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Maureen Fellows
St ALBAN AND St PATRICKPARISH MAGAZINE
The Church ofSt Alban the Martyr
Birmingham 12
June2015
70p
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Church of S Alban the MartyrConybere Street, Birmingham
(Traditional Anglo-Catholic)(www.saintalban.co.uk)
Sunday Service Choral Mass 10.00 a.m. Solemn
Weekday Masses Thursday 12.30 p.m. Low Saturday 9.00 a.m. Low
Holy Days of Obligation 7.30 p.m. Solemn
Confessions: By appointment
Priest-in-ChargeThe Revd Dr Nicholas lo Polito : 0121 440 4605 E-mail: [email protected]
Eucharistic Ministers (Bishop’s Permission)Mr Dennis Clark :0121 430 3727Mr Philip Teague : 01384 231072Mr John Wainwright : 0121 446 4814
ChurchwardensMr E.J. Fellows BSc, MIMMM, C.Eng“Richeldis” 343, Wake Green Road,Moseley,Birmingham B13 0BH
: 0121 777 1120E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Fay Wilson130, Royal Arch Apartments,Birmingham B1 1RG
E-mail: [email protected]
Churchwardens EmeritusMr D.E. Clark341, Priory Road,Shirley,SolihullB90 1BE
: 0121 430 3727E-mail: [email protected]
Miss M.D. Goodman38, Chancellors Close,Birmingham B15 3UJ
: 0121 455 8465E-mail:
“…St Alban’s people will not wonder at St Alban’s defects and shortcomings, when they know how long it had to struggle to maintain its life … at what great hazard we have maintained such helps to reverence, and such ways of honouring God as we now enjoy. And no sane person will wonder that those who guide the work at St Alban’s feel the duty of preserving a consistent and unaltered course. May the Mission never suffer loss or be wrecked by any change in this respect!”
James S. Pollock (1890). Vaughton’s Hole: Twenty-five years in it. Chapter I.
Over the last months many of us at several meetings have been asking each other questions about details of the Diocesan plans for a resource centre in our Deanery. I have fished out this paper sent to some clergy on 15 December 2014. The email does not contain any disclaimer as to the confidential nature of the paper or otherwise. Therefore, I am providing here a heavily abridged extract that only retains elements of the original paper already made public by the Diocese on other occasions, albeit not always in this articulate fashion, in the hope of shedding some light on the nature of the plan, in the awareness that since December things may have moved forward in any possible direction.
City Centre Resource ChurchThis paper describes the rationale, vision and plan for the City Centre Resource Church, as outlined in the Growing Younger bid to the Church Commissioners.
1. RationaleThe diocese of Birmingham has recently begun to experience some encouraging church growth following several years of decline. Many churches have become more intentional about their mission and ministry, as new appointments have been made and Transforming Church conferences, courses and consultants have helped to put mission at the top of the
diocesan agenda.Despite growth
in young families’ ministry across the diocese, particularly through Messy Church, many of our congregations are not getting any younger — and Birmingham is the youngest city in Europe. In particular most of our churches are very weak in ministering to teenagers, students and young adults. People in their 20s in England are concentrated in a very small number of cities, including Birmingham, most of which have large student churches. The 16 – 29 age range seems to be drawn towards churches which already have large and active ministries in their age groups. In Birmingham there is no Anglican church in the city centre (and very few outside of it) with really large and thriving ministries in these categories.
There’s another dimension here: that dioceses that have developed at least one significant “Resource Church” in the city centre have tended, in time, to reap the benefits of those churches in terms of church planting, grafting, partnerships and missional energy. London is the most obvious example, where, in particular, Holy Trinity, Brompton, has been encouraged by the bishops to rescue
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failing parish churches in the centre of the city and beyond, leading to church growth of an encouraging (and occasionally spectacular) kind.
In autumn 2013, Diocesan Synod, Bishop’s Council and Area Deans discussed at length which areas of further investment would best promote the mission of the diocese. The idea of a “Central Birmingham Transform Team” was discussed in November 2013. This led to the firm proposal, agreed by Bishop’s Council and Diocesan Synod in March 2014, to support the establishment of a new City Centre Resource Church as one of the key strands of the Growing Younger initiative.
