Burnham Abbey

Last Saturday some thirty or so members of the society enjoyed an outing to Buckinghamshire and Berkshire arranged by Michael Yelton. I shall post some pictures of the buildings we visited over the next few days. The final stop was at Burnham Abbey, home of the Society of the Precious Blood, an enclosed order founded in 1905. The nuns occupy the medieval domestic buildings of the former house of Augustinian Canonesses, suppressed at the Dissolution. At one time this was one of the most ultramontane communities in the Church of England, although nowadays it is far more restrained. Nevertheless, the watch before the Sacrament, which is kept in a very English hanging pyx today, is still a major feature of the liturgical regime. Personally I found the chapel, which was re-ordered a few years back, very attractive in ts simplicity. It occupies the old Chapter House.

ACHS Annual Trip

The visit this year will be to the Berkshire/Buckinghamshire area and as already announced will be on Saturday 19th July. We are leaving King’s Cross at 9.30 a.m. Pick up is to be in York Way, to the eastern side of Kings Cross Station.
Note that this is a different place from earlier years and is designed for easier access and for easier egress from London. It is essential that we leave on time.

We shall be visiting two interesting churches, All Saints, Ascot Heath, and also the well known All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead. Arrangements have now also been made via an enthusiastic and knowledgeable resident to gain entry to Nashdom, the stunning Lutyens house which formerly housed the Anglican Benedictine community in order to see both part of the interior (which is now in flats) and to visit the cemetery, where major figures such as Gregory Dix are buried. Finally, we are privileged to be able to visit the Sisters of the Society of the Precious Blood at Burnham Abbey. Neither Nashdom nor Burnham Abbey are normally available for private individual visits so this is a great opportunity.

The cost of the trip is £25.00 and bookings should be sent to George Skelly at 24, Cloudesley Square, London N1 0HN with cheques made out to the Society, using the form below which can be printed out


To: George Skelly, Treasurer, ACHS, 24 Cloudesley Square, London, N1 0HN
Telephone 020 7833 1555, mobile 07891 032653

From…………………………………………………………………………
Address……………………………………………………………………..
Telephone…………………………………………………………………..
Please reserve me seats on the coach for 19th July 2008.
Society
Enclosed cheque P/O for for £ made payable to the Anglo-Catholic History

All Saints, Carshalton, Surrey

I rang in a peal here last Saturday and managed to get some photos of the vestments on display. I have never seen so many black copes in a church, with four in evidence. There was also a new blue fiddleback High Mass set on display, a pink chasuble and a monkey in a biretta! All of these were set amongst the gorgeous Comper furnishings. The parish has undergone something of a revival recently after eighty or so pretty miserable years and a great deal of credit is due to the incumbent and churchwardens for turning things around. In the first half of the twentieth century it was one of the most Papalist parishes in the country, although this was later moderated into a much more restrained Prayer Book Catholic style, a tradition that still continues.

You can click on the title of this post to reach the church's website.

Scenes from the AGM

The AGM has been and gone

The AGM of the Anglo-Catholic History Society took place last Monday as advertised. Like all good business meetings it was short and to the point, which allowed members plenty of time to enjoy the lecture by Dr Peter Webster on Anglo-Catholicism and the Arts. This dealt with the three related fields of music, drama and visual art, and I hope we will be able to read the paper before too long.

Imagery in St Magnus

This rather large image of the Vernicle is found in the Lady Chapel at St Magnus. I can't think of many churches that have one of these. Nearby is the Travers statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. Fr Fynes-Clinton was one of the most prominent supporters of the shrine in its early days.

AGM Time

It will soon be time for the Society’s Annual General Meeting. This will take place at St Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6DN. The church is only a few yards from Monument Tube Station.

The meeting will commence at 7pm, and will be followed by a lecture at 7.30pm on Anglo-Catholicism and the Arts, 1918-1970. The speaker will be Dr Peter Webster, the editorial controller of British History Online. This will be followed by drinks and the opportunity to socialise.

Travers’s statue of St Magnus sports rather a fine pair of horns and a smart red cloak.

Some thoughts on this church

Many people have heard of St Magnus through the line in T.S.Eliot’s Waste Land referring to the “inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.” I have always assumed this refers to the Travers refurnishing of the church, rather than Wren’s architecture. but have never felt moved to check, since I developed an extreme aversion to the works of Mr Eliot when I was doing my A Levels. In fact the poem predates the Travers restoration by a couple of years, and this made me speculate as to what the church was like before the Fynes-Clinton incumbency. It seems that it had a very conventional interior, since G.B.Besant wrote in his City Churches and their Memories (1926) 'As to the interior of St. Magnus, up to a year ago it was worth visiting. Spacious and severe - rather bare, as a matter of fact - with high pews and a three-decker pulpit, it was thoroughly representative of the architect and the period. But now all has changed. The three-decker pulpit and high pews are gone by the board. In the place of the one simple altar there are now three, with candles to burn, and a heavy smell of incense, all in the Roman manner - hopelessly and absolutely out of keeping. That is how it strikes me.'

The church has long been considered to be the most ultramontane place of worship in the City of London. Fr Fynes-Clinton certainly used Latin for some devotions, although I am a little unclear whether he used it at Mass. It would have been rather hard to tell anyway in the days of the silent canon. There are various stories told of outraged Protestants coming to view the grave of Miles Coverdale and being told by the then incumbent that they had just finished a service in the language out of which Coverdale translated the Bible. As an aside, there are various stories of Bishop Coverdale haunting the church: it would be interesting to know what the poor ghost thinks of it, because it certainly bears little resemblance to Exeter Cathedral in the 1550s. Moving forward 450 years, I understand that this church has restored the use of the humeral veil at High Mass. Is it the first Anglican parish to do so since the Tridentine rite has been rehabilitated in the Roman Church? Maybe somebody would confirm or deny?

Here is a link to the church’s website http://www.stmagnusmartyr.org.uk/

John Hawes