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An awesome day ‘Awesome’ was the word Archbishop Malcolm used at two ordinations to the priesthood last month. Firstly on 12 July in Liverpool’s St John the Evangelist church he ordained Roy Cooper and eight days later at All Saints, Anfield, John Poland. On both occasions the Archbishop recalled Cardinal Basil Hume’s description of an ordination, used at his own ordination in 1982, ‘awesome’.
Roy Cooper was ordained on 12 July and his journey began with a chance meeting with Father Alan Devaney in a North Wales pub. They talked generally about religion, Roy recalls, ‘I was confused, because I had started going to a Catholic church in Conway because I felt drawn to it , but I was confirmed Church of England. Father Devaney suggested I go to his church when I was in Liverpool, after going to Mass, I thought, this is it, I am home I knew straight away the Catholic Church was for me.’
In September 2009 he started seminary formation at Ushaw College in Durham. Reflecting on this time Roy said, ‘life in a seminary is very different to the outside world, and it takes a bit of adjusting to, it is a time for discernment. At the beginning of my second year, all the students, the formation staff and the domestic staff were informed of the closure of Ushaw, a very challenging experience. Most of the students, including myself were transferred to Oscott College, in Birmingham, at the end of my second academic year. One of the good things about moving to Oscott was the fact that there were many more of us in the seminary which enriched our formation. After five years in seminary, I left in June. I would like to thank all those involved in my seminary formation, both at Ushaw and Oscott, and I am grateful to all the staff for their dedication and patience and to all the many seminarians with whom I have been privileged to share these precious years of priestly formation.’
He was confirmed and not long afterwards, felt called to the priesthood. ‘I had this feeling inside me I should be a priest and no matter how much I tried I couldn’t put it to one side,’ he explained. He studied for a Foundation Degree in Pastoral Leadership at Liverpool Hope University and started work at Walton Prison as a lay Chaplain.
So to the ordination day which Roy describes as ‘a truly amazing and awesome event, an event that I will certainly never forget’. There were, however, a few nerves, ‘I remember getting a little nervous at the beginning of the ordination, whilst I was standing in the bench at the front by my Mum and thinking to myself, “just let go, trust in God, let God takeover and lead
On both days the candidates for ordination and their guests were greeted by brilliant sunlight as they made their way into church for the Solemn Mass. Choirs sang as the concelebrants processed in; the candidates lying before the altar during the haunting Litany of Saints, the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration before the kiss of peace and welcome into the Holy Order of Priests.
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Catholic Pictorial
you”. Which later reminded me that, an ordination is not for the priest himself, he is ordained for God and to serve and minister to the people of God.’ At the end of the Mass though there was joy, ‘I give humble and heartfelt thanks to the Lord for this awesome gift of the priesthood which He has given me, and I am extremely grateful to Archbishop Malcolm for ordaining me. There have been many people who have been a part of my journey over the years, and I would like to thank them all for helping me with prayers and support.’ Just eight days later it was the turn of John Poland to be ordained at All Saints in Anfield. John was an undergraduate at Nottingham and postgraduate at Oxford where he studied philosophy. He became a Catholic before starting university and it was at Oxford that the then chaplain, Monsignor Jeremy Fairhead, encouraged him to think about vocation to the priesthood. John recalls, ‘Jeremy is a great champion of vocations and several people at the English College would count him as an influence on their decision to apply to seminary. I contacted Vocations Director, Father Steve Maloney, and the rest is history’. John went on to spend eight months with Father Steve Maloney in Standish, Wigan on a pastoral placement before studying at the English College, Rome for seven years where he recently completed a licence in canon law. Then he rejoined Father Steve, this time in Anfield, where All Saints has been his base for the last couple of years. In John’s words, ‘I feel very much at home there, it has been a fantastic place to have my first experiences of being both a deacon and now a priest.’ Reflecting on his years of study John says, ‘the past eight years have been challenging but rewarding. People sometimes ask about what the best bits are of training to be a priest. One of the things that I will take away from that experience are the many