USPG announces programme for 2022 conference in High Leigh

The High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire … the venue for the USPG Conference (25-27 July), ‘Living Stones, Living Hope’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the seasons of Lent this year, in my daily reflections in my prayer diary each morning, I have been drawing on the psalms and on the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

USPG has announced this week that USPG’s annual conference is to resume this year, between 25 and 27 July.

The announcement from USPG in recent days hopes that ‘as we gather again to celebrate and be inspired by the amazing mission activities of partner churches around the [Anglican] Communion’ , this can be an opportunity to ‘discover USPG’s unique contribution.’

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Living Stones, Living Hope.’ Once again, the conference is taking place at the High Leigh Conference Centre outside Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire this year.

‘Living Stones, Living Hope’ was the theme of USPG’s five-session Lenten Study course this year, exploring contextual theology.

I introduced the fourth study, ‘Celtic Spirituality,’ drawing on my experience at the time as Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, and Director for Education and Training in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe.

I also contributed ‘Reflections on Celtic Spirituality’ as part of an international webinar organised by USPG as Study 4 in the Lent 2022 programme, Living Stones Living Hope, 24 March 2022, and spoke at the webinar from my hospital bed in Milton Keynes where I was being treated for a stroke.

This year’s conference begins in High Leigh at 3 p.m. on Monday 25 July 2022, and continues until 3 p.m. on Wednesday 27 July 2022.

The speakers at this year’s conference include:

• The Right Rt Revd Reuben Mark, Deputy Moderator of the Church of South India
• The Revd Suchitra Behera, Deacon in the Diocese of Barisal, Church of Bangladesh, and an international development practitioner
• Ms Basetsana Makena, Provincial Youth Representative, Anglican Church of Southern Africa
• Clifton Nedd, Caribbean Facilitator for the Anglican Alliance

The USPG conference takes place immediately before this year’s Lambeth Conference, which takes place at the University of Kent, Canterbury Cathedral and Lambeth Palace from 26 July to 8 August.

I had planned to be in High Leigh to take part in last year’s USPG conference (19-21 July 2021), with the theme ‘Such a Time as This.’ But the Covid-19 pandemic meant the conference became a virtual event. My six-year term as a trustee of USPG concluded at a virtual meeting (20 July 2021) of the trustees of USPG during that conference.

The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, was the planned venue for the USPG’s conference in 2020 until Covid-19 forced its cancellation too. So it is 2019 since I was at a USPG conference, when High Leigh was also the venue.

I have taken part in many USPG conferences in High Leigh in the past (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019), sometimes leading workshops, taking part in council and trustee meetings, and I presided at the Eucharist at the end of the 2012 conference. At those conferences I have also formed lasting friendships. I was also the chaplain in 2006 at a joint conference in High Leigh of the Friends of the Church in China and the China Desk of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), when I led daily worship and celebrated the Sunday Eucharist.

Missing coffin of former Bishop of Lichfield found in Lambeth crypt

Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis … the missing coffin of the former Bishop of Lichfield has been unearthed near Lambeth Palace

Patrick Comerford

The coffin of a former Bishop of Lichfield is among the remains of five Archbishops of Canterbury that have been found in a crypt beneath a mediaeval church beside Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Frederick Cornwallis was Bishop of Lichfield ((1750-1768) before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury (1768-1783). His coffin is one of five coffins that have been discovered at the deconsecrated church of Saint Mary-at-Lambeth while it was being refurbished, but the exciting discovery was kept secret for months until yesterday [16 April 2017] so that the work could be finished.

The redevelopment team at the Flower Garden Museum, led by Karl Patten and Craig Dick, accidentally came across the dark entrance to the tomb as they began stripping back the flagstones from the church.

After uncovering a set of stairs under a slab, they fashioned a long torch out of a mobile phone attached to a selfie stick. This gave them their first glimpse of a hidden crypt with 30 lead coffins.

Karl Patten told the BBC at the weekend: ‘We discovered numerous coffins – and one of them had a gold crown on top of it.’ Archbishops were often buried with gold-painted mitres on their coffins.

While the identity of some of the bodies remains a mystery, three of the coffins have nameplates: Richard Bancroft (Archbishop of Canterbury 1604-1610); Matthew Hutton (1757-1758); Thomas Tenison (1695-1715); John Moore (1783-1805) and his wife Catherine Moore; and Frederick Cornwallis (1768-1783). Also buried here is an ecclesiastical judge, John Bettesworth, Dean of the Arches (1710-1751).

Saint Mary-at-Lambeth, where Archbishop Cornwallis was buried in 1783 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cornwallis was born in London, the seventh son of Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis. He was educated at Eton and Christ’s College, Cambridge. He was ordained priest in 1742.

In 1746, Cornwallis became a chaplain to King George II and a canon of Windsor. In 1750, he became a canon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. Later that year, he became Bishop of Lichfield thanks to the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State.

While he was Bishop of Lichfield, Cornwallis was also Dean of Windsor (1765-1768) and Dean of Saint Paul’s (1766-1768). On the death of Thomas Secker in 1768, his friendship with the then-prime minister, the Duke of Grafton, secured his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, his sociability and geniality made Cornwallis popular. He was a consistent supporter of the administration of Lord North, and led efforts in support of dispossessed Anglican clergy in the American colonies during the American Revolution. He is regarded as a competent administrator, but an uninspiring leader of the 18th century church – a typical product of the latitudinarianism of the day. It was this lack of zeal that is said to have paved the way for the later rise of both the Evangelicals and the Oxford Movement in the early 19th century.

When Cornwallis died on 19 March 1783 at the age of 70, he was buried at Saint Mary’s Church, Lambeth. But the exact place of burial and his coffin were lost to history until the discovery announced yesterday.

Lambeth Palace has been the official London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury for almost 800 years, so perhaps it is little surprise that these coffins were buried here. The coffins have been left undisturbed, although the builders have installed a glass panel in the floor above them so visitors can peer into the crypt.

The Garden Museum, which has been closed for the present £7.5 million redevelopment since 2015, is expected to reopen next month, on 22 May 2017.

Flowers in the Flower Garden in Saint Mary-at-Lambeth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This report was subsequently published in the ‘Lichfield Mercury’ on 20 April 2017 under the headline ‘Coffin of Bishop of Lichfield found in crypt beneath mediaeval church’

Discovering the Irish ancestors of the new Archbishop of Canterbury

The front cover of the February 2013 edition of the Church Review

Patrick Comerford

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Revd Justin Portal Welby, is due to be enthroned as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury on 21 March.

I first met the new archbishop at the meeting of the Anglican Primates in Swords, Co Dublin, in 2011. I was the chaplain at the meeting, and the new archbishop, who was then Dean of Liverpool, was one of the facilitators. Later, he invited me to preach in Liverpool Cathedral, and we met again before he became Bishop of Durham.

Lambeth Palace … the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As Archbishop of Canterbury, he is the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, and he will probably crown the next British monarch.

His Christmas sermon placed poverty at the heart of his priorities. He has been critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, supported the Occupy protests at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and has not been fooled by the smooth talking of bankers. He has asked whether companies can sin, and sits on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.

He favours women bishops, but supports “the Church of England’s opposition to same-sex marriage.” However, he has spoken out strongly against homophobia and says he is “always averse to the language of exclusion, when what we are called to is to love in the same way as Jesus Christ loves us.”

But, who is Justin Welby?

From oil to ministry

Archbishop Justin Welby … due to be enthroned next month (Photograph © Lambeth Palace/Picture Partnership)

Justin Portal Welby was born in London on 6 January 1956, the son of Gavin Bramhall James Welby and Jane Gillian (née Portal). They divorced in 1959, when he was three, and he was brought up by his father. At Eton, his contemporaries included the Tory minister Oliver Letwin, and Charles Moore and Dominic Lawson, former editors of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph.

Trinity College Cambridge … Justin Welby was an undergraduate while his uncle Rab Butler was Master (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

From Eton, he went to Trinity College Cambridge, where the Master was his mother’s uncle, ‘Rab’ Butler, a former Conservative deputy prime minister. At Cambridge, he met Caroline Eaton, later a classics teacher; they would marry in 1979 and have six children. He was 21 when his father died in 1977. He graduated a year later with a BA in history and law, and then worked in the oil industry for 11 years.

Justin and Caroline Welby at Lambeth Palace (Photograph © Lambeth Palace/Picture Partnership)

During five years in Paris with Elf Aquitaine, he became fluent in French and a Francophile. Tragedy struck in 1983 when his seven-month-old daughter, Johanna, died in a car crash in France. “It was a very dark time for my wife Caroline and myself,” he said later, “but in a strange way it actually brought us closer to God.”

Archbishop-elect Justin Welby and Caroline Welby with their children Peter (23), Hannah (17), Eleanor (20), Katherine (26), and Tim (28) with his wife Rachel (Photograph: Mercury Press and Media)

Back in London in 1984, he joined Enterprise Oil, with interests in West African and the North Sea, and started going to Holy Trinity Church, Brompton. When he began considering ordination, the Bishop of Kensington, John Hughes, told him: “There is no place for you in the Church of England. I have interviewed a thousand for ordination, and you don’t come in the top thousand.”

He received a BA in theology in Durham and was ordained in 1992. After 10 years in parish ministry in Warwickshire, he became a canon in Coventry Cathedral in 2002 and co-director for International Ministry. His peace work at Coventry saw him shake hands with warlords and being held at gunpoint in Africa.

Liverpool Cathedral … Justin Welby was Dean from 2007 to 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In 2007, he became Dean of Liverpool, one of England’s largest and most deprived cathedrals. He doubled attendances, abseiled from the roof, and allowed John Lennon’s Imagine to be played on the cathedral bells – despite the line “imagine there is no heaven.” He also encouraged a “Night of the Living Dead” service on Halloween, when a man rose from a coffin to represent the Resurrection.

He once fell into a fit of giggles during a reading from Leviticus that mentions a badger. As a mark of affection, Liverpool Cathedral gave him a small carved rock badger that he placed on the tip of his bishop’s crook when he became Bishop of Durham in 2011.

German Jewish roots

Gavin Welby … the archbishop’s elusive father

Archbishop Welby’s father, Gavin Bramhall James Welby, was born Bernard Gavin Weiler in Ruislip, northwest London, in 1910, the son of a German-born Jewish immigrant, Bernard Weiler, who moved to London in the late 1880s. But Justin Welby did not learn about his father’s background until English newspapers delved into his background.

The Weiler family shop in Osterode the late 1800s

While Gavin Welby was making his fortune in New York selling whisky, his cousins faced persecution in Nazi Germany. The Weiler family can be traced back to Simon Weiler, who became a citizen of Hanover in 1836 and started a department store in Osterode am Harz. The business was inherited by his son Herman Weiler.

The town of Osterode am Harz in Hanover, ancestral home of Archbishop Justin Welby’s father

When Herman died a wealthy merchant in 1884, his sons sold the shop and four of them – Siegfried, Max, Ernest and the archbishop’s grandfather, Bernard Weiler – moved to London with their mother, Amalie, and set up Weiler Brothers, importing ostrich and osprey feathers. Amalie died in Hampstead in 1914 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Golders Green.

A fifth brother, Dr Julius Weiler (1861-1937), remained in Germany and founded a leading psychiatric clinic in Berlin. His family villa was filled with Louis XV furniture, French tapestries and Old Master paintings.

Julius Weiler’s son, Dr Gerhard Weiler, pioneered techniques in microscopic analysis; his wife, Dr Grita Thoemke, was an expert in anaesthetics. When Hitler seized power in 1933, Gerhard fled to England and worked in a laboratory at Oxford University. He stayed with his uncle Siegfried, the last surviving Weiler brother to leave Germany, before the whole family, including Gerhard’s wife and father, then fled Nazi Germany.

In a twist of irony, when World War II broke out, Gerhard was classified as an “enemy alien” and spent several months in an internment camp near Liverpool. After the war, he ran a private forensic laboratory in Oxford. When Gerhard died in 1995, he left much of his art collection to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and funded a language prize at Roehampton University.

Meanwhile, the archbishop’s grandfather, Bernard Weiler, saw his business collapse when the fashion for ostrich feathers faded with World War I. Faced with discrimination, he hid his German-Jewish roots and changed his name to Welby. His son, born Bernard Gavin Weiler in 1910, became Gavin Bramhall James Welby in 1914.

Gavin Welby was a teenager when his mother Edith (James) lost her small fortune in the 1929 Wall Street Crash. She gave him £5 and put him on a boat to New York. There he made his fortune supplying leading Manhattan hotels with whisky during prohibition. In 1934, he married Doris Sturzenegger. But the childless marriage soon ended in divorce, and Gavin kept their marriage a secret for the rest of his life.

Back in London, he established “Gavin Distillers,” exporting whisky to America, and selling his own blend, “Gavin’s Gold Label.” He stood as a Conservative in Coventry East in 1951, but was defeated by Labour’s Richard Crossman. His sister Peggy married the Labour MP Lester Hutchinson (1904-1983) who opposed the NATO treaty.

Gavin Welby married Jane Gillian Portal in 1955, but they divorced in 1959. He was engaged briefly to the actress Vanessa Redgrave, then 23. But she ended the engagement after her parents, Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, warned that Gavin wanted her to become a stay-at-home mother for his son, Justin (then 4).

Irish ancestors

Archbishop Welby’s mother, Jane Portal, was once a personal secretary to Winston Churchill. In 1975, she married Charles Williams, a senior oil executive and banker. He became a Labour life peer in 1985 as Baron Williams of Elvel.

The Portal family are of French Huguenot descent and can be traced to mid-15th century France. Lady Williams is a niece of the late Rab Butler (Baron Butler of Saffron Walden), and I thought the new archbishop might have Irish ancestry through her grandfather, Sir Montagu Butler.

I traced these Butlers back through the Very Revd George Butler (1774-1853), a headmaster of Harrow and Dean of Peterborough. That family provided another interesting link with Liverpool: Dean Butler’s eldest son, Canon George Butler (1819-1890), was a headmaster in Liverpool for many generations and his wife was the saintly social reformer Josephine Butler (1828-1906).

But I could only trace these Butlers to a family in Worcestershire in the mid-16th century, and found no connections with the Kilkenny Butlers. If the new archbishop had Irish links, I had to search elsewhere.

Celbridge connections

Celbridge House, Co Kildare … birthplace of Sir William Napier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I returned to the story of the Portal family, and found that the archbishop’s maternal grandmother was Rose Leslie Napier. I was familiar with the story of Sir Charles James Napier, an Irish general who was Governor of Kephalonia and who played a role in the Greek War of Independence. He was a first cousin of the 1798 leader Lord Edward FitzGerald, and I wondered whether Rose was descended from the same family.

After Christmas, I visited Celbridge, Co Kildare, the home over 200 years ago of the three Lennox sisters. They were the daughters of Charles Lennox (1701-1750), 2nd Duke of Richmond and a grandson of King Charles II, and the heroines of Stella Tillyard’s book Aristocrats.

Lady Emily Lennox ... married the Duke of Leinster

● Lady Emily Lennox (1731-1814) married James FitzGerald (1722-1773), 1st Duke of Leinster, who lived at Carton House and built Leinster House, Dublin. They were the parents of Lord Edward FitzGerald.

Castletown House, Co Kildare … the Napier family sought refuge in 1798 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

● Lady Louisa Lennox (1743-1803) married Thomas Conolly (1738-1803). He inherited Castletown House, Co Kildare, from his great-uncle, William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

Lady Sarah Napier of Celbridge by Joshua Reynolds … a direct ancestor of the new Archbishop of Canterbury

● Lady Sarah Lennox (1745-1826) married Colonel George Napier (1753-1804). ‘Donnie’ and Sarah Napier moved into Celbridge House in 1785; a few months later, their son, Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860), was born there on 17 December 1785.

Colonel George Napier … moved into Celbridge House in 1785

Celbridge House, now known as Oakley Park, was built in 1724 by the Vicar of Celbridge, the Revd Dr Arthur Price, later Bishop of Clonfert, Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel. In 1785, the house became home to the Napier family, and in 1798 they sought safety with their neighbours and cousins, the Conollys of Castletown House.

Sir William Napier (1785-1860) … born in a house built by an Archbishop of Cashel

Sir William Napier’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Philip Gore, 4th Earl of Arran, an uncle of Bishop Charles Gore, editor of Lux Mundi and founder of the Community of the Resurrection. Elizabeth’s descendants include the Duke of Devonshire, who owns Lismore Castle, Co Waterford.

