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No. 7814
LoNDoN 21/28 DeCeMBeR 2012
£3.60
www.churchtimes.co.uk
this thing which is come to pass
Christmas confessions, royal broadcasts, an atheist celebrates, a need for mystery, a hard road for
palestinians, folk religion, the cathedrallicker, 2012 in review
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news
contents
the Christmas story in pictures
3233
folk religion works
Alan Billings
34
Bruegel’s Census at Bethlehem
George Pattison
35
the joys of Christmas morning
Richard Coles
36
Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral
Pamela Greener
37
revisiting the Queen’s broadcasts
Anthony Cane
38
news
Connecticut shooting, Whitby
candidate withdraws, women
bishops panel, Christmas
knowledge, leadtheft gang,
Harare celebrations
26, 811
real life
12
arts
John Rutter in profile
Roderic Dunnett
Christmas and the friars
Pamela Tudor-Craig with
Nicholas Rogers
52
53
‘I grasp any moment
to contemplate’
Lord’s prayer
celebrating Sir Ninian Comper
comment
Census fears allayed, cultural
Christians, nuclear weapons, too
organised, school massacre,
royal baby, imagination at
Christmas, religious symbols
1416
letters
caption competition
diary, gardening, questions
cookery, wine
faith
Sunday’s readings
prayer for the week
1718
19
20
21
22
23
23
23
features
cribs and confessions
2425
the creeds and the incarnation
Andrew Davison
2627
health and human rights in
palestine
Ed Thornton
2829
the nativity on YouTube
Steve Tomkins
30
an atheist’s Christmas
Robin Ince
31
review of 2012
what it means to be British
David Reason
4344
reviews
media
books
45
4651
‘Mary passes
unnoticed’
5256
3946
TV and radio
press choice
gazette
56
57
58
The editor and staff of the
Church Times wish all their
readers a merry Christmas
and a happy New Year
our cover
The Annunciation to the Shepherds,
School of Reichenau, early 11th
century; illumination to the
Book of pericopes of Henry
ii, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munich, from A King James
Christmas, edited by Catherin
Schuon and Michael Fitzgerald,
published by Wisdom Tales.
image used by kind permission of
Wisdom Tales
word from Wormingford,
crossword
63
peter Hennessy interview
64
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CHURCH TIMES 21/28 December 2012
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CHURCH TIMES
Ap
news
Ap
DeMoTix
Ap
Newtown mourns: left to
right: a policewoman,
Maryhelen McCarthy,
brings flowers to an RC
church; a young boy
places a candle at the
base of a flagpole;
families leave gifts by
Christmas trees at the
school; residents meet
for an interfaith vigil at
the High School
Connecticut bishops speak out on guns after massacre
by a staff reporter
AS THE funerals of the 26 young
children and teachers murdered in
a school in the United States took
place this week, the Bishop of Con
necticut, the Rt Revd Ian Douglas,
pledged himself to fighting for new
guncontrol measures.
Twenty children, aged six or
seven, with six of their teachers,
were shot and killed last Friday by
Adam Lanza, who forced his way
into Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Newtown, Connecticut.
He fired hundreds of bullets from a
semiautomatic assault rifle, and
carried two handguns.
Bishop Douglas said on Tues
day that he expected faith leaders
to “engage at a significant level”
in the debate about tougher gun
laws which the massacre has
sparked.
The Episcopal Church in the US
has advocated gun control for many
years. The Dean of Washington
National Cathedral, the Very Revd
Gary Hall, received applause during
a service on Sunday when he called
on people of faith to take the lead
on the issue.
“As followers of Jesus, we have
the moral obligation to stand for
and with the victims of violence,
and to work to end it,” he said. “We
have tolerated school shootings,
mall shootings, theatre shootings,
sniper shootings, workplace shoot
ings, temple and church shootings,
urban neighbourhood shootings,
for far too long.”
President Barack Obama, speak
ing at an interfaith service in New
town on Sunday night, promised to
use every power of his office to end
such occurences.
A spokesman said later that the
President wanted to reinstate a ban
on assault weapons, which lapsed in
2004.
Bishop Douglas said that he and
his two suffragans were “very clear”
on the issue, and that now was the
time to act. “Our country is crying
out for commonsense gun legisla
tion, including reinstituting the
ban on assault weapons.”
Bishop Douglas had travelled to
Newtown last Friday, as soon as he
heard of the shootings. The Revd
Kathie AdamsShepherd has been
Vicar of Trinity, Newtown, its
largest parish, for 17 years. She first
heard of the incident from her son,
a firefighter, and joined the families
of children as they waited for them
to come out of school.
The three Bishops opened Trinity
for prayer, and organised a Taizé
style service and eucharist in the
evening. The church remained
open, day and night, throughout the
weekend.
Bishop Douglas said: “Kathie is
doing what any excellent priest
should be doing. She is very present
for her congregation and her
immediate parishioners. Under
Kathie’s leadership, it is as strong a
Christian community as we have in
the diocese.” Trinity is hosting its
share of the children’s funerals.
NeuSTADT CoLLeCTioN
In a message on the church’s
website, Mrs AdamsShepherd has
written: “We are truly uplifted by
the outpouring of prayers and
support being offered from all over
the world. We understand that the
world is grieving for those we have
lost and all are struggling to find
ways to help.”
Bishop Douglas said that prayers
and messages of support had poured
in from all over the Anglican
Communion.
Pope Benedict XVI sent a
telegram to Newtown on Friday,
and also prayed for the families on
Sunday. He told a gathering in St
Peter’s Square, Rome, of his deep
sadness at the news. “I assure the
families of the victims, especially
those who lost a child, of my
closeness in prayer. May the God of
consolation touch their hearts and
ease their pain.”
The general secretary of the
World Council of Churches, Dr
Olav Tveit, said: “We commend all
who stand in vigil with those in
pain. . . And we support and pray
for community and national
leaders who are asking hard
questions, hoping to prevent future
tragedies.”
Comment, page 15
Whitby see in review
after priest withdraws
by Ed Thornton
THE Revd Philip North, Team
Rector in the Old St Pancras Team
Ministry, in London, this week with
drew his acceptance of his nomina
tion as Bishop of Whitby after pro
tests at his opposition to women
bishops. He would have been the
third opponent in succession to hold
the appointment.
Fr North was nominated less than
Glass jewel: Salve Regina (c.1910),
a window by Frederick Wilson
for Tiffany Studios, now in the
show “Louis C. Tiffany and the
Art of Devotion”, at the Museum
of Biblical Art, New York, until 20
January. www.mobia.org
two months ago to succeed Dr
Martin Warner, after the latter was
translated to Chichester (News, 26
October). Speaking in the General
Synod debate on the womenbishops
legislation last month (Synod, 30
November), Fr North said that he
valued the ministry of women
deeply, but stated: “I simply do not
accept the authority of the Church
of England to make this decision”
(about women bishops). The
Church of England was “not some
small, independent state Church,
but part of the wider Catholic
Church with all its limitations and
all the joys that that entails”.
In a statement issued on Sunday
night by the diocese of London, Fr
Continued overleaf
Unhappy Christmas
Be the good news to the poorest
children in England
www.CUf.org.Uk/ChUrChes
3
news
Whitby see
Continued from previous page
North said: “It was a great honour to
be chosen for this role, and I had
been very much looking forward to
taking up the position. However, in
the light of the recent vote in the
General Synod, and having listened
to the views of people in the
Archdeaconry of Cleveland, I have
concluded that it is not possible for
me, at this difficult time for our
Church, to be a focus for unity. I
have therefore decided that it is
better to step aside at this stage.
“I have reached this decision after
a time of deep reflection and feel
sure that it is for the best. I now look
forward to refocusing my energies
on the pastoral needs of my parish.”
A churchwarden of St Oswald’s,
Lythe, in Whitby, John Secker, had
written to the Archbishop of York,
Dr Sentamu, in a letter dated 28
November, which gathered a num
ber of signatories.
The letter said: “We are puzzled,
dismayed and very disappointed
that for the third time running we
have been assigned a Bishop of
Whitby who does not accept the
ordination of women priests. . .
“We are aware that some par
ishes, some clergy, and some of the
laity in the Whitby bishopric do not
accept the validity of women priests
but, as in the rest of the country, a
substantial majority of us do. So
why should we have to have a bishop
who does not accept them? We
assume that there must be some sort
of rationale behind the decision, but
you should be aware that many of us
feel aggrieved and overlooked.”
In a reply, dated 6 December, Dr
Sentamu wrote: “Whatever fears
there may be about Revd North’s
ability to work with all in the
Archdeaconry [of Cleveland], I am
confident that he will not only live
up to Bishop Martin’s example, but
also go beyond it in his valuing of
the ministry of his female colleagues.
“Clearly the appointment of Revd
North has also been made as part of
our accommodation for our
petitioning parishes in this diocese.
The fact is that the vast majority of
our petitioning parishes are in the
Cleveland Archdeaconry and so the
see of Whitby is the obvious choice
for such episcopal provision where
the diocesan bishop is an outspoken
advocate of women’s ministry.”
York diocese has eight Resolution
A parishes and 15 Resolution B
parishes. It is understood that four
of the A parishes, and four of the B
4
ST MARTIN’S/LIVABILITY
parishes, are in the archdeaconry of
Cleveland, in the Whitby episcopal
area.
A statement from the diocese of
York, issued on Monday morning,
said that Dr Sentamu wrote to all
clergy and Readers in the arch
deaconry of Cleveland, on Sunday,
expressing his “sadness” and “disap
pointment” at Fr North’s decision to
withdraw.
Dr Sentamu wrote: “Philip North
is not a singleissue priest. As a
gifted pastorteacher he is deeply
committed to the flourishing of the
diverse ministries of all God’s
people — lay and ordained. His
dynamic vision for making Christ
visible in mission and ministry, as
well as serving the poor, would have
been a great asset to us all. . .
“The question of the appointment
of a new bishop will be first referred
to the Dioceses Commission. As
many of you may know, the Dioceses
Commission will be reviewing our
diocese, its structures, boundaries
and delivery of mission. As to the
timing of when this will happen, the
Dioceses Commission will let us
know.”
Responding to the news of Fr
North’s withdrawal, the Bishop of
London, the Rt Revd Richard
Chartres, said: “I can understand
the reasons for Philip’s decision. He
is a gifted and energetic priest and I
am glad that he remains in this
diocese to continue his outstanding
work in Camden Town.”
A statement from the Catholic
Group in the General Synod, of
which Fr North is a member, said
that the decision to withdraw was
his “personal decision”.
Letters, page 17
DIOCESE OF YORK
No longer leaving north London for
Whitby: the Revd Philip North
Seasonal: Pam Rhodes hosts the annual Livability carol service, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, on Tuesday
Synod taskforce announced
by Ed Thornton
THE membership of a working
group given the task of helping the
House of Bishops to resolve the
deadlock on women bishops was
announced on Wednesday. Two of
its ten members — the Bishop of
Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, and
the Chair of the House of Laity, Dr
Philip Giddings — voted against the
legislation at the Synod last month
(News, 23 November).
The group, which is drawn from
all three Houses of the Synod, is
expected to have two initial meetings
in January, a Church House state
ment said. It will “arrange facilitated
discussions in February with a wide
range of people with a variety of
views”, and will “assist the House [of
Bishops] when it meets in February
and in May to come to a decision on
the new package of proposals it
intends to bring to the Synod in
July”.
The working group’s members are:
the Bishop of St Edmundsbury &
Ipswich, the Rt Revd Nigel Stock
(chair); the Bishop of Coventry, Dr
Christopher Cocksworth; the Bishop
of Rochester, the Rt Revd James
Langstaff; the Bishop of Chichester,
Dr Martin Warner; the Dean of York,
the Very Revd Vivienne Faull; the
Archdeacon of Lewisham & Green
wich, the Ven. Christine Hardman;
the Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett
(Southwark); Dr Philip Giddings
(Oxford); Dr Paula Gooder (Birm
ingham); and Margaret Swinson
(Liverpool).
The House of Bishops met at
Lambeth Palace on Monday and
Tuesday of last week (News, 14
December). After the meeting, the
Bishops said that new legislative pro
posals would need to offer “greater
simplicity”, but also a “clear embodi
ment of the principle articulated by
the 1998 Lambeth Conference that
those who dissent from, as well as
those who assent to, the ordination of
women to the priesthood and
episcopate are both loyal Anglicans”.
The Catholic Group in the General
Synod has said that it is “fully ready to
assist in the process of agreeing fresh
legislation to provide for the religious
convictions of all loyal Anglicans”. It
has asked that women “who do not
support the consecration of women
bishops” contribute to the dis
cussions.
Laity meeting. Church House pub
lished the agenda, on Monday, for the
meeting of the House of Laity, on 18
January, at which Stephen Barney
(Leicester) will move: “That this
House have no confidence in Dr
Philip Giddings as Chair of this
House.”
In an explanatory note accom
panying the agenda, Mr Barney writes
that Dr Giddings’s speech against the
Measure had “followed directly” a
speech in favour of the legislation by
the Archbishopdesignate, the Rt
Revd Justin Welby, and therefore
“directly undermined” Bishop Welby.
Dr Giddings’s intervention “did
not support the views of the House of
Bishops as a whole”, and “speaking as
the Chair of our House, his speech
was instrumental in convincing some
of the undecided members of the
House to vote against”. Mr Barney
writes that Dr Giddings’s speech “was
therefore a significant contributor to
the reputational damage the Church
of England is already suffering at the
hands of the press”.
Mr Barney concludes: “I have
always been one of the first to say
that individuals must vote according
to their consciences; however, leaders
have other responsibilities and ac
countabilities. . . [The leader] must
show wise and good judgement, and
I do not believe that this has
happened.”
Should those opposed to women
bishops have more representation
on the group?
Vote at www.churchtimes.co.uk
?
SouTHWeLL MiNSTeR
Poll: public knows
Christmas story
by Paul Wilkinson
THE majority of people still have a
good general knowledge of the
nativity story, a poll commissioned
by the Bible Society suggests.
But there were some misunder
standings about the details, includ
ing the 60 per cent of respondents
who believed that Mary and Joseph
were married; the two per cent who
thought that they were “on their
first date” when the Angel Gabriel
announced that Mary was with
child; and the 37 people who said
that Father Christmas was the first
visitor to the manger.
“Knowledge of the nativity story
is remarkably good,” said the Bible
Society’s Director of External Rela
tions, Ann Holt.
“Who’s the chubby bloke with
the white beard and red suit
who just jumped the queue?”
The researchers ICM asked more
than 1000 children under 12, and
1000 parents, ten questions about
their knowledge of the Christmas
story. Most scored six out of ten,
and almost a quarter got eight or
more answers correct.
They also found that more than
half of all the families who were
polled were planning to attend, or
had already attended, a school
nativity play this year. Overall, 98
per cent of those polled correctly
identified Bethlehem as Jesus’s birth
place, although a few named
Beirut.
“This poll shows what an im
portant part schools have to play in
passing on the Christmas story from
one generation to another, and,
historically, what a good job they
have done,” Ms Holt said.
But, she said: “Nativity plays do
sanitise the story, so many assume
Mary and Joseph were married, and,
in doing so, miss the genuine hint of
scandal there was at the time.”
The survey reports that the best
known facts about the nativity were,
in order:
• that Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
which was known by 98 per cent of
those questioned;
• that Mary put the baby Jesus in a
manger, which was known by 89 per
cent;
• that the angel Gabriel told Mary
that she would give birth (83 per
cent knew this);
• that Herod was king at the time
(77 per cent knew this);
• that the angels were the first to
announce the news (63 per cent);
• that Mary and Joseph were
travelling because they had been
ordered to register with the auth
orities (52 per cent);
• that the shepherds were the
Kingmakers: children from Lowes Wong junior school, Southwell, in
Southwell Minster on Monday, with models of the Magi that they made
from wire, paper and fabric, for part of the minster crib scene
first to visit Jesus (46 per cent);
• that the word Immanuel means
“God is with us” (32 per cent);
• that Mary and Joseph were en
gaged when she found out that she
Bishops’ working costs grow again
A MORE than doubling of legal
costs, generated by clergy discipline
cases, was the main cause of an
increase of more than £1 million
in the working costs of bishops
in 2011, writes Madeleine Davies.
Figures released by the Church
Commissioners on Wednesday
show that the office and working
costs of the C of E’s 113 bishops
increased from £15,983,479 in 2010
to £17,013,912 last year. The main
reason for the increase was rising
legal costs — from £533,600 to
‘Wonderful credit union’
THE encomium to socially respons
ible banking in the classic Christmas
film It’s A Wonderful Life found an
echo in the House of Lords on
Thursday of last week, when the
Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd
Justin Welby, spoke about the “huge
potential” of credit unions, writes
Madeleine Davies.
Bishop Welby described how
credit unions in his “greviously
underbanked” diocese had “made
good finance and access to credit
available in an extremely deprived
area”, echoing the 1946 film’s warn
ing that, without a mutual society,
people from a small town would not
have been able to take out mortgages.
Credit unions were now neces
sary “in a way that we have not seen
since the 19th century”, Bishop
Welby said, “keeping capital and
profit local, beginning at the bottom
of the tree rather than the top”. He
warned that they were held back by
a lack of good IT systems and the
“profound expertise” of managers in
other companies. He supported a
recommendation from the Depart
ment for Work and Pensions (DWP)
that the Government invest in the
sector.
The Church of England and the
Roman Catholic Church had
branches in every community, the
Bishop said, and were “used to
handling money . . . and we are
rather good at it. We have very low
levels of fraud. We need to get
involved and contribute to this in a
powerful and effective way.”
Bishop Welby also warned that
credit unions must retain their “dis
tinct purpose and nature”, unlike
those building societies that, after
demutualisation, “went up with the
rocket and down with the stick”.
There are 400 credit unions in
Britain, holding £776 million in
savings and with more than £602
million currently out on loan. They
serve two per cent of the adult popu
lation, compared with Ireland (75
per cent) and the US (44 per cent).
£1,315,816. A spokesman said that
legal costs were incurred by the
consecration and enthronement of
bishops, and the clergy Discipline
Measure.
“Exceptional staff costs”, which
cover redundancy payments and
payments towards the pension defi
cit, also increased, from £246,033 to
£462,745.
The biggest cost was salaries for
office and support staff, totalling
£8.7 million, up from £8.5 million
in the previous year, while office
costs fell from £1.3 million to £1.1
million.
The figures include a break
down of expenditure by individual
bishops. The office of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury reported ex
penditure of £1,989,862 in 2011, up
from £1,882,346 in 2010, while the
outlay of the office of the Arch
bishop of York rose from £991,000
to £1,062,742.
In 2011, the Church Commis
sioners changed the way in which
bishops’ ministry is funded, and
gave diocesan bishops an annual
block grant, known as a Ministry
Grant, which is used to fund suf
fragan, area, and assistant bishops
in line with “locally determined
priorities”.
The Commissioners’ board of
governors has agreed to increase
funding for the Archbishops by two
per cent, and the bishops’ funding
by four per cent, year on year, for
201113.
was going to have a baby (26 per
cent); and
• that the Wise Men travelled west,
following the star to Bethlehem (14
per cent).
news
Big changes
to Gift Aid
donations
A BILL that the Government has
said will “reduce the burden on
charities” passed through the House
of Lords on Tuesday evening, writes
Ed Thornton.
The Small Charitable Donations
Bill legislates for the Gift Aid Small
Donations Scheme (GASDS), which
was announced by the Chancellor,
George Osborne, in last year’s
Budget (News, 23 March 2011). It
allows charities to claim “topup
payments”, similar to Gift Aid, on
donations of £20 or less, up to a
total of £5000 a year per charity,
without a need for donors to fill in
forms.
During the Bill’s Third Reading
in the House of Commons last
month, amendments that would
have allowed the GASDS to apply to
noncash payments, such as text
messages, failed to get through.
The Treasury did, however, agree
to reduce the time a charity had to
have made Gift Aid declarations to
be eligible for GASDS, from four to
two years; it also increased the
matching ratio from 2:1 to 10:1,
which means that a charity need
have claimed only 10p in Gift Aid to
claim £1 from GASDS.
Gift Aid change. From April,
churches and charities will be
required to submit Gift Aid claims
to HMRC using a new internet
service, “Charities Online”. This will
replace the current R68(i) Gift Aid
and taxrepayments claims form.
HMRC is intending to write to
charities next month to explain the
changes.
The director of Data Develop
ments, Shelagh Ibbs, said: “This is the
most significant change to Gift Aid
since it was introduced in 2000.”
www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/online/
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5
news
Church calls
for action on
on emissions
THE Government must make
amendments to the Energy Bill
currently being debated in the
House of Commons, in order to
protect the “fuel poor” and “de
carbonise” the country’s energy
supply, the Church of England’s
environment campaign has said,
writes Madeleine Davies.
A briefing for MPs, produced by
the C of E, the Methodist, Baptist,
and United Reformed Churches,
and the Quakers, argues that the
proposal to delay, until 2016, the
setting of a target for reducing the
emission of carbon dioxide by 2030
“fails to reflect the urgency of the
situation we face” (News, 30
November).
It also warns that the complexity
of Contracts for Difference — a
mechanism designed to incentivise
investments in lowcarbon energy
— might deter small generators. It
calls on the Government to include
in the Bill a mechanism to en
courage energy efficiency that could
help households to reduce energy
bills. The Department of Energy and
Climate Change has estimated that
fuel poverty will have affected
almost four million people in 2012.
“It is important that demand
reduction measures . . . are central
to the Energy Bill and the Govern
ment’s overall energy strategy,” the
briefing concludes.
The Energy Bill, published in
draft form on 29 November, sets
out plans for radical reforms of the
electricity market.
MEETING THE
FATHERS
Institute
for
Orthodox
Christian
Studies,
St Gregory
Cambridge
of Nyssa
19 January
2013
St Maximus
St Ephrem
the Syrian the Confessor
16 February 16 March
St John
of Damascus
20 April
St Gregory
Palamas
18 May
Get to know five of the great
Church Fathers of the
Eastern Christian tradition.
Distinguished lecturers will
introduce their life, work, and
teaching. All this with lunch,
discussion sessions, and vespers.
More details at www.iocs.cam.ac.uk
or e-mail us at: [email protected]
or ring: +44 1223 741037 or write to:
IOCS, Wesley House, Jesus Lane
Cambridge CB5 8BJ, UK
6
Feeling the rough edge of his tongue
pHoToS CATeRS
Madeleine Davies
talks to Lawrence
edmonds, who, for
a bet, has spent the
year licking Anglican
cathedrals in the uK
AT THE time of going to press, one
man’s story remained the most
popular piece of news on the Church
Times website. His name is not
Justin, or Rowan, and he does not
even proffer belief in a deity, let
alone any thoughts on what God
might think about women bishops.
He is Lawrence Edmonds, and, by
the beginning of this month, he had
licked every Anglican cathedral in
the UK (News, 29 June).
“My favourite cathedral was prob
ably Lincoln,” he says. “Just from the
scale of it, and the west front was
absolutely incredible. The carvings
completely blew me away.” His blog
reveals that Lincoln did, indeed,
supersede previous amours — “the
sumptuous Norwich Cathedral, the
jawdropping Durham, and the
frankly arousing Wells”.
The Lincoln lick itself was “un
eventful but very satisfying”, he
recalls. “The stone was damp from
the copious rain that had fallen that
day, which probably gave it a very
refreshing and mossy taste.”
Lichfield, Mr Edmonds says, is
the tastiest cathedral in the land. The
sandstone was “beautifully warm on
the tongue, without any hint of
saltiness or other foul taste to ruin
the experience”. That a cathedral
official — “she really was a lovely
lady, as are all of the cathedral
attendants I’ve met on my travels”
— was able to extract a £10 donation
from Mr Edmonds, postlick, testi
fies to its impact.
In fact, what began as a joke bet
with his best friend, Adam Drury, in
January last year, inspired Mr
Edmonds, who works in the heritage
sector, to raise awareness of the
UK’s houses of God, in addition to
financial support. Fans of Parli
ament TV will have noted Lord
Stevenson of Balmacara making
reference to Mr Edmonds’s endeav
ours in a debate on the future of
cathedrals in June this year.
“IT DID start as a bit of fun, but, as I
got around the places, I started to
see that a lot of them were in dire
need of financial support,” he says.
“I found that quite surprising, but,
as I learned more, I found out the
reasons for it, and when I down
loaded the debate in the House of
Lords about it, I was really quite
shocked by the situation that some
of these places find themselves in.”
Last month, he urged his blog
followers to make a donation to the
York Minster Fund (“It may come as
a shock to learn that it costs about
£20,000 a day to keep the Minster
operating”).
Mr Edmonds grew up in York,
where he currently lives, after a spell
in London, and he attributes his
interest in cathedrals to living in the
presence of the Minster, which
looked like churches. But even the
very small ones have amazing things
in them.” He speaks of the “incred
ible Celtic sculptures” at Armagh, a
former site of pagan worship.
Close contact: from top:
Lawrence edmonds at
Gloucester, Salisbury, and
ely Cathedrals
“dominates the city”. Nevertheless,
he estimates that he had never
before visited 90 per cent of the 52
cathedrals on his list.
This included Liverpool, “a must
for all cathedral perverts”; Brecon,
where it is the “aura of calm that was
most striking”; and Exeter, where
two “delightul” ladies at the gift
shop “truly made my day” (and gave
him a free sticker).
Mr Edmonds’s bet took on a new
stature when he was disabused of his
“naïve” assumption that there were
no Anglican cathedrals in Scotland,
Wales, or Northern Ireland.
“Some of the ones in Northern
Ireland, and some in Scotland, were
quite surprising, because some are
on a much smaller scale and just
NORTHERN IRELAND yielded
also Down Cathedral’s “copious
spiky stonework”, which prompted
Mr Edmonds “once again [to]
ponder the question of the world’s
most dangerous cathedral. . . This
had been on my mind ever since
Silvio Berlusconi had been attacked
with a reconstruction of the vi
ciously pointy Milan Cathedral, in
2009. Had his assailant chosen to
wield Down Cathedral, we agreed
that the naughty Italian’s woe would
have been far greater.”
Mr Edmonds describes himself as
an atheist, but his blog attests to the
impact of spending time in the
nation’s places of worship. At South
well, he watched a performance by
children, and “began to think how
wonderful it was to see a place of
worship so alive, not echoing with
distant footsteps and stifled whis
pers”. With his father, he was “swept
up with it all as well, and began
clapping and whooping with the rest
of them. It was splendid stuff.”
“I maybe have become more
open, now that I have seen these
places,” he says. “It’s difficult to
describe, really; but obviously these
places are churches, and not just
about architecture. You go into
these places, and you are struck by
the majesty of places like Lincoln
and York. I’m not sure whether it’s
religion or the buildings themselves,
but there is certainly something
going on.”
Mr Edmonds believes that, if
cathedrals give people the oppor
tunity to “go behind the scenes”, it
will “awaken something within
them, in the same way that it
happened to me”. He plans to write
a book about his licking tour.
As for the bet with the newly
married Mr Drury, it requires the
loser to streak outside York Minster
on a cold winter’s day. It remains
unfulfilled.
“I don’t know whether it will
happen,” Mr Edmonds says. “I want
to be respectful to the Minster, but
Adam still thinks it is going to
happen; so he’s quite worried. I’ll
probably leave him to sweat over that
for a bit.”
cathedrallicking.wordpress.com
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7
news
Welby: parishes are frontline of the Church
THE Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Justin Welby, told BBC Tees, on
Wednesday, that his short time in Durham had “reinforced in me that the
real frontline of the Church is the local church, the parish church”. He said:
“As I go around and work with clergy and lay leaders, and lay people in
churches, you see just the incredible things that are going on, like the real
daytoday work of people running fooddistribution centres and going
into schools.” Bishop Welby expressed “a real sense of sadness” about
leaving Durham, and “huge excitement” about becoming Archbishop of
Canterbury.
Bishop Allister to chair Council for Christian unity
THE Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Revd Donald Allister, has been
appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to chair the Council
for Christian Unity. Bishop Allister, who has been a member of the Council
since 2006, will succeed the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher
Hill, when he steps down in June, after five years in the chair.
New Dean of Brechin appointed
THE Rector of St Mary’s, Broughty Ferry,
the Revd Dr Francis Bridger, was appointed
Dean of the diocese of Brechin, by the Bishop
of Brechin, Dr Nigel Peyton, on Friday of last
week. Dr Bridger will be installed as Dean of the
diocese in St Paul’s Cathedral, Dundee, on 13
January.
ST peTeR’S pARKSToNe
Retired priests face abuse charges
AT Norwich Crown Court on Monday, a priest,
the Revd Haley Dossor, 71, admitted six counts
of indecent assault, relating to boys as young
as 13. The offences happened during the early
1990s.
Chichester diocese confirmed last week that a
priest formerly licensed in the diocese, the Revd
Robert Coles, had been “committed for trial
to face charges relating to allegations of sexual
abuse”, in the 1970s and ’80s.
“Symbol of hope”: a newly installed
Advent star, built by the choir and youth
group of St Peter’s, Parkstone, Poole
Priest Idol church reopens after fire
A CHURCH in South Yorkshire, which was the subject of the Channel
4 television series Priest Idol (News, 4 February 2005), has reopened
after an arson attack in October 2007. St Mary Magdalene’s, Lundwood,
near Barnsley, held a special carol service, on Saturday, to celebrate its
reopening.
Fund launched in memory of the Revd John Suddards
A FUND has been launched at St Nicholas’s, Witham, Essex, in memory of
the late Revd John Suddards, Vicar of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, who
was stabbed to death in his vicarage, in February (News, 17 February). Mr
Suddards had been Team Rector of Witham for ten years, before he moved
to Thornbury in July 2011. The fund will be distributed for educational
purposes. The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, is
patron of the fund. Donations can be made online at www.justgiving.com/
JohnSuddards.
“Thank You and Merry Christmas”
priory Automotive would just like say a great
big “Thank You” to the Church Times readers, who
have been so supportive in this last year, and of
course to those customers who have chosen priory
for their new car. “We get so many kind words back
from our customers, that we just wanted to let them
know that it is greatly appreciated”, said Mike Stimely
of priory.
This is of course a very busy time for us all, and
buying a motor car is probably well down your
Christmas list, if it’s even on it at all, so priory don’t
expect to be rushed off their feet right now, but can
promise readers that they are ready, willing, and able
to assist, when you decide that the time is right to
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All that is left to say is that the staff from priory
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Christmas and a Happy and peaceful New Year.
Priory Automotive:
Tel: 0114 2559696
or visit www.prioryautomotive.com
8
Fury at samesex exemption
pa
by Ed Thornton
THE Government has insisted that
it did consult church representatives
about protections for the Church
of England to be contained with
in the Government’s samesex
marriage legislation.
The Minister for Women and
Equalities, Maria Miller, announced
on Tuesday of last week, that the
Bill, to be published next year,
would include a “quadruple lock” of
measures that would “protect reli
gious freedom” (News, 14 Decem
ber). These would specify that it
would be illegal for any Church of
England minister to conduct a
samesex marriage.
At a meeting with parliamentar
ians on Thursday of last week, the
Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd
Tim Stevens, said that this level of
protection had not been mentioned
in meetings with the Government.
He regretted that no prior consul
tation had been sought.
But a blog post by Mrs Miller,
published on the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport website
last Friday, said that it was “simply
not correct” to suggest “that the
Church of England didn’t know in
advance about the legal protections
we were proposing. . . We sat down
and had detailed, private discus
sions with them prior to my state
ment in Parliament.”
A letter was published in The
Sunday Telegraph this week, expres
sing “dismay” about the fourth
“lock” in the legislation, which
specifies that it would be illegal for
C of E churches to marry samesex
couples. The letter’s signatories in
cluded the former Bishop of Oxford,
the Rt Revd Lord Harries, and the
director of Changing Attitude, the
Revd Colin Coward.
The letter called on the C of E “to
relinquish its exemption” from the
samesex marriage legislation, “and
address the expectation of the
majority in every parish that it will
continue to offer pastoral care to
every citizen, including gay married
couples, and their children”.
Two gay Christians indicated this
week that they would sue the Gov
ernment for discrimination, because
they would not be able to marry
Double blessing: Barrie (left) and Tony Drewit-Barlow, with their twin
sons, after the babies’ christening at St John the Baptist, Danbury
in their parish church. Tony and
Barrie DrewittBarlow, who are in a
civil partnership, told the gay news
website, Pink News: “Like many
couples, we look forward to being
married in our local church . . .
where our children were baptised.
Now we are to be banned in law
because we are gay, even if the vicar
wanted to marry us.”
A letter published in The Daily
Telegraph on Monday, signed by 58
MPs and peers — the majority
Conservative — indicated that the
protections for religious groups in
the Government’s samesex mar
riage legislation had not reassured
Conservative backbenchers. It said:
“The proposed redefinition of
marriage is unnecessary, given the
legal rights established through civil
partnerships.”
Letters, page 17
New gay Bible seeks to
counter homophobia
A NEW edition of the Bible that
“makes homophobic interpreta
tions impossible” has been pro
duced by an American priest, writes
Madeleine Davies.
The Queen James Bible is a revi
sion of the King James Bible, and
was named in reference to King
James VI, said to have been called
Queen James because of his relation
ships with men, which some scholars
believe were sexual. It is understood
to be the work of the Revd Bertie
Pearson, the parish priest of Holy
Innocents’ Episcopal Church, San
Francisco. Changes have been made
to just eight verses, “to prevent
homophobic interpretations”.
Genesis 19.5, which refers to the
siege of Lot’s house, has been revised
so that the men of Sodom demand to
“rape and humiliate” the angelic
visitors rather than “know” them.
There are amendments to two
passages in Leviticus, a book de
scribed as “outdated as a moral
code”. The editors suggest that both
Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13, which
describe the “abomination” of man
“lying with mankind”, were the
subject of “translative error” and
refer to lying with pagan male pros
titutes as a form of pagan idolatry.
Similarly, the editors says that
Romans
1.2627
(“incredibly
stretched to support homophobic
agendas”) do not refer to gay or
lesbian sex, but to worshipping
pagan idols instead of God.
1 Corinthians 910, which refers
to the “effeminate”, and “abusers of
themselves with mankind”, is trans
lated as condemning the “morally
weak” and the “promiscuous”.
“No Bible is perfect, including
this one,” the editors said. “We
wanted to make a book filled with
the word of God that nobody could
use to incorrectly condemn God’s
LGBT children, and we succeeded.”
Six men sentenced
for £1million
church leadthefts
by Richard Vamplew
MEMBERS of what is believed to be
the most prolific church leadtheft
gang in Britain were each sentenced
to four years in prison, on Thursday
of last week, after they left the
Church of England with a £1
million repair bill across three
counties (News, 9 March).
The gang, based in Lincoln,
struck at 20 churches across the East
Midlands, and were caught only
after police stopped a vehicle on the
A46, near Lincoln, which was laden
with stolen lead.
An investigation led to the arrests
of six men after they were linked to
the offences through sales of stolen
metal to recycling yards. Some of
the metal had traces of SmartWater,
which allowed officers to identify
the lead.
The gang, all from Lithuania,
netted almost £70,000 from selling
the stolen lead during a ninemonth
period last year.
Stephen Lowne, prosecuting, told
Lincoln Crown Court that, although
the majority of the churches tar
geted by the gang were in Lin
colnshire, others in Leicestershire
and Nottinghamshire were also
raided. “In some cases,” Mr Lowne
said, “it was some time before the
thefts were discovered, allowing the
ingress of rainwater. Extensive in
frastructure damage was caused to
some of the churches.”
He told the court that the crime
became so prevalent that the Ec
clesiastical Insurance Group re
stricted claims to £5000 per church,
and allowed only one claim per
year.
Andrius Cereska, Audrius Kved
news
© MeDiA LiNCS
aras, and Tadas Andruska (pictured
below, left to right), admitted con
spiring to steal lead belonging to the
the Church of England between
exposed: St
Laurence’s,
Norwell (left),
St Margaret’s,
Quadring (far
left), and St
Nicholas’s,
Fulbeck
(below), all in
Lincolnshire,
were targeted
for their lead
January and September 2011, and
were each sentenced to four years.
Vidas Andruska (below, far right)
was found guilty of the same charge
after a trial, and was jailed for seven
years. Vitalijus Vilkys (not pictured)
admitted handling stolen lead, and
was sentenced to six months’
imprisonment, suspended for two
years, and 180 hours community
punishment. Nerijus Razma was
sentenced to 22 months.
Judge Michael Heath told the
men: “The overall costs to the 20
churches, I am told, is in the region
of £1 million. It is a great deal of
money. It is very important, and
should not be underestimated, the
distress felt by Christians at the
desescration of their sacred places of
divine worship.
“You lot could not care less about
those feelings. All you were inter
ested in was stealing lead, weighing
it in, and making money.”
Det. Insp. Keith Blakey, of Lin
colnshire Police, said: “The convic
tions and jail terms represented the
biggest success in the fight against
heritage crime in Britain to date. . .
Since the arrests of these men, there
has been a massive drop in the
number of church leadtheft cases
in this area.”
Heating system to take chill
off Manchester Cathedral
by Paul Wilkinson
A LARGE part of Manchester Cathedral is to
close for eight months, in a bid to remedy the
building’s “unhealthy” chill.
From next Easter, services will move to a
temporary structure outside the cathedral,
while a stateoftheart geothermal heating
system is installed in the nave and the adjoin
ing regimental chapel. The Dean, the Very
Revd Rogers Govender, said: “We should be
able to handle around half of our normal
capacity congregation of 900.”
The cathedral has increasingly been used as
a concert venue, and for award ceremonies and
formal dinners. “The heating in the nave is 40
years old,” Dean Govender said. “The pipes of
the underfloor heating need replacing, but we
have first to break up the 18 inches of concrete
on top of them.
“Then we are going green with this new, in
novative groundsource heating system, using
geothermal technology, which would supple
ment the heat provided by the existing boilers.”
Proposals for the work have been sent to the
Cathedrals Fabric Commission, and the Chap
ter has discussed planning requirements with
Manchester City Council. The Dean hopes that
the goahead will be given in January. He
declined to give a price for the work. “We have
a sum in mind, but are about to go out to
tender. We will be appealing to the public for
contributions, and applying for grants.”
The socialenterprise company Create,
which was operating the café in the cathedral’s
Visitor Centre, has ceased trading. The cath
edral is currently considering the options for
the use of the space.
Cathedral conservation. Grants of almost £1
million have been awarded for 21 projects at 17
English cathedrals. Ten payments, totalling
£645,000, from the Cathedral Fabric Repair
Fund, include £100,000 each to Gloucester,
Hereford, and Worcester, and £90,000 to
Lincoln, all for repairs to roofs and walls.
The fund is a partnership between the
Wolfson Foundation, the Pilgrim Trust, and
the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for En
gland, which, over the past three years, has
awarded more than £1.8 million for essential
works to keep cathedrals weatherproof.
Frank Field MP, who chairs the Fabric
Commission, said: “One of the most significant
aspects of these grants is that we have included
a number of cathedrals for which fundraising
is less easy, and also several with innovative
solutions to problems posed by 20thcentury
materials and climate change.”
The grants include £30,000 for work on the
copper roofs at Guildford; and awards totalling
£236,000 for work on Coventry Cathedral,
Pershore Abbey, Southwell Minster, and
Bradford Cathedral.
A further six grants, totalling £71,000, are
being offered by the fund for the conservation
of artworks and historic furnishings to Derby,
Coventry, Exeter, Salisbury, and Wakefield
Cathedrals. They include £30,000 for the
restoration of the organ at Exeter; and £30,000
for a feasibility study for the conservation of
the 1962 Graham Sutherland tapestry, Christ in
Glory, at Coventry.
The full list of grants is:
Cathedral Fabric Repair Fund
Chester £40,000; Gloucester £100,000; Guild
ford £30,000; Hereford £100,000; Leicester
£16,000; Lincoln £90,000; Peterborough
£28,000; St Edmundsbury £50,000; Southwark
£91,000; and Worcester £100,000.
Cathedral Amenities Fund
Bradford £46,000; Coventry £80,000; Pershore
Abbey £20,000; Southwell £80,000; Worcester
£10,000.
Conservation of Artworks and Historic
Furnishings
Coventry £30,000; Derby £3660; Exeter
£30,000; Salisbury £5000; and Wakefield £2340.
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9
news
Ap
Egypt votes on constitution, despite fears
Ap
by Gerald Butt
Middle East Correspondent
EGYPTIANS go to the polls to
morrow for the second round of
voting in the referendum on the
country’s draft constitution, with
every sign that it will be approved.
The indications after the first day of
polling last Saturday were that about
57 per cent of voters had backed the
new document.
The final result is likely to provide
further evidence of polarisation: just
over half of all Egyptians will support
the constitution, and just under half
will reject it.
The PresidentBishop in Jerusalem
and the Middle East, the Most Revd
Mouneer Anis, in a statement last
Friday, described his country as
“groaning and divided”.
The main opposition grouping, the
National Salvation Front, complained
of electionrigging last Saturday. It
alleged that at one polling station in
Cairo, Christian women were not
allowed to enter to cast their votes.
But, in general, the fractured
opposition, which most Copts
support, is not as well organised as
the Muslim Brotherhood and the
Salafists, and seems out of touch with
the millions of Egyptians living in
rural areas.
The opposition, however, notched
in line: egyptian
men queue at a
polling station
for the first part
of the
referendum on
the new
constitution, on
Saturday
up a victory of sorts on Monday,
when pressure from judges forced the
resignation of the public prosecutor,
Talaat Ibrahim, who had recently
been appointed by President Morsi to
replace Abdel Maguid Mahmoud.
The sacking of Mr Mahmoud had
been seen as a move by the President
and the Muslim Brotherhood to
remove any threat from a judiciary
associated with the Mubarak era, and
therefore opposed to Islamist rule.
After Mr Mahmoud had been
removed, judges went on strike in
protest, leaving an insufficient
number to oversee voting on a single
day, which necessitated a twostage
referendum.
The US Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton, had earlier added her voice
to those calling for the writing of a
new draft constitution to replace one
drawn up by an assembly dominated
by Islamists.
Large and oftenviolent demon
strations for and against President
Morsi have been continuing, despite
his announcement earlier this month
— under public pressure — that he
had rescinded the decree granting
him farreaching powers that could
not be challenged, even by the
judiciary. But, at the same time, he
repeated his determination that the
referendum on the draft constitution
would take place as planned,
prompting a fresh torrent of criticism
from his opponents.
The current draft and its progress
are being criticised for several reasons
that are unrelated to the content of
the final document. First, most of
the secular and Christian represent
atives on the Constituent Assembly
withdrew in protest at the way in
which Islamists were seen to be push
ing their own agenda. This meant that
the draft was finally approved by a
body that was far from representing
the interests of all Egyptians.
Second, the opportunity was
missed to draw up a completely new
constitution in the wake of the
popular revolution that swept away
the old dictatorial regime. Instead,
hasty changes were made to an earlier
document. Third, the speed with
which the draft was approved, and
the matter of days between this and
the referendum, have prevented a
national debate before the voting.
As for the content, Bishop Anis
says that there were several places
where statements were imprecise and
open to differen interpretations.
People were afraid that this could
“allow certain Islamic groups to
restrict people’s freedom”, he said.
uTV
New patriarch of Antioch welcomed
THE new Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch has been congratulated by
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Youhanna X succeeds Ignatius IV, who died
this month in Beirut at the age of 92 (News, 14 December). The Patriarch
elect was born in Syria in 1955, and became a monk on Mount Athos,
before being ordained. Since 2008, he has been the Bishop of the
Patriarchate of Antioch’s diocese of Western and Central Europe.
Global South support for Bishop Lawrence
THE Steering Committee of the Primates of the Global South of the Angli
can Communion has written a letter of support to the Bishop of South
Carolina, the Rt Revd Mark Lawrence, after he announced that the diocese
had disaffiliated itself from the Episcopal Church in the United States
(News, 23 November). In a letter dated 14 December, the Primates assured
Bishop Lawrence that “we recognise your Episcopal orders and your legiti
mate Episcopal oversight of the Diocese of South Carolina within the
Anglican Communion.” The Episcopal Church has said that individual
dioceses cannot leave it, and in October, the Presiding Bishop, Dr Katharine
Jefferts Schori, restricted Bishop Lawrence’s ministry, after the Disciplinary
Board confirmed that he had abandoned the Church “by an open renuncia
tion of the discipline of the Church”. There have been longrunning difficul
ties in the relations of Bishop Lawrence and his diocese with the leadership
of the Episcopal Church, over issues such as gay clergy and samesex unions.
Bishop joins protest on Mount of olives army plans
OPPOSITION to plans to build a military college on the Mount of Olives
has won the backing of the Bishop of Swansea & Brecon, the Rt Revd John
Davies. A 60day consultation on the proposal was opened by the Israeli
authorities in October. Bishop Davies has signed a petition by a campaign
group based in the UK that argues that the development on a site of
importance to all three Abrahamic faiths, “could be seen as a provocative
act, taking Jerusalem yet further away from becoming a city of peace”.
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Forceful: Dr Clarke was striking the west door of St patrick’s Cathedral, when
the top of his wooden crosier snapped off at the first knock. He held the
broken pieces together, and proceeded into the cathedral
Primate backs ‘courtesy’
by Gregg Ryan
Ireland Correspondent
MODELLING the “courtesy of God”
as coworkers, to improve the lot of
all, should be the goal of all
Christians, the new Primate of All
Ireland, Dr Richard Clarke, said at
his enthronement in St Patrick’s
Cathedral, Armagh, on Saturday.
Leaders of all the main Churches in
Ireland attended the service.
Against a backdrop of renewed
rioting in parts of Northern Ireland
over the use of the Union flag at
Belfast City Hall, Dr Clarke said that
anger rather than courtesy was the
prevalent behavioural pattern.
“Indeed, many seem to find their
only focus and meaning in life
through constant rage. Salman
Rushdie has coined a useful phrase,
‘outrage identity’, for those who can
find any meaning for themselves
only in their anger at others. True
courtesy is the converse of spiteful
anger. And courtesy is not simply
good manners — desirable as they
most certainly are — but goes a great
deal further.”
He said that the essence of
courtesy was that it treated “the
other” — whoever or whatever that
“other” may be — as an individual
who is always worthy of respect,
whose individuality is to be allowed
an integrity of its own.
“This is how God treats us,
accepting us as worthy of love,
treating us as individuals deserving
of respect, never intimidating or
bullying us into abject submission,
but listening with love and discern
ment to what we are saying.
“But courtesy — the word being
used with care — goes further even
than this. Courtesy goes beyond the
strictly necessary or contractual, in
giving to another. We can use the
word quite casually in this sense —
doing something ‘as a courtesy’,
having the use of a ‘courtesy car’ —
and, in fact, the meaning is not very
different.
“It means generously going fur
ther than we actually have to go, in
our service of another individual. It
is the very reverse of manipulation,
meanmindedness, and calculated
malice, which, sadly, can so easily be
cloaked as moral highmindedness. . .
“And if you and I cannot, and will
not, model the courtesy of God in
our dealings — one with another
within the Church, and in our
relationships with those outside the
walls of the Church who are also
made in the image and likeness of
God — we have indeed fallen at the
first fence in Christian faithfulness.”
Export-import: a Liverpool company,
the Christmas Decorators, were responsible for dressing the 55-feethigh tree in Manger Square, Bethlehem, this year. The six-strong team
said: “We are honoured to be here
Israel’s Arabs
alienated,
says bishop
by Ed Thornton
THE Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd
Michael Langrish, said last week that
the Arab citizens of Israel were
facing increasing “inequality and
discrimination”.
Introducing a debate on “the
issues of equality and discrimination
affecting Israel’s Arab citizens” in the
House of Lords, on Thursday of last
week, Bishop Langrish said that
Israeli citizens who were Arabs in
cluded “not only Muslim and Chris
tian Palestinians, and Bedouin Arabs,
but Arabicspeaking Druze, and a
small number of Circassians as well”.
There was “a widening gap in
Israeli society between law and prac
tice,” he said. “In law, Israeli Arabs
enjoy full equality, and are endowed
with the full spectrum of democratic
rights. . . However, in practice there
are many areas of life where Israeli
Arabs are systematically disad
vantaged.” Jewish and Arab Israelis
had “different citizenship rights and
constraints in relation to marriage
and family reunification”, Bishop
Langrish said.
The Knesset, the Israeli legis
lature, had “passed a raft of discrim
inatory legislation” in recent years,
he said, which had “helped further to
alienate Israel’s nonJewish citizens”.
There was also “an increasing desire
among a majority of the Jewish
public to see preference for Jews
over Arabs in various areas of public
life”.
Bishop Langrish said that “ad
dressing IsraeliArab discrimination
needs now to be seen as a justice
issue in its own right.”
He called on the UK Government
and the EU “to press Israeli
governments for the realisation of
Israel as a Jewish and democratic
state, in which Jews and Arabs live
together with full and equal human
dignity and civil rights”.
Responding to the debate, the
Senior Minister of State at the
Foreign Office, Baroness Warsi,
said: “The promotion and protec
tion of human rights is at the heart
of UK foreign policy. How a country
treats its minorities is an important
test of a country’s democracy and
respect for human rights and the
rule of law. This is equally true for
Israel.”
news
Harare’s day of thanksgiving:
Gandiya looks to the future
Brian Castle witnesses
the exhilaration of
the exiled Anglicans
as they return to
their cathedral
IT WAS a new experience for the
Anglicans of Harare. There were no
police blocking the entrance to their
cathedral. There was no tear gas
from which they would have to flee.
There were no padlocks on the
doors to prevent their entering.
The former bishop Nolbert Ku
nonga had attempted to thwart and
undermine the ruling of the Su
preme Court of Zimbabwe, which
declared the Rt Revd Chad Gandiya
as the lawful Anglican Bishop of
Harare, and the buildings, houses,
and institutions from which Ang
licans had been forcibly removed to
be their rightful property (News, 7
December).
But to no avail. The exiles were
now returning home. The sound
of the bells as the procession sang
and danced towards the cathedral
brought a great cheer. Then there
was an electrifying moment: Bishop
Gandiya banged on the doors with
his pastoral staff, and, when the two
doors swung open, there was a
mighty roar from the gathering of
10,000 which might have been
heard in the UK.
The celebrations had begun in
the centre of Harare, in Africa Unity
Square, across the road from the
cathedral and parliament buildings.
This eucharist was attended by Ang
licans from across the diocese, mem
bers of government, and visitors
from other parts of the Province of
Central Africa, and from around the
world — reminders of the encour
agement and value of the world
wide Anglican Communion.
Those who could not find seats
perched on statues, concrete ledges,
or any available surface. In front of
the platform that accommodated
the altar party, four fountains rose
30 feet into the air, adding to the life
and energy of the worship.
“MuKristu usanete: namata urinde”
Recognition: one
of 12 teenage
members of the
Women’s
Christian union
of Angola holds
an international
Diana Award
certificate, given
to recognise the
group’s HiV
awareness project
in Luanda, the
capital of Angola
(“Christians seek not yet repose:
watch and pray”), a hymn that had
been a great support in the people’s
darkest moments, was sung with
passion. In his sermon, Bishop Gan
diya thanked those who had sup
ported the diocese in its struggles,
and he praised his people for their
faithfulness to God, and their per
severance over the past five years.
He told them that, once they were
back in their churches, they should
not sit back and expect to draw their
pension. Rather, they should be
pressing on to whatever God was
calling them to in the future. There
would be challenges of forgiveness
and reconciliation, and a great deal
depended on the way they remem
bered the past five years. They could
remember in a way that would allow
the pains of the past to dominate
their lives, or they could remember
in such a way that, like St Paul, they
could “strain ahead for what is still
to come”.
He ended with an appeal: “Come,
let us rebuild our diocese.” The
Bishop then declared that 19 No
vember, the day on which the Su
preme Court Ruling was delivered,
would be a day of thanksgiving for
the diocese.
Amid the celebrations, there were
moments of stillness, and a minute’s
silence was held in memory of
Jessica Mandeya, who died as a re
sult of the violence. There were
messages of support and solidarity
from the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Anglican Consultative Council,
Harare’s partner diocese of Roches
ter, the Prior of Taizé, the Arch
bishop of Central Africa, and the
general secretary of Us (formerly
USPG).
In his message, Dr Williams com
mended the leadership of Bishop
Gandiya, and Bishop Sebastian
Bakare before him, and said that the
faith of Anglicans in Harare had
been a beacon of light to the rest of
the Anglican Communion.
Before the procession to the cath
edral, water and incense were
blessed for ceremonies of rededica
tion and cleansing in every church
in the diocese. Churches will need
considerable restoration work. Some
have been used for moneymaking
enterprises, such as offices and
accommodation; others were used
for crèches; and it is said that one
was used for a brothel and a
drinking hall.
In an action akin to the destruc
tion of statues at the Reformation,
Kunonga had removed from the
cathedral cloisters burial plaques,
carvings, and commemorative dis
plays that honoured prominent
colonialera citizens as well as black
soldiers of the colonial African
Rifles regiment. These have not
been found.
The exiles
return:
above, right:
a procession
streams
through the
doors of Harare
Cathedral;
below: out
side, thousands
throng Africa
unity Square
to hear Bishop
Gandiya (above,
left) deliver his
sermon
pHoToS iZZY TReDiNNiCK
An early theologian, Tertullian,
looking at the persecution of Chris
tians in the Early Church, com
mented that the blood of the
martyrs was the seed of the Church.
Many churches in Harare now have
congregations that have grown so
significantly that the buildings can
no longer hold them. One lay
person told me that they had to
provide an extra service for the
overflow.
The challenges faced by the
diocese of Harare are considerable,
and our sisters and brothers there
will need our prayers as much now
as ever.
Dr Brian Castle is the Bishop of Ton
bridge.
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11
real life
margaret duggan
looks around the dioceses
Royal sympathy
FEW things can be more devastating — particularly just
before Christmas — than to have one’s home flooded: with
the destruction of treasured possessions, the long months of
drying out and repair, the worry of insurance, and the fear that
it could happen again.
The recent floods were
particularly severe in St
Asaph, when the River
Elwy burst its banks.
The torrential rains,
together with the full
moon bringing high tides
had been too much for
the flood defences, built
after the floods of 50
years ago. Some 400
houses were affected,
and, tragically, one
elderly woman, who had
been trying to get out of
her flooded home, was
found dead.
