In the diocese...

...of Arundel and Brighton, yesterday was celebrated in a special way because it was the feast of St Philip Howard, the diocesan patron. Want to know more about him? Mary's Dowry Productions has a good DVD which you would enjoy. It is a moving story, and it all happened in London and Sussex...

We live just where Greater London begins to look out towards Surrey - this Sunday a family tea party took us right out into the countryside, well over the diocesan border into A-and-B. A packed Mass in a large church crammed with young people, which is great but...oh dear....much crooning into a microphone and lots of electronic strumming and bashing of drums, and then a round of applause at the end of Mass... is it crucial for the young singers to stand with their backs to the altar and assume the poses of performers? I don't see why the enthusiasm need be any less if they were further down the church, with the sound thus coming up from behind us, which in any case would make congregational participation easier.