Patrick Comerford
We are approaching the end of the Fifth Week of Easter. Two of us have been staying in York for the past few days, and spent the day in Harrogate and Knaresborough yesterday. We are returning to Stony Stratford and Milton Keynes later today.
Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship commemorates Gregory Dix (1952), priest, monk and scholar. Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. Following my recent visit to Lichfield Cathedral, I am reflecting each morning this week in these ways:
1, Short reflections on the windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The Dean Manecestre and Bishop Stavenby window:
The Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral is currently the venue for the exhibition ‘Library and Legacy,’ showcasing the collections in the cathedral library.
The chapter house was decorated with frescoes and stained glass in the late 15th century by Thomas Heywood, who was Dean of Lichfield in 1457-1492. The glass in the Chapter House once contained figures of the apostles, with other depictions above. These all predated the Cromwellian era, and were destroyed by the Puritans during the Civil War in the mid-17th century.
In the 19th century, the glazing of the chapter house displayed armorial bearings, more or less correct, in imitation of glass known to have ornamented the cathedral in the past. This armorial glass gradually gave way to glass representing scenes in the history of the cathedral. Six of the windows were glazed with these images in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the original but unfilled plan was to fill all the windows in the Chapter House.
The sixth window I am looking at this morning, like many of the windows in this series, is by Charles Eamer Kempe, and was made ca 1900.
The ‘Manecestre Window’ continues the historical series in the Chapter House windows, and depicts William Manecestre, Dean of Lichfield (1222-1254), and Alexander Stavenby, Bishop of Lichfield (1224-1238).
Alexander Stavenby took his name from Stainsby, Lincolnshire, and may have studied under Stephen Langton, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He taught theology at Toulouse, and it has been suggested that his students there included Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans. He also taught at Bologna and was a chamber clerk for Pope Honorius III.
He became Bishop of Lichfield in April 1224 while William Manecestre was Dean of Lichfield. As bishop, he urged the people in his diocese to receive Communion three times a year. He wrote a set of statutes for his diocese, including rules to prohibit his clergy from entering a tavern. While he was bishop, both Coventry and Lichfield were named as the seats of the see, with a new bishop being elected by the chapters of Coventry or Lichfield in turn.
As bishop, Stavenby founded the Franciscan Friary in Lichfield in 1227-1229, when he granted the friars ‘certain free burgages in the town for them to set their house on’.
He undertook many diplomatic missions for King Henry to Rome and France, negotiated at Antwerp with envoys of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, and spent time negotiating truces in Wales.
Alexander died in Andover, Hampshire, on 26 December 1238 and was buried in Lichfield Cathedral. A chantry was established in his memory near the altar of Saint Chad. The only buildings of the Franciscan Friary in Lichfield to survive the Dissolution of the monastic houses at the Reformation were the Dormitory on the west range and a house known as ‘Bishop’s Lodging’ in the south west corner.
The panels in the lower parts of this window depict Dean Manecestre in the new Chapter House in Lichfield committing a special trust to the Prior of Coventry in 1249, and Bishop Alexander de Stavenby, as a generous benefactor to Lichfield Cathedral, dedicating a religious house for the use of the Franciscan friars.
The east light in this window is a memorial to Canon Charles Bodington, the west light is a memorial to Archdeacon Thomas Bucknall Lloyd.
Canon Charles Bodington (1837-1918) was an Anglo-Catholic priest and an early member of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC), was prosecuted for his Anglo-Catholic ritualism in 1877. He was born in Aston, Warwickshire, in 1837 and studied theology at King’s College London, and was ordained deacon by the Archbishop of York in 1863 and priest in 1864. He conducted a series of missions in New Zealand and was Vicar of Christ Church, Lichfield, before he was appointed a Canon Residentiary and Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral in 1899.
He was the author of a guidebook on Lichfield Cathedral (1914), published before five years before he died on 23 November 1918.
The Ven Thomas Bucknall Lloyd (1824-1896), Archdeacon of Salop (1886-1896), was a grandson of Samuel Butler, Bishop of Lichfield (1836-1839). He was educated at Saint John’s College, Cambridge, Cambridge, and was the Cambridge cox in the 1846 Boat Race. He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Lichfield in 1848 and priest in 1849.
He was the Rector of Edgmond, Shropshire, Prebendary of Freeford in Lichfield Cathedral (1870), Rural Dean of Shrewsbury (1873-1887), Proctor of the Diocese of Lichfield (1885-1886), and a member of the council of Lichfield Theological College. He was 71 when he died at Edgmond rectory on 25 February 1896.
John 15: 12-17 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’
Today’s prayer:
The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘The Work and Mission of the Laity.’ USPG’s Regional Manager for Africa, Fran Mate, reflected on Sunday on the work and mission of the laity.
The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Friday 12 May 2023):
Let us pray for the Anglican Communion. May the Churches seek to nurture disciples who are confident of their faith and assured in their mission to love their neighbour.
Collect:
Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion:
Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
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
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