Visitation

"Is a bishop's Visitation like an Ofsted inspection?" someone asked our parish priest ahead of time. In fact, though my photograph may seem to indicate otherwise, this weekend at St Gregory's with the Bishop of Clifton has been more celebration than inquisition - a short parish meeting, chaired by a layman (with lay women asking most of the questions) followed by a joyful Mass for All Saints. Pity, though, that the wonderful variety of ethnicity present at the latter was absent at the former. And I worry about the episcopal health.

Induction whoop

Well, perhaps not a full-blown Whoop!, but even a round of applause is rare enough in St Gregory's church! At the Induction this evening of Fr. Bosco as our new parish priest there were no less than two outbursts of clapping led by the presiding Bishop Declan of Clifton.

The Bishop spoke about human beings as latecomers to Planet Earth; and Christians as a very young people in Earth terms. So we can identify with St Paul talking about us giving birth to something new, by producing the fruits of God within our lives. We are not a settled people, the Bishop said, but a pilgrim people, on the way to perfection - which was entirely appropriate for today's feast of St Teresa of Avila.

More photographs here.