world wars and the town planning initiatives post WWII on a settled rural community covering a wide period from c. 1915 to the 1960s;

“Hilariter ad Templum” pokes gentle fun at the church’s obsession with certain kinds of sin above others, looking at a variety of sexual indiscretions and positions, different ways of raising money, the petty jealousies of a small town and parish life in a settled urban community. The date is uncertain but there are women clergy in post, so it has to be post 1994!

“Per Accidiam ad Salutem” deals with depression and the pressures of Army life with particular reference to the problems faced by the cadre of women soldiers and their partners and families as they have emerged and gradually climbed the promotional ladder during the 1980s and 1990s;

“Heaven on Earth” is based around a conversation held by the recording angel at the Pearly Gates with St. Peter in which the nature of human relationships is given a thorough examination as various candidates for admission are presented. It may or may not be fiction - it is however autobiography under some heavy devotional garb. As I wrote in an initial draft of thoughts and ideas: “The story is true. However my own studies on the nature of memory suggest that I leave it to the reader to decide how much is accurate and how much the way my mind chooses to recall it. Whatever the reader might choose to think, it remains my life story with my golden girl. To vary or correct it would require far too much research, I suspect, for anyone to bother. So I hope that the readers will lie back, read on, and enjoy it all; life with her really was that marvellous!”

I reserve copyright in absolutely everything concerned with these works - so hands off without my express, coded, permission!

You will find it at http://st-matildas.tripod.com/ . Please note that I have been ultra-careful to see that all permissions and copyrights were properly mentioned.

Location, location, location

2010-11-21T10:18:00.002Z

At last the good news over the ordinariate and its initial shape.

The idea of church sharing seems to have been booted out of the way and local Roman Catholic Churches will be the norm.

This may disappoint many hopefuls. I am particularly mindful of faithful lay members. Church sharing may happen - it is a sharp wintess to our underlying unity. We noticed this when our parish church was opened to the local RCs while their church was being repaired following a visitation by a large and hefty ftree falling on it.

I wonder how many will notice the slightly differing architectural details, especially in Victorian and later designs, which are most of them!

Buy One, Get One Free?

2010-11-11T14:36:00.007Z

Two Vicars for the price of one (completely free if one is an NSM not bothered about expenses or fees) may be the result if some wishes of the ordinariate-bound congregations are met.

Some of the present diocesans in the Church of England are indicating that they would be prepared to countenance church sharing arrangements with an ordinariate congregation.

That is fine, generous and lovely ...

but ... didn't I hear that it was the Anglican tradition for incumbents to keep away after they leave at least for a decent time? A colleague of mine described the scenario after his PCC meetings as being that the hard core of them "left the Vicarage and went into Canon xxxx's house straightaway for the real PCC meeting." Not what any of us want, I'm sure.

In Shropshire my predecessor lived next door to the church in one of the parishes under my care. Although some parishioners tried to use him to stir up trouble or get their own agenda done, he proved a valuable source of information and background to parish and deanery life and a valued mentor. We had been brought up in the same county, more or less, and the common language and thought forms helped bridge the age gap.

Goodwill might prevail in churches where the church sharing ordinariate priest was their previous incumbent. However this cannot possibly be ensured and some divisions from the process of the departure to Rome could well be still hurtful. I feel fairly sure this is why most bishops seem diffident in the matter, rightly so.

One hopes that this particular conundrum is being considered and a solution being found as the arrangements start to roll out. In any case it does rather look a half-price advertisement, "You buy one; you get one free." Sharing the costs would be a good idea, if evaluated carefully from the start!

Armistice Day

2010-11-11T10:39:00.007Z

Good morning on Armistice Day.

It is of course the Feast Day of that splendid ex-soldier St. Martin. There is a windown in All Saints, Longstanton which pictures him alongside St. George. It is next to the font and reminds us all that entry into membership of the church means both loving service to others and sacrifice.

So, I suggest that the time has come for us to sacrifice our internal warfare over women's ministry, and love and serve those around us. However the blogosphere look as if warfare is bound to continue - vicious, petty, and often scaring in its woeful lack of any basis in reality.

I commend, therefore, a couple of useful comments from my mentor when completing my Ph.D.:

first the comment that the university wasn't all that interested in my personal opinions but in my describing the opinions, writings, actions and lifework of those whom I was studying - the sheer nastiness of so many posts on the interent underlines the wisdom of that advice;

Along with that was a question he asked regularly and which I took over into my practice as a counsellor and tutor in counselling and pastoral care - the question "Where is the evidence?"
It is a good question and goes along with the saying, of Fritz Perls the founder of gestalt psychotherapy, "The facts are friendly. They all that we have to deal with." Indeed, beyond the facts there is only speculation, including of course scientific investigation and sound academic research ... maybe.

It would help if the advocates for the different approaches to the present debates would adopt such objectivity. However, they have a problem in that the Vatican has not defined exactly what the ordinariate is to be in practice. Until then, opinion is more likely to remain our primary option until the facts are known. When they are known they will surely be very friendly? However, that is, of course, only my opinion.

One fact is very, that clear the numbers moving into the ordinariate will be small in terms of the Church of England they leave ... and just as small in terms of the Church they join. I shall not speculate on the numbers who will join them after the move has been made, nor on the numbers joining the Church of England after they have gone.

In the meantime, we would do well to concentrate on the facts: some are leaving and making their plans to do so; some are remaining; both sets are small in number. They are no threat to anyone. So why not end the fuss and begin to make peace?

Sharing What?

2010-11-08T09:56:00.009Z

The day of opportunity is drawing close for our Anglican brothers and sisters considering moving into the Ordinariate so generously provided by Pope Benedict.

There seems to be considerable confusion over some aspects of this, not least in respect of where they will worship.

Many seem to have the idea that the Church of England will cheerfully and willingly and immediately hand over the parish church in which they worship. The idea is all too common and all too misguided.

For starters, the Church of England is bound to conduct worship in its churches and to provide pastoral care for the parishioners of every parish. That won't change because the local congregation and their clergy have become Roman Catholics. In most cases I guess that a new Vicar will be appointed and the Anglican patrimony continue to be articulated in full in that place.

Predictions as to the rate of decline in the Church of England provision in such cases ought to be avoided. We can never know.

Far more interesting is the suggestion that churches might be shared, for instance Cof E at 8 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. along with evensong at 6.30 p.m., with the ordinariate Mass at 11 a.m. and Vespers at 4 p.m.

It sounds very cosy and might work. However, given the friction at present between the various lobbies, I have some doubts as to its working so smoothly everywhere.

It brings up also the question "Why not use the local Roman Catholic church?" I realise that a short sharp answer in many cases might be "Because it is a long way away." In general I have the rather staid view that Anglicans worship best in Anglican churches, and Roman Catholics likewise in theirs.

In the case of the countryside, church sharing would be a very good option, allowing the small, ordinariate congregations to worship alongside their, probably equally small in numbers, Church of England fellows. Indeed there could be happy arrangements with alternate Sundays provided by each congregation. The only flaw would be the clause in the Ordinariate provision which precludes, as I understand it, other Roman Catholics from joining in with the Ordinariate.

In any case, let's hope that Chrstian love may prevail everywhere and the present rancour be deposited where it can vanish.

World War 2

2010-11-03T11:53:00.005Z

It seems that we are still obsessed with the Second World War. For many of the now elderly it was the defining period of their respective lives and the consequence of National Service for over a decade and a half or so afterwards was the normal "rite of passage" for those of my generation.
So perhaps using it as a point of reference is understandable.

What is not understood, however, by so many is that references to it should be exact. There are parallels to the holocaust as in parts of former Indo-China. It should, by now, surely, be clear that any references to World War 2 are likely to be jumped on heavily by those disagreeing with the main point to which the reference is attached.

So both Wallace Benn and Christina Rees fall into the trap. There are parallels which can be made wherever minorities are involved be it in former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and whenever members of the minorities decide that they have had enough, as in the Middle East today. However, using the parallels is almost certainly bound to arouse adverse comment, and the digging up of old, marginally related, scores.

This time we have the charge that the Vatican could have done more to oppose the Nazis. Well, I do wonder, and pose for the discerning reader a question about that.

My mother-in-law, a left wing resister to Nazism took refuge with her Trotskyite friend first in Paris and then, after war was declared, in Toulouse in the German allied state of Vichy France.

It has come to to light that she, a freethinker of Franco-Prussian extraction, was helped to remain there with funds provided, it would appear, from the Vatican provision for those in her position.

Can we really believe that the Pope would send a memorandum to Himmler explaining what they were doing to help Hitler's enemies? Were timetables for the trains which rescued refugees from under the noses of the Nazis sent to the local SS commander with a list of passengers and their ethnic origin?

No, of course not! We need to "get real" as they say and understand that any underground activity remains so, and to try a little harder to work out what the Pope did to cover the tracks of those under his command who were busy undermining the devilment brought by Hitler and his associates.

In the sticks

2010-11-03T11:22:00.004Z

This year I have been afflicted in various ways, by the builders being in and out for weeks on end, and more still to come, by falling over a manhole which resulted in some stitches to the upper lip and drinking through a straw for a week or so, and by an ear infection which caused great wobbling.

So I took to a stick. This is now part of me and I use it while the infection takes its time to go away.

However, along with the stick has come a certain degree of attention. There are lots of people of my age using them. However my attention has been taken by a young man with a growing family who regularly uses a walking stick, to great effect! He looks terrific and has great dignity, rather like those old school army officers who were accustomed to use a walking stick when on their rounds, evoking the image of a landowner visiting the estate rather than a young subaltern making his presence felt with his leather covered cane in hand or tucked under the arm.

May be this article could be recovered, the walking stick.

Is there a case for a movement to "bring back the walking stick"?

I only ask!

Fr Ted

Victoria Street

2010-11-03T09:28:00.005Z

The ordinariate seems still to be the number one topic among Forward in Faith followers and Anglo-Catholics. No more "Crossing the Tiber" perhaps, rather a gentle walk down Victoria Street, one end to the other, from Church House and almost to Victoria Station ... but not into the Basilica for normal Mass, rather into an area specially for those holding to their Anglican patrimony and from which Roman Cathloics outside the ordinariate will be debarred.

All of which causes me a mental headache, perhaps anxiety leading to the migraine from which I am suffering as I write. Nick Baty, prominent as a Roman Catholic journalist with The Universe and Catholic Family Life, would tease me from time to time as being far more Roman than he was.

This was odd as all the liturgy at St. Mary's, Thorpe, Egham, where my wife and I worshipped in retirement, was taken from Common Worship. It typified what seemed to many Roman visitors a sensible Anglo-Catholicism highly consonant with the best of their own.

Briefly there appears a paradox: Benedict wishes those moving into the ordinariate to bring with them a patrimony which will be clearly Anglican; those moving over seem indistinguishable from Roman Catholics. So where is the Anglican element of the patrimony to be? We need to know. Surely it can't be "Common Worship"? Much more an attitude of mind and an approach to pastoral care which is fairly indefinable these days. Newman + George Herbert, perhaps.

As I note, we need to know. It is not good enough to say that it will evolve as former Anglicans move ahead in faith that it will work out well. We need to know the direction and a little detail to be spelled out.

Good hunting!

Fr. Ted

Nasty!

2010-10-09T10:08:00.004+01:00

I'm getting a little worried.

The elctions to General Synod in our beloved Church of England have produced the usual bouts of verbal fisticuffs. This time, however, there seems to be a very nasty under current which goes far beyond the normal cut and thrust of debate.

Why are the Anglican Catholics who seem to want to accept entry into the ordinariate getting so rude and nasty about their fellows? Who on earth in their right mind would want to become Roman Catholic and be associated with such a bunch of people, formally detached from other Roman Catholics?

The proposed society named after those Romanising Anglo-Saxons Wilfred and Hilda appears to fall well short of an Anglican kind of ordinariate. However it looks well intentioned and the details are not available. So why the shouting from present day Romanisers?

It beats me! In any case the "Anglican patrimony" has always been broad church and includes the liberals and evangelicals. The ordinariate by definition will cut out anything incompatible with Roman practice or belief.

Cut it out guys! Part of our patrimony is good old British "fair play".

Please don't cheat, and please don't abuse so verbally your fellow Christians.

Thanks!

Medjugorje - the commission

2010-03-20T11:20:00.007Z

A Proper Enquiry at Last?

It seems that at last we may find some thoroughly official assessment from the Vatican as to what has been going on in Medjugorje since 1981.

However, we must be careful to understand exactly what is being done. The amount of obfuscation, and misinformation and misdirection around the subject has been massive over the years ... and that is probably an understatement!

The new situation appears to be as follows: the Archbishop and Bishops in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been tasked with the assessment of it all and, perhaps in view of the strong feelings around on all sides, decided to ask the Vatican to take over this work. The Vatican has accepted and appointed Cardinal Camillo Ruini to head the enquiry. Cardinal Ruini was a close advisor to the late Pope John Paul II, and no doubt well acquainted with that pontiff's views on the matter, views reported as being very supportive of the work done in Medjugorje since the apparitions began to be reported.

The mainstay of detractors of the apparitions and the work around them has been the reported views of the local Bishop, Ratko Peric and his predecessor Pavao Zanic. We do need to take care when reading these opinions and the pastoral advice given by these two Bishops. In particular we should remember that the whole matter was taken out of their hands by the Vatican leaving them in a position most of us would wish to avoid, having distinct personal opinions but not being able to make official pronouncements in the matter while remaining pastorally responsible for the parish..

Bishop Peric has been in charge of the Mostar-Duvno diocese for many years now. I happened to be present when he gave his first guidelines over the apparitions and the management of the pilgrims drawn to the parish by their reported occurence. His private judgement is that the phenomena are not of supernatural origin. It must be stressed that this is a private opinion. Many commentators take it as being in some way or other the official view of the Catholic Church at large ... and rush to condemn everything about Medjugorje.

Regrettably these detractors fail often to take into consideration the rest of the Bishop's opinions. He is reported as being pleased in the general way the local clergy deal with the pilgrims whilst carrying out their normal parochial ministry. He has commented positively about the visionaries finding them normal, healthy, and properly devout catholic men and women. He has said that the fact that someone has visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary does not mean they are mentally ill. Most pertinently of all he has commented that a healthy devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an essential element in catholic life.

It is this, the last comment I mention, that lies at the core of the matter, surely? It comes from a Bishop with a solid scholarly knowledge of Marian theology and personal experience of Lourdes.

