COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
‘The holly in the windy hedge … / will soon be stripped to deck the ledge, / the altar, font and arch and pew, / … The church looks nice’ (John Betjeman) … the Christmas pulpit in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
SERVICE of NINE LESSONS and CAROLS
Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton,
3 p.m. Sunday 19 December 2021
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Welcome (and important notes):
1, Please wear your facemask throughout this service; 2, Please leave your name and number (to be used for contact and tracing purposes only); 3, Please listen to, but do not join the hymns; 4, Please leave from the back seats first, without gathering in the church.
Opening Hymn: 177,
‘Once in royal David’s city’
(CF Alexander; melody, HJ Gauntlett).
Bidding Prayer:
(Canon Patrick Comerford)
Beloved, be it this Christmas Time our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels; in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our disobedience unto the glorious Redemption brought us by this Holy Child; and let us make this Church, dedicated to Mary, his most blessed Mother, glad with our carols of praise:
But first let us pray for the needs of his whole world; for peace and goodwill over all the earth; for unity and brotherhood within the Church he came to build, and especially in this our land, Ireland:
And because this of all things would rejoice his heart, let us at this time remember in his name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed; the sick in body and in mind and those who mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; all who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.
Lastly, let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.
These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven, in the words which Christ himself has taught us:
Our Father …
Carol 1: 155, Ding Dong! merrily on high (George Ratcliffe Woodward; melody Thoinot Arbeau).
Lesson 1: Genesis 3: 8-19
Carol 2: 135, O come, O come, Emmanuel (tr John Mason Neale; melody, Thomas Helmore).
Lesson 2: Genesis 22: 15-18
While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Carol 3: 133, Long ago, prophets knew
(F Pratt Green; melody, Piae Cantiones).
Lesson 3: Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7
Carol 4: 174, O little town of Bethlehem (Philips Brooks, melody arranged by Vaughan Williams).
Lesson 4: Michah 5: 2-5a
Carol 5: 160, Hark! the herald-angels sing (Charles Wesley and George Whitefield; music, Felix Mendelssohn).
Lesson 5: Luke 1: 26-35, 38
Carol 6: 164, It came upon the midnight clear (EH Sears, traditional melody, Arthur Sullivan).
Lesson 6: Luke 2: 8-16
Carol 7: 158, God rest you merry gentlemen (English traditional).
Lesson 7: Luke 2: 8-16
Carol 8: 152, ‘Come and join the celebration’ (Valerie Collison).
Lesson 8: Matthew 2: 1-11
Carol 9: 149, Away in a manger
(WJ Kirkpatrick).
Lesson 9: John 1: 1-14
Hymn: 162, In the bleak mid-winter
(Christina Rossetti; music, Gustav Holst).
Collect and Blessing:
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Let us pray.
O God, who makes us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of your only son, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly,
grant you the fullness of inward peace and goodwill, and make you partakers of the divine nature;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
+ the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you always. Amen.
Hymn: 172, O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fideles), translated, Frederick Oakeley; melody John F Wade.
Part of this afternoon’s retiring collection is being divided among a number of agencies and funds supported by the parish. They include: The Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal Fund, Christian Aid, the Leprosy Mission, Limerick Protestant Orphan Society, Church Street National School, Rathkeale, and the United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG).
Christmas Eucharist 2021:
Friday 24 December: 6 p.m., Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert); 8 p.m., Castletown Church (please note revised times).
11 a.m., United Parish Service, Rathkeale (Morning Prayer with Siobhán Wheeler, Parish Reader; this is the only service in this Group of Parishes this Sunday)
The Visitation … a panel in the 19th Century neo-Gothic altarpiece from Oberammergau in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Let us pray:
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’ (Luke 1: 46):
Heavenly Father,
As we wait in Advent for the coming of the Kingdom,
let us give thanks to Lord … make known your deeds among the nations …
May those in power and in government
hear the cry of all in who ‘sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,’
especially refugees, asylum seekers, migrants,
prisoners of conscience, the victims of people trafficking,
that they may be met with mercy and justice,
and know love and peace.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
‘He has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant’ (Luke 1: 48):
Lord Jesus Christ,
as we wait in Advent for your coming,
we pray for the Church,
that we may eagerly prepare the way for your coming among us …
In the Church of Ireland this month,
we pray for this Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe,
the Archbishop’s Commissaries,
Archdeacon Stephen McWhirter and Dean Niall Sloane,
and for the Episcopal Electoral College called to fill the vacant see.
