21 July 2017

Anglican mission agency USPG
appoints a new CEO

The Revd Duncan Dormor, Dean of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, is the new CEO of USPG

Patrick Comerford

The Revd Duncan Dormor, Dean of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, is to be the next CEO of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Duncan Dormor succeeds Janette O’Neill, who is retiring after six years with USPG.

The appointment was agreed at a meeting of the trustees of USPG in High Leigh earlier this week and was announced this morning [21 July 2017].

Commenting on his appointment, Duncan Dormor said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to be offered this opportunity to lead USPG as it works with partner Churches across the Anglican Communion in seeking to transform the lives of individuals and communities through the power of the Gospel.’

He continued: ‘Faithful to its history, radical in its proclamation, I have long admired the way in which USPG acts in solidarity to empower local churches across the globe in ways that respect their autonomy and culture.’

He said: 'Having spent many years in ministry with young people, I know first-hand of USPG’s thirst to engage with the pressing global challenges of injustice and poverty that scar our world and I would seek to harness such vision to deepen and renew the life of the church across the world through USPG.’

Canon Chris Chivers, Chair of the Trustees of USPG, added: ‘I am thrilled with this appointment. Duncan Dormor brings energy and passion, dynamic communication skills and a proven track-record in enabling organisational change to this important post.’

He said: ‘His deep faith in Jesus Christ, his significant international experience in relation to St John’s College and Cambridge University, his global vision, alertness to the perspective of younger generations, concern for justice and reconciliation, and inspiring work as writer and speaker, make him well-placed to lead the team who will shape the next phase for USPG in new and exciting ways.’

The Master of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, Professor Chris Dobson, said: ‘Duncan has been an absolutely outstanding Dean of Chapel at St John’s and has been a valued member of the college for almost 20 years. In that time, he has also made huge contributions to the pastoral, musical and academic life of the College. We shall miss him very much indeed, but I know that he relishes the prospect of using his energy, experience and passion for justice in this exciting new role.’

Duncan Dormor was an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Human Sciences before studying for an MSc in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. For three years, he worked for Dr Jack Dominian as the Information Officer of the family research and outreach organisation One Plus One.

In 1992, he returned to Oxford to take a degree in theology while training for ordination at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He was ordained in Lichfield Cathedral in 1995 and served as a curate at Saint Peter’s Collegiate Church in Central Wolverhampton. He became Chaplain of Saint John’s in 1998 and was appointed Dean in 2002.

As Dean of the Chapel, he has had overall responsibility for the life of the chapel and its community, for the conduct of worship, the work of the choir and for the oversight of pastoral care within the College community.

Duncan is Director of Studies for Theology at Saint John’s College. He lectures in the Divinity Faculty and is the author of many publications.

He has co-edited (with Jeremy Morris) An Acceptable Sacrifice? Homosexuality and the Church, a collection of essays by nine Cambridge theologians with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. With controversy about same-sex relationships within the Anglican Communion rumbling on, this book gives lay people and clergy alike the resources to think through this complex subject in relation to scripture, tradition and reason, and attempts an honest exploration of some of the key difficulties posed for the Church by the question of homosexuality.

Previous publications include Just Cohabiting? The Church, Sex and Getting Married, in which he provides a short history of the church’s complicated and uneasy attitudes to sexuality and marriage and argues for a radical reappraisal of the Church’s position, proposing that in a chaotic climate for relationships, in which couples desire marriage yet fear commitment, the church should embrace cohabitation as part of the process of ‘becoming married.’

Anglicanism: the Answer to Modernity, originally published in 2003 and re-issued in 2005, is a collection of essays addressing the intellectual future of the Church of England in a confident, faithful and open way.

Duncan has also contributed to a number of other edited collections, including Religion, Gender and the Public Sphere (2013) and Religion and Youth (2010) and he contributes regular reviews to The Church Times and Theology.

He is the Chair of Governors at Saint John’s College School. He is also responsible, as secretary to the Livings committee, for the presentation of clergy to 40 parishes in the Church of England with which Saint John’s College has long historic connections.

