Several Psalms talk about God’s words being like food - how sweet are your words to my taste (Psalm 119) … sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb (Psalm 19). So, when Jesus feeds people in the desert (John 6. 1 - 21), he’s not just providing food, he’s also providing teaching as sustenance. Art has also been used in this way within churches. The term Poor Man's Bible has come into use in modern times to describe works of art within churches and cathedrals which either individually or collectively have been created to illustrate the teachings of the Bible, originally for a largely illiterate population. Whether in the form of carvings, paintings, mosaics or stained glass windows, they feed people with the word of God. When Jesus fed the 5,000 he was re-enacting, re-creating, re-imaging, the feeding of the people of Israel with manna in the wilderness during the Exodus (Exodus 16) and the feeding of 100 people with 20 loaves of bread by Elisha (2 Kings 4. 41 - 43). Art also re-imagines the Christian story for us as the good news of God is shared afresh in each generation.
Here, at St Botolph’s, are artworks from the late 1800s to the recent past which feed those who view them by re-imaging the story for their own day and time. Many of the artworks here were produced during the ministries of two exceptional priests; William Rogers and Alan Tanner: ‘When the Rev. William Rogers "took corporal and spiritual possession" of the Bishopsgate benefice at the end of June 1863, he found the fabric of St. Botolph's Church, it would seem, in the condition to which a century of spiritual torpor had reduced many ecclesiastical buildings of the Establishment.
While, in a devoted incumbency of three-and-thirty years, this man of powerful character and wide sympathies did much to beautify their place of worship, he laboured in an even greater degree for the general welfare of the parishioners in his care — and had richly earned … the tribute … voiced by the vestry at his death on January 19th, 1896, when … they placed on record "their grateful appreciation of his unwearied labours for the spiritual and material welfare of his parishioners … their gratitude for his eminent and laborious services in the cause of education and general philanthropy … their approval of his successful exertions in restoring and beautifying the parish church ; their feeling of affection and respect for him not only as the ecclesiastical head of the parish, but as the personal friend of those with whom he was more immediately brought in contact."
In the above-mentioned Reminiscences, Rogers explains something of the secret of his success. "My rule in non-essentials has always been to give way at once, and to give way graciously . . . one must march with the times …’
This biographical passage is itself an illustration of the dual aspects of art I have briefly enumerated.
Rogers employed John Francis Bentley (1839 – 1902), an English ecclesiastical architect whose most famous work is Westminster Cathedral, to undertake significant reordering of the church. In the composition of his mosaics Bentley insisted on the technique of opus sectile (glass tesserae inserted individually directly into the putty of lime and boiled oil on the walls and vault). The Clapham memorials, either side of the East window, are opus sectile panels by Bentley enclosed within broad golden frames. On the south side is the Agony in the Garden; while on the north, is the Disciples going to Emmaus. Bentley’s biographer concludes: ‘We believe it will be conceded that, in solemn beauty of treatment and colouring, Bentley himself never surpassed these panels, which deserve therefore to rank among the best of his designs for this enduring method of decoration.
The great East window is the only known stained glass work of Francis Wollaston Thomas Moody (1824 - 1886). This crucifixion window may originally have been one of 3 or 4 windows by Moody in the church designed from 1868 - 1871, the remainder being destroyed by the IRA bombs of the 1990s. Moody cleverly draws our eye upwards from the crowded base of the window until our eyes rests on the crucifixion, the source of light and revelation. Moody was Instructor in Decorative Art in the South Kensington School and went on to become the first Master in the school of Design at the V&A.
The altar reredos below the East window is by Antonio Salviati and depicts St John and Moses flanking a stylized tree of life. Salviati, a lawyer from Vicenza, joined with master Muranese glass maker Lorenzo Radi, who had developed a revolutionary new process of manufacturing and applying enamel glass mosaics. The two opened their first workshop in 1859 and the name Salviati quickly became synonymous on an international-scale with Venetian artistic glass and decorative mosaics. By 1867, Salviati had installed Venetian mosaics in more than fifty Catholic and Protestant Churches in England.
At the eastern end of the north aisle is the Honourable Artillery Company’s Chapel of St George. This houses war memorials to HAC members who died in the South African War 1900-1902 and to those who died in the First and Second World Wars. The South African War Memorial, commemorating six HAC members was designed by Walter Crane and matches the much larger ‘roll of honour’, also designed by Crane, listing all HAC members who served in South Africa. Crane (1845 – 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He was the most influential children’s book creators of his generation and, as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and decorative arts.
We then jump to another great priest in the history of St Botolph’s, Alan Tanner and two significant events memorialised through art. The stained glass window by Nicola Kantorowicz was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Bowyers to mark the restoration of the church after the IRA bombs in the 1990s. The Company traditionally holds its service for the installation of their new Master in the church. After the two bombs at St Mary Axe (10th April 1992) and Bishopsgate (24th April 1993) that caused great damage to the Church, the Company wished to help in the rebuilding and strengthen its ties with the Church. Thus was born the idea of a Memorial Window.
When the Company first approached Kantorowicz about the possibility of a stained glass window, the ideas of the original brief were quite traditional. However, she felt the ideas could be taken further, and if treated in an abstract manner the window could be far more expressive and powerful. Kantorowicz writes that her work is "always abstract in style" and for church commissions she draws "on inspiration from theological themes and using symbolism and colour to express spiritual concepts." By combining the yew leaves and the long curve of the bow she created a design which grows and moves upwards, perhaps suggesting resurrection or rebirth. The colours of the bows lend themselves to fire and light and the suggestion of a crucifix gives a spiritual element to the window. The window was dedicated by the Bishop of London at a Service of Thanksgiving to mark the restoration of the church held in January 1997. The service was taken by Tanner (Chaplain to the Bowyers' Company), there was a Reading by the Master and the Lesson was read by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Roger Cork (a Past Master of the Company).
A great part of Tanner’s life was devoted to the welfare of those haemophiliacs like his son Mark, who had been treated with blood contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. Mark was diagnosed with haemophilia even though there was no family history of the disease, and managed to lead a normal, independent life until he received contaminated blood. Alan was chairman of the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) and the Haemophilia Society at that time, and was friend and confidant to Frank Schnabel, the WFH founder, who was one of the first to die after receiving contaminated blood. Alan then found himself conducting the funerals of most of the executive committee of the society while watching his own son consumed by the disease. Mark died in 1998. Alan showed enormous support to all those in a similar situation and threw himself behind the campaign for recognition of this tragedy
An icon of St Luke the Physician by Michael Coles was commissioned to stand guard over the book of remembrance for those who have lost their lives in the contaminated blood scandal. St. Botolph’s has hosted an annual Service of Thanksgiving for the lives of those who have died from HIV or hepatitis as a result of their treatment by contaminated blood products.
Michael Coles trained at the Royal College Art and a stained glass artist, painter and icon-maker. His work can be seen in the oldest church in the City of London, All Hallows by the Tower, as well as in churches, art galleries and museums in New York, Malaysia, South Africa and San Francisco. The works that he designs have a very distinctive style, often containing icons or historical figures that have been researched in great detail in order to capture their essence. He sums up these reflections on art and the artworks, when he says of stained glass, that it ‘has … a strong connection with history, and windows often tell a story or depict people who have played a significant role in the history of a building or place.’
In reflecting on the artworks here, we celebrate the priests who commissioned, the artists who created and the role that art in churches plays in feeding us and enabling the re-imaging of Gospel truths and Gospel stories.
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Iona - Speak To Me.
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