Bishop Crispian Hollis

Since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has produced three Latin editions of the Roman Missal. At present, we are still using a translation of the first edition which was published in 1973. Although the texts we have been using have served us well, since that time there has been much development in the liturgical texts themselves and in our understanding of them.

We all become very accustomed to the words we hear; and the fact that we have been praying in a certain way for so long has imprinted that style of language and words upon our consciousness and made them very special. The changes in the language now to be introduced, however, do not represent change for change’s sake, but are being made in order to ensure greater fidelity to the liturgical tradition of the Church. In the earlier translation not all the meaning of the original Latin text was fully expressed and a number of the terms that were used to convey the teachings of the faith were lost. This was readily acknowledged by the bishops of the Church, even back in the 1970s, and has become an increasing cause of concern since then.

There is an old adage in Latin which states that the way we pray forms the way we believe. So words and language are important for the teaching and the handing-on of the faith.

So what does this new translation offer us? First of all, there is a fuller expression of the content of the original texts. Then, there is a closer connection with the Sacred Scriptures which inspire so much of our liturgy. Also, there is a recovery of a vocabulary that enriches our understanding of the mystery we celebrate. All of this requires a unique style of language and expression, one that takes us out of ourselves and draws us into the sacred, the transcendent and the divine.

The publication of the new translation of the Missal is a special moment of grace in the English-speaking world. It offers an opportunity to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the mystery we celebrate each week. This itself will help us to move towards that fuller and more conscious and active participation in the liturgy to which the Church invites us. It will help us also to examine the dignity with which we celebrate the ‘source and summit’ of the Church’s life.

At the end of his visit last year, Pope Benedict asked us to use this moment for genuine renewal. He said: “I encourage you now to seize the opportunity that the new translation offers for in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist, and renewed devotion in the manner of its celebration. ‘The more lively the Eucharistic faith of the people of God, the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his disciples’” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 6).1

In order to achieve this, the bishops have produced resources for all our parishes and, as from September, we will gradually begin to use the new liturgical texts at Mass and hear why certain changes have been made. Each diocese is already preparing its priests and deacons, catechists and liturgical ministers. Programmes for schools are being developed and new musical settings are being composed. From September until Advent everyone will have the opportunity to study the new texts and familiarise themselves with the prayers and chants. In addition, this period of preparation will allow us to pray these new texts.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist is a gift, something we receive from God through the Church. Saint Paul spoke of it as coming from the Lord Jesus himself. Writing to the Church in Corinth, he said, “for I received from the Lord what I in turn also handed on to you” (1 Corinthians 11:23). So Eucharist is not something of our making but a gift received.

Like Saint Paul, therefore, let us receive it with reverence and care, knowing that we are being faithful to what the Lord himself passed on to the Apostles, which has been handed on since, in faithfulness, by their successors to every generation of the Church.

Let us welcome the new translation of the Roman Missal as a sign of our unity and a powerful instrument of God’s grace in our lives.

+Crispian
Bishop of Portsmouth

Next week, on the first Saturday of Lent, there will be a very special celebration in the Cathedral for the whole diocese. We will be gathering for the Rite of Election, when many from most of the parishes in the diocese will be present  to welcome into our midst those who are seeking to be baptised or received into full communion with the Church at Easter.

It is a moment of great significance for us all but especially it is so for our candidates and catechumens. For them, it represents the last chapter of a long journey of faith into the life of Christ and the life of the Church. They have come from many different backgrounds and experiences but all are now enrolled in the life of the diocese and we will all be able to celebrate with them when we come to the Easter Vigil and the Easter Sacraments.

Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan

Among our candidates this year, there are three groups of members of the Anglican Communion who, together with their priests, are seeking to come into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate. Their priests have resigned from their ministry in the Church of England and they, with their people, will be beginning an intensive period of instruction so that they can be received into the Church at the Easter.

