With the Saints through Christmas (39): 2 February 2022, Simeon and Anna

‘The Presentation in the Temple’ … a window by James Watson in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Murroe, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today looks like being a busy day. Although I am still in Dublin after a dental appointment and another consultation yesterday, I have a lot to catch up on. But, before this busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

I have been continuing my Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during the Season of Christmas, which continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation today (2 February);

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Today (2 February 2022) is the Feast of the Presentation, the closing great feast of the Christmas season, and this morning I am reflecting on Simeon and Anna, who are two key figures – and not marginal figures – in this story, which is unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.

A detail of Harry Clarke’s ‘Presentation Window’ in Saint Flannan’s Church, Killaloe, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

According to one Orthodox tradition, Simeon was one of the 72 translators of the Septuagint. As he hesitates on the translation of Isaiah 7: 14 (LXX: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive’) and contemplates correction to γυνή (‘woman;), an angel appears to him and tells him that he is not going to die until he has seen the Christ born of a virgin. This makes him well over 200 years old at the time of the meeting described by Saint Luke, and miraculously long-lived.

Simeon and Anna have been ‘waiting for consolation’ (Luke 2: 25). Simeon is righteous and devout. Luke assigns Anna a place among the prophets (v. 36). Both are very old: Simeon knows he is near the end of days; Anna is 84, well beyond the life expectancy of the time. They are reaching the end of their days when they recognise the Christ Child is in their presence in the Temple.

Saint Luke introduces Simeon with a word (προσδεχόμενος, prosdechomenos) that is normally translated as ‘waiting’ (see Mark 15: 43; Luke 12: 36, 15: 2, 23: 51). But it could also be rendered as ‘ready to receive to oneself.’ The term expresses an eagerness to welcome. In other words, Simeon’s waiting is not so much endurance as active anticipation; he has been counting the days until God reveals what he has promised to him personally.

As Simeon gazes into eyes of the Christ Child, he knows ‘God is with us,’ that ‘God with me.’

Simeon’s name is derived from a word that means ‘to hear intelligently.’ He listens deliberately listening to the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit rests on him, the Holy Spirit reveals things to him, and the Holy Spirit moves him.

The result of Simeon’s listening is one of the most tender moments in Scripture: Simeon enters the Temple to find the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph with their new-born child. He has the distinction of being the only person in the Bible who we is explicitly told held the Christ Child in his arms, and in almost Eucharistic-like movement, he takes the body of Christ in his hands. Any inner disquiet is calmed by Christ, and his soul is at rest.

Anna too has been in God’s presence for decades. She is a member of the tribe of Asher, and she turns her grief as a young widow into a life of prayer, waiting on the Lord day-by-day. For her, the sheer existence of the Christ Child is the only evidence she needs to recognise God’s redemptive work. A baby who cannot even walk becomes the focal point of her praise.

Anna makes a point of talking about Christ to all who were waiting for redemption. Again, Saint Luke returns to the word prosdechomenos. The countless crowds Anna tells about Jesus are marked by that same readiness to receive. As in the feeding of the 5,000, the gospel always multiplies itself to fill the hungry crowds with more left to spare. God’s comfort is intended to reach ever outward.

Anna did not wait for Christ’s life to unfold, still less for his Passion, Death and Resurrection, to spread the word.

Simeon’s body is said to have been moved between the years 565 and 578 from Syria or Jerusalem to Constantinople. Sometime around the Siege of Constantinople in 1203, the relics were seized and shipped to Venice, but ended up in the port of Zadar on the Dalmatian coast, where his feast day is celebrated on 8 October. In October 2010, Archbishop Želimir Puljić of Zadar sent a small silver reliquary containing some of Simeon’s relics to Archbishop Theofylactus of Jordan, representing Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, for the monastery of Saint Simeon the Godbearer in Jerusalem. The Chiesa di San Simeon Grande in Venice also claims to have his relics.

The Presentation in the Temple, carved on a panel on a triptych in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford/Lichfield Gazette)

Luke 2: 22-40 (NRSVA):

22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), 24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

29 ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’

33 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (2 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Radiant God, we thank you for bringing light into the world through Jesus. May we be redeemed by you.

Yesterday: Saint Brigid of Kildare

Series Concluded; tomorrow’s reflection

The Presentation or Candlemas … a stained glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral: 19, Thursday 17 December 2020

‘An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah’ (Matthew 1: 1) … the Jesse Tree in a window by Clayton and Bell in the North Transept in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford/Lichfield Gazette)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, I am using the Prayer Diary of the Anglican Mission Agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) for my morning reflections each day, and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced at Lichfield Cathedral for my prayers and reflections each evening.

Advent is the Church’s mindful antidote to some of the diversion and consumerism of a modern Christmas. It prepares us to encounter Christ again in his joy and humility.

In ‘The Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar 2020,’ the Dean and community at Lichfield Cathedral are inviting us to light our Advent candle each day as we read the Bible and join in prayer.

This calendar is for everyone who uses the Cathedral website, for all the Cathedral community, and for people you want to send it to and invite to share in the daily devotional exercise.

This is a simple prayer and bible-reading exercise to help us to mark the Advent Season as a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.

It is designed to take us on a journey, looking back to John the Baptist and Mary the Mother of Jesus; looking out into the world today, into our own hearts and experience; outwards again to Jesus Christ as he encounters us in life today and in his promise to be with us always.

You can download the calendar HERE.

The community at Lichfield Cathedral offers a number of suggestions on how to use this calendar:

● Set aside 5-15 minutes every day.

● Buy or use a special candle to light each day as you read and pray through the suggestions on the calendar.

● Try to ‘eat simply’ – one day each week try going without so many calories or too much rich food, just have enough.

● Try to donate to a charity working with the homeless or the people of Bethlehem.

● Try to pray through what you see and notice going on around you in people, the media and nature.

In addition, the award-winning ‘The Cathedral Illuminated,’ a spectacular light and sound show, was planned to be projected onto the West Front of the Cathedral. This year’s event, ‘The Manger,’ was due to begin last night (16 December 2020), was postponed until this evening, and was to continue until Tuesday next (22 December 2020). Sadly, but the cathedral announced this afternoon that folloiwng today’s annoucement from the government all dates have now been cancelled.

The last week of Advent is special: at Evensong (Evening Prayer), a special antiphon is sung or said before and after the canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Magnificat. Each begins with an ‘O’ and relates to some facet of Christ’s nature and ancestry.

