14 September 2022

Praying with USPG and the music of
Vaughan Williams: Wednesday 14 September 2022

The spires of Lichfield Cathedral seen from the gates of the Garden of Remembrance in Lichfield … the lettering on the gates says: ‘Pax 1919’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is Holy Cross Day in the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship (14 September).

I left Sheffield, yesterday following ‘gamma knife’ or stereotactic radiosurgery in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital on Monday as a follow-up to my stroke (AVM) six months ago (18 March 2022).

Two of us are spending a few days in York as I take some rest and time to recover, and perhaps we may visit York Minster and Durham Cathedral during these few days. But, before today begins, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

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

The Calvary Ccrucifix at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Startford, was renovated in 1996 in memory of Canon Eric Steer … today is Holy Cross Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The cross on which Christ was crucified has become the universal symbol of Christianity, replacing the fish symbol of the early Church, though the latter has been revived in recent times. After the end of the era of persecution, early in the fourth century, pilgrims began to travel to Jerusalem to visit and pray at the places associated with the life of Christ. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, was a Christian and, while she was overseeing excavations in the city, it is said she uncovered a cross that many believed to be the Cross of Christ. A basilica was built on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and dedicated on this day in the year 335.

John 3: 13-17 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to Nicodemus:] 13 ‘No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’


‘Dona nobis pacem’ with the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and Michaela Anthony, soprano

Today’s reflection: 3, Reconciliation (Whitman)

For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

For these six days this week, I am listening to Dona nobis pacem, a cantata for soprano and baritone soli, chorus and orchestra.

The oratorio falls into the six continuous sections or movements, and I am listening to these movements one-by-one in sequence each morning.

I am posting a full recording of the cantata each day, so each movement can be listened to in context, but each morning I am listening to the movements in sequence.

The six sections or movements are:

1, Agnus Dei

2, Beat! beat! drums! (Whitman)

3, Reconciliation (Whitman)

4, Dirge for Two Veterans (Whitman)

5, The Angel of Death (John Bright)

6, Dona nobis pacem (the Books of Jeremiah, Daniel, Haggai, Micah, and Leviticus, the Psalms, the Book of Isaiah, and Saint Luke’s Gospel)

This morning [14 September 2022], I am listening to the third movement, ‘Reconciliation.’

3, Reconciliation

The heart of Dona nobis pacem is found in the third movement, ‘Reconciliation.’ In this movement, Vaughan Williams uses this heart-wrenching poem by Walt Whitman in its entirety.

Although Whitman’s long lines are not easily set to music, the words have an almost intolerable beauty, marked by truth and compassion in the face of the shocking carnage suffered by humanity.

‘Reconciliation’ transcends the threatening atmosphere with a striking, bitter-sweet moment. Set like a lullaby, Whitman’s text offers a promise to the dead enemy – ‘a man divine as myself’ – that time will wash away the awful deeds of war, a promise sealed with a kiss.

The text is matched in perfect spirit by the beautiful setting by Vaughan Williams, sung by the commanding yet gentle voice of the baritone soloist. The baritone introduces the first half of the poem, which the choir echoes and varies.

The baritone then continues with the rest of the poem, followed by the choir presenting a new variation of the first half.

At the end, the soprano repeats a variation of Dona nobis pacem, which we heard in the first movement, hauntingly soaring above the final lines of the chorus.

3, Reconciliation

Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly, softly,
Wash again and ever again this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man as divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin – I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.

The war memorial cross in Grantchester Churchyard … the name of the poet Rupert Brooke is inscribed alongside those of parishioners (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer (Wednesday 14 September 2022, Holy Cross Day):

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who in the passion of your blessed Son
made an instrument of painful death
to be for us the means of life and peace:
grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ
that we may gladly suffer for his sake;
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,
whose Son bore our sins in his body on the tree
and gave us this sacrament to show forth his death until he comes:
give us grace to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is our salvation, our life and our hope,
who reigns as Lord, now and for ever.

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Holy Cross Day,’ and was introduced on Sunday with a prayer written by Naw Kyi Win, a final year undergraduate student at Holy Cross Theological College in the Church of Province of Myanmar.

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

Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Let us give thanks for the love of God, which knows no limits, and the sacrifice made so that we could be saved.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Crucifixion depicted on the rood in the chapel of Pusey House, Oxford (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

Saint Mary’s Church stands
on the site of a Saxon church
in the heart of Aylesbury

Saint Mary’s Church dominates the skyline of Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, with its ornate clock tower, dominates the skyline of Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire.