Sir William Napier’s granddaughter, Rose Leslie Napier, married Edward Portal, and their granddaughter is the mother of Archbishop Justin Welby.

Oakley House is now part of the Saint Raphael centre run by the Saint John of God order. I wonder whether the new Archbishop of Canterbury will return to Ireland to visit his ancestral home in Celbridge.

The two-page spread in the February 2013 edition of the Church Review

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in Anglicanism, Church History and Liturgy in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and is a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. This essay was first published in the February editions of the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel and Ossory).

Summer visits to three London palaces and a cathedral or two

The Palace of Westminster, seen from Lambeth Palace ... this was the main London residence of English kings for almost 500 years (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

The two best-known palaces in London are probably Saint James’s Palace, which was the main London royal residence from 1702 until 1837, and Buckingham Palace, the main London royal residence since 1837.

But during the past few months I have visited three other, oft-forgotten palaces in London: the Palace of Westminster, now the seat of parliamentary government; the Palace of Whitehall, most of which was destroyed by fire over 300 years ago; and Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Palace of Westminster has been the centre of government from the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

My first visit, at the invitation of two dear friends, was to the Palace of Westminster, on the north bank of the Thames, close to Westminster Abbey and to government buildings in Whitehall and Downing Street. The first royal palace was built here in the 11th century, and this was the main London residence of English kings from 1049 to 1530.

By the 13th century, Westminster had become the centre of government, and today it is home to both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

My visit began in Westminster Hall, the oldest remaining part of the palace. Built in 1097, it later became the home of Parliament, which met there from the 13th century. The hall saw the trials of Sir Thomas More, Cardinal John Fisher, Guy Fawkes and Warren Hastings; here Sir Winston Churchill lay in state; and here Nelson Mandela, Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama addressed both houses of parliament.

When the monarchs moved from Westminster in 1530, Westminster remained the seat of government. When fire destroyed most of the Old Palace in 1834, only Westminster Hall, the Cloisters of Saint Stephen’s, the Chapel of Saint Mary Undercroft and the Jewel Tower were left standing.

The architect Charles Barry won the competition to build the New Palace and drew up plans in the Perpendicular Gothic style, incorporating the remains of the Old Palace, apart from the Jewel Tower. Barry was assisted by AWN Pugin, then the leading authority on Gothic architecture, who designed the decoration and furnishings. Building began in 1840 and lasted for 30 years, with interior decoration continuing until well into the 20th century. Major conservation work continued too, with extensive repairs after World War II, including rebuilding the Commons Chamber after it was bombed in 1941.

The Clock Tower or ‘Big Ben’ ... one of the most visited tourist sights in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Palace of Westminster has over 1,100 rooms, arranged symmetrically around two series of courtyards, 100 staircases and almost 5 km of corridors and passageways spread over four floors. For one moment, I found myself standing in the Central Lobby at the heart of the Palace, directly below the Central Tower. This is a busy junction between the House of Lords to the south, the House of Commons to the north, Saint Stephen’s Hall and the public entrance to the west, and the Lower Waiting Hall and the libraries to the east.

The lobby’s location – halfway between the two chambers – led to its description once as “the political centre of the British Empire.” It is said if you stand under the great chandelier and all the intervening doors are open, you can see both the Royal Throne in the Lords and the Speaker’s Chair in the Commons.

The statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Palace of Westminster officially remains a royal residence for ceremonial purposes. But “Westminster” is now a byword for the British parliament and we speak too of the “Westminster system of government.” The Clock Tower or “Big Ben” is a popular tourist attraction and the world’s best-known clock.

Short-lived Diocese of Westminster

Westminster Abbey served briefly as the cathedral for the short-lived Diocese of Westminster in the 16th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Palace of Westminster stands next to Westminster Abbey which – despite popular perceptions – is not a cathedral. At the same time as Westminster was given the status of a city, the short-lived Diocese of Westminster was carved out of the Diocese of London, with parishes in Westminster and Middlesex, apart from Fulham, because Fulham Palace was the Bishop of London’s residence.