Perhaps we should hope and pray that the questions answered most directly by the commission will be those about the way in which the experiences found in Medjugorje can help develop such a healthy devotion. Entrenched positions over supernatural origin v. non-supernatural origin, or heavenly intervention v. demonic incursion are not going to help. We do need some clarification even while new apparitions continue to be reported.

My best wishes to all,

Ted

Anglicanorum Coetibus - Coterie, or Cotters?

2009-11-09T15:42:00.007Z

Hi there faithful readers,

At last the details of Pope Benedict's offer to those of us Anglicans sufficiently dissident to be seeking membership of the Roman Church. So far I have only skimmed through the document. It looks, as we expected, generous and detailed and compassionate, just the sort of offer we would expect to come from 'Benedictus PP XVI'.

I like what I have read so far. For those seeking Roman jurisdiction over their spiritual life and membership of its church, both parochial and global, I suspect that "There ain't gonna be a better offer."

However, throughout there remains the condemnation of Anglican Orders. Nowhere is it suggested that our present orders are in order. True the possibility that we acted as if they were in order, conducted our lives and ministry as if they were in order, and believed - and may still believe, perhaps - that they were in order, is to be taken into account in a future examination of our vocation to Roman Orders. However the truth of the matter is that at the moment we enter membership of the Roman Catholic church we have had no orders whatsoever of any validity, no valid episcopate, no valid presbyterate, not even a valid diaconate. Moreover, we are required to believe that we were mistaken in believing that we had them.

So then, nothing changes except the way in which groups of former Anglicans can be gathered together to worship in their own version of the Roman way, and a specialist ministry proved for them.

There is a lesson for the Church of England in particular. These provisions in Anglicanorum Coetibus form a very useful template for Anglicans who choose to remain Anglican and for Anglicans in general. They form the kind of provision for which Forward in Faith, the Third Province Movement and such organisations have been campaigning for some years and for which the provision and experience of PEVs gives support for its usefulness in maintaining a degree of unity within one fold.

Either way the numbers are likely to be small in the Church of England. About a third of Church of England members expressed disquiet or opposition to the decision to go ahead with the ordination of women in 1992. They are almost certain to stay, nearly all that is. A few hundred clergy resigned their offices, rather less left the Church of England. There were six hundred or so priests, I gather, at the recent Forward in Faith Assembly. Even if all availed themselves of this opportunity, the numbers of clergy so doing who are at present in full time ministry would be a small percentage indeed, despite the noise so many make!

So to the semantics which give an interesting side light on the situation. Coetibus in classical Latin referred to an group which came together, an Assembly in other word. Just the word for the job, assuming the meaning hasn't varied.

If my reasoning is right, and my knowledge of Latin is severely Classical in outline, then we have some words in the English language derived from it - Coterie - do we want to belong to a coterie, cosy is the adjective usually placed before this word? "Cottage" comes from it ... and I am not going down that route. Cottage is the home of a "cotter" an Anglo-Saxon who held a cottage and land in return for property. Not a bad description in some ways!

Best wishes all round,

Fr Ted

Glass Ceiling or Sea of Glass?

2009-11-02T23:15:00.004Z

Yet another reprint! It seems apposite ecumenically.

"
Women Bishops - above or below?

There are curious aspects to debates about ministry. Most noticeable is the idea that the clergy form a set of lords and ladies with permission to push people about. "If I am not a Bishop or Priest I can't give people enough push to get things done" seems to be the refrain so often sung.

What nonsense! Speaking at my then diocese's first ordination of women the Lutheran Bishop of Hamburg made it quite plain that she saw her role as administration, and little else, indeed nothing else, if my memory is correct. A visit to Lutheran Hamburg a little later indicated to us that this was in fact so.

Isn't it better to forget "glass ceilings" militating against the preferment of female clerics and to focus on the "Sea of Glass" before God's throne and ask what should be done there? Ministry is about helping not lording it over the flock. The Old Testament got that right centuries before Christianity was born.

Let's hope we get it right this time and make allowances which enable us to live and work together in the "bond of peace" prayed for daily in the Church of England. May be we should be dancing before the Lord on that Sea of Glass in a myriad of wonderful and fruitful partnerships, in which we can all take part together and enjoy each other's company even though there are things, including important things, on which we disagree!

(21.1.2006)

Women Bishops? No need for debate!

2009-11-02T23:09:00.003Z

This is a post I published in January 2006. Somehow it still seems apposite. The only reason for putting my tongue in my cheek is not the thought or the logic, but whether anyone would have the nerve!

"It's true, I trow! There was never any reason for the 1992 legislation to ordain women to the priesthood in the Church of England. Any diocesan bishop could have gone ahead quite legally and ordained one. That is the clear position of what the words of the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal, and the previous Canon Law said.

Since my last post I have been looking carefully through these legal documents of the Church of England, along with the "Thirty-Nine Articles." In them the word "man" and its compounds and associated pronouns is clearly inclusive everywhere. What we have done is to misread these documents using twentieth century meanings for its sixteenth and seventeenth century words.

So it has been really totally unnecessary all this anguish and division and "leaving the Church of England" between proponents and opponents of women as priests and bishops.

The most startling instance of the inclusive nature of the words used in these documents comes in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, written in 1661 after the the restoration of the monarchy. It mentions "several Princes of blessed memory since the Reformation" during whose reigns revisions had been made. One of these was Elizabeth 1. The word "Prince" as used here, unusually to modern understanding, is clearly inclusive of both male and female.

So then, is the General Synod going to waste a lot of time and hot air on what is unnecessary once more?

Almost certainly, it is its way!

More to come later,

Fr Ted"

Christ or Narcissus? Whose face do they see?

2009-11-01T22:26:00.002Z

" Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A distressing triad made up of pathological self-centerness; a repeated pattern of frustrating, damaging efforts to establish intimate relationships; and an insecure, fragile self-concept. Internally an unpredictable lability makes life miserable." C.M.Berry, "The Baker Encycopedia of Psychology" Marshall-Pickering, London/Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan h.b.,1223pp, 1985, p.745

Well, they gather in numbers in many places, liable to sudden moves and changes whenever the wind blows favourably from across the Tiber, or unfavourably from their own governing body in General Synod. Judging by the reports and comments on the blogs and websites and the church press and the broadsheets such gatherings have taken place wherever members of Forward in Faith have drooled together over the Pope's offering to groups of Anglicans who wish to become Roman Catholics whilst remaining as Anglican as they can.

Their self-centreness blinds them to the appalling damage such an action would do to the cause of Christian unity, as well as to the rather obvious point that being in an Anglican-style enclave of Roman Catholicism will mean that the rest of their Roman Catholic brothers and sisters will have little contact with them. Is that supposed to be unity? Theoretically, probably Yes. In practice the disunity is carried over. In terms of Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, disunity is increased by the appearance of a large "traditional" and catholic shaped hole within the former.

Believe me, I would have become a Roman Catholic many years ago were it not for one thing - my vocation. If I had looked only in the mirror, I might have been tempted to think - "What a lovely Roman you'd make"! However I looked also into the faces, and listened to the voices, of fellow Christians who knew nothing or very little of such things. They asked for my ministry. I saw the face of Christ in them and served them diligently and as best I could until illness, old age, and a measure of invalidity prevented it.

To convert to Roman Catholicism would have been to desert them. Being good Anglicans and not all traditionalist or catholic in their orientation,hardly any would have followed me even if I had asked! I stayed to serve them as I had been called to do, despite being regarded as more Roman in practice than many Roman friends. It was their description, not mine as I was only following normal Anglo-Catholic usage.

In time there will be those who after careful consideration feel that their true vocation is to serve in a different jurisdiction and ecclesiastical structure and that the Anglican Church which has nurtured and fed them so far is no longer home for them. I have no problem with these and respect their calm integrity and their thoughtfulness where it is present.

Change happens, as they say, and Cardinal Newman commented that a true Christian will make many changes, continuous conversion in essence. An acquaintance of mine returning to the fold after many lapsed years, having made a full confession and received absolution was told by her spiritual advisor "and now your conversion begins." For some conversion to Roman Catholicism will start that process in a new and exciting way. For many others a quick trip to their local psychoanalyst beforehand might be needed. I have been impressed over the years in contacts with Franciscans that so many of them had degrees in psychology and post-graduate qualifications in psychotherapy, (OFM Franciscans that is - SSF had the late and much loved Peter Graham of the Clinical Theology Association to help them over many years).

I have my doubts as to whether whether many of those members of Forward in Faith now so fervently saying they want to be Roman Catholics, Anglican-style, gaze into pools of water. However, they do, I suppose shave, or trim their beards, or brush and comb their hair and so look into a mirror. What do they see? Who is important? The lowly unprofitable servant of Christ and His people - or a wonderful reflection only of a self-centred personality. They may feel refreshed by the generous offer from Rome ... and it is unbelievably generous and kind. However they should perhaps themselves reflect on the fate described below of a certain, handsome, Greek, youth:

"Narcissus pined away and died, leaving behind only a small, sad flower which even today thrives best when bent over cool streams." C.M.Berry, op.cit. p.743

An apt description of our limper brethren in this matter.

A Quiet Day in Camberley

2009-10-27T23:22:00.000Z

Dear Readers,

First "Thank You" to Canon Jerome. I look forward to an ongoing and cheerful correspondence.

Today has been quiet. After two days of comfortable activity, which I associated with the return to GMT, my body was back to the old, subdued, routine coupled with an emergency trip to the dentist which - to my relief - solved a little problem speedily.

Elsewhere I'm working on the various websites as I shape out a wider ministry on the web and so forth. The link is to a site that I worked on and then withdrew in order to bring up to date, which it is more or less, so visit and enjoy.

The link is I hope right. If not I'll correct it when I work out the problem. The site is fairly trivial, just a little background for those who want to know ... and "No, I shall not call you 'nosey'"! You have a right to know after all, I suspect.

Until the next post,not necessarily tomorrow,

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

We Anglicans are needed!

2009-10-26T15:07:00.000Z

Dear Reader,

As promised a comment from the newspaper.

Michael Gove, our MP, has joined the ranks of commentators on Benedict's offer of an Anglican-style "ordinariate". His remarks conclude with words worth recording (my italics):

"I'm rather bored with everyone assuming that the Anglican Communion must always be on the retreat, in decline, progressively losing more and more of its members to other, more assertive, denominations. Why shouldn't a Church that prizes gentleness, civility, consideration, openness, moderation in manner but wise certainty about the ultimate things, prosper and grow? This is an hour, in so many ways, when the Anglican genius for compromise without any dilution of decency or virtue has never been more needed." ("The Times" newspaper, 26th October 2009, p.24)

Of course he is right and, appropriately for a Shadow Cabinet Eduation spokesman, educates us further. In the the present debate I cannot abide the harsh voices on either wing, whether feminists, or ultra-montane Anglo-Catholics, nor any other "in-your-face" activist.

To their credit the PEVs have asked for quiet reflection in the matter, alhtough "quiet reflection" is often the last thing activists enter.

The call to reflect has to be for everyone, including those members of General Synod who chose to ignore the advice of their own Bishops over how to articulate love and tolerance for the minorities in the Church.

I rejoice in being an Anglican and have no wish for our Church and Communion to become," .. just a Protestant sect after all!", as a Roman Catholic friend commented on reading the 39 Articles. May the broad and tolerant Church of England prosper for "Many Years!"

Yours ay,
(more reflectively, I hope)

Fr Ted

Who Goes There?

2009-10-26T14:40:00.001Z

Dear Reader,

Unlike the normal sentry, I haven't said "Halt!" I would like some, at any rate of my readers to comment or let me know who - if anyone - is reading the post. It would be nice to know who you all are.

Today the process of re-entry carries on. The computer is slow still, but is gradually more able to come to heel quickly. So to a quick comment as regards yesterday's posts.

My concern is, I guess, spiritual blindness. Interesting as this subject is I am no expert, but yesterday's readings were about blindness and this by implication. Many of my colleagues are saying publically how happy they will be to accept Pope Benedict XVI's offer and become Roman Catholics. The priests among them must be either blind to the implications, ill-read, or guiltly of hypocrisy ... none of which I believe to be true ... well, maybe one or two cases - but we are taught not to judge. If they accept, they accept a package which says that their ordinations are null and void and invalid completely. There are no "If's" and "Buts". That is the simple state of affairs.

So why haven't I read of resignations en masse from all these colleagues? Is it that they are merely playing at something and that the cross-over to Rome is a merely decorative matter in their opinion. What I mean is: now they are Anglicans playing at being Romans; then they will Romans playing at being Anglicans. In other words they under-estimate the hugeness of the step before hand.

Cheerfully and robustly as always my MP, Michael Gove, has written some useful words on the matter. These I leave to another post as this is long enough already!

Till then,

Yours ay,

Every blessing,

Ted Baty

So then to today's

A Letter to Fr. X

2009-10-25T16:41:00.000Z

Today I wrote a brief letter to a colleague whose identity I must keep hidden as so far the missive is not on his site. Being Sunday a late response is to be expected of a busy parish priest!
The letter is a response to his extremely enthusiastic acceptance, in advance as it were, of Pope Benedict's offer of an ordinariate within the Roman Catholic Church for ex-Anglicans. I believe that the letter raises crucial questions as to whether there is any radical change at all in respect of conversations between Anglicans and Rome over ecumenism. Like me he is a keen member of the Anglican organisation "Forward in Faith".

I wrote:

'You ask, Fr., "why not want to accept Pope Benedict's offer?"

'I too would regard myself as a "Catholic-minded Anglican" although with a very Evangelical background in past years. However the offer does not apply to Catholic-minded Anglicans but to future groups of newly converted Roman Catholics who used to be "Anglican-minded"!

'So I have a problem in the matter as an Anglican priest for over forty-six years. In order to accept I have to accept also that my present Anglican orders are the result of Anglican ordinations which were "completely null and avoid" as "Apostolicae Curae" defines them.

'Pope Benedict's offer is a very gracious one, no surprise as given by one who spoke years ago as Cardinal Ratzinger of "the continuing stream of genuinely Catholic life and practice which has existed within Anglicanism throughout its history." However it is, as noted above, not to be construed as accepting groups into the Roman Catholic Church as Anglicans but rather to allow ex-Anglicans a familiar culture within an ordinariate.

'The dilemma faced by "Catholic-minded Anglicans" such as you and me is that the instant I wish to take up the offer is also the instant in which by implication I too declare our Anglican ordination to be of none effect. As a parish priest I would simply have to resign.