There has been a church on the site since Saxon times, and the present church dates from ca 1200-1250, with additions and alterations in the 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th centuries.

This church is a fine example of an Early English church of spacious proportions found in many market towns. It was saved from certain ruin in the 1850s and 1860s by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the great architects of the Gothic Revival, who was born near Buckingham.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Aylesbury, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Saxon church on this site may have been built ca 571, when Aylesbury was a Saxon settlement known as Aeglesburge, and may be the place here Saint Osgyth, a Mercian princess, abbess and martyr, was buried following her death in the year 700.

Her place of burial became a place of pilgrimage. But, following a papal decree in 1500, her bones were removed from the church and buried in secret.

The early church was a Prebend in Lincoln Cathedral, and the Prebendary of Aylesbury was attached to the See of Lincoln as early as 1092.

The ‘Aylesbury Font’ at the west end of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Norman font at the west end of the church and other artefacts found in the 19th century point to the existence of the earlier church. The font, found in three fragments, has given its name to a style of fonts known as the ‘Aylesbury Fonts,’ normally dated to 1170-1190.

It is shaped like a chalice, with a wide fluted bowl, border with delicately-carved foliage, and supported on a square base with semi-circular cushions.

There are other Aylesbury Fonts are at: Bledlow, Buckland, Chearsley, Chenies, Great Kimble, Great Missenden, Haddenham, Little Missenden, Ludgershall, Monks Risborough, Saunderton and Weston Turville.

The effigy of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, in the north transept (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was built between 1200 and 1250 with a cruciform shape, including a chancel, nave, transepts and tower. It retains that basic shape to this day, although it has been altered and modified over time.

The effigy of a knight in the north transept is assumed to be that of James Butler (1359-1405), 3rd Earl of Ormonde, who in 1386 founded the house of Greyfriars, thought to have been on the site of Aylesbury Railway Station, and acquired Kilkenny Castle in 1391.

The Lady Chapel and the Sacristy (now called the Vestry) were built at the east end of the south and north transepts in the 14th or 15th century.

The Lady Chapel has a sedilia. The room above the sacristy is a priest’s chamber or priest’s hole.

The Lady Chapel was built at the east end of the south transept in the 14th or 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The clerestory was were added in the 15th century. The east ends of the north and south chapels were probably extended about the same time, to form two larger chapels known today as the Chapel of Saint George and the Chapter House.

The Guild of Saint Mary was founded in Aylesbury by John Kemp, Archbishop of York, in 1450. The Guild was influential in the final outcome of the Wars of the Roses. Its premises at the Chantry in Church Street, Aylesbury, are the site of almshouses today.

John Stone of Aylesbury left a bequest in 1494 to maintain a clock and chimes in the church tower.

Henry VIII made Aylesbury the county town, replacing Buckingham, supposedly to with favour with Thomas Boleyn, a descendant of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, so that he could marry his daughter Anne Boleyn.

Later in the 16th century, the remaining sides of the south-west pier were encased in stonework. The same work was carried out on the north-west pier in 1599, and the arch abutting against it was walled up probably at the same time.

The figures on each side of the south porch door represent Saint Peter and Saint James (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

A statue of the Virgin Mary in a niche over the west door survived the worst excesses of the Reformation, and in 1970 it was re-placed on the north wall of the chancel for its preservation. Some mediaeval misericords survive among the stalls in the chancel.

The figures on each side of the south porch door, now the main entrance facing onto Church Street, represent the patrons of the daughter churches, Saint Peter of Quarrendon and Saint James of Bierton.

Two piscinas by the sacristy door in the north transept are among the five surviving mediaeval piscinas in Saint Mary’s Church. They indicate mediaeval altars and side altars and the daily celebration of the Eucharist in the church until the Reformation.

An alabaster monument in the north transept commemorates Lady Lee, who died in 1584, wife of Sir Henry Lee of Quarrendon, an Elizabethan courtier. Once, it was profusely decorated with gold and colouring. A bequest from Sir Henry Lee led to the foundation of Aylesbury Grammar School in 1598, which was first housed in the church.

Lady Lee looks surprisingly humble kneeling with her daughter and where there were images of her two children who died young and were buried in their swaddling clothes. An inscription laments the loss of her children, and asks for a red rose to be placed on her memorial – a request that is honoured to this day.

But her two infant boys, who have been part of the life of Aylesbury for four or five centuries, have been missing for almost a year. They seem to have been stolen from the monument last October.

The Lee monument in the north transept, without two baby boys missing for almost a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Aylesbury Grammar School moved to what were then church buildings in 1611. The school remained here until 1907, and the buildings now house the County Museum.

