St Mary's the Virgin Lowgate Light

St Mary’s the Virgin Lowgate Light

Issue 3

Dear Friends

Welcome to our third on-line magazine I hope you enjoy flicking through the pages and see how the seasons unfold.

Included are some thoughts and meditations, some descriptions of some of our festivals, some history, some images of the church and of our shared life.

Importantly we shall bring you up to date with developments towards the ‘Restoration’ and any news on City of Culture events and projects.

The round of Annual Meetings is also taking place in April, so these are the ideal times to catch up face to face with us all and, should you want, to join our Church Council and our Committee of the ‘Friends’.

My thanks go to all who have contributed to this issue, Enjoy.

Rev’d. Paul Burkitt, Priest-in-Charge

The Way of St Francis During these months our

minds tend to look at the changing landscape and ponder the wonders of nature. If a favourite Saint comes to mind it is Saint Francis. He is not all we might think him to be. Here is a sermon Paul preached soon after he was made a Lay Friar of the Society of Saint Francis.

The Way of St Francis From the gospel, ‘Blessed is he who hears the word of God and keeps it’.

As we look at the reformed life of Francesco from Assisi, that is exactly what he did. When in his darkest night he took a Bible, looking for some direction, and let it fall open, and read the words, ‘go sell all your possessions’, and he did.

He let it fall open again, and he read the words, ‘go out on the highways and byways, take nothing for your journey, no purse, no cloak, and do not fear, are you not more valuable than those lilies of the field…’

Francesco Bernardone was one of the most significant figures of that cusp time, when rational civilisation was in total cultural revolution; at the end

of the 12th and beginning of 13th centuries in WesternEurope.

He shared his own form of ‘enlightenment’ with the many who were emerging in Europe and, through a shared repenting spirit, moved humanity out of the dark ages of paganism and its attendant horrors and indulgences.

He was a flamboyant youth, being trained up by his merchant father to take over the business. Let us say he enjoyed life.

He learned poetry from his French mother, and in the times of warring states and clashes of classes in society, he took on the romance of the poetic warrior, the recusing of damsels in distress behaviour of the Troubadour.

Into a local battle, he drove his horse into the fray with great enthusiasm. Then he became wounded, the wounds became infected, he became feverish and delirious. Either by true divine vision or by scientific hallucination he felt God was beginning to find him.

He knew he had to repent of his foolish and damaging life-style. He looked to God as his father; in a passion he renounced his earthly father; stole his rolls of cloth and gave

them to the poor, even took off his garments in public to say how he believed and did what the words of God had told him.

His earthly father promptly confined him in the cellar, believing him insane. His heavenly father had now confined him to a life of divine servitude.

Believing God had told him to rebuild his church that was falling down, he set off bare footed into the snow to the derelict shrine of St Damiano. Stone by stone, hand over hand, he began the restoration process.

Others joined him for he brought with his a new spirit for a tired age and a corrupted church. He was the friar Francis, and they became his ‘Little Friars’, the Friars Minor that still exist as an order in the Catholic Church.

His life was tortuous and tormented and his conversion never ended until his last hymn was written, when he embraced ‘Sister Death’. There are many legends and tales but there are alos several authentic ‘Vitae’, Lives, written by those who were with him.

He was part of the whole western monastic movement, setting up his Friars in community.

This was not a static community, this was a flowing, life blood

community that was to inspire the whole church of God and build up the whole ruination of the establishment.

St Benedict set up the static communities; so it is said what Benedict took in, Francis gave out; what Benedict stored, Francis scattered; also Benedict always knew where he would eat his supper! Francis didn’t, and maybe never got one. Yet still he would be joyful and give thanks.

In all his almost careless ‘wanderings about’ preaching the endless practical sermons in the serving of the poor, he never lost his respect for the church and its order. In fact without the permission of the sagacious Pope Innocent III whom he sought out the whole Franciscan movement would never have been formed and his vision of rebuilding the church destroyed.

He formed three Orders of Friars- the men, the women who wore the rough cross-shaped habit and had the tonsure haircut, and the Third Order which were the ordinary, invisible ones who lived by the same vows and rules of the other Orders, but in the world.

(By the by, in last century, members of the Anglican Church established a Society of St Francis, which has those three Orders: Angela and I are members of that; the rules and vows are the same-I am now ‘fully fried’ if you like, just professed after four years of preparation; Angel has just now become a Novice. We have Rules of Life to keep/ aspire to. The way of life is to be marked by humility, love

and joy; our aims to make our Lord know wherever we can, promote harmony where we can and to live simply; all this we do through our prayer, our study and our active work. This is a spiritual path and complements our more political and religious church life).

Some of his teachings seep through here, but they are excessively Christian teachings.

For instance, what about Francis embracing the leper? At one stage of his life he would avoid them, (as did everyone else), he was physically sick were he to come near someone with leprosy.

