Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG: Tuesday 4 October 2022

The Chapel in the Bar Convent, York, the oldest surviving Catholic convent in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Today the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship commemorates Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226, with a Lesser Festival. Later today, this evening in the Jewish Calendar is Kol Nidre begins at sunset, marking the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Before today gets busy, however, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This morning, and throughout this week, I am continuing last week’s theme of reflecting each morning on a church, chapel, or place of worship in York, where I stayed in mid-September.

In my prayer diary this week I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a church, chapel or place of worship in York;

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

The Bar Convent on the corner of Blossom Street and Nunnery Lane, York, dates back to 1686, when Mother Frances Bedingfeld, under the alias Frances Long, signed the deeds for the site (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Saint Francis was born in Assisi in central Italy in 1181 or 1182. He was baptised Giovanni but given the name Francesco by his father, a cloth merchant who traded in France and had married a French wife. There was an expectation that he would eventually take over his father’s business but Francis had a rebellious youth and a difficult relationship with his father.

After suffering the ignominy of imprisonment following capture while at war with the local city of Perugia, he returned a changed man. He took to caring for disused churches and for the poor, particularly those suffering from leprosy. While praying in the semi-derelict church of San Damiano, he distinctly heard the words: ‘Go and repair my church, which you see is falling down.’ Others joined him and he prepared a simple Rule for them all to live by.

As the order grew, it witnessed to Christ through preaching the gospel of repentance and emphasizing the poverty of Christ as an example for his followers. Two years before his death, his life being so closely linked with that of his crucified Saviour, he received the Stigmata, the marks of the wounds of Christ, on his body. At his death, on the evening of 3 October 1226, his order had spread throughout western Christendom.

Luke 12: 22-34 (NRSVA):

22 He [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you – you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 ‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

The Altar and the Reredos in the Chapel in the Bar Convent, York (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Bar Convent, Micklegate, York

The Convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Micklegate Bar, York, better known as the Bar Convent, is the oldest surviving Catholic convent in England, established in 1686. As the laws at this time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents, the convent was established and operated in secret.

The community at the Bar Convent traces its story back to Mary Ward, whose work led to the foundation of the Congregation of Jesus, based at the Bar Convent, and the Sisters of Loreto or the Institute of the Blessed Virgin.

Mary Ward (1585-1645) was born in Yorkshire and died near York at height of the English Civil War. Over 40 years after her death, Mother Frances Bedingfeld, a member of the Sisters of Loreto, signed the deeds for the site on 5 November 1686 under the alias Frances Long. The foundation of the convent was inspired, at least in part by Sir Thomas Gascoigne, who wanted ‘a school for our daughters.’

The nuns were the victims of frequent discrimination. Mother Frances and her great niece were held in Ousebridge Gaol in 1694, and the house was attacked and severely damaged by an angry mob in 1696. The engraving of St Michael over the front door commemorates this, with a local legend claiming the terrified mob fled the scene when Saint Michael appeared over the house on horseback.

The convent later came under attack from Dr Jaques Sterne, who ordered the convent to shut and the children sent home from the school. Mother Hodshon and a colleague were charged with not receiving Anglican Holy Communion at Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate. But, as there was no service on the day in question, the case fell apart and was thrown out.

The convent was expanded and rebuilt under Mother Ann Aspinal. The original property was demolished and rebuilt, and a new house was built in 1766-1769. The chapel was the most significant addition to the new convent. Mother Ann hired Thomas Atkinson, the architect responsible for the neo-gothic additions to Bishopthorpe Palace. Due to continuing hostility to Catholics in York, he modified his designs, incorporating the chapel into the structure of the house.

The chapel dome was concealed beneath a slate roof and hidden from the street. Atkinson also built eight different escape routes into the chapel, to ensure that if the building was stormed, the nuns could escape.

The First Catholic Repeal Act (1778) made life easier for the convent, and for the first time the nuns were able to wear their religious habit in public. The passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act (1791) led to the Bar Convent receiving a licence as a public place of worship.