Such a vision is desperately needed. Census data shows that in 2001, 63.8% of the Birmingham population described themselves as Christian, falling to 51% in 2011. This level is below the national average, with a faster rate of decline. The Birmingham area is the second most populous built-up area in England and Wales, with a population that is increasingly young and professional. Birmingham’s universities and colleges educate 65,000 students. South and north-east of the city centre are some wealthy suburbs. Meanwhile, parts of the inner city are among the most deprived in the country.
HTB’s contribution to the partnership will be a fully trained leader and family, and a team of at least 15 to 20 lay people transferring from HTB. HTB will also provide £50,000 in seed funding to cover initial set up costs and first year cash flow.
3. Birmingham City Centre Churches
How would a City Centre Resource
Church affect existing congregations in other churches? The new congregation would seek to support and resource existing CofE ministries and along with them and the wider church, seek a rising tide “to float all boats” that might result in new expressions of prayer, worship, mission and ministry.
For example, the new church might be able to offer parishes regular events for younger adults which could equip and inspire them with new ideas for their local parish. This venture would have failed if it only produces one isolated, large, young congregation.
Inevitably much of the initial growth of the new church would come from existing churches, although predominantly non-Anglican ones. There is a risk that this will have some short term impact on a few of the CofE city centre parishes and larger evangelical churches — but the critical mass would then kick in, along with evangelistic opportunities across a wide swathe of Birmingham’s youth and young adults. As the years pass, of course, many of these young adults will stay in Birmingham after college, become middle-aged, richer and move out with their families to the suburbs, where we hope eventually they would become the mainstays in local parish churches, having been nurtured in the City Centre Resource Church.
4. St Luke’s, BirminghamThe parish of St Luke’s, Birmingham, encompasses the area of the new development on Lee Bank.
It is proposed that this parish is where the new City Centre Resource Church would grow. It would be well staffed with a Ministry Team composed of two parish
priests, one funded from the existing vacant post and the other from the Growing Younger initiative. Both priests would work as a team across the parish, but one would have special responsibility for building up the new church whilst the other would have special responsibility for the existing church centre and its present congregation. In due course, as funds are raised by the local congregation, it is envisaged that a Church Manager, Children’s and Families’ Missioner, a Students’ Missioner and a Mission Apprentice would be employed by the parish, together with a team of 15 to 20 lay people forming the core team.
7. Retort HouseThe plan is that the City Centre Resource Church will be parish based, within the existing modern church centre at St Luke’s, but it will need a much larger auditorium, in the heart of the city so that growth is not stifled. Renting space would not allow 24/7 activities, in order to encourage young people to encounter the new church, to flourish. A rented space would be difficult to treat as a church space and would not encourage significant fund raising for a long term facility.
Retort House would cost £1.08m (£900k+VAT) plus refurbishment cost of around £1.6m+VAT.
Retort House is double fronted, between Gas Street and Berkley Street, 150m from Broad Street. The walk from Retort House in Gas Street to St Luke’s Church Centre in Great Colmore Street is 12 minutes / 0.6 mile. Retort House consists of five large high single storey spaces on the Gas Street side and two floors of former offices on the Berkley
Street side. The location fits the criteria for a prominent presence near Broad Street and the open spaces are inspiring, particularly the Georgian cast iron trussed roof structure, which is mentioned in the building’s listing (Grade 2*). The building was originally used for coal gas production for street lighting in Birmingham from 1822; subsequently it was used as a metal bashing factory. The walls and roof are in very good condition, with much heritage work funded in 2000, but it is a vast shell (1,758 sq m = 18,922 sq ft) with very limited lighting, no heating, water and drainage, and with boarded up windows and doors.
c. ConversionConverting this building into a modern City Centre Resource Church facility would be a long term project as and when funds are raised by HTB and St Luke’s with the new church.
f. Financial risksHowever if things don’t work out as expected then we have to recognise that, irrespective of the purchase price, the key issue will be whether a sale is possible given the property has already been empty for 14 years. Not only would we have tied up our capital in a property that would be difficult to sell, it will not be generating any income as a consequence. We may be obligated to pass the need to balance the books on to parishes with an uplift in Common Fund of c. £30,000 pa spread across the diocese, or reduce programmes to save the lost amount.
8. ConclusionThe Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance has approved the purchase of
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the 109 year leasehold of Retort House for £900,000+VAT (£1.08m), funded as follows:£200,000 (at least) Church Commissioners’ grant; £150,000 grant from DBF (proceeds of the sale of St Michael and All Angels, Langley); £730,000 as a 15 year DBF loan to
St Luke’s, Birmingham, PCC at Base Rate+3.5%, with an initial 4 year repayment holiday;
All refurbishment costs to be met by fund raising by the new church.
A letter from Fr Howard Nasoro, May 2015Dear people of St Alban’s, I know that the British people are soon to have a general election. In fact, by the time you read this, you will have a new government. But I thought you might be interested to compare the sort of problems which your new government faces with those we have in Malawi. It might help to put things in a proper perspective.
In the third world, every year we walk a tightrope between severe poverty in good years and absolute famine in bad times, depending on the size of the current year’s harvest.
Malawi expects a drop in maize production this year (2015) from last year’s from 3.9 million metric tonnes to 2.8 million metric tonnes. This is mostly due to the floods and the prolonged dry spells which the country has experienced in the course of the season.
According to the government, there is approximately 46,000 metric tonnes in the strategic grain reserves. In view of this, the country is going to have a huge deficit in maize. There has also been a drop in production of other major crops such as rice, millet, cassava and sorghum. Cash crops such as cotton and groundnuts have also registered a sharp decrease. To be fair however, potatoes and pulses have registered an increase.
Food security in Malawi generally means an adequate production of maize, which according to the International Food Policy Institute accounts for more than 60 percent of the country’s total food requirements.
Over 600,000 people in the districts still
reeling from the effects of the ravaging floods which hit the country in January this year will need food assistance. Hunger affected populations in 17 districts will need food assistance over a period of two months to five months.
The onset of rains in the current cropping season was delayed by between 30 to 40 days across the country, and this resulted in late planting of most crops, with many districts reporting heavy rains between the end of December 2014 and mid-January 2015 which caused massive water-logging, washaways and heavy flooding.
The amount of damage varies from place to place. Damage means such things as loss of food stocks, seed, property, crops and the drowning of livestock. Due to continuous rainfall, some farm activities such as weeding and storage have been hampered, thereby significantly reducing the hiring of labour, resulting in reduced income for the poor.
In some areas, the incessant heavy downfall has also led to the failure of rice seedlings to grow because they were submerged for several weeks. This in turn has affected rice transplanting.
The shortage of the staple crop (maize) due to low supply is likely to cause a sharp rise in prices and worsen the currently high inflation rate. The whole national economy faces a steep downward spiral.
With my thanks and best wishes to you all.
Revd Fr Howard NasoroZomba, Malawi
Revd John Goodman R.I.P.
FR John died peacefully on May 14th at his home in the market town of
Devizes, Wiltshire. He was 95.Fr John was known and respected by the
majority of Saint Alban’s congregation across the years, and his great help and friendly advice were gratefully received on many occasions.
He, and his younger brother Denys, were baptized, confirmed, and brought up at Saint Alban’s Church when Fr Dudley Clark was the incumbent, and it was undoubtedly through Fr Clark’s teaching and example that both found their vocation to the priesthood within the Church of England.
During the war Fr John fought in the Middle East and Italy with units of REME, alongside the famous 51st Highland Division. After the war and becoming ordained, he served for over 50
years in distinguished parochial ministry mainly in the Diocese of Salisbury.
John was Chairman of the Trustees of Saint Alban’s School (now the Academy) for 50 years (following in the footsteps of his father, who was Chairman for the previous 50 years), and he only resigned last year from his position as a Trustee. During his time he raised the Trust to the position of influence which it now enjoys in the Academy.
He had kept in touch with Saint Alban’s all his life and always enjoyed reading the Magazine.
Our condolences at this time go out to his sister Mary Goodman, our Electoral Roll Officer, and the most senior member of our congregation and also to his children, Christopher and Phillipa.
May he rest in peace.