'Some seem to be arguing that this would not be so during any negotiations with the various Anglican groups. However the matter of Anglican orders isn't negotiable at present. hence the stark dilemma we face. Those who think their Anglican orders are valid cannot accept these proposals, such a mind-set being unacceptable from a Roman stand-point today.

'The side effect of the announcement is that we are all busy thinking things through again. That, surely, must be welcome, so thank you!
Every blessing,(my guardian uncle used to live in xxxxxx just round the corner from you.

Ted Baty(The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, aka "Fr Ted")'

I guess I ought to write the substance of this to all "Forward in Faith" clergy - alas, a task rather beyod me!

What they actually said

2009-10-25T16:18:00.001Z

This is by way of a little documentation about Anglican/Roman Catholic unity matters in the light of the excitement over the latest offer from Rome.

Firstly, Pope Leo XIII (Apostolicae Curae, 1896): "... ordinations performed according to the Anglican rite have been and are completely null and void".

Archbishops Benson and Maclagan (Canterbury and York respectively) 1897 "... in overthrowing our orders, he [Leo XIII] overthrows all his own, and pronounces sentence on his own Church".

St. Pius X (Successor as Pope to Leo XIII) gave an assurance to the Anglican divine Dr. Briggs that "this decision of his predecessor was not infallible".

Cardinal Ratzinger (the present Pope) spoke warmly of "the continuing stream of genuinely Catholic life and practice which has existed within Anglicanism throughout its history."

Enjoy!

Having your cake and eating it!

2009-10-24T23:06:00.000+01:00

I am puzzled.

The Fif Assembly is revealing among some members an astonishing hypocrisy (= failure to judge one's own actions sufficiently).
Anglican clergy are busy welcoming the Pope's offer of an "ordinariate" and are rude about those who see this as not changing the rules one bit and prefer to follow their consciences and either stay as Anglicans or to convert to Rome under the present arrangements. If they are so keen to accept, why cannot they just "cross the Tiber" and get on with being Roman? After all they will have the pleasant experience when the ordinariate comes into being of guiding their former colleagues "home" as they see it.

I suspect hyposcrisy. They really want to carry on exactly as before, with their own buildings, liturgy and so forth. Yet if they truly believe that Rome is the way to go .. why don't they just get up and go? The offer is crystal clear: "If you come over to Rome you abrogate everything Anglican, including your orders and your previous service". The time has not yet come when we can be Roman and Anglican at the same time.

To stay is to continue in something that they believe to be untrue.

I do wish they wouldn't continue such blatant hypocrisy; it isn't nice!

Yours ay,

Fr Ted

Pilgrims

2009-04-01T17:18:00.000+01:00

Dear Friends,

A slight diversion from the recent domesticity.

I note that the Bishop of Mostar is tidying up some of the liturgical facilities in Medjugorje, especially at two of the popular communities there.

No doubt detractors will see this as yet another sign of disapproval of all that is happening there.

However, we need to be reminded that the Bishop, although sceptical about the appearances of the BVM there, is an ardent supporter of a healthy devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Before we rush to the barricades on either side of the various arguments in Medjugorje, let's pause and reflect, that doing this may help to concentrate such devotion at more public venues including the parish church, and enhance the kind of healthy spiritual life he seeks to promote.

The problem as I see it, is that so few detractors notice how positive Bishop Peric is over many aspects of the work in Medjugorje. In addition his stance helps a good outcome in the end as well as the meantime whether the Vatican approves of the visions as genuine or otherwise.

So cheer up, there are lots of reasons to continue to be very cheerful about those going on pilgrimage to Medjugorje ... and to continue to pray that by so doing their devotional life may be enhanced and grow healthier.

Yours ay,

Fr. Ted
(The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM)

PS If you are in England and can't get to Medjugorje, then visit Walsingham. There are heaps of new and exciting things going on there, not least the advent of Bishop Lindsay at the Anglican Shrine.

New Venture

2009-03-13T10:07:00.000Z

Hello,

I've started a new venture which looks promising (don't they all?).

This one is very well presented and doesn't seem to make any attempt to deceive - a refreshing change from most of the stuff out there, including the media and those scientists pretending to know all about religion.

It is essentially a web site provider with all the usual back up, to be compared with my present providers.

Click Here for a good look yourself.

Let me know how you get on and we'll compare notes.

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

Personal Finance - a Scriptural Viewpoint

2009-03-05T11:27:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Looking through the available resources I discovered a useful looking site expounding scriptural ideas about finance.

It's pricey, but it looks good and there is a money back guarantee worth reading if you are in doubt!

Don't doubt without checking up on your doubts by clicking HERE.

You may want to eliminate them.

Best wishes,

Fr. Ted

Prayer Breaks and Coffee Breaks?

2009-03-03T20:29:00.000Z

Hi,

I've found a useful proposition which may help some of us in Lent.

It's set of downloads and bonuses by John Harricharan, endorsed by Joe Vitale amongst others.

The idea of a "PowerPause" he outlines is similar to the "Arrow Prayers" we are taught to shoot up to God at times during the day.

I'd suggest combining all three - PowerPause with Prayer and a Coffee if you want it. Coffee breaks with Jesus are to be recommended!

CLICK HERE for details.

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

PS My late good friend Fra Dr Slavko Barbaric in Medjugorje always said that breaking for prayer was so much more refreshing than breaking for coffee. Why not combine the two?

Today's Offering

2009-02-23T10:39:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Yesterday's post was about facilities from Fr. Dave in Sydney, NSW.

Today's will be posted later on. In the meantime, do have a look at what is on offer already, especially the wide variety of useful data from Australia and elsewhere.

Till later, then,

Fr. Ted

And Here Is One I Prepared Earlier!

2009-02-22T15:48:00.000Z

Hello!

Today is Sunday so a quickie full of good content.

I mentioned a website earlier with Fund Raising help on it. There is much more to it, all useful in a whole variety of ways from the Dave Smith Stable in Sydney NSW.

CLICK HERE

Once you are in, click on the various titles and enjoy. "Sex, The Ring and The Eucharist" is worth a good read.

Till next time,

Yours ay,

Fr Ted

PS If the Click Here doesn't work click on the link below.

Help with the Pastoral Needs of the Flock

2009-02-21T12:01:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

A couple more sites for our consideration.

First that of "The Light Beyond." This has a selection of helpful literature on it such as the compendium "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep. There is a FREE GIFT of two useful books when you order, "Bereavement for Beginners" and extracts from the C.S. Lewis classic "A Grief Observed." This package is a good addition to any pastor's library, whether for self use or lending to pastoral helpers, or to the bereaved and those around them.

The title of the first is from a very popular poem I have banned from use anywhere near me! The concept of the dead being in "the next room" has an ambiguity about it which seems flawed theologically and tends to frighten young children! However there is much else to be recommended.

If you have a copy of this alongside the provision in the Church of England's "Common Worship - Pastoral Services" (Church House Publishing, 2000) you will have everything you need to plan your funerals to suit just about everyone!

The second is about anxiety problems, "Panic Away - End Anxiety and Panic Attacks," with sensible advice similar to that we used to dispense through the NHS in Cambridgeshire.

As usual, just click on the name to get the appropriate website up on screen.

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

Help the Next Generation Too

2009-02-17T09:29:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Here are the first selections for us to examine together. Just click on the title to go to the information needed.

A website dedicated to helping us generally and useful in this financial crisis. We should all take heed of this approach:

"Practical Guide to Christian Financial Freedom"

and second our children need help and guidance. This site looks promising:

"Teaching Children About Money - Raising Kid Entrepreneurs."

Till next time then!

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

Simple Help

2009-02-16T14:22:00.000Z

Hello again!

So I've not been busy! This month's spell of bad weather proved even worse than the last lot around New Year. The result is that I'm pretty well confined to the house. However I can be of help through the Internet and I've started to look around to see what I can can do online.

So I have been examining websites and programmes that it would be good to use. There are a great many, too many for me to look at personally
.
For those of you out there who would like help in the areas of Finance (= Debt for those really in trouble!), Family History, Self-Help, Spiritual Renewal, or my own specialities of Architecture, Marian Theology and Psychotherapy and Counselling alongside the usual Pastoral Care matters, I shall be posting some details for the future.

The ways will be simple, inexpensive, free in many cases, an easy to access. What I suggest is that we all look around and examine together what's on offer and exchange views.

If you are interested - I've covered most people's anxieties - let me know

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

PS For a Taster - try a site about Pilgrimages and Marian Theology, click now - or for its dedicated section on Fund Raising click here!

Carry on Praying!

2009-01-19T09:46:00.000Z

Hi!

I posted the following this morning on one of my favourite fora

"The mutual cease-fires announced last night were welcome.

Could it be no co-incidence that both the Roman Collect for yesterday - widely used beyond the Roman fold, and the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer" Collect were specifically prayers for peace?

I guess so.

Let's keep on praying in support of our lobbying - hard!"

The message needs underlining. Those of us close to the Medjugorje Apostolate should remember that "Queen of Peace" is a major title of Our lady especially among the Croatian peoples.

The prayers will continue all week for those using these collects ... and must continue surely far beyond that until this crisis and conflict is resolved.

Best wishes,

Ted Baty

October Call from Medjugorje

2008-10-26T21:18:00.000Z

Timely call!

In a world crazed by the infantile celebration of "Hallowe'en" rather than the celebration of the work of the saints at All Saints' Tide, of increasing persecution and martyrdom of Christians throughout the world, and the curiously ill-informed campaigns of so many secular humanists (note to be a real humanist you need to have something like a Christian approach at least - the first humanists were Christians in the Renaissance and the Reformation) - this message coming from Medjugorje has real relevance!

Message of October 25, 2008 "Dear children! In a special way I call you all to pray for my intentions so that, through your prayers, you may stop Satan's plan over this world, which is further from God every day, and which puts itself in the place of God and is destroying everything that is beautiful and good in the souls of each of you. Therefore, little children, arm yourselves with prayer and fasting so that you may be conscious of how much God loves you and may carry out God's will. Thank you for having responded to my call."

In the meantime - Read and Act on it!

More comment later in the week!

More mischief afoot!

2008-09-21T10:10:00.000+01:00

Fr. Vlasic in the news again!

Fr. Tomislav Vlasic was one of the Franciscan priests who helped at Medjugorje for a short time in the early days.

Unfortunately his unconventional approach to things has got himself into regular troubles and he has now been the subject of disciplinary action by the Roman Catholic authorities.

His time at Medjugorje was short. Although high in profile, my own estimate is that his influence there has virtually disappeared over the years.

This recent disciplinary action has stirred up some trouble from those who seek any rumour or adverse report which might, or might not, have relevance to Medjugorje. The disciplinary action seems to have nothing to do with Medjugorje and everything to do with Fr. Vlasic's maverick approach, an approach I personally regard with much suspicion, and which, I repeat, has no relevance now. However the critics have latched onto the association, which was short, and are keen to stir up trouble.

My advice?

Ignore this and concentrate on what is actually being said officially, and note also what is not being said officially! We might start by looking at what the present Bishop of Mostar has advised.

He is of the opinion that nothing supernatural is happening there. However he has also been told not to make such comments as the matter of deciding whether anything supernatural has happened in Medjugorje is now in the hands of the Vatican. All bishops and prelates, presumably, have to wait for the decision. The Bishop of Mostar has a personal opinion which he does not hide. That is important but, in the present circumstances, should be regarded as a personal opinion, not an official pronouncement. The Vatican will decide.

The present Bishop of Mostar, has laid down excellent guidelines for the parish and the pilgrims, and made positive comments about the visionaries and about the importance of healthy Marian devotion. He is after all one of the best informed about Medjugorje matters. His views are worthy of respect even though we may differ from him in our conclusions or our general approach to what happens there.

So why do we have to put up with ill-informed and ill-willed comment from others than the Bishop? Sensible, evidence-based, criticism we all need so that our understanding can be improved as we discuss the criticisms, but simply slinging mud because we are sour-hearted individuals ... no thank you!

Beware the false blogger!

2008-09-01T12:36:00.001+01:00

I couldn't resist a placing the following article on my blog. It comes from a site which asks us to mail it a friend. So I am reprinting it, assuming that my friends will receive it.

It illustrates how careful we have to be over what we read in blogs, on the internet, and even in the newspapers. The author does, however, also illustrate the good that sensible, balanced, and objective journalism can provide!

London Mail and other news reports that Medjugorje had been condemned by Vatican shown to be tabloid hoax
8/31/2008 10:49:00 AM
By Max Farrugia -www.independent.com.mt

"The news that Medjugorje had been condemned - proclaimed as evil - by the Vatican opened the door to a flood of e-mails, discussion groups, blogs and made the headlines in various newspapers around the world. The headline in the London tabloid Daily Mail, for example, read: "Vatican denounces group's claim of seeing the Virgin Mary more than 40,00 times as work of the devil."

It was a dream come true for the many enemies of the alleged apparitions. Finally, the famed apparition site in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has been drawing more pilgrims than any other apparition since Fatima - and perhaps before that, had been denounced, ending the debate. Vanquished.

It seemed so cut and dry, but there was one problem with the report - that it was made by a Vatican official was erroneous, disseminated in a London tabloid as a sketchy article that was then picked up by those bloggers, sites and newspapers which were dying to give Medjugorje its comeuppance. The Daily Mail took it from a short interview the bishop gave to an Italian magazine and hyped it into a Vatican ruling.

Most major religious Internet news sites and newspapers did not carry the story. They knew that Rome had made no such pronouncement. In fact, a recent decision by the Vatican to remove Medjugorje from the jurisdiction of a negative-leaning national bishops' commission was seen as the most important positive development since 1986 (when the Bishop of Mostar tried to reject it his authority to rule on it was similarly removed).

Still, there were articles, and e-mails based on purported, and still unconfirmed, statements by the 77-year-old Bishop Andrea Gemma of Italy, a retired bishop and exorcist who, it was claimed told an Italian magazine that Medjugorje is a sham that will soon be ruled against by Rome.

It is a scandal, he was quoted as saying, and the Vatican will soon crack down on the group (the visionaries).

But the bishop is not a Vatican spokesman - and never was, despite the headline and the flurry of e-mails quoting the British tabloid, which in the tradition of British journalism, often prints headlines without first finding the facts to support them. It is not the first time that our island suffered bad publicity in articles published by the second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.