Mother Mary Aikenhead, who founded the Irish Sisters of Charity, was a novice in the Bar Convent in 1812-1815.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Mother Superior, Catherine Rou, and the convent offered shelter to refugee priests and fugitive nuns, including Carmelites from Brabant, Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre from Liège and Poor Clares from Dunkirk.

When the convent was bombed during World War II, five nuns died and the east wing was destroyed.

The main convent building facies directly onto Blossom Street. The entrance hall was initially built as an open courtyard but has since been enclosed and Victorian tiles added. The court has a decorative tiled floor and a glass roof supported by iron trusses which are, in turn, supported by iron columns. The court also has a clock designed by Henry Hindley.

The chapel block is masked by extensions housing the Lady Chapel, and a stone staircase leads to the chapel on the first floor.

The chapel has a domed sanctuary, a nave with three bays and a north and south transept. The sanctuary is a domed rotunda with eight detached and fluted columns and a frieze depicting features such as vine leaves, urns and posies. The dome itself has eight bays, each of which features garlands of various fruits and foliage and is topped by a painted glass lantern.

The south transept leads into the Lady Chapel which is lit by a small dome and cupola. Beneath the north transept is a square space that may once have served as a priest hole.

The altar, dating from 1969, incorporates scrolled legs with winged cherub heads from the 18th-century original. Behind the altar, the 20th-century reredos is topped by 18th-century carved figures of Saint Jerome, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory and a Spanish ivory crucifix.

The Bar Convent is England’s oldest living convent, and is home to a resident community of sisters belonging to the Congregation of Jesus. The Grade I listed buildings were renovated in 2015. The Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre now includes a museum, a café, meetings rooms and a guest house.

Inside the Chapel in the Bar Convent, York, facing the liturgical west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Today’s Prayer (Tuesday 4 October 2022):

The Collect:

O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself
to the childlike and lowly of heart:
grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis,
we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness
and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Francis
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Mission in a Crisis.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Father Rasika Abeysinghe, Priest in the Diocese of Kurunagala, Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (4 October 2022) in these words:

Let us pray for the Diocese of Kurunagala. May their mission and outreach continue to reach those in need.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The entrance hall was initially built as an open courtyard but has since been enclosed and Victorian tiles have been added (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

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

A plaque on the Blossom Street façade commemorates Mother Mary Ward (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Keeping up appearances on Sloane Square after the arrest of Oscar Wilde

The Cadogan Hotel, where Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Sloane Street and Sloane Square are part of the Cadogan Estate, one of London’s most expensive retailing districts with some of the most expensive residential property in Chelsea and Knightsbridge.

The estate’s streets and buildings were first commissioned by Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, in the 18th century, and Sloane Street evolved into one of the world’s most exclusive retail areas. The shops include Chloe, Salvatore Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Valentino.

I was not in Sloane Square and Sloane Street to go shopping, but to take part in a day’s events organised by the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in Holy Trinity Church, also built by the Cadogan Estate.

Before the day’s programme began, I walked the length of Sloane Street to see the Cadogan Hotel, where Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was arrested in 1895 and which is the venue at the centre of a celebrated poem by the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984).

Betjeman’s poem ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’ tells of the arrest of the Irish-born poet, playwright and wit in the hotel on Sloane Street on 6 April 1895.

The Cadogan Hotel on Sloane Street, was built in 1887 and is one of London’s most prestigious luxury hotels.

Lillie Langtry, famous actress and close friend of Edward VII and of Oscar Wilde, lived at 21 Pont Street from 1892 to 1897. A blue plaque recalls that long after she had sold the house, Lillie Langtry continued to stay in her old bedroom, by then a part of the hotel.

Shortly after it opened, the Cadogan Hotel became infamous for the arrest of Oscar Wilde in Room 118, charged with ‘committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons.’ The events in the room are recalled by Betjeman in his tragic poem.

The Marquess of Queensbury, father of his Wilde’s long-time lover, Sir Alfred Douglas, was at the centre of Wilde’s arrest, trial, and imprisonment. Wilde sued Queensbury for defamation, but this lead to the case in which Wilde’s homosexuality was all but proven for the court. The lawsuit was eventually withdrawn. This was seen as an admission of guilt on Wilde’s part and he was soon arrested.

