For those who are interested, I am posting a link to a video that shows what some people think should be the proper way to celebrate the Eucharist. I would be interested in comments. http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/high-mass-dvd/index.html
I note that the participants all seem to be young white males with a penchant for kissing the hand of the rubicund celebrant. I do not remember this aspect of the old rite.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Easter holidays
Sorry for the silence. Have been having an Easter break. Back next week. It is nothing whatsoever to do with the royal wedding. Nice to see that it coincides with the feast of Catherine of Siena, great woman who stood up to the papacy of the day. To come next week: all the excitement of the Leicester south election, the mayor of Leicester election and the AV referendum why I shall be voting Yes or No.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Home is....
A new series starts today 'Home is....." and to begin one of my dearest friends and comrades, Shirley Siriwardena from Sri Lanka.
This is Shirley's story. Do you have a story.....?
This is a post script from Shirley about how we met:
This is Shirley's story. Do you have a story.....?
Home is where the Heart is
Holiday to Sri Lanka always felt, I was returning home but after a week or two, I am desperate to return home to England. I have tried many a times to resolve this conundrum. After all, now I have started 38th year of my life in England. That is more than I have lived in Sri Lanka.
I arrived in England in 1974, on a cold, dark night on 16th of February. That was the first time I have ever being out of Sri Lanka. I have left my adopted family, friends, working colleagues and devoted comrades who took part in all our Trade Union and political struggles. It was frightening. I was apprehensive entering an uncertain future. What will the future holds for me? Have I jumped from a frying pan to an inextinguishable glowing fire? My confidence was not strong anymore!
I was very active in Trade Unions, in left politics - local and national. Defending Liberation Theology and critical of the hierarchy of the Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church. I was always surrounded by friends, colleague and comrades. Never alone, or never fearing for the future. I was full of self confidence with a fighting spirit for social justice. I had an identity and community that accepted me. This is where my heart is and that is my country.
My first day in England, I felt soulless. Bitterly cold wind and dark gloomy skies did neither inspire me nor strengthen my drooping spirit. However, I survived the week and started work as a Lino-Type Operator in printing in a local weekly newspaper. It was difficult. For many natives that was the first time they have seen a non-white face. They were friendly but also frequently exercised what I call ‘selective racism.’ The controversy of the arrival of Ugandan Asians was still a heated debate amongst the host community. Leicestershire County Council purchased massive spaces in “Ugandan Newspapers” to discourage British Passport holders from arriving in Leicester.
I was not like those Asians in the eyes of my colleagues at work because I was granted a “WORK PERMIT” by the Home Office. I am not a Gujarati speaking Hindu. I am a good Roman Catholic able to converse in English. Gradually, I started being involved first with Church organisations and then with my Trade Union – National Graphical Association as it was then known. I enrolled on odd evening classes and gradually started making friends at work, in the church and in the area I lived.
I was offered employment in a rival newspaper about 12 to 14 miles from where I was. I accepted it, as it was on a better salary, better conditions and was in a thriving town as opposed to a village. My work colleagues in this new place were brilliant. Many of them joined this place after being sacked by their previous employer for taking part in a Trade Union dispute. They had a broader outlook on life and with the exception of one or two people, they were not racist. I started being active in the Union and was representing the Chapel at Branch Meetings. I was made the Deputy Father of the Chapel and later the Father of the Chapel.
I was now once again my normal self. Welcomed by my work colleagues and also by the neighbourhood I live. I regained my confidence and felt secure. I represented my Trade Union in the local Trades Union Council. With the time, I was nominated, voted and held the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Trades Council for many years. I was also nominated to the local Commission for Racial Equality and to the Racial Harassment Committee of the local Police, monitoring the actions of the police on racial harassment complaints.
I have once again returned to the life I had in Sri Lanka. I am surrounded by comrades and colleagues. I am involved with many activities in the Trade Union movement, in local and national Politics and in many community activities. I have gained an identity once again. With this, I am also beginning to face a new challenge. My life experience has made me re-think about my political beliefs. I retain the same values but my approach has changed. For this, I am criticised by my friends and colleagues on the left. I have not sold out but I have deviated from the standard left-wing approach.
When Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, they were 23 years of age. I am now 65 years old and unlike Marx and Engels, I have been a blue-collar worker and a white-collar worker. My experience with the ‘working class’ has made me more akin to Franz Fanon or Herbert Marcuse than to Marx and Engels. I am more experienced than Marx or Engels being subjected to harassment of racism and for trade union activities. Hence, I justify my new approach to new struggles.
I also now face racism at times from two sections of the society. Firstly from the prevailing ignorance in certain sections of the host community and from the Asian community, based on the wrong perception of what is to be an ‘Asian.’ The perception being that, one should be Hindu and able to speak Gujarati and Hindi, missing the fundamental point that, Asia is more than India.
I am able to cope with these problems now because I also have the good support of my comrades, and friends. My visits to Sri Lanka are like being in a science fiction. I never felt being at home. I was more of a visitor from another planet. The area, I grew up has undergone changes beyond recognition. Many of my friends and comrades are no longer in my home town. Families known to me are no longer in the area and the elders I knew have returned to their creator. I was a stranger in the town where I was born and brought up. I am no more part of this community. I do not have an identity here, I am now a stranger.
My heart is where I share my values and my hopes. Hope of a just world is where oppression is eradicated and rights of minorities are granted. Values are when you recognise that there is a vast difference between what you need and what you like and that, resources are there to be shared and not to be exploited for profits.
Being in a community that share these hopes and values is where my country is, my identity is and where I am not a stranger. For good or bad England is my home now because that is where I find that small community, sharing my hopes and my values. This where my heart is and my home. However, there are times, I still feel, I am an outsider here too, that is when the ‘big society’ tells me, “go back to where you come from” if you do not want to support our wars. For that, I have no answer.
Shirley Siriwardena
Loughborough
This is a post script from Shirley about how we met:
We first met in 1979 February at the first Anti-Nazi League meeting held at the Charnwood Pub (now Swan in the Rushes). Present you, me, Russ, Keith, David Paterson, Dennis Gardiner, Michael McLoughlin, Martin Gregory, Derek (Councillor and then Manager Carillon Precinct) and few others. You were in Frederick Street. Same year you played the Diabelli piece on the piano with Peter Wilson for Amnesty International at Martin Hall at the University.
Leicester mayoral candidates (some of anyway) at the LGBT centre
It is a measure of social change in the UK that most of the candidates for the elected mayor of Leicester turned up last night for a hustings at the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centre. It was generally a polite and well mannered meeting, but so boring, until the back row interrupted the orderly timed Q&As. It seemed at first if this was going to be yet another safe event with the experienced showing they were experienced and the less so etc.
It came more alive when the prescribed order of things was interrupted by "supplementaries" which allowed a much more raw set of feelings and grievances to emerge. The candidates seemed to think that it was a case of more resources - some would allocate more, some were more wary. The idea that a change of attitude on the part of elected councillors and senior officials was needed seemed somewhat novel to the candidates. The lack of adequate monitoring of LGBT populations was highlighted as one area which meant that there were no established statistical norms by which to see if the equality agenda is being met.
The view that there were unconscious or conscious forces at work in elected councillors and senior officers that meant the LGBT community was either made invisible or certainly less visible than other minority groups for fear of upsetting religious or ethnic sensitivities was firmly rejected by some candidates yet made sense to others. What seem to differentiate the two responses was how closely they had been to the seats of power in the council. Those who had held office seemed to reject the idea and those who had not held power were at least able to entertain it as a possible explantation of the absence of a LGBT presence on the ONE Leicester material. It will be interesting to see how, once the mayor arrives in office, how things change.
It was stressed to the candidates that it requires moral courage to take a stand and support a minority which is often seen in a negative light. However, there was surprise when they were told that, not withstanding major social changes in UK society, there are still unacceptable high levels of physical and mental illness among LGBT community members. This is not surprising given the amounts of negativity and sometimes hatred shown to us.
There was recognition that the mayor could give a lead on matters such as homophobic bullying in schools and LGBT hate crime and set a model of good practice. The question of faith schools' policies on homophobic bullying was not given the consideration it needs especially where particular faiths have views on LGBT issues that, in my view, fuel attacks on our community.
