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On Friday February 22nd 2013 at 6.00pm, the Ecumenical Office of the Ecumenical Society of the
Blessed Virgin Mary will be sung at Pusey House, St Giles, Oxford by the Choir of Pusey House.

The preacher will be The Very Reverend Stephen Platt, Rector of the Russian Orthodox Parish of St Nicholas, Oxford.

All are welcome.

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On Thursday 27 November 2008 at the Oratory, Woodstock Road, Oxford, Dr David Fagerberg, Assistant Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA, spoke to the Oxford branch on Mary as Liturgical Person.

He said that liturgy reveals Mary’s place in the history of salvation: she is for us the model of liturgical life, and as such is the icon of humanity in its fulness. Whereas Mary is the Church as it dawns in a single person, understanding Mary as liturgical person will reveal not only her identity but ours too, for she is archetype of what we are called to become. Mary’s liturgical personhood is sacrificial (in her virginity) and sacramental (in her motherhood), just as sacrifice and sacrament are united in our liturgy, for liturgy is the trysting point where heaven, bending down, kisses earth, and earth, yearning upwards, kisses heaven. Mary is God’s way down to man, and man’s way up to God. As mother of Jesus Mary is the source of all the sacraments. In iconography, Mary is in the midst of the apostles both at the Ascension and the Dormition. As Mother of the Church, she is the vine that bears apostolic fruit. ‘The Theotokos is the icon of the Church. Mary is the personification of the Church’s sacrificial orans. She is the personal image of response, adoration, encounter, presence, glory, and ultimately, a mystical marriage … Mary is sacrificial person, the purest offering by the human race.’

On Thursday 26 February , at Blackfriars. the Revd Dr Mark Chapman, Vice-Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon and Reader in Modern Theology in the University of Oxford, spoke on Mary, Pusey, Newman and Reunion. We hope to publish this shortly as one of our occasional papers.

Our meeting at 7.30 for 8 pm on Tuesday 19 May at the Ursell Room, Pusey House with Ian Boxall, Senior Tutor at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, and author of Revelation: Vision and Insight (SPCK 2002) who was to speak on .’A Great Sign in Heaven’: Mary in the Reception History of the Book of Revelation.

The London Branch continues to meet at 11.30 each first Wednesday of the month. This is at the Guild Church of St. Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street by kind invitation of Fr. Philip Warner. We normally have a session of Bible study and continue the ancient devotion to Our Lady of the Salve Regina, then have a packed lunch and exchange news of various Christian and Marian events in the near future. Sometimes we join Fr. Warner at his eucharist at St Mary Abchuch, or we may have a talk instead, either from one of the members, or someone that they recommend. We had a priest from Nigeria, who told us of his ongoing work as a radio missionary, and we have two talks to come. Paul Dewbury was to speak about Mary in the Scandinavian churches at our June meeting, and Alan Watson about his pilgrimage to the churches of eastern Turkey in the autumn.

Our 2008 AGM was held in Edlington, Doncaster, at St Kentigern’s Orthodox Church during November. Our Officers were re-elected and agreed a programme of ten events for 2009. We had sent out 4 Branch newsletters and 2 Notices in the year, in addition to the 3 Society Newsletters. Hopefully this policy will keep our members in touch, and provide a source of information on Mariology, and encouragement in their day to day approach to Ecumenism.

Membership remains static at 25 with another 20 members living in Greater Yorkshire. We expect to arrange at least one event each year which will enable all Yorkshire members to come together. Meeting some of them at Lastingham last year was thoroughly enjoyable.

Our programme for 2009 commenced in January when we were again invited to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with Fr Alan Watson’s congregation at Dunscroft St Edwin, near Doncaster. During Mass, we heard an inspired sermon on Our Lady by the Rev. J. Stokoe, the Vicar of nearby Edlington. It was encouraging to speak to our members and friends in the congregation of around 80, as we enjoyed the legendary hospitality of what has been the anchor event of our Annual programme for some past years. With grateful thanks to Fr. Alan Watson and to Tina Harper, who offers us much splendid support each year.

On Tuesday 19th May, we had a ‘Quiet Day’ at Whirlow Grange Ecumenical Centre in Sheffield. Commencing at 9.45am and ending at 3.45pm., the day included a Eucharist, and a guided programme of Readings, Prayer, and Meditation. An opportunity to relax and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of this lovely centre. Lunch will be provided and there is a charge for the day. For information and to book please ring the Secretary on 0114.2682984.

