The Oxford Ordinariate Mission meets at Holy
Rood, Abingdon Road, Oxford for a Sung Mass on
Saturdays at 5pm. All are welcome. The Mass is
usually the Vigil Mass of Sunday but, in any case,
fulfils Catholics’ Sunday Obligation to go to Mass.
Before Mass there are Confessions (from 4.30pm). The
congregation includes former Anglicans who have
become Catholics and cradle Catholics who find that
the day, the time, the place or the style suits
them. Some Holy Rood parishioners come along. Some
registered members of the Ordinariate prefer to
attend Holy Rood on Sunday, or go to some other
Catholic Church for Mass.
The Oxford
Ordinariate Mission has adopted the new 'Divine
Worship' Missal, as directed by the Holy See for use
in the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans
who have been received into the full communion of
the Catholic Church. Its texts and practices are
drawn from traditional Anglican and Catholic
worship. We celebrate facing East, using incense,
plainsong, and polyphony, as well as singing hymns,
mostly from the Anglican tradition. Music is
provided by the Newman Consort, which specialises in
singing liturgical music.
The Ordinariate is
not part of the Portsmouth Diocese, although the
pastor of the Holy Rood Ordinariate Group, Fr Daniel
Lloyd, is also priest-in-charge of Hinksey Catholic
Parish. Nationally, the Ordinariate is equivalent to
a diocese and its Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, is a
full member of the Bishops’ Conference, even though
he himself is not a bishop. One of the priests
attached to the Oxford Ordinariate Mission, Mgr
Andrew Burnham, is one of two Assistants to the
Ordinary.