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer,
we pray for the Church of the Province of Central Africa,
and the Primate, Archbishop Albert Chama.
In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer,
we pray for the Kenmare and Dromod Union of parishes,
the Revd Michael Kavanagh and the congregations of
Saint Patrick’s Church, Kenmare, the Church of the Transfiguration, Sneem,
Saint Michael and All Angels, Waterville, and Saint John the Baptist, Valentia.
In our community,
we pray for our schools,
we pray for our parishes and people …
we pray for our neighbouring churches and parishes …
and people of faith everywhere,
that we may be blessed in our variety and diversity.
Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy.
‘His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation’ (Luke 1: 50):
Holy Spirit, we pray for one another …
We remember those who are remembered and mourned by parishioners,
May their memories be a blessing to us.
We pray for all who are sick or isolated,
at home, in hospital …
Ruby … Daphne … Sylvia … Ajay …
Cecil … Pat … Mary … Ann … Vanessa …
We pray for those who feel pain and loss …
for those who are bewildered and without answers …
for those we love and those who love us …
for our families, friends and neighbours …
We pray for all who feel rejected and discouraged …
we pray for all in need and who seek healing …
and we pray for those we promised to pray for …
and we pray for one another and for ourselves …
May your generosity and love to us be reflected in our love and generosity to others.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 December 2021, the Fourth Sunday of Advent) invites us to pray:
Almighty Lord,
you bless us with unexpected joys.
May we suspend our disbelief,
and listen to your will.
Merciful Father …
‘Mary meets Elizabeth’ (1996), by Dinah Roe Kendall, in ‘Allegories of Heaven: an artist explores the greatest story ever told’ (Carlisle: Piquant, 2002)
‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Saint John’s Church, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen
This Advent has been a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation. For the past three Sundays, in our time of waiting, preparation and anticipation, we have been preparing ourselves in the liturgy and the music, with carol services and quiet days, with the Christmas Market and Santa’s grotto, with the Advent Wreath and the Crib.
The four candles on the Advent wreath have reminded us, week-after-week, of those who prepared us in the past for the Coming of the Christ Child: first the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our ancestors in faith, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob; then the prophets of the Old Testament, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, who we heard from this morning; then, last week it was Saint John the Baptist.
This Sunday, the fourth and final candle reminds us of the Virgin Mary. This connects with the Canticle Magnificat, which we heard instead of a Psalm, and our Gospel reading, telling the story of her visit to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.
The Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) is normally heard during Evening Prayer and not on Sunday mornings.
The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in an Advent sermon in London almost 90 years ago (17 December 1933), said Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn,’ and he spoke of how she knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:
‘In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.’
The Gospel reading (Luke 1: 39-55), also tells the story of the Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth.
When she visits, they are both pregnant – one with the Christ Child, the other with Saint John the Baptist.
Immediately after the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary leaves Nazareth and travels south to an unnamed ‘Judean town in the hill country,’ perhaps Hebron outside Jerusalem, to visit Elizabeth. When she arrives, although he is still in his mother’s womb, Saint John the Baptist is aware of the presence of Christ, and the unborn child leaps for joy.
Saint Elizabeth too recognises that Christ is present, and declares to Mary with a loud cry: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy’ (Luke 1: 42-44).
The Virgin Mary responds to Saint Elizabeth immediately with the words that we now know as the canticle Magnificat.
So we see, side-by-side, two women, one seemingly too old to have a child, but destined to bear the last prophet of the age that is passing away; and the other woman, seemingly too young to have a child, but about to give birth to him who is the beginning of the age that is not going to pass away.
The Virgin Mary of the canticle Magnificat and of the Visitation is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.
The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear in this Gospel reading, the Mary who sings the Canticle Magnificat.
What a contrasting pair these two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, are!
How much they speak to so many of the dilemmas we have in Irish society today!
Elizabeth is the older woman. She has been married for years. Because of social and family pressures, she had started to become embarrassed that after all those years of marriage she has not become pregnant.
