Abbey News & Views

 The Hexham Parish Magazine
 

 Welcoming a white Easter 2008
The Dawn Service on the Sele – Paul Myers 

 April 2008                 Issue No 82

FROM THE RECTOR

 As an older teenager the music of the Taizé community was to have a profound affect on me.  I struggled with faith expressed in concrete certainties and preferred the discussion at the blurred edges and the meditative chants seemed to provide the background canvas for this to work.  It is heart-warming to read Duncan Hewitt’s article in this edition of News and Views about how the Taizé continues to inspire.

 Back in 1940 Brother Roger founded this ecumenical community of brothers in a small village in western France.  He was 25 years old and he had come there to offer shelter to political refugees, notably Jews fleeing the Nazi persecution, and to work out a call to follow Christ in community living.  Today, there are around a hundred brothers, from different Christian denominations, who have made a life commitment to live together in joy, simplicity and mercy as a ‘parable of community’.

 We are a society that seems reluctant to make commitments and I am concerned that this is creeping into our own church community life.  Despite having a large congregation, and healthy attendance on a Sunday, we always seem to be struggling to find people who will undertake the various roles and tasks that there are in any community of faith.  It was disappointing that only two people turned up on Holy Saturday to help the Verger prepare the Abbey for Easter despite an appeal the previous Sunday.  We have still not found a person who will take over the important role of co-ordinating Abbey Teas.  We’ve got a whole group of young people but precious few adults willing to lead them.  Recruiting more Stewards and Guides is an on-going task.

 Of course, we need to be careful that we are not so busy with our activities and our plans that there is neither the time nor the mood to pray.  The life at Taizé is rooted in the saying together of daily prayer so that all of the activity and exploration is simply an extension of prayer itself.

Each of us, as part of the body of Christ, has a part to play in the 'doing' as well as the 'being' of our common life.  I’m always disappointed when I’m asked by people, ‘what can my family and I get out of the Abbey?’  This is to miss the point of a Christian community entirely.  The Christ-centred question is to ask ‘what can I give?’  Can I simply encourage you, please, to play your part – to be involved – to ask questions – to live faithfully – and to drink from those deep wells of the monastic tradition that inspire the Taizé community, and inspired our forebears in Hexham, which are labelled prayer and study and work and hospitality.

PARISH REGISTER

 

Holy Baptisms

 

Sunday 9^th March                Nicole Charlton

                                          Katie Charlton

                                          Meagan Graham

                                          Jack Beech

Sunday 23^rd March              Finley Rainford

                                          Katie Steel

                                                       

Christian Burials and Cremations

 

Shaun Kirby, died 16^th Feb 2008.  Cremated 25^th Feb 2008.

Doris Harvey, died 26^th Feb 2008.  Cremated 4^th March 2008.

Winnifred Browne, died 3^rd March 2008.  Cremated 10^th March 2008.

Olive Clemitson, died 3^rd March 2008. Cremated 11^th March 2008.

Helen Hall, died 5^th March 2008. Cremated 12^th March 2008.

Eric Brown, died 16^th March 2008.  Buried 20^th March 2008.

Nancy Akenhead, died 23^rd March 2008.  Buried 7^th April 2008.

 

 

 

 

APRIL 2008 – DIARY

 

 

12^th 10.30am Tynedale Community Hospice Service

 

 

14^th – 17^th April Girls’ choir trip to Glasgow

 

 

23^rd 9.30am Holy Communion: St George, Martyr

25^th 9.30am Holy Communion: St Mark the Evangelist

 

 

28th April, 7.30pm  QEHS Choral Concert 'The Armed Man'

1^st May  Ascension Day:

10.30am and 7.30pm Holy Communion:

2^nd May St Philip and St James, Apostles:

9.30am Holy Communion:

7.30pm NCSG Charity Fashion Show

 

 

WHY EXPLORE OUR FAITH? 

 

Linda Rowell has been part of a small group working, with Helen Barton, on what we might develop to help us understand our faith a little more.  Here she shares a personal reflection about why we need to explore our faith.