The government proposals for the NHS and the implications for the LGBT community only got a small amount of attention, at the end, when people were tired. It needs much more thought especially with the city council taking over responsibility for some aspects of health care. Given the likely representation of LGBT people running these services there could be some useful further discussions that would inform the new administration of what is needed.
There was a challenge to those present to get their act together and present to the new administration what was needed to make LGBT a more defined community. What was not discussed last night, and slept like the elephant in the room, was the fundamental question of the language we use to talk about ourselves. What is a community? Are we a community of communities? Why is the LGBT centre so under-used?* Who should speak to the city council on behalf of the community?
It was sad that so few women were present. When the meeting ended candidates and attendees went downstairs only to meet many women using the centre as a social space. Pity more of them had not been present at the meeting upstairs. I wonder why?
The youngest candidate for mayor who was present was Mu-Hamid Pathan who surely has a political career in front of him. I end with a picture of him talking to one of the attendees in the ice breaking first half hour.
It was sad that the one glaring absentee was the Conservative candidate for mayor. I assume he had been invited but there was no message from him. We were left wondering what was the meaning of his absence and seeming failure to send a message. One of the independent candidates said he was gay/bisexual but no other candidates choose to announce their sexual orientation. Many of them said they had visited the centre in the past.
Last word: many of the candidates said that they had been surprised at the strong feelings expressed in the meeting, some even saying that they had learned something they did not know (here good marks to Rick Moore, who impressed many present). But if the candidates thought that this meeting was somehow special in its intensity it does give pause for thought. As a gay man well used to arguing politics and religion and culture etc I thought it only an average night. Perhaps we are more lucky than we realise.
*access point: the centre really does need to do some work on helping those with mobility problems to be able to get into the building more easily.
It came more alive when the prescribed order of things was interrupted by "supplementaries" which allowed a much more raw set of feelings and grievances to emerge. The candidates seemed to think that it was a case of more resources - some would allocate more, some were more wary. The idea that a change of attitude on the part of elected councillors and senior officials was needed seemed somewhat novel to the candidates. The lack of adequate monitoring of LGBT populations was highlighted as one area which meant that there were no established statistical norms by which to see if the equality agenda is being met.
The view that there were unconscious or conscious forces at work in elected councillors and senior officers that meant the LGBT community was either made invisible or certainly less visible than other minority groups for fear of upsetting religious or ethnic sensitivities was firmly rejected by some candidates yet made sense to others. What seem to differentiate the two responses was how closely they had been to the seats of power in the council. Those who had held office seemed to reject the idea and those who had not held power were at least able to entertain it as a possible explantation of the absence of a LGBT presence on the ONE Leicester material. It will be interesting to see how, once the mayor arrives in office, how things change.
It was stressed to the candidates that it requires moral courage to take a stand and support a minority which is often seen in a negative light. However, there was surprise when they were told that, not withstanding major social changes in UK society, there are still unacceptable high levels of physical and mental illness among LGBT community members. This is not surprising given the amounts of negativity and sometimes hatred shown to us.
There was recognition that the mayor could give a lead on matters such as homophobic bullying in schools and LGBT hate crime and set a model of good practice. The question of faith schools' policies on homophobic bullying was not given the consideration it needs especially where particular faiths have views on LGBT issues that, in my view, fuel attacks on our community.
The government proposals for the NHS and the implications for the LGBT community only got a small amount of attention, at the end, when people were tired. It needs much more thought especially with the city council taking over responsibility for some aspects of health care. Given the likely representation of LGBT people running these services there could be some useful further discussions that would inform the new administration of what is needed.
There was a challenge to those present to get their act together and present to the new administration what was needed to make LGBT a more defined community. What was not discussed last night, and slept like the elephant in the room, was the fundamental question of the language we use to talk about ourselves. What is a community? Are we a community of communities? Why is the LGBT centre so under-used?* Who should speak to the city council on behalf of the community?
It was sad that so few women were present. When the meeting ended candidates and attendees went downstairs only to meet many women using the centre as a social space. Pity more of them had not been present at the meeting upstairs. I wonder why?
