Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham … built in 1715 and a cathedral since 1905 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham, which was the venue for yesterday’s meeting of USPG volunteers from the Midlands dioceses, has only been a diocesan cathedral since 1905, with the formation of a new Diocese of Birmingham, but it dates back more than 300 years to 1715, when it was built and consecrated as a parish church.
Saint Philip’s, which was built in the early 18th century in the Baroque style by the architect Thomas Archer (1668-1743), is a Grade I listed building and the third smallest cathedral in England after Derby and Chelmsford.
Saint Philip’s Church was planned when the nearby mediaeval parish church of Saint Martin in the Bull Ring became too small for the growing population of Birmingham.
Land once known as the Barley Close or the Horse Close was donated by Robert Philips in 1710. The site at Colmore Row, in the heart of the city, is one of the highest points in Birmingham, and is said to be at the same level as the cross on Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London.
An Act of Parliament in 1708 created a new parish of High Town in Birmingham. Work on building a new parish church began in 1709, and the church was ready for consecration on 4 October 1715, when it was dedicated Saint Philip the Apostle in a tribute to the benefactor, Robert Philips.
This was probably Archer’s first church, although earlier he had rebuilt the chancel of the church in Chicheley. Building estimates were put at £20,000, but the final figure was only £5,012, because many of the materials were donated and transported to the site at no cost. The building work was supervised by William Smith of Warwick.
Archer had toured Italy, visiting Rome and Padua, and his Baroque design was influenced by the churches of Bernini and Borromini, so that his style is more Italianate than the churches in London by Christopher Wren, for example.
Inside Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The hall-style, rectangular interior has aisles separated from the nave by fluted pillars in classical form, with Tuscan capitals supporting an arcade surmounted by a heavily projecting cornice. Wooden galleries are stretched between the pillars in a manner that is typical of English Baroque churches.
The tower was complete by 1725, and the urns on the parapet were added in 1756.
Externally, the tall windows are interspaced by pilasters in low relief, supporting a balustrade at roof level with an urn rising above each pilaster. The western end is marked by a single tower that rises in stages and is surmounted by a lead-covered dome and a delicate lantern. The building is of brick and is faced with stone quarried on Archer’s estate at Umberslade Hall near Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire.
The chancel in Saint Philip’s Cathedral was extended in 1884-1888 by JA Chatwin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The original shallow eastern apse was extended in 1884-1888 by JA Chatwin into a much larger chancel, articulated by strongly projecting Corinthian columns. This design is made richer by the marbled surfaces of the columns and pilasters, the gilding of capitals and cornice and the ornately coffered ceiling.
Chatwin also refaced the exterior of the building because the stone from the original quarry was very soft. The tower was refaced in 1958-1959.
The Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), who was born nearby in Bennett’s Hill and was baptised in the church on 1 January 1834, added to the late Victorian enhancement of Saint Philip’s with his donation of several windows, of which three are at the east end. The west window, also by Burne-Jones, was dedicated in memory of Henry Bowlby in 1897.
The Nativity (1887) by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
These windows, made in Birmingham by the Arts and Crafts studios of William Morris, are regarded as the real treasures of the cathedral. The three windows in the chancel depict the Ascension (1885), the Nativity (1887) and the Crucifixion (1887), while the later window at the west end depicts the Last Judgment (1897).
The Crucifixion (1887) by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Other windows in the cathedral are the work of the studios of Hardman of Birmingham.
The Last Judgment (1897), the West Window by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Six monuments in the cathedral have heritage listings. In front of the High Altar and chancel area, a diamond-shape stone plaque in the floor in front of the High Altar commemorates Bishop Leonard Wilson (1897-1970), who was Bishop of Singapore at the outbreak of World War II and became a Japanese prisoner of war. Despite his treatment in prison, he baptised three of his captors. He later retuned to England and became the fourth Bishop of Birmingham (1953-1969).
A stone plaque commemorates Bishop Leonard Wilson (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The cross that once stood on the High Altar has a piece of quartz at its centre. It was made in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham by the artist and jeweller John Donald in 1963.
The cross with a quartz at its centre was made was John Donald (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Meanwhile, Saint Philip’s continued to serve as a parish church from 1715 until 1905. The industrial revolution and the growth of industrial towns in the 18th and 19th centuries brought with them a growth in the number of parishes, and a need for new parishes and dioceses. Birmingham was given city status in 1889. But, while Liverpool and Truro both built new cathedrals, in other cities older parish churches and ancient abbeys were given the status of cathedral in new dioceses.
