Welcome

to the website of St John Henry Newman, Victoria, British Columbia. We are a Roman Catholic Parish of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, a body established in 2011 following Pope Benedict XVI’s historic Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which made it possible for groups of Anglicans to come into the full communion of the Catholic Church whilst retaining elements of their liturgical, spiritual, and cultural patrimony as a gift and a treasure to be shared with the whole Church. Our community is under the patronage of the great theologian and priest St John Henry, Cardinal Newman, a 19th century Anglican convert to the Catholic Church who was canonised in 2019.

We are a friendly, family-oriented, and welcoming community of traditional Catholic faith and practice, as reflected in our liturgy, music, and preaching. We exist to worship God in the triune majesty of the Blessed Trinity, drawing all men and women into deepest communion with him through his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in the power and fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

This Week

Our present home is the Church of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, built in 1930 as a memorial to those who died in the First World War. The church lies just west of downtown Victoria, in Esquimalt, and is a parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria.

Confessions are heard on Sunday from 1.50-2.25 pm (2.50-3.25 pm on the third Sunday of the month), from 9-9.15 am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday (also 10.30-11.20 am on Saturday), and 9.30-9.45 am on Friday. Appointments for other times may be made by contacting Fr Kenyon.

E-Transfer is now available for those who wish to send money directly from a Canadian bank account. To send money via e-Transfer, use the following address [email protected] ​Please ensure you specify the fund to which you wish the donation to be designated.

Sunday 13 October
HARVEST THANKSGIVING
Confessions 1.50-2.20 pm
SOLEMN MASS 2.30 pm (Cel & Pr: Fr Kenyon)
Evensong 5 pm

Monday 14 October
St Callistus I, Pope & Martyr
(Thanksgiving Day)
Mattins 8.30 am | Terce 9 am | Confessions 9-9.15 am
Low Mass 9.30 am (Cel: Fr Kenyon) | Rosary 10.25 am

Tuesday 15 October
St Teresa of Jesus, Virgin & Doctor of the Church
Mattins 8.30 am | Terce 9 am | Confessions 9-9.15 am
Low Mass 9.30 am (Cel: Mgr Reid)

Wednesday 16 October
St Maguerite d’Youville, Religious
Mattins 8.30 am | Terce 9 am | Confessions 9-9.15 am
Low Mass 9.30 am (Cel: Fr Kenyon) | Rosary 10.25 am

Thursday 17 October
St Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr
Mattins 8.30 am | Terce 9 am | Confessions 9-9.15 am
Low Mass 9.30 am (Cel: Fr Kenyon)
Chantry Mass 6.30 pm (Cel: Fr Kenyon)

Friday 18 October
St Luke, Evangelist
Mattins 9 am | Terce 9.30 am | Confessions 9.30-9.45 am
​Low Mass 10 am (Cel: Mgr Reid)

Saturday 19 October
St Frideswide, Abbess
Mattins 8.30 am | Rosary 9 am | Confessions 9-9.15 am
Low Mass 9.30 am (Cel: Fr Kenyon) | Exposition 10.30 am
Confessions 10.30-11.20 am | Benediction 11.30 am

Sunday 20 October
TRINITY XXI
Confessions 2.50-3.20 pm
SOLEMN MASS 3.30 pm (Cel & Pr: Fr Kenyon)
​Evensong 6 pm

The Ordinariate

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in Canada and the United States is one of three personal ordinariates in the world, the others being the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (Great Britain), and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross (Australia, Japan, and Guam). These bodies, similar to a diocese, are not however based on geography, but rather on membership, and membership is by personal choice, which is why each ordinariate is ‘Personal’. 

Members of the Ordinariate are fully integrated into the life of the Catholic Church. Most were former Anglicans, received into the full communion of the Church, others have become members by virtue of baptism, marriage, or who have family members in the Ordinariate. All are fully Catholic, able to receive the Sacraments in any Catholic church. And similarly any Catholic may attend Mass celebrated according to the Ordinariate Form of the Roman Rite (Divine Worship: The Missal) and receive the Sacraments from an Ordinariate priest. All are welcome! 

Anglicanorum coetibus (Groups of Anglicans), was published in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. This was the favourable response of the Holy See to repeated petitions from Anglicans to be received into full communion in a corporate manner. The erection of ordinariates was the practical means to make this response a reality. Since the establishment of the first Ordinariate in England and Wales in 2011 thousands of Anglicans have made the journey home to the fulness of the Catholic Church whilst retaining elements of those Anglican traditions - liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral - which both nourished them and served as an impetus towards full communion. This noble patrimony is now, in the words of Anglicanorum coetibus, ‘a treasure to be shared’ with the whole Church.