Working in collaboration
All Souls is a parish of the Archdiocese of Birmingham in collaboration with the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In September 2019 the Coventry community of the Ordinariate made its home at All Souls at the invitation of the Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Reverend Bernard Longley. Father Paul, a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, is the parish priest of All Souls.
What is the Ordinariate?
The Ordinariate was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI, and extended by Pope Francis in 2013, to allow Anglicans all over the world to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in such a way as “to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.”
For a wealth of information about the Ordinariate and its mission in the UK visit https://www.ordinariate.org.uk/ Be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter to get the latest news from the Ordinariate and to view The Portal, the Ordinariate’s free monthly online review.
Joining the Ordinariate
Anglicans and former Anglicans who reside in England, Wales and Scotland are eligible to seek to enter the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Pope Francis later widened the scope of the Ordinariate so that those eligible for membership also include anyone who has been baptised in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation, and subsequently returns to the faith and practice of the Church as a result of the evangelising mission of the Ordinariate.
There are over 50 Ordinariate Groups spread around the country – from Stornoway and Inverness in the north to St Austell in the south-west and Folkestone in the south-east. If you are interested in becoming a Catholic through the Ordinariate or are already a Catholic and are eligible to be a member, please contact Father Paul at allsoulscov@gmail.com or on 024 7667 4161.
“That they may all be one.”
On the night before he died Jesus prayed:
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
(John 17: 20-26)
Prayers for unity
Heavenly Father,
who hast called us in the Body of thy Son Jesus Christ
to continue his work of reconciliation
and reveal thee to the world:
forgive us the sins which tear us apart;
give us the courage to overcome our fears
and to seek that unity which is thy gift and thy will;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Attend with favour to the prayers of your people, we ask, O Lord, and grant that the hearts of believers may be united in your praise and in repentance together, so that, with division among Christians overcome, we may hasten with joy to your eternal Kingdom in the perfect communion of the Church. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Roman Missal)
O God, whose will it is that all your children should be one in Christ; we pray for the unity of your Church.
Pardon all our pride and our lack of faith, of understanding and of charity, which are the causes of our divisions.
Deliver us from narrow-mindedness,
from our bitterness, from our prejudices.
Save us from considering as normal that which is a scandal to the world and an offence to your love.
Teach us to recognize the gifts of grace among all those who call upon you and confess the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
(Inspired by John 17, Ephesians 4)
