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November 27, 2020Inverness, Scotland – In Scotland the brave, not even the COVID-19 pandemic can stop the Ordinariate Scots from growing and evangelizing. And now the Ordinariate in Scotland is sharing its treasure with all three Ordinariates globally with the creation of a Scottish tartan for the Ordinariate.
The Ordinariate tartan, which is an official tartan registered with The Scottish Register of Tartans, comes out of the 10th anniversary celebration of Benedict XVI’s Anglicanorum coetibus, and arrives just in time for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham for Scotland, England and Wales. The Ordinariate in Scotland has launched a Kickstarter project for the Ordinariate tartan, which symbolizes all three Ordinariates in the U.K., North America, and Australia and the Pacific Rim countries.
In this interview with the ACS, Father Len Black, the senior pastor of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in Scotland, discusses the Ordinariate in Scotland, the new tartan, their Scottish Anglican tradition, and the exciting challenges and opportunities for evangelization.
So tell us about the Ordinariate in Scotland. How did that come about?
When Anglicanorum coetibus was published in 2009, it was intended just to be for the bishops conference of England and Wales. I was already part of the original group of priests who were meeting -- not quite secretly but not publicizing it in London. And I argued that Scotland was too small to become a separate Ordinariate, because the Episcopal Church in Scotland is very small -- it’s even smaller now but that's another story. So our numbers [in Scotland] were likely to be a very small. It was eventually accepted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and so we became part of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which was formed in 2011. So here we are!
What’s the Ordinariate’s presence like in Scotland?
We are a small group, and a very scattered group. If you look at the map of Scotland, we've got people up in Shetland and Orkney. In Lewis on the Western Isles, we've got a priest there. I'm here in Inverness, and we've got a group of about 20 here on a Sunday Mass. And then down here is Edinburgh, where there’s a group. Unfortunately, [Mass in] Edinburgh is not happening just because of COVID. And we've got another group in the southwest of Scotland in Whithorn, where the Gospel first came to Scotland at the hands of St. Ninian. And that’s really nice. Our priest there when he was ordained two years ago, the Bishop of Galloway was very keen to have him ordained in Whithorn because it would be the first ordination in Whithorn within living memory. So, we have four priests: myself, two other active priests, and then one on Stornoway of the Western Isles.
Scotland is not very big. It's smaller than most of the states in America. Although it's only 440 miles from top to bottom, it would take me from Inverness to drive to Edinburgh, about three hours.
In Inverness, we're about halfway between the tip of Shetland and the border with England. Inverness is a good place to be, and I don't mind traveling at all. So, what I have normally done is to have a Mass in Edinburgh on the first Sunday of each month. But since that March, that's not only possible.
So how has the Ordinariate in Scotland carried on its mission with this COVID-19 business?
It's been quite fascinating. The lockdown on the churches in Scotland started off in March, just after the feast of St. Joseph and it wasn't until the beginning of May that we got going again. But during that time, I had daily mass on the Internet through a web camera, and it was bringing in more than 100 people a day.
It was amazing, absolutely amazing, including strangely enough somebody on a drilling platform in the South Atlantic. That's quite something for Inverness! It gave people, and it gave cradle Catholics, an opportunity to appreciate the Ordinariate liturgy, Divine Worship, which I think is really very special.
Since we started again, our numbers at Mass in Inverness on a Sunday have doubled. So that’s all a result of COVID-19. It's amazing. It's unbelievable. You would never think anything like that would ever happen, but it has.
It's unfortunate we can't start the Edinburgh Mass yet. Mainly because people have to travel by public transport to get to it. They come from wider quite a wide area around there, and that's not allowed at the moment.
We're a smallish group, but very active. And we’re a friendly little group! We've been using Zoom, and it’s interesting. We've been using Zoom for Mass every day. And for Sunday Mass, and for Compline once a week. The reason I chose Zoom, as opposed to any of the other platforms, is that you've got that personal touch through Zoom. I can see your name on the screen, you can see mine, and we can chat away. So we’d would have Mass, and then after Mass, we have a chance to meet people and speak. And I think that's part of our Anglican tradition that we bring into the Catholic Church: this care of our parishioners. And that's been perfect for Zoom. Because you get to know people. So it's been really very good.
That's wonderful. So, so tell us about the Ordinariate tartan. Where did the idea come from?
Well, because we have a small group and are very scattered, every year (apart from this year, of course) we meet just north of Glasgow with the Sisters at Schoenstatt for a retreat and conference. In 2019, one of the ideas that came up was to have something to mark the 10th anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus, and also the canonization of St. john Henry Newman. And just talking around, the idea of a tartan came up. So, my wife has an embroidery studio, and she’s designed several tartans before. So, we gave her the task of coming up with an Ordinariate tartan using the liturgical colors, and also colors from the three coat of arms of the three Ordinariates. And that's how the tartan began. We had hoped to launch it earlier, but with all that’s been going on in the world, we didn't quite get around to it until All Saints Day, this year, when it was launched. The Kickstarter project goes for just one month. So it ends, appropriate enough, on [Nov. 30] St. Andrew’s Day.
Our target was 2700 pounds. And to be honest, I thought that we'd struggled to get that. But within 12 days, we had reached the target, which was quite amazing. [Note: as of Nov. 27, the Kickstarter had raised 3,972 pounds or $5,310 USD] So we're on target. But this was all to weave one bale of tartan, which is the minimum amount that is worth actually getting all the machines going for.
