Manchester parish handed to Ordinariate

The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is to take over the running of a parish in north Manchester.

Bishop John Arnold of Salford announced in a letter that Fr Andrew Starkie would assume responsibility for the parish of St Margaret Mary in New Moston.

He said it was envisaged that the main Sunday Mass would be in the ordinariate use while an additional Mass would be celebrated according to the Roman Missal.

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The ordinariate, established in 2011, has about 90 clergy serving 50 ordinariate groups across Britain. About 20 of its priests run diocesan parishes, but the demands of parish life can leave little time to maintain a distinctive ordinariate identity.

Very few of these churches have a formal arrangement that allows a focus on the ordinariate mission. Exceptions include the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Soho, London, and the Church of the Most Precious Blood in Borough, Lonodn.

The structure was established by Benedict XVI to allow groups of former Anglicans to seek full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining elements of their liturgical traditions.