Category Archives: Uncategorized

Confinement – the French way

Posted on 13/04/2020 by Scott Anderson

Here are a few reflections on current life (during this time of confinement) in a small country parish in France. You will have gathered that I have continued my ministry here as parish priest way beyond the original one year … Continue reading →

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Making – and keeping – new Catholics

Posted on 04/06/2016 by Scott Anderson

A new report by the Catholic Research Forum (an initiative of the Benedict XVI centre at St Mary’s University, Twickenham) has something to tell us about evangelisation. 7.7 per cent of the 3.8 million Catholics in the UK are ‘converts’ … Continue reading →

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Sunday Mass with our Bishop

Posted on 13/04/2016 by Scott Anderson

Last Sunday, the third Sunday of Eastertide, the Bishop of Amiens celebrated Mass in the parish at St Peter’s, Pont Remy. It was a very happy occasion for us, and the people had worked hard getting everything ready. The chorale … Continue reading →

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Holy Week and Easter in a French Parish

Posted on 31/03/2016 by Scott Anderson

THE HIGH ALTAR IN THE CHURCH OF ST PETER, PONT REMY I think it was Mother Theresa SSM, when she was at Haggerston Priory, who wrote that it was difficult to find time both to do the work and to … Continue reading →

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A crisis in religious teaching

Posted on 10/10/2015 by Scott Anderson

St Honorius of Amiens       d.653       Last Sunday in the parish of Notre Dame des Etangs in northern France saw the return of the Catechism for a new year. Under the 1905 separation of Church and State in this … Continue reading →

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A not-so-subtle attack on the confessional

Posted on 10/10/2015 by Scott Anderson

18th century funerals conducted in the latest historical drama on the TV by a clergyman in a lacy surplice and green chasuble – but does it matter? Not as much as when a popular series deliberately alters the facts in … Continue reading →

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Please don’t try and wear the burse on your head

Posted on 30/09/2015 by Scott Anderson

Period drama nowadays goes to extreme lengths to ensure accuracy. In every area, that is, save the ecclesiastical. There, I’m afraid, one is still likely to see a scene from a Jane Austen novel with the clergyman conducting a funeral … Continue reading →

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A Saturday Farewell & a Sunday Celebration

Posted on 29/09/2015 by Scott Anderson

On the last Sunday of September the Diocese of Amiens in northern France celebrates in honour of its first Bishop, St Firmin, whose relics are kept in the cathedral (which is, I think, the largest Gothic cathedral in France). In the parishes … Continue reading →

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Ordinariate pilgrim in France

Posted on 23/09/2015 by Scott Anderson

At the beginning of September I was appointed Administrator of a small parish in northern France, as a result of an agreement between Mgr Newton, my Ordinary, and the Bishop of Amiens, Mgr Olivier Leborgne. The appointment is for a … Continue reading →

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Studies in Holiness: Lincoln Stanhope Wainwright

Posted on 06/08/2015 by Scott Anderson

Father Wainwright (1847-1929) lived and died a member of the Church of England. Had it been otherwise, he would perhaps have been canonised and known as ‘The English Cure d’Ars’. He ministered as curate and then vicar of St Peter’s, … Continue reading →

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