Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (61) 28 July 2023

Detail of the Peel window in the south aisle in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, depicting David, Rizpah and Solomon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (23 July 2023).

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.

The Resurrection window in the South Transept of Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The South Transept and South Aisle windows, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth:

The window in the South Transept of Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is easy to overlook, behind the Lady Chapel half hidden by the organ. This window depicts three Resurrection themes beautifully illustrated in glowing colours: the Supper at Emmaus (left), the Resurrection (centre) and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (right).

This window is in memory of John Harding, of Bonehill, who died on 9 July 1844, aged 82, and his wife, Margaret, who died on 14 November 1833, aged 66, who are buried with six of their children in a vault underneath the North Porch.

The first window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts Daniel, Esther and Ezra (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The three fine windows in the South Aisle are transomed, with three lights each and well-designed tracery. The stained glass was made by Powell & Son of London and designed by Henry Holiday. The colouring and drawing of the Biblical subjects in these windows are particularly fine.

The first window is in memory of Francis Willington of Colehill, town clerk of Tamworth, who died on 10 February 1881, and his wife Jane Anne, who died on 11 July 1880. Willington also donated the three Marmion or Saint Editha windows by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) in the on the south side of the chancel, high above the High Altar, and the window on the south side of the chancel in memory of his son, Waldyve Henry Willington.

The Biblical figures in this first window in the south aisle are Daniel (‘Bless ye the Lord’), Esther (‘What wilt thou Queen Esther?’) and Ezra (‘By the rivers of Babylon we wept’).

The second window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts David, Rizpah and Solomon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The next window, the richest of the three, is in memory of William Yates Peel (1789-1858) and his wife Lady Jane Elizabeth Peel, who died on 5 September 1847.

William Yates Peel was the second son of Sir Robert Peel and a younger brother of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. He was MP for Bossiney (1817-1818), Tamworth (1818-1830, 1835-1837, 1847), Yarmouth (1830-1831) and Cambridge University (1831-1832), and was a Lord of the Treasury under Wellington and under his brother Sir Robert Peel. Lady Jane Elizabeth Moore was a daughter of Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mount Cashell.

The Biblical figures in this second window in the south aisle are David (‘The Battle is the Lord’s’, I Samuel 17: 17), Rizpah (‘She suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night’, II Samuel 21: 10) and Solomon (‘Blessed be the Lord which delighted in thee’, I Kings 10: 9).

The third window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts Samson, Ruth and Samuel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The third window, nearest to the south door, is to the memory of Helen Grace Milligan and John Curzon Shaw (1854-1879), daughter and son of John and Emily Shaw, of Tamworth.

The Biblical figures depicted in this third window in the south aisle are Samson (‘Let me die with the Philistines’), Ruth (’Whose damsel is this?’) and Samuel (‘Anoint him for this is he’).

The first window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts Daniel, Esther and Ezra (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 13: 18-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

The second window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts David, Rizpah and Solomon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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 (28 July 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for all the staff, trustees and volunteers at USPG for all they do to bring the mission and objectives of the organisation to fruition.

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

The third window in the South Aisle in Saint Editha’s Church depicts Samson, Ruth and Samuel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Flights of fantasy in sculpture among shops in Milton Keynes

‘Sitting on History’ by Bill Woodrow in Milton Keynes was originally designed for an exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, in 1996 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

One of the many joys of living near Milton Keynes is the commitment to public sculpture by business and local bodies, with sculptures in a variety of public spaces, in parks, shopping centres and parks.

And public sculpture in Milton Keynes, despite the impressions of many outsiders, is about more than concrete cows.

I have written on this blog in recent weeks about the sculpture trail on the campus of the Open University (here and here). But, walking around the shopping centre that now promotes itself as the centre:mk, I whiled away time on a recent afternoon as I enjoyed some of the artworks that are most popular locally.

I cannot say I am ever going to enjoy time spent in shopping centres, unless I can find good bookshops and good coffee shops. After browsing books and sipping coffee in Waterstone’s that recent afternoon, I spent some time admiring Bill Woodrow’s 1996 bronze sculpture ‘Sitting on History’ in the main atrium in the Midsummer Place Shopping Centre.

The sculptor Bill Woodrow has exhibited widely since 1971. His early sculptures were made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrapyards, which he cut, altered and placed in new relationships to create new forms, metaphors and stories.

He began working in bronze In the late 1980s, but continued to tell stories through his work. His sculpture ‘Regardless of History’ was exhibited on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2000.

‘Sitting on History’ was originally designed for an exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London in 1996. Bill Woodrow’s idea was to create a sculpture that functioned as a seat and was only complete when someone sat on it.

