Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (96) 1 September 2023

Methodist Central Hall, Coventry … one of 100 or so Methodist Central Halls built in British cities between 1886 and 1945 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 27 August 2023). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life of Saint Giles of Provence (ca 710), Hermit.

Before the day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

In recent weeks, I have been reflecting on the churches in Tamworth and Lichfield. This week, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at a church in Coventry;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Methodist Central Hall, built in 1931-1932, is a vibrant city centre church in Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Methodist Central Hall, Coventry:

Coventry Central Hall, Coventry, is one of 100 or so Methodist Central Halls built in British cities between 1886 and 1945. Each one was designed as a place for the community to gather, and would attract thousands of people on Saturday evenings with concerts, cinema and meeting spaces.

The Methodist Church still owns 18 of the original buildings, many of which have been substantially altered. Another 27 have been completely demolished or were bombed in World War II. Nineteen of the buildings are protected as listed buildings.

Coventry Central Hall was built in the 1930s. It is a vibrant city centre church, embedded in the local community and it was fully engaged with Coventry’s City of Culture 2021 programme.

Dr Angela Connelly of the University of Manchester says these Methodist Central Halls were large buildings, all designed not to look like a church. She says: ‘Nearly everyone in the UK will have seen a Methodist Central Hall: Pavarotti performed at Kingsway Hall and the UN Declaration was signed in Westminster Central Hall … in their heyday, they attracted big crowds: the Manchester and Salford mission headquarters once boasted 2000 volunteers.’

But because they do not look like churches or cathedrals, the public are not aware of those that remain at all, especially those that have been converted into other uses such as bars and pubs.

The decline, she says, is explained by a long period of drops in Methodist congregations nationally, as well as even steeper losses through inner-city demographic and economic changes.

Her research shows how the missions promoted cultural activity to make Methodism relevant to everyday lives and provide people with an alternative to the lure of alcohol. This included popular entertainment such as film shows, concerts and variety performances.

Joseph Rank of Rank Hovis provided much of the capital to build the Central Halls. His son, the film producer J Arthur Rank, was also a prominent Methodist who became interested in the film industry after seeing the pioneering use of religious films at the Methodist Missions in the 1920s.

As numbers dropped and maintenance costs spiralled, rooms were let out to other organisations and the halls were used for a wide variety of events and rented out to other organisations for theatres, libraries, social services and school exams.

Grimsby and Southampton are now theatres, Liverpool’s Central Hall hosts a collection of independent traders, at Bristol and Bradford the central halls have been converted into flats.

The Central Hall in Coventry can be traced back to the Wesleyan chapel on Warwick Lane, designed by John Toone of Leamington and opened in 1836 for the congregation that had once worshipped in a chapel in Gosford Street. Vestries and classrooms were added later. By 1851, morning congregations averaged 400, with 40 attending the Sunday school.

The new Central Hall opened in Warwick Lane in 1932, in the same location as the former chapel but on a larger site. From March 1931 until January 1932, while building was in progress, the congregation used the former Baptist chapel in Cow Lane.

The new hall was designed by Claude Redgrave and Partners of Coventry and is an impressive red-brick building in the Tudor style, with a stone entrance arch surmounted by an oriel window and a small turret. In 1940, the principal hall could seat 1,379 people, and there were also four school halls and 19 other rooms.

Serious war-time damage was repaired in 1946, and during that time the Coventry Hippodrome was used for services.

Central Hall is locally listed. Close by is the Grade II* listed Christchurch Steeple.

Central Hall is part of the Coventry and Nuneaton Circuit of the Methodist Church. The ministry teams includes the Revd Stephen Willey and Deacon Sheila Dawson. Next Sunday (3 September), the services include: 9 am, Breaking Bread, the Revd Stephen Willey; 10:30 am, Covenant, the Revd Stephen Willey; 5 pm, Taizé.

Central Hall on Warwick Lane was designed by Claude Redgrave and Partners of Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

Central Hall in Coventry can be traced back to a Wesleyan chapel on Warwick Lane that opened in 1836 (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 the ‘República de Jovens Home in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (1 September 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us lift in prayer the Anglican Parish of Inclusion. May God guide and bless their ministry, especially their community projects.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Central Hall is part of the Coventry and Nuneaton Circuit of the Methodist Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

A statue of Saint Giles above the west door of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford … today is feast of Saint Giles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A pilgrim’s visit to Keble College and Butterfield’s chapel in Oxford

Keble College, Oxford, was established in 1870 as a tribute to John Keble, a founding figure in the Oxford Movement (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I have often spoken and written in the past ‘The Light of the World’ by the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Holt (1827-1910) is the first image of Christ I remember seeing as a child. A print of it was first shown to me by my grandmother in her house in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and it is an image that has remained with me ever since.

The original painting is in Keble College, Oxford. It became so popular that Hunt was asked to paint a larger copy. This second version was sold on condition that it toured the world to preach the Gospel and that the purchaser provided cheap colour reproductions. After travelling the world, the second version was presented to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, in 1904. It remains ‘a painted text, a sermon on canvas.’

‘The Light of the World’ has been reproduced in books, prints and stained-glass windows around the world, and I seem to see it in vestries, rectories and vicarages everywhere. I have seen the version in Saint Paul’s on many occasions, but I did not see the original until last week, when I visited Keble College, Oxford.

Keble College is distinctive for its neo-Gothic red-brick buildings designed by William Butterfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Keble College was established in 1870, and was built as a tribute to John Keble (1792-1866), a founding figure in the Oxford Movement. This is one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford, and its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks.

Keble is distinctive for its once-controversial neo-Gothic red-brick buildings designed by the London architect William Butterfield (1814-1900), who is associated with the Oxford Movement and known for his use of polychromy.

Butterfield synthesised Pugin’s Gothic Revival with the insights of John Ruskin, author of The Stones of Venice, who had an enormous influence on Anglo-Catholic architecture. Butterfield took Ruskin’s ideals to heart in Keble College and All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London. His other works include Saint Andrew’s Church, Rugby; Saint Mark’s Church, Dundela, Belfast; and the chapel of Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, Dublin.

The Chapel and Liddon Quadrangle in Keble College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

John Keble died in 1866, four years before the college was founded in 1870. It was decided immediately after Keble’s funeral that his memorial would be a new Oxford college bearing his name. The best-known of Keble’s founders was the Revd Professor Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), after whom the Pusey Quad and Pusey Room are named.

The foundation stone was laid by Archbishop John Bird Sumner of Canterbury on Saint Mark’s Day, 25 April 1868, John Keble’s birthday. The college opened in 1870, taking in 30 students. The chapel was opened on Saint Mark’s Day 1876, and the college continues to celebrate Saint Mark’s Day each year.

Keble is one of Butterfield’s few secular buildings, and a notable example of Victorian Gothic architecture. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner says it is ‘actively ugly,’ Charles Eastlake says it defies criticism, the social historian GM Trevelyan said: ‘the monstrosities of architecture erected by order of the dons of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in the days of William Butterfield and Alfred Waterhouse give daily pain to posterity.’ Sir Kenneth Clark says that during his Oxford years it was generally believed that Keble College was ‘the ugliest building in the world.’

Butterfield’s buildings at Keble College broke from Oxbridge architectural traditions by using brick instead of stone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Butterfield’s buildings at Keble College broke from Oxbridge architectural traditions by using brick instead of stone and by arranging rooms along corridors rather than around staircases.

The college is built of red, blue, and white bricks; the main structure is of red brick, with white and blue patterned banding. The builders were Parnell & Son of Rugby.

The main site of Keble contains five quads: Liddon, the largest, named after the Revd Professor Henry Parry Liddon (1829-1890), another key figure in the Oxford Movement; Pusey, named after Edward Bouverie Pusey; Hayward, named after Charles Hayward; De Breyne, named after Andre de Breyne; and Newman, previously the Fellows’ Garden, named after John Henry Newman.

The first parts of the college to be built were the east and west sides of Liddon Quad to house undergraduate and tutors’ rooms. These residential ranges have a horizontal emphasis contrasted with tall chimneys and gables with a chequered decoration of brick and stone. Edward Bouverie Pusey paid for the entrance gateway and tower.

Edward Bouverie Pusey paid for the entrance gateway and tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The dominant building is the chapel with its bold buttresses and pinnacles. It soars above the sunken quadrangle with windows that start high up above the first storey. The south range facing the chapel contains the Hall and Library on the first floor. The grand oriel window in the middle of this range lights the internal staircase.

The best-known portion of Keble’s buildings is the distinctive main brick complex, designed by Butterfield. The design remained incomplete due to shortage of funds. The Chapel and Hall were built later than the accommodation blocks to the east and west of the two original quadrangles and the warden’s house at the south-east corner. The chapel and hall, also designed by Butterfield, were funded by William Gibbs.

The original college focus was on teaching theology, but it now offers subjects across the range of degrees that Oxford offers. In the years after World War II, the trend was towards science degrees, reflecting Keble’s proximity to the university science area east of the University Museum. Keble admitted its first female students in 1979.

The original focus at Keble College was on teaching theology, but it now offers subjects across the range of degrees that Oxford offers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A section west of the chapel was built in a different style in the 1950s with funding from Antonin Besse. Later significant additions include the modern, brick Hayward and de Breyne extensions by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK), made possible by a donations from the businessmen Charles Hayward and André de Breyne and other fundraising efforts. The ABK buildings included the college’s futuristic ‘goldfish bowl’ bar, opened in 1977.

The ARCO building was completed in 1995 by the US-born architect Rick Mather. This was followed in 2002 by the Sloane-Robinson Building, also designed by Mather, with additional student bedrooms, the O’Reilly Theatre, a dedicated room for musical practice, a number of seminar rooms and a café and social space. The original fellows’ garden was lost in the programme of extension, as well as a range of houses on Blackhall Road.

Keble bought the former Acland Hospital for £10.75 million in 2004 and the site was redeveloped to double the number of graduate rooms.