The youngest candidate for mayor who was present was Mu-Hamid Pathan who surely has a political career in front of him. I end with a picture of him talking to one of the attendees in the ice breaking first half hour.
It was sad that the one glaring absentee was the Conservative candidate for mayor. I assume he had been invited but there was no message from him. We were left wondering what was the meaning of his absence and seeming failure to send a message. One of the independent candidates said he was gay/bisexual but no other candidates choose to announce their sexual orientation. Many of them said they had visited the centre in the past.
Last word: many of the candidates said that they had been surprised at the strong feelings expressed in the meeting, some even saying that they had learned something they did not know (here good marks to Rick Moore, who impressed many present). But if the candidates thought that this meeting was somehow special in its intensity it does give pause for thought. As a gay man well used to arguing politics and religion and culture etc I thought it only an average night. Perhaps we are more lucky than we realise.
*access point: the centre really does need to do some work on helping those with mobility problems to be able to get into the building more easily.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
The campaigns here in LE2
Readers will know that here in LE2 we are having a number of elections culminating in the May 5th vote. By far the most interesting is that for an elected mayor for Leicester. I think there are 13 candidates with a wider range of experience represented among them. Although the (now former) MP for Leicester South, Sir Peter Soulsby is standing for mayor it is not going to be a shoe-in. The Tory, Ross Grant, seems reluctant to get the gloves off and the Liberal Democrat, Gary Hunt, seems low key. There is a business man standing as an Independent, with sponsorship by local boy Englebert Humperdink, who has to be taken seriously as he clearly has a forceful personality. One of the candidates, an 18 year old school boy, makes a good impression and, although he is not going to win, is clearly someone to watch in the future. Think of William Hague at 16 addressing the Tory conference. Our young man is Asian, bright and not given to displays of silliness. Poor UKIP, they chose an 18 year old young woman who has not been seen in the debates, so far.
Tonight the spotlight falls on the LGBT centre where the candidates come to meet the gay communities of Leicester. Watch this space.
Tonight the spotlight falls on the LGBT centre where the candidates come to meet the gay communities of Leicester. Watch this space.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Threat to Equalities Act PLEASE RESPOND BEFORE THURSDAY 21ST APRIL
It appears that the Government may be considering changes to, or perhaps the scrapping of, the 2010 Equalities Act. For further details see
Sunday, 17 April 2011
How many voting papers on May 5th?
This must be something of a local record. On May 5th we have votes for the AV referendum, the mayor, an MP for Leicester South and for local ward councillors. For those in the Labour Party, this has already followed weeks of canvassing for those wishing to be selected as official candidates for the Mayor and then to be the candidate for Leicester South.
A new house party game: ask visitors to explain the AV system of voting. As a warm up, we ask for an explanation of the off-side rule. Success at this does not ensure success at explaining AV but it is fun.
Next, who will be the first elected Mayor of Leicester? There is little apparent enthusiasm for such a departure with a number of the candidates announcing that, if elected, they will work for either the end of the post or for a referendum on such a post. The candidates, or some of them, have been making themselves available at 'hustings' (more correctly, Q&As) at various venues. The BBC staged one such at (the) Curve and there will be one at the LGBT centre. What is unclear is how many candidates will absent themselves from this and other so called 'hustings'. The Gay Centre meeting will be instructive if it reveals the extent of candidates' awareness of conflicts between sexual/gender minority groups and religious groups with homonegative agendas. Does ONE Leicester include LGBT people? If so, where or how is this represented in city council literature? The BBC meeting at Curve was allegedly 'representative' of the demographic of the city. It was unclear how this was achieved.
The election of a new MP for the Leicester South constituency is made necessary by the resignation of the sitting Labour member, and former leader of the city council, Sir Peter Soulsby. The local labour party chose Jonathan Ashworth as its candidate. The liberal democrats have chosen a local man who is campaigning against the labour candidate on the grounds that he comes "from Mansfield". Parochialism knows no limits. We await the depths the campaign may plumb in the next few weeks as the lib-dems attempt to defeat labour. It would be dangerous for anyone to assume that the seat is in the bag.