Both the Birmingham-born statesman Joseph Chamberlain and the Bishop of Worcester, Charles Gore, worked hard to have a separate Diocese of Birmingham carved out, and in 1905 Saint Philip’s became the cathedral of the new diocese of Birmingham, with Charles Gore (1853-1932) as the first Bishop of Birmingham (1905-1911). He was the editor of Lux Mundi, the founder of the Community of the Resurrection, and was a leading Christian Socialist. He later became Bishop of Oxford (1911-1919), and died in 1932.
During World War II, the cathedral was bombed and gutted on 7 November 1940. However, its most significant treasures, including several windows by Edward Burne-Jones, had been removed in the early stages of the war by Birmingham Civic Society. They were replaced, undamaged, when the cathedral was restored in 1948.
The Crucified Christ and candlesticks by Peter Eugene Ball (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The chapel at the east end of the north aisle has a distinctive Crucified Christ and a pair of candlesticks by Peter Eugene Ball (1986). The cross is made from a simple wooden sleeper, and the Crucified Christ from copper and bronze foil
The former burial place in the cathedral crypt was transformed into a meeting room and choir school in 1989 – and this is where we met yesterday.
The organ was built by Thomas Swarbrick in 1715 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
The organ in Saint Philip’s was originally built by Thomas Swarbrick, and still dates in part from 1715. It was repaired in the late 19th century and was moved from its original position in the gallery. It has been restored, enlarged and modernised several times since then.
Saint Philip’s has a traditional cathedral choir of 20 boys and adult lay clerks as well as choral scholars. Since 1992, the cathedral has also had a choir of girls who sing several times a week.
Following the completion of the tower in 1725, Joseph Smith of Edgbaston provided a ring of eight bells, later augmented to 10. But these bells were unsatisfactory, and in 1751 the vestry had them recast by Thomas Lester of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London. The new bells were slightly larger and were hung in a wooden frame.
The bells were used throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries. But by 1906 the bells were no longer in a condition to ring, and there were concerns about the safety of the tower. Ringing was briefly revived in 1921 but they were not rung again until the Coronation of George VI in 1937.
The bells were restored by Gillett & Johnston, bell founders in Croydon, and this foundry cast two additional bells in 1949 to complete the ring of 12 bells that is there today. The bells were rehung again in 2004.
Thomas Stirling Lee’s statue of Bishop Charles Gore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Outside, in the grounds of the cathedral, Thomas Stirling Lee’s statue of Bishop Charles Gore, vested in convocation robes with his right hand raised in blessing, stands in front of the West entrance. It dates from 1914. However, Gore chose to be buried at Mirfield, the home of the Community of the Resurrection.
A large Portland stone obelisk by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield commemorates Frederick Gustavus Burnaby. Besides Burnaby’s bust, in relief, it carries only the word ‘Burnaby’ and the placenames and dates ‘Khiva 1875’ and ‘Abu Klea 1885.’ These refer to the Khanate of Khiva and the Battle of Abu Klea, where Burnaby was killed.
The memorial in the cathedral grounds to Thomas Unett, who was killed at the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1855 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
A monument in the cathedral grounds commemorates John Heap and William Badger two men who died during the building of Birmingham Town Hall.
Other monument in the cathedral grounds include a memorial to the 21 victims of the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974, unveiled in 1995.
Since 2017, the Very Revd Matt Thompson has been the Dean of Birmingham. The cathedral is open every day throughout the year, and maintains a regular pattern of daily worship.
The south side of Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
24 November 2018
How USPG volunteers are
‘a way of … inviting other
people into our mission’
The statue of Bishop Charles Gore outside Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham … the venue for today’s workshop for USPG volunteers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I have spent much of today [23 November 2018] at a regional day for volunteers and supporters of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
The day began with Morning Prayer at 8 a.m. in Lichfield Cathedral with the Bishop of Lichfield, Michael Ipgrave, and the Dean of Lichfield, Adrian Dorber, and a short visit to the chapel of Saint john’s Hospital in Lichfield, which helped to shape my faith when I was in my late teens almost 50 years ago.
