Oremus February 2019

February 2019 | Edition Number 244 | FREE

Westminster Cathedral Magazine

This is he, whom seer and sibyl Sang in ages long gone by; This is he, of old revealed In the page of prophecy; Lo! he comes, the promised Saviour; Let the world his praises cry.

IN THE STEPS OF THE PRECENTOR

Discovering the Carmelite Saints Fr Andrew Gallagher

In their battle to reform their Order they created vigorous powerhouses of prayer which continue to give a great witness of the love of God today through the dedication of men and women who have committed their lives to prayer and contemplation. Their writings and teachings, born of their own prayer, led to both Teresa and John of the Cross being recognised as Doctors of the Church, and they have much to teach all of us about our relationship with God, particularly in those moments when our faith seems dry and we struggle to cling on to our hope in him.

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In my experience the best way to get to know the saints is, when possible, by visiting where they lived and worked, prayed and worshipped.

In light of this, in May The city walls of Avila, birthplace I will be leading a of St Teresa pilgrimage to many of the places associated with these two important saints of Spain. The pilgrimage will include visiting Avila, the birthplace and home of Teresa, and Alba de Tormes where she died and her relics are venerated. We will also visit Salamanca where John was a student, Toledo, where he was imprisoned by his brother friars for supporting St Teresa’s reform of their Order, and Segovia where he was Prior of the Discalced Carmelites and is buried today. If you are able to join us on this pilgrimage please contact Pax Travel for more details on 020 7485 3003 or collect information and a booking form from Clergy House Reception. ​ © Sherpa

One of the most important ways in which we as Catholics can grow in strength in our journey of faith is by learning about those who have gone before us and been faithful to God. In the great Carmelite saints, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, we find two people who in a short space of time revolutionised our understanding of our relationship with God and have left a great legacy for us to help us grow in our own faith. These two figures breathed new life into the ancient Order of Carmel, descendants of the hermits on Elijah’s mountain where he had heard the Lord in ‘the still small voice of silence’.

Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

CONTENTS

Inside Oremus

Oremus Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW T 020 7798 9055 E oremus@westminstercathedral.org.uk W www.westminstercathedral.org.uk

Oremus, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, reflects the life of the Cathedral and the lives of those who make it a place of faith in central London. If you think that you would like to contribute an article or an item of news, please contact one of the editorial team.

Patron The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Chairman Canon Christopher Tuckwell Editor Fr John Scott Oremus Team Tony Banks – Distribution Zoe Goodway – Marketing Manel Silva – Subscriptions Berenice Roetheli – Proofreading Eucharia Sule – Office Assistant

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Cathedral Life: Past & Present Seeking Saints in Spain

by Fr Andrew Gallagher 2 Candlemas in Context

by Joanna Bogle 6 Cathedral History in Pictures: The Funeral of Mgr Howlett

by Paul Tobin 10 & 11 Stabat Mater – A Cathedral Concert for Lent 14 Calling Young Composers 15 Cathedral History: Unidentified Flying Insects

by Patrick Rogers 16 & 17 Cardinal Cormac’s Ledger Stone Laid 31

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Features

Design and Art Direction Julian Game Registered Charity Number 233699 ISSN 1366-7203 Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor or the Oremus Team. Neither are they the official views of Westminster Cathedral. The Editor reserves the right to edit all contributions.

Publication of advertisements does not imply any form of recommendation or endorsement.

Unless otherwise stated, photographs are published under a creative commons or similar licence. Every effort is made to credit all images. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

The Friends of the Holy Land in Gaza

by John Scanlan KCSG 4 Artists Aware – The RA Summer Exhibition 7 Artemisia Gentileschi in Self Portrait as St Catherine 8&9 The Black Nazarene of Quiapo

by Fides 9 Sr Wendy on Life, Art and Faith 12 & 13 An Appeal to Unity

by Tobias Runeson 21 Religious and Anti-Slavery by the Conference of Religious 24 The British Library Reveals the Anglo-Saxons: An Exhibition in Euston 25 Enslaved Christians: A Forgotten Story

by Dr Matteo Salonia 28 & 29 Book Notice: F X Fauvelle’s The Golden Rhinoceros

by Rebecca Tinsley 32

Regulars This image of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is

by Jan van Scorel (1495 – 1562), a Dutch painter, who had spent a number of years in Italy, where he thoroughly absorbed the Italian style. His trip coincided with the reign of the only Dutch pope in history, Adrian VI, who made him a court painter and superintendent of his collection of antiquities. © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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From the Chairman 5 Monthly Album 18 & 19 Friends of the Cathedral 20 Cathedral Diary 22 & 23 In Retrospect 26 Crossword and Poem of the Month 27 St Vincent de Paul Primary School 30

Printed by Premier Print Group 020 7987 0604

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AN APPEAL MADE IN THE CATHEDRAL

Join the Companions ... and help us to keep publishing Oremus free of charge Although Oremus earns income from the advertising it carries, we rely on donations to cover our production costs.

The Companions of Oremus was established to recognise those who give generously to support us. Open exclusively to individuals, Companions’ names are published each month (see page 7). All members are invited to at least one social event during the year and Mass is offered for their intentions from time to time.

If you are able to support us by joining the Companions of Oremus please write to Oremus, c/o Clergy House, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW or email oremuscomps@rcdow.org.uk. Members are asked to give a minimum of £100 annually. Please mention in your email or letter how you would like your name to appear in the listing. If you are eligible for Gift Aid, please provide your name and address, including postcode.

Thank you for your support.

The Holy Land in Need John Scanlan KCSG I speak about Gaza. Where is it? Approximately the size of the Isle of Wight, it has a population of just under two million and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It has direct access to the Mediterranean and is separated from its neighbour by a one kilometre No Go Zone, which only those with written permits, which are difficult to obtain, may enter. The Christian community there is small, just 1,000 people. Unemployment is at 40% and with 57% of the total Christian population in poor circumstances, 80% of households are impoverished.

Water and electricity supply are unreliable. The parish priest of Holy Family parish says that living there is like an open prison, since the inhabitants cannot leave and are greatly restricted in their ability to visit friends and relatives or to seek outside medical attention. Recently America has cancelled a substantial donation benefitting the area, which increases the financial crisis; the situation of the population is extremely precarious. What is the Church doing? Despite difficult circumstances, it is combining with the Pontifical Mission in Jerusalem in supporting University scholarships and youth employment in an endeavour to persuade young people to remain in the Holy Land and in Gaza. The Friends 4

of the Holy Land currently contribute £46,000 a year to sustain young people and their families in the Gaza region and this is made possible through your generosity – you do all have a stake in Gaza.

I remember many years ago being asked to pray for the conversion of Russia and subsequently for the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite the inadequacy of my prayers and my lack of belief that these events would ever take place, they did. May I ask your continued prayers for Christians in the Holy Land, Iraq, Jordan and Gaza. When you look at the great crucifix above the sanctuary of the Cathedral, I hope that it will remind you to do so. The suffering Church is in urgent need of your intercession, which is as important as your financial generosity and visiting the Holy Land on pilgrimage, all of which are greatly appreciated by our Christian brothers and sisters of that region.

John adds: On behalf of the Friends of the Holy Land, can I thank most warmly all who responded to the Appeal, raising over £6,000 in the Cathedral.

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FROM THE CHAIRMAN

The Administrator writes One of the many bonuses of working at Westminster Cathedral is its proximity to Westminster Abbey with which, I am happy to say, we enjoy a very cordial relationship. I have always loved the Abbey, both its architecture, its history and its spiritual essence and it is a privilege to be close enough for me to call in from time to time. The end of January has seen me there on three occasions. The first was when I joined a group of the Friends of Westminster Cathedral who were taken, after Evensong, on a guided tour by the Dean. This proved very informative and we all learned a good deal, but the climax was the visit to the newlyopened Queen’s Jubilee Galleries. The very imaginative and clever way in which this space has been put to use made me think of our own balcony here at the Cathedral which, formerly, was used for extra seating but now is closed to the public because of the low height of the balustrade. Perhaps this is an area to revisit?

My other two visits to the Abbey were as a member of the College, a group of men and women connected with the Abbey including the librarian, the archivist, the archaeologist, Queen’s Scholars and two ecumenical members, myself and the Minister of Methodist Central Hall; our function is to advise and assist the Dean and Chapter. On these two occasion I was there to witness the installation of the new Receiver General and the new Canon Theologian. The Dean, Dr John Hall, whom I have been glad to know for a number of years, will be retiring in November and I very much hope that whoever is chosen to succeed him will also prove to be a good friend to the Cathedral.

Westminster Cathedral Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW Telephone 020 7798 9055 Service times 020 7798 9097 Email chreception@rcdow.org.uk www.westminstercathedral.org.uk Cathedral Chaplains Canon Christopher Tuckwell, Administrator Fr Daniel Humphreys, Sub-Administrator Fr Julio Albornoz Fr Michael Donaghy Fr Andrew Gallagher, Precentor Fr Rajiv Michael Fr John Scott, Registrar Sub-Administrator’s Intern Oliver Delargy Also in residence Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victories Music Department Martin Baker, Master of Music Peter Stevens Obl. OSB, Assistant Master of Music Jonathan Allsopp, Organ Scholar Cathedral Manager Peter McNulty Estates Manager Neil Fairbairn Chapel of Ease Sacred Heart Church Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF

At the end of January we say goodbye to the longest serving member of the College of Chaplains, Fr Michael Quaicoe, who leaves us after six years’ service here. During this time, in addition to his normal duties, he has, at various times, led the First Holy Communion programme, the RCIA and the Confirmation programme, as well as looking after the Oblates and confirmation candidates from Westminster School. He has made a large number of friends here and will be very much missed, but I am hopeful that we can lure him back from time to time. In the meantime, we wish him every blessing and success as he returns to his studies in Rome.

With every good wish and blessing

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A SEASONAL REFLECTION

Celebrating the Light of the World Joanna Bogle

Candlemas on 2 February (properly the Presentation of the Lord) is a popular feast, with the glow of candles held by the congregation forming a dramatic sight beneath the dark domes of the Cathedral above, and the darkness of a wintry London night outside. When you hold your candle aloft and hear that Gospel reading in which Simeon speaks of the Christ-child as one who will be a ‘light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel’, it is worth pondering the fact that Candlemas has been celebrated here for at least 1,700 years. It’s a Roman feast, and was being celebrated long before our last Saxon king built the Minster to the west of London that gives this district its name.

The Christian faith first reached Britain in the days when we were part of the Roman Empire; we don’t know the exact date, but our first known martyr is St Alban, who died for the Faith in the 2nd century during one of the persecutions which took place periodically under the Roman Emperor. With the Edict of Milan, which announced the toleration of the faith, Christianity flourished and in due course, under the Emperor Constantine, it became the official religion of the Empire. However, with the increasing collapse of imperial structures and the arrival on our shores of pagan Germanic tribes, that early British Church slips away into history. The brass plaques in the north aisle which record the history of the Church in this country mention only one British Bishop, Restitutus, from those early days; we mark our story chiefly from the arrival of St Augustine of Canterbury in the year 597, sent

by Pope St Gregory the Great to evangelise anew.

Candlemas is 40 days after Christmas and numbers are very important in the Scriptures and in Jewish and Christian tradition. We 6

Candle sellers outside the Abbey of St Victor in Marseille on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

think of the Israelites wandering for 40 years in the desert, and Christ spending 40 days in prayer and contemplation in the wilderness. Christian feasts and seasons are forty days in length: Lent from Ash Wednesday until the start of Easter, and then Eastertide from Easter Sunday until the Ascension. Groups of saints are usually allocated the number 40 – think of our own English Martyrs, or of the 40 Ugandan Martyrs (both groups, incidentally, canonised by Pope St Paul VI within a few years of each other).

this date, too – holly and mistletoe and so on. This seems to have vanished with the popularity of Christmas trees which shed their needles once uprooted and so are bare by February.

Did our Romano-British and, later, Anglo-Saxon forebears light candles on Candlemas Day? We can’t be sure – but they certainly had processions and made much of the feast-day. Early records describe such processions across the Roman world, and notably in churches in Jerusalem, then as now a place of pilgrimage.

In Britain, Christmas to Candlemas sees the start of the days lengthening, with spring approaching. There was an old saying ‘Candlemas – candle-less’, meaning that after this feast, candles were not needed so much because there would be more hours of daylight.

Perhaps people brought some of their candle-ends to Mass to use them up, joyfully celebrating the arrival of lighter evenings. Similarly, in parts of France and Belgium, it’s a day for eating large round pancakes, made to resemble the sun. Catholic churches keep up their Nativity scenes until Candlemas, and an old tradition was for families to keep up their Christmas decorations until

Today we tend to make Christmas start too early – a common complaint is that shops are decorated in October – and finish too early. Presents are unwrapped on Christmas morning, and everything seems over by tea-time on Boxing Day. Perhaps we should take a look at our older traditions – not only the Twelve Days of Christmas with a proper celebration of Epiphany on 6 January, but a sense of real rejoicing at Candlemas. Christ is our Light and we can take our candles home after Mass and light them again at the supper-table, perhaps with some round pancakes to remind us of sunny days ahead.

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TO YOUR BRUSHES/COMPANIONS

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2019 10 June - 12 August Acclaimed British painter Jock McFadyen RA will be the co-ordinator of the 251st Summer Exhibition in 2019.

The Summer Exhibition Committee will be chaired by the President of the Royal Academy, Christopher Le Brun. As co-ordinator McFadyen intends to build on the exhibition’s momentum of success, where it has provided a unique platform for artists at all stages of their career to present recent work.

The Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show which has taken place every year without interruption since 1769. The members of the Summer Exhibition Committee serve in rotation, ensuring that every year the exhibition has a distinctive character, with each Royal Academician responsible for a particular gallery space. Works from all over the world are judged democratically on merit and the final selection is made during the eight-day hang in the galleries.

The Royal Academy now invites artists to take part and submit their work for a chance for it to feature in the 251st Summer Exhibition. Entries are now open: summer. royalacademy.org.uk (Submission deadline: 13 February 2019). This year, the Royal Academy expects to receive up to 15,000 entries. Around 1200 works, in a range of media, will go on display, the majority of which will be for sale offering visitors an opportunity to purchase original work.

A significant part of funds raised continue to contribute to financing the postgraduate students at the RA Schools.

Jock McFadyen was born in Paisley in 1950. He moved to England in 1966 and studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1973-77. In 1981 he was appointed Artist in Residence at the National Gallery in London and in 1991, he made a solo exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in response to the end of the Berlin Wall. In 1992, he designed sets and costumes for Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s last ballet The Judas Tree at The Royal Opera House. He has had over 40 solo exhibitions since 1978 and his work is held by 30 public collections including the Tate, V&A and the British Museum as well as private and corporate collections in Britain and abroad. McFadyen currently lives and works in London and Edinburgh. He was elected a Royal Academician in 2012.

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Companions of Oremus

We are very grateful for the support of the following: Mrs Mary Barsh Mrs Else Benson in memoriam Dr Stuart Blackie Mr Denis Board Anne Veronica Bond Richard Bremer Francis George Clark Daniel Crowley Ms Georgina Enang Alfredo Fernandez Fred Gardiner Connie Gibbes Zoe & Nick Goodway Mrs Valerie Hamblen Bernadette Hau Mrs Henry Hely-Hutchinson Mrs Cliona Howell Alice M Jones & Jacob F Jones Poppy K Mary Thérèse Kelly Florence M G Koroma Raymund Livesey Barry Lock Alan Lloyd in memoriam Clare and John Lusby James Maple Dionne Marchetti Mary Maxwell Pamela McGrath Linda McHugh Peter McNelly in memoriam Mrs C Mitchell-Gotell Abundia Toledo Munar Chris Stewart Munro Mrs Brigid Murphy Kate Nealon Emel Rochat Berenice Roetheli Patrick Rogers RIP John Scanlan Mr Luke Simpson Sonja Soper Tessa and Ben Strickland Eileen Terry Robin Michael Tinsley Mr Alex Walker Christiana Thérèse Macarthy-Woods Jacqueline Worth Patricia M Wright and of our anonymous Companions If you would like to become a Companion of Oremus, see page 4

New in Cathedral Gift Shop We are pleased to announce an exquisite addition to the range of gifts available in Westminster Cathedral Gift Shop.

Cross pens are renowned worldwide for their design and quality and we now have for sale a luxury ball-point pen which comes with the Cathedral logo and in its own box.

This will make an excellent gift for a loved one on that special occasion.

Retail Price: £35.00

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© National Gallery

A NEW ACQUISITION

Artemisia as St Catherine of Alexandria

A Lady Sees Herself as a Saint In July 2017, the National Gallery acquired a recently discovered, rare self-portrait by the most celebrated female artist of the Italian Baroque - Artemisia Gentileschi (15931654 or later). In mid-December Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, an oil painting from about 161517, went on public display in the Central Hall. This follows five months of conservation treatment; the restoration process - in a first for the Gallery - was documented through a regular series of short films shared on social media via #NGArtemisia.

While unveiling the newest addition to the national collection, the National Gallery also revealed some exciting plans for her future. From March 2019, the painting will undertake a pop-up tour of unusual and unexpected venues (not all of them galleries or museums) across the UK. Her 'grand tour' will start at Glasgow Women's Library on 6 March (where she will stay until 19 March), just in time for International Women's Day (8 March 2019). Then in 2020 (April - July) the National Gallery will stage a major monographic exhibition of the artist’s work, the first ever in the UK. It is hoped the show will bring more than 35 works from around the world to London to present a highly selective survey of her career.

Letizia Treves, the National Gallery James and Sarah Sassoon Curator of Later Italian, Spanish, and French 17thcentury Paintings, says: ‘After transformative conservation treatment, I am absolutely thrilled that we are finally able 8

to put Artemisia's painting on display and share it with the public. Although the 2020 exhibition is still very much in the planning stages, I'm looking forward to putting our new acquisition in context, alongside some of Artemisia's most famous paintings as well as some of her lesser known works’.

Artemisia Gentileschi is considered one of the most accomplished painters among the followers of Caravaggio, whom she must have known personally through her father Orazio. In an era when female artists were not easily accepted, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and had a truly international clientele, including royalty. Her biography has long overshadowed her artistic achievements, but today she is recognised as one of the most talented painters of her generation. She was born in Rome on 8 July 1593, as the only daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639).

Beginning her artistic training with her father in 1608-9, her earliest dated painting is from 1610. The following year an event took place that changed the course of Artemisia's life and shaped her reputation, not just in her own times but in the centuries which followed; she was raped by the painter Agostino Tassi (about 1580 - 1644), a collaborator of her father's. An infamous seven-month trial followed, every word of this case surviving in a detailed court transcript that shines light on the lives of artists in the early 17th century.

Tassi was condemned to choose between a punishment of five years' hard labour or banishment from Rome (he opted Oremus

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A NEW ACQUISITION/ A DEVOTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

She lived in Florence from 1612 to 1620, and it is from this period that Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria dates. Although her reputation must have preceded her arrival, Artemisia was clearly appreciated in Florence and her stay there marks an important phase in her personal and artistic development. Her paintings were both commissioned and acquired by members of the ruling Medici family. In 1620 she returned to Rome, beset by creditors after running up debts, and remained there for 10 years. By 1630 she had settled in Naples, where she ran a successful studio. In 1639 she travelled to London, to assist her ailing father Orazio in painting the ceiling of the Queen's House in Greenwich. By 1640 she had returned to Naples, where she remained until her death in or shortly after 1654. Although Artemisia was greatly admired during her lifetime - with her works being avidly collected by the leading rulers of the day (including Cosimo II de' Medici in Florence, Philip IV in Madrid, and Charles I in London) - she was only really reappraised in the 20th century. Today she is considered one of the most important female artists of the Baroque period and continues to inspire novels, films, and documentaries.

The tightly cropped composition of the painting shows a female figure turning towards the viewer. A halo is visible just above her head, indicating that she is a saint. Her left-hand rests on the top of a broken spiked wheel, the symbol associated with St Catherine of Alexandria, who was martyred in the early 4th century AD. Sentenced to death by the Emperor Maxentius, Catherine was bound to revolving wheels studded with iron spikes and nails. She escaped this instrument of torture through heavenly intervention but was later beheaded. Of the 60 or so paintings attributed to Artemisia, the majority feature a strong female heroine as the main protagonist. Many of her paintings have been read as autobiographical and there is no doubt that her personal identity is closely intertwined with her artistic production.

This is especially true of the paintings she produced in Florence (1612-20), in which she repeatedly used her own image; perhaps as a vehicle for self-promotion (much as Rembrandt did in the Netherlands). The only two other known easel paintings in this country by her are Susannah and the Elders in the Burghley House Collection, Stamford and her Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) in the Royal Collection.

The £3.6 million acquisition of the painting was made possible thanks to the support of the American Friends of the National Gallery, the National Gallery Trust, Art Fund (through the legacy of Sir Denis Mahon), Lord and Lady Sassoon, Lady Getty, and Hannah Rothschild CBE, and other donors, including those who wish to remain anonymous. The conservation of the painting was made possible with Art Fund support.

The Artemisia behind the scenes' conservation film story can be seen at: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/behind-the-scenes/ film-series-restoring-artemisia-gentileschis-self-portrait FEBRUARY 2019

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The Black Nazarene Fides

© Jsinglador

for the latter, though this was never enforced). Artemisia was swiftly married off to a minor Florentine painter, Pierantonio di Vincenzo Stiattesi, and left Rome for Florence.

The Black Nazarene en route

More than five million people took part in the Traslacion annual procession through Manila, featuring the image of the Black Nazarene, which started on 9 January, with a prayer vigil during the night. This feast is a manifestation of popular devotion in the Philippines that has lasted more than four centuries, with millions of devotees who place their hopes in the suffering Christ. The theme of the 2019 Traslacion is ’Devotees of the Lord Jesus the Nazarene: chosen to serve him’. The highlight of the programme is the traditional procession through the streets of Manila with a statue, in black wood, depicting Christ carrying the cross towards Calvary. Thousands of believers converge from all over the country to Manila to attend this feast.

The statue of the Black Nazarene was brought to Manila in 1607 by Augustinian missionaries from Mexico. It is also believed that it was partially burned and blackened when the galleon carrying it caught fire on a voyage across the Pacific from Mexico. Mgr Hernando Coronel, Rector of St John the Baptist Church, in Quiapo district, in Manila, explains that: ‘The feast of the Black Nazarene revolves around the devotion to the suffering Christ, with whom Filipinos identify themselves, in their life marked by poverty and daily suffering. Along the route of the Traslacion, a procession of almost 24 hours carrying the statue begins at Quirino Grandstand, in Rizal Park, in the centre of Manila, and ends once the statue reaches Quiapo Church’. In his homily during Mass celebrated in the church, the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Tagle, said: ‘The devotion to the Black Nazarene is the love for Jesus and it is not fanaticism. A true devotee loves: the essence of devotion is love. The fanatic clings only to something that gives value to himself. The devotee loves Jesus. The fanatic does not love’.

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Cathedral History: A Pictorial Record The Funeral of Mgr Martin Howlett DD, Ph.D, LL.D, Prot. Ap. Cathedral Administrator 1906 – 1948: Wednesday 23 February 1949 Paul Tobin Mgr Howlett was by far the longestserving Cathedral Administrator; a big man in many ways, the Cathedral Chronicle obituary said that: ‘he showed a spaciousness and a hospitality that are characteristic of an age that is past’. During his tenure, which encompassed two World Wars, he oversaw the consecration of the Cathedral in 1910 and many other ceremonies including the Eucharistic Congress in 1908, the centenary of Catholic Emancipation in 1929, the shrine of St John Southworth in 1930 and the interment of the body of Bishop Richard Challoner in 1946.

He served three archbishops (Bourne, Hinsley and Griffin) in addition to being Private Secretary to Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster (1892-1903).

To mark his 25 years as Cathedral Administrator, Pope Pius XI made him a Protonotary Apostolic; this gave him the right to wear certain episcopal insignia (ring and pectoral cross as well as wearing a plain white mitre whilst celebrating High Mass).

The obituary in the Chronicle went on to say that: ‘It was from his close relationship with Cardinal Vaughan that he developed his tremendous conception of the Cathedral as the great national powerhouse of prayer where the whole Divine Liturgy should be poured out in all its splendour and fullness of worship. During his 42 years’ tenure he cleared a vast debt and established a means of financial security’. One of his most notable achievements was the establishment of the City & Metropolitan Catholic Police Guild (now the Catholic Police Guild), whence the Guard of Honour of police officers in full ceremonial uniform outside the West Door as the coffin was carried to the hearse for burial at Kensal Green.

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In the top picture, taken during the Absolutions, the mitred figure is Bishop Edward Myers, Senior Auxiliary Bishop and Provost of the Metropolitan Chapter. At the foot of the coffin is the cappa parva of the late prelate, with its train let out as was the custom at the

funeral of a Chapter Canon. Cathedral Chaplains who died in office were also entitled to the same privilege with their grey cappas. These can seen, worn by the chaplains who stand in two rows behind the Chapter Canons in their cappas of white fur.

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY In the lower picture, Bishop George Craven is seen about to sprinkle the coffin with Holy Water as it leaves the Cathedral. The server standing in front of the Guard of Honour, to the left, is William Shearman, who for many years sold a variety of weekly religious newspapers from different denominations from a stand on the pavement outside the West Door. It could be said that he was an early ecumenist. Above and to the right of William Shearman, is Fr Denis Skelly and in profile, top left, is Fr Philip Dayer. The boy servers are from the Choir School; they were recruited as servers, not choristers, and served at all the weekday functions with the gentlemen from the Guild of St Gregory serving at High Mass and Vespers on Sundays.

Refs: Westminster Cathedral Chronicle March 1949 (Obituary) Westminster Cathedral Chronicle April 1949 (Pictures)

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Mgr Howlett maintains a benevolent and watchful eye on all the comings and goings in the Long Corridor

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A CORRESPONDENCE REVEALED

Sr Wendy Beckett on Life, Art and Faith A journalist has disclosed her correspondence with Sr Wendy Beckett stretching back over many years. In the letters, Sr Wendy, who died on Boxing Day 2018 at the age of 88, talked about the nature of beauty, her childhood desire to be a nun above all else and her feelings about declining vocations to religious life.

Sr Wendy Beckett 1930-2018 RIP

Freelance journalist Sarah MacDonald revealed the existence of the letters in a tweet and then shared further details in an article for the Conference of Religious. She writes: ‘I interviewed Sr Wendy in a Kensington Hotel back in 2004 as a cub reporter for the Irish Catholic newspaper. Despite her exalted status as a world-renowned art critic, she was warm, kind, open and not in the least condescending. She was then 74. We quickly established some mutual reference points. She had been educated by the Sacred Heart Sisters in Craiglockhart in Glasgow 12

while her father was studying medicine in Edinburgh. My grandmother had trained as a teacher at the Sacred Heart Sisters’ teacher training college in Craiglockhart.

Sr Wendy was familiar with the buildings in which my Granny had lived while studying in Craiglockhart.

Prior to their purchase by the nuns in 1919, these same buildings had served as a convalescent hospital for those wounded at the front in World War I. Among the most famous patients were the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It was an ice breaker. I remember her delight as we chatted about her happy memories of her education by the Society of the Sacred Heart. Then there was the Irish connection! Both of her grandmothers were Irish. Her maternal grandmother, Granny Sheehan, had converted her husband to Catholicism. She told me: ‘My father Aubrey Beckett was the son of a very fervent Catholic family two of his brothers became Mayor of Johannesburg. His mother, who could have run a battleship, was a Catholic and converted his father. I was the first born of my parents – both of them were thrilled and privileged to have a daughter who wanted to be a nun. I had wanted to be a nun since I could think.

I never had to say to them “I want to be a nun” – it was known.’

When I became editor of The Word magazine in 2004, which was published by the Divine Word Missionaries, I

asked Sr Wendy to contribute some articles on art and she duly agreed. We corresponded over these and sometimes shared about different aspects of our lives, though I often found it very difficult to decipher her writing! Her articles were sometimes on religious art, and at other times, she showed readers how to see God in less overtly religious art. I cling to her definition of beauty which she gave me in that interview in 2004. ‘My own definition of beauty is that which perpetually satisfies us, you look at it again and again and there is more of it to satisfy us. I would say that beauty is very much an attribute of God - he is essential beauty but only those of us who have been fortunate enough to have the faith know where beauty comes from. For others it doesn't matter.

If they are just responding to beauty, they are responding to him - the pure, free, strong, loving spirit of God.’ She was also very wary of the dangers of Puritanism. ‘I think Puritanism is very attractive, it tempts because it narrows the world which means that you can deal with it better - beauty makes you vulnerable. You can't protect yourself against it and beauty comes from all parts of the compass – it comes in the sunrise and it comes in the sunset, it comes in the people you meet – it doesn't just come in art; beauty is everywhere. I think the temptation to narrow God down either to the “religious” or to the intellectual, which is really what Puritanism is all about - confining God is always going Oremus

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© Quidenham Carmel

The Carmel at Quidenham

to be tempting because we so fear vulnerability. We so want to control things, which of course is exactly what religion is meant to be against – the whole faith is about surrender, letting God be in control.’

Of living in Norfolk, as a hermit under the protection of the Carmelite nuns in Quidenham, she revealed that Julian of Norwich was one of her heroes, exclaiming: ‘What a woman!

What a mystic!’ But she also stressed that: ‘Jesus is the defining figure in my theology – Jesus, however he comes - and often he comes wounded and dirty and ugly, as he often comes in the Church. Who can say that the Church is beautiful? If we are looking for beauty we'd say this Church isn't beautiful. But this is his Church - it is ugly and stunted and makes very foolish decisions, but it is his Church.

Jesus is the centre for me’.

When The Word magazine shut down in 2008, our correspondence sadly became more infrequent as I scrabbled to create work for myself as a freelance journalist. One of the last cards to me was in 2011 after I'd sent her a catalogue for an exhibition which she hadn't been able to see.

The exhibition had received mixed reviews and she was delighted that: ‘I could not make up my own mind’ with the aid of the catalogue. She had seen the exhibition 'Treasures of Heaven' at the British Museum, on which she was collaborating with the FEBRUARY 2019

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art critic Andrew Graham Dixon. But what I value most in that missive was her kind inquiry for my health. I'd had an operation and she revealed that she'd had a heart attack. ‘I've been whisked off to hospital twice recently, but at 81 heart attacks are not rare.

But you are young and need your health. Let's ask the Holy Spirit, as we prepare our hearts to receive the gift of Pentecost, to give you health, peace and joy’.

I remember back in 2004 asking her about the decline in religious life. I liked her nuanced response, which recognised that the boom in vocations in the early 20th century was exceptional and perhaps for the wrong reasons. ‘I think that there were too many nuns. When I was young, if you wanted to give yourself wholly to God the only thing was to be a nun.

Now we realise that there are many other ways to give yourself to God. Even when I entered I could see quite clearly that some people wanted to give God the fruit, not the tree - they wanted to be good people serving God - that's not what being a nun is.

A nun means that you give God the whole tree and all the roots. Other people should serve God in other ways - they should get married, they should be bus conductors, they should be explorers, doctors, journalists – whatever. So no, I think it is a very healthy thing that there are fewer nuns – as long as the ones that are nuns, are real nuns and passionately committed

to God alone; and that is not given to everybody. It is a great privilege if you have got it.’