Where the idea originated that this local bishop represented the Vatican is not readily apparent. According to a church biography, Bishop Gemma served as the prelate of the Isernia-Venafro diocese from 7 December to 5 August 2006 but never held a position of rank in the Vatican. To say that one of Italy's bishops speaks for the Vatican (there are 225 dioceses, not to mention all the retired prelates) is like saying a local council member speaks for the Office of the Prime Minister.

In fact, there are no official "Vatican" exorcists. The idea that he was one apparently came from a popular secular book, The Vatican's Exorcists, written by a certain Tracy Wilkinson about exorcists in Italy in a way that alluded to the Church as a whole, not the Holy See.

With regard to Bishop Gemma, this book says : "Gemma, seventy-four, speaks at times with a slow dramatic flair, repeating his words for emphasis." It added that he was a featured speaker at a meeting of exorcists "where he regaled the priests with his stories, his eagerness to knock down the mystique around diabolical possession, and his penchant for the closest thing to irreverence that a bishop can muster when talking about Church hierarchy".

Despite the fact that Rome has never said anything negative about Medjugorje - remaining neutral, at least until now - that freewheeling style fits in very neatly with the Daily Mail's own penchant for articles that cast a negative light on the Catholic Church.

The Daily Mail was not, however, the original source. "You'll see that soon the Vatican will intervene with something explosive to unmask once and for all who is behind this deceit," the now 77-year-old Bishop told Petrus, an online Italian Catholic journal.

If that is ever the case, we will accept the verdict. Bishop Gemma went on to say that the Church already has spoken through the Bishop of Mostar - whose authority, in fact had been stripped. The idea that he speaks for the Church is another inaccuracy in the Petrus interview by Bishop Gemma himself, who also erroneously stated that pilgrimages are not allowed there (despite official Vatican statements to the contrary; it has been twice stated through its press office that while official pilgrimages are not allowed until there is Church approval, unofficial ones are allowed, including those with priests. The Cardinal of Sarajevo, who is the country's highest ecclesiastic authority, has repeated this).

I ask one question; might Medjugorje be rejected one day?

While John Paul II was highly favourable toward the apparitions, even encouraging pilgrimages, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rescued the place from local condemnation; it is not clear how Benedict will act now that he is pontiff. We will accept whatever the Vatican decides. Thus far, it has decided nothing. When such an announcement comes, it will be through the Vatican Press Office from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I do not want your readers to discard what one exorcist stated and believe what another one said, but it is good to remind your readers what is written in the book The Vatican Exorcist about another exorcist. "The famed Father Gabriele Amorth of Rome (who performed exorcisms with John Paul II) - has visited Medjugorje and described it both as an authentic and (ironically) a fortress against Satan."

I visited Medjugorje after an article and other correspondence were published in your newspaper very recently. I personally consider Medjugorje a programme, a way and a new practical life in faith.

It is a new experience of faith and prayer. It is for this reason that Our Lady wanted our prayer partnership and the Visitation to be a way for us to gather together and live the messages of Medjugorje.

It cannot persevere, and in particular it cannot bring in the necessary fruits without the priests and spiritual guide"

Back in Circulation

2008-07-16T21:37:00.000+01:00

A Long Lay-Off

It has been far too long since I last put up a post on the blog. Far too long and with loads and loads of things happening in the world, and in my personal life.

The steady on-going work of sorting out the house with its loft and so on goes on apace. Still the trips to the recycling centre and the charity shops carry on in endless fashion, it would seem.

I have been doing some very serious thinking, along with a not always co-operative set of bank managers, and feel that I am beginning to see light again for providing something good for the human race and its planet! Incidentally in respect to the bank managers, whatever happened to the friendly chaps and chappesses who sat behind their desks and helped us so much before telephone and internet banking? They don't seem to be around on the telephone any more, nor on the internet, merely well-meaning bankers hed-bound by rules and regulations which prevent them helping where it is hurting.

Bring in a Banking Revolution!

Sounds pompous but all it means is that I am beginning to get clear of all the work to be done in acting as the custodian of all that my late wife had given to the world around her, her friends, and family, and the Christian Church.

This post is a way of saying "Hello" again to those who read it, with a promise of "something better" to come.

My best wishes,

Fr. Ted

"Advent tells us ... "

2007-11-30T22:55:00.001Z

"Christ is Near"

Tomorrow evening Advent begins in earnest. It has always been a time of great enjoyment even though we are ensuring our attention by keeping to days of fasting and abstinence. The preparation is done, in the Anglican Tradition, in a subdued way. Indeed it is done by adding the realisation that we need to make changes in our life if we are to celebrate Christmas and The Incarnation properly. We make sure that we give plenty of time for thinking of the implications of Jesus's coming. This has to mean a degree of disengagement from the festivities of everyone who is busy celebrating as an excuse for excess and over-indulgence. It doesn not mean going around with a long face or being rude about these other festivities. Enjoy them politely. I would suggest with "severe moderation"!

This means setting aside for looking in turn at various unpopular things: Heaven (and Hell!), Judgement, The Second Coming of Jesus. As extras, on the Sundays we remember with thanksgiving the work and witness of the biblical authors especially those in the New Testament, of St. John the Baptist, and on the Sundays immediately before and after Christmas that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy family. It is a huge array of areas to explore. No wonder we fast a little as well.

How to fast? The details are explained in the newly issued revision of the Medjugorje monograph, now available from Clickbank. The Prayer Book suggests the minimum required.

Go to http://www.medjugorje.org/ to avail yourself of this monograph in full, and of the opportunity to profit by passing it on to others.

More later this weekend!

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

New Role for The Medjugorje Centre

2007-11-27T18:47:00.000Z

Moving On

When my wife died last year the full implications for the Camberley Medjugorje Centre didn't dawn on me for many months. I struggled on getting the newsletters out and posting them and doing myself all the administration and secretarial work she had undertaken for the Centre since its foundation in the mid-nineties.

It became clear, however, that the work involved on this side of the Centre's activities was difficult and time-consuming. I decided to curtail the work done through the postal services and to concentrate on the work now possible through the additional opportunities available on the Internet and by Internet publication rather than the direct mail approach implicit in the newsletters posted each month to the Centre's elite group and to the members of the Society of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

It is a new era and there is need to expand through the opportunities afforded on the Internet. In this respect I shall continue my side of our activities and will be using the additional time and energy available through this adjustment of the work to release extracts of much intense work over the last decade on a wide variety of spiritual and pastoral matters.

These articles and other new publications will be published over the Internet for the time being.

The last newsletters explain things a little more ...

(September)

"Dear Friends,

This will be the last of my newsletters relating to the messages from Medjugorje. The reasons are ones I could well do without: principally that I am getting rather old now and seem to be increasingly frail; secondly that Hannelore and I left there for the last time in October 1995. My contributions, therefore, may not reflect entirely accurately what is going on there, although using the internet has been a "God-send" to keep me in touch.

I would emphasis that my reasons are just those outlined above. I believe firmly that Medjugorje represents the best that there can be from a sound devotion to Our Lady - that essential element in a healthy Catholic life as described by the present Bishop of Mostar. The question as to whether the apparitions are from a supernatural source is a question for which I have an answer which is perhaps oversimplified - that the supernatural can only become apparent through natural means, otherwise - no need for an Incarnation. The rest I leave to the theologians and hope that they consider the fruits of it all.

I would thank everyone who has supported and helped with this venture over the past years. "Camberley Medjugorje Centre" has been an enterprise to which Hannelore and I have been devoted, but which has, I suspect become rather out-dated. "The Society of Our Lady of Medjugorje" is not, however, out-dated, nor is it mine to wind up. If any member wishes to take it over, please let me know, and I shall inform the members that this is so. However I must stand down from that as well.

So how do I finish? Simply by commending the basic teaching of Medjugorje to you all. This latest message reminds us of the centre of it all, as of all the Christian life. It implies also, I would suggest, regular attendance at Mass and reception of Holy Communion, along with the traditional devotions of our various churches. I close therefore with Our Lady's words rather than my own. It is "Good-bye" and "Thank you" to everyone who has kept this journey with us over the years. Do keep in touch as it would be nice to hear from you! Be assured that Our Lady will journey with us still and always.

Yours sincerely,

Ted Baty

(and October - only on the web)

"Our Lady came to Medjugorje out of God's for the Western Church and for the world it serves. Many have profited by them. Many having profited have fallen away, the victim of other cares, or of care-lessness, or of anti-Medjugorje propaganda and the misinformation these dreadful opponents keep shouting.

You can find a full exposition of it all in the monograph. This is available “online” through a special ebook explaining how Medjugorje deals with our problems and helps us achieve our true aspirations. To access the details of this - Click HERE
"So "Keep the Faith"! Indeed that is, in a way, her whole message. It is to help us live the Catholic and Christian faith better and more fruitfully.

None of us can escape criticisms. St. Ignatius Loyola commented that there is n9-one who sees his/her own faults properly. We are blind to them. These monthly messages are a great aid in enabling us to manage the keep the faith. To that extent we can only aspire to love God completely "with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength" as an Anglican exhortation at Holy Communion reminds the congregation, quoting both the Old Testament and the New (How's that!). Perhaps a few have done, and we call them saints.

The Bishop of Mostar - no great supporter of the Medjugorje Apostolate - comments that a healthy devotion to the BVM is a necessary part of Catholic life. We perhaps should heed his advice, whilst disagreeing with him, respectfully, over the nature of the apparitions.

The call to us to be "light and love" is a good one. It is a measure we can use in all our dealings: do we shed extra light on life or a problem for someone; are we acting from a fullness of heart and affection with the other's best interest at heart, which we call love, and which the Anglican marriage service explains as "the mutual society, help, and comfort" we all owe to each other?

PS You can supply the manual “Problems and Desires” about Medjugorje yourself as an “affiliate.” For details of this access “Clickbank” at http://www.clickbank.com/ and follow the links to sign up as an affiliate. For each “sale” you will receive a good commission. Feel free to contact me directly if you are interested.

The link which will take your reader or enquirer to the details of how to the ebook and how to get it is at:

http://www.spiritual-renewal.org/yourmanualrequest

The payment link you need for your publicity or newsletter is:

http://1.revbaty1.pay.clickbank.net/

There is more to follow as we make other Camberley Medjugorje booklets available on the Internet.

For details, please contact Fr. Ted directly:
Telephone: (UK = 44) (0) 1276 500357
Email: e.baty@ntlworld.com

Until next time

Every blessing,

Fr. Ted

Getting Changed

2007-07-21T10:08:00.000+01:00

Hello again,

Every month I send a newsletter to some sixty or so fellow-Christians. In it I have a brief look at life in the light of the events at Medjugorje, one of the great growth points of Catholic life in particular and Christian outreach in general.

This last newsletter went out yesterday, so I post here for the benefit of anyone interested:

Fr Ted’s Newsletter/The Society of Our Lady of Medjugorje Newsletter
June 2007

Changed Lives

When my brother asked me recently why I was so keen on Medjugorje, I was slightly puzzled as to what brief reply to give. Very simply, I said "Changed lives" I went on to explain that I had seen so many people make a complete turn round in their lives as a result of a visit there. The technical term we use for a changed life is "conversion," a turning towards God with Jesus, an awareness of the place Jesus should have in our lives as he reveals the fullness of God to us, and aware, too, of our own inadequacy and need of help.

Mary had a crucial part in making this possible, firstly in obedience bearing the "God-child" and then with Joseph bringing him up to a normal first century Jewish human being. It is this experience she brings to us at Medjugorje. We should look carefully, therefore, at how this is constructed and put together. At Medjugorje the driving force is devotion to Jesus through the Virgin Mary and her life and her continued influence. This month her message includes the phrases “convert the whole world and call it to salvation.” In a way this brings into perspective the state of the world and the appalling disasters faced by so many through climate change, wars, poverty and disease.

Strikingly this month’s message suggests that the key to all this lies in the method of down to earth spirituality to be found in Medjugorje. Not everyone finds it. Our lives are too conditioned to look for things we can criticise such as the tat on sale in the shops, the outlandish enthusiasm of some pilgrims. In that mood, we miss the point. The core of Medjugorje is to be found only in prayer, preferably undertaken somewhere quiet on the hills or at the back of the church during one of the smaller services, and in the confessional.
Carmel.

I write on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16th July). The prophet Elijah found God only in the wilderness, a desert place, and a still, small, voice. The Carmelite movement finds much of its major inspiration in Elijah and Mary. They too seek the voice of God in the quiet of the soul. So should we if we are following the precepts taught in Medjugorje. So let’s all find such a spot and open up to God, ask Him to change our point of view, to turn us, to convert us again and above all to allow us to see this world through the eyes of Jesus. It is an occupation worth while, and which Mary seeks to enable in us at Medjugorje and through the Apostolate there as it spreads throughout the world. Only then will we begin to recognise the true nature of the sacrifices and prayers which pilgrims learn to make in Medjugorje and for which Our Lady thanks us this month.

Every Blessing

Ted Baty"

The newsletter is published jointly by Camberley Medjugorje Centre, 25 Martindale Avenue, Heatherside, Camberley, Surrey. UK. GU15 1BB. Telephone: 01276 500357 E-mail: e.baty@ntlworld.com, and The Society of Our Lady of Medjugorje (same address and details),
The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM, Director CMC, Secretary SOLOM.

The newsletter is a reflection of the import of the latest message from Our Lady as reported by the visionaries from Medjugorje. The June message to which this newsletter refers ran as follows:

OUR LADY’S MONTHLY MESSAGE
GIVEN TO THE VISIONARY MARIJA PAVLOVIC
FOR THE VILLAGE OF MEDJUGORJE AND THE WORLD
On 25th June 2007

"Dear children!

Also today, with great joy in my heart, I call you to conversion. Little children, do not forget that you are all important in this great plan, which God leads through Medjugorje. God desires to convert the entire world and to call it to salvation and to the way towards Himself, who is the beginning and the end of every being.

In a special way, little children, from the depth of my heart, I call you all to open yourselves to this great grace that God gives you through my presence here. I desire to thank each of you for the sacrifices and prayers. I am with you and I bless you all.

Thank you for having responded to my call."

If anyone would like more information about Medjugorje, I can supply it. Just let me know what you wish to have.

Getting passionate

2007-07-19T10:31:00.000+01:00

Hello all!

Fr. Dave, my colleague and mentor on all things internet-ish has called for us to as he asks:

"Tell us what you are passionate about. Share with us what you are struggling with. Motivate us, encourage us and call us to action."