The USPG volunteers at today’s meeting in Birmingham came from dioceses throughout the Midlands, including Lichfield, Coventry, Derby, Birmingham, Southwell and Nottingham and Worcester.
This year, USPG has organised regional days like this in Carmarthen, Manchester, Peterborough and Birmingham, and there are more workshops early next year in London, Bishop’s Stortford, Bicester and York.
Today, USPG has about 50 trained, volunteer speakers. Dioceses and parishes have had 91 USPG speakers this year, and while 24% of these engagements were met by staff, 76% of speaking engagements were met by volunteers.
This is a turnaround from two years ago, when the percentages were the other ay around, which just goes to show how important volunteers are in the work and mission of USPG.
During the morning, Rebecca Woolgar, USPG’s Volunteering and Stewardship Manager, introduced a number of aspects of USPG’s work, highlighting the latest edition of Transmission, including its pages on ‘Out and About in Britain and Ireland,’ the Prayer Cards for Advent 2018, legacy giving, and the opportunities for experience of USPG’s work through two programmes: Journey with Us offers an opportunity for from three months to a year, followed by reflection weekends and opportunities to share their experiences; while Expanding Horizons includes short-term opportunities for priests and others.
She also updated us on USPG’s work with the two Anglican Churches in the Philippines – the Independent Church of the Philippines (IFI) and the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
Church leaders in the Philippines are facing threats, intimidation and imprisonment in a climate of fear, and Bishop Carolos Morales has been jailed because of his involvement in the peace process.
Short film presentations depicted the threats facing children and their families face in the Philippines, where the IFI is standing with these people and highlighted the plight of the Lumad people in Mindanao.
Under the Dutente regime, Lumad schools are attacked regularly, 53 schools have been forcibly closed, 12 have been destroyed, and teachers and students face illegal arrest and trumped-up charges. Their plight goes unreported in mainstream media in the Philippines, and they struggle to have their voices heard.
Earlier this year, Father Chris Ablon spoke at Greenbelt about the work of the IFI, with oppressed minority group in the Philippines.
Rebecca Boardman of USPG’s Global Relations spoke of USPG’s work with the Diocese in Europe as it works with migrants and responds to changes in migration, focussing on this work in Greece, France and Morocco.
As she pointed out, migration has always existed, and the Bible is a story of people on the move. It is not a new trend in Europe, but since 2015 received major attention in Britain and Europe.
Today, in 2018, an estimated 68.5 million are forcibly displaced worldwide, including migrants and refugees, and this figure may be underestimated. Often they are forcibly displaced because of climate change, crop failure and an increasingly hostile environment.
Nor are migrants always crossing national borders. Of the 68.5 million people, 40 million are internally displaced, meaning almost 60 per cent of migrants remain in their own country, and many unwilling to leave their own country.
Germany hosts about 1 million, but Turkey hosts 3.5 million refugees, while UNHCR figures show that at the end of last year [2017] there were 121,837 refugees in the UK, 40,365 pending asylum cases and 97 stateless persons in the UK. In the 12 months prior to June 2018, the UK received 27,044 applications from main applicants, a 1% drop from the previous year.
In 2015, the year the photograph of Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach woke Europe up to the plight of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean. That year [2015], about 1 million arrived in Greece, mainly on the Aegean islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios and Kos, from Turkey. By 2018, the number of people moving through Greece has fallen to 17,000, even though the same problems remain in Syria, Afghan, Iraq and other countries.
Many people are prevented from moving on from Turkey because of the impact of an agreement between the EU and Turkey. Borders across Europe have started to shut down, barbed wire fences have gone up, and there is a knock-on impact.
There are common European asylum agreements about redistributing people across Europe, but Britain has opted out of all these agreements, has its own legal framework.
The number of people crossing into Greece dropped significantly in 2017, and more people are crossing into Italy, and now from Morocco into Spain. The route is moving from the East Mediterranean to the West Mediterranean, and the routes have become more dangerous, with people taking more risky and dangerous journeys, and reports of people trafficking, sex trade and slavery in Libya, Turkey and other countries where people are held back.
The Diocese in Europe works in 40 countries, from Morocco in north Africa through Europe and Turkey into the former Soviet Union. Many of the churches are small chaplaincies, with few people able to give substantially, and USPG is engaged with a number of critical locations in the diocese: Athens, Calais, and Tangier and Casablanca.
The numbers travelling through Europe rose rapidly in 2015, and Father Malcolm Bradshaw, then the Anglican chaplain in Athens, saw tents appearing in the main squares close to Saint Paul’s Church. The Diocese in Europe responded by calling on USPG to work with the Anglican presence in Greece.
The context in Greece changed substantially. Many people have been resettled or re-homed and have access to jobs and the opportunities to sustain themselves. The work in Greece has strengthened co-ordination between churches, with long-term key partnership with the Greek Orthodox Church. Working together for the past three years has gone beyond meeting humanitarian and has brought the Churches to work together.
In France, Canon Kirilie Reed has been appointed the chaplain and Refugee Project Officer in Pas-de-Calais, with the support of the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and USPG.
In Morocco, USPG is supporting Saint Andrew’s Chaplaincy in Tangier, where Father Denis has been seconded from Nigeria to work with west Africans and provide pastoral support and care, as well as working with the Roman Catholic church in Tangier.
Other work supported by USPG includes supporting a church working with Sudanese refugees northern Finland, and a women’s hostel in Istanbul.
Rachel Woolgar also spoke of fundraising as a way of engaging with mission.
USPG’s volunteers are generous, and, as the theologian Henri Nouwen says in The Spirituality of Fundraising, fundraising in the Church is ‘first and foremost a form of ministry’ and ‘a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission.’
She introduced us to USPG’s Lent Course for 2019, ‘The Prophetic Voice of the World Church.’ This work with the Church of North India and Church of South India includes working with the problems surrounding people trafficking in India, environmental issues in the schools, and oppressed women.
Later in the afternoon, Kate Winser from Norwich spoke of her nine-month experiences in Belize on a ‘Journey with Us’ programme.
The new Crucifixion Icon from Bethlehem seen in Lichfield Cathedral after Morning Prayer this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
(Updated 7 December 2018, with a correction to the statistic quoted)
Patrick Comerford
I have spent much of today [23 November 2018] at a regional day for volunteers and supporters of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
The day began with Morning Prayer at 8 a.m. in Lichfield Cathedral with the Bishop of Lichfield, Michael Ipgrave, and the Dean of Lichfield, Adrian Dorber, and a short visit to the chapel of Saint john’s Hospital in Lichfield, which helped to shape my faith when I was in my late teens almost 50 years ago.
The USPG volunteers at today’s meeting in Birmingham came from dioceses throughout the Midlands, including Lichfield, Coventry, Derby, Birmingham, Southwell and Nottingham and Worcester.
This year, USPG has organised regional days like this in Carmarthen, Manchester, Peterborough and Birmingham, and there are more workshops early next year in London, Bishop’s Stortford, Bicester and York.
Today, USPG has about 50 trained, volunteer speakers. Dioceses and parishes have had 91 USPG speakers this year, and while 24% of these engagements were met by staff, 76% of speaking engagements were met by volunteers.
This is a turnaround from two years ago, when the percentages were the other ay around, which just goes to show how important volunteers are in the work and mission of USPG.
During the morning, Rebecca Woolgar, USPG’s Volunteering and Stewardship Manager, introduced a number of aspects of USPG’s work, highlighting the latest edition of Transmission, including its pages on ‘Out and About in Britain and Ireland,’ the Prayer Cards for Advent 2018, legacy giving, and the opportunities for experience of USPG’s work through two programmes: Journey with Us offers an opportunity for from three months to a year, followed by reflection weekends and opportunities to share their experiences; while Expanding Horizons includes short-term opportunities for priests and others.
She also updated us on USPG’s work with the two Anglican Churches in the Philippines – the Independent Church of the Philippines (IFI) and the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
Church leaders in the Philippines are facing threats, intimidation and imprisonment in a climate of fear, and Bishop Carolos Morales has been jailed because of his involvement in the peace process.
Short film presentations depicted the threats facing children and their families face in the Philippines, where the IFI is standing with these people and highlighted the plight of the Lumad people in Mindanao.
Under the Dutente regime, Lumad schools are attacked regularly, 53 schools have been forcibly closed, 12 have been destroyed, and teachers and students face illegal arrest and trumped-up charges. Their plight goes unreported in mainstream media in the Philippines, and they struggle to have their voices heard.