On Saturday the 13th June. Pilgrimage to St Anne in the Grove.Parish Church, Southoram, near Halifax, by kind invitation of the Vicar, Rev. Guy Jamieson. We especially hoped that our Yorkshire members and those interested in the Society would join us for this Ecumenical day commencing with ’The Angelus’ and Mass at 12 Noon, and concluding at 3.30pm with the Society Office.

St Anne’s has an appealing history which spans both sides of the Reformation. It has a Walsingham Chapel and there are some small but beautiful stained glass windows of St Anne with Our Lady on the South side of the building. Lunch was to be provided by the good ladies of the parish.

The Branch celebrated the Annunciation at a meeting in St Thomas’ Church hall on 25 March.

The day began with Mass at noon, followed by the Rosary. There was then a buffet lunch in the hall and we viewed there a life-sized statue of the Archangel Gabriel, all resplendent with fairy lights. The statue had originally been a Marks and Spencer manikin and had been used previously in an exhibition of angels at St Mildred’s Anglican Church.

After lunch we greeted old friends especially Fr Stanley Evans who came all the way from Ramsgate. We then said and sang the office of Our Lady, the music being varied, ranging from J.S. Bach to Cliff Richard. We sang the Lord’s Prayer to the accompaniment of Cliff!. Everyone enjoyed the mixture of old and new and Fr Stanley closed the meeting with a prayer.

I would like to thank all those who make our meetings possible, especially our parish priest, Canon Bunce, who does our printing, our sacristan, Tina Hamilton, who organises the catering, our caretaker, John Spillett, who prepares the hall and Brenda Lippert, the parish secretary who does all the copying needed.

Strong links have been forged between St Thomas’ and St Mildred’s. Some of our folk also belong to the St Mildred’s Senior Citizen Club and we look forward to more combined social gatherings in a genuinely ecumenical spirit.

On Saturday 9 May, we made our firth visit to St Andrew’s, Deal. After Mass and the usual magnificent lunch, we had an interesting talk by Canon Martin Warner of Walsingham, who is also a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral. We had the usual procession of Our Lady’s statue through the town, followed by the blessing of the sea and the throwing of the wreath into it. We had with us a new member, Susan Shaw, who, a few years earlier, had been the organiser of a splendid exhibition of our Lady of Lourdes in Whitstable. We were glad to be with our Chairman, Fr Stanley Evans and his wife, Marie. It was a splendid day, enjoyed by everyone.

On June 13, we visited the East Kent Annual Festival of the Guild of Servers of the Sanctuary of which our chairman, Fr Stanley Evans is chaplain. The festival was held at Holy Trinity, Broadstairs. Afterwards, we were able to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Bradstow (the old name for Broadstairs).

On July 6, at St Andrew’s Church, the Deal Festival of Art and Music took place. We enjoyed a concert by the Cambrini ensemble. After lunch, we returned to the church to view Les Mysteres du Rosaire by Pierre Joincret of St Omer. The twenty paintings illustrative of the mysteries were placed round the church rather like stations of the cross. As we moved round, we said our own private prayers before each painting. The paintings were magnificent.

In the February edition of the Newsletter, I reported that the North-West branch had visited Waddington, near Clitheroe to hear a talk on Fr Arthur Wagner, the apostle of Anglo-Catholicism in Brighton. Since the report appeared, I have had several stories about Fr Wagner, including the one about his father, also a clergyman, who became so distressed at the amount of the family fortune Fr Arthur was spending on building churches that he preached a sermon with the text “Lord have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic.”! As Colin Stephenson points out in his “Merrily On High” texts were much used in this way, so that when Fr Arthur fired two of his curates after some trouble, the older one preached on the text “Stay ye here with the ass, while the lad and I go yonder.”