The development of the Ordinariate over the last few months has attracted a certain amount of comment and question and  I understand that. All I can say is that I have been dealing with these three groups and their priests during this time and I have been deeply impressed by their sincerity and their desire for full communion with us. The Ordinariate represents new ground for all of us and the Rite of Election gives us all the opportunity to welcome our new-found brothers and sisters into the life of the diocese and to do everything we can to make them feel at home.

The groups come from Reading, the Isle of Wight and Christchurch and it is in those churches that they will be received into full communion. After Easter, those among them who have been Anglican priests will continue their preparation for ordination to the priesthood and I will be ordaining the three of them towards the end of June. I believe that they will very soon become valued members of the Church and I know that they will receive a warm welcome from all. Their joining us is an opportunity for us all to share gifts and faith with each other and they deserve our respect as they truly put their trust in the Lord who is “their rock and their stronghold.”

But the process has already started because, among the clergy who are becoming full members of the Catholic Church, there are a number of former bishops. Three of them were ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Vincent Nichols in Westminster on January 15th

It is my privilege to ordain the former Bishop of Richborough, Edwin Barnes, to the priesthood this weekend in the Cathedral. He

has already retired from his  episcopal ministry and was received into full communion with the Church on January 21st. He lives in Lymington and I am sure those of you who live in that part of the diocese will soon discover him as a gentle and effective pastor.

There are some who feel that the invitation, made by Pope Benedict to those groups in the Anglican Church who wish to become Catholics, will undermine the good relationships that already exist between  us and the Church of England. I cannot speak for the country as a whole but I have to say that our  relationships between the Anglican dioceses of Oxford, Winchester and Portsmouth have not been damaged. I have been greatly impressed and edified by the way in which the bishops of those three dioceses have reacted with great generosity and kindness.

For all of us, the quest for the visible unity of the Church remains an imperative and not an option.

Speaking to the Bishops of England and Wales at the end of his visit in September, Pope Benedict urged us to welcome the emergence of the Ordinariate and said:

“Be generous in implementing the Apostolic Constitution. This should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relationships between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in  the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts for our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as enrichment for us all.”

To be honest with you I  did have my own misgivings and questions about the development of the Ordinariate but I have come now to see this as a unique moment and  I welcome warmly those who are joining us. As Catholics,  we  are privileged to be playing our part in this historic development in the life of the Church. In trusting in the Lord, as today’s psalm reminds us, we are called to “be strong and to allow our hearts to take courage because the Lord is a rock of refuge for us all, a mighty stronghold to save us.”

At the beginning of this Lenten season, let that be our hope and our prayer.

May God bless you all,

+ Crispian
Bishop of Portsmouth

It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the feast of the Epiphany and the revealing of Christ to the wise men from the east. They followed the star and it brought them to kneel before the infant Christ to whom they offered their exotic gifts. But, unknown to them, at that time they were being gifted by the Lord in a way far richer than anything that they had been able to offer him.

St Matthew sums it up when he writes at the end of the story that they returned to their own country by a different way. That phrase means much more to me than just something about geography or map reading or the fear of Herod. It says something profoundly spiritual about conversion and the journey of faith, and it’s entirely appropriate for us to revisit it today, as we stand on the threshold of Lent.

We too have followed a star; we too have journeyed in faith to bring our gifts – not least the gift of ourselves – to the Lord. In return, he has gifted us with so much and he has called us to be stewards of those gifts. As we recognise this, our lives, like those of the wise men, will begin to take a different direction. Our journey of faith continues, but in a different way.

The season of Lent marks yet again an opportunity for that change of direction, for conversion and for the deepening of our faith. It is a time for generous giving and for a renewed trust in the goodness and love of the Lord who calls us to be his disciples.

The context of today’s Gospel is Luke’s account of the call of the first disciples. Last Sunday, we heard Jesus inviting Peter to put out into the deep with total trust in him, so that he could become a “fisher of men”. In the passage from Luke that immediately precedes today’s passage, we read of Jesus spending the night in prayer before he chooses those who were to be his special companions. Today’s Gospel tells of Jesus coming down from the mountain and introducing his newly chosen apostles to a sea of humanity into which they, as “fishers of men”, must enter without fear, casting their nets for a catch and becoming, in their turn, the star that will lead men and women to Jesus.