Earlier this year, Father Chris Ablon spoke at Greenbelt about the work of the IFI, with oppressed minority group in the Philippines.
Rebecca Boardman of USPG’s Global Relations spoke of USPG’s work with the Diocese in Europe as it works with migrants and responds to changes in migration, focussing on this work in Greece, France and Morocco.
As she pointed out, migration has always existed, and the Bible is a story of people on the move. It is not a new trend in Europe, but since 2015 received major attention in Britain and Europe.
Today, in 2018, an estimated 68.5 million are forcibly displaced worldwide, including migrants and refugees, and this figure may be underestimated. Often they are forcibly displaced because of climate change, crop failure and an increasingly hostile environment.
Nor are migrants always crossing national borders. Of the 68.5 million people, 40 million are internally displaced, meaning almost 60 per cent of migrants remain in their own country, and many unwilling to leave their own country.
Germany hosts about 1 million, but Turkey hosts 3.5 million refugees, while UNHCR figures show that at the end of last year [2017] there were 121,837 refugees in the UK, 40,365 pending asylum cases and 97 stateless persons in the UK. In the 12 months prior to June 2018, the UK received 27,044 applications from main applicants, a 1% drop from the previous year.
In 2015, the year the photograph of Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach woke Europe up to the plight of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean. That year [2015], about 1 million arrived in Greece, mainly on the Aegean islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios and Kos, from Turkey. By 2018, the number of people moving through Greece has fallen to 17,000, even though the same problems remain in Syria, Afghan, Iraq and other countries.
Many people are prevented from moving on from Turkey because of the impact of an agreement between the EU and Turkey. Borders across Europe have started to shut down, barbed wire fences have gone up, and there is a knock-on impact.
There are common European asylum agreements about redistributing people across Europe, but Britain has opted out of all these agreements, has its own legal framework.
The number of people crossing into Greece dropped significantly in 2017, and more people are crossing into Italy, and now from Morocco into Spain. The route is moving from the East Mediterranean to the West Mediterranean, and the routes have become more dangerous, with people taking more risky and dangerous journeys, and reports of people trafficking, sex trade and slavery in Libya, Turkey and other countries where people are held back.
The Diocese in Europe works in 40 countries, from Morocco in north Africa through Europe and Turkey into the former Soviet Union. Many of the churches are small chaplaincies, with few people able to give substantially, and USPG is engaged with a number of critical locations in the diocese: Athens, Calais, and Tangier and Casablanca.
The numbers travelling through Europe rose rapidly in 2015, and Father Malcolm Bradshaw, then the Anglican chaplain in Athens, saw tents appearing in the main squares close to Saint Paul’s Church. The Diocese in Europe responded by calling on USPG to work with the Anglican presence in Greece.
The context in Greece changed substantially. Many people have been resettled or re-homed and have access to jobs and the opportunities to sustain themselves. The work in Greece has strengthened co-ordination between churches, with long-term key partnership with the Greek Orthodox Church. Working together for the past three years has gone beyond meeting humanitarian and has brought the Churches to work together.
In France, Canon Kirilie Reed has been appointed the chaplain and Refugee Project Officer in Pas-de-Calais, with the support of the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and USPG.
In Morocco, USPG is supporting Saint Andrew’s Chaplaincy in Tangier, where Father Denis has been seconded from Nigeria to work with west Africans and provide pastoral support and care, as well as working with the Roman Catholic church in Tangier.
Other work supported by USPG includes supporting a church working with Sudanese refugees northern Finland, and a women’s hostel in Istanbul.
Rachel Woolgar also spoke of fundraising as a way of engaging with mission.
USPG’s volunteers are generous, and, as the theologian Henri Nouwen says in The Spirituality of Fundraising, fundraising in the Church is ‘first and foremost a form of ministry’ and ‘a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission.’
She introduced us to USPG’s Lent Course for 2019, ‘The Prophetic Voice of the World Church.’ This work with the Church of North India and Church of South India includes working with the problems surrounding people trafficking in India, environmental issues in the schools, and oppressed women.
Later in the afternoon, Kate Winser from Norwich spoke of her nine-month experiences in Belize on a ‘Journey with Us’ programme.
The new Crucifixion Icon from Bethlehem seen in Lichfield Cathedral after Morning Prayer this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
(Updated 7 December 2018, with a correction to the statistic quoted)
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