Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Thursday 8 September 2022

Scenes from the life the Virgin Mary in a window by Charles Eamer Kempe in the chancel of Saint Laurence’s Church, Winslow (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Today the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship marks the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September) and is celebrated as a Lesser Festival.

Before today begins, 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.’

The birth of the Virgin Mary in an icon by Mihai Cocu in the Lady Chapel in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 1: 18-23 (NRSVA):

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.



Today’s reflection: ‘Magnificat’

For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

This morning [8 September 2022], I invite you to join me in listening to Vaughan Williams’s arrangement for the canticle Magnificat.

Yesterday [7 September 2022], I was listening to ‘The Old Hundreth,’ his arrangement of the canticle Jubilate, which is one of three New Testament Canticles associated with Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. In the Anglican tradition, the canticle Magnficat is associated with Evening Prayer or Evensong.

When Gustav Holst died in 1934, Vaughan Williams lost his greatest friend. He missed Holst for the rest of his life and invoked his spirit in several works of the 1930s and 1940s. His setting of Magnificat or the Song of Mary (Luke 1: 46-55), one of the three New Testament canticles, is one such work, looking back to the Holst of The Hymn of Jesus, which Holst dedicated to Vaughan Williams and was first performed in London 95 years ago on 25 March 1920.

Vaughan Williams composed this setting of Magnificat in 1932. While he was working on this setting, Vaughan Williams wrote to Holst explaining he hoped ‘to lift the words out of the smug atmosphere which had settled on them from being sung at evening service for so long (I’ve tried hard to get the smugness out; I don’t know if I have succeeded – I find it awfully hard to eradicate it).’

It was first performed 90 years ago at the Worcester Festival in 1932, conducted by Vaughan Williams with Astra Desmond singing the solo part of the Virgin Mary.

Vaughan Williams later produced another arrangement for a Dutch chamber orchestra based in The Hague in November 1937, but four months later he ‘had no acknowledgment & no word of any kind from them.’ He expressed his frustration about this in a letter to his publisher, Hubert Foss of the Oxford University Press, written on 25 March 1938.

It is scored for contralto soloist, women’s chorus, and an orchestra consisting of two flutes (the first player has a very prominent solo part; the second player doubles on piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tambourine, Indian drum, glockenspiel, celesta, harp, organ, and strings.

This is an unusual setting of the text. After an ethereal opening, a contralto/mezzo-soprano soloist sings the text while the female chorus interpolates with other texts in praise of the Virgin Mary. The contrast between the rhapsodic lines of the soloist and the more reflective emotions of the chorus results in a moving work.

At the bottom of the first page of the vocal score of Magfiicat is a note in very small type: ‘N.B. This setting is not intended for liturgical use.’

Chorus:

Hail, thou art most favoured,
The Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
And the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
Therefore that holy thing which shall be born on thee shall be called the Son of God.

Mary:

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour,
For he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden:
For, behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done great things;
And holy is his name.

Chorus:

Hail, Mary full of Grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts;
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Glory be to thee O Lord most high.

Mary:

And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

Chorus:

Fear not, Mary: thou has found favour with God.
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring
forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
And he shall reign for ever;
And of his Kingdom there shall be no end.

Mary:

Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

Chorus:

Hail, Mary, full of Grace. Hail.

The Virgin Mary with her parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, in a mosaic by the Russian artist Boris Anrep (1883-1969) in Mullingar Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Thursday 8 September 2022:

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child-bearing of blessèd Mary:
grant that we, who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image
and conformed to the pattern of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God Most High,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Season of Creation,’ was introduced on Sunday by the Season of Creation Advisory Committee.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for countries in the Global South, which are disproportionately affected by the visible consequences of the climate crisis.

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

Former Congregational church in Winslow recalls links with early Puritans

The former Congregational Church on a prominent position on the bend of Horn Street in Winslow, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The former Congregational Church in Winslow stands on a prominent position on the bend of Horn Street, and is clearly visible from a number of locations throughout the small, pretty town between Buckingham and Aylesbury.

Although the church has been closed since 1989, it once played an important role in the history of the Congregational or Independent tradition in Buckinghamshire that links back directly to the Puritans of the mid-17th century.

During the Cromwellian era, the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Public Worship, although it is not clear whether the Puritans ever gained control of Saint Laurence’s parish church during that time.

The Independent or Congregational tradition, a legacy of the Puritans of the Cromwellian period, survived as Dissenters in Buckinghamshire, particularly in Newport Pagnell. A small group emerged in Winslow, and for a time, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, they assembled in Keach’s Meeting House near the Market Square.

For some time before this, the Independents had used this Baptist chapel on alternate Sundays. But their growing numbers called for a larger building and more frequent services, and in 1816 they bought a barn on Horn Street to fit out for their own worship.

When the chapel opened on 10 April 1816, it had a seating capacity of 250. The preachers at the opening were the Revd DW Aston of Buckingham and the Revd Thomas Palmer Bull, the Independent pastor in Newport Pagnell, who also ran an academy or seminary for aspiring ministerial candidates. The first pastor, the Revd John Wilson (1816-1824), had trained at Bull’s seminary at Newport Pagnell.

