23 November 2018

A walk on a winter night
in the streets of Lichfield

Winter lights reflected on Minister Pool in Lichfield last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Between the two-day meeting of USPG trustees in Roehampton in London on Wednesday and Thursday and a meeting of USPG volunteers in Birmingham Cathedral today [23 November 2018], I have been staying overnight in Lichfield.

It is hard to explain how Lichfield is further from London than it is from Dublin, and after an eight-hour journey by bus, coach and train from Roehampton through Birmingham to Lichfield yesterday afternoon and evening, I am now willing to argue that it might have been quicker – almost – to catch a flight to Dublin and a flight back to Birmingham.

I know from past experience that a flight from Dublin and a train from Birmingham is more efficient and speedier journey, and often a cheaper one, than the way I travelled on Thursday.

The meeting of USPG trustees finished at 2 p.m., and I finally checked in at the hotel in Lichfield at 10 p.m. By then, the hotel kitchen was closed, as were the first two restaurants. But I ought to have remembered I could fall back on that old reliable favourite: Ego Restaurant overlooking Minster Pool, with the dim lights of the cathedral reflected in Minster Pool.

Late-night lights in Lichfield Cathedral reflected on Minister Pool (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

But no matter how long the journey, or how late the hour, it is always a joy to be back in Lichfield. Here my faith was shaped and formed in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital and in Lichfield Cathedral when I was still in my late teens almost half a century ago.

Rather than go for a drink afterwards, I went for a walk along Minster Pool, around the Cathedral Close and back through the quiet, still streets of Lichfield in the late night lights of winter.

One homeless person with a sleeping bag had found shelter for the night in the west door of the cathedral. What does winter hold for homeless and vulnerable people this Christmas?

Samuel Johnson … pensive and waiting for the Christmas lights to be switched on next Sunday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Samuel Johnson looked pensive on his perch in the Market Square last night amid the Christmas lights that are waiting to be switched on next Sunday afternoon [25 November 2018].

Before the Christmas Lights are switched on in Lichfield on Sunday, there will be a special market from 11 a.m. around the city centre selling food and gifts, events at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and children’s rides.

There will also be live music and entertainment on the switch-on stage on the Market Square from 2.30 p.m., and a special performance from the cast of the Garrick Theatre’s ‘Dick Whittington’ at 4.45 p.m. just before the big switch-on. The Mayor, helped by two local school children, will throw the switch and light up the City’s Christmas Illuminations at 5 p.m.

Winter lights in the Cathedral Close last night (Photograph Patrick Comerford. 2018)

During the afternoon, two local bands will entertain people from 2.30 p.m., and the Christ Church School Choir will then lead carol singing on the Square from 4.20pm. We are also expecting a special visit from Santa, who will be arriving on stage on the Market Square immediately after the lights are switch-on.

The lights, provided by Lichfield City Council with the support of Lichfield Chamber of Trade and local businesses, will stay on throughout December from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The Guildhall, Donegal House and the Tudor café on Bore Street late last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

But the lights remained off last night as I wandered through Dam Street, Market Street, Bore Street and Bird Street before returning to my hotel.

I hope to visit Lichfield Cathedral and the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital later this morning, before catching a train back into Birmingham for today’s meeting in Birmingham Cathedral for volunteers from the Diocese of Lichfield and neighbouring dioceses organised by the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The West Door of Lichfield Cathedral late last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Singing a new song of hope in
the chapel at the Kairos Centre

Inside the chapel at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

During this week’s residential meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG United Society Partners in the Gospel), we have met in the Kairos Centre in Roehampton, and have worshipped in the chapel of Maryfield Convent each day.

At the end of a working day [21 November 2018], we joined together in the office of Evening Prayer, and before we began today’s work, the general secretary, the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, presided at the Eucharist in the chapel, marking Saint Cecilia’s Day.

Referring to the celebration of Saint Cecilia as the patron of song and music, and continuing the theme in my reflection on the Book of Revelation yesterday, he asked us how we can sing a new song of hope (see Revelation 5).

The High Altar in the chapel at the Kairos Centre is the work of Gunnings of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The Chapel at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton, which is almost 80 years old, was blessed and opened on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1939. Five novices and 13 Jesuit students assisted at the High Mass that day, and nine postulants of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, the order founded by Mother Magdalen Taylor in 1869, received their habit.

Much of the building work of this chapel was helped by the generosity of Miss Agnes Foley. The Altar was made by Rock of Dublin, Gunnings of Dublin supplied the sanctuary lamp and candlesticks, and a marble plaque depicting the Annunciation came from Italy.

The side altar was donated by a Mr Segrue, and Agnes Foley gave the organ and a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child that stands in front of the main building.

The stained-glass windows above the High Altar in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The stained-glass windows behind the High Altar were the gift of a benefactor of Corston Convent.

The words underneath these stained-glass windows declare in Latin: ‘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’ (see John 3: 16).

The Crucifix and alabaster panelling at the back of the altar and around the Sanctuary in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The Crucifix and alabaster panelling at the back of the altar and around the Sanctuary was put in place in 1949-1950 as a ‘Thanksgiving Offering’ for the community living through the London bombing during World War II, especially on the night of the burning on 4 February 1944.

On 24 September 1959, the body of the order’s founder, Mother Magdalen Taylor (1832-1900), was moved from her grave in Mortlake Cemetery to a side chapel on the anniversary of the day 90 years earlier when she founded the Poor Servants of the Mother of God in 1869.

The window depicting Christ as the Sacred Heart in the chapel in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The wooden canopy over her tomb reflects her courage and fortitude. The stained-glass windows in this side chapel show her main devotions: the Sacred Heart Pleading (see Hebrews 7: 25), and the Annunciation (see Luke 1: 26). These windows were designed by Daniel and Deborah Burke and were blessed by Bishop John Crowley, former Bishop of Middlesborough on 24 September 2009. The Annunciation window is interesting for it shows the Virgin Mary after the Archangel Gabriel has left.

The window depicting the Annunciation in the chapel in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

After Vatican II, the High Altar in the chapel was moved to a new position in the Sanctuary to face the people. Every bit of the old altar was carefully taken apart and placed again in the new design which was approved by Archbishop Cyril Cowderoy of Southwark, and was carried out by Gunnings of Dublin in October 1968.

The organ in the chapel in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Our meetings each day have taken place in the Rose Room, once the study hall for the young sisters when the Kairos Centre was the novitiate for the order. The name of this room recalls Sister Rose Joseph, who was the tutor to the nuns and the author of a short biography of Mother Magdalen.

This room on the ground floor faces west and opens onto a York flagged stone terrace that was particularly attractive at sunset yesterday, and looking out onto a frosty morning this morning.

A depiction of the Annunciation in the Rose Room in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)