Saint Jude-on-the-Hill

Candlemas @ St Jude's 2012

2012-02-03T05:00:00.002Z

Photographs by Sohrab Kavir

UCL Visit 2012

2012-01-30T12:06:00.002Z

This morning we welcomed Adrian Forty, Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture (University College, London, with his students for their annual inspection of St Jude's.

The War Horse Memorial

2012-01-21T09:31:00.010Z

On Friday we welcomed Dutch brothers Rommert and Roelof Bakker. Rommert had come across a reference to St Jude's at the war memorial at Chipilly in France to the 58th (London) Division - many of whom fell during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918. The monument depicts an artilleryman cradling the head of his wounded horse and so is another unusual example of a memorial to fallen war horses. It is the work of French sculptor Henri Désiré Gauquié (1858-1927) whose native village of Flers was occupied by the Germans and liberated by the British army in October 1918.

The Vicar returns to the airwaves

2012-01-17T21:40:00.004Z

After a long interval the Vicar returns to Radio Three on Sunday 29 January at 7.45pm

More information and a trailer here.

New Year 2012

2012-01-01T08:00:00.002Z

Residents Association fireworks display on Central Square

Photographs by Michael Eleftheriades

New Year's Eve 2011

2012-01-01T07:00:00.001Z

Residents Association New Year's Eve Party

Photographs by Cesar Rodriguez-Duran

Midnight Mass 2011

2011-12-25T23:54:00.008Z

Photographs by Sohrab Kavir

The Nativity Play 2011

2011-12-24T21:32:00.006Z

Photographs by Christian Sadler

Carols at Eastside

2011-12-23T18:57:00.004Z

The Choir sang carols for Dorothy Unwin and other residents of Eastside this afternoon.

Photographs by Iris Elkington

Church Cleaning for Christmas

2011-12-10T12:42:00.002Z

Church Cleaning for Christmas - a thank you to our volunteers.

Christmas Fair 2011

2011-12-03T11:54:00.009Z

Do You Believe in Magic?

2011-11-24T12:15:00.006Z

Do You Believe in Magic? is a three-part television documentary made in 2003 and filmed in part at St Jude's.

It is described as "A look at how mankind's beliefs and faiths have changed throughout the last 2000 years. From Paganism to modern religions, our times may have changed, but have our fundamental beliefs stayed the same?"

As part of our study programme we will be showing the first part of the series on Tuesday 6 December at 8pm followed by time for discussion and simple refreshments. The meeting will take place at a parishioner’s house and so places are limited. Please sign up on the list at the back of the church or send an email to the Vicar if you would like to join us.

The first programme looks at: “How Christianity arrived in Britain in the late sixth century, co-opting the rites of paganism into its own rituals. But even up until the end of the Civil War desire for magic was strong - it was a fundamental part of life, be it going to a local Cunning Man; consulting an astrologer; communing with angels or taking Holy Communion. The Protestant Church endeavoured to flush the magic out - branding it the devil's work - but for most people it remained a vital part of life.”

Remembrance Sunday 2011

2011-11-15T18:42:00.011Z

All photos by Sohrab Kavir

Remembrance Sunday 2011

2011-11-13T12:30:00.003Z

There was some interest in the film mentioned by the Vicar in his Remembrance Sunday address today in which his late father (above left) appears. Click on the cinema still above for an extract from the film.

Tintin at the Lit Soc

2011-11-10T22:48:00.004Z

HENRIETTA BARNETT SCHOOL LITERARY SOCIETY

HBS Centenary fireworks

2011-11-07T12:21:00.004Z

Fireworks on Central Square on 5 November to celebrate the centenary of Henrietta Barnett School

Photography by Michael Eleftheriades

Photography by Cesar Rodriguez-Duran

Free Church Centenary

2011-11-07T12:02:00.005Z

The St Jude's choir joined that of the Free Church on Sunday 30 October to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the church.

With the new Free Church organist

Photos by Brian Stonhold

Autumn Walk

2011-10-22T18:32:00.006+01:00

Thank you to all those who took part in the Autumn Walk for their support.

So we have already raised about £1540, with more cheques promised.

Harvest Thanksgiving and Lunch 2011

2011-10-02T14:35:00.006+01:00

The Guyana Basket

Junior Church poetry

Bailey the Vicarage dog

Junior tidying team

Starmer's signature

2011-09-28T18:52:00.000+01:00

The Archdeacon of Hampstead

2011-09-25T12:40:00.021+01:00

We welcomed Father Luke Miller the Archdeacon of Hampstead

as our preacher this morning.

Opening Prayer

The Archdeacon in his preaching hat

The Archdeacon in full swing during the sermon

Concelebration

Communion

The vestments in Kente Cloth, an Asante ceremonial cloth from Ghana, were given in memory of Ione Burley who taught in Ghana before and during the Second World War and later at the Garden Suburb Infants School. The north west window was restored in her memory in 2000.