17 December: ‘O Sapientia’, Wisdom
18 December: ‘O Adonai’, Lord of Israel
19 December: ‘O Radix Jesse’, Root of Jesse (Jesse was the father of King David)
20 December: ‘O Clavis David’, Key of David
21 December: ‘O Oriens’, Morning Star rising in the East
22 December: ‘O Rex Gentium’, King of all nations
23 December: ‘O Immanuel’ Immanuel – ‘God is with us’

As the week draws us to Christmas, so the note of longing love intensifies.

Thursday 19 December 2020 (‘O Sapientia’):

Read Matthew 1: 1-17 (NRSVA):

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Reflection:

As you read about the generations who prepared the way for Jesus it includes outsiders, sinners, broken people: the slow emergence of God’s inclusive plan. Reflect on your life’s milestones?

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s evening reflection

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

The loss of a unique Art Deco cinema is a lost opportunity in Lichfield

The Regal Cinema on Tamworth Street, Lichfield, by night earlier this year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Work began last week on the demolition of the Regal Cinema on Tamworth Street in the centre of Lichfield. Machinery arrived at the rear of the building facing Cross Keys on Wednesday [25 July 2018], the site was fenced off, and the demolition work began on Thursday.

For some people in Lichfield, the former cinema has been an eyesore for years. But for others, the Regal Cinema this was an important part of their memories from childhood and teenage years.

The demolition comes as a surprise, if not a shock, to many, not only because of those cherished memories, but because the Regal Cinema has long been listed for its Art Deco frontage.

The developers promised last week that this façade will be saved and incorporated into the new building. Richard McGarry of PBM Contractors Ltd told the Lichfield Mercury: ‘The listed façade is staying but the rest of the building is coming down.

‘We will be on site conservatively for between four to six weeks.’

The Art Deco style cinema building in Tamworth Street has been lying empty for more than 10 years. During the past decade, the once-handsome frontage has deteriorated, vegetation has been growing from the windows and it has become increasingly shabby in appearance.

The Regal Cinema opened at 23-27 Tamworth Street 86 years ago, on 18 July 1932, and it operated for more than four decades until it closed in 1974.

The building reopened some years later as a KwikSave supermarket. But the supermarket closed in July 2007 when KwikSave went into administration. Since then, numerous development plans were put forward for the site, including hotels and restaurants, but none of these came to anything.

The latest plan, approved in February 2017, was for the demolition of the building, the retention of the 1930s façade and the construction of 38 apartments and a shop unit.

Five years ago, in a feature in the Lichfield Gazette [August 2013], I wrote how The Economist had published a news story about the Louxor Palais du Cinema, north-west of the Gare du Nord in Paris, which was once one of the jewels of Egyptian-inspired art deco. It opened in 1921, boasting pillars, papyrus motifs and pharaohs’ heads – and with an auditorium that could seat almost 1,200 people.

In its report The Economist recalled that this was the heyday of silent movies of the sort that The Artist brought back to life. However, after World War II, the cinema fell on hard times, and the Louxor screened its last movie in 1983 before Pathé sold the building to a retail firm that had plans for a store. However, those plans never saw the light of day because the Louxor’s exotic façade had been listed for preservation. From 1987 on, the building stood empty.

Two pressure groups were formed in 2001 to regenerate the Louxor and to raise the tone of the neighbourhood. Paris City Hall bought the site, work began on restoring the Louxor to its original glory, and three years and €25 million later, the Louxor re-opened with Grandmaster, a Chinese martial-arts movie, as its first showing.

At the time, I thought this news must surely offer hope and inspiration to people in Lichfield who were campaigning to save the Regal Cinema.

The Regal Cinema opened in Lichfield on 18 July 1932 with Maisie Gay in The Old Man and Shirley Dale in The Beggar Student. It was designed by the Birmingham-based architect Harold Seymour Scott (1883-1946), who was also a director of the independent operating company.

Scott designed many cinemas in the Midlands in the Art Deco style in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Oak in Sell Oak and the Piccadilly in Sparkhill. But most of these have been demolished or destroyed in fires in recent years, and until last week the Regal in Lichfield was one of the few still standing.

Like the Louxor in Paris, the external and internal styles of the Regal were described as a ‘delicate’ Egyptian, Art Deco style. There was seating in the auditorium for 1,300 people, with 1,000 people in the stalls and another 300 in the circle. The proscenium was 40 ft wide, and the cinema also had its own café.

By November 1932, the cinema had been leased to the County Cinemas chain. It was taken over briefly by the Oscar Deutsch chain of Odeon Theatres Ltd in September 1939, but it was back in the hands of the original independent owners by around 1941.

In August 1943, it was taken over by the Associated British Cinemas (ABC), and this chain operated the Regal Cinema until July 1969. The Star Cinemas chain then took over. Part-time bingo was introduced on several nights a week, and on 10 July 1974 the Regal Cinema screened its final film, Bruce Lee in The Big Boss. The Regal then became the Star Bingo Club.

The building was sold in the late 1970s, and became a KwikSave supermarket, with a snooker club in the former café area.

By 2008, the building was ‘For Sale’ or ‘To Let’ for leisure use. Proposals to demolish the auditorium and to build a hotel on the site, retaining the Regal Cinema’s façade as the entrance, were put forward in February 2010.

Planning consent was granted for the partial demolition and new build of the premises to create a bar and restaurant and a 104-bedroom hotel, with associated facilities. However, in the years since then, no work was carried out on the proposed hotel, and the vacant building continued to deteriorate.

In 2012, Anna Coley had started a Facebook page, ‘Restore the Regal Cinema, Lichfield!’ Around the same time, Adam Bradley organised a petition for the restoration of the Regal Cinema ‘to its former glory.’ By the time the petition closed, it had been signed by more than 80 people.

At the time, Lichfield District Council pointed out that ‘planning permission has been granted for a new cinema as part of the new Friarsgate Scheme, which should satisfy the demand for a cinema in the local area.’

However, the Friarsgate Scheme collapsed last month. Nor was the argument ever simply about the need for a cinema for Lichfield and the surrounding catchment area. It was also about the conservation of a unique and beautiful building that has been part of Lichfield’s architectural heritage for almost a century.

Despite uncertainty about the future of the Regal, it was included by the historian and journalist Joss Musgrove-Knibb, editor of CityLife Lichfield as No 21 in her indispensable book, Lichfield in 50 Buildings (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley, 2016), with a photograph by her husband, Carl Knibb.