The water was quickly pumped away, the diocesan com
munications officer, Phil Topham, says, and the emergency
and relief services worked enormously hard, as did all the
clergy. And now the reality of the damage has hit home. There
are people without insurance, or those who lost it when banks
changed hands, and there are those who have nowhere to go
and are living upstairs in their ruined houses.
People were particularly appreciative when Prince Charles
visited the city, and showed real concern. He spent time with
people in their damp and devastated homes; he visited workers
in the fire service who had worked so hard to pump away the
filthy water; and in St Asaph Cathedral (above) he met victims
of the flooding, and some of the many volunteers and mem
bers of the relief organisations, including the lifeboat men of
the RNLI, the Red Cross, and secondaryschool children.
The Dean, the Very Revd Nigel Williams, said how pleased
everyone was that the Prince had visited. “He was with us in
our joy when we received city status, and now he has come
alongside us in our sorrow — this has made a vast difference
to people of this community. He’s got a deep sense of concern
for the individuals who have been affected, especially the fact
that these floods have gone through people’s homes. People
are glad that he’s been to the affected areas and that has been
very well received.”
It is known that the Prince made a contribution to the
Mayor’s relief fund, which the Church is also supporting.
Chilly dip
IT WAS only on the
day before that the
Revd Matthew Knox,
Vicar of Spittal,
Scremerston and
Tweedmouth, in
Newcastle diocese, was
rung up by the staff of
the Garden House care
home and told that they
were going to do a sponsored
dip in the North Sea to raise
funds for his parish. Mr Knox
tells me that he was so taken
aback that he felt the least he
could do was join them.
And that is how he came to
be standing up to his waist in
the icy waves, still wearing his
clerical collar (above). The
acting manager of Garden
House, Jane Filer, said that, as
he had started to provide
services and pastoral care for
the House, they thought it
would be nice to give
something back by raising
money for the parish (which,
Mr Knox tells me, is a very
poor one).
“When we told
him about the dip,
he was only too
happy to join us;
and, while it was
very cold, it was a
lot of fun.” But they
were in for the
shortest time
possible, Mr Knox
said, sounding as
though he was still
shivering. “It was a complete
surprise when they said they
were raising money for the
parish, but I was only too glad
to take part.”
The staff had been spon
sored by the residents and
their families, and hope that
they have raised more than
£300.
On their way
THE new crib figures are steadily
travelling to Leicester Cathedral,
sometimes together, sometimes
separately, to arrive in time for the
crib service on Christmas Eve.
Handcarved from oak by Charles
Currey, from York, and half life
size, they are a significant new art
commission. So far, there is only
one shepherd, and one king, but
the cathedral hopes to have raised
enough money for a full comple
ment of both by next Christmas.
They started their journey in a
coffee shop in the city, then the
king visited Leicester Grammar School while the Holy Family
went on to Leicester City Football Club. They have since taken
part in several carol services, “as silent witnesses to the coming
love and peace of Advent”.
The Chancellor of the cathedral, Canon David Monteith, says
that “to have such a work of art for Leicester brings beauty to our
austerity. The Christmas story will now be seen as well as heard.”
Appointment on high
From generation to generation
THE family christening robe had been
brought out and heavily starched.
William Gibbins, the fourth genera
tion of his farming family, wore it for
his baptism in the font of St Andrew’s,
Feniton, in Exeter diocese.
All four generations of the Gibbins
family were there when William was
baptised by the Revd Cate Edmonds
on Advent Sunday, and given a candle
as a symbol of the light of Christ. His
mother, Pauline, said: “Baptism is
really important for us, as we feel it’s a
way as parents to start our children on
a good path towards God, and [it is]
also a welcoming into his family.”
12
Island sleep-out
WE DO not often hear from the Channel Islands
on this page, even though they are part of the
diocese of Winchester. But the church adminis
trator at St Brelade’s, on Jersey, Terri Bond, tells
me that more than 80 people braved the weather
to sleep out in a car park at the end of November,
to raise funds and awareness for the homeless
projects on the island.
Among them were clergy, politicians,
journalists, and fundraisers from a number of
charities, all sustained by warm drinks and
sandwiches (right). The Revd Mark Bond, Rector
of St Brelade’s (he calls it the prettiest church on
the island), says that “Jersey is often seen as an
affluent island, but there are still the same prob
lems of homelessness caused by family break
down, unemployment, drugs, and alcoholism as
anywhere else.”
He, with two others, started a tenbed hostel for
homeless men two years ago. It has now grown to
30 beds, and they have set up a formal trust. “We
try to stop them hitting rock bottom,” he tells me.
Homelessness tends to be hidden on the island,
with men sleeping on floors and sofas rather than
in doorways, but it is still important to keep them
from a downward spiral. Mr Bond tells me that,
so far, they have helped some 120 men “who have
come out the other side”. The sleepout, he says,
was about “changing hearts and minds, changing
negative attitudes to those who have it tough”.
They are still collecting the sponsorship money,
but, judging by the pledges, the total should be
substantial.
NOT for him — or the Bishop —
was it a nice conventional licensing
in a church or bishop’s chapel. The
Revd Rod Lee chose to go up higher,
to identify himself with the North
ampton Fire and Rescue Service in
Peterborough diocese, whose chap
lain he has become.
The legal part of the ceremony,
conducted by the Bishop of Brix
worth, the Rt Revd John Holbrook,
was held at ground level, so that the
dozen firemen and others could
hear what was being said, but
Bishop Holbrook handed over his
licence after they had both been
lifted 100 feet in the air, in the cage
of the aerialrescue pump.
Mr Lee, a former Vicar of St
Columba’s, Corby, now retired, is
one of two chaplains to the 580
firefighters at the 22 stations in
Northamptonshire. “They are
invaluable,” the Chief Fire Officer,
Martyn Emberson, says. “Fire
fighters can talk to them about
things they couldn’t discuss with
others. They give spiritual support,
and help firefighters to cope with
situations they have to face in their
work.”
The Bishop expressed his
gratitude to the Fire Service for the
way they had dealt with a small fire
at his home.
Friday
19.00
Celebratory drinks before . . .
19.30 Church Times 150th-anniversary Gala Dinner
Special guest Stephen Cottrell
Supported by Bodegas Marques de Caceres
21.00
Speaker – to be confirmed. Please check website
Saturday
10:00 Christ in Modern Art
Richard Harries & Roger Wagner
The image of Jesus Christ has inspired some of the greatest
works of art in history over many centuries. But how have the
artists of the modern era approached this subject?
10:00 Stories From the Heart: Telling the stories of our
faith (1)
Tony Price & Hilary Campbell
Hear the story. Storytellers Tony Price and Hilary Campbell
share some of their favourite stories from the Bible and
Christian tradition.
10:00 Wilful Blindness
Margaret Heffernan & John Pritchard
Why do we turn a blind eye? In Wilful Blindness: Why
We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril, Margaret Heffernan
argues that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the
ones we don’t see – not because they're secret or invisible, but
because we’re wilfully blind.
11:30 Was it Murder at the Vicarage?
James Runcie, Sara Thornton & Jane Williams
In her book A Vicarage Family, much loved author Noel Streatfeild gives a fictionalised account
of her childhood. Three people who know what it’s
really like growing up a vicarage reflect on Streatfeild’s world and talk about their own experiences.
11:30 Christ in the Wilderness
Stephen Cottrell
Stanley Spencer's paintings of Christ in the Wilderness are
among the most important and challenging images in the 20th
century. Stephen Cottrell reflects upon some of these paintings
and what they say to us.
11:30 Stories From The Heart: (2)
Learn the Story: a workshop to encourage all who take part to
begin learning biblical stories.
14:00 Stories From The Heart: (3)
Tell the Story: a chance to practise the story-telling techniques
from the workshop this morning.
14:00 Murder in the Dark: Crime as Entertainment
Ian Blair, James Runcie & Jeany Spark
How do we explain the enduring human fascination with
crime fiction? And just how different is real crime from the
world created by authors and screenwriters? Lord Blair, James
Runcie and Jeany Spark from Wallander discuss our enduring love affair with crime as entertainment.
14:00 The Spider King’s Daughter
Chibundu Onuzo & Jane Williams
Chibundu Onuzo’ s debut novel is a dark story
about love and divided loyalties in contemporary Lagos. She talks to Jane Williams about
her writing, and her longing to see a more
equal society in her home country of Nigeria.
15:30 The Limits of Forgiveness
Marian Partington & Michael Lloyd
Are there ever limits to forgiveness? Marian Partington talks
to Michael Lloyd about coming to terms with the death of her
sister, Lucy, at the hands of Fred and Rosemary West, and her
own journey towards healing.
15:30 Value and Values: Ethics in the City
Tony Baldry, Peter Selby, Anne Kiem & David Rouch
While the row over the Occupy protest raged, St Paul’s
Institute, based at the cathedral, published a report Value and
Values that uncovered City attitudes to ethics – and to the
Church. Fifteen months on, this panel discussion, looks at that
report and its implications.
15:30 Horrid Heroes, Vicious Villains and Cruel
Creatures!
Julia Golding
Not for the fainthearted! Good stories need great baddies.
Come and spend the afternoon with some really vile villains.
Prizes will be give for those who come up with the baddest
baddy of them all. Suitable for accompanied children 8+
17:00 Fetters, Liberty and the Devil’s Party
Andrew Motion & Mark Oakley
Is it true that the Devil always has the best lines
in literature? Are virtuous characters dull and
only evil of real interest in the novels and poems
we read? If so, why? The former poet laureate
Sir Andrew Motion and Canon Oakley discuss.
17:00 Devices and Desires in the Media
Andrew Brown & Alan Wilson
Church Times columnist Andrew Brown and Bishop Alan
Wilson discuss the media – and you the users – post-Leverson.
18:30 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Reflections on Good
and Evil in Snow White
Jeany Spark & Ed Newell
Snow White is one the world’s best known stories about good
and evil. Jeany Spark and Ed Newell consider how the tale of
Snow White has evolved, the Brothers Grimm to its retelling
by others including Walt Disney and Philip Pullman.
18:30 Where Twilight Lingers
Pádraig Ó Tuama
How do we articulate faith when we are tugged in many
directions? How do we pray when we do not know what good
to pray for? How do we tell stories in a way that creates
conversation rather than builds walls? This poetry and storytelling event will explore these questions.
20:00 Dancing the Unspeakable
Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance
Exploring good and evil and biblical
images of ‘the unspeakable’, with dancers
and musicians from one of the world’s
leading dance schools and its director,
Ross McKim.
20:00 ‘All we, like sheep, have gone astray’
Andrew Motion, Mark Oakley, and the North
Cotswold Chamber Choir
There is a fun side to good and evil. Sir Andrew Motion and
Mark Oakley team up with members of the North Cotswold
Chamber Choir for a light-hearted revue, looking at the themes
of good and evil through songs and readings.
Sunday
09:30
Parish Communion at St Mary’s, Bloxham
11:00 The Strange World of Thursday Next
Jasper Fforde & Paul Handley
Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film
business before debuting on the New York
Times Bestseller list with The Eyre Affair in
2001. He talks to Paul Handley about
his unique blend of comedy-sci-fi-thrillerliterary-crime-satire.
11:00 The Philosopher and the Gospel
Keith Ward
What happens when a philosopher reads the Gospels?
Keith Ward makes four claims: possible salvation for
all; figurative teachings about ‘the end of the age’; a
distinctive ethics of virtue; and foreshadowing ultimate
union with God.
12:30
Unapologetic
Francis Spufford
In Unapologetic, Francis Spufford has written a witty, sharptongued personal defence of Christian belief, a remarkable
account of what believing in God is actually like and a defence
of Christian emotions – of their intelligibility, of their grownup dignity.
12:30 The Light
Nicola Green & Paula Gooder
Artist Nicola Green’s latest project celebrates the unsung
global heroes of faith around the globe. She talks about her
witnessing meetings between major religious leaders include
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, the Chief Rabbi and
the Dalai Lama.
14:00 In Good Faith
Patrick Gale & Alex Preston
How do novelists tackle the subject of goodness and faith?
Authors Patrick Gale and Alex Preston have created characters
struggling to live by faith in the modern world. They discuss
the appeal and challenge of writing about faith in fiction.
14:00 Heaven and Hell in the Bible
Paula Gooder
Impressions of heaven and hell are heavily
influenced by, among other things, Medieval Art
work. So what are we meant to think about heaven
and hell?
15:30 Tea at St Mary's Church, Bloxham
A visit to this stunning Oxfordshire church is a must – even
without the lure of a marvellous parish tea.
16:30 Songs of Praise at St Mary’s
Choirs of St Mary’s Church & Bloxham School
Free event - no need to buy a ticket, just come along and
join us at St Mary's Church. The Bishop of Dorchester
will speak.
Tickets just £10!
21:15 Tenx9 Storytelling
Pádraig Ó Tuama
Especially for Bloxham, join Pádraig Ó Tuama for a unique
experience of storytelling. Tenx9 is based on a monthly storytelling night in Belfast. Nine people have up to ten minutes to
tell a story from their lives. The results are breathtaking.
13
comment
An earlier Census
THERE would have been no religious question in the census to
which St Luke refers at the start of his Gospel. The question was
asked by a higher authority, and involved a star, not a cross —
not, at least, until later. Although the star could be seen by all,
its meaning was revealed to only a few (we do not know how
many Magi there were). From the time of Christ’s first ap
pearance, therefore, the truth of God was hidden from the
multitude.
It is natural to be alarmed at the 13percent fall, from 2001
to 2011, in the number of people who marked the “Christianity”
box on their Census form. It is encouraging to be part of a large,
likeminded, or likehearted, group. Also, those who have
received the gift of God’s love, as water to the thirsty, des
perately wish it for others, too.
One likely cause of the decline, from 71 to 59 per cent, is a
greater honesty among nominal Christians. It may seem hard to
understand how people can be halfhearted followers of Christ,
when, even with diligence and application, regular churchgoers
know that they remain far from perfect. But parents, or those
who remember their childhood, will recall that even the most
sublime forms of worship can meet with indifference.
A relationship with God is a delicate, individual plant. In its
early stages, it needs to be rescued from the biting scorn of the
materialistic world, protected from the distractions of everyday
life, and nurtured by kind mentors and formative reading.
When so much of this has to be mediated through the ministry
of fallible people, the 59 per cent can appear on the high side. It
is a reminder of the necessity of God’s grace, which blesses the
efforts of ministers, choirs, and congregations, especially at this
time, to reveal Christ to those who most need his love.
Creed battle in Hereford
ing out their declaration that they
would use the form in the Prayer
Book prescribed, and none other.
December THE great meeting at
20th, 1912. Hereford on Wednes
day made it perfectly
clear that by the appointment of
Latitudinarians of various hues
and affinities to the canonries as
they successively fell vacant, the
Bishop of Hereford has at last
constituted a Chapter which is
entirely out of touch with the city
and the diocese. It is not every
subject which, at the busiest
moment of the year, will fill the
Town Hall of a cathedral city with
an absolutely unanimous audi
ence. But the silencing of the
Athanasian Creed in the Cathedral
[100 Years Ago, 14 December] has
caused so deep and widespread a
feeling among the orthodox of the
diocese that priests and laymen
from all parts of the diocese
gathered at a day or two’s notice.
. . . The resolution was framed
with all respect for the Dean and
Chapter. It refrained from protest,
it appealed earnestly to the Dean
and Chapter to restore in their
Cathedral the rubrical use of the
Creed. Doubtless there were those
present who would have desired a
more combative resolution, but
the terms in which it was proposed
and carried without a single dis
sentient voice at least affords to
the Dean and Chapter an oppor
tunity of reconsidering their re
cent decision. . . It remains to be
seen whether the Dean, who knows
the city far better than his col
leagues, and than whom, as we
gather, there is probably no more
popular citizen, will be able to
prevail upon the Canons to set
themselves right with the diocese
by the simple expedient of carry
14
December THE Dean and Chap
27th, 1912. ter of Hereford have
been compelled to
give way, but it is impossible to
congratulate them as heartily as
we might on the manner of their
retreat. They are unable to carry
out their order to the Minor
Canons “that the public saying or
singing of the Athanasian Creed
be discontinued.” Thus far the
situation is satisfactory, but what
follows is not equally ingenuous.
They direct that the statutory
recitation of Matins, for which the
Minor Canons are responsible,
shall be at eight o’clock and
without music, and that there shall
be choral Matins as an extra ser
vice at eleven, without the Quicun
que vult.
In regard to this function, it
may be observed that, as it is
not a statutory service, the Minor
Canons are under no compulsion
to take part in it, and we trust that
they will leave it to the Canons
themselves to sing it as well as they
can. Upon the latter should be
thrown the responsibility of de
priving the faithful of Hereford of
their right to hear this great
anthem sung in its appointed
place. Still, the net result of the
resistance to this arbitrary con
duct on the part of the Canons is
to make it difficult for Chapters
elsewhere to make the same kind
of attempt to override the plain
directions of the Prayer Book and
the law governing the clergy. If the
Chapter at Hereford, wholly united
and desperately bent on carrying
their point, are unable to do so, it
is tolerably certain that no other
Cathedral Chapter will succeed.
The Church can serve
cultural Christians
There is an opportunity for fresh engagement with those who
are now open to faith, argues Marie-Elsa Bragg
IN A meeting I attended this month
with other women clergy, it was
noted how, since the General Synod
had voted against the women
bishops Measure, many priests had
been contacted by “cultural Chris
tians”, people who had until now at
tended only christenings, weddings,
and funerals, and possibly midnight
mass with their families, but now
either wished to be involved, or
simply felt that they could make
contact with the Church.
Many of the priests felt inspired
that, out of this difficult situation,
we had been given a rare chance to
become relevant to people’s lives
again.
A majority of these people prob
ably form the 70 per cent in the
2011 Census carried out by YouGov
to complement the ONS Census
(News, 14 December). There they
described themselves as having been
brought up as Christian, but have
sought spiritual sustenance else
where, or not at all.
Although generations of work
have been dedicated to this min
istry, if we are to grasp this op
portunity, we need to reexamine
why people have not been able to
find what they are looking for in a
tradition as rich as our own.
THE most common reason that
people now give for not attending
church regularly is that they see
religion as one of the main causes of
destructive behaviour, both in his
tory and around the world today.
Religion is often in the news, if
not as the cause of conflict, then
pervading or appearing to condone
unacceptable social or political situ
ations. In the past decade or so, per
haps since 9/11, many people seem
to have become more concerned
that, in attending church, they might
align themselves with this record.
Some have, therefore, searched
for a God that is beyond organised
religion, so that they can simplify
their faith and begin to relate to
a transpersonal divinity. When
asked, many reply: “I am not
religious, but I am spiritual.”
They have searched through
meditation, mindfulness, self
examination, alternative healing,
and westernised versions of
Eastern traditions (the last of
which appear to have left aside
their political histories).
Yet, in Western Christianity, we
have a long heritage of exploring
spirituality, vividly shown, for
example, in the work of the Desert
Fathers and the monastic orders.
We have generations of teaching on
spiritual experience, mindfulness,
and a simple and yet profound unity
with the divine: works from Gregory
of Nazianzus to Ignatius of Loyola,
and from Julian of Norwich to Bede
Griffiths. So why is it that we
struggle to reach people in this way?
ONE person was asked whether he
would attend a meditation class at a
church in his lunch break. He
replied: “No, because they would
force their prayers on me at the
same time, and I don’t trust them.” I
wonder whether we have under
estimated the trust that needs to be
rebuilt for people to be able receive
what is inherently their own tra
dition.
It can be hard for us to receive
attacks and be blamed for corrup
tion. But, if we are frightened to
enter the conflict — if we feel
accusations can be exaggerated, un
informed, unjust, or that people are
digging up the past, associating us
with other religions, ignoring the
terrible things done to us, or
missing the positive contributions
— then we are afraid to meet those
who are wounded.
Our fear is as strong as theirs, and
we, too, are in need of remembering
God, who is beyond conflict, and
forgives. A remembering that sup
ports us to step into ideas of betrayal
and the desecration of the sacred
will be painful for us. But, with the
support of a loving God, this step
could help both sides to listen to
each other and to change.
THE second most common reason
that people give for not looking to
the Church for spiritual guidance is
the distance they feel from the life of
Christ. One person who sought to
reconnect with his church recently
said: “I just couldn’t sit and listen
about Jesus, who lived 2000 years
ago with all the different people
‘I am not religious,
but I am spiritual’
of that time, and find it relevant to
my life. I found more meaning in
spending time with my family.”
Another said: “I was asked to be a
godmother, and thought I would
start going again with my niece, but
when I had to say the vows, I
couldn’t do it. The things we had to
say were disturbing, and we were
told we had to believe completely in
it all.” Yet another said: “I didn’t get
why the Old Testament readings
could be so cruel, and why that was
something they would want to read
out and respect.”
Our tradition has a vast body of
teaching about the steps that can be
taken before being able to encounter
the life of Christ. For example, an
Ignatian spiritual director has to
assess people to see whether they are
ready for a 30day silent retreat that
prays through the life of Christ. The
spiritual director looks for faith in a
loving God — nothing more. Many,
however, are sent away to prepare,
and the preparation can take years,
if not a lifetime, before they will be
ready.
Doubt is not something to fear.
Neither is it something that has to
be overcome in order to live with
Christ: it is something to be com
panioned. True companionship seeks
to find two things: a language that
those whom we accompany can
relate to, and the willingness to
watch for God at work in their
lives.
Perhaps if we were to talk more
to people who express such doubts
about the Church — asking them
where or when they have felt a
connection with something greater,
and if we were then willing to find
grace in the most unexpected an
swers — then we would meet them
where the Spirit was working in
their lives, and support them
towards finding a loving God.
A FURTHER question is the rele
vance of our church community to
most people living in an area. A
group of teenagers in one city were
found laying candles and cards in a
street, where a friend had fallen out
of a window. They said that if
the church could have done a
memorial service in the way
they would have believed in,
“just spiritual”, they would
Continued on page 27
comment
There has to be an alternative
Nuclear weapons, designed for mass destruction, should be abandoned, says David Atkinson
Giles Fraser
There is no
organised
religion
IT WAS the looroll that finally did
it for me. It was positioned just a few
inches off the floor — within perfect
reach for those sitting down, but in a
ridiculous place for those standing
up. I apologise for the graphic na
ture of this image. But it was the loo
roll position that made me realise
what I hate about Brasilia — and
also what I hate about atheistic
rationalism. This is going to take
some explaining.
Everything in Brasilia has been
planned. But the capital city of
Brazil, a country known for its
energy and dynamism, is anything
but these things. It is Milton Keynes
on steroids. Everything is set out
rationally on a grid system, but
bizarrely in the shape of an aero
plane. There is a hotel quarter, a
political quarter, a restaurant quar
ter. Finding a café from my hotel was
a tenminute taxi ride.
This is the architect Oscar
Niemeyer’s interpretation of the
words “progress and order” that are
emblazoned on the Brazilian flag.
The 104yearold died this month,
and the flags are flying at halfmast
in his supposed masterpiece.
Niemeyer’s signature buildings
are great concrete saucers, set in
a monochrome cream Legoland.
Thank God for graffiti. Chaos is
human. But mostly in Brasilia, you
are told what to do and how to do it
— even down to the way you go to
the loo.
To get from A to B, you need to
drive. I want to walk, but that option
isn’t rational, apparently: it doesn’t
involve a machine, so it’s not part of
the plan. I removed the loo paper
from the holder, and placed it on the
shelf in a small and petulant act of
defiance.
This is what I hate about rational
istic atheism — or rationalistic
theism, for that matter. I don’t mind
atheism, although I’m not one. Live
and let live, I say: Nietzsche was a
genius. But the idea that my beliefs
have to be rationally ordered is an
instrument of control. The com
munists did it; the military did it
(both, in turns, very happy with the
way that Brasilia was being built).
But this type of rationalism does not
have a human scale.
What I love about faith, among
many things, is that it won’t tell me
that my absurd hopes and dreams
are absurd. Some of the best parts of
the Bible are the weirdest. A baby as
God: it’s ridiculous. But it’s also
fantastically generative and imagin
ative. Even God exists on a human
scale.
I know that religion can be hi
jacked by people who want to use it
to tell others what to do — mostly
about how they can and cannot have
sex, and whom they can and cannot
have it with. Those people also need
to be ignored. But, fundamentally,
there is no such thing as organised
religion. All religion is intrinsically
messy. It is the graffiti of the soul.
TRIDENT is catching the headlines
again. Sometimes, it is about the
proposals to renew the nuclear
weapons programme, on which a
decision is expected in 2016, and the
phenomenal costs involved — not
only of procurement, but of continu
ing service; or about the loss of jobs
on the Clyde, should the SNP win
the referendum on Scottish inde
pendence and ask for the removal of
Trident from its Scottish base.
Sometimes, the discussion is
about the strategic value, in a world
of very different threats, of a nuclear
deterrent developed during the Cold
War. The Government says that it
contemplates its use only for deter
ring aggression in extreme circum
stances of selfdefence. My concern
is more basic: the use, and threat of
use, of weapons of indiscriminate
massdestruction is wrong.
From the very beginning, Chris
tians have come to different con
scientious views about warfare.
There was a dominant pacifist
strand in the first three centuries,
partly for political and social
reasons, but also because of theo
logy. “In disarming Peter,” Tertul
lian said, “Christ unbelted every
soldier.” That pacifist strand has
continued throughout Christian
history.
Another strand developed, how
ever. Under Constantine, the cross
became a military emblem. Ambrose
of Milan helped Christians to see
that engagement in defensive war
could be permissible in some cir
cumstances, provided that it was
just. Augustine further established
the “justwar” tradition in the Chris
tian conscience. Living during the
barbarian invasions of the empire,
Augustine argued that it was per
missible to vindicate justice in the
face of evil by the use of force, pro
vided that the “spirit of the peace
maker” was maintained.
In the Middle Ages, Thomas
Aquinas extended justwar thinking
pA
protest: a demonstration outside Faslane naval base in Scotland
to include the permissibility of self
defence, and set out some causes
that define “justice” in war. It was
the Dutch lawyer Hugo Grotius who
systemised these into criteria for
deciding whether any particular war
has a just cause, and whether it is
conducted justly.
IN CHRISTIAN thinking, “just war”
has not been about justifying war,
which can only ever be a lesser evil,
but it has meant limiting war by the
requirements of justice. Justice has
been understood as an expression of
neighbourlove. We do not love our
neighbours, or our enemies, it is ar
gued, by allowing injustice to suc
ceed.
As the American Christian eth
icist Paul Ramsey put it: “justwar
theory arose . . . from a quite humble
moral reason subjecting itself to the
sovereignty of God and the lordship
of Christ, as Christian men felt
themselves impelled out of love to
justify war, and by love severely to
limit war.”
Two of the “severe limits”, as the
theory has developed, are the cri
terion of proportion (use of only the
minimum force needed to obtain the
objective); and the criterion of dis
crimination, sometimes called non
combatant
immunity
(non
combatants must not be directly and
intentionally targeted). It was these
criteria to which Bishop Bell fam
ously appealed in 1944, challenging
the Allies’ saturationbombing of
Hamburg and Berlin: “That is not a
justifiable act of war.”
THE use of strategic nuclear
weapons is outlawed on the criteria
both of proportion and discrim
ination. They involve a maximum
not a minimum use of force. And
such weapons are indiscriminate by
design — that is what is so evil about
them. The impact on innocent
human beings and on the physical
environment is horrendous.
It is not enough to argue that the
UK has been reducing its nuclear
capability, which it has. It is not
enough to argue that replacing
Trident can be compatible with our
obligations under nonproliferation
agreements, which I think is very
debatable. I cannot see how the use
of strategic nuclear weapons could
ever be justified, no matter by
whom, or for whatever cause.
But what of the threat of their
use? They are kept not for use, but as
a deterrent. If the deterrent effect
implies a resolution to use these
weapons, then they must be re
nounced.
But what if, as the German
theologian Helmut Thielicke argued
at the time of the Cold War, deter
rence can be maintained without
any essential intention to use the
weapons, or any need for bluff?
Possession of them, he argues, is suf
ficient deterrent, because our
opponent is sufficiently uncertain
about whether we will use them or
not. It is that uncertainty and am
biguity that our various Govern
ments have sought to maintain.
My view is that the possession of
such weapons would need much
stronger moral justification; for what
they say — and, presumably, what at
least some in our Government may
well mean — is “We are willing to be
unbelievably cruel, if we are
provoked far enough.” This is not
proportionate, discriminate, or just.
I realise that a moral direction and
moral goal are one thing; political
decision
about
timing
and
implementation is another.
The political choice that we face
seems to be either: “The risks of
abandoning our nuclear weapons
are at present too great;” or “Despite
all risks, the only morally respons
ible course is to abandon any reli
ance on weapons designed for mass
destruction.” It is the latter view that
I find by far the most morally per
suasive — which makes the search
for alternatives to renewing a stra
tegic nuclear deterrent very pressing.
Dr David Atkinson is a former
Bishop of Thetford, and is an
Honorary Assistant Bishop in the
diocese of Southwark.
Don’t wallow in the sick details
“IT MAKES it more
poignant that this has
happened at Christmas,” a
radio reporter said to one
of the parents at the school
in the United States, where
20 infants and six adults
were killed by a gunman
last week. As banal
remarks go, it outstripped
the usual “So how do you
feel?” question to the
unhappy individuals in the vortex of the latest
media tornado.
It betrays, of course, something of the senti
mental contemporary view of Christmas, which
routinely forgets that the child in the manger is
born to be crucified. The slaughter of the Holy
Innocents is neatly elided in the secular calendar
between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. But
the remark speaks of something more disquiet
ing.
Perhaps I am out on a limb here, but I felt a
curious sense of unease at the blanket media
coverage of the events. There has been a
melodrama about much of the writing which is
otiose in a situation where the events are dramatic
enough without prurient adornment. It feels
at times like a selfindulgent paddling in a grief
that is too profound for casual journalism to
fathom.
That kind of writing might be excusable in the
United States, where heartbreaking detail might in
some way influence the debate on the politics of
The media should avoid
dwelling on the latest
slaughter, says Paul Vallely
gun control. But what we write and read here will
change nothing, just as the previous litany of
names, such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the
Batman shooting at Aurora changed nothing. They
are just the mass shootings we remember: there
were 13 other such attacks in 2012 alone, the
Washington Post reports. Each produces the same
howls of outrage and the same futile round of
arguments as the previous massacre.
In the United States, the House of Represent
atives is currently controlled by a Republican party
that is deeply in hock to the National Rifle
Association (NRA), which vehemently opposes
bans on guns with arguments about how this
is “more of a mentalhealth problem than a
guncontrol problem”. Many Democrat poli
ticians acquiesce, fearful that the NRA could oust
them.
What makes things even more complex is that
most gun legislation is set by states rather than the
federal government — and gun shows and the
internet are exempt from regulation. British people
railing against this, forgetting Dunblane and
Hungerford, do little more than assert their own
rational and moral superiority over our purblind
American cousins.
In the wake of the death of Jacintha Saldanha,
the nurse who took the hoax call about the
pregnant Duchess of Cambridge, the Samaritans
issued an interesting media briefing. Noting strong
evidence that copycat suicides occur as a result of
extensive press coverage, it counselled against
giving too many explicit details — on the method
of death, or the contents of any suicide note — and
sensationalist reporting. Some of those cautions
would be well applied to the horrors at Sandy Hook
Elementary.
Grief and bereavement should not be turned
into the latest myth, as if they were some newly
discovered fairy story by Hans Christian Anderson.
Myth was a prereligious way of making sense of
the world, telling stories that help us through
adversity by convincing us that the world is not
completely random, but has shape and purpose.
The slaughter of the Holy Innocents is a revealing
theological corollary to the joy of the Christmas
story.
But Herod’s story is a warning against the
cruelty of power, whereas Sandy Hook plunges us
only into the sick psychology of derangement.
Stories of courage and love in that terrified school
were reported, but the primary media fascination
was with the lurid detail of the killing, the anguish
of the bereaved, and the motivation of the gunman.
This offers only a modern parable of existential
futility.
We should not hide from the truth, but nor
should we wallow in it.
Paul Vallely is associate editor of The Independent.
15
comment
Bring on more of the mystery
We should approach the birth narratives with greater imagination, says Nick Jowett
Simon Parke
Transfer
window
THE mother is with child, and we
are told to rejoice, and again,
rejoice; for one is promised who
will be called “wonderful”, and will
be third in line to the throne.
Politicians fell over themselves to
be “more pleased than thou” at the
announcement that the Duchess of
Cambridge was pregnant, and we
were all told that the nation was
rejoicing — but not the bit of it that
I was sitting with.
My friend had just returned from
Afghanistan, and he was furious at
the walltowall coverage. “This is
why I don’t feel comfortable in the
West,” he said. “It feels more real in
Afghanistan. There was a bomb in
Jalalabad yesterday. Why isn’t the
news covering that?”
But one man’s discomfort be
came a global fury after 2Day FM
radio set in motion the fickle law of
unintended consequences. Prank
phonecalls made to the King
Edward VII hospital meant that a
nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, took the
call. She was not talking to the royal
family as she imagined, but to a
giggling commercial radio station
in Australia. Tragically, it seems
that it was a humiliation she was
unable to cope with, and, as news of
her death crisscrossed the world,
there was a maelstrom of con
dolence, confusion, and rage.
Kate and Wills, as they are affec
tionately known, are not to blame
for any of this. One of the reasons
for the extraordinary interest in
their child is simply their popular
ity. In national polls, they are the
most popular royals, and therefore
lightningrods for the nation’s
transference — yes, it is time we
talked about that.
Transference is a process first de
scribed by Freud, whereby atti
tudes, feelings, and desires of very
early significant relationships are
transferred, unconsciously, on to
the counsellor; but its reach
stretches way beyond the therapy
room. When Diana, Princess of
Wales, died, the outpouring of grief
was believed by many to be a
transference of sadness on to Diana
which people did not allow or
acknowledge in themselves.
In like manner, other people can
sometimes draw happiness from us,
vicarious happiness, in which we
are happy on their behalf: “I’m so
happy for you, even if I can’t
experience it myself.” Transference
is not dangerous, once people are
conscious of it; and, in the hands of
a good therapist, can be used to
help people reengage with denied
feelings in themselves.
Kate and Wills are an ordinary
couple who are not an ordinary
couple, and, to that extent, rather
like Mary and Joseph, who, along
with their baby, were also under a
pressure they did not create for
themselves. “The hopes and fears of
all the years Are met in thee
tonight,” wrote the Revd Phillips
Brooks, of Philadelphia, after a pil
grimage to the Holy Land. Now
that’s what I call transference.
16
YOU finally sit down to write that
nativity play, or sermon on the
incarnation, and the chances are that
you will feel some pressure to present
the birth of Jesus as something rele
vant today.
As a result, the people sitting on
the school chairs, or in the pews, are
highly likely to get variations on the
“gritty realism” scenario. There will
be: Jesus’s birth in poverty; his lack
of a proper shelter; his welcome by
outsiders, and foreigners; or his
threatened murder by political power.
Now, all these political and social
themes are perfectly justifiable. But
have we noticed what a strong this
worldly emphasis they have? Chris
tian tradition down the ages has
often preferred to focus on the
wonder and mystery of the theo
logical paradox of God’s becoming
human. For example:
Hark, hark, the wise eternal Word,
Like a weak infant cries!
In form of servant is the Lord,
And God in cradle lies.
“Behold the Great Creator Makes”
Thomas Pestel, 15841659
Or else we have:
Welcome, all wonders in one
sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
“A Hymn of the Nativity”
Richard Crashaw, c.16131649
Such formulations take their cue
from the theologically imaginative
birthnarratives in Matthew and
Luke, and, of course from John’s
prologue, reflecting on the eternal
Word’s becoming flesh and dwelling
with us.
But, for me, the question arises:
are we still willing and able to
explore, in narrative and symbol, the
mystery of God becoming human?
Are we seeking, in fact, to capture
the numinosity of that moment?
Surely we do not need to be limited
to ever more literalistic or socio
pA
Follow the star: the actor Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith in Doctor Who)
directs students at St Clement and St James C of e school in London
logical versions of what originally
were imaginative, theological narra
tives, created by Luke and Matthew.
NOW we know that the process of
creating narrative around the birth
and childhood of Jesus continued
after the canonical gospels were
written. We have the Protoevangelia
of James and Thomas — both prob
ably appearing in the second century,
but always regarded as apocryphal.
The Protoevangelium of James,
which was clearly very popular, tells
us about Mary’s miraculous birth to
Anna and Joachim, Mary’s upbring
ing in the Temple, and about her
continuing virginity, which it repeat
edly emphasises — even to the point
of having a midwife examine her
after Jesus’s birth.
In this text, Joseph is explicitly an
old man with grown sons of his own.
His horror at finding that Mary is
pregnant is increased, and both he
and Mary have to undergo tests by
drinking water in the Temple to
prove that they have not had inter
course.
The gospel includes versions of
the annunciation, and the visit of
Mary to Elizabeth; it places the birth
of Jesus in a cave, describes the visit
of the astrologers, and has Jesus hid
den in a cows’ feeding trough to
escape the violence of Herod.
Already, in these passages, there is
material which could inform and
expand modern presentations of the
nativity. But, for me, the high point
of this narrative comes in chapter 18,
when we suddenly get a firstperson
narrative by Joseph.
He has left Mary, who has not yet
given birth, in a cave near Beth
lehem, with one of his sons guard
ing her, and he is looking for a
midwife. And then, in an extra
ordinary way, time seems to stand
still:
Now I, Joseph, was walking along
and yet not going anywhere. I
looked up at the vault of the sky
and saw it standing still, and then
the clouds and saw them paused
in amazement, and at the birds of
the sky suspended in midair. As I
looked on the earth, I saw a bowl
lying there and workers reclining
around it with their hands in the
bowl; some were chewing and yet
did not chew; some were picking
up something to eat and yet did
not pick it up; and some were
putting food in their mouths and
yet did not do so. Instead, they
were all looking upward. I saw
sheep being driven along and yet
the sheep stood still; the shepherd
was lifting his hand to strike them,
and yet his hand remained raised.
And I observed the current of the
river and saw goats with their
mouths in the water and yet they
were not drinking. Then all of a
sudden everything and everybody
went on with what they had been
doing.
WHEN Joseph returns to the cave
with the midwife, he finds the place
overshadowed by a dark cloud. As
the cloud withdraws, an intense light
shines from inside the cave. They
cannot bear to look at it. But when
the light fades, they see the baby
taking the breast of his mother, Mary.
The Gospel of James gives us an
astonishingly imaginative way of
experiencing what T. S. Eliot calls
“the point of intersection of the
timeless with time”. At the moment
when Jesus is born, time stands still.
There may be, in this passage, a
memory of Luke’s scene of the an
nunciation to the shepherds, but it
works entirely in its own right, subtly
suggesting the unique moment
when God stepped into the human
story.
A passage such as this could en
courage us to write spiritually im
aginative narratives around the char
acters of Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth
and Zechariah, and others who
might be involved. They could reflect
on, and sensitively present, the
moment when the divine became
human, when the eternal became
bound by time and space.
One such numinous moment
No room for signs and symbols here
MY CHURCH choir once did
an elaborate choral evensong,
followed by a reception, and
invited the neighbours. We
thought all had gone well, until,
a few days later, we got an irate
letter from a woman who lived
across the street from the
church. She had come, she said,
to what our flyers suggested
would be an innocuous secular concert — a per
formance of evening songs —but was furious to
discover that she had been lured into a “fullblown
church service”.
Her irritation was understandable. In the United
States, Evangelical churches regularly advertise
concerts that turn out to be evangelistic pro
grammes, where “pastors” and choral ensembles,
maintaining ecstatic glazed expressions, croon into
microphones to the accompaniment of gooey
Christian rock. And then there are the testimonies.
It is a semisoftsell — like those invitations to
tour resorts that turn out to be promotions for
timeshare properties. If you get bamboozled into
one, you soon realise that the programme is a hook
to make you sit through the sales pitch.
The idea that religious symbols, practices, or
ceremonies, such as evensong, might be cultural
goods that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their
theological convictions, rather than promotions of
religious belief, is alien in the US. Cultured
in the uS, public religious
displays are regarded with
suspicion, says Harriet Baber
despisers, in particular, regard every public display
of religiosity as a sales pitch: an attempt to “force
religion down people’s throats”, or, even worse, to
mark territory — to stick it to nonChristians that
they are on sufferance in a Christian country. So,
crusading secularists complain that religious
displays in schools, parks, or other publicly owned
properties are exclusionary, and violate a consti
tutionally mandated separation of Church and
State. And everyone sues.
This holiday season, the epicentre of litigation is
Santa Monica, a California town that, for the past
60 years, has hosted a display of Christmas dio
ramas at its seaside park. Last year, atheists
managed to win 11 out of the 14 available slots in
the city’s auction, and erected displays ridiculing
religious belief, including a large banner, sponsored
by the organisation American Atheists, which
featured pictures of Poseidon, Jesus, Santa Claus,
and a leering devil in coat and tie, announcing
that “37 million Americans know myths when
they see them.” The displays were vandalised; so
this year the city cancelled the programme in order
to avoid a repeat. A Christian group has sued.
There is no room in the US for the enjoyment of
outward and visible forms of religiosity for their
own sake rather than as means to some ulterior
end: peace of mind, personal effectiveness, or good
behaviour. Evangelicals want religious symbols
in public space to promote their moral values;
secularists, who want no part of their moral
agenda, insist that religion be confined to the
private sphere — ultimately, to the head, as dis
embodied “spirituality”.
But bare spirituality is a dull, meagre thing. It
misses out art, music and architecture, ritual,
poetry, and all the material expressions of spiritu
ality that make religion fun, and that believers and
atheists alike can enjoy. Christianity, in particular,
needs incarnation. To survive, it must be embodied
in material things and public ceremonies: in
church buildings and their furnishings, choral
evensong, and nativity scenes in parks.
Our Puritan forebears and their Evangelical
successors have destroyed religion: first, by sup
pressing the material symbols and public cerem
onies of folk religion, and now by poisoning what
they could not suppress by linking every religious
display to their moral agenda.
This is the way that religion ends — shrunk into
a moral programme, and sloughed off.
Dr Harriet Baber is Professor of Philosophy at the
University of San Diego, USA.
letters
See of Whitby: Fr North withdraws his acceptance Government’s gaymarriage legislation and the quadruple lock
From the Revd Tim Jones
Sir, — The Revd Philip North is one
of those “traditionalist” Church of
England priests who did not take
the money and run, after the
General Synod’s decision to ordain
women to the priesthood, because
they accepted assurances that their
theological perspective would not be
marginalised or victimised.
I disagree with him; but his
recent contribution on the floor of
the General Synod a few weeks ago
simply voiced an opinion concern
ing women’s ministry which, just
one generation ago, was wholly
within the mainstream of church
life. For Fr North subsequently to be
made to feel unable to serve as a
bishop in the diocese of York is a
matter of deep sadness.
Of course, there is acute dis
appointment and raw pain that the
majority view concerning women in
the episcopate did not prevail, and I
have a share in that. Any democratic
process must take care not to be a
vehicle for mob rule, however;
hence the genuine need for certain
farreaching decisions in the
General Synod to be carried by a
twothirds majority in all three
Houses.
I am proud to be in a Church that
affords real systemic protection to
those of minority viewpoint. If it is
the will of God, then I hope Fr
North is able to serve as a bishop,
somewhere, soon. A Church that is
healthy and broad needs voices like
his to be heard and honoured, and
gifts such as his to be given appro
priate scope. If such people are not
able to serve in the episcopate, then
it turns out that synodical assur
ances of “respect” were indeed
wholly inadequate after all.
TIM JONES
The Vicarage, Tang Hall Lane
York YO10 3SD
From Canon Andrew Hawes
Sir, — I have huge sympathy with
the Revd Philip North. The atmos
phere for traditionalists has become
increasingly toxic in the aftermath
of the womenbishops vote.
The institutional hysteria en
couraged by an ignorant and self
righteous media emboldened the
equality fundamentalists to unleash
their pentup frustration at the
enemy within. Even in this quiet
southwestern corner of Lincoln
shire, the emails and letters were let
fly. Their disdain, held back by
political expediency, has been given
true vent.
“Trust us,” they said before the
vote. “Get out of way,” they said
afterwards. What a pity, and what a
tragedy, that these slaves to ideology
should claim another scalp.
Surely, if we are such a minority,
why not give us a small and separate
jurisdiction, where priests like
Philip North could use their gifts to
the full in the service of the gospel
without the constant attrition of
deliberate, wilful, and unchristian
rejection.
ANDREW HAWES
The Vicarage, Church Lane
Edenham, Bourne PE10 0LS
From the Revd Paul Hutchinson
Sir, — The Revd Philip North is a
likeable and energetic priest with
many skills, and a Catholic heart for
mission. This has been evident since
his earliest posts in Durham diocese;
and the diocese of York has already
valued some of his skills as preacher,
ordinationretreat conductor, and
mission planner. So it is sad for him
that he has felt it necessary to with
draw. But there are other voices to
be heard.
The Bishop of Whitby is not a
flying bishop, but the suffragan with
pastoral responsibility for the
northern archdeaconry of Cleve
land. The archdeaconry does have a
concentration of parishes that do
not accept the ordination of women,
around Middlesbrough. The past
two Bishops of Whitby have been
wellknown conservatives.
But the archdeaconry of Cleve
land is by no means a majority
“traditionalist” area. There are at
least as many women priests here as
priests opposed, and a much larger
group of parishes (including my
own, where Bishops of Whitby have
lived since the 1960s) that are fully
supportive of women’s ordination
at all levels. Over the past 14 years,
women clergy and their many sup
porters have struggled with a situ
ation where women’s orders are
held in question by the local bishop.
The October announcement of a
third conservative, however able,
has stirred a general sense among
many, clergy and laity, that this
situation is unacceptable. The vote
at the General Synod, and Fr
North’s speech there, released a
groundswell of feeling that enough
was enough.
You have reported a letter of
protest. I understand it was signed
by many of the laity across the
archdeaconry. Clergy also have
expressed their feelings. The im
minent consecration of a new Pro
vincial Episcopal Visitor, well known
in this diocese, has further fuelled
the majority’s sense that a Bishop of
Whitby who doubts the orders of
some who serve under him is
neither necessary nor desirable.
Many here would wish Fr North
well. But we hope that, in due
course, the local episcopal oversight
for the north of York diocese will be
provided by a bishop who is both
readily available and identifies fully
and unequivocally with the ministry
of all the clergy. It would be a re
freshing change.
PAUL HUTCHINSON
The Rectory, Leven Close
Stokesley, Nr Middlesbrough
TS9 5AP
From the Revd Stephen Cooper
Sir, — So much then for inclusivity,
tolerance, and respect among our
different traditions! Those who have
campaigned so dishonourably
against the appointment of the Revd
Philip North as the next Bishop of
Whitby should hang their heads in
shame.
Many of us in the Cleveland arch
deaconry are extremely saddened to
have lost this opportunity to have
such an able and gifted pastor and
teacher as our Bishop. Our thoughts
and prayers are with Fr North at
this very painful and distressing
time.
STEPHEN COOPER
115 Cambridge Road
Middlesbrough TS5 5HF
Lectionary muddle
From the Revd Martin Culverwell
Sir, — There’s trouble ahead. I have
been asked to take the services on
13 and 20 January, the Baptism of
Jesus and Epiphany 3. Whoever
prepared the Lectionary, how
ever, has got it wrong; and I can see
why.
The Sunday after Epiphany is
always the Baptism of Jesus. Next
year, however, Epiphany falls on a
Sunday; so the following Sunday
is the Baptism of Jesus, but the
following Sunday is Epiphany 3. In
the C of E Lectionary, they have
called this Sunday Epiphany 3, but
got the readings for Epiphany 2,
and so on all the way through
Epiphany. It is wrong in Visual
Liturgy as well.
MARTIN CULVERWELL
8 Sandisplatt, Fareham PO14 3AG
From Mr David Lamming
Sir, — In reaffirming to the House
of Commons the Government’s
plans to introduce samesex mar
riage, the Equalities Minister, Maria
Miller, rightly acknowledged the
concern of many MPs (and others
who responded to or commented on
the consultation paper) that Euro
pean courts would force religious
organisations to conduct such mar
riages against their beliefs.
While expressing confidence that
the “quadruple lock of measures”
that she announced would provide
“ironclad protection in law”, she
also said: “The Government’s legal
position has confirmed that, with
appropriate legislative drafting, the
The ending of the
Kunonga project
From the Revd Melusi Sibanda
Sir, — Just over a year ago, the
Archbishop of Canterbury paid a
weeklong visit to the Church of
the Province of Central Africa
(CPCA), which included not only
a visit to Zimbabwe, but also a
meeting with President Robert
Mugabe. During the meeting, Dr
Williams gave the President a
dossier concerning the predicament
of genuine CPCA Anglicans under
the former Bishop of Harare,
Nolbert Kunonga.
Asserting that homosexuality
was a foreign issue and, therefore,
anathema to African culture, Ku
nonga decided to leave the CPCA in
2007, when he formed his socalled
Anglican Church of the Province of
Zimbabwe (ACPZ). For five years,
Kunonga held on to the properties
belonging to the CPCA until very
recently, when the situation was
remedied through a judgment of the
Supreme Court.
All along, Kunonga unleashed
fear on genuine Anglicans in the
country and, often being backed by
uniformed state security, seemed
to enjoy the support of President
Mugabe’s ZANU (PF) party. Ku
nonga openly supported the party’s
political culture of indigenisation,
which he actively manipulated in his
project for selfaggrandisement,
turning CPCA churches, rectories,
and mission stations into money
making schemes.
Dr Williams’s meeting with
President Mugabe was a crucial
point in the Anglican saga in con
temporary Zimbabwe, as it strength
ened the position and credibility of
the CPCA and weakened Kunonga’s
claim to legitimacy. Dr Williams
may have taken a risk in being the
highestranking British official to
meet President Mugabe in a decade,
but his visit led many to start ques
tioning Kunonga’s venture.
Together with the positive turn of
events in recent weeks, that visit can
be seen as one of Dr Williams’s
successful engagements with tem
poral authority and support for
global Anglicanism. It is a cause for
celebration as he comes towards the
end of his tenure, and also under
lines the fundamental nature of the
office of the Archbishop of Canter
bury as one of the Instruments of
Communion.
MELUSI SIBANDA
St Stephen’s Vicarage
Edgewood Road, Rednal
Birmingham B45 8SG
Church Times Letters
3rd floor, invicta House
108114 Golden Lane
London eC1Y 0TG
fax: 020 7490 7093
[email protected]
chances of a successful legal chal
lenge through domestic or Euro
pean courts is negligible.”
Negligible is not the same as nil.
When, during later exchanges, Mrs
Miller was asked by one MP to tell
the House what the risk of challenge
was in percentage terms, she failed
to give a straight answer.
Another MP, Andrew Brigden,
expressing his scepticism on the
“legal robustness” of Mrs Miller’s
remarks, asked why she had not
made public the Attorney
General’s specific advice. Her
answer was that “any advice the
Government receives is privileged
information.”
This answer is not only unsatis
factory, but it reveals a misunder
standing of legal privilege. The
privilege is that of the client, in this
case the Government, not the
AttorneyGeneral. Thus, if the
Government wished, it could pub
lish the advice. That Mrs Miller is
unwilling to do so will only enhance
the concerns of those who fear that
the Prime Minister’s assurance, that
no church, synagogue, or mosque
that does not want to conduct a gay
marriage will be forced to do so,
cannot be guaranteed.
DAVID LAMMING
20 Holbrook Barn Road, Boxford
Suffolk CO10 5HU
From Canon Paul Oestreicher
Sir, — You have excellently ex
plained (News, 14 December) a
highly complex legal situation with
regard to samesex marriages.
Nevertheless, those Anglicans in
England and Wales who believe that
our clergy should be free to conduct
such weddings need not feel totally
frustrated by the unwise Downing
StreetChurch House edict.
There is a way out that is both
legal and respectable. It is to learn
from much of the rest of Europe. In
Germany, for example, every Roman
Catholic and every Lutheran couple
are required to go through the
legalities in a state register office.
They then proceed to church, if that
is their wish, for a nuptial mass or
its Lutheran equivalent.
There is nothing to stop a gay or
lesbian couple in England or Wales
going to their state registrar and
then proceeding to a parish church
for a blessing ceremony, provided,
of course, that the parish priest
agrees. A church wedding, spirit
ually and theologically, is just that.
Two people marry each other: they
are the celebrants. The priest in the
liturgy publicly declares God’s
blessing on their intention to be a
wedded couple.
Given the conscientious division
on this issue in the Church, and
given the nature of Anglican
pluralism, I cannot imagine that any
priest who conducted such a cere
mony would have canon law in
voked against her or him. This
decently sidesteps a situation
created by the complexity of an
establishment that looks like con
tinuing well past its sellby date.
PAUL OESTREICHER
97 Furze Croft, Furze Hill
Brighton BN3 1PE
were many Anglicans, including
some bishops, who supported
the Government’s decision on gay
marriage, but could not say so
publicly.
How can we be taken seriously,
either about our attitude to same
sex relationships or women
bishops, when we are so divided,
confused, and silenced? The Gov
ernment and many in the country
have lost patience with us and taken
the decision into their own hands
without the consultation we ex
pected.
Surely, this is a time to repent our
sins of exclusivity, in the hope that
the decline and death of our Church,
reflected in the 2011 Census, is in
deed the herald of its resurrection?
JOHN FOSKETT
Victoria Cottage
8 Cornwall Road
Dorchester DT1 1RT
From Mr Trevor Cooper
Sir, — When the General Synod
failed to pass the recent proposal
regarding women bishops, there
was criticism that the voting pattern
of the House of Laity was not repre
sentative of lay men and women,
and that the members of the House
had not made their voting
intentions clear at the time they
were elected.
When the House of Commons
passes the forthcoming gay mar
riage legislation, will it be similarly
criticised?