There was a brief schism in 1827, when some of the Independents joined the Baptists in Keach’s Meeting House, where a gallery was built at the east end to accommodate the influx of Independent seceders.

But unity was soon restored, and in 1829 the Congregationalists bought more land nearby to rebuild the chapel and to add a vestry and schoolroom.

The new chapel opened on 4 May 1830 and could seat up to 300 people. The early trustees included TP Bull, and students from his academy preached regularly on Sundays.

The Revd Joseph Denton, who was minister in 1830-1840, tried unsuccessfully to get permission to hold a weekly service in the Workhouse in 1838. The first marriage allowed under a new act took place in the Winslow chapel on 4 September 1850.

The Revd JB Attenborough was described as ‘a big burly man with a voice like the rolling of distant thunder’ and as ‘a man of great weight and power.’ When he retired in 1856, the Oxford Chronicle described him as the ‘dissenting minister,’ and when the Revd John Fogg arrived as the new minister in Winslow in 1857, the chapel was described as ‘the Dissenting Church.’

William Craft, an escaped slave from Macon, Georgia, spoke at a public meeting in the Independent Chapel in 1858, and described his and his wife’s escape, giving ‘a very accurate and sober account of slavery and its taskmasters’ and ‘a vivid account’ of his escape.

From the beginning, an influential minority in the congregation opposed Fogg’s appointment, and eventually he resigned in 1861. He was succeeded by the Revd Wesley Spurgeon Rae (1863-1867), from Ireland, and later by the Revd John Riordan (1881-1888).

The church continued to identify with the cause of abolition, and the Jubilee Singers, a choir of freed slaves, gave a concert in 1881, singing ‘stirring melodies said to have been sung … while in slavery.’

While a new Congregational Church was being built in Winslow, the congregation met in the Assembly Rooms at The Bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The congregation decided in 1882 to build a new church and to convert the existing into a schoolroom. While the church was being built, the congregation met in the Assembly Rooms at The Bell.

The new church was built in 1884 at a cost of £2,400. The building was designed by the London-based architect Sir John Sulman (1849-1934), who also designed the Congregational Church in Newport Pagnell. Sulman, who was strongly influenced by Sir George Gilbert Scott, later emigrated to Australia. The builders were Yirell and Edwards of Leighton Buzzard.

The foundation stone was laid by Margaret Verney, later Lady Verney. Her husband, Sir Edmund Hope Verney (1838-1910), was a nephew of Florence Nightingale and the Liberal MP for North Buckinghamshire until he was expelled from the House of Commons in 1891 after being jailed for procuring a girl under 21 for ‘immoral purposes’.

The foundation stone was laid by Margaret Verney, later Lady Verney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Sulman’s design was inspired by 15th century English parish churches, but his design was made more difficult by the limited, triangular shape of the site.

The new church opened on 20 January 1885. The most prominent feature was the 58 ft high square tower, inspired by the watchman’s room in the old tower in Irthlingborough Church, Northamptonshire. The tower was surmounted by a weather vane. The upper part of the tower was a large room of 17 feet square, lit by seven windows, and used as a Sunday School classroom.

The church was lit by Gothic windows filled with cathedral toned glass. The principal window in the tower was 18 ft hight and 16 ft wide, and was said to be a reduced copy of a window in York Minster.

The church could seat 240 people on the ground floor and another 82 in the gallery. The building included a Sunday School and a large classroom.

Sulman’s design was inspired by 15th century English parish churches, but his design was made more difficult by the limited, triangular shape of the site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Revd John Riordan retired in 1888 and moved to a church at Sheerness.

The church fielded its own cricket and football teams in the late 19th century, and had its own tennis courts at Hollow Furrow.

At a church meeting in 1896, a resolution was carried expressed deep sympathy with ‘the suffering Armenian people’ and called on the government ‘to take strong and effective diplomatic measures in depriving the Sultan of Turkey of the power to sanction or connive at further bloodshed and persecution’ and ‘to rescue the remnant of the Armenian nation from total annihilation.’

On the initiative of the Welsh-born pastor, the Revd JG Evans, the church hosted an Eisteddfod in 1898 on the lines of the Welsh musical festivals, with 77 entries.

The church celebrated the tercentenary of the birth of Oliver Cromwell in 1899. At the service, Evans read portions from a facsimile of Cromwell’s Soldier’s Pocket Bible, and he described Cromwell as the greatest hero and the greatest religious reformer England had ever seen, ‘a Citizen, a Puritan, and a Protestant.’

Evans preached his farewell sermon in 1902, when he announced he had decided to sever his connection with Nonconformity, to be admitted to the Church of England and to seek ordination to the priesthood.

The Revd John Riordan returned to Winslow in 1904-1914.

The widowed Lady Verney returned to Winslow in 1924 to unveil a new organ in the church.

The Revd AT Quarterman (1939-1942) was the last pastor of the church to live in Winslow. The Congregational Church closed in 1989, and the war memorials were transferred to Saint Laurence’s Church, the Church of England parish church.

The former Congregational Church in Winslow has since been converted into a six-bedroom house. It was placed on the market recently through estate agents Fine & Country Birmingham with an asking price of £1.25 million.

The former Congregational Church seen through the houses on Church Street in Winslow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)