On Wednesday, due to the work in the Oratory Church, our weekly Viri Galilaei Mass was temporarily relocated to St. Mary’s in Ridgefield. It was a beautiful evening and we were joined by many parishioners of that vibrant and welcoming community. I would like to extend personal thanks to the Pastor, Msgr. Royal, for extending a neighborly hand to us in our time of need.

It gave a good opportunity to reflect upon the work of the Guild in promoting Beauty in the Diocese of Bridgeport. That is our specific mandate. It forms part of the Bishop’s vision of ‘The One’ – creating opportunities for encounter and accompaniment.

The Guild is no backward-looking timewarp: it is not a historical preservation society, but instead, drawing deep from the wells of Tradition, boldly engages with the Arts to show the face of Christ more clearly to a hungry age. It is therefore deeply evangelical – and I make no apology for using that term.

In preaching in Ridgefield I touched on the idea of Canonical Mission, which relates to the Church as a complicated network of intersecting pastoral engagement. The theory is, the closer you remain to the center of gravity, the more you can be assured of orthodoxy and doing the Will of God. For us, this means keeping close to our shepherd, and following his lead assiduously.

The sign of the Will of God being followed is organic growth – not the kind of cheap growth that happens when disgruntled people move on from one provider to the next. That happens, for example, when parishes close, or when priest personnel changes, or when people shop around for a ‘Goldilocks’ parish (which doesn’t exist).

Instead we look for organic growth, which is much slower, but better, because it comes when people are engaged and active in their Church. Soul by soul, and silently (to quote Sir Cecil Spring Rice) we are forming an outward-looking mission community. Being drawn to Georgetown is taking on a share in the Bishop’s work of transforming culture through evangelizing beauty. It’s very exciting – and sometimes disorientating, because the pace of change is very great. Nonetheless, even in stormy seas it is possible to plot a dependable course, you just need the right kind of captain.