This is the beginning of the Church which we know and love and within which we find the Lord. This is the Church in which, through baptism, we begin to share in the work and the loving of Christ. This is the world of the poor, the needy,
those who are troubled and distressed, and Jesus calls us to be his presence among all people, to bring joy, satisfaction and comfort – but, not without cost.

When the new disciples heard Jesus’ words, they must have wondered, as perhaps we do ourselves, “how can this be?” The answer to that question lies in the angel’s words to Mary at the start of Luke’s Gospel: “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” These things will come about because the power of God’s Spirit is poured out on the disciples. Through the Spirit, they will discover the courage, the wisdom and the understanding to proclaim and live the Gospel. We, today’s disciples, like those first followers, are called to witness to the truth that real joy and happiness and fulfilment come because we trust in the Lord, rather than in those aspects of modern living which are so neglectful of God and seemingly so transient. This understanding of the call to discipleship, and our response to it, has been central to all my recent teaching and forms the lynchpin of our Pastoral Plan.

We come today to the threshold of Lent; it’s another opportunity to continue and deepen our journey in faith, bringing us to the Lord in new and exciting ways.

For some – I am thinking particularly of our catechumens seeking baptism and of those seeking to come into full communion with the Church – their journey is quite specific and has a very sharp focus. Easter for them will be a wonderful culmination and fulfilment of deepest hopes. It will bring joy to them and to all us who have journeyed with them.

For those of us who have been longer on the journey, Lent is a time of renewal and ongoing conversion with a greater and more generous concentration on the gifts the Lord has given us. Whatever Lenten penance we undertake, it should aim at making us more aware of the extraordinary love and care the Lord has for us.

For all of us, wherever we are in our journey of faith, Lent is a time for renewed prayer and for giving more time and space to God and to all those who, together with us, make up the human family, the brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s time to seek again the face of Christ. There we will find the compassion and healing love that renews our spirits. Look on that face in the silence of your prayer and give thanks to the Lord who has such love for us. Coming to the heart and
face of Christ, we discover anew what it means to be truly one of his disciples, sent out to proclaim and be the Good News of the Kingdom.

May God bless you all,
Crispian

Today’s Gospel invites us to ‘Stay awake … to stand with confidence before the Lord’. We ‘stay awake’ by paying attention to the many ways in which God is present and active in our lives and the lives of others, and we are able to ‘to stand with confidence’ if we respond in faith to that presence and action of God. Our diocesan Pastoral Plan, ‘Go Out and Bear Fruit’, is one of the ways in which we are trying to ‘stay awake’ and ‘stand with confidence before the Lord’. We all have a duty to build on the rich heritage of faith we have received so that the faith, which is so precious to us, can be handed on to the generations who come after us.

One of the key strands of the Plan is the reorganisation of the diocese into twenty four Pastoral Areas. The development of Pastoral Areas is central to the implementation of the Pastoral Plan. They enable us to be more effective in deploying and making best use of the resources God has given us. They have the potential to enhance our Communion and strengthen our sense of Mission.

At the beginning of Advent last year, I announced that during 2009 I would be making a series of visits to the leadership groups of all the Pastoral Areas. Those visits took place between January and July and have proved to be one of the most worthwhile tasks that I have undertaken during my time as Bishop. Each visit gave me information as to how the various parish communities in each Pastoral Areas were making progress towards uniting with neighbours and thus becoming more interdependent. We have to work together collaboratively and generously for the achievement of the Communion and Mission to which Christ has called us.

The days when parishes could afford to be fiercely independent have gone. To my great satisfaction, the visits revealed immense commitment and enthusiasm from the lay members of the pastoral groups. This is a key factor for the future flourishing of the diocese.