If this was a Tudor-era cinema in Bore Street, a Georgian-era cinema in Bird Street, or a Victorian-era cinema in Beacon Street, the case for its preservation would have been quite clear. Why is art deco architecture less valued because it only dates from the 1930s?

The blogger Brownhills Bob has pointed out that the Regal was the only Art Deco building left standing in Lichfield since the Robin Hood on the corner of Saint John Street and Frog Lane was demolished. It was also built in the 1930s, replacing an earlier pub dating back to the 1790s. In his book on The Old Pubs of Lichfield (2001/2007), John Shaw recalled the names changes it went through, including City Gate, City Frog and Funky Frog, before being demolished in October 2000 to make way for new apartments on the site.

Part of the Art Deco Burton building at 26 Market Street dates from about 1938, when the foundation stones were laid, but the ground floor has since been replaced with later shop-fronts.

Lichfield Film is the brainchild of Lucy Beth, who told the Lichfield People website: ‘The lack of cinema in Lichfield is something which is constantly discussed … Lichfield Film aims to bring a relaxed cinematic experience to the city.’

Two films – The Greatest Showman and Pretty Woman – are being screened at a pop-up, open-air cinema in Beacon Park next month [10 and 11 August 2018]. But, while the former Civic Hall frequently shows films and movies are occasionally billed as part of the Lichfield Festival, the city has remainedwithout a permanent cinema since the Regal closed.

Waiting in Advent 2015 with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (26)

‘The joy of God goes through the poverty of the manger’ … the Christmas scene in a stained glass window in the north ambulatory in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

We have come to end of Advent this year and awake this morning [24 December 2015] to Christmas Eve.

Throughout Advent, as we were waiting and prepare for Christmas, I have been inviting you to join me each morning for a few, brief moments in reflecting on the meaning of Advent through the words of the great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). This has been my own Advent Calendar for this year.

During Christmas 1943, Bonhoeffer was alone in his cell, separated from his family and those he loved. In his cell, he had an Advent wreath and a picture of the nativity by Fra Filippo Lippi, a visual reminder of the Incarnation. He lit two candles in honour of his parents and his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer, he hummed some tunes from his favourite hymns, and he read the Christmas story.

A year earlier, during Advent 1942, Bonhoeffer had written a circular letter to some of his friends and former students:

“The joy of God goes through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable. It does not deny the anguish, when it is there, but finds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there; it does not deny grave sin but finds forgiveness precisely in this way; it looks death straight in the eye, but it finds life precisely within it.”

Now, in a Christmas letter to his parents, written on 17 December 1943, he has given up any hope of being free for Christmas, and he writes:

“From a Christian point of view, a Christmas in a prison cell is no special problem. It will probably be celebrated here in this house more sincerely and with more meaning than outside where the holiday is observed in name only. Misery, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt mean something entirely different in the eyes of God than in the judgment of men.

“That God turns directly toward the place where men are careful to turn away; that Christ was born in a stable because he found no room in the Inn – a prisoner grasps that better than someone else. For him it really is a joyous message, and because he believes it, he knows that he has been placed in the Christian fellowship that breaks all the bounds of time and space; and the months in prison lose their importance.

“On Holy Evening [Christmas Eve], I will be thinking of all of you very much, and I would very much like for you to believe that I will have a few beautiful hours and my troubles will certainly not overcome me.

“If one thinks of the terrors that have recently come to so many people in Berlin, then one first becomes conscious of how much we still have for which to be thankful. Overall, it will surely be a very silent Christmas, and the children will still be thinking back on it for a long time to come. And maybe in this way it becomes clear to many what Christmas really is.”

On the night of 25 December, he sent a brief note to his parents, ending his seasonal correspondence with references to kith and kin. “Christmas is over. It brought me a few quiet, peaceful hours, and revived a good many past memories … I lit the candles that you and Maria sent me, read the Christmas story and a few carols that I hummed to myself, and in doing so I thought of you all.”

The Christmas story told in the panels of the colourful triptych that forms the reredos in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, Lichfield Gazette)

Readings (Church of Ireland lectionary): Pslams 45, 46; Baruch 4: 36 to 5: 9 or Isaiah 59: 15b-21; Galatians 3: 23 to 4: 7 or Matthew 1: 18-25.

The Collect of Christmas Eve:

Almighty God,
you make us glad with the yearly remembrance
of the birth of your Son Jesus Christ:
Grant that, as we joyfully receive him as our redeemer,
we may with sure confidence behold him
when he shall come to be our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion Prayer:

God for whom we wait,
you feed us with the bread of eternal life:
Keep us ever watchful, that we may be ready
to stand before the Son of Man, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Series concluded.

Waiting in Advent 2015 with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (22)

Advent colours at the High Altar in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin … this is the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

In our journey towards Christmas this year, we have arrived at the Fourth Sunday of Advent today [20 December 2015], and I am presiding at the Sung Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, this morning.

The fourth and final candle which we light on the Advent Wreath this morning represents the Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading this morning tells the story of her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, and the Canticle Magnificat is provided as either in the place of the Psalm or as the longer ending to the Gospel reading.

During the season of Advent this year, I am working my way through my own Advent Calendar. Each morning, I am inviting you to join me for a few, brief moments in reflecting on the meaning of Advent through the words and meditations of the great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).

In an Advent sermon in London on 17 December 1933, Bonhoeffer said the Canticle Magnificat, the Song of the Virgin Mary, “is the oldest Advent hymn,” and he spoke of how she knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:

“She, of course, knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s birth. Her waiting is different from that of any other human being. She expects him as his mother. He is closer to her than anyone else. She knows the secret of his coming, knows about the Spirit, who has a part in it, about the Almighty God, who has performed this miracle. In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove”

The Virgin Mary stands with the Christ Child, a Christmas scene carved by Mary Grant in the centre of the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, Lichfield Gazette)

Readings (Revised Common Lectionary): Micah 5: 2-5a; The Canticle Magnificat or Psalm 80: 1-8; Hebrews 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55).

The Collect of the Fourth Sunday of Advent:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Advent Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
you have given us a pledge of eternal redemption.
Grant that we may always eagerly celebrate
the saving mystery of the incarnation of your Son.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection.

Continued tomorrow.

‘Gaudete’ … celebrating Christ’s coming in carols and Latin verse

The Eagle Lectern in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines, the venue for last night’s Service of Nine Lessons and Carols (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

During the past few weeks I have been writing features for a number of publications – including the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough), the Diocesan Magazine, the Lichfield Gazette and Koinonia in the United States – on Canon Frederick Oakeley from Lichfield and his version of the well-loved Christmas Carol, ‘O Come all ye faithful.’

This was the final carol last night at the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines, organised by the staff and students of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.

Earlier in the evening, the choir sang the carol, Gaudete! gaudete! Christus est natus. It was an appropriate carol, as next Sunday [13 December 2015], the Third Sunday of Advent, is Gaudete Sunday.

This year, as part of my spiritual reflections for Advent, I am thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his thoughts about Advent and our preparations for Christmas.

But last year, I reflected on an appropriate hymn for Advent each morning, and on Gaudete Sunday [14 December 2014], I chose this carol Gaudete!, which reached No 14 in the charts in England with Steeleye Span in the early 1970s.

I wrote at that time last year of how this song was popular in the early 1970s, and how I first heard it around the same time as I was introduced to English folk rock while I was in the English Midlands and writing for the Lichfield Mercury. Perhaps the story of this carol is worth telling once more.

‘Gaudete’ was recorded by Steeleye Span on ‘Below the Salt’ in 1973 and became a Christmas Hit in 1974

The notes on the record sleeve say:

Mist takes the morning path to wreath the willows -
Rejoice, rejoice -
small birds sing as the early rising monk takes to his sandals -
Christ is born of the Virgin Mary -
cloistered, the Benedictine dawn threads timelessly the needle’s eye -
rejoice.

Steeleye Span was formed in 1969, and they often performed as the opening act for Jethro Tull. A year after recording Below the Salt, it came as a surprise to many when they had a Christmas hit single with Gaudete, when it made No 14 in the British charts in 1973.

The guitarist Bob Johnson had heard the song when he attended a folk-carol service with his father-in-law in Cambridge, and brought it to the attention of the rest of the band.

This a capella motet, sung entirely in Latin, is neither representative of Steeleye Span’s repertoire nor of the album. Yet this was their first big breakthrough and it brought them onto Top of the Pops for the first time.

It is one of only three top 50 British hits to be sung in Latin. The others are two recordings of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston in 1986, and by the then 12-year-old Charlotte Church in 1998.

Gaudete may have been composed in the 16th century, but may date from the late mediaeval period. The song was published in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish and Swedish sacred songs published in 1582.

The Latin text is a typical mediaeval song of praise, following the standard pattern for the time – a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain (in the early English carol this was known as the burden).

The reference in verse 3, which puzzled many fans at the time, is to the eastern gate of the city in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 44: 2). The gate is a traditional symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Since the mid-1970s, despite the change in their line-up and the loss of names like Maddy Prior and Gay and Terry Woods at different times, Steeleye Span often include Gaudete as a concert encore, and it was published in 1992 in the New Oxford Book of Carols.

Their latest album, The Essential Steeleye Span – Catch Up, was released earlier this year. This double CD looks back at their recent history, including their collaboration with the late Sir Terry Pratchett, and features some of the most memorable moments in their long career, a number of new recordings of their most famous songs, rare and unreleased material, and, of course, Gaudete, from the album Present, which is Track 5 on the first CD.

I missed Steeleye Span’s live concert in Vicar Street, Dublin, last year. They are currently touring Britain on a tour that began in Shrewsbury last month [17 November 2015] and that ends in Saisbury next Thursday [17 December 2015].



The original is here: Gaudete by Steeleye Span.

A more recent recording is available here from the ‘World Tour’ 35th Anniversary DVD.



There are other arrangements by Michel McGlynn, recorded by Anuna, and an arrangement by Bob Chilcott which is part of the Advent and Christmas repertoire of the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

Let us rejoice in good memories, let us rejoice that Christmas is coming, and in the midst of the present gloom let us rejoice that the coming of Christ holds out the promise of hope, the promise of his Kingdom, the promise that even in darkness the light of Christ shines on us all.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætiticiæ
Devote reddamus.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde Lux est orta
Salus invenitur.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Ergo nostra contio
Psallat jam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

The time of grace has come
that we have desired;
let us devoutly return
joyful verses.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

God has become man,
and nature marvels;
the world has been renewed
by Christ who is King.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

The closed gate of Ezekiel
has been passed through;
whence the light is born,
salvation is found.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

Therefore let our gathering
now sing in brightness,
let it give praise to the Lord:
Greetings to our King.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

‘O come, all ye faithful’ – the Lichfield Christmas carol

Canon Frederick Oakeley, author of ‘O come, all ye faithful’

Patrick Comerford

One of the best-loved English Christmas carols, ‘O come, all ye faithful’, is sometimes known by its Latin name (Adeste Fideles) and is often described as a mediaeval hymn. But while, the original author is unknown, the writer who made it popular in English was brought up in the Cathedral Close in Lichfield and was a canon of Lichfield Cathedral for many years.

The carol may have French or German origins, but the earliest version dates only from around 1743. The first four stanzas in Latin and the tune may have been written by John Francis Wade (1711-1786), an English Roman Catholic exile living in Douay in France.

As early as 1797, the Latin hymn was sung in London at the Chapel of the Portuguese Embassy, where Vincent Novello was the organist. Novello claimed it was written a century earlier by John Reading, the organist of Winchester Cathedral (1675-1681).

The carol was soon translated into English and then into many other languages. But the most popular version begins with the opening words by Canon Frederick Oakeley of Lichfield: ‘O come, all ye faithful, joyfully triumphant,’ or, ‘O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.’

Frederick Oakeley (1802-1880) is best known for this carol. But, while he ended his days as a Roman Catholic priest, he spent his childhood in Lichfield, was a canon of Lichfield Cathedral in the 1830s and 1840s, and when he became a Roman Catholic priest he returned to Lichfield to say his first Mass.

A childhood in Lichfield

The Bishop’s Palace, Lichfield … now a school and once the childhood home of Frederick Oakeley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Frederick was born at the Abbey House, Shrewsbury, on 5 September 1802, a son of Sir Charles Oakeley (1751-1826). Sir Charles was born in Forton, Staffordshire, where his father, the Revd William Oakeley (1717-1803), was the Rector of Forton before becoming the Vicar of Holy Cross, the Abbey Church in Shrewsbury. Both parishes are in the Diocese of Lichfield.

Charles Oakeley was a colonial administrator in India. He returned to England in 1789, was made a baronet the following year, and then returned to India as the Governor of Madras (1790-1794). When he returned to England once again, he moved into at the Abbey House, his father’s vicarage in Shrewsbury, and it was there the hymn-writer Frederick was born in 1802.

A childhood accident in the Abbey House when he was three left Frederick disabled for many months, and for the rest of his life he was sickly and walked with a limp.

