Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (23 July 2023). Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship celebrates the life of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher of the Faith, 1901.
Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.
This week, my reflections each morning include:
1, Looking at stained glass windows in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Three lower clerestory windows, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth:
The three lower clerestory windows on the south side of the chancel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, are filled with highly coloured glazing. These windows are by William Wailes (1808-1881) of Newcastle.
Wailes started his own company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1838 and became one of the largest provincial stained glass producers. The company was making its own glass by 1841 and Wailes was employed to make glass for AWN Pugin, mainly from 1842 to 1845, and he continued to produced glass for him on-and-off until Pugin died in 1852.
Wailes was joined by his son-in-law, Thomas Rankine Strang (1835-1899), joined him as a partner and the business became Wailes & Strang. Wailes lived in Saltwell Towers, Gateshead, from 1859. He died there and is buried in Saint Peter’s churchyard, Bywell, Northumberland.
1, Bishop Richard Rawle window:
The first window, the easternmost, honours of the appointment of the Vicar of Tamworth, Richard Rawle, as Bishop of Trinidad in 1872.
The subject is described, ‘Melchisedec (sic, King of Salem, Priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning, & blessed him.’ The dedication reads: ‘To the Glory of God & in memory of the call of R Rawle, Vicar of this Parish, to be Anglican Bishop of Trinidad. W Wailes makes & dedicates this window with a thankful heart AD 1872.’
Richard Rawle (1812-1889), who was the Vicar of Tamworth in 1869-1872, was the Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago (1872-1888) and the Dean of Port of Spain Cathedral.
Rawle was born in Plymouth on 27 February 1812, the third child and only son of Francis Rawle, a lawyer. He was still only two when his mother, Amelia (Millett), died on 6 October 1814. He was educated at Plymouth Grammar School and Trinity College Cambridge (Scholar 1833, BA 1835, MA 1838, Fellow 1836, assistant tutor, 1836-1839).
He was ordained deacon by Joseph Allen, Bishop of Ely, in 1839, and priest by John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln soon after, becoming Rector of Cheadle, Staffordshire, in the Diocese of Lichfield, that same year.
Rawle remained at Cheadle until 1847, when he moved to Barbados in association with SPG (now USPG), and became the second Principal of Codrington College (1847-1864). He successfully resisted attempts to have the college revert to its former function of educating the sons of the gentry and college went on to produce many graduates who made their mark in teaching, law, medicine, the civil service, as well as in ordained ministry.
He returned to Staffordshire briefly in 1851, when he married Susan Anne Blagg, daughter of John Michael Blagg, of Rosehill, Cheadle, in Cheadle parish church, on 14 January 1851.
He declined the offer to become Bishop of Antigua in 1859, and remained at Codrington College until 1864, when he resigned due to ill-health and returned to England. After convalescence, he refused the offer to become an honorary canon in Ely Cathedral. He was Vicar of Felmersham, Bedfordshire (1867-1869), before becoming Vicar of Tamworth (1869-1872).
While Rawle was Vicar of Tamworth, a new diocese was created in the West Indies in 1872 when Trinidad was separated from Barbados. Rawle was invited to become the first Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago, and he was consecrated bishop in Lichfield Cathedral on Saint Peter’s Day 29 June 1872.
For the next 17 years, he worked indefatigably in his diocese, and also became Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port of Spain from 1878. Codrington College became affiliated with Durham University in 1875, and a year later, in 1876, Rawle received the degree DD from Durham.
His wife Susan died in Bournemouth on 1 March 1888 while they were on leave in England, and she was buried in Cheadle churchyard. Meanwhile, an economic depression in Barbados, caused by the fall in the price of sugar, put Codrington in a critical economic position. FM Meyrick resigned, leaving the college without a principal from 1887 because there was no stipend. Rawle volunteered in 1888, at the age of 76, to serve without pay, ‘out of a labour of love.’
He resigned as Bishop of Trinidad and returned to Codrington College as both Principal and Professor of Divinity in 1888. He was then 76. Within a year, Rawle was dead. He died at Codrington College on 10 May 1889 and was buried the next day in the SPG Chapel burial ground with a simple cross as the only mark on his grave.
2, Willington Window:
The middle window by William Wailes represents Abraham offering his son Isaac to sacrifice, the inscription being, ‘In memory of Waldyve Henry Willington, who died Dec. 17, 1850, aged 19. God spared not his own son, but freely gave him.’ The top image is of the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei).
This window commemorates Waldyve Henry Willington (1831-1850), the second son of Francis Willington, solicitor, of Tamworth. He was born in Tamworth on 2 April 1831, and died of fever in Saint John’s College, Cambridge, on 17 December 1850, aged 19. His surviving brothers were the Revd Francis Pye Willington (1826-1912), and the Revd John Ralph Willington (1837-1931).
Their father, Francis Willington of Tamworth, donated the Marmion or Saint Editha windows designed by Ford Madox Ford on the south side of the chancel. Their mother Jane Anne Pye of Clifton Camville, was a daughter of the Poet Laureate Henry James Pye and an aunt of the hymnwriter Henry John Pye.
The family was descended from Captain Waldyve Willington, who in June 1643 commanded a parliamentarian force that captured Tamworth Castle, which was garrisoned for the king, and the Moat House, the home on Lichfield Street of William Comberford, who was also actively engaged in supporting the royalist cause. Willington then sacked Comberford village and manor.
The Willington family lived for almost two centuries at No 10 Colehill, Tamworth. The house is now a pub known as the Sheriff of Tamworth, and is one of the pubs listed by Camra. The house was once the home of General Bailey Willington (1755-1822), an artillery commander at the siege of Gibraltar in 1782. Another family member, John Willington, was steward of the Townshend estate at Tamworth Castle in the 19th century, and lived at the Moat House until he died in 1811.
3, Joseph Gray window:
The westernmost of these three windows by William Wailes is in memory of Joseph Gray of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire. It bears the inscription, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.’
The lower wording reads: ‘In memory of Joseph Gray of Maids Moreton in the county of Bucks, died November 12th 1846. Buried in the north porch of this Church. A Beloved Husband. By his Widow May 6th 1872 Mary Gray.’
Matthew 13: 10-17 (NRSVA):
10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 11 He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’
Today’s Prayer:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reflections from the International Consultation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Michael Clarke of the West Indies.
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (27 July 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
We thank you Lord for all Primates, Church leaders and representatives from the Anglican Communion who we able to gather in Tanzania for the USPG International Consultation.
Collect:
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion:
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he 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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