THE
P RTAL
August 2018
Page 8
St Andrew’s, Portslade until 2003 when
it had been removed. It passed into the
hands of the Worshipful Company of
Glaziers and in 2017 they kindly donated
it to St Anselm’s.
Mgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary, was
there with The Right Revd Paul Mason,
Assistant Bishop of Southwark. Sadly,
Father Hugh Allen, O.Praem, currently
head of the Norbertine order based in
Chelmsford was unable to be present.
(The link with St Anselm is that Bayham
Abbey, now a derelict ruin having been
sacked by Henry VIII, was Norbertine and the monks
from there used to walk to Pembury old church to say
Mass each week.) He is also Apostolic Administrator
of the Falkland Islands and Ecclesial Superior of the
Islands of Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha
- part of the world that has great association with the
east window.
the Worshipful Company of Glaziers
Yet, despite the second Temple being but a shadow of
its predecessor in architectural terms, it far outweighed
it because that small Temple was nevertheless filled
with the glory of the Lord. One could say that the glory
of that second Temple outweighed that of the first.
Making his point, Mgr Keith remarked concerning
St Anselm’s, “It’s not Chartres Cathedral, it’s not even
Most of the items acquired for St Anselm’s have come St Barnabas Tunbridge Wells….” He went on to remark
from other churches. Representatives from Portslade, that one would be justified in saying that the new is
Shottermill and Sevenoaks, as well as ecumenical greater than the former. Dual-purpose buildings
have their place, but there is really no substitute for a
guests and many others were present.
dedicated place for prayer.
On this occasion the centrepiece was the east window.
Using the famous hymn of George Herbert “Teach
It had been commissioned to commemorate the death
of Lt Edward French RN. He went down with his ship, me my God and King”, he quoted:
A man that looks on glass,
HMS Good Hope, on the 1st November, 1914 at the
On it may stay his eye;
battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile. The Germans
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
caught the South Atlantic Squadron somewhat
And then the heavens espy.
unawares. The ship was old and unprotected in terms
of modern warfare and went down with a total loss of
It is as if Christians may look through the curtains to
life - 919 men in total. The squadron was based in the
Falkland Islands and its home port was Stanley. The what lies beyond. Mgr Keith referred to the Iconoclastic
Germans sunk two of our ships with a total loss of life controversy of yesteryear, but defended the use of
beauty and human skill in art being used in worship.
of 1,600 men that afternoon.
He reminded the congregation that their window was
Lieutenant French and his parents worshipped at St about Matthew 14. Peter sinks not because he is afraid,
Andrew’s Portslade and the memorial windows were but because he starts to doubt.
consecrated in 1923. The sea of Galilee and the colours
He doubted he could do what Christ wanted him to
in the glass and the birds shown in the window looks
do. He did not keep his eyes on Our Lord. “May your
very like the Falkland Islands.
window remind you of this every time you look at it,”
In his homily, the Ordinary likened St Anselm’s story he said. He continued that it is easy to doubt in our
to the re-building of the second Temple in Jerusalem modern world but we are to trust in the Lord despite
following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the waves both in the window and in the world at large.
the deportation of the population some three hundred
The story of St Anselm’s is wonderful. It is also
miles to Babylon. The second Temple was not a patch
on the first as far as architecture was concerned. Yet, inspiring. Fr Ed Tomlinson and Fr Nicholas Leviseur
as Mgr Keith pointed out, the first Temple had been with the people of St Anselm’s have been on a
accused of “Ichabod”: “the glory has faded”. The glory remarkable journey. They have achieved wonderful
of the Lord had left the Temple. The people had reneged things. But they did not do it on their own. They did it
because they kept their eyes on Our Lord.
on their promises to God and followed other ways.