St Wilfrid's Church, Kibworth in
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"Christians
of the Month" - part 1
This is an archive of
articles on Christians that we have published in the Parish Magazine. If you would
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Last updated 26 March 2006
Edward King - 8th
March
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
A
delicate child, Edward King was born in
London
on 29th December 1829. He
was the second son of Walter King, a clergyman who became Archdeacon of
Rochester and, having been educated at home by his father and a private tutor,
he went up to Oriel College, Oxford, when he was nineteen.
But he was no more than an ‘average’ scholar.
Ordained
in 1854, he served a short curacy in a village near
Oxford
and gained a reputation as a very caring pastor. He was then appointed
Chaplain of Cuddesdon, a recently founded theological college, whose Principal
he became in 1863. Here his own devout life and wise counselling had a huge
influence upon many generations of ordinands.
His
next appointments were as a Canon of Christ Church and, in spite of his lack
of intellectual brilliance, as Regius Professor of pastoral theology at
Oxford
(1873). It is said that his lectures which were always crowded were
exceptionally interesting and full of practical advice on work and prayer. A
great friend of Dr. Pusey, he was a leading light in the English Church Union
and had much to do with the foundation of St. Stephen’s House in Oxford, and
the Oxford Mission to Calcutta.
In
1885 he was appointed as Bishop of Lincoln where, once again, his holy life
made the same profound impression as it had elsewhere.
Clearly he was a very friendly, godly man, and soon became loved by
people in every walk of life throughout his diocese. During his ten years as
bishop it is said that he made himself known to everyone throughout the whole
county. Dr. Scott Holland, the Dean of St. Paul’s, declared that ‘he could
charm love out of a stone’.
But
he was attacked for being a Tractarian (or Anglo-Catholic) and was caught up
in the ritualistic controversy of the day. He was taken to an ecclesiastical
court and charged with using various customs which were not permitted by the
rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer. Apparently,
he lit candles on the altar, mixed water with the wine at Holy
Communion, used the Agnus Dei (‘O
lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us’),
adopted an eastward position at the holy table rather than standing at the
north end, and blessed the people using the sign of the cross. The court which
consisted of six Evangelical Bishops presided over by the Archbishop of
Canterbury decided that some of his customs should be permitted but others
must be discontinued. Today all of these practices and several others with
which he was also charged are now regarded as perfectly acceptable, indeed
normal, in the Church of England.
His
Spiritual Letters, which are advice
and guidance (mostly to ordinands), are regarded as a minor classic.
He died in 1910 and is commemorated in the Anglican Calendar on 8th
March.
St. Polycarp
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
“I
have been serving Christ for eighty-six years”, (presumably
since infant baptism) “and he has wronged me in nothing; how can I
blaspheme my King who has saved me?” These
were the brave words of Polycarp, the Greek who had been bishop of the great sea
port
of
Smyrna
(modern
Izmir
,
Turkey
) since c. AD 107, when he was arrested and bidden to swear allegiance to the
Emperor. This was during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (possibly AD 163),
a time when Christians were again suffering persecution.
After
his refusal to do so, and therefore to deny his faith, Polycarp was martyred
being stabbed, his body being burnt at the stake.
Martyrdom was all too common at the time, and document relating the whole
story which was reproduced by the historian Eusebius, is considered to be the
earliest genuine account of such a death. “…he was the twelfth to endure
martyrdom in
Smyrna
” states the document, “but he alone is specially remembered by all, so that
even the heathen everywhere speak of him.”
Polycarp,
who was a disciple of John the Evangelist, is one of the earliest Christians
whose own writing survives. He was a gifted leader, pastor and teacher and is
recognised by both Eastern Orthodox and Western churches as a saint,
commemorated on February 23. He was
a companion of Papias, another “hearer of John”, and a correspondent of
Ignatius of Antioch. Probably his most famous pupil was Irenaeus (a native of
Smyrna
who became bishop of
Lyons
), for whom the memory of Polycarp was a living link to the apostolic past, for
he described the old man as “instructed by the apostles and conversant with
many who had seen the Lord.”
During
the time of Pope Anicetus he visited
Rome
and the two agreed, peaceably, to disagree about the date when Easter should be
celebrated. Polycarp, continued to
follow the eastern practice of keeping the festival on the 14th Nisan
regardless of which day of the week it happened to fall.
His
sole surviving work is his Letter to the Philippians, which is a mosaic of references to the
New Testament, and is especially important for that very reason. In it he
combated various heretical sects, including certain Gnostic groups that claimed
religious salvation exclusively through their special spiritual knowledge, and
he is the first to quote passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, from
Acts and the first letters of Peter and John.
It is said that Polycarp’s use of Pauline texts, marked a crucial
advance in Christian theology, for the Gnostics had claimed erroneously that
Paul held the beliefs they advocated.
Eglantine
Jebb
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
Born
into a well-to-do family in Ellesmere, Shropshire in 1876, Eglantine Jebb (who
had five remarkable brothers and sisters) went up to
Oxford
in 1894, read modern history at Lady Margaret Hall and became a teacher.
Later, illness forced her to resign and to join her now widowed mother in
Cambridge
. Together they visited various health resorts on the Continent and worked for
the Charity Organisation Society. She also wrote a well received book on
poverty in the city, Cambridge: A Social
Study and a long novel about English Country Life, The Ring Fence .
