I have my copy of "The Messenger", but no review quite yet...

...instead I have decided to go a little further back and unearth a forgotten classic from my library which has taken a new significance in these auspicious days. I refer, of course, to Henry Reynaud Turner Brandreth's seminal "The Oecumenical Ideals of the Oxford Movement." I review it in a little more depth on my book collecting site here: http://www.squidoo.com/catholic_and_anglo-catholic_books. One thing it leaves no doubt of is that the impulse to Catholic unity has been a mainspring of Anglo-Catholicism since its early days and one of its authentic goals. I count myself very fortunate that I am present to witness, through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, that impulse to unity begin to come to fruition.

The Ordinariate is established: Deo gratias

Image (c) Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk

A future Ordinariate collector's item?

I note with interest that the first edition of the Catholic League's The Messenger, special Anglicanorum Coetibus edition, has sold out already, in spite of a print run of 1200 copies, twice the usual size. (See the Catholic League's blog, which I recommend following, for details.) What's the betting that it becomes the first collectible item of the Ordinariate? (Especially as I failed to get mine in time...) I hope, however, to get a copy of the corrected second edition, which I shall tell myself is better, and report on it in due course.

Supporting the Anglican Ordinariate in the UK - Funds to donate to

I have been following developments regarding the Anglican Ordinariates here in Britain and further afield with some anticipation and pleasure over the last few months, as I hope have not a few of my Catholic brethren. For those who, like me, would like to offer some concrete aid to supplement their prayerful support of those currently in discernment as to whether to join, I am pleased to be able to advise that two opportunities present themselves.

One vehicle for supporting the Ordinariate is via the Catholic League's John Henry Newman fund*, and I have also contacted the Catholic Bishops' Conference for England and Wales and been advised that a Restricted Fund has been set up under the auspices of the Catholic Trust for England and Wales (CaTEW) to hold funds in support of the Ordinariate. Cheques for this purpose can be made out to CaTEW and sent to:

The Catholic Bishops' Conference for England and Wales
39 Eccleston Square
LONDON
SW1V 1BX

Donors should include with their cheque a note indicating that it is intended for the Restricted Fund for the Anglican Ordinariate.

Please feel free to pass this on. And if you have any details on how people might support the Ordinariates as they are established in other countries, please feel free to share them.

Finally, it is likely to be the case that individual Ordinariate parishes or congregations will be setting up funds of their own, and I believe one such is being set up by members of the congregation of Saint Barnabas', Tunbridge Wells who are exploring joining the Ordinariate. Further details can be found here: http://sbarnabas.com/blog/?p=4793

Anthony.

*Details available from the Catholic League's blog, which I follow, and can recommend.

Book collecting - the ones that got away...

I suspect that every book collector, especially those on a budget as I am, has memories of books that got away. Mine (the ones I kick myself over even today) are below:

The 1964 Benziger Roman Breviary, the classic final form of the traditional Roman Breviary in English translation - £30 from a bookseller in America, and normally sells for up to five times more - but I mithered about it and, as we all know, he who hesitates is lost...
The 1963 Collegeville Monastic Diurnal, the day hours of the Monastic breviary office in translation, as published by the good monks of the Liturgical Press - £4 from a reduced-price bookshelf in Hay. Could anything good have come out of the postwar period, I asked myself? Yes, it could, and I am still searching for an inexpensive copy to this day.
The classic Purchas/Lee ceremonial directory of the Anglican Ritualists, the Directorium Anglicanum - £18 on eBay, before I got seriously into collecting, so I suppose I can be excused, but it would have saved me four years of searching, and two-and-a bit times the money...
The full Anglican 1922 Lectionary - £2 from Oxfam in Richmond and officially as rare as Bishop's Buskins (well, according to the now sadly defunct rare books room of the SPCK.) Why, I ask myself? What better things did I have to spend the price of an ice-cream on? (although I think a college acquaintance of mine who was in town at roughly the same time as me may have picked it up, which makes me feel better about it. But only slightly.)

If you have copies to pass on to an impecunious bibliophile, you know who to call...

An introduction

My name is Anthony Jordan and, as the title of my blog implied (until I found it to embarassing and changed it), I write as one who is intermittently accused of being a young fogey and who has a dilettante's interest in a number of things of a Young Fogeyish cast, of which vintage clothing and accessories, inter-war detective and adventure fiction and Catholic and High Anglican theology and liturgy are perhaps pre-eminent.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank fellow-blogger David Lindsay for drawing this resource to my attention; my participation in this medium is therefore to a large extent his fault and any complaints arising should be directed to him personally.

In doing so, please also take the opportunity to read his blog; without assenting to all the opinions expressed therein, I find his articles to be an interesting and stimulating read and so am pleased to commend them to you.