All Saints, Brixworth, Northamptonshire

In the early Anglo-Saxon period, Northamptonshire belonged to the Kingdom of Mercia and was overrun by the Danes in the 9th century.

Brixworth is one of the foremost Anglo-Saxon buildings surviving in the United Kingdom.

All Saints, Brixworth is essentially an Anglo-Saxon church, described by Clapham as 'perhaps the most imposing architectural memorial of the seventh century surviving north of the Alps'.

The date is based on the 12th century Peterborough chronicle of Hugh Candidus, who attributed its foundation to Cuthbald, abbot from AD 675.

Fernie (1983) preferred a date between AD 800 and 860 on the basis of continental parallels, particularly for the exterior ring crypt, the square choir bay preceding the apse, and the probable original form of the wall between nave and choir.

The church has a long, unaisled nave of four bays, these marked by wall arches of brick now containing windows. These arches originally led into flanking spaces divided into porticus.

East of the nave is the square choir bay, now entered under a broad 15th century arch, and east of this the apse with three windows.

From the exterior the apse is polygonal, but this is a 10th century modification; it was originally semicircular.

Here too can be seen the remains of the ring crypt, original to the design and formerly barrel-vaulted.

On the South side of the square choir bay is a chapel of circa 1300.

At the west end signs of a late 10th century remodelling are also visible.

References:

Brixworth History Society
http://www.brixworthhistory.org/

For a magisterial essay and note on the Church, there is no better than
The Church of All Saints by Stephanie James
http://www.britannia.com/church/saxchurch/brixworth1.html

St. Andrew's Church, Greensted

Near Ongar, Essex, lies the hamlet of Greensted. The parish has existed since Saxon times, and little has changed. It is also a place that has strong ties with St Edmund, once King of East Anglia.

Greensted Church is the oldest wooden church in Europe still standing.

It was once thought to be an old Saxon church, possibly around 850, but this apparently came from a faulty tree ring dating in 1960. In 1996 scientists at Sheffield University revised it to 1053 +10 -55 years, so that it could be at the very end of the Saxon period, or just possibly early Norman.

The nave is mostly original. The walls are of split oak tree trunks rounded on the outside and flat inside. They are "tongue and grooved" together.

The flint footings of the chancel wall and the pillar piscina inside the santuary are all that remain of any traditional Norman work

In 1013 an ancient chronicler records that the body of St Edmund was, for a night, deposited at Greensted Church. There are many tributes to St Edmund in the church itself.

The church, like many, has had additional work performed on it over the centuries.

Its walls portray some of the few frescoes to survive the iconoclasm of the English Reformation.

Painted over with a lime wash in the 1540s the frescoes were uncovered again in the 1870s. Sadly the Rector at the time had many of the frescoes over-painted to give them a Pre Raphaelite style and his use of the wrong type of plaster has effectively destroyed much of the original artwork.

Greensted is still a functioning church and holds services every week.

References:

Early English Architecture
The Buildings of the Anglo-Saxons, 450 CE to 1066
http://www.octavia.net/anglosaxon/earlyEnglishArchitecture.htm

Virtual Photography: St. Andrew's Church
http://merlin.mantissa.net/~admin18/WOODCHURCH/zWOODCHURCH.html

BeenThere-DoneThat
http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/greensted.html

Stave churches
http://www.answers.com/topic/stave-church

church_heritage_in_essex (.doc file)
http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/content/binaries/documents/church_heritage_in_essex.doc?channelOid=null

Mother Mary Garson

The Times Obituary section has a full obituary on Mother Mary Garson who turned one care home in Brighton into a Benedictine congregation with over 200 Sisters and 27 homes for the elderly and needy in three continents.

Garson worked as a psychologist before converting to Catholicism in her early thirties. In the 1950s she used Church money to buy a local house to care for the infirm. The house became a congregation, which adopted the rule of St Benedict in 1978, with Garson as its first Prioress-General. Garson oversaw the establishment of foundations in south Asia in the 1970s and Africa in the 1990s.

Mother Mary Garson was the foundress and first Prioress-General of the Sisters of Our Lady of Grace and Compassion, a Benedictine congregation with over 200 Sisters running 27 homes for the elderly and needy in three continents.

Garson worked as a psychologist before converting to Catholicism in her early thirties. In the 1950s she used Church money to buy a local house to care for the infirm. The house became a congregation, which adopted the rule of St Benedict in 1978, with Garson as its first Prioress-General. Garson oversaw the establishment of foundations in south Asia in the 1970s and Africa in the 1990s.

Mother Mary Garson was the foundress and first Prioress-General of the Sisters of Our Lady of Grace and Compassion, a Benedictine congregation with over 200 Sisters running 27 homes for the elderly and needy in three continents.

She was born in Aberdeenshire in 1921, educated at Aberdeen University, where she took an MA degree in Psychology, and was commissioned in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War. After leaving the WAAF, she worked as an industrial psychologist with Philips before joining East Sussex Child Guidance Clinics as an educational psychologist.

As a “reluctant” Catholic convert in her early thirties, Garson visited a half-blind lady who was trying to look after her blind sister and an elderly friend, both of whom were bed-ridden. Convinced that wider action was needed, she secured £800 from her priest to get a mortgage for a local house in Brighton.

When the first house was opened, Mary Garson was still going out to work. The growth in spirituality, with the desire for stability and the strength to be gained from a dedicated Community life, together with the advice of the Bishop of Southwark, Cyril Cowderoy, led the group in 1959 to plan for the foundation of a Religious Congregation.

The need for direction and deepening of family life led the congregation to follow the Rule of St Benedict in 1978.

From 1974, the congregation spread overseas beginning with a house in Sri Lanka. In 1975 Garson visited India and was shaken by the extent of poverty. There are now five foundations in India, including a school of nursing and farms.

Work started in Africa in 1990 with a convent at Mundika, Kenya, followed by a home for the destitute elderly. The most recent expansion was in 2003 with the opening of the first house in Uganda, where the sisters are engaged in schools, nursery education and parish work.

Mother Mary was awarded the Papal Cross, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, for services to the church and the Papacy in 2002, and an appointed MBE in 2004.

Mother Mary Garson, nun, was born on October 3, 1921. She died on March 8, aged 85

Zimbabwe

Archbishop Pius Ncube at the Catholic Church in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

The Times has a report on the growing unrest and anarchy in Zimbabwe where the regime of Robert Mugabe is still clinging to power.

Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo added to the pressure on Mr Mugabe yesterday. Sensing his growing vulnerability, he called on Zimbabweans to “stand up and fill the streets and demand this man stand down”. He promised to take the lead, declaring: “The pastors must be the ones in front of the blazing guns.”

Archbishop Ncube added to [Mugabe`s] problems yesterday with his bold declaration at a meeting organised by the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance. The gangly, loose-limbed Archbishop had prefaced his remarks during a twilight interview with The Times earlier this week in a small garden next to his cathedral. “If we can get 30,000 people together even Mugabe’s army would not be able to control it,” he said, and indicated that he was thinking of stepping into the leadership vacuum caused by infighting within the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Yesterday he did so. “It’s time for a radical stance, not soft speeches and cowardice,” Archbishop Ncube, 60, declared to cheers from the assembled clerics. “I am willing to stand in front. The time is now.”

Given the desperation of the people it is just possible someone such as Archbishop Ncube could provide the spark that sets Zimbabwe ablaze. The Archbishop’s promise to lead “changes the whole scope of the crisis, and gives the struggle a new dimension”, Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said.

The Archbishop was well known domestically and internationally. It would be hard for the regime to “bash” him. “He is emerging in the mould of [Desmond] Tutu. We need a Tutu in Zimbabwe,” Mr Masunungure said, referring to the Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

Mr Mugabe is a great survivor, and even his fiercest critics concede that he is a brilliant tactician. They also know that he will stop at nothing to retain power, and predict that things could become even worse before they get better. “Unfortunately it may come to bloodshed,” Archbishop Ncube told The Times. “People are upset now. They are angry. If they burn cars Mugabe will resort to shooting. He will do anything for power."

