20 June 2013

‘Hallelujah for the heart of God,
and from the hand of the artist inimitable’

‘Hallelujah for the heart of God, and from the hand of the artist inimitable, / and from the echo of the heavenly harp in sweetness magnifical and mighty’ (Benjamin Britten / Christopher Smart) … street art outside Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Patrick Comerford

After Choral Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral this evening [20 June 2013], we hosted a special prayer vigil in association with the South African Embassy to pray for the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

As people, communities and organisations throughout the world are coming together to pray for this great personality who has been a torchlight for freedom and the father of his nation, we came together to sing, speak, light candles and pray collectively.

There was diplomatic representation from many embassies, including South Africa, the US, Ethiopia and Kenya. The hymn singing was led by both the group ‘No Limits’ and Nono Madolo.

Our closing song was the great African ordination hymn that has been become the national anthem of South Africa: Nkosi sikele’ iAfrika.

At another time, it may be more appropriate to write about how I was in South Africa in the weeks immediately before Nelson Mandela’s release from Robben Island in 1990, and how I met him at press conferences, receptions and a special dinner in Dublin.

Earlier this evening, at Choral Evensong, we welcomed the members of the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association, who are holding their conference in Christ Church Cathedral.

As an anthem, the choir sang ‘Rejoice in Lamb,’ a cantata by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) set to words from a poem, Jubilato Agno, by Christopher Smart (1722-1770).

Smart was deeply religious but often unbalanced in mind. Yet his poem shows many flashes of genius and is a reminder of how all creation is called to worship God.

As we are celebrating the centenary of Britten’s birth, I thought it was worth quoting this delightful cantata in full:

Rejoice in the Lamb

Rejoice in God, O ye Tongues; give the glory to the Lord, and the Lamb.
Nations, and languages, and every Creature In which is the breath of Life.

Let man and beast appear before him, and magnify his name together.
Let Nimrod, the mighty hunter, bind a leopard to the altar and consecrate his spear to the Lord.
Let Ishmail dedicate a tyger, And give praise for the liberty in which the Lord has let him at large.
Let Balaam appear with an ass, and bless the Lord his people and his creatures for a reward eternal.
Let Daniel come forth with a lion, and praise God with all his might through faith in Christ Jesus.
Let Ithamar minister with a chamois, and bless the name of Him that cloatheth the naked.
Let Jakim with the satyr bless God in the dance.
Let David bless with the Bear – The beginning of victory to the Lord –
to the Lord the perfection of excellence.

Hallelujah for the heart of God, and from the hand of the artist inimitable,
and from the echo of the heavenly harp in sweetness magnifical and mighty.

For I will consider my cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For he knows that God is his saviour.
For God has bless’d him in the variety of his movements.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For I am possessed of a cat, surpassing in beauty,
From whom I take occasion to bless Almighty God.

For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour.
For – this is a true case – Cat takes female mouse,
Male mouse will not depart, but stands threat’ning and daring.
… If you will let her go, I will engage you, as prodigious a creature as you are.
For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour.
For the Mouse is of an hospitable disposition.

For the flowers are great blessings.
For the flowers have their angels,
Even the words of God’s creation.
For the flower glorifies God
And the root parries the adversary.
For there is a language of flowers.
For the flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.

For I am under the same accusation with my Saviour,
For they said, He is besides himself.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me,
And the watchman smites me with his staff.
For Silly fellow! Silly fellow! is against me,
And belongeth neither to me nor to my family.

For I am in twelve hardships,
But he that was born of a virgin shall deliver me out of all.

For H is a spirit and therefore he is God.
For K is king and therefore he is God.
For L is love and therefore he is God.
For M is musick and therefore he is God.

For the instruments are by their rhimes,
For the shawm rhimes are lawn fawn and the like.
For the shawm rhimes are moon boon and the like.
For the harp rhimes are sing ring and the like.
For the harp rhimes are ring string and the like.
For the cymbal rhimes are bell well and the like.
For the cymbal rhimes are toll soul and the like.
For the flute rhimes are tooth youth and the like.
For the flute rhimes are suit mute and the like.
For the bassoon rhimes are pass class and the like.
For the dulcimer rhimes are grace place and the like.
For the clarinet rhimes are clean seen and the like.
For the trumpet rhimes are sound bound and the like.
For the trumpet of God is a blessed intelligence and so are all the instruments in Heaven.
For God the Father Almighty plays upon the harp of stupendous magnitude and melody.
For at that time malignity ceases and the devils themselves are at peace.
For this time is perceptible to man by a remarkable stillness and serenity of soul.