Part of his progressive ‘conversion’ was of course to do everything differently, to turn the world on its head; to walk away then from what he abhorred turned to an embrace of the same.. He knew he wouldn’t catch the disease because it takes prolonged contact and exposure, and even if he did catch it, his faith was such that he had no fear and he would embrace his Sister Death with joy.

So we have here an immediate cultural translation of this spiritual principle: our lepers-those with mental health issues and the homeless. Walk away or embrace? You cannot catch either of these except perhaps by prolonged exposure and contact; then if we did, perhaps we too could still walk with God and embrace the ‘Brother or Sister’’ consequence.

Everything Francis did was with a passion and at a driven pace. At one point in his life he convinced he should go to

Syria and convert the Muslims.

He jumped into the first boat, hid himself o board, got half way across the Mediterranean and was ship wrecked!

You see he did everything in reverse; today people want to get out of Syria! Even so he is known as the ‘patron Saint of Stowaways’; now there’s a thought for the day and our age.

Everything in reverse! In a turbulent age of war-fare, famine and corruption, Francis found his peace in solitude and service in the way of Our Lord. He took the Eucharist to the centre of his life, that great place of ultimate thanksgiving, and taught all his followers to do the same; it is embedded in Our Rule.

It was said that Francis’ only temptation was the Sacrament.

For him he took that casket of Our Lord in Galilee to Assisi, and that casket with his reverence is global.

There is, no doubt, a sentimental view of this turbulent soul. ‘He was a lover of nature’, many say; no he was not.

Francis could never see the wood for the tress, nor the mob from the men; he only saw and loved whatever of God’s creation was in front of him; whether that was the Sultan in Syria, the bleeding leper at the road-side, or the black bird on his palm For that reason although several of his brothers were martyred, no-one ever sought his life; they might have had rejected his message but never him.

Bodily exhaustion and wear and tear, with the pain of it all, in the imitation of Our Lord

gave him a blessed death. He had done what he had had to do; those were his last words and he went on to say, ‘May God give you the strength to do what you are to do’.

Even his famous blessing is faithful to the gospel this morning; a blessing based on the word of God; the Book of Numbers 6. V 24-27,

‘The Lord -bless you and keep you-make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; -turn his face towards you and give you his peace.’

Amen.

Prayers In our prayers today we hold; All Christian peoples in this season of Lent to welcome the weak and give prominence to the poor; refugees in their struggle to begin a new and safer life for their families and those homeless who are separated from their families; mothers in developing countries whose diet is so thin and whose milk is scarce; family lives of the nation, upon which so much depends; all places of learning; the work and future of our parish as we journey forward; all those we know who are suffering physically or emotionally; those in care and hospital; our hospital chaplains and all others dedicated to caring for them; those closest to us, and we pray for eternal rest for the departed †. Amen

Diary Dates 02 Apr - `We have had enough’ : 1.00pm talks, music around homelessness 03 Apr – Holy Baptism of Violet Pippa Christine Brett / Kelly Wescott and Adam Brett 08 April – Violin Solo Recital – 6.30pm 09 April - `Friends’ AGM – 10.30am - St. Mary’s vestry 10 April – AGM immediately after the 11.00am service 16 April – Focus and Progress Group – 10.30am-1.00pm. 11 Nelson Street 05 May – Ascension Day - 7.30pm Mass 15 May – Whit Sunday 18 May – Admission of Church Wardens at Beverley Minster – 7.30pm 29 May – Holy Baptism of Lillie Marie Stacey – 12.30pm

St Mary’s Past

Rag and Bone

Today they are known as the traveller, the gypsy, and they collect metal to survive. but in St Mary’s past, it was a way of life for most people.

Amongst the poorest of the

poor in our great town there were the bone grubbers and rag gathers, old men and women and sometimes children, made a scanty living by these means.

In the early morning the bone-grubber may be seen with a greasy, grimy sack on his back and an old basket in his hand and a stick with a spike or crock at the end of it, that he used to turn over the heaps of ashes thrown from the houses, and see if they contain anything that is saleable of the rag-and-bone.

The articles for which the bone grubbers searched for are rags, bones, and bits of waste metal.

Whatever he met that he knew to be anyway saleable, he put in his bag on his back, and when he returned home from his round- which often took him ten or twelve hours he would sort the content of his bag on his back and then takes his bundle of rags and bone to the marine-store dealer, who gave him two pence per pound for white rags, but only the same for five pounds of coloured rags and for bones. For old brass, copper, and pewter he was given four pence a pound and a farthing a pound of iron.

The bone grubber thought he’d done a good day’s work if he could earn a shilling.

Sometimes these poor folk find a sixpence that has been dropped in the street, or even a silver spoon or some small article of value which has been thrown out with the ashes from some mansion, overlooked by a careless servant, but these pieces of good fortune were rare and the collectors of rags and bones drag out a laborious and half-starved existence and yet there were hundreds of them in our great town.

There maybe not hundreds of them in our town today, but is still is the way of life for the travelling community- they still travel the street in search of scrap metal and anything salable.

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Our Festivals April 1st: April Fools’ Day

‘April is the cruellest month’, so writes T.S. Eliot in his poem, The Waste Land.

Perhaps that is why traditionally we compensate and bring in April with laughter merrymaking! Just for a while, that laughter can be directed at ourselves and see how foolish we might be.

We might just fall foul of someone else’s prank! To be able to laugh at oneself can so often be the cure for any break down in a relationship; that is the ability not to take oneself too

seriously. The Fool though, is very close to being a Victim. A victim, of course, may not able to laugh at all. See how close joy and sorrow are in our daily lives, two side of this one coin we call Life. Any ‘prank’ can be random, so can our joy and our sorrow, so the April Fool is Everyman, maybe he is any man. St Paul called himself a ‘fool for Christ’; now that is a challenge for us all.

hardest to understand. It basically means ‘The Announcement’. It marks the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, who announces that she is to become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

April 4th The Annunciation

Our Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends take this feast more seriously than we do, but it has been celebrated from 5th

For the non-Christian this feast day is probably one of the

The feast is nine months before Christmas, so this day is seen as the day of insemination, the beginning of the Incarnation.

Century. Famously, Gabriel’s greeting was, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee..’

We read the story in Luke’s Gospel chapter 1, vs.26-38.

Mary’s response to the angel, having heard the news said,

need a dragon, as only 5 folk were baptised last year! The red cross on the white flag however, denotes the martyr not the victorious soldier. We must not put our faith in legends!

‘May it be to me as you have said’.

May 1st: Rogation/MayDay

April 23rd: Saint George.

There is as much debate over St. George as there is over which National Anthem we should sing riotously at nationalistic football games!

St George does not belong to England. He may have been a soldier but he was not an Englishman.

He served in the Roman army and despite the persecutions of Christians he refused to give up his faith and was martyred in 300 AD. The famous legend comes from Libya. A dragon was holding a village ransom, demanding two sheep every day. When they ran out of sheep the dragon demanded children.

Finally they had to surrender the King’s daughter dressed in her wedding dress. By a stagnant lake George met the inexpressibly horrible dragon, pierced it and wounded it with his sword.

He asked the Princess to lead it back to the village by her girdle; the village people fled.

George said he would de-capitate the beast the people would be baptised.

1500 were baptised that that!

Such was the legend. I think I

These two events do not normally collide. Briefly, ‘rogare’ is the Latin word for, ‘to ask’.

Rogation Day is basically the other end of Harvest, namely the time in the churches when we ask for God’s blessing on the seeds as they are sown.

More than ever today we pray more for fairer distribution of food around the world, where some countries are obscenely over-seeded and some countries have no seeds at all!

May Day has always been rather a pagan fun day and in times past the puritanical church has firmly denounced the frivolity! Not surprisingly King Henry VIII, albeit ‘Defender of the Faith’, we are told, ‘went maying on many occasions’. However, from an old poem, ‘The moon shines bright, and the stars give a light, A little before it is day, So God bless you all, both great and small, And send you a joyful May.’ The Feasts of the Ascension; Pentecost(Whit); The Trinity.

At one time on this Thursday everyone would have had a day off, Ascension being seen as serious a Christian Festival as Easter or Christmas.

Sadly, no longer do we mark it

as such. Again, it is not an easy feast to understand.

It marks the Ascension of the Risen Christ to heaven, forty days after the Resurrection.

At one school assembly when talking about this, one bright young fellow piped up, ‘Please sir, when did He stop ascending?’ I replied, ‘When He sat on the right hand of the Father’; ‘Blimey didn’t that hurt sir?’

So not easy to understand! The Orthodox Church puts is simply;

by His Ascension ‘Christ is everywhere present and filling all things’.

It all becomes even more complex when at the feast of Pentecost we speak of the Holy Spirit coming back down to earth again!

The event is recorded in the Book of Acts, and tells of how the disciples were all together in one room and then there was a roaring wind and tongues of flames lighted upon them and they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. Since then we have believed that the Church is the channel of God’s love towards all Creation. In times past this was the Sunday when young people were Confirmed by the Bishop; they would wear white, hence ‘Whit Sunday’.

The Feast Day commemorating the Holy Trinity is probably the most inaccessible idea to grasp! It sort of makes sense of the other recent feasts as we look at the wandering rela-

tionship of the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father! The Trinity speaks of the unity of one God, yet is made up of three persons or personalities.

We know these personalities by their tasks- God the Father creates; God the Son redeems and God the Holy Spirit sanctifies.

It has taken the church over 1700 years to try and understand this relationship.

In essence, St John wrote that, ‘God is Love’; these three divine persons are ‘in love’, and it is that love which spills out onto all creation.

It is worth coming to our services on these Sundays of celebration to experience just how ‘church’ gives thanks in this dark and secularising world.

Restoration News

February 18th saw a gathering of the good and the great from the City and from

the Diocese.

The aim of the morning meeting was basically to widen our resource base, for we know our own skills and areas of expertise are very limited indeed.

Our Lord Mayor, Councillor Anita Harrison, our Archdeacon, The Venerable Andy Broom, our architects David Sherriff and Kynan Symmons and the Diocesan Secretary for the Care of Buildings, Mr Phil Thomas were all in attendance and addressed the meeting. There were also several representatives from the Business and Arts’ Community as well as Cynthia Fowler from the Civic Society.

Members of the congregation also attended. There were two very notable apologies; The Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP and our local councillor, Colin Inglis both of who have offered to support and lobby for us as and when we might need help.

Basically or plans were discussed in respect of our Statements of Significance and Need.

Fundraising is the biggest issue now as the work begins to be phased, each phase has to have funding before it can go ahead.

The way forward is to have an ongoing ‘Focus and Progress’ group which will itemise and delegate the various tasks ahead.

The first phase is now planned and a proposed removal of pews is now being scrutinised.

We have just received our second expert report on the pipe organ. The survey was completed by John Scott Whiteley, the Diocesan Advisor for Organs. In summary the present consul is no longer of any use and might be sold or given away! The main organ can be re-sited closer to the sanctuary using the best of the current Brindley instrument. Health and Safety issues prohibit the relocation into the gallery.

Anyone with ideas, energy, skills and resources willing to help is encouraged to come to this meeting.

All we want are persons who are competent, consistent, committed, challenging and care-full! Paul

The Sowers A

picture paints a thousand words, as the old adage goes, but what are the words, the narratives that the artist(s) imbibe in their work? How can we be sure we are correctly reading what is before us?

Does the correct or full reading matter? We have experts, of course, who dissect the work and collate the information for us, the context that underpins each work, the socio-political landscapes in which the work was produced, and a great deal of assumption and self-awareness by the critics and historians that relate their own particular readings to us; they guide us through the work, the process and the meaning that they believe to be true. Historically there have been few artists who have left documented evidence of the narratives behind their work, these works exist ‘in potentia’ for others to read, to enter into

some form of dialogue with the work and the spirit of the artists; the artists themselves are broadcasting through their work, what is received either first hand or via a third party, as aforementioned, may only be part of the original message, yet for many this may suffice. suffice.

Academics and historians, as well as critics, provide the terminology that defines what ‘art’ is at any given point in time, these placements exist in the etymological landscape as ‘-isms’ or ‘movements’, these are transitional points where artists shift the perceptions and sensibilities of the day and new growth occurs. Gustave Courbet initiated one such move in the mid nineteenth century he was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French paint-

ing. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. Courbet’s paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition.

They challenged convention by depicting un-idealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects.

In 1850 Francois Millet, another member of the ‘Realist movement’, painted ‘The sower’; in this painting much is being broadcast by the artist and what better image to use than that of a broadcaster! In scale the painting is almost life size, in composition the ‘sower’ is placed directly in the fore-

ground-almost amongst us-he is spreading the seed to the audience. This painting has been much analysed, Anthea Callen comments on the scale of Millet’s Sower: By the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, the concept of the human machine had taken a new turn in the light of advancing industrialization and incipient mass production….

That the theme of labour and the nascent ‘human motor’ should begin to emerge as a European phenomenon in the later 1840s is no coincidence, not only in respect of industrial progress but of the spread of European imperialism, agitation against slavery and worker exploitation, and the new self-awareness of labour itself in the run-up to the revolutions of 1848….[T]he two versions of his monumental Sower of 1850, demonstrate their pictorial engagement in the political as well as physical senses with contemporary issues of labour power.

Comparing the physique of Miller’s Sower with sculpted Antique figures is instructive: Millet intentionally transformed his human labourer into a sinewy giant of a man by elongating his proportions to almost nine heads. If we take the commonly agreed classical ideal of the male figure as 7.5 (that is, the length of the head divides 7.5 times into his total body height) and an average of 1.7 m (68 ½ ins) tall, this makes Millet’s powerful Sower in the region of six feet eight inches or 2.04 meters tall. Reinforced by the sower’s dominance of the pictorial space and our low viewpoint, his menacing ap-

pearance to the Parisian bourgeoisie in 1850 is thus readily explicable. {1} The bourgeoisie was trying to create its own image of a lazy peasantry that had to accept its station in life. The bourgeoisie called them lazy to justify its dominance. The Sower contradicted this claim by showing a man who was not lazy and had abundant muscle mass to substantiate it!

After all, the European bourgeoisie had just had an encounter, the first of its kind, with a peasantry turned urban proletariat that challenged its rule. The proletariat was defeated in 1848, but the confrontation marked the end of an era. The bourgeoisie did not want to encourage the birth of this new era—one which would emerge with great force in the 1871 Paris Commune, despite all attempts to smother it.

Millet’s works were, therefore not necessarily popular or well received by his contemporaries, but he was committed to depicting the peasantry in positive ways. He was true to a heritage that also belonged to him.

Alexandra Murphy explains one aspect of the significance of the sower subject and notes its critical reception: “Sowing is the penultimate act of faith in man’s battle to earn his daily bread, for potentially edible grain is flung to the winds, in the hope of harvests far beyond the control of the sower. In Catholic France, the sower often began his task by crossing himself, or by forming a cross with a handful of grain

flung into the air in two strokes .When The Sower was exhibited, it attracted a considerable amount of attention, with at least nineteen critics commenting on it in their reviews.

For the most part, reactions were favourable, although the critics differed widely in their understanding of the picture.

De Chenevières, an important conservative critic, admired the ‘beauty, poetry and grace’ of the figure, while Clément de Ris praised the picture as ‘an energetic study full of movement.’ The thick, heavily worked surface disconcerted most of the critics, and the otherwise favourably impressed [Théophile] Gautier described the technique as ‘Millet’s trowel scrapings.’ But even more than technique and style, the critics felt compelled to address the image itself: almost to a man, they were struck by ‘the strangeness and power of the figure.’ {2} James Romanie gives further significance to the sower subject: Millet’s sower is a heroic figure who commands the landscape.

He looks straight ahead, toward an unknown future, with confidence that the seeds that fall from his hand will rise up.

There is a subtle, but no doubt intentional, contradiction in the upper and lower parts of Millet’s figure. The sower’s torso is mainly vertical; one can draw a straight line from his head to his hip. This creates a sense of stability and suggests a mood of confidence.

However, the lower part of the sower’s body is forcefully in motion. His front, right, foot is firmly planted while his back

left, foot is torqued behind the sower’s body, almost awkwardly. Captured mid-stride we anticipate and are caught up in the sower’s movement.

We feel the pull of his body as it is propelled by the stride of his gait. This draws us visually across the picture. There is a personal and spiritual determination evidenced in Millet’s sower. This is a fulfilment of a mandate given to Adam in Genesis 1:28 “fill the earth and subdue it.” {3} The thousand or so words above offer various readings, varying degrees of storytelling and narration; broadcasting views of what the picture and the artist maybe saying. These varying readings/broadcasts have one thing in common; they are all, in essence, educated summations and conclusions. Whilst art, for centuries, has been used to ‘illustrate’ texts to the uneducated, here, in an historical conflate, texts are being used to illustrate the image to the ‘uneducated’ or unseeing; and whilst this process of education and dissemination is valuable does it detract from the viewers own personal response to an image? Is that sense of connection with the artist and the image-a personal consideration, that ‘otherness’ that the writer Barthes described as the ‘punctum’, somehow lessened or even manipulated by this process?

The figure in Millet’s painting became an eminent source of inspiration for another painter Vincent Van Gogh; he reproduced the image countless

times in his own inimitable ‘fashion’, even though he had never seen the original, Millet’s painting had been sold into a private collection before Vincent was born, his connection with the painting came through reproductions in books and probably the summaries which accompanied these photographs or prints-it is noted that Millet reproduced the image many times although the scale, the imagery and the appearance were altered for contemporary taste.

Vincent received no notable success throughout his life, today in a commodity driven marketplace his limited commodity, his work, is bestowed with ‘visionary status, his work commands prices beyond reason and he is highly acclaimed. These accreditations a far cry from the status of ‘misguided’ that dogged him to his early grave; before ‘becoming an artist he worked as a missionary in the coal mining district of Borinage he lived as those he preached to, giving away what meagre possessions he had and sleeping on straw in a small hut. The church authorities dismissed him for ‘undermining the dignity of the priesthood’; after this he briefly attended an academy of arts where he studied life drawing and perspective and noted that ‘you have to know just to be able to draw the least thing’, whilst here he gravitated towards becoming an artist in Gods service stating his urge ‘“to try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that

leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another in a picture.” Vincent documented his life in letters to his brother Theo, we gain an insight into his life, his work-both as a missionary of God and a missionary of art-and his ethos through these; he was a ‘sower’ himself and this could be a reason-as well as all the above-that drew him to Millet’s painting as an embodiment of self in process and procession. Vincent’s letters enable us to engage with his art and with his persona, his spirit and his psyche in a way that academics, critics and historians cannot through their summaries; much has been written about Vincent, as with Millet, however these can only be seen as informative subtexts, nothing more.

Of all Vincent’s images of ‘The sower’ it is probably three of the latter of this rubric that embodies him and his work, and informs the legacy he left.

‘Sower with setting sun’ was painted in 1888, two years before Vincent’s death which may be an important fact; it is a bucolic scene of toil, it differs in many ways visually from Millets piece, only half the size in scale, a landscape format and a less imposing figure within this landscape, the figure shares the scene with a tree and is blessed by the sun which forms a halo behind him, this fin de siècle encapsulates the process at hand in a simple, naïve and honest way. A scene more representative of Millets original, entitled ‘The sower’, was also painted in this year, however it is another painting of 1888 which highlights the artist as ‘sower’

or broadcaster that I feel best defines Vincent’s legacy as an artist and defines the artists role as a broadcaster; ‘Painter on the Road to Tarascon’ depicts Vincent himself on an empty road, the tools of his trade- as an artist/sower- in his hands, behind him the fields are full of corn, the sowers job has been done and successfully; I have always read these three paintings as a ‘trinity’ of sorts, they embody both the physical and the spiritual/ metaphysical aspects of ‘the sower’. In the three paintings the sower moves from centre field, to foreground, to outside the scene respectively; in this latter work Vincent’s role as a storyteller between stories becomes evident, and even in this positioning he relates or broadcasts the artists very particular place as that of a sower, disseminating and offering regardless of time or space, a figure ‘in potentia’.

And this figure, between stories and yet full of narratives, in a state of ‘in potentia’ became the source of inspiration for the painter Francis Bacon some fifty or sixty years after Vincent’s death; and as Vincent came across Millet’s image through reproduction so Bacon came across Vincent’s image the same way-the original having been destroyed during WW2. Bacon was inspired by both an image he described as “haunting”, and by Van Gogh himself, whom he regarded as an alienated outsider, a position which resonated with him. Bacon identified with Van Gogh’s theories of art and quoted lines written in a letter to Theo: “Real painters do not paint things as they are ...

They paint them as they themselves feel them to be.”

Vincent’s response to Millet’s painting was not a formal one, his style or ‘ism’ was far from the realism that Millet proffered; it was the message(s) that the image gave to Vincent, the broadcast that inspired him. And similarly this process is what Bacon drew from Vincent’s image; the image of artist as ‘sower’ or broadcaster.

And there is another thousand or so words, a broadcast in a fashion; as artists our role is a continuous process, a procession if you prefer, whatever the movement or ‘ism’ that is written to define what we produce and when we produce it, it is the personal connection and reading that is the important fact and the most productive furrow, our works stand ‘in potentia’, waiting.

{1} Anthea Callen, “Man or Machine: Ideals of the Laboring Male Body and the Aesthetics of Industrial Production in Early Twentieth-Century Europe,” in Fae Brauer and Anthea Callen, eds., Art, Sex and Eugenics: Corpus Delecti (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 152. {2} Alexandra R. Murphy, JeanFrançois Millet. Exhibition catalogue (Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1984), pp. 31 & 32. {3} Dr. James Romanie, Gogh, Vincent Van, Artway, http://www.artway.eu/content. php?id=762&lang=en&act

What’s hapeening in St Mary’s

Keep your gansey dry, A very excellent performance of sea shanties.

150 people plus attended. £700 + raised on the door and £70 raised on refreshments.

Focus and Progress Group; The details will continue to emerge of

how we progress, at the moment it is a progress in prayer. The group met yesterday, it was a frank and expansive meeting. The shared wisdom is that we need to look for someone who will be a, `Project Manager and Fundraiser’, this would need to be a defined post to be funded. The next meeting is on Saturday 16 April at 10.30am at John Habergham’s offices on Victoria Pier, Myton Law, 11 Nelson Street

Fundraising help in Beverley; Archdeacon David Butterfield has

arranged some information evenings for grant applications, I have booked 2 places, any takers? Monday 11 April 2016 at St. Nicholas Church, Beverley 7.30pm-9.30pm.

AGM; Please be aware that this is happening.

All are very welcome.

It will be a time for a re-assessment of who and where we are.

Images of St Mary’s

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3.944

Radiator

3.948

3.970

5.972

10.343

9.560 5.314

5.874

NORTH NAVE

3.966

Cupboard

Floor Grille

Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

T3

Radiator

XT4

14.301

Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

Radiator

Floor Grille

3.969 Floor Grille

Floor Grille

6.236 4.080 Step

Porch

TOWER (not shown)

3.958

3.970

NAVE 3.956

3.939

10.651

3.939

Radiator

Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

Radiator Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

3.938

3.949

14.399

Cupboard

Font

Floor Grille

5.941

10.330

3.962 3.976

3.944

3.952

SOUTH INNER

9.650

9.663

10.373

9.685

3.953

SOUTH OUTER

3.964

3.949

3.960

10.611

5.871

3.951

3.935

Porch

10.353 5.520

5.530

9.899

9.895

6.115 3.932

XT1

10.373

6.062

4.640

SOUTH PORCH

4.631

Pew Remov CHURCHYARD

Pews proposed for preliminary removal.

Temporary plywood infill between raised pew platforms to provide level surface.

.

REVISION Do not sc

THE P

ST M

N

0

5m

EXSTING CHURCH PLAN 1:150 Proposed areas of preliminary pew removal.