When Frederick was eight, the Oakeley family moved into the Bishop’s Palace in the Cathedral Close, Lichfield, in 1810. Sir Charles was offered the Palace at a nominal rent on condition that he would restore the building, then in a sorry state. At the time, the Bishop of Lichfield was living at Eccleshall near Stafford. The Oakeley family moved into the Palace after the death in 1809 of the Lichfield poet, Anna Seward, who had continued to live there after the death of her father, Canon Thomas Seward, in 1790.

Each day, Sir Charles attended Morning Prayer in Lichfield Cathedral. His son later remembered him as pious, devout and humble, and the standard of music in the cathedral added to his pleasure in attending daily services. Frederick also recalled how as boy of eight the cathedral organist allowed him to play the organ to accompany the psalms at the daily services.

Lichfield Grammar School … now the offices of Lichfield District Council (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Poor health often prevented Frederick from leaving home for school until the age of 14, when he had a late start at Lichfield Grammar School. A year after entering Lichfield Grammar School, Oakeley was sent from Lichfield in 1817 to Canon Charles Sumner for private tuition. Sumner was then the curate at Highclere, near Newbury, Hampshire. Highclere Castle was the home of the Earl of Carnarvon, and has become known in recent years as the location for Downton Abbey.

Frederick spent three years at Highclere, but returned for holidays with his parents in Lichfield, and was often homesick for Lichfield when he returned to Highclere.

Early career in Oxford

Frederick Oakeley by an unknown artist, ca 1817 (Collection of Balliol College, Oxford)

He entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1820, graduated BA in 1824, and won prizes in Latin, English and theology. But while he was still at Oxford, his father, Sir Charles Oakeley, died at the Palace in Lichfield in 1826. He was buried in Forton, and a monument by Sir Francis Chantrey was erected to him in the North Transept of Lichfield Cathedral.

Frederick was elected to a chaplain fellowship at Balliol College. He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of London in the Chapel Royal in Whitehall in 1828 and ordained priest a week later in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, by his former tutor, Charles Sumner, then Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of Saint Paul’s. Oakeley remained a fellow of Balliol College until 1845, and was also tutor, Senior Dean, a lecturer, and one of the public examiners to Oxford University.

On 11 February 1832, Oakeley was installed as the Prebendary of Dassett Parva in Lichfield Cathedral on the nomination of Bishop Henry Ryder, whose kneeling statue by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey is in the north transept in Lichfield Cathedral.

As a canon, Oakeley dutifully returned to Lichfield Cathedral each year to preach on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany and he remained a canon of Lichfield Cathedral until 1845.

While Frederick Oakeley was a fellow of Balliol College, he helped secure the election to a fellowship of his lifelong friend and former pupil Archibald Campbell Tait, later Archbishop of Canterbury. At Balliol, he also became a close friend of William George Ward, and they both joined the Tractarian party.

The Bishop of London, Charles Blomfield, appointed Oakeley Whitehall Preacher in 1837, but he remained a fellow of Balliol. In the preface to his first volume of Whitehall Sermons(1837) he declared himself a member of the Oxford Movement.

In 1839, he became the incumbent of Margaret Chapel, the predecessor of All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London. In his six years there, Oakeley introduced High Church liturgical practices, and his friends there included the future Prime Minister, William Gladstone, and Sir Alexander Beresford-Hope, who supervised William Butterfield’s building of All Saints’ Church (1850-1859).

Tractarian and hymn writer

Oakeley translated ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ for his congregation in London in 1840, while he was still a canon of Lichfield Cathedral. His original translation began: “Ye faithful, approach ye.” But in 1845 he rewrote the opening words: “O come, all ye faithful, Joyfully triumphant.” Its inclusion in Francis H Murray’s Hymnal in 1852 gave Oakeley a permanent place in the history of hymnology.

Oakeley stood by his Tractarian friend, Charles Lloyd, Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford, when he was condemned in 1845. In two pamphlets published in London and Oxford, Oakeley defended Tract XC and asserted that he held, “as distinct from teaching, all Roman doctrine.” He was brought before the Court of Arches by Bishop Blomfield, and in July 1845 he was suspended until he “retracted his errors.”

He resigned as a canon of Lichfield Cathedral and from all his other appointments in the Church of England on 28 October 1845, and moved into Cardinal Newman’s community at Littlemore in Oxford. The following day, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, and on 31 October he was confirmed in Birmingham by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman.

He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest by Cardinal Wiseman in 1847 and he returned to Lichfield to celebrate his first Mass in Holy Cross Church, Upper John Street, with the 86-year-old scholarly Dr John Kirk, who had been Parish Priest of Lichfield when Oakeley was still a child in the Cathedral Close.

Oakeley joined the staff of Saint George’s, Southwark, took charge of Saint John’s, Islington, and was made a canon of Westminster Cathedral. For many years, he worked among the poor in his diocese. In the last years of his life, he remembered with fondness his childhood days in Lichfield. He died in Islington on 29 January 1880, and was buried in Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green.

Family in Lichfield

Henrietta Mott, wife of John Mott (1787-1869), Mayor of Lichfield in 1850, and sister of Frederick Oakeley

Oakeley’s widowed mother, Helena, continued living in the Bishop’s Palace in Lichfield until her death in 1838.

His brother, Sir Herbert Oakeley (1791-1845), who succeeded to the family title, was Archdeacon of Colchester. When the Bishopric of Gibraltar was founded in 1842, it was offered to Archdeacon Oakeley, but he declined it.

Their sister, Henrietta, married John Mott (1787–1869) of No 20, The Close, Lichfield, who was Deputy Diocesan Registrar of Lichfield and Mayor of Lichfield in 1850. Another sister, Amelia, married Chappel Wodehouse, only son of Chappel Wodehouse (1749-1833), who was Dean of Lichfield Cathedral when Frederick was installed a canon.

John Mott (1787–1869) … Mayor of Lichfield in 1850 and brother-in-law of Frederick Oakeley

Sadly, Frederick Oakeley has no monument in Lichfield apart from a misspelled street name at Oakley Close. Oakley Close was named after Frederick Oakeley but was misspelled in the original order by Lichfield District Council in 1977. Other street names in the area commemorate celebrated composers and musicians, including Purcell, Elgar, Handel, Verdi, Gilbert and Sullivan.

It is regrettable that in the cathedral city Oakeley knew as home, there is no public monument to one of the great and most popular English hymn-writers. Perhaps correcting the spelling of Oakley Close might begin to rectify this.