A bit of a tall order really.

Passionate? I'm an Anglican - judging by the various Anglican websitesforums (fora?) in this country, we Anglicans don't get passionate about anything worthwhile, which is a pity, given that our new Scottish Protestant Prime Minister is insisting that we carry on as the Established Church in England. The Anglican fora are full of people making daft comments, and trying to be funny - fiddling while the country burns with indignation about everyone else as a way of covering over their degenerate and sinful lives!

What am I struggling with? Making ends meet, I suppose. I guess that I'm one of those pensioners whose pension is supposedly decent, but just seems to cover. So I am a little passionate about pensioers in general, and very passionate about poor families and the appalling blindness of the powers that be towards "failing families and the causes of family failure." The Church has a message about that which is stringent, powerful, and probably politically incorrect, indeed possibly illegal in today's world of sneakiness and backbiting. It's about love and forgiving your enemies!

What else am I struggling with? Of course my wife's death late last year. It is a struggle. However she has gone, gone ahead, and there is work to do, a lot of it in her memory. I struggle with sorting out what is difficult because I cannot let go, and at the same time don't want to be reminded, from what is essential and a continuing ministry to others.

One more factor I find difficult and struggle with. When circumstances force an interruption in marketing work, there is no let up - the charges and internet fees are still paid and so on. A good opening is there: providing for those who have to take time out and for those taking holidays and so on. I know that the gurus all say "Wait until your downline or the automatic systems support you." That is, I regret to say, an ideal felt by very few as we slog our way forward, hour by hour and day by day. Can we build this into a service to others? Maybe there is a big, big, market out there for it! I can think of one or two systems which come near it, but not quite.

Encourage and motivate us? May be there is somthing above which can motivate. In the meantime - just look around and see what is going on in a world, perhaps, only just perhaps, waking up to the results of its self-glorification and greed, and in desperate need of a faith to guide it.

I guess that's about it but here are two good sites for motivation:

Fr. Dave's forum: http://www.fighting-fathers.com/forum

Try the link! It's full of "goodies."

Till next time, then.

Yours,

Fr Ted

PS: Try the link!

I'm back

2007-04-12T22:26:00.000+01:00

Hello again,

I seem to be about to be back in business. On Tuesday there was a splendid service in honour of my late wife at our Parish Church followed by a gathering of friends old and new with the family. It seems to mark the end of the formal mourning period, and was only possible because of the hard and loving work and support of the whole team at the Church. Appropriately my parish priest had suggested Easter Week as the right time for this being a time filled with the good news of the hope of resurrection and the certainties of the Christian Faith.

What I shall be doing I am not sure. Although "official" mourning seems over, the grieving keeps popping up regularly, not least in the inner tension and lack of appetite for food and for doing things.

However I have had a superb boost through this outpouring of support and love which must augur well for the future.

Thoughts and posts should be appearing here as elsewhere. For my thoughts since the last posting try the various entries on my favourite forum:

http://fighting-fathers.com/forum

Till next time - and maybe more details of a wonderful and upliftingly joyous occasion!

Travelling on

2007-02-09T10:14:00.000Z

It's a long gap between posts in which time two deaths have occurred.

Hannelore, my beloved wife, was - as the Salvationists say - "promoted to glory" in mid-December. She was 77 y.o. and had lived a charming and fulfilling life to the end.

This week one of our very closest friends died in her fifties being at work as a school-teacher until late last year. An aggressive cancer took her from us. She died peacefully in her sleep having enjoyed the comforts of an excellent hospice for her last weeks.

Hannelore wrote at one point that even in her deepest times of sadness "the joy of travelling" would raise her spirits.

How apt!

We're all on a journey to that heavenly city and should let the joy of the journey give us buoyant spirits. Once we realise we are travelling on then as the International marian Movement has it " ... every event, every sore, every failure" can be turned into victory, a creative opening for us to experience God's love and that of our friends.

Immaculate Integration?

2006-12-08T22:21:00.000Z

Some thoughts on the Immaculate Conception's reception by the Church occurred to me whilst meditating by my wife bedside in hospital as she slept peacefully through the afternoon ... to awaken bright and perky in time for supper and my evening visit!

Years ago the Blessed Virgin appeared to the young girl Bernadette and revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, a phrase Bernadette could not understand. The phrase referred to a dogma owned and promulgated by the Catholic Church a few years later.

In Medjugorje the most controversial items in the series of visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary there which have been reported since 1981 have been about the relation of religions to each other.

Mary, it is said, has stated that - so far as God is concerned - it is man that has caused religious conflict and division, not He himself.

Traditional Catholics, especially those of a hardened and exclusive nature which refuses any hope of salvation to those outside their own faith, have taken great exception to this and regard it as "proof" that the apparitions are false.

Not so me! Even the Vatican doesn't take that stance preferring to wait until a proper investigation of the whole matter has taken place. In the meantime opinions differ, but are only opinions - and like the divisions are said to be, largely man-made, perhaps even largely male-dominated.

Given the present eirenic and ecumenical stance of Benedikt XVI towards other Christians as shown in the visits of the Archbishop of Canterbury - the senior man in Anglicanism - to Rome, and of the Pope himself to Turkey and Instanbul to meet the Oecumenical Patriarch, the "Primus inter Pares"of Orthodoxy, is this comment ascribed to Mary in Medjugorje, not perhaps one of the keys to the whole Medjugorje question?

I am not saying that it is so. However, let us examine the possibility that it is so. The Pope's attitude is similar to that of his predecessor - described in "Ut Unum Sint" - and builds on it. Various things point to this suggestion, so outrageous to some:

Mary is known primarily in Medjugorje as "Queen of Peace";
Many Medjugorje Centres throughout the world take this titel into their own as "(such and such a place) Centre for Peace";
The provision of Peace in individuals, societies, churches and communtities, and between individuals and groups and nations in conflict is a keystone of the whole movement which stems from Medjugorje;
Jesus promised "I if I be lifted up will draw all men to myself";
Jesus stated that the two great commandments were to Love God and to Love our neighbour as ourselves;
Jesus said that we should love our enemies.

Could it not be, therefore, that Jesus became incarnate to unify mankind under God's provision, and in a peaceful and loving hegemony in which those in power were the servants of all, not despots?

The British Prime Minister has laid out today his plans for the method by which our British communities and faiths can be integrated into a peaceful and harmonious whole in the United Kingdom.

Let us hope that the well-publicised Catholicism of the PM and his family, spanning both Anglican and Roman approaches may extend to consider just this!

That this has happened on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a pleasant co-incidence as it reminds us that the Queen of Peace may already have intervened in order to promote a new and respectful attitude between the adherents of our many faiths, just as she did so many years ago to remind the Catholic world of the importance of her own Immaculate Conception.

Hospitals and the NHS

2006-11-22T22:20:00.000Z

It's over five weeks since my last blog. This gap mainly due to Hannelore's entry to hospital following a series of disasters.

She has been very ill indeed and is only just beginning to realise how confusing it has been for her with low oxygen, infections, temperatures, broken days and nights due other patients being noisy and interruptive.

A mixed blessing was her move to a single room following a hospital infection. This has meant quiet and some very good nursing, although the team is short, often with two patients waiting for attention whilst others are seen to. Surely it cannot be normal for 10 - 15 minutes to elapse before a nurse answers the call for attention?

However shortage of staff seems to be the rallying cry of the nurses - and I agree.

A real blessing has been the attention of our friends and colleagues in prayer for Hannelore and the family and her helper. Lots of prayer going on at our own church in the Guild of St. Raphael (see also http://www.guild-of-st-raphael.org.uk/) at St. Mary's Church, Thorpe, the Russian Orthodox monks of St. Edward's Brotherhood at Broookwood not only listing her needs although she is not orthodox but praying for in their services (including major festivals), and lighting a candle, and a prayer group in Sydney Australia led by a colleague's wife from O.F.F. (The Order of Fighting Fathers). Now the Sisters at Rempstone have added us both to their prayer list in their role as intercessors for the Guild of St. Raphael.

Our thanks go to them all. It is a huge strength and support giving us confidence that we are not alone but have support from God's Church at large and in particular.

It is ironic and rather nice that not so long ago I had a piece published in the religious and counselling media about the way in which those who are prayed for recover more quickly according to several well-thought-out pieces of research.

A Pause on Sunday

2006-10-15T22:11:00.000+01:00

It is a few days since I promised to post my views on articles and letters which have appeared in "New Directions" (the Forward in Faith monthly journal) which seemed to indicate some radical "new directions" indeed.

Part of me is puzzled by the serious way in which writers on feminism - such as Helen Luke or Daphne Hampson, and Professors Reuther and Heine - treat gender matters with some respect along with the psychology behind them, in contrast to the various propagandists who fill the pages and comments issuing from GRAS, WATCH and the like. This low level of academic expertise is astonishing in a church which has prided itself on the quality of its theology and has a stupendously erudite Archbishop at its head. Sadly General Synod seems to have been affected. Hence the attempt by low level academicians such as myself to fill the gap which should have closed by our academic betters.

Domestic duties have taken over with journeys back and forth to various medical facilities and the general haphazardous of the life of a part-time carer. Actually I'm full-time but the duties are spread through the day on a random basis.

Tired but happily "caring", I hope to get my newsletter out to the Medjugorje groups and onto the websites during the week as well as contributing a view from the flock at the grass-roots on the subject of gender and what kind of shepherding the Church flock need!

Till then (then)!

New Directions for Women's Ministry?

2006-10-11T22:53:00.000+01:00

Here's a "taster" of what's in store, taken from a post I made on the "Fighting Father" Forum:

The member Stephen wrote:

"I had great respect for the late Bp David Penman who led the Melbourne Diocese to the ordination of women and celebrated with appointment of one of them for our own parish as deacon. I was absolutely flabergasted when the the archaic logic that prevented women priests was then stepped up to the role of Bishop."

I'm one of the dissenters on this, I'm afraid. Whether we are for the move or against it, I don't feel that it is worth dividing the church over before a consensus is reached. In the Church of England we've just decided on a move to steamroller any opposition. I'm not sure what "archaic logic" means in this debate. Are we going to talk "archaic teaching" in our Bible Study now, rejecting anything we dislike?

I've always been a supporter of women's ministry in the Church, but find that the debates about women's ordination can be be bland and prevent further examination of what a priest is and how that differs from a minister or a deacon.

We have a huge opportunity to explore all this and to open up the discussion. Sadly we just assume that there is no difference between men and women, or between male and female, a position I find lacking both logic and scientific acumen!

I'm much more inclined to the view of an Orthodox Archbishop over here who was asked "Will there ever be women priests in the Orthodox Church?" replied "Yes, when we all agree!" One of the most sensible comments came from a prominent German theologian Manfred Hauke who remarked that what we think about women priests affects what we think about everything else. It is not a matter that can be reduced to the simplicities of "political correctness" but one which requires us to examine exactly what we mean by "priest", and "minister", by "authority," by "man" and "woman," and indeed how we think of God. Fr Thomas Hopko, Head of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary in the USA commented that the cintroversy over women priests "shows what a person believes about everything."

It was that realisation which made myself and a retired archdeacon in our local "Deanery Synod" move from being in favour to being against the legislation being presented. The debates had brought up profundities of necessary thought which were essential to the deliberations but tossed aside because of the prevailing fashion.

One of my closest colleagues - an Anglican lay woman who taught seminars and workshops for the local Jesuit ladies - was and is very much in favour of the ordination of women to the priestly offices. However, she felt that the Church of England General Synod decided to go ahead after a debate which did not prove the point but fell considerably short. "There was no way they could go ahead on those arguments" was her assessment. Like me - waiting for the voting to be announced, and hearing the figures which gave the go ahead - "Wrong Decision" was the gut reaction to the debate. It sticks in my memory because she rang as the result was announced!

Perhaps some of us were suspicious when at the start of the referral to the Dioceses, the Diocesan Synod and the clergy, were called to a meeting at which various Diocesan Officals, including both Bishops and a Church Commissioner, in order to tell us how we should vote! Such a democratic system!

This a very long post and I apologise. However I shall be looking at some new thoughts on the matter in my blog, which is noted at the end of my posts.

Maybe one of the best reasons for holding back a little from this decision is that women priests and women bishops seem in the main to ape the men. The promised feminine and female gifts seem to be dropped in favour of somewhat manly behaviour. The new thinking I'll be looking at is in line with thoughts I've always had about the work of my women colleagues which would do them more justice than blandly saying [in effect] "OK There's no difference between men and women. Let's ordain you, and then you can get on with the work the way we men do."

Let's face it. "Priesthood" as we have received it is very much a male construct, propped up by a patriarchal system. The right kind of priesthood for women would reflect their gifts - different from men's - and be complementary and of equal status to men's forming a better whole. Mind you, I think such a priestly ministry has always been there, just not expressed very explicitly!

Fr Ted (The Revd. Dr. Edward Baty)
http://www.spiritual-renewal.com
http://susret.tripod.com
http://st-matildas.tripod.com
http://www.frtedsnews.blogspot.com/

Women Priests - Some New Directions?

2006-10-10T21:42:00.000+01:00

Tuesday 10th October

Back again with a short outline of what caught my eye in the October "New Directions."

It was very much the "new direction" proponents of women's ministry so often take.

Tom Sutcliffe follows his colleagues in a common trick: talk about priesthood, and then carry on an argument about ministry as if following naturally from what was said before. Exactly the problem on 11.11.1992 - those in favour of women priest didn't talk very much about priesthood, merely the frustrations of ministry as a female deacon or lady worker, those against spoke almost exclusively about priesthood, or that is how it came to me - a then uncommitted observer and listener to the whole debate in General Synod. No distinction there is made between priesthood and ministry, the equation of which are crucial to the argument

Among other colleagues - including some sympathetic to the main motions - there was a feeling that the debate had not proven the point it carried. A Roman friend and priest commented that the arguments for were in the main sociological, those against theological.

Problem is that such logic is a kind of linguistic chicanery, a sleight of hand substituting one argument for another, one subject for another whilst pretending not to change the subject.

Joan White on the other hand comes near to the truth, suggesting that males can represent the incarnate God in a way not available to women, whilst women represent the receptive and productive earthiness of our being.

Along with the letters from Aidan Nichols and Michael Moreton, the above articles provide a rich vein for discussing exactly what is meant by a "woman priest" or "woman bishop" (if anything).

