Can you teach an old priest new tricks?

Yes, you can! My sister and her husband in England suggested that we might put my new acquired competence with Skype to spiritual use. So today the three of us recited the Office of Lauds on Skype. Slight problem with synchronising – quite took me back to Kelham days when we used to sing the Psalms back and forth across the choir with a long pause in the middle of each verse. I used to wonder whether, one day, no-one would come in for the second half. It never happened, and a sort of grunt from Fr Alfred was the usual prompt. When Fr Robin Ward was my colleague at Willesden Green he taught me to recite the Breviary Office like that. Most people nowadays seem to say the psalms with the 4-line stanzas, and no pauses, and don’t know what the asterisks and daggers denote.

About Scott Anderson

Formerly an Anglican priest (ordained 1975) I was received into the Catholic Church in February 2012, and ordained to the Diaconate on 27th July 2013 and on 29th October 2013 was ordained to the priesthood by the Archbishop of Southwark Peter Smith. After a spell in London (Precious Blood, Borough) I became parish priest of Pont Rémy in the Diocese of Amiens, northern France. I am deeply committed to the Ordinariate as a gift of the Holy Spirit in the search for unity. Like many Ordinariate members I feel a personal gratitude to the late Pope Benedict, together with loyalty to our Holy Father, Pope Leo. My blog tries to make a small contribution to the growth of the Ordinariate by asking questions (and proposing some answers) about the 'Anglican Patrimony'. I shall be ever grateful for the years in France, a wonderful ending to the years of parish ministry. Back in the UK I am attached, very happily, to the parish of Holy Trinity, Dorchester (HTD) and help out where needed in the Catholic parishes of South Dorset.

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