Thought for the month
I wasn’t called to be successful; I was called to be faithful.(Mother Teresa during an interview released in Birmingham in 1992)
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Introduction To The Scriptures18. Introduction to Ezekiel
This is probably the most controversial book among the Biblical Prophets. The reason is that it contains a number of genres within itself — such as poetry, prose, history, legal content, preaching, mythology, wild visions, etc — and scholars will appeal to one or more of them to pursue lines of interpretation that may differ from each other.
The 48 chapters that constitute the book can easily be divided in two exact halves of 24 chapters each: the first containing mainly words of reprimand against Israel, the second words of consolation (as well as a long set of oracles against foreign nations).
In fact, the solid structure of this tome was seen by scholars in the past as evidence that one author alone was behind it. However, beginning with the 20th century, some experts have disputed this certainty in light of the disparate variety of genres that make up the work, attributing these variations to different editorial contributions, and of numerous repetitions and contradictions, despite an overwhelmingly unified style in the pronouncements of the prophetic oracles.
Ezekiel often pronounces his oracles in the first person, as if possessed by God, which adds to the aura around this prophet as of an ecstatic individual prone also to dramatic visions and other mystical experiences.
We know from the book itself (1: 2) that
Ezekiel began his prophetic ministry in the year 593 during the Babylonian exile and continued at least up to the year 571 (29: 17). It is not clear whether he was himself in exile in Babylon the whole time or some of the time in Jerusalem and some in exile (presumably after the second fall of Jerusalem in 587). Like other prophets at this time of severe crisis for Israel, Ezekiel opposed the short-sited political strategies of King Zedekiah and his political class — who were resisting the Babylonian domination with ill-conceived alliances — calling instead for a return to a less politicised Israel, a more theocentric one based on undivided trust in the Lord.
Many similarities are evident between the content of Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry, that of Jeremiah and of chapters 17 – 26 of Leviticus, revealing an interest by the author in themes such as covenant and cult. With Jeremiah (and indeed also with Isaiah), Ezekiel shares the same beliefs in political disaster being God’s punishment for the infidelity of the people of Israel, in God’s lordship over all the nations and history itself, in God’s transcendence and holiness. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel insists also on the responsibilities of each generation (and indeed of each individual) for its actions: the children’s teeth cannot be affected by their parents’ eating of unripe grapes (Jeremiah 31: 29; Ezekiel 18: 2).
Fr Nicholas
“Now We Understand The Temporary Nature Of Life”In the aftermath of the devastating Earthquake that struck Nepal in April, here is an article by Samanthika Ekanayake — research associate at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario — from The Tablet magazine of January 3rd 2015, page 10. Reproduced with permission of the Publisher. Website address: http://www.thetablet.co.uk
ON December 26th 2004, more than 280,000 people died in the Boxing
Day tsunami. Sri Lanka was among the hardest hit of the 11 countries around the Indian Ocean that were affected, with the disaster claiming more than 35,000 lives in that land alone. The effects were devastating. In addition to physical injuries, survivors often also lost their homes, their personal belongings and their means of earning a living as a direct or indirect consequence of the disaster.
Millions of people are affected every year by an increasing number of natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and droughts. The majority of natural disasters occur in developing countries, where the availability of professional mental health services or psychological services is limited. Along with four colleagues, Martin Prince, Athula Sumathipala, Sisira Siribaddana and Craig Morgan, I took part in a study of how ordinary people coped, short term and long term, with the effect of the tsunami. We were particularly interested in how religious beliefs, rituals and observances had helped these individuals come to terms with their grief and loss.
We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 women and 17 men, aged from 18 to 65 years, from the Matara district of southern Sri Lanka, in the years after the tsunami. Most were Buddhists, two were Catholics and two were Muslims. The majority of those who participated in our study had sustained physical injuries, 20 had lost
one or more family members and almost everyone in the group had been displaced and had experienced loss of property, livelihood or household items.
Several of those we interviewed tried to understand their losses and the effects of the disaster in terms of their religious beliefs. Their faith provided them with the inner strength to recover from the emotional trauma and stress. Buddhists often said that the tsunami illustrated what Buddha meant when he preached on impermanence in life and nature. “We lost all we had in a second. Soon after the incident, we were really hopeless and lost all our hopes for the future. Even now, we don’t go after sophisticated material things due to that experience. As it was shown in Buddha’s preaching, now we understand the temporary nature of life.”
The Catholic and Muslim participants were also convinced that God had helped them to escape with their lives from this massive calamity. They also believed that God would protect them from any unpredictable and uncontrollable events in the future. One told us: “I believe that my family and I avoided death because of some unforeseen power. Otherwise, how can we survive while many others died? As long as we believe in God, nothing will happen to us.” Another said: “I am a very religious person. I pray every day. I know God saved my life. My faith increased after the tsunami.”
Some with strong religious beliefs, however, found it impossible to make sense of the tsunami. This was common among
Calendar for June 2015 Date Feast Page Time Intention (or at choice of Celebrant) 1st Monday S Justin Mr No Mass 2nd Tuesday Ss Marcellinus and Peter, Mrr No Mass 3rd Wednesday Ss Charles Lwanga and Companions Mrr No Mass 4th Thursday Feria (Requiem) - 12.30 p.m. The Faithful Departed 5th Friday S Boniface B Mr No Mass 6th Saturday Our Lady on Saturday 1858/547 9.00 a.m. For bishops and priests kidnapped by IS in Syria 7th Sunday The Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus et Sanguis Christi) Sung Mass 10.00 a.m. The Parish of Highgate 8th Monday Feria No Mass 9th Tuesday S Ephrem Dn Dr No Mass 10th Wednesday Feria No Mass 11th Thursday S Barnabas Ap 1538 12.30 p.m. At choice of Celebrant 12th Friday The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus No Mass 13th Saturday The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1859/559 9.00 a.m. For unrepentant sinners 14th Sunday The Eleventh Sunday of the Year Sung Mass 10.00 a.m. The Parish of Highgate 15th Monday Feria No Mass 16th Tuesday Feria No Mass 17th Wednesday Feria No Mass 18th Thursday Feria 410/567 12.30 p.m. For Birmingham converts from Islam 19th Friday S Romuald Ab No Mass 20th Saturday S Alban, First Martyr of Britain (Patronal Festival) Sung Mass 11.00 a.m. The Parish of Highgate 21st Sunday Twelfth Sunday of the Year Sung Mass 10.00 a.m. The Parish of Highgate 22nd Monday Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Mrr No Mass 23rd Tuesday Feria No Mass 24th Wednesday The Nativity of S John the Baptist No Mass 25th Thursday Feria 411/579 12.30 p.m. For the Mission of our church in Highgate 26th Friday Feria No Mass 27th Saturday S Cyril of Alexandria B Dr 1878/1558 9.00 a.m. For the Oriental orthodox Christians 28th Sunday Ss Peter and Paul App Sung Mass 10.00 a.m. The Parish of Highgate 29th Monday Feria No Mass 30th Tuesday The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome No Mass
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some who had experienced the loss of close family members. A loss of religious faith may be a sign of hopelessness and anger. One survivor, a Catholic who had lost a daughter in the disaster, told us: “As stated by all the religions, if there is any such supernatural power, why couldn’t they save the lives of those victims? If not, what is the purpose in having a religion? Even though I am a Catholic, my daughter went to temple every poya (holiday) day with my neighbours. No religion was able to save her life.”
We discovered that one of the most common strategies for coping with the disaster was for survivors to share their pain, stress or problems with someone close to them. Talking to Buddhist monks, to Catholic priests or to maulvi (leaders) of mosques was highlighted as important by survivors, as well as talking to family and friends. “I usually discuss my problems with the priest,” one told us. “He always tries to encourage me to bear these problems without getting heavy-hearted. He treats both rich and poor equally.”
Not every survivor of the tsunami we spoke to had a trustworthy person with whom he or she could share their burden. For them, too, religious faith could prove a source of comfort. “How can I tell my friends that I became homeless because of my own siblings?” one told us. “How can I tell neighbours that my kids neglected me after the tsunami? If I discuss these things with the people I know, then it brings shame to my own people. So I don’t talk or discuss my problems with anyone. I reveal all my problems in front of the Buddha’s statue, then I feel relaxed and calm.”
The many personal accounts we heard suggested that participation in religious activities increased after the disaster. For example, Buddhists frequently talked about
how in the days immediately following the tsunami, they performed religious rituals such as bodhi pooja (the lighting of oil lamps) and the chanting and listening to pirith (chanting of Buddha’s preaching) as means to gain prosperity and avoid hardships or evil forces. They also spoke of their use of meditation as a way of gaining relaxation, of calming the mind. Catholics spoke of how prayer helped them to gain courage and to avoid fearful thoughts. We noted an increased number of visits to church and an increased praying of the rosary in the aftermath of the disaster.
Many of those we interviewed believed that religious practices and rituals had helped them to sleep better, to avoid fear or anxiety, to regain comfort and to restore their wellbeing. Almost everyone who experienced the death of a family member revealed to us that they had participated in some sort of religious service during the first anniversary of the tsunami. Engaging in religious activities also provided opportunities for survivors to reconnect and reintegrate with their community.
It is not only in developing countries that survivors turn to religious faith and practice in the aftermath of a flood or a hurricane or other catastrophe. Studies by other researchers into how people cope with the impact of disasters in developed countries also suggest that having religious faith and beliefs is linked to lesser symptoms of psychological distress.
Boxing Day 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of the Asian tsunami. The degree of exposure within the affected communities and manifestations of problems varied greatly between families and individuals. Amid all the difficulties, some people demonstrated considerable resilience and were able to recover and start a new life, while others continued to
experience long-term emotional distress. When the disaster struck, few people
in Sri Lanka sought the help of mental health professionals. They did not conceive of stress, grief or worries as illnesses or conditions that needed professional help. There is a high degree of stigma associated with contact with mental health services. This may be one reason why people engage in religious or spiritual practices, because
symptoms are explained and treated in line with culturally shared beliefs and practices.
Our study found that the religious, cultural and spiritual beliefs of the people of Sri Lanka played the central rôle in shaping the coping mechanism of the survivors. Our findings suggest that religious leaders can play a significant rôle in providing emotional and psychological support to the survivors of natural disasters.
Bishop’s Comment: From Response to Responsibility
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers” Psalm 24: 1 - 2God has given us a wonderful planet to enjoy and sustain. The rapid expansion of human numbers and activity in the past 100 years and its destructive effect on resources is causing huge concern to scientists, politicians and above all millions of our fellow human beings who lack even the basic requirements for existence.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and John V Taylor’s Enough is Enough with EF Shumacher’s Small is Beautiful and Willy Brandt’s The Limits to Growth attracted a well-meaning response in the second half of 20th Century, but failed to stem the all-consuming desires of beneficial global capitalism. Now studying Naomi Klein This Changes Everything, Peter Lee Ethics and Climate Change Policy GWPF Essay 2 2014, and Jeffrey Sachs Commonwealth Allen Lane 2008 we are faced with world-threatening challenges that call from us all a new and determined responsibility.
The signs of a growing momentum for justice and the global common good are emerging. On March 21st 2015 Birmingham Diocesan Synod passed a motion on climate change and disinvestment in fossil
fuel companies.On April 30th 2015 The Church of
England national investing bodies published a climate change policy combining disinvestment and engagement.
On June 17th 2015 there will be a mass lobby of the new government in London on climate change “For the love of…”
On November 30th 2015 The UN Climate Change Conference starts in Paris, seeking a legally binding and universal agreement on climate.
Should this agenda already seem overwhelming, Revd Patrick Gerard my Adviser for the Environment and I recommend, “Hope for the Future”, a campaign begun in the Church of England in Yorkshire in 2013.
This has three means of engagement:Pray;Do what God wants from us personally,
no less and no more, trusting in God;Seek shared agendas with others at every
level, family, local, national, international.The fifth Mark of Mission for the
Anglican Communion is “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and to sustain the life of the earth”.
Let us be those who take responsibility for leaving the world in better condition than when we inherited it.
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Children’s PageEvery month on this page we will publish some work by the children of our Sunday Club. This month we have three contributions on the theme of “Talents.”
Walsingham 2015
THE 62nd annual pilgrimage to The Shrine of Our Lady was marked this
year by a rather wet Sunday morning, which necessitated Stations of the Cross being held inside the shrine church. The weather cleared in the afternoon, however, and the usual Sunday afternoon procession through the gardens was able to take place. Benediction was omitted on the Saturday evening, being replaced by the laying on of hands and anointing. It was surprising that so many priests were involved and that so many of the pilgrims availed themselves of this sacrament.