Some future blog asap will address these thoughts. At present I'm tied up with medical matters, visits to hospitals, helping people around and so-on. Food for activity, which does not prevent thought but stimulates it.

However tomorrow Dei Gratia et DeoVolente I shall celebrate Mass at 12.30 p.m. in the lovely church of St. Mary's Thorpe, Egham, Surrey including prayers for the sick, anointing and laying on hands.

LAUS DEO!

Ministry and Minster (No New Directions seen?)

2006-10-08T12:50:00.000+01:00

I've been trawling the pages of "New Directions" in the hope of inspiration which seems short these days, especially in the CE.

A recent TV series on York Minister - in which I was ordained over forty years ago - was fascinating and jolly. However, despite the huge impact the Minister community makes (on the world as well as the Dioces of York) I had a curious feeling that they were detached and shielded from the reality all around them, a reality which poured through the Minster doors in regular large volumes. Maybe it was defensive. However, the issue which gave this thought was that of the ordination of women to the priesthood and to the episcopate. Whether for or against, neither the Minster staff as revealed in the sound bites, nor the BBC as revealed in the overall editing seemed to have a clue as to what the issues and problems were. What we got was meek acceptance of the status quo.

Maybe that was right in a Cathedral Church. Both myself and my present Vicar served in a Cathderal as junior clergy, at different times but the same Cathedral and under the same Provost for a time. It was right to present the Minster as providing facilities and hospitality for visiting individuals and groups. What a pity the acute learning and knoweldge of the staff there had to be left out and presented in such a bland, unchallenging, way!

More later, therefore! "New Directions" did have some good thoughts - as always - on the subject of the ministry and the priesthood.

Yours ay, Ted.

9/11 - and our parish church

2006-09-11T19:53:00.000+01:00

Hello again, The domestic scene leaves little space for even the slightest blogging.

However today is special - the 5th anniversary of "9/11" and the last chance for family and friends to visit before the bull-dozers move in and the site is reconstructed along more glorious lines - a suitable memorial to those who died and the courage of those who gave some much to rescue who could be rescued.

Hannelore and I remembered it all day. It is a curious matter that we had friends and family who knew someone directly involved then, but no-one from the July bombings in London.

As a tribute I reprint a short essay I wrote about a week afterwards:

The Maw of History - A Meditation on 9/11

A primary aim of the Medjugorje Apostolate to which my wife and I belong is the establishment of peace at every level from within the individual to peace and contentment between nations and cultural or ethnic groups.

The following essay was written at the time of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. It is retained here as an expression of the scenario faced by the world when peace is forgotten. The essay is set in the context of the church attended by the directors.

“It is the most ancient of Christian sites in the country.” he said. “The Phoenicians were here first, apart from a few ancient Brits with whom they traded.”

“Look, here is our oldest parishioner.

A Jar was taken from a shelve in the chancel.

“He gives the Vicar less trouble than anyone else!.”

It was a grey pot, cracked and stuck together again, the inside stained by ashes.

“He was Christian. We know that. First, because the pot has wavy lines around it to tell us he had been baptised. Second, the urn was found on top of the altar stone there.”

He gave a cursory nod towards the shelf and a small piece of stone with crosses on the corners and added, “The date has to be around 150 AD”

We marvelled at such antiquity.

The parade around the church continued, stories of ancient tombs, courtiers - for this was a royal church, Saxon princes, Tudor ladies still resplendent and perfectly preserved until, unearthed from the confines below the church floor, the fresh air got to them.

Then we journeyed into the churchyard.

More tombs, a Roman Basilica now hidden below the nave and out across the churchyard to make a mound for the daffodils, “Stinking Willy” the butcher of Culloden, with his butler and alleged catamite laid in the ground across the bottom of his feet, bits of Captain Hardy, Nelson’s own “Kiss-Me-Quick,” (was it really ’Kiss-me’ or Kismet’ - who’s to know or care, or spoil a good story?).

A monument showed Christina Rossetti in best stone modelling an angel on a gravestone. We pictured “See, amid the winter’s snow”, and the photographers among us made a note to return the when the snow came, and brightened and whitened and enlivened her stone-grey hair.

So we re-entered and returned to the church’s latest extension - a modern Chapter House, built with proceeds of the land, now a Theme Park next door, and a Millennium grant.

Here met Church Councils, Diocesan Committees, the Sunday School, and the Vicar’s various groups. An adjacent room was to house the parish office and our counselling centre. In the modern magnificence of the main room registers were signed after Weddings, as newly-weds and their witnesses tidied each other, went to the loo, and moistened dry mouths at the parochial kitchen. Hither after Mass on Sunday, we came ourselves for coffee, a biscuit, a gossip and chat. From time to time parties are held here and refreshments for those attending concerts and lectures in the main church.

Thus we finished our refreshments, and returned to our cars or to walk home, regaled by two thousand years of history in these “Ancient and Modern” monuments around our spiritual home.

A week later

The “Stars and Stripes” fly at half-mast above the mellowing brick of the Tudor tower.

The Queen had graciously given her consent to it being flown, here alone, for our American colleagues. Never before had anything so un-British been flown above a public building.

More history, but history of our own making around this we could not wander in deference.

History had moved us on, challenged and consumed us.

From its jaws oozed blood and the grey dust of New York and Washington and Pennsylvania.

It swallowed our hearts, and from its maw we could not escape. Many friends and family were directly involved. History had taken us into itself.

(The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, 18th September 2001, revised September 2006)”

Let's get on with it again!

2006-07-18T11:51:00.000+01:00

MEDJUGORJE
OUR LADY’S MONTHLY MESSAGE
GIVEN TO THE VISIONARY MARIJA PAVLOVIC-LUNETTI
FOR THE VILLAGE OF MEDJUGORJE AND THE WORLD
ON THE 25TH JUNE 2006

"Dear children!

With great joy in my heart I thank you for all the prayers that, in these days, you offered for my intentions.

Know, little children, that you will not regret it, neither you nor your children. God will reward you with great graces and you will merit eternal life.

I am near you and thank all those who, through these years, have accepted my messages, have poured them into their life and decided for holiness and peace.

Thank you for having responded to my call."

FR. TED'S NEWSLETTER
JUNE 2006
(25th Anniversary)

The First Priority

It is clear that in Medjugorje prayer is the first priority in any kind of apostolate or fresh way of living the Christian life or rekindling it. There are those who feel that prayer is a waste of time, time better spent doing good works or raising funds for charity or tending to the sick, the poor, the needy, and the lonely.

Well, maybe there is a point in such a view, but it is in no way a good point to be making. Those who have spent a lot of time trying to carry out good works, or do some fund-raising, and even more those who have spent this time among the sick, the poor, the needy, and the lonely, know full well that time spent in prayer is not only useful but the only way that they can continue on through what is often frustrating and tedious and repetitious, seemingly unrewarding, activities. We need to take in food for thought and the spirit through prayer, just as much as we need to take in through our lungs and stomachs fresh air, oxygen, and food for the body.

Twenty five years of sound instruction!

The critics of the messages say that they are trite and repetitious. I have dealt with this point at length in the new revised monograph for Anglicans, now re-named “Problems and Desires” after the words in the Medjugorje Hymn. I simply repeat the story of a parish priest who was stopped by a very annoyed parishioner who told him in a very critical tone “You’ve preached the same sermon for the last six months!” “Yes,” replied the cleric, “And when you’ve done what I asked, I’ll preach another one.” Much the same has applied at Medjugorje. Our Lady tells her children what is for their good, and is not afraid to keep on at us when we fail. Good parenting!

Fortunately she manages to do it lovingly and in a way we can accept.

This month’s message then is a “Mega Thank You” to all those who have tried and kept on trying to live and develop their lives along the paths of Peace and Prayer, Penance and Fasting, and a Firm Faith in Jesus’ work for us. So have a look at your life. See where she has helped you. Have a look in the nooks and crannies you are hiding from her, and bring what you haven’t done out in the open where you can do something about it, with the help of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, plus that of Mary and other Christians.

An Anglican Pilgrimage

Natasha Pack is organising an Anglo-Catholic Pilgrimage to Medjugorje in May next year. She invites all Anglicans, especially priests and readers of “New Directions” to join her, and to accept Our Lady’s invitation in this 25th Anniversary year! Contact Mrs Pack direct at 0207 794 6566.

Every Blessing

Ted Baty

Published by Camberley Medjugorje Centre, 25 Martindale Avenue, Heatherside, Camberley,
Surrey. UK. GU15 1BB.Telephone and Fax: 01276 20315 E-mail: e.baty@ntlworld.com
The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM, and Mrs. Hannelore Baty, Directors

Looking Around

This last six weeks has contained a tremendous series of events, large and small.

The Middle East has erupted as Israel and Hizbollah try to knock umpteen bells out of each other. As in every other war - especially since we invented more destructive weapons, it's the civilians that are getting hit"

In the Churches I love, the American Anglicans have elected a lady as Presiding Bishop. their equivalent of Archbishop or Metropolitan. Being a lady is bad enough for most traditionalists. What seems to be getting up rather more noses is the fact of her extreme inexperience for the job - not long ordained, has only 35 parishes in her Diocese, and only a handful of members in those those churches. Still they seemed very keen on her, so perhaps she does stand some sort of chance!

The Anglicans in Englands have decided to go for women Bishops. Let's hope it doesn't split the church too radically, if at all. The centre party of liberals and secularist clergy has power but little else - the cash and the people are in wings which might decide to leave. Let's keep it together chaps.

Greatest of all. It's been the 25th Anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje. This should be the biggest Church event of all. Sadly it isn't, but I've done my best by placing it all first in the blog. A colleague told me that one of the Orthodox Bishops in England is very supportive of the events there. I just wonder what his Serbian Orthodox colleagues would have to say about that!

Domestically, my wife broke her arm which has meant extra domestic duties for your truly. I love cooking, and brushing carpets, after that the enthusiasm declines! So from a more domestic than usual carer:

Till next time,

Yours ay,

Ted Baty

A rant for this month

2006-06-01T21:47:00.000+01:00

This month's extended rant is on-line again for anyone interested.

The internet is curious. Loads of people giving their all by way of uncensored comment.

I have found two good fora for this:

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/forum
and http://fighting-fathers.com/forum

It is useful for me to have a longer piece to publish this way even though the heavily-worked "Fr Ted's Newsletter" seems so well received.

So here is this month's extended thoughts on our common apostolate:

MEDJUGORJE

OUR LADY’S MONTHLY MESSAGE
GIVEN TO THE VISIONARY MARIJA PAVLOVIC-LUNETTI
FOR THE VILLAGE OF MEDJUGORJE AND THE WORLD
ON THE 25TH MAY 2006

"Dear children!

Also today I call you to put into practice and to live my messages that I am giving you.

Decide for holiness, little children, and think of heaven. Only in this way, will you have peace in your heart that no one will be able to destroy.

Peace is a gift, which God gives you in prayer. Little children, seek and work with all your strength for peace to win in your hearts and in the world.

Thank you for having responded to my call."

Fr Ted’s Newsletter

Practice makes perfect

We’ve been reminded this month to put into practice what we have learned. In some ways I learned to sail by correspondence course. That was not strictly true however. What I did was to take a correspondence course and use it to illuminate what I was learning out on the water, sometimes by myself, sometimes with an instructor. Reading about it, or paying lip service would never have been enough. This month’s message asks us to go beyond just hearing the messages, and to build on what we have learned.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing today’s churches is that it is easy to spout a lot and do very little. Indeed, mostly the members don’t even spout, they just sit there, listening and hoping something will happen. The Da Vinci Code experience caught many Christians completely unaware, largely because so many of us were talking about the faith and not demonstrating what it is about. It is certainly not about the sort of affair portrayed in the Da Vinci Code. A vibrant active and informed church would not be shaken by the kind of fictional nonsense the book contains.

Here is a list of other ways in which these expert spouters distract us from preaching, teaching and displaying practically the Gospel:

Homosexuals and lesbians need the Gospel but seem to get either a lot of political activity on their behalf whether they want it or not, or a lot of hate. The Church has to show it loves them;

It is the same with:

Those in favour of women priests
Those against women priests;
Both sides need to love, trust and appreciate each other.

Those in favour of women bishops;
Those against women bishops;
The welfare of the Church and its ability to demonstrate the Gospel should be enhanced, not hindered by whatever decision is taken.

Those for a Third Province;
Those against Third Province;
Clarity and good management should dictate what sort of province we have.

Those who like happy-clappy hymns;
Those (like me) who find happy-clappy hymns wanting, especially the words!
Didn’t St. Paul say something about not giving or taking offence?

Those in favour of …
Those against …

The list seems endless,

yet:

People are in prison for their beliefs;
People are killed for their beliefs;
Thousands, perhaps millions are starving;
Thousands are on the poverty line (maybe even millions even in the UK);
Thousands are homeless, living on the streets, sleeping in doorways or under hedges;
Children and teenagers are left to themselves, deprived of the support they need;
Drug addicts are dying, horribly and often very lonely;
Debt is increasing;
Divorce is hugely on the rise, and hurting more and more people;
Teenagers are getting pregnant in greater numbers;
Illegals are made to work for a pittance, ruthlessly and cruelly treated by criminals acting as gang-masters (should we, therefore, boycott British Farm goods. That would be an innovation but “Fair Trade” applies in the UK too! By the way, I buy local produce as often as I can).

And so the list could go on.

Does anyone care?

Yes, most Christians do, deeply but find it difficult to show it.

The Church to which I belong has a “General Synod.” It is, in theory, the governing body. However it is hi-jacked regularly by pressure groups whose actions have very little all influence on society even if carried out! General Synod is perhaps the prize example of “all talk and no action” in the Church of England. Maybe that is it what should really be, a talking shop where people can get their hang-ups dried out and aired, leaving the work to the people and pastors in the pews.

Back to our knees then.

Changing the world for good

There is a story about Pope John Paul II meeting a group of Bishops and Cardinals from a particular country. “Oh” he said “I gather there are lots of people hurting in your country especially about [such and such a problem].” “Yes” replied the visitors. “Then go and help them,” the Pope said. The visitors went away chastened, because they were trying to avoid the problem! Mind you I suspect the scene was repeated fairly often with groups from different parts of the world.

The underlying problem is the restless desire so many have to make themselves more comfortable. It is too easy to intone things such as: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Church had more/no lesbians or homosexuals, more/less women priests, to spend nothing on buildings, had/had not women bishops …?”

And so on.

