Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Monday 22 August 2022

A reredos on a side altar in Lichfield Cathedral … the Welsh-language title ‘Bryn Calfaria’ in Vaughan Williams’s work means ‘Mount Calvary’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am in Lichfield this morning to take part in the first stage of the three-day Lichfield Peace Walk from Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield, to Saint Chad’s Church, Stafford.

Today’s stage of the walk visits Lichfield Cathedral and a number of sites in Lichfield, including the Garden of Remembrance in Beacon Street, the site of the former Franciscan Friary, and Beacon Park Peace Garden, before setting off along Cross in Hand Lane to Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Farewell. Many of the walkers expect – appropriately – to hold small wooden crosses as they walk along Cross in Hand Lane.

But, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it’ (Matthew 23: 20) … the altar and sanctuary in Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield, the starting point of the three-day Lichfield Peace Walk this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the Lectionary of the Church of Ireland this morning is:

Matthew 23: 13-22 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 13 ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

16 ‘Woe to you, blind guides, who say, “Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.” 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, “Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.” 19 How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; 21 and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; 22 and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.’



Today’s reflection: ‘Bryn Calfaria’

For the next three days I am listening to Vaughan Williams’s ‘Three Preludes Founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes,’ and this morning [22 August 2022] I am listening to the first of these preludes, ‘Bryn Calfaria.’

These three organ solos are based on Welsh tunes that Vaughan Williams had already arranged for hymns in the English Hymnal, which he edited with Canon Percy Dearmer.

Vaughan Williams’s father, the Revd Arthur Vaughan Williams, came from a family of Welsh origins that had distinguished itself in the law.

The composer first published these organ preludes in 1920 and dedicated them to Alan Gray (1855-1935), who was the organist of Trinity College Cambridge (1892-1930) when Vaughan Williams was an undergraduate there.

Gray’s liturgical compositions are for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Holy Communion in The Book of Common Prayer, including an Evening Service in F minor, a setting of Holy Communion in G, several anthems, including ‘What are these that glow from afar?’, and a collection of descants to various hymn tunes. He also composed a number of items for organ, for violin solo, and for voice and orchestra to religious and secular texts, including three choruses from Rupert Brooke’s 1914.

Vaughan Williams studied the organ under Gray at Trinity, and was regarded as one of his less talented students, although he also studied under Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford.

James Day tells how Gray once wrote to Sir Walter Parry for advice about his student, saying he could never trust Vaughan Williams to play a simple service for him without some dread as to what he might do, despite his considerable knowledge and taste on organ and music matters generally.

His mother’s cousin Henrietta ‘Etty’ Litchfield (1843-1927), a daughter of Charles Darwin, once wrote that the young Vaughan Williams ‘can’t play the simplest thing decently … They say it will simply break his heart if he is told that he is too bad to hope to make anything of it.’

Nevertheless, with Gray’s patient help, Vaughan Williams passed his exams to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) in 1898, and received his Doctorate in Music (MusD) at Cambridge the following year.

These three organ preludes are Vaughan Williams’s tribute as a grateful student to Alan Gray. As James Day says, ‘they bear witness to a gentle, patient and thoughtful man.’ They may be modest pieces, but they are found in the repertoire of many churches, colleges and cathedrals.

The first of these preludes, ‘Bryn Calfaria,’ is based on the tune of that name by William Owen (1813-1893). This is the tune Vaughan Williams harmonised for the hymn ‘Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour’ in the English Hymnal in 1906 (No 319; see New English Hymnal, 296 ii), although in the Irish Church Hymnal it is used instead for ‘Hark! The voice of love and mercy’ (No 221).

William Owen began his working life at the age of 10 as a labourer in the Welsh slate quarries. He published his first hymn tune at the age of 18, and went on to publish a collection of his own hymns and anthems in the two-volume collection Y Perl Cerddorol (‘The Pearl of Music’) in 1852-1854. He conducted several choirs and was the Precentor or Choir Conductor at Caeathraw Chapel.