After
the Balkan War of 1912 the M.P. Noel Buxton (who was married to Eglantine’s
sister Dorothea) and his brother set up a Macedonian Relief Fund and invited
the sisters to go out and distribute relief both to the liberated Macedonians
and to the defeated Turks. Thousands
of people had been displaced, terrible atrocities had occurred and huge
numbers of refugees were left starving and often dying by the roadside. Having
witnessed so much suffering, Eglantine returned to
England
and, even though she hated public speaking, forced herself to go round raising
funds for the relief of these needy people.
After
the First World War (during which another of her sisters, Louisa, helped to
found the Land Army), when there was widespread starvation and disease in
Germany
and
Austria
she was heavily engaged in the campaign to Fight the Famine. The final total
collected in aid of the child victims of the war in
Europe
was the incredible sum of 72 million pounds.
In
1916 Eglantine had operations on her goitre and her health improved. Three
years later she and her sister founded Save the Children, a non-profit,
non-sectarian organization which quickly captured the imagination of people
far and wide and received support from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope
(who granted her a long private audience and then published an encyclical
insisting that all R.C. churches contribute to it) and many European and
American intellectuals and politicians. ‘I have no enemies under the age of
seven’ wrote George Bernard Shaw in reply to those who warned that the
children who were being aided might grow up to fight against
Britain
in the future.
In
January 1919 the Organisation became International. Miss Jebb’s
‘children’s charter’, which was adopted by the
League of Nations
in 1924, speaks of the rights of children to material and spiritual
development. However it also
emphasises the obligations of children to devote themselves in due course to
the service of others.
In
spite of continuing illness, Eglantine Jebb remained the very active
chairperson of Save the Children until her death at the age of 52. She was a
deeply religious woman whose personal spirituality was an inspiration to many.
She is commemorated each year in the Calendar of the Church of England on 17th
December, the day she died in
Geneva
in 1928.
Dame
Cicely Saunders
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
Cicely
Mary Strode Saunders who died in July 2005 was born in 1918.
After attending Roedean, the famous girls school near Brighton, she went
up to St. Anne’s College,
Oxford
in 1939 to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, but in 1941 she changed
course in order to train as a nurse at
St. Thomas
’s Hospital.
Invalided
out with back trouble, she returned to
Oxford
in 1944, completed a war degree, had a laminectomy and became a lady almoner
(now known as a medical social worker) back at
St. Thomas
’s.
Once
or twice a week she also worked at St. Luke’s Hospital where there were 48
beds for patients with advanced cancer. As
a result of her experience she determined to become a doctor and qualified in
1957.
She
is now known world-wide as a pioneer in the modern hospice movement, having
established St. Christopher’s Hospice, a Christian foundation, in 1967 to
provide total and active care for patients with incurable diseases. She was its
Medical Director until 1985 and thereafter, as well as being an Honorary
consultant at
St. Thomas
, its Chairman and President.
She
lectured widely, wrote many books and pamphlets, and received honorary degrees
and Fellowships from
Oxford
,
Cambridge
,
London
, Glasgow, Yale and various other overseas universities.
Honours were heaped upon her, including DBE and the
OM
, and several pictures of her found a place in the National Portrait Gallery.
She soon realised that ‘each death is as individual
as the life that preceded it, and that the whole experience of that life was
reflected in the patient’s dying. This
led to the concept of “total pain” which was presented as a complex of
physical, emotional, social and spiritual elements.
The whole experience for a patient includes anxiety, depression, and
fear; concern for the family who will become bereaved; and often a need to find
some meaning in the situation and some deeper reality in which to trust.’ This
became the major emphasis of her lecturing and writing on such subjects as the
nature and management of terminal pain and the family as the unit of care.
Though there has been an extraordinary growth in drug treatments for pain and
other symptoms, and palliative care is spreading worldwide, the basic principles
which she set out more than 30 years ago in Cancer
Pain Relief have not changed
In
her book Beyond the Horizon – A search
for Meaning in Suffering, Dame Cicely Saunders quotes the prayer (to the
left) which was written by a patient with paralysis (others had to read his
poems for him) who came to the Poetry Workshop at St. Christopher’s.
March
14th - Oscar Romero
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
Among the
twentieth century martyrs whose statues now adorn the west front of
Westminster Abbey is Oscar Arnulfo Romero. He was born on 15th August, 1917 in
Cuidad Barrios, a small village in El Salvador, Central America. Leaving
school at the age of twelve he went to work at the local carpenter’s shop
but, in due course, was accepted for training for the priesthood at the
seminary of San Miguel. From there he went on to the national seminary and
then to the Gregorian university in Rome where he was ordained in 1942. He
then began to study for a Doctorate in Ascetical Theology but before he had
completed his studies he was called back to serve the Roman Catholic Church in
San Salvador. Having shown himself to be a brilliant student he was able to
undertake many different responsibilities and in 1967 was given the title of
Monsignor. In 1974 he became Bishop of Santiago de Maria.
By
1977, amidst the political and social turmoil suffered by his country, he was
seen as a ‘safe pair of hands’ to be appointed as Archbishop for he had
gained a reputation as a quiet, unassuming, rather conservative pastor, who
would be unlikely to provoke the government. But, given his position, he
recognised that he must become the voice of the people who were being
persecuted by the Police and the National Guard. Many of his fellow-countrymen
had been forced to leave their homes and sleep in the hills to stay clear of
the death squads who roamed the country at the behest of the military junta.
