Name of Church St. Augustine of Canterbury
Address meets in the St. Therese Chapel on the eastern side of the Cathedral Catholic High School campus, 5555 Del Mar Heights Road, San Diego
Website www.staugustineofcanterbury.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StAugustineOfCanterburyChurch/
Phone (949) 436-0627
Mass times Sundays, 9:30 a.m. The liturgy at St. Augustine’s is in the Ordinariate Form of the Roman Rite, or “Anglican Use,” which includes such beautiful elements as Gregorian chant, English chant and plainsong with English hymnody.
Confessions 9-9:15 a.m. before Sunday Mass (in the confession room or the garden)
Names of priests Fr. Glenn Baaten, pastor. He is a married father and grandfather, and a former Presbyterian and Anglican pastor. He received into the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, favorably impressed by the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II. He was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 2016. Listen to his discuss the ordinariate and his story here and here.
Special ministries and activities Evangelium Course for reception and/or Confirmation into the Catholic Church, Sundays at 10 a.m. during the fall, processions and benedictions (evensong and benediction, 1st Sunday of the month), Theology on Tap, educational events and potlucks. During the pandemic they are offering a live (via Zoom) series “A Walk Through of the Sacraments.”
Additional observations The communities of St. Augustine of Canterbury, which serves the San Diego area, and Blessed John Henry Newman, which serves Orange County, are in full communion with the Catholic Church. They are part 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. Click here and listen to Bishop Steven Lopes, the first bishop of the ordinariate, discuss its establishment and here. There is also ample material on the parish website about the ordinariate.
If you’ve never attended a Mass of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I encourage you to attend one of their beautiful Masses. One experiences how well Catholic and English can go together. Saints John Henry Newman, John Fisher, Edmund Campion SJ and Margaret Clitheroe, pray for us.
and they face ad orientem.
I’ve always wondered which way a church in, say, Sydney, Australia should face and why.
Traditionally, Christian worship is done ad orientem, facing East. No matter where you are, east is east. (I don’t think any have Mass precisely on the north or south pole.) Of course, sometimes that is not literally possible, then we face a (figurative) “liturgical east.” Yet, we’re still all facing the same direction, figuratively toward the Lord, Who, together, we worship. I hope that helps.
We face east as we await the glorious return of our Lord God, Jesus Christ, who will rise as the Sun of Justice with healing in His wings.
“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. Malachi 4:2
“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matt. 24:27
Walsingham T.V. on you tube has a lovely series called “Sycamore”, named after Zacchaeus in the tree. The English priest, who looks part Asian, has a very calming English accent, and there is some beautiful scenery in most of the series. I especially recommend “Serious 4: Who is Jesus?” One can just put “Walsingham T.V., Sycamore Series” in ones search bar to pull it up.
I am not sure this priest serves the Mass ad orientem but probably does the Ordinary Mass in English.
Actually they also serve the Mass ad orientem on that website (Walsingham Catholic T.V.), just as the Traditional Catholic Latin Rite and the Anglican service does. When the Anglicans broke with Rome, they never did change to face the people totally but kept up the Traditional Catholic way of doing things on the altar.
Actually, the Masses shown on the ‘Walsingham Catholic TV’ (found either as a channel on ‘youtube.com’, or, on at the website ‘www.walsingham.org.uk’) are from ‘The Catholic National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady’ in England. Those Masses where the priest-celebrant faces ‘ad orientem’ are usually sung or said in the old ‘Slipper Chapel’–a chapel one mile from ruins of the Medieval Shrine & Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham which was destroyed after King Henry VIII left the communion with the Roman Pontiff. The ‘Slipper Chapel’–so named because many would leave their shoes there prior to walking the ‘Holy Mile’ to Walsingham–was built in the mid-1300’s, and is actually named for St Catherine of Alexandria. When the Holy Mass is celebrated in other locations at the ‘RC’ National Shrine of Walsingham, the priest-celebrant may also face ‘versus populum’. In either case the Holy Mass is celebrated quite reverently. In recent years the beautiful & Medieval ‘Slipper Chapel’ seems to be the ‘favourite place’ there at the ‘RC’ Shrine–recently granted the title ‘Minor Basilica’ by the Pope.