Great expectations?

The BBC obviously ignored Sara’s excellent general knowledge know-how. TV’s Great Expectations had Magwitch wading ashore in Essex, not Dickens’ Hoo, and gave Pip’s Kentish kin Norfolk accents.

‘Fings ain’t wot they seemed to be’ – misquoting Dickens’ devotee Lionel Bart. Could be the view of the Ordinariate as they celebrate the anniversary of wading ashore from the prison hulk they feared the CofE had become.

Hard Times? No, natural nostalgia for lost landmarks. No more Synods to hate. The Beatles were wrong with ‘All You Need Is Love.’ Most folk also need something or someone to dislike. What would life be like for Arsenal fans if Spurs weren’t around? As newcomers to Rome, Ordinariatians would be told ‘Get Some In’ if they criticised ‘Benny’ with the vehemence of some time-served RCs. Thus nostalgia for when ‘Uncle George’, or any ABC, could be criticised from A to Z.

‘Roman Rite-ing’ while still Anglican was exciting, but when everybody’s doing it... Boring. Bit like decamping to the Dordogne and finding it more Peckham than ‘paysan’. At least before the CofE withdrew the requirement that clergy be ‘found learned in the Latin tongue’, Father could have imitated the old-time Anglican Papalists and celebrated in that tongue, and showed his new Roman clerical colleagues that there’s nothing ‘extraordinary’ in doing so.

Dickens again. ‘I wants to make your flesh creep.’ Take today’s RC religious press. The Tablet’s ‘liberalism’ makes ‘South Bank’ look like the Tea Party. Newton’s neophytes should keep up their subs to ND. (As the BBC still hasn’t called, do I get commission for this plug?)