‘Sitting on History’, with its ball and chain, refers to the book as captor of information from which we cannot escape. History is filtered through millions of pages of writing, making the book the major vehicle for years of research and study. Woodrow proposes that although we absorb this knowledge, we appear to have great difficulty in changing our behaviour as a result.

The books in the original maquette of the sculpture came from a box of books given to Woodrow by a London bookseller who discarded them believing he could no longer sell them. To Woodrow’s amusement, they included three volumes on the history of the Labour Party, which he used for his maquettes.

The sculpture was bought by London and Amsterdam Properties Ltd and is now outside Waterstone’s bookshop in Milton Keynes. Another version of the sculpture is installed in the British Museum.

‘The Conversation’ (1995) by Nicolas Moreton in New City Square, outside Marks and Spencer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Reading and talking go together, of course.

‘The Conversation’ (1995) by Nicolas Moreton is in New City Square, outside Marks and Spencer. It was commissioned by Hermes Properties and is a work in Kilkenny Limestone, bronze and gold leaf.

Nicolas Moreton was born in 1961 in Watford, Hertfordshire, and is best known as a stone carver. Two of his sculptures – ‘The Conversation’ (1995) and ‘The Meeting’ (1995) – are in permanent public locations in Milton Keynes.

Moreton received a National Stone Carving residency at four English cathedrals in 2004-2005. He visited Southwell Minster, Gloucester Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral and Manchester Cathedral, and was in conversation with Brian Sewell in the BBC Radio 4 series on Divine Art about his residency at Gloucester Cathedral.

‘The Conversation,’ in Kilkenny Black Fossil limestone and bronze, consists of two bronze figures in conversation over a cup of tea, raised from the ground on a plinth, away from the bustle of the people below. The plinth is their table, an intimate and private space elevated above the rest of the world.

Moreton uses the tea ritual as the symbol of a meeting. According to the artist, the column represents an arena of expectation, and the carved river motif and gold-leafed fish act as ‘the natural life forces from which we come … all fish bar one swim in one direction – the one unleafed fish representing the one that would appear to swim against the tide.’

‘Vox Pop’ or ‘The Family’ is a bronze sculpture made by John Clinch in 1988 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘Vox Pop’ or ‘The Family,’ a bronze sculpture made by John Clinch in 1988, is in Queen’s Court. Clinch has been creating public sculptures works since the 1960s. His group of larger than life figures was specially commissioned for Queen’s Square by Milton Keynes Development Corporation and Postel, and was donated to Milton Keynes Council.

The concept of ‘Vox Pop’ describes an interview with members of the public for TV or radio. The original Latin phrase vox populi means the voice of the people or public opinion.

John Clinch wanted ‘Vox Pop’ or ‘The Family’ to show the diversity of people in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Clinch’s work celebrates ordinary members of the public rather than the rich and famous. His multi-ethnic ‘family’ walk a dog, cycle and push a baby buggy following a circular path, encouraging visitors to walk round them and examine the detail of the sculpture.

It was ‘originally intended to show the diversity of people needed to make Milton Keynes a great city’. Clinch intended to place a bronze Union Jack in the centre of the commission on a plinth. But the sculpture was altered and the flag was omitted because of its nationalist associations, and the work was lowered to bring the figures down to the level of visiting shoppers.

‘Dream Flight’ depicts one of Philomena Davis’s children (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A series of bronze sculptures by Philomena Davis are in Silbury Arcade, alongside branches of Marks and Spencer, Rituals, Laser Clinics, L’Occitane and Dune. Her three 1989 sculptures – ‘Dream Flight’, ‘Flying Carpet’ and ‘High Flyer’ – were commissioned by Milton Keynes Development Corporation and Hermes, and were donated to Milton Keynes Council.

Philomena Davis moved to Milton Keynes in 1980 and opened the Bronze Foundry in New Bradwell with her husband Michael. She has undertaken many commissions in Britain and abroad and was elected President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1990.

Her three sculptures in Milton Keynes focus on the theme of flight. Her three figures show children at play and dreaming, and were inspired by her own daughter and a family friend. Two are transported on flying carpets and one is almost in flight as she throws her kite up into the air.

‘High Flyer’ seem to be absorbed in her own adventure (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Although the boy on the ‘Magic Carpet’ engages in eye contact with shoppers and passers-by, the two girls in ‘Dream Flight’ – one of Philomena’s children – and ‘High Flyer’ seem to be absorbed in their own adventures.

The artist says her sculptures depict our ‘fantasy with flight and escapism, in particular, the sorts of escapist dreams that come to us in childhood and adolescence.’

The three works were moved from their original positions in Queen’s Court and relocated in Silbury Arcade in 2009. Now set amidst shrubs and vegetation, they still remain slightly aloof from the commotion of the busy shopping centre.

The boy on the ‘Magic Carpet’ seems to engage in eye contact with passers-by (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)