For our Spring meeting the North-West branch indeed “went yonder” to Carnforth in the north of Lancashire and which just sneaks into the Southern Lakes. It is a beautiful part of the country, even in the depths of winter. We had gone for a Lenten Day of Mediation to the monastery of Our Lady of Hyning. We began with coffee and a talk by Sister Mary Stella on icons. Every Wednesday Sister Mary Stella runs an icon painting class and we saw many examples of her work and that of her students before she took one icon to explain to us. It was the Icon of the Nativity after Rublev, an icon painter of the early 15th Century. Our tutor patiently explained the composition of the painting: the mountain is a favourite image as a place where God converses with Man; the symbolism of the Cave, the Old Testament echoes with the ox and the ass, the rays coming down from Heaven onto the Christ-Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. She then explained the various groups of figures – angels, shepherds, and midwives washing the newborn Child, St Joseph in conversation with the Tempter, the Magi galloping towards Bethlehem. As the end of her short talk, we had gained a fuller, better idea of what the icon was meant to signify.

We joined the nuns for their Midday Office in the simple chapel before having our packed lunch in one of the sitting rooms they provide for guests. They also have an extensive bookshop and piety stall for visitors. It is possible to book in for a stay and enjoy good food but the Sisters are an enclosed Order and so don’t join guests for meals.

After lunch and some recreational time, Canon Brenda Harding led us on a meditation. She argues that if Lent is about our journey towards God, we could consider four of the journeys Mary made and see what they tell us. The first was the Annunciation and from this we learn to echo Mary as she cries out, Be it done unto me according to Thy word. The second event was losing Jesus in Jerusalem and then finding Him three days later in the Temple. The thing we learn here is that like Mary and Joseph, we too must go on searching for the Lord until we find Him. The third episode was the wedding at Cana and Mary’s instructions to the servants should be our watchword, Do whatever He tells you. Finally Brenda took us to the Foot of the Cross where we could do no better than echo Jesus’ words, Behold your mother! After saying the Evening Office, we set off home after a productive day at Hyning.

Our Summer outing took place on Saturday 30th May when we teamed up with the Walsingham cells of St Peter’s Oughtrington and St Chrysostom’s Manchester to visit Ladyewell for the day. All in the area were urged to join us.

A well attended meeting was held in the Church Hall of St Thomas’ Church on 19 November 2008. Barbara Markham spoke about life after death. She started by using a recording of the chorister Andrew Johnston singing ‘Tears of Heaven’ and explained that the theme was to remind us that November is the month of the Holy Souls.

She then touched on the beliefs of other churches and religions concerning life after death. She emphasised experiments that have taken place with EVP (electric voice phenomena), demonstrating an example from an audio tape. She felt that eventually science would prove that life after death did exist. She ended her talk with a reminder of our own death and the confidence with which we can expect Our Lady to be with us in it as we have so often prayed to her with innumerable hail Marys during our life.

The meeting ended with a vigorous discussion on this controversial subject.

The North-West branch held its last meeting of the year in the picturesque Lancashire village of Waddington, a couple of miles north-west of the town of Clitheroe. For those of the Society who have not ventured to this part of the world, the Ribble valley is second-to-none in scenery, beauty and interest. Our venue was St Helen’s church and the reason for our visit was to hear a talk by one of our own branch members, Nigel McNeill, on “Buxted, Nazareth in Sussex”

Nigel began by reminding us of the glorious medieval shrine of Walsingham, of its origins and its popularity in the Middle Ages with many English monarchs, including Henry VIII before his break with Rome. After the rupture, the image of Our Lady of Walsingham was removed to be burned with others in the hope that Mary would thus be expelled from the consciousness of the faithful. Whilst Walsingham awaited its resurrection, events in other parts of England contributed to this.

One of the unsung champions of the Oxford Movement (and a particular hero of Nigel’s) was a Fr Wagner, parish priest of St Bartholomew’s in Brighton. He was a wealthy man in his own right and did great work building churches at his own expense. One of these, St Mary’s was in the village of Buxted, near Uckfield in Sussex. Fr Wagner had a house there that he used as a retreat from his parish work in Brighton and he had built a Lady Chapel for the church. It seems he was a man entranced by proportion: St Bartholomew’s was built on the proportions of Noah’s Ark; the Lady Chapel at Buxted was built on the proportions of Walsingham’s Holy House. Quite how he got the Walsingham proportions is a mystery but he was very friendly with J.M. Neale, who was an antiquarian as well as hymn writer.