What happens if you exceed the fundraising goal? Is there a possibility of creating a tartan in heavier cloth such as for blankets or kilts?
Yes, we went for the lightweight tartan, because to launch [the project], people are more likely to buy scarves, ties, wraps and the like than go for kilts or blankets. But our intention always was to have a heavier weight tartan woven so that we could have kilts and anything like that made.
If we can come up a bit more towards the 200% mark [approx. 5,400 pounds or $7,185 USD], then that heavyweight tartan is in sight.
What are some of the uses you envision for the Ordinariate tartan in the Ordinariates?
There's all kinds of things can be made from it. There is absolutely no limit at all. From liturgical garments to fashion garments, to anything at all that anybody wants, can be made of tartan. One of the things we offer through the Kickstarter project is to buy a length of tartan if somebody wants to make a lady’s dress or whatever. So, sky's the limit really.
So shoulder capes for altar servers, a possibility? Absolutely. That's quite possible. Actually, I think it would look very nice in the Ordinariate tartan against a white cotta. Quite stunning. That's a great idea.
As soon as the Kickstarter fundraising is over, then things will be for sale on the Ordinariate Scotland website, ordinariate.scot.
What kind of evangelization possibility in Scotland or places of the Scottish diaspora, do you see created by the Ordinariate tartan?
It will bring people's attention to the Ordinariate. A tartan is something unique to a group, to a clan, to a family. And this is unique to the three Ordinariates. And so for us in Scotland, because it's a Scottish tartan – all real tartans are Scottish tartans -- it will have a benefit in that way.
In Scotland, the tartan is worn as scarves, especially as ties; not so much as kilts except for formal occasions, so for weddings or for formal dinners, the men would wear kilts. And people always say, “what's your tartan?” So then that leads into a little story, “Ah, we’re the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.” So, there is a point where you can begin a conversation about the Ordinariate. And that's the real task that we have to let people in Scotland know what the Ordinariate is, why we have a different liturgy to diocesan Catholics in the Catholic Church, and why we're so distinctive in the traditions that we bring with us.
What are some of those distinctive traditions of the Ordinariate in Scotland, as opposed to elsewhere?
First of all, the liturgies. When I was an Episcopalian, the liturgy that we used was the 1970 Scottish Liturgy of the Episcopal Church. And it is very similar to Divine Worship: the Missal. So we've got a very strong link there. The 1970 liturgy was a liturgy that people loved. Obviously, as the Episcopal Church changed, it invented new modern liturgies. But traditionalists in the Episcopal Church tended to stick to that liturgy, and now the Ordinariate has revived it in Divine Worship: the Missal.
The other thing that we've done, perhaps because we're smaller, but we have a much more caring way of being with our people. As I explained earlier that's why Zoom comes into its own, because you know whom you're talking to, as opposed to just somebody logging on through YouTube or whatever. So you've got that link, and I think that's important to be able to link with your people, and to have that pastoral relationship with them.
So I think those are two of the main things: the person-to-person contact, and the liturgical tradition. Which also draws in many people who would like to go to the Latin Mass here in the Highlands but there's no opportunity to do so. So, we help them as well to feel spiritually at home.
What would you say are some of the challenges and opportunities for evangelization and outreach the Ordinariate faces in Scotland?
The challenge is the lack of priests, because there are only three and “a half” of us really. Father Stanley in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis [in the Outer Hebrides] is not really able to travel very much so that holds him back a bit. And geographically, we should really have somebody in the central belt of Scotland. The population of Scotland is five and a half million, but 3 million of those people live between Edinburgh and Glasgow in the central belt. You can see on the map, there's a large spaghetti of roads where all the population is right down in the middle there.
So, to try and hopefully find another priest who might come and be a priest in Edinburgh or Glasgow, that would be very good for us. Because Inverness is fine, we are growing. Fr. Simon down in Whithorn is growing a community there. In the past two years, he's been working away. He has up to 20 people at Mass every week. So things are growing. We've got a problem in some places. In Inverness here, for instance, we've not been allowed to use any of the Catholic churches, because the [local] Catholic priests here have not been terribly sympathetic towards the Ordinariate. And that's unfortunate. But we just work away quietly. Pope Benedict created something special for us. And we’re living up to that, and fulfilling that mission, that vision that he had. So we just plod on.
For midweek in my garden here, I've got a little oratory chapel. It could hold in normal circumstances, about eight to 10 people, but with social distancing we’re dramatically down. We have Mass during the week there. And on Sunday, we use a former hospital chapel in Inverness, so we're all right.
What are some of the ways that people can support the Ordinariate in Scotland?
Well, buy our tartan! [Laughter] Well, really I think the only sensible thing is to keep us in your prayers. We are small, and we are working away. We're doing our best to be part of that vision that Pope Benedict had. And to know that we've got the support of people around the world. I get lovely emails from priests I've known in America, Canada, on the Continent. I’ve got an email this morning from a Catholic priest in France. He had just heard about the Ordinariate in Scotland, and he wanted us to know that we were in his prayers. That kind of thing is really very good for us: to know that we have the prayers and support of people in other parts of the world.
For more information about the Ordinariate in Scotland, visit ordinariate.scot.
You can also join the Kickstarter for the Ordinariate Tartan here.
Photos courtesty of Ordinariate.Scot.
Peter Jesserer Smith is the Vice President of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society.