 

Why do we need to explore our faith?  How many times have we been told ‘never discuss politics or religion’?  Of course, we have politics thrust at us all the time from the media, and that’s no bad thing.  We need to know what’s going on in the world.  Often we may not agree, and it’s from our press and programmes like ‘Question Time’ and ‘Any Questions’ that we hear differing views, some we can agree with and others not, but all give us food for thought.

 

But what about our faith, deeply personal and often locked away within us?  Going to church Sunday by Sunday can become simply a habit, and it’s so easy to slip into auto-pilot.  Jesus tells us that when salt loses its saltiness it is no longer good for anything (Matt 5:13).

 

When Jesus was asked ‘who are you?’ he replied ‘Who do you say I am?’  Is the Jesus you know today still that same Jesus you knew years ago?  You probably do not read the same books now that you read as a child.  And yet has your understanding of God the Creator, and Jesus, changed and deepened over the years? 

 

I read recently that if you are the same person at age 50 as you were at age 20, then you have wasted 30 years of your life.  It makes sense.  You haven’t developed as a person.  So it is with our spiritual life – we need to grow both as human beings and as Christians.

 

We’ll never reach a point when we know all there is to know about God.  That is the mystery which he reveals to us bit by bit. It is a lifelong journey, an exciting, sometimes disturbing, journey of discovery, about God and about ourselves, and in exploring our faith we open our hearts and minds to allow that to happen.

 

Give yourself the chance to grow in confidence from discovering more and sharing with others and discovering more.

 

Adult Education at Hexham Abbey – a rovisional programme

1. Making sense of the Bible in today’s world: There will be 6 Monday evening sessions with a 7^th  follow-up meeting: May 12^th  May 19^th  June 2^nd  June 9^th   June 23^rd   June 30^th     July 7^th                                                                   All evenings will start from 7.15 with coffee and the course will run from 7.45 until 9.15 pm.

A course designed for people with some acquaintance of Old and New Testament themes, but have otherwise no background in Bible study other than Church services and personal Bible reading. It will be lead by Alastair McNaughton, Diocesan Officer for Learning and Education, and Jan Porter, reader at St. Peter’s Monkseaton. 

                                                 

2.  Faith essentials: Six sessions in the autumn, designed for those just beginning their faith journey or others who want to refresh.

                    

3. Our faith through cinema: Four to six sessions between Christmas and Lent, with themes suggested by contemporary films.

 

We hope that you will find something to interest you from this choice.  Look out for the flyer giving details of the first course, available soon.  If you have any questions about any of the above, please speak to Helen Barton, Sue Snow, Ron Harbottle, Rachel Haywood Smith or Linda Rowell - we would appreciate talking to you!

 

 

CHARITY FASHION SHOW                              

 

 On Saturday 2^nd May, the hallowed walls of Hexham Abbey will play host to a stunning fashion show organised by the Northumberland Cancer Support Group.  Some of the models are cancer patients themselves and the aim of the evening is to demonstrate that it is still possible to have fun and to enjoy life to the full following a cancer diagnosis.  The fashion show is being organised by Mary Miller whom many will know through her involvement at the Abbey with Junior Church and Abbey Teas.  Kim Inglis from Tyne Tees TV will open the show and Sylvia Mitchell, a local author and support group member, will compère the evening. Funds raised at the event will be shared between NCSG and Hexham Abbey.  Tickets cost £15 (to include refreshments) and are available from the Abbey Shop or from Mary Miller, tel. 01661 842459.

 

 

APRIL THEME – THE TAIZÉ COMMUNITY

 

On 13^th April we will be having a service of evening prayer with music from the Taizé Community.  But what is Taizé?  Many know that it is a religious community in France that welcomes thousands of young people every week but here Duncan Hewitt, a regular visitor, explains a little more…    

 

One of the biggest problems I have when talking to people about Taizé is how to describe it without making it sound either mundane and uninteresting, or vacuous and lacking in any real content.  If you just list what goes on – lots of silence, communal living in tents or barracks, vast swathes of people, dubious food, regular prayer, repetitive chanting, unappealing chores, etc… it sounds at best unexciting. Yet this is exactly what happens, and it is far from uninteresting.