Walsingham is a unique place, set in the remote part of Norfolk between Fakenham and Wells-next-the-sea, a village which, in spite of the modern world which assaults it each weekend, still retains its ancient relaxed atmosphere. This is why, at the end of each weekend, when most of the pilgrims have returned home, and all the children have disappeared, Walsingham reverts to its almost magical atmosphere, and the silence, broken only by birdsong
descends over all. One can easily imagine what it must have been like in this area during the time of Richeldis, when none of today’s buildings existed.
This is partly why, on the Saturday morning, we always try, if possible, to walk along the railway embankment for the one mile out of Walsingham to the famous Slipper Chapel, which is now the Roman Catholic Shrine. We nearly always break off to enter into the railway booking hall to view the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Seraphim which has existed there for about 41 years.
The silence of the walk along the route of the railway enables the true sounds of the countryside to be experienced, and this activity has become a favourite part of the weekend. We take a group photograph in the gardens at the Slipper Chapel each year for our archives.
The Roman Catholic Shrine offers many attractions apart from the peace of the Slipper Chapel. There is a well-stocked gift shop full of religious books, cards,
Saint Alban’s Pilgrims in the Slipper Chapel gardens
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One of our regular pilgrims to Walsingham was moved by this article, published in the Candlemass issue of the Walsingham Review this year.
Tertullian, The Bible And The Essence Of PrayerHAVE you ever thought what it would
be like if you couldn’t read the Bible? What difference would that make to how you heard and learned the teaching of Jesus?
It’s an important question, because very large numbers of faithful Christians through large swathes of Christian history have not been able to read. And yet, many of them knew their Bibles much better than most people who live in our present society, where everyone can read.
When we approach the Bible through the perspective of someone who could only hear the stories read, or see them depicted, our interaction with the text changes. We start to notice patterns in the way the stories are arranged. We spot things that are
more evident to the ear than the reading eye, or details which only strike us when they’re represented in front of us in paint, sculpture, or glass.
One of the curious features of the Sermon on the Mount is that modern scholars have tended to assume the Beatitudes are the most important bit. They are often interpreted as the key to the whole Sermon, or a précis of its key teachings. However, it might be that another portion of the Sermon could be intended to lie at its heart.
Some scholars who have investigated the patterns and structures which stand out most when texts are read aloud, have argued that Jesus’ teaching concerning the Lord’s Prayer could in fact be the hinge on
pictures and other artifacts, and a little café offering hot and cold drinks and extremely tempting cakes.
Also of great interest this year was the discovery that the Chapel of the Holy Spirit had been cleared out and refurbished, all the candleholders had disappeared and on one wall had been placed the Walsingham Picture. This used to be housed in the Catholic church in the Friday Market, but when this church was demolished and rebuilt, the picture was placed in a corner at the back of the very large Chapel of the Reconciliation on the Slipper Chapel site at Houghton, where it was barely visible.
The Walsingham picture is a composite painting illustrating the Lonely Arch at the centre, the Slipper Chapel on the right and the Holy House on the left. Our Lady, centrally placed, is surrounded on both sides by the saints, and Saint Alban is very visible in the group on the left. If you get a chance, it is well worth close study, and there is a descriptive layout beneath giving the position and identity of the figures depicted.
After the pilgrimage this year several
of Saint Alban’s pilgrims remained for an extra day, and this provided an opportunity to explore further the Anglican shrine itself.
During one of the Organisers’ Conferences, we had been told about the new room formed by adding an extra storey to the gate tower. It can be reached by a lift to the first floor and finally by a short flight of stairs to the top. In this upper room there is a very peaceful coffee lounge, a small selection of books, a little kitchenette, and windows on two sides. From these it is possible to view the whole of the gardens, peek over the wall of the Abbey, and see right up the road
The Walsingham Picture
The tower loungeto the village water pump. With the late afternoon sun slanting down across the garden and through the windows, it is a most peaceful location.
As we have to book twelve months in advance each year, now is the time to give in your name if you wish to accompany us next year. It is always the first weekend in May and over the bank holiday. Going together as a group is a great advantage, as
View over the Anglican Shrine Gardens
we are amongst people we know. Having said that, we nearly always meet someone we know outside the group, perhaps from another church who happens to be on pilgrimage at the same time, as indeed we did this year when we met the group from Saint Alphege, Solihull.