The tune ‘Bryn Calfaria’ was first published in the second volume of Y Perl Cerddorol in 1854, and was written for a Welsh hymn, ‘Gwaed dy Grfoes sy’n cody i fyny.’ It first appeared in an English collection of hymns in 1906 when it was harmonised by Vaughan Williams for ‘Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour’ in the English Hymnal. It made such an impression on Vaughan Williams that he wrote he later wrote this Organ Prelude which conveys its austere and solemn grandeur.

The Welsh-language title, ‘Bryn Calfaria,’ means ‘Mount Calvary,’ which adds to my reasons for listening to this composition on this early morning as I prepare to walk along Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield later today.

The Garden of Remembrance in Beacon Street, Lichfield … one of the stopping places on this morning’s leg of the Lichfield Peace Walk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Monday 22 August 2022:

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘The Pursuit of Justice.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by Javanie Byfield and Robert Green, ordinands at the United Theological College of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief) in these words:

Let us pray for those who are of minority faiths, who are persecuted for their religion or beliefs. May the world become a more tolerant and inclusive place.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The site of the Franciscan Friary in Lichfield … one of the stopping places on this morningy’s leg of the Lichfield Peace Walk (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 Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, and its early beginnings in a house

Saint Marie’s Cathedral on Norfolk Row is almost hidden from sight in the centre of Sheffield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Marie’s Cathedral, the Roman Catholic cathedral with a tall spire towering over Sheffield, stands on Norfolk Row, a quiet street just off Fargate, a busy shopping area in the centre of Sheffield.

During my visit to Sheffield last week, Saint Marie’s Cathedral was a surprising but welcoming place to explore. Its Gothic Revival architecture hides an interior rich with symbolic decoration, stained glass, and Victorian tiles.

The cathedral has a fully restored, 1875 Lewis Organ, and over 200 decorative angels. Its treasures include seven alabaster figures dating from the 15th century, a highly decorated Pugin chalice, and an antique chasuble.

The cathedral is just a few minutes’ walk from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Cathedral, the city’s Church of England cathedral, but is easy to miss, discreetly located as part of the story of Catholicism in Sheffield.

The story of Saint Marie’s begins over 300 years ago, when the open practice of Catholicism in England faced legal penalties.

The principal landowners in Sheffield were the Dukes of Norfolk, who inherited the Sheffield estates of the Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury, who are buried in the Shrewsbury Chapel in the Church of England cathedral.

In the 18th century, Mass was celebrated in a few gentry houses in Sheffield, including a house on Fargate that belonged to the Duke of Norfolk that had a hidden chapel in its roof. Known as the Lord’s House, it was built by the Duke of Norfolk in 1712 and was occupied by his agent.

With Catholic Emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th century, Catholics in Sheffield bought the ageing house on the corner of Fargate and Norfolk Row. They built a small chapel in the back garden on a site which is now between the Mortuary and the Blessed Sacrament Chapels.

The rest of the land where the cathedral now stands became a cemetery. Bodies from the cemetery were moved to the new Catholic cemetery at Saint Bede’s in Rotherham and work on Saint Marie’s began.

Inside Saint Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Father harles Pratt was appointed to the Catholic mission in Sheffield in 1843. He was imbued with the principles of the Gothic Revival espoused by AWN Pugin, and attempted to give a more ecclesiologically correct character to the late Georgian chapel. He installed a screen and seating for surpliced choirs, and commissioned a font and statue of Our Lady from the workshop of George Myers, Pugin’s favourite builder.

However, these were merely improvements in Pratt’s eyes, and he wanted to build a larger Gothic church. He acquired additional land to the west of the chapel and obtained designs from the local architect Matthew Ellison Hadfield, the young partner of JG Weightman and a member of the congregation.

The two travelled together throughout the East Midlands and East Yorkshire, visiting 14th century churches which might serve as appropriate models. Hadfield’s eventual design was in the ‘Middle Pointed’ style approved by Pugin and others involved in the Gothic Revival. They were influenced above all by Saint Andrew’s Church in Heckington, Lincolnshire.