In those days, even in many places to this day, this was an embarrassing social stigma. She had no son to inherit her husband’s lands, his family position, the place of Zechariah as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.
She reminds us too of Sarah, who is so embarrassed at the thought of becoming pregnant in her old age that she laughs in the face of the three visitors, she laughs in the face of the living Triune God.
Today, a woman who became pregnant at her stage in life might not laugh. She might quake with fear. She might ask for amniocentesis or an amniotic fluid test.
And yet Elizabeth takes control of her situation. She turns a predicament into an opportunity, a crisis of a pregnancy so late in life into a blessing for us all.
She is so filled with joy when Mary arrives that as soon as she hears the knock on the door, as soon as she hears the sound of Mary on her doorstep, her joy is infectious, so infectious that even the child in her womb – the child who would grow up to be Saint John the Baptist – leaps with joy in her womb.
Elizabeth’s action is radical. Life is tough enough for her. Her husband has been struck dumb. A dumb priest was unlikely to be able to continue to earn a liturgical living in the Temple in Jerusalem. How was she now going to provide for her child when he was born?
But Elizabeth’s actions are more radical than that.
How many women of her age, and her respectable background, would have been so quick to rush out and welcome her much younger, single and pregnant cousin?
How many women would have been worried: ‘What if she stays here and has the child here? Would we ever live with the shame?’
How many women might have suggested instead that Mary goes off and finds a home where they can find someone else to take care of her child when he is born?
Instead, Elizabeth welcomes Mary with open arms. Elizabeth’s joyful greeting, ‘Blessed are you among women …,’ echoes the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel (see Luke 1: 28), ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’
It is almost as if Elizabeth is saying: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’
Which is precisely what God is saying in the Incarnation, in the precious gift of the Christmas Child: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’
Mary for her part is such a wonderful, feisty person. She is, what might be described in the red-top tabloid newspapers today as ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.
And she challenges so many of our prejudices and our values and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.
And Mary declares:
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
It is almost like this is the programme or the agenda we can expect when the Christ Child is born.
And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55) (NRSVA):
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
[46 And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’]
‘The Visitation’, by James B Janknegt
Liturgical colour: Violet (Purple), Advent Year C.
Penitential Kyries:
Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
God our redeemer,
who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Advent Collect:
Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Introduction to the Peace:
In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)
Preface:
Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
you have given us a pledge of eternal redemption.
Grant that we may always eagerly celebrate
the saving mystery of the incarnation of your Son.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing:
Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:
The Advent Wreath:
The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) offers this prayer for lighting the Fourth (Purple) candle on the Advent Wreath:
Lord Jesus, your mother Mary
carried you with tender determination
on the dangerous road to Bethlehem.
May the same flame of love
that drove her on, now bring
courage and hope
to all who carry and nurture children today.
Hymns:
158, God rest you merry, gentlemen (CD 9) Canticle:Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55 as Hymn 712 (CD 40) 174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11) 198, The first Nowell the angel did say (CD 12)
Lillian Trasher with children at her orphanage in Egypt
Patrick Comerford
We are in the last week of Advent, with the Christmas preparations building up. Today (19 December2021) is going to be a busy day, with the Parish Eucharist in Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert, Co Kerry, and the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick, this afternoon.
Before this busy day begins, however, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.
Each morning in my Advent calendar this year, I am reflecting in these ways:
1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;
2, the day’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
With less than a week to go to Christmas Day, Lillian Trasher, who is honoured on this day [19 December] in the calendar of the Episcopal Church is an appropriate figure to recall for many reasons, including:
● She is an ecumenical missionary figure who brings together Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Quaker and Pentecostal threads in her life.
● She was a pioneer in women’s ministry, having been ordained over a century ago in 1912.
● She is a reminder at this Christmas-time that the Christ Child spent his first years as a vulnerable refugee in Egypt.
Lillian Hunt Trasher (1887-1961), who is still known as the ‘Nile Mother’ of Egypt, was one of the most famous missionaries of the 20th century. She was a missionary in Asyut and the founder of the first orphanage in Egypt.
Lillian Trasher was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on 27 September 1887. Her mother was originally a Quaker from Boston, but Lillian was raised as a Roman Catholic in Brunswick, Georgia.
When she was still a teenager and taking part in Bible studies in a friend’s house, she decided to make a personal commitment of her life to Christ.
