Bishop Kemp on his Old Catholic succession

'Because of my connection with the Old Catholic Churches, Michael Ramsey had invited them to be represented at my ordination to the episcopate. Both Archbishop Kok of Utrecht and Bishop Van Kleef of Haarlem were present and laid on hands, saying aloud, 'Accipe Spiritum Sanctum' which is the Old Catholic formula of episcopal ordi­nation. Afterwards they signed the Latin protocol, drawn up for such occasions by Dr NP Williams shortly after communion between the Church of England and the Church of Utrecht had been established. The fact that the two visitors did not quite under­stand the niceties of English history was evident when, at dinner at Lambeth the night before, they presented me with a picture to com­memorate the occasion - it was a drawing of William of Orange! Some years later I showed the protocol to an English Jesuit who wrote to me saying, 'I cannot see how even Cardinal Ratzinger could deny that you are a Catholic bishop.' The Bishop of Chartres, Mgr Michon, also attended, and at the end said to Canon Francois Legaux, who accompanied him, 'I can have no doubt that that man is now a bishop in the Catholic Church.' Whether that was because of the Old Catholic participation or the general impression made by the ceremony, I have never asked. As it was his last consecration, I had asked Michael himself to preach and I think that that pleased him. I much regret I do not have a copy of his sermon. The details of the service had been largely arranged with his chaplain at a meeting which I had attended shortly before. The service was unusual in that what always seems to me an unseemly scrum when the bishops come up for the laying-on of hands was replaced by their coming up individually and putting their hands on my head saying, 'Receive the Holy Ghost'. The two Old Catholic bishops were at the end.'