LOWG

CHUR Prop

3.970 9.551 5.320

9.598

3.956

3.976

3.977

Altar 3.926

CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY Wooden Screen

6.167

3.970

10.618

Wooden Screen

10.545

5.316

3.988

3.990

3.982

10.107

Wooden Screen

Pulpit

Wooden Screen

10.117

10.091

Wooden Screen

3.977

14.461

3.957

AISLE

3.87

9.596 5.305

4.088

Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

3.92

3.976

3.995

3.960 Wooden Screen

4.007

6.879

Altar

Tomb

Tomb

CHANCEL

14.199

3.979

3.831

3.979

3.984

Le er

Floor Grille

ct

Choir Stalls

14.462

n Wooden Screen

3.952

Tomb

Tomb

10.632

Pew Floor 100mm above G.L

Wooden Screen

3.982

6.226

10.591

Organ

3.939

10.618

Floor Grille

3.964

3.975

R AISLE

10.389

Floor Grille

R AISLE

6.106

6.224

Step

PRIEST'S VESTRY

ORGAN Organ Housing

5.551 9.492

9.533

6.239

6.242

Fireplace

7.584

4.241

6.256

4.235

Step

Step

4.251

6.257

val Plan

7.559

5.182

Cupboard

8.247

Cupboard

5.171

Steps

VESTRY

8.272 7.610

5.287

N DATE DRAWN CHECKED DESCRIPTION cale from drawing. All dimensions to be checked onsite. Report all discrepancies.

CLIENT SCALE

PCC OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

MARY THE VIRGIN,

GATE, HULL

10.138

Organ Housing (Overhang)

5.867

3.940

10.602

3.987 3.949

c All rights reserved

A4 page; 1to150

PROJECT

DRAWN

KS

CHECKED

HU1 1AA

RCH PLAN posed preliminary pew removal

7.594

DRAWING TITLE

DATE

February 2016

DS

simmonsherriff LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England and Wales. Registered number: OC354236.

Registered Office: 30-38 Dock Street Leeds LS10 1JF. Tel. 0113 242 4000

JOB NUMBER

DRAWING NO.

HSM000/058

St Mary’s Past

The Tomb of the Late Rev John Scott Lies in St Mary’s Church

A beautiful altar-tomb has just

been erected in the Cemetery to the memory of the late Incumbent is of St Mary’s, from the designs of George Gilbert Scott, R.A, the architect who restored the church. The funds for its erection were provided from the surplus of the Memorial Fund, which was nobly and so speedily raised a year ago, and the designs were executed by Messar, Simpson and Malone. The tomb consists of arcades of Steetly stone, standing on a plinth of red Mansfield stone, and surround by a large slab of the same.

Each side of the tomb consists of five arcades. In the centre of each hangs a shield, of which is carved with a symbol of Death and Passion of our Blessed Lord. The first inscription which hung on the cross.

I.N.R.I “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The second represent three nails by which the hands and feet of the Redeemer were fastened to the Cross. The third is the crown of thorns which encircled the head of the Saviour. The fourth consists of the sponge on the reed presented to His parched lips, and the spear in which his precious side was pierced. The fifth represents the scourges with which the Pilate ordered

him to be beaten. These five arcades form the south side of the tomb next the walk. On the north side, commencing at the left hand, the first shield contains rope which bound the Saviour to the Cross. The second represents the ladder by which the Descent from the Cross was effected. The third consists of the hammer and the pincers, by which the nails were first impressed and then extracted. The fourth is the seamless garment for which the soldiers cast lots, and the fifth represents the dice which they played at the foot of the Cross.

These symbols of the Passion are the very ancient mode of decoration, to be found, not only in the tombs of the early Christians, but also many Churches and Cathedrals in the land, both in wood and in stone. In the present case, it is the seemliest ornamentation that could have been devised, that he who lies beneath should be surrounded with the symbols of that a great Act of Atonement which he preached so zealously in his life, and in the faith of which he died.

The arcades at each end of the tomb are filled with Gothic ornament exceedingly graceful, combining a quatrefoil and cruciform shape; on top of the Mansfield slab, which is made to slope gradually to the outside is a similar ornament, containing it’s centre the sacred monogram. From this figure to the foot of the tomb runs a moulded stem are engraved in relief the Chalice and the Bible, the ancient symbol of the Priest’s Office as one who ministers the Sacraments and preaches the word.

Around the upper plinth of the Mansfield stone runs an inscription “In Memory of the reverend John Scott M.A., Trin, Coll, Camb, 30 years’ Vicar of S. Mary’s and Lecturer of the Holy Trinity, Hull which is continued around the lower plinth of the tomb, “He died 30th April 1865 aged 55. The tomb is erected by his fellow -townsmen ‘Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’

A memorial slab, of different design, is being prepared for S.Mary’s Church by order of the committee of the Scott Memorial Fund.

With the homeless population here in Hull, becoming a crisis is it not right that we should be looking to our Local authority to offer a full care package, where the needs of the people of this fine City are placed before Profit.

When people ask for help today I am saddened to find that the first thing they are met with is the question, can we afford to help, do we have funding to help your situation, surely the attitude should be, so you require help, then we as fellow humans will do our utmost to render that help.

