An excellent lecture...

...by Fr James Tolhurst, who has just brought out a new edition of John Henry Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.

Fr J. is a great Newman scholar, and his lecture illuminated Newman's message.  Newman's journey into full communion with the Catholic Church was of course bound up with his understanding of the development of doctrine - and through his work the Church has been enriched.

The lecture - extremely well attended, every seat filled and people standing at the back - was in the Challoner Room at the Church of Our Lady and St Gregory, Warwick Street. The Church is in the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and the evening was chaired by Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary, who noted that this was in fact the first Catholic Church that Newman ever attended - he went there when young with his father, to hear the music at the sung Mass. Newman is now a Patron of the Ordinariate.

This was a very enjoyable evening, with a celebratory feel - and a particular joy for our family as Fr J. is a good family friend of many years' standing.