Name of Church St. Columba’s Church, The Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman
Address 40 High Street, Victoria, BC
Phone (250) 385-4444
Website www.blessedjohnhenrynewmanfellowship.ca
Mass times Sundays: 10 a.m. Thursdays: 9:30 a.m. Saturdays: 9:30 a.m.
Confessions By appointment.
Names of priests Monsignor Peter Wilkinson, administrator. Father Don Malins and Father Michael Birch, parochial vicars. All three are older men and former Anglican clergy. They were ordained as Roman Catholic priests with special dispensation from the Vatican; both Father Malins and Father Birch are married with children. The priests are traditional and accept the teaching of the Catholic Church. Their return to Rome was prompted by the increasing liberalization of the Anglican Church (and Episcopalian Church in the U.S.), including the 1977 decision to ordain women to their priesthood. Monsignor Wilkinson is in his 70s, and was formerly an Anglican bishop.
Special parish groups/activities Ladies of the Ordinariate Social League; Matins (morning prayer) Sundays, 9:15 a.m., Thursdays, 9 a.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m.
Liturgy/Music The liturgy used at St. Columba comes from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, and uses old-style wording such as “thee” and “thou.” If the priests celebrate Mass at other Roman Catholic parishes, however, they will use the standard English New Mass.
Parking It’s a small church in a residential area, and there’s plenty of parking on the street.
Additional observations St. Columba’s is a church of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. On January 1, 2012, Pope Benedict established the ordinariate for groups of Anglicans in the United States desiring full communion with the Catholic Church (for additional information, visit https://www.usordinariate.com/). The parish’s original members were received into the Catholic Church in 2012; since then, they’ve been joined by other former Anglicans and Roman Catholics. The community is part of the ordinariate’s Canadian deanery of St. John the Baptist. Similar ordinariate parishes can be found in communities in the U.S. and Canada. Although St. Columba’s priests are located in Victoria, they are under the authority of the ordinariate headquartered in Houston, Texas. St. Columba’s is a church owned by the Anglican diocese of British Columbia, and leased by the community of former Anglicans.
If you cannot attend the TLM, seek out the Ordinariate Mass. It is a much more powerful Mass than the Novus Ordo; respectful and complex. In fact, the Ordinariate Mass does not assume that Man must be given the sacrament because Christ “gave his life for all” (which He said that He did not). Hand beating on chest, a penitent invokes the wonder of Christ’s sacrifice, even though we are unworthy to receive Him.
The music is generally sublime. No kumbaya handholding here.
And, sermons are literate, focused on the actual readings of the day, and key issues leading toward salvation. You will feel better for attending this Mass (than the N.O.).
(Post Script) — And the Ordinariate Mass is said Ad Orientum. A communion option, which almost all take, is to receive via a tinctured Host.
Bravo to St. Christopher if you cannot attend a TLM please find a Anglo-Catholic church very reverent indeed, ad-orientem, Incense, bells, chant, Anglican hymns, stunning vestments, Elizabethen English and Latin as well, all in all the Anglican-Catholics are more Roman Catholic than the Novus Ordonarians.
I’m sure, Janek, that you are speaking of the outward symbols being old church vs the NO. I’m sure you would agree that incense, bells, stunning vestments, etc. have nothing to do with being Catholic.
Of course not Bob One, don’t the Mormans, Baptists, Jehovah’s witnesses have all of those things as well, silly me. You miss the point as always, you dislike anything that is Roman Catholic.
Well said Janek, I just returned from a retreat this weekend all Masses were TLM, Bob One would have left screaming in fear had he attended. Bob One dislikes genuine Catholic identity and any that smacks of Catholicity. Some good news: At the retreat there we at least 10 seminarians and deacons trained in the Old Rite.
Janek, you and Canisius miss read me all the time. I like everything Catholic. But, what I like most about being Catholic is when I am with people who are being Catholic. The essence of our liturgy is the proclamation of the Word, and the Eucharist. The liturgy can be said in either form and have the same validity. It is not the incense that makes it valid, but the Consecration itself and the opportunity to take communion. But being Catholic involves a lot more. It involves being Catholic, going to the margins when we can, helping as so many do to enrich the lives of the less fortunate, etc. You know that because you do it, I’m sure. I was brought up with the pomp of Pontifical High Mass nearly every weekend; three priests on the altar, incense at every occasion, etc. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t prefer if. But that is not the point. The point is that that has nothing to do, really, with being Catholic.
Bob One it was your “spirit of Vatican 2” crowd that made the long march through the parishes and ripped apart our Catholic identity. The sacred art work, the altar rails, etc. don’t tell me that those things have nothing to do with being Catholic they are part and parcel of it.
This church looks great! Thank you for profiling this parish.