Too many of us we want to make ourselves comfortable by changing others. Most counsellors and psychotherapists find out very quickly that never works. You have to change inwardly before you can change anything outwardly. In Medjugorje we are taught to begin by changing ourselves. There was a motto used by a commercial enterprise which ran “Changing the world for good, one by one starting with you!” In Medjugorje the message is to change the world by changing ourselves and our communities.

Remember the old saying “If you’re not beautiful at twenty, it’s not your fault; if you’re still not beautiful at forty, it is”! Our Lady has insisted throughout the events at Medjugorje that everything starts with inner peace. This gives us the solid base on which we can stand and begin to reshape the world around us.

Peace is a gift, so accept it

So we have to work for this better world beginning on our knees. It involves acknowledging our faults before God, and rejoicing and relaxing into that “Peace of God which passes all understanding” as the great Prayer Book Formula suggests.

Then, having prayed - and this means using proper approaches as well as meditations. By proper approaches I do mean something like the Daily Office, or the Breviary, or the Rosary, and including a goodly piece of Scripture each day with a commentary or “Bible Study Notes.”
Only then, I believe, are we set free to get up and go out and accomplish great things for Christ. Why! Because we have filled the resources cupboards of our minds with good stuff. There is an excellent organisation based in Sydney, Australia called “Fighting Fathers” made up of church people with experience of martial arts, and boxing or fans thereof. Such “Fighting Fathers” are ready to fighting the good fight using their experience of the pain, conflict, and discipline of the ring to enlighten their ministry, whether as a lay member or one of the clergy. They have discovered that when you’ve got ammunition, and ploys, and tactics, and a properly thought-out strategy - all in reserve, we deal with conflict and struggle much better. To borrow from the sales people - we’ve got petrol in the tank and we can “put the pedal to the metal” and drive out there and fight to provide more and more people with what they need.

Coming shortly ...

So I’ve had a good rant today. It’s Pentecost very soon. We need to be spirit-filled again. All I’ve written above is about the approaches we need to adapt to our own situation and the places we need to be, and the ways we need to help, the directions we need to go. However, above all we need to be in that “upper room” together with the other believers, praying and ready to go, willing and able to work with the Holy Spirit when it arrives!

Every Blessing

Ted Baty

The regular (shorter) newsletter is published by

Camberley Medjugorje Centre, 25 Martindale Avenue, Heatherside, Camberley,
Surrey. UK. GU15 1BB.Telephone and Fax: 01276 20315 E-mail: e.baty@ntlworld.com
The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM, and Mrs. Hannelore Baty, Directors

Monthly news from Medjugorje

2006-03-26T15:11:00.001+01:00

As Easter approaches It looks good to me to publicise some new insights which may help us understand it better.

Where better, for instance, than in Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina where a group of children and teenagers began to experience visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the summer of 1981?

It is a phenomenon which has continued to the present day, inlcuding regular messages which the visionaries report the Virgin telling them. This is month's given to the visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti "for the village of Medjugorje and the world" on the 25th March 2006 runs:

"Courage, little children!
I decided to lead you on the way of holiness.
Renounce sin and set out on the way of salvation, the way which my Son has chosen.
Through each of your tribulations and sufferings God will find the way of joy for you.
Therefore, little children, pray.
We are close to you with our love.
Thank you for having responded to my call."

======

Every month the Camberley Medjugorje Centre - run by my wife and I - publishes a brief newsletter for its members and colleagues. The current issue is published below slightly adapted for the international readership.

A Gulf Revisited

The gulf between Christian and non-Christian is most acute at the great feasts. As we approach Easter I have become very aware of the huge gap in understanding which re-asserts itself at each great feast.

First, then, a look back to Christmas

For the Christian preparing for Christmas, there was a huge expectation on the way, which the secular world around missed. The joy in Bethlehem at Jesus’s birth was massive in terms of eternity and largely hidden. Despite the shepherds and the wise men, and the nastiness of Herod, It would have been a very minor entry in the society columns had they had newspapers in those days! Certainly the “celebrity” magazines would have taken no notice at all.

But for those involved it was huge. The expectation in the hearts of Mary and Joseph was surely particularly so? The astonishment of the shepherds and wise men must have been equally so!
In Advent we may not have got as far as that. What we had was something just as big, if not bigger - meeting not just the baby but the grown-up, risen-up, Jesus Himself! And that is most certainly the difference between us and the Christmas parties and booze-ups which went on around us. There was a real sense in which Advent was not just a simple run-in to Christmas. It was a bridge between November and All Saints and Christ the King celebrations and the end of the world. How enormous are the implications of the Bible readings for Advent and for Lent, those twin periods of special thought and preparation for the two greatest Christian Festivals. We are going to meet Jesus. Yes! That is absolutely huge. And we need to be ready!

Looking at Easter

In this allocation of time to sacred explorations, Easter comes about half-way.

Again as we prepare through fasting, and a good look at our lives, the secular world around is missing the point once more. We are going to remember and meet the Risen Jesus once more on Easter Day, just as we meet every Sunday when "two or three" (plus a lot more!) are gathered together in his name.

The very heart of Lent is our times of repentance. Forget the fasting for a moment! It's only done to help us concentrate on what God requires of us. A lot of people outside the church regard repentance as some kind of infringement of their "Human Right" to live sinfully! In North America and Canada, even our sister churches have had their knuckles rapped by the senior Anglican bishops. Let's not make that kind of mistake. Of course God loves us however much we may sin. That is what the Cross is all about. We must not make the mistake of assuming that we bhave as we like without it having an effect. God still will love us, but our lack of repentance creates a void between Him and us preventing that lovefrom acting fully.

"Verse John"

I cannot think of a better way to finish this than by quoting the famous verse which I hope is still taught to every Sunday School child and every candidate for Adult Baptism and Confirmation:

"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whoso believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)

Every Blessing!

Ted Baty

This newsletter published by:
Camberley Medjugorje Centre, 25 Martindale Avenue, Heatherside, Camberley,
Surrey. UK. GU15 1BB.Telephone and Fax: 01276 20315 E-mail: e.baty@ntlworld.com
The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM, and Mrs. Hannelore Baty, Directors

Friday, April 07, 2006
The Guidance We Need?
FURTHER THOUGHTS ON THE GUIDANCE WE GET FROM MARIAN DEVOTION

The way I start each monthly newsletter is to bring the various website details up to date. This year, having done all that I realised, looking at the final, weblog, site that I had missed out a word. The word was “set” in “set out”. The message still made sense. After all we do want to “out” our sins before God and have them “straightened out”! It gave rise to a few thoughts.

How set we are in our ways, and how we need to re-set ourselves from time to time, rather as the captain of a ship has to check his course and make the necessary alterations.

Setting out - we need a map, or a chart if we are at sea, and a guide or pilot. Let’s start with the guide or pilot required:

Our Lady promises to lead us along. We have also the Bible and the Christian tradition to help us. The map: the Rosary, the Ten Commandments and the two great commandments set by Jesus out of the Old Testament for our guidance. Also the five headings, or perhaps “filling stations” - Peace, Prayer, Penance, Fasting and a Firm Faith. These are way markers which guide us like a constellation of stars, and each with its own nebulae of smaller stars and constellations.

Another analogy is to regard the two “dominical” commandments which Jesus gave us as the “Rule of the Road”, the Highway Code as it were, and the Ten Commandments as the fence or ditch on either side.

Go through the fence or into the ditch and you may find yourself in some trouble! For instance at a rather sharp bend on a fen road, careless drivers sometimes found themselves with the front and back wheels on either side of the ditch, and only a drop into ditch-water to look forward to. It sounds far-fetched but happened regularly. Equally odd was the same road a few miles away at a right-angle corner next. Drivers faced the River Ouse at this point. Occasionally drivers, having driven at top speed along the approaching straight, made it to the opposite bank.

All of which underlines the comment made to me by a County Councillor shortly after my arrival in those parts, “There are only two kinds of driver in the Fens - those who can swim and dead ones!”

Again driving through these flat lands along straight roads could be a curiously hypnotic experience. More than once I have had to ask my co-driver which towns we had driven through. The view through the wind-screen didn’t help - a straight featureless road, with wide ditches either side, and a distant misty horizon!

Another way is to think of the “Two Great Commandments” - to love God and love our neighbour, as the “Rule of the Road” in terms of seamanship. The Ten Commandments the become the buoys to port and starboard defining the channel to be taken, and the five features of the apostolate - Peace, Prayer, Penance, Fasting and a Firm Faith - as the way markers explaining the junctions, those places where we have to decide the next direction. Like any ship’s crew, we will need a pilot with knowledge of the locality to help us through.

The analogy with life is closer than we might think. We need guidelines, and we need assistance. We are promised this. With Jesus and Mary as our co-pilot and his assistant, we can find our way through the most featureless landscapes of our spiritual life as well as the tough and exciting ones!

Ted Baty

http://www.spiritual-renewal.com
posted by Fr Ted at 12:53 PM 7th April 2006

Renewing the Human Spirit

2005-12-13T19:49:00.000Z

When I set up the Task Force, it was to promote the message of peace emanating from the war-torn Yugoslav Federation, a message centred around deep spiritual experiences going on in the parish of St. James, Medjugorje.

I'm still very keen on this. For those who want to join in the task of peace and reconciliation between people of different opinions, it means a lot of soul-searching and hard work - mainly on our own attitudes. The disciplines at the heart of it help: establishing peace where you are, fixing yourself into good spiritual disciplines such as regular meeting with others, reading and study, doing without unnecessary things, being honest about yourself and your community's record and history (very few of us want to do that, although keen to be "honest" and critical of other people's background), and the activity we call prayer or meditation or contemplation.

We've moved on and now see our work as among those with whom we come in contact and anyone willing to learn.

If you want to join us, please get in contact. We can promise only to give whatever help we can ... and you?

"Surrey Spiritual Renewal Taskforce
A Facility of Camberley Medjugorje Centre"

Expanding the good news

2005-12-06T22:17:00.000Z

Today is one of the first days I have been properly back at the office, despite a visit to the dentist in the middle of the afternoon.

There's a huge backlog to get through after the various problems visiting hospitals, and doing everything at home.

So how do I begin to catch up with myself?

One idea is to be more regular about this blog and the possibility of dialogue with others it creates. We want to expand the "Medjugorje family" which is around us. Now that Benedict XVI has followed John Paul II with direct support for the positive effects so many pilgrims find in Medjugorje, it is time to spread the word even further.

Because I am non-Catholic in the Roman sense, I have freedom of expression rather more than those directly subject to Rome. I try hard not to abuse it but to remain objective. I'm not sure that the Medjugorje hardliners would agree with me, but the present Bishop - Ratko Peric - has made some very good comments about what should and should not be done there. Nevertheless I strongly support the idea of pilgrimage to Medjugorje. I know of too many lives changed for the good by making a pilgrimage to there!

I'm also a "Priest-Associate of the Holy House" at Walsingham in Norfolk(in the East Anglia region of England for those reading from abroad). The Church of England is still very unaware of the great goodness in that place, and its expansion. Lots and lots of good things going on there. It is place of pilgrimage for just about all - an Anglican Shrine, a Roman Catholic Shrine, two peaceful Orthodox churches with a huge sense of the holy about them. There is also a chapel where John Wesley preached. Quite a place to visit. If you are planning a holiday in England - go to Walsingham and enjoy the holy places, the glorious countryside and coast, and the beautiful market towns and villages. If you like racing, there's usually something on at Fakenham as well!

Women Bishops - any hope?

2005-12-06T09:38:00.000Z

In September this year the "Radio Times" had a neat little note by a trendy clergyman from Sussex who had done a programme on religious history for the BBC. He was reported as having said a very nasty remark or two about those opposed to gay priests, women priests or women bishops.

I began a blog about this but pulled it off the web very quickly because I had reacted very strongly to the ageism implicit in his reported remarks. However now that the matter of women bishops is back on the Church of England agenda, and almost certainly bound to happen, it is right to visit this example of bigotry again.

We can do without this sort of thing!

The truth is that, whatever happens, there will be those fanatically in favour of women as bishops, those just as fanatically opposed, and lots of us in between.

Anglicans have a prayer, provided to be used daily, for "All Sorts and Conditions ... " which asks God to help us live in "the bond of peace." To allow God to achieve this we have to be - as the new Archbishop of York has pointed out - not just tolerant but magnanimous towards those with whom we disagree. We are one church (just about!) after all.

The main problem lies with those who have never really thought about the matter, which is the vast majority, I suspect. Even our General Synod disdained to recommend the serious thought behind the Bishop of Rochester's Report.

If we don't think deeply about the consequences of this action, the Church of England may well sink itself, or at least "hole itself below the waterline." It is very easy living beside parishes who differ from each other over women priests. There is no need to do anything except accept the fact, and avoid any potential clashes! However it would be quite a different matter for any one opposed to women as bishops who lived in the middle of a diocese with a women bishop. There would be no escape, except to another diocese, or another denomination, or as some would have it, a Third (Anglican) Province with a presence in the diocese.

The real problem is that many many evangelicals - a hugely numerous, vocative, often rich and generous sector in the church - will have great difficulty in accepting a woman being "in authority over" them in church affairs. Many Catholic minded Anglicans will simply say that a women bishop is a contradiction in terms, a sacramental impossibility.

Is there a way forward? There has to be if we are not to be rent apart as a church even more than at present. What cannot be a way forward is the kind of bigotry, cant, and refusal to understand any opponent at all, an attitude all too common today.

So all of us must think deeply, search our hearts, and remember to the magnanimity towards others which our new Archbishop recommends. We don't have to agree with everyone about everything, or force everyone to agree with us. The main hope in preventing us following apart must surely be the recognition that others follow Christ too, but not exactly as we do ourselves!

Advent tells us Christ is near (for a Second Time!)

2005-12-05T20:38:00.000Z

Advent

The gulf between Christian and non-Christian is most acute at the great feasts. As we approach Christmas I have become very aware of the huge gap in understanding which re-asserts itself at this time.

For the Christian preparing for Christmas, there is a far greater expectation on the way. The joy in Bethlehem at Jesus’s birth was huge, but largely hidden, despite the shepherds and the wise men, and the nastiness of Herod. It would have been a very minor entry in the society columns had they had newspapers in those days! Certainly the “celebrity” magazines would have taken no notice at all.

But to those involved it was huge. The expectation in the hearts of Mary and Joseph was surely particularly so, and the surprise just as big for the shepherds and wise men?