A sign on Elgar Close, leading to Oakley Close (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford has strong family roots in Lichfield, and returns regularly throughout the year

This feature is published in the December 2015 edition of the Lichfield Gazette, p 42.

Following the path of mediaeval pilgrims in Saint John’s, Lichfield

The building site at Saint John’s, Lichfield, where about 50 skeletons have been found … they may be the bodies of mediaeval pilgrims (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

Every visit to Lichfield includes a pilgrim visit to the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, with time for prayer and giving thanks for the all the blessings I have received in life, especially since I first visited this chapel as a 19-year-old back in 1971.

After breakfast this morning, I called into the chapel again, and went for a walk in the grounds, which are like an oasis in the heart of Lichfield.

I was invited back to preach in the Chapel at the Festal Eucharist earlier this summer [24 June 2015]. Since then, the skeletal remains of about 50 mediaeval people were found in shallow graves near this pilgrim site.

The human remains, which have been exhumed in recent weeks, may help archaeologists learn more about the mediaeval era, according to Archaeology Warwickshire. The archaeology and excavation company is studying each skeleton to determine the gender and age at death of each person, and looking for evidence of injuries or diseases preserved in their bones.

Stuart Palmer, the business manager of Archaeology Warwickshire, said the teeth will give a lot of information about their diet and may offer the potential for more in-depth study

Archaeologists found the shallow graves during a building project two or three months ago [August 2015]. The graves are relatively shallow, about 0.5 meters (1.6 ft) below ground.

Just before a planned expansion to the accommodation on the site at Saint John’s Hospital, including 18 new apartments, Archaeology Warwickshire surveyed the grounds around the mediaeval almshouse. The archaeologists expected to find some graves but “we weren’t really expecting the volume and quantity that we got,” says Stuart Palmer.

The grounds of Saint John’s Hospital are an oasis of peace and calm in the heart of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

“Although mediaeval burial sites are not uncommon in the UK, those associated with known sites of pilgrimage are not so common and this work presents a rare opportunity to study such a particular assemblage,” Stuart Palmer said.

The remains were taken to the group’s offices at Montague Road, Warwick, where the bones have being cleaned, aged and sexed and examined for signs of injury, disease, dietary deficiency and other pathologies.

Mr Palmer said: "These tests can often reveal fascinating aspects of life, medical practice and life expectancy in mediaeval populations. This could provide us with a truly fascinating window into the past.”

Saint John’s Hospital was established in 1135 and provided hospitality for mediaeval pilgrims (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

In mediaeval times, pilgrims travelled from far and wide to Lichfield to visit the cathedral and the tomb of Saint Chad. When the city gates of Lichfield were closed at about 9 p.m. every night, pilgrims who arrived later had to stay at the Hospital of Saint John Baptist without the Barrs – the barrs being the city gates

Saint Chad, who had a large following, founded his monastery at Lichfield, where he was abbot and bishop and where he is credited with converting the Kingdom of Mercia to Christianity. When he died in AD 672, he was proclaimed a saint, and people reported miracles at his tomb in Lichfield.

Saint John’s Hospital was established in 1135 adjacent to the Culstrubbe Gate, one of the four gates erected on the perimeter of Lichfield by Bishop Roger de Clinton (1129-1148). The Culstrubbe Gate crossed what is now Saint John Street.

The Culstrubbe Gate was closed at night, barring entrance to Lichfield until the morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Saint John’s provided overnight accommodation for pilgrims for several hundred years while it was a house of the Augustinian Friars.

Many of the pilgrims came to be healed and some may well have died during their journey. The 50 or so people — adults and children alike — whose graves have been found at Saint John’s may have died there during their pilgrimage. Most of the bodies were laid flat on their backs, arranged in rows, and covered with dirt. Many of the skeletons are not in good shape, however, because they were buried in acidic soil, which is typical of dirt in the area.

If the bones are in good condition, the archaeologists may analyse their DNA and isotopes, which can tell researchers where the pilgrims lived previously. After that, the skeletons may go to a museum.

Shortly after the discovery, the Bursar of Saint John’s, Juanita Sangha, told the Lichfield Mercury: “This is a very interesting find and provides a window into the mediaeval history of Lichfield. However, St John’s is treating the human remains with the greatest of respect and the site will be filled in and restored as soon as possible.”

Archaeologists from Archaeology Warwickshire are working on the site alongside Paragon Construction to ensure that work continues and excavation research is carried out.

Work started on the new apartments around July. The trustees of Saint John’s commissioned the Worcester-based Architects KKE to design a building “which resonated with the Tudor building,” using innovative 21st century building techniques.

The new buildings, forming a second quad at Saint John’s, are to be built using Passivhaus technology, providing “a high level of occupant comfort while using very little energy for heating and cooling.” The grounds are also being landscaped to complement the accommodation.

After visiting Saint John’s this morning, I returned to Lichfield Cathedral for the mid-day Eucharist, continuing this pilgrims spiritual journey through Lichfield.

Inside the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Carols and Hymns for Christmas (1): ‘In the bleak mid-winter’ (No 162)

‘If I were a shepherd,/ I would bring a lamb’ (Christina Rossetti) … the Neo-Gothic Altarpiece carved at Oberammergau in the 19th century now in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

As part of my spiritual reflections for Advent this year, I was looking at an appropriate hymn for Advent each morning. I have decided to continue this spiritual exercise through the Christmas season, thinking about an appropriate Christmas carol each morning.

My choice of a Christmas carol for this Christmas morning, Christmas Day [25 December 2014] is ‘In the bleak mid-winter,’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), which is Hymn 162 in the Irish Church Hymnal.

This is, perhaps, my favourite Christmas Carol, and for many it is closely associated with the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols, broadcast each Christmas Eve from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.

But then the traditional Bidding Prayer, which was written for the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols by Eric Milner-White (1884-1963) while he was Dean of King’s College Chapel, has a poetic quality to it too:

The Dean: Beloved in Christ,
be it this Christmas Eve our care and delight
to prepare to hear again the message of the angels:
in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem
and see this thing which is come to pass,
and with the Magi adore the Child lying in his Mother’s arms.

Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture
the tale of the loving purposes of God
from the first days of our disobedience
unto the glorious Redemption brought us by this Holy Child.
and let us make this chapel, dedicated to his pure and lowly Mother,
glad with our carols of praise:

But first,
let us pray for the needs of the whole world;
for peace and goodwill over all the earth;
for unity and brotherhood within the Church he came to build,
within the dominions of our sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth,
within this University and City of Cambridge,
and in the two royal and religious Foundations of King Henry VI here and at Eton:

And let us at this time remember, in his name,
the poor and the helpless,
the cold, the hungry, and the oppressed;
the sick and them that mourn,
the lonely and the unloved,
the aged and the little children;
all those who know not the Lord Jesus,
or who love him not,
or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.

Lastly,
let us remember before God
all those who rejoice with us,
but upon another shore and in a greater light,
that multitude which no man can number,
whose hope was in the Word made flesh,
and with whom we for evermore are one.

These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up
to the throne of heaven,
in the words which Christ himself hath taught us:

Our Father …

May the Almighty God bless us with his grace;
Christ give us the joys of everlasting life,
and unto the fellowship of the citizens above
may the King of Angels bring us all. Amen.

We use an adaptation of this Bidding Prayer regularly at the carol services in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, including the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols last Monday evening [22 December 2014].

King’s College and King’s Parade, Cambridge, in the summer sunshine … Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘In the bleak Mid-Winter,’ became popular after it was included in the BBC broadcasts of the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols from King’s College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Service of Nine Lessons with Carols was first designed by Edward Benson when he was Bishop of Truro for use in his cathedral. It was later simplified and adapted for use in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, for Christmas Eve in 1918.

At the time, Eric Milner-White was 34 and had just been appointed Dean of King’s Chapel, Cambridge, at the end of World War I. His war-time experiences as an army chaplain had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. His Order of Service was revised a year later with a rearrangement of the lessons, so that since 1919 the service always begins with the hymn ‘Once in Royal David’s City.’ He later went on to be Dean of York.

The service was first broadcast in 1928 and – with the exception of 1930 – it has been broadcast annually, even during World War II when the ancient glass, and all heat, had been removed from the Chapel.

In the early 1930s, the BBC began broadcasting the service on the World Service. It is estimated that it has millions of listeners worldwide. In recent years, a digital recording has been broadcast on Christmas Day on Radio Three, and since 1963, a shorter service, with different music and readings, has been filmed periodically for television.

‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’ … my photograph on the cover of last year’s Christmas edition of Lichfield Gazette, December 2013

Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter,’ became popular among choirs after it was included it in the BBC broadcasts of the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, using the 1911 setting by Harold Edwin Darke (1888-1976). He had once been the conductor of the choir, and his setting of the poem as a carol included his beautiful and delicate organ accompaniment.

But the tune most often associated with ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is Cranham, composed in 1906 by Gustav Holst (1874-1934).

The poem had only been published for the first time seven years earlier in Christina Rossetti’s Poetic Works, ten years after her death. It was republished in 1906 The English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, in 1906 with Holst’s setting, and it quickly became a popular Christmas carol.

Today, Christina Rossetti’s ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is one of the most popular and best-loved carols. Some years ago, in a BBC poll of some of the world’s leading choirmasters and choral experts, it was chosen as the best-ever Christmas carol. It came out top in the BBC Music Magazine some years ago, above well-known songs and carols such as Silent Night, Ding Dong Merrily on High and Once in Royal David’s City.

Christina Rossetti was part of the Victorian arts-and-crafts movement and the pre-Raphaelite movement. She was a leading advocate of women’s rights, a campaigner against slavery and war, and a prominent member of the Anglo-Catholic movement. She wrote ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ in 1872 in answer to a request from a magazine. But, like a lot of writers, she must have been frustrated that she never saw its publication.

So it took over 30 years, more than a generation, before this poem was first sung as a Christmas carol. Ever since then, though, it has been a firm Christmas favourite, and has been recorded by the King’s Singers, Julie Andrews, the Moody Blues, the Pet Shop Boys, James Taylor, Alison Crowe, Moya Brennan, Celtic Woman, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman and Loreena McKennitt.

But I still find this popularity surprising, because this is no popular, cosy, comfortable Christmas carol. Instead its images are harsh and bleak, and in today’s uncomfortable economic climate that are challenging and demanding once again.

In the bleak midwinter … snow had fallen, snow on snow … Comberford Hall in the snow at Christmas-time (Photograph © Nigel Chadwick, 2010)

In the bleak midwinter (Irish Church Hymnal, No 162), by Christina Rossetti:

In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

Our God, heav’n cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heav’n and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breast full of milk
and a manger-ful of hay;
enough for him, whom angels
fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air;
but his mother only,
in her maiden bliss,
worshipped the beloved
with a kiss.

What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him —
give my heart.

Listen to the Choir of Lichfield Cathedral singing In the bleak midwinter here

In the bleak mid-winter … the Moat House in Tamworth in mid-winter snow

Tomorrow: ‘Good King Wenceslas’

Stories of scandal, snobbery and spite in The Cathedral Close

This illustrated feature is published in the October 2014 (Issue 64) edition of the Lichfield Gazette (pages 34-36):

Stories of scandal,
snobbery and spite in
The Cathedral Close

Selwyn House ... known as ‘Spite House’ ... but was it ever built in spite? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

By Patrick Comerford

As I was leading a recent walking tour of the Cathedral Close, organised by Kate Gomez and Lichfield Discovered, I found myself telling the engaging stories of scandal, snobbery and spite that surrounded the lives of residents of The Close over the centuries.

The best-known Close scandal is the story of the affair between the poet Anna Seward and John Saville, a married man who was a Vicar Choral in the cathedral. But I was also asked about the stories that have grown up around Selwyn House, which stands on the site of the mediaeval moat at the east end of The Close.

Selwyn House is often known as “Spite House” because of a popular Lichfield legend that the first house on the site was built by one of three sisters in the 1750s to block her sisters’ view of the cathedral.

Elizabeth Aston, daughter of Sir Thomas Aston, lived in Stowe Hill, later Stowe Hill House, and died in 1785. Her sister Jane, wife of the Revd Francis Gastrell, is linked with Stowe House. It was home first to the Revd Thomas Hinton of Saint Chad’s, who died in 1770, and later home to Richard Edgeworth and his family and Thomas Day. The third house was empty in 1777 and is never mentioned again.

A legend developed that a third, unmarried sister built Selwyn House to spoil the view of the cathedral her sisters had from Stowe Hill and Stowe House. She is said to have resented being shuffled between the houses by her sisters, and in a fit of pique built a house as tall as possible to block their view. And so it was called “Spite House” or the “Hate House.”

In 1930, in her biographical book, An Autograph Collection, Lady Charnwood, who lived at Stowe House, said the story had “no foundation, still less authority.”