There is another Pre-Raphaelite link here, for the Acland Hospital was named after Henry Wentworth Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford, and a friend of John Ruskin. In 1871, Ruskin gave Acland a gift of Ruskin’s portrait by John Everett Millais, which now hangs in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Keble College Boat Club competes annually in Torpids and Summer Eights (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today, Keble is one of the larger colleges in Oxford, with 460 undergraduates and 525 graduate students. The name of the college magazine The Brick is a reminder of the brick given to each graduate along with their degree diploma.

Keble College Sports Ground is on Woodstock Road. Keble fields a number of sports teams, particularly in rugby, football and cricket.

Keble College Boat Club competes annually in Torpids and Summer Eights.

Inside Keble College Chapel, one of the major achievements of Victorian church architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Keble College Chapel is one of the major achievements of Victorian church architecture. Butterfield intended the chapel to speak in its order and decoration of the principles of the Oxford Movement, with its emphasis on the corporate life of the Church and sacramental worship. The stained glass and mosaics are by Alexander Gibbs.

In 1873, Butterfield wrote to HP Liddon: ‘I wish the Chapel to speak chiefly of public worship … to illustrate in its order the whole Christian Creed in type and anti-type as far as possible … The Christian Year [Keble’s book of poems on the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church's year] is in its way what I am asking this Chapel to be.’

In the mosaic decoration, he wished to represent the ‘successive dealings of God with His Church, Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian,’ culminating in the vision of the Lord in glory according to the imagery of the Book of Revelation, which was placed above the altar at the east end.

The chapel was the gift of William Gibbs, but he did not live to see it completed (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The chapel was the gift of William Gibbs (1790-1875), reputedly ‘the richest non-noble man in England.’ But he did not live to see it completed. It was opened on Saint Mark’s Day 1876, but it was never consecrated as the College Council feared this might interfere with its authority over the chapel and its worship.

According to Paul Thomson in his thesis ‘William Butterfield, Victorian Architect’ (1971), Butterfield’s many hours studying Saint Marks’s Basilica, Venice, made him emphasise the mosaics that ‘dominate the interior of Keble College Chapel.’ The painted decoration of the chapel, and the emphatic horizontal thickening of the lower wall, make Butterfield’s debt to the upper church of Saint Francis in Assist much clearer than in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street.

The stained glass and mosaics in Keble Chapel, including the East Window depicting the Ascension, are by Alexander Gibbs (1832-1886) of Bedford Square in Bloomsbury.

The side chapel was built as a memorial to HP Liddon and as a home for William Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The side chapel was built 20 years later partly as a memorial to HP Liddon, partly to provide a fitting home for William Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World,’ originally housed in the College Library. Butterfield disapproved of building the side chapel, which blocked the light from the transept window into the chapel.

Hunt originally wanted the painting to hang in the main chapel, and when Bloomfield rejected this Holman Hunt responded by painting the second version now in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London.

The side chapel was designed by JT Micklethwaithe. It was re-ordered and ‘The Light of the World’ was moved to its present position in 1976.

The East Window in Keble Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

There are services in Keble Chapel throughout the week in term time, and all are welcome regardless of background or belief. Keble Choir sings at the three main chapel services each week.

The Sung Eucharist (Sundays 5:30 pm) is the main service of the week, with hymns, choral music and a thought-provoking talk, followed by pre-dinner drinks. The two other main chapel services each week are Choral Evensong (Wednesdays 6 pm) and Candlelit Compline (Thursdays 9 pm), followed by port and hot chocolate.

Other chapel services include: Morning Prayer (8:15, Monday-Friday), Evening Prayer (6:30, Mondays), Said Eucharist (6:30, Tuesdays and Thursdays), and Evensong (6 pm, Wednesdays).

The West Window in Keble Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Chaplain is Father Max Kramer, who studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford, trained for the priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge, and completed an MPhil in Old Testament studies at Saint John’s College, Cambridge.

He has taught Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Classical and Biblical Literature at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent. He is interested in the relationship between Christianity and Judaism and Classical literature. Before coming to Keble he was Precentor of Canterbury Cathedral.

The Assistant Chaplain since 2012 is Father Darren McFarland, Vicar of Saint Andrew’s, Old Headington. He trained for priesthood in the Church of Ireland and then served in parishes in Co Wicklow and Dublin.

Looking towards the west end of Keble Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Keble College is the patron of 69 parishes across England, including Saint Barnabas, Oxford, which I visited the same day as visiting Keble College.

Along with Saint Barnabas, Saint Paul’s, All Saints’ and Tom Quad in Christ Church, Keble is mentioned by John Betjeman in his poem ‘Myfanwy at Oxford’:

Her Myfanwy? My Myfanwy.
Bicycle bells in a Boar’s Hill Pine,
Stedman Triple from All Saints’ steeple,
Tom and his hundred and one at nine,
Bells of Butterfield, caught in Keble,
Sally and backstroke answer “Mine!”

Keble is also named in the writings of John Ruskin and in Monty Python’s ‘Travel Agent’ sketch. Horace Rumpole, the barrister in John Mortimer’s books, is a law graduate of Keble.

Looking out on Liddon Quad and Keble from Keble Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)