Duncan Dormor serves on General Synod of the Church of England as Proctor for the University of Cambridge and on the Mission and Public Affairs Council of the Church of England. He is also on the Governing Council of Westcott House, a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee, and a Trustee of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Finding items from
these parishes in
the Hunt Museum

The Askeaton Paten and Chalice were made in 1663 by John Bucknor of Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

During my visit to the Hunt Museum in Limerick last week, a number of exhibits were of interest to me because of their links with the area embraced by the Rathkeale Group of Parishes in west Co Limerick, including Communion vessels from Askeaton, a replica of the Ardagh Chalice, two late 18th century paintings from Askeaton, and a hand-pin from Askeaton.

A Communion Paten and Chalice attributed to John Bucknor of Limerick was made ca 1663, and is on loan to the Museum by the Select Vestry of Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton.

John Bucknor was one of the early important workers in silver in Limerick. His first-known work dates from 1664, and in 1666 he was appointed Sheriff of Limerick. He died around 1671.

The silver replica of the Ardagh Chalice is not an original exhibit in the Hunt Museum, but tells the story of one of the most important archaeological finds in Ireland, which is part of the story of this part of west Limerick.

The replica of the Ardagh Chalice in the Hunt Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The Ardagh Chalice is part of the Ardagh Hoard, a hoard of metalwork from the eighth and ninth centuries found in 1868 and now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

It includes the Ardagh Chalice, as well as a stemmed cup and four brooches. The chalice ranks with the Book of Kells, the Cross of Cong and the Tara Brooch as one of the finest known works of Insular art or Celtic art, and is thought to have been made in the eighth century AD. The brooches may have been worn by monastic clergy to fasten their vestments.

The hoard was found in 1868 by two boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, digging in a potato field on the south-west side of a rath near the village of Ardagh, Co Limerick. The chalice held the other items, they seem to have been buried in a hurry, to be recovered at a later time. Quin’s mother sold the find to George Butler, Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick.

The Ardagh Chalice ... one of the finest known works of Celtic art (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The chalice is a large, two-handled silver cup, decorated with gold, gilt bronze, brass, lead pewter and enamel, which has been assembled from 354 separate pieces. This complex construction is typical of early Christian Irish metalwork.

The main body of the chalice is formed from two hemispheres of sheet silver joined with a rivet hidden by a gilt-bronze band. The names of the apostles are incised in a frieze around the bowl, below a girdle bearing inset gold wirework panels of animals, birds, and geometric interlace. Techniques used include hammering, engraving, lost-wax casting, filigree applique, cloisonné and enamel. Even the underside of the chalice is decorated.

The Ardagh Chalice was restored by Johnston of Grafton Street, Dublin, and is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street, Dublin.

This replica chalice has an oval body with a sub-conical foot and a cylindrical stem, and was made of silver, enamel, gold (gilt) and glass, and the centre of the base is set with a large rock crystal. The underside edge of the rim is stamped with the name Watson Fothergill.

Johnston later reproduced a faithful copy that was subsequently bought in 1891 by Fothergill, an artist and collector from Nottingham. Fothergill kept a diary in which he refers to the copy of the Ardagh Chalice he had in his home. It may have been sold by his family in early 1928.

The hand-pin or dress pin from Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The hand-pin or dress pin from Askeaton has a head resembling the palm of the hand with the fingers bent forward.

The earliest hand-pins are of silver and are of a relatively modest size. Many were made into the sixth century in copper alloy, with elaborately decorated heads and exceptionally long pins. Most developed hand-pins have five fingers, but the hand-pin found in Askeaton has three fingers.

In this example, the head is a semi-circular plate with a circular perforation. It is capped by three projecting fingers and is fixed to a right-angled projection at the top of the shank. The head is decorated with a pattern of reserved metal against a background of red enamel.

This may be the same hand-pin described by JG Hewson in 1884 in the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland.

The museum also holds two watercolours also of interest to this parish. A watercolour of the castle at Askeaton was painted by the Revd J Turner in 1790, and Turner also painted a watercolour of the Abbey in Askeaton in 1798.