But, in this Year of the Priest, I cannot emphasise too strongly that our priests and deacons are always going to be crucial to the life of the diocese and never more so than now, as we set about the implementation of the Pastoral Plan. Their dedicated pastoral ministry ensures that Communion and Mission are at the heart of all we do. Priests and deacons are vital to the development of the life of the Pastoral Areas. The effective functioning of Pastoral Areas also ensures that the pastoral ministry of clergy does not always have to be weighed down, and  even overburdened, by the demands of “office.”

This increasing involvement and collaboration between priests, deacons and laity is a salutary reminder of that long standing tradition that the Church can never be simply a clerical preserve. The whole body of the faithful – bishop, priests, deacons and the laity – together form the baptised community which constitutes the Church today. We now have a clearer and shared vision of what the Church is
– the Body of Christ, in which everyone has a unique part to play.

Bearing in mind that relationships should come before structures, the continuing implementation of the Pastoral Plan needs us to work hard at those relationships that already exist or are emerging. They are the key to the new structures, which will evolve gradually. We need to continue to build them up within and beyond our Pastoral Areas through the sharing of resources, working and praying together and actually loving and caring for each other. We may have to be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the Gospel, for example, being challenged to give up or share something dear to our own community for the greater good of the whole Pastoral Area.

My pastoral visits in 2009 were designed to encourage the implementation of the Pastoral Plan. They were also occasions of great encouragement for me personally, and I will be repeating them between mid-February and the end of June 2010.

I wish you all every joy at the start of this Advent season and, in the words of today’s Gospel, I pray “we should stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.” (Lk 21:36)
I wish you all every blessing and happiness at this time. May the Lord be with you all.

+Crispian

One of my earliest childhood memories is of Christmas afternoons being made by my mother to sit down and write “thank you” letters to all who had given me presents. And it didn’t stop there; from an early age, it was drilled into me that whenever I received hospitality from anyone, be it a meal or a stay as a guest, I was always expected to write a “thank you” letter afterwards. Like many of the disciplines I acquired when I was young, this one has remained with me to this day. It’s helped me to develop what the Americans might call “an attitude of gratitude”, and I think that’s something very important.

We live increasingly in a culture of rights and blame. Everything is ours by “right” and if we don’t get our rights, we immediately look for someone or something to blame. We are in serious danger of losing sight of the fact that almost everything we have comes to us as gift. Once we lose sight of that, then thankfulness goes out of the window.

The greatest gift we have is our life which, our faith tells us, can only come from God, the author of life. With that life, there comes the essential freedom to be the person God wants us to be. We read of Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem because it failed to recognise him and I feel sure that there must be times when he weeps over us because we fail to recognise the extraordinary giftedness which is ours, gifts which make it possible for us to live as children of God.

If we had a strong and developed sense of thanks for all God’s gifts to us, then we would always want to do our best to use those gifts to the full. That’s real gratitude and it’s here – with that profound attitude of gratitude – that I want to start this simple Lenten reflection.

First of all then, we need to renew our recognition of all that God has given us. This means giving time to God to ponder and reflect and to pray. I don’t mean time that’s necessarily full of words and frantic activity. I mean quality time – and silence – when we can pray and listen to the Lord who gives us life and who invites us to share life with him. When we listen to the Lord, when we seek his face in prayer, then we begin to understand how everything that we are and everything we have comes to us as his gift – and we can be profoundly thankful.

Secondly, Lent challenges us to develop an appetite and hunger for God, which is sharpened by whatever discipline we choose. This isn’t fasting for fasting’s sake – that’s not very helpful – fasting is a very special way of putting Jesus more and more at the centre of our lives so that we can grasp hold of what is really important. It can happen through prayers and devotions; it can happen because we give time to others.

But it’s certainly true that the more time we give to the Lord and to seeking his face, the less we concentrate on ourselves and our own needs. Fasting, in its broadest sense, helps us to recognise more richly the sheer gift in the life that God has given us.