Departure and a visual aid

Photographs by Julian Gibbins

The Centenary book and mug

The Organist

Open House 17/18 September 2011

2011-09-14T13:14:00.007+01:00

A walking group sets off.

Susie Gregson with Frances Tyrrell who was at HB School from 1931 to 1936 and can recall meeting Henrietta Barnett.

The Archive Trust display.

Autumn Walk

2011-09-07T11:00:00.008+01:00

St Jude’s Autumn Walk
Mill Hill, Saturday 8 October 2011

For the third year running we invite you to bring your families, friends and dogs to join us on a six-mile sponsored walk, this time through the countryside around Mill Hill along an entirely different route from the previous two walks. We shall see 17th-century almshouses, a church built by William Wilberforce, a crooked house, a secret lake, a picturesque duck pond and some fine distant views in autumn sunshine. We hope that the walk will raise as much as possible for the St Jude’s central heating appeal fund.

We shall start and finish by the small pond at the north end (top) of Milespit Hill NW7, near the junction with The Ridgeway, Mill Hill (easy parking in The Ridgeway or 240 bus from Golders Green station to the stop by St Vincent School) and pause for a coffee stop at the Orange Tree pub in Totteridge. Those who wish can round off the walk with lunch at the Adam and Eve pub in The Ridgeway– in their walled garden if it is not raining.

Note: there are no loos on this walk apart from the two pubs, but there are useful thickets around the secret lake. Some sections of the walk may be muddy after heavy rain.

The church of St Jude-on-the-Hill is a Grade I listed building. It is regarded as Lutyens’s masterpiece, but its size and age mean that maintenance costs are very high. The congregation has to raise at least £130,000 to replace our antiquated central heating system, which breaks down regularly – usually at the coldest stage of winter. We have now raised over £20,000, but still have a long way to go.

Make a note of the date in your diaries now. Once you have decided to come, please complete the registration form (below) and return it to jennifer@theradices.co.uk. The sponsorship and gift aid form (below) is for your sponsors to fill in. We ask adult walkers to raise a minimum of £25 in sponsorship. If you do not wish to walk, please consider sponsoring one of the walkers.

Registration form

For further information, contact Jennifer Radice on jennifer@theradices.co.uk or 020 8455 1025 or 07896 066714.

The Centenary Book of St Jude-on-the-Hill

2011-08-15T07:55:00.002+01:00

Now available from the church.

The Blessed Virgin Mary

2011-08-14T09:20:00.004+01:00

Today we celebrated the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A Summer Sunday at St Jude's

2011-08-07T12:23:00.018+01:00

The Entrance Procession

Censing the altar

The Welcome

The Collect of the day

The Old Testament Reading

The New Testament Reading

Listening to the readings

The Gospel

The Sermon

The Offertory

Censing the Celebrant

Prayer over the gifts

The Eucharistic Prayer

The Elevation

Communion

The Blessing

Friends of Alan and June Armstrong-Wright from Hong Kong: Chung Yuet Sheung, her daughter, Helena, her son-in-law Philip Chan, and their three children, Hillary, Ian and Collin.

Susie's friend Janet from California

New resident Kenna from Hawaii

We welcomed several visitors at the Parish Eucharist this morning. The choir was on holiday, and with many regulars away we used the free-standing altar at the crossing.

This was also the first time that one of the new chasubles given to the church by Father John Bunker was worn. John grew up in Neasden, decided against being evacuated on the City of Benares, and was a server at St Jude's in the early 1950s. He was ordained in 1957 and became curate in charge of St Hilda's, Marden (in Newcastle Diocese) in 1961 when the present vicar of St Jude's was in the Sunday School. Fr John is now retired and lives in Halifax where the vicar visited him in July. He has made several gifts to St Jude's including four sets of vestments and the candle sticks used today.

Photographs by Morteza Ibrahimi

Confirmation

2011-07-24T09:27:00.002+01:00

Church 'officers' out of role at the Confirmation party photobooth.

Baptisms and Confirmations

2011-07-10T15:28:00.002+01:00

The newly baptized and confirmed with the Bishop of Edmonton.

On entering the Church

2011-07-08T14:34:00.002+01:00

Lettering by M. C. Oliver of the Sword of Stalingrad

Visitors from Westminster and Chingford

2011-07-08T14:31:00.001+01:00

Joy Levene brought a group from Westminster and Chingford to visit the Suburb today.

The bells

2011-06-28T06:00:00.003+01:00

Photograph by Michael Eleftheriades

St Jude's has two bells acquired in August 1932 from the demolished church of All Hallows the Great, Upper Thames Street although only one is used. It was forged in 1670 from the metal of the medieval bells melted during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

From our own correspondents

2011-06-26T09:42:00.003+01:00

Portia Walker and Chris Stephen in Misrata, Libya.