Priests were being imprisoned and expelled. Some were executed and there were
many weeks in which hundreds of people were slaughtered, their mutilated
corpses being left hanging from trees where everyone could see them.
Courageously
Archbishop Romero spoke out again and again against all this injustice and
violence and his homilies supported the demands of the poor peasants for
economic and social reform. From what he said publicly it is clear that he
realised that he himself was likely to be killed; but he refused to be
silenced. He criticised the Carter administration’s involvement in
Salvadorian politics and begged the U.S. President to suspend arms shipments
to Salvador and to cease supporting the human rights violations of the
military.
The
military junta explicitly condemned him and eight days later on 14th March
1980, as he presided at a requiem mass (having preached on the text John 12.24
‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into
the ground and dies it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces
much fruit’) he was shot and killed. A full investigation was never
carried out and his murderer never brought to trial.
Ever
since, Oscar Romero has been regarded as a martyr for the Faith and is one of
only a handful of modern Christians who are included in the Anglican Calendar.
Saint Patrick
- 17th March
by Canon
Desmond V Treanor
St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was almost certainly a Scot.
Remembered especially each year on March 17th this son (and grandson) of a deacon was born
toward the end of the fourth century A.D. and, at the age of sixteen, was carried off by
pirates into slavery in Co. Mayo (at a lovely little place now known as Killala). Six
years later he managed to escape and make his way to Gaul where he renewed his education
and was prepared for ordination and, eventually, consecration.
It is said that the long course of study he undertook was at the
feet of St. Germanus of Auxere, but it is impossible to separate fact from fiction. So
much that we know of Patrick is merely legend; but that is not surprising when it is
realised that his earliest biographer lived in the second half of the seventh century and
that, like all hagiographers, he felt free to embellish the facts freely.
Towards the end of his life Patrick wrote (in Latin) his 'Confession',
a moving account of his personal pilgrimage. But even the date of his death (around A.D.
460) and the place of his burial (possibly Saul or Slemish in Co. Down) are uncertain.
One of the best known stories of Patrick's ministry in Ireland is
of how he bravely challenged the High King, Laoghaire, by kindling the Paschal fire on
Easter Eve and how he won him over to the Faith by the logical clarity of his preaching.
He gained a reputation for using such visual aids as the three-leafed shamrock in
explaining the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and was venerated everywhere as the person who
rid Ireland of snakes!
Undoubtedly he travelled the length and breadth of the country
evangelising, doing works of mercy, conciliating local chieftains, ordaining clergy and
establishing monasteries and convents. To this day the Archbishop's see is Armagh and
every year pilgrims travel from all over the isalnd to climb Croagh Patrick, the western
mountain where he is reputed to have gone into retreat much in the manner of Jesus in the
wilderness.
Personally, I have always loved and valued the 'Breastplate'
but known full well that, although ascribed to Patrick, it is not thought by most scholars
to have been written as early as the fifth century. No matter. It certainly has a very
distinctively 'Celtic' feel and it was, in fact, translated by Mrs Alexander (wife of a
Bishop of Armagh).
"I bind unto myself
The strong name of the Trinity ..." and I pray :
"Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me ..."
January 20th - St. Sebastian
by Dr Kevin Feltham
Sebastian died a martyr in Rome,
probably in the third century, and was buried in the Appian Way. He was venerated at least
as far back as the time of Saint Ambrose and probably had some connection to Milan.
This is all we know of Saint Sebastian. Two hundred years after his death a legend
sprang up about his life. According to this legend, Sebastian, a Christian, decided to go
into the military during a time of persecution. This decision was not to save his own
life, but in order to put himself in a position to comfort the martyrs. As a member of the
military, the ones who captured and guarded the persecuted Christians, he was in ideal
place to stay with them, encourage them, and even alleviate their sufferings without
anyone being suspicious or keeping him out. He showed such aptitude, however, in the
military life, that the emperor Diocletian made him a captain without ever guessing
Sebastian was a Christian. As more and more Christians died, it was inevitable that
Sebastian would be found out. Diocletian was furious at what he saw as a betrayal after
all he had done for Sebastian. He ordered Sebastian to be shot by archers and that is why
we see art and statues depicting Sebastian's body full of arrows.
Irene, a Christian, found Sebastian still alive and nursed him back to health. As soon
as he could stand, Sebastian went looking for Diocletian. When Diocletian saw his captain,
the one everyone thought was dead, he must have thought he was looking at a ghost.
Sebastian didn't want revenge or a reprieve. He wanted to accuse Diocletian of all the
cruelties he had committed. When Diocletian finally got his senses back, he had Sebastian
beaten to death.
Sebastian is considered patron saint of archers and soldiers based on this legend. His
feast day is 20 January.
George Fox
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
The
Founder of the Society of Friends, commonly known as The Quakers, was born in
1624 in Fenny Drayton, Leicestershire. George’s
parents were Puritans. His father was a weaver nicknamed ‘Righteous Christer’
because of his strong convictions, and his mother was ‘of the stock of
martyrs’. He appears to have had little education but possessed ‘a gravity
and staidness of mind and spirit not usual in children’.
He
began his working life apprenticed to a shoemaker, but also worked as a grazier
and wool dealer. When still in his teens he became profoundly disillusioned with
the forms of religion which he found around him, and with those who professed
them. So at the age of nineteen he abandoned corporate worship and began
‘walking solitary abroad’.
A
sincere seeker, for three years he earnestly looked for perfection and sought
advice from a variety of clergymen and others; but none could satisfy him.
Turning to Bible reading and prayer, he spent time in lonely places and
received ‘openings’ (ie. revelations), but it was not until he was
twenty-three that his spiritual conflict was resolved.
At
last he felt that peace had come to him, not through the Scriptures but as a
direct revelation of Christ, and he felt called to preach ‘the indwelling
Christ’ and the falsehood of much that passed for Christianity at the time.
Usually he preached out of doors or at the end of Puritan meetings, and his
message attracted widespread attention. He declared ‘Christ
has been too long locked up in the mass or in a Book.
Let Him be your prophet, priest and king.
Obey Him.’ As he moved north spreading his message, he was
frequently beaten and imprisoned; but he remained completely convinced of his
vocation and was grateful for the protection of Judge William Fell in whose home
he settled.
Loathing
hypocrisy and injustice, and being naturally compassionate to the poor, he found
much to outrage him in seventeenth century
England
, and he made many enemies by his outspokenness. However he aroused fierce
loyalty among those who were close to him in all walks of life, and many
followed him.
The
central doctrine of the Quakers is ‘the inner light’ which consists of an
inner knowledge or experience of salvation. The idea of ‘every man being
enlightened’ was a repudiation of the Calvinist doctrine of election, and
taught that those who followed the light could reach a state of perfection.
This was made possible by the atonement which gave victory over sin,
leading to an outward change of actions.
In
1669 George Fox married the Judge’s widow Margaret Fell, and her home
Swarthmore Hall,
Lancashire
became his headquarters. From there he issued a steady flow of religious
pamphlets, and himself set out on a series of tireless missionary journeys in
Ireland
,
Holland
, the West Indies and
North America
.
One
result of their religious convictions was that Quakers became famed for their
reliability as traders and bankers. They
introduced the idea of a ‘just price’, showed a practical concern for the
poor, and established schools.
When
he died in 1691, having dictated his Journal to Thomas Ellwood who published it
in 1694, the courtier William Penn wrote, ‘Many
sons have done virtuously in this day, but dear George thou excellest them all.’
Webmaster
’s anorak
moment:
Fact:
Fenny Drayton is the Leicestershire village which is believed to be closest to
the central point of England:
Centre of
England
(mainland only)
Lindley Hall Farm, 1.5 km east of Fenny Drayton and 5 km north of
Nuneaton
.
February 14th - St. Valentine
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
I have always had a soft spot for
this saint, not because I know much about him but because it was on this day that my wife
accepted the proposal of marriage which I, a penniless student, had just put to her! A day
never to be forgotten, 'though why it should have been associated with courtship for
centuries is a mystery. One age-old suggestion is that it is because all birds are thought
to pair at about that time each year.
Were there one or two saints who bore
the name Valentine?
No one knows. Certainly there was one
who was a Roman priest who was imprisoned by the Emperor Claudius II for having ministered
to people who had themselves been incarcerated for their faith at a time of universal
persecution. During his own time in chains, Valentine is credited with helping to convert
Asterius, the Roman officer to whose care he was committed., together with his wife and
family. As a punishment the emperor had him beaten and beheaded. This is believed to have
taken place on 14th February, AD 270. A church was built there in his honour in the 4th
century.
But legends also speak of a certain
Valentine who was Bishop of Terni. He too suffered martyrdom in Rome and it may well be
that the legends associated with him really refer to the former saint.
In any event Valentine is still
mentioned in the Anglican calendar on 14th February 'though no English churches have been
dedicated to him. Nor does any early writer throw any light on his connection with the
custom of sending 'valentines'. Along with the old idea about birds pairing at this time
is the suggestion that, in truth, the connection is purely accidental and that it arose
through the confusion of St. Valentine's day with the pagan feast of Lupercalia in Rome
which occurred on the Ides of February. For Christians, St. Valentine's day is a reminder
of our ever-loving God who blesses those who, following Christ's command, love one
another.
Janani Luwum -
17th February
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
On
the west front of Westminster Abbey are a series of statues of modern martyrs,
one of whom came from
Uganda
. Born in 1922 into the Acholi
tribe (and destined to become its Chief) on the northern borders of Uganda and
the Sudan, Janani Luwum, herded sheep and goats until his father, a recent
convert to Christianity, managed to get him a place in Gulu High School.
From there he went on to the only English language teachers’ training
course in
Uganda
at that time (pioneered by Bishop Usher Wilson of the
Upper Nile
) and became a teacher and lay reader at Gulu.
Though
he proved to be an outstanding teacher, he was sent to
St. Augustine
’s College,
Canterbury
, to train for Ordination, and returned to
East Acholi
as a Priest in charge of twenty four parishes! He spent one year as
vice-principal of the theological college at Buluwasi and was awarded a
bursary for a second period of study at the London College of Divinity (from
1962 -65).
In
1968 he attended the Lambeth Conference as an overseas consultant; and it was
obvious that he was destined for high office. In 1969 he was consecrated
Bishop of Northern Uganda, and in 1972 Amin expelled 55,000 Asians from the
country (many of whom came to
Leicester
). In 1974 Janani was elected as Archbishop of Northern Uganda,
Burundi
and Boga-Zaire and resolved to visit every parish as soon as possible, to
encourage the people and strengthen the Church. He covered his territory
tirelessly, driving at breakneck speed to the consternation of those who
accompanied him. But his position inevitably brought him into direct
confrontation with the dictator, Idi Amin.
For
a time he managed to work with Amin, who was erratic and unstable.
But it was very difficult, for he would often telephone in the middle
of the night for advice, or send a car to fetch the Archbishop for an
‘urgent consultation’. Not surprisingly, relations deteriorated, and Amin
got it into his head that the
Church was in league with the
state of
Israel
. He banned missionaries from
entering the country, and Christians just began to disappear without any
explanation. Bodies were found
floating on
Lake Victoria
and there was a general climate of fear and suspicion.
Fearlessly
the Archbishop spoke out against the evils of the military dictatorship and on
many occasions he went personally to the headquarters of the security forces
to enquire about missing Christians. In
March 1976 at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting (held in the
Caribbean), great concern was expressed at the risks he was taking, but he
returned to
Uganda
full of excitement about his plans for the centenary celebrations of the
Church in
Uganda
. However, in August,
Makerere
University
was sacked and there was an outbreak of raping, looting and burning in which
staff and students were killed by members of the security forces.
Janani went there at once to establish the facts for himself, and sent
a strongly-worded memorandum to Amin telling him that the whole world was
outraged by the breakdown of law and order in the country.
In
February 1977 there was an unsuccessful army rebellion and thousands of
soldiers and civilians were killed in retaliation. Amin’s
troops searched the Archbishop’s home for arms but, even though nothing was
found, the President sent for him to answer a charge that he had smuggled arms
into the country from
China
. It was alleged that some had
been found near his family home, and he was arrested and charged with
complicity in a plot to assassinate the President (who was finally deposed in
1981).
“They
are going to kill me. I am not
afraid” Janani told a fellow-bishop; and he was never seen again.
Subsequently
it was announced that he had died in a car crash; but the fake photographs
fooled no one.
It
appears that, in fact, Amin himself shot him.
C
T Studd
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
Early
in 1885 a group of young men, who were later described as ‘The Cambridge
Seven’, set sail from
England
to be missionaries in
China
. Their leader was Charles T.
Studd, the son of a wealthy indigo-planter who had retired from
India
to a large country estate at Tidworth, Wiltshire.
Charles
and his two brothers, Kynaston and George, were educated at Eton and
Cambridge
where they all excelled at cricket and achieved the remarkable record of
captaining the University team in successive seasons from 1882 to 1884.
Charles himself played for
England
in 1882 against
Australia
(when the tradition of the Ashes was originated) and won them back in 1884
when
England
toured Oz.
But
when George was taken seriously ill Charles began to see life in the context
of eternity, when he and his other brother began organising missions amongst
students. Himself, hearing a missionary speaking of the need for people to
preach the Gospel in
China
, he felt called to the task of evangelism and sought an interview with Hudson
Taylor (the director of the China Inland Mission) who was in
England
at the time and was accepted by him.
He
and six others began to prepare for the work, speaking at meetings up and down
the country, with remarkable results. Numerous
others were converted and a great wave of missionary zeal swept through the
student bodies of
London
,
Edinburgh
,
Oxford
and
Cambridge
which was to have a profound effect throughout the world in later years.
The
Cambridge Seven landed at
Shanghai
and, in accordance with CIM policy, they adopted Chinese dress and wore a
pigtail. CT, with his big feet, had to have shoes specially made for him,
which became a great joke among the people.
On his 25th birthday he inherited a large fortune from his
family, and promptly gave away thousands of pounds to help the work of George
Muller (Founder of Children’s Homes, Bristol), of D.L.Moody (the great
American evangelist through whose preaching his own Father was converted), of
Dr. Barnado and of sundry others in places as wide apart as Whitechapel and
India. He and his newly-married CIM wife, Priscilla Stewart, determined to
give away everything they possessed and to live by faith. It was a tough life
they shared, and they were in constant danger, (not least because of the opium
refuge they ran) but they survived, helped by the ultra -modern technology of
the time, a ‘magic lantern’!
For
five or six years, beginning in 1900, he was pastor of a church in Ootacamund
in South India but, when he returned to England on leave, he became concerned
about the large parts of Africa that had never been reached by the Gospel and
travelled to the Sudan. Thereafter
he was led to establish the Heart of Africa Mission, and built up an extensive
missionary outreach before he died in 1931 at the age of seventy, having lived
and encouraged all his co-workers to live extremely unselfishly and
sacrificially.
“If
Jesus Christ be God and died for me” he said, “then no sacrifice can be
too great for me to make for Him.”
February
27th - George Herbert
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
The fifth of the seven sons and three daughters of
Magdalen and Richard Herbert of
Montgomery
Castle
,
Shropshire
, George was born in
1593. His mother was widowed when he was very young and she moved to London;
so he was educated at Westminster School moving on, in 1609, to Trinity
College, Cambridge where he distinguished himself as a Latin and Greek
scholar, became a Fellow of the college and Public Orator of the University.
Following
family tradition (his elder brother was the statesman Lord Herbert of Cherbury)
he spent time at the court of James I and seemed destined for a brilliant
career in the service of the State. He represented Montgomery in Parliament
for a year or two but soon became disillusioned with public life and turned
instead to the serious study of divinity. Having been encouraged by his
friends John Donne and Nicholas Ferrar to do so he took Holy Orders when he
was thirty-two and became a canon of
Lincoln
in 1626. He also married Jane Danvers, a distant
relation. He had intended to serve a life-long diaconate but was persuaded by
Archbishop Laud to be priested and to accept the living of Bemerton near
Salisbury. He rebuilt the Rectory there at his own expense and each day he
tolled the bell in the church and said Morning Prayer before setting out with
his wife to minister to the people of the parish, especially the sick and
poor. Prostrated before the altar at his induction he made those solemn vows
for his own conduct which he was to exhibit during the rest of his brief but
saintly life and which he outlined in his book ‘A
Priest to the Temple; or The Country Parson’.
He
was deeply indebted to the Bible in general and the Psalms in particular.
Their imagery and their vivid interweaving of lament and celebration
profoundly influenced his theology, spirituality and poetry.
His
first biographer, Izaak Walton, makes it clear that in addition to his
scholarly gifts Herbert had considerable musical talent. He sang and played
several instruments including the lute, viol and organ. It was his habit to
walk in to Salisbury twice a week to participate in the singing of Evensong
which he described as ‘heaven upon earth’.
Today
Herbert is best-remembered (as in the Anglican Calendar) as a poet. Some of
his verses were recast as hymns by John Wesley in his first hymn book and
several are still sung including ‘Let all the world in every corner sing’,
‘King of glory, King of Peace’, ‘Teach me, my God and King’ and his
paraphrase of Psalm 23, ‘The God of love my shepherd is’. Modern critics
have noted the subtlety rather than the simplicity of his poems which were
published by Nicholas Ferrar and re-printed many times, giving comfort to many
including King Charles.
On 27th February 1633 he died of consumption (TB) shortly before his
fortieth birthday humbly declaring “I
am sorry I have nothing to present to God but sin and misery; but the first is
pardoned, and a few hours shall put a period to the second."
March 1st - St. David
by Canon Desmond V
Treanor
Although he is one of the most famous
of the British saints little is reliably known of the life of Dewi Sant, as the Welsh call
the man who has been their patron saint since the twelfth century. He lived in the sixth
century and, obviously, left a lasting impression on the Celtic Church which was in touch
with Gaul and the Mediterranean countries from which it had derived a deep attachment to
monasticism. Later chroniclers looked back with admiration to this 'age of the saints'
when Christians devoted themselves to lives of austere religious discipline, some as
hermits in solitary cells and many others in monastic brotherhoods
The site, which now bears David's name, is a sheltered spot on the Pembroke peninsula
at the bend of a deep-sided river valley which runs down to the sea a mile away. Here with
the Irish coast almost in view David established the monastery of Monevia, a community
which though it has varied through the centuries in size and name, in its language and
culture, has never lost sight of its primary duty to maintain the daily round of worship
which its founder introduced there. No cathedral settlement in Britain has a longer
continuous story than St. David's.
Even within his own life-time David's sanctity was accepted without question and his
death on 1st March (c. AD 601) was commemorated in the early liturgical calendars even
though it was not until the eleventh century that his biography was penned. The oldest
written evidence comes from Ireland and it is known that he led a life of extreme
asceticism modelled on that of the earliest Egyptian monks. He was nicknamed 'aquaticus'
because he drank nothing but water. Almost every day he and his monks fasted (taking a
single simple meal) and spent the hours outside church in strict silence. Manual work was
their daily lot and David was noted for going one better than other abbots of the time by
forbidding his monks to use ploughs.
David is reputed to have had a Cardiganshire chief as his father. His mother was St.
Non who had a little chapel (by a spring) near the place where her son founded his first
monastery, Monevia. One of his cousins, Cadoc, is also celebrated as a saint. For ten
years before he was ordained priest he studied the scriptures under the tutelage of an
hermit known as 'Paulinus the scribe' and, according to tradition, he founded in all
twelve monasteries from Croyland to Pembrokeshire, including Glastonbury (where some
relics were venerated in later centuries). Many of the stories (of his healing miracles
and extreme eloquence) may owe more to his hagiographer than to fact, but he certainly
played a major part in two Synods (held to deal with current heresies) at Brefi and at
Caerleon and it was at the first of these that he was first recognised as Primate of
Wales.
As depicted on a splendid statue in St. David's Cathedral today his emblem is a dove.
Why, aside from their seasonal availability, he should be associated with leeks and
daffodils is anyone's guess.
To the crowds who gathered to fast and pray as his life slipped away his final words
were, "Brothers and sisters, be joyful and keep the faith."
Thomas Cranmer
by
Canon Desmond V
Treanor
As Tertullian wrote at the beginning of
the third century, ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the Church’ and
the early Christians made a point of commemorating their martyrs on the anniversary of
their deaths. Before long it became
customary also to remember each year outstanding Christians who had not been martyred -
the ‘saints’ - and the Church of England, under the influence of Thomas Cranmer,
continued the practice. It revised the list and made a point of including many
‘heroes of the Faith’ who had laid the foundations of Christianity in this
country.