Born in South Africa in 1930, Sr Wendy was 16 when she joined a convent and in 1950 was awarded a Congratulatory First Class degree in English literature from Oxford University. She later taught in cities including Cape Town and Liverpool. She began studying fine art in the 1980s and wrote a book on the subject to raise money for her convent. Contemporary Women Artists, published in 1988, was followed by more books. She lived a hermit-like existence in a caravan at Quidenham in Norfolk until 1991, when the BBC commissioned her to present a television documentary on the National Gallery in London. Sr Wendy became well-loved for her unique presenting style. She would stand in front of paintings in galleries around the world and discuss, without autocue, the work in detail.

Sr Stephanie Walters, Prioress of Quidenham Carmel, said: ‘Sr Wendy lived alongside us for over 40 years and was a good friend, an inspiration and totally unique. With her openness to God in her writing and programmes she could communicate the love and mystery of God through art and literature to many who may not otherwise hear of it. Christmas was a beautiful time for her to return to her Lord and be with him’.

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A LENTEN MUSICAL OFFERING

Stabat Mater – a Musical Meditation Peter Stevens ‘…and a sword shall pierce your own soul, too…’ This prophecy of Simeon, addressed to Our Lady at Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, forms the basis of Westminster Cathedral Choir’s Lenten concert this year. The musical journey takes us from the feast of the Presentation through to Good Friday, drawing parallels between the two feasts. As Pope Benedict points out in his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, all worship in the Old Covenant was directed towards the Temple; the New Temple of Christ’s Body, raised up in three days, is the object of all worship in the New Covenant. At the Presentation, therefore, the New Temple was brought into the Old Temple, before the veil which would be torn in two at the Crucifixion. And at both moments, Our Lady stood by, ‘treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart’.

The concert falls into three parts, interspersed with readings from the saints. We begin in the light of Candlemas with the chant Lumen ad revelationem gentium, introducing Christ as the Light of the World. Tallis’s great setting of Videte miraculum, a responsory reflecting on Our Lady’s joy in her motherhood, introduces a theme developed in Victoria’s Alma redemptoris mater – Mary is not only Christ’s mother, but ours,

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too. Next, our thoughts turn to the Passion. Handl’s Adoramus te, a text familiar from the Stations of the Cross, sets the scene; in the words of Blessed John Henry Newman, She brought the tender infant into the Temple… And now she shows herself as he toils along the Sacred Way with his cross on his shoulders.

Palestrina’s setting of Dominus Iesus in qua nocte speaks of the Institution of the Eucharist, before Byrd’s poignant setting of Ne irascaris, Domine reflects on the desolation of Jerusalem.

The mood darkens further as we consider the Crucifixion.

The austere chant Tenebræ factæ sunt completes our journey from the opening Lumen. Victoria’s setting of the Good Friday Reproaches adds a liturgical dimension, while Bruckner’s symphonic setting of Christus factus est forms a dramatic conclusion to the narrative. The whole concert culminates in Palestrina’s monumental setting of the Stabat Mater: we contemplate Mary standing by the Cross, and ask to share in the Passion ourselves, comforting the Sorrowful Mother in her grief, spending eternity in her presence. To give Newman the last word: Oh, what a meeting of Son and Mother! Yet there was a mutual comfort, for there was a mutual sympathy. Jesus and Mary—do they forget that Passion-tide through all eternity?

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FEBRUARY 2019

AN INVITATION TO YOUNG MUSICIANS

Composition Competition 2018 – 2019 Composers are invited to submit a new unaccompanied choral motet for Westminster Cathedral’s inaugural Composition Competition.

A prize of £750 will be awarded to the winner, and the winning motet will be premiered at the 10am Solemn Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019 by the Cathedral Choir.

George Malcolm and Victoria’s Tenebræ Responsories 2019 marks the 60th anniversary of George Malcolm’s legendary recording with Westminster Cathedral Choir of Tómas Luis de Victoria’s settings of the Tenebræ Responsories for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Malcolm was Master of Music at the Cathedral from 1947 - 1959 and his recording of Victoria’s Tenebræ Responsories was his penultimate recording with the choir (the last being Benjamin Britten’s Missa brevis for boys’ voices and organ, written for the choir in 1959). He was also one of the most eminent harpsichordists of his generation, and helped to lead the Baroque revival during the 20th century.

Malcolm’s Victoria recording was one of the first ever recordings of 16th-century music committed to LP, and today remains a striking and benchmark interpretation of these dramatic works; the recording in particular showed off the choir’s distinctive, bright continental sound, something that Malcolm was instrumental in developing during his tenure as Master of Music.

• Is an unaccompanied setting of the given text (the motet should set the Latin text, not the English translation).

• Is scored in line with the Victoria Tenebræ Responsories (SATB without divisi).

• Lasts no longer than four minutes (based on a metronome mark for the piece).

The score may be typeset or handwritten, but should either way be a suitable performing edition. Scores should not include the name of the composer, but instead a pseudonym (which should also be marked clearly on the application form). The competition is open to composers of any nationality aged 35 and under on 15 February 2019.

An entry fee of £10 will be due along with the application forms.

TEXT Omnes amíci mei dereliquérunt me, et prævaluérunt insidiántes mihi: trádidit me quem diligébam: Et terribílibus óculis plaga crudéli percutiéntes, acéto potábant me. Inter iníquos proiecérunt me, et non pepercérunt ánimæ meæ. Et terribílibus óculis plaga crudéli percutiéntes, acéto potábant me.

All my friends have deserted me, and plotters have prevailed over me. He whom I loved has betrayed me. And with fierce looks and cruel blows they gave me vinegar to drink.They cast me among the wicked and did not spare my soul. And with fierce looks and cruel blows they gave me vinegar to drink.

The competition Composers are invited to set the text given (below right).

The composition should last no longer than four minutes, so that it would be suitable for performance at the Offertory in a Mass, and must be unaccompanied; the composition should also take into account the unique and generous acoustics of the Cathedral.

The competition is open to composers aged 35 and under on 15 February 2019 Compositions should be submitted no later than 6pm on that date. The winning piece will be decided by an adjudicating panel which will include the renowned composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan. In light of the 60th anniversary of George Malcolm’s recording of Victoria’s Tenebræ Responsories, the chosen text for the competition is the first of the three Responsories for Good Friday that Victoria did not set; a translation is provided along with the text. The plainsong setting of this text from the Liber Usualis can be consulted as a reference; composers may or may not wish to make use of the melody in their composition.

Entry requirements Composers are to submit a motet which, as a minimum, conforms to the following requirements: FEBRUARY 2019

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Insects, Reptiles and Fish Patrick Rogers I have described mammals and birds portrayed in Westminster Cathedral in earlier articles, so now is the time to deal with the other living creatures to be found there. Starting with insects, there are six rather nice bees on the inner wall of St Paul’s Chapel, relating to the riddle of Samson (out of the strong came forth sweetness) and referring to St Paul’s conversion. Moving down to the Lady Chapel we find three more bees and a beehive high on the left just inside, in amongst the flower garland which is really a rosary. Nearby is another insect which might be another bee but looks to me more like a flying ant, and I will therefore call it a UFI (unidentified flying insect).

Moving along the rosary there is another UFI (perhaps a wasp) followed by a beetle. After the blackbird’s nest we find a cabbage white butterfly, the third UFI, another beetle and finally a red admiral butterfly. Continuing along the rosary on the south or right wall, there is a definite wasp, a ladybird, another UFI, a blue butterfly (perhaps a holly blue) with

An adolescent dragon provides a footrest for Cardinal Wiseman as he lies in the Crypt

five more in the arch below St Agatha, a dragonfly, a mauve butterfly, our fifth UFI and finally a ladybird to the right of the entrance. Back now to the apse of the Lady Chapel with its wonderful Tree of Life, and contained within its branches is an amazing variety of insects. Five butterflies are to be found, together with a grasshopper, a stag beetle, a dragonfly, a caterpillar four ladybirds and another three UFIs. Gilbert Pownall, who designed this mosaic in the 1920s, filled his notebooks with pictures of English insects and birds. The results are to be seen here.

And so the story of the disappearing slug. Two to three feet above and to the right of the head of Christ on the Tree of Life is a bird with a black body and pink head. After completion in 1932 dust, dirt and candle smoke caused the pink head to blend in with the surrounding gold mosaic. As a result all you could see was a small black form, closely resembling a slug, described by a priest to visitors as ‘surely the least attractive of God’s creatures’. Only periodic cleaning of the mosaic revealed the slug to be, in fact, a bird.

Snakes snarl in St Patrick's Chapel 16

From insects to reptiles and down to the Crypt for our first dragon. And there it is, at the foot of the effigy of Cardinal Wiseman, the first Archbishop of Westminster. Dragon watchers will notice that this is a wingless and therefore probably immature specimen. But above, in the little Chapel of the Sacred Heart and St Michael, the archangel can be seen vanquishing a winged and savage adult. There are two more dragons in the Cathedral, on the underside of the great Sanctuary arch. From dragons to serpents and snakes, all of which symbolise evil. On the inner wall of the Chapel of the Holy Souls is the serpent in the Garden of Eden coiled around Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

CATHEDRAL HISTORY Adam, with the skull of death in its jaws. Opposite the same serpent is crushed underfoot by Christ. Crossing the nave to St Patrick’s Chapel, there are eight snakes decorating the altar and 48 more at the top of the little pink columns below the windows – 32 of them with gaping jaws and lots of teeth.

Tradition has it that St Patrick expelled the snakes (and thus evil) from Ireland.

Moving down to the Lady Chapel, above the altar Our Lady can be seen crushing another serpent, as Christ is doing in the Holy Souls Chapel, whilst down in St Peter’s Crypt are our last snakes, eight of them in pairs, decorating the top of one of the great red granite columns. And it is here in the Crypt mosaic that we meet our first fish – a dolphin and a young swordfish in medallions and another dolphin, which can only be described as snarling, in the sea. Why the ill humour, I wonder? Returning to the Lady Chapel, the vines around the rosary are emerging from the mouths of 11 fish. I should really say ‘fishlike creatures’, since they are all mouths and ears and very little else. Across in the apse of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel two fish are shown at the Feeding of the Five Thousand, while under the three windows on the left are two more fish, with the Greek word for fish (IXOYC) between them. This word is made up of the initial letters of the phrase ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’; so a fish was a symbol of Christ.

The Archangel Michael deals definitively with the dragon at the altar of the Sacred Heart

Fish swim in St Joseph's Chapel

A fish also appears on the floor of St Joseph’s Chapel and another is in a pool in the mosaic at the entrance to St George’s Chapel. But it is in St Andrew’s Chapel across the nave that fish really hold sway. St Andrew, like his brother St Peter, was of course a fisherman and there are 29 fish and other marine creatures amidst the waves on the floor, including a swordfish, cod, skate, sole, plaice, salmon, rays, eels, a rather nice lobster, two crabs, a starfish, anemone, whelk and scallop. Adding them all together we have 45 insects, 71 reptiles and 49 fish in the Cathedral. As described in earlier articles there are also 72 mammals, and 163 birds, altogether making up a total of exactly 400 living creatures.