Portia reports: Saved a cat's life today. Or rather made [interpreter] Osama go and do it. We were at the frontline and the rebels had put a tent under a canopy of webbing. A little striped cat had climbed to the top of the tent and then got tangled in the webbing. I complained to the rebels and they started prodding it with rifle butts. I protested so much that Osama shimmied up the tent pole and cut it free. The rebels cheered and one turned to me and said "that man, he is like the nato, and the cat, he is the rebel." Then Osama fell off the tent pole.

Proms 2011

2011-06-19T07:21:00.016+01:00

Photographs by Michael Eleftheriades

Photos by John Batten

Last Night photos by Pam Yap

The Sign of the Cross

2011-06-19T06:59:00.001+01:00

Our servers and eucharistic ministers with their new crosses (and the Vicar with his keys).

Visitors from St Pancras

2011-06-15T16:23:00.008+01:00

This afternoon we had visitors from the Old St Pancras Church and St Pancras Community Centre Older Peoples’ Project. They kindly brought with them a birthday cake for the St Jude's Centenary and sang Happy Birthday to the Church. They were accompanied by Fr Bruce Batstone and Fr Matthew Duckett.

St Jude's Autumn Walk 8 October 2011

2011-05-29T17:48:00.005+01:00

St Jude’s Autumn Walk
Mill Hill, Saturday 8 October 2011

For the third year running we invite you to bring your families, friends and dogs to join us on a six-mile sponsored walk, this time through the countryside around Mill Hill along an entirely different route from the previous two walks. We shall see 17th-century almshouses, a crooked house, a church built by William Wilberforce, a secret lake, a picturesque duck pond and some fine distant views in autumn sunshine. We hope that the walk will raise as much as possible for the St Jude’s central heating appeal fund.

We shall start and finish in The Ridgeway, Mill Hill (easy parking or 240 bus from Golders Green station) and pause for a coffee stop or something stronger at the Orange Tree pub in Totteridge. Those who wish can round off the walk with lunch at the Adam and Eve pub in The Ridgeway – in their walled garden if it is not raining.

The church of St Jude-on-the-Hill is a Grade I listed building. It is regarded as Lutyens’s masterpiece, but its size and age mean that maintenance costs are very high. Our small congregation has to raise at least £130,000 to replace our antiquated central heating system, which breaks down regularly – usually at the coldest stage of winter. We have now raised nearly £20,000, but still have a long way to go.

Make a note of the date in your diaries now. If you do not wish to walk, please consider sponsoring one of the walkers. We ask adult walkers to raise a minimum of £25 in sponsorship.

To download a registration form, click here. For further information, contact jennifer@theradices.co.uk or 020 8455 1025 or 07896 066714.

Ascension Day

2011-05-29T09:18:00.003+01:00

The Ascension of Christ by W. P. Starmer in the dome above the altar at St Jude's.

Thursday (2nd June) is Ascension Day.

The Eucharist will be celebrated at 1000 in the Lady Chapel.

Christian Vegetarianism

2011-05-26T09:44:00.008+01:00

The first vicar, Basil Bourchier, was noted for his concern for animals - expressed for example in the memorial to the war horses in church. He also advocated 'Christian Vegetarianism' as this recent post on the archive of that name shows. You can read the post and enlarge the article here (where you will also find a link back to our own site).

New Choir Member

2011-05-22T15:22:00.002+01:00

Mobile phone photo.

Sophie became a full member of the choir this morning.

Lutyens the Church Architect

2011-05-21T16:32:00.008+01:00

Gavin Stamp, architectural historian, writer and broadcaster gave the Michael Rowley memorial talk this afternoon on Lutyens as a Church Architect. Professor Vesna Goldsworthy of the Centre for Suburban Studies at Kingston University responded and chaired the discussion.

New Views of the Church

2011-05-17T21:00:00.001+01:00

The official opening of the new Henrietta Barnett School buildings on Monday evening provided an opportunity to record some of the first new views of the church for many decades.

Visiting the Church

2011-05-16T17:39:00.005+01:00

A visitor to the church this afternoon was Christine Erskine (formerly Prestage). Christine lived in Eastholm from 1942 to 1958 and attended Henrietta Barnett Junior and Senior Schools. Her father Cyril Prestage was a member of the choir, and Christine attended Sunday School at St Jude's - then held in the Lady Chapel. Charles and Rosemary Proctor were their next door neighbours in Eastholm.

