Prior to the Mass, he met with head teachers and priests from the central and east areas of the diocese, a pattern that he will be repeating as he visits the other parts of it over the next couple of weeks. I wonder what it was like for the headmasters, headmistresses, and clergy to meet their new boss. Relaxing? Nervous? Hopefully not so-so or 'meh'.
On Wednesday, I was definitely in the nervous category, though not at the thought of meeting him. I was part of the serving team for the Mass. We were ten or twelve in number; a lot, though nothing compared to the 50+ priests who were present. My role was that of cross-bearer. All I had to do was carry the crucifix into the church, place it in its stand, sit down, and stay out of the way until the end whereupon I would carry it back out of the church again. But what if I walk the wrong way? Or got up at the wrong moment? Spoiler: happily, none of these things happened!
Going back to the beginning, the servers met at 5:30pm - an hour before the Mass was due to start - to run through what we would all be doing. We have a seminarian staying in the parish at the moment and it was he who had the job of whipping everyone into shape. Some of the servers came from other parishes and their priests had told them to come for six o'clock, which was not ideal; in the end, though, it didn't matter. Everyone knew (more or less) what to do.
At just before six thirty we lined up outside the church. Below: here we are, and here I am holding the crucifix. Now, I'd love to be able to say that (to paraphrase St. Philip Neri) that is me in the centre loving to be unknown, but the truth is I was just hiding from the official photographer because I don't want to be photographed. To be fair to myself, it isn't all about shyness. It is all about Him, after all. I would not be unhappy to sit behind a wall every Sunday Mass, emerging only to perform my serving duties, so that the congregation have one less thing to look at instead of the altar.
I had expected the church to be packed out for the Archbishop's visit. This, however, turned out not to be the case. Seating was available at the back. I later learnt that at least some of the priests coming from other parishes had not told their own parishioners that they were able to come to the Mass. Good old Catholic organisation!
We processed in and took our seats in the sanctuary. Most of the priests present sat in the Lady Chapel behind us. That wasn't ideal for them as a supporting wall partially blocked their view of the sanctuary. The only alternative, however, would have been for them to occupy the front rows of the pews. But that would have obscured the view of the congregation. The servers sat on two rows of benches on the Lady Chapel side of the sanctuary. I sat in the front row. The servers behind me were seated on a light bench. Early on in the Mass, someone (presumably) accidentally pushed it back. It fell down the step into the Lady Chapel with a loud clatter, landing just in front of the priests. Thankfully, the bench was pushed back while the servers were standing. No one fell back. Also thankfully, the bench did not hit any of the priests in the front row. Disaster averted!
The rest of the Mass went without incident. The deacon who read the Gospel did so very dramatically. He reminded me of when I took part in a dramatic reading of a play at my English tutor's house while at University. Man, I enjoyed that so much. The Archbishop gave the homily. It was straight down the line - no surprises, and appropriate to the occasion. He is an engaging speaker, though, so it wasn't boring.
Something I haven't mentioned so far is that when I was asked if I could serve at the Mass, I hoped that whatever I was doing, it would not require me to be the first server in line - see my fear about going in the wrong direction above. At first, all seemed well: the thurifer and boat carrier were placed in front of me. But then, they were pulled to the back of the line! I was now first. Gulp. I was first in, and first out. Happily, though, I went the right way.
After the Mass was over and the Archbishop had said goodbye to all the parishioners, and given blessings to no few of them, he gave a blessing to each of the servers as well. I have never been blessed by an Archbishop before so I was rather happy. He, the Archbishop, then organised us all for a group photo. He did it with great efficiency, a product, he said, of his days as bishop to the Armed Forces!
I've written a lot. Let's have some photos.
Here's the Archbishop, photo'd in a moment of prayer. I wonder how easily he finds it to pray when he is the centre of attention:
These are (some of) the priests in the Lady Chapel, giving thanks no doubt for not getting clobbered by the bench. The priests near the statue of Our Lady had a view of the sanctuary (albeit one obscured by the servers). Those near the camera were behind the supporting wall.
A view of the altar at the consecration.
The official photographer took 70 odd photos of the night; here is the only one in which I appear - that's me nearest to the wall just to the left of the crucifix on the altar:
Before finishing I should say that I nabbed these photos from the Diocese of Westminster's Facebook page and its Flikr page so I hope diocese and photographer don't mind. Thank you to both!
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