In this poem, the John Betjeman imagines the moment when Oscar Wilde was arrested on 6 April 1895. Wilde was charged with gross indecency and, at a time when homosexuality was illegal, he was sentenced to two years’ hard labour. The prison regime was brutal and, although he was released in 1897, a toxic mix of illnesses contracted in prison and a increasing alcoholism lead to his death in Paris in 1900.

The poem has significant rhythm and rhyme and deploys three voices. Its rhyming scheme and use of quatrains make ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’ a ballad.

The voice of narrator is almost without emotion, describing the scene inside the Cadogan Hotel where Oscar Wilde and his friend Robbie Ross are waiting for the inevitable arrival of the police.

Oscar Wilde presents the second voice at the moment of crisis.

The third voices are those of the policemen, who speak with an almost pantomime quality. Their language, dialect and accents emphasise the gap between the sophisticated and cultured poet and the working class background of the ‘two plain clothes policemen.’

The poem begins with the speaker describing how the Wilde spent his last moments with his close friend the journalist Robbie Ross before his arrest in the Cadogan Hotel. Wilde and Ross were once been in a relationship, and Ross worked as Wilde’s literary executor after his death. Ross was with Wilde at his deathbed in Paris, and his ashes are within the headstone on Wilde’s grave.

Wilde was continuously drinking and knew everything was about to change. The unmade bed may be a symbol of Wilde’s mental state at this point in his life. He knew that things were starting to cascade against him.

He grows more irritated that the hotel and Robbie are not acting fast enough. Eventually, he starts wondering about the location of his expensive coats and his leather suitcase or ‘portmanteau’.

The fourth stanza refers to The Yellow Book, a literary periodical in London in the 1890s. It features in Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the art director, Audrey Beardsley, who produced illustrations for Wilde’s play Salome in 1893. It is thought Wilde had this publication with him when he was arrested at the Cadogan Hotel.

John Buchan’s works were also published in The Yellow Book, but Wilde looked down on Buchan’s writing, dismissing it is a backward step for literature and society.

The arrival of the two plain clothes policemen is the turning point in the poem, when the climactic moment of Wilde’s arrest arrives. There is thumping and murmuring outside the door and as they come in Wilde light-heartedly complains about the noise they are making.

There are some noises outside the door as the two policemen enter. They ask Wilde to come ‘quoietly’ and to leave the hotel with them. They see the Cadogan Hotel as a reputable respectable establishment, and do not want to disturb the guests or the staff, dismissed by Wilde as ‘little better than cretins’.

Wilde is taken away without much fuss. On the way to the waiting hansom cab or two-wheeled coach outside, he touches the plants on the staircase, and the poem ends abruptly with him being helped into the carriage. The poem ends abruptly, leaving the reader to mourn over Wilde’s fate.

The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel (1937), by John Betjeman

He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?

To the right and before him Pont Street
Did tower in her new built red,
As hard as the morning gaslight
That shone on his unmade bed,

“I want some more hock in my seltzer,
And Robbie, please give me your hand —
Is this the end or beginning?
How can I understand?

“So you’ve brought me the latest Yellow Book:
And Buchan has got in it now:
Approval of what is approved of
Is as false as a well-kept vow.

“More hock, Robbie — where is the seltzer?
Dear boy, pull again at the bell!
They are all little better than cretins,
Though this is the Cadogan Hotel.

“One astrakhan coat is at Willis’s —
Another one’s at the Savoy:
Do fetch my morocco portmanteau,
And bring them on later, dear boy.”

A thump, and a murmur of voices —
(”Oh why must they make such a din?”)
As the door of the bedroom swung open
And TWO PLAIN CLOTHES POLICEMEN came in:

“Mr. Woilde, we ’ave come for tew take yew
Where felons and criminals dwell:
We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly
For this is the Cadogan Hotel.”

He rose, and he put down The Yellow Book.
He staggered — and, terrible-eyed,
He brushed past the plants on the staircase
And was helped to a hansom outside.

Danny Osborne’s sculpture of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square, Dublin … unveiled in 1997, 100 years after Wilde was arrested in the Cadogan Hotel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Poem © John Betjeman and The Estate of John Betjeman