This is what you will find at St Mary the Virgin Church on Lowgate in Hull who, along with Hull Homeless Outreach offer help to all those in need

with no expectation of recompense.

Make local government accountable to the people.

What we do for our fellow human beings is known as Community spirit and also Empathy, all of which appears to be lacking in many organisations who claim to care and also sadly missing from our City Council’s remit.

We need to end the cuts to: 1. Supported living for adults with physical and learning disabilities.

2. Residential care and day care for older people.

3. Respite care for physically disabled adults.

4. Residential care for adults with physical and learning disabilities.

5. Day care for adults with physical and learning disabilities.

And lastly the closure of emergency beds for the Homeless Community, which is being closed to again aid corporate profits.

As I see it, the people and Communities in Hull are being ignored and the City is being sold out.

Everyone’s misery it would appear, has a price on it, we cannot go on like this, neglecting the most vulnerable in our society.

We all need to come together and put pressure on those in authority to: Build homes and schools for the people and not for the benefit of corporate developers,

They speak of the City of Culture however they ignore the fact that the culture of the City is the people, if we do not act soon, the City’s cultural and historical identity will be lost forever.

History of Hull is replete with stories of community Spirit, where the coming together of the community has made the lives of those in need and most vulnerable more bearable.

Each week I witness this same community spirit here at St Mary’s Church where people from all walks of life come together as a team and ensure that those in most need can survive, and this with NO expectation of thanks or recompense, just good people doing what is right. This proves that the spirit of helping is still here

and is still strong, we must embrace this feeling of giving and ensure it is handed down through the next generations.

This Community Spirit is a huge part of the History and Culture of this city and should be preserved at all costs.

There are Physical Laws that govern the physical universe.

One such law is the law of gravity. Similarly, there are Universal Spiritual Laws that govern humanity, guide us to better living and how to relate to God. Understanding and living our lives according to the Universal Spiritual Laws brings not only fulfilment as we attain our highest potential but we also attain enlightenment in the process.

The concept of the Spiritual Law of Giving and Receiving demonstrates that wealth is to

be kept in circulation by giving.

The act of giving attracts more wealth and success. Some of us are good at giving but just not able to gracefully receive gifts especially if it is being given by an individual of very limited means.

So the law encompasses both the spirit of giving and receiving. There is one more important element to understand about the law. The intention when giving should be with sincerity. This is the ingredient which ignites the energy/magic of the law to bless both the giver and the receiver.

There are many super rich and successful personalities who are not just famous because of their wealth and success but are also well known for their philanthropic lifestyle.

Then there are those persons who are not at all rich but nevertheless share what they have with the less fortunate. Do recall the biblical account of the widow’s mite. Out of her act of kindness, she was blessed beyond what she could have possibly imagined.

Another very special group of persons are those who see the need and organize a charity with the sole purpose of supporting the charitable work to bring goods and/or services to those in need. Charitable non-government organizations depend on a core of volunteers and donors. Recruitment and soliciting are two constant activities which sustain the charity.

The poor and homeless depend on the kindness and compassion of others to survive. The next meal or a warm coat in the winter if not delivered on time could mean life or death. All over the world many persons who are living marginally (on the streets or at home but not being adequately cared for) do not survive harsh winters.

Many companies and individuals give to charity for ‘tax breaks’. This is an entirely different act altogether. The Spiritual Law is not practiced with any intention to receive a benefit.

The act of kindness should be taught to children at home. Volunteerism can be introduced in the classroom. Businesses can build-in outreach and charitable giving into their mission.

Communities can form groups of caregivers to help those in

need. Work brigades can help to improve the homes of those who have fallen on hard times.

DO THIS TODAY Practice an act of kindness by giving something to a complete stranger. What, you may ask?

What if I offend someone if he or she misunderstands the gesture?

My response to you is this: Listen to your heart. That inner voice will guide you.

Know that a gift comes in countless forms: A warm smile is an uplifting gesture shown to a friend or stranger An acknowledgement of one’s presence, efforts and achievements A genuine compliment is a source of encouragement A flower is a sentimental gesture Money or a small useful gift are well received by almost anyone A warm meal especially when hungry is received with gratitude Items of nourishing food are given regularly can keep the homeless healthy A coat, cardigan or blanket is a welcomed gift during the cold weather The energy of giving and receiving keeps wealth circulating. Doing so mindfully directs the gift exactly where it is needed and at the time it is needed.

It is the intention of giving back to society that grows human kindness, affection, appreciation and love.

Let us put this Spiritual Law of Giving and Receiving into action today. Start with only what you are comfortable doing. If the act of giving is not coming naturally, be patient. You may wish to start with persons you are acquainted with. Another ‘soft’ start could be visiting a children’s home or a home for the elderly.

St Marys’s the Virgin Lowgate Hull www.stmaryslowgate.org friendsofstmaryslowgate@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StMarysLowgate/?fref=ts