Plus, of course, one disappearing slug and one missing (but not quite) monkey. Gosh!

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And one final word. When children are taken around the Cathedral they can be a bit noisy. Please bear with them. They often have questionnaires to fill in and need to ask questions.

But they do try to keep quiet near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the confessionals where people are praying. And remember that happy, interested children will want to come back, with their parents and then with their children and perhaps one day with their children’s children. One excited six-year-old boy once ran over to me and said: ‘This is the bestest, bestest church I’ve ever been in’. I do not think I can ask for anything more.

The Chapels of the Cathedral are much frequented by parents who may need to quieten their young children during the celebration of Mass. We are very happy that they are used in this way and encourage parents to familiarise themselves with the decoration, so that they may point out to the children the many interesting features, as described in this and other articles by Patrick Rogers. The Chapels offer all sorts of insights into the stories of our faith and of the saints.

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MONTHLY ALBUM

A Cheque Gratefully Received The Towards Advent Festival, held annually in Cathedral Hall for many years, has come to its end, and the remaining funds, amounting to over £2,500, were handed over to Canon Christopher by members of the organising team. Pictured here, Joanna Bogle presents the cheque, accompanied by Patti Fordyce and Jackie Brooks.

‘The Festival brought together a wide range of Catholic groups, from the Catenians to the Catholic Truth Society, from school choirs to international charities,’ said Joanna, ‘it was a great way of celebrating the life of the Church and we unanimously agreed that the remaining funds should go to the Cathedral. With the cheque there is lots of goodwill, great memories, and a sense of having been a special chapter in the Cathedral’s story’.

A New Year Farewell

Away in a Kitchen …

The two Christmas cribs in the Cathedral do not exhaust the devotional opportunities for the residents of Clergy House, at least. Down in the ground floor kitchen the Sisters follow the advice of St Teresa of Avila who spoke of the Lord walking among the pots and pans, although here he is being born among them. It is amazing what can be done with crumpled-up brown paper; and look carefully – the sheep and other animals all have prayers written on their sides.

A Coffee Morning (with Bailey’s for some) in Clergy House Common Room marked our farewell to Alistair Calton, who has been Head of Security not only for the Cathedral, but for Archbishop’s House, Vaughan House and all the buildings of the Choir School. If we have felt safe and unthreatened in recent years, then Alistair’s sharp eye and watchfulness have done their work, besides his bringing a professional’s questions to matters which had not occurred to us. Alistair moves to work at St Paul’s C of E church in Hammersmith, which those who know the route west out of London will recognise as 'the church beside the flyover’. Pictured are Canon Christopher, who expressed our thanks and best wishes; Peter McNulty, Cathedral Manager; and Alistair.

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FEBRUARY 2019

FAREWELL TO FR MICHAEL QUAICOE

Forget Brexit! Cathedral Parishioners Out in Force for Quexit

Former editors of Oremus snapped

No farewell is complete without a cake (note the champagne bottle and glass)

Canon Christopher explained how two weeks’ supply had turned into six years’ service for Fr Michael and he replied with thanksgiving for the Cathedral as a house of prayer

Spot the priest in the mêlée

Clergy House Sisters and close friends were present FEBRUARY 2019

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The younger contingent was well-represented 19

THE FRIENDS OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

The Abbey Explored and Explained

© Ed g2s

execution it owes more to the windows which historically would have adorned such an ancient building. I think the window works very well indeed – it is not a pastiche of medieval glass and is a statement in itself. We saw it not in its full beauty – you need daylight to appreciate the colour – but it is an impressive adornment.

The Abbey by night, from Dean’s Yard

Christina White On a cold and rather damp evening in January the Friends gathered at Westminster Abbey for evensong and a private tour which was extended to include the Queen’s Jubilee Galleries.

The Dean, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, retires later this year and despite a very busy schedule he found time for us – it was a bitter-sweet farewell as he has been such a presence at the Abbey and has helped build relations between the two churches.

We were given seats in the choir for evensong – the men’s voices were on fine form – and then, as the great west doors closed, we gathered in the nave for a brief history of the abbey from its inception as a Benedictine foundation.

Our walking tour followed which included the tomb of St Edward the Confessor, the Tudor tombs of Queens Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, and also more recent additions – the grave of Professor Stephen Hawking, and the David Hockney window commissioned by the Dean as the Abbey’s own tribute to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

There was a very interesting BBC programme on last year which detailed the commissioning of the window. The Dean knew that he wanted something with a country theme and Hockney’s beautiful paintings of his native Yorkshire were the inspiration for the glass design.

The Abbey chose to have the glass for the window traditionally blown – rather than painted – and although modern, in 20

Hawking’s final resting place is marked with an engraved slab bearing the words: ‘Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking,’ with his most famous equation that describes the entropy of a black hole. He has been laid to rest between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin – a scientists’ corner.

The hardy amongst us climbed the stairs to the new Queen’s Jubilee Galleries whilst others took the lift. This is an astonishing space which provides a new public vista over the interior of the abbey many metres below.

I was taken with the regal effigies – traditionally paraded at a royal state funeral. Wood and plaster seemed to convey the personality rather more than a formal portrait and Charles II was particularly effective. The Abbey has the effigy of Nelson which accompanied his coffin to the state funeral at St Paul’s. He cuts a rather diminutive figure for the hero of Trafalgar.

We concluded our evening with a drinks reception in the historic Jerusalem Chamber which dates from the 14th century. This room was formerly the abbot’s chamber and became part of the deanery when the monastery was dissolved in 1540. King Henry IV died in this room on 20 March 1413. The room is accessed from a smaller room – the Jericho chamber – which has original Tudor linenfold panelling. Canon Christopher presented the Dean with a gift from the Friends in appreciation of his support for what we do. We wish him a long and very happy retirement. He has been a marvellous ambassador.

Finally, we have a quiz and fish and chip supper coming up on Tuesday 12 February, and two tours with Paul Pickering in March. Please join us.

There will be a review of Christopher Somerville’s new book in next month’s edition of Oremus.

Forthcoming Events 12 February 2019: Quiz with fish and chip supper in Cathedral Hall at 6.45pm. Tickets £15.

1 March: Keep The Date: At the time of writing we are trying to arrange a tour of Leighton House and possibly Our Lady of Victories church with Paul Pickering. Please check the Cathedral newsletter and website for details.

29 March: The Development of the Altarpiece in Italy from the 13th century to the Baroque with Paul Pickering at The National Gallery.

Meet in the lobby of the Sainsbury Wing at 1.45pm for 2pm. Tea to follow. Tickets £20.

11 April: An evening with Christopher Somerville - writer and journalist from The Times - on his new book Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain's Cathedrals.

He has dedicated a chapter to Westminster Cathedral. The talk will take place in Cathedral Hall.

Doors open at 6.30pm. Talk at 7pm. Tickets £10.

Contact us • Write to: Friends’ Office, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW • Call: 020 7798 9059 • Email: friends@ westminstercathedral.org.uk

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FEBRUARY 2019

THAT THEY MAY BE ONE

An Appeal to Unity Tobias Runeson

After more than 30 years of being a Protestant Christian, I converted to the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil last Spring. Finding my way to that decision was a joyous and exciting experience and I was certainly looking forward to my future as a Catholic believer. The process of discovering the Catholic Church was for me a revelation of depths and aspects of the Christian faith that I simply did not know existed before. However, at the same time it was also with a measure of sadness that I went about this step in my spiritual life. Not because of what I left behind; that process was peaceful and uncontroversial for me. Nor did I convert with a sense of having lost parts of my Christian life, as I knew that the good things I appreciate about the Protestant churches were available in the Catholic Church as well.

No, what truly broke my heart was the fact that we as Christians today are faced with this situation that being a Christian also means having to choose what segment of Christianity to be a part of. We are not just automatically part of the Church, but rather reflect the divisions of this previously undivided body. This open wound through the Christian Church is to me a genuine cause of grief and a profound cause for concern for every Christian. I am well aware of the complexities and difficulties surrounding this matter of ecumenism and I am not suggesting that there are any easy fixes. Neither do I suggest that responsibility for our situation is unilateral, to be placed solely on one or other participant Christian community. The challenge of unity is very much a shared one, for Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants. However, I suggest that there are certainly improvements that could be made to our ecumenical efforts.

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There are instances within ecumenism when we simply disagree and feel that we have reached a dead end, when we have taken the time to listen and understand our different viewpoints but still are at odds with each other; and that might be fine.

However, in my experience and among average Christians, that is often not where we are at. Our disagreements are based on far worse grounds than dialogue and mutual understanding. The late Catholic TV preacher Bishop Fulton Sheen used to say that: ’There are not 100 people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be’.

Unfortunately, 50 years later, I believe that it is still the case, not just in the US and among people in general but also between Protestants and Catholics alike in regard to our mutual understanding.

I came from a Protestant background with a relatively positive and wellinformed view of the Catholic Church.

Nonetheless, when I began to explore Catholic theology a bit more, I still found that the understandings on which I based my views were not just misconceived, but downright prejudice at times. I simply had not understood what the Catholic Church was teaching and was staggered by the presumptions and intellectual inconsistencies of my former denomination. What troubled me more was that I used this poor intellectual basis to protest against the original Christian body that Jesus himself so eagerly prayed would stay united.

The movement I was raised in was called Protestantism, but I had never reflected on actually being a Protester, being reactive against another original movement. Surely I needed at least an unbiased and informed understanding of what I was actually protesting against? That the knowledge of the Church I was opposing was based on something more than just the centuries-old depictions of Catholicism passed down to me across the generations? If I was to share in something as severe as the division of the Church itself, then I must do better than that?

This is where I think we find ourselves as Christians many times today. We have come to faith within the Catholic Church or in some other Christian community where we have discovered the Lord and have much to be grateful and appreciative about.

However, perhaps that also makes it harder to challenge and scrutinise other parts of our particular context and try to look at our position as Christians beyond the comfort of our particular trench on the battlefield?

As I converted, however, I did so with the hope that my generation could actually do just that. To look above the prejudice and stereotypes we might have inherited and instead let a new zeal for unity and reconciliation take root in our hearts, so that Jesus’ prayer that we all may be one would be prayed with the same fervency by us and that our love for him and passion for his Kingdom will be greater than what keeps us apart.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore.

Psalm 133

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DIARY FEBRUARY

2019

St Polycarp of Smyrna, Bishop & Martyr (23 February) St Polycarp is an important figure whose feast is often lost through frequently falling in Lent. Martyred in 156 by being burnt to death, he is a link to the apostles, since he is plausibly recorded as having been taught by St John and appointed as Bishop of Smyrna by him. He also witnesses to early disagreements about how to observe the date of Easter, visiting Rome to discuss the matter with Pope Anicetus, who paid Polycarp the honour of of inviting him to celebrate Mass in his own chapel. When arrested and asked to deny Christ, he refused, noting that he had served the Lord for 86 years ‘and he has done me no wrong’.

Sunday 10 February Ps Week 1 5th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 9am Family Mass 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Dove – Missa brevis Schütz – Die mit Tränen säen MacMillan –A Child’s Prayer Organ: D Buxtehude – Praeludium in E major (BuxWV 141) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Andreas – Magnificat primi toni Croce – Buccinate in neomenia tuba Organ: Brahms – Prelude and Fugue in G minor (BWV 582) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Ben Morris (York Minster)

Monday 4 February

The Month of

Feria

February

Tuesday 5 February

St Agatha, Virgin & Martyr 5.30pm Chapter Mass

Holy Father’s Prayer Intention: UNIVERSAL: For a generous welcome of the victims of human trafficking, of enforced prostitution, and of violence.

Wednesday 6 February

St Paul Miki & Companions, Martyrs

Thursday 7 February Feria

Feria All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

Friday Abstinence Ps Week 3

Saturday 2 February

Friday 8 February

THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD (CANDLEMAS) 11am Mass for Consecrated Life, with Religious of the diocese in attendance (Cardinal Nichols) 6pm Visiting Choir: Amici Coro

St Josephine Bakhita (St Jerome Emiliani)

Friday Abstinence

Monday 11 February

Our Lady of Lourdes

© Louvre

© Fernando de Gorocica

Friday 1 February

St Polycarp

The Presentation in the Temple by Sébastien Bourdon (1644)

Ps Week 4 4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Victoria – Missa quarti toni Tallis – Videte miraculum Guerrero – O Domine Iesu Christe Organ: Dubois – Toccata 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Marenzio – Magnificat octavi toni Rossini – O salutaris hostia Organ: Tournemire – Diptyque (L’Orgue mystique XI) 4.30pm Deaf Service Mass (Cathedral Hall) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Stephen Pinnock (Canterbury) 22

© Didier Descouens

Sunday 3 February

St Jerome Emiliani entrusts orphans to the Blessed Virgin in the church of Our Lady of the Visitation, Venice

Saturday 9 February

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday 2pm Lourdes Mass for the Sick (Cardinal Nichols) 4pm Extraordinary Form Mass (NB: St Joseph’s Chapel) 6pm Victoria Choir sings at Mass

Tuesday 12 February

Feria 6.30pm Quiz Night in Cathedral Hall

Wednesday 13 February Feria

Thursday 14 February

Ss CYRIL, Monk & METHODIUS, Bishop

Friday 15 February Feria

Friday Abstinence

Saturday 16 February

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

DIARY AND NOTICES Sunday 17 February

Ps Week 2 6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Men’s Voices) Palestrina – Missa Nasce la gioia mia Palestrina – Benedictus es Domine Organ: Tournemire – Clameurs et Choral (L’Orgue mystique XII) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Suriano – Magnificat primi toni Palestrina – Sicut lilium inter spinas Organ: Alain – Variations sur un Thème de Clément Jannequin 4.45pm Organ Recital: Geoffrey Woollatt (Manchester Cathedral)

G Gabrieli – Iubilate Deo omnis terra A Gabrieli – O sacrum convivium Organ: Bach, arr. Dupré – Sinfonia to Cantata 29 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Lassus – Magnificat octavi toni Tallis – O salutaris hostia Organ: Bruhns – Praeludium in E minor 4.45pm Organ Recital: Patrick Kampf (Germany)

Monday 18 February

Feria

Monday 25 February Feria

Tuesday 26 February

Feria

Wednesday 27 February

Tuesday 19 February

Feria

Feria

Thursday 28 February

Wednesday 20 February

Feria

Feria

Thursday 21 February

Key to the Diary: Saints’ days and holy days written in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS denote Sundays and Solemnities, CAPITAL LETTERS denote Feasts, and those not in capitals denote Memorials, whether optional or otherwise. Memorials in brackets are not celebrated liturgically.

Feria (St Peter Damian, Bishop & Doctor)

© ToAr

From the Registers

St Peter Damian’s statue outside St Mary’s Basilica, Svatý Kopeček, Czech Republic

With the advent of new Data Protection Regulations during 2018 it became clear that the existing regular publication of names from the Cathedral Registers could no longer be automatically seen as a full and complete record of Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages and Funerals undertaken. Accordingly publication of names has ceased, but the following statistics for the year 2018 can still give an indication of part of the life and work of the Cathedral and the Chaplains:

Friday 22 February

Friday Abstinence THE CHAIR OF ST PETER THE APOSTLE

Baptisms – Male 44; Female 47; Total 91

Saturday 23 February

Reception into Church of a Baptised Child – 1

Sunday 24 February

Confirmations – Male 192; Female 181; Total 373

St Polycarp, Bishop & Martyr Ps Week 3 7th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Berkeley – Missa brevis FEBRUARY 2019

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Marriages – 13 Funerals – 11

What Happens and When

Public Services: The Cathedral opens shortly before the first Mass of the day; doors close at 7.00pm, Monday to Saturday, with occasional exceptions.

On Sunday evenings the Cathedral closes after the 7.00pm Mass. On Public and Bank Holidays the Cathedral closes at 5.30pm in the afternoon.

Monday to Friday: Masses: 7.00am; 8.00am; 10.30am (Latin, said); 12.30pm; 1.05pm and 5.30pm (Solemn, sung by the Choir). Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 7.40am. Evening Prayer (Latin Vespers* sung by the Lay Clerks in the Lady Chapel): 5.00pm (*except Tuesday when it is sung in English). Rosary is prayed after the 5.30pm Mass.

Saturday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn Latin, sung by the Choir); and 12.30pm.

Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 10.00am. First Evening Prayer of Sunday (Lady Chapel): 5.30pm.

First Mass of Sunday: 6.00pm.

Sunday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn, sung by the Choir); 12 noon; 5.30pm; and 7.00pm. Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel) 10.00am.

Solemn Vespers and Benediction: 3.30pm. Organ Recital (when scheduled): 4.45pm.

Holy Days of Obligation: As Monday-Friday, Vigil Mass (evening of the previous day) at 5.30pm.

Public Holidays: Masses: 10.30am, 12.30pm, 5.00pm.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: This takes place in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel every Monday to Friday following the 1.05pm Mass, until 4.45pm.

Confessions are heard at the following times: Saturday: 10.30am-6.30pm. Sunday: 11.00am1.00pm; and 4.30-7.00pm. Monday-Friday: 11.30am-6.00pm. Public Holidays: 11.00am1.00pm.

Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF: Sunday Mass 11.00am, Weekday Mass Thursday 12.30pm Funerals: Enquiries about arranging a funeral at the Cathedral or Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road, should be made to a priest at Cathedral Clergy House in the first instance.

Throughout the Year Mondays: 11.30am: Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 6.30pm: Guild of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral Tuesdays: Walsingham Prayer Group in St George’s Chapel 2.30pm on first Tuesday of the month; 6.30pm: The Guild of St Anthony in the Cathedral.

Wednesdays: 12.00pm: First Wednesday Quiet Days on the first Wednesday of every month in the Hinsley Room.

Thursdays: 1.15pm: Padre Pio Prayer Group at Sacred Heart Church. 6.30pm: The Legion of Mary in Clergy House.

Fridays: 5.00pm: Charismatic Prayer Group in the Cathedral Hall – please check in advance for confirmation.

Saturdays: 10.00am: Centering Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 2.00pm: Justice and Peace Group in the Hinsley Room on the last of the month.

23

TRAFFICKING AND MODERN SLAVERY

Religious on the Front Line The Conference of Religious Members of Religious Congregations in England and Wales are being invited to join a new network that is being set up to strengthen the fight against human trafficking. Two meetings held in January – one in London and one in Manchester – have laid the foundations for it. Organised by the Conference of Religious (the umbrella organisation for congregational leaders), the network aims to draw together the many members of Religious Institutes who are engaged in anti-trafficking work as well as others who would like to offer support and increase their understanding.

The January meetings followed on from recent research conducted by the Arise Foundation, which revealed the scale of the contribution by Religious to anti-slavery. A report from the research was launched at a well-attended event in November and the Prime Minister sent a message praising the ‘extraordinary global contribution of Religious Sisters to the anti-slavery movement’.

The Vice President of the Conference of Religious, Sr Jane Maltby RSCJ explained how this area of apostolic work has grown: ‘The development into anti-trafficking work of Sisters and Brothers in the UK has been influenced by pastoral needs which members of Religious Institutes were encountering in their ministries. The commitment of Religious is long-term, is inspired by traditions of service to those in need, and is an integral part of their spirituality. An important section in the report speaks about the intangible aspects of anti-slavery accompaniment. There are aspects like love and trust which are so critical to this work, and yet feature so rarely in policy conversations on this subject. Love and trust take time to build and to make manifest. It is the core strength of the work of Religious in this area’.

The research revealed that 172 members of Religious Institutes – 144 women and 28 men – are providing frontline services to people who have fallen prey to traffickers.

There has also been a huge contribution to the struggle in the very tangible contribution of properties and money.

Sixteen Congregations have provided 29 properties at a book price of nearly £16.4 million, which is highly likely to be an underestimate of the value of these buildings.

Some of these are used as safe houses where victims of 24

© Judgefloro

Those already involved are active in many ways, from preventative efforts to awareness raising, protection and assistance of victims. Some Congregations have opened their homes to victims and a number of Religious work closely with the police, including Sisters who tip police off and also go out on raids to properties to help support those who are rescued. The help is immediate on the day with the most basic of requirements - clothing, food and accommodation – and can often continue for a lengthy period afterwards as the person attempts to rebuild their life.

modern slavery, including women with children, can find refuge. In addition, Congregations have donated more than £10 million to anti-trafficking in the last five years and 22 Religious have been involved in founding antislavery organisations; they represent the full range of service provision, from prevention work to rescue, shelter and on-going accompaniment.

Sr Jane added: ‘Speaking from a personal perspective, my Congregation owns a property that we no longer need, and, rather than sell this commercially, Statue of St Josephine Bakhita, the we undertook extensive slave who became a Religious, in research and consultation the church of St Paul the Apostle, in order to make the best Tondo, Manila decision we could, that would be in line with our priorities for mission. In the past, we ran schools and projects around the welfare of women and children, with others collaborating with us. Today, we are delighted to be able to turn that around, and we collaborate with others.

In gifting the property and enabling women and children survivors to be cared for in a safe environment, we have entered a partnership which expresses the gospel values of tenderness and mercy, which are so much a part of our charism’.

The new network will be affiliated to similar international groupings like Talitha Kum – a network which facilitates collaboration and the interchange of information between consecrated men and women in 76 countries. Founded nearly a decade ago, it arose from the shared desire to coordinate and strengthen the already existing activities against trafficking undertaken by consecrated persons in the five continents.

Many respondents to the Arise research said that they would like the Conference of Religious to play a role in assisting Religious engaged in anti-slavery work. The new network aims to give support, resources and training, better communications and a stronger voice. A key principle is that the network will be by Religious, for Religious.

Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

ART, WORD, WAR

Anglo-Saxons on Display in Euston Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War is the largest-ever exhibition on the history, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England spanning all six centuries from the eclipse of Roman Britain in the 5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066 and continues at the British Library in Euston to Tuesday 19 February.

Do visit, if you have not yet done so, since the exhibition presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to encounter original evidence from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, a time when the English language was used and written for the first time and the foundations of the kingdom of England were laid down.

The four principal manuscripts of Old English poetry on display together for the first time, with the British Library's unique manuscript of Beowulf displayed alongside, are: the Vercelli Book returning to England for the first time from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli; the Exeter Book on loan from Exeter Cathedral FEBRUARY 2019

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Š British Library

Highlights include: Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving complete Bible in Latin made at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in north-east England in the early 8th century and taken to Italy in 716 as a gift for the Pope. It has returned for the first time in more than 1,300 years, on loan from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence.

Outstanding illuminated and decorated manuscripts, including the St Augustine Gospels on loan from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the Book of Durrow on loan from Trinity College Dublin and the Echternach Gospels on loan from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, on display with the British Library's Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Utrecht, Harley and Eadwine Psalters from Utrecht University Library, the British Library and Trinity College Cambridge respectively.

horn, a wooden trumpet from the 8th century discovered in the river in the 1950s on loan from National Museums Ireland, is on display for the first time alongside the Vespasian Psalter, which includes the oldest translation of part of the Bible into English and depicts two musicians playing similar instruments.

The beginning of the Gospel of St John in the St Cuthbert Gospel book

Library; and the Junius Manuscript on loan from the Bodleian Library. The Domesday Book, the most famous book in English history and the earliest surviving public record, has been loaned from the National Archives; it provides unrivalled evidence for the landscape and administration of late Anglo-Saxon England.

A number of recently discovered archaeological objects include the Binham Hoard, the largest collection of gold from 6th century Britain, on loan from the Norfolk Museums Service; the Lichfield Angel, on loan from Lichfield Cathedral; and key objects from the Staffordshire Hoard, discovered in 2009, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, on loan from Birmingham Museums Trust and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery; together with other exceptional objects such as the Sutton Hoo gold buckle and the Fuller Brooch on loan from the British Museum, and the Alfred Jewel, on loan from the Ashmolean Museum. The River Erne

Other texts are the earliest surviving English charter, issued in 679 and granting land to the Abbot of Reculver; the oldest original letter written in England, from the Bishop of London to the Archbishop of Canterbury, dating from early 8th century; and the earliest surviving letter in English, the Fonthill letter, from the early 10th century, on loan from Canterbury Cathedral. The St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact European book with its original binding, made at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, was acquired by the British Library in 2012 following the Library's most successful fundraising campaign for an acquisition.

Through archaeological objects, unique charters and manuscripts, some of which have returned to England for the first time, the exhibition features famous figures such as King Alfred the Great and King Cnut, and it reveals a highly developed culture, deeply connected with its European neighbours, from Ireland in the west to the eastern Mediterranean. From illuminated manuscripts to the earliest surviving will of an English woman, the exhibition highlights the key role manuscripts played in the transmission of ideas, religion, literature and artistic influences throughout England and across political and geographical boundaries, as well as the sophisticated skill and craftsmanship of the artwork produced at this time.

For more information and a short film see: www.bl.uk/events/anglo-saxonkingdoms

25

FIFTY AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle This is an appeal sermon. It is not, however, the usual kind of appeal. It is made in direct response to a request from Pope Paul that Catholics all over the world should observe today as a day of prayer for Peace. Such a phrase is enough to put you all to sleep. Peace is a sleepy sort of word and anyway fighting and war a long way from here: Nigeria, Vietnam, the Middle East or even Londonderry. War hasn’t much to do with us or so we are inclined to think.

Nonsense, of course. All of us who pay taxes, direct or indirect, are deeply, personally involved in the War Business.

Have you got a pair of Bren guns or a box of grenades in your back room? No reason why you shouldn’t have, since every man, woman and child in this country spent about £35 each on armaments last year. And apart from expenditure on our own arms we also belong to an exporting economy.

Not only cars, radios and sewing machines, but also rockets, tanks and bombers. No, it is no good getting sleepy. We are all involved in the war machine up to our necks.

Pope Paul wrote to us all in 1967. His letter, Populorum Progressio, should be compulsory reading for everyone.

Peace, he said, is not an accident that just happens. It is the result of effort, work and patience. ‘Peace is the fruit of anxious daily care to see that every man lives in justice as God intends’. Anxious daily care; hard work; the application of our talents; a knowledge of Catholic history, teaching and tradition. And how far we have left that tradition behind!

Our Lord told us to turn the other cheek and Peter to put away his sword. He also told us to feed the hungry. Today, our country spends £2,000 million each year on the swords of the 20th century, £900 million each year on beer, and only £150 million is lent or given to the poor countries of the world: our brothers in Christ.

Only now do we Christians begin to find this situation rather odd. The earliest Christian tradition was that of absolute pacifism. I wonder how much of the international esteem in which the Quakers are held is not a recognition of their witness to that ideal.

Excerpt from the Peace Sunday Sermon in the Westminster Cathedral News Sheet, February 1969

To the Editor of the ‘Times’ Sir, - Your article on ‘Gilding the Lily’ calls for some protest and some comment from those artists who, like myself, have had a share in the ‘eruption of mosaic,’ as the writer calls it, in the Westminster Cathedral. The writer, with all his justifiable appreciation of the picturesque effect of the church in its present unfinished state, seems to have no conception of its purpose, or what the problem before the architect was. It was not an engineering problem, as he says, but an architect’s problem – that of framing up nobly proportioned spaces in which to carry out out the magnificent and pathetic and solemn ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. The framework of these spaces was itself to convey to the eye of the spectator the history and doctrine of the Church through the presentation of sacred characters and symbols. The church was from the first moment of its inception as much meant to be a gallery of sacred pictures as a chamber for sacred music or a temple of worship.

I have before me two of Mr Bentley’s drawings, in which the mosaics are carefully indicated both as to scale and subject, and I know that he had a complete scheme for the whole of the church. The critic’s pleasure in the incongruity of rather dirty stock-brick and the smooth surface of marble in juxtaposition must not lead him to believe that this was sufficient for Mr Bentley, who undoubtedly regarded mosaics as part of the functions of the church and not merely as decorations. The mosaics may be well or badly done, but they are no more ‘much ado about nothing’ than the brick-work walls and piers can be described as ‘masses of masonry,’ a curious mistake which your critic twice repeats …

I entirely agree with your critic that it is the finest church of modern times and I sincerely hope that the authorities will go carefully, very carefully – and slowly – with the decoration of the interior. But that they should never carry out the intention of the architect and the raison d’être of the building in deference to the taste of the visitor with an eye for the picturesque is inconceivable.

I am, Sir, yours, etc., ROBERT ANNING BELL Royal College of Art Letter reprinted without comment in the Westminster Cathedral Chronicle, February 1919

26

Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

CROSSWORD AND POEM

God’s Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil, It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then not now reck His rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with

toil; And bears man’s smudge, and shares man’s smell; the

soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights from the black west went, Oh, morning at the brown brink eastwards springs – Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast , and with, ah, bright wings.

Alan Frost: January 2019

Clues Across 1 A piece of music such as Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (7) 6 Tax on wine container? (3) 8 St Henry -----, convert, priest and Tyburn martyr, Feast day 1 Feb. (5) 9 Francis -------. French 20th c. composer whose works include a Stabat Mater (7) 10 In hac lacrimarum -----, cf Hail, Holy Queen(5) 11 Prophet and Old Testament Book (6) 13 Relating to breakdown of social norms and hopeless condition therefrom (6) 15 Ornament a ceiling with raised relief (6) 17 Country where the Angelus is broadcast daily on national TV (6) 20 Part of sanctuary for singers or attendant clergy (5) 21 Field animals, one depicted on the wall just inside the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel (7) 23 Portrayed in an icon or religious painting (5) 24 Rue de …, Parisian street associated with the Miraculous Medal (3) 25 English saint, founder of an Order named after him, Feast day 16 Feb. (7) Clues Down 1 The last monastic Office or Prayer of the day (8) 2 Group of distant stars looking like a cosmic mist (6) 3 Thomas ----, composer of Rule Britannia (4) 4 Washable vestment worn around the neck (5) 5 French region associated with St Mary Magdalen after the death of Jesus (8) 6 Parchment material used by mediaeval monks for illustrated manuscripts (6) 7 Red ----, term deriving from the binding of documents in the Vatican archives (4) 12 Member of an OT empire in Mesopotamia (8) 14 Small symbol of belief in Christianity (8) 16 Short term for a film about a person’s life (6) 18 Stalactite-like sign of cold weather (6) 19 Composer of an Ave Maris Stella and the Peer Gynt Suite (5) 20 Nativity scene that may be presented until Candlemas (4) 22 Demon worshipped by the Canaanites (4)

To submit a poem whether by yourself or another for consideration, please contact the Editor – details on page 3.

FEBRUARY 2019

Oremus

ANSWERS Across: 1 Cantata 6 VAT 8 Morse 9 Poulenc 10 Valle 11 Isaiah 13 Anomic 15 Emboss 17 Mexico 20 Choir 21 Rabbits 23 Image 24 Bac 25 Gilbert Down: 1 Compline 2 Nebula 3 Arne 4 Amice 5 Provence 6 Vellum 7 Tape 12 Assyrian 14 Crosslet 16 Biopic 18 Icicle 19 Grieg 20 Crib 22 Baal

A manuscript example of Manley Hopkins writing verse

27

TRACING THE DISAPPEARED

Christian Slaves in Islamic Lands Dr Matteo Salonia

Š Museum of Saragossa

During the Middle Ages, the institution of slavery was widespread across the Mediterranean world. But from the end of the fifteenth century, slavery became a weapon deliberately used by various Islamic powers to terrorise the Christian populations of Southern Europe, in the context of an escalating jihad. After taking Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans continued their unstoppable expansion and eventually offered political and military support to the Muslim corsairs of the Barbary Coast, in North Africa. Only the Venetian fleet in the Adriatic and the Genoese fleet in the Western Mediterranean stood between Islam and Europe. But as it soon became clear, they could hardly patrol all the coasts of Christendom.

