Scottish Catholic Observer

All priests are unique, but Fr Len Black is just a little more so than most. After spending most of his adult life as a minister in the Episcopal Church, in 2011 he was ordained as a Catholic priest in Scotland by the then Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley through the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, the mechanism for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

As he was already married prior to his Ordination as a Catholic priest, Fr Black became one of a tiny number of married Catholic clergy. Now he works to promote the Ordinariate within Scotland, travelling all over the country from his home in Inverness.

Fr Black told the SCO that, despite his years as an Episcopalian minister, he had a long attachment to the Catholic Church.

“During my years of training for ministry in the Episcopal Church in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Coates Hall, Edinburgh, we had close ties with the seminarians at St Andrew’s College, Drygrange, with regular visits to them and with them coming to visit it us,” he said. “It was during those visits that I first met Stephen Robson, now Bishop of Dunkeld, as he reminded me when I met him again soon after Pope Benedict established the Ordinariate.”

Fr Black said that in the 1970s there was a feeling in the ‘Scottish Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church in Scotland were growing closer’ with an expectation then that before the turn of the millennium there would be some sort of ‘coming together’ though ‘this was not to be.’

For his own part he said it was through ‘an accident of birth that I have been brought up in the Episcopal Church and when the call to serve God came, this seemed the obvious path for me.’

“When I was ordained as an Episcopalian priest in 1973, I firmly believed I was being ordained as a priest of the Universal Church.  Throughout my 38 years of ministry I worked and prayed for unity with the Holy See,” he said. ‘By the late 1980s it was becoming obvious that this would never happen as the Anglican Communion began to change its stance on theological and moral issues. It was then that a group of Anglicans in the UK, Forward in Faith, was formed to seek a way forward of maintaining Catholic beliefs within an Anglican setting.  I became leader of that group in Scotland.”

He said that group was filled with ‘surprise and delight’ on November 9 2009 when ‘Pope Benedict XVII published his Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, providing for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into Full Communion with the Catholic Church.’

“I had already been discussing my future with Bishop Peter Moran, then Bishop of Aberdeen, and you can imagine my surprise when, on the very night of Pope Benedict’s announcement, I received a phone call from Bishop Moran, assuring me of his prayers,” he said. “That was beginning of a dramatic journey that brought me and many of my people to the spiritual home we had been seeking.”

Having been accepted by the Holy See for ordination as a priest, he undertook almost three years of formation. His 39 years of ministry in the Episcopal Church came to an end on Ash Wednesday 2011. This was not an easy time for him. Fr Black there were ‘some within the Episcopal church who were determined to make my life as difficult as possible.’ His Episcopalian bishop, Mark Strange suggested that he ‘ask for early retirement’ and supported his request for a retirement house from the church pension fund. This was ultimately granted.

He was ordained as a deacon by Bishop Peter Moran in Pluscarden Abbey, with the Abbot Hugh Gilbert his sponsor.  A month later he was ordained apriest by Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley, the bishop-delegate in Scotland for the Ordinariate, in St Mary’s Church in Greenock. He is now focused on nurturing the Ordinariate in Scotland which he describes as ‘small but we are growing.’

“The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was formed in the UK within the jurisdiction of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland with their support and encouragement,” Fr Black said. “Around 1,500 lay people and 100 clergy have become Catholics through the Ordinariate and our priests serve the church in many ways, some as diocesan priests, some as Catholic chaplains, some within diocesan structures while also ministering to the Ordinariate group in their care. Without exception, I have received the full support and encouragement of all the Bishops in Scotland I have had contact with. The same is true with the majority of priests and lay people although with them, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about what the Ordinariate actually is.”

Most Ordinariate groups around the UK meet for Mass in Catholic parishes while some have been given responsibility for these parishes within the Diocesan structure, Fr Black explained. Last month the Ordinariate purchased its first church, a former Methodist Church, which, after an appeal supported by many people and groups, is now the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Walsingham with Saint Cuthbert Mayne in Torquay.

Fr Black travels around Scotland to meet the needs of the small and spread out community.

“We have three Ordinariate Mass centres at present and hope to have more soon,” he said. “On the second Sunday of each month we celebrate the Ordinariate Mass at 11.30am in St Columba’s, Edinburgh, and at 4pm in Holy Spirit, Stirling.  On the first and third Sundays the Highland Ordinariate Group meet for Mass at 11am in St Peter and St Boniface, Fortrose. The groups in Edinburgh and Stirling have seen some growth but our location in the Highlands at Fortrose, being 14 miles from Inverness, does not help us attract new people.”

He admits growing the Ordinariate is a slow process, but converts are coming in. “There are people coming in,” he said. “I believe there are more out there who have perhaps drifted away from the Episcopalian Church who would be open to the Catholic Church, but finding them is difficult.”

Although Pope Benedict XVI was the great champion of the Ordinariate, he said Pope Francis has also been a great supporter.

“One of the first things Pope Francis did was to approve a significant amendment to the Complementary Norms which govern the life of the Personal Ordinariates,” he said.

“His actions make clear the contribution of the Personal Ordinariates in the work of the New Evangelisation. He declared that someone who has been Baptised in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation, and returns to the Faith through the Ordinariate, may be admitted to membership in the Ordinariate and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation or the Sacrament of the Eucharist or both. In doing this the Holy Father has confirmed the place of Ordinariates within the mission of the Catholic Church, not just for those from the Anglican tradition, but as contributing to the work of the New Evangelisation.”

For his own part he said the ‘greatest thing’ about becoming a Catholic priest ‘is knowing the people are with you.’

“When you’re standing there saying Mass it’s a wonderful thing to know everyone there believes the same thing,” he said. “The Anglican tradition is almost to let people pick and mix what they believe but you know in the Catholic Church you are of the same mind.”

He also says that he’s been astonished by how warm the welcome has been.

“Everyone has very welcoming, even as a married priest, which is unusual,” he said. “It does allow me certain insights, into the Sacrament of marriage, but it’s just part of the rich variety of ministry.”

Pic: Bishop Peter Moran and then Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley atFr Len Black’s ordination with Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate. PIC: MARK CAMPBELL