The
most recent revision of our Calendar of Commemorations is more inclusive and ecumenical
than ever before. To each of those who are remembered specifically by name Christians
today owe a great debt, and from each much may be learnt for their lives consistently
point away from themselves to Christ. |
|
Thomas
Cranmer, who is the first subject of our new series and whom we remember especially this
month, was a martyr, since he was burnt at the sake in Oxford on 21st March 1556.
Born at Aslacton,
near Nottingham, in 1489 Thomas Cranmer went up to Cambridge when he was fourteen and in
due course became a Fellow of Jesus College. But he resigned his Fellowship when, as a
contemporary biographer notes quaintly ‘he chanced to marry a wife.’ When at his
trial he was asked whether her name was ‘Joan Black’ or ‘Joan Brown’
Cranmer confessed that he could not remember! Anyway, when the poor girl died in
childbirth he returned to his Fellowship and, in 1523, took Holy Orders.
Nevertheless, in
1527, he was recruited for diplomatic service and joined a team, which was working to
annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
As part of an embassy headed by the Earl of Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn’s
father, he was sent to Rome to present his arguments.
The following year he became friends in Nuremberg with Andrew Osiander, the
Lutheran reformer, whose niece Margaret he married in spite of the fact that clerical
marriage was still illegal. A well-known anecdote relates how ‘he kept his woman very
close, and sometime carried her around with him in a great chest full of holes, that his
pretty nobsey might take breath at’.
The fact is that by now he was a convinced reformer and was
determined to do all he could to ensure that ‘the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction
in this realm’, as the 39 Articles were to insist.
Called to be Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer was extremely
reluctant to accept the office, but he succumbed eventually and was consecrated on 31st
March 1533. So it fe1l to him to annul
Catherine’s marriage and to deal with a myriad of problems ~that followed. He managed
to survive Henry’s final years and became the chief architect of the changes, which
took place in the reign of Edward I.
He was responsible for producing
the English Litany (‘of matchless beauty’) in 1544 and the Book of Common Prayer
of 1549 together with the revision of 1552. In
his Preface, in referring to the ‘hardnes of the rules called the pie’ (by which
services were regulated) he observed that it had often been so intricate a matter, that
many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when
it was found’. I guess Cranmer must now be ‘turning in his grave ‘ for he
says that ‘where heretofore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing in
churches... now from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use’. For
hundreds of years that is what the BCP achieved, but with the advent of Common Worship the
wheel has turned full circle.
When Mary Tudor came to the throne (in 1553) determined to restore
the Church of England to communion with Rome the Archbishop was tried for treason,
convicted of heresy and condemned to death. He was only 65 but rather than settle for an
easy life and leisurely retirement he ‘stuck to his guns’‘ and went to the
stake.
Services in the vernacular and the Book of Common Prayer with its
superb language are the legacy of this ‘gentle scholar’ who lived in such
turbulent times.
St. Basil the Great
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Greeks
celebrate the New Year with Vasilopitta, a special cake consumed in honour
of Basil, one the Three Great Hierarchs of the Orthodox Church.
The Liturgy on that and nine other important days in the year owes
its origin to him, as do many of the prayers, which are still used regularly
in public worship.
Basil was born in AD 330 into
a well-to-do and truly remarkable Christian family. His grandmother, father,
mother, elder sister and two younger brothers are all numbered among the
Saints
After
being educated in the classics, philosophy and Christian doctrine at
Caesarea in Cappadocia (modern Turkey), in Constantinople and Athens, Basil
forsook the world for the monastic life.
Having seen how things were done in Syria and Egypt he returned to
Pontus and founded a monastery at Annesi by the river Iris.
Here he renewed his friendship with Gregory of Nazianzus and from
this base they worked together as missionaries.
The Emperor Julian, a fellow-student in Athens, tried in vain to
persuade him to join his court. But
Basil chose instead to become involved in the controversy with the followers
of Arius, which was troubling the Church greatly. The Arians denied the
divinity of Christ (and so the whole doctrine of the Holy Trinity) and it
was largely due to the eloquent arguments of Basil and the other Cappadocian
Fathers (his younger brother, Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of
Nazianzus) that the debate was ended and the Nicene creed finally accepted
as an orthodox summary of the Faith.
In 364 he was ordained
and in 370 he was appointed to the see of Caesarea, the office he held for
the rest of his life. Without
delay he set to work establishing a huge complex of buildings on the
outskirts of the city. The
Basiliad included churches, hospitals, a leprosarium, and hostels which
provided free meals and lodging for the poor.
He dispensed justice, set up what would now be called re-hab
programmes for thieves and prostitutes and daily preached to great crowds.
Basil was a learned, holy, statesmanlike and
visionary leader whose Rule is still the norm for all Eastern Orthodox monks
and, being known by Benedict, also influenced those in the West. Though he
was himself an ascetic, his Rule is much more moderate than the earlier
Rules of Anthony and his Egyptian contemporaries and, unlike them, he
stressed the virtues of community life as well as of chastity and obedience.
He also insisted on manual work as well as prayer.