 

On the other hand, if you try to get across the general impression of wonder you felt when you were there, without backing this up with anything tangible, you lack integrity, although the feelings were and are very genuine.  The problem is that Taizé rather defies description.  In fact I think this is what makes it so remarkable, and what makes visiting Taizé such a profound and life enhancing experience.  Just as any description of God is incomplete, so any experience of the divine cannot be fully explained.  Any attempt to describe the nature of God falls somehow short – there are things that cannot be understood or comprehended in terms of flat human thought and logic. Similarly, any glimpse of God, any encounter with something more, is impossible to fully describe or indeed fully understand.

 

So it is when trying to describe what happens at Taizé.  In terms of what actually goes on, the list above is pretty accurate, although you could add to it – meeting so many diverse young people from across the globe, playing and laughing and enjoying life with them, crossing language and cultural barriers without even thinking about it, seeing your questions reflected in others… Or meeting the brothers of Taizé, hearing their insights, thoughts and questions, and pondering these things in the communal routine of prayer, or on your own.

 

There is not a set of rules to follow at Taizé, or a checklist to tick off, there is no underlying agenda, no received thinking that everyone should agree with, no doctrines that must be adhered to, and perhaps crucially, there are few answers.  Instead it is a chance to explore and question, search and be drawn into the deeper realities of the Christian faith, and of the mystery of God. Taizé provides the time, environment and inspiration for this exploration, all of which are rare and valuable commodities in our busy world.  Instead of arriving at a ‘right-wrong’ fork in the road, you find yourself in a vast and expansive plain with new and endless horizons in every direction.

 

Bridget Hewitt has led groups of young people from Hexham to visit Taizé.  Here she describes something of the spirituality of the people and the place…

 

I want to start by saying that I feel less than qualified to write on this subject, but I am happy to give it a go because I feel it is intensely important. I also want to pay tribute to Brother John of Taizé, whose writing has helped me in composing this article. 

 

Taizé is often thought of, here in Britain, as either a type of repetitive prayer chant, or perhaps as a place in France where people go on pilgrimage.  To reach to the gist of what Taizé really is it is important to look behind both these assumptions, neither of which are wrong, but both of which are limited.

 

In the village of Taizé there is an ecumenical monastic community of about 100 brothers, from many different countries. Throughout the year these brothers welcome thousands upon thousands of mainly young visitors from across the world to spend a week with them, living in simple accommodation, and sharing in their way of life.  The essential qualities of monastic community are what hold the ‘happening’ of Taizé together.  These may be summed up as communion with God in prayer, and communion with others in a common life, and it is the way in which the Brothers live out this prayer and communion that make up the essential spirituality of Taizé.

 

Three times every day at Taizé the bell rings and everyone who is there makes their way to the church for a time of prayer. The rhythm of the regular prayer holds the days together and is absolutely central to the life of the brothers.  The prayer is very simple: chants, short Bible readings, and a longish time of silence during each session.  Brother John writes:  “In a certain sense, more important than what we do when we enter the church is the simple fact of stopping and going there regularly for prayer. It is a kind of non-verbal language to express the truth that our life does not find its justification in ourselves, but rather in this relationship with Another. Meaning and identity flow from relationship, not the other way around.”

Flowing from the times of prayer is the sharing in community with others, and the offering of hospitality and welcome. Every day brothers give Bible introductions and other input to all their (mainly young) visitors, who are divided into groups; and people are then invited to share and discuss with each other.  A spirit of great openness is encouraged in this sharing, so that one grows and is enriched by listening to the other.  Taizé is not a place where belief and doctrine predominate: rather it is a place for exploration and experience of a way of life based on relationship with that great mystery that we call God.

 

Brothers of Taizé, as well as offering the hospitality and welcome in France, have from the early days of the community also lived around the world in areas of poverty and discrimination.  Wherever they live, their life is based on prayer and hospitality. Interfaith sharing may be an important part of their presence in some of these communities.  Again, as in France, it is their way of living life, and the quality of their being, that sort of ‘leaven in the dough’ of a community, that is important, rather than specific ‘work’. Work may happen, but it springs from the life of regular prayer, rather than the other way round.

 

What has the spirituality of Taizé to teach us here in Hexham, or to teach the church at a wider level?  In a sense it is what the monastic movements have always taught: the centrality of prayer which, lived authentically, reaches out to communion with others. The ‘how’ of doing it is what we have to learn – and I believe it to be vitally important.

 

 

 

Michael Haynes, the Abbey’s Director of Music, describes the music of Taizé…

 

Many us will have experienced a moment when music has taken us to a higher level. It can be film music, a hymn, a folk song, a pop song, a

symphony or a musical. This moment can have a profound impact on us, and says something that words cannot.  What is it about Taizé chants that can move us into these realms?

 

• We know, as Augustine said, that when we sing we pray twice, and there is a way in which words sung sympathetically are greatly empowered and their meaning heightened.

 

• The chants use simple but strong melodies, often with their roots in the modal styles of ancient chants and folk music. Modal music avoids cliché and sentimentality that tonal music (in its predictability) can easily embrace.

 

• The chants tend to have largely triadic harmonies, based on chords with little dissonance or complexity, which makes them easily absorbed and resonates in a direct way.

 

• The shortness of the chants, repeated over and over again enables them to enter our consciousness infallibly, but then also to take us to an almost hypnotic state, whereby we are meditating. This can help us to rise above our earthly state; reaching a spiritual plane in which prayer is enabled. It may be through that prayerful state that God will speak to us.

 

• The chosen words often focus not so much on the profound and unfathomable but on the direct and incontrovertible, paeans of praise and thanksgiving:

 

Where love is, God is to be found

It is good to trust and hope in the Lord

Grant us your peace O Lord

Rejoice in the Lord

Come Holy Spirit

 

• The chants are sung in a variety of languages which paradoxically can make their meaning more profound. Not perhaps by hitting us in the face but by being breathed-in or absorbed. The international nature of the music also helps us to feel that we are sharing with those who seek God in every part of the world.

 

SCHOOL VISITS PROGRAMME

 

Year 4 of The Sele School came to visit the Abbey in March.  The children wrote poems about their visit and they will be displayed in the Abbey during April.  Here is a taster from Amy Strong.

 

 

The Abbey

 

It is morning

The birds sing of it

And I can see people praying to God

Someone touched my latch and opened me

I saw people

Lots of them

Hundreds of them

Walking down the steps

Down, under the Abbey

Damp, musty smells reach me

Cold eyes pierce me

My thoughts wander to ghosts

Another pair of hands touched me

They brought me back to earth

The people left

Owls started hooting

Night had come

Stillness took over the Abbey

As I slept                                                          

 

 

 

 

NEW HEXHAM ABBEY GUIDE BOOK

 

Eminent local historian, Dr Stan Beckensall, reviews the new Abbey guide book:

 

Guide books can be notoriously boring and unattractive, written by people who wish to impress with their knowledge of history and architecture. The new Abbey Guide manages to combine some excellent illustrations with a well-written text. The size is just right, and the covers are impressive, showing the solidity of the outside and its use inside.

 

I hope it not unkind to comment that the last one gave the Abbey the museum treatment, so that despite some good photographs, it did not convey the life of the place, its shifting light and colour, its inner life and – above all- its people.  The emphasis in the text is now on the Abbey as a place of the spirit, with concentration on its origins, development, and continuing use.

 

The photographs are well-chosen and skilfully taken; there are children and adults included from past and present, and the rich legacy of the use of the building is well-covered.  The Rector’s hope that “you will not only view the Abbey’s treasures, but also find calm and refreshment within in its walls and walk a step of faith” is conveyed also in what follows this preface.

 

As a congregation, we can be proud of this publication. Its price, too, is not excessive for such a comprehensive and attractive guide.

 

The new Hexham Abbey Guide Book with stunning photographs by Angelo Hornak is now on sale from the Abbey Shop for £4.99. 