She attended God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio, for one term, and then worked at an orphanage in North Carolina. She later said that at a second Bible school, Altamont Bible and Missionary Institute, in Greenville, South Carolina, she experienced ‘the infilling of the Holy Spirit.’
After a short time as the pastor of a Pentecostal church, she travelled with an evangelist, and then returned to work again at the orphanage.
She was engaged to the Revd Tom Jordan and they were 10 days away from marrying in 1910 when she heard a missionary from India speaking at a meeting. She immediately broke off their engagement because she felt called to Africa but he did not.
Not knowing where she would go, she opened her Bible and read: ‘I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee to Egypt’ (Acts 7: 34).
Defying her family’s wishes, she sailed to Africa. She arrived in Alexandria with less than $100 in her pocket. Her sister Jenny was with her, and the two continued to work together for decades.
A few months after her arrival in Egypt, while Lillian was staying at a mission house in Asyut, 230 miles south of Cairo, a man came to the house with news of a dying woman nearby. Lillian and Sela, an older woman, went to see the woman who died soon after. A translator told Lillian the child’s grandmother was planning to throw the baby into the Nile.
Lillian took the baby girl and named her Fareida. She rented a small house and some furniture and nursed the child back to health. And so she began her work among orphans.
The Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee, ordained her in 1912. By 1918, her orphanage family had grown to 50 children and eight widows.
The British Administration ordered Lillian to leave Egypt on 27 March 1919. Back in the US, she joined the Assemblies of God, which continued to support her work for the rest of her life. She returned to Egypt in 192, and continued to work there until 1961 without a break. She once told this story:
My work reminds me of the fable of a little boy who was crossing the desert alone. He became very thirsty so he was obliged to dig in the ground with bleeding fingers until he came to water. He drank and went on his weary way.
Each time he became thirsty he dug holes and his hands became more torn and bleeding. At last he reached the other side, exhausted and fainting, his clothes hanging in dusty rags.
Some months later he looked across the desert and saw a happy little boy coming with his hands full of fresh flowers. The child was coming the very same way he had travelled. He looked at the strange sight in perfect amazement. When the little boy arrived, he asked him how it could be that he had crossed the awful desert and looked so fresh and cool. The child answered, saying, ‘Oh, the way is beautiful. There are many small wells out of which spring lovely cool water, and around each of these wells there are flowers and shady bushes and soft green grass. I had no trouble at all in crossing.’
The first boy looked down at his own scarred fingers and knew that it was his suffering which had made the desert bloom and had made the way easy for other little boys to cross. But no one would ever know to thank him or to ask who had dug the wells. But, he knew, and was satisfied.
By the time she died on 17 December 1961, the Lillian Trasher Orphanage was supporting 1,200 children. She had cared for nearly 25,000 Egyptian children in all, and her orphanage continues its work to this day.
Although Lillian Trasher died on 17 December, she is honoured with a feast day on 19 December in the calendar of the Episcopal Church.
Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55) (NRSVA):
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
[46 And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’]
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 December 2021, Advent IV) invites us to pray:
Almighty Lord,
you bless us with unexpected joys.
May we suspend our disbelief,
and listen to your will.
Saint Oswald (left) and Saint Aidan (right) in a stained-glass window in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
Patrick Comerford
The market town of Oswestry, with a population of about 17,000, found itself at the centre of the news this week as the main town in the constituency of North Shropshire. Staying awake, waiting for the by-election results through Thursday night into the early hours of Friday morning, must – for some – have been like waiting up for ‘Portillo Moment,’ when Michael Portillo lost his seat in the general election in 1997.
Oswestry and North Shropshire have long been seen as safe for the Tories. But it has other associations with battle, loss and defeat in the story of Saint Oswald, who gives his name to the town and who has links with Lichfield Cathedral. And it has enduring links too with key church figures such as Thomas Bray and poets such as Wilfrid Owen.
The name Oswestry is first found in 1191, as Oswaldestroe. This Middle English name means Oswald’s Tree, or ‘Oswald’s Cross.’ The traditional Welsh name of the town, Croesoswallt, also means ‘Oswald’s cross.’
Saint Oswald is depicted alongside Saint Aidan in a stained-glass window in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral and alongside Saint Chad and Saint Aidan in altar carving in Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield.