During
his intensely busy life he wrote a large number of letters, a treatise on
the Holy Spirit and many other works on doctrine as well as sermons and some
splendid prayers. Together with
his friend Gregory, he also compiled an anthology of the writings of Origen,
a prolific Alexandrian author most of whose work is no longer extant.
Worn out by his labours
Basil died in 379 and today he is remembered in the East on 1st
January, but in the West together with Gregory on 2nd January.
[Ed.
St Basil the Great is the patron saint of hospital administrators]
Thomas
Bray
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
The son of a Shropshire yeoman farmer, Dr. Thomas Bray, who is commemorated in
the Common Worship Calendar on 15th February, was a man of great vision
whose legacy to the world Church is incalculable. Though he himself remains
relatively unknown he can rightly be considered the founder of modern
Anglican mission.
Born
in 1658, he was educated at Oswestry Grammar School and went up to All
Souls, Oxford, as a poor scholar. Following his ordination in 1681 he
served several parishes before becoming Rector of St. Botolph, Aldgate,
London and from 1696, when his lectures on the catechism were published, he
came to prominence and returned to Oxford to gain the degree of Doctor of
Divinity.
He
was a tireless promoter of the Christian Faith and in 1698, together with
four others he established the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)
whose original purpose was the provision of literature and libraries for the
American colonies through publishing, lending libraries and schools.
The
Bishop of London appointed Bray as his Commissary for Maryland, which
involved the recruitment of clergy to work in America and in 1700 he visited
the colony. On his return he obtained a royal charter and in 1701
founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts (SPG)
which has at present some eighty missionaries on long service in various
parts of South America, the West Indies and Africa, the Middle East, India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Japan.
For
over 300 years now these two great Societies have brought the Gospel to
millions of people in a great many different parts of the world. SPCK
today encourages and supports Christian literature projects in over 100
developing countries. It also provides worship and education materials
in a wide variety of languages and seeks to equip lay readers and clergy for
their ministry by making it possible for them to have the theological books
they need. Under its Books for Life programme SPCK sent out 71,000
volumes last year to form personal libraries for over 3,750 students, each
of whom also received a New RSV Bible and ‘Something in Common’, a
workbook about the Anglican Communion which was produced by St. John’s
College, Nottingham.
Faith
to our forebears was exciting, and they were challenged enough by it to
regard their own role as ‘pilgrims’, prepared to travel wherever they
believed the Gospel was leading them. They were pioneers, with attitudes
that reached beyond their time, and their work continues to have a very
positive impact to this day.
To
the end of his life in 1730 Thomas Bray trained missionaries, compiled lists
of books which clergy should read and administered contributions for his
work in founding libraries. In his Will he made careful provisions for the
preservation of the many manuscripts and books, which were so precious to
him.
Christian
of the Month - John
Donne
by Canon Desmond V Treanor
 |
‘Though named in the Calendar of
the Church of England on 31st March, John Donne is unlikely to
be commemorated this year as 31st is Easter Day !
Destined to become a great
metaphysical poet and the outstanding apologist of his era for
Anglicanism, Donne was born (c.1751) and brought up as a Roman Catholic.
His mother was a distant relation of Sir Thomas More and sister of
the Superior of the group of Jesuit priests who had been sent to England
from Rome to re-convert Elizabethan England to “the true Faith’.
However, John was for many years sceptical of all religion. |
He went up to Oxford when he was fourteen
and thereafter studied also at Cambridge and on the Continent before entering
Lincoln’s Inn to become a lawyer in 1592.
Having spent a somewhat debauched youth, the young man had now conformed
to the Church of England and having accompanied Essex and Raleigh to Cadiz and
to the Azores in 1598 he was appointed as private Secretary to Sir Thomas
Egerton. But he lost his position
and his income when it was discovered that he had secretly married his
master’s niece.
‘John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done’
he lamented and for several years his growing family lived in relative poverty
as he endeavoured to make a living by his writing.
The King (James I) approved of his work and
tried to persuade him to be ordained and, after much heart-searching, he finally
agreed in 1615. It is said that
‘all London’ flocked to hear him preach and within six years he had become
Dean of St. Paul’s where he continued to labour in the courts and in the
pulpit for the last decade of his life. Though
they would not appeal to very many today his long but brilliant sermons, packed
with patristic learning and spiced with striking images brought great crowds to
the Cathedral to listen to his essentially sacramental teaching.
However, his pre-occupation with death in his final years earned him the
title of ‘the gloomy Dean’.
Donne’s love poetry was mainly written in
his youth, the religious poetry following in his middle years and his genius
reaching its final expression in his carefully crafted sermons (which were
published in due course in 10 volumes).
DVT
One of John
Donne’s religious poems can be read below
As
Desmond says, ”It is typical of the man – brilliant”
A Hymn to God the
Father
by John Donne
Wilt
thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which is my sin, though it were done before ?
Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run,
And do them still: though still I do deplore ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For, I have more.
Wilt
thou forgive that sin by which I won
Others
to sin ? and, made my sin their door ?
Wilt thou
forgive that sin which I did shun
A year, or two: but wallowed in, a score ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For, I have more.
I
have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
Swear by thy self, that at my death thy Sun
Shall shine as it shines now, and heretofore;
And, having done that, Thou hast done, I have no
more.
Last updated on Sunday, 26 March 2006 by Kevin Feltham (Webmaster)
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