And then there is almsgiving, the third traditional feature of our Lenten observance. This is a challenging and generous using and sharing of all the gifts we have. It may mean giving money to the poor; it may be helping others by giving them time and love; it may be giving service in all sorts of ways to our parish or to our community. And it may mean that, in these difficult days of recession, we do all we can to make ourselves and our communities aware of all those who are finding things very difficult and doing our best to help them.

But whatever we do, Lent is about giving and sharing the abundance that we have, all of which is God’s gift to us. This makes Lent a real time of stewardship, which is a spirituality which is becoming more and more one of the important features of the implementation of the Pastoral Plan and increasingly part of our diocesan culture.

Stewardship begins with that attitude of gratitude. It’s about recognising our gifts and using them for the Lord and for the community. It’s about recognising and using our time, our talents and our treasure and it challenges us to use our gifts generously for God and for our brothers and sisters.

“See”, God says to us in today’s first reading, “I am doing a new deed, I am making a path in the wilderness, paths in the wilds.” We become God’s new deed as he transforms us during Lent. He uses what he has given us, and our thankfulness, to transform and transfigure the wilderness of the society that surrounds us.

Thankfulness, prayer, fasting and generous sharing of gifts are the traditional hallmarks of Lent. When we embrace them generously then, more and more, we are brought face to face with Christ who loves us and gives himself for us.

This Lenten journey of faith, on which we are setting out and which we share with so many others, leads us more into being true and faithful disciples. The Lenten journey brings us to the face and heart of Christ and it’s there that we truly find our way of proclaiming and being the Good News of the Kingdom.

May God bless you all,

+Crispian

In the years when I was a parish priest, I was always delighted when the Bishop offered a Pastoral Letter for this particular celebration coming, as it does, so quickly on the heels of CHristmas. It wasn’t just that we felt “talked out” after all the Christmas festivities, it was also that I, at least, felt that preaching about the Holy Family – that almost impossibly “holy” family – was a very difficult task.

I can’t pretend that today I can say anything new but I do want to offer you a few toughts, as well as giving you my greetings for today and for the whole Christmas season.

First of all, our celebration today gives us “family” at its best and we particuarly need that at this time when, politically and often socially, family life is being undermined and diminished.

In this celebration, we are offered a supreme example of trust, obedience and generous love. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have been very blessed in a very happy and fulfilled family life, buit I am acutely aware that this is not everyone’s experience and I both acknowledge and sympathise with the pain that many, who are in broken families, suffer and endure.

The ideals of Christian family life set the highest standards. They challenge us in their fulfilment and they challenge us in the giving of example and encouragement to others. But these ideals are crucial for the well-being of the community as a whole. They are Christian ideals and we, who are Christians, have a great responsibility to demonstrate convincingly that they are not beyond our reach. Remember always that example is more powerful than exhortation. Reach out for these values yourselves and encourage others to do so, praying and remembering all the time that “nothing is impossible for God”.

But it’s not just family life that’s under threat in today’s world – we live today in many ways what Pope John Paul described as a culture of death. Life itself has become cheap and, as a society, we have become careless and destructive of life, whether that life is found at its very beginnings, in the womb and in the unborn child, or in the old and frail as they approach natural death. To see such persons – for that is what they trule are – as somehow disposable or a nuisance or of no consequence, is to show a supreme disregard for the value and dignity of all who, like ourselves, are children of a loving God.

As Catholics, we pride ourselves on being “pro-life” and that is true for the diocese, for all of you who form our diocesan family and for myself. We are committed to defending life at all its stages. This commitment is the seamless garment for Christian living, and it means that all, but especially those who suffer from defencelessness and vulnerability of any kind, proverty, disease and conflict, have a right to a special place in our hearts and in the heart of the Church.

This rich vision of life will not necessarily enear us to the culture in which we live but this is where we have to stand if we are to be faithful to the truth that all hum beings, our brothers and sisters, are created in God’s own image and likeness.

This celebration of the feast of the Holy Family gives us the chance, not only to catch our breath after the Christmas festivities, but also to contemplate something of the reality of the circumstances and family that surrounded the Word made flesh, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, Son of God, who has lived among us.