The church at the time was being prepared for a recording by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

50 Years Ago

2011-05-16T17:11:00.012+01:00

Half a century ago on 7 May 1961 we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Consecration of the Church.. The president and preacher was the Rt Revd Gerald Ellison. Bishop of Chester and later Bishop of London. The Bishop dedicated a bust of the late Revd William Maxwell Rennie (Vicar of St Jude's 1936 - 1954) by his daughter Rosemary, wife of the Charles Proctor the organist. The bust is positioned to the right of the St George's altar beneath the memorial to her brother Michael Rennie who died after rescuing children from the evacuation ship City of Benares which had been sunk as a result of enemy action. The memorial was painted by the church artist Walter Starmer who was present in the congregation on what was probably his last visit to the church.

Mrs Rosemary Proctor with the Bishop and the Vicar

the Revd William Masters.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Saturday 21 May : Gavin Stamp on Lutyens

2011-05-13T17:36:00.002+01:00

Click on image to enlarge.

The Centenary : Sanctuary team

2011-05-10T22:00:00.003+01:00

Church Warden Jennifer Radice, Hannah Davison, Emma Gregson, David Pope, Morteza Ibrahimi, Vicar, the Bishop of London, Katie El-Balawi, Area Dean Fr Gwyn Clement, Reader Bob Chandler, Mandy Komlosy, Anastasia Walker

All photographs by Cesar Rodriguez-Duran

The Centenary: Behind the scenes

2011-05-10T21:30:00.001+01:00

The Area Dean of West Barnet and Rector of St Mary's Hendon Fr Gwyn Clement with the Vicar. Today we also celebrated the 'independence' of the parish of Hampstead Garden Suburb from the ancient parish of Hendon.

Our former scholar Anna Steppler (now organ scholar at Merton College Oxford) meets the Bishop.

Adjusting the microphone

Preparing the incense.

Was that the bell?

Lifting the banners

Signing the service register

Bunter the Vicarage cat (left)

All photographs by Cesar Rodriguez - Duran

The Centenary: the restored Calvary Garden

2011-05-10T12:00:00.003+01:00

Lucrezia Walker, The Bishop of London, and gardeners Niamh O’Donnell-Keenan, Susie Gregson, Elinor Delaney, David White, Michael Delaney who restored the site.

All photographs by Cesar Rodriguez - Duran

The Centenary: Friends and Guests

2011-05-08T22:29:00.028+01:00

(Former chorister) Ken and Ursula Hunt

Church Warden Jennifer Radice

Gerdi McCrae and Barbara Young

Councillor John Marshall, Trust Chairman Angus Walker, Trust Manager Jane Blackburn, Mr Mark Rutter and Councillor Lisa Rutter Deputy Mayor of Barnet, (the Vicar), Mike Freer MP, the Bishop of London, Councillor Daniel Seal, Councillor Andrew Harper and Residents Association Chair Janet Elliott.

David Rennie and family at the bust of his Grandfather William Maxwell Rennie (Vicar 1936 -1954). David's parents, Peter and Valerie, were married at St Jude's in September 1952. David and Christa's eldest son Michael (seen here with the Bishop) is named after his great-uncle Michael Rennie.

Ed and Angela Zanders

Former organist Andrew McCrae with family and Nic Chalmers

Centenary mugs

All photographs by Cesar Rodriguez-Duran

The Centenary of the Consecration of the Church

2011-05-08T19:55:00.012+01:00

All photographs by Cesar Rodriguez - Duran

Henrietta Barnett's birthdays

2011-05-04T00:05:00.005+01:00

Samuel and Henrietta Barnett by H. von Herkomer (Toynbee Hall)

Today is the 160th birthday of Henrietta Barnett.

Henrietta Octavia Weston Rowland was born in Clapham on 4 May 1851. She married Samuel Augustus Barnett (born 1844) in 1873 who shortly afterwards became vicar of St Jude's, Whitechapel. There they founded Toynbee Hall and the Whitechapel Art Gallery. On her 56th birthday in 1907 Henrietta turned the first spade of earth for the construction of Hampstead Garden Suburb, and in October 1909 she did the same for the site of this St Jude's on Central Square.

For her 6oth birthday - a century ago today - Henrietta was presented with the tower and spire of the church "to symbolise the aspiration of the founders of the Suburb". It was dedicated on her 62nd birthday by the Bishop of London.

Henrietta died on 10 June 1936. At her funeral here on 15 June the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that what was "most remarkable in this one life was the way in which high ideals were translated into most practical action. . . . [and] the most conspicuous incident in her own life of this close union of the ideal and the practical was this Garden Suburb."

The Church of England commemorates Samuel and Henrietta together on 17 June each year - the anniversary of the former's death, and of therefore the couple's first 'birthday in heaven.

The current Bishop of London will be at St Jude's this Sunday 8 May at 1030 to celebrate the centenary of the consecration of the church on 7 May 1911 - a date almost certainly chosen because of its proximity to Henrietta's 60th birthday. All are welcome.