Westminster Abbey became the Cathedral of Saint Peter, and Thomas Thirlby became the first and only Bishop of Westminster. Although most of the property of Westminster Abbey was to endow the new cathedral chapter; much of it was leased or sold off by the first dean, and the bishop impoverished the new see by granting long leases of its property.

Thirlby was often absent on diplomatic missions on behalf of Henry VIII, and when he became Bishop of Norwich in 1550 the new diocese was merged back into the Diocese of London, while the cathedral became a Benedictine abbey once again.

While Westminster retained its city status, Elizabeth I granted Westminster Abbey a royal charter in 1560, making it a collegiate church. Although still popularly known as Westminster Abbey, its official name is the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter Westminster.

The Dean’s Yard is a hidden haven beside Westminster Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

As a Royal Peculiar, the abbey and its dean are under the personal jurisdiction of the Sovereign. Previous deans include Richard Chenevix Trench (1856-1864), who was Archbishop of Dublin (1864-1884) at the time of the disestablishment of the Church Ireland. The chapter includes the dean and four residentiary canons – the canon treasurer, the canon steward, the canon theologian and the Rector of Saint Margaret’s Church – assisted by the Receiver-General and the Chapter Clerk.

In the west cloister of Westminster Abbey, a curious marble monument recalls Arthur O’Keeffe, who died in 1756. It claims he was “lineally descended from the Kings of Ireland, the best of Husbands and the worthiest of Men. Deceit and Guile he knew not: Honesty was an innate principle in him.”

The Palace of Whitehall

The memorial to Charles I at the Banqueting House, recalling his execution in Whitehall in 1649 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

If Westminster is the heart of British parliamentary life and democracy, then Whitehall is the heart of government and takes its name from the Palace of Whitehall, the main London residence of monarchs from 1530, when they moved from Westminster, until 1698, when the palace was destroyed by fire.

Archbishop Walter de Grey of York bought the property around 1240 and named it York Place. It was rebuilt in the 15th century and was expanded by Cardinal Wolsey so that it was rivalled only by Lambeth Palace as the greatest house in London – not even the king’s London palaces were as large.

When Cardinal Wolsey was removed from office in 1530, Henry VIII moved his main London residence from the Palace of Westminster to York Place, and the name Whitehall is first recorded in 1532. Henry VIII redesigned, extended and rebuilt the palace; there he married two of his wives, Anne Boleyn in 1533 and Jane Seymour in 1536; and there he died in 1547.

Inigo Jones designed a new Banqueting House for James I in 1622. Its was completed in 1634 with a ceiling by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, who was commissioned by Charles I. However, Charles I did not have a happy association with Whitehall – he was executed at the Banqueting House in 1649. One son, Charles II, died there in 1685. Another son, James II, commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to make a number of alterations and to design a new chapel.

By 1691, Whitehall was the largest palace in Europe, with over 1,500 rooms – larger than either the Vatican or Versailles. However, a fire in 1698 destroyed most of Whitehall, apart from the Banqueting House and some buildings in Scotland Yard. By the second half of the 18th century, much of the site had been cleared and leased for building town houses.

The changing of the guard takes place every hour at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Banqueting House, used for some time as a chapel for the Horse Guards, is now administered by the Historic Royal Palaces. The memory of the palace survives in Whitehall, the name of the street lined with so many government buildings that we often speak of “Whitehall” when referring to Britain’s central government itself.

Demonstrations outside Downing Street at the height of the conflict in Libya were a reminder of the benefits of democracy and that Whitehall is a working palace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Banqueting House is all that remains of the palace complex today, although other parts have been incorporated into government buildings in Whitehall, including the Old Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet war rooms and Downing Street. Nearby are the Cenotaph and monuments to famous generals and the women who fought in wars. Opposite the Banqueting House, the changing of the guard at Horse Guards is less visited than its counterpart at Buckingham Palace.

The archbishop’s own palace

The South Front of Lambeth Palace, rebuilt for Archbishop William Howley in the mid-19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Lambeth Palace is across the river from the Palace of Westminster, and stands on the south bank of the Thames. This has been the official London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century. Today, it is the central office for the archbishop and for his national and international ministry.

In summer, the grounds of Lambeth Palace are often used for garden parties for organisations and charities supported by Archbishop Rowan Williams and Mrs Jane Williams, and the Great Hall is used for receptions and events.

