Beauty, Truth and Goodness Made Visible

Over the coming weeks, you’ll hear quite a lot about the Ordinariate Festival at Christ the King. You will see notices, posters, requests for volunteers, and invitations to take part. But perhaps before we ask what is happening, there is a more important question: why does it matter to us as a parish?

It would be very easy to think of the Festival as something being organised by the Ordinariate and simply taking place at Christ the King. People will arrive, events will happen, and then everyone will go home.

But I see it differently…

This is happening in our parish, with our parish, and it gives us an opportunity to show something of who we are as a Catholic community.

The Ordinariate itself grew from a desire for Christian unity. Established by Pope Benedict XVI, it provided a way for people formed within the Anglican tradition to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while bringing with them treasures from that heritage — its language, music, spirituality and traditions of worship.

The Ordinariate is therefore not something standing apart from the Catholic Church. It’s part of the Catholic Church. And perhaps that gives us a useful way of thinking about our Festival too. We may come from different backgrounds and have different experiences and gifts, but we belong to one Catholic family.

That matters here at Christ the King. A parish is much more than a building where we attend Mass on Sunday. Through Baptism we belong to Christ and, through Him, to one another. The Eucharist brings us together as the Body of Christ and then sends us back into the world to live what we have received.

The Festival gives us a very practical opportunity to do precisely that.

We will be welcoming some wonderful guests to Christ the King. David Clayton, artist, author and teacher, will explore the relationship between Beauty, Truth and Goodness, and how our Catholic faith can transform even the ordinary circumstances of daily life.

We will also welcome Andrew Golstein from The Vigil Project, bringing another dimension to our exploration of faith through music, prayer and worship.

In different ways, they point towards something at the heart of the Festival: our faith isn’t simply something we know; it is something we live. We encounter Christ in the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy, in music and prayer, but also in hospitality, friendship and service.

And that’s where all of us come in.

Some people will be involved in the liturgy. Others will welcome visitors. Someone will make tea and coffee. Someone else might bake a cake, arrange flowers, put out chairs, clear tables or wash up afterwards. Others may simply come along, meet people and offer the warmth of a friendly conversation.

None of those things sounds particularly extraordinary.

But Christianity has always made the ordinary extraordinary through love.

There is something deeply Catholic about preparing a table, welcoming a stranger and sharing food. Hospitality is not simply good organisation; it can become an expression of communion.

That is why we need the parish to come together for this Festival.

We need bakers. We need people to help with refreshments. We need people to welcome visitors, do practical jobs, prepare our spaces, and help clear them afterwards. Most importantly, we need parishioners to come and be part of it.

Because the beauty of our Festival will not ultimately be measured by how impressive the programme looks, how good the music sounds or how professionally everything is organised.

It will be found in people.

In the person who quietly makes a cake. In someone pouring another cup of tea. In the person who notices a visitor standing alone and goes across to say hello. In people worshipping, eating, talking and laughing together.

Perhaps that is what we should hope our visitors remember about Christ the King: not simply that they attended a good Festival, but that they encountered a parish community in which they felt genuinely welcome.

So, when you see the requests for help over the coming weeks, please don’t think, *“That’s something for the Ordinariate.”*

Instead, perhaps think:

“That’s happening in my parish. How can I be part of it?”

Many hands will make the Festival possible.

But a parish coming together will make it something much more — Beauty, Truth and Goodness made visible.