In the contemplation and prayer today, we rejoice in the gift of life in all its richness and dignity. Our prayer is also that we treasure and sustain, as best we can, the precious gify of family in which that life is nurtured and in which it flourishes.

I send you all my greetingsd at this time and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless us all with his love and his grace as we enter into the New Year of 2009 which will be upon us in a few days.

May God bless you all,

+Crispian

As part of my celebration of this year of St Paul, I have been spending some extra time re-reading and studying the pastoral letters he wrote to the communities to whom he had preached the Gospel. It is striking that he almost always begins his letters with words of love and affirmation. Today’s excerpt from the letter to the Corinthians is no exception. He writes:

“I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ … You have been enriched in so many ways … the witness to Christ has indeed been strong among you.”

After nearly 21 years in the diocese, I feel that I can write to you in a similar vein. It has been a privilege and a joy for me to be your Bishop and every day I thank God for His gifts to you and for the generous support and faithful response you have always given me as we have tried to explore the Gospel together.

In recent years, we have been trying to tease out how we can become even more faithful to the Lord in our witnessing to our Christian faith, both as individuals and as a community. As a result of extensive consultation, we now have our own diocesan Pastoral Plan. It is the implementation of that plan which particuarly concerns us now and some of its implications have far-reaching consequences for how we see and structure the diocese. Those consequences deeply challenge us.

Not the least among the challenges has been the establishment of 24 Pastoral Areas. Our aim and hope in setting them up is that they will help us to make us more effective in deploying and making best use of the resources with which God has gifted us for our work of enhancing our Communion and strengthening our sense of Mission.

Although the diocese may look like a loose community of disparate and individual parishes, I make no secret of the fact that the long term aim of the emphasis on Pastoral Areas in the Pastoral Plan is that each Area should eventually become a parish. Contrary to the fears expressed by some, this does not entail the wholesale closing of churches but it does mean developing the collaboration and communion between the various communities in each Pastoral Area so that we can be both more united as a diocesan family and more effective in our witness to the Gospel.

Already three Areas have become canonically established parishes and, whilst I am very aware that, for very good reasons, different parts of the diocese develop at different speeds, it is my wish – and the intention of our Pastoral Plan – that this should be the eventual pastoral structure of our diocese: 24 parishes with priests and people working even more closely together for the spread of the Kingdom.

With this in mind, I will be visiting the leadership groups of all the Pastoral Areas in the course of the coming year to see where they are in terms of that long-term vision. These will be visits of encouragement for the future journey and of commendation and affirmation for the considerable steps that have already been taken. Great progress has been made and I thank God for your generous committment and fidelity to the Lord and his Word, which leads us into His way.

It helps us to experience anew the truth of Isaiah’s words that the Lord is our Father; that He is the potter, we are the clay and we are all the work of His hand.

For these visits to the Areas, I will be accompanied by the appropriate Vicar General and by a member of the Department for Pastoral Formation. As well as dealing with questions about Pastoral Areas, I will be reminding you all of the centrality and importance of the Eucharist, without which we cannot be truly Catholic. In the light of that priority, I will also be affirming and emphasising the crucial role that has been played, and which continues to be played, by our priests and deacons, for, as St Paul reminds us, we are

“truly enriched by our teachers and preachers”

Priests are indispensable to the success of the Pastoral Plan because without Eucharist, Word and Sacrament, celebrated and preached, we cannot flourish. Never stop praying for your priests and deacons; treasure and value them as I do and implore the Lord unceasingly that He will continue to give us all the vocations to priesthood, to the diaconate and to the religious life that we need.

Today, we enter the great season of Advent with its wonderful sense of expectation and joy. As we begin to prepare, not only for Christmas, but for a renewed and enriched experience of the presence of the Lord among us now, listen to the Lord as He exhorts us to

“stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming … he must not find you asleep. I say to you: stay awake!”

I wish you every joy and happiness at this time and may God bless you all.

+Crispian