Seeking God? Cardinal says, "Visit a Shrine"

Pope John Paul II on a visit to the Shrine of St Michael at Garagano, Monte Sant’Angelo in Apulia. The origin of the shrine goes back to the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century.

The late Pope John Paul II must have visited just about every Catholic shrine and place of pilgrimage in the world. In Italy, going by the number of plaques commemorating visits by him, no Catholic shrine or place of pilgrimage seems to have escaped a trip.

In an age where "Heritage" trips are increasingly popular and very big business, it is perhaps surprising that the Church has not tapped more into this longing by people to visits places of historical significance.

Instead of the phony and/or simplistic history that is peddled at many of the commercial sites, the Church has a great deal to offer.

Perhaps it is a hangover from the days of the Reformation, when the Church was criticised greatly (and perhaps with a measure of justice ?) about the commercial exploitation of what should be holy. Some of the relics on view were to say the least "suspect".

However recently, Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, highlighted the importance of shrines at the International Consultation on Shrines and Pilgrimages held last week in Bangalore.

“Shrines are visible signs of god’s loving power. The spirit of God is present when believers make their hearts ready for him and go to sacred places precisely with this readiness," said Cardinal Toppo.

He pointed out that sacred places are recognized by all religious cultures and that they answer a need in people's hearts: contact with God.

Cardinal Toppo added: "We find [shrines] in the history of Christianity, right from the beginning; we have the sacred places where Jesus lived.

"In fact, Jesus himself went several times to Jerusalem to celebrate the great Jewish feasts. … Jesus' life is portrayed as a journey to Jerusalem, a pilgrimage."

"Christians, when they visit these places experience immense joy and … feel the presence of Jesus," the cardinal continued. "The shrines and pilgrimage places … are there so that we may be filled by his Spirit, hear the Word of God, and come to know Jesus … more intimately and love him more ardently."

The full reports are in:

Zenit: (Code: ZE07032127; Date: 2007-03-21)
http://www.zenit.org/english/

Catholic. org
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=23380

The Indian Catholic
http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=6754

Indian Catholic Bishops Website
http://www.cbcisite.com/cbcinews1509.htm


Tourism, Shrines and Pilgrimages are dealt with by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
See: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/index.htm
and
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/s_index_tourism/rc_pc_migrants_sectiontourists.htm

La Certosa di Farneta, near Lucca

The Carthusian vocation is one of the most difficult vocations in the Roman Catholic Church.

Unfortunately films like The Grand Silence may mislead some into believing that the vocation is one of splendid isolation in peaceful tranquil surroundings. Shangrila ?

As a result it can perhaps be attractive to the wrong sort of person. Presumably the monks are very able to deal with people like that and let them down gently. With charity.

The life is one of hard physical and mental toil. It is probably not suited to those accustomed to the sedentary professions.

Unfortunately also perhaps the monasteries have had to turn to tourism: one to possibly increase vocations, two, to let the community know about its work and to seek support for their work and three, to increase income

Perhaps a tourist relaxed on holiday may gain the wrong impression of life in the monastery and see it as the antidote to the rather humdrum and tedious existence back at home perhaps hundreds, thousands of miles away.

The Carthusian vocation, like all vocations, is not about running away, flight. It is about facing reality.

Anyway here is one Carthusian monastery in Lucca. A rather beautiful one located in Tuscany.

The Carthusian House of Farneta (La Certosa di Farneta) is in the Lucchesan Hills. It is dedicated to the Holy Spirit.

The first buildings were constructed in 1340 through the charity of a rich Lucchesan merchant, Gardo di Bartolomeo Aldebrandi.

Of the original buildings, only the small cloister remains.

All the other buildingsdate from renovations carried out between the 16th and 17th centuries.

The cloister was renovated in 1509. The church was decorated with frescoes in 1693.

In 1806, the Napoleonic invasions of Italy led to the suppression of the monasteries, including this one.

In 1903, the French Government suppressed all monasteries in France including the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusians. The French abbot purchased the site of the Certosa di Farneta and all the monks were transferred to this house in Italy.

Some new buildings were erected: to accomodate the participants in a General Chapter. A new second cloister was added.

They stayed until June 1940 when they were allowed to return to the Grande Chartreuse.

Farneta remained an independent Carthusian monastery.

During the Second World War, it was a refuge for persecuted politicians and those of the Jewish faith. On 1st September 1944, German soldiers invaded the monastery and took away all persons whom they found. Most were killed on or around 10th September 1944. The rest were deported.

Of those 50 or so who were killed were twelve monks from the monastery, including the prior Father Martino Binz, the procurator Father Gabriele Maria Costa and Bernardo M. Montes de Oca, once Bishop of Valencia in Venezuela and a novice at Farneta since 1943.

Contact details:
Certosa di FARNETA
I-55056 PONTE SAN PIETRO - LU – ITALIA
Tel. & Fax (058) 35 92 07



References:

Carthusian Official website
http://www.chartreux.org/index.php

I certosini di Farneta (Italian; .pdf file)
http://www.chartreux.org/maisons/Farneta/i_certosini_di_farneta.pdf

SAN BRUNO E I CERTOSINI
Cammini di contemplazione
http://www.certosini.info/

Certosa di Serra San Bruno: Videoclip - Movie
http://www.certosini.info/immaginisolitari/thumbnails.php?album=2

Second World War (Italian texts)
http://www.provincia.lucca.it/provinciainforma_show.asp?idInforma=6309
http://ilgiorno.quotidiano.net/art/2005/11/24/5392504
http://www.contattoradio.info/dettaglio_news.asp?Id=608

Resurrection

Sir Stanley Spencer RA 1891-1959
Resurrection – Hill of Zion


Sir Stanley Spencer RA 1891-1959
The Resurrection: Port Glasgow 1947-50
Oil on canvas
support: 2146 x 6655 mm
Tate Britain, London


View of Port Glasgow Cemetery 1


View of Port Glasgow Cemetery 2


View of Port Glasgow Cemetery 3

Sir Stanley Spencer (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was a devout Christian and believed God resided in all things and the miraculous could be found in everyday events.

In his paintings, Cookham – the small town on the Thames where he lived – becomes the setting for scenes from the life of Christ and other Christian narratives.

In the Second World War, he was appointed an official war artist in 1940. He was funded by the War Artists Advisory Committee to come to Port Glasgow. Port Glasgow is on the River Clyde, about 20 miles from the city of Glasgow.

It was a centre of shipbuilding and was especially important inthe Second World War. In the War, the town suffered greatly as a result of the German Blitz.There were many civilian casualties.

He came up with a series of powerful paintings of men working in the local shipyards.

He was attracted by the cemetery of Port Glasgow. He planned a vast shaped canvas fifty feet wide which would portray the Last Judgement and Resurrection taking place in this cemetery. One of the paintings shows the residents of Port Glasgow climbing out of their graves and greeting one another, as well as raising their hands in ecstatic gratitude.

In a notebook Spencer recorded that due to a jazz band playing dowstairs in the house where he was living, he went for a walk 'up along the road past the gasworks to where I saw a cemetery on a gently rising slope . I seemed then to see that all in the plain were resurrecting and moving towards it . I knew then that the resurrection would be directed from this hill'.

Spencer was struck by the hill on which Port Glasgow cemetery is built, which reminded him of an upturned saucer.

This, in turn, suggested a phrase of John Donne's in which the resurrection is compared to "a king … climbing of the hill of Sion." With this in mind, Spencer proposed a fifty feet wide composition of the resurrection in Port Glasgow cemetery, in which Christ would be shown sitting in judgement, surrounded by angels, with the resurrected below.

In the event, the plan was abandoned in favour of a series of smaller, independent canvases. Resurrection – Hill of Zion shows Christ seated on a low hill, amidst the angels and prophets, whilst the newly risen people can be seen in the background.


References:

Men of the Clyde
http://www.culturewars.org.uk/2000-08/art/spencer.htm

The Stanley Spencer Gallery
http://www.stanleyspencer.org.uk/

THE ART and VISION of STANLEY SPENCER
http://www.stanleyspencer.co.uk/

Tate Gallery online
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1977&page=1/

Imperial War Museum Art Collections
http://collections.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00g001

Ten Dreams Galleries
http://www.tendreams.org/spencer.htm

ANALYSIS OF STANLEY SPENCER'S RESURRECTION (Set at Cookham 1924-26)
BY JUDITH WHITTET
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/fine-art/arttheoryessaywritingguide/stanleyspencersresurrection.html

ART: STANLEY SPENCER
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E1DA1738F931A15757C0A965948260

Religion on the Internet

Time Magazine reports that despite the fact that religion is always in the news, visits to religious websites in the U.S. are declining rapidly. They dropped over 30% within the last year, down 35% the last two years, while visits to online entertainment, in the form of video sites and social networks like MySpace and Facebook, continue to soar.

In Looking for God Online, Bill Tancer discusses Internet patterns and search behaviour as indicators of religious interest.

Searches leading to Roman Catholic websites reveal a fascination with saints: from the generic query "saints" to the religious ties to what most of us now consider secular holidays, "St. Valentine's Day and "St. Patrick's Day."

Full story: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1600010,00.html

See also: Religion and the internet (Thursday, April 18, 2002) at http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/religion.html.

The Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, Catalonia

The monastery was founded in 1151 by Cistercian monks from France.

This Cistercian abbey in Catalonia is one of the largest in Spain. At its centre is a 12th-century church. The austere, majestic monastery, which has a fortified royal residence and contains the pantheon of the kings of Catalonia and Aragon, is an impressive sight.

It was dissolved and left deserted in the Civil War of 1835. With the monks’ re-establishment in Poblet in 1930, an ambitious restoration and conservation process began in 1940 which has returned to the monastery the majesty it deserves

The monastery of Poblet is the biggest inhabited Cistercian "colony" in Europe.

Official website of the monastery
http://www.abadia-poblet.org/

Paradox place: REIAL MONASTIR DE SANTA MARIA DE POBLET
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/Spain/Navarre_Aragon_Catalonia/Catalonia/Poblet/Poblet.htm

Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet
http://www.monestirs.cat/monst/conca/co22pobl.htm

UNESCO World Heritage Listing
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/518

The royal monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet
http://www.conca.altanet.org/consells/conca/uk/uk_1/fra_uk_132.html

OTROS RECINTOS DEL MONASTERIO DE POBLET
http://www.tinet.org/~ablasco/Poblet/poblet2c.html

The Elevation of the Cross

Peter Paul Rubens. (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640)
The Elevation of the Cross. 1610-1611.
Oil on canvas. 462 × 341 cm.
Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp.

Christians in Iraq

Guard Duty has a very disturbing post on the position and plight of Christians in Iraq.

In the last 15 days tens of Christian families in Mosul, who hunkered down resisting the temptation to emigrate, have received threatening phone calls demanding money for the Sunni resistance; otherwise they would forfeit their lives.

In addition, Christians are faced with physical threats and abductions for ransom, forcing the community as a whole to raise large sums of money. The result is that many Christians have reached their economic breaking point without any certainty that they will see their loved ones again.

Churches have also become targets. Local parish priests have survived the Christmas season under constant threat.

Before the war began in 2003, there were anywhere between 80 to 90,000 Christians in Mosul.

In Baghdad and Mosul, Sunni and Shia militant groups have made it clear one of the world’s oldest Christian populations _ most of whom are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but recognize the Pope’s authority, and Assyrians _ was no longer welcome in Iraq.

"Sacramentum Caritatis" and Liturgical Beauty

Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara was interviewed by Zenit.

He spoke about "Sacramentum Caritatis" and Liturgical Beauty. Father McNamara is a professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, and writes the weekly liturgy column for ZENIT.

In the lengthy interview, Father McNamara makes clear that the true beauty of the liturgy comes about when the priest and the congregation participate in it actively and piously,

The full interview is at Zenit; (Code: ZE07031928 Date: 2007-03-19).

Here is part of what Father McNamara had to say:

"As the Holy Father says, beauty is inherent to liturgy, it is intimately bound up with authentic liturgy.

