12 April 2022

Praying at the Stations of the Cross in
Lent 2022: 12 April 2022 (Station 10)

Jesus is stripped of his garments … Station 10 in the Stations of the Cross in the Church of the Annunciation, Clonard, Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

We are now in Holy Week, the last and closing week of Lent. Tuesday in Holy Week is known in many parts of the Church as ‘Temple Tuesday’ and the prayer in the Parish of Stony Stratford with Calverton today (12 April 2022) is that ‘We may remain faithful to Christ.’

But, even before today begins, I am taking some time early this morning (12 April 2022) for prayer, reflection and reading.

During Lent this year, in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, I have been reflecting on the Psalms each morning. But during these two weeks of Passiontide, Passion Week and Holy Week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the Stations of the Cross, illustrated by images in the Church of the Annunciation, Clonard, Wexford, and the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the lectionary adapted in the Church of Ireland;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Station 10, Jesus is stripped of his garments:

In an unusual arrangement, the Stations of the Cross in the church in Clonard are set in the curved outer wall of the church in 14 windows designed by Gillian Deeny of Wicklow. In her windows, she emphasises the role of women in the Passion story.

Her windows were made in association with Abbey Glass, where she worked with the cut-out shapes of coloured glass, the pigment being a mixture of lead oxide, ground glass and colour. Each window is signed by the artist.

The Stations of the Cross on the north and south walls of the nave in Stoney Stratford were donated in memory of John Dunstan (1924-1988).

The Tenth Station in the Stations of the Cross has a traditional description such as ‘Jesus is stripped of his garments.’

In this Station of the Cross in Wexford, the Cross is not to be seen. One of the two men stripping Christ of his clothes seems to be embarrassed as he places his left hand on Christ’s right shoulder, almost in a gesture of doomed solidarity.

In Station 10 in Stony Stratford, one solitary soldier seems to reluctantly strip Christ with one hand, while Christ has hands open, in a gesture of forgiveness, perhaps, or open to his looming death.

Did these two or three exchange any conversation, any words, in the course of this encounter?

Did they realise how each other was exposed and vulnerable in this moment?

Was there a mutual understanding of the embarrassment each one is going through?

How often do we seek to cover ourselves in ways that cloak and disguise our embarrassment and our feelings of vulnerability?

Yet, as Saint Paul reminds us, ‘we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it’ (I Timothy 6: 7).

Jesus is stripped of his garments … Station 10 in the Stations of the Cross in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

John 12: 20-36 (NRSVA):

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Light in the Darkness.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Anthony Gyu-Yong Shim of the Diocese of Daejeon in the Anglican Church of Korea. The prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (12 April 2022, George Augustus Selwyn), invites us to pray:

Today we give thanks for the life of George Augustus Selwyn, the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand, and pray for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The grave of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn in Lichfield Cathedral … he is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 12 April (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

The tower is all that survives
of the Church of Saint Mary
Magdalen in Stony Stratford

The tower of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalen in Stony Stratford … originally a chapel-of-ease for the parish of Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

At different times, Stony Stratford has had two parish churches. For about a century, until 1964, they were Saint Giles Church, now Saint Mary and Saint Giles, on High Street, and Saint Mary the Virgin, now the Greek Orthodox parish church, on London Road. Saint Giles was in Calverton Parish, while Saint Mary’s was built in 1864 as Wolverton was expanding with the arrival of the railway.

Even from the 15th century, Stony Stratford was divided between two parishes and was served by two churches: Saint Giles on the Calverton or west side of the High Street, and Saint Mary Magdalen on the Wolverton or east side of the street.

The Church of Saint Mary Magdalen was originally a chapel-of-ease for the parish of Wolverton. It dates from around the 13th century, and the tower was built in 1450. The main part of the church lay to the north-east and this area is now a disused graveyard. The tower is a Grade II* listed building.

The tower of Saint Mary Magdalen, built in 1450, is all that survived the fire of 1742 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was largely destroyed by the Great Fire that raged through Stony Stratford in 1742. The only part of the church that remained standing was the 15th century tower.

After the fire, the church was not rebuilt, and the tower alone remained standing. Through the intervention of the local notary, antiquarian and architectural patron Browne Willis (1682-1760) of Whaddon Hall, the lone tower was saved from demolition in 1746.

Willis had the roof re-leaded, the internal walls repaired and repointed, and the open arches of the ground stage blocked up. All this was in the vain hope that the church might one day be rebuilt. and its parish was united with Saint Giles in 1775.

After a century and a half of neglect, the tower of Saint Mary Magdalen was derelict by 1893, with an elm tree growing out of the top.

The tree was removed in 1893, and the noted Stony Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris completed a report on the state of the tower. He described the tower as ‘a precious heritage, which we should all value very highly. It is the work of an able but unknown architect of the latter half of the fourteenth century, but has many features it of a passing note …’

Boldly carved mediaeval gargoyles in the form of grotesque mythical beasts in the corners below the parapet (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The interior of the tower now has no floors and only the remains of the circular tower stair. The tower is built of limestone. It has three stages with clasping buttresses to the two lower stages, and is surmounted by an embattled parapet with small gables on the north and south sides.

On the east and south sides of the ground stage there are pointed arches, now blocked up, which opened to the original church nave and south aisle respectively, the aisle evidently having been extended to the west wall of the tower. On the west side is a blocked two-light window.

The second stage has on the west side a square moulded panel, formerly a sundial, and a narrow light. The bell chamber has on each side a transomed window of two lights with tracery under a pointed head.

Boldly carved mediaeval gargoyles in the form of grotesque mythical beasts occupy the angles of the string-course below the parapet.

Some pre-fire headstones survive in the churchyard, which is associated with many stories of body snatchers in the early 19th century. This churchyard was extended over the building area after the fire and was in use until about 1865. Although many gravestones much weathered, many also have lettering of a very high standard.

A local legend says that should the tower of Saint Mary Magdalen ever fall, no fairs shall ever again take place in Stony Stratford.

A local legend says that should the tower of Saint Mary Magdalen ever fall, no fairs shall ever again take place in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)