Ordination of Michael Nazir-Ali to the Sacred Order of Presbyters: transcribed remarks

Post-Ordination Remarks

1:58:00 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPGbk2lNMFk

Ordination of Michael Nazir-Ali to the Sacred Order of Presbyters

Post-Ordination Remarks

The Rev. Fr. Michael Nazir-Ali

Thank you Fr. Keith for this opportunity, and first of all, of course, I would like to express my gratitude to His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols for coming and for spending so much time. Actually, more time than he had allocated, because he arrived an hour earlier than he had intended. I’m sure that’s in God’s providence. And, of course, to Monsignor Keith and to Gill for their gracious hospitality. For Archbishop Bernard, for journeying with me and actually even turning up at the railway station to show me the way – so, that’s really quite literally showing me the way - thank you very much indeed. To so many of the clergy in the Ordinariate whom I have known previously for many years, and it is very good to see so many here today.

You will have seen various interviews and pieces of writing from my side about why I have done this, and so very briefly to say – well, there are many reasons, of course, I don’t want to give them all - but: first of all, to belong to a church where decisions that affect everyone are actually made effective in the whole Church, where decisions stick; secondly, where there is a clear body of teaching to which appeal can be made when that is necessary to do; and thirdly, where there is an adequate sufficient teaching authority to guide the faithful in matters that are contentious in this culture or that. Cardinal Nichols, of course, alluded to this in his homily.

So those are the reasons for ‘why’, and then some may ask – some have asked – “Why in this way?” Why the Ordinariate way? And, of course, the reason there is that, although I have experienced certain lacks in the Anglican Communion, which the Catholic Church makes up,... again, as that wonderful prayer said so eloquently... but equally, there are gifts that the Anglican tradition has to offer the wider Church. You have experienced some of those gifts this afternoon. But, I would say ‘yes’, the beauty of worship. Whatever else Archbishop Cranmer’s gifts may or may not have been, I think beauty of language was certainly one of them, and I commend such beauty to our liturgists today. It is not always a gift that is found among them in recent years, may I say. Secondly, an approach to the study of the Bible that is inductive, historical and devotional at the same time. Thirdly, an approach to ministry that recognizes the wider community and is not simply restricted to the congregation. There are other things more difficult to define and approach: to moral thinking for instance, which has developed not just out of the needs of the confessional but of a wider engagement with the community, and I think that can be valuable for the wider Church; the rich hymnody, tradition of hymnody to which, of course, Saint John Henry Newman contributed so magnificently, as we’ve already heard this afternoon.

So, that is why I’ve done it, and that is why I have done it in this way. Thank you for your love and your prayers and your patience. God bless you. 

1:58:00 video

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Litany of the Saints

Anointing

First Blessing: Cardinal Nichols

First Blessing: Archbishop Longley