Beauty however does not only mean splendid sacred buildings and sublime music. The primary beauty in liturgy is that of a community united heart and soul in prayerful celebration of Christ's sacrifice. It is the beauty of priest and people engaged in full, active and pious participation in the mystery.

This beauty is achieved, in spite of a possible lack of external splendor, whenever the sacred ministers and each member of the faithful strive to live the liturgy to the full.

Other forms of beauty: music, art, poetry, and a sober solemnity in the ritual derive naturally from this inner beauty because the deeper a community lives and comprehends the beauty of the liturgical mystery the more it strives to express it in wonderful outer forms. It is the natural understanding that only the very best we can offer is truly worthy of the Lord.

Thus there is strong historical evidence that even before the end of the era of persecutions; Christians sought to celebrate the Eucharist with the finest materials available. This explains why the construction boom in imposing basilicas, as soon as the persecutions were over, along with the more solemn ritual forms required by these new buildings, was perceived as a natural development and not a rupture with earlier practice.

It is this same understanding which led generations of poor immigrants to the United States to sacrifice so much in order to endow their parishes with majestic churches replete with fine arts and crafts.

Ugliness, blandness, banality and bad taste on the other hand diminish the liturgy and betray a lack of appreciation of the mystery and sometimes, alas, a certain lack of faith. "

A Catechism in Images: A Very Special Edition of the “Compendium”

Sandro Magister reports on the publishing of a sumptuous new edition of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, printed by FMR, one of the world’s most illustrious art publishers.

The text of the Compendium of the Catechism is identical to the one issued by Benedict XVI on June 28, 2005. Even in the mainstream edition, released in multiple languages and millions of copies, the text is accompanied by images. These were selected by Joseph Ratzinger himself, who as a cardinal was the chief architect of both the Catechism and its Compendium.

The images are not accessories. They are an integral part of the Compendium. It is obligatory that they be reproduced in all its printings. And they must always be placed in the same position relative to the text. For example, the “Sermon on the Mount” by Fra Angelico must always appear beneath the title of the section dedicated to the ten commandments.

The difference between the mainstream edition and the one by FMR is the number of images. There are fourteen in the former case, and forty-nine in the latter.

As in the mainstream edition, the selection of images for the luxury edition was also made according to Benedict XVI’s guidelines.

But in concrete terms, they were selected and presented to the pope by Timothy Verdon, American by birth, an art historian and a priest in the diocese of Florence, director of the office for catechesis through art there and the author of important books on Christian art.

Full story: http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=126261&eng=y

Girl placed with Protestant foster parents sues council

The Times has reported on a Court case in Scotland where a Roman Catholic teenager has brought a landmark legal action against a council for, amongst other things, sending her to live with Protestant foster parents.

The young woman, identified only as “AR”, is seeking damages of £70,000 from Highland council for housing her with two sets of Protestant foster parents after she was taken into care aged 8.

Now 18, she has been granted legal aid to mount a case against the council and was yesterday given the go-ahead for it to be heard in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland’s supreme civil court.

In a written ruling after a brief hearing, Judge Lord Uist appeared to admit that the case was unprecedented, saying that it involved “novel and difficult questions of law”.

He added: “I think that the only appropriate forum for this action is the Court of Session. Indeed, I think that [its] unusual nature qualified it for the Court of Session more than many personal injury actions, some of very low value, which are customarily raised here.” If successful, the action would extend dramatically the boundaries of human rights legislation in Britain and could trigger a host of similar cases.

Legal papers were served on Highland council this year, while documents lodged before the court said only that the council had failed to accommodate the girl’s religious needs.

According to the papers, the council failed to ensure that she could follow “her religious persuasion throughout the period she was looked after and accommodated”.

The issue before Lord Uist was only concerned with the appropriate forum for the litigation. There are other issues in the case.

However the case may have important ramifications to the question of the religious upbringing of a child who is subject to child care proceedings.It would be interesting to see how the case determines such issues especially in light of the recent difficulties which Catholic adoption agencies have had as a result of recent UK legislative changes.