The Cromwellian Commissioners and Visitors listed the Revd John Barton of Aylesbury a ‘scandalous minister’ in 1642 and voted to expel him. The House of Commons was told on 8 July 1642 that John Barton had spoken against the Parliament. He was arrested and was brought in custody before Parliament. He did not recant his words, was committed to the ‘Gatehouse,’ and was later driven from the Vicarage.

Nehemiah Wharton, a Parliamentarian soldier, and his supporters broke into the church in August, 1642, defaced historical monuments and windows, ‘and burned the holy rails.’ The Battle of Aylesbury on 1 November 1642 was a key event in the Civil War.

The small spire that crowns the church tower is believed to date from the reign of Charles II.

A surviving monument in the chancel recalls Sir Francis Barnard, the last Governor of Massachusetts in 1760.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Aylesbury, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

A surveyor’s report in 1765 confirmed the building was in a very unsafe state and required re-erection.

By the early 19th century, only part of the church was used for public worship and it was partitioned off from the transepts. The south transept was said to resemble ‘a marine store,’ parts of the church was used to hold the equipment of the parish fire brigade, and during the Napoleonic Wars, local regiments stored their stocks of gunpowder in the church.

Extensive renovations were carried out after a report from 1842 on, beginning with the interior of the south transept. However, a surveyor from London reported that the Church might probably stand until he got to Watford, but that it would fall before he reached home.

The fastenings holding the chimes in place in the tower gave way during the Sunday service on 24 September 1848, and created panic in the church before the service resumed. A survey by Sir Gilbert Scott that year revealed considerable problems with the foundations, the walls and the roof.

Two angels in the richly-painted reredos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Scott carried out extensive restoration work in the 1850s and 1860s while the church was closed and public worship held in the County Hall. Pews, galleries, partitions and other fixtures were removed and sold, the late Perpendicular east window was replaced, and Scott was criticised for destroying the mediaeval fabric of the church.

When the congregation returned to the church for public worship on Pentecost Day 1851, the restoration was far from complete. There were no seats and the restoration of the chancel had not yet started.

The restoration of the west end began in 1866, and the completion of the restoration work was celebrated on 28 September 1869, when Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of Oxford and Bishop Harold Browne of Ely preached.

The Great West Window by Michael O’Connor & Sons (1862) depicts Biblical scenes from Creation to the Prophets (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The east window with three lancets was put in place during the Victorian restorations. The figures of Saint Peter with his keys and Saint Paul with his sword were carved in Oberammergau. The great triptych above the High Altar was designed by JL Pearson, the architect of Truro Cathedral, and was installed in 1891.

The colourful Victorian glass filling the 15th century perpendicular west window above the font depicts Biblical scenes from Creation to the Prophets.

Saint George’s Chapel has been restored by the Buckinghamshire Battalion of the county regiment as a memorial to those who died in two World Wars.

The Three Marys at the Tomb depicted in the east window by Burlison & Grylls (1868) in the Lady Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was considered perilously unstable once again in the 1970s, and at one time it appeared to be facing demolition. Following storm damage in 1976, the battlemented parapet was removed from at the top of the tower.

The church was closed in 1978 for further restoration work. A new internal layout, floor, lighting, and heating system were installed, and the work was completed within a year. A refectory was built in the old south porch and the main entrance was moved to the door in the south transept.

The churchyard may have been much larger in the late Saxon and mediaeval periods. Skeletons have been found at 12 Church Street in a water main trench and in the cellars of 14 Temple Square and 2 Saint Mary’s Square. The churchyard was closed to burials in 1857.

Music plays an important role in the life of Saint Mary’s Church and community life, particularly at formal worship, and other activities, including concerts and lunch-time recitals.

The original church organ was a gift of a Mrs Mary Pitches in 1782. The organ was built by Green of Lichfield and was improved in 1858. But little of the original instrument now remains.

The War Memorial at the Church Street gate of the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

To some visitors, Saint Mary’s Church may appear to have a superficial Victorian Gothic Revival appearance. But that would ignore its past and its historical significance, and it is a Grade I listed building.

Today, the church is a true community church , in the heart of the old town of Aylesbury and an oasis of calm in the midst of a busy and vibrant town.

• Saint Mary’s Church is in the modern Catholic tradition. Father Doug Zimmerman, who gave me a guided tour of the church during my visit, has been the Rector of Saint Mary’s since September 2014, having moved from Florida. The Sunday services are at 8 am (Said Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer), and 10 am (Sung Eucharist).

Saint Mary’s Church, with its ornate clock tower, dominates the skyline of Aylesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)