Morton’s Tower, the main entrance to Lambeth Palace, was built by Cardinal Morton in the late 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

As summer drew to a close, I was invited to an exhibition in the Library in Lambeth Palace, with its unrivalled collection of manuscripts and rare books. That evening we were joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a buffet supper in the Guard Room. This room may date from the 14th century, but Lambeth Palace probably dates back to the late 12th century.

Lambeth Palace has been the official London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Guard Room was the Great Chamber in mediaeval and Tudor times and one of the most important rooms in the palace until the 16th century. It is said Thomas More was summoned here by Thomas Cromwell to swear an Oath of Supremacy. But More refused to deny the authority of the Pope, and was led from Lambeth Palace to the Tower of London and his execution in 1535.

The Guard Room at Lambeth Palace, seen from the South Courtyard, was the Great Chamber in mediaeval and Tudor times (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The Guard Room is lined with portraits of Archbishops of Canterbury from 1602 to 1783 – from the reign of Elizabeth I to the reign of George III – illustrating the changes in episcopal fashions over the centuries. The magnificent arch-braced roof is a contemporary of that in Westminster Hall – across the river in the Palace of Westminster – and predates the walls by 400 years.

Lambeth Palace, seen from Westminster on the opposite bank of the River Thames (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

I left Lambeth Palace by Morton’s Tower, said to be based on the entrance to Saint John’s College in Cambridge, where Cardinal John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who gives his name to the tower, was a fellow.

Westminster Cathedral stands on land once owned by the Benedictines of Westminster Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

From there, I walked across Lambeth Bridge and on to Victoria Station to catch a train to King’s Cross and back to Cambridge. Near Victoria I stood before Westminster Cathedral, built in the neo-Byzantine style between 1895 and 1903 for the Roman Catholic community. It stands on land once owned by the Benedictines of Westminster Abbey, and I thought it interesting that all three palaces I visited this year represent the life of Church and State in their own unique way.

Westminster Cathedral was built in the neo-Byzantine style between 1895 and 1903 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. This essay was first published in December 2011 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel and Ossory).

A visit to Lambeth Palace for an exhibition and supper

The South Front of Lambeth Palace ... Lambeth Palace has been the London home of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

I interrupted my attendance at the Cambridge summer school of the IOCS yesterday afternoon [Tuesday] and caught a train down to London. I was at Lambeth Palace last night for a reception and a private viewing of an exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. The exhibition, Out Of The Original Sacred Tongues: The Bible and Translation, has been running from 25 May, but concludes on Friday [29 July], and has been an opportunity to see some of the library’s historic collections

Lambeth Palace stands on the south banks of the River Thames, opposite Parliament and the Palace of Westminster. Since the 13th century, this has been the London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Today, it is home for the archbishop and his family when they are in London, and it is also the central office for his national and international ministry, with several dozen staff working here.

In summer, the grounds of Lambeth Palace are often used for garden parties for organisations and charities supported by Archbishop Rowan Williams and Mrs Jane Williams, and the Great Hall is also used for various receptions and events, especially at summer time.

A copy of the King James Version of the Bible, dating from 1611, at the exhibition in Lambeth Palace

The exhibition in the Great Hall is being hosted by Lambeth Palace Library and sets in historical context the translation of the texts of the Bible into everyday language. At the centre of the exhibition is the 1611 edition of the King James Version, set in the context of the scholarship which created it.

Other highlights of the exhibition include:

• a 10th century Greek Gospel from Palestine;
• mediaeval and English Bible translations, with documents relating to their suppression;
• John Wycliffe’s 14th century translation from Latin;
• landmark editions that drew on the new textual scholarship of the Renaissance and Reformation;
• the first edition of the New Testament in Greek by Erasmus (1516);
• the first edition of Luther’s German Bible (1536);
• early printed vernacular translations in a variety of languages, including the first complete Bible in Icelandic, the Gudbrandar Bible (1584);

• translations intended for missions, such as Gospel editions in Chinese (1807), Cree (1912), Maori (1841) and Mohawk (1787);
• documents showing the drive towards modern English translations for the 20th century, such as the New English Bible, which sold out on the first morning of publication.

