Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham

Last Saturday I organised the first LMS Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham, which is at the Catholic Parish Church of Our Lady and St Anne. Fr Giles Goward, Parish Priest and Custodian of the Shrine, welcomed us.

The celebrant was Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP, from just over the river in Reading. Although Reading is in the Diocese of Portsmouth, Caversham, being north of the River, is in Birmingham.

After Mass Fr Goward had arranged that Julia Feeney, a parishoner who has written a book about the Shrine, shoudl give us an illustrated talk about it. It is a fascinating subject, and the refounded Shrine, consecrated in 1959, was done with great sensitivity. The visitor sees the Shrine as a Norman-style chapel attached to a traditional brick church; the current shrine statue is a magnificent medieval painted and guilded Virgin and Child. The statue was crowned reletively recently, in 1996, the centenary of the parish.



The singing at the Mass was provided by the Schola Abelis of Oxford, who sang not only the Chant propers but also La Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut - see their blog for more videos; here is the Introit and polyphonic Kyrie.


There are more photos here; they were very kindly taken by David Joyce, since there was very little view from the Choir loft (where I was) to the Shrine chapel (where Mass took place).