24 September 2021

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021:
118, Saint Michael Bassishaw

The Church of Saint Michael Bassishaw by Robert William Billings and John Le Keux in ‘The Churches of London’ by George Godwin (1839)

Patrick Comerford

Before the day begins, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme for these few weeks is Wren churches and former Wren churches in London. My images this morning (24 September 2021) are from the former Church of Saint Michael Bassishaw.

The window depicting Saint Michael in Saint Lawrence Jewry recalls the former parish of Saint Michael Bassishaw (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Michael Bassishaw, or Basinshaw, was a parish church in Basinghall Street in the City of London. It once stood on land now occupied by the Barbican Centre complex.

The church was first recorded in 1196, and was one of seven churches in the City of London dedicated to the Archangel Michael. From the 15th century, the dean and chapter of Saint Paul’s Cathedral were patrons of the parish.

The Revd Francis Hall, a chaplain to Charles II, was appointed Rector in 1662. But he fled the parish on the outbreak of the Great Plague of London in 1665, and the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Hall returned only in 1670 to collect his stipend.

After the Great Fire, a new church was designed by the office of Sir Christopher Wren in 1675 and it was completed four years later. It was 70 ft long and 50 ft wide, divided into a nave and aisles by Corinthian columns that supported an elaborate entablature and a coved ceiling.

The plan was irregular, and the building was smaller than the pre-Fire church. The main front was on the east side, facing onto Basinghall Street, and was unadorned except for a large round-headed window flanked by two round windows.

However, the work was unsatisfactory, and there were problems with the foundations at the east end, with allegations of that the Corinthian columns were ‘specimens of … jerry-building.’ By 1693, the parish was lobbying Wren to provide resources for repairs, and by the end of the century the church was shored up and in need of repair.

Much of the church was rebuilt in 1713. The steeple, probably designed by Robert Hooke, was an octagonal drum surmounted by a lantern, with trumpet-shaped cone, topped by a ball and finial. These can now be seen on the spire of Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe.

The church was judged unsafe in 1892 and was closed, and the parish was combined with Saint Lawrence Jewry. Saint Michael Bassishaw was demolished in 1900 and the land was sold to the City of London Corporation for £36,000. Part of the proceeds of the sale was used to build Saint Aldhelm’s Church, Silver Street, Edmonton, and Saint Michael’s church, Bury Street, Edmonton. The weathervane went to Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe and the organ to King’s College, Taunton.

Today the site once occupied by Saint Michael’s lies beneath the courtyard of the Guildhall offices and the Barbican highwalk.

Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe … the weathervane is from Saint Michael Bassishaw (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ 19 They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ 20 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’

21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, 22saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (24 September 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for an end to civil war across the world. May we remember the conflicts in Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Azerbaijan, and pray for peaceful resolutions to these situations.

The Guildhall, London … the site of Saint Michael Bassishaw lies beneath the courtyard of the Guildhall offices and the Barbican highwalk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

The Greeks have a word
for it (34) Cinema

The Asteria in Rethymnon … part of Greek culture and the tradition of open-air cinema (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I was very pleased last week to see that the Asteria Cinema in Rethymnon has survived all the onslaughts of pandemic lockdowns and Greece’s economic woes, and that it remains part of strong Greek cultural tradition.

Most of the cinemas I associate with my childhood and early adult days have disappeared: the Desmond Cinema in Cappoquin was demolished in the early 1970s and is now the site of a fire station; the Kenilworth Cinema in Harold’s Cross is a vacant site; the Classic in Terenure has been turned into business outlets; the Regal in Lichfield, once an elegant art-deco building, has been replaced by an apartment block; and the Abbey Cinema on Upper George’s Street and the Capitol Cinema on South Main Street have both been demolished in Wexford.

However, the Asteria is a beguiling presence in Rethymnon and I first noticed it in the 1980s.

Open-air movies are an enduring part of Greek cultural life. Cinema arrived in Greece in 1896. Films were projected outdoors for the first time in the crowded cafés of Syntagma Square in Athens in the summer of 1900. The so-called provolatzides unfolded big pieces of cloth to screen movies in popular areas of the Greek capital.

The first open-air cinemas started popping up, and at first entrance was free. They became so popular that by the 1960s over 500 cinemas were operating in Attica. Today, it is said, there are 65 outdoor cinemas in Athens. Some are municipal, some private, some are hidden in parks, others are by the sea or in courtyards between apartment blocks.

The Asteria on Ioannou Melissinou, beneath the slopes of the Fortezza, is the one open-air cinema in Rethymnon. Although it is only open in the summer evenings, it remains part of Greek culture. Normally there are two showings, at 9pm and 11 pm, and tickets are €5 or €7 each. A little kiosk sells rinks, beers, chips, popcorn, sweets and snacks.

The word cinema in English was borrowed in the late 1890s from the French cinéma, an abbreviated form of the word cinématographe coined by the Lumière brothers in the 1890s from the Ancient Greek words κίνημα (kínēma, movement) and γράφω (gráphō, to write or record).

The word Κίνημα has also been used widely by political movements on the Left in modern Greece.

Andreas Papandreou formed the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (Πανελλήνιο Απελευθερωτικό Κίνημα) or PAK in exile in Sweden in 1968 to oppose the colonels’ regime in Greece. When the junta fell, Papandreou formed Pasok, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα), in 1974, and until 2015 it was one of the two major electoral forces in Greece, along with New Democracy.

After the collapse of Pasok’s vote after 2015, a number of parties emerged from the same political stable, including the Movement of Democratic Socialists (Κιδησο, Kidiso), formed by the former Prime Minister and PASOK leader George Papandreou. Today, that party officially calls itself To Kinima (Το Κίνημα, the Movement), although several media outlets and opinion pollsters continue to refer to it as Kidiso.

The Movement for Change (Κίνημα Αλλαγής) or Κιναλ, is now a centre-left alliance that includes Pasok and the Movement of Democratic Socialists, and it has also included The River and Democratic Left (Dimar).

As for the Asteria in Rethymnon: sit under the stars, let the cicadas chirp away, and ignore the background noise from the road or the Fortezza occasionally … they merely enhance the ambience.

The Pasok offices in Rethymnon in 2012 … signs that the party was then in freefall in a former stronghold (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)