Other items of church interest that caught my imagination, including the Lough Gur Chalice and Paten, on loan from Kilmallock Select Vestry; an icon-like, late mediaeval painting of Saint Sebastian, Saint Nicholas of Myra and Saint Anthony of Egypt; a silver reliquary bust of Saint Patrick; the Antrim Cross; the Cashel Bell; a 17th century triptych; and a crucifix that is said to have been owned at once by the architect AWN Pugin.

I may return to these in blog postings over the next few days or weeks.

Could ‘Hobson’s Choice’ ever be
between Limerick and Cambridge?

Hobson Street behind Sidney Sussex College takes its name from Thomas Hobson, who gave Cambridge Hobson’s Conduit and gave the English language ‘Hobson’s Choice’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Earlier this week I spent a few hours in Cambridge, visiting Sidney Sussex College, browsing in the bookshops, and enjoying a few of my favourite quiet corners, away from the tourists who throng the city on summer days.

I was on my way to the USPG conference in High Leigh and I had a quiet and undisturbed breakfast that morning in a coffee shop in Pety Curry, facing Christ’s College and the junction where Hobson Street meets the corner of Sidney Street and Saint Andrew’s Street.

Hobson Street runs from this corner behind Sidney Sussex College up to King Street, is Hobson Street. Hobson’s Passage is used to store bins and as a narrow shortcut between Hobson Street and Sidney Street, where it emerges between Waterstone’s bookshop and a former cinema.

Hobson Street and Hobson Lane take their name from Thomas Hobson (1544-1631), who built a conduit to supply water to much of Cambridge in the early 17th century but who is best remembered outside Cambridge for the phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice.’

Thomas Hobson, who lived at Chesterton Hall, had extensive estates in Grantchester and was one of the great benefactors of Cambridge.

A blue plaque on Hobson House at 44 Saint Andrew’s Street recalls Thomas Hobson and ‘Hobson’s Workhouse’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

A blue plaque on what is now Hobson House at 44 Saint Andrew’s Street mentions his workhouse, the Spinning House, also known as ‘Hobson’s Workhouse,’ where the poor were housed and given simple work such as spinning.

In 1610-1614, Thomas Hobson built Hobson’s Conduit as a watercourse to bring fresh water into Cambridge from springs at Nine Wells, near the village of Great Shelford, at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills.

Cambridge was plagued by the plague in the 16th century, when many of the university staff and students were dying as well as the townspeople. The plague made no distinction between town and gown, and they slowly realised that it was killing people not because of God’s condemnation or judgment, but because of poor sanitary conditions. The ditch around the town was clogged with sewage and rubbish and was a major cause of disease.

In 1574, Andrew Perne, the Master of Peterhouse, proposed diverting a stream from Nine Wells through Cambridge, and proposed digging the King’s Ditch to improve sanitation. The design was revived by the Master of Sidney Sussex College, James Montagu, and was built at the expense of the university and the town.

What remains of the conduit flows beside Trumpington Street and past Brookside, where it is at its widest. An octagonal monument to Hobson at the corner of Lensfield Road once formed part of the Market Square fountain but was moved in 1856 after a fire in the market. The flow of water runs under Lensfield Road, and then along both sides of Trumpington Street in broad gutters towards Peterhouse and Saint Catharine’s College, and also along Saint Andrew’s Street. The conduit currently ends at Silver Street.

The waterway came to have Hobson’s name because he was involved in building it and because he endowed the Hobson’s Conduit Trust for its maintenance.

The original Trumpington Street branch of Hobson’s river still functions as sluices along Trumpington Street, where it is known on the east side as the Pem (after Pembroke College) and on the west side as the Pot (after Peterhouse).

At this time of the year, the city council controls the flow of water through the sluices, letting water flow in the open conduits in Trumpington Street between April and September, with feeds running into Peterhouse and Pembroke College.

The Market Place branch was completed in 1614, and brought fresh water to the Market Fountain in the centre of the Market Place. However, the flow of water to this branch was cut off in 1960.