In Advent we have not quite got as far as that yet! What we have is something just as big, if not bigger - we are going to meet not just the baby but the grown-up, risen-up, Jesus Himself! And that is most certainly the difference between us and the Christmas parties and booze-ups going on around us. There is a real sense in which Advent is not just a simple run-in to Christmas. It is a bridge between November and All Saints and the Feast of Christ the King celebrations and the end of the world. How enormous are the implications of the Bible readings for Advent. We are going to meet Jesus. Yes! That is absolutely huge.

So I suggest just a little mind shift this December - think back to All Saints Day and All Souls Day when we remember Christians past,who have "passed on,” and roll forward to the Last Days and the Last Judgement and The Second Coming. They are all linked, through Christ the King - surely it is a happy and inspired choice that this falls just before Advent! Join all these celebrations up and you make a wonderful chain for mature and sober reflection, and huge enjoyment as we approach the birth which made it all possible.

Life, will, I guess, begin to take shape, and perhaps to make sense even more!

A prayer ascribed to the BVM

Little children, at this time, in a special way,
I pray before God to give you
the gift of faith.
Only in faith will you discover
the joy of
the gift of life that God has given you.
Your heart will be joyful thinking of eternity.
I am with you and love you with a tender love.

Informing the Masses

2005-09-27T20:43:00.000+01:00

Excuse the pun everybody. Masses (i.e. Catholic Eucharists) need to be informative. For me they form the basis of my personal freedom.

At Mass I'm taken back to the source (God) in a structured way which is safe and informed, and allows me the freedom to explore what I find in that source.

Informing the Masses through a blog means to me:

that I've a message to tell; that people need support and help;
reminding them and myself that we are all human and make mistakes;
encouraging people to post their comments; encouraging them to take some kind of action (so far the responses I've had are to buy some wood or trees, and to join a betting syndicate);
opening ourselves to a friendly and respectful interchange of ideas, a dialogue.

The primary dialogue is between ourselves and God. However, in front of that dialogue and trying to block parts of it lies another, our dialogue with ourselves. One essential element in the development of our prayer life is the steady unblocking of the dialogue with ourselves so that we let God in. Once this is begun, God begins to dialogue with more and more parts of ourselves.

The only way that is going to happen is if I sit down and listen.

Because that is so important I've taken the step of suggesting a great website that is nothing to do with me and my ministry except that I value their fellowship amongst the vast company of believers.

Here it is:

http://www.sacred-space.ie

If the website doesn't display, then copy it and paste into the address panel of your internet access. Visit it and enjoy the peace and quiet!

50 + years on

2005-08-21T09:21:00.000+01:00

I have come to the formal end of a ministry of over 50 years among young people with my resignation from the Air Training Corps well in hand, and all the papers handed over to my nominated successor. I had served the Corps for some sixteen years or so in all. The new chaplain is taking post, and once all the necessary clearances have been undergone, will be in full spate, we hope, later in the year.

The feeling is strange. Most of the ministry I enjoyed thoroughly. It started helping with the Band of Hope attached to Doncaster Parish Church in the early 1950s. The Vicar described this as the only organisation at the church which served those who lived in the parish as against those who merely came to the church for worship and fellowship.

Much of that time I was also an organist and choirmaster. These activities were to resurface throughout my ministry both as a layman and when ordained. A feature of this work is that it entails work among all ages, including children and young people as well as adults of every age. The Royal School of Church Music used to call church choirs "the oldest youth movement in the world." I have one or two recordings to remind me of those days and the smooth silvery sound that some of our choirs made.

That is all in the past as I am reminded at this time of year when my young friends go off to various events, often under canvas, to study the faith and to enjoy each other's supportive company.

In Cologne today the Pope himself is presiding over one such event. He looks to the future as I did so often with the young people over those many years. I hope, too, that the young people challenge him. Work with this age group always seems challenging to me. Adolescence and early adulthood is a time of awakening awareness of the possibilities in life. Those who work with this age group will be confronted with their short-comings; that's for sure! I guess that is why so many good church people avoid it. The view-point of this age group is better-informed these days because of the Internet, or so it seems.

Let's hope Benedict listens. Those young people whom I know to have been under his wing tell me that he is a very good and perceptive listener! A good day, I hope, and one which will produce much fruit in the future, as do so many other of these summer camps and festivals for young people!

Why tradition is important, but not as a dead-weight

2005-07-25T16:35:00.000+01:00

Getting rid of unnecessary information

Someone said recently that our information age is so constipated with new ideas, new facts, new reports, new studies, new books, new news, that we can’t possibly retain yesterday’s news.

That’s a costly mistake. When we forget the tried and true methods, we are forced to relearn them through trial and error (usually a lot of the latter).

What is the remedy? Not a purge, surely? Too much might be lost. No, the answer is to ensure a healthy diet taking in only the information which nourishes us and builds us up. Nutrition requires a balance of good fibre to cleanse the system, protein - muscle - to build us up, plus vegetables and fruit to provide growth and keep systems in order, and provide us with the produce of humankind's toil. If we take in only the information equivalents we shall inbibe and digest new discoveries and insights So we shall provide ourselves with all the mental equivalent of all that good foo, vitamins and minerals we need to maintain ourselves in a healthy and vibrant state.

Wow!

ABC and the Synods

2005-07-10T10:34:00.000+01:00

A few thoughts about the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC for short!) and the role he fulfils so well.

Here, in this office, presents itself the best of Anglican inclusiveness and willingness to tolerate dissent. So, at any one time, the "true faith" (seen only by history not its contemporaries!) can exist alongside whatever fad or fashion has taken hold of our corporate life, our worship, or our beliefs through the media, the synodical structure, and the power and influence of the individual ministers in their parishes and posts.

In Anglicanism the Archbishop sits, as it were, alongside his fellow diocesans in the House of Bishops, as primus inter pares not a despot. Below are the seried ranks of the other Clergy. This structure held as the "Convocations of Canterbury & York" presiding over doctrinal liturgical and such matters. This was changed, radically, by the conversion of this struture into that of "Synodical Government" in which the Houses of Convocation were replaced by the General Synod with its three-part structure of Houses of Bishops, Clergy, and Laity. Some would say this was unconstitutional - but I have no intention of entering that cogent but outdated argument! Only Parliament has influence over it, a set mainly of outsiders, primarily interested in that curiously English ideal of "fair play."

Below this this synod power trickles down to Deanery Synods and Parochial Church Councils. In theory an excellent system of consultation. In reality, only the General Synod counts.

The old General Synod has gone and we are busy preparing for a new one. Elections will soon take place for the Houses of Clergy and Laity. The Bishops seem immune from the democratic process of election. No doubt they are, thereby, officially regarded already as some kind of "Elect."

My hope and prayers are that the new Synod will not continue its predecessors' history of arrogance over doctrine and our corporate life. Despite our detractors, Anglicanism does have parameters of which they should take heed. These are described and grouped in various ways:

The Bible, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-Nine Articles;

Scripture, Tradition, and Reason;

The Lambeth Quadilateral, a four-sided affair: The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments + The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed + The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord + The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted.

No doubt those nominated for election will have varied views as to the form and content of our faith, and the continued legitimacy of these Church of Engand formulae. Whatever they may be, it will the work of the ABC and hs senior colleagues and advisors to make sure that we use this inheritance to good effect, and the service of our country and the world around it.

A New Venture

2005-07-05T10:59:00.000+01:00

There's a lot to do: the Church of England staffed by many clergy who do not believe in God - an official CofE report alleges this! The same church dilly-dallying over women as Bishops, and then, no doubt rushing over this edge like unthinking lemmings. Fortunately a fair chunk of Bishops have asked us to consider the implications carefully before we do this so that we know what we are doing.

What no-one wants (surely?) is a repetition of the mess after the decision to ordain women as priests when a very large minority decided to take up the offer of having little to do with women priests! Why? ... Because there was no consensus over what a priest was.

It is no use rushing into this because of political pressure over women's rights. To do justice to those rights we must get it right and understand what difference having a woman bishop instead of a man will make. Of course some will say that it makes no difference. However I have deep doubts over that. The institution of male-only bishops and priests was so ancient and long-lived that it had become a male construct. Placing women into a male construct is difficult and does cause stresses. The period of "Reception" for the idea and practice of having women priests was to examine these stresses and strains along with the advantages as they appeared in practice. The process was intended to be open-ended so that, if we found it didn't work, we could begin to find some other way of doing justice to the ministry of women in the church.

Not only is there a matter of the entry of women into what had been a male-only club, there is the matter of the psychology of ministry within the church. Without going too deep, the church as "the family of God" needs its representative mummies and daddies. So far in the Church of England we have not provided mummies in any number except in the last ten years or so. Our reaction to mother-figures is, I suspect, deeper and less conscious, less controlled, than that to father-figures. This being so would be one clear explanation for the disastrous exodus of men and children from the church over the last few years.

So let the Church of England take care! This time we must get it right, and see clearly, and agree properly over what a bishop is, and a a priest, and take account together of the differences and gifts men and women bear. Only then, surely, would it be proper to complete the process of ordaining women as priests by making some of them bishops!

A Life Gone and not wasted

2005-04-28T15:14:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I lost a friend of some fifty years or so.

His life looked a disaster on paper. A decent commisssion in the Royal Engineers of the British Army as a National Serviceman, plus a promising career as an architect, all cut short by the onset of acute schizophrenia in his late twenties.

The schizophrenia burnt itself out over the years but left its mark in that his life thereafter was one of hospitals, and as the burning out process took effect care homes and hostels.

All was not however lost. He was a diligent and prayerful god-father to our younger daughter, supportive and understanding of her problems and their gradual resolution. His skill as an artist and draughtsman never left him, and indeed seemed to increase as the years went by. In latter years he had taken to writing religious poetry of a deeply personal nature with great insight into what faith meant.

His journey of faith was not easy but extremely joyful in the end, puzzling though his switches between churches seemed to be. He was a Jewish Christian, and saw that as a filfulment rather than a contradiction, looking to his Lord jesus at all times for support and consolation.

He has died now. Many would say talent wasted. Perhaps not so in the eyes of his Redeemer who, I am sure, saw not a life wasted but a life regained, reshaped, and renewed over many years until its fruition after a heart attack yesterday.

May he rest in peace, and continue his good work!

Surprise! Surprise!

2005-04-20T08:50:00.000+01:00

So "The Enforcer" has been chosen.

Benedict XVI is the former Cardinal Jospeh Ratzinger, friend of the late Pope, charming in persona, gentle in himself, kindly, helpful and supportive. Yow! It does not sound like the man the media portray as backward looking and over-conservative.

However, when I was wont to answer the question "Where are you Ted, theologically?" with the comment "Slightly to the right of Cardinal Ratzinger" maybe I knew more than I waa saying. Those who know him or have studied under him - we have seen many of them on the TV recently - say how helpful, and nice he is.

Surely a role model for any priest or believer. Keep the Faith. Love other people! Pray, Pray, Pray and rely on Jesus, Mary and the Holy Spirit to guide you. It seems that is what the new Pope does.

We should be very pleased indeed!

"God's Rotweiler" indeed! nevertheless, those who have known owners of Rotweilers will know that they make very good pets, are lovely to have around the house, but are extremely fierce guardians. Benedict XVI looks set to do the same for our Church, that Counter-Culture for the world, which is probably the only force which can save it from itself!

Why not remember the souls He visited?

2005-03-26T09:54:00.000Z

Today the Church rests in eager anticipation of the resurrection.

Yet Jesus did not rest as the Office of readings (Western Catholicism) explains.

Once he had died he went straight to the souls who had already died to visit them and tell them the Good News, perhaps to remind of the Good News they had had already and to claim their allegiance to Himself as the begetter of that Good News.

Ought not we to rejoice, that there is no time limit to Salvation, no boundary in time and space excluding sols from their Redemption?

Yes! We are "bought with a price." Let us rejoice that all souls have heard the Gospel whether in direct contact with Christ and His Church, the instrument of the Good News for the present, or not!

Let us pray that every soul will respond positevely to His offer of Safety from Sin and the attacks of Evil and Union with God wherever they may be, and for certain after we too have passed through the narrow gateway to Eternity!

How could anyone refuse?

Given that "all human behaviour however bizarre has a positive intention," we should conclude that every responds to theis mosy positive intention of all from the world's Creative power and Redemptive Instrument!

From the heart beat of Balkan devotion

2005-03-11T21:43:00.000Z

MEDJUGORJE

OUR LADY’S MONTHLY MESSAGE
GIVEN TO THE VISIONARY MARIJA PAVLOVIC
FOR THE VILLAGE OF MEDJUGORJE AND THE WORLD
ON THE 25TH JANUARY 2005
JANUARY 25, 2004

Dear children!

In this time of grace again I call you to prayer.

Pray, little children, for unity of Christians, that all may be one heart.

Unity will really be among you inasmuch as you will pray and forgive.

Do not forget: love will conquer only if you pray, and your heart will open.

Thank you for having responded to my call.

And Again (from a different seer) ...

Message given to Mirjana by Our Lady on2 March, 2005

Dear children!

Do the same as I do.

Come, share love and with your own example give my Son to everyone!

...

There's the rub for Christians: all we are called to do is to give to others the life of Jesus by our own example, and witness.

...

Those seem to be enough thoughts for a lifetime, let alone one day!

Thoughts on a busy day

2005-03-10T21:49:00.000Z

Tiredness dictated this morning. Nevertheless I was able to make a good meal for us both, my wife and myself. The residue of yesterday took time to evaporate.

Let's hope tomorrow is more full of energy!

Who is saved? Light from St. Ambrose/

2005-03-10T09:24:00.000Z

It was a joyful occasion yesterday to be back at my home church and officiating for the anointing and prayers for the sick and disabled.

How fortunate we are to have had almost two (Yes! Two!) thousand years of Christianity thereabouts.

Yet, today we remember St. John Ogilvie, betrayed and executed just for being a priest and doing his job. Lest we get too proud over this, - lacking sorrow for our forebears lack o four understanding!, yesterday I read of one Church which was proclaiming that only by joining it could you be saved. In the same magazine, St. Ambrose was quoted as declaring that God, in His love, saved all!

I guess I am on the side St. Ambrose!

The way it looks

2005-03-09T19:19:00.000Z

This is a new venture for Fr Ted and his newsletter to reach out to a larger readership and authorship.

Keep an eye on this space.

Fr Ted.

9th March 2005
(Commemoration of St. Frances of Rome, Religious)