I suppose this is a sign of positive reform for the liturgy in the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, England. They’re bidding farewell to some of the 70’s throwbacks in the diocesan offices and as a result, OCP composer Paul Inwood has lost his influential job impeding liturgical improvement.
Damian Thompson writes:
Blessed silence in the diocese
Amid all the misery and confusion surrounding the Cardinal Keith O’Brien scandal, it’s nice to be able to report some good news from the Catholic Church.
The Diocese of Portsmouth was until recently controlled by “progressive” lay people from the hippy generation. Their Chavez figure is one Paul Inwood, “Director of Liturgy” and composer of grimly trendy “folk antiphons”. For years his music has been inescapable – but a new bishop, Mgr Philip Egan, has changed all that. The splendid Bishop Egan is making Inwood’s job redundant, along with those of lots of other Lefty busybodies.
There have been banshee wails of anguish from Inwood Towers, says my spy. “Though, to be fair,” he adds, “they may just be singing one of his hymns.”
As Fr. Z. noted in 2007 and as Mr. Joseph Shaw, director of the Latin Mass Society, noted in 2012, Mr. Inwood, despite holding a diocesan job as “Director of Liturgy”, has had a habit of writing recklessly deceptive propaganda about Pope Benedict XVI’s broadened permission for the old form of Mass.
But most balefully and with a broader influence, Mr. Inwood has been the composer of junk music such as “Alleluia Ch-Ch” (MP3):
Congratulations to Bp. Egan on his work in Portsmouth!