Lichfield Cathedral can be seen from the area behind Selwyn House ... ruling out any legends of ‘spite’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Later, in the early 1970s, F Marston, a local historian, carried out an extensive study of the legal titles to the land, the building records for the house, and measured the distances and angels between Stowe Hill and Stowe House and both Selwyn House and the Cathedral. He too concluded there was no foundation to the legend.

We can date the building of Selwyn House because it does not appear on the Conduit Lands Trust map of 1766. The deeds to the house point to an initial lease around 1777 and it appears on John Snape’s map in 1781. It is built at the southern-most edge of the site, as close as possible to the canonical house that later became Saint Mary’s House, and it is not possible that it ever blocked the view from either Stowe House or Stowe Hill of the Cathedral.

When Marston inspected the deeds and measured the distances, he concluded that the story is no more than a “calumny, so often repeated, against a person who never existed.” But, as Annette Rubery says in her book Lichfield Then & Now in colour, “Even though the facts have since been since been disproved, the tale still lives on.”

The Falconer Monument in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The truth is Selwyn House was built ca 1777-1780 for Canon James Falconer (1735-1821), Rector of Thorpe Constantine and later Archdeacon of Derby. He was a close friend of Anna Seward’s father, Canon Thomas Seward. He was a canon of Lichfield Cathedral but was not assigned one of the houses for Canons in the Close. So Falconer may have built the house immediately after his appointment as a Canon of Lichfield Cathedral.

A sad story illustrates the silly snobbery in The Close at the time. When Falconer’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became engaged to the Revd John Batteridge Pearson, the archdeacon and his wife opposed the marriage, believing Pearson was not their daughter’s equal in birth or fortune, although he was the Perpetual Curate or Vicar of Saint Michael’s, Lichfield.

Lichfield Cathedral ... John Pearson became a canon in 1790 but never received a canon’s house in the Close (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

However, when Samuel Johnson’s step-daughter, Lucy Porter, left Pearson her fortune, the Falconers quickly withdrew their objections. A year after Lucy Porter’s death, the couple were married in Saint Mary’s Church in 1787. But even then, Mrs Falconer was so annoyed she lay in bed all day.

Falconer was a forceful character who was nicknamed ‘Dr Impudence.’ In contrast, his son-in-law was known as ‘a most amiable and excellent man’ and was nicknamed ‘The Peacemaker.’ So what was Pearson’s connection with Dr Johnson?

Johnson was also a friend of the two sisters at Stowe Hill and Stowe House. Pearson knew Johnson since at least 1776, we know, for both Pearson and Canon Seward supped with Johnson and Boswell at the Three Crowns Inn in Breadmarket Street on 25 March 1776. In 1779, Pearson became Vicar of Croxall, Derbyshire, but he remained at Saint Michael’s in Lichfield.

Lucy Porter (1715-1786) ... step-daughter of Dr Samuel Johnson

Dr Johnson’s letters show Pearson was very intimate with Lucy Porter during her later years, and even wrote her letters when she felt disinclined to write herself. At times, he was the only person she would see, and in a letter to Boswell on 25 March 1785, Anna Seward tells him Lucy Porter is “now too ill to be accessible to any of her friends, except Mr Pearson.”

A year after Lucy Porter’s death, Pearson – now a man of means – married Elizabeth Falconer in Saint Mary’s Church on 17 September 1787. On 20 March 1790, two weeks after Thomas Seward’s death, Pearson became a canon in Lichfield Cathedral, but he never received a Canon’s house in The Close.

His eldest son, the Revd George Pearson, was baptised in 1791 in Lichfield Cathedral by his grandfather, Archdeacon Falconer, and the child’s sponsors included the Earl of Belfast, later Marquis of Donegall, who gave his name to Donegal House in Bore Street. Pearson’s third son, Captain John Pearson, was baptised in Saint Mary’s by Archdeacon Falconer, and his sponsors included Lord Donegall.

Pearson moved into Lucy Porter’s house when she died, and lived there with his family until he moved to Croxall in 1801. He died in Croxall in 1808; his widow, who survived him for almost half a century, inherited Selwyn House when her sister died. She stayed there until 1824, and died in 1856 in Hill Ridware, aged 72.

Incidentally, the fortune Pearson inherited from Lucy Porter included her house and a number of valuable relics from Dr Johnson, including the manuscript of his dictionary – later put in the loft in Lichfield, where it was eaten by rats; the bust of Dr Johnston taken after his death – it was displayed on a shelf over a door but fell and broke when the door slammed; and his walking stick – lost when the family home burned down accidentally ca 1917. However, his writing desk, some of his letters and a signed copy of his dictionary survived.

Lucy Porter (1715-1786) was the daughter of Henry Porter, a Birmingham mercer and wool merchant, and his wife Elizabeth who, when she was widowed, married Samuel Johnson. She was just six years younger than her new stepfather, and their friendship grew increasingly warm as the years passed. She continued to live in Lichfield after her mother moved to London, living with Johnson’s mother Sarah, and helping her to run the bookshop. Lucy inherited £10,000 on her brother’s death and built herself a large house on Tamworth Street that was demolished in the 1920s.

Meanwhile, what about Archdeacon Falconer, who had Selwyn House built or rebuilt for him? About the mid-1780s, he built two cold baths near Parchment House north of Stowe Pool. His nephew, Dr William Falconer of Bath, was an authority on cold-water cures. When the Archdeacon died in 1809, his widow continued to live in the house. When she died in 1821, the house passed to one daughter, Catherine Miles, widow of Colonel Edward Miles, and then to the other daughter, Elizabeth Pearson, widow of Canon HB Pearson. But the house passed out of the family in 1824.

The balcony is a later addition to Selwyn House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The house was enlarged in the early 19th century, when an iron balcony was added on the north side. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was home to Harriet Selwyn, widow of a former Bishop of Lichfield, George Augustus Selwyn, who give his name to Selwyn College, Cambridge, and who is buried in Lichfield Cathedral.

After Harriet Selwyn died in 1907, the house became a hostel for students at the Lichfield Theological College, and it was named Selwyn House in her honour. For a brief period during World War I, Bishop Kempthorne lived in the house, but it became a hostel for theological students once again in 1918.

In 1922, the students moved out of Selwyn House and into the Bishop’s Palace, and Selwyn House was the bishop’s residence until 1931, when the students moved back in.

The theological college closed in 1972 and Selwyn House was divided into flats. But the legends about a Spite House persisted.

(The Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford returns regularly to Lichfield, and has deep family roots here. www.patrickcomerford.com