London, Brighton and South Coast Religion

In happy days of yore, when one of the Southern Railway Company's predecessor companies served the South Coast, its initials were borowed to stand for the sparkling Anglicanism of triumphalist pre-War Anglo-Catholicism. The RC Church seems to be developing a similar biretta-belt ... what with a Fin(n)e/igan at Shoreham and a Blake at Brighton. It is the latter who has won the race to break the news that the Novus Ordo Calendar for England and Wales has been augmented with four commemorations raised to the dignity of Festa. The English Martyrs (May4), S Augustine of Canterbury (May 27), S Gregory the Great (September 3), S Thomas Becket (December 29). I don't know whether I will win the race to point out that this is a welcome return to pre-Conciliar custom; the English Martyrs and S Gregory (March 12) were Greater Doubles; S Augustine (May 26) and S Thomas Becket were Doubles of the Second Class.

The Ebbsfleet Apostolic District, of course, is still one ahead. The feast of its Patron S Gregory is a Sollemnitas, or as we say at S Thomas's, a Double of the First Class.