Hobson House on Saint Andrew’s Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
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The Saint Andrew’s Street Branch, which was added in 1631, flowed from the conduit head along Lensfield Road and Saint Andrew’s Street towards Drummer Street. There it split into feeds running into Christ’s College and Emmanuel College, as well as a public dipping point. Much of the open conduit along Saint Andrew’s Street was covered in 1996, but it can still be seen in the conduit opposite Christ’s College, where people waiting for a taxi sometimes think they are stepping over a broken drain.

Hobson was also a carrier, delivering mail from Cambridge to London. He had large stables with 40 horses at the George Hotel on Trumpington Street, which is now part of Saint Catharine’s College. From there, he rented horses to university students and staff – perhaps horses then were the equivalent of bicycles in Cambridge today.

Hobson’s practice in renting his horses has given the English language the popular, but often misused, phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice.’

Hobson’s choice is not “Morton’s Fork,” a choice between two equivalent options that may lead to undesirable results, nor is it a dilemma, which is a choice between two undesirable options; it is not a false dilemma, where only two choices are presented although there are others; nor is it a Catch-22, which is a logical paradox.

When Hobson realised his best horses were being over-worked, he began a pattern of rotation, requiring customers to choose the horse in the stall closest to the door. This prevented the best horses always being chosen and being overused.

When his customers objected, his retort was: ‘Take that or none,’ or ‘Take it or leave it.’ It was a choice that came to be known as Hobson’s choice.

Hobson was a resident of Saint Bene’t’s Parish, which I treasure as effectively my parish church when I am in Cambridge. In 1626, he presented a large Bible to Saint Bene’t’s Church, and when he died in 1631, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the chancel of Saint Bene’t’s Church. Milton wrote two humorous epitaphs on Hobson, one which refers to the cart and wain of the deceased.

David’s Bookshop in Saint Edward’s Passage ... an attractive and quiet corner of Cambridge, away from the busy throng of summer tourists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

In a humorous and interesting but intentional misinterpretation of the nature of Hobson’s Choice, the Limerick historian Seán Spellissy says the phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice’ found a second home in Victorian Limerick.

Timothy O’Brien, a large landowner in Co Limerick and Co Clare, had a townhouse in the Crescent, Limerick, and two beautiful daughters, Mary Jane and Emma Margaret. Both were courted by a young man, William Doyle Hobson (1823-1871), from Meylar’s Park near New Ross, Co Wexford.

William Doyle Hobson was a grandson of Lieutenant-General William Doyle, Deputy Adjutant-General in Canada, who died in Waterford the year he was born. For some time, William was unable to decide which of the Doyle sisters he would marry. Eventually, in 1850, he married the second daughter, Emma, who was then 18; her elder sister Mary Jane never married.

Emma and William were the parents of at least five children, and many of their descendants would continue both the Doyle and O’Brien family names. William worked with the Customs at the port of New Ross, but moved to Whitby with promotion. When he died in Truro in 1871, a widowed Emma returned to live in Limerick with her young family.

Emma died at Roseneath, Corbally, in January 1907 at the age of 74. She was buried at Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick, where the funeral was conducted by Dean O’Brien and the Precentor of Limerick, Canon Eyre Archdall.

Within two months, her sister Mary Jane died on 25 March 1907 at Lanahrone House, Corbally, the Limerick home of her nephew, Frederick St Clare Hobson, Emma’s son and by now sub-sheriff and a magistrate for Co Limerick.

After Emma had married William Doyle Hobson, Mary Jane had lived in George’s Street and Barrington Street, Limerick, and then with her sister Emma at Roseneath. In her old age, Mary Jane had been taken care of by the children of the sister William Doyle Hobson had decided to marry.

Hobson’s Choice is rarely a matter of love or marriage, or of horses and carriage – or, for that matter, between Cambridge and Limerick. If you are left waiting in departure lounges at Stansted Airport when your flight is delayed for over an hour on a Wednesday might, I find I am left with Hobson’s Choice when it comes to coffee – a choice not between good coffee and bad coffee, but between whatever coffee is on offer (good or bad), or no coffee at all.

Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick … Emma Hobson was buried here when she died in January 1907 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)