Our foreign correspondents

2011-05-01T12:44:00.007+01:00

News from St Jude's / The Spire must be one of the few parish magazines to maintain correspondents in the world's danger zones. Chris Stephen (last seen here on Easter Sunday - photo below) and Portia Walker (recently deported from Yemen) report from Benghazi, Libya.

Centenary Invitation

2011-04-29T15:24:00.002+01:00

All welcome - no need to RSVP

How to pronounce 'centenary '.

Easter Day: Christ is Risen!

2011-04-24T12:49:00.006+01:00

Good Friday: Liturgy of the Cross

2011-04-22T11:53:00.007+01:00

Gathering

Entrance

Prostration

Proclamation of the Cross

Veneration of the Cross

Intercessions

Maundy Thursday

2011-04-21T23:03:00.000+01:00

Maundy Thursday: watching until midnight.

Walter Starmer

2011-04-20T15:13:00.019+01:00

This afternoon we welcomed the Kirkby family from Guildford on their first visit to St Jude's. Norman Kirkby, seen here with Kathy and their daughter Abigael, is the great nephew of Walter Starmer the painter of the murals in the church. The family have a considerable collection of works by Starmer including several of St Jude's that we had never seen before.

Photo by Richard Wakefield

They were also able to tell us many biographical details which were new to us, not least that the man we always call Walter Starmer was known to the family as 'Percy'. We were only aware of one photograph of the artist until today; now we can share several:

Starmer as the war artist who met the first vicar, Basil Bourchier, in France.

A young Starmer at work in St Jude's.

One of Starmer's later commissions at St Jude's was the west window in memory of Bourchier. Here is a coloured sketch of the window (note the word 'Inscription' for the presumably as yet undecided text). We have an uncoloured version with the text in the vestry.

The west end as it was for only a few months before the window was installed.

Starmer at work on the full size design for the window.

Starmer and Bourchier with the Bishop of Willesden and the Mayor of Westminster at St Anne's, Soho (where Bourchier was Rector after he left St Jude's in 1929). This window by Starmer was destroyed in the Second World war.

Three photographs showing Starmer at work on the restoration of the murals at the Chandos Mausoleum at St Lawrence Whitchurch (Little Stanmore).

And as President of the Watford Art Society.

All Starmer photographs courtesy of the Kirkby family.

Link to W P Starmer inventory

Behind the scenes: preparing for Easter

2011-04-20T14:40:00.002+01:00

Flowers for Easter

The mysteries of the candle cupboard

Music while we worked

The church prepared for Maundy Thursday

Morteza submits to Her Majesty

2011-04-19T15:58:00.004+01:00

The last few minutes before . . .

Morteza became a British citizen

at a ceremony at Hendon Town Hall this afternoon.

(The vicar occupies his old stall as Mayor's chaplain.)

Palm Sunday Procession 2011

2011-04-17T14:22:00.009+01:00

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER 2011

2011-04-16T16:08:00.004+01:00

Father Bill Masters OBE

2011-04-12T20:15:00.027+01:00

Fr Masters by Beth Zanders

William Mansfield Masters became the fourth vicar of St Jude's in 1955. Born in 1898, he served during the First World War with the London Regiment of the Royal Artillery in France, Salonica and Palestine and was twice wounded. In 1920 he joined the RAF and served again in the Middle East where he developed an interest in Christian Unity.

In 1928 he enrolled at the Knutsford Ordination Test School (situated from 1927 in the Old Rectory at Hawarden) which had opened 1919 with the purpose of educating men leaving the armed forces so that they could obtain the qualifications required to study for ordination. Bill (as he was always known) proceeded to Chichester Theological College in 1929, and then to St Gabriel's Church in Pimlico where he 'served his title', being ordained deacon in 1932 and priest in 1933. After a further curacy in Wendover (1934 - 1940), he joined the Royal Army Chaplains' Department serving, during the Second World War, in Sudan, South Africa, Palestine, North Africa and the Gulf.

From 1949 to 1955 he was (British Embassy) Chaplain at Christ Church, Vienna from where he also served Anglican communities behind the Iron Curtain in Prague, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. He was awarded the OBE in 1953 for this work.

London Gazette New Year Honours List 1953

Fr Bill was inducted as Vicar of St Jude's on 29 April 1955 by the Bishop of Willesden. He served for seven years here before returning in 1962 to Europe as Chaplain in Helsinki and Moscow. He was also Rural Dean of Scandinavia from 1962 to 1966 when he 'retired' to a curacy at St Mary's, Bourne Street. He was made an Honorary Canon of Gibraltar in 1973.

Ed Zanders in A Suburb Childhood (2007) remembers Fr Bill as "a man with a larger than life personality and a great sense of fun". Beth Zanders' portrait of Fr Bill, until recently on display in the south-west porch, shows the vicar in front of a reproduction of Andrei Rubelev's icon of the Trinity, the original of which is in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

An unusual picture of the giving of communion at the high altar rails

and signing the wedding registers in the vestry.

