Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Priest and Server Training for the EF in England This April

The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales will be holding a residential training conference for priests, deacons, seminarians and laymen wishing to learn to celebrate or serve Mass in the Extraordinary Form. It will be held at Prior Park College near Bath, England, from Monday, April 9th to Thursday, April 12th.
Requiem Mass during 2016 Training Conference
Training will be in small groups. For clergy and seminarians, this will be provided by priests experienced in the Extraordinary Form; for servers this will be provided by laymen with years of experience in the Extraordinary Form.
Training group at the high altar.
Training group at a side-altar
Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Solemn Mass will be covered, although participants will be expected to be proficient at Low Mass before progressing to the more complicated forms. No previous experience is necessary, and participants will be divided into groups, according to their abilities. There will be daily Mass and other liturgies intended to be an example of best practice.

FEES
The fee for attending is: £120.00
Full-time students: £60
Seminarians: FREE OF CHARGE

The conference will start after lunch on the Monday and conclude before lunch on the Thursday. Lunch on the Monday and the Thursday can be booked at extra cost, £5 per lunch for all participants. A booking form and payment facility can be found on the Latin Mass Society’s website: www.lms.org.uk

The main liturgies, all of which will take place in the school chapel, will be open for anyone to attend:

Monday, April 9th (Annunciation):
5pm High Mass
9pm Compline

Tuesday, April 10th:
11am High Mass
5pm Vespers and Benediction

Wednesday, April 11th (St Leo):
11am High Mass

Thursday, April 12th: 11am High Mass

ABOUT PRIOR PARK

Prior Park, which currently houses an independent Catholic school, is set in 28 acres of parkland, and was built in the 1730s as a country mansion for a local quarry owner named Ralph Allen. Its architect, John Wood, used Bath stone from Allen’s quarries to create a building in the Paladian style on a hillside site that overlooks the city. The grounds contain several impressive features, including an ornamental bridge, also in the Paladian style, over an artificial lake.
The original mansion
After Allen’s death, the property passed through a number of owners, and in 1828 was purchased by Bishop Baines, the Vicar Apostolic for the Western District. His intention was to establish a seminary on the site, which he eventually did, along with a school. It was also his intention to build a cathedral at Prior Park, but this never happened, due to the ever-present shortage of money. However, he did manage to build a very fine chapel.
The chapel
The seminary closed in 1856, when the students transferred to Oscott College. The school continued until the buildings were occupied by troops during the First World War. A fresh attempt was made to establish a boy’s boarding school at Prior Park in 1925, which is the fore-runner of the present school.

Prior Park College is very suitable for the needs of the LMS training conference. There is plenty of sleeping accommodation in single rooms (not ensuite), and common rooms will be available for relaxation at the end of each day. Also, Prior Park has a reputation for serving excellent food. The chapel is particularly beautiful, and retains its original High Altar and reredos in a spacious sanctuary very suitable for the traditional liturgy. It also has four side altars, which will be used for the training by the smaller groups.

Prior Park is located on a hill about a mile from the centre of the City of Bath, which has many Roman remains. Bath is about 100 miles to the west of London, and there has a good train service connecting Bath with London and other parts of England.

More recent articles:

For more articles, see the NLM archives: