18 November 2022

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG:
Friday 18 November 2022

The second window in the north wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, is by NHJ Westlake, in memory of the Revd John William Spark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (18 November 2022) remembers Elizabeth of Hungary, Princess of Thuringia, Philanthropist (1231), with a Lesser Festival.

Elizabeth was born in 1207, the daughter of a king of Hungary. She married Louis IV, Landgrave of Thuringia, and they had three children. Theirs was a happy marriage but after four years her husband died of the plague. Elizabeth was driven from the court and she settled in Marburg. There her confessor was Conrad of Marburg, but was domineering and sadistic, and she suffered mental and physical abuse from him. Still, Elizabeth joined the Franciscan Third Order, and cared for the poor, cooking and cleaning for them. She died on this day, just 24 years old, in 1231.

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

Throughout this week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection on the stained glass windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

David killing a lion (see I Samuel 17: 34-37) depicted in the second window on the north wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Luke 19: 45-48 (NRSVA):

45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, ‘It is written,

“My house shall be a house of prayer”;
but you have made it a den of robbers.’

47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

Christ the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11-18) depicted in the second window in the north wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Stained-glass windows in Stony Stratford, 6:

Throughout this week, I am reflecting each morning on the stained glass windows in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire.

The 12 windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles include a two-light window at the west end by Charles Eamer Kempe, depicting three archangels; a set of three windows in the south gallery, among them important work by John Groome Howe of the Hardman studios; two separate windows in the south gallery that appear to include fragments from an earlier window; and six windows – three below the gallery on the south wall and three below the gallery on the north wall – by NHJ Westlake of Lavers & Westlake.

The second window in the North Wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles is dated 1889. It is by Nathaniel Westlake and was commissioned by the Stony Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924), whose works, mainly in the Arts and Crafts style, can be seen throughout the town.

This is second of two sets of windows in memory of the Revd John William Spark, who was the assistant curate in Stony Stratford for six years.

This window is of three eyelets and depicts:

1, David killing a lion (see I Samuel 17: 34-37);

2, Christ the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11-18);

3, The Sacrifice of Abel (Genesis 4: 2).

The Revd John William Spark was born in 1858, the son of Peter Spark, a farmer of Meldreth, near Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire, and later of Babraham. John Spark was educated at Saint John’s College, Oxford (BA 1880, MA 1885), and was an assistant curate in Stony Stratford for six years. He left £50 in his will towards providing better vestry accommodation, and this money formed the nucleus of a fund for building the new vestries.

This window is the second of two in the church in Spark’s memory. Each panel in this window depicts a good shepherd.

Before going into battle with Goliath, David told Saul how he had risked his life for the sheep in flock, killing lions and bears: ‘… whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears … the Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine’ (I Samuel 17: 34-37).

In Saint John’s Gospel, Christ describes himself twice in one passage as the Good Shepherd: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep’ (John 10: 11-15).

The third panel recalls Abel the Shepherd and his sacrifice: ‘Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering’ (Genesis 4: 2-4).

The panels in this window are asking the parishioners of Stony Stratford to remember the Revd John William Spark, their curate who died a young man, as someone who risked his life for them, who made a perfect sacrifice, and who was a faithful shepherd.

The Sacrifice of Abel (Genesis 4: 2) … a panel in the second window on the north wall in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Collect:

Lord God,
who taught Elizabeth of Hungary
to recognize and reverence Christ in the poor of this world:
by her example
strengthen us to love and serve the afflicted and the needy
and so to honour your Son, the servant king,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Faithful God,
who called Elizabeth of Hungary to serve you
and gave her joy in walking the path of holiness:
by this Eucharist
in which you renew within us the vision of your glory,
strengthen us all to follow the way of perfection
until we come to see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Living Together in Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday, describing the work of PROCMURA, the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa. USPG has provided an annual grant to PROCMURA since it started in 1959.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for the success of the Protestant University of Central Africa’s Master of Arts programme in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Inside Saint Mary and Saint Giles, looking east … the church was rebuilt by Francis Hiorne in 1776-1777 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

1 comment:

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