Fr Masters on a return visit (possibly) for the dedication of the new Church Rooms in 1967.

Photographs above courtesy of Ed Zanders

In his last years Fr Bill resided at the 11th century Hospital of St Nicholas in Harbledown whose medieval inmates supported themselves by displaying (for a donation) a slipper that had been worn by St Thomas Becket. He died in 1978.

A server in the 1960s

2011-04-12T14:50:00.023+01:00

Ed Zanders as a server at St Judes c. 1965. Ed lived on the Suburb from 1954 to 1969. His A Suburb Childhood is a personal memoir of those days written for the Suburb centenary year in 2007. He has recently given three paintings by his mother Beth to the church.

Ed describes his time as a server at St Jude's:

"St Jude's church became a significant part of my life from 1960 to 1969. My mother and I used to join the congregation at Sunday services and then I became an altar boy or server. This was rather like an apprenticeship starting as boat boy, who carries the incense in a metal container to pass to the Thurifer who distributes the incense. The next stages were Acolytes holding candles, Crucifers with a cross, the Thurifer and finally Master of Ceremonies. I enjoyed the ceremony under the direction of Frank Parlett, a kind man of whom I have fond memories. Easter was always busy, with special ceremonies held over four days culminating in the Sunday which was enlivened with trumpets as well as the choir and organ. Being Thurifer involved lighting charcoal squares in the thurible which was a metal container on a chain with holes to let out the smoke from burning incense. In keeping with my pyrotechnic tendencies, I used to set up the maximum amount of charcoal possible, adding spoonfuls of incense to create a massive cloud of smoke that I would then pass over the congregation in an attempt to liven things up.

Disruptions to the services stay in the mind as well; the electrical system was always a bit unreliable, and one evensong the lights went out completely. Luckily there were enough candles burning to keep the service going, but by complete coincidence, just as "let there be light" was being read out, the lights came back on without any human intervention. The other incident was the more painful sight of a poor server colleague who managed a projectile vomit right across the area in front of the altar. The mess was hastily cleared up by the verger with a mop and bucket.

When I started going to St Jude's, the vicar was Bill Masters, a man with a larger than life personality and a great sense of fun. He left in 1962, later becoming Canon of Gibraltar. His successor was Robin Dunhill, a member of the tobacco and luxury goods family. Both of these clergymen and their curates presided over a thriving church with a great musical tradition.

The organist and choirmaster was Charles Proctor, a rather serious and intimidating man, who nevertheless produced some wonderful ecclesiastical music. This was not surprising, since he was originally talent-spotted by Proms founder Sir Henry Wood and had a long career as a composer, organist, conductor and teacher at the Trinity College of Music. St Jude's has obviously maintained this tradition and is a well-known North London venue for concerts and recordings."

Ed serving at the high altar. Fr Robin Dunhill celebrating.

Ed's sister Angela at the Crossing

Visit to the National Gallery

2011-04-09T19:00:00.002+01:00

Lucrezia Walker led a tour of the National Gallery on the theme of the Stations of the Cross on Saturday 9 April in aid of church funds.

The High Altar Stone

2011-04-06T16:57:00.016+01:00

The principal altar of a church, by tradition, contains a stone or 'slab' at its centre. In fact, the stone is the altar, the rest making up the altar-table, and it is the most sacred location in the church, being the place of "sacrifice and thanksgiving".

The 'slab' in the high altar of St Jude's has a fascinating history which was told at length in the St Jude's Gazette of December 1948 by the Reverend Sydenham Lindsay (and is reproduced below). In summary, it consists of two stones: the larger one was originally part of the altar steps of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Montreal, and the smaller one is from St Anne's Chapel in Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) the capital of French Acadia built (as a Roman Catholic chapel) in 1708 and, following the town's cession to the English in 1710, the site of the first Church of England service in Canada. The two stones are separated by an ancient piece of Egyptian cedar from the 19th Dynasty (over 1300 years before Christ).

The stone was used for the first time at St Jude's at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1911.

The slab is normally concealed beneath the altar cloths, only being exposed once a year from the 'stripping of the altar' on Maundy Thursday through Good Friday until the preparation for the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. If you would like to see it please ask the Vicar after the Good Friday Liturgy.

From the St Jude's Gazette of December 1948

The ALTAR-SLAB, which forms an embellishment of the High Altar in this Church of S. Jude-on-the-Hill, was the gift of " J.M.B." (John Munroe Black, who died on 17th November 1947, age 77), a Canadian friend of the Rev. B. G. Bourchier, MA. It was fashioned in September, 1911, and was blessed by the Right Rev. J. C. Farthing. D.D., Lord Bishop of Montreal, in the Church of S. James the Apostle, Montreal, on the Festival of S. Luke the Evangelist, 1911. On the following day (Oct. 19) the Rev. Sydenham B. Lindsay, B.A., another Canadian friend of the Rev. Mr. Bourchier and of S. Jude's, celebrated his First Communion upon it in the Church of S. John the Evangelist by courtesy of the Rector. It was in this church that Mr. Bourchier preached his first sermon on the Continent of America (Quinquagesima Sunday, 1909).

In connection with the blessing of the Slab, the following facts are worthy of being recorded:

The ceremony occurred on the 201st anniversary not only of the first Saint's Day observed by the Church of England on Canadian soil, but of the first Communion celebrated in Canada according to the Anglican Use; it occurred during the Coronation and Durbar Year of Their Gracious Majesties, King George V. and Queen Mary, and during the Jubilee Year of the Church of S. John the Evangelist, Montreal: it closely followed the public admission (Oct. 11) of Mr. Bourchier to the benefice of S. Jude-on-the-Hill; it took place in a church in which both Mr. Bourchier and his father have preached, and at an Altar on which the Bishop of London celebrated a Low Communion during his visit to Montreal in September, 1907. The Slab was carried to and from this Altar, respectively, by the Rev. Canon Ellegood, M.A. (the oldest priest of the Church of England in Canada, and the senior military chaplain of the British Empire), and by the Rev. Sydenham B. Lindsay, B.A. (the youngest priest in Canada; his ordination having just taken place). The act of blessing was witnessed by the rectors of the Churches of S. John the Evangelist, S. James the Apostle, and the Advent—in which edifices Mr. Bourchier preached during his visit to Montreal in 1909—and by the Ven. Archdeacon Norton, D.D., Rector of Montreal, in whose Cathedral Mr Bourchier witnessed the presentation of a Pastoral Staff to the Bishop of Montreal on Easter Even 1909.

The slab left Canada for England on October 27, 1911 (the Vigil of the Festival of Simon and Jude), and reached St Jude’s Vicarage on November 6 (the Festival of S. Leonard, patron saint of prisoners and captives, and a contemporary of St Augustine of Canterbury). On December 21, 1911 (the Festival of St Thomas) it was used by the Bishop of London at a Celebration in the Chapel of Fulham Palace. On Christmas Eve, 1911, it was placed in the High Altar of S. Jude's, and dedicated by the Right Rev. W. W. Perrin, Bishop of Willesden (formerly Bishop of Columbia, Canada). It was used for the first time (at St Jude’s) as a throne for the Divine Presence at a Solemn Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Day, 1911, the Rev. Mr Bourchier being celebrant.

The slab consists of two stones, the smaller, or darker in colour, forming the centre-piece of the larger, or lighter. The latter is of French origin, having been quarried in Caen about the middle of the nineteenth century. When the Anglican Cathedral of Christ Church at Montreal, Canada, was opened in the autumn of 1859, it formed a portion of one of the two steps at the Communion rail – a relationship which continued undisturbed for half a century, during which time the step was pressed by the knees of thousands of communicants from all parts of the world. In 1907 (the year in which the Bishop of London first visited Canada) a new pavement of coloured marble and jasper was laid throughout the chancel and choir of this pretty Gothic edifice, and the discarded steps and tiles passed into the possession of Mr Robert Reid, the contractor to whom had been entrusted the task of laying the new pavement. Through the courtesy of this gentleman, a section of the upper step was obtained, and out of this section the larger of the stones forming the Altar-Slab was fashioned. From its former lowly position at the foot of the Altar in the English Cathedral at Montreal it has, therefore, been exalted to the place of “sacrifice and thanksgiving” on the altar of the Church of S. Jude-0n-the-Hill – a meet reward, surely, for years of faithful and humble service in the worship of Almighty God.

In thus recording the history of the larger of the two stones forming the Slab, it may perhaps be fitting to add: The Rev. Edmund Wood, M.A., who was primarily responsible for the visit of the Rev. Mr. Bourchier to Montreal in 1909, began his work as a clergyman of the Canadian Church in the Cathedral from which the stone was taken. In 1860 (the year in which H.R.H. the Prince of Wales—afterwards King Edward VII.— visited Canada) he was deacon-in-charge of its Chapel-of-ease, then situated some nine or ten blocks away from the Cathedral. During his occupancy of this position it was his custom once a month to lead his communicants in solemn procession through the streets of Montreal from the Chapel to the Cathedral in order that he and they might receive from the hands of the Cathedral priests the most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. In 1861 he founded and became rector of the Church of S. John the Evangelist. His translation from the Church Militant to the Church Expectant occurred on Sunday, September 26. 1909, the call to higher service reaching him suddenly and unexpectedly at the hour of the early Eucharist. Thus passed to his eternal rest this faithful and devoted priest of Holy Church, this holy and humble man of heart, this pioneer leader of the " Catholic Movement" in Canada, this " father " of surpliced choirs in the Canadian Church.

It is an interesting fact that the Altar-Slab was dedicated by the Bishop of Willesden on the 35th anniversary of the ordination of " Father " Wood's successor in the rectorate of S. John's Church.

The smaller stone was taken from the foundation of St. Anne's Chapel at Annapolis Royal, Canada—the Place of the Nativity of the Church of England in Canada, and the site of the oldest European settlement to the north of the Gulf of Mexico on the North American continent, the town having been founded by the Sieur de Monts, under the name of Port Royal, in 1604, as the capital of the French Province of Acadia. This Chapel was built within the walls of Fort Anne in 1708 by Subercase, who succeeded de Brouillan as Governor. For two years it was used as a Roman Catholic place of worship by the French garrison and the Acadian colonists. On October 9, 1710 (the year in which the top-stone of S. Paul's Cathedral, London, England, was laid), it fell into the hands of the victorious English, who held within its walls a service of thanksgiving for the success, against Subercase, of the arms of H.M. Queen Anne, through Colonel Nicholson. This was the first service held in Canada according to the rites of the Church of England. It took place soon after the French garrison had withdrawn from the Fort with all the honours of war. The Rev. John Harrison, Chaplain to Commodore Martin, of H.M.S. " Dragon," officiated, and the Rev. Samuel Hesker preached. In 1787 Annapolis Royal became a part of the first colonial bishopric of the Church of England -founded in that year under the name of "Nova Scotia." Until that year it had belonged to the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London. The smaller stone, therefore, was derived not only from the site of the oldest European settlement in North America and from the Chapel in which the Anglican liturgy was read for the first time in Canada, but from the most ancient colonial diocese of the Anglican Communion. To the Commissioners in charge of Fort Anne, as well as to the Rev. Harry How, B.A., B.D., Rector of S. Luke's Church at Annapolis Royal, and to Mr. A. S. Maynard, a member of S. John's Church, Montreal, the donor of the Altar-Slab is indebted for this historic stone. It was, in very truth, derived from the Bethlehem of the Church in Canada, even as the larger stone was derived from the land which witnessed the consecration of the first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose See, since its creation in 597, has held the same relative position with respect to English dioceses that the See of Nova Scotia has held since 1787 with respect to all the dioceses of the Anglican Communion in the British Dominions beyond the Seas, namely: first in point of establishment and antiquity.

Deposited between the stones is a small piece of cedar. This was derived from Egypt, the historic land which, in the days subsequent to the visit of the Magi to the Infant Christ, afforded an asylum to the Holy Babe, and His Blessed Mother, and protected Him from Herodian wrath and jealousy. This cedar dates from the XlXth Dynasty (1462-1288 B.C.) and is thought to be older than the Decalogue.

Annapolis Royal has had a most romantic history. It was there that the first field of wheat ever sown by the hand of a white man in all Canada was sown by L’Escarbot, a Parisian lawyer who accompanied Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts to New France in the early days of the seventeenth century. During the bitter strife which subsequently sprang up between the between the French and English nations, and which continued for a period of 150 years, culminating at length in the cession of of Canada to Great Britain. Port Royal was the most assaulted place on the Continent. It was taken by force five times by the English; it was by them abandoned or restored to the French four times; it was unsuccessfully re-attacked by them three times; it was unsuccessfully attacked by the French and Indians twice; and it was taken, sacked and abandoned twice, once by pirates and once by the United States revolutionary forces. It was there, too, that the heart of de Brouillan was buried (‘near a cross where it was intended to build a chapel”), after his body had been consigned to the waters of the Atlantic in September 1705.

"No other spot in all this western world

So oft hath seen the battle-flag unfurled;

So often been the battling cannon’s targe;

So oft the scene of head-long battle charge;

So often heard the Indian war-hoop dread;

Or been by spoiler's ruthless hand bested;

So often borne in war's alternate chance

The flag of England and the flag of France."

By the achievement of Colonel Nicholson in 1710, Port Royal finally ceased to be a French possession Subercase surrendered after a short bombardment, and on October 10 the starving and ragged garrison of only 200 men marched out to be sent home to France. Before the sun had set on that memorable day – memorable alike to alike to England and to England’s ancient and Holy Catholic Church – the French flag had been lowered for the last time from Fort Anne, and Port Royal had become an English fortress.

Co-incident with the cession of Acadia to the British in 1713, the name of Port Royal was changed to Annapolis Royal in honour of Queen Anne, and the town became the seat of Government, a dignity which it retained until 1750. In that year the headquarters of the Government were transferred to the newly-founded City of Halifax, whither the holy silver vessels (royal gifts to the church) were removed for safe-keeping by order of General Lawrence.