I've been enjoying reading your posts on Fr Kenyon, since I met him during his very brief time at Our Lady. I was disappointed that he did not stick around in the post, but fully understand why he thought it better to leave it straight away.I have a few reactions here. One is that whatever changes may have been made to accommodate Fr Kenyon's family, no rectory was ever designed or meant to be a family home suitable for toddlers and kids. Isn’t this part of the contradiction that seems rooted in Kenyon’s expectations? My regular correspondent said, "Well of course the idea that children have to be raised in the middle of a country estate is absurd." A search of Google satellite indicates that while an important rail line is perhaps half a block away, there doesn't appear to be an actual risk of falling onto the tracks from the back door. Rail lines in the UK are typically well fenced.The stated reason for his departure has nothing to do with spiritual differences, even though he did seem like a fish out of water. The problem was that the presbytery, although massive, is totally unsuitable as a family home, and the diocese made little effort to rectify this before his arrival. There were some things they could not change: it has no garden, opening out straight onto a concrete car park with a busy road just feet away, and a precipitous drop overlooking a railway marshalling yard. I'd rather bring up my family next to a nuclear reactor than there
I hope that he finds another post in the diocese soon, since whatever his faults, there's a desperate shortage of priests around here, and most are elderly and overworked.
The visitor here does liken Fr Kenyon to a "fish out of water", whether his spiritual needs were being met there or not. My regular correspondent remarked,
I do feel that he must have found the OF mass a trial. There were, gasp, girl servers! Versus populum. No altar rail. Female EMHCs administering the chalice. Etc. Presumably parishes with liturgies resembling SJE are in short supply. But surely he knew this.and later,
Was he expecting the Brompton Oratory? A number of OOLW clergy have built up the diocesan parishes to which they have been assigned by making changes in ceremonial, music, etc that have been appreciated by locals as well as any Ordinariate members in the neighbourhood. Could Fr Kenyon not have taken this on as a challenge? So many alternatives, it seems to me, to throwing in the towel after 3.5 weeks..
Regarding the organ, Wikipedia says
The church contains a 3 manual pipe organ with 49 speaking stops and 2088 pipes. The organ was originally built by the local organ builders Hardy & Son as a 2 manual instrument. The organ was rebuilt and considerably enlarged by the Manchester company of Jardine & Co in 1955. In 1985 George Sixsmith, organ builders, carried out further changes including the rebuild of the choir organ as well as adding new pipes and other minor changes. Apart from the changes to the choir section, the instrument remains largely similar to the rebuild of 1955.Surely something could be tried, if not actually accomplished, with the opportunity. That Fr Kenyon should so quickly give it up, for whatever reason, is a most disappointing situation.
UPDATE: A visitor remarks,
I had to laugh when I read about the train tracks. I did a Google Street view and I did not see anything overly dangerous. I saw a typical European city street. The "precipitous drop overlooking a railway marshalling yard" is down the street, and guarded by 7 foot tall brick walls. You might want to show a screenshot. I have noticed this pattern in clergy. I expect this attitude when I watch millennials on Property Hunters. But from a priest, I expect behavior more like that of Abraham setting out.Beyond that, I assume many folks in North America would be delighted to have the train service available from the Stockport station!
