One of the most important twentieth-century artists connected to the Anglo-Catholic world was Martin Travers (1886-1948). He had no formal qualifications as an architect, but he designed churches and their furnishings, vestments and hangings, and stained glass. He has been called the most important stained glass artist of the twentieth century; most of you will know that the 1945 east window of St Mark’s is his work, and even more examples can be seen nearby at St Sampson’s Church, Cricklade. A short journey to Compton Beauchamp in Oxfordshire (traditionalists will want to note that until 1974 it was in Berkshire) will bring you to St Swithin’s Church, the 13th-Century parish church which Travers in the 1930s entirely re-fitted with furnishings of his own design.

A striking Travers design from 1935 is called Our Lady of London. The original hangs in a church in Newark, but the design was reproduced as a poster in 1973 and is often reprinted. Silhouetted at the bottom of the drawing are some shadowy towers, vaguely representing the skyline of the city of London; St Paul’s is instantly recognisable. At the centre of the drawing is Our Lady displayed almost precisely according to the details of Revelation 12.1 (“There appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars”); unlike the woman of Revelation, though, she has already given birth. She gazes from her serene height over the city with sad and wondering eyes and seems to be about to fling her Child into the midst of it.

T h e t w e l f t h chapter of Revelation is a stark reminder of the evil of the world and of its consequences. St John the Divine gives us there the story of the birth of Christ viewed as through a telescope, with all the accustomed sent imen tal i ty of ou r Christmas cards and carols shorn from it. As the child is about to be born, St John records, a dragon lurked nearby „that he might devour her child when she brought it forth‟ [12.4] but when the child is born „he was caught up to God and to his throne.‟ [12.5]

Feasts like that of the Assumption of Our Lady seem, I know, surreal to many people, entirely divorced from the realities of life. Our Lady of London reminds one of Bishop Phillips Brooks’ poetic picture of Bethlehem in its ‘deep and dreamless sleep,’ its dark streets suffused, though all unrecognised, by ‘the everlasting light.’ Mary’s child, like the Blessed Virgin herself, are more than what they appear to be. There is indeed reality of a sort about Caesar’s decrees, about difficult and perilous journeys, about the twin inevitabilities of death and taxes. But these are not the ultimate realities, or the last word.

The last word belongs to God who knows the wolf’s mind better than he knows it himself. The last word belongs to God whose purpose is as inexorable as it is salvific. The last word belongs to the God who protects both the Child and its Mother, who shines his own glory through them and elevates them both to that Glory as both the sign and the earnest of what he wills to do for all those created in his image.

It is with the solicitude of God himself that Mary looks down on the darkened streets which, unsheltering though they often are, are what we know of home, of protection and love. In the iconic image it is London she beholds, reminding us that it was not only the little town of Bethlehem on a night some two millennia ago whose hopes and fears were gathered together. The whole of a hurting and heartaching world, both then and now and still forwards into an unimaginable future, looks for salve and for succour. She looks on it all with a mother’s tenderness and offers to give it like a lifeline her precious and powerful Son.

May her Son, the world‟s Redeemer, grant us all to see His face. Father David McConkey

From the Team Rector.…

The Parish of Swindon New Town A Forward In Faith Parish

Parish Office: S. Aldhelm’s Centre, Edgeware Road 9.00 am to 1.00 pm Monday to Friday

Telephone: 01793 538220

THE PARISH MESSENGER

Sunday 15th August 2010 SUNDAY (15TH) - ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

S. Mark 10.30 am Sung Mass

S. Saviour 9.00 am Sung Mass

S. Luke 7.45 am Low Mass

10.30 am Sung Mass

MONDAY (16TH) - S STEPHEN OF HUNGARY

S. Mark 6.00 pm Low Mass

TUESDAY (17TH) - FERIA

S. Aldhelm 10.45 am Low Mass

S. Saviour 7.00 pm Low Mass

WEDNESDAY (18TH) - FERIA

S. Saviour 9.30 am Low Mass

THURSDAY (19TH ) - S JOHN EUDES

S. Mark 7.45 am Low Mass

S. Luke 9.30 am Low Mass

FRIDAY (20TH) S BERNARD

King’s Court 11.00am Low Mass

SATURDAY (21ST) - S PIUS X

S. Mark 9.30 am Low Mass

SUNDAY (22ND) - 21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

S. Mark 10.30 am Sung Mass

12.30 pm Holy Baptism

S. Saviour 9.00 am Sung Mass

S. Luke 7.45 am Low Mass

10.30 am Sung Mass

12.30 pm Holy Baptism