Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (23 July 2023).
Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.
This week, my reflections each morning include:
1, Looking at stained glass windows in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The South Transept and South Aisle windows, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth:
The window in the South Transept of Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is easy to overlook, behind the Lady Chapel half hidden by the organ. This window depicts three Resurrection themes beautifully illustrated in glowing colours: the Supper at Emmaus (left), the Resurrection (centre) and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (right).
This window is in memory of John Harding, of Bonehill, who died on 9 July 1844, aged 82, and his wife, Margaret, who died on 14 November 1833, aged 66, who are buried with six of their children in a vault underneath the North Porch.
The three fine windows in the South Aisle are transomed, with three lights each and well-designed tracery. The stained glass was made by Powell & Son of London and designed by Henry Holiday. The colouring and drawing of the Biblical subjects in these windows are particularly fine.
The first window is in memory of Francis Willington of Colehill, town clerk of Tamworth, who died on 10 February 1881, and his wife Jane Anne, who died on 11 July 1880. Willington also donated the three Marmion or Saint Editha windows by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) in the on the south side of the chancel, high above the High Altar, and the window on the south side of the chancel in memory of his son, Waldyve Henry Willington.
The Biblical figures in this first window in the south aisle are Daniel (‘Bless ye the Lord’), Esther (‘What wilt thou Queen Esther?’) and Ezra (‘By the rivers of Babylon we wept’).
The next window, the richest of the three, is in memory of William Yates Peel (1789-1858) and his wife Lady Jane Elizabeth Peel, who died on 5 September 1847.
William Yates Peel was the second son of Sir Robert Peel and a younger brother of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. He was MP for Bossiney (1817-1818), Tamworth (1818-1830, 1835-1837, 1847), Yarmouth (1830-1831) and Cambridge University (1831-1832), and was a Lord of the Treasury under Wellington and under his brother Sir Robert Peel. Lady Jane Elizabeth Moore was a daughter of Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mount Cashell.
The Biblical figures in this second window in the south aisle are David (‘The Battle is the Lord’s’, I Samuel 17: 17), Rizpah (‘She suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night’, II Samuel 21: 10) and Solomon (‘Blessed be the Lord which delighted in thee’, I Kings 10: 9).
The third window, nearest to the south door, is to the memory of Helen Grace Milligan and John Curzon Shaw (1854-1879), daughter and son of John and Emily Shaw, of Tamworth.
The Biblical figures depicted in this third window in the south aisle are Samson (‘Let me die with the Philistines’), Ruth (’Whose damsel is this?’) and Samuel (‘Anoint him for this is he’).
Matthew 13: 18-23 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 18 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’
Today’s Prayer:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reflections from the International Consultation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Michael Clarke of the West Indies.
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (28 July 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
We pray for all the staff, trustees and volunteers at USPG for all they do to bring the mission and objectives of the organisation to fruition.
Collect:
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion:
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
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
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