TREVOR COOPER
38 Rosebery Avenue
New Malden, Surrey KT3 4JS
more letters overleaf
From Canon John Foskett
Sir, — According to the Bishop of
Leicester and a representative of
the Church of England (News, 14
December), the Bishops were taken
by surprise to hear that samesex
marriages are not to be allowed in
the Churches of England and Wales.
The Archbishop of Wales called it
a “great pity”, while the former
Bishop of Oxford said that there
LETTERS for the 4 January issue
should reach the Church Times
offices by noon on New Year’s Eve.
17
letters
Future of the Community of St Mary the Virgin
The part played by religion in Scouting
Singing with the spirit
From the Bishop of Oxford
Sir, — The headline of your report
on the departure of 11 Sisters of
the Community of St Mary the
Virgin (CSMV) for the Ordinariate
(News, 14 December) suggests that
they had lost their bid to stay at
Wantage as an ecumenical com
munity.
The fact is that we were told by
Roman Catholic canon lawyers that
it would be impossible for an ecu
menical community with an alter
nating Anglican and Roman
Catholic Superior to be recognised
by Rome.
As Visitor to CSMV, I have been
in discussion with the Sisters for 18
months, as we have tried to honour
their initial desire for an ecumenical
community, then their wish to have
a period of a few years living to
gether while they worked out their
future, and finally, in the past few
weeks, their intention to move on
as a separate community in the new
year.
There are important legal and
financial issues yet to be resolved;
but I hope to reach agreement in
the next few weeks. I wish them well
as they journey on. My ongoing
concern is for the welfare of the
Sisters who remain, and I am work
ing with an Advisory Group to this
end.
JOHN PRITCHARD
Diocesan Church House
North Hinksey
Oxford OX2 0NB
From Mr Rob Marsh
Sir, — It was interesting to read the
letter from Ron Jefferies (Letters, 14
December). I regret to say that the
attitude in Scouting is nothing new.
I look back to the mid1980s, when
I ran a Scout troop and was “told
off” by my District Commissioner
for encouraging the young people to
visit with me the churches around us.
As currently a Group Scout
Leader, I am also disappointed by
the lack of prayers at the end of
section meetings. I have also been
told that our County Commissioner
has for the past three years not
wanted to renew the warrant of our
County Chaplain.
I have also experienced the other
side of faith in Scouting, when,
From Mr John Puxty
Sir, — I enjoyed reading the Revd
Michael Counsell’s Prayer for the
Week column (Faith, 14 December).
I must, however, take exception to
his comment that “when you are
concentrating on singing well, you
have no time to think about the God
you are singing to.”
Good singing is very much about
being aware of the meaning and the
object of what is being sung. When
we sing to God, we sing as we might
to an audience or indeed to a lover,
being aware at some level both of
what we are creating and also of
what is being received, and by whom.
JOHN PUXTY
32 Summerfields Way
Ilkeston DE7 9HF
From the Revd James Little
Sir, — I warm to Mr Alan Bartley’s
suggestion that women deans might
take up some of the seats reserved
for the Church of England in the
House of Lords (Letters, 14 Decem
ber); but I would like to look at this
more in terms of reestablishing an
ancient English constitutional
practice than as innovation.
Before the Dissolution of the
Monasteries in the 16th century, the
majority of church leaders in the
Lords were not the bishops, but
rather the mitred abbots, most of
whom would have been in priest’s
orders. It was not so much that the
Crown ceased to summon the
abbots to sit in the Lords as that,
after the Dissolution, there was
none left to summon.
To develop Mr Bartley’s argu
ment further: looking at some of
our cathedrals that were once
mitred abbeys (e.g. Peterborough or
Women bishops in C of e: Lords and Commons
Children as eucharistic ministers
St Albans), could it not be argued
that their deans (including women)
might be considered the modern
successors of the mitred abbots who
once sat in the Lords?
Since the revival of Anglican
monasticism, is there not now also a
case for summoning the heads of
religious orders back to the Lords?
Given that women can now serve
there, why not include the modern
equivalent of abbesses?
Would it not be wonderful to have
the Church of England represented
in the Lords not only by the succes
sors of St Augustine and St Cuth
bert, and their like, but also by the
successors of such people as St
Etheldreda and St Hilda?
JAMES LITTLE
The Minster Rectory, Howden
East Riding DN14 7BL
From Mr Malcolm Coates
Sir, — So, canon law is to be
changed to allow any authorised
regular communicant, including
children, to distribute the holy
sacrament (General Synod, 30
November). I share the same dis
quiet as the Revd David Perry in
his letter about children and the
eucharistic ministry (Letters,
7 December).
As a teacher of music and RE
for many years, I see a parallel in
the increasing number of schools
that allow children a say in the
appointment and assessment of
teachers. There seems to be a cul
ture of permitting children to do
whatever they please, whenever
they please, and that to discourage
them is most unkind. More and
more, they are being seen as small
From the Revd Ben Phillips
Sir, — If Members of Parliament
proceed in removing equal
opportunities exemption from the
Church of England, all members of
the Church, men and women, must
campaign for disestablishment.
The Church of England will have
no integrity if it allows doctrinal
decisions to be forced by a secular
Parliament. The MPs who have
proposed this should be ashamed of
this suggestion, as there is no
parallel outside of the Chinese
government’s control of the Chinese
state Church, and the worst of
totalitarian regimes.
BEN PHILLIPS
The Vicarage
R. Real Grandeza, 99
Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil, CEP 22281030
during 2011, I was part of the
chaplaincy team at an international
Scout and Guide camp. To have
regularly more than a dozen young
people joining us for morning
prayer and compline; and to have
many more visiting through the
day, and being open in sharing their
worries and joys — this was true
chaplaincy and true joy.
I do feel that the promise to do
our duty to God is important, but
I there needs to be a balance, as
Scouting teaches young people
some extremely important core
values. Should we be turning them
away?
ROB MARSH
43 Chevin Avenue
Leicester LE3 6PX
adults with equal maturity and
understanding to adults.
But children do not know it all,
and cannot be expected to. Quite
simply, they are children, and
not at the stage to do some of the
things that adults are able to do.
Administering the holy sacrament,
I believe, is one of them. Those
who supported the Synod motion
are misguided in their view of
children. This is one of many ex
amples of our country’s obsession
with youth.
If you really want to involve
more young people in church life,
get them to join your choir. Here,
indeed, is a real need nationwide,
and some of them do it rather well.
MALCOLM COATES
20 Farleigh Court
Maidstone ME16 9BJ
Dave Walker’s new cartoon collection Peculiar Goings On is now available from Canterbury press at £6.99 (CT Bookshop £6.29); 9781848252363.
18
caption competition
Have a go at our next
captioncompetition
picture (right). entries
must reach us by
Friday 4 January.
by email to:
captioncompetition@
churchtimes.co.uk
by post (postcards
only) to:
Caption Competition
Church Times
3rd floor
invicta House
108114 Golden Lane
London eC1Y 0TG
Sadly, not even the car proved
to be convertible.
They had often wondered what
a rev counter was for.
The manufacturer’s warranty
ordained that the annual
service should be carried out
religiously.
Michael Foster
by fax to:
020 7490 7093
“OK, Sharon, have the kids
baptised as Roman Catholics.
But when it comes to the
car. . .”
John Saxbee
THeRe isn’t a caption photo in
existence to which readers won’t
apply a contemporary reference: “It
says here: ‘Make sure you don’t
put a woman in the driving
seat.’ Oh, wait, this isn’t the
manual, it’s the minutes of
General Synod. . .” (Corin Child);
and “It happened right after the
General Synod vote. It just
seemed to give up the ghost”
(Allan palmer).
in no particular order, and with
no perceptible connections: “Top
Gear investigates the latest
Mass
Transport
System”
(Richard Barnes); “It was the oddest emergency baptism that Fr
Paul had ever been asked to
do” (Valerie Budd); “When
Bishop Welby announced a
new liturgy for blessing the oil,
this wasn’t what we were expecting” (John Middleditch); “He
was trying to remember which
eucharistic prayer had the
word “Reassembly is a reverse
of the above procedure”
(Stephen Disley); “Well, that
didn’t work. Let’s try phoning
Holy Trinity, Brompton” (Bob
Torrens); “The garage couldn’t
explain the strange knocking in
the engine, so they decided
to try exorcism” (Christopher
Wain).
in similar vein, i.e. no vein at all:
“The blessings of the oils
usually took place inside the
cathedral” (Andy Greenhough);
“The owners soon realised that
the phone number for the
vicarage was only slightly different from the number of the
local repair garage” (Richard
Hough); “The man from Ecclesiastical Insurance prayed that
this cup might be taken from
them” (Sue Chick).
We particularly liked: “And a
voice came from heaven, ‘Nah,
sorry, mate. We only do Fiats’”
(Richard Martin); “The BCP commination service came into its
own” (peter Ball); and “The problem seems to be caused by a
failure of the catholic converter” (Allan palmer).
in all these examples, we have
omitted the most common play on
words, which accounted for the
bulk of the submissions. We have
awarded a prize to Michael Foster
for the best example of these. The
other award goes to John Saxbee,
for three of his entries. All prizes of
Fairtrade chocolate have been kindly
donated by Divine (divinechocolate.
com).
Continuing to
make a difference
We’ve been caring for the clergy and
their families for 120 years and are
noW expanding our provision of care.
Our network of Honorary Consultants give their time
to offer diagnosis, treatment and second opinions to
the clergy and their immediate families on a range
of physical and psychological health related issues.
We know these issues don’t stop here and often
cause great stress and disable the clergy from
meeting the needs of their parishioners.
For this reason, we are planning on paying for
certain treatments that our Honorary Consultants
recommend and that are not available through
the NHS in a timely manner.
find out more about how our
network of honorary consultants
continues to support the clergy
and their immediate families:
t: 020 7898 1700
e: [email protected]
W: www.stlukeshealthcare.org.uk
st luke’s healthcare for the clergy
Room 201, Church House
27 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ
19
diary etc
It has to
be hazel
gardening
THE sight of a bowl of mixed nuts
in their shells takes me back to
family Christmases in the ’70s. It
was the only time of year my mother
would buy nuts, and, along with the
decorations, out would come a
wicker basket and a pair of heavy
hinged nutcrackers.
My small hands would be com
pletely defeated by brazil nuts, and
have only partial success with
almonds. Walnuts tended to implode
suddenly, leaving me to pick out
edible morsels among the shards of
shell. Hazelnuts, on the other hand, I
was expert at. A clean break yielded a
perfectly formed kernel in the palm
of my hand, such that Julian of
Norwich would be proud.
These days, I am versatile with
the nutcrackers, and aspire to a
home harvest to inflict them on.
Brazils are native to Brazil, and need
tropical conditions. Almonds are a
possibility, but, flowering a fortnight
earlier than their close relative, the
peach, would tend to be affected by
frost in Staffordshire. I have not got
the space for the eventual 45metre
height of a walnut tree, and, in any
case, they depend on a good sum
mer to crop. The nut my adult self is
most likely to succeed at growing is
the hazel.
The name comes from the Anglo
Saxon haesel, meaning “cap”, which
refers to the papery husk that envel
opes the developing nut. Hazels are
large shrubs or small manystemmed
trees. They may, strictly, be filberts,
with a long husk (full beard) com
pletely enclosing the nut, or cobnuts
with a husk shorter than the nut.
Each belongs to the genus Corylus.
All cobs are derived from our native
Corylus avellana, promises spring
with its soft yellow male catkins in
February. Filberts are variants of
Corylus maxima, introduced by the
Romans from Greece, bearing cat
kins ranging in colour from yellow
green to deep red.
Hazels are not delicate shrubs,
but offer chromeyellow autumn
colouring in addition to their spring
show. They make a great compon
ent to hedges that can be hacked
back to provide pea sticks, and
sprout freely again from old wood.
The thicket of growth offers shelter
to wildlife.
A nuttery at the bottom of the
garden could be a delight, with the
spring show augmented by snow
drops, scillas, English bluebells, and
anemones. A mix of hazel varieties
ensures good pollination and a
bumper crop of nuts. I am going for
“Cosford”, a cobnut noted for
flavour, and a good pollinator, which
should ensure a good harvest of my
second choice, “Kentish Cob” a long,
large nut. So, gardenworthy, and a
potential snackprovider — two
ticks. This still represents a demotion
for the hazel, which once featured
high in the countryside economy.
Hazel poles tend to be straight.
Think walking sticks and beanpoles.
The wood is flexible, and can be
split lengthways for hedgelaying,
and thatching pegs that can be bent
over on themselves without snap
ping. And this is not to forget the
annual nut harvest. I may fondly
remember playing with nutcrackers,
but, until the First World War,
children enjoyed a whole day off
school on 14 September (Holy Cross
Day) to go nutting.
Jamie Cable
20
Sister
Rosemary
diary
Wise after the event
IN THIS column in August 2010, I
wrote, “When people ask me, “What
will General Synod decide about
women bishops?”, my answer is, “It
depends on the people who are
elected this time. If you have a vote,
I beg you, take advantage of your
opportunity to choose members
who will help to carry the Church
forward in the way you believe it
should go.”
Judging by the response in the
wider Church to the vote in Novem
ber, too many electors failed to heed
my advice. (Can it be that they do
not read this paper? Or that they do
not take notice of what I tell them?
Surely not.)
If it is true that the Church’s
elected representatives did not
reflect the mind of the Church, then
the electors have the remedy in their
own hands next time there is an
election. Until then, who knows
what the remedy might be?
Abbey, and was dazzled by the his
tory and the splendour of it all. As
always with the manifestations of
establishment, the question arises:
“Is this the Church exercising influ
ence in the State, or the State con
trolling the Church? And is either of
those really desirable?”
A large part of this first episode
was concerned with the choristers
and their school. I was torn between
admiration for the boys’ ability and
commitment, and the standard of
their musical education, and dis
quiet that this was available for so
few — and, in this case, not for
girls.
The Master of the Choristers
referred to the history of the Abbey
as a monastic foundation, and re
marked that the choir was carrying
on the tradition of the monks with
their sung office. We do our best
with the music we sing, but I am
afraid we do not sound much like
the Westminster Abbey choir.
God calling
variety of individuals who are taking
this path, and also to experience
again the range of different com
munities available for them to
explore. The habits tell their own
story, from the longestablished and
voluminous to the more modern
and streamlined, and some com
munities have dispensed with the
habit altogether. This is only one
indication of the ways in which they
differ in ethos and emphasis, and in
the types of people who tend to be
attracted to them; but there is also a
sense of related purpose and com
mon calling.
Our visitors this time were repre
sentatives of traditional communi
ties like ours — those whose mem
bers make vows, and live a life of
celibacy in community. Fewer are
now taking this path, but at the
same time there are many others
who do feel called to join with
others in a deeper commitment.
These belong to a movement, amor
phous and illdefined, which has
been termed “new monasticism”.
These groups are drawn to go
deeper into prayer and worship, and
at the same time to relate to the
presentday world and its needs and
searchings. They are often attractive
to people who have found conven
tional churches harsh, cold, or
unwelcoming. They could be simply
a manifestation of the postmodern
search for “something that suits me
exactly”, but they could also be this
century’s manifestation of the move
I WATCHED the first programme
in the BBC TV series Westminster
OUR convent has just hosted a day
for novices from many religious
communities, together with some
people who are considering entering
them. In these days, it is heartening
to meet those who are still feeling
themselves called to this way of life,
and are not discouraged by our
declining numbers and increasing
age.
It is always fascinating to see the
Write, if you have any answers to
the questions listed at the end of
this section, or would like to add
to the answers below.
What’s a ‘lay deacon’?
No comparison
Your answers
I recently visited another diocese on
holiday. At the Sunday eucharist, I
was surprised to observe that the
Gospel was read by a lay person.
This same person prepared the altar
at the offertory, assisted at the
distribution, administering
individual blessings, and then
performed the ablutions. I was later
informed that he was not in holy
orders, but was a “lay deacon”. Am
I mistaken in feeling that this is a
contradiction in terms? Can
anybody please enlighten me on this
practice? Is it widespread, and what
is its legality?
The answer is on page 158 of the
main Common Worship volume:
“the deacon’s liturgical ministry
provides an appropriate model for
the ministry of an assisting priest, a
Reader, or another episcopally
authorized minister in a leadership
ministry that complements that of
the president.”
My experience of praying the
eucharist is certainly quite different
when a competent liturgical deacon
frees me to preside. Perhaps, un
known to the questioner, creatively
interdependent lay and ordained
roles are features of that parish all
week, and are simply being made
visible in this way at the eucharist on
Sunday.
(Canon) Peter Mullins
Grimsby
All of the concerns raised are
answered in the notes and rubrics of
the communion services in the
Common Worship service book. The
notes on pages 15859 refer to a
variety of traditions, but make it
clear that only those actions an
notated in the rubrics as “the
President . . .” must be performed
by a priest, and even those elements
of the Gathering and Service of the
Word may be led by a lay person in
the absence of a priest.
Note 21, on page 334, states
explicitly that a lay person
out of the question
authorised to distribute communion
may pray for noncommunicants.
(The Revd) Malcolm Garratt
Dunchurch, Rugby
The questioner might find it helpful
to think in terms of function, not
status. In our parish in Poole (Salis
bury diocese), six of us are privileged
to do this work. Two of us are
Readers (known as LLMs in Salis
bury); so we do other things, too:
preaching, teaching, leading
worship, home communions, etc.
We do the job as described, except
that we do not give blessings to non
communicants; that is the clergy’s
privilege and responsibility. But we
do have the awesome privilege at our
main Sunday service of helping in
the fraction. This is because we do
not use individual wafers, but large
ones that are each broken into six
pieces, so everyone has a piece of
wafer consecrated and then broken.
We have two teams administering,
and, if no other clergy are present,
then the lay deacon administers the
consecrated bread for the second
team. We also lead the acclamations,
if any, in the Eucharistic Prayer, and
the dismissal. We do each get prayed
for, before reading the Gospel, that
we may do it worthily.
We had a stipendiary deacon four
years ago, but he served his title, and
left last summer for a parish of his
own. We don’t get a new one till
next year.
(Mrs) Ann Johnson
Poole, Dorset
I have been a Reader for more than
15 years, and have served in five
parishes in three dioceses. In each
parish, my priest encouraged me to
learn and then exercise the deacon’s
ministry as far as is permitted by my
Reader’s licence.
This has included leading the
Ministry of the Word, apart from
giving the absolution, and reading
the Gospel, preaching, and setting
and clearing the altar for and after
the eucharist. I have also admin
istered the chalice, and on one
occasion a second paten at a very
large service. Where there is another
Reader, we carry out these duties in
our turn.
We also have an ALM worship
leader (accredited lay minister), who
carries out the deacon’s duties apart
from setting and clearing the altar,
by her own choice. I have also acted
as Bishop’s chaplain at two con
firmation services, with different
bishops, and presented my parish’s
candidates at a third service.
In my 15 years, I have never
served in a church that included a
deacon in the ministry team.
Anne King (Reader of St Mary the
Virgin, Willesborough)
Willesborough, Ashford, Kent
Without the “lay deacon”
appellation, I’m on our readers’ rota,
so read the Gospel at the first holy
communion service of the month.
As sacristan, I assist the Vicar in
preparing the altar at the offertory,
and with the ablutions at the close.
As one of our lay ministers of
communion, I assist at the
distribution of the elements, and
often pray with or for individuals
who are not confirmed and do not
receive communion.
Willing volunteers are always
welcome to join our readers’ rota.
The work of the sacristan, appointed
jointly by the Vicar and PCC, is
essential for the smooth running of
holy communion services. Our lay
ministers of communion, licensed
by our Area Bishop, deem it an
honour to be able to minister in this
way. If the requirement for any of
these roles were being in holy orders,
I am not sure we would have many
volunteers at all; either that, or the
church would be staffed by several
members of the clergy (which the
diocese wouldn’t be able to afford),
or a Vicar run ragged doing
everything.
Nicholas Pond (Sacristan/Verger of
St Paul’s, ClactononSea)
ClactononSea, Essex
ment of the Spirit that led to the
foundation of communities such as
ours, 150 years ago. Meanwhile, let
them both grow together.
use of force
AT A recent clergy conference, I
attended a session on army chap
laincy — not, I hasten to say, be
cause I am considering a career
change, but because I hoped that it
would be an opportunity to consider
the ethics of war and peace. I was
disappointed, because the speaker
made it clear that the decision to go
to war was one made by politicians,
and was not the army’s business.
The soldier’s responsibility was
what was known in Just War theory
as ius in bello — the behaviour of
troops in conflict. He emphasised
that killing, however necessary it
was considered to be in the context
of battle, always had a psychological
impact on the one who killed, and
that this impact was felt even by
those who killed at a distance, for
instance by firing drones.
My father, who served in the First
World War, always said that the
only people enthusiastic about going
to war were those who had no ex
perience of it. All of us, as citizens
and voters, still need to think about
the ethics of war and peace.
The Revd Sister Rosemary CHN is a
member of the Community of the
Holy Name in Derby.
It has been the custom in some
C of E churches, since the 19th
century, for a layman, sometimes a
parish clerk or Reader, to wear the
vestment of a subdeacon (an order
suppressed in the C of E at the
Reformation) while acting as the
epistoler, and fulfilling certain other
liturgical functions, at a sung
celebration of the eucharist.
Reading or singing of the Gospel
has, however, normally been re
served to a person in deacon’s
orders, following the mainstream
tradition of the Catholic Church.
Though our canon law now
allows a lay person to read or sing
the Gospel at holy communion, for
him or her to do so does obscure the
fact that the celebrant, or any other
priest who is present, has also been
ordained as a deacon, and that this
character is indelible. I am sure
many priests — despite the current
emphasis on status, and ordination
as a career path — are happy to be
reminded by this that their ministry
should remain true to the deacon’s
vocation of humble service.
Marjorie Grove
London SW4
Your questions
It is commonly known that, as
things now are, the British
monarch can not be a Roman
Catholic; but what if a future
monarch should be a Methodist,
Baptist, Orthodox, or, for that
matter, a Muslim or atheist? G. S.
I wonder if anyone has come up
with a suitable form of address, the
equivalent of “Father”, which could
be used when speaking to or of a
lady priest. The titles “Mother” and
“Sister” clearly have other connota
tions, and yet using just the lady’s
Christian name could seem an
inadequate acknowledgement of
her ministry.
A. M.
“As the bishop said to the actress.”
Which bishop? Which actress? J. C.
Address for answers and more
questions: Out of the Question,
Church Times, 3rd floor, Invicta
House, 108114 Golden Lane,
London EC1Y 0TG.
[email protected]
diary etc
Optimistic
wishlist
wine
I HAVE not yet posted my letter to
Father Christmas, but here are some
bottles I might ask for. (I rank wines
I like into two classes: those I might
buy myself, and those I would like
someone else to give me. My Christ
mas wishes include some of both.)
I feel that some sparkle is neces
sary at Christmas. Therefore, I
would ask for a bottle of Chartogne
Taillet Cuvée Sainte Anne NV (the
Wine Society, £25). This comes
from a dedicated small producer,
whom I have known for a number
of years, in the delightfully named
village of Merfy. As a cheaper
alternative, I would welcome some
South African Graham Beck NV
Brut (Waitrose, £13.99).
Dry white wine is always wel
come, and I would certainly enjoy
both the Pernand Vergelesses les
Combottes Domaine Rapet 2010
(Marks & Spencer, £26), and the
Errazuriz Single Vineyard Sauv
ignon Blanc 2011, from the newly
officially recognised Chilean wine
region of Aconcagua Costa (Wait
rose, £11.99).
My real love, however, is red
wine, and here my favourite grape
varieties are the Pinot Noir, the
Cabernet Franc, and the Malbec.
Starting with the last grape, I would
like Father Christmas to find me
some magnums of Loire producer
JeanFranҫois Mériau’s Cent Vis
ages 2009. Generally, in Touraine,
this grape is known as the Cot, but,
strangely, in this case it is given that
name on the back label, and Malbec
on the front. I know the wine is on
sale in this country, but I do not
know where, and there were no
magnums available at the vineyard
when I called in recently.
Of course, it is the vineyards of
Mendoza, in Argentina, that are the
true homeland of the grape, and
Majestic Wines have a true bargain
at £7.99 per bottle (if you buy two
bottles) in Gougenheim Malbec 2099.
My sole representative of Cabernet
Franc comes from Tanners of
Shrewsbury; it is their Saumur
Champigny Tuffe Ch. Du Hureau
2009 (£11.80). As for Pinot Noirs, I
could quite easily choose not just a
first XI, but will try to restrict myself.
Chile must be strongly represented,
and I would start with the Coop’s
Pinot Noir from the Casablanca
Valley (£9.99), and follow with Leyda
Vineyards Las Brisas 2011 (Great
Western Wines £13.25). From New
Zealand, I would have any wine from
Felton Road, in Central Otago: per
haps their Block 3 is my first choice,
or the incomparable Ata Rangi, from
Martinborough. From Burgundy, I
would try to find a Waitrose branch
with stocks of Pommard les Petits
Noizons Domaine de la Vougeraie
2009 (£35.99).
For those with big chimneys, and
purses, most wine merchants are
offering intriguing mixed cases for
Christmas. I particularly like the
thought of receiving Tanner’s Christ
mas Indulgence case (£290 for 12
bottles), or the Vintners’ Reserves
case from Berry Bros. & Rudd (£545
for 12 bottles). A final suggestion for
the true winebuff: Jancis Robinson’s
Wine Grapes, a monumental work
giving everything you might want to
know about almost 1400 different
grape varieties from around the world.
Here’s wishing you a peaceful and
fulfilled Christmas.
Christopher Fielden
it was a good year for holly
WHAT are you cooking for Christ
mas? It is interesting to listen to
people’s plans, and compare them
with — to my mind — the dreary
inevitability and panic of “turkey
and all the trimmings”. Jenny is
looking forward to a redcabbage
salad enriched with Stilton and
walnuts. Owen is planning to cook
duck for his family on their newly
acquired Rayburn. Mary is making
clementine cake — the one you
make with stewed, pureéd clemen
tines, and ground almonds. John is
cooking mushrooms in a cream
sauce.
The vegetarian/fishy Christmas
always seems to be less stressful
than the carnivorous one, and I like
beautiful dishes that can be made in
advance, and do not require preci
sion timing and 24hour kitchen
work.
John’s Mushrooms in cream
could be a starter, or part of a main
meal, but these are quantities for an
hors d’oeuvre for 4.
140 ml (¼ pt) double cream
225g (8 oz) button mushrooms
112g (4 oz) wild mushrooms
2555g (12 oz) butter
2 teaspoons English mustard
1 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons passata
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
a dash of Soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
a grating of fresh ginger to taste
Fry the mushrooms gently in the
butter. Add the rest of the in
gredients, leaving the cream until
you are just ready to serve, adding it
and bringing the sauce up to heat
again without boiling. Serve this
with plenty of fine bread to soak up
the sauce.
Roasted stuffed vegetables is a
benign version of the medieval
affair of stuffing birds like swans
and geese with ever smaller birds,
down to tiny larks. It also looks
much prettier.
1 red pepper per person
half a fennel bulb per person
passata
mixed peppercorns
coriander seeds
olive oil
garlic
sea salt
Slice the fennel into manageable
wedges that will fit inside the
peppers, reserving the tough stalks
Turkey banished
cookery
for making soup or stock. Steam the
fennel wedges until just tender. Cut
the red peppers in half lengthways,
keeping the stalk intact but getting
rid of the seeds. Pour a little passata
into each pepper, and then stuff
them with a couple of fennel
wedges, rootend fitting in at the
stalk end of the pepper. Crush the
garlic, salt, and spices, and sprinkle
them on top. Drizzle oil over them,
and bake them in a hot oven for
about hour.
A huge bird or joint of meat feeds
our atavistic desire for sacrifice as
well as our stomachs; so a vege
tarian Christmas dinner should also
have a centrepiece dish which
everyone will share. Puff pastry can
be wrapped around any number of
things, and brushed with beaten egg
to make an impressive, golden
entrance. This Cheese, bean, and
broccoli plait is not an expensive
dish for four to six people, apart
from the bought puffpastry. It
looks beautiful, and can be prepared
in advance and left, uncooked, in
the fridge until about 45 minutes
before you want to eat it. Experi
ment with other vegetables, and
perhaps chopped hazelnuts for the
filling.
225g (8 oz) puff pastry
1 broccoli head
1 leek
1 tin butter beans
280ml (½ pt) milk
55g (2 oz) flour
55g (2 oz) butter
55g80g (23 oz) Cheddar cheese,
grated
1 egg, beaten
sheet. Make a series of parallel
diagonal cuts into the two long sides
of the rectangle, cutting about a
quarter of the way into each side.
Place your vegetable mixture along
the centre of the pastry, and fold the
pastry ends up and over. Then plait
or weave the side diagonal strips to
cover each other until the vegetables
are completely covered by the
pastry. Brush the plait with beaten
egg. Keep this in the fridge if you
make it in advance. Otherwise, bake
it straight away in a hot oven
(200°C/400°F/Gas 6) until the
pastry is golden.
You can do the same trick with
salmon. This recipe for Salmon en
croute sandwiches two fillets to
gether with spinach; so the result is
rather beautiful when sliced at the
table. For 46 people you need:
1 block of puff pastry
2×450g (2×1 lb) pieces of skinned
salmon fillet
225g (8 oz) fresh spinach
112g (4 oz) cream cheese
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper
Steam the spinach until just
wilted, chop it, and stir it into the
cream cheese when it is cool. Roll
out the pastry, and place it on a
baking sheet. Place one fillet in the
centre, and spread the spinach
mixture on top. Cover this with the
other piece of fillet. Season well, and
seal up the pastry all round with
beaten egg, brushing the outside
well with beaten egg, too. Bake in a
hot oven (200°C/400°F/Gas 6) for
about 45 minutes. Serve hot with
steamed winter vegetables, and eat
any leftovers cold with salad.
For vegetables, I will certainly be
cooking Orange carrots — pre
pared by frying carrot batons in
butter and orange juice until just al
dente, and finishing them with a
little honey, salt, and pepper.
I’ll also be cooking Spanish
glazed onions. Peel and cut the
onions into wedges, and simmer in
water until tender. Drain them
(reserving the water for stock) and
add a generous amount of butter,
and a teaspoon or so of honey. Toss
them about over a high heat until
they are sweet and golden. Season
and serve
Jenny’s redcabbage slaw with
Stilton and walnuts can be adapted
to make a Christmas potato salad
that will feed a number of people,
and is sustaining enough to be a
good lunch dish with a green salad
and/or a rich winter soup.
900g (2 lb) potato
garlic cloves
225g (8 oz) walnuts, very lightly
toasted
225g (8 oz) Stilton, diced
celery, diced
8 tablespoons olive oil
Wash and cut the potatoes into
evensized chunks, or use new
potatoes. Simmer them until tender.
If you wish, cool and skin the pota
toes. Blend together 112g (4 oz) wal
nuts with 23 garlic cloves and olive
oil to make a paste. Assemble the
salad by tossing the potatoes with
the paste, and the rest of the wal
nuts, chopped, and the Stilton,
celery, and plenty of sea salt and
pepper. Garnish with the inner
celery leaves.
Terence Handley MacMath
Cut the broccoli into florets,
and wash and chop the leeks into
small rounds. Steam them both
until tender. Make a sauce with
the flour, butter, and milk, and stir
in the cheese, cooking it until
thickened. Drain the butter beans,
and add them and the green
vegetables. Taste and season well.
Roll out the pastry to a rectangle
about 6mm (¼ in.) thick, or
according to the directions on the
packet, and place it on a baking
21
faith
ELIZABETH appears to have a bit
part in Mary’s story, but what
happens if we put her centrestage?
This descendant of Aaron the
priest had an impeccable past, but
no future, because she had no child.
Childlessness was the woman’s fault:
“they had no children because
Elizabeth was barren” (Luke 1.7);
and, worse, her husband was a
priest; so her childlessness called his
piety into doubt, since sons were a
sign of God’s blessing. Every time
he came home from a circum
cision, every time there was a
family gathering, the grief must have
been there, the tears welling up in
secret.
Nevertheless, Luke emphasises
their blameless living and righteous
ness before God. Their lives were a
perpetual paradox, because they had
done everything that God com
manded, and yet God had not
blessed them in the way all faithful
Jews expected. Instead, Elizabeth’s
dreams had been chipped away,
month by month, as she felt her
blood flow, until hope was gone.
But then something happened.
An angel appeared, and told
Zechariah: “Your prayer has been
heard. Elizabeth will have a son”
(Luke 1.13). When had that elderly
couple last prayed that prayer?
Realistically, it was years ago, and
The celebrations begin
readings for the
days ahead
Rosalind Brown
4th Sunday of Advent
Micah 5.2-5a; Hebrews 10.5-10;
Luke 1.39-45 [46-55]
God our redeemer, who prepared
the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the
mother of your Son: grant that,
as she looked for his coming as
our saviour, so we may be ready
to greet him when he comes
again as our judge; who is alive
and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen.
God had indeed heard, yet had
chosen not to answer until now.
So pregnant Elizabeth hid herself,
with telling words: “This is what the
Lord has done for me when he
looked favourably on me and took
away the disgrace I have endured
among my people” (Luke 1.25). We
can hear the years of silent suffering
and shame that she had borne.
Six months later, on Mary’s
unexpected arrival and news, her
baby kicked off the celebrations, and
Elizabeth broke her seclusion with a
loud cry of praise. The neighbours
heard! She, long disgraced for not
being pregnant, strengthened Mary,
newly disgraced for being pregnant,
and facing the possibility of Joseph’s
rejection, her father’s wrath, perhaps
stoning.
Elizabeth became a prophet filled
with the Holy Spirit, telling Mary
that her child was indeed the Lord.
That may have been the assurance
that Mary desperately needed that
she had not dreamed it all.
Elizabeth, who had experienced
blessing from God in the conception
of her child, was open to an excess
of blessing, as the mother of her
Lord came to her. Were her words
THe BoDLeiAN LiBRARY, uNiVeRSiTY oF oxFoRD
Christmas Day
Isaiah 62.6end; Titus 3.47; Luke 2.[17] 820
Almighty God, you have given us your only
begotten Son to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure
virgin: grant that we, who have been born
again and made your children by adoption
and grace, may daily be renewed by your
Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.
LUKE’s birth narratives have a cast of ordin
ary people coping with occasional extraordin
ary events. God had sent messages to Mary and
Joseph through an angel and a dream; a baby
was conceived, and then there was silence.
They got on with doing what a peasant
couple expecting a baby did until, with bad
timing, the Emperor’s census forced a 90mile
trip to Bethlehem. It would be tempting to
wonder whether something was amiss; whether
God could have fixed better arrangements for
the birth. But no: silence.
At Christmas, we rush too easily from the
spare account of Jesus’s birth, without divine
glamour, to the angels’ appearing. Mary and
Joseph did not see those angels; they were left
holding a newborn baby in a stable. God had
been disturbingly active in their lives a while
ago, but, in the mess and pain of birth away
from home, God apparently was keeping quiet.
God did send an angel eventually — but not
FIVE days on, and normal life is
partly restored. The sales are in full
swing, public transport has restarted,
and some offices have reopened.
Meanwhile, in our readings,
several years have passed. With a
brief but telling glance at the way
Jesus was raised — piously, as not all
Jewish women were like Mary, who
made the annual arduous trek to
Jerusalem for the Passover, since
only men were required to do, and
many of them did not — now we
meet Jesus nearing the age (13) of
recognition as an adult who could be
counted among the ten men needed
for there to be a synagogue, and who
could recite Torah, the Law.
Theologically, in drawing parallels
with Samuel and telling of his
growth in wisdom and esteem as he
stood on the cusp of manhood, Luke
emphasises Jesus’s humanity. He
illustrates this with a story of Jesus’s
exploring his identity, testing his
boundaries. This maturing boy was
not entirely obedient to his parents,
and went missing.
22
“Blessed is she who believed there
would be a fulfilment of what was
spoken to her by the Lord” spoken
to Mary, or to herself? Was there a
chuckle in her voice, a delighted
realisation that, after all these years,
God had kept his word?
When John was born, “her
neighbours and relatives heard that
the Lord had shown his great mercy
to her, and they rejoiced with her”
(Luke 1.58). Was mercy the
unexpected, deeper gift of God, after
those years of tenacious, faithful
living, in the face of silence? Indeed,
what does it mean to receive the
great mercy of God? Perhaps it was
Elizabeth who taught Mary that
“God’s mercy is for those who fear
him from generation to generation.”
As Advent draws to a close, we
pray for readiness to greet our
saviour when he comes. Elizabeth
was open to receiving God’s mercy,
after years of dashed hopes. Some
times, as a survival mechanism, we
are so defended against disillusion
ment (“better not to ask than ask
and be disappointed”) that God has
to Mary and Joseph. Instead, on a hillside, God
disturbed the night watch of a group of
shepherds who were not particularly looking
out for God. Their responsibilities in the fields,
24 hours a day, prevented their participation in
Jewish worship, and made them religious
outcasts.
It was to this unlikely assembly, minding
their own business with their sheep, that God’s
angel appeared one dark night. Luke reports
their understandable fear, their decision to
abandon their sheep (risking their livelihood),
and their hasty trip to Bethlehem, where they
found the baby, and told his parents their
bizarre story.
This band of breathless shepherds became
God’s messengers to Mary and Joseph, for
whom their arrival was unexpected, but
The description of the large cara
van of people, walking in smaller
groups, tells us how people travelled
for safety, and of the trusting sense of
wider community in which Jesus was
raised. It also suggests that Mary and
Joseph had not been on their own in
Bethlehem, but could have had
extended family with them. Come
nightfall, there was panic; back in
Jerusalem, the fact that Mary, not
Joseph, told Jesus off gives a glimpse
of a strong, nononsense, mother.
How did Jesus respond? At one
level, it was with typical adolescent
insouciance. Why on earth were they
bothered? At another level, it
indicates that something had clicked
for him in a new way in Jerusalem:
he was growing into awareness that
God was his Father. In Judaism, God
was not normally addressed as
“Father”, and yet Jesus called God his
Father, and taught his disciples to do
so.
We do not know how Jesus came
to know this relationship, and her
esies have been built from specul
Joy breaks out: the
shepherds’ dance,
from a mid15th
century Dutch
Book of Hours
(Bodleian MS 93
folio 28, detail)
probably a comfort, since it assured them that
God had not abandoned them after all. They,
in turn, could reassure the shepherds — who
would not expect them to believe weird stories
of a sky full of angels — that they were not
hallucinating, but were the first to hear that
God really had sent a saviour.
That was the only miraculous part of the
actual birth of Jesus: otherwise, Mary and
Joseph, plus any extended family with them,
were on their own, dealing with a natural birth
away from their own home. Perhaps through
the shepherds they discovered, as we can today,
that God’s silence is not God’s absence. Luke
records that Mary treasured these words, and
pondered them in her heart. Years later, she
might have drawn strength from them, as she
faced the seeming silence of God at Calvary.
1st Sunday of Christmas
1 Samuel 2.1820, 26; Colossians
3.1217; Luke 2.41end
Almighty God, who wonderfully
created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully re
stored us through your Son Jesus
Christ: grant that, as he came to
share in our humanity, so we
may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with
you, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.
ation; Luke simply mentions his
remarkably astute questioning and
understanding, contrasting with his
parents’ lack of understanding. Then
Jesus got up, and went with his
parents to Nazareth, and was obedi
ent to them. Whatever being the Son
of God meant, he expressed this in
to prise or even wrench us open to
his great mercy.
Perhaps, in these last days of
Advent, it is time to revisit, prayer
fully, what we dare not voice or have
given up praying for, and to risk that
God will come with mercy, making a
road in our wilderness, in the
wilderness of our neighbourhood,
and of our nation.
Faithful Elizabeth,
long have you waited for this sign.
Now is your time of mercy —
your time! —
no longer sharer of another’s joy.
Can you receive — in awe, yet
without fear —
not just this child,
but mercy, in your hidden depths,
and in that place of faithful,
steady love
let mercy purge and heal your
pain,
risk the disarming of the strength
that kept you faithful through the
years?
Then, beloved and vulnerable,
embrace the lover of your soul.
Mercy, Elizabeth, mercy for you.
Not just a son, but joy, great joy.
Rosalind Brown
What was the effect on the shepherds?
Today’s readings tell of the goodness and
lovingkindness of God our Saviour’s appearing;
of the Lord’s proclaiming to the end of the
earth that salvation comes; that God’s holy
people are sought out, not forsaken. This is
what the shepherds experienced that stunning
night, and they returned, glorifying and
praising God.
One medieval artist envisaged their dancing.
I have a picture on an old Christmas card from
a Book of Hours (left), showing a group of
stolid medieval peasant shepherds, concentrat
ing intensely as they solemnly attempt a circle
dance. It is a dancing disaster waiting to
happen: some appear to have two left feet, and
one is going in the opposite direction while still
holding his neighbours’ hands.
They have dropped their crooks on the
ground because something has caused them to
venture into this new territory of dancing. The
clue lies with one who is outside the circle, on
the right, pointing upwards — no doubt it was
at the angels. Even hardened shepherds can
dance when joy breaks out, when a saviour is
born.
We never know how God’s messengers may
come to us, or what unlikely things God’s
messengers — for that is what angels are —
may cause us to do. We know that Mary
treasured the shepherds’ words in her heart,
and maybe, just maybe, the shepherds really
did learn to dance. The Christmas collect prays
for us to be daily renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Expect an unexpected answer as joy breaks out:
the goodness and lovingkindness of God has
appeared.
obedience to his parents, and, ul
timately, learned obedience through
what he suffered (Hebrews 5.8).
Lest we forget, as normal life
resumes, the collect takes us into the
glorious mysteries of what God has
done in Jesus Christ: first creating us,
then restoring us in the image of
God, sharing our humanity, so that
we may share the life of his divinity.
God’s salvation is so much more
than paying off any debt arising from
our sin, or meeting the demands of
the law. It restores humanity to what
was originally intended: communion
with God. Salvation is about life in
its fullness, sharing God’s life as he
has shared ours in Jesus Christ.
There are consequences to this
wonder, and the readings bring us
back to earth. God’s chosen ones,
holy and beloved, are to live trans
formed lives, clothing themselves
with love (was it love that enabled
the 12yearold, newly independent
Jesus, who had discovered the in
tellectual and theological thrills of
Jerusalem, to be obedient to his
parents in the backwater of Naza
reth?), and doing everything with
thanksgiving to God in the name of
Jesus.
Mary had already treasured what
the shepherds told her in her heart;
now she added to that treasurestore
this more difficult experience of her
son’s growing away from the family,
and yet being obedient to them.
Years later, Jesus said: “Where your
treasure is, there your heart will be
also” (Luke 12.34), and perhaps he
learned that, in part, from Mary.
Mary’s experience reminds us that
it is in the normality of life that we
add to the treasures in our heart, and
live in the light of them. One
practical suggestion for the New
Year is to buy a book in which to
record what you wish to treasure in
your heart — pictures, words,
stories, photos, memories — and,
like Mary, like Jesus, to live
obediently in ordinary life where
such treasures are created. Books like
that used to be called commonplace
books, with good reason.
SIR NINIAN COMPER (18641960)
had his critics. Pevsner wrote that,
although the rood screen, organ
case, and pulpit in St Mary’s,
Egmanton, Nottinghamshire (1897),
were admirable as pastiche, “as
pieces of contemporary art they are
all of course valueless.”
But Comper also had his admir
ers. None was more fervent than
Peter Anson, who, in his authorita
tive Fashions in Church Furnishing
18401940, described Comper’s
early work at St Cyprian’s, Clarence
Gate (1902), with its white interior,
graceful columns, delicate screen,
and gorgeous textiles, as redolent of
Edwardian luxury, putting him in
mind of pèche Melba.
Comper, more soberly, described
it as a setting fit for the liturgy of the
Book of Common Prayer. And
much more than a mere setting: “A
church is its own prayer,” he wrote,
“and should bring you to your knees
when you enter.”
Later, he created an inclusive style
influenced by his study of the fusion
of classical Greek, Saracenic, and
Gothic styles in Sicily and elsewhere,
and of the English 17thcentury
combination of classical with gothic.
All styles, he wrote, even those of
pagan antiquity, could contribute to
“unity by inclusion”.
In St Mary’s, Wellingborough
(19041931, right), he designed
Gothic arches to rest on fluted Greek
columns headed by Corinthian
capitals, and a classical baldacchino
to surmount a freestanding altar.
Photos of this and much of his other
work is accessible in Google images.
Betjeman wrote of Comper’s
church designs: “I saw . . . propor
tion, attention to detail, colour,
texture and chiefly purpose — the
tabernacle as the centre of it all.” It
was Comper’s aim to draw attention
to the altar, at first with his design of
the gothic altar with riddel posts
prayer for the week
My Jesus, how good it is to
love you. Let me be like your
disciples on Mount Tabor,
seeing nothing else but you. Let
us be like two bosom friends,
neither of whom can ever bear
to offend the other. . . We can
be satisfied only by setting our
hearts, imperfect as they are, on
you. We are made to love you;
you created us as your lovers.
St JeanBaptisteMarie
Vianney,
the Curé d’Ars (17861859)
James Steven in the
last in his series on
the our Father
JOHN BUNYAN was one of a good
number of English Christians for
whom the restoration of the mon
archy in 1660 spelled trouble. The
Dissenters of the mid17th century
believed in a freedom of religious
expression which inevitably brought
them into conflict with the monarch
and the Church of England. In Bun
yan’s case, his repeated practice of
preaching without a licence led to
imprisonment.
Writing in Bedford jail in the
1660s, Bunyan represented the voice
of protest that was becoming in
creasingly strong among the Dis
senters. Among their concerns,
Bunyan questioned the legitimacy
of praying using a lawfully imposed
book. The target for this criticism
was the Book of Common Prayer,
reestablished in 1662 as the single
faith
‘Unity by inclusion’ man
Adrian Leak considers the uplifting legacy of Sir Ninian Comper
hung with richly embroidered cur
tains and surmounted by gilded
angels, and later by the introduction
of a freestanding altar beneath a
baldacchino, a majestic canopy in
wood or stone supported by col
umns (for example at St Philip’s,
Cosham, 1937).
In his 1912 reordering of the
Grosvenor Chapel, in central Lon
don, he brought the altar forward,
and placed it under a baldacchino
west of the screened chancel, there
by creating the Lady chapel east of
the screen.
His chancel screens, surmounted
The gate of heaven: St Mary’s, Wellingborough
FOR 40 years, JeanBaptisteMarie
Vianney served as the parish priest,
or Curé, of the obscure country
parish of Ars, near Lyons. People
came from all over France to make
their confessions in his hearing and
to receive his spiritual guidance,
from peasants to ministers of the
government.
His own devotion was to the
mass and the real presence of
Christ in the reserved sacrament.
He had great compassion, insight,
and skill in guiding penitents. More
than 6000 people attended his
funeral.
“How good it is to love you,”
begins his prayer. At the trans
figuration on Mount Tabor, Peter,
James, and John saw Jesus in all his
glory, and could not take their eyes
by the rood with accompanying
figures, were designed with exuber
ant élan. Whether in a large building
such as St Mary’s, Egmanton, or a
tiny Cornish church such as St
Petroc’s, Little Petherick, these
magnificent structures — with
their open tracery, painted saints,
and gilded seraphim — far from
obscuring the sanctuary, serve as a
portal, drawing the eye along a
lengthened vista to the dazzling altar
beyond.
His painted glass is characterised
by its lightness, the rich blues and
reds enhanced by areas of clear
glass, giving a translucent effect. His
depiction of Christos Pantokrator,
showing a youthful unbearded
figure seated in majesty, recurs in a
number of east windows (Downside
Abbey, Pusey House in Oxford, and
Southwark Cathedral are three). In
these, you catch the serene glory
that shines through all his work.
Many of his commissions were
from private patrons. Athelstan
Riley (St Petroc), Lord Shaftesbury
(Wimborne), the Childers family
Sir Ninian Comper’s church architecture, woodwork and silver, textile
designs and stained glass brought colour and elegance to many churches
and cathedrals in the first half of the 20th century. His earlier work was
strongly influenced by the lateperpendicular style of the 15th century;
he was regarded as the last of the Gothic Revivalists. Later, he created
an eclectic style of his own in which he mixed classical with medieval
and renaissance forms. He was knighted in 1950. The anniversary of his
death falls on 22 December.
Michael Counsell prays with the Curé d’Ars
off him. The Curé asks for a similar
singlemindedness in his prayers.
“We can be satisfied only by
setting our hearts, imperfect as they
are, on you,” he says. All the other
things from which we seek for
satisfaction sadly pall after a while;
the only thing we never tire of is
loving God and basking in his love
for us.
Fr Vianney says to his Creator:
“Let us be like two bosom friends.” I
ask you, the cheek of the man! Yet
that is why God created us. He
wanted creatures to love who would
love him in return. To achieve
this, he had to labour through all
the millennia of evolution until he
had produced beings with enough
free will to reject him. Love cannot
be compelled: it has to be a free
choice
. So God had to come
down to earth, and make himself
our equal.
When we read this prayer, we feel
as if we have been privileged to
listen in to the intimate conversa
tion of two people who are deeply in
love with each other. Yet these are
not two ordinary people: one is
the humble priest of an insignificant
parish, and the other is the Creator
of the universe. Yet there is no
fear in the words of the merely
Pattern and prayer
authorised book of services for the
English Church and nation.
Bunyan’s chief problem was that
reciting prayer from a text was no
guarantee that genuine prayer was
taking place: Christian prayer
needed to be offered with a sincere
heart and right intention. Reading
from a text could easily become
a surrogate form of prayer, with
little or no spiritual value, he ar
gued.
The Lord’s Prayer, which took
pride of place in the services of the
Book of Common Prayer, found
itself at the centre of this debate. In
his book I Will Pray with the Spirit
and with Understanding Also, pub
lished in 1663, Bunyan articulated a
view that has remained popular in
Free Church life, namely that the
Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus to
his disciples to teach them a pattern
for prayer, and not primarily, if at
all, as a prayer to be recited. Thus
the Lord’s Prayer became a test case
in the correct manner of Christian
prayer.
Bunyan argued that if Christ had
intended the prayer to be used for
recitation, he would not have left
disparate versions of it (referring
to differences in the text of the
prayer in the Gospels). He also drew
attention to there being no record
of the apostles’ using the prayer, or
of their admonishing others to do
so.
These arguments, however, were
supplementary to his main convic
tions: authentic prayer comes from
a sincere heart, enlightened by the
Spirit, and the chief evidence of true
prayer offered in the Holy Spirit is
(Cantley), and Lord Halifax
(Hickley) are a few of many. Had he
been born a century later, it is
unlikely that his work would have
prospered without the benefit of
private patronage.
Comper was described as a “mys
terious figure”, hard to categorise.
“An aesthete who dressed with
understated elegance,” according to
his biographer, Fr Anthony
Symondson SJ. He spoke “in an
exquisitely modulated voice”; a
raconteur of the fin de siècle who
had known Aubrey Beardsley and
his circle, and who had lived
through the Second World War and
its après la guerre barbarism.
Betjeman recalled how Comper
had winced at the corduroy breeches
of the two beefy landgirls to whom
they had given a lift near Marlbor
ough: “Oh, that uniform!” groaned
the survivor of the belle époque, “It
shows a lack of reverence to our
Lady.”
But, for Comper, love of beauty
was much more than the affectation
of an aesthete: it was a doorway into
the presence of God. His life’s work
was to create church interiors that
would evoke from the casual visitor
and the regular worshipper alike the
response: “This is none other but
the house of God; this is the gate of
heaven.”
The Revd Adrian Leak is Priestin
Charge of Withyham, in the diocese
of Chichester.
to be found in prayer’s spontaneous
nature.
Bunyan is in many respects a
wise teacher of prayer. His pro
phetic critique of public prayer
echoes the warning of Jesus to avoid
prayer of the hypocrites, which is
thinly disguised religious showman
ship, and that of the pagans, which
is meaningless babbling (Matthew
6.57). He also stands securely in a
long tradition of interpreters, such
as St Augustine of Hippo, who
understood the Lord’s Prayer as
pattern for prayer.
Bunyan’s legacy of is, however,
questionable in some ways. In his
rigorous condemnation of liturgical
prayer, he sees only the dangers of
recitation, and misses the wisdom of
repetition in prayer. There is an
alternative, less anxious, and more
human member of this partnership.
It is as though they have so much
experience of each other’s trust
worthiness that they know that their
lover will never let them down, so
grateful are they to be in love with
someone who loves them. Because
they love each other, neither “can
ever bear to offend the other”.
It is this which makes us good:
not a struggle to attain selfrespect,
but the realisation that when we do
something selfish or unloving, we
wound the most tender of all hearts,
that of the God who loves us.
The Revd Michael Counsell is the
author of 2000 Years of Prayer
(Canterbury Press 1999) and The
Canterbury Preacher’s Companion
2013 (Canterbury Press 2012).
generous approach, which recog
nises public recitation of prayer as a
way for it to be filled with meaning.
The same prayer prayed in different
places, at different times, and at
different stages of life gains a multi
layered texture.
The Lord’s Prayer, like a rolling
snowball that gets bigger as it
descends a slope, accumulates mean
ing for those praying it regularly.
Moreover, like a prism that endlessly
fascinates because of the different
angles it splits light into its constituent
spectral colours, the Lord’s Prayer
can never be exhausted of meaning.
We are right to question the
thoughts of our hearts as we pray.
But too much introspection can
lead us from trusting the simple gift
of recitation, whereby over time and
through the help of God’s Spirit, we
grow into the endlessly fascinating
journey of finding God present in
our world.
The Revd Dr James Steven is
Director of Liturgy and Worship at
Sarum College.
23
features
MARiA STeeLe De LoZADA
peTeR BuTCHeR
Christmas does not
always go as smoothly
as planned. We asked
our readers to make
informal confessions
Jesus was in the holly
MY VICARhusband was in his
usual “I want to go to bed and not
stay up for a midnight service”
mode. This mood always lasted from
8 p.m. until 10 p.m., and it was better
to send him upstairs for a sleep,
before reviving him with a strong
coffee and a mince pie before he
went over to church just before 11.
At five past 11, he was back, in a
flap. I could hear him rummaging
around in his study. “What have
you lost this time?” I shouted down
from the landing.
“I’ve lost baby Jesus,” he replied.
Hugging my red cloak over my
24
When Baby Jesus was a teddy
nightie — I was nine months and one
day pregnant — I plodded over to
church to join in the search. Husband
was sure he had put baby Jesus on the
ledge in the pulpit. I glanced at the
adjacent window sill. There, sleeping
on a bed of prickly holly, was the
Christ Child, moved earlier that
evening by an overzealous cleaner.
All was now well in church. Not
so at the vicarage. Our children,
who had been fast asleep when I left,
were both wide awake on the land
ing, looking on in amazement at
their grandma. She was astride the
new rocking horse, which had been
meant as the Big Surprise. Santa’s
glass of port had been drunk.
Grandma looked rosy and was
giggling.
I giggled, too, but not for long.
Sounds of a filing cabinet being
opened and slammed shut, and
drawers pulled open, reached my
ears.
“What have you lost this time?”
“The prayer for the blessing of
the crib.”
The clock showed that there was
one minute to go before the mid
night service was due to start.
Grabbing my fountain pen, I shot
an arrow prayer to the unknown
patron saint of quickprayer
writers, and wrote a fiveline bless
ing on a piece of card and shoved it
into my husband’s hand.
Three minutes later, I hung my
head out of the vicarage window,
and heard the opening strains of “It
came upon the midnight clear”. I
caught the words: “And now for the
traditional prayer for the blessing of
the crib. . .”
How long does it take for a
prayer to become traditional? Five
minutes?
The importunate doll
VICARAGE children have to be
very patient on Christmas day,
waiting for daddy to finish all his
services and duties before the pres
ent opening can begin. However, we
did let them choose three presents
to open before church.
So it was that our threeyearold
chose her new doll to sit with her in
the pew. I was pleased she was play
ing so nicely on Christmas morning;
for she had a reputation as a wan
derer. For a change, I could actually
concentrate on the service, and
rashly closed my eyes for the prayer
of consecration.
I had, therefore, no idea that she
was by now undressing her doll, and
finding a string to pull from the
middle of its back. As her daddy
lifted up the chalice, an automated
voice pierced the holy stillness with
a loud: “I want a weewee.” I wanted
to crawl under the pew.
My university colours
CHRISTMAS morning started five
hours after husband had crawled
into bed after the midnight service.
Husband went off to take the 8 a.m.
communion, and I cooked bacon
and eggs for when he returned at
8.45 a.m.
It was nearly 9 a.m. before I
remembered that he had said that,
after the service, he would go up the
tower with the lay Reader to put up
features
RoGeR HoLLAND
ALexANDRA Le RoSSiGNoL
JoANNA
Jo MeRRY
JuDi HATTAWAY
the flag. Recent gales had whipped
the rope from its moorings, and it
would have to be posted through
the metal loop at the top of the pole.
In readiness for this operation, he
had taken all my vacuumcleaner
pipes, and those of a neighbour, and
lashed them together with my
university scarf. His idea was to post
the new rope up through the length
of tubing and thread it through the
flagpole loop.
His bacon was going cold, and
the egg was hard, as I went to the
lounge to look out at the church
tower, expecting by now to see the
St George’s flag billowing out.
What I saw was two men clutch
ing the parapet and laughing hys
terically. They still had the flag in
their hands. Instead, flying majestic
ally was my green, yellow, and blue
university scarf to the accompani
ment of pipes. Vacuum cleaner
pipes. Dingdong merrily on high!
Only men allowed
OUR church has a “Come as shep
herds, angels, wise people, animals”
invitation to our crib services.
An animated tenyearold “wise
man” was vociferous in his views.
“There were only three Wise Men
and they were all men. You cannot
have wise girls.”
A double blessing
IT WAS the little ones’ nativity ser
vice. At the back of the church,
mums were fussing around shep
herds, putting towels and rope circ
lets on their heads. Angels in white
party dresses looked like little fairies
(one had even brought a wand).
The Kings were getting clothes
out of the dressing up box. The boy
playing Joseph looked sullen, and
the girl being Mary, in a blue robe
with a white head scarf, sat serenely
nursing the baby Jesus. We were
about to begin.
Then the door opened, and in
came another little girl in blue and
white, followed by her doting
family. We now had two Marys.
Well, you can’t disappoint young
children; so for one year only we
had an extra character at the Nativ
ity. The second Mary became Jesus’s
gran. She got to hold the baby Jesus,
and her parents got the photos they
wanted.
Filed under ‘J’
EVERY year, the manger is retrieved
from a local garage and placed in
the church, filled with straw. In
theory, the baby Jesus is not placed
into the manger until Christmas
Day. Except that the baby Jesus is
required for various nativity and
carol services, and the mangerplus
baby is lent out for a townwide
event. After Christmas, the various
components are returned to storage,
but they don’t always all arrive as
and when expected.
Here are some of the remarks we
have had (all genuine):
“We’ve lost Jesus again. Does
anyone have any idea where he is?
We need him for the playgroup
nativity.”
“Jesus was in the manger when he
shouldn’t have been; so I popped
him under the pulpit during the
service, then moved him to the
vestry. He’s on top of the filing
cabinet.”
“I didn’t realise you still needed
Jesus after Christmas Day. I was
going to put him back in the loft.”
“If it’s my Jesus then he is
actually a little boy. You need to
check under his nightie.”
Carnage at the crib
I DID not drop the baby Jesus.
I accidentally kicked him out of
his crib, severing his head from
his body, sending it rolling into
the nether regions of the sanc
tuary. This was at a family com
munion service last Christmas Eve,
when I was a eucharistic minister
and following the vicar with the
chalice.
Our church is very proud of its
Victorian nativity set, and I felt very
embarrased. The communicants
who saw the incident burst into fits
of giggles.
Thank goodness for superglue.
The baby’s head got stuck back on
in time for midnight mass, but he
now has a hairline crack across the
neck. Thank goodness for patient,
longsuffering vicars, too.
Little furry nose
THE girl playing the part of Mary
in the nativity play promised
to provide a doll to be “baby
Jesus”. She turned up half an hour
before the service looking em
barrassed.
“I don’t actually play with dolls
any more; so it turns out my mum
has thrown them all out,” she
confessed. “But I have brought my
teddy. Will that do?”
And so, that year, we had a very
wellswaddled “teddy Jesus” as the
central character of the play. Thanks
to my dire warnings, none of the
other kids dared to laugh at the
baby’s unusually furry nose.
Our thanks to all the readers who
submitted stories and photos.
25
features
God takes on the human family tree
The creeds —
particularly the one
we rarely use any
more — provide a
challenging insight
into the meaning
of the incarnation,
argues Andrew
Davison
“LOVE came down at Christmas,”
we sing. To this, each of the three
great creeds of the Church bears
witness. This is the story of God
born of God, and born of Mary, of
the Son’s journey from the Father to
the dereliction of the cross, while
still remaining in the Father’s
bosom. It also tells the story of
cavemen, and the General Synod.
The earliest of the three, the
Apostles’ Creed, is the simplest. It
covers the incarnation with the
words “who was conceived by the
Holy Spirit, [and] born of the Virgin
Mary”. In the next one, the “Nicene”
Creed, we find a fuller discussion.
Most lavish of all is the longest
and latest text, which we call the
Athanasian Creed (although its at
tribution to St Athanasius is cer
tainly wrong).
Each creed has the incarnation at
its centre, set within the logic of a
Trinitarian faith. This is clearest in
the Athanasian Creed, where the
section on the incarnation follows
an extended and lyrical discussion of
the doctrine of the Trinity. Even the
short Apostles’ Creed follows a
Trinitarian structure: Father, Son,
and Spirit.
If we wish to explore the creeds
from a Christmas perspective, we
might consider the Greek word ek,
meaning “from”. With this word,
the Nicene Creed spells out the
divinity of Christ: he is begotten
eternally “of [literally ‘from’ — ek]
the Father”; he is “God from [ek]
God, light from light, true God from
true God.”
The word ek is taken up again in
the section on the incarnation,
pointing, subtly, to the link between
Christ’s birth in time and his eternal
coming forth from the Father. Just
as the Son is begotten “from” the
Father, God from God, he comes
“down from [ek] heaven”, and is
conceived “of [again, literally ‘from’
— ek] the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary”.
THE “mission” or “sending” of the
Son in the incarnation rests on his
“mission” (or eternal sending forth)
in the Trinity. The Son is sent into
the world because God is always,
and already, concerned with “send
ing” in the eternal sending of the
Son from — ek — the Father.
With the word ek, the creeds
establish the divinity of Christ. In
the earliest days of the Church, it
had also been necessary to em
phasise his humanity. The early
theologians took that position
against the Docetists — those who
held that Christ only seemed (the
Greek is dokein) to be human.
By the time the Nicene Creed was
written, and expanded at the Coun
cil of Constantinople, the divinity of
Christ, not his humanity, was under
attack. An emphasis on the human
26
as well as being from God. He is
“God, of the Substance of the Father,
begotten before the worlds, and
Man, of the Substance of his
Mother, born in the world.”
When it comes to being divine,
Christ takes his “substance” (or
nature, or being) from his Father, in
the eternal gift that we call his
“begetting”. When it comes to being
human, Christ takes his “substance”
from his mother, born in time.
Jesus really is one of us, as human
as any human being ever born of a
woman. This opposes the subtle
heresy, still encountered today, that
everything about Christ — his
humanity as well as his divinity —
was introduced directly into the
world by God, Mary functioning (as
this position sometimes puts it) as
no more than a viaduct.
The Athanasian Creed may seem
abstract, but the point it is making
here could not be more earthier,
physical and human. With the in
carnation, God takes on a human
family tree.
What we are is determined by
where we come from, especially
when it comes to being born or
begotten. Our new favourite word
— ek — explains where Christ
“comes from” in this sense: that he
has natures both human and divine.
As much as we use the word
“from” to describe closeness and
continuity we use the word to
describe distance and departure. If I
have travelled from London, then I
am no longer in that city.
ity remains in the creed, all the
same. We might not notice it at first,
but we will find it once again in that
small Greek word ek.
When the liturgies of Common
Worship were in the last stages of
preparation, the General Synod
faced few disputes fiercer than the
debate over this single word, at the
centre of the Nicene Creed.
With Common Worship, the
Church of England decided to trans
late into English the original Greek
of the Nicene Creed rather than the
Latin (itself a translation) familiar to
many from musical settings of the
mass: Credo in unum Deum, etc.
This shift also gave us a creed that
begins with the “We believe” of the
Greek rather than the “I believe” of
the Latin.
Previous English translations had
followed the Latin, and recounted
the incarnation with the words “was
incarnate by the Holy Spirit, of the
Virgin Mary” (the Latin words are
de and ex). That, however, makes a
in the beginning: Annunciation by
pietro perugino (1489)
distinction not present in the Greek,
which has the Son incarnate both
from the Holy Spirit and from the
Virgin Mary: ek . . . kai — from . . .
and from.
Christ is as fully human as he is
fully divine. He is as much “from”
Mary (as to his humanity) as he is
from the Father (adding the caveat,
however, that ultimately everything,
including his human descent, comes
by the gift of God).
IN THE contemporary Church, we
pass over the Athanasian Creed. It is
long and complicated, and its
beginning and end are tough, even
harsh, on heretics, who, we are told,
“without doubt” will “perish ever
lastingly”. All the same, it deserves
our attention, since there are points
of theology, especially concerning
the incarnation, that find no more
perfect expression than they do in
this creed.
One of them makes the point just
recounted, that Christ is from Mary,
WE NATURALLY describe the
incarnation as a journey, with this
sense of “from”. The tradition that
Christ was born in the middle of
Christmas night comes from a pas
sage in the book of Wisdom,
describing a journey. Or, rather, it
describes a leap: “For while gentle
silence enveloped all things, and
night in its swift course was now half
gone, your allpowerful word leapt
from heaven.”
There is a truth and a falsehood in
treating the word “from” — “came
down from [ek] heaven” — like this,
as a journey. The Son comes to be
one among us, and one of us.
This, we might say, is quite some
departure. Yet, in another way, it is
not: he comes to be human, without
ceasing to be what he was before. He
comes from heaven, while re
maining in heaven.
“Heaven”, here, does not prim
arily mean a place, but Christ’s
relationship with the Father and
with his own perfect divinity. On
this front, he departs without
leaving: “The heavenly Word pro
ceeding forth, yet leaving not the
Father’s side”, wrote Thomas
Aquinas in a hymn. “Remaining in
the bosom of the Father,” Augustine
preached, “he made pregnant the
womb of the Mother.”
Our Christology is at its most
compelling when we hold to both
the humanity and the divinity in
their fullness: to both departing and
to remaining. Christ’s divinity
makes his humanity all the more
extraordinary and significant. It is
difficult to imagine why we should
think that the suffering of a
Palestinian peasant in AD 33 urges
us to defend the poor at every turn,
were this peasant not also Almighty
God.
SIMILARLY, it is only in Christ’s
humanity that we encounter God
with the directness of one who can
be “seen with our eyes . . . looked at
and touched with our hands”. What
is revealed there shows God to be
features
NATioNAL GALLeRY/YoRK pRoJeCT
Statements of faith: left: an
icon of St Athanasius, whose
name is lent to one of the
creeds; right: Nativity at Night
by Geertgen tot Sint Jans,
1490
‘At the
nativity,
God, too,
became a
caveman’
more extraordinary than we could
ever have imagined. The incarnation
gives us a window on to God as
three and one: we see not only “God
made visible”, but also this God
living in the power of the Holy
Spirit, and addressing God as his
Father. It is from here that
Trinitarian theology begins.
The Son of God was not changed
by the incarnation. As Augustine,
again, put it, the incarnation has him
“remaining what He was in Himself,
and receiving from us and for us
what He was not”.
This is another point where the
Athanasian Creed gets to the heart
of the matter, with pithy directness.
In Christ, we see a union “not by
conversion of the Godhead into
flesh: but by taking of the Manhood
into God”. The incarnation was no
“conversion” of God, which is to say
that it was no truncation of God.
On this, a great deal rests. If the
incarnation was a truncation of God,
then Jesus is not really Emmanuel,
not really “God with us”, but “God
reduced with us”, or “a sliverofGod
with us”.
Only because the fullness of God
was incarnate in Christ (“in him the
whole fullness of deity dwells
bodily,” (Colossians 2.9) can we say
with Karl Barth and his followers
(and, on this front, that means a
great cloud of witnesses in the 20th
century), that God is as he is in
Christ.
‘When it
comes to
being human,
Christ takes his
substance from
his mother,
born in time’
IN The Everlasting Man, G. K.
Chesterton takes great delight in the
particular destination of the Son’s
“journey”: tradition has it that the
stable in which Christ was born was
a cave. The Church of the Nativity,
in Bethlehem, was built in the early
fourth century over the cave that was
held to be the site of the stable.
Archaeology confirms that caves
often served this purpose. “The
human story began in a cave,”
Chesterton wrote, at least in as much
as our imagination is captured by the
figure of the “caveman” drawing
animals on the walls. Caves with
paintings, such as those in Lascaux in
France, stand at the beginning of
human history.
At Christmas, we remember that
the “second half of human history”,
as Chesterton writes, “also begins in
a cave. Animals were again present;
for it was a cave used as a stable by
the mountaineers of the uplands
about Bethlehem”. And, whatever
Pope Benedict XVI might write in
his new book, if there was a manger,
there were probably also animals. At
the nativity, God, too, became a
“caveman”.
The Son “came down from
heaven”, as the Nicene Creed puts it,
not to be born on the surface of the
earth, but under the earth, in a cave:
a cave that Chesterton calls “a hole
or corner into which the outcasts are
swept like rubbish”, such that Jesus
was “born like an outcast or even an
outlaw”.
From the first moments of his
nativity, we see where the Son’s
journey is to take him: to a cross
between two bandits. After this birth
in poverty, writes Chesterton, who is
always a “political” theologian, our
sense of our duties to the poor and
outcast can never be the same again.
The word “from” presents us with
a journey, and, at Christmas, that
journeywhileremaining of the Son
of God has only just begun. Ahead
lie infancy and childhood, adoles
cence and adulthood, death and
resurrection; ahead lie Egypt and
Nazareth, Capernaum and Jeru
salem, Hades and Heaven.
The Church will follow this story
in the coming months, to Holy Week
and beyond. Its missionary challenge
at Christmas is to encourage others
to follow the journey with us.
Perhaps the very fact that we are
concerned with the infancy of Christ
can be a spur, because with every
birth comes the fascination of a story
begun. Again, Augustine makes this
point: “We have the infant Christ, let
us grow with him.”
The Apostles’ Creed is the creed
of baptisms, and of the personal
confession of the faith. The Nicene
Creed is the creed of the eucharist,
and being one body together. At
Christmas — more than at any other
time — the Church can expand its “I
believe” to a “we believe”, which
others can say alongside us.
We do this in the hope that, in
time, they will be able to take this
Mystery
Cultural
Continued from page 16
comes in Elizabeth Jennings’s poem
“The Annunciation”:
have gone to it with their friends; but
they were told that they had to have
certain Christian prayers. They were
turned away from the church because
of its insistence on particular forms.
What is remarkable about this is
the growing sense of community
values. Lampposts are laden with
flowers marking the place where
someone has died. Hundreds helped
to clear up their cities after the 2011
riots. The Olympics had 70,000
volunteer Gamesmakers.
People are inspired to rebuild their
community; something that is at the
centre of our message. The Church
has a strong record of charity work,
but perhaps we are being asked to
step further into what is happening
on the street, and join in.
Nothing will ease the pain to come
Though now she sits in ecstasy
And lets it have its way with her.
The angel’s shadow in the room
Is lightly lifted as if he
Had never terrified her there.
The furniture again returns
To its old simple state. She can
Take comfort from the things she
knows
Though in her heart new loving
burns
Something she never gave to man
Or god before, and this god grows
Most like a man.
There is still the shadow of an
angel here. But I wonder whether we
are now grownup enough to decide
that angel messengers, or some of the
other symbols, no longer really work
for us. Perhaps they are now over
worked and, positively, there are
fresher ways of expressing wonder.
If so, there is surely a need for
writers — perhaps inspired by the
strange James’s Infancy Gospel — to
express the mystery of the incarna
tion in newminted narratives.
The Revd Nick Jowett is retired. He
was formerly Vicar and Minister at St
Andrew’s Psalter Lane Anglican
Methodist Partnership in Sheffield.
WE NEED to grapple harder with the
question of how we might build a
bridge wide enough for this large part
of the population to find guidance for
their spiritual life in what is their own
heritage. Many feel that if our
services and outreach (such as
feeding the homeless or youth work)
does not involve discussing the
gospel explicitly, then we will not
have honoured our ministry.
Yet, because such a careful first
step is needed, perhaps we are in
danger of underestimating that God
is still at work “with thee when we
know it not”, as Wordsworth wrote.
We are being asked to reveal our
confidence in God: the good news
“we believe” and make it an “I
believe” of their own: an “I believe”
that can grow into the theological
maturity of the “Creed of St
Athanasius”, that poetic, profound
and underappreciated exploration
of Christian faith.
The Revd Dr Andrew Davison is
Tutor in Doctrine at Westcott House,
Cambridge.
that God is working in people’s lives.
What is more, we are being asked to
show that people’s relationship with
God can be enriched through contact
with their own tradition, which seeks
only to look for where grace is work
ing within them, and to serve.
Many of us have spent years work
ing with people who have left the
Church. Yet the public seems to be
saying that we are a long way from
doing enough. This voice should not
be heard with disappointment, be
cause their renewed interest is a great
opportunity to move forward.
Some people look for a connection
with our belief in hospitality and
community; others need to find
support in conscience; while others
want a loving God, or God’s awe
inspiring mystery; and others still
need to find a way to live with fear
and doubt. They look to us to listen
to them, and to accompany them.
Our rich tradition, filled with people
exploring God in music, literature,
the arts, architecture, nature, hos
pitality, social action, community in
volvement, inner development, spir
itual experience, and so much more,
is there to be used in all its variety.
If we could find the courage to step
into conversation, and not to
underestimate the trust that needs to
be rebuilt; if we could have the faith
to meet these people with their
doubts; if we could look for grace in
their lives in new ways — then we
might find, with the grace of God,
that we are able to serve them again.
The Revd MarieElsa Bragg is Assis
tant Curate at St Mary’s, Kilburn, and
St James’s, West Hampstead, and a
Duty Chaplain at Westminster Abbey.
27
features
Another long day’s journey . . .
pHoToS SARAH MALiAN/CHRiSTiAN AiD
The arduous
trip that Nazeeh
Al Arabsi and
his daughter
Salsabeel have
to take for her
dialysis is an
emblem of the
health problems
that face
Palestinians in
the West Bank.
Ed Thornton
reports
TWO thousand years ago, a family,
living under occupation, set out on
an arduous journey. Joseph and
Mary, his heavily pregnant fiancée,
left Nazareth to go to Bethlehem,
the town of David, to register in a
census, the Gospel of Luke says.
Today, pilgrims queue patiently
in the Church of the Nativity, in
Bethlehem, to enter the Grotto of
the Nativity, the spot where,
tradition has it, Jesus was born. The
same pilgrims often make their way
to Jerusalem, to retrace the footsteps
of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.
Inside the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, they queue patiently
again, waiting to glimpse the spot
where they believe the same Jesus
was raised to life some 33 years
later.
About an hour’s drive from
Bethlehem, in a village in the
northern West Bank, a Muslim
Palestinian family, also living under
occupation, are well acquainted
with arduous journeys.
Nazeeh and Lubna Al Arabasi
have five children, aged between
seven and 17. Their fourth child,
Salsabeel, who is 11 years old, needs
kidney dialysis three times a week
— one of her kidneys has not been
properly functioning for about two
years. There is no organdonor
register for Palestinians, and the
Israeli donor waiting list is not open
to them.
There is no dialysis department
in the West Bank, which means
that, three times a week, accom
panied by one of her parents, Salsa
beel travels to the Augusta Victoria
Hospital, in East Jerusalem, for
treatment.
Salsabeel’s family have the use of
a car rather than a donkey, but the
journey is not as straightforward as
it looks on a map. As Palestinians,
they are allowed to enter Jerusalem
only through the Qalandiya military
checkpoint. “We have to change
transportation from cars to taxis
and buses,” Mr Al Arabasi said. “It’s
very tiring and exhausting for Salsa
beel.”
en route: top: Salsabeel
Al Arabasi and her father,
arriving at the Qalandiya
checkpoint, where they have
to queue three times a week;
above: pilgrims at the Church
of the Nativity, Bethlehem
I MET the Al Arabasi family when I
was on a trip to the West Bank with
Full access toilets for
churches without drainage.
At your service.
01686 412653 [email protected] www.natsol.co.uk/church
28
‘It really tires
me out, going
back and forth’
Christian Aid last month. We joined
them on one of their regular trips to
the hospital, leaving shortly before
5 a.m.
Salsabeel, who has a cheerful
demeanour and a cheeky sense of
humour, says that she passes the
time in the car by pretending to be a
radio presenter, conducting mock
interviews with her father, using his
mobile phone. On the days when
she travels with her mother, on
public transport, she sleeps, having
had to get up at 4 a.m.
“It really tires me, going back
and forth,” she said. “And when I
am hooked up to the dialysis ma
chine, I get really cold, and I shiver.
I also get pain in my feet and back.”
The Ministry of Health for the
Palestinian Authority covers the
cost of Salsabeel’s treatment; but the
family bear the expense of travelling
to and from East Jerusalem several
times a week. Physicians for Human
Rights Israel (PHRI), a partner of
Christian Aid, has helped the family
to navigate the bureaucracy, such as
obtaining the necessary permits to
go through checkpoints. “The costs
add up,” said Mr Al Arabasi, who
works as a builder.
He believes that the exhaus
tion of travelling has contributed
to a worsening of his daughter’s
health. It has also affected her
education: on days when she has
dialysis, Salsabeel does not get
back home until 3 p.m., having
missed most classes at school.
“Every time I go to school, I’ve
just missed a day; so I don’t
know how to answer questions,”
she said. “And the teachers don’t
help me catch up with the lessons
I have missed. So I don’t like
school.”
WE FINALLY reached the
hospital, after navigating various
checkpoints, and changing buses
several times. One of the nurses
tells us that about 60 of the
dialysis patients are children. “All
of them come from the West
Bank, which doesn’t have
haemodialysis facilities for
children,” she said.
If the children and their
parents could not get through the
checkpoints, she said, they
missed their treatment. “It’s very
dangerous, because regular
treatment is essential. If they
don’t get it, then fluid can
accumulate in their lungs.”
“Whatever we do, the
occupation is still here, and we feel
it,” Mr Al Arabasi said. “We have a
proverb in Arabic that people
‘always wish for what they can’t
have’. As Palestinians, we wish we
had a health system that functioned
well, and included organ donation.”
Many other Palestinians living
in the West Bank lack access to
adequate healthcare facilities. PHRI
attempts to address some of this
need by operating mobile clinics
every Saturday in villages in the
West Bank.
We visited a mobile clinic in Beit
Fajjar, a Palestinian village in the
West Bank, less than 20 km south of
Bethlehem, run by PHRI. When we
arrived, a crowd of villagers had
congregated outside the main
building of a community centre.
Inside, a team of volunteer doctors
and nurses — many of them Israelis
— prepared to see patients.
The volunteers included an
89yearold Israeli nurse, Pnina
Felier, who has been volunteering
for 15 years; and Dr Aharan Karny,
who is 64, an Israeli family doctor
who served as a soldier during the
SixDay War in 1967.
Dr Karny told us that he volun
pHoToS SARAH MALiAN/CHRiSTiAN AiD
teers about five or six times a year:
“The people here are under the care
of a system that is not developed
enough, especially the primary
care.” It was difficult to recruit col
leagues to volunteer, he said.
“People are afraid that it is not safe
to come over. People have the
notion that we have so many prob
lems on the Israeli side: why waste
the time and energy?”
OUTSIDE, in the afternoon sun, as
excitable children ran around, the
director of the mobile clinic, Salah
Haj Yehya, explained that Beit
Fajjar’s one medical centre was not
sufficiently resourced to provide
adequate treatment for its 15,000
inhabitants.
Mr Yehya, a Palestinian who has
Israeli citizenship, said that the
situation in Beit Fajjar was typical of
Palestinian towns across the West
Bank. The 1998 Oslo Accords
transferred responsibility for health
care from the Israeli government to
the Palestinian Authority. The
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
‘What is the
point of me
getting an
award, if
nothing
changes?’
territories, however, had limited
Palestinians’ access to health care,
he said.
Mr Yehya’s mobile phone rang
frequently as he spoke; he said that
he got at least 50 calls from villages
each week, asking for the clinic to
visit. “It sits on my conscience,
because we want to help. We can’t
afford more than four Saturdays a
month. Saturday is the doctors’ day
off, and this is the only day they can
volunteer with us.”
Over in another building, a
makeshift clinic had been set up by
an Eritrean nun and nurse, Sister
Aziza, and her colleague, Alicia, to
treat people with physiotherapeutic
and dermatological conditions.
Sister Aziza — whose real name is
Azezet Kidane — has worked for
PHRI for threeandahalf years.
She has also lived in London, where
she studied at the School of Tropical
Medicine, and in southern Sudan,
where she worked for ten years.
Care in conflict: above, left: Sister
Aziza, who helped set up a
mobile clinic in Beit Fajjur, near
Bethlehem; top, right: Aharon
Karni, an israeli doctor who
volunteers for physicians for
Human Rights; above: an 89year
old israeli nurse, pnina Felier,
volunteering at Bet Fajjar
features
their stories and to tell others.”
Sister Aziza collected the testi
monies of 1300 refugees, and the
world took note: Pope Benedict
called for Christians to pray for
those who were being mistreated,
and the US Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, presented Sister
Aziza with an award for her work.
But it has not gone to her head:
“What is the point of me getting an
award if the situation gets worse,
and nothing changes?” she said.
The director of PHRI, Ran
Cohen, whom we met a few days
later, said that Palestinian patients
trusted Sister Aziza because, as a
nun, she was obviously religious.
But PHRI is not merely a
humanitarian organisation doing
good works, Mr Cohen said: it was a
“humanrights organisation”, which
was controversial in Israel. “Israel
has a responsibility for the health of
all people as long as it is controlling
the West Bank and Gaza. . . We give
medical care, but it is a channel to
get to know the people — to
understand the problems, and to
identify the issues we want to
advocate for, and to work on a
political level to change that. If we
have a goal, it is to stop providing
medical care and make sure that the
government does it.”
Volunteers do not have to share
the organisation’s political beliefs.
“Some just want to do humanitarian
work. This is OK as a starting point.
We do not hide it that we would like
them to start asking other questions:
why do we need to do this work?
Why don’t they get it from Israel, or
the Palestinian Authority?”
Sister Aziza would also like the
pilgrims who queue at the holy sites
to ask more questions about the
situation in IsraelPalestine.
“Christians come to Israel for one
reason: to visit the Holy Land. But
they don’t see what is really happen
ing here.”
This year, Christian Aid’s Christmas
appeal is focusing on “Healing in this
Holy Land”. For more information,
visit www.christianaid.org.uk/
christmas.
ON A short break between patients,
Sister Aziza explained that she saw
her work at the mobile clinic as a
way to build a bridge to Muslims.
“Most of the time we are the only
Christians among them. We like the
Church to be among these people
and this beautiful event. We feel that
the presence of Christianity among
these people is important. . . They
ask me, do I fast and pray? I say yes,
different to you, but I do fast and
pray.”
On other days, she treats Eritrean
and Sudanese refugees who have
escaped from the clutches of people
traffickers in the Sinai desert. “You
cannot imagine the horrible things
that have happened to these people,”
she says. “I feel ashamed even
repeating it. . . But the people need
somebody to listen to them, to tell
Mother and daughter: far left:
Salsabeel, with her mother,
Lubnar; left: Salsabeel in the
kidney dialysis ward at Augusta
Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem
29
features
Unto us a child is born, on screen
The Nativity Factor is
an annual competition
that encourages
people to produce
their own version of
the Christmas story.
Prizes are awarded
for the best ones.
Steve Tomkins reports
A MAN in jeans and a hoodie walks
through a wood, his face darkened
with rage and pain. Memories of
angry confrontations churn through
his mind, as he screws up the photo
of him and his girlfriend and throws
it away.
There is a flicker of light, and he
notices two children, all in black,
standing before him. They have
come to tell him, in their own way,
that Mary is telling him the truth,
and much, much more. . .
It is not the traditional depiction
of the nativity story, but then that is
the whole point. This surprisingly
moving short film, No Pressure, is
an entry in the Nativity Factor
competition, in which contestants
are challenged to make a film that
tells the old, old story in a new and
engaging way.
The competition is run by ITN
and Jerusalem Productions. “We’re
looking for a creative and original
retelling of the nativity story,” Dan
Faulks, of ITN, explains. “It doesn’t
necessarily have to be radically
different — it could be quite tradi
tional, if it had amazing production
values.”
The first competition was held last
year, and the winner was the Revd
Gavin Tyte, PriestinCharge of St
Peter and St Paul’s, Uplyme, in
Devon, with The Beatbox Nativity, a
oneman summary of Luke’s nativity
story that uses rap and beatbox.
“That was a pretty traditional version
of the story,” Mr Faulks says, “but
done in a really offthewall way”.
The point of the contest, he says,
“is to raise awareness of the Chris
tian values around the Christmas
story. It’s not exactly aiming to raise
the profile of the nativity story,
because it’s everywhere, but trying
to get people to take another look at
it.”
The film, featuring the figure in
jeans and a hoodie, and two young
“angels”, gets its title, No Pressure,
from the angels’ ironic words of
reassurance to Joseph. It is the work
of 4six3, a group that makes DVDs
‘I wince when I
see angels,
and donkeys,
and shepherds,
and clouds’
Lent Books
Advertise in
Church Times
Friday 18th January
Contact Stephen Dutton:
Tel. 0207 776 1011
Email. [email protected]
30
its destination, the greatest obstacle
being the Israeli separation wall.
Finally, it arrives, and is put in place
— and, if you haven’t guessed what
it is, I won’t spoil the ending.
“I was attracted by the idea of the
Nativity Factor,” Canon Davies
says, “but I wince when I see angels,
and donkeys, and shepherds, and
clouds; so I wanted to do something
different. I do my own Christmas
cards, and I based the film on one I
did a couple of years ago, working
back from that image to develop the
story.
“It gave me the opportunity to
make some contemporary com
ments about the situation in the
Middle East at the moment. I asked
someone who’s got good connec
tions with the Middle East what the
postal address would be for Bethle
hem. It turns out it would be some
thing like: ‘The Palestinian Autono
mous District, via Israel’; so there’s
the subplot.”
Canon Davies says that the draw
ings took him a couple of evenings,
and then his friend Phil Wattis
animated them in a couple of hours.
“No false modesty, but people say
‘How do you find the time to do
these things?’ It’s just spending a
couple of evenings away from the
pub, really.”
that explore life issues for Christian
children’s groups.
The project is run by Sarah Rob
inson and Nick Willoughby, and
involves local young people in the
acting and camerawork, and some of
the writing and production. Mrs
Robinson and Mr Willoughby take
the adult roles in the film.
“We wanted something a bit
different which changed the direc
tion a little, and brought in the
humour,” Mrs Robinson says. “It
grew from a sketch we did five or six
years ago about angels arguing who
was going to tell Joseph the message
from God, and we thought, ‘How
can we expand on that?’
“Nick and I write together, and
one will have an idea, and the other
expand it, and it works very well.
We recorded it in one day, everyone
had a great time, and we were
thrilled with it.”
Nativity scenarios: top: No Pressure;
middle: The Potato Eaters Nativity;
above: The Founding
A VERY different entry comes from
Canon Taffy Davies, Rural Dean of
Macclesfield. The Founding is a
beautiful pencildrawing animation,
in black and white — with one
notable exception — and silent
apart from a musical track. If the
style seems familiar, Canon Davies
is the erstwhile cartoonist for The
Church of England Newspaper.
In this film, craftspeople in a
modernday foundry make a mys
terious metal artefact, which is then
shipped out to Bethlehem. We see
them painstakingly make a mould,
fill it with molten metal, and later
paint the resultant disc blue. A
series of vans and ships carries it to
BOTH 4six3 and Canon Davies
have found that, in entering the
competition, they have created a
resource for churches. Both have
heard from people who saw the
video on the competition website,
and wanted to use it as part of their
carol service — which they were
delighted to agree to.
The Potato Eaters’ Nativity is an
entry by FISH (Friends in Social
Harmony), the young people’s
group at Guiseley Methodist Church,
Yorkshire. Using the unlikely in
spiration of Van Gogh’s painting
Potato Eaters, they staged a nativity
where all the parts are played by
potato puppets, against a backdrop
based on the original painting.
“The people who were speaking
had to be next to the camera,” Becky
Morrish, the 15yearold who
dressed and voiced the potato Mary,
says; “so other people had to duck
behind the stage and control the
potatoes. It was a fun thing to do.
Everyone enjoyed it.”
Joseph finds the hotels are all
“wedged” full, and Mary complains
she is “roasting” after the journey.
“We had a session where we had to
think of as many potato references
as possible, and then Nick [the Revd
Nick Baker] combined as many as
possible into a script.”
Mr Baker says: “It went from the
sublime — chatting about the
meaning of Christmas — to ‘How
are we going to get this across?’
‘Potatoes.’ ‘OK then. . .’”
Other entries in the competition
include a superhero liveaction
comic strip XMas Origins; a futur
istic sciencefiction version Nativity
3001: A space Godyssey; and one
told through voiceovers of animals,
An Animal’s Tale.
There is also Humble Beginnings,
in the style of a trailer for a teen
drama movie; and The Chinnie’s
Nativity, acted by talking chins.
The competition has a separate
category for under16s. In this, you
can see A Nativity Told Through
Dinosaurs, by Taliesin Coleman;
Posh Jesus and Street Jesus, both by
Orchard School, Bristol; and The
Lego Nativity, by Jacob, Samuel, and
Matthew Crow.
To see the films and find out who
won, visit www.thenativityfactor.com.
features
I am an atheist, but I still love Christmas
NeW HuMANiST
The comedian and
writer Robin Ince
turns off the phone,
and celebrates a
godless Christmas
O
H, TO be an atheist at
Christmas, hurling snow
balls at the angelfaced
children singing “Silent Night”,
letting down the tyres on the
bicycles of the old ladies who have
cycled to midnight mass, and then
stealing all the snowmen’s noses and
turning them into soup.
That is what some people might
like to believe. Atheists, much like
vegetarians, are wrongly thought to
have taken their position owing to a
vehement desire for a life without
joy or hope. Just as vegetarians at
banquets are served up a small
pastry parcel that contains hints of
the memory of vegetables, “because
you don’t like food”, so atheists
are expected to be Grinchish,
grouchish, and generally grey
clouded when Christmas comes
around.
Some years ago, I made the mis
take of appearing on a TV debate
show about “Winterval” and other
popular Christmastheft legends. As
with the majority of these TV
events, it was not a debate, just a
pub slangingmatch, without the
excuse of inebriation or the advan
tage of peanuts. One fundamentalist
kept telling me: “You want to ban
Christmas.” I don’t know where he
got the idea from. It was from
nothing I said. I can only presume
that I looked particularly like Alan
Rickman that day.
Counterinstinctively, the more
faithless my Christmas has become,
the more “Christmassy” it has
become. In reaction to the TVshow
fundamentalist, I decided that
something must be done to prove
that the godless enjoyed celebration
as much as anyone who dwelt in
pews and porches singing carols. I
came up with Nine Lessons and
Carols for Godless People — a night
that celebrates the universe and its
contents with scientists, musicians,
comedians, and, occasionally, hula
hoopers and tap dancers.
Soon, the onenight event
spanned two weeks. A few Chris
tians started buying tickets in error,
having read only the first four
words of the title, and they were
surprised that — rather than a
bolshie attack on believers — it was
a night of experiments with giant
testtubes, ogling at deepfield
images of space, and an occasional
gag about neutrinos.
Getting Christmassy: above: Robin
ince on stage at Nine Lessons and
Carols for Godless People. left: this
year’s poster
H
AVING spent years perform
ing at drunken office parties,
trying to make myself heard
above minds in alcoholic despair,
spending ten days talking about
stars with wise men sets me up for a
Christmas break.
For the parent of a young child,
Christmas really starts with the visit
to the school nativity (the one that
was banned, according to that TV
debate show). Last year, my son was
a star so as long as his cardboard
and tinsel stayed hung around him,
and his performance was a success.
This time, he is a grumpy soldier
with lines; thus there is an upping of
the tension. Will this become the bit
of footage that is stored in the
cupboard, ready to play as
punishment when he is older?
As for worrying about my child’s
taking part in a play about the birth
of Jesus, well, I don’t. Children are
bombarded by myths, histories, and
anecdote as they learn. The dis
cussions about why people believe
what they do can be saved for when
the questions occur to him. As he
‘I grasp any
moment to
stop, stare and
contemplate’
grows up, I can only hope to give
him the opportunity of free think
ing, and critical thinking, and then
he can use those tools as he wishes.
I am fascinated by how many
Father Christmases a child is likely
to meet, nowadays. Within the first
three days of December, my son had
met three Santas, and there are
many more to come. His fouryear
old brain has rationalised why he
encounters so many Santa Clauses.
They are not the real Santas, but the
franchise he has had to set up, while
he is busy at the Pole preparing for
chimney slides — the bodydoubles
for a hectic man.
B
ECAUSE Christmas advertising
begins while I am still packing
away my beach ball and flip
flops (I do not actually wear flip
flops because of my ugly toes), I
forget about all the preparation bits.
I rarely see television; so I am not
racked with anxiety by all those
adverts that constantly remind you
that, if you do not spend enough
money buying everything, you will
have failed as a human being.
I usually start shopping on 22 or
23 December, carefully mapping out
where I need to go, and what I wish
to buy. My wife does not disguise
her disgust and disappointment
when presents are not what she
wants; so the most important thing
is the envelope to put the receipts
in, so that she can exchange every
thing in January.
I believe that last year’s toasted
sandwich maker was one of my
finest gift choices (honestly). This
has trebled the number of hot meals
we have time to eat in an average
week.
I normally walk off the stage for
the last time in the year at about
11.30 p.m. on 23 December. One of
the joys of the Christmas season is
the enforced holiday. I usually work
seven days a week; so I enjoy being
forced into a rest status.
My family are very relaxed about
Christmas. The regular churchgoers
go off to the Christmas Day service,
but I am afraid my atheism buys me
a liein. It is not really a liein, just a
brief lieback, after the hurricane of
stockingdispensing excitement.
My side of the family is non
chalant about presents; we are the
sort of people who forget birthdays
for years on end, and, once in a
while, someone might say, “Did you
ever get that bicycle we were going
to buy you for your 35th birthday all
those years ago?”
My wife’s family are Christmas
present experts, and a flood of
parcels surround the tree — every
thing from jumpers to piccalilli. My
motherinlaw thinks of all pos
sibilities for you — and, fulfilling
William Morris’s advice, they are
either practical or beautiful.
I
HAVE been accused by religious
friends of being a hypocrite for
enjoying Christmas. But I see this
time of year as all the positive
clichés — a time for family, where I
have no need to leave the room
suddenly to finish an article, or do a
show in Aberystwyth.
Without the religious element
of Christmas, there can still be days
of relative calm, rural walks, and
minds not needing to be as frantic
as much modern living seems to
engender. This is why I dislike the
increasing pressure to create some
kind of illusion of the perfect
Christmas through consumerism.
Sitting around, talking, inhaling
the aroma of mince pies, and ob
serving the peace of deadlinefree
days, is enough for me, especially
with a new jumper and jar of pic
calilli.
Then it’s paper hats, bad jokes,
and sprouts. I am careful with
pulling crackers, as, many years ago,
I sent my grandmother to hospital
after overzealously pulling a
cracker, desperate for a cheap
plastic puzzle or fortunetelling fish.
Once bloated, and barely able to
move, I place myself on the floor so
that I am at the correct height to
play with whatever car or train is
my son’s new favourite — uncertain
if I will ever be able to rise up from
the ground with this new potato
andpuddingbased centre of
gravity.
If I have time, I will also throw in
a viewing of Alastair Sim’s Scrooge,
and possibly an M. R. James ghost
story. I may be one of those rational
atheists, but a wellmade 1970s
ghost play at midnight will have me
believing every shadow and half
reflection to be an angry spirit, until
it is morning.
Dennis Potter, in his haunting
and provoking last interview, talked
of “the blossomest blossom”. Know
ing that he would never see the
blossom again, he saw the beautiful
details of the world in a way that he
hadn’t before he was so directly
confronted with his imminent
death.
As someone who believes his
existence is finite, I grasp any
moment to stop, stare, and contem
plate. I hope that I may have 40
years more of seeing Boxing Day
frosts, and looking at blue tits
feasting on yesterday’s lard. But I try
to make the most of knowing that
the phone can be switched off, and
the laptop put on sleep.
Then, as the cacophony of family
and new toys rises, the duffle coat is
toggled up, and, with a boy on my
back, the long country trek — to try
and walk off a newly found belly —
begins.
So, happy Christmas — or, as we
atheists like to say, happy Christ
mas.
For details of Robin Ince’s 2013 tour
The Importance of Being Interested,
visit www.robinince.com.
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31
features
features
Christmas without borders
A new book tells the nativity
story, using images by artist and
iconographers down the ages
and around the globe
IN A King James Christmas, passages from the
Authorised Version, selected by Michael Fitzgerald,
tell the story of the birth of Jesus, providing a
familiar spine to a text that is meant to be read aloud.
The artist Catherine Schuon has chosen images to
illustrate the text, including some of her own. They
are drawn from a wide range of countries, including
Italy, Spain, the UK, Greece, and Ethiopia, and lend
an international flavour to the story.
But the book is not simply a Christmas title. It
takes the story beyond the infancy: parts two and
three look at the childhood of Christ, and his
teachings respectively.
A King James Christmas: Biblical selections with illus–
trations from around the world, edited by Catherine
Schuon and Michael Fitzgerald, is published by
Wisdom Tales at £12.99 (Church Times Bookshop
£11.69); 9781937786038.
All images used by kind permission of Wisdom Tales.
Sacred songs: right: The
Magnificat, by Catherine
Schuon, 1969; below: The
Presentation in the Temple,
Cretan School, 17th
century, Russian Museum,
St petersburg
Home and away: right:
The Nativity, by Lou
HoungNie, China,
early 20th century;
below: Flight to Egypt,
Coptic painting, mid
20th century
Visitations: right: The Annunciation,
icon from the peribleptos
Church (St Clement), early 14th
century, National Museum, ohrid,
Macedonia; below: The Adoration of
the Magi, ethiopia, 19th century,
private collection, paris
32
33
features
The faithful journey of unbelievers
MiKe CoLLiNS
Attending services at
Christmas helps nonchurchgoing people
to renew their faith,
says Alan Billings
C
HRISTMAS is one of the few
times in the year when a large
part of the Church’s wider
constituency makes itself known.
We meet its members in both
religious and nonreligious settings.
They may be in church — at a
Christingle, carol, or crib service,
midnight mass, or Christmas
morning communion. Or they may
be watching a nativity play in
school, or singing carols in a
community centre or concert hall.
In my part of the country —
south Yorkshire and north Derby
shire — they will also be found
celebrating Christmas in pubs, with
local carols. “While shepherds
watched their flocks by night” will
be sung to the tune of “Ilkla Moor
Baht’at” or “Sweet Chiming Christ
mas Bells”. They are not, however,
regular churchgoers.
Christmas is the critical season
for this group of people. It is when
they renew their commitment to
Christian faith and, in some cases,
join with regular worshippers. For
many, the Church of England is the
Church to which they instinctively
turn, which is why we should take
seriously how we can best minister
to them when they come.
But what do we know about the
people who make up this largely
hidden group? Because there is little
research, we have to do our own
detective work, paying close atten
tion to the clues that come our way
— in snatches of conversation at the
church door, or the occasional piece
of journalism or reporting. From
that, we can build up a picture, and
understand how we should respond.
These are my best guesses.
cept the part that clergy often play
when some tragedy occurs in their
locality, or where their town or
village wants to celebrate something
of importance. Some are part of that
growing number who take city
breaks and visit cathedrals. But they
do not feel under any compulsion to
become part of a congregation week
by week. If they are not a majority
of the population, they are certainly
a sizeable minority.
S
ECOND, faith is important to
them, although belief is less so.
What beliefs they have are not
F
IRST, members of this wider
constituency have no desire to
attend services weekly. But that
does not mean that they want to
sever their relationship with the
Church, or with Christianity. They
think of themselves as Christian,
although an increasing number may
have been brought up without
religion. They are not hostile to the
clergy. They do not find a church
building an alien place, or its
worship an alien activity. They are
content to say “Amen”.
They will join in the Lord’s
Prayer, especially in the old form,
and as long as it is written down.
They value the pastoral offices,
particularly infant baptisms, and
funerals and memorial services —
although they have become less sure
about weddings.
They gladly, and gratefully, ac
34
‘Carol services
are generally
free from
clerical overinterpretation’
necessarily well thought out, or even
coherent. They may have difficulty
articulating them, or, more likely,
are reluctant to try. Instinctively,
they feel that something as myster
ious as God is not easily captured in
words, and is probably best left
largely unsaid. So offthepeg creeds
and confessions of faith are not for
them.
Many are not convinced that any
one faith has the answer to all of life’s
conundrums, and they react against
any form of Christianity that has no
room for disagreement or honest
doubt. The Church of England is
attractive because it is a broad
Church and relatively undogmatic.
If we are anxious about this
perception of our Church, we might
note a recent comment by Janice
Turner, a columnist for The Times.
She writes scornfully about varieties
of religion that make extravagant
claims to religious knowledge, and
fuel hatefilled intolerance of others,
and then adds: ‘‘Far from being its
major weakness, doubt is the
Church of England’s most attractive
quality. . . Modesty, distaste for
proselytising, or indeed any firm
conviction that it is the only true
faith, always restrains the C of E
from such trashtalking.”
C
HRISTMAS visitors distin
guish between believing and
having faith. They value faith,
and theirs is often hardwon, and
fragile. It may, in the words of Sir
Andrew Motion, when he spoke
about his own faith, “flicker on and
off like a badly wired lamp”. For
those who fit this description,
Christmas is an important time, for
three reasons.
First, Christmas is an annual
opportunity to reflect on the things
that matter: God, faith, values,
family. In the general rush of life, at
work and in the home, such chances
are rare. This is a precious time,
enabling them to step aside for a
while, in the midst of getting and
spending, to remind themselves of
their spiritual roots, and to renew
their faith.
Carol services, in particular, are
popular because they are generally
free from the clerical over
interpretation that many find so off
putting. All that needs to be said is
contained in the familiar poetry of
traditional scripture readings and
carols — pegs and provocations for
their own thoughts.
Second, the Christmas story is at
features
The unborn Jesus arrives incognito
George Pattison
examines the details
of The Census at
Bethlehem, by Pieter
Bruegel the Elder
THE Census at Bethlehem, a paint
ing in the Royal Museums of the
Fine Arts of Belgium, in Brussels,
may well be the most “secular” of all
Bruegel’s religious paintings. In fact,
it is hard to see anything obviously
religious about it at all.
Although the title identifies it as a
familiar moment in the nativity
story, we might be forgiven for
thinking that it was merely a genre
painting, illustrating winter life in a
16thcentury Netherlandish town.
And, at one level, this is what it is.
Bruegel is doing what he does so
well — bringing to life the sights,
sounds, and even smells of his age:
the slaughter of a pig outside the inn
where the taxes are being collected;
children skating and tobogganing
on the ice; a group of soldiers
huddled round a fire; workmen
erecting a woodframed shelter;
packbearers struggling across a
frozen river; and much, much more.
And, while any competent
painter could use a covering of snow
to suggest winter, Bruegel’s bare
trees, outlined against a stippled
brown sky, his weary flocks of
crows, and the dark red of the
setting sun make us feel the cold
seeping into our bones. This is
indeed a bleak midwinter.
We could stop here, and it would
be enough. Bruegel would have
given us a picture we can pore over,
relish, and return to again and
again, always discovering new
details to delight and fascinate. Note
the heart of their Christian faith.
For them, Christianity is essentially
about a way of living — showing
love, kindness, generosity, and
openness to others. All of this is
exemplified in the one who comes
into the world on Christmas Day.
They are not greatly interested in
doctrine, although what doctrine
they do accept is accessed through
story or picture. Christmas has
both. The idea of the incarnation is
assimilable as the story of God’s
becoming one of us, born into a
human family, and living a human
life from inside a human skin.
The story can be told in hymns or
readings, or presented visually as a
play, crib, or icon. Good Friday, as
traditionally preached, has less appeal.
The Christmas visitors understand
the cross as the endpoint of the
Christchild’s human journey — the
final act of one who lives to show us
how to live, and who, in his Passion,
knows our suffering to the bone,
including the pain of loving. But
theories of atonement play little part
in their understanding. The God
‘Mary passes
unnoticed
through their
midst’
made known at the manger is
already on their side.
Third, Christmas is a time of
enchantment, and mystery. Mystery
is important to them; for God is
mystery, to be experienced only
fleetingly and partially. A darkened
church, the play of candle flames,
the haunting solo voice singing the
first verse of “Once in royal David’s
city”, the winding procession from
shadow into light — all play a part
in creating an atmosphere of
wonder and mystery.
I
N HIS autobiography Leaving
Alexandria, Richard Holloway
writes about a woman he once
knew in Glasgow, Lillian Graham,
who, although she was a church
goer, in many ways exhibited some
of the characteristics of this wider
constituency of hidden Christians.
He says that, at Christmas, she
was “the only person I knew who
decorated her Christmas tree with
real candles, a tradition she’d learnt
in Austria. She liked the practices
because they added grace and
how the outer fortifications of the
town are shown as broken and
crumbling away, as if to suggest that
— for all its perpetual motion —
this is a world that is passing away,
eking out its cold existence in the
shadow of past glories. But there is
more.
If we look again, slightly to the
right of centre, we notice the unas
suming figure of a young woman
seated on a donkey, apparently just
arriving in town: Mary. And, once
we see her, the balance of the whole
picture changes. But what is it about
her that holds our gaze, and makes
her the true focus of this busy scene,
the still centre of this teeming
world?
Perhaps it is just that — her
stillness. This is a picture full of
movement. Everyone is up and
doing, or watching what others are
doing — bustling, shoving, peering,
staring; in short, a heaving mass of
humanity.
But Mary is not involved in, or
attentive to, any of this. Her head is
slightly bowed, and her face —
again uniquely — is turned towards
us, the viewers. But she is not
exactly looking at us, either. Rather,
she seems absorbed in herself,
pondering the words she treasures
in her heart, and brooding on the
mystery she carries in her womb:
the Word becoming flesh.
Nor are any of the crowd giving
her a second glance. She passes
unnoticed through their midst. If
only they knew that it was through
her — this quiet, unassuming young
woman — that a new and eternal
light would shine into this bleak
midwinter world, then, surely, they
would look.
Karl Barth spoke of the “secular
ity of the Word”, and Søren
Kierkegaard of the divine
“incognito” — and what picture
could better reveal this, the true
humility of the incarnation, arriving
without a fanfare, unobserved,
unrecognised, but full of grace for
all the world.
The Revd Dr George Pattison is Lady
Margaret Professor of Divinity in the
University of Oxford, and Canon
Residentiary of Christ Church,
Oxford
beauty to life. The poetry of quiet
religion appealed to her. The
doctrinal obsessions of noisy reli
gion bored her.” There are many
like her who, shyly, find their way to
church at Christmas.
It is hard to overestimate how
important this one occasion in the
Church’s calendar is for those who
are present only once a year, or to
exaggerate the loss if it is not
available, or takes some disappoint
ingly unfamiliar form.
We could take the view that those
who come only at Christmas are not
really Christians at all. Some in the
contemporary Church do, and dis
miss what they see as a spiritually
impoverished mix of folk religion
and vacuous sentimentality. I believe
that this is a mistake.
In a time of no religion, when no
one feels under any social obligation
to go to church, and taking religion
seriously is routinely ridiculed, any
participation in religious celebration
is significant, and for some may be
courageous.
It is evidence of an enduring
Christian spirituality, built on an
innate human characteristic — the
capacity to sense a reality greater
than that which comes through
sensory experience alone. But that
spirituality needs to be nurtured,
tutored, and supported. And this is
the vocation of the Church of
England.
the Advent and Christmas season.
We then had a brief event to
thank the artists and bless their
work. Young people brought along
proud parents and grandparents,
viewed the stations, and lingered
over mulled wine and mince pies.
Some returned to look again and
read the accompanying texts —
underlining how essential it is for an
established church to be open
during the week, and not just for the
Sunday congregation.
In these ways, we give our
extended Christian family oppor
tunities to reflect again on the
things that are important, and to
renew their faith. This may lead to a
deepening of that faith, and a desire
to explore further. But, irrespective
of that, it sustains a positive attitude
towards Christianity — and the
Church in the culture — more wide
ly. In a secular climate, this matters.
I
N THE past, this sustenance came
through the family, the school,
and the culture more generally, as
much as the Church. It could be
taken for granted that it would
happen. This is no longer the case.
We need to think more carefully
about the points where we can
enable this again.
One way we do this is through
those traditional Christmas services
that are familiar and reassuring. We
could do more, even at Christmas.
For example, one church where I
was parish priest commissioned
each year “Stations of the Nativity”
— framed paintings and drawings
— from different local schools, to
replace the Stations of the Cross for
Canon Alan Billings’s new book,
Lost Church: Why we must find it
again, is published by SPCK in
January.
35
features
Salute the happy morn?
The world and his
or her partner
come to midnight
mass, but it is the
congregation on
Christmas morning
that gives Richard
Coles pause for
thought
IN FINEDON, where I am parish
priest, midnight mass is still one of
the busiest services of the year.
Three hundred or so dutifully turn
up from gableended houses in the
gingerbreadstone posh end — from
the Banjo, as our streets of social
housing are called, from shift work
in the anonymous warehouses along
the A45, and from the Conservative
Club, the Old Band Club, the Glad
stone Working Men’s Club, and the
Bell Inn (estd 1042).
Many of them are still fairly
familiar with what we are doing,
unfazed by the business with the
crib or thurible. They are at home
with candlelight, and with the
trickier carols, some even remem
bering — with tremendous gusto —
the descants they learned at school.
Afterwards, they disappear into the
night, feeling, as I felt, that faint
conspiratorial pleasure at participat
ing in clandestine acts of worship.
But the real conspiracy, the real
clandestine act of worship, is not
midnight mass, but Christmas
morning. People might think that
Christmas morning would be one of
the busiest of the year, but, here, it is
not.
Perhaps, because of the relentless
anticipation generated from bonfire
night onwards, we peak early, on
Christmas Eve, with our “living
nativity” in the afternoon for the
children, and midnight mass for the
grownups. Perhaps it is the logist
ical necessities of the day, quite
apart from growing indifference to
Christianity, which have edged
church out of the itinerary.
My Christmas Day timetable
begins with Morning Prayer at
seven — solo and perfunctory, I’m
afraid, after four hours of sleep. The
eighto’clock follows, unusually well
attended here with a congregation
of between 30 and 40. But, this
Christmas morn, Christians seem
slow to awake and salute.
But Neil, the churchwarden, who
does the early turn, is up and about.
The altar is dressed, the candles are
trimmed, and, once again, I thank
God for calling him to this ministry.
He is not only unfailingly reliable
36
early to rise: St Mary the
Virgin, Finedon
calendar, with bells and whistles and
a general pushing out of boats, our
congregation is not. Those who are
around may well have attended at
midnight, but many have gone away
to spend Christmas with children,
and grandchildren — the first gen
erations of Finedonians who left to
go to university and never came
back. Or some of the betterheeled
members of the congregation are in
second homes in sunnier places.
and diligent: he is also a builder, and
will ascend ladders to do impossible
things with light fixtures, and
descend ladders to do impossible
things with boilers, without demur,
unlike his priest, who functions only
at sea level.
BOB the server is also here, again
unfailingly reliable and diligent, and
we wordlessly fall into our routine,
except the pews are much emptier
than usual, and our routine is
interrupted for some communion
wafer mathematics. As I do the
headcount, I have a moment’s sober
realisation that our hard core is
getting smaller, death having un
done two of my most faithful eight
o’clockers in the past year. I try not
to lapse into actuarial speculation
about the next.
Those who are here, present and
correct, prefer the quiet of the eight
o’clock — hymnless, and childless
— and are usually of an age where it
is preferred to get the business of
the day done before nine.
Their expectation, and the cus
tom of the house, sometimes strikes
me as being at odds with the
character of the festival. Unto us a
child is born, king of all creation;
but it is business as usual at St
Mary’s, Finedon, as far as our eight
o’clockers are concerned. The pull
ing of crackers and wearing of hats
is for later.
The old faithful, I think, look to
the church to give a pattern to their
lives, a sense of the passing year,
and, indeed, the passing of their
own years. They do not need or
desire fireworks to help them do
this, rather the formulae of words
and actions that, in subtly altered
forms, have been with them since
childhood, learned in the parish’s
boys’ school and girls’ school, from
curates whose names are forgotten,
but not the catechism they taught.
IT IS also a service where we try to
keep a measure of stillness and
silence, helped by the wonderful
play of light in the clerestory, which
seems to happen quite this way only
around the winter solstice. It is
silver gilt, unlike summer light,
which is more golden, and falls
across the 18thcentury organ case
in a gallery at the west end of the
church, picking out the arms of
Queen Anne, from whose private
chapel at Windsor it came.
I think of all the incumbents who
have preceded me since 1350, and
have watched the same play of light
as Christmas morning dawned,
weather and the world’s unresting
change permitting.
At the end of the service, I go to
stand just beyond the porch and
parvise, and have a minute alone,
while people gather their hats and
gloves. It is one of my favourite
moments of the day, to stand under
the gargoyles, looking down across
the churchyard, past lichencovered
gravestones, and 1000yearold yews,
into the hall’s park, laid out by
Repton in the 1740s.
There is a huge dead oak just
beyond the haha, which always
makes me think of Caspar David
Friedrich, and, lest we surrender
entirely to nostalgia, the smell of
Weetabix, a 24hour, 365day op
eration, blows in from Burton
Latimer, two miles down the road.
The first departing faithful pass
‘How can we
recover, with
confidence, our
place at the
centre of our
communities?’
by, to whom I wish Merry Christ
mas, and note how quickly it has
come round again. I think of my
grandmother, who lived to be 101,
and told me that when you are over
90, you go to bed on Christmas
night and wake up to find it’s
Christmas morning. That same
year, she thanked me for the
pashmina I gave her, but said that
she hadn’t opened it, because she
was not likely to get much wear out
of it, and I could have it back when
she died and give it to someone else.
And so it came to pass.
AFTER the eighto’clock, I have a
cup of coffee on the children’s table
with Jane, the churchwarden on the
late shift. Jane, for whom I also give
thanks daily, has readings for
readers, and intercessions for inter
cessors. She also has a strategy for
child management, which can be
taxing, because we have no sound
proofed space for our children,
which can lead to unchristian feel
ings when the twins decide to have a
lusty shout out while the rest of us
are trying to attend to the silent
promptings of the Spirit.
Fun Bags are available, full of
Christmasthemed materials, and
wildly inflationary quantitative eas
ing with chocolate coins is promised
at the end. But we know that most
of the children we see for Christmas
we saw yesterday at the living
nativity, a learning experience much
enriched by the appearance among
the three kings of Darth Vader
wielding a light saber.
To add richness to the learning
experience for grownups, Jon
athan, our brilliant director of
music, joins us, and we work out
whether the choir will be strong
enough in number to manage the
“Hallelujah Chorus”, which we love,
not least because our organ was
once played by Handel, or so the
legend goes. And what better piece
could we therefore perform with it
on this most holy morning?
And it is here that we run into an
inconvenient truth. While we are all
geared up to mark this second most
important day in the Church’s
I CHECK the figures, and see that
last year, on Christmas Eve, we had
about 70 at the living nativity, and
220 at midnight mass. At the eight
o’clock we had 24 — not bad; but at
the main eucharist on Christmas
morning we had 54. On a normal
Sunday, we could double that.
Who were these attenders? There
are some solid 9.30 regulars who
never miss; there are some parents
with children too small to stay up
for midnight mass; but, judging by
the haggard expressions of their
mummies and daddies, they woke
up not long after.
There are some posh townies,
back from Islington and Putney,
taking the grandchildren to see the
grandparents in the country, the
girls in dark coats with gold but
tons, the boys in miniature jackets
and ties. There are the local farmers
and their families, in Sunday
best, keepers of the tradition of
Christmasmorning church, leaving
their flocks in the fields, or — more
likely — their winter barley.
And there are the nonclassifieds,
the Christmas walkins, the un
recognised: the Romanian who
works in a packhouse, far from
home, who tells me how he would
kill his grandfather’s pig on St
Ignatz’s Day, and gets choked with
homesickness; the new divorcee, on
her own this Christmas for the first
time in 25 years; the man in his 70s,
last in, and first out, whom I have
never seen before, but guess to be a
priest; and then there is the person I
don’t see.
Every Christmas, I cannot help
thinking that I am watching Chris
tianity become one degree more
marginal to people’s lives.
This year, when we have had
more explaining to do than usual, as
the Archbishop of Canterbury put
it, I feel it more acutely. Can we
recover with confidence our place at
the centre of our communities, by
reaching out more readily, more
intelligibly, to those who are re
treating further into the margins
and beyond?
Or do we need to recover, with
confidence, the irreducible weird
ness of what we do, to restore to the
gospel its mystery and power, by
rediscovering it ourselves? These are
not easy questions to answer, but I
do not think that we choose
between them.
I think that our choices lie
somewhere in the configuration of
these nonclassifieds, in their differ
ent distances and proximities to the
crib, still steady with light and
silence in the bewildering son et
lumière that cannot quite displace
or replace it.
A happy and holy Christmas to
all.
The Revd Richard Coles is Priestin
Charge of St Mary the Virgin, Fine
don, in Peterborough diocese.
features
Christmas festivities under construction
Pamela Greener gives
a personal account of
what it is like trying
to keep a cathedral
going when you have
got the builders in
diocese this year. All the churches
have been invited to come, and
receive a wooden cross made out
of the former cathedral pews, as a
lasting memento of the project. We
hope that they, in turn, will come
back next year to worship with us in
the renewed nave.
Christmas will stretch our
imagination further. We are lucky
that we are located right in the heart
of the city centre; so the Christmas
Eve Christingle service will, this
year, be held outside, on the steps
that extend the full length of the
cathedral, in full view of all the
shoppers milling about in the
pedestrian precinct.
It will be a great opportunity for
everyone to join in, and there will
be warm punch at the end of the
service to prevent hypothermia. We
hope that people will come inside
afterwards to see the changes taking
place.
CHRISTMAS at Wakefield Cathed
ral in 2012 will be like no other in
my lifetime. The nave is closed be
cause we are twothirds of the way
through a 12month makeover.
This is the first time since the
1870s that we have had a chance to
renew our infrastructure (flooring,
heating, lighting, wallcleaning, etc.)
and to replace our uncomfortable
pews with practical and movable
chairs.
Our cathedral was built as a
medieval parish church, where the
nave was used by the whole com
munity, and the current work will
create a large, flexible space that can
recapture something of that wel
coming and open spirit. The work
will be finished in time for Easter
2013, to help celebrate the 125th
anniversary of diocese, cathedral,
and city.
A closed nave means that, for
Christmas 2012, we will all squeeze
into the quire and east end. The one
thing we can guarantee is that the
place will be packed out. We will
huddle together in the most un
Anglican fashion, dreaming not of
a white Christmas, but of a new
heating system.
Those who visit Wakefield
Cathedral just once a year for
midnight mass, or one of our other
Christmas services, will be in for a
shock. The first surprise will be that
all the usual entrances are closed,
and the meagre car park has been
cordoned off to provide Bob the
Builder with somewhere to store his
tools.
So there will be no slipping in at
the back during the first carol. Like
the rest of us, our annual visitors
will follow signs, and eventually
they will find what they are look
ing for. I wonder whether, for
Christmas, we should replace the
usual entrance signs with a guiding
star.
A NAVE under reconstruction is
quite a sight to behold, as viewers of
my performance of the “VAT Ditty”
on YouTube earlier this year will
testify (News, 18 May). It brings
home the awesome construction of
the building. Even with all our
modern tools and methods, it has
still been a huge project to renovate
the nave — we cannot begin to
imagine the scale of difficulty ex
perienced by the original 15thcentury
craftsmen.
In Advent, we wait, and long, not
only for the coming of the Lord
Jesus, but also for the opening of the
renewed nave. The work we are able
to see through our viewing windows
has done a great deal to whet our
appetite for what’s in store. Already,
the previously grimy walls are
Work in progress: above and left:
Wakefield Cathedral has become
a building site; below, left: last
year’s Chief Constable of West
Yorkshire’s Christmas concert
Our 2013 calendar is made up of
these photos, and we are planning a
substantial exhibition in the nave
when it reopens next year. It is
interesting for us regulars at the
cathedral to see what a visitor picks
out as significant.
A cathedral in a state of undress
is a memory that will last a lifetime.
Schools continue to flock to see the
work at first hand, as do adult
groups — all marvelling at the size
of the space, and the painstaking
renovation.
golden and shining in the meagre
December sunshine.
One of the interesting by
products of the project has been the
creation of a website, www.366days.
org.uk, for which all sorts of people
— young and old, professional and
amateur — have signed up to be the
photographer of the day, to take
today’s photograph of cathedral life.
Some of these pictures capture
the magnificence of the building,
and some record the quirky people
and activities that make up Wake
field Cathedral. And many of them
provide a lasting archive of the
transformation that is taking place.
‘A cathedral in a
state of undress
is a memory
that will last a
lifetime’
OUR new heritage officer has joined
a blossoming education team, pro
viding imaginative programmes
where young people learn about a
living cathedral, and all that it
contains. The “Christmas Journey”
is a chance for schools to meet the
baby Jesus through music, drama,
and stained glass. The hope is that
they will be captivated by, and
treasure, the cathedral as they grow
up. We are always delighted when
one of our young visitors comes
back the next weekend, to show his
or her family what a special place
this is.
A closed nave calls for a great
deal of improvisation. The choir has
had to be on its best behaviour all
year long, with the congregation up
close and personal. The overflow
congregation has had to sit in the
southquire aisle, with limited
vision of sanctuary and choir. As a
result, we have started to film the
services and project them on TV
screens.
This, in turn, has allowed a
weekly upload to YouTube, and a
chance to watch and listen again to
the Sunday preacher. We have also
developed the idea of “Mobile
Cathedral”. Clergy and choir,
together with some of the congrega
tion, have been taking choral even
song out into the deaneries of the
THE cathedral is the largest public
space in the Wakefield area. And, all
year round, people love to sneak in
to marvel at this peaceful, sacred
space, to say a quiet prayer, and
light a candle. But, normally, the
runup to Christmas at the cath
edral is such that, if we are not
careful, we risk skipping Advent
almost entirely.
The Christmas trees and crib
tend to move in at the end of
November, and our only concession
to Advent is to light the Advent
wreath, and turn off the Christmas
tree lights on a Sunday. The reason
for these premature Christmas
celebrations is that, in a normal
Wakefield Advent, cathedral life is
one of walltowall carol services
and concerts. A thousand people
visit each day to sing and listen to
carols.
Pupils, teachers, and parents
gather from countless schools,
because we are the only space in the
area large enough to welcome them
all. Similarly, we usually have three
services for the local hospice, at
which people remember their loved
ones by sponsoring a light on the
giant Christmas tree.
The Yorkshire Philharmonic
Choir tends to sell all its tickets
before the posters even go on
display. The Civic Carol Service,
attended by the Mayor and coun
cillors, is one of several occasions
each December when our worship
is supported by one of Yorkshire’s
many brass bands, which raise the
roof and cause our ears to ring.
Perhaps more surprisingly,
Huddersfield Town Football Club
has an annual carol service here,
and the Chief Constable of West
Yorkshire’s Christmas concert could
fill the nave twice over.
A normal Advent, then, is a great
opportunity for people from all over
the diocese and region to experience
the cathedral and its excellent choir.
There is always a sense of a musical
and liturgical marathon, which cul
minates in the last lap on Christmas
Day.
I have to admit to a certain relief
for us at home, when we finally
settle down for our Christmas
dinner at about 6 p.m., knowing
that we have done our best — not
just for all our visitors, but also for
the newborn Babe. I suspect that it
will be a bit different this year, with
a more measured runin through
Advent, and a gentler final sprint.
Pamela Greener is director of tax at
Pace plc, chairs the Friends of Wake
field Cathedral, and is married to the
Dean of Wakefield, the Very Revd
Jonathan Greener.
37
features
It’s 3 p.m. — time for the Queen
pA
The first royal
Christmas broadcast
was 80 years ago.
So what have the
Queen, and her
predecessors, been
talking about?
Anthony Cane warms
the valves
IN 1923, John Reith, managing
director of the yearold British
Broadcasting Company, welcomed
the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Randall Davidson, and his wife,
Edith, to dinner. During the even
ing, Mrs Davidson, charmingly,
enquired whether, when listening
to the wireless, it was necessary to
leave a window open.
In this anecdote, we glimpse the
revolutionary importance of what
we now call “radio”, when, for the
first time, the sound of the human
voice could miraculously pass
through the air, and go right around
the world.
The later impact of television, the
internet, and the mobile phone are
arguably but an extension of the
“marvel of modern science” praised
by King George V (in words drafted
for him by Rudyard Kipling),
during the first royal Christmas
broadcast in 1932.
Five years later, after the death of
George V and the abdication of
Edward VIII, there was a new King,
George VI. A reluctant broadcaster
in any event, as the Oscarwinning
film The King’s Speech dramatised
brilliantly, he was perhaps inclined
to accept the view of the Prime
Minister, Neville Chamberlain, that
an annual broadcast was not de
sirable.
With the outbreak of the Second
World War, however, George VI
decided he must speak “live” to his
people. On Christmas Day 1939, he
delivered a memorable address,
culminating in a memorable
quotation: “I said to the man who
stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give
me a light that I may tread safely
into the unknown. . .’”
By end of the war, there was no
prospect of ending the Christmas
broadcasts, which now had an
audience of about 400 million. So,
when the King died in February
1952, the royal Christmas broadcast
was a firm expectation for the young
Queen who ascended to the throne.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II delivered
her first such broadcast at the age of
26. Half a century later, in 2002, she
said: “Christmas . . . remains a time
for reflection and a focus of hope
for the future. All great religions
have such times of renewal; mo
ments to take stock before moving
on to face the challenges which lie
ahead.”
She has used her broadcasts to
reflect on all manner of things, from
conflict, change, and the Common
wealth to sport, science, and space
exploration. She has discussed the
part women play in the world today;
what it means to be a free society;
communication between the
generations; the reconciliation of
38
ancient antagonisms; religious
tolerance; how we can have hope in
the future; and much more. And,
always, she has rooted her words in
a deeply held Christian faith.
In the millennial year 2000, her
entire Christmas broadcast was
about faith and the person of Jesus
Christ, and included the following
words:
To many of us, our beliefs are of
fundamental importance. For me,
the teachings of Christ, and my
own personal accountability
before God provide a framework
in which I try to lead my life. I,
like so many of you, have drawn
great comfort in difficult times
from Christ’s words and example.
In England, politicians and other
public figures rarely “do God”; yet
the Queen selfevidently does, and
in a manner sensitive to religious
diversity, and alert to the reality of
secularism. We are in danger of
forgetting how unusual and dis
tinctive — even radical — her per
spective is; of taking her for granted
because she has been Queen for so
long; and, for some, of not listening
hard enough to the message, be
cause it is delivered with all the
trappings of establishment.
I UNDERSTAND that, since 1968,
the Queen has written the texts
herself, with the help of Prince
Philip, whereas before, they were
drafted for her. None the less, there
is an impressive consistency to the
broadcasts (all of them are available
online at www.royal.gov.uk), al
though, if anything, their articula
tion of the Christian faith has
strengthened over time.
The sense of marvelling at
scientific advance, present in
George V’s 1932 broadcast, is very
much there in the Queen’s early
broadcast. In her very first, in 1952,
she said: “Let us . . . use the tre
mendous forces of science and
learning for the betterment of man’s
lot upon this earth.”
In 1954 she said: “We are amazed
by the spectacular discoveries in
scientific knowledge, which should
bring comfort and leisure to
millions.” When we recall that the
polio vaccine was invented in 1952,
Crick and Watson revealed the
doublehelix structure of DNA in
1953, and the first successful kidney
transplant took place in 1954, it is
no wonder that, in 1955, the Queen
said: “Year by year, new secrets of
nature are being revealed to us by
science.”
But this was only part of the
story; for 1952 had also brought the
first testing of a hydrogen bomb by
the United States; and, in 1954,
Russia constructed the first intercon
tinental ballistic missile.
In 1955, the Queen also noted
rather pointedly that “the problem
of living peaceably together” had yet
to be solved, and, by the time of her
televised Christmas broadcast in
1957, the tone had changed: “That it
is possible for some of you to see me
today is just another example of the
speed at which things are changing
around us. Because of these
changes, I am not surprised that
many feel lost and unable to decide
what to hold on to and what to
discard.”
And then again: “But it is not
new inventions which are the
difficulty. The trouble is caused by
unthinking people who carelessly
throw away ageless ideals as if they
were old and outworn machinery.
They would have religion thrown
aside, morality in personal and
public life made meaningless,
honesty counted as foolishness, and
selfinterest set up in place of self
restraint.”
ARGUABLY, this passage from 55
years ago is as relevant as ever, not
least because we live in an age when
it has become fashionable for public
intellectuals to argue in favour of
having “religion thrown aside”; even
if you agree with the suggestion of
the Archbishop of Canterbury — in
his 2012 Easter sermon — that “It
just might be the case that the high
watermark of aggressive polemic
on air: the Queen, in the Long
Library at Sandringham, in 1957,
after making her first ever televised
Christmas broadcast
against religious faith has been
passed.”
In a different vein, and perhaps
more predictably, the Queen has
often spoken of the social import
ance of the family. In 1965, she said:
“I think we should remember that,
in spite of all the scientific advances
and the great improvements in our
material welfare, the family remains
as the focal point of our existence.”
And then in 2007: “In my ex
perience, the positive value of a
happy family is one of the factors of
human existence that has not
changed.”
Looking back over the past 60
years, one can hardly be unaware of
huge social and cultural develop
ments that might seem to challenge
her argument. None the less, for all
that more and more families diverge
from the traditional ideal, it is
widely agreed that the family re
mains the best context for the
nurture of children, the inculcation
of values and faith, and, given the
dehumanising forces at work in
society, a more vital source than
ever of intimacy, love, and trust.
THE Queen has often compared the
domestic family to the Common
wealth “family” of nations (in 1952,
1956, 1967, 1972, etc.). As head of
the Commonwealth, she has made it
her most recurrent theme. In 1956,
she boldly claimed that the Com
monwealth “represents one of the
most hopeful and imaginative
experiments in international affairs
the world has ever seen”.
There is, indeed, something
organic and pragmatic about the
Commonwealth, a sense that it has
emerged and developed without any
grand plan. In political terms, it is
an intergovernmental organisation
of 54 independent member states.
Nearly all were formerly part of the
British Empire, and their combined
population is 1.8 billion people —
an extraordinary 30 per cent of the
world’s population.
“The Commonwealth bears no
resemblance to the empires of the
past,” the Queen said, because it is
no longer based on power and
submission, but on equal partners
who have freely chosen to meet and
cooperate. Those who are con
vinced that it is a spent force should
perhaps talk to Rwanda and
Mozambique, who have recently
joined, and South Sudan, whose
application is pending.
In her 1993 broadcast, she said:
“There is no magic formula that will
transform sorrow into happiness,
intolerance into compassion, or war
into peace, but inspiration can
change human behaviour.” If I
understand her correctly, the refer
ence to “inspiration” is intended to
encompass both the human and the
divine.
In fact, what seems to inspire her
most, are human lives that express
the divine, beginning with Christ,
but also taking in people such as the
only four individuals whom she has
ever singled out for particular
praise. Looking at them as a group,
they seem to to exemplify four
overlapping kinds of inspiration:
the spirit of adventure, forgiveness,
compassion, and reconciliation.
Adventure: the roundtheworld
yachtsmen Francis Chichester was
praised in 1967 for his “enterprise
and courage”, a modernday ex
emplar of the spirit showed by the
Tudor adventurers.
Forgiveness: in 1987, the Queen
was moved by “the depth of for
giveness” shown by Gordon Wilson
after the death of his daughter in the
Enniskillen bombing.
Compassion: here the reference is
to Leonard Cheshire VC, still deter
mined to make life better for others,
especially those living with dis
abilities, even as he was dying of
motor neurone disease.
Reconciliation: in 1996, the
Queen said: “I shall never forget the
state visit of President Mandela. The
most gracious of men has shown us
all how to accept the facts of the past
without bitterness; how to see new
opportunities as more important
than old disputes; and how to look
forward with courage and optim
ism.”
This often cited theme of
reconciliation and forgiveness was
central to last year’s Christmas
broadcast, and makes for an
appropriate conclusion:
Although we are capable of great
acts of kindness, history teaches us
that we sometimes need saving
from ourselves — from our
recklessness or our greed. God
sent into the world a unique
person — neither a philosopher
nor a general . . . but a Saviour,
with the power to forgive.
Forgiveness lies at the heart of the
Christian faith. It can heal broken
families, it can restore friendships,
and it can reconcile divided
communities. . . It is my prayer
that, on this Christmas Day, we
might all find room in our lives
for the message of the angels, and
for the love of God through Christ
our Lord.
The Revd Dr Anthony Cane is
Chancellor and Canon Librarian of
Chichester Cathedral.
review of 2012
pHoToS pA/Ap uNLeSS oTHeRWiSe STATeD
LAMBeTH pALACe
Above, left: British olympians and
paralympians on a busstop parade to mark
their medal success; above: the Queen
toured the uK to mark her Diamond
Jubilee; far left: the bombardment of Homs
by government forces signalled a new
brutality in the civil war in Syria; left: the
Queen and the Duke of edinburgh stopped
at Lambeth palace during their visit to
the General Synod; below: legal battles to
protect the occupy camp outside St paul’s
from eviction failed
Below, left: bankers’ bonuses
seemed recessionproof.
Among the least popular
was that of Fred Goodwin,
whose knighthood “for
services to banking” was
annulled in February; below:
egyptians set their hopes on
a democratic election, but
the results proved divisive
2012
the year in review
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
THE year began with concerns about the
violence in Syria. The rebellion had already been
going on for ten months, and an estimated 5000
were dead. The figure now is more than 40,000.
Egypt, meanwhile, celebrated the first
anniversary of the uprising against President
Mubarak. Asssisted dying was in the news again,
as Lord Falconer announced that his self
appointed “commission” had found in its favour.
The Occupy protest outside St Paul’s was
declared unlawful in the High Court, which
granted the City of London Corporation the
right to remove it. Five bishops led a successful
rebellion in the Lords to exclude child benefit
from a government cap in the Welfare Reform
Bill. Attacks on Christians in northern Nigeria
amounted to “ethnic and religious cleansing”
according to a littleknown diocesan bishop, the
Rt Revd Justin Welby.
The gaymarriage issue made an early
appearance, as the Archbishop of York criticised
the Prime Minister, stating that heterosexual
marriage “is set in tradition and history”. An
unnamed Scottish woman was fined and given
three points on her licence for reading the Bible
while driving on the A90.
THE February General Synod had its final
opportunity to debate the contents of the draft
womenbishops Measure. Members were given
the chance to ask the House of Bishops to
reintroduce the concept of authority derived
from the Measure for traditionalists. A
compromise was carried, asking the Bishops not
to amend the basic Measure “substantially”.
The Queen described the C of E as “commonly
underappreciated”. Local councils could con
tinue to say prayers at meetings if they were not
part of the agenda, the High Court ruled, after a
challenge in Bideford. The Coalition for Mar
riage (i.e. against gay marriage) was launched. To
date, nearly 620,000 have signed its petition.
The Occupy protesters outside St Paul’s were
forcibly removed in the early hours of 28 Feb
ruary. The Dean and Chapter said that they were
committed to pursuing the issues raised by the
camp in their teaching and relations with the City.
The 12 Zurbarán paintings were finally secured
for Auckland Castle, thanks to a deal with
Jonathan Ruffer brokered by a littleknown
diocesan bishop, the Rt Revd Justin Welby.
Continued overleaf
39
review of 2012
Left: a brief
protest in
Moscow
Cathedral
landed the
pussy Riot
band in prison;
below, left: deep
cleaning outside
St paul’s after
the occupy
eviction;
below: a flypast
celebrated
the Queen’s
Diamond
Jubilee; bottom:
as the Leveson
inquiry into
the press
proceeded,
Rebekah
Brooks and
her husband
Charlie were
charged in
relation to
phonehacking
allegations
at News
international
Below: Dr Rowan Williams
announced his resignation as
Archbishop of Canterbury; bottom:
General Synod members react to
an impasse over women bishops
LAMBeTH pALACe
Above: renewed
fighting scarred
the border area
between Sudan
and South Sudan;
right: the Dalai
Lama accepted the
Templeton prize;
below: crime affected
one third of Britain’s
churches
LAMBeTH pALACe
SAM ATKiNS
year in review
continued from previous page
40
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
THE Government begins its consultation
about samesex marriage. The Dean of St
Albans, the Very Revd Dr Jeffrey John,
criticised the Church for its opposition to the
plan, calling it the “last refuge of prejudice”
(and, in August, “morally contemptible”). Dr
Williams announced his resignation, heralding
in a lucrative few months for the bookies.
The succession of diocesan votes on the
Anglican Covenant finished, ending with its
defeat by 23 dioceses to 15. It later emerged
that, had 17 people changed their vote, the
Covenant would have passed.
A fragment of papyrus bearing a segment of
St Mark’s Gospel was dated to the first century,
making it the earliest known manuscript of
that Gospel, if confirmed. An official report
said that more than one third of Britain’s
churches and religious buildings had been
damaged by crime in the past year. The
Chancellor, George Osborne, announced that
churches must begin to pay VAT on repairs, at
an estimated cost to the Church of £20 million.
US believers thought that Jesus shared their
political opinions, whatever they were, a poll
suggested.
CRITICISM of Christians in the UK did not
amount to persecution, a new report
concluded, but it was discrimination, and
needed to be halted before it grew worse. Dr
David Drew argued that sending an emailed
prayer had contributed to his dismissal from
Walsall Manor Hospital. An employment
tribunal disagreed.
In his Easter sermon, Dr Williams suggested
that the tide might, in fact, be turning towards
Christianity: “More useful than the passing
generation of gurus thought”.
The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
(formerly GAFCON) met in London. The
Archbishop of Canterbury should no longer
have an automatic right to chair Primates’
Meetings, it concluded. Three members of a
Moscow band, Pussy Riot, remained in prison
for their antiPutin demonstration in the
Orthodox cathedral in Moscow. Protests in the
West were dwarfed by criticism of the band by
the Moscow faithful. Fabrice Muamba, a
Christian footballer for Bolton Wanderers,
said that his recovery was “more than a
miracle”, after his heart stopped for 78 min
utes in the Tottenham ground during a game.
THE Prime Minister’s rejection of a Robin
Hood tax on financial transactions was
“shameful”, said the RC Archbishop of St
Andrews & Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith O’Brien.
Sir Paul Coleridge, a High Court judge,
launched the Marriage Foundation to promote
marriage and provide support for couples. The
House of Bishops amended the womenbishops
legislation, mentioning the “theological
convictions” of PCCs for the first time.
The Chancellor agreed a deal over VAT on
church repairs: churches must pay it, but they
can expect a full refund for at least the next
three years. The number of people using food
banks had doubled in the past year, the Trussell
Trust announced. Economic instability in
Greece created uncertainty about the future of
the euro. The Dalai Lama came to London to
collect his £1.1million Templeton Prize: he
would not keep the money, “though my pocket
may complain”.
The bishops in Sudan called for an end to
renewed border violence. President Obama
gave his backing to samesex marriage: “It’s also
the Golden Rule: treat others the way you
would want to be treated.”
review of 2012
GReeNBeLT
Left: the Greenbelt
Festival survived
rainstorms; right:
fears for the rest of
the world, however,
surfaced at the
Rio summit; below:
Mohammed Khalid
Chishti is arrested after
falsely accusing Rimsha
Masih, a 14yearold
Christian neighbour, of
blasphemy
CHiCHeSTeR DioCeSe
Above, far left: Dr Martin Warner,
a traditionalist, was appointed
Bishop of Chichester; above, left:
violence erupted at the news
that a film had been made in
the uS about the life of
Muhammad; above: the Bishop
of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James
Jones, chaired a panel about
the Hillsborough disaster; left:
47 people, mostly miners,
were killed during a protest in
Marikana, South Africa; right:
usain Bolt was one of the
athletes at the olympics who
expressed their faith in public
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
CELEBRATIONS to mark the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee spread across the country at
the start of June, despite a soggy weekend. Dr
Williams noted: “She has made her public
happy, and all the signs are that she is herself
happy.” Church officials calculated that a
change in Gift Aid to include unregistered
small donations could bring in £13 million, on
top of the £84 million reclaimed at present.
The Archbishops’ Council, informed by a
paper from the Mission and Public Affairs
Council, criticised the “travesty” of Britain’s
relationship with Europe, and the impression it
gave of “slowly drifting towards the exit”. Dr
Richard Scott, a GP in Margate, was repri
manded for discussing faith with a vulnerable
patient. The scheme to combine three West
Yorkshire dioceses progressed, despite reserva
tions expressed by Wakefield. At the Rio
summit on sustainable development, observers
were shocked at the lack of urgency expressed
by global leaders when facing the problems of
poverty, debt, and environmental decline.
A scale model of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, part
of the church’s £2.5million fundraising drive,
was made entirely of sponge cake.
AFTER a long debate, the General Synod
declined to give final approval to the women
bishops legislation. Instead, unhappy about the
House of Bishops’ amendments, it deferred a
decision until November, asking the Bishops to
reconsider. Jewish groups criticised the Synod’s
support for the Ecumenical Accompaniment
Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
The Olympics began, with an acclaimed
opening ceremony. Many churches provided
stewards (Gamesmakers) and pastors for
visitors and athletes. The Olympic torch passed
through 8000 pairs of hands belonging to many
of the most communityspirited citizens.
The United Reformed Church became the
first to encourage civil partnerships on its
premises. The Episcopal Church in the US
voted at its General Convention to permit
transgendered people to be ordained. Church
leaders appealed for more effort to be made to
end the conflict in Syria.
A colony of the British black bee, thought to
be extinct, was found in the roof of a North
umbrian church. A couple exchanged rings
flown to them by a barn owl during their
wedding service.
AT THE Olympics, spectators noted the
number of religious gestures made by successful
athletes. Sundaytrading laws were relaxed for
the duration. The C of E divested itself of its
£1.9million holdings in News Corporation,
Rupert Murdoch’s media company. Attempts
to reform the House of Lords were shelved.
A total of 23,000 students took RS A level,
the highest ever (7000 male students and 16,000
female). Christians in Egypt expressed their
concern after Islamist majorities prevailed in
the election. President Mohamed Morsi said:
“Stop asking who is a Copt, a Muslim, a Salafi
. . . All I see is that we are all Egyptians.” Rimsha
Masih, a 14yearold with learning difficulties,
was arrested in Pakistan after being accused of
burning pages of the Qur’an. The accusations
by an imam turned out to be false.
In South Africa, church leaders mediated in a
mining strike, after police had shot and killed
34 protesters. The three members of Pussy Riot
were jailed in Moscow. (One was later released.)
Greenbelt survived torrential rain, unlike other
festivals. The University of Manchester installed
a “PrayoMat”, a converted photo booth offer
ing more than 300 multifaith prayers.
FOUR cases of alleged religious discrimination
were heard by the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg. A UK government lawyer
argued that having the freedom to resign meant
that employees could not suffer religious dis
crimination. An amendment to the women
bishops legislation based on respect, suggested
by the Revd Janet Appleby, was adopted by the
House of Bishops. The Crown Nominations
Commission met to choose the next Archbishop
of Canterbury, but failed to reach agreement.
The diocese of Chichester was criticised for
its “dysfunctional” childprotection safeguards
after a visitation commissioned by the Arch
bishop of Canterbury. An independent panel
into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, chaired by
the Bishop of Liverpool, was highly critical of
the police. The United States was denounced
across the Middle East for a badly made film,
Innocence of Muslims, depicting Muhammad,
made by an Egyptian Copt in California.
The Revd Leah Philbrick, the first woman to
play in a Church Times Cricket Cup Final, was
part of the winning Southwark side.
Continued overleaf
41
review of 2012
ReuTeRS
Left: Sandy,
the largest
Atlantic
hurricane
on record,
plunged New
York into
darkness. it
killed at least
253 people
and caused
an estimated
$66 billion
damage;
right: Barack
obama
celebrated
a second
term as uS
president
her
ot
ted 7%
Not sta
4%
Right: the 2012 Census figures, released
in December, showed a sharp drop in
Christian adherence; below, right: the
Rt Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop
M
designate of Canterbury, collecting
us
lim
his “peer of the year” award from
5%
The Spectator
No religion 25%
Christian 59%
Above: pope Benedict
xVi summoned a
Synod of Bishops in
Rome to mark the
50th anniversary of the
Second Vatican Council;
left: revelations about
widespread abuse by
Jimmy Savile prompted
criticism of the BBC;
right: Nolbert Kunonga,
a former bishop, was
evicted from Anglican
property in Harare
year in review
continued from previous page
42
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
DR WILLIAMS, in Rome, addressed the Synod
of Bishops, summoned to mark the 50th anni
versary of the Second Vatican Council. He told
them of the importance of contemplation:
“What people of all ages recognise in these prac
tices is the possibility, quite simply, of living
more humanly.” On the home front, he began a
YouTube campaign in support of the draft
womenbishops legislation, as opposed to the
Forward in Faith Assembly, which urged its
rejection.
The US Episcopal Church began disciplinary
proceedings against the Bishop of South Caro
lina, the Rt Revd Mark Lawrence, saying that he
had “abandoned” the Church. A chink of hope
appeared for the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe,
as the Supreme Court in Harare heard its argu
ment for the return of its property, annexed by
the former bishop, Nolbert Kunonga.
The Scouts’ religious pledge came under fire.
A Christian B&B owner, Susanne Wilkinson,
was convicted of discriminating against a gay
couple, Michael Black and John Morgan, by
refusing them a double room. The Food Stand
ards Authority raised doubts and hackles about
reusing jars to sell homemade jam.
CHURCHES on the East Coast of the United
States were heavily involved in alleviating the
hardship caused by Hurricane Sandy. Barack
Obama won another term as US President,
despite opposition from religious conservatives
who favoured his Mormon opponent, Mitt
Romney. The Anglican Consultative Council,
meeting in New Zealand, heard Dr Williams
describe “our wonderful, quarrelsome, diverse,
untidy Anglican Communion”. The Rt Revd
Justin Welby was named for Canterbury.
The General Synod met to consider giving
final approval to the womenbishops legislation.
It gained the required twothirds majorities in
the Houses of Bishops and Clergy, but fell in the
House of Laity by six votes. Aid agencies
expressed anxiety about child soldiers and the
abduction of girls, as Rwandanbacked militia
made large gains in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Anglicans in Zimbabwe rejoiced after a
court ruled that Nolbert Kunonga and his
supporters must leave the churches and schools
that they had appropriated.
In an experiment, 71 atheists agreed to pray
for God to reveal himself to them. Two said that
they had come to faith.
THE House of Bishops promised to reintro
duce legislation to enable the consecration of
women as bishops in time for the July General
Synod meeting next year. In a Commons de
bate, MPs were critical of the Church’s
inability to agree. The Minister for Women
and Equalities, Maria Miller, described
forthcoming legislation to permit samesex
couples to marry in church. This included a
“quadruple lock” to protect the Church’s
interest in the event of a legal challenge.
Figures from the 2011 Census were
published. Those describing themselves as
Christians declined by 13 per cent over ten
years, to 59 per cent. Charities criticised
proposed welfare reforms as being biased
against the poor. The Bishop of Norwich, the
Rt Revd Graham James, said in the wake of the
inquiry by Lord Justice Leveson that the press
had proved its inability to police itself. The
Doha climate summit failed to provide any
practical help for countries affected by the
environmental damage.
York Minster announced that it was
dressing its stone with an oliveoilbased
compound to help preserve it.
Shaping our island story
features
GeTTY
David Reason looks at
a history of pageantry,
exemplified by the
Olympic and
Paralympic
ceremonies, and
reflects on what it
means to be British
AT CHRISTMAS, the ties of family
and friendship are rebooted, and the
TV slumbers on the periphery of
festivities, waking up only at choice
moments — moments that often
come to be part of domestic ritual,
individually adopted, though shared
by many.
Perhaps the Christmas dinner
must end before the Queen’s Christ
mas broadcast, and everything else
is put on pause as the family gathers
around to watch those programmes
that are linked to that special day.
When I was a child, it was The
Morecambe and Wise Show; now, it
might be the latest Wallace and
Gromit cartoon, or a repeat of The
Snowman. And, once upon a time, it
was distinctly British to focus
celebrations and the exchange of
gifts on Christmas Day itself.
The passing year is often
revisited, perhaps prompted by the
ritual review in the media of the
year’s memorable highs and lows.
The achievements
and legacy of the
Olympics and Para
lympics, and the com
peting athletes, will
figure prominently this
year. Many things will
be said, no doubt, but
it would be surprising
if someone didn’t ob
serve (and others nod
in jovial agreement)
that this was an ex
ample of the British at
their best. Indeed, the
occasion was shot
through from the
opening to the closing
ceremonies with the
very spirit of “British
ness”. But it is not easy
to say what this
Britishness is.
ALTHOUGH “British”
is believed to be in our
language from its very
beginning,
“Britishness” is coined
no earlier than the
mid18th century. It was forged
largely during the 18th and 19th
centuries, from conflict with Roman
Catholic France, the signal success
of the British Empire, and shared
Protestant religious and cultural
traditions. It provided an umbrella
under which the distinct cultures of
the Union were invited to shelter.
During the later 19th and 20th
centuries, Britishness became asso
ciated with distinctive institutions
of liberty and parliamentary demo
cracy (unlike Europe in general);
and the creation of a welfare state —
especially a National Health Service
has been a source of national pride,
as it was in the Olympic opening
ceremony. As these shift and
change, so the character, clarity, and
salience of Britishness alters.
None the less, by the beginning of
the 20th century, Britishness seems
to have eclipsed the notion of a
distinct “British character”, the one
that will encompass all citizens,
Jolly good show: above: the
tribute to the NHS in the opening
ceremony of the 2012 olympics
appealed to British pride and its
love of pageantry; below: St George
and a druid priest from the 2009
english Church pageant, held at
Fulham palace, then the Bishop of
London’s residence
‘The emergence
of “Britishness”
coincides
with the
development
of the modern
state’
institutions, fashions, and beliefs of
the British people. In short, the
emergence of Britishness coincides
with the development of the
modern state, and, in its apparent
inclusiveness, mirrors the view that
the nationstate is one people, one
culture, and one language.
It is also a term whose usage
reflects a certain anxiety at possible
threats to national autonomy: not
only a mirror, but also a shield, a
weapon of defence. Where the
penetrating powers of the European
Community, the creeping Ameri
canisation of British culture, the
regimenting of the high street, and a
progressive dependence on foreign
investment and management set the
pace, the invocation of Britishness is
rarely far behind.
The notion, vague as it is, has
arguably been given an enhanced
significance by recent demands for
Scottish independence, as well as
“moral panics” about the fragment
ing effects of unbridled immigra
tion, with consequent cultural div
ersity. The United Kingdom is no
longer united. National identity —
Britishness — is threatened. Things
are falling apart. Even the Estab
lished Church of England is in
conspicuous disarray.
SO THE story goes — not, perhaps,
finding an assenting ear everywhere,
but listened to eagerly enough in
some powerful places to require a
response designed to draw us to
gether again, pulling on the threads
of history and honour that we trust
to link us.
That response takes the form of
other stories, tales designed to
enthral us, that will buttress, and
even instil, a shared sense of British
ness. The where, when, and how of
the telling of the stories conspire to
give them popular appeal.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, for example, at a time when
the integrity of the British Empire
had been questioned by war, and
familiar social ways were challenged
by a tide of modernity, the local
historical pageant emerged. Records
indicate that the first of these was
held at Sherborne, in 1905, soon
followed by a magnificent civic
pageant in Oxford, in 1907.
The passion for pageants was
contagious, and most of the country
succumbed to “pageantitis” (as one
wag dubbed the craze) within a
decade. England — for this was very
much an English affliction —
experienced annual spasms of this
pageant fever well into the 1950s.
The general form of the pageant
was the same everywhere: a suc
cession of dramatised historical
scenes interspersed with historical
tableaux whose content was drawn
from myths of origin (Arthurian
legend, for instance); the bricabrac
of popular memory (memorable
dates — 1066 and all that — and
resonant moments plucked from
whatever passed for local history,
and mythology); and timely re
minders of historical antecedents
that were intended to help shape
contemporary attitudes.
THESE colourful affairs depended
on the participation of local people,
and, in drawing on the burgeon
ing middle classes with enough
leisure and money to be able to take
part, pageants clearly depended on
the very modernity to which they
offered a critical mirror, an anti
dote to a troubled and anxious
present.
Above all, they were an engaging
spectacle, in which the audience
played their parts, both directly, as a
community, putting on a theatrical
entertainment, and indirectly, by
proxy, inserting themselves into the
representation of their history.
Thus the stories that it is hoped,
will reintegrate a fragmenting social
order are told not with words alone,
but with ceremonies, “traditions”,
and spectacles.
For the Olympics, the opening
ceremony, “Isle of Wonders”, in
particular, was surely a broadcast
Continued overleaf
43
features
spectacle, and a modern pageant,
designed to speak to a national
audience and remind it of proud
moments; and to an external
audience, beaming out an event to
evoke not “Great Britain”, but an
essence of Britishness both heady
and hearty.
It was inevitably onesided, edit
ing out some of the more conten
tious events (the Peasants’ Revolt,
the Peterloo Massacre, the Clear
ances in Scotland, and the imperial
slaughter of indigenous Tasman
ians, for instance), that would have
focused on division, not unity;
antagonism, not harmony; and
duplicity, not honesty.
Although some reports of the
ceremony in the foreign media
highlighted a certain smugness,
most accounts conveyed a more
flattering picture: in the foreground
were
inventiveness,
creativity,
eccentricity, and a selfdeprecating
sense of humour (both the Queen
and Mr Bean went down well
around the world).
IT SEEMS to me that the idea of
Britishness, to have any usefulness
at all, as a prop for “national iden
tity”, must be more than merely
descriptive — it must inform
ordinary life. Complex dimensions
of time (such an identity endures,
preexists the individual, and forms
the foundation for the present) and
place (a national identity implies
territory and frontiers, a meaningful
landscape, and a characteristic built
environment), and “custom and
practice” (the takenforgranted
realm of social habits, customary
behaviour, unremarkable values) —
all these play their part in stitching
Britishness into everyday life.
The sense of a national identity
does not derive from a set of shared
characteristics among the popula
tion. Rather the converse: the use of
the category of national identity
invokes a sense of shared charac
teristics, and speaks to a moral
injunction to “belong in the home
land”. In this way, nationality
becomes more than a simple iden
tity, it becomes a lived identity.
Every time I write a British
address on an envelope, I am caught
up in a net of reminders not only of
the distinctiveness of our forms of
address (line by line from the most
particular to the most general; these
things are done differently in, for
example, Russia), but also of my ties
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44
to a nation and its history through
the medium of mundane street
names, for example, which com
memorate places, battles, national
heroes, and the like.
Nationality, however, penetrates
us more deeply than we are
normally aware. The rhythms and
cadences of speech, familiar idioms
and clichés, what it is about us that
marks a service “masculine” or
“feminine”, as well as our implicit
assumptions about just behaviour
and good conduct — such matters
as these are usually invisible to us,
but are sure to reveal themselves as
soon as we try to get to grips with
living in a foreign culture. No one is
as doggedly “British” as the British
abroad.
Britishness is lived differently at
different times, and many surveys
have noted that there seems to be a
difference between generations and
regions concerning the pertinence
and pull of Britishness. In this con
text, it is worth bearing in mind
that, as David Miller argued in his
book On Nationality: “In acknow
ledging a national identity, I am also
acknowledging that I owe a special
obligation to fellow members of my
nation which I do not owe to other
human beings.”
Arguably, such “national senti
ments” also play a significant part in
granting legitimacy to the state — in
effect, they place the state in the
position of a powerful parent with
the best interests of its citizenchil
dren in mind.
OUR idea of Britishness often seems
as idealised as did the view of
England from abroad, and especially
from the outlying colonies of the
Empire. When a New Zealander
used to talk of “home”, Britain was
being referred to.
Those with no special relation
ship to the UK can also contribute
to our sense of Britishness. Ralph
Waldo Emerson, the philosopher
and social commentator, writing in
the light of American indepen
dence, and before the torment and
turmoil of the American Civil War,
in his English Traits (1856) dissected
the “English composite character”
with an acute eye for its contra
dictions — contradictions that also
confound any simplistic view of
Britishness.
“The language is mixed,” he
writes, “the names of men are of
different nations — three languages,
three or four nations — the current
of thoughts are counter: contem
plation and practical skill; active
poised: King John about to
give the Great Charter to the
Barons at Runnymede in the
1909 english Church pageant
(Features, 8 May 2009)
‘Britishness is a
lived concept,
embodied, and
embedded,
in day-to-day
experience’
intellect and dead conservatism;
worldwide enterprise and devoted
use and wont; aggressive freedom
and hospitable law with bitter class
legislation; a people scattered by
their wars and affairs over the face
of the whole earth, and homesick to
a man; a country of extremes . . .
nothing can be praised in it without
damning exceptions, and nothing
denounced without salvos of cordial
praise.”
BRITISHNESS, then, is an idea of
recent invention, the creation of
particular historical circumstances
answering particular historical
needs, and which shifts such mean
ing as it has as those circumstances
and needs change. It is a complex
idea whose components do not
always cohere, and can be contra
dictory, and it is selective enough
for the different groups in society to
endorse, reject, or amend elements
to suit their purposes.
It is a political concept, deployed
both externally to distinguish “us”
from “them”, and internally to pro
mote a sense of cultural unity. It is
also a moral concept, as it expresses
standards of conduct to which we
can aspire, and ideal values that can
be appealed to in making moral
judgements.
So it is a lived concept — one
that is not simply descriptive, but
that is embodied and embedded in
our daytoday experience. Its
relevance and importance, and its
hold on us, changes from
generation to generation, in re
sponse to developing contexts and
differing anxieties.
For a while, the Olympics and
Paralympics were a focus of rapt
attention for many, but not all. As
well as cause for celebration and
disappointment, it has provided us
with a kitbag of things that are good
to dream about, and good to think
with. If this is its only legacy, then it
will have justified its legacy label.
But, before we raise a glass to a
memorable occasion, I will close on
one question to tease, as befits a
fireside tale at Christmas. Would
reflection on “Anglicanism” not
produce a similar account of essen
tially contested complexity and
shifting salience?
And, so saying, I raise a glass:
hurrah for the Olympics, and a
happy and peaceful Christmas to all.
Dr David Reason is a retired Master
of Keynes College, and Honorary
Senior Lecturer in the Schools of
Arts, at the University of Kent.
review of 2012
arts
MANY arts events this year were explicitly
linked to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which
concided with the 350th anniversary of the
1662 Book of Common Prayer. A new two
volume collection of anthems, Choirbook for
the Queen (Canterbury Press), from which
items are being sung in turn in the cathedrals
of the UK, linked the two, as did a special
Prayer Book exhibition, “Royal Devotion”, at
Lambeth Palace Library, building on the suc
cess of the King James Bible exhibition there
in 2011.
Other noted exhibitions included Graham
Sutherland (Modern Art, Oxford); ten British
painters (Haunch of Venison, London); Titian
at the National Gallery; 850 years of Livery
Company treasures at the Guildhall, and
“Gold, Power and Allure” at Goldsmiths’ Hall;
“Foppa, Zenale and Luini” (Robilant & Voena,
London); “Hajj” and “Shakespeare: Staging the
World” at the British Museum; tomb treasures
of Han China in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge; “Bronze” (RA); “The Lost Prince”
(National Portrait Gallery); “Royal Manu
scripts” in the British Library; Guercino (Sir
Denis Mahon Collection, Ashmolean, Ox
ford); “Picasso and Modern British Art” (Tate
Britain); Van Dyck (Dulwich Picture Gallery);
John Piper (Dorchester Abbey); the Pugin
bicentenary programme in Birmingham.
Contemporary shows included David
Hockney (RA); John Kirby (Walker Gallery,
Liverpool); David Crouch (Southwell Min
ster); Nigel Groom (Worcester Cathedral and
St Mary’s, Prestwich); Helen Marshall and
Ruth Dent (Rochester Cathedral); “Reaching
Beyond” in BromleybyBow; Daniel Eltinger
and Celia Paul (Chichester Cathedral; Paul
was also shown alongside works by Gwen John
at Pallant House); Roger Wagner and Mark
Cazalet (Snape); 14 artists’ Stations (Discoed).
LAMBeTH pALACe LiBRARY
Title page of a 1662
prayer Book, from
the Lambeth palace
exhibition; above, right:
Choir of Survivors, by
Herman Heinze, a
German sculptor, in
the ruins of the old
Coventry Cathedral
television
THERE has never been a year when we have
felt more concern for Auntie — but we have
not been hovering round the sickbed offering
grapes and sympathy. We have been wonder
ing how far our exasperation can stretch before
we declare the relationship over for good.
The BBC is generally acknowledged as
the world’s favourite and best broadcasting
organisation, and the Queen’s Jubilee was the
very subjectmatter at which it most excels;
but The Diamond Jubilee River Pageant was a
broadcasting error of such a scale as to call
into question the directors’ basic commitment
to the Corporation’s core values.
These doubts were exacerbated by the
unfolding horror of the Jimmy Savile revela
tions; the accusations that Panorama had been
leant on to pull a programme about Savile’s
behaviour; the débâcle of Newsnight’s broad
casting — in its eagerness to restore faith in the
independence and fearlessness of BBC jour
nalism — an accusation of child molestation
against a politician who was immediately able
to prove his innocence; and the appointment
and hasty departure of a new DirectorGeneral.
The sight of a onceloved and respected
national institution in meltdown should strike
a chord of sympathy with all members of the
Church of England, but we are clearly in no
position to offer advice.
Despite this enveloping miasma, some very
bright lights shone through the BBC’s slough
of despond. The year 2012 could be con
sidered as the Year of Great Britain — the
Jubilee attracting around it a galaxy of native
themed documentaries of the highest
standard: Andrew Marr’s The Diamond
New commissions for churches included
Offertorium, a violin concerto (Edinburgh);
Roger Wagner’s window for Iffley Parish
Jonathan Harvey’s Welt Ethos, to a text by the
Church; Herman Heinze’s sculpture Choir of
theologian Hans Küng, at the Royal Festival
Survivors for the Coventry Cathedral ruins
Hall; and Martin How’s RSCM Advent
(below); and glass doors by Mel Howse on a
Cantata in Croydon.
piscatorial theme for St Paul’s, Brighton.
Other notable musical events were Bliss’s
The renovation and conservation of the old
The Beatitudes, originally commissioned for
continued, most conspicuously with the
Coventry Cathedral in 1962, but heard in that
restoration of the great east window at York
building for the first time to mark its 50th
Minster. The Auckland Castle Zurbarán paint anniversary; George Dyson’s The Canterbury
ings were bought by Jonathan Ruffer to keep
Pilgrims and Berlioz’s Te Deum (Three
them in the northeast; Pieter Brueghel’s St
Choirs), and his Requiem (Proms). Bernstein’s
John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the
Mass had its Proms première; and the season
Wilderness was sold for £1.61 million; Art
also included John Ireland’s These Things Shall
Fund supported a public appeal
Be, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus,
by the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Messiaen’s Et exspecto
CoVeNTRY DioCeSe
Cambridge, to buy Poussin’s
resurrectionem mortuorum, and
Extreme Unction for almost £3.9
Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi.
million.
There was Gabrieli (400 years
Highlights in contemporary
since his death), and Charpent
music included James Mac
ier’s opera David et Jonathas, in
Millan’s Gloria for Coventry
Edinburgh; a tour of country
Cathedral; and the world
churches, “Music in Quiet
première of his Since it was the
Places”; the landmark but bleak
Day of Preparation . . . (Edin
revival of Vaughan Williams’s
burgh); the UK première of
opera The Pilgrim’s Progress at the
Richard Causton’s Blake work
Coliseum in London (ENO);
TwentySeven Heavens; Rivers to
Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater
the Sea by Joseph Phibbs and
(CBSO); Britten’s Ceremony of
Centuries of Meditation by
Carols choreographed by Richard
Dobrinka Tabakova (Three
Alston; Charles Wood’s The
Choirs); Sofia Gubaidulina’s
Passion according to St Mark
press
THERE are times when I think of print news
papers as pistonengined aircraft: unimagin
ably wonderful pieces of engineering, intel
ligent in every detail, which have no future
except as rich men’s toys, or workhorses where
nothing else is profitable.
The Leveson inquiry, then, would be a
charter for the regulation of Spitfires and
Hurricanes in an age of cruise missiles. It may
well turn out to be a much less important step
towards setting the bounds of free speech than
Lord McAlpine’s decision to sue anyone with
money who had defamed him by passing on
rumours on Twitter.
With that said, you still wouldn’t want to be
strafed by a Spitfire, or a Hurricane, even if
machine guns are now obsolete. The Daily
Mail’s 12page preemptive attack on the
Leveson inquiry suggested to me that the
whole exercise had to be worth while. News
papers are natural bullies, even if, like most
bullies, they imagine that they are acting in
selfdefence.
While it is certainly true, as Max Hastings
Queen, the Revd Professor Diarmaid
MacCulloch’s How God Made the English, Ian
Hislop’s Stiff Upper Lip, moving accounts of
the work of Lucian Freud and David Hockney,
a terrific account of The Dreams of William
Golding. Add to these a slew of programmes
about, and productions of, William
Shakespeare, all attesting that our remarkable
national creative heritage has no lack of
worthy interpreters in the medium of TV.
And TV redemption of a kind enlightened
the heart of the year: the BBC’s coverage of
the Olympic Games was magnificent, its
explication of the marvels of human
endeavour then, astonishingly, equalled, or
even trumped, by Channel 4’s devotion to the
Paralympics. The opening and closing cere
monies of both sets of Games were amazing
feats, conceived for a worldwide TV audience
as much as for those in the stadium.
They presented glorious impressions of a
nation comfortable with itself, for good or ill,
happy to laugh at its most cherished institu
tions and to acknowledge the dark elements in
our story, willing even to incorporate the odd
hymn. I do not think it too farfetched to see
them as paraliturgies, summoning core vir
tues of inclusion, fellowship, endeavour, and
commitment.
The viewer has to be open to such consid
erations, as explicit religion on TV was woe
fully missing. It was most movingly present in
the Christian faith underlying the nuns’
vocation in the BBC drama Call the Midwife.
But my accolade for Most Promising New
Actor of the Year is awarded — thanks to her
starring role in the Olympic opening cere
mony — to Her Majesty the Queen.
Gillean Craig
argued in the Financial Times, that most of
the dreadful things uncovered by Leveson, and
by The Guardian, were in fact illegal when
they were done, this is not a complete argu
ment that no laws are needed.
“What took place at News International
was not a breach of press ethics but sustained
criminality. No regulatory body past, present
or future, could investigate and punish such
wrongdoing. It was plain to some of us years
ago that the police had disgracefully failed in
their duty to investigate News International.
Lord Justice Leveson lets them off absurdly
lightly.”
You might as well argue against speed
cameras on the grounds that speeding is
already illegal. If the people who break the
laws are so powerful that no one dares cross
them, then further laws diminishing their
power may be necessary for the existing laws
to be enforced.
Still, the pontifications of the great and
good will matter less in the end than the
various criminal trials of former journalists
and executives, which will add so much to the
delights of next year. It is in the light of those
verdicts that the new press regime will be
framed.
radio
FROM the selfproclaimed “biggest broad
casting deployment in peacetime” to ignom
iny, humiliation, and violent breastbeating,
the BBC has had an embattled year, alleviated
by none of the virtuous resilience of Dunkirk.
The Olympic coverage may have demon
strated how, in the hour of need, all hands
could be turned to the pump — the cricket
correspondent Jonathan Agnew commentat
ing on archery, for example, and Five Live’s
redoubtable team doing the best they could
with synchronised diving — but, as the
hour for the BBC’s big 90th anniversary
approached, the Corporation was shooting
at itself over sexualabuse allegations and
editorial mismanagement. The only bene
ficiaries of such a crisis are those who either
do not know how bad standards of radio
broadcasting are elsewhere in the world, or do
not care.
So it is with a certain protectiveness that I
recall the broadcasting flops of the year; for
they, at least, all dared to aspire. Classic Serial:
Songs and Lamentations (Radio 4, June) is a
case in point: a twohour narrative squeezed
from the book of Jeremiah and associated
texts, which suffocated in its own earnestness;
another was Richard Holloway’s Honest
Doubt (Radio 4, June), which attempted a
20part history of religious scepticism, and
lost its way after a couple of outings.
It is not that time and effort are not
expended on these projects: take Says Who?
(Radio 2, November), whose attempted survey
of people’s attitudes to morality employed
some refined production values. But pacing is
everything, and this effort was slowed down
(Farrant Singers, Salisbury); and a rare chance
to hear Carl Loewe’s The Atonement of the
New Testament (Oxford Harmonic Society).
Michael Kiwanuka was named the BBC’s
Sound of 2012.
Drama and dance included Can We Talk
About This? (DV8, National Theatre and
touring); The Preston Passion (BBC); David
Edgar’s Written on the Heart (RSC); The
Beloved by Amir Nizar Zuabi (Bush, London);
Life of Christ (Wintershall); How Like An
Angel (touring cathedrals); Mike Bartlett’s
adaptation of Colin Welland’s film script for
Chariots of Fire in London (transferred to the
Gielgud); the York Mystery Plays, their first
largescale production since 2000; Shaw’s The
Doctor’s Dilemma (National); Treasured, Jen
Heyes’s drama about the Titanic, in Liverpool
Cathedral; Damned by Despair, Molina,
adapted by Frank McGuinness (National
Theatre); a stage adaptation of William Gold
ing’s The Spire by Roger Spottiswoode, in
Salisbury; Chronicles of Light in Winchester
Cathedral; and Alan Bennett’s new comedy
People at the National Theatre.
Films reviewed in our columns included
Hadewijch; The Iron Lady; Acts of Godfrey;
The Devil Inside; Corpo Celeste; The Monk;
The Gospel of Us; Joyful Noise; Even the Rain;
Faust; and Holy Motors. And on DVD: The
Borgias; Relics and Roses; Ordet (The Word);
Red State; The Vow; and Holy Flying Circus.
AND so to less grand matters, on which my
opinion might just be better informed. This
was not a good year for the predictive powers
of the religious journalists. The only thing you
could say for us was that we knew better
than the bookies, most of the time. It was the
clear and repeatedly expressed opinion of all
the experts that Dr Sentamu was going to
be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Clip
pings from May now make embarrassing
reading. Just as much of a shock was the
failure of the draft womenbishops legisla
tion.
What both these failures suggest to me is
that we are not eating enough. In particular,
we are not eating enough lunches of the sort
from which stories emerge. So long as the
chief source of newspaper stories is what other
people have written, we will be missing all the
excitement and novelty of what people say
face to face in conversation.
In the light of this, and of the probable
future of our industry, it should be the
resolution of everyone in the business to
spend far more of next year at lunch.
Andrew Brown
by the weight of background noise, the end
less playlist of an overzealous editor.
Two Radio 2 documentaries make it into
my 2012 favourites: A Year in the Life: The
Beatles 1962 (October) told the story of the
Fab Four’s comingofage; and How Sweet the
Sound: The Amazing Grace story (May), a
survey of the hymn in all its myriad forms,
from the Scots Dragoon Guards to the Blind
Boys of Alabama.
Rougher round the edges, but on a good
day no less effective, is the Five Live method:
immediate, and handson. Nicky Campbell
taking performanceenhancing drugs (5 Live
Breakfast, August) was compelling; and Men’s
Hour (July) on circumcision was traumatic;
while Victoria Derbyshire’s live programme in
June from an abortion clinic justifies by itself
her status as one of the BBC’s finest.
You need great original material to make a
great radio programme; and my two high
lights of the year benefited from such. Radio
4’s drama Blasphemy and the Governor of
Punjab (September) told the story of the life
and death of Salmaan Taseer, murdered for
questioning Pakistani blasphemy laws.
Methodical, yet bristling with righteous anger,
the piece gave a valuable insight into a
dysfunctional society.
Social dysfunction and moral ambivalence
are all part of the world that James Joyce
recreated in his masterpiece Ulysses, which, on
Bloomsday this year (16 June), was celebrated
on Radio 4 with a sevenpart adaptation of the
novel. This story of a flawed hero, negotiating
prejudices and blandishments with a quiet
determination, would make an appropriate
rolemodel for the BBC in these dark days.
Edward Wickham
45
review of 2012
appointments
THE Bishop of Durham, the Rt
Revd Justin Welby, was nominated
in 2012 as the next Archbishop of
Canterbury and Primate of All
England. Dr Richard Clarke was
elected Archbishop of Armagh and
Primate of All Ireland, translated
from Meath & Kildare. The Bishop
of MasindiKitara, the Rt Revd
Stanley Ntagali, was elected Arch
bishop of Uganda.
Other episcopal appointments
during the year included those of the
Very Revd Dr John Armes as Bishop
of Edinburgh; Dr Martin Warner as
Bishop of Chichester, translated
from Whitby; the Revd Robert
Hirschfeld as BishopCoadjutor of
New Hampshire; the Revd Ellinah
Wamukoya as Bishop of Swaziland.
The Revd Jonathan Clark as Area
Bishop of Croydon; the Ven.
Michael Ipgrave as Area Bishop of
Woolwich; the Ven. Richard Atkin
son as Suffragan Bishop of Bedford;
the Revd Darren McCartney as
Suffragan Bishop of the Arctic; the
Revd Dr Edmund Condry as Area
Bishop of Ramsbury; Canon Glyn
Webster as Suffragan Bishop of
Beverley and Provincial Episcopal
Visitor.
Prebendary Nicholas McKinnel as
Suffragan Bishop of Crediton; the
Revd Philip North as Suffragan
Bishop of Whitby, who subsequently
withdrew from his nomination; the
Rt Revd Jonathan Baker as Suffragan
Bishop of Fulham, translated from
Ebbsfleet; the Ven. Alison Taylor as
Regional Bishop in Brisbane.
The Rt Revd Kenneth Clarke,
Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin &
Ardagh, as Mission Director of the
South American Mission Society
Ireland; the Rt Revd David Hamid,
Suffragan Bishop in Europe, as new
Cochairman of IARCCUM; and the
Most Revd David Moxon as the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Rep
resentative to the Holy See, and
Director of the Anglican Centre in
Rome.
OTHER clerical appointments in
cluded those of the Revd Chris
topher Futcher as Archdeacon of
Exeter; the Revd Lister Tonge as
Dean of Monmouth; the Revd Paul
Hooper as Archdeacon of Leeds;
Canon Steven Betts as Archdeacon
of Norfolk; the Revd Mark Beach as
Dean of Rochester; the Very Revd
Dr David Ison as Dean of St Paul’s;
books
IN A YEAR when an Archbishop of
Canterbury announced his
resignation, the biographical studies
of his predecessors reviewed in the
Church Times included those of
Geoffrey Fisher (by Andrew
Chandler and David Hein), Cosmo
Lang (Robert Beaken), Thomas
Becket (John Guy), and Ralph
D’Escures, William of Corbeil, and
Theobald of Bec (Jean Truax).
Dr Williams’s book Faith in the
Public Square topped the Church
Times monthly Top Ten, as did his
study of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia, The
Lion’s World.
Books by other world religious
leaders included the Dalai Lama’s
Beyond Religion and Pope Bene
dict’s XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: The
infancy narratives.
Lent 2012 titles reviewed in the
Church Times included: Love
Unknown by Ruth Burrows; The
Nail by Stephen Cottrell; On Retreat
by Andrew Walker; The Heart’s
Time by Janet Morley; Love Set Free
by Martin L. Smith; Handing on the
Torch by John Young; and Finding a
Voice by Hilary Brand.
The Church in rural England was
46
LAMBeTH pALACe
Ap
New posts: above:
Lynne Tembey,
commissioned by Dr
Williams as the new
Worldwide president
of the Mothers’
union; left: Tawadros
ii, the new Coptic
pope; above, right: the
Very Revd Vivienne
Faull, now Dean of
York; right: Dr Richard
Clarke, Archbishop of
Armagh, primate of
All ireland
Canon Victor Stacey as Dean of St
Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
Canon Peter Wilcox as Dean of
Liverpool; the Revd Dianna Gwil
liams as Acting Archdeacon of
Southwark; the Revd Nigel Genders
as Head of School Policy of the
Board of Education; the Revd Susan
Macdonald as Dean of Edinburgh
diocese; the Revd Wendy Callan as
Dean of Killala; Canon Mark Bon
ney as Dean of Ely; the Revd Roger
Hughes as Archdeacon of Car
marthen; the Revd Andrew Williams
as Acting Dean of Bradford Cath
edral; the Revd Jacqueline Searle as
Archdeacon of Gloucester.
The Revd Ian Morgan as Arch
deacon of Suffolk; the Revd Dr Peter
Pike as Archdeacon of Montgomery;
the Revd Ian Linton as Archdeacon
of Elphin and Ardagh; the Ven.
Roger Bush as Dean of Truro; the
Revd Peter Rickman as Dean of
Waikato; the Revd Jonathan Wil
liams as Archdeacon of Newport;
the Very Revd Vivienne Faull as
Dean of York.
The Revd Peter Sutton as
Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight; the
Revd Dr Timothy Stratford as
Archdeacon of Leicester; the Revd
Sandra Pragnell as Dean of Limerick
and Ardfert; the Revd Robert Miller
as Archdeacon of Derry; Canon
John Witcombe as Dean of Cov
entry; the Revd Barry Naylor as
acting Dean of Leicester; the Revd
Andrew Swift as Dean of Argyll &
The Isles diocese; the Revd William
StuartWhite as Archdeacon of
Cornwall.
The Ven. John Green as Arch
deacon Pastor of Coventry; the Revd
Martin Gorick as Archdeacon of
Oxford; the Revd Ruth Worsley as
Archdeacon of Wiltshire; the Ven.
Christopher Skilton as Archdeacon
of Croydon; the Revd Alan Jevons as
Archdeacon of Brecon; the Ven.
Janet Henderson as Dean of Llan
daff; Canon Duncan Green as Arch
deacon of Northolt.
The Revd Matthew Reed as Chief
Executive of the Children’s Society;
the Revd Arun Arora as Director of
Communications for the Arch
bishops’ Council; the Revd Philip
Mounstephen as Executive Leader of
the Church Mission Society; the
analysed in Faith and the Future of
the Countryside by Alan Smith and
Jill Hopkinson, and Rural Life and
Rural Church, edited by Leslie J.
Francis and Mandy Robbins. The
Church of the 21st century was
discussed in The State of the Church
and the Church of the State by
Michael Turnbull and Donald
McFadyen, and Religion and Change
in Modern Britain by Linda Wood
head and Rebecca Catto.
Christianity in the public square
was explored in A Public Faith by
Miroslav Volf; Equality, Freedom
and Religion by Roger Trigg; and
Theology in the Public Square by
Sebastian Kim.
To celebrate the 350th annivers
ary of the Book of Common Prayer,
key titles reviewed included: The
Book of Common Prayer: The texts
of 1549, 1559 and 1662, edited by
Brian Cummings; God Truly
Worshipped: Thomas Cranmer and
his writings, edited by Jonathan
Dean; and Stir Up, O Lord by
Kevin Carey. To mark the 50th
anniversary of the opening of the
Second Vatican Council, titles
published included Reaping the
Harvest by Suzanne Mulligan, Jim
Corkery, and Gerry O’Hanlon; 50
Years Receiving Vatican II by Kevin
T. Kelly; and the recently translated
My Journal of the Council by Yves
Congar.
The topical issue of virtue
economics was analysed in The
Price of Inequality by Jospeh E
Stiglitz; What Money Can’t Buy by
Michael Sandel; How Much is
Enough? by Robert Skidelsky and
Edward Skidelsky; and Faith and
Social Capital by Adrian Dinham.
Anglican identity was explored in
Mark Chapman’s Anglican
Theology, and in Samuel Wells’s
What Anglicans Believe. Christian
living was celebrated in Jane Shaw’s
Practical Christianity and in David
Adam’s Occasions for Alleluia.
Popular titles on spirituality
included: Everyday God by Paula
Gooder; Does My Soul Look Big in
This? by Rosemary LainPriestley;
Falling Upward by Richard Rohr;
and Lectio Divina by Christine
Paintner.
Books on priestly ministry which
came under review included Min
istry Without Madness by Gordon
Oliver; Called to Love by Raymond
Tomkinson; and Mindful Ministry
by Judith Thompson and Ross
Thompson. Fresh Expressions were
celebrated in Fresh! An introduction
to Fresh Expressions of church and
pioneer ministry by David Good
hew, Andrew Roberts, and Michael
YoRK MiNSTeR
pA
obituaries
DEATHS among the episcopate
included those of the Rt Revd
Michael Mann, former Dean of
Windsor; the Rt Revd Dr Kenneth
Cragg, Islamic scholar and former
assistant bishop in the Jerusalem
archbishopric; the Rt Revd Clarence
Pope, former Bishop of Fort Worth;
the Rt Revd Ambrose Weekes,
former Chaplain of the Fleet, Dean
of Gibraltar, and Suffragan Bishop in
Europe; the Rt Revd Dr Mazilimani
Azariah, former General Secretary of
the Church of South India, and later
Bishop in Madras.
The Rt Revd Kobina Quashie,
former Bishop of Cape Coast; the Rt
Revd Roger White, former Bishop of
Milwaukee; the Rt Revd Anthony
Dumper, former Suffragan Bishop of
Dudley; the Rt Revd Eric Devenport,
former Suffragan Bishop of Dun
wich; the Rt Revd K. H. Ting, the
last Bishop of Zhejiang, and leader
of the Protestant Church in China.
Volland. Resources for allage
worship included Creative Ideas for
Using Worship by Paul Glass; and
Worship Together by Sandra Millar.
The rites of baptism and confirma
tion were explored and celebrated in
Taking the Plunge by Timothy
Radcliffe, and in Peter Maidment’s
and Paul Butler’s Living your
Confirmation. The eucharist was
discussed in The Eucharistic
Liturgies by Paul F. Bradshaw and
Maxwell E. Johnson.
Titles to mark the Queen’s Jubilee
year included Queen Elizabeth II
and her Church by the Dean of
Westminster, John Hall.
Books on the God debate
included Where the Conflict Really
Lies by Alvin Plantinga; Why
Religion is Natural and Science is
Not by Robert N. McCauley; and
God and the Scientist: Exploring the
work of John Polkinghorne, edited by
Fraser Watts and Christopher C.
Knight. Wellknown writers who
joined the debate included: Francis
Spufford in his much acclaimed
Unapologetic; Roger Scruton in his
The Face of God; Jonathan Clat
worthy in Making Sense of Faith in
God; Rupert Sheldrake with The
Science Delusion; and Raymond
DEATHS among the clergy included
those of the Revd John Suddards,
Vicar of Thornbury and Oldbury
onSevern with Shepperdine, who
was murdered in February; the Revd
Alyn Haskey, associate priest at St
Christopher with St Philip, Snein
ton; the Revd Christopher Jones,
Policy Officer for Home Affairs in
the Mission and Public Affairs
Division of the Archbishops’ Coun
cil; the Revd Tom Heffer, General
Secretary of the Mission to Seafarers.
Canon James Colling, Rector of
Warrington at the time of the IRA
bombing, and former Chaplain to
the Queen; the Revd Dr Dudley
Clarke, former Chaplain of Monk
ton Combe School; Canon Thomas
Smail, former VicePrincipal of St
John’s College, Nottingham; the
Revd Dr Alan Megahey, school
master and historian; the Revd John
Pollock,
Christian
biographer;
Canon Dick France, New Testament
scholar and a former Principal of
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford; Canon
Thomas Christie, a former chairman
of Church House Publishing; Canon
Charles Shells, founder of the
Painting and Prayer Movement.
The Ven. Dr David Griffiths,
former Archdeacon of Berkshire;
Canon Simon Mein, former Chap
lain of St Andrew’s School, Dela
ware; the Revd Cuthbert Mather,
former Rector of Needham and
Rushall, and in holy orders for 72
years; the Revd Dillwyn Thomas,
former Vicar of All Saints’, Penarth,
and Canon of Llandaff Cathedral;
Canon Eric James, former Director
of Christian Action, noted for his
work for the report Faith in the City.
The Revd Ronald Swain, possibly
the oldest Anglican priest in England
at 103; the Revd John Swallow,
former Rector of West Mersea with
East Mersea; the Very Revd John
Lang, former BBC Head of Religious
Broadcasting, and Dean of Lichfield;
Canon Patrick Kent, former Chap
lain of St Chad’s College, Durham;
Canon Reginald Askew, former Prin
cipal of Salisbury and Wells Theo
logical College, and Dean of King’s
College, London; Canon Ernest
Brown, former Vicar of Thurnby
with Stoughton; Prebendary James
Trevelyan, Companion of the Society
of St Francis, and sailor.
The Very Revd Ian Watt, former
Provost of St Ninian’s Cathedral,
Perth, and Dean of St Andrews,
Dunkeld & Dunblane diocese;
Canon John Turner, former Pre
centor of Lichfield Cathedral; the
Revd Humphrey Newman, succes
sively Vicar of Welling and of St
John’s, Penge, and Rector of Knock
holt; the Revd Richard Blakeway
Phillips, botanist; the Revd Professor
Christopher Evans, New Testament
Revd Andrew Wright as General
Secretary of the Mission to Seafarers.
LAY appointments included Tim
othy ByramWigfield as Chairman
of the Church Music Society; Dr
Alastair Jones as Chief Executive of
the Frontier Youth Trust; the Lord
Luce as Chairman of the Crown
Nominations Commission; Andrew
Reid as Director of the RSCM; Dr
Lindsay Newcombe as Vice
Chairman of Forward in Faith, and
Dr Colin Podmore as Director;
Lynne Tembey as Worldwide Pres
ident of the Mothers’ Union.
THE Egyptian Coptic Church
elected Tawadros II as its new Pope.
Also appointed were the Most Revd
Dr Charles Brown as Papal Nuncio
to Ireland; the Revd Dr Guy Liagre
as General Secretary of the Con
ference of European Churches; Fi
McLachlan as Chief Executive of
Burrswood Hospital; Marnix Niem
eijer as Chairman of Micah Chal
lenge; and the Revd Lorna Hood as
Moderator of the General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland.
© RCAHMS
Helping
Britain to
make it
books
Augustine and
the playgroup
Roderic Dunnett
considers the work
of Basil Spence
John Pridmore looks
at reflections on
children’s spirituality
Basil Spence: Buildings and
projects
Louise Campbell, Miles
Glendinning, and Jane Thomas,
editors
RiBA publishing £45
Church Times Bookshop £40.50
(9781859463093)
Understanding Children’s
Spirituality: Theology, research
and practice
Kevin E. Lawson, editor
Cascade Books £32
(9781610975254)
THIS is massive tome, running to
19 chapters, and chockfull of
superb illustrations, arising out of
an Arts and Humanities Research
Council project led by Louise
Campbell of the University of
Warwick and her two scholarly
collaborators, who contribute sub
stantially to the book.
One interesting thing about Sir
Basil Spence (190776) — quite
apart from his crowning glory,
the new Coventry Cathedral,
characterised here as “the single
biggest ikon of postwar recon
struction” in Britain — is, the book
indicates, the ways in which his
career spans several distinct eras
and trends.
Of these, the most significant was
the keen interest that he showed,
during its 1930s heyday, in the
Modernist Germanbased Bauhaus
movement, led by Walter Gropius
and Mies van der Rohe, whose work
he visited (soon after his honey
moon), and from which he de
rived much of the ethic of social
responsibility which informed his
work in postwar Britain, including
his contributions to the 1946
“Britain Can Make It” exhibition
at the Victoria & Albert Museum,
and the 1951 Festival of Britain,
at which Spence was a leading
light.
He didn’t build only ecclesiastical
marvels: Scottish country houses,
including quite selfindulgent
castellated wonders built from
scratch, entered his remit, as work
flourished after the war. He built,
and helped revolutionise, army
barracks and parliamentary build
ings. By 1929, he was assisting Sir
Edwin Lutyens, and some of the
latter’s versatility and good judge
ment washed off on the younger
man. Spence’s superb draughts
manship extended to painting:
some rewarding selfportraits are
included here, and his youthful
sketches — of Pugin’s work, for
instance — already look masterly.
Every facet of his work is
explored in invigorating detail here,
in a style that is as accessible as it is
academic. This applies to all of the
contributors; and the balance is
about right, too: the early years get
40 pages, the 1950s 80, the ’60s
100, and the ’70s — up to Spence’s
death, aged only 69 — a further 30
pages.
The index is thorough, and nicely
presented in four columns. Coven
try gets a closely argued 32page
chapter from Louise Campbell
herself; the illustrations of various
stages in the process stand
testimony to the complexity, and
the triumph, of the proposed,
emerging, and finished project, the
result of a wildly contested archi
tectural competition announced in
1951.
Ready or Not: Children,
spirituality and journeying
together
Ruth Harvey
Wild Goose publications £11.50
(9781849522175)
© RCAHMS
You don’t get a better imprimatur
than that of the Royal Institute of
British Architects, who have
supported the project so much as
to publish the book. In a spectac
ular large format, it is, surely, one
of the landmark books on British
architecture of the past halfcentury.
Recommending it very highly is a
pleasure and a duty.
MARTIN SAUNDERS has com
piled 500 Prayers for Young
People: Prayers for a new genera
tion (Monarch, £9.99 (£9); 9780
857210173), to help them to pray
about matters that affect them. The
sections have titles such as “Inter
cessions”, “Relationships”, and
“School”, and prayers relate, for
example, to exams, debt, selfharm,
porn addiction, worship and
spirituality, and the world’s needs.
Draughtsman’s
eye: above:
design for the
Hall of the
Future at the
“Britain Can
Make it”
exhibition at the
V&A, London,
perspective by
Basil Spence,
1946; left: a
Spence family
Christmas card
(the architect,
with his
moustache, is
seen directing
their work),
c.1945
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THE Society for Children’s
Spirituality holds a conference every
three years, and the papers
presented at it are subsequently
published. The 21 chapters of
Understanding Children’s Spiritual
ity began life as papers given at the
2009 conference.
The Society for Children’s
Spirituality (SCS) must not be
confused with the International
Association for Children’s Spir
ituality (IACS), though the parts
that they play are complementary.
The SCS is primarily a North
American forum, a context that
narrows the focus of some chapters
in this book. More significantly,
its perspective on children’s
spirituality is avowedly Christian.
The IACS, by contrast, understands
spirituality “broadly and inclus
ively”, and maintains that the child’s
inherent spirituality does not
necessarily require religious ex
pression, whether Christian or any
other.
Kevin Lawson, who edits these
papers, has to call to order a com
pany of academics with a be
wildering variety of axes to grind.
The only systematisation that he
attempts is to herd into one fold
those whose perspectives are
theological and historical, and into
a second those with more prac
tical interests. One chapter towers
above the rest in the first section,
William Brown’s brilliant essay on
“Wisdom and Child’s Play”.
Brown invites us to attend to the
Hebrew text of Proverbs 8.2231,
an extraordinary passage that
pictures the divine wisdom as a
playful child.
When we remember that this
passage underlies the Prologue to
St John’s Gospel — though this is
not a point that Brown himself
develops — the implications of his
reading of the text are staggering.
Is God a playgroup, Jerome Berry
man once asked. It seems that he is.
Or, to be more precise, she is; for
wisdom is, of course, female.
The two other important chapters
in this first section are Elizabeth
Dodd’s study of the image of the
child in Thomas Traherne, and the
Orthodox scholar Jennifer Mosher’s
discussion of Irenaeus’s incar
national understanding of child
hood. Once again, we are made to
realise how much misery children
would have been spared had the
Church in the West heeded Irenaeus
and not succumbed to Augustine.
They might, for example, have been
spared the chapter in this volume
on “childhood depravity”, and, in
another chapter, the assertion that
we should regard children in the
church as “foster children” who may
eventually become “fully adopted”.
Kyrie eleison.
Two scholars, highly respected in
both the SCS and the IACS, con
tribute notable chapters to the
book’s second section. Karen Marie
Yust writes from a wealth of
experience on “intergenerational
worship”; and Ann Trousdale draws
attention to the “prophetic stance”
that she discerns in the best of re
cent children’s literature.
Too much writing about chil
dren’s spirituality, such as that
which advocates the contemplation
of sunsets and waterfalls, ignores
the fact that children suffer and
that, from an early age, they wonder
why. Two closing chapters address
directly — and belatedly — the
problem of “spiritual distress”.
Duane Bidwell and Donald Batisky
reflect movingly on the “spirituality
of hope” that they have found
among children with terminal renal
disease.
Eva Korneck recognises that
children, too, think about theodicy,
and she claims that the book of Job,
not normally seen as children’s
reading, can help them to do so. It
was a discourtesy to Korneck, whose
first language is not English, that
her article was not edited to make it
read more fluently.
If there is one thing that we have
learned from the exploration of
children’s spirituality in recent
years, it is that it is, through and
through, relational. The child in
spirit relates to the transcendent,
to nature, to others, and — mys
teriously — to himself or herself.
Those relationships can be studied
with academic detachment, or they
can be explored through personal
engagement. The former approach
yields learned papers, bristling
with references and endnotes, such
as we have in Understanding
Children’s Spirituality; the latter
invites the kind of meditative and
poetic reflection we find in Ready
or Not. Needless to say, the two
approaches are equally valid.
Ready or Not is a publication of
the Iona Community. If, like an old
fashioned sermon, the book had a
text, this would be: “A little child
shall lead them.” Between them, the
30 or more contributors touch on
many themes. Some ponder on the
intensity and the peril of the bond
between parent and child. Others
brood on the affliction that love
suffers as it is forced to let go, and
others on the piercing insight of a
child’s sudden comment or ques
tion. Mothers reflect on what it
means to carry a child, or to lose a
child, or to fail to find the fulfilment
that motherhood is supposed to
bring.
Much in these pages is written in
the halfprose, halfpoetry, that
characterises much devotional
writing. Readers will be arrested by
sharp images. “Child — You are my
burning bush”; “I drive for a bit into
town, spot my middle years in shop
windows.”
One contributor believes that
Philip Larkin is wrong. “They tuck
you up in bed, your mum and dad.”
The Revd Dr John Pridmore is a
former Rector of Hackney in east
London.
47
books
Building on the
rock . . . mostly
Glorious fanes soared,
not always wisely,
says William Whyte
How to Build a Cathedral:
Constructing the story of a
medieval masterpiece
Malcolm Hislop
Bloomsbury £24.99
(9781408171776)
HOW best to describe the process
of building? Over the centuries,
architecture has been compared to
many things. It is, Goethe wrote,
frozen music. It is, Victor Hugo
wrote, like a sort of book. It is both
these things. Yet it is also more.
Just think about how a building
actually happens. Imagine the
creativity involved in dreaming up
something, some structure, that has
never been seen before. Think of the
effort needed to acquire materials
and recruit workers; the sheer
audacity of starting to build, and
the determination required to carry
the enterprise through to com
pletion. All of this can be described
in a variety of different ways. But it
is best seen, I think, as a leap of faith:
a great jump into the unknown.
For the medieval cathedral
builders who created the great
churches of Canterbury and
Chartres, Salisbury and St Denis,
their work was an act of faith in
more ways than one. It was a great
religious duty to build, and to build
well, for the honour and glory of
God.
Lacking our knowledge of physics
peTeR MARLoW
and our technological advantages,
however, it was also always a risky
business — one that threatened
lives as well as reputations. The
history of cathedral architecture is
consequently often as much about
dramatic failure as it is about in
spiring success, as masons and their
clients leapt too far in their search
for greater height or breadth; or for
larger, still more grandiose struc
tures. Over the centuries, great high
towers collapsed at Gloucester, Ely,
York, Beauvais, and beyond.
In this fantastic new book, the
architectural historian Malcolm
Hislop provides the reader with an
expert account of this process, and
reveals the secrets of the cathedral
builders and the magnificent
edifices they erected. From devising
the plan to installing the stained
glass, hardly a detail of cathedral
architecture is missed.
Not a glossy volume, and with
only a handful of fullcolour images,
How to Build a Cathedral is none
the less a beautiful book. It is
delightfully welldesigned and
superbly illustrated with hundreds
of drawings taken from the great
19thcentury architectural histories.
This was an inspired decision,
because not only are these en
gravings attractive in their own
right: they also reveal far more
successfully than any photograph
exactly what was built, how, and
why.
This, then, is a volume that can
confidently be recommended to
anyone seriously interested in
architecture or church history.
The Revd Dr William Whyte is
Tutorial Fellow in Modern History
at St John’s College, Oxford, and
Assistant Curate of Kidlington.
Not just snaps: peter Marlow’s view of Gloucester
Cathedral, one of 42 naves recorded in his photos in
The English Cathedral (Merrell, £45 (£40.50); 9781
858945903), with John Goodall’s commentary, and
an essay by Martin Barnes, of the V&A, on Marlow’s
place in the history of english cathedral photography
If you go down to the woods
People twitching
Ronald Blythe enjoys
a study of ‘the Terror
of the Wild Wood’
Simon Jones reads a
novel with warmth
Gossip from the Forest: The
tangled roots of our forests and
fairytales
Sara Maitland
Granta £20
(9781 847084293)
Church Times Bookshop £18
NATURAL HISTORY, story
telling, and autobiography are
wonderfully interwoven here.
Twelve months, 12 woods, count
less moods, and 12 entrances
create the pattern. Bliss, terror,
legend, and hard facts make its
moods. Sara Maitland is right to
say that this cat’s cradle of emo
tions cannot be rationalised when
we make our way into a forest.
And, best of all, she includes “my”
own Suffolk wood, Staverton Thicks
— new to her, familiar territory to
me.
So much practical toil went on in
forests, centuries of fuelgathering,
pigfeeding, hunting, lovemaking,
and so on, that one would think that
the fear had been trodden out of
48
them. But no. Something mysteri
ous and incalculable remains. She,
rightly, does not attempt to unravel
it. Entering Staverton, she says,
“The magic here is very deep,
because the mystery is very real.”
My woodland shelf bulges with
scientific and imaginative
statements, but hers is the most
original. Why, when we park the car
or the bike to explore a great or little
wood, are we so nervous? She
blames the aptly named Grimm
brothers and their scary tribe. None
the less, she deplores our crazy
obsession with “child safety” in
the countryside, so that one rarely
sees a boy or girl in an open
meadow, let alone in a closedin
wood, and thus never experiencing
the countryside of the fairytale, or
of Harry Potter and his modern
woodlanders. Or, more importantly,
Shakespeare’s and Thomas Hardy’s
territories.
Maitland is a dangerous country
woman, leading us where “safety
first” tells us not to go. Or where the
sign says Private. Or where the trees
themselves are soaked in myth and
faith. And so old. Our finest nature
poet is John Clare, who spent four
years in an Epping Forest mad
house, where he wrote some
wonderfully sane things about
woodland. Maitland, too, makes the
reader resee the urbanised forest on
his doorstep, as well as the vast, dark
stretches of the Caledonian woods.
Her idea is to analyse the
traditions of terror as they spread
from a handful of fairytales,
particularly Tom Thumb, Rumpel
stiltskin, Rapunzel, and, of course,
Hansel and Gretel. There is a
stunning chapter on the Purgatory
Wood in Western Galloway, where
on Christmas Eve she biked to steal
a tree. A lawlessness feeds her
woodland appetite, a need to
trespass. This wood is so called
because it once contained a leper
colony. She entered it “with
nefarious intent”. Forests in gen
eral retain their medieval keep
out commands, and she is there to
break them, and is thus a tradition
alist.
Her history lessons and move
ments are exciting. At Staverton, a
woman rushes from a cottage,
shouting, waving her arms, the very
image of a witch. “Trespass, tres
pass!” But it is mostly trees that
wave her on — or out.
The reader is reminded of
Kenneth Grahame’s forest fear,
which he called “the Terror of the
Wild Wood”. Why do we still feel
it? Maitland cannot give the full
answer, but she makes a brave
attempt. Gossip From the Forest
is a thrill — and beautifully
written.
The Yips
Nicola Barker
Fourth estate £18.99
(9780007476657)
TAKE a vicar, a tattooist, a profes
sional golfer, and a Muslim sex
therapist, and you are almost cer
tain to end up with a joke. Nicola
Barker’s Bookerlonglisted The Yips
is flamboyantly funny — but it is
also ambitious, tender, wise, and
deeply humane.
Stuart Ransome, the golfer, has
the condition that gives the book its
title: a nervous twitch that makes
putting impossible. And it is nerves
rather than golf that give the book
its organising structure (if some
thing so odd and vortexed can be
believed to have a structure at all).
The Vicar, Sheila, is depressed.
The tattooist, Val, is agoraphobic,
although she is able to venture out
in a client’s niqab (“She is no longer
fearful, she is blank as an un
addressed letter. She is dead. She is
empty. She is un.”). The relationship
between Val’s fears and her identity
pay out movingly as well as
comedically as she deals with the
legacy of her Naziobsessed father
and her attraction to Gene, Sheila’s
husband, who has recovered from
cancer a significant seven times.
Sheila saw God on a train, but
decided to become a vicar only after
coming into contact with (the
atheist) Gene’s goodness in the face
of adversity. She loves the pro
visionality of his lack of faith, while
he is attracted to her assurance and
focus. Each of these positions is
challenged in the course of the
novel, but Barker allows each spouse
his or her beliefs without critical
intervention. The detail sparkles
(Gene’s eyes are “two errant kites on
unreliable strings”, for example),
but it is this authorial warmth that
really impresses. All of her main
characters — even the hopelessly
ranting and misogynist Ransome
— edge their way from fall to
redemption.
If every family is unhappy in its
own way, Barker’s mission seems to
be to attach the big subjects of their
unhappiness to the smaller mercies
of compassion. Turning a page on
The Yips is a little like hitting the
button on a jackinthebox. But it
is also a little like real life.
Simon Jones is editor of Third Way
magazine.
Stories that lend
encouragement
This author has seen
the worst and best,
Barbara Butler finds
Hope: Moments of inspiration in
a challenging world
Tim Costello
Hardie Grant Books £10.99
(9781742703756)
WHEN Granny Smith threw her old
apple skins and pips away in her
back garden in the mid1800s, she
did not expect to find a small tree
growing in the same place the next
year. The tree produced beautiful
apples, which many people all over
the world now enjoy. Tim Costello
tells this story as a parable of
Australia — a nation that began with
discards, and made good. This is one
of the many inspiring, challenging,
and entertaining stories crammed
into a book that offers hope for
today.
As the director of World Vision
in Australia, the author has travelled
widely, often to places of disaster
and suffering. He has experienced
many horrors, which have led him
to question his Christian faith; but
his questioning has driven him to a
new understanding of both the
many people he has met and God.
He went to Sri Lanka immediately
after the 2004 tsunami, where he
encountered unspeakable trauma
and grief. He wrote: “If I could offer
one small hope, it was that both
believers and nonbelievers from
around the world would not forget
them or abandon them. And that
this was where they could find a sign
of God’s presence, in the form of the
compassion and action by the
world’s citizens and governments.”
There are stories here about many
inspiring people, including Martin
Luther King and President Obama.
We read of a visit to Catherine
Hamlin, an 85yearold doctor who
works in a fistula hospital in
Ethiopia, and of exciting meetings
with Bono, followed by a renewed
commitment to the eradication of
poverty.
There is a realisation that there
are different kinds of poverty, and
that poverty in relationships is as
depleting as material poverty.
Examples given include Australia,
where there is still a huge gap
between Aboriginal people and the
white citizens; and the Middle East,
where there is little meeting or
listening towards peace.
The author believes that all life is
sacred, and that every person is a
child of God. The challenge to us all
is to show the face of God wherever
we are.
Barbara Butler is Executive Secretary
of Christians Aware.
An ‘open volume’?
Adam Ford on God as
revealed in Nature
Places of Enchantment: Meeting
God in landscapes
Graham B. Usher
SpCK £10.99
(9780281067923)
YOU know that this author must
be rooted in the Church’s life of
thanksgiving when you read the list
of acknowledgements, which in
cludes “Hexham Abbey’s heavenly
host of retired clergy and its staff
team . . .”. If ever proof was needed
that a period of sabbatical leave for a
clergyman has value, then here it is.
Graham Usher, Rector of Hex
ham, Northumberland, has taken
time off to focus on an important
issue: how to reconnect the liturgy
of the Church (celebrated mostly
inside great buildings) with the rich
realm of the created world.
There has been a thread of
suspicion running through Chris
tian history about the dangers of
enjoying nature — the fear that too
much adoration of landscapes or
sunsets, sun, moon, or stars might
tip the believer over into the camp
of that old enemy, pantheism
(everything is God). Only God is to
be worshipped; everything else is his
creation.
But this fear has always missed a
trick: the creative hand of God “in
whom we live and have our being”
(Acts 17.28) can be seen in all his
works, and the beauty and in
dependence of them sing his praises.
Panentheism (all things in God) can
save the believer from slipping into
pantheism, leaving him or her to
rejoice in the great outdoors.
Usher would go further, and he
claims that “This book seeks to
explore . . . why landscapes may
continue to be the arena for revela
tion about God.” Beauty is not to be
thought of as merely something in
the eye of the beholder, but as “a
sacred manifestation of God’s
immanent power in nature”.
The book focuses, chapter by
chapter, on forest, river, mountain,
desert, garden, sea, and sky, and is
liberally illuminated with references
to scripture, poets, and nature
writers, such as G. M. Hopkins, T. S.
Eliot, R. S. Thomas, H. D. Thoreau,
and others. We are also invited to
look through the eyes of landscape
painters — Turner, Constable, and
the American artists of the sublime.
But divine revelation does not
always come easily. God can be
elusive, and theophany will not
necessarily happen where you
expect it: we are reminded of Elijah,
who did not find God in the earth
quake, storm, or fire, but in “the still
small voice” (or was it a “crushing
silence”?). We need to learn to be
attentive.
This book could provide a useful
format for a series of housemeeting
discussions, to which participants
would bring their experiences, from
reading or walking, of the natural
world. Their Church’s liturgy will be
enriched.
The Revd Adam Ford is a former
Chaplain of St Paul’s School for
Girls.
books
THe DeAN AND CHApTeR oF WiNCHeSTeR CATHeDRAL (ASSiGNeD BY RoGeR RoSeWeLL)
new titles just
published
The First Thousand Years:
A global history of Christianity by Robert Louis Wilken
(Yale, £25 (£22.50); 9780300
118841).
Making All things Well:
Finding spiritual strength
with Julian of Norwich by
isobel De Gruchy (Canterbury
press, £9.99 (£9); 978184825
2400).
Lost Church: Why we must
find it again by Alan Billings
(SpCK, £12.99 (£11.70); 9780
281070190).
The Shape of Living by David
F. Ford (SCM press, £9.99 (£9);
9781848252479).
A New Kind of Christian by
Brian D. McLaren (SpCK, £12.99
(£11.70); 9780281069903).
Selected by Frank Nugent, of the Church
House Bookshop, which operates the
Church Times Bookshop.
Lifelike: detail of a Benedictine
monk on the tomb of Bishop
William Wykeham in Winchester
Cathedral, from Roger Rosewell’s
beautifully illustrated short guide
The Medieval Monastery (Shire
publications, £6.99 (£6.30); 9780
747811466)
The ThreeinOne
John Binns welcomes
a belated Englishing
On the Trinity
Richard of St Victor
with introduction by Ruben
Angelici, translator
James Clarke £19.50
(9780227679975)
the thinking and culture of a differ
ent age.
RICHARD was born in Scotland,
and became a monk at the Abbey of
St Victor on the banks of the Seine
around 1125. He was later elected
prior, and wrote on spirituality as
well as doctrine. He is convinced
that faith reveals truth, which can be
entered into through rational
thought, which leads into an ever
deeper relationship with God
through prayer.
Here his subject is the central
doctrine of the Church, the Holy
Trinity. He divides his material into
six books, each with 25 chapters.
These explain the unity of God; the
various characteristics or attributes
of God; the love of God; the persons
of the Trinity; the relationships
between them; and why they are
given the names Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
Aware that the language and
thought on this profound mystery
may be sometimes hard to follow,
Richard provides a synopsis of his
argument at the start of each of the
six books, and the translator adds a
clear and helpful introduction. This
opens up the book, which might
otherwise be obscure.
Unlike our own age, when
writing on the Holy Trinity seeks
to show how God can be engaged
in a violent and divided world,
Richard’s was a confident century
with economic growth, new theo
logical schools, and increased
availability of philosophical and
theological texts. His writing is
assured as he sets out an ambitious
and systematic statement of why
we affirm the nature of God as
Trinity.
The work was much read in suc
ceeding centuries, but has
gradually become less prominent.
Scholars of the period will be
grateful for the first English
translation of this important work,
while those less familiar with it will
find that it helps them to enter into
The Revd Dr John Binns is the
Vicar of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge,
and an Honorary Canon of Ely
Cathedral.
good news
in front of more than 200,000 Anglicans —
‘the people in the pews’
The Sign (incorporating Home
Words
Words) brings you sixteen A5 pages
or eight A4equivalent every month.
Where else could you get this
amount of properly researched,
wellwritten material to add to your
parish magazine each time?
ailable
lways av
PLES asers and
M
A
S
E
ti
er
FRE
ntial adv
nt to use
for pote who might wa magazines.
s
n
e
h
w
is
o
ir
par
ts in the
the inse
And at such little cost?
The Sign costs less than 10p a copy.
You would be hardpressed to
photocopy as many pages from any
other source for that money.
For a free sample pack, contact us.
With a small change in design, The Sign now incorporates Home Words.
Together our single new inset continues to help parishes to improve the
look and content of their own local magazines. The inset is available in
trimmed and untrimmed form, with a colour cover or without, folded
or unfolded. The options are all designed to make the job of parish
newsletter editor that much easier.
ADVERTISING
To help keep costs low, the inset takes a limited amount of national
advertising — which varies from advertisements by the larger Christian
charities through to those from individuals. You can advertise a holiday
letting or make a charity appeal — anything that is relevant to the church
going public.
Want to know more? Simply make contact:
Stephen Dutton, The Sign, c/o Church Times, 3rd floor, invicta House
108114 Golden Lane, London eC1Y 0TG
Tel: 020 7776 1011
Fax 020 7776 1017 email: [email protected]
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In the shadow
of the G.O.M.
Michael Wheeler on
the put-up parsonson of Gladstone
The Prime Minister’s Son:
Stephen Gladstone, Rector of
Hawarden
Ros Aitken
university of Chester £14.99
(9781908258014)
THE architect of St Deiniol’s (now
Gladstone’s) Library, John Douglas,
built a chapel on the north side of
the chancel of Hawarden Church in
1906. This was to accommodate the
extraordinary monument to W. E.
Gladstone, the Grand Old Man
of British politics, and his wife,
Catherine. Three years in the
making, Sir William Richmond’s
sculpture of the couple lying in the
Boat of Life is too large for its
allotted space, forcing the visitor to
squeeze awkwardly around it — a fit
symbol for the parental cramping of
a tender son, which is the central
theme of this book.
Even though Stephen Gladstone
had resigned the living of Hawarden
three years earlier, it seems extra
ordinary that his siblings and
brotherinlaw did not consult him
about the scheme, after more than
three decades of devoted service. But
then Stephen’s diffidence provides
the base of Ros Aitken’s narrative.
Handicapped by poor eyesight
and a sense of inadequacy as the
second son, and later the heir to the
great statesman and intellectual
who presided at Hawarden Castle,
Stephen nevertheless managed, by
sheer hard work, to survive a ghastly
prep school, followed by Eton and
Christ Church, finally gaining his
father’s respect when he was
ordained and served as curate in a
mixed parish in Lambeth.
When the valuable living of
Hawarden suddenly fell vacant (his
clerical uncle, Henry, was struck by
lightning), it was inevitable that the
mantle would fall on Stephen, in
experienced and nervous though he
was when confronted with the
prospect of a large and expanding
parish at the age of only 28. His
father showed laudable paternal
interest in all that he did.
Unfortunately, he also interfered,
particularly during parliamentary
recesses and when in opposition.
Rattling around in the large rectory
at Hawarden, close to the church
and only a brisk walk from the
castellated parental home, Stephen
struggled to gain the approval of
both parishioners and family. In the
end, he largely succeeded, very much
against the odds, and marriage
brought happiness and a fulfilling
family life, in which he himself was
now paterfamilias.
The Prime Minister’s Son is
written in an informal style, and tells
an engaging story with a special
appeal to the hardpressed parish
priest, or longsuffering clergy
spouse. More valuable for its bio
graphical insights and discoveries
about life in a Victorian parish than
for its forays into wider ecclesiastical
history, the book is the work of a
former teacher whose father at
tended the training college that is
now the University of Chester, in the
1930s. Today, Aitken revels in the
glories of Gladstone’s Library, and
often contributes to the annual
seminar known as the Gladstone
Umbrella.
Professor Wheeler’s most recent book
is St John and the Victorians (Cam
bridge University Press, 2011).
books
Australian liberties
Don Manley finds
himself stigmatised
a ‘classics master’
Puzzled: Secrets and clues from
a life in words
David Astle
profile Books £14.99
(9781846685422)
WHEN I first read Notes From A
Small Island by Bill Bryson, I was
tempted to think “Blooming cheek!
We know our country better than
he does, and here is he purporting
to lecture us!” The same temptation
came to me when I picked up this
volume by an Australian, who is
clearly big news in his own country
as a crosswordsetter and TV
personality on the equivalent of our
Countdown.
Anyone who writes a book
about crosswords may wish to
include three text elements: a
survey of clue types, an overview
of the crossword world, and some
personal anecdotes. David Astle has
organised his chapters according
to one element (the main types of
clue), and padded them out with
the other two. His own history will
be of more interest to his fans down
under, I guess, but his musings
on crossword culture are quite
illuminating, and he reminds us of
some of our favourite stories, such
as the one centred around the code
words for the DDay landings.
Each clue type is explained using
a host of examples, including many
from his favourite Guardian setters.
Readers can also test their expertise
with sample crosswords and
“quizlings”, backed up by solutions
and explanations.
There is one telling error, where
the author claims that Colin Dexter
was a keen entrant in The Listener’s
cluewriting competitions. Had he
been more aware of the tradition of
Poet of Blitz and Home Front
This study assists the
debate on war poetry
from 1939 to 1945,
says Martyn Halsall
The Unassuming Sky: The life and
poetry of Timothy Corsellis
Helen Goethals
Cambridge Scholars publishing
£39.99
(9781443839754)
Church Times Bookshop £36
THIS first comprehensive study of a
poet who died aged 20 in 1941 raises
again the comparative status of “war
poetry” emerging from the 20th
century’s two global conflicts. From
191418 we remember essentially the
trench poets. Almost 70 years after
the end of the Second World War,
its lower poetic profile demands
discussion.
Helen Goethals responds through
her study of Timothy Corsellis, pilot
and paradox. Although remembered
as a war poet, he died a civilian, in
an accident, when completing an
aircraft delivery from Luton to
Carlisle.
His military war ended when he
received an honourable discharge
from the RAF for declining bomber
training. His front line was domestic,
though harrowing — serving as an
airraid warden and rescue worker
in London during the Blitz. His
resulting poetry is equally “Home
Front”, more concerned about his
emotional reactions to the state of
war than the reportage of personal
experience.
His life was overshadowed by war
and aircraft. His father lost a forearm
at Gallipoli, later becoming a suc
cessful barrister and flying himself
to court from country homes in
Suffolk. He died in a flying accident
in 1930, but family connections took
Timothy to Winchester, where his
first poems were published.
The young writer read voraciously.
Jung and Russell challenged his
school’s “Christian ethos”; Eliot and
Auden broadened his poetry. Foun
dations for the philosophical and
political tones in his later work were
laid here. By the time he left Win
chester to begin legal training, he
was agnostic: “However I’ll never be
an atheist; no one who thinks ever
has.”
His early poetry was intellectually
and structurally ambitious, reflecting
the chill in the “long afternoon”
between the wars, through poverty
and unemployment, rearmament,
and the Nazis’ persecution of the
Jews. He retained an interest in
Christian idealism, expressed
through federalism, in poems that
appear prophetic. Dark prophecy
also haunts his final poems, which
are much preoccupied with death.
The last, and 100th poem included
here, is “Engine Failure”.
Goethals necessarily records a
life and work in progress, and her
thorough investigation provides a
witness statement in that debate
about the comparative poetry of the
world wars. Robert Graves, she
argues, continues to “provide the
general bedrock” for the superi
ority of the trench poets. Ap
parently ignoring Corsellis, his
judgement was particularly
sweeping. “It should be added”, he
wrote in 1949, “that no war poetry
can be expected from the Royal Air
Force.”
Dr Martyn Halsall is Poetin
Residence at Carlisle Cathedral,
and poetry editor of Third Way
magazine.
Ximenes and Azed, he would have
known that those competitions are
in The Observer.
And here we come to a sticky
matter. Strict(ish) grammarians
(such as myself) who write clues
following the tradition of Ximenes
are adjudged to be “much like the
classics master who demands a
clinical translation of Virgil”, while
others with a more “libertarian”
approach are “splashing colour
on the canvas to mirror the galaxy
that Virgil wrote about”. I am afraid
that this is poppycock, and I am
sorry to say that among a number
of the author’s good, sound clues
(with “colour”) there are rather
too many poor “libertarian” ones,
including some that that are
“monochrome” and make little real
sense.
Such a flaw makes this beguiling
tome dangerous for any wouldbe
Church Times setter. That is a great
pity in a chatty book that otherwise
offers much to enjoy.
Don Manley contributes crosswords
to several newspapers, and is the
crossword editor of the Church
Times.
Ap
Religious
preoccupations:
Bob Dylan
performs during
his Rolling
Thunder tour,
in 1976
A sermon he gave
You won’t find Bob
Dylan’s gospel here,
says Stephen Tomkins
The Gospel According to Bob
Dylan: The old, old story for
modern times
Michael J. Gilmour
Westminster John Knox £10.99
(9780664232078)
BOB DYLAN was one of the most
important artists of the 20th century,
and the man who showed how rock
’n’ roll could be a serious artform.
Religious issues have been one of his
most lasting concerns, and, over his
50year career, he has approached
them in all kinds of ways.
As a folk singer in the early 1960s,
he drew on biblical imagery and
gospelmusic traditions to support
the civilrights movement, while also
criticising Christian attitudes to war.
On “going electric”, his absurdist
mindscapes were peopled with
biblical characters from Cain and
Abel to the Good Samaritan, along
side the likes of Cinderella and
Romeo. He notoriously took on the
story of the sacrifice of Isaac; and
“Tombstone Blues”, in which he
sends Samson to Vietnam and makes
John the Baptist an American
torturer, is a nightmare vision of a
world ruled by respectability, reli
gion, and violence.
After this, Dylan’s songs increas
ingly explored spiritual themes of
redemption, leading to his infamous
Evangelical conversion in 1978. Now
his songs brandished a vengeful
Christ at a world that disgusted him;
but they also included gentler
religious themes, which increasingly
included the cracks in the spiritual
life. Since then, far from abandoning
his faith, he has offered in his songs
a rich, mature spiritual vision of a
world woven from the threads of
faith, love, and violence.
Clearly, then, there is a great deal
to be said about “the gospel ac
cording to Bob Dylan”; but I am
afraid my main impression after
reading this book is that there is still
a great deal to be said on the subject.
One must, I suppose, beware of
criticising a book on the basis that it
is not the book one wanted to read;
and this book, by an Associate
Professor of New Testament and
English Literature, is perhaps written
within a discipline that means little
to me. The subject, however, means
a great deal to me, and I was con
stantly frustrated by how little it was
elucidated here.
Gilmour offers a long justification
for analysing Dylan as a religious
writer. He draws parallels with the
approaches of other artists, quotes
sources, and lists possible biblical
allusions in Dylan’s vocabulary.
There is an interesting section on
how the last album before his
conversion anticipated what was
coming, but, on the whole, the
book feels like a leisurely stroll
around the subject while making
strangely little contact with it. The
Gospel According to Bob Dylan re
mains to be written.
Stephen Tomkins is deputy editor of
Third Way magazine.
51
arts
I whistle a happy tune
pHoToS CoLLeGiuM
Roderic Dunnett
meets the
composer and
choral maestro,
John Rutter
JOHN RUTTER is one of the most
successful composers of sacred choral
music this country has ever known.
His name is almost synomous with
the genre in its contemporary form.
He is well known for singable
settings of the Gloria and Magnificat,
and for his Requiem, and Mass of the
Children (which he conducted last
month, in Carnegie Hall, New York).
And, of course, he composed “This is
the Day”, the anthem for the wed
ding of the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge.
But he is best known for his
Christmas carols, and carol arrange
ments — 100 or more at the last
count. These include: “Donkey
Carol”, “Carol of the Magi”, “Mary’s
Lullaby”, and “The Colours of
Christmas”.
“For the infectiousness of his
melodic invention and consummate
craftmanship, Rutter has few peers,”
the London Evening Standard wrote
recently. But, for all this, I found him
modest, even shy.
“In a sense, I’m a writer of song,
or song music, even before I’m a
composer,” Rutter says. “I love
writing tunes — not all, but much of,
the time. Atonality [music without a
key, often dissonant] is something
we all had a go at in the 1960s and
’70s.
“You can’t bury your head in the
sand: this is music that matters.
Webern and his musical complexity
were, in part at least, the product of
the vexed social conditions of
AustroGermany in the 1910s, ’20s,
and ’30s, and it’s important to
remember that. I take my hat off to
the explorers who’ve stuck with it —
composers who are discovering new
worlds, and voyaging through realms
of uncharted territory.”
He says that he has kept in touch
with “the cutting edge of music —
Bartók, Berio, works like Stock
hausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge, Berio,
some of Penderecki”. And he caught
the recent Pierre Boulez concert at
the Royal Festival Hall. “Boulez’s
music is lovely, delicate, exquisite —
much more in touch with Debussy
and Ravel than I’d realised,” he says.
“But that’s just not what I’m good
at. You have to be happy with the
gifts you’ve been given — not chase
after ones you haven’t been given.
Exploring the darker realms of music
is not me. I like to cheer people up.”
‘As boys, John
Tavener and I
were always
asking
questions —
buttonholing
percussionists
or doublebassoonists’
THE other significant work that
Rutter introduced his Carnegie Hall
audience to was Ralph Vaughan
Williams’s “Hodie” (from A Christ
mas Cantata), composed in 195354.
“It’s an extraordinary piece,” he says.
“Vaughan Williams was 81 when he
wrote it, and by that time he felt free
just to write whatever he wanted to
write. The music is often beautiful,
touching, evocative; but his ‘March of
the Three Kings’ is quite dotty and
odd: bold, wacky, and wonderful.”
Rutter’s enthusiasm is infectious.
It is visible at the countless choral
singing events he runs, on both sides
of the Atlantic, in which he conducts.
He is an educator par excellence; and
52
a vitaliser and galvaniser of others.
“It was about 20 years ago that I
started doing ‘Come and Sing’ days.
The idea is that absolutely anyone is
welcome. There’s no kind of audi
tion, or selection process. We simply
do a day’s singing together, and strive
to perform better by the end of the
day than we did at the start. I find
that work really satisfying. It com
plements the sessions I have with
professionals.”
His inspiration for this was Sir
David Willcocks, then Director of
Music at King’s College, Cambridge.
“At the same time as he was insisting
on perfection from his boys and men
of King’s College, Cambridge, choir,
achieving standards virtually no one
Tuning in: left: John
Rutter thrives on
leading “Come and
Sing Days” for choral
enthusiasts; below: at
home, with one of his
four cats
else could touch, David would do a
singing session for amateurs in, say,
Nether Wallop. Groups or choirs
would approach and ask him, and, if
he had a free day in his diary, he
would invariably say yes.”
Rutter was assisting Willcocks at
the time, collaborating on the early
stages of their series Carols for
Choirs. “I was always slightly
surprised, and fascinated, to see this
side of him,” he says. “He simply
didn’t mind if he was working with
limited or amateur resources. David
was, and still is, wonderfully open to
all kinds of music. On occasions, we
would round off concerts with
‘Walking in the Air’, from Howard
Blake’s The Snowman. Brilliant!
“David was my mentor, and I’ve
tried, so far as I can, to follow in his
footsteps, although nobody can hold
a candle to him. I absolutely don’t
mind, at a “Come and Sing” day, or
perhaps a charity event, if it’s not
noteperfect or perfectly tuned, or
even not a good performance at the
end of the day, so long as the
participants go away feeling that they
have done a bit better than they
previously believed they could.”
RUTTER and his wife, JoAnne, live
just outside Cambridge, in a village
he describes as “the Bournemouth of
the Fens”. But his enthusiasm for
these events means that, often, “I find
myself jumping in the car on
Saturdays, and heading to Scar
borough, or Shrewsbury, or the
Temple Church in London, or some
of the lovely churches of North
amptonshire. I do a dozen ‘Come
and Sing’ days each year; so over two
decades that amounts to quite a lot.”
Rutter thrives on the human ex
change that these sessions engender.
“On occasion, somebody will come
up afterwards and say: ‘That was the
best experience I’ve had for ages.’ So
the return is that they make me feel a
whole heap better, too. They go back
to their little church choir hopefully
recharged, and I go home to Cam
bridge, recharged as well.”
A significant breakthrough, he
says, “was getting my publishers on
board. They initially needed some
convincing. But I told them this was
a service to the community, and
making what they publish more or
less freely available for events such as
these would bring benefits in the long
run. OUP’s support and cooperation
— their foresightedness — has con
tributed hugely to the success of
these gatherings.”
RUTTER caught the music bug,
thanks to the inspiration of others,
initially at Highgate Junior School:
“We were directed by Martindale
Sidwell, a wonderful man and excel
lent musician who was organist of
Hampstead Parish Church. He was
peppery and difficult, but basically a
warmhearted man, who taught us an
immense amount.
“Our Director of Music at High
gate [Senior] School was Edward
Chapman, who had been taught by
Charles Wood and examined by
Stanford. He was a conservative
composer, but a very fine craftsman,
and was incredibly encouraging and
supportive.
“Under him, we sang a slightly
scaleddown version of cathedral
repertoire in Highgate’s Victorian
redbrick school chapel. That meant
Sunday services as well, because
pupils were mostly boarders then
[though he was not]. . .
“We sang Tallis and Byrd, plain
song, Wesley, Stanford, and so on —
in fact, a wide range of music. Minor
publicschool chapels weren’t, by and
large, doing that kind of stuff in those
days. I was introduced to a wide
repertoire, firsthand, in my teens,
and I’ve always been grateful for that.
“Being a day boy living in London
also meant that I could haunt the
cheaper seats at Covent Garden and
the Royal Festival Hall. John Tavener
[Rutter’s friend from Highgate] and I
were always asking questions —
buttonholing the percussionist or
doublebassoonist and demanding to
know how everything works.”
From the beginning, he was cap
tured by melody. “I’ve always en
joyed music with a tune you could
whistle. In the ’60s, the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones meant a great deal
to me, and they both had that gift.”
Who has it now? “Today, I think
of wonderfully versatile composers
like Richard Rodney Bennett — a
throughandthrough classical musi
cian who can produce a fullblooded
percussion concerto, but then turn
his hand to compose gloriously tune
ful, memorable film music, knock off
a song for Cleo Laine, accompany
with aplomb a complete evening of
cabaret, and then pen a series of
enchanting choral gems for groups
like the King’s Singers.”
He is often asked where he gets his
ideas from. “The honest answer is: I
don’t know. Where the music comes
from is a mystery. I’m sure many
other composers would say the same.
The truth is, you have to hack away
determinedly, a bit like a sculptor
chiselling his stone. Hopefully, it
comes in the end.
“Julian Lloyd Webber has been
asking me for about 12 years for a
cello concerto — and he’s still wait
ing.”
This is the Day by John Rutter’s
ensemble, the Cambridge Singers, is
available on his own Collegium label:
www.collegium.co.uk.
arts
Illuminating Christmas with the friars
© THe FiTZWiLLiAM MuSeuM, CAMBRiDGe
Pamela Tudor-Craig, with
Nicholas Rogers, reflects on
the context of an image
of the Holy Family
TWICE in my life, I have seen the herding of
sheep. The first time was on the hills around
the Sea of Galilee in 1982. The little flock that
tumbled down a track was scraggy and
assorted, goats as well as sheep. The shepherd
stopped them while he tried to persuade us to
taste their milk.
The second time, a small flock was hurrying
through an orchard on the slope between
Assisi and San Damiano, bunched and hassled
along by a bossy sheepdog. On both occasions,
it seemed that we had taken a tuck in the web
of sequence, that it could have been AD 30 or
1210.
That telescoping of the years between the
life of Christ on this earth and their present
time was a constant aspect of the preaching of
the Friars as they brought alive the Gospels,
not in monastic enclosures but in the univer
sities, the marketplace, and the home. For the
first time, in the 1220s, the stories were
recounted all over Europe and into the Near
East in the vernacular, for everyone, not just
the privileged, to savour and understand.
The Dominicans have always been
associated with preaching among the learned,
and the Franciscans among the simple. St
Francis had excluded books in his prescrip
tion of holy poverty. But the distinction is too
abrupt. It was St Anthony of Padua who
immediately persuaded Francis to relax that
stipulation; so there was always a strong
Franciscan presence, as well as Dominican, in
the universities and in the great houses.
St Anthony of Padua, nevertheless, found
that the Infant Christ distracted him from his
studies by sitting on his book, and so he is
always represented. Admittedly, Albertus
Magnus, a giant among medieval botanists,
was a Dominican, but his precursor,
Bartholomew the Englishman, whose De
Proprietatis Rerum, was finished only a few
years after Francis’s death, was a Franciscan.
Botany ought to have been a specifically
Franciscan discipline.
The impact of Franciscan preaching on
largely illiterate country people in the High
Middle Ages is manifest wherever you find
traces on the walls of village churches of
medieval paintings. Admittedly, the chancel
arch lays out the Doom where none can avoid
it. Otherwise, setting aside the narratives of
popular saints depicted in favourite corners,
the staple subjects are the infancy and Passion
of Christ. Up and down the country, from
West Chiltington in Sussex through
Ashampstead in Berkshire to Corby Glen
in Lincolnshire, an angel greets the shepherds,
and does so expansively.
At West Chiltington, such is their import
ance that each of the three shepherds has his
own angel. To appreciate the immediacy with
which this homely scene has been endowed,
we have to go forward another halfcentury or
so to the Mystery plays where they find voice,
at its loudest in the Wakefield cycle.
At Corby Glen Church, the more decorous
Magi wind their way along the nave north
wall to the crib, while the shepherds opposite
bring their sheep and a dog with them, all as
large as life, as they stride the length of the
nave to Herod — who would not have been
pleased to see them. (A muddle there, rare in
medieval iconography.)
The village of Corby Glen is next to
Irnham, where they still celebrate the Luttrell
family and their patronage of the famous
Luttrell Psalter. The Dominicans often found
themselves as confessors in large households,
and a Dominican friar, a family relative,
shares the Luttrell feast in the margin of the
psalm referring to feasting in that manuscript.
Part of the Dominican mission was to instil
education into families. The menfolk were
usually too occupied with killing things, but
the ladies and their children were at leisure to
be beguiled into learning.
Helpful spouse: the Blessed Virgin Mary reads in bed, as St Joseph nurses the Christchild in
Horae, French, Fitzwilliam MS 69 folio 48r, The Nativity
The wonderful scenes of country life that
make the Luttrell Psalter so popular today are
accompanied by the most outrageous gro
tesques ever associated with a book of prayer,
(rivalled only by that superficially demure
little manuscript the Macclesfield Psalter,
discovered in time for the great “Cambridge
Illuminations” exhibition of 2005).
The only possible excuse for some of these
margins is their potential appeal to the adoles
cent boys whom the Friars were anxious to
persuade to study. The Friars had been associ
ated with lavishly illustrated manuscripts to
tempt a secular, often regal, audience since the
glorious illustrated Apocalypses of the mid
13th century onwards, the Alphonso Psalter
of 1284, and the Holkham Bible Picture Book
of c.1300.
In the second half of the 14th century, a
group of artists, one of them John de Teye, an
Augustinian Friar (so, like the Franciscans
and Dominicans, free to live outside the
cloister), illuminated very lively manuscripts
for the de Bohun family, working from the de
Bohun castle at Pleshey in Essex.
If the Franciscans were behind the rustic
procession to the crib in the nave of Corby
Glen, the Dominican touch may be recognised
in the north aisle, where among popular devo
tional images the special subject of St Anne
teaching the Virgin to read was rediscovered a
few decades ago.
This picture was especially dear to the
Dominicans, for obvious reasons. Most late
medieval pictures of the annunciation show
the Virgin interrupted as she reads her Office.
If she and her cousin Elizabeth could not read,
how did they know the Song of Hannah? So
the part played by Mary’s mother, St Anne, is
marked: she must have taught Mary to read.
The source of this expansion of the Gospel
accounts was The Golden Legend, the great
work of Jacobus de Voragine, the Dominican
Archbishop of Genoa who died in 1292. That
The Golden Legend, and especially St Anne as
the rolemodel for all families educating their
children, was immediately dear to the
Dominicans in this country is witnessed by
the survival of 15 paintings of Anne teaching
the child Mary to read in English churches.
Croughton in Northamptonshire, c.1310, is
probably the earliest to survive, though Corby
Glen is not much later. It is again one of the
subjects on the frontal in the Cluny Museum
in Paris, belonging to the same Dominican
altarpiece as the Thornham Parva Retable,
both of them having been painted in c.1330
for a Dominican friary in East Anglia.
SO WE are equipped for the shock of this
year’s miniature of the nativity in Fitzwilliam
MS 69. Nicholas Rogers, an authority on this
genre of illuminated manuscript, kindly visited
the Fitzwilliam, and contributes his analysis of
the manuscript and its implications:
“Once one has got over the initial shock of
the 18thcentury French harlequin binding, a
jazzy composition of coloured lozenges that
look more 1930s than 1730s, MS 69 in the
Fitzwilliam Museum seems to be an ordinary
French Book of Hours of the mid15th
century, illuminated by a provincial artist
who, to be honest, is not very good, although
aspects of his style suggest an acquaintance
with the work of the Rohan Master, the most
individual French illuminator of the early
15th century.
“The contents are unexceptional: a calendar
in French, the beginning of St John’s Gospel,
the Hours of the Virgin, penitential psalms,
litany, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy
Spirit, and eucharistic and Marian devotions.
The illustrations are conventional in appear
ance, but the depiction of the nativity presents
a novel reworking of a familiar theme. All the
usual elements are there — Mary, Jesus,
Joseph, ox and ass — but it is Joseph, seated
humbly on the ground, who nurses the Christ
Child, while the Virgin, in a golden kirtle and
white headdress, sits up in bed reading. Mary
and Joseph are linked compositionally by the
ox and ass, which are penned in by a wattle
fence. The ass appears to be nibbling at St
Joseph’s halo.
“Joseph first appears in nativity scenes in
the fifth century. He is depicted as a seated,
contemplative figure. Sometimes he seems to
be asleep, reminding us of the important role
of dreams in guiding Joseph. This mode of
representation remained standard in the East.
In the West it was not until the 13th century
that Joseph is seen taking a more active role in
the nativity. In a fragment of the destroyed
13thcentury roodscreen at Chartres
Cathedral, Mary, resting in bed, touches the
swaddled Child in the manger as a solicitous
Joseph offers a cloth.
“In 14th and 15thcentury Netherlandish
and German art, Joseph is engaged in a variety
of tasks. He can be found warming swaddling
clothes, cooking food, or blowing a fire into
life. In the mid14thcentury Bohemian
Hohenfurth altar, he helps prepare the Child’s
bath. A particularly charming example is the
Netherlandish nativity of c.1400 in the
Museum Mayer van den Berg, Antwerp, part
of a portable altarpiece, which shows him
cutting up his hose to make swaddling bands
for the Child.
“In another depiction of this motif, Joseph
addresses the Virgin: ‘Mary, take my hose and
wind your dear babe in them.’ Such familiar
images of Joseph may derive from his depic
tion in Mystery plays. It is rare for Joseph to
be shown holding the Christchild. He does so
in the PetriAltar by Master Bertram, of
c.1379, now in the Hamburg Kunsthalle, but
there he is clearly handing the Child over to
his Mother. In Fitzwilliam 69, the emphasis is
more clearly on his role as fosterfather.
“This function is most commonly depicted
in late medieval German art. A woodcut of the
1470s shows Joseph leading the Christchild
by the hand, perhaps on the return from
Egypt. In an altarpiece by a follower of the
Lower Rhenish artist Hendrick Bogaert, Jesus
assists Joseph in the carpenter’s shop. Out of
elements of the iconography of the nativity
and the flight into Egypt, devotional images of
the Holy Family were created in the Low
Countries and Germany in the 15th century.
An early woodcut of the Holy Family in the
Albertina shows the enthroned, crowned
Virgin nursing the Child while St Joseph
cooks a meal.
“In Joos van Cleve’s Holy Family in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Joseph is depicted as an old man, with missing
teeth and a stubby beard, holding a pair of
spectacles. This is an extreme example of the
standard medieval portrayal of him as a
patriarchal, greybearded figure. The theo
logian Jean Gerson, the chief promoter of the
cult of St Joseph in 15thcentury France,
objected to the depiction of the saint as a
decayed old man, arguing that the Virgin
would have required the support of someone
in full vigour, especially during the Flight into
Egypt. However, the representation of Joseph
as a greybeard remained standard until the
17th century.
“The Blessed Virgin Mary is most
commonly associated with a book in the
context of the annunciation, reading the word
at the moment when the Word became
incarnate. Sometimes, the book is inscribed
with the words of her response to the angelic
greeting. The book she reads in the Fitz
william nativity is meant to remind us of that
event, just as the book which St Anne uses to
teach the Virgin foreshadows the annuncia
tion. The Virgin’s book also provides a point
of contact with the user of the Book of Hours,
who is thereby encouraged to cultivate a
spiritual union with Mary in her devotional
Continued overleaf
53
arts
Artist taken to
Rome’s bosom
Nicholas Cranfield
reviews a southerly
Vermeer exhibition
THE reputation of the Delftborn
artist Johannes Vermeer (163275)
is now such that the inclusion of his
name in the title of any exhibition is
clearly intended to draw the crowds.
From relative obscurity in the 19th
century, his stock has gradually
risen, partly because of the paucity
of his known works. With no more
than 34 surviving paintings securely
identified as his, the catalogue of
this show in Rome makes a virtue of
reproducing all of them as a selling
exercise.
It is perhaps, therefore, less sur
prising that the show currently on
the Quirinal Hill can claim to be the
first to showcase the artist in Italy.
The exhibition is left in the capable
hands of Arthur Wheelock and
Walter Liedtke, who are both
known as the leading scholars in the
field within the United States.
Of the 57 paintings on show, only
seven are by the elusive Vermeer,
two of which are among the three
paintings disputed in his oeuvre. A
Young Woman Seated at the
Virginals has only recently begun to
find acceptance as an autograph
BARBARA piASeCKA JoHNSoN CoLLeCTioN FouNDATioN
work. It had been posthumously
repainted, but tests carried out in
2011 show that it was painted on a
similar panel to that of the Louvre’s
famed Lacemaker (1669/70). The
other is a signed copy of a Floren
tine devotional work.
The eighthcentury basilica of
Santa Prassede in Rome tradition
ally marks the burial spot of the
daughters of St Paul’s first convert
there, a senator named Pudens. The
church, enlarged by the great re
former and pioneering pontiff Pas
chal I, houses the relics of other
early saints and part of the column
to which Jesus was tied when he was
whipped in the Praetorium.
According to tradition, St
Praxedes sought to offer Christian
refugees a safe home during the
persecutions of the emperor Marcus
Antoninus. Her piety extended to
gathering their mortal remains, and,
in a Baroque painting by the Tuscan
Felice Ficherelli (16051669?), she is
depicted in the act of squeezing out
a sponge containing their blood into
an urn (private collection).
Ficherelli, who was born in San
Gimignano, was of a somewhat re
tiring disposition (his nickname is
“Il Riposo”), but his paintings have
a sexual charge that palpably sug
gests the inescapable interplay be
tween sexuality and religion, and
between eroticism and chastity.
Londoners who know only his
Illuminating
reading, linking her prayers with those of the
Virgin at the nativity.
“What do we know about the person for
whom this image of the nativity was created?
There is no coat of arms or inscription to
enable the first owner of Fitzwilliam 69 to be
identified, but there are several clues. De
Gaulle once complained about the difficulty of
governing a country that has 246 different
kinds of cheese. Many popes must have felt the
same when faced with the Gallican Church,
with its multiplicity of local liturgical Uses.
“Fitzwilliam 69 is of the Use of Besançon in
the FrancheComté, between Burgundy and
Switzerland. The calendar and litany are
peppered with obscure local saints: Ferreolus,
Ferrutio, Antidius, Nicetius, Prothadius. The
book was made for a lady who is depicted
kneeling in prayer before the Virgin and Child
The Rape of Lucretia (Wallace Col
lection), will recognise this feeling
all too well. On first visiting Savoie, I
was amazed that the gallery in
Chambéry displays his St Sebastian
without even a word of warning.
The Ficherelli canvas of St
Praxedes is here simply because
Vermeer, in one of his first known
works, seemingly imitated it slav
at the beginning of a French translation of the
prayer ‘Deprecor te domina’. Her rosemadder
gown with white turneddown collar and
green heartshaped horned headdress would
have been fashionable in the 1440s. It is pos
sible that the book was a wedding present. It
was customary in France well into the 20th
century for a bride to be given a Book of
Hours, or, later, a paroissien (a layfolk’s missal
with added devotions) on her wedding day.
Some 30 years later, either this owner or a
subsequent one had further Gospel readings
added at the end of the book. Thereafter, there
is no sign of usage until the book passed into
the collection of Richard, 7th Viscount Fitz
William.”
THERE was a Dominican presence in Besan
çon. (Where was there not?) A son of the city,
Stephen of Besançon, served briefly as Master
of the Order in 129294.
I am tempted to add just one more example
to Nicholas Rogers’s list of helpful St Josephs.
In the years 135063, the newly built private
chapel for Edward III and his Queen, Philippa,
Three into ONE
ishly; it has the same dimensions,
and the composition is identical, as
if it has been traced over. Vermeer’s
copy, which has been in the Barbara
Piasecka Johnson Collection since
1987, seems to be a pale repro
duction.
It may be that Vermeer, the
newly converted papist, painted it
only to satisfy his motherinlaw,
in Westminster Palace was painted with the
royal family coming in state to worship the
Holy Family, and with scenes of the Old and
New Testament. Only pathetic fragments of
the paintings survived the disastrous fire of
1834, and are now in the British Museum.
A few copies were made, however, when the
paintings were rediscovered behind panelling
in the first years of the 19th century. Among
these was a poor rendering of the annuncia
tion to the shepherds by J. T. Smith of 1804.
We must thank him, despite his inept
brush; for without him we would not have any
account of this bucolic scene — four shep
herds again, a sufficiency of sheep with a dog
— and then, above them all, the Virgin in bed
with a plainer red rug over her, ox and ass in
support, and Joseph helping to wind up the
baby in his swaddling cloth — a rolemodel
for the private devotions of one of our most
powerful kings and his family. The repres
entation in the Besançon hours of a century
later is luxurious in comparison.
To return to it: in the unprecedented
emergency in which they have found them
inspired by Ficherelli: St Praxedes,
1655, by Johannes Vermeer (1632
1675), on loan from the Barbara
piasecka Johnson Collection
Foundation
the redoubtable Maria Thins, after
his marriage to Catherina Bolnes
(1653). Calvinist Holland tolerated
Catholicism only if it was practised
privately, and Mrs Thins harboured
Jesuits; the Society of Jesus had a
strong attachment to celebrating
persecution, which may explain the
particular choice of an otherwise
seemingly obscure subject.
Whatever Vermeer’s own credal
persuasion (like threequarters of
the population, he had been Protest
ant until he married), religion rarely
informed his work, although he did
name his sons Francis and Ignatius.
He is not known to have painted
any altarpieces, and another early
work, Christ in the House of Mary
and Martha, in the National Gallery
in Edinburgh and not in this show,
is equally problematic.
The Metropolitan in New York
has loaned its painting Woman
Playing the Lute. Given how often
musical instruments, with the con
notations of love duets, feature in
Vermeer’s genre scenes, it is inter
esting to note that none was
recorded in the inventory taken at
the time of his death. Wheelock’s
own institution has sent the delight
ful Girl with a Red Hat (National
Gallery of Art, Washington DC),
a small work (22×18 cm) whose
attribution has sometimes been
questioned, although it is ubiquit
ous across the Eternal City on
posters.
Three of Vermeer’s paintings
Continued opposite
selves in this account of the scene in the stable
at Bethlehem, the ox and ass have come to a
mutual arrangement. They have split forces:
the ox keeps Mary warm, while the ass,
bending over Joseph, directs his breath, the
reassuring warm breath of stable and straw, on
to the Infant Christ (and, if he is tempted to
nibble Joseph’s halo at the same time, we are
not criticising).
In this version, the helpful way in which
Joseph is sharing the care of the Holy Infant
means that the exhausted mother has a small
space in her life to do something else. Let us
hope that the joyful bride who first received
this book found such a space. In the myriad
images of the nativity which have come our
way, neither Nicholas Rogers nor I have
seen elsewhere this endearing iconographic
touch.
Dr TudorCraig is an arthistorian. Nicholas
Rogers is the archivist of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge. The authors acknowledge the help
of Dr Nicholas Robinson of the Manuscript
Department of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
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54
arts
NATioNAL GALLeRY oF ART, WASHiNGToN, DC
“Delightful”: Girl
with a Red Hat,
166567, by
Johannes
Vermeer, on loan
from the National
Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC
(Andrew W.
Mellon
Collection)
Artist
depict a woman with a wineglass
with the subtext of a lover’s
encounter. That on show here is the
one from Braunschweig (the others
are in Berlin and New York). The
curiosity here is that, although there
are two cavaliers in the scene, one of
whom is paying court to the seated
girl, she alone can drink. The table
is stocked with a porcelain wine
flagon and white napery, while a
peeled lemon lies on a silver salver;
but there are no other stem glasses
for the gentlemen. A formal portrait
on the wall (the only decoration in
the room) is hardly glimpsed. Is it,
perhaps, her absent husband, or a
disapproving father?
The other cavalier is melancholy,
seated as if he is bored by waiting
for his friend to finish the business.
The likely subtext of the picture is
lightly airbrushed for an Italian
audience, where it is explained that
Petrarcan love, pure and unattain
able, is transformed from a quasi
neoplatonic ideal into a reality that
could be represented. In the stained
glass panel of the open window
stands the figure of Temperance,
but the woman turns aside to look
at us, as if to ignore her own safety.
A much less temperate society of
allday drinking emerges in the
Zurich painting Two soldiers and a
chambermaid, c.1655 (Pieter de
Hooch), and in Two Peasants Smok
ing and Drinking, painted in the
1640s by the Haarlemborn painter
Adriaen van Ostade, who had
studied with Frans Hals (Mont
pellier). Life was hard in Holland,
and the grit was real. The Dis
obedient Drummer (Madrid) by
Rembrandt’s pupil Nicolaes Maes
(163494), and Hendrick van der
Burch’s Woman with a Child Blow
ing Bubbles in the Garden (Zurich)
suggest simpler passions and pleas
ures.
The last painting in this ex
quisitely staged exhibition is, how
ever, The Allegory of the Catholic
Faith, from New York. A female
form, personifying the Roman
Catholic Church, in accordance
with the Iconologia published by
Cesare Ripa in 1603, stands in front
of a painting of the crucifixion by
Jacques Jordaens, next to a Flemish
tapestry of the later 1500s. Ripa
wrote of faith’s having the whole
world at its feet, and this gives the
clue to Vermeer’s including a Dutch
globe dating to 1618 in a com
position that also includes a Roman
Missal, a chalice, and a crown of
thorns, as well as an all too obvious
serpent.
Vermeer may not dominate the
exhibition, although it is impossible
to ignore the bravado and sheer
beauty of his 1658 Little Street,
which is the first work to be shown
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), and
which suggests a plausible link to
the writing of Alberti on per
spective.
From the Golden Age emerges a
veritable treasury of works, many
from private collections. Anthonie
de Lorme was born in Tournai, and
established himself as a Dutch
painter, predominantly of church
interiors in Rotterdam, where he
died in 1673, aged 63.
The Chapel in the Laurenskirk
with the Tomb of Admiral Witte de
Witt (1667) is a painting of great
social significance. St Laurence’s
Church (14491525) was the first
allstone building in Rotterdam. It
had been gutted in 1572 by the
Calvinists. De Lorme’s view shows
the south transept and the public
monument designed by the sculptor
Pieter van Rijck for Admiral de Witt
(15991658), who had been killed
fighting the Swedes at the siege of
Copenhagen.
At the time, the Swedes under
Charles X Gustav seized his body
and displayed it at Elsinore Castle as
a trophy of war, but it was later
returned to Holland and buried on
7 October 1659 in the Rotterdam
pantheon. De Lorme depicts a Hol
lander couple showing the monu
mental tomb to two Ottomans,
while a mendicant looks on, per
plexed and bemused. The dog that
urinates against the column in the
foreground is a harsh reminder of
the ritual laws of purity; the
Catholic church would have been
defiled by the presence of the
Turkish traders in the past, but the
Calvinist church knew no such
barriers.
It is somehow telling that it was
de Lorme’s paintings of this
church’s interiors which allowed it
to be rebuilt accurately (195268) in
the aftermath of the Rotterdam Blitz
of 14 May 1940, when it became a
national monument as, roofless, it
had defied the worst of the Luft
waffe’s aerial bombardments. In the
city of so many Baroque churches, it
is faintly unnerving to contemplate
the progress of the Reformation and
the power of Calvinism.
“Vermeer: The Golden Age of Dutch
Painting” is in the Scuderie del
Quirinale, Via XXIV Maggio 16,
Rome, Italy, until 20 January 2013.
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesdays
to
Sundays
(and
additionally 24 and 31 December to
3 p.m.), and late opening Friday and
Saturdays to 10.30 p.m. Phone 00 39
06 39967500.
http://english.scuderiequirinale.it
Winchester royal tribute
Roderic Dunnett hears
a new composition for
‘the sweetest Queen’
LOYAL to the Saxon crown two
centuries before King Alfred, and in
thrall to Celts and Romans from
150 BC, Winchester and its cath
edral bade farewell to Queen’s
Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee with
a gargantuan choral jamboree,
gathering in young and old. By way
of a preface, the opening stages in
cluded a series of engaging items,
including the portentous, Copland
inspired (marginally tonguein
cheek) brass Fanfare for an Un
common Woman by an American
composer, Joan Tower (b. 1938),
and a very simple, lucid Beatitudes,
set by Peter Amidon and warmly
sung by Winchester Community
Choir. This followed a striking
1960s setting, Psalm 150, by Diana
Owen, cheered by almost Monte
verdian trumpets, and some vibrant
vocal runs that drew notably good
singing from the girls. This at
tractive work is worth the attention
of today’s cathedral and abbey
choirs.
Next, a beautifully shaded, flow
ing performance of the Concert
THE genre of pop cantatas on a
religious subject began with Herbert
Chappell’s The Daniel Jazz (1963),
which launched a series of Old
Testament followons: the Goliath
Jazz, Holy Moses, the Creation Jazz;
and the most famous, Joseph and his
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by
Andrew Lloyd Webber, writes
Roderic Dunnett.
Some of the catchiest, sacred and
secular alike, were composed by the
late Michael Hurd (19282006), who
excelled at composing clever,
manageable, but challenging scores
for energetic children’s choirs.
JonahMan Jazz and Swingin’
Samson have recently been revived
on disc (Naxos) by the New London
Children’s Choir, directed by
Ronald Corp. AdaminEden and
King and Conscience (about St
Thomas Becket), witty and serious
alike, are other prime examples.
One of the UK’s most
accomplished youthopera groups,
Jubilee Opera, based in Benjamin
Britten’s home town of Aldeburgh,
has just staged HipHip Horatio
(1975), Hurd’s spoof on the life of
Étude Automne by Cécile Cham
inade (18571944), a superior salon
piece in which Diana Owen, now at
the keyboard, displayed an accom
plishment akin to Rachmaninov: it
was the first half’s certain highlight.
But the event of almost Han
overian splendour was the second
half première of Jubilee Wisdom, a
new choral work by June Boyce
Tillman, celebrating the Queen, and
dedicated to the Lord Lieutenant of
Hampshire and Chancellor of Win
chester University, Dame Mary
Fagan.
From its haunting opening with
solo trumpet and horn (I recall
Howard Blake’s use of viola in
similar circumstances; a yearning
viola would likewise emerge here,
midway), this proved a work of
joyous, vigorous impact: energetic,
forceful, and varied.
It falls harmonically into a genre
spanning, say, John Ireland and
Vaughan Williams, but reaching
beyond these. The solo work — a
soprano early on, prominent flute,
refined offerings from the Southern
Sinfonia’s leader, many brilliantly
judged, sly, subliminal, and subtle
touches, utilising numerous pieces
of percussion — as well as the
orchestra’s ensemble playing —
lifted the work on to a high level.
Of course, the choir mattered
most. The text, often a drawback in
such events, seemed buoyant and
alive, not too cloying. The children
are required to sing almost micro
tonally to produce a soughing,
grieving effect (“Hold the green”;
latterly “Walk the way”). The text,
indeed, engages with a “green”
theme, being a chant deeprooted in
the medieval, but with ozone
getting a peepin.
The ensuing adult procession
was haunting, and the sonorities
picked up by the cathedral really
worked: shades of Vaughan
Williams’s Tallis Fantasia, or Old
Hundredth. Percussive bursts —
side drum, gongs, shakers — en
livened the young children’s
column, striding the endless way
from West End to the crossing. The
folk violin that followed in the
section infused by morris dance was
inspired. Cecil Sharp would have
been pleased.
The gleeful finale, orchestrated
with outrageous bombast, was a
musical treat, but the more so for
what built up to it: a setting of the
Dickie Valentine song In a Golden
Coach which gave this cheerful
event its title (“In a golden coach,
there’s a heart of gold Driving
through old London town . . .”).
Originally recorded by Billy Cotton
and his orchestra, it came third in
the hit parade in Coronation year,
1953. BoyceTillman’s resplendent
adaptation, bells and all, swept over
us like a Dam Busters’ flypast.
Cantata into opera
Admiral Lord Nelson, written for
the Southend Boys’ Choir, who also
recorded it and several of the works
above (now reissued on Vista).
What is not fully realised is how
brilliantly these cheerfully irreverent
works translate to the stage, given
(as here) a suitably precocious cast,
and captivating design and
costumes. An intelligent
orchestration for small forces,
though not strictly necessary, is
preferable. Here, one was supplied
by Jubilee’s conductor, Timothy
Henty, who with five players elicited
subtle combinations worthy of a full
orchestra.
In the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh,
where Britten operas were first
staged, the cast responded
accordingly. The singing, from boys
and girls, mostly drawn from three
local primary schools, was
exemplary. So was the acting: from
MMA, NeW YoRK © ART ReSouRCe/SCALA, FiReNZe
The world at the feet
of the faith: Johannes
Vermeer’s The Allegory
of the Catholic Faith,
c.167072, on loan from
the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New
York (The Friedsam
Collection, legacy of
Michael Friedsam,
1931). See review, left
the ubiquitous Rector of St Martin
intheFields (13yearold William
Rose, an engaging mimic), and the
slightly less frenetic Vicar (Fleet
wood Daniels) of St Mary’s,
Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk,
Nelson’s birthplace, to colourful
cameos from Theo Bimson, who
doubled “Kiss me, Hardy” with a
colourful calypso band leader, and
an empathetic Egyptian camel
(Nathan Hayward).
Nelson (Toby Garrington), in
Frederic WakeWalker’s inventive
and endlessly detailed production,
was a diminutive, semireluctant
hero, hoisted from comfortable
beginnings to an improbably lofty
position on Europe’s waters, before
laudably expiring, onearmed, one
eyed, and seemingly onewitted,
amid grieving burial mourners.
The vital quality of this gifted
ensemble stemmed partly from the
ability — given their head — of
these children, mostly not yet
teenagers, to devise characterful
ideas for themselves. WakeWalker,
directing (and better known from
the Opera Company, Mahogany
Opera, and Glyndebourne), inspired
in them a power of invention and
stage discipline way beyond their
years: not a gesture was wasted,
fluffed, or muddied.
The final word, inevitably, goes to
the indomitable cleric from St
Martin’s (hence guardian of
Nelson’s Column); but also to his
elder brother, playing the landlord
of the Trafalgar Tavern (Jamie Rose:
a singer of some talent and pathos,
and an engaging compère).
The company’s repertoire is not
all comedy. They recently excelled
in Hans Krása’s Brundibár, an opera
conceived and performed in
Terezín, the Nazi concentration
camp. With a range such as this, it
is hardly surprising that Jubilee
leads the field in staging children’s
opera.
55
review of 2012
obituaries
pA
pA
upp
books
scholar; the Revd Robin Denniston,
former publisher at OUP, and
former chairman of Mowbray’s.
The Revd Iris Thomas, the first
woman to be made deacon in the
Church in Wales; Canon John
Spence, former Bush Brother, and
Bishop’s Chaplain at Truro; Canon
Michael Baker, Chaplain to North
amptonshire County Cricket Club;
the Revd Graham Hullett, motor
cyclist; Canon Paul Carter, for 60
years a priest in Yorkshire; the Revd
John Chapman, Australian evangel
ist; the Revd Alistair McGlashan,
missionary in Tamil Nadu and
psychoanalyst; the Revd Dr Peter
Staples, lecturer in church history at
Utrecht; the Very Revd Michael Till,
former Dean of King’s College,
Cambridge, Archdeacon of Canter
bury, and Dean of Winchester; the
Very Revd Richard Eyre, former
Dean of Exeter.
Tallis in his In Defence of Wonder.
Novels reviewed included Bring
up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel; The
Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling;
and The Potter’s Hand by A. N.
Wilson.
The bestselling memoir of the
year was Leaving Alexandria by
Richard Holloway. There were bio
graphies, diaries, and collections of
letters of John Keats, Mary Living
stone, Mary Robinson, Penna Davies,
Edna O’Brien, John Stott, Martin
Luther King Jr, and T. S. Eliot.
Books on the Bible included:
Simply Jesus and How God Became
King by Tom Wright; The Paul of
Surprises by Geoffrey Turner; The
Power of the Parable by John
Dominic Crossan; Jesus and His
World by Craig A. Evans; With My
Whole Heart (the Psalms) by James
Jones; and Inscribing the Text by
Walter Brueggemann.
Other books reviewed included:
Disabled Church by John Gillibrand;
Jesus and the Subversion of Violence
by Thomas Yoder Neufeld; Temple
Mysticism by Margaret Barker;
Jesus Freak by Sara Miles; Lost in
Wonder by Aidan Nichols; Sacred
Land by Martin Palmer; We Don’t
Do God by George Carey and
Andrew Carey; Speaking Christian
by Marcus J. Borg; The Art of
Tentmaking by Stephen Burns;
Making the Most of the Lectionary
by David Stancliffe; Healing Agony
by Stephen Cherry; Christian
Beginnings by Geza Vermes; and
Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition by
Eamon Duffy.
The Advent titles reviewed in
cluded: Companions on the
Bethlehem Road by Rachel Boulding;
Saving Power by Michael Doe;
Inside the Christmas Story by
Anthony and Melanie Bush; and
Come Emmanuel by Ann Lewin.
DEATHS among lay people inc
luded the Earl Ferrers, former High
Steward of Norwich Cathedral; the
Lady Runcie, pianist, restorer of
Lambeth Palace Garden, and widow
of the late Archbishop of Canter
bury; Sir Stuart Bell, former Third
Church Estates Commissioner; Sir
Philip Ledger, former Director of
Music at King’s College, Cambridge;
Sir Bernard Lovell, first Director of
Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Dr Ruth Etchells, first female
principal of a C of E theological col
lege; Professor John Hick, theolo
gian; Professor Suzanne Martineau,
ecumenist; Leonard Rosoman, artist;
Chuck Colson, founder of the Prison
Fellowship; Dr John Birch, organist,
choral director, and teacher; Dora
Saint (Miss Read), teacher and
novelist; Billy Neely, former boy sop
rano; Major Kenneth Adams, busin
essman and church administrator.
CHRiSTiAN AiD/K.D. CReVANCe
Christopher Chapman, former
VicePrincipal of St John’s College,
York; Carlo Curley, international
concert organist; Tony Bishop, in
terpreter and Russophile inspirer of
the Philokalia Society; Valerie Eliot,
T. S. Eliot’s widow and editor; Jhan
Moskowitz, a founder of Jews for
Jesus; Donald Wright, former Sec
retary to the Crown Appointments
Commission; Anthony Cooke,
former director of music at Leeds
Grammar School; Derek Wills, for
65 years chorister of St Barnabas’s,
Linthorpe.
pA
in memoriam: top row:
Sir Stuart Bell, Valerie
eliot, Canon eric James;
left: the Rt Revd K. H.
Ting; right: Rosalind,
Lady Runcie
Patrick Locke, former Secretary of
the Church Commissioners; Lionel
Wadeson, former Assistant Sec
retary of the Church Assembly and
the General Synod; Kathleen Lee,
former nursing missionary in China;
Jonathan Harvey, composer.
AMONG Roman Catholic, Ortho
dox, and Free Church clergy whose
deaths were noted were the Coptic
Pope Shenouda III; Ignatius IV,
Primate of the Greek Orthodox
Church of Antioch and All the East;
Patriarch Maxim of the Bulgarian
Orthodox Church; Patriarch Abune
Paulos of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Tewahedo Church; Cardinal Carlo
Martini, former Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Milan; Mathews Mar
Barnabas, former Metropolitan of
the the Malankara Orthodox Syrian
Church; the Revd Dr Ray Davey,
founder of the Corrymeela Com
munity.
The Rt Revd Kuno Pajula, former
Archbishop of the Estonian Evan
gelical Lutheran Church; the Rt
Revd Mack Boyd Stokes, bishop in
the United Methodist Church.
In praise of solitude
City of faith
radio
television
THERE are not many guests on Desert Island
Discs (Radio 4, Sunday) who eagerly embrace
the prospect of being stranded alone in the
middle of the South Pacific; but Sister Wendy
Beckett, much of whose life is spent in
solitude, was no ordinary guest. Solitude, for
her, is “the greatest imaginable bliss”; and
though, over a busy Christmas, we might at
times have sympathy with this position, I
doubt we would go so far as to spend Christ
mas morning in a caravan praying for seven
hours.
But then again, to Sister Wendy every
activity entails an element of prayer. “This is
prayer,” she declared, to the evident delight
and dismay of Kirsty Young, most of whose
guests are in the studio not to pray, but to
plug a project. “It’s not the kind of prayer I
would have chosen,” she added, and Young
chuckled.
Indeed, the two women seemed to be
hitting it off famously, until a peculiar mo
ment when, in answer to one of Young’s
untargeted digs about the contemplative life,
Sister Wendy slipped in an almost uncon
scious “sweetheart” among the genial words.
She may be holy, but she is certainly no fool,
and one cannot but wonder whether the con
descension was intended.
It may have been simply the editing, but
was there not a distinct lack of that affec
tionate, indulgent laughter from our host in
the latter part of the interview?
Sister Wendy is, of course, a mistress in the
art of the putdown; her best on this appear
ance was to say, of contemporary Brit artists:
“I’m so pleased these young people are in
regular employment.” Behind her prolific
56
modesty, there is a keen awareness of her own
abilities: she made sure that we knew of her
congratulatory First from Oxford, and the fact
that her marks were as good as those of
Harold Wilson (who was said to have had the
best ever results in History at Oxford).
None of which makes her any less likeable:
in fact, it makes her a more reliable witness to,
and credible commentator on, the often very
worldly art that she encounters. The ego may
not be a good companion while communing
with God, but it is an essential one when
dealing with the culture of television.
It would require a mortification of the flesh
far more intense than Sister Wendy’s to spend
Christmas listening to the Revd J. M. Gates’s
seasonal offerings. Chosen as part of the
Revd Richard Coles’s An Alternative Christmas
(Radio 4, Tuesday of last week), these included
tracks such as “Will the Coffin Be Your Santa
Claus?” and “Did You Spend Christmas in
Jail?”, and were delivered to his Georgia kins
folk over the airwaves in the 1920s.
Coles is clearly not a fan of the Christmas
standards, and compares singing “O come all
ye faithful” as a priest to the days when, as a
pop star, he would mouth the band’s favour
ites to dwindling audiences.
Unlike many Christmas musical curios, this
was not sprinkled with liberal amounts of
cheese, but rather included items too hard
hitting to make it into the mainstream. There
was “There Is No Sanity Claus II”, a late’60s
rant against the arms trade, for instance; and a
Miles Davis number, “Blue Christmas” — a
diatribe against commercialism, which sat in
congruously as the final track on a compilation
album of Christmas music with the decep
tively innocent title Jingle Bell Jazz.
Edward Wickham
YOU cannot understand history without
understanding religion: at last, the popular
media are beginning to get the message. Rome:
A history of the Eternal City (BBC4, Wed
nesdays) explicitly employs religious faith and
practice as the lens through which the story of
the great city is brought into focus.
So far, we have seen two episodes, and I am
sorry to say that I found the first, pagan,
chapter more gripping than the second, which
chronicled the triumph of Christianity. Simon
Sebag Montefiore presents us with fascinating
details. Did you know that the oldest sur
viving monument in Rome is the great drain,
the Cloaca Maxima, dating from the sixth
century?
Sebag Montefiori found a number of links
between pagan and Christian eras, with more
emphasis on continuity than radical disjunc
tion. The great Christian idea was martyrdom,
the shock presented to the pagan mindset by
believers’ being willing to suffer a hideous
death rather than renounce their new faith by
offering sacrifice to the gods. This led to the
cult of the saints and their relics.
With more martyrs than anywhere else,
and early pontiffs willing to send shavings of
holy bones to distant bishops, Rome was the
epicentre of the Christian world, the popes
filling the vacuum left by the transfer of
imperial power to Byzantium.
I find Sebag Montefiori’s delivery over
insistent, and he employs the terms “holy”
and “sacred” rather too frequently, without
much critical analysis or reference to any
where else — surely, until modern times,
every culture considered its main city a centre
of religious as well as temporal power? And
the background music is inappropriate:
“Scheherazade” is not exactly suitable wall
paper to accompany an account of early
medieval Christianity.
In the vicarage, we have been following the
series Last Tango in Halifax (BBC1, Tuesday
of last week) because it is set in Mrs Craig’s
native land, and, as is the way in such
situations, squeals of delight as this or that
muchloved landmark is recognised are
balanced by the groans of excoriation caused
by solecisms of accent or vocabulary.
This is a tale of old love, as former flames
Alan and Celia find each other after the
demise of their spouses. Their lateflowering
bliss is the calm centre, whipping up a storm
of passion among their offspring, whose
marital and sexual situations are exemplars of
the relational mess that is contemporary
Britain. It is wonderfully observed and acted
— but neither plot nor dialogue bear serious
scrutiny.
Despite this, it is somehow redeemed by a
touching faith in, well, redemption: however
chaotic and angerfilled the situations, we feel
confident that all will, movingly, turn out well
in the end.
The Hour (BBC2, Wednesday and Thurs
day of last week), the drama series about a ’50s
TV news series, has come to a thrilling climax.
I was initially rather sniffy about it, con
sidering that too much frisson is generated by
the retro aspect of the production. Look at
their clothes! They are all smoking! But this
second series has been performed with such
bravura style as to produce TV drama of
a high order, and a gallery of distinct yet
complex characters of whom we long to see
more.
Gillean Craig
media
Loving the new extensions
press
THE most interesting piece on a serious topic
this week was by Fr Timothy Radcliffe
OP, in The Guardian, against gay marriage.
“Tolerance means, literally, to engage with
other people who are different. It implies an
attention to the particularity of the other
person, a savouring of how he or she is unlike
me, in their faith, their ethnicity, their sexual
orientation.
“A society that flees difference and
pretends we are all just the same may have
outlawed intolerance in one form, and yet
instituted it in other ways. It says, ‘We shall
tolerate you as long as you pretend to be just
like us.’. . .
“Religious conviction, if it impinges on the
public sphere, is viewed with a mixture of fear
and derision. And so it is both true that mod
ern Britain is a model of multiculturalism,
and also that we drift around in a fog of
mutual ignorance.”
This is interesting because it is something
that only Radcliffe among prominent
religious leaders can say in the expectation —
however faint — that he will be listened to. So
many of the opponents of gay marriage
transparently don’t believe in what he calls
the equal dignity of gay people.
The Kampala Daily Monitor, for example,
reports that the Most Revd Stanley Ntagli, the
new Primate of the Church of Uganda, at his
enthronement on Sunday, “pledged to work
towards reviving believers’ commitment to
God as a way of helping the country fight the
rampant evils such as defilement, homo
sexuality, child sacrifice, and domestic
violence”.
God knows what is meant by “defilement”
in this quote, but the bundling of homo
sexuality with child sacrifice and even
domestic violence would finish the career of
anyone in public life here. That is why I am
not a cultural relativist. There is a genuine
clash here of views over purity which cannot,
so far as I can see, be the subject of a
compromise.
And the Church of England is com
promised in the public mind by the huge
institutional efforts that it makes to stay in
communion with Churches such as that in
Uganda. Let’s not forget that the Rt Revd
Sandy Millar was ordained as a bishop there
when he retired from Holy Trinity, Brompton.
So the C of E cannot make a case against gay
marriage without sounding bigoted.
supposed to improve your character by
changing your brand of false hair is really to
be trusted with any moral decisions at all.
BUT the oddest piece of postChristianity
came from the Daily Mail, which recorded
how the crowd at a darts tournament turned
against a hippyish Australian spectator.
“A darts fan was kicked out of a live
televised final after the 4500strong crowd
interrupted play by taunting him — because
he looks like Jesus. Bearded Nathan Grindal
was enjoying the clash between Phil Taylor
and Kim Huybrechts when some of the
audience spotted his likeness to the son of
God.
“Chants of ‘Jesus’ quickly spread through
the rowdy crowd packed into Butlins at
Minehead, Somerset. The labourer, of
Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was close to tears as
six bouncers removed him from the Cash
Converters Players’ Championship which was
being shown on ITV4.
“As he left a chant of ‘Stand up if you love
Jesus’ broke out with many of the boozedup
crowd getting to their feet.”
He should have worn a different wig.
Andrew Brown
THE Muslim Council of Britain, meanwhile,
has grabbed the opportunity for self
importance, and demanded that it, too,
should have legal protection for its stance
against gay marriage. This ought to be an
opportunity for the Church of England to
look a great deal more enlightened, but I can
almost guarantee that it will be muffed.
ON A late (and unheated) commuter train
out of Liverpool Street, I picked up a
discarded copy of Star magazine. There was
an interview with Chantelle Houghton, who
became a sleb (i.e. someone who appears
regularly on cable television) after she won an
episode of Celebrity Big Brother, even though
her only expertise was being a lookalike for
another sleb.
She later married, or at least had a child
with, one of the original’s discards, with
whom she has since split because of his sexual
habits: “A lot of people think crossdressing is
just wearing a skirt and dancing around
singing ‘I’m every woman.’ But what Alex
actually does is a lot darker.”
The interviewer gets to the point: “We’re
loving the new extensions. Is your new look
helping you move on?”
“Definitely. New hair, new me! [laughs] I
feel a bit more like myself. I’ve had extensions
for years but [this brand]are the best by far.
All the celebrities are having them. Katie
[Price] has got them. I’m back to me again!”
I’m not sure that a society where you’re
At the sharp end: the fate of a Jesus lookalike at a darts match, featured in The Sun
week ahead
TV HIGHLIGHT: Goodbye to
Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams reflects
on his ten years as Archbishop, and on
the art and architecture of Canterbury
Cathedral.
BBC2 New Year’s Day 5.30pm
RADIO HIGHLIGHT: Belief Joan
Bakewell’s guests include General Lord
Dannatt, Loretta Minghella and former
US President Jimmy Carter.
Radio 3 Christmas Eve 9.25pm;
Christmas Day 10pm;
Boxing Day 9.40pm;
Thursday 9.10pm;
Friday 9pm
TELEVISION: Friday 9pm (BBC2)
Westminster Abbey The part played by the
Abbey in national life is explored (3/3).
Sunday and Monday 9am (BBC1) David
Suchet: In the footsteps of St Paul David
Suchet (far right) tracks the man who
brought Christianity to the Gentiles.
Sunday 4.30pm (BBC1) Songs of Praise
David Grant hosts carols and Christmas
readings.
9pm (iTV1) Joanna Lumley: The search for
Noah’s Ark Joanna Lumley travels over three
continents to explore the origins of an
ancient story.
Christmas Eve 3.55pm 6.15pm (BBC2)
Carols from King’s A specially recorded
sesrvice from King’s College, Cambridge,
with the nativity story told in the words of
the King James Bible (repeated on BBC2 at
10.45am on Christmas Day).
10.15pm (iTV1) Christmas Carols on ITV
Aled Jones and the cast of Coronation Street
retell the nativity story.
11.45pm (BBC1) Midnight Mass from Leeds
Cathedral A service live from St Anne’s RC
Cathedral in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Christmas Day 10am (BBC1) Christmas
Day Eucharist A morning service live from St
Mary’s, Redcliffe, Bristol.
11.40pm (BBC1) On Christmas Night The
story of Christmas from St Luke’s Gospel,
read by the paralympian Rachel Morris
5.25pm (BBC2) Arena: Sister Wendy and the
art of the gospel The 82yearold Carmelite
nun reveals how paintings can connect the
viewer to the gospel stories they depict.
7pm (BBC4) A Musical Nativity with John
Rutter The composer conducts carols at
Dorchester Abbey.
Boxing Day to Friday 8pm (BBC4) Royal
Institution Christmas Lectures: The modern
alchemist peter Wothers looks at the
ancient elements of air, water, and earth.
Sunday 30 December 3.30pm (BBC1)
Call the Midwife As Christmas approaches, a
baby is abandoned on the steps of the
convent.
4.50pm (BBC1) Songs of Praise Alfie Boe
and 5000 singers are at the Royal Albert
Hall for hymns that reflect this historic year.
New Year’s Day 12.15pm (BBC1) and
5.25pm (BBC2) The Archbishop of
Canterbury’s New Year Message Dr Williams’s
final such address.
RADIO: Saturday 7.48am (R4) Thought
for the Day Dr Williams’s last “Thought” as
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sunday 6.05am and 11.30pm (R4)
Something Understood Alan Hall reflects on
the angelic in the everyday.
8.10am (R4) Sunday Worship A service
from the Chapel of unity, Methodist
College, Belfast.
4pm (R3) Choral Evensong a repeat of last
Wednesday’s service from Lichfield
Cathedral.
7pm (R2) Follow the Star Hardeep Singh
Kohli investigates the Star of Bethlehem.
8.30pm (R2) Sunday Half-Hour Diane
Louise Jordan (above) presents an hourlong
Christmas edition from Beverley Minster.
8.30pm (R3) Drama on 3: A new cycle of
Mystery Plays A repeat of last week’s
retelling of five New Testament stories.
Christmas Eve 3pm (R4 and BBC World
Service) A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
The traditional order of service, live from
King’s College, Cambridge (repeated on
Radio 3 at 2pm on Christmas Day).
11.30-12.45pm (R4) Midnight Mass live
from the RC Cathedral of Christ the King,
Liverpool.
Christmas Day 9am (R4) Christmas
Service from St peter ad Vincula, Tower of
London.
9pm (R2) Sing in Heavenly Peace: The true
story of Silent Night Cliff Richard explores
aspects of Franz Gruber’s 1818 song.
Boxing Day 3.30pm (R3) A Meditation on
Christ’s Nativity John Tavener’s Ex Maria
Virgine, with the choir of Clare College,
Cambridge, from 2008 (repeated on 30
December on Radio 3 at 4pm).
Sunday 8.10am (R4) Sunday Worship A
service from St Mary’s episcopal Cathedral,
Glasgow.
New Year’s Day 10.05pm Belief Joan
Bakewell talks to the actor Ben Kingsley.
Wednesday 3.30pm (R3) Choral Evensong
live from St peter’s College, oxford.
57
gazette
appointments
ALLINGTON. The Revd Andrew
Allington, Vicar of Stainforth (Shef
field), to be Vicar of Filey (York).
ASHTON. The Revd James Ash
ton, Team Vicar in the Merstham,
South Merstham and Gatton
Team Ministry (Southwark), to be
PriestinCharge (Team Rector
designate).
BRADDOCK. The Revd Andrew
Braddock, Diocesan Missioner and
Hon. Canon of Gloucester Cathed
ral, to be Director of the Depart
ment of Mission and Ministry, and
Canon Residentiary of Gloucester
Cathedral (Gloucester).
BRAE. The Revd Yvonne Brae,
NSM (Associate Priest) of Holy
Apostles’, Charlton Kings, to be NS
Associate Priest of the Sodbury Vale
Benefice (Gloucester).
COLLIER. The Revd Paul Collier,
PriestinCharge of St Saviour’s,
Peckham (Southwark), to be Vicar.
CONVERY. The Revd Malcolm
Convery, formerly PriestinCharge
of St John the Baptist, German, and
Assistant Curate of St Michael and
All Angels, Michael, to be Canon
Emeritus of St German’s Cathedral,
Peel (Sodor & Man).
COULTON. The Revd David Coul
ton, NSM of Tewkesbury with
Walton Cardiff and Twyning, to be
NS Associate Priest of Tewkesbury
with Walton Cardiff and Twyning,
and of Deerhurst and Apperley with
Forthampton, Chaceley, Treding
ton, Stoke Orchard and Hardwicke
(Gloucester).
DANBY. The Revd Dr Shirley
Danby, NSM of Cricklade with
Latton, and of Ashton Keynes, Leigh
and Minety (Bristol), to be Assistant
Curate (Assistant Minister).
DORLING. The Revd Philip Dorl
ing, Rector of St Peter’s, Vryheid
(Zululand, Southern Africa), to be
Rector of the Inglewood Group
(Carlisle).
EDWARDS. The Revd Helen
Edwards, Vicar of Christ Church,
Norris Green, to be also Hon.
Canon of Liverpool Cathedral (Liver
pool).
ENEVER. The Revd Vivian Enever,
Team Rector in the Newark Team
Ministry (Southwell & Notting
ham), to be Rector of Queen Thorne
(Salisbury).
FRENCH. The Revd Christine
French, Assistant Curate of Key
worth and StantonontheWolds,
and Bunny with Bradmore, to be
PriestinCharge of Norwell with
Ossington, Cromwell and Caunton
(Southwell & Nottingham).
FRY. The Revd David Fry, Assistant
Curate (Associate Vicar) in the
Healey and Gleadless Valley Team
Ministry, now Vicar of Heeley (Shef
field).
HEDGER. The Revd Graham Hed
ger, Assistant Diocesan Secretary
(Deployment, Planning, and Policy),
and PriestinCharge of Clopton
with Otley, Swilland and Ash
bocking, to be fulltime general As
sistant Diocesan Secretary, remain
ing Hon. Canon of St Edmundsbury
Cathedral (St Edmundsbury &
Ipswich).
HUTCHINSON. The Revd Ray
mond Hutchinson, Rector of All
Saints and St George, Wigan, and
Chaplain of Wrightington, Wigan
and Leigh NHS Trust, to be also
Hon. Canon of Liverpool Cathedral
(Liverpool).
HYDE. The Revd Jacqueline Hyde,
NS Assistant Curate in the South
Cheltenham Team Ministry (Glou
cester), to be NS Associate Priest.
JARVIS. The Revd Stephen Jarvis,
NS Assistant Curate of Bisley, Chal
ford, France Lynch and Oakridge
(Gloucester), to be NS Associate
Priest.
JEFFREYS. The Revd Laksmi
Jeffreys, Diocesan Mission Adviser
(Derby), to be PriestinCharge of
Wootton (Peterborough).
KETTLE. The Revd Martin Kettle,
formerly Hon. Assistant Curate of
East Leightonstone, and of Great
with Little Gidding and Steeple Gid
ding (Ely), to be Adviser on Home
Affairs Policy for the Mission and
Public Affairs Division (Arch
bishops’ Council).
LOWDON. The Revd Christopher
Lowdon, Team Vicar in the Buxton
with Burbage and King Sterndale
Team Ministry, with special respon
sibility for St James and St Mary
(Derby), to be PriestinCharge of
Maughold and South Ramsey
(Sodor & Man).
MIDDLETON. The Revd David
Middleton, Assistant Curate (Asso
ciate Vicar) in the Healey and
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58
New archdeacons
THE next Archdeacon of Ports
down, in Portsmouth diocese, is to
be the Revd Dr Joanne Woolway
Grenfell, Residentiary Canon of
Sheffield Cathedral, and Diocesan
Director of Ordinands and Post
Ordination Training, in Sheffield
diocese, since 2006, and Dean of
Women’s Ministry in that diocese
since 2008. Before her present
appointments, she served in
Liverpool and Sheffield dioceses.
The next Archdeacon of Lewis
ham and Greenwich, in South
wark diocese, is to be the Revd
Alistair Cutting, Rector of Hen
field with Shermanbury and Wood
mancote, in Chichester diocese,
since 2010, and ProProlocutor of
the Convocation of the Province
of Canterbury since 2011. Before
his present posts, he held appoint
ments in Sheffield, London, and
Chichester dioceses.
The next Archdeacon of South
wark, in Southwark diocese, will
Gleadless Valley Team Ministry,
now Vicar of Gleadless Valley (Shef
field).
MOTHERSDALE. The Revd Paul
Mothersdale, PriestinCharge of
Malew, and Rural Dean of Castle
town and Peel, to be also Canon of
St German’s Cathedral, Peel (Sodor
& Man).
OGLESBY. The Revd Elizabeth
Oglesby, Vicar of St Michael and All
Angels with All Souls with Em
manuel Church, Camberwell, to be
also Area Dean of Southwark and
Newington (Southwark).
REYNOLDS. The Revd Simon
Reynolds, PriestinCharge of Dar
ton and of Cawthorne (Wakefield),
to be Rector of Farnham (Guild
ford).
RICHARDSON. The Revd Charles
Richardson, Acting Area Dean of
Dulwich, to be Area Dean, remain
ing Vicar of St John the Evangelist,
East Dulwich, and Hon. Canon of
Southwark Cathedral (Southwark).
ROBERTS. The Revd Janet Roberts,
be the Revd Dr Jane Steen, Canon
Chancellor of Southwark Cathed
ral, and Southwark Diocesan
Director of Ministry and Training,
since 2005. Before that, she was
the Bishop of Southwark’s Chap
lain, and Hon. Chaplain and Priest
Vicar of Southwark Cathedral.
New acting archdeacon
THE Ven. Christine Froude,
Archdeacon of Malmesbury, in
Bristol diocese, since 2011, is now
also Acting Archdeacon of Bristol.
New temporary archdeacon
THE Revd Suzanne Sheriff,
Canon and Prebendary of York
Minster since 2001, Vicar of Tad
caster with Newton Kyme, since
2007, and PriestinCharge of Kirk
Fenton with Kirkby Wharfe and
Ulleskelfe since 2010, also in York
diocese, is to be temporary Arch
deacon of York.
PriestinCharge of St Nicholas’s,
Blundellsands, to be also Hon.
Canon of Liverpool Cathedral (Liver
pool).
ROGERS. The Revd Cyril Rogers,
Rector of Andreas, Ballaugh, Jurby
and Sulby, to be also Hon. Canon of
St German’s Cathedral, Peel (Sodor
& Man).
SPARKES. The Revd Lynne Sparkes,
NS Assistant Curate of Barnwood,
and Chaplain of Church House and
the Diocesan Board of Finance Staff
(Gloucester), to be Pioneer Minister
of St Mary’s, Sherrards Green (Wor
cester).
STANIER. The Revd Robert
Stanier, Chaplain of Archbishop
Tenison’s School, Kennington, and
Hon. Assistant Curate in the North
Lambeth Team Ministry, to be Vicar
of St Andrew and St Mark, Surbiton
(Southwark).
TAYLOR. The Revd Patricia Taylor,
Hon. Assistant Curate of St Mary’s,
Hornsey Rise (London), to be Hon.
Assistant Curate (Associate Minis
resignations and retirements
GREENMAN. The Revd Irene
Greenman, OLM Assistant Curate
of Cornholme and Walsden (Wake
field).
GWILLIAMS. The Revd Dianna
Gwilliams, Area Dean of Dulwich,
remaining Vicar of St Barnabas’s,
deaths
EYRE. — On 12 December, the Very
Revd Richard Montague Stephens
Eyre: Tutor of Chichester Theo
logical College (195961); Chaplain
(196162); Eastbourne College (1962
65); Vicar of Arundel with South
Stoke and Tortington (196573); the
Good Shepherd, Preston (197375);
Chichester Diocesan Director of
Ordinands (197579); Archdeacon
of Chichester (197581); Canon
Treasurer of Chichester Cathedral
(197881); Dean of Exeter (198195);
PriestinCharge of Pau (200103);
aged 83.
ordinations
SHEFFIELD
By the Bishop in his Cathedral on
16 December:
Deacons: Michael Burn (Rother
ham); Carl Chapman (Malin Bridge).
Dulwich, Chaplain of Alleyn’s Foun
dation (James Allen’s Girls’ School),
Dulwich, Hon. Canon of Southwark
Cathedral, and Acting Archdeacon
of Southwark (Southwark).
ILES. The Revd Paul Iles, NS As
sistant Curate (Associate Priest) in
the North Cheltenham Team Minis
try (Gloucester).
JEANS. The Revd David Jeans,
PriestinCharge of Deepcar (Shef
field): 28 February.
KNAPP. The Revd Anthony Knapp,
Team Rector in the Swindon Dorcan
Team Ministry (Bristol): 13 January.
LEE. The Revd Samuel Lee, NSM
of Worlingham with Barnby and
North Cove (St Edmundsbury &
Ipswich).
McCONNELL. The Revd Brian Mc
Connell, Canon Residentiary of Car
New home for college
THE Bishop of London, the Rt Revd
Richard Chartres, has blessed the
new home of St Mellitus College, a
£7.3million conversion of St Jude’s,
Courtfield Gardens, in Kensington,
writes Madeleine Davies.
St Jude’s, a Grade II listed former
parish church, built in 1870, now
houses four lecture spaces as well as
a new central library for the col
lege’s 510 students. The Dean of St
Mellitus, the Revd Graham Tomlin,
ter) of St Michael and All Angels
with St Stephen, Wandsworth
(Southwark).
TIPPING. The Revd Brenda Tip
ping, PriestinCharge of South
Mymms and Ridge, to be Vicar,
remaining Chaplain among Deaf
People, NSM Officer for Hertford
archdeaconry, and Hon. Canon of
St Albans Cathedral (St Albans).
TRACEY. The Revd Gareth Tracey,
Assistant Curate (Pioneer Minister)
of St Luke’s, Eccleston, in the
Eccleston Team Ministry (Liver
pool), to be Vicar of Colney Heath
(St Albans).
WEBSTER. The Revd Glyn Web
ster, Canon Chancellor of York
Minster, and Bishopdesignate of
Beverley (York), to be also Assistant
Bishop (Liverpool).
WHITWORTH. The Revd Duncan
Whitworth, formerly Vicar of St
Matthew the Apostle, Douglas, Rural
Dean of Douglas, and Canon of St
German’s Cathedral, Peel (Sodor &
Man), to be Canon Emeritus.
WILLIAMS. The Revd Marion
Williams, NSM of St Catharine’s,
Gloucester (Gloucester), to be NS
Associate Priest.
WALES
REES. The Revd Michael Rees,
Vicar of GorsLas, to be Vicar of
Betws with Ammanford, remaining
Area Dean of Dyffryn Aman, and
Canon of St Davids Cathedral (St
Davids) (correction).
STONE. The Revd Christopher
Stone, Team Vicar in Bassaleg Rec
torial Benefice (Monmouth), to be
Team Rector.
LAY APPOINTMENTS
BUCKLEY. Vivien Buckley to be
Diocesan Adviser on Environmental
Issues in the Social Responsibility
Network (Wakefield) (correction).
ELLIOTT. Dr Esther Elliott, Dio
cesan Lay Ministry Officer and
Warden of Readers, to be also
Lay Canon of Derby Cathedral
(Derby).
ILIFFE. David Iliffe, Lay Chair of
Chesterfield deanery, to be also
Lay Canon of Derby Cathedral
(Derby).
INGRAM. Janet Ingram to be
Education and Pilgrimage Officer of
St Davids Cathedral (St Davids).
lisle Cathedral (Carlisle): 31 January.
SHAW. The Revd Grahame Shaw,
Acting Area Dean of Southwark and
Newington, remaining Vicar of St
Paul’s, Newington, Southwark Arch
deaconry Ecumenical Officer, and
Hon. Canon of Southwark Cathedral
(Southwark).
TURNER. The Revd Geoffrey
Turner, Rector of Loughor (Swansea
& Brecon): 31 March.
WARE. The Revd Stephen Ware,
Warden of Readers, remaining As
sistant Diocesan Director of Or
dinands (Gloucester).
WEST. The Revd Penelope West,
NSM (Associate Priest) of Ashle
worth, Corse, Hartpury, Hasfield,
Maisemore, Staunton and Tirley
(Gloucester): 31 December.
WOOLCOCK. The Revd John
Woolcock, PriestinCharge of Sea
scale and Digg (Carlisle): 15 Feb
ruary.
said that he had been “surprised and
delighted” by the growth of the col
lege over the past five years. Jointly
founded by the dioceses of London
and Chelmsford, it now serves 110
ordinands and 400 other students.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt
Revd Stephen Cottrell, said that the
“generous orthodoxy” of the college
provided “excellent training”. The
diocese’s partnership with it had
made a “major contribution” to the
growth in the number of people in
selfsupporting ministry from 68 in
2003 to 104 in 2010.
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CHURCH TIMES 21/28 December 2012 59
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
108114 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0TG
Tel: 0207 776 1010 • Email: [email protected]
Pilgrimages
Dagenham Park Church of England School
School Road, Dagenham, RM10 9QH
Telephone: 020 8270 4400
Fax: 020 8270 4409
Mixed 11-18 Voluntary Controlled School
Headteacher: Mr Simon Weaver
SCHOOL CHAPLAIN
Salary- Negotiable to attract an outstanding candidate
Required As soon as possible
Dagenham Park is a mixed, multi-ethnic 11-18 Voluntary Controlled
Church of England school.
Teaching Vacancies
Anglican Schools in Hong Kong
are seeking
GAP YEAR STUDENTS
who are looking for a
Challenging Year Out.
We are looking for Native English Speaking Students, either
pre-college or post graduate, to work in Kindergarten and
Primary Schools in Hong Kong helping the children to improve
their English. Those appointed will also become involved in the
Church’s work with young people.
Teaching experience is not necessary, although in one school it
will be very helpful.
Accommodation is provided as well as a moderate Living Allowance.
Full details of the Project and how to apply can be found on the website:
www.HKGaps.org.uk
Our most recent OFSTED inspection – May 2011 rated the school
as “GOOD” and our recent SIAS inspection June 2011 rated the
school as “GOOD with certain outstanding features”
Our recent GCSE results in 2012 was 60% 5+ A*-C grades
(including English and Mathematics).
We are seeking to appoint an inspirational, outstanding and
committed Anglican Chaplain to support the pastoral and spiritual
life of this community and to take a keen interest in all aspects
of school life and to work to assist with the development of the
Christian Ethos.
The successful candidate will be an ordained member of The
Church of England.
Ref: 2BECC
Salary: Grade 6 (£25,251 to £29,249 per annum)
Liverpool Hope University is the only ecumenical University in
Europe. The ethos of Hope is reflected in the one ecumenical
chapel, which has been recently refurbished. We celebrate the
riches and diversity of Christian Life and Faith. The University’s
founding Charter states that it seeks “to be fully Catholic, fully
Anglican and fully Christian”.
The University is seeking to appoint an Anglican Chaplain to
lead the Chaplaincy team and, especially, to guide the liturgical
life of the University. The Chaplaincy team works to support
the spiritual, social and personal needs and aspirations of all
members of the University community. They encourage and
foster the faith-life of individuals who desire such support; they
minister to the pastoral needs of the University, and are always
available to help with spiritual direction or counselling. The
Chaplains oversee initiatives and activities in areas of pastoral
care, leadership development and awareness of social justice.
Please visit our webpages for further information
http://www.hope.ac.uk/jobs/
Closing date: Wednesday 2nd January 2013 at 12pm (midday)
There is a teaching requirement attached to the post but this need
not be the teaching of Religious Education.
You will have significant opportunities to shape the development
of chaplaincy at Dagenham Park, using a multi-agency approach.
You will work flexibly with staff, young people and their families,
within the school and in the community, and through this will
promote the Christian Ethos of the school widely. You will also
build partnerships with parents, local churches, parishes and the
wider community.
As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications
from all sections of the community, including persons with
disabilities.
The South Western Synod of the
United Reformed Church
An opportunity for a Korean-speaking minister to serve the
Bristol Korean Church
(Mission Project of the U.R.C.)
Based at Redland Park U.R.C., Bristol
or by applying to:
The Revd. Patrick Nicholas
35, Norwich Drive, Cheltenham. Glos. GL51 3HD
Telephone: 01242 510007
An application pack can be obtained from:
Kim Wiley (PA to Headteacher)
Dagenham Park Church of England School, School Road
Dagenham RM10 9QH
Tel: 020 8270 4400 • Email: [email protected]
or from the school website.
Closing date: 28th February 2013
Closing date: 28 December 2012
Stipend of £23,800
“This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
and a comprehensive screening process, including a disclosure
check, will be undertaken on all applicants”
Housing Provided
jobs.churchtimes.co.uk
PRIEST-IN-CHARGE
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CHRIST
CHURCH, BRITTANY
Friendly, welcoming English-language congregation is looking for
a priest-in-charge who will enjoy being part of an ex-pat community,
as well as living in a beautiful part of France.
The Bishop seeks an experienced priest for this growing chaplaincy,
who will:
• have the spiritual gifts to inspire, enthuse and develop the
three congregations;
• be a team leader encouraging and guiding the PtO clergy
Readers and active laity already involved in the chaplaincy;
• welcome worshippers of all traditions and none, and be happy
with a variety of worship styles;
• to have Christ Church’s mission statement as their objective –
‘To know Christ and make Him known’
The post offers a half UK stipend (13,800 Euro), appropriate
accommodation, a car and associated expenses, other expenses
of office, standard French social security contributions and
complementary medical insurance cover.
Further information and application form from:
The Appointments’ Secretary, 14 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QZ
Closing date: 31 January 2013
Short-listing date: 08 February 2013
Interview date: 5 March 2013
There is a commitment to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable
adults. Safeguarding Policies (vetting and screening) will apply to this post
A Five Year Appointment
Under the Special Category Ministry programme
Of the United Reformed Church
Applicants should be a minister in good standing of a member
church of CtBI
Application Deadline: 30th December 2012
Information and application details from:
Jasmine Warburton
Clerical
60
ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN
Church Times would
like to wish you a
Merry Christmas
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great
in the City of London
is seeking the temporary support of an
Good Schools Guide: A top-notch co-ed school catering for that neglected
breed, ordinary children, as well as for the higher flier.
Independent School of the Year 2010/11 Top UK Boarding School
810 boys and girls aged 3-18; senior school of 470
pupils with 155 boarders,
ASSISTANT PRIEST
male or female, at the Sunday Solemn Eucharist
Traditional worship & excellent music
Honorarium available. Longer term position possible.
Enquiries to the Revd Dr Martin Dudley
Email: [email protected] • Tel: 020 7248 2294
CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN
September 2013
This is an exciting opportunity for an energetic and inspiring pastor to lead the
spiritual life of the Prep and Senior Schools.
For suitably qualified applicants, there is the opportunity to combine this post with teaching
in any subject in the Prep and/or Senior Schools and/or residential work in boarding. All
teachers are expected to contribute to our flourishing co-curricular programme.
For an application form and further information, please
contact Mrs Anne Rylands, Head’s PA, Ashford School,
East Hill, Ashford, Kent TN24 8PB
Closing date for receipt of applications:
12 noon on Tuesday 15 January 2012.
T: 01233 739032 • E: [email protected]
W: www.ashfordschool.co.uk
Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection
screening including checks with past employers and the CRB.
UNTIL FILLED
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for more information
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Modern four bedroom Rectory in quiet location.
jobs.churchtimes.co.uk
An opportunity for Ministry
in the
DIOCESE OF
CLOGHER
www.clogher.anglican.org
An exciting opportunity exists for an experienced priest to provide
overall vision, leadership, direction, and management at the
Cathedral of St George.
Enquiries are invited from clergy in respect of the following
incumbency:
The candidate will have a deep faith and theological acumen with
wisdom, self-knowledge and understanding of people.
Grouped Parishes of Garrison, Slavin, Belleek and Kiltyclogher
Counties Fermanagh and Leitrim
The candidate will provide leadership and direction for the Cathedral
congregation through preaching and demonstration of living a life
by faith.
This group of rural parishes straddle the jurisdictional boundary
between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in
reasonable reach of the county towns of Enniskillen, Sligo and
Donegal. There are approximately 261 parishioners, and four
church buildings, all of which are in regular use, with two morning
services taking place within the group each Sunday. All four
church buildings are in an excellent state of repair, each having
undergone substantial restoration in approximately the past five
years. The Rectory is an attractive period house close to the
village of Garrison in County Fermanagh. This group of parishes
has a well-established and committed team of parishioners that
provides a firm foundation for an enthusiastic and developing
ministry.
Applications close: March 2013
The position will commence: July 2014
Website: www.perthcathedral.org
[email protected]
For further information and to express interest in the above
vacancy please write to:
The Rt Revd John McDowell, The See House
Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone. BT75 0QP
The Diocese of Wellington New Zealand and the Wellington
Cathedral Church of St Paul are seeking a Dean who will work with
the Cathedral Vestry, the Cathedral congregation, the diocese, the
city, and other partners to further enliven the ministry and mission
of a contemporary Cathedral, in particular to:
• nurture, lead, and challenge the Cathedral family so that the
Cathedral fulfils its intent of being a sacred space of worship,
hospitality and education;
• consolidate and strengthen the Cathedral’s relationship with
the diocese;
• strengthen the Cathedral’s work and witness with city and
government;
• maximise the potential of the Cathedral property so as to
better serve the Cathedral’s mission; and
• continue to hold the highest standards of Cathedral liturgical
and musical worship.
Further details about this position and the application process are
available at http://wn.anglican.org.nz/news/vacancies.
Applications close: Tuesday 5 February 2013
Application pack available from: The Archdeacon of Taunton
2 Monkton Heights, West Monkton, Taunton TA2 8LU
Telephone: 01823 413315
www.bathwells.org.uk
B•O•G•O•F
YOUTH VACANCIES
For a limited period of time, we are
offering a buy one get one free offer on
all Youth Vacancies.
Book now to avoid disappointment
Advertising Department
020 7776 1010
[email protected]
Youth Work
ST JAMES THE GREAT, THORLEY
FULL-TIME CHILDREN’S WORKER
Our mission is to reach out in the love of God to all local
children and families.
We are seeking an inspirational leader
Expressions of interest in the above vacancy should be made in
writing by Wednesday 23rd January 2013.
• to provide oversight and develop activities within the
church and wider community
• to work strategically and pastorally alongside our volunteers
• to liaise with and extend partnerships with local organisations
Scottish Episcopal Church
Diocese of St Andrews,
Dunkeld and Dunblane
The focus for this role is the primary school age group, but it is hoped that
you will be interested in activities with the older and younger groups.
St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, St Andrews
DEAN
We are looking for a full time Rector to lead our Benefice as we
continue working towards ever more effective rural ministry in our
three parishes.
Closing date for applications: Wednesday 9 January 2013
5Interviews: Thursday 24 and Friday 25 January 2013
See also the new website which both supports and promotes your recruitment advert:
Expressions of interest and request for further details
should be sent to: The Chair of the Dean Search Committee
38 St Georges Terrace, Perth, WA, 6000, Australia
Excellent communications - Junction 23 of the M5
just two miles away
With four Readers and many willing Lay helpers, you will need to
be an effective leader and have a passion for pastoral care. An
understanding of the demands and rewards of rural ministry is
essential. We seek an effective and inspiring preacher of the
Good News who is committed to enabling God’s people to
become ambassadors of Jesus Christ in their lives, words and deeds.
There are a few terms and conditions but in
essence you have a GOLDEN GUARANTEE.
Situated in the heart of the city of Perth, St George’s is the principal
cathedral of the Anglican Province of Western Australia and the
metropolitical Diocese of Perth. The Cathedral’s ministry extends to the
congregation, visitors to the Cathedral, the Diocese, the City and the
wider community.
Located along the Polden Hills in Beautiful Rural Somerset
Can you lead and inspire us?
3. We will continue to advertise your vacancy
for as long as you want us to — until you fill it
or get tired of trying
He/she should have a deep understanding of the traditions of the
Anglican liturgy and a commitment to Church music providing a
pivotal role in worship.
For the Benefice of
Woolavington, Cossington and Bawdrip
We want to work with you to:
• Place our churches at the heart of each community
• Discern & develop talents and spiritual gifts
• Reach out in love and pastoral care to everyone
2. You pay for two weeks advertising, and add a
20% premium for the ‘Until Filled’ deal
DEAN OF ST GEORGE’S CATHEDRAL,
PERTH, AUSTRALIA
RECTOR
Appointment of
RECTOR
For further information or an application pack, please contact:
[email protected]
www.stjames-church-bishops-stortford.org.uk
St James the Great, Thorley
Church Lane, Bishop’s Stortford CM23 4BE
Tel: 01279 506753
Closing date for applications: 18th January 2013
This lively and diverse congregation in the heart of St Andrews
seeks an experienced priest to lead it into the next stage of its life.
The congregation provides opportunities for challenging and
fulfilling ministry
An Information Pack (including the Congregational Profile and
Application Form) can be obtained from:
Martin Passmore (Vestry Secretary)
2 Montgomery Court, Hepburn Gardens
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9LT
Telephone: 07714 295424
Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane | Scottish
Charity Number: SCO17654
[email protected]
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CHURCH TIMES 21/28 December 2012 61
Organists & Layworkers
All Saints’ Church, Bromsgrove, Worcs
seeks Organist and Choir Trainer
from 1st January, 2013. Classical
tracker action two manual
Tamburini organ and Allen two
manual drawstop organ. Three
sung eucharists, two
lay-led
services, one evensong monthly.
Weekly choir practice. Festivals,
baptisms, weddings and funerals.
Traditional and modern repertoire.
Remuneration by arrangement plus
wedding and funeral fees. Contact:
Mike Carrick 01527 873 135 mike.
[email protected]
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St James’s Church, Piccadilly
VERGER
Starting salary: £21,396
St James’s is a busy Anglican Church in central London with
a broad range of activities including services, concerts, a daily
market and a variety of ministries and projects.
We are currently looking for someone with good
communication and practical skills to join our team of vergers.
Previous experience not necessary, although the successful
applicant will be open, energetic, willing to learn and in
sympathy with the church’s aims and ethos.
Main responsibilities: to keep the Church and site safe, tidy
and secure, and to service all events taking place here.
Closing date for applications:
noon on Thursday 10th January 2013
Interviews: week commencing Monday 14th January 2013
Full job description and application form available from:
www.st-james-piccadilly.org
The Chapter seeks to appoint
ALTO, TENOR
and BASS
CHORAL SCHOLARS
from September 2013
Accommodation provided
Also an
ALTO, TENOR or
BASS LAY VICAR
Start date negotiable
Enhanced CRB Disclosure required
Further details from:
Miss Kirsten Norfolk
14 St Mary’s Street, TRURO, TR1 2AF
01872 245002
[email protected]
www.trurocathedral.org.uk
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Sub-Organist
The Dean and Chapter of Westminster seeks to appoint a Sub-Organist with
effect from September 2013.
For a full job description and details of how to apply, please visit:
www.westminster-abbey.org/jobs
Closing date for applications: Midday on Monday 14 January 2013
WESTMINSTER ABBEY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES EMPLOYER
Choir Leader/Organist
St. Augustine’s R. C. Church, High Wycombe, Bucks.
We are a well attended Church in the Middle of Town, and are
seeking a new Choir Leader urgently, who is able to play a 2
Manual Pipe Organ, for our SATB choir.
This extra job involves choir practice, 1 hour per week, sung
Mass 11am on Sundays plus the usual extra services,
weddings & funerals.
Please contact: Fr. Willie Strain on staugustines.hw@gmail. com
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Holy Trinity Church, Hoghton (Blackburn)
requires an
Organist and Choir Trainer
who has the energy and enthusiasm to play the recently
restored 2 manual pipe organ and continue to bring new
members to our choir and further develop the music making
among the younger members of our congregation. We have a
well-established choral tradition with an RSCM affiliated SATB
robed choir. We have one sung service each Sunday morning.
Remuneration and fees within RSCM guidelines depending on
experience and agreed job description.
For more information, contact: Elisabeth Sawle on
01772 821213 • [email protected]
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ST JOHN THE DIVINE, PEMBERTON, WIGAN
DIRECTOR OF MUSIC & ORGANIST
Committed and enthusiastic musician sought to enrich our
Eucharistic tradition with excellent congregational and choral
music. Abbott & Smith 2-manual organ, full compass,
maintained by Wells.
Deputy available to offer relief. Opportunities in church primary
school for reinforcing established SATB choir. Regular weddings
and funerals. RSCM rates. 2 minutes from M6 & M58.
Contact: The Rev’d Philip Anderson
Telephone: 01942 375209
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Email:Antiquechurch@
btconnect.co
CHILTON — Architectural Antiques
purchases chairs, fixtures and
fittings. 26 Windsor Road, Chorley,
Lancs PR7 1LN. Tel/Fax: 01257 273
095. Email: barry.chilton@talktalk.
net
CHRISTMAS PRIZE CROSSWORD
While the choir with peals
of glee
Doth rend the air asunder.
word from
Wormingford
Notes in a book
cause Ronald Blythe
to feel intoxicated
I AM writing our Nine
Lessons and Carols. The mid
Advent sun blazes through
the study window, and is hot
on my back. The white cat
dreams on a radiator. Chaf
finches swing on the feeder. I
write Churchwarden, Bell
ringer, Boy, Commuter, Girl,
Farmer, Mother, Gardener,
Lay Canon. Then I read the
incomparable Oxford Book of
Carols, and, as always, mourn
our limitation.
Percy Dearmer, Ralph
Vaughan Williams, and
Martin Shaw edited this
masterpiece in 1928. Here are
200 carols, plus a preface and
notes, the latter as intoxica
ting as honeywine, shall we
say. Once upon a time, carola
meant a dancing choir. Try
that at King’s. The clergy
were anticarol for ages.
“Please, Sir, may we sing a
carol?” the people asked
Parson Woodforde on Christ
mas morning.
“Yes, but wait until I am
out of the church.”
This in 1788.
It was Percy Dearmer who
wrote the fine essay on carols
in my treasured collection.
He was the Vicar of St
Mary’s, Primrose Hill, and
Professor of Ecclesiastical Art
at King’s College, London.
Omega and Alpha he!
Let the organ thunder,
Crossword No. 1194 by Peter Chamberlain
There were giants in church
in those days. Meanwhile, I
sort out small gifts. How can
I thank Jamie the postman
for bumping down the an
cient track every midmorning
without fail? Or the unseen
milkman? Or the saintly ones
who drive me to services? Or
the day for breaking, and the
midnight frost for glittering?
Or Advent for being so thrill
ing?
Dearmer wrote: “Perhaps
nothing is just now of such
importance [it was the early
postFirst World War
aftermath] as to increase the
element of joy in religion;
people crowd in our churches
at the Christmas, Easter, and
Harvest Festivals, largely
because the hymns for those
occasions are full of a sound
hilarity; if carol books were
in continual use [there are
carols for every season], that
most Christian and most
forgotten element would be
vastly increased, in some of
its loveliest forms, all through
the year.”
In the high street, two lads
play Bach to the taxi rank.
Children stare up at them in
wonder. A few steps away is
the big old house in which
John Wilbye played the lute
when Shakespeare was alive,
his wage the lease on a sheep
farm. Both of them would
have sung a carol called
“The Song of the Ship” for
Advent.
There comes a ship
asailing,
With angels flying fast;
She bears a splendid cargo
And has a mighty mast.
This ship is fully laden,
Right to her highest board,
She bears the son from
heaven,
God’s high eternal Word.
Across
1
5
8
12
13
14
15
16
17
Village Hours, the latest col
lection from Wormingford, is
19
out now (Canterbury Press,
£14.99 (CT Bookshop £13.49); 21
9781848252370).
23
24
26
28
SCRIBBLE PAD sponsored by
30
32
34
36
39
43
44
46
47
48
50
51
52
53
Priest with one reindeer not starting or another (7)
Reportedly restrict one coming from European republic (5)
A supporter taking meat comes to fatherly figure (7)
Hospital tender (5)
‘Sing through all _____’ (carol) (9)
Group of powerful women in Banff ate sandwiches (5)
Strip search beginning late bothered senior cleric (46)
Display spoils by Harry, officer in one of the services (37)
Favourite language, Eastern and Middle Eastern, used for
wine (532)
No matter what happens during no particular item during
sports contest (2,3,5)
Part of highest romantic enthusiasm of poetic inspiration (5)
Fairly OK, like repeats (22)
Runs behind one tree (4)
Saw notice long time afterwards (5)
Superintendent, saving time before Sunday, makes a sort of
false move (10)
‘_____ is born’ (carol) (4,2,1,3)
‘_____ 39 Across with a kiss’ (carol) (10)
Computer facilities? Prisoner would like to get his hand on
them! (6,4)
Betsy Perry removed from area reserved for priests (10)
See 32 Across (3,7)
Do not hide facts about meat (6)
‘Worship Christ the _____ king’ (carol) (34)
‘Nor _____ infest the ground’ (carol) (6)
Glittery stuff that could be silent (6)
‘When like stars, His children _____’(carol) (7)
Some more gin available in the city (6)
‘No ear may hear his _____’ (carol) (6)
‘Ding dong _____ on high’ (carol) (7)
One making a great show is one of Rudolph’s friends (6)
Down
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
18
20
22
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
36
37
38
40
41
42
45
48
49
Long drink containing very soft fruit (9)
Fruit, mostly tropical, growing wild (7)
Small bird climbing plant (7)
‘_____ and be merry’ (carol) (7)
Arrest chemist uprooting seasonal plant (9,4)
‘Shining in the _____’ (carol) (4)
Blessed young children who will be remembered just after the
present day (4,9)
One old railway worker, someone dependent on charity (7)
Whistler overseeing pitched battle (7)
On the run she carries round socket on camera (3,4)
Parasite removed from motel site (9)
One of the mistakes in Shakespearean comedy? (5)
The spirit of the Russian people (5)
‘Whereon the _____ of the world was born’ (carol) (7)
‘Star of silver, _____ across the skies’ (carol) (5)
Drink I love in fancy jar (5)
‘All _____ to God on high’ (carol) (5,2)
Gentleman has removed one, bowled (5)
Brief period of enchantment (5)
Song performed deadpan day after day removed (5)
Cold meat free of germs (5)
Picture including one traitor is to do with robbers in the
main (7)
Move NNE transporting poison (7)
Seasonal blazer (4,3)
‘Then _____ in those wise men three’ (carol) (7)
Romeo to disappear going round in glossy coat (7)
Hopelessness of the French duo (7)
One genuflecting in recess (5)
Caught William in Welsh glen (3)
‘Was born upon this _____’ (carol) (3)
Last week’s solution
GUILD OF CHURCH BRAILLISTS
Please join us and help put Christian books into the National
Library for the Blind
Email: [email protected] • Website: www.gocb.org
Tel: 01363 860 141
The senders of the fifirst
rst three
correct solutions opened on
14 January will win a copy of
St Paul’s Cathedral: 1400 years
at the heart of London by Ann
Saunders, kindly donated
by Scala publishers Ltd.
This beautifully illustrated
book, with glorious colour
photographs of St paul’s
Cathedral and its treasures,
tells the history of this much
loved national landmark.
Send your entries to:
Christmas Crossword
Church Times
3rd Floor
invicta House
108114 Golden Lane
London eC1Y 0TG
63
back page interview
‘As a historian of
the post-war years,
I can sit down
every day and have
lunch with some
of my exhibits’
Peter Hennessy
journalist, historian,
peer
Having tried to find out what the
British Constitution is, since read
ing Walter Bagehot late one night at
St John’s College, Cambridge, I’ve
become a tiny moving particle in a
big moving part of the British
Constitution, which is the House of
Lords.
It’s even more baffling [from the
inside]. But then, I don’t want to
find out, because it’s a romantic
thing, the British Constitution, a
thing of shreds and patches. I think
it suits us.
It would be agony if we tried to
write it all down. It would take
years, and we’d have immense fights.
And also I like things to have an air
of magic and mystery, which Bage
hot did, too.
I’m one of those people who think
we should go in for organic re
forms rather than knock it all down
and start again. I want to see a
slimmer House of Lords, one where
hereditary peers are converted into
life peers so you don’t have a
byelection when one dies; to end
the link between the peerage and the
honours system, because it’s a job,
really — reforms of that kind.
I think bishops matter — apart
from the fact that they’re great fun
and tremendous gossips. They do
add something: there’s no question
about it. I’d firmly vote to keep a
number of bishops in the House,
even if we did have a largely elected
chamber. No doubt at all.
Governments are so different, and
the circumstances are so different
within which each prime minister
operates; so I’m not one to rate
them. But the Coalition Govern
ment is fascinating to watch because
of the emotional geography of it. Lib
Dems, with one or two exceptions,
are largely herbivorous politicians,
whereas Conservatives are largely
carnivorous, and these tempera
mental differences mean it’s not
easy for them.
It was the only thing that could
have given us a period of stability
in Parliament, given the parliamen
tary arithmetic that the electorate
produced in May 2010. I don’t think
the alternative rainbow coalition was
a runner.
I’m one of nature’s optimists, but I
do think that the Middle East is
always in an immensely perilous
condition, and the knockon effects
from, say, an Israeli attack on Iran’s
nuclear facilities would be immense.
And that does make me fearful.
I think the greatest shared boon of
our lifetime is the Cold War’s end
ing the way it did. It’s the most
remarkable thing. That’s not the
only reason I’m optimistic — it’s a
temperamental thing.
64
Churches to fall out over everything.
Best manifesto ever written: 175
words and no caveats. That’s where
I go if I need to.
Human curiosity — what Einstein
called a “holy curiosity” — is
within all of us, and it takes
different forms. Mine was probably
picked up from listening to family
stories.
I love Schubert. That amazing out
pouring — there’s hardly anything
in there that doesn’t bring solace.
It’s the great and most reliable
transporter of mood for me. I can’t
play an instrument, sadly, though I
did think that I might take up the
ukulele when I retire so that I could
do George Formby impressions and
irritate everybody.
In the late ’50s, my sister Kathleen,
who was a history teacher, bought
me R. J. Unstead’s book Looking at
History — that wonderful picture
book. I can remember lovingly
copying the outline drawing of a
monastery. So, certainly by then, it
was deep within me. And I found I
enjoyed writing essays and stories;
so the combination of my curiosity
and the pleasure in writing fused, to
make me a professional historian.
What annoys me? Apart from the
silly little frictions of life like mobile
phones on the upper deck of buses?
When we score own goals in society,
really. Like letting class or status
infect every bit of education. I get
quite cross about that. I’m not a
republican in most things, but I do
believe in the republic of the intel
lect. All this Russell Group stuff
about “élite universities” — why
can’t we just get on with it? Good
schools in every sector are beyond
price, and I wouldn’t do anything to
harm Oxbridge, or public schools,
because if you have places that give
knowledge with aplomb and insight,
that’s important. But there’s a dis
dainful attitude to some graduates
because they come from a particular
institution.
I’ve enjoyed it all in turn. I was
lucky to do them in the sequence in
which I did, because journalism is a
young man or woman’s trade —
“routine punctuated by orgies”, to
use Aldous Huxley’s description.
And I really loved every minute of
the 20 years at the university that I
was in from 1992. And the House
of Lords is a place of fascination and
delight — not just because of the
great gossip that you get every day.
As a historian of the postwar years,
I can sit down every day and have
lunch with some of my exhibits.
It’s very pleasureable, and very
illuminating, and an incredible form
of adult education in the Lords,
because people very often know
such a lot. I knew it was a great
repository of wisdom and experi
ence, but I didn’t realise quite how
deep. Even deeper than I thought.
And that’s a great justification for it.
But the other reason for it is that
it’s very useful to have, somewhere
in the legislative structure, a group of
people — not just the crossbenchers,
but really experienced people on the
party benches — who are there
primarily because they know things
rather than because they believe
things.
We’re much more open than we
used to be — amazingly more so
than when I first started as a journ
alist, when there would be a leak
inquiry if I mentioned the letters
and numbers of a particular cabinet
committee in a Times newspaper
story. It’s much, much more open.
You just have to draw the line in a
sensible place.
There are so many things that can
go into the making of the psychic
weather of a country and people at
any one time. Governments are
only part of that. They can surprise
us all by rallying us at a time of great
peril, when the rational prognosis is
dreadful, and the classic example is
of 1940. But there’s a terrible tend
ency among politicians, most of the
time, to use an old phrase of Yehudi
Menuhin’s: “drift to confrontation”.
The model is very adversarial in this
country.
Politicians tend to love taking
ideological and rather personal
away days, and reducing things to
primary colours and soundbites
when it’s all much more compli
cated, and that’s why the public gets
so irritated. So, if there’s a general
malaise or despair, they can add to it
by not rising to the level of events,
but sticking to the tribal reserva
tions of both their minds and seat
ing in the House of Commons, and
only talking to their own kind. That’s
what depresses people.
But politicians are indispensable,
and they can actually make things
better. It doesn’t have to be quite as
raucous and coarse as it is.
It’s the sound of freedom. If it was
all muted, it wouldn’t be a fully
open society. I’m always a bit torn
on that. Thank heavens we don’t
have a presidential system. That
wouldn’t sit well with us: we’re much
more of a collective in our approach
to these things.
I really miss: M. R. D. Foot, a his
torian of the Resistance, who was
the most wonderful friend and com
panion, who died earlier this year.
I’ve been really lucky — extremely
blessed in that way.
My wisest choice was marrying my
dear wife, unquestionably — or
asking her to marry me, much more
accurately — in the spring of 1968.
We have two daughters and two
grandsons.
The books that make me really
purr with pleasure are the ones that
slip down so easily because they’re
so wonderfully written. Professor Sir
Michael Howard has a golden pen.
And there’s Dr Paul Addison, who
wrote The Road to 1945. I remember
thinking, I’d give anything to try
and write history books like this.
I regret that I lapsed from going to
church from the age of 17 to the
age of 54. I didn’t stop believing.
When my oldest daughter was going
to marry a lovely Catholic lad from
Liverpool, she said: “Can you take
me to church, so I can start getting
used to it?” And I thought, why on
earth did I stop coming?
On a much lesser level — absolutely
minuscule compared to that — I
regret that I will not now write the
book The Impact of Gossip and
Rumour on the Making of Politics.
But, for that, I’d have had to start
taking notes when I was a young
political correspondent in the mid
’70s. That’s my scholarly regret.
I’d like to be remembered for
laughter — grandad being an af
fable idiot. It would be nice if my
books were read for a bit, but it’s not
right to expect people to do that, or
crave it. They might like the jokes.
And I have enjoyed the company of
students, I really have. I hope I’ve
never bored them.
I still have the most wonderful
history master, Eric Pankhurst,
who every three months sends me a
packet of cuttings he thinks I ought
to read, just in case I’ve missed
them. He’s a lovely man, and he had
a great influence on me at the time,
and never ceased to have an
influence. There are people like Sir
Michael Quinlan, Permanent Secre
tary at the Ministry of Defence, who
was not only a great mentor of mine,
but also a most wonderful human
being; and John Ramsden, whom I
worked with at Queen Mary College,
a man of great character and verve
— just two examples from each of
my worlds.
There are probably about 20
people from my professional life
who have gone on before and who
Yes, I’m scribbling away. Always —
scribble, scribble. The rhythm of the
week wouldn’t be complete without
scribbling. I try — I fail — to write
1000 words a day most days. It
doesn’t have to be scholarship: it
could be diaries or letters, to keep
my hand in.
There was a sermon that Dr Rowan
Williams gave at the anniversary of
the Carthusian Martyrs at Charter
house two years ago which really
moved me. It was on the theme of
martyrdom. It was the combination
of his wonderful temperament,
power with words, and the evoca
tion he brought to it, in that beau
tiful chapel, surrounded by the
brothers of Charterhouse and others.
Magic isn’t the word one should
associate with religion, but it’s the
only one that fits.
Apart from being with the family,
which is irrespective of place, I love
being in the Lake District. My mum
and dad were from the north, and
part of the Fell and Rock Climbing
Club; so they were always talking
about the Lake District, and it really
lived up to expectation when I went
there. The Orkneys are a great
family favourite, because of their
austere beauty, and the fact that the
winds are so fierce the midges get
blown away — the little buggers
don’t stand a chance. My daughters
thought for years that holidays were
always cold and wet. They didn’t
associate them with sun.
I always go back to the Sermon on
the Mount. It’s the thing we all sign
up to without exception, and when
we stray a few inches from that, we
start falling out. It’s the great thing
we can all fall in on, as opposed to
the terrible tendency we have in our
I profoundly believe in Newman’s
faith in university education for its
own sake. I don’t want to rant about
this: I try to avoid ranting.
I’m happiest with the family, and
when a piece of weaponsgrade
gossip that’s very funny and not
malicious comes my way. Also, I do
love the reading and the writing. I’m
very fortunate: work that’s also play.
I’m not very good at prayer. I try. It
matters. But I don’t think that I’m
that good at it. I find the form of
words which come to me in normal
social relations becomes a bit re
petitive and stilted. I can be repeti
tive and stilted in normal life — of
course I can. But this is difficult. I’m
not one of those who can just chat
with the Almighty. Words are never
enough in prayer, are they? My
consoling thought is that, if one got
complacent in prayer, one would be
in trouble.
Locked in a church with a com
panion? I think it might be St
Benedict. I’d say to him: “That Rule
is amazing, and it’s very hard for
civvies to apply it. I’m rather keen to
have a better go at it than I ever
have before. Let me tell you how I
go about my daily and weekly
routines.” And I expect he’d sigh
inwardly and think: “Not another
one,” but he wouldn’t show it.
Lord Hennessy was talking to
Terence Handley MacMath. Among
his works are The Hidden Wiring:
Unearthing the British constitution
(1995), The Secret State: Whitehall
and the Cold War (2002), Having It
So Good: Britain in the Fifties (2006),
and The Secret State: Preparing for
the worst 19452010 (2010).
printed by Mortons printers and
publishers, Newspaper House, Morton
Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR;
registered as a newspaper at the post office

features - Church Times

Transcription

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