Hallelujah for the heart of God, and from the hand of the artist inimitable,
and from the echo of the heavenly harp in sweetness magnifical and mighty.


Two visitors from the Indian Orthodox Church

With Father Koshy Vaidyan of the Indian Orthodox Church this afternoon (Photograph: John Mathew)

Patrick Comerford

Father Koshy Vaidyan of the Indian Orthodox Church and Mr John Mathew, secretary of the Indian Orthodox Parish in Dublin and a Sunday School teacher, visited me today to discuss their research into the life of Bishop Herbert Pakenham Walsh.

Father Koshy Vaidyan returned to India last year after completing his PhD in Liturgical Theology at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and he also has an MTh from Maynooth. For six years, from 2006 to 2012, he was the parish priest of Saint Thomas Indian Orthodox Parish in Dublin. The present parish priest is Father George Varghese.

The parish, uses Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s Church in Cathal Brugha Street in Dublin’s City Centre, and I got to know many of the priests and members of the congregation through my work with the Discovery Service in the church.

The Indian Orthodox Church, or Malankara Church has its main numerical strength in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is an ancient Church, tracing its origins back to AD 52, when the Apostle Thomas is said to have arrived in India.

The Saint Thomas Christians or the Indian Syrian Christians have many different churches and denominations. But a major section of the parent body of Saint Thomas Christians have maintained their independence from the Orthodox Church under the Catholicate of the East on the Apostolic Throne of Saint Thomas and the Malankara Metropolitan with headquarters at Devalokam in Kerala.

The Church says it is modern in its vision and outlook, but keeps the traditional Oriental Orthodox faith, which accepts the first three Ecumenical Councils of the Church. It uses a translation of the liturgy adopted from the Church of Antioch.

Historically, this Church was part of the Church of the East, which was based in Persia and with great centres of learning in Edessa, Tigris and Selucia, and missions that reached as far as China. However, the liturgical rites are uniquely Indian, and today the Church uses the Malayalam, Syriac, Hindi, Kannada, German and English languages in the liturgy.

The Indian Orthodox diaspora in Ireland is scattered across the island, with parishes and congregations in Waterford, Cork, Sligo, Drogheda and Belfast (Northern Ireland).

From the 16th century, Portuguese Jesuits tried to bring the community fully into the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. But these efforts were seen as forceful and created such resentment that the majority of the community joined their archdeacon, Father Thomas, and 1653 they took an oath never to submit to the Portuguese.

The part of the church that supported Father Thomas is known as the Malankara Church. Following the arrival of Bishop Gregorios Abdul Jaleel of Jerusalem, Archdeacon Thomas forged a relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church and gradually adopted West Syrian liturgy and practices.

Over time, however, relations became difficult between the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs and the local hierarchy, particularly after Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV (1872-1894) began demanding registered deeds for the transfer of properties.

In 1912, a synod led by the Patriarch Ignatius Abdul Masih II, who had been deposed by the Ottoman government, consecrated Bishop Evanios as Catholicos of the East with the name of Baselios Paulose I.

The dioceses that supported Bishop Baselios Paulose became what is now the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, while those who supported the Patriarch became the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church.

The two groups were briefly reunited between 1958 and 1975, but attempts by church leaders and two Supreme Court decisions were unable to resolve the contention, and the two churches are independent of each other today.

Theologically and traditionally, the Indian Orthodox Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox communion of churches, and it shares the Alexandrian Christology of the the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt.

It was interesting to hear today that the Indian Orthodox Church regards Bishop Herbert Pakenham-Walsh (1871-1959) as a saint, and that his grave is a centre of pilgrimage. He was a missionary in Bangalore (1907-1908), was warden of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School in Bangalore (1907-1913), and the first Bishop of Assam (1915-1924). An ashram he was associated with is now a monastery of the Indian Orthodox Church.

The bishop was the third son of William Pakenham-Walsh (1820-1902), Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin in Ireland (1878- 1897), whose portrait hung over my desk for many years.

Hopefully, the research by Father Koshy Vaidyan and John Mathew helps to promote even closer relations between the Indian Orthodox Church and the Church of Ireland.