What a week we had! At times it seemed as though newspaper editors must have had a very difficult time indeed to decide what headline to use. The Pope grew more and more ill and at length died. In Britain, a General Election loomed and the Prime Minister went to the Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament. Millions crowded in Rome to pay their respects to the Pope, and heads of state hurried to his funeral on Friday. The wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker-Bowles was postponed at St George' s Windsor until Saturday. At length, just as mourning for the Pope was proceeding, Prince Rainier III of Monaco died. Several of us joked that if we had seen a newspaper headline "Day of Judgement Tomorrow", we would have believed it!

The Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) was founded as an institute for secular clergy in London 28 February 1855, and based upon the model organised by St Vincent de Paul in France in the XVII century. Many famous priests of the Catholic Revival have been members, and the parish work of many of its clergy has been well known. Many parishes in England have had nothing but SSC clergy for much of this hundred and fifty years, and would insist on the "SSC standard"!

We began on Tuesday, 5th April, at St Alban’s Church, Holborn, in London, which was the church of Father Alexander Mackonochie, one of our most famous Masters and one of the pioneers of the practical implementation in parishes of the Catholic Revival. St Alban’s was re-arranged by the Luftwaffe during the War, and the only part of the church remaining as it was is the Mackonochie Chapel itself, outside the main body of the church. We began with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, with a meditation by Father Martin Warner, now Canon Pastor of St Paul’s Cathedral, and Benediction was subsequently given by The Bishop of Beverley, a member of our Society.

The Master-General, the Society’s head throughout the world, Prebendary David Houlding, gave a stirring address, followed by The Rt Revd Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar, who gave an address on the Society’s past and future entitled "In this Sign Conquer". The Bishop of Gibraltar has just consented to become the new Visitor of the Society consequent on the resignation of the Archbishop of York to return to parish work. The Synodal Mass in the afternoon was concelebrated by the Master General, the Provincial Masters, and Local Vicars of the Society (including this writer, whose appearance in a modern chasuble concelebrating seemed, oddly, to surprise some people). Our preacher was The Rt Revd Keith Newton, SSC, the Bishop of Richborough.

A banquet took place that night in the oddly-named Elizabethan Room of theImperial Hotel in Bloomsbury with, surprisingly for a large function, very good food.

The theological conference sponsored by the Society began on Wednesday at the Church of Christ the King, Gordon Square. Matins was sung in the morning with an address by this writer. We moved on to the Institute of Education down the street for two sets of lectures on Art and Religion by Canon Professor David Brown and Professor Ann Loades. The noon mass was sung at Christ the King, Gordon Square, with a sermon by The Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, SSC, Bishop of Ebbsfleet. Solemn Evensong was also offered in the Church that evening.

After Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and Matins sung at Gordon Square, again with an address from this writer, Thursday was devoted largely to the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Society owes the His Grace a great debt of gratitude for his willingness to visit us, as his schedule was far more involved than he had originally thought. Indeed, he left us in a government car to board an aircraft of The Queen’s Flight with the Prime Minister and HRH The Prince of Wales to fly to Rome. We regretted, obviously, his inability to sing High Mass that day and preach to us, but the address he gave and subsequent questions entertained for nearly two hours, were a great gift to the Society, which he has known and respected for many years. He made plain the importance of our vocation in the Anglican Communion, and his own sympathies are obviously very close to ours in most respects. Whatever our disagreements, and there are a few, the current successor to St Augustine is a gifted and original theologian who clearly operates from and within a Catholic understanding of the Faith.

Thursday’s noon mass was sung at Christ the King, and Father Jeremy Sheehy, SSC, Principal of St Stephen’s House, Oxon., preached to us in place of the Archbishop. In the evening came another inevitable disappointment, though quite understandable. Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, was to have preached to us at Solemn Evensong in St Alban’s Church that evening, an event of considerable importance to us. Sadly, of course, this was not to be as the Cardinal was already in Rome taking his rightful place. The Bishop of Guildford, The Rt Revd Christopher Hill, a long-time oecumenist, spoke to us instead of the Holy Father’s life and ministry and its critical importance. Bishop Hill and Dr Mary Tanner had made a presentation during the afternoon on oecumenism and relations with the Roman Church which was followed by a lively and engaged question period.

There are over 1100 members of the Society throughout the world, with over 700 in the United Kingdom. Large numbers are also present in the United States, Canada, the West Indies, and Australia, with a few in Africa and other places. A very healthy group from North America and from Australia was present, most of whom had never been to Our Lady’s Shrine at Walsingham. For this reason, and to acknowledge the prominent place of Walsingham in the Catholic Revival, we made a pilgrimage to Walsingham on Friday. Several coaches of priests made their way to distant Norfolk on a cold and very blustery day with typical North Sea climate awaiting us in Walsingham.

A concelebrated mass in the Parish Church began the day, with a sermon from the Vicar of Walsingham. We processed as a group through the village to the Shrine Church and finished the service there. Luncheon followed in two sittings at the new Refectory, and the beautifully renewed gardens were on display. Of course for new pilgrims, the Shrine Church is a wonder to discover; more experienced pilgrims found the tat shops and the pub hard to resist. We joined again for the service of sprinkling with water from the well, a healing and cleansing service common to all pilgrimages, a welcome from Father Philip North, the Administrator of the Shrine, who has visited us here at Resurrection. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament followed, and we took our leave of the Shrine. Though I had visited many times before, this was certainly amongst the most meaningful and special visits.

The great close of the week was the festival service at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday. The Royal Albert Hall, famous from the Prom concerts, seats over 5000 people and every seat had been booked long in advance. Almost 700 priests concelebrated with Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, including principal concelebrants such as the officers of the Society, and the reigning Bishops of Bermuda, Blackburn, Chichester, Fort Worth, Quincy, The Murray, Beverley, Burnley, Ebbsfleet, Fulham, Horsham, Pontefract, Richborough and Whitby, and several retired bishops.

There were several programmes in the morning to prepare early arrivals, and coaches came form all over England and Wales, and even Scotland. The dramatic arrival of the image of Our Lady of Walsingham from the Shrine at Norfolk set the stage, and the enormous Society cross, in which was placed a relic of the True Cross, rose high above the altar on pulleys as the hymn "Lift high the Cross was sung".

It is impossible to convey the positive spirit, the fellowship and communion of that large group, the churchlike atmosphere even in so secular a setting, and the deeply moving sense of re-commitment on the part of all the clergy and bishops and lay people present. The Bishop of London, presiding at the Mass, led us all in a renewal of our vows: for bishops and priests of the Society our vows in it, and for laypeople, their vows in their baptismal covenant. There can be no doubt of the success of Stand Up For Jesus, nor indeed that the Catholic Witness in Anglicanism is far from finished. The obituaries of the movement have often been written prematurely in the past, and this time is no exception.

The leadership of the Master-General, The Revd Prebendary David Houlding, who has also visited us here at Resurrection, has been a blessing to the Society and to the Church of England. His wide connections and relationships in the Church of England, and not only in the Catholic wing, made the entire week possible. It took vision, leadership, commitment, hard work, personal relationships and above all patience, flexibility and a sense of humour to make the week work. So often we heard from Father Houlding, and it bears repeating, that we are happy Anglicans, committed Catholics, and that we bear our witness faithfully within this Church. We go forward in faith, yes, but also and even more importantly forward in hope and in love. God has used the Catholic Movement as leaven in the lump of the Anglican Communion now since 1833, and in the Society since 1855. It is plain that what He has done with it is fair to behold, and equally plain that He is far from finished with us.