The case report is AR v. THE HIGHLAND COUNCIL [2007] ScotCS CSOH_51 at http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/2007/CSOH_51.html

The Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex

The Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex

The Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex was built in 654 AD by St Cedd astride the foundations of the abandoned Roman fort of Othona.

From the 14th century it was used as a barn and consequently it likely retains its original Saxon form.

In 1920 it was restored as a chapel. It is now used by The Othona Community.

The Othona Community is an ecumenical Christian community which was founded in 1946 by an Anglican clergyman, the Revd. Canon Norman Motley to overcome the hatred which had its climax in the second world war.

References:

Bradwell Chapel official website
http://www.bradwellchapel.org/index.htm

Orthona Community website
http://www.bos.othona.org/

Member of the Orthona Community based on Germany with more about the Community in Bradwell together with excellent panoramas of the site
http://martinriemer.gmxhome.de/oth.html
http://martinriemer.gmxhome.de/Panoramas.html


Saint Cedd

Saint Cedd (c. 620 – 26 October 664) was the evangelist of Middle Anglia and Essex in England.

The little that is known about Saint Cedd comes to us mainly from the writing of Saint Bede in his Ecclesiastical History Of The English People.

Extracts from Book 3, Sections 23 and 24 (Translation based on L.C. Jane (1903)):

Note. - The Saxon "Ithancestir" is the forerunner of Bradwell-on-Sea

HOW THE EAST SAXONS AGAIN RECEIVED THE FAITH, WHICH THEY HAD BEFORE CAST OFF UNDER KING SIGEBERT, THROUGH THE PREACHING OF CEDD. [A.D. 653.]

AT that time, also, the East Saxons, at the instance of King Oswy, again received the faith, which they had formerly cast off when they expelled Mellitus, their bishop. For Sigebert, who reigned next to Sigebert surnamed The Little, was then king of that nation, and a friend to King Oswy, who, when he often came to him into the province of the Northumbrians, used to endeavor to persuade him that those could not be gods that had been made by the hands of men; that a stock or a stone could not be proper matter to form a god, the remains whereof were either burned in the fire, or framed into any vessels for the use of men, or else were cast out as refuse, trampled on and bruised to dust.

That God is rather to be understood as of incomprehensible majesty and invisible to human eyes, almighty, eternal, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of mankind; who governs and will judge the world in righteousness; whose everlasting seat is in heaven, and not in vile and fading matter; and that it ought in reason to be concluded, that all those who have learned and obeyed the will of Him by whom they were created, will receive from Him eternal rewards. King Oswy having often, in a friendly and brotherly manner, said this and much more to the like effect, at length, with the consent of his friends, he believed, and after consulting with those about him, and exhorting them, they all agreed and gave their approbation, and were baptized with him by Bishop Finan; in the king's village above spoken of, which is called At the Wall, because it is close by the wall with which the Romans formerly divided the island of Britain, at the distance of twelve miles from the eastern sea.

King Sigebert, being now become a citizen of the eternal kingdom, returned to the seat of his temporal kingdom, requesting of Oswy that he would give him some teachers, who might convert his nation to the faith of Christ, and baptize them. Oswy, accordingly, sending into the province of the Midland Angles, invited to him the man of God, Cedd, and, giving him another priest for his companion, sent them to preach to the East Saxons. When these two, traveling to all parts of that country, had gathered a numerous church to our Lord, it happened that Cedd returned home, and came to the church of Lindisfarne to confer with Bishop Finan; who, finding how successful he had been in the work of the Gospel, made him bishop of the church of the East Saxons, calling to him two other bishops to assist at the ordination.

Cedd, having received he episcopal dignity, returned to his province, and pursuing the work he had begun with more ample authority, built churches in several places, ordaining priests and deacons to assist him in the work of faith, and the ministry of baptizing, especially in the city which, in the language of the Saxons, is called Ithancestir, as also in that which is named Tilaburg; the first of which places is on the bank of the Pante, the other on the bank of the Thames, where, gathering a flock of servants of Christ, he taught them to observe the discipline of regular life, as far as those rude people were then capable.

