30 November 2020

Praying in Advent with
Lichfield Cathedral:
2, Monday 30 November 2020

The shrine of Saint Andrew in the crypt in Saint Andrew’s Cathedral Amalfi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, I am using the Prayer Diary of the Anglican Mission Agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) for my morning reflections each day, and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced at Lichfield Cathedral for my prayers and reflections each evening.

Advent is the Church’s mindful antidote to some of the diversion and consumerism of a modern Christmas. It prepares us to encounter Christ again in his joy and humility.

In ‘The Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar 2020,’ the Dean and community at Lichfield Cathedral are inviting us to light our Advent candle each day as we read the Bible and join in prayer.

This calendar is for everyone who uses the Cathedral website, for all the Cathedral community, and for people you want to send it to and invite to share in the daily devotional exercise.

This is a simple prayer and bible-reading exercise to help us to mark the Advent Season as a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.

It is designed to take us on a journey, looking back to John the Baptist and Mary the Mother of Jesus; looking out into the world today, into our own hearts and experience; outwards again to Jesus Christ as he encounters us in life today and in his promise to be with us always.

You can download the calendar HERE.

The community at Lichfield Cathedral offers a number of suggestions on how to use this calendar:

● Set aside 5-15 minutes every day.

● Buy or use a special candle to light each day as you read and pray through the suggestions on the calendar.

● Try to ‘eat simply’ – one day each week try going without so many calories or too much rich food, just have enough.

● Try to donate to a charity working with the homeless or the people of Bethlehem.

● Try to pray through what you see and notice going on around you in people, the media and nature.

Saint Andrew, Monday 30 November 2020:

Read Saint Matthew 4: 18-22:.

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Reflection:

Reflect on Jesus’s call to his first followers. What does it mean to follow him today? How do we help offer Jesus’s call to others?

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s evening reflection

The stall of the Prebendary of Tervin in Lichfield Cathedral … the parish church in Tarvin, Cheshire, is dedicated to Saint Andrew, and so the symbols include Saint Andrew’s Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork,
celebrates its 150th birthday today

The West Front of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork … the cathedral was completed in 1879 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

I have visited Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, twice this year, in February and August, taking in time to enjoy it as a work of architecture and a work of art. Although the cathedral was not completed until 1879, it was consecrated on 30 November 1870, and today the cathedral is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its consecration.

I had visited the cathedral periodically in past, taking part in the installation of clergy (2013), attending ordinations (2009), preaching at the Good Friday Three Hours Devotion (2004), and delivering the annual Dr Webster Sermon (2000), sometimes staying at the Deanery as the guest of previous deans.

But, as the cathedral prepared for this year’s 150th anniversary celebrations, it was good to take time twice this year – once on my own and once as the guest of my friend the Dean of Cork, the Very Revd Nigel Dunne – to revisit the cathedral and to take in its beauty.

This year’s visits to Cork and Cobh provided opportunities to take some time in this Gothic Revival cathedral on the south banks of the River Lee.

Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork … said to stand of the site of a monastery founded by Saint Barre in 606 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Although the cathedral was consecrated in 1870 and completed in 1879, there has been a place of worship on this site since the 7th century, when Saint Finbarr of Cork founded a monastery.

According to legend, Saint Fin Barre came from Gougane Barra, at the source of the River Lee, to the marshes of Cork in 606 and founded a monastery and a monastic school on the site of the present cathedral. He died in 623 and is said to be buried in the graveyard somewhere near the east end of the present cathedral.

An earlier cathedral survived until the 12th century, by when it had either fallen into disuse or was destroyed by the Anglo-Normans and replaced in the Middle Ages.

The mediaeval cathedral was badly damaged during the Siege of Cork in 1690, and after a fire only the steeple remained intact. The crumbing cathedral was demolished in 1735 and replaced that same year by a smaller building, which retained the earlier spire. The new cathedral was a newer building than both the Unitarian Church on Prince’s Street (1717) and Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon (1722-1726), which I also visited earlier this year.

However, the Georgian cathedral, was widely regarded as plain and featureless. The Dublin Builder described it as ‘a shabby apology for a cathedral which has long disgraced Cork.’

Inside Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, facing east … the first Anglican cathedral built in these islands since Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Church of Ireland, then on the brink of disestablishment, agreed in 1862 that Cork needed a new cathedral. The old building was demolished in 1864-1865, and work began on a new cathedral, the first major project for the Victorian architect William Burges (1827-1881), then only 35.

Burges is among the greatest of the Victorian architects, standing within the tradition of the Gothic Revival. His works echo those of the Pre-Raphaelites and herald those of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

This was the first Anglican cathedral built in these islands since Christopher Wren built Saint Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London. The foundation stone was laid on 12 January 1865, the unfinished cathedral was consecrated on Saint Andrew’s Day, 30 November 1870, and the limestone spires were completed by in 1879.

Inside Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The project constantly ran over budget because of exuberance on the part of Burges. But the Bishop of Cork, John Gregg, was instrumental in sourcing additional money, including local merchants, including William Crawford of the Crawford brewing family and Francis Wise, a local distiller. The original price was set at £15,000, but the total cost came to well over £100,000. br />
The cathedral is mostly built from local stone from Little Island and Fermoy. The exterior is capped by three spires: two on the west front and one above where the transept crosses the nave.

Burges designed most of the cathedral, including the sculptures, stained glass windows, mosaics and furniture. He used earlier unrealised designs for the exterior, including those intended for the Crimea Memorial Church, Istanbul, Saint John’s Cathedral, Brisbane, and elevations for Lille Cathedral.

The spires were finally completed in 1879. When Burges died in Kensington on 20 April 1881, he was only 53. His gift to his new cathedral is the Resurrection Angel, made of copper covered with gold leaf, crowning the sanctuary roof at the east end.

A group of Apostles at the west façade of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The gilded copper ‘resurrection angel’ has become the cathedral’s most iconic feature locally, and is known to the people of Cork as the ‘goldie angel.’

Building, carving and decoration continued into the 20th century, including the marble panelling of the aisles, the installation of the reredos and side choir walls, and building the chapter house in 1915.

Burges insisted on his overarching control of the design of the architecture, statuary, stained glass and internal decorations, which gives the cathedral its unity of style. The shell of the building is mostly limestone, sourced from near Cork, with the interior walls formed from stone brought from Bath, red marble from Little Island, and purple-brown stone from Fermoy.

The sculptures total 1,260, including 32 gargoyles, each with different animal heads.

The tympanum of the cathedral draws on images in the Book of Revelation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Many of the external sculptures, including the gargoyles, were modelled by Thomas Nicholls. The entrances contain the figures of over a dozen biblical figures, capped by the tympanum.

The imagery of the tympanum is drawn from the Book of Revelation, with the divine on the upper register and mortals below. It shows an angel, accompanied by Saint John the Evangelist, measuring the Temple in Jerusalem, while beneath them the dead rise from their graves.

The designs for the west façade are based on mediaeval French iconography. The theme is the Last Judgement, with representations of the 12 Apostles bearing instruments of their martyrdom, the Resurrection of the Dead and the symbols of the Four Evangelists.

On each side of the west door are figures representing the wise and foolish virgins – the dejected foolish virgins holding their empty lamps – as they approach the bridegroom (Matthew 25: 1-13).

Five wise virgins … (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

… and five foolish virgins, on each side of the west door (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The three doors at the west front lead into the nave, with internal vaulting, arcade, triforium and clerestory, rising to a timber roof. Beyond the nave, the pulpit, choir, bishop’s throne and altar end in an ambulatory. The building is relatively short with a length of 180 ft, but the three spires allow the illusion of greater interior space.

The pulpit was completed in 1874, but not painted until 1935. Five stone relief figures represent the Four Evangelists and Saint Paul.

The pulpit was completed in 1874, but not painted until 1935 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The baptismal font is decorated with a carving of the head of Saint John the Baptist. Brass lettering reads, ‘We are buried with him by baptism into death.’

The brass lectern, a design Burges originally intended for Lille Cathedral, is decorated with the heads of Moses and David. A ‘Heroes Column’ or War Memorial lists over 400 men from the dioceses killed in battle during World War I. A processional cross, completed in 1974, is the work of the late Patrick Pye.

The decoration of the sanctuary ceiling was carried out in 1933-1935 to designs by Willliam Burges (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The elaborate colourful painting on the sanctuary ceiling was carried out in 1933-1935 to designs by Burges.

Burges designed the individual panels for each of the 74 stained-glass windows, and oversaw every stage of their production, although four windows remain incomplete.

There are two rose windows, at the west front and in the south transept The west window shows God the Creator resting on a rainbow and in the act of blessing, surrounded by eight compartments, each inspired by the scenes in the Book of Genesis, beginning with the creation of light, and ending with the birth of Eve and Adam naming the animals.

The Rose Window at the west front shows God the Creator and creations scenes inspired by the Book of Genesis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The rose window in the south transept rose, known as the ‘Heavenly Hierarchies,’ places Christ the King in the centre surrounded by angels, archangels and cherubim.

The organ was built in 1870 by William Hill & Sons.

A major restoration of the cathedral at the end of the 20th century cost £5 million and included reinstating and restoring the twin trumpets held by the resurrection angel that had been vandalised in 1999.

Today, Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral is a living community of liturgy and prayer, enriched by a centuries-old choral tradition. The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross is the Right Revd Dr Paul Colton, the Dean of Cork is the Very Revd Nigel Dunne, and the Revd Ted Ardis is the Dean’s Vicar.

In normal times, outside the pandemic lockdowns, the Cathedral Eucharist is celebrated at 8 a.m. (said) and 11.15 (sung) on Sundays, Choral Evensong is at 15.30, and there is Morning Prayer and the mid-day Eucharist daily throughout the week. In those times, the cathedral is open to visitors daily.

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral celebrates the 150th anniversary of its consecration today (30 November 2020). Messages of congratulations can be sent to the dean and the cathedral saying ‘Happy Birthday’ with the hashtag #SFB150 .

The Resurrection Angel, the cathedral’s most iconic feature locally, was the gift of William Burges to his new cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Praying in Advent with USPG:
2, Monday 30 November 2020

Saint Andrew the First-Called … an icon in the chapel at Saint Columba’s House, Woking, the venue for a meeting of USPG Trustees last November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, I am using the Prayer Diary of the Anglican Mission Agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) for my morning reflections each day, and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced at Lichfield Cathedral for my prayers and reflections each evening.

I am one of the contributors to the current USPG Diary, Pray with the World Church, introducing the theme of peace and trust later next month.

The theme of the USPG Prayer Diary this week (29 November 2020 to 5 December 2020) is ‘There is the Lamb of God.’ This week’s theme was introduced by the Most Revd Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness, and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Today is Saint Andrew’s Day, and I expect to be involved tomorrow and on Wednesday in the General Synod of the Church of Ireland.

But I am pausing for a moment as I pray and reflect using the USPG Prayer Diary, the Collect of the Day, and this morning’s Gospel reading in the Lectionary of the Church of Ireland.

Monday 30 November 2020 (Saint Andrew’s Day):

Let us join with our Scottish brothers and sisters in giving thanks for the life and ministry of Saint Andrew.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
Call us by your holy Word
and give us grace to follow without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Matthew 4: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s morning reflection

The cloister-like colonnade on the north side of the former Saint Andrew’s Church in Suffolk Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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