The foundation stone for the new church was laid by Bishop Briggs, Vicar Apostolic, on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1847. The principal contractors were Thomas Hayball and Benjamin Gregory of Sheffield.

The new church would be dedicated to Saint Marie, a French or mediaeval rendering of Saint Mary that was a favourite conceit of Pugin and his followers.

Saint Marie’s Church was expensively decorated with the aid of generous donations from the Duke of Norfolk, his mother and parishioners.

Pratt died at the age of 38 in 1849 while the church was being built and was buried at Saint Bede’s, Rotherham. However, a stonemason, who had often heard him say he wanted to be buried in Saint Marie’s, dug up the coffin and reburied Pratt in a tomb he had prepared near the altar. Pratt’s body is still there and a plaque marks the spot, although his effigy has been moved.

The effigy of Father Charles Pratt in Saint Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Saint Marie’s was completed in 1850 – the year of the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales – and opened on 11 September.

The reredos was designed by AWN Pugin and made at the Myers workshop by Theodore Phyffers. The stained glass was by William Wailes, including the east window designed by George Goldie, and Hardman & Co, including the west window designed by Pugin.

The floor tiles in the chancel, Norfolk Chantry and Blessed Sacrament Chapel were designed by Minton & Co. In keeping with the best practices espoused by Pugin, a rood screen enclosed the entrance to the sanctuary.

The Parish of Saint Marie’s, which included the whole of Sheffield, became part of the new Diocese of Beverley in 1850.

Building the church cost more than £10,500 – the equivalent of about £1.5 million today – and the church was not free from debt until 1889.

A new presbytery, now known as Cathedral House, was opened in 1902.

During World War II, a bomb blew out stained glass windows in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The remaining windows were removed and stored in a shaft at Nunnery Colliery. The mine flooded during the war, the glass sunk in mud, and drawings for recreating the windows were destroyed. However, it was still possible to reinstall the windows in 1947.

The high altar and sanctuary in Saint Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

When Saint Marie’s was re-ordered in 1970, following Vatican II, dark woodwork was removed and new lighting and benches were installed. In 1972, a new altar, allowing Mass to be celebrated versus populum, was consecrated by Bishop Gerald Moverley, auxiliary Bishop of Leeds.

During the reordering of Saint Marie’s, at the invitation of the Anglican Cathedral, Mass was celebrated at the altar of the Shrewsbury Chapel once again.

When the new Diocese of Hallam was formed in 1980, Saint Marie’s became the cathedral. Bishop Gerald Moverley was the bishop until he died in 1996. Bishop John Rawsthorne then became the second Bishop of Hallam.

During an extensive programme of renovations, the cathedral closed from September 2011 to November 2012. During that time, the sanctuary was extended into the crossing and reordered, a new cathedra was installed and the choir moved to the west end of the building.

The side chapels and the roofing were restored, in some cases revealing original features previously hidden.

During this restoration work, a collection of Nottingham alabaster carvings, mostly dating from the 15th century, were discovered and underwent extensive restoration. They went on display in the cathedral cloisters in April 2017.

Saint Marie’s Cathedral re-opened in November 2012. Bishop John Rawsthorne then retired and Bishop Ralph Heskett became the third Bishop of Hallam in 2014.

In recent years, the cathedral has been developed as a concert venue, hosting many of choral ensembles. The cathedral is one of few Roman Catholic churches in England equipped for change ringing. It has eight bells in the ring and an Angelus bell.

The cathedral has been a Grade II* listed building since 1973. Saint Marie’s Cathedral received a grant in 2014 to conserve its heritage, art and treasures.

Father Christopher Posluszny is the Cathedral Dean. Sunday Mass is at 8 am, 10.30 am, 12.30 pm, and 6.30 pm. Daily Mass, Monday to Friday, is at 8 am, 12.30 pm and 5.30 pm, and on Saturday at 8 am and 12.30 pm.

Inside Saint Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)