Bird’s Eye view of the village pump
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S Alban’s Academy: 0121 464 7811
E-mail: [email protected]
Principal: Mr David Gould
Chaplain: Revd Dr Nicholas lo Polito
Chair of Governors: Joanne Dawson
Printing Unit and Magazine ProductionMr and Mrs E.J. Fellows“Richeldis” 343, Wake Green Road,Moseley,Birmingham B13 0BH : 0121 777 1120
E-mail: [email protected]
VergerS Patrick’s Room Booking Secretary:Mrs Maggie Tucker84, Stanhope Street,Birmingham B12
: 07521 411048
FlowersMr and Mrs D. Clark
ServersMr D. Clark
Website www.stalbanbirmingham.org.uk www.saintalban.co.uk Twitter @StAlbanHighgate
WebmasterMr E.J. Fellows
Director of MusicMr Graeme Martin BSc(hons), MA(mus)167 Chester Road NorthKidderminster DY10 1TP
: 01562 744 65207841 382912
E-mail: [email protected]
Assistant OrganistMr C. Harker
Organ ScholarMiss Catherine Wainwright
Deputy OrganistMr Edward Fellows
P.C.C. SecretaryDr A. Harvey4, Courtlands Close,Edgbaston,Birmingham B5 7XA
: 0121 249 0846E-mail: [email protected]
P.C.C. TreasurerDr Chris Smith,219, Gristhorpe Road,Birmingham B29 7SP
: 0121 471 1301E-mail: [email protected]
Assistant P.C.C. TreasurerMiss M.D. Goodman
Electoral Roll OfficerMiss M.D. Goodman
The Friends of S Alban and S PatrickSecretary: Mr D. Stephen Wycherley28, Grange Road,Halesowen B63 3EQ
: 0121 550 0732
which the whole sermon turns. The Our Father lies at the centre of the Sermon, and seems to be surrounded by sections talking about similar themes on either side, held together and given coherence by the Lord’s Prayer.
It could be the case that at the heart of a portion of scripture often seen as fundamentally being about Christian ACTION, there actually lies Jesus’ teaching about PRAYER. The Gospel writer Matthew points us to the fact that prayer and action are not opposites, but the two sides of the coin of Christian discipleship. Jesus teaches us that all our action, all our living out of the Gospel, and all our loving of neighbour must be rooted and sustained in prayerful communion with the Father.
When one looks at how the Fathers interpreted Matthew’s description of the Lord’s Prayer, we discover some interesting things about how the prayer was first used by the Early Church. The interesting thing is that Matthew presents the prayer to us as a model of prayer. Jesus tells his disciples that they should pray, “like this”. This is very different from the way Luke presents
the prayer. For Luke, it is a set prayer to be repeated by the faithful, and a sign of their identity. Matthew, rather, implies the Our Father could be a pattern for all our prayer.
In fact, Tertullian, a writer from the second century, reveals to us much about how the Prayer was used in his community. He recommends the adding of personal petitions to the prayer. It seems likely one early way of using this prayer was to take each line as a prompt to further prayer and petition. In this way, the Our Father becomes less a set devotion we rattle off, and more a way of structuring all our prayer, and a method of ordering and shaping the concerns we bring to God in personal prayer.
When we read the scriptures, we need always to remember that others have read it and heard it before us, and that the ways we interpret the Bible might not be the ways people have always used to understand and use God’s Word. The reflections and perspectives of the early Church can be a great help to us as we seek to root ourselves in the scriptures and hear God speaking through them.
NoticesSunday June 20th Saint Alban the Martyr Patronal Festival
This year is the 150th anniversary of the founding of Saint Alban’s Mission in Highgate in 1865.
11.00 a.m. Procession and Concelebrated Mass Preacher: The Rt Revd Dr Geoffrey Rowell Former Bishop of GibraltarThe service will be followed by a buffet lunch in Saint Alban’s Academy, Conybere Street.In order to assist with the catering, please sign the sheet in Saint Patrick’s room if you intend to be present.For those outside Birmingham who are hoping to attend, please notify Maureen Fellows
[email protected] or 0121 777 1120.