 

HEXHAM ABBEY CENTRE PROJECT

 

Fiona and Peter Standfield joined the Abbey staff team towards the end of 2007 on a part-time basis, to manage the Hexham Abbey Centre project through the next phase of its development. 

The comprehensive Feasibility Study that was completed last summer had considered a range of options for improving the facilities available at the Abbey and identified a preferred solution that would take advantage of an historic opportunity to reunite the Abbey with the former Priory buildings that are currently used by Northumberland County Council’s Social Services department.  The study concluded that, for a capital cost of around £5m, it would be technically feasible to develop these buildings to provide not only some much-needed meeting, education, toilet and administrative spaces that would allow the Abbey and its congregation to play an even greater role in local life, but also a visitor centre, that would make the remarkable story of the Abbey and its place in the history of Hexham and in the Christian Heritage of the North East of England far more accessible for everyone.  To be sustainable and avoid creating a long-term financial burden for the Abbey, the number of visitors would need to increase by about a third and a substantial income would need to be generated from retail and catering and from charges for access to audio-visual interpretation facilities. 

 

Over the past few months the team has met with all the key stakeholders and clarified the specific aims that will enable the project to achieve the PCC’s overall vision of developing the Abbey and its former Priory buildings as an iconic welcoming place which draws people in to participate, to learn and to be inspired.

 

Although the proposals from the Feasibility Study did not include the NHS-owned Abbey Clinic building, it now seems likely that this might also become available in time to allow it to be considered as part of the project.  The Abbey’s architect is currently exploring the extent to which the potential inclusion of this additional space might benefit the project.  Discussions are also being held with Her Majesty’s Court Service to clarify the relationship between the project and the requirements of the Magistrates Court over the next few years and in the longer-term future. 

 

Meanwhile, the assumptions underlying the Feasibility Study are being validated and a programme of additional work is being prepared to support the development of more detailed designs. 

 

The immediate objective of all this activity is an initial submission for support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) by September of this year, from which a decision would not be expected before January 2009. 

Early discussions with the HLF and with other potential funders, including One NorthEast and the Mercers’ Company, have been most encouraging.  Even with their full support, however, we will still need to raise a substantial amount through a major funding appeal in order to meet the full costs of the project.  Planning for this is now well under way and we are seeking to secure the patronage of a prominent national figure to support our cause. 

 

Although this wider appeal will not be launched in full until we have a clearer idea of how much might be available from our major public funders, donations will of course be welcome at any time.  The PCC has already received over £18,000 of contributions, which will be put towards the fabric, furnishings and equipment in the centre in due course.  Much of this was raised by the highly successful Gala Dinner that was held in the autumn of 2006.  A similar event is to be held on 7^th October 2008, for which the former Governor of Hong Kong and current Chancellor of Newcastle University has agreed to be our guest speaker.  Further details of this event will be circulated in the near future.

 

If anyone would like any further information about the project at any time, please feel free to contact Peter or Fiona via the PCC offices or by email at projectmanager@hexhamabbey.org.uk. 

 

 

 

HOLY FAMILY PAINTING

Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth, the infant Saint John, and two angels.

The painting of The Holy Family above the high altar was conserved in 2007 as a research project for a Degree of Master of Arts in Conservation of Fine Art by Barbara Stabik at the University of Northumbria.  Her report gave the following information.

 

The initial examination showed that the painting and its lining canvas were generally in good condition but had some minor paint losses and bore evidence of previous restoration.  The paint layer was obscured by a discoloured varnish and a layer of dirt.  The initial assumption, based on surface examination, was that the copy was a nineteenth century painting.

 

First the dirt on the back was taken off, then the loose dust.  When the discoloured dark yellow varnish, which carried a bird dropping, was removed from the front many losses of paint was discovered but there was a dramatic brightening of the colours.  The lining canvas was re-adhered where it had become detached.  After an initial varnish, the losses in the ground layer, in which lead pigment had been used, were filled.  Invisible in-painting was used to fill the losses in the paint layer and the painting was re-varnished.  The frame was cleaned, repaired and re-gilded.  The printing was then reframed.