A later rector of Buxted was Fr Charles Rowe, whose brother was the Rural Dean of Norfolk. He was looking for a vicar for the living of Little Walsingham and asked Fr Charles for suggestions. Fr Charles remembered a keen young clergyman who might fit the bill, one Fr Hope Patten and duly recommended him. As the cliché says, the rest is history – or mystery! There are those who would point to serendipity but to those of us who know and love Our Lady, the request to Fr Charles and appointment of Fr Hope Patten was more than mere serendipity. Hope Patten had the model and proportions for the Holy House from Buxted and so it can truly be called England’s Nazareth in Sussex.

After Evening Prayer from the Ecumenical Office, the North-West branch shared ideas for next year’s venues and topics and we only need to organise these to provide our programme for next year.

In August, we continued a very busy programme with what has become for us, an Annual ‘Assumption’ Pilgrimage to the Anglican parish Church and Shrine of Our Lady, at Egmanton in North Notts.

A group of 20 members participated in the day of worship starting with The Angelus, and followed by Solemn Mass. The Chief Celebrant and Preacher was Fr Alan Townsend from Birmingham, who is well known to Society members. After a delectable lunch provided by the ladies of the village, our small group returned to the parish church to recite the Rosary and prayers. In the afternoon we joined the procession into the village with the Statue of Our Lady, returning to the church for Benediction, and a delicious afternoon tea before leaving for home. To complete our spiritual programme, we said evening prayers, on the return journey, sang hymns and received a final blessing from Fr Brian Coleman, the Vicar of St Oswald’s church in Sheffield, who had accompanied us for the day.

In September we returned to the beautiful village of Lastingham in North Yorks, for an ecumenical pilgrimage to St Mary’s Anglican Church. (founded by St Chad, as a Celtic Monastery in AD 654). The Orthodox Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Fr George, parish priest of St Columba and St Kentigern church in Edlington, Doncaster, assisted by our Chairman, Fr Dennis. After this, we listened to a `talk by the Rev. Peter Howard, a retired Methodist Minister from York, entitled ‘How Blessed is Our Lady.’ We had met Peter and his wife Kathleen earlier in the year at Mount Grace Priory, an encounter which led to his accepting our invitation to speak. Both have been members of the Society since its earliest days, and we much enjoyed their company. We also welcomed a Society member, Luisa Duffy from Robin Hood’s Bay. Luisa is a member of the Melkite Rite, and she was joined by two colleagues whom we met and chatted with later on, at the local hostelry. Thanks are due to Fr Alastaire Ferguson, the Vicar of St Mary’s for his invitation to visit, and for his most kind welcome.

Our Steering Committee met also in September to review branch policy and activities, with particular attention to Membership which is fairly dormant, and to events for 2009. It was agreed to seek new members as a particular priority, and to cancel some of our more distant activities, attendances at which had suffered due to increased travel costs. It was agreed to continue sending our Branch Newsletter to interested members in Greater Yorkshire in light of the valuable contacts we have already made there.

By the time this report is published, we will have attended the Advent ecumenical Service at St Oswald’s Church in Sheffield, and our AGM on the 10th December held at the Orthodox Church in Edlington, Doncaster.

Future events include a visit to Dunscroft St Edwin’s Anglican Church near Hatfield in Doncaster on Monday 26th January at 7.30pm. to celebrate the ‘Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity’. We have an invitation from The Vicar, Fr Alan Watson and our members at the Parish Church, to join them for Mass at 7.30pm. There will be hospitality afterwards and the opportunity to meet members and fellow Christians. We are pleased to welcome Fr. Alan back to full health once more after a long illness, coupled with our thanks to him for his continued support for the Society.

In March, we will join with the Mothers at St Oswald’s Anglican Church In Sheffield, in their ‘Lenten Meditation’. The service will conclude with a Eucharistic Celebration. We continue to enjoy the company and hospitality always offered at this event and invite all our members and friends to join us for this introduction to ‘Holy Week’.

In May we are planning a Day Retreat at Mirfield in West Yorks, details later.

On Saturday, 13th June we have an opportunity for all our Yorkshire members to meet up. The Rev. Guy Jamieson, Vicar of St Anne in the Grove, Anglican Church at Southoram near Halifax, has invited us to visit for an ecumenical Pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady. We are looking forward together with Father to a day in which we will enjoy a Eucharist, Rosary, Benediction, Hymns and Prayers. Food will be on offer together with some lovely Yorkshire (West Riding) hospitality.