Whilst the doctrine of everlasting life was thus, for a considerable time, making progress, to the joy of the king and of all the people, it happened that the king, at the instigation of the enemy of all good men, was murdered by his own kindred. They were two brothers who did this wicked deed; and being asked what had moved them to it, had nothing else to answer, but that they had been incensed against the king, and hated him, because he was too apt to spare his enemies, and easily to forgive the wrongs they had done him, upon their entreaty. Such was the crime for which the king was killed, because he observed the precepts of the Gospel with a devout heart in which innocent death, however, his real offence was also punished, according to the prediction of the man of God. For one of those earls that murdered him was unlawfully married, which the bishop not being able to prevent or correct, he excommunicated him, and commanded all that would give ear to him not to enter within his house, nor to eat of his meat.

The king made slight of this inhibition, and being invited by the earl, went to an entertainment at his house, and when he was going thence, the bishop met him. The king, beholding him, immediately dismounted from his horse, trembling, and fell down at his feet, begging pardon for his offence; for the bishop, who was likewise on horseback, had also alighted. Being much incensed, he touched the king, lying in that humble posture, with the rod he held in his hand, and using his pontifical authority, spoke thus: "I say to you, forasmuch as you would not refrain from the house of that wicked and condemned person, you shall die in that very house." Yet it is to be believed, that such a death of a religious man not only blotted out his offence, but also added to his merit; because it happened on account of his pious observance of the commands of Christ.

Sigebert was succeeded in the kingdom by Suidhelm, the son of Sexbald, who was baptized by the same Cedd, in the province of the East Angles, at the king's countryseat, called Rendelsham, that is, Rendil's Mansion; and Ethelwald, king of the East Angles, brother to Anna, king of the same people, was his godfather.



BISHOP CEDD, HAVING A PLACE GIVEN HIM BY KING ETHELWALD, CONSECRATES THE SAME TO OUR LORD WITH PRAYER AND FASTING. OF HIS DEATH. [A.D. 659.]

THE same man of God, whilst he was bishop among the East Saxons, was also wont several times to visit his own country, Northumberland, to make exhortations. Ethelwald, the son of King Oswald, who reigned among the Deiri, finding him a holy, wise, and good man, desired him to accept some land to build a monastery, to which the king himself might frequently resort, to offer his prayers and hear the word, and be buried in it when he died; for he believed that he should receive much benefit by the prayers of those who were to serve God in that place.

The king had before with him a brother of the same bishop, called Celin, a man no less devoted to God, who, being a priest, was wont to administer to him the word and the sacraments of the faith; by whose means he chiefly came to know and love the bishop. That prelate, therefore, complying with the king's desires, chose himself a place to build a monastery among craggy and distant mountains, which looked more like lurking-places for robbers and retreats for wild beasts, than habitations for men; to the end that, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, "In the habitations where before dragons dwelt, might be grass with reeds and rushes; " that is, that the fruits of good work should spring up, where before beasts were wont to dwell, or men to live after the manner of beasts.

The man of God, desiring first to cleanse the place for the monastery from former crimes, by prayer and fasting, that it might become acceptable to our Lord, and so to lay the foundations, requested of the king that he would give him leave to reside there all the approaching time of Lent to pray. All which days, except Sundays, be fasted till the evening, according to custom, and then took no other sustenance than a little bread, one hen's egg, and a little milk mixed with water.

This, he said, was the custom of those of whom he had learned the rule of regular discipline; first, to consecrate to our Lord, by prayer and fasting, the places which they had newly received for building a monastery or a church. When there were ten days of Lent still remaining; there came a messenger to call him to the king; and he, that the religious work might not be intermitted, on account of the king's affairs, entreated his priest Cynebil, who was also his own brother, to complete that which had been so piously begun. Cynebil readily complied, and when the time of fasting and prayer was over, he there built the monastery, which is now called Lestingnu, and established therein the religious customs of Lindisfarne, where they had been educated.

Cedd for many years having charge of the bishopric in the aforesaid province, and of this monastery, over which he had placed superiors, it happened that he came thither at a time when there was a mortality, and fell sick and died. He was first buried in the open air; but in the process of time a church was built of stone in the monastery, in honor of the Mother of God, and his body interred in the same, on the right hand of the altar.