The last display case in the exhibition is devoted to the New English Bible, which was published in March 1961 on the 350th anniversary of the King James Version. The translators faced huge criticism for the use of modern words such as “pregnant” and “homosexual,” and were accused of reducing the Lord’s Prayer to a shopping list. One of the translators was Bishop John Robinson, already under fire for speaking for the defence in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial.

We were welcomed to the exhibition in the Great Hall by the he Librarian at Lambeth Palace, Giles Mandelbrote, who believes two themes have emerged in depicting how Bibles had developed from manuscript to print over the centuries. The first is the quest for truth and certainty by church authorities employing analytical skills in an attempt to ascertain original meanings; the second is the production of Bibles without input from the church or the state.

The library in the Great Hall at Lambeth Palace was founded in 1610 (Photograph: Lambeth Palace)

Lambeth Palace Library is the principal library and record office for the history of the Church of England. It was founded in 1610, and the official papers of the Archbishops of Canterbury are among the most significant collections here, documenting political and social issues as well as church history in England and throughout the Anglican Communion. The papers include correspondence, diaries, sermons and newspaper cuttings.

The library’s overall focus is on church history, but its rich collections are important for a variety of topics, including architecture, colonial history, local history and genealogy. The library holds over 4,600 manuscripts and vast archives dating from the ninth century to the present, including 600 mediaeval manuscripts.

There are almost 200,000 printed books in the library, including 30,000 items printed before 1700, and many more unique books. Much of the library is housed in the Great Hall, which has been built and rebuilt many times over the centuries. It was here that Erasmus and Holbein were welcomed by Archbishop William Warham and here too that Henry VIII was entertained by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

The Guard Room, seen from the South Courtyard at Lambeth Palace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

After the private viewing of the exhibition, we were joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a buffet supper up in the Guard Room. This room is thought to date from the 14th century. It was the Great Chamber in Mediaeval and Tudor times, one of the most important rooms in the Palace in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

Initially, the Guard Room was the archbishops’ principle audience room and was used by them for meetings and ceremonies. It is said that on 12 April 1534 Sir Thomas More was summoned in the Guard Room by Thomas Cromwell to swear an Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry VIII as head of the Church in England. By refusing to deny the authority of the Pope, Thomas More was led away from Lambeth Palace to the Tower of London, where he was executed in 1535.

The Guard Room in Lambeth Palace ... the venue for supper last night (Photograph Lambeth Palace)

The paintings on the walls in the Guard Room are of Archbishops of Canterbury from 1602 to 1783 – from the reign of Elizabeth I to the reign of George III, illustrating an interesting change in fashion for episcopal garb over the centuries.

The magnificent arch-braced roof of the Guard Room is a contemporary of that in Westminster Hall – across the river in the Palace of Westminster – and predates the walls by some 400 years. When William Blore rebuilt Lambeth Palace in 1830, he retained the roof, supporting it while rebuilding the walls.

Lambeth Palace seen from Westminster Palace ... the first Lambeth Conference was held in Lambeth Palace in 1867 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The first Lambeth Conference was held in Lambeh Palace in 1867, when 75 bishops were called by Archbishop Charles Longley for a meeting.

Nowadays, the Lambeth Conferences meet in Canterbury, but the Guard Room continues to be used for meetings, receptions and dinners, and this is where we were entertained to a buffet supper last night after viewing the exhibition.

The party included bishops and clergy from many provinces of the Anglican Communion, staff from Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office, including many who had been at the Primates' Meeting in Dublin earlier this year, friends from USPG -- Anglicans in World Mission, the Revd Dr Alan McCormack, formerly of Trinity College Dublin, and staff from other mission agencies, including CMS and Crosslinks.

Morton’s Tower at Lambeth Palace ... said to be modelled on the entrance to Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

As I left by Morton’s Tower, I was reminded that this red-brick gatehouse, with its porter’s lodge, is said to be based on the entrance to Saint John’s College in Cambridge, where Cardinal John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who gives his name to the tower, was a fellow and where his memory is still preserved in the stained glass windows in the Great Hall.

I walked across Lambeth Bridge, and on to Victoria Station, for a connection to King’s Cross and a train back to Cambridge. A night-cap in the Jolly Scholar in King Street, at the back of Sidney Sussex College, felt very appropriate before returning to my rooms.