Saint Oswald, who was King of Northumbria, spent many years in exile in Dal Riada. On the night before the Battle of Hatfield Chase, it is said, Oswald had a vision of Saint Columba the in which he was told, ‘Be strong and act manfully. Behold, I will be with thee. This coming night go out from your camp into battle, for the Lord has granted me that at this time your foes shall be put to flight and Cadwallon your enemy shall be delivered into your hands and you shall return victorious after battle and reign happily.’
Oswald described his vision to his advisers, and all agreed that they would be baptised and accept Christianity after the battle. After his victory, King Oswald reunited Northumbria and reigned for nine years.
Shortly after becoming king, he asked the Irish of Dál Riada to send a bishop to facilitate the conversion of his people to Christianity. The Irish sent Saint Aidan, and Oswald gave the island of Lindisfarne to Saint Aidan as his episcopal see. Bede says Oswald acted as Aidan’s interpreter because he had learned Irish during his exile.
Bede portrays Oswald as living a saintly life as king and recounts Oswald’s generosity to the poor and to strangers.
Oswald was killed in the year 642 at the Battle of Maserfield, long identified as Oswestry. According to legend, one of his dismembered arms was carried to an ash tree by a raven. Miracles were later attributed to the tree, and legend says ‘Oswald’s Tree’ gave its name to the town.
Saint Oswald’s parish in Oswestry remains a parish in the Diocese of Lichfield.
The Revd Dr Thomas Bray (1658-1730) was the founder of both the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG, now USPG, the United Society Partners in the Gospel) and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).
Thomas Bray was born into a humble Shropshire family in 1658. The Bishop of Lichfield took notice of young Thomas and felt that with his bright mind he should receive a good education. The bishop sponsored him and paid for his education at Oswestry School before he went to Oxford as a ‘poor boy.’
From 1706 until his death, he was the Rector of Saint Botolph’s Without Aldgate, London. He is commemorated on 15 February in several Churches in the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. ” on 12 March 1675, and graduated BA in 1678. He later received the degrees MA at Hart Hall (now Hertford College) in 1693, and BD and DD at Magdalene College, Oxford, in 1696.
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (1893-1918) is one of the greatest war poets in English literature. Owen, who was brought up to be a deeply committed Christian and active Anglican, wrote out of his intense experiences during World War I.
Owen was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, on 18 March 1893. He was a committed Christian and became a lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading from 1911 to 1913, when he taught Bible classes, led prayer meetings, and assisted in pastoral visits.
Owen had moved to France, where he was working as a private tutor, when World War I broke out in 1914. Initially he was a pacifist and a conscientious objector. But he returned to England and volunteered to fight on 21 October 1915. He was sent to France on the last day of 1916, and within days was facing the horrors of the frontline.
He saw much frontline action, and was blown up, concussed and suffered shell-shock. In hospital in Edinburgh, he faced the difficulty of conflicting principles: his role as a soldier and patriot demanded one thing; his Christian faith demanded another. Knowing and believing Christ’s teaching, with absolute clarity he felt compelled to act in complete contradiction to his convictions.
There too he met Siegfried Sassoon who inspired him to develop his war poetry. He returned to the trenches in September 1918 and in October was decorated with the Military Cross for bravery in battle.
He was shot and killed near the village of Ors on 4 November 1918. Seven days later, the war was over. Church bells rang throughout the country. As they were ringing in Shrewsbury, Susan and Tom Owen received a telegram with the news of their son’s death.
All Owen’s great war poems were written in a mere 15 months. Some of his poems feature in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, and he is commemorated in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
The title of what is probably his best-known poem is taken from the first words of a Latin saying – Dulce et Decorum Est (‘It is sweet and right’) – found on an ode by Horace. The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of World War I, and the full quotation ends his poem: ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – it is sweet and right to die for your country.’
But the title is satirical, and the poem is a strong condemnation of war, describing a mustard gas attack on a group of war-weary soldiers. Owen’s painfully direct language combines gritty realism with an aching sense of compassion. His despair at the crumbling of the moral order is expressed in phrases such as ‘froth-corrupted lungs’, ‘sores on innocent tongues’ and his description of the dying man’s face ‘like a devil’s sick of sin.’
