The Isle of Wight was part of a joint mission with the Portsmouth Mission and began as a "Group" at the outset of the Ordinariate provision, with 17 Anglicans from the Isle of Wight, led by the former Vicar of Ryde (Jonathan Redvers Harris), together with 5 on the mainland. They were all received into full communion with the Catholic Church, in the Ordinariate, at Easter 2011, and Fr Jonathan’s was ordained as a Catholic priest in June 2011. At that time the diocesan parish of Ryde St Mary's hosted the weekly Ordinariate Masses.
We use the eucharistic Divine Worship liturgy, the form of the Roman Rite specifically authorised for the Ordinariates for former Anglicans around the world.
Within months, a regular Ordinariate Mass was also begun on Saturdays at St Agatha’s, Landport (at that stage still being used by a congregation of the Traditional Anglican Communion). These gatherings in Portsmouth, together with visits to the Island by some of the mainland members, helped both to strengthen relations across the Solent and also to give the TAC people and clergy at St Agatha’s an opportunity to discern the way forward. At Epiphany 2012, Robert Mercer, formerly the Anglican bishop of Matabeleland and afterwards a TAC bishop, was received into the Catholic Church at St Agatha’s where he had been worshipping in recent years.
This was followed by Fr Robert’s ordination to serve as a priest of the Ordinariate in March 2012 – by which time a group of 20 from St Agatha’s, including their clergy, John Maunder and Philip Penfold, had been preparing to join the Ordinariate. They were received and confirmed in Holy Week, at St Agatha’s (no longer then a home for the TAC). Others, both on the mainland and on the Island, had also been traveling with the Mission, attending Mass, and contemplating entering into full communion. John Maunder was ordained to the priesthood in September 2012, and Philip Penfold, by then part of the Eastbourne Mission, was ordained deacon in July 2013 and priested in September 2013 just days before falling asleep in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
