Fr Peter Peterken RIP

The recent announcement of the death, at the age of 95, of Fr Peter Peterken brought back memories of those remarkable years for Anglo-Catholics between 1992 and our reconciliation with the Catholic Church. I came to know Fr Peter through association with the Anglo-Catholic Charismatic group, meeting annually at Ditchingham and then at Walsingham. He was one of a small number of Anglican priests who combined absolute Catholic ‘soundness’ with commitment to renewal in the Holy Spirit.

I recall being next to him at a concelebrated Mass at which he was the principal Celebrant. During the Intercessions (always a lengthy business at these Masses) someone spoke in tongues. Fr Peter immediately announced that we would wait for an interpretation: if none was received then we were to take it as personal to the person concerned, and not a public word for the congregation. I remarked afterwards to another priest that I had felt myself at Corinth and next to the Apostle Paul as he ordered their Eucharistic worship!

Fr Peter was ordained before the Council and had delightful tales of his days on the Isle of Dogs in London’s East End with thriving parish life sustained by a staff of clergy. Like most Anglo-Catholic clergy of his generation he accepted and thrived in the new climate of renewal and hope for the future which came with Vatican 2. And when society and its attitude to the Faith changed in ways we could not have imagined, he remained full of hope and trust that the Spirit would inflame us to meet all challenges.

The liturgical changes which followed in the wake of the Council came as quite a shock to the Anglo-Catholics. Increasingly since the 1920’s they had modelled their liturgy in ‘strict conformity’ with the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (often stricter and certainly more elegantly than their RC confrères) Now they were faced with a dramatic simplification of the rites. They were required to celebrate with a new understanding of liturgical principle and history, and not just follow the minutiae as set out in Fortescue and O’Connell. Most of them rose to the challenge; those who did not (who clung to High Mass and the Last Gospel because ‘we like them’) were – at least behind their backs – deemed to be ‘not proper Catholics’. As the late Bishop Brian Masters reminded us, ” ‘like’ is a Protestant word.” Therein lies a lesson for the ‘traditionalists’ who have become rather too noisy in recent years.

One final question which has troubled me over the years: would the future of Anglo-Catholicism (and therefore of the whole Church of England) been rather different if the movement had been more open to Renewal in the Holy Spirit? Indeed what happened to ‘Catholic Renewal’ and its red dove?

About Scott Anderson

Formerly an Anglican priest (ordained 1975) received into the Catholic Church in February 2012, and ordained to the Diaconate on 27th July 2013. I took early retirement, and divide my time between London and northern France. I am deeply committed to the Ordinariate as a gift of the Holy Spirit in the search for unity. Like many Ordinariate members I feel a personal gratitude to Pope Emeritus Benedict, together with loyalty to our Holy Father, Pope Francis. My blog tries to make a small contribution to the growth of the Ordinariate by asking questions (and proposing some answers) about the 'Anglican Patrimony'. I have always been fascinated by the whole issue of growth and decline, and therefore concerned for appropriate means of evangelisation in western Europe. I believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly renewing the People of God and that we must be open to him. My love of music and motorcycles will occasionally surface in my posts. On Saturday 19th October 2013, I was ordained to the Priesthood at Most Precious Blood, Borough, by the Most Revd Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark, for the service of the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham. I continued to serve the Ordinariate group and Parish at Most Precious Blood until the end of 2014. Subsequently, I helped in the care of the Ordinariate Groups at Hemel Hempstead and Croydon, and in the Archdiocese of Southwark, until the beginning of September 2015. With the agreement of my Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, the Bishop of Amiens appointed me Administrator of the Parish of Notre Dame des Etangs (Pont Remy) in Picardie, France. This appointment is to last for a year, to give the Bishop the opportunity to assess the future of the parish. Several years later, a different Bishop recently arrived, I am now curé in solidum of the parish, and my French has improved. For various reasons - including COVID and a nasty accident, I do not now return regularly to the UK as once I did. The parish seems happy enough to have me around most of the time. Thanks be to God for all his mercies.

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1 Response to Fr Peter Peterken RIP

David Murphy says:

18/01/2024 at 7:15 am

You write “often stricter and certainly more elegantly than their RC confrères”-
I would just point to one negative RC example – the funeral Mass for John F. Kennedy celebrated by the much-loved Cardinal Cushing.
You can watch it on youtube :

What a wasted opportunity for catechesis through liturgy !!