St Peter Nolasco (1180-1245), founder of the Mercedarians, as imagined by Jusepe MartĂ­nez (1600-1682) 28

In the three centuries from 1480 to 1780, about two million Christians, mostly Catholics, were captured when their ships were boarded by Muslim pirates, or during Islamic raids along the coasts of Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, and even England. At times, these raids pushed deep into the hinterland of countries whose armies were mobilised too slowly. Men and women working in the fields or in their homes, fishermen on small boats, sailors and captains aboard larger vessels, and sea travellers including diplomats, churchmen and merchants, were captured and brought mostly to the slave markets of North Africa. But in 1691, Cardinal Corsi discovered that even in Rimini there were hundreds of poor women, whose husbands had been taken while out fishing and were held as slaves by the Ottomans in present-day Montenegro.

This was a systematic targeting of Christians that still lives in the memory of many regions of Southern Europe, where some coastal areas bear the signs of a seismic readjustment in their human geographies and economies, which was caused by entire villages and towns being abandoned and populations moving deep into the countryside, away from the Islamic menace coming from the sea.

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FEBRUARY 2019

TRACING THE DISAPPEARED Sons and daughters, husbands and brothers, rich and poor were snatched and carried in chains to the dungeons of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and other North African slave markets.

Once one of these Christian slaves reached his destination, much of his fate depended on which kind of Muslim master would buy him. If the slave was a woman, the chances of becoming a domestic or sexual slave were high. On the other hand, men could be sent to a broader range of works. Some slaves were recognised as relatively wealthy and therefore they were assigned lighter duties like washing toilets and playing instruments, because their owners, hoping to cash in a ransom, wished to keep them alive. But the majority were not so lucky: most slaves were sent to work on exhausting and often deadly tasks, such as quarrying, constructions, plantations, and rowing in the galleys. During the night, slaves owned by the state were locked up in the bagni (public prisons). Here, the presence of slave priests was crucial to limit the number of apostates, as they offered the Sacraments, preached, and kept the Faith alive in the sad hearts of so many thousands of Christian slaves.

For these Christian captives, the only hope to ever be freed was to somehow write to their families and let them know that they had indeed been kidnapped and were now slaves in a certain town. Then, if their relatives could gather enough

money and if their master agreed, they could be ransomed, but only after many months, if not years. The Church, facing this crisis and hearing the plea of parents and wives whose beloved had been snatched by Muslim corsairs, responded by reviving the two medieval orders specifically established to rescue Christian captives in Islamic lands: the Trinitarians and the Mercedarians. Many missionaries from these two orders ventured to Islamic ports to conduct negotiations with slave owners and public authorities. Notwithstanding their efforts, relatively few slaves could be rescued, also because a slave was always subject to suddenly being sold and moved somewhere else. In this situation, some Christians apostatised and embraced Islam. These renegades began a new life within Islamic society, very often becoming wealthy and constituting a sort of caste. Yet, most slaves stayed Catholic and held on to their Faith even at the cost of their (earthly) lives.

Today, this story is largely forgotten.

It does not find space in the history textbooks (not to mention university courses or TV series) of Western Europe. The story of millions of white, mostly Catholic, innocent civilians being targeted and enslaved for three centuries by Muslim slave merchants and slaveholders is not considered ‘politically correct’. Yet, for us, as Catholics, this page in the history of Europe is interesting and

Mercedarians ransoming enslaved Christians

worth remembering for at least two reasons. First, this is a telling page in the history of Christendom, and it puts into perspective the role played by various popes to co-ordinate Catholic coalitions (such as the one defeating a large Ottoman fleet at Lepanto, in 1571). Secondly, this story is part of the Church’s history, not only because the Church attempted to answer this crisis and to rescue as many as possible of her children, but also because each and everyone of these children were such in virtue of their baptism. Therefore, their individual stories – whether of supernatural hope and martyrdom, or of complete despair and even apostasy – are useful to us, as we try to grow in the Faith and ask for the grace of final perseverance.

Dr Matteo Salonia holds a PhD in History from the University of Liverpool and is currently a Lecturer in Early Modern History at King’s College, London.

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FEBRUARY 2019

Oremus

29

ST VINCENT DE PAUL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Saints in Mosaic – St Thérèse of Lisieux Rachel

I have known the Cathedral ever since I was a young child because I go there to pray every Sunday at Mass. Going into the Cathedral feels like a normal thing to me, but I think people who are new to the church would think its eye-catching and grand. When I go into the Cathedral I feel joyful and blessed because it has the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. I feel blessed because I feel that God is looking down at me and making me feel safe. The mosaic I’m going to focus on is the mosaic of St Thérèse of Lisieux.In school, I belong to her house group.

In the Cathedral, her mosaic is actually hidden on a pillar near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and no one can see her, only the priests and the servers on the altar.

Although St Thérèse is hidden in that way, she is actually the most popular female saint. She also has a nickname, the Little Flower of Jesus. Like some of us, she wanted to know more about Jesus and she felt joyful and blessed thinking about him.

When St Thérèse was a little girl, she was very spoilt and used to throw tantrums to get what she wanted. When she grew up, she slowly changed and wanted to become a nun; and she was very determined that she would get what she wanted. She was so determined that she even made herself look older by putting her hair up in a bun to go to Rome to ask the Pope if she could be a nun at the age of 14. Although the Pope was impressed with her, he said she had to be patient and obedient. She eventually became a nun at 15.

The group of nuns she wanted to join was one of the strictest, because when you enter, you could not come out of the convent. They were called Carmelites.When St Thérèse was a nun, she was not really noticed by anyone, but she tried to do everything perfectly and she called it her ‘little way’. If things were hard, she just did everything with a smile on her face. Behind the walls of the convent, she spent her time praying for priests and missionaries. She even wrote to the missionaries to encourage them in their work.

St Thérèse died at a very young age of tuberculosis because it was a disease that couldn’t be cured in those days. She died at the age of 24, and the other nuns didn’t know what they would say about her because she was so young and hadn’t done very much. When they went through her desk, they found over 200 letters, many poems, prayers, her autobiography and an exercise book in which she had written about her ‘little way’. Due to her writings, she became very famous and people loved the ‘little way’.

The Cathedral has a bronze relief of St Thérèse and a modern mosaic. The mosaic looks interesting. There are roses in the background because she is the Little Flower 30

of Jesus and she is holding a picture of the child Jesus.

When young Thérèse saw a statue of the child Jesus and she called herself Thérèse of the Child Jesus, because she thought that the statue was smiling at her because she had just dedicated her life to Jesus. All the modern mosaics have a gold halo with a red border. This is because the mosaic stones are covered with gold leaf, which make them shimmer. If the whole cathedral were covered in mosaics, it would be cool, because I think it would attract people to come here more often.

St Thérèse is one of the hidden mosaics of the Cathedral that can only be seen by the priests, which reminds them that she is still praying for them in heaven; and we can all see the bronze relief of her, which reminds us that she is praying for us too, which makes me feel joyful and blessed.

Oremus

FEBRUARY 2019

A GRAVE SEALED

Cardinal Cormac’s Ledger Stone Blessed

After hours on several December nights, the stonemasons were hard at work putting the ledger stone for the late Cardinal Cormac in place and preparing the surrounding floor for the new dark marble edging. Their hammering was a strange contrast to the organ practice that accompanied it on one evening.

May he rest in peace.

With all prepared, a funeral pall covered the stone until the end of Mass, when Cardinal Vincent, with concelebrating clergy, came in procession to bless the stone.

The blessing was arranged to take place at the annual pre-Christmas Mass attended by members of diocesan and Archbishop’s House staff. Members of the late Cardinal’s family were also present.

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31

Š Jan Derk

BOOK NOTICE

Africa Observed

The Great Enclosure in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Rebecca Tinsley Two articles in this edition of Oremus refer to people trafficking and slavery, in the Mediterranean of the 17th and 18th centuries and in the Europe of our own day. This book also uncovers a trade in people whilst exploring perceptions of Africa in previous centuries.

Too little is known of the pre-colonial history of Africa, partly because there are almost no surviving accounts written by Africans, and partly because Europeans refused to believe there were sophisticated empires on the continent before they arrived. This book attempts to set the record straight, with vivid descriptions of powerful kingdoms in lands we now know as Mauritania, Ethiopia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mali. But because so few ethnic groups had a written language, most of the contemporary reportage used here comes from Arab missionaries, officials and traders.

The travellers describe elaborate courts and palaces, but few traces of the buildings remain. Moreover, little attempt has been made to excavate areas where it is suspected there may be ruins of ancient African empires. For instance, in Zimbabwe there are 4,000 disused mines dating from before European colonialism. Until the end of apartheid, it was politically inconvenient for white academics in South Africa or Rhodesia to admit that the Bantu people had been capable of sustaining thriving societies.

Gold and slaves were traded north, and salt came south.

The Arabs described sub-Saharan Africa as sudan, the land of the blacks. Unfortunately, it is still common for Arabs to call black Africans abid or slave. In almost every chapter there is some reference to the trade in people, although the author chose not to use some of the more graphic contemporary descriptions of how many black Africans died in the caravans

The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages; FX Fauvelle; Princeton University Press 2018; Hardcover ÂŁ24.00; ISBN 9780691181264; 280 pp., 7 colour + 36 b/w illus., 2 maps taking them to Arab lands. Nigerian academics believe vast numbers of men bled to death after being castrated by the Arab traders. If there is any criticism of this book, it is that it fails to convey the brutality of the slave trade, for men and women, and the scale of the business, with millions sold into appalling conditions in Arab countries.

A common and familiar theme emerges from these pages: outsiders plundering Africa for its wealth, and imposing their religion on local people. It is evident from these accounts that Europeans were not the first colonisers: the Arabs were present from the sixth or seventh century onward. Muslim missionaries concentrated in converting African elites, rather than their subjects. They also focused their efforts on the cities, meaning that rural areas kept to their traditional beliefs until the Christians arrived. They also brought a global language, Arabic, opening up relatively easy trade opportunities for the Arabs.

The author points out that there is evidence of Chinese, Afghan and Indian goods being traded in Africa from the sixth century onward. Next time a politician denounces free trade and migration, we should bear in mind that history is not on their side. We humans have been interconnected for a very long time. As this book makes clear, it has allowed ideas to circulate, to almost everyone's benefit.

For more information, see: https://press.princeton.edu/ titles/13228.html