 

Examination revealed that the materials used were of high quality and the painting was extremely well executed which indicates that it was probably painted on commission, rather than painted by a scholar as a study piece.  The artist used traditional natural pigments: natural ultramarine – a very expensive pigment, Naples yellow or antimony yellow, copper green glaze, tinted intermediate varnish and bicoloured ground.  These brilliant colours all indicate a pre-nineteenth-century painting; no modern synthetic materials were used.

 

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531) was born in Florence.  He was greatly influenced by the artists of the High Renaissance and founded his own workshop in 1506.  His paintings show soft transitions from light to dark that create a perception of depth.  Andrea was involved in the reworking of successful compositions and his several assistants and students were often involved in producing simple reproductions of the same painting in the studio.  The Holy Family was a popular composition; several versions were produced in Andrea's workshop.  The Louvre Holy Family was acquired by Francis I, King of France, in 1516 and by 1804 was on public display there.

 

The Hexham copy is most likely to have been painted in front of the original painting; copying paintings satisfied commissions and gave the artists an income.  The original must have been in very good condition, with colours showing their brilliance, for the Hexham copy to be so vibrant with strong colours. The painter of the Hexham copy chose a canvas support, not a prepared wooden panel in the traditional Italian sixteenth-century practice.  It is executed in oil paint and is unsigned; it may have been painted pre-nineteenth-century; the initial assumption that the copy was a nineteenth century painting now appears highly unlikely.  A label on the stretcher bears the name of T. Rushworth & Son, carvers and gilders, of Durham; he restored and possibly reframed the picture.  The wooden frame (180 x 154 x 15 cm) is of substantial weight.  Its elaborate moulded decoration, which gives a great depth to the design, dates it to the nineteenth century.

 

Mr Henderson and his wife of The Riding, Acomb, gave the picture to the Abbey in 1908.  He travelled widely, so he might have bought the painting abroad, or possibly from Mr Rushworth who was also an art dealer.  Whatever its provenance, the Abbey is fortunate to have such a high-quality painting as a focus above the high altar.

Colin Dallison

 

 

HEXHAM ABBEY

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

20^th April 2008

 

9.30am Joint Parish Eucharist

followed by Annual Meeting of Parishioners

(very brief, decides on 5 Churchwardens)

 

Tea & Coffee

 

Approx. 11am Annual Parochial Church Meeting

and presentation about all age learning in the Abbey.

There are 5 elected places (for 3 years) on the Deanery Synod and PCC.  There are 3 elected places (for 3 years) and 1 elected place (for 2 years) available on the PCC .

Anyone wishing to stand for election must be on the church electoral roll.  The Rector is very willing to speak to people interested in serving the parish in this way and nomination forms are available from the Parish Centre.

 

12 noon Shared Lunch

Children

Sunday School and Crèche during the service.

Children's activities will be arranged for the duration of the meeting.

Pot-Luck Lunch

Please bring: food for finger buffet (sweet or savoury).

Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be provided

HEXHAM ABBEY - The Priory and Parish Church of St Andrew

Parish Centre, Beaumont Street, Hexham, Northumberland NE46 3NB

Tel: 01434 602031, Fax: 01434 606116, e-mail: admin@hexhamabbey.org.uk

The Parish Centre is open Mondays to Fridays from 10am until 1pm.

 

 

Diocesan Child Protection Officer: The Revd Jean Skinner, 0191 236 3474, 07731 683500

 

Sunday Services

8.30am     Holy Communion

10am        Parish Communion with Crèche and Junior Church

11.45 am    (1^st Sunday in the month only) Holy Communion BCP (Common Worship)

6.30pm     Choral Evensong BCP (full choir)

                                                       

Weekday Services

Day	Morning Prayer	Holy Communion	Evening Prayer
Monday	9am		5pm
Tuesday	9am	12 noon	5pm
Wednesday	9am 10.15am Tots' Praise	9.30am	*6.30pm Choral Evensong
Thursday	9am	10.30am	*6.30pm Choral Evensong
Friday	9am	9.30am	5pm
Saturday	9am		5pm

*term-time only, otherwise 5.00pm Evening Prayer