Meanwhile, local would-be councillors are busy knocking on doors, well some are. When the tory man came round here, we were pleased that he took the time to listen to our concerns even though he was aware that there were not likely to be any votes for him here. We will be pleased to see the lib-dems to ask what is meant by their 'anti Mansfield' campaign - is it official party policy?
Watch this space
A new house party game: ask visitors to explain the AV system of voting. As a warm up, we ask for an explanation of the off-side rule. Success at this does not ensure success at explaining AV but it is fun.
Next, who will be the first elected Mayor of Leicester? There is little apparent enthusiasm for such a departure with a number of the candidates announcing that, if elected, they will work for either the end of the post or for a referendum on such a post. The candidates, or some of them, have been making themselves available at 'hustings' (more correctly, Q&As) at various venues. The BBC staged one such at (the) Curve and there will be one at the LGBT centre. What is unclear is how many candidates will absent themselves from this and other so called 'hustings'. The Gay Centre meeting will be instructive if it reveals the extent of candidates' awareness of conflicts between sexual/gender minority groups and religious groups with homonegative agendas. Does ONE Leicester include LGBT people? If so, where or how is this represented in city council literature? The BBC meeting at Curve was allegedly 'representative' of the demographic of the city. It was unclear how this was achieved.
The election of a new MP for the Leicester South constituency is made necessary by the resignation of the sitting Labour member, and former leader of the city council, Sir Peter Soulsby. The local labour party chose Jonathan Ashworth as its candidate. The liberal democrats have chosen a local man who is campaigning against the labour candidate on the grounds that he comes "from Mansfield". Parochialism knows no limits. We await the depths the campaign may plumb in the next few weeks as the lib-dems attempt to defeat labour. It would be dangerous for anyone to assume that the seat is in the bag.
Meanwhile, local would-be councillors are busy knocking on doors, well some are. When the tory man came round here, we were pleased that he took the time to listen to our concerns even though he was aware that there were not likely to be any votes for him here. We will be pleased to see the lib-dems to ask what is meant by their 'anti Mansfield' campaign - is it official party policy?
Watch this space
Scene St Pancras London April 2011
These photographs were taken by Antonio De Vecchi in April 2011 and used with his permission. My thanks go to Antonio and I hope to show further examples of his work in future.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Scenes
This photograph looking towards Paris was taken by Jean-Loup Korzillius. Jean-Loup was speaking at the same symposium on Colour at the Association of Art Historians' Warwick University conference where I gave a paper on the colour yellow. His paper was on Elements for a Theory of the Sexuality of Colours.
John Hencher's funeral
A life celebrated
The funeral of John Hencher took place on Wednesday 13th April at Hereford Crematorium. A packed chapel, with many standing, sang, laughed, wept as we listened to a number of his friends speak about his life. The constant theme was how The Johns created a relationship that welcomed many others into their home and garden.
What follows are a number of the contributions. If any of the others who spoke would like to have what they said in this tribute please send them to me at bjr@dircon.co.uk and I will do the rest.
My words
I am not quite sure who it was in the staff room of Kidderminster College of Further Education that, one day in the late winter of 1969, whispered in my paranoid hearing, "He lives with a vicar....”pause”... in Stourbridge." Another voice: "In Stourbridge? Well I never." That overheard conversation, fundamentally changed my life. The 'he' from voice one was immediately obvious to me. A young man in another department who wore a smart leather jacket and sported kipper ties. Remember, outside central London, the swinging 60s did not really arrive until the 70s. I was soon accidentally on purpose often bumping into Mr Kipper Tie. One day, we were both chatting and he casually said would I like to have supper one evening with him and his friend. Would I! And so it came to pass, some sleepless night’s later, that I was pressing the doorbell marked VICAR at Amblecote Vicarage. Inside, a scene out of a novel in which all of us now have a part. The VICAR, the life of whom we are celebrating today, and John Cupper, a dog Jess, an Aga and the rest is my/our history. The evening was so memorable that I can still remember what we ate – gammon and eggs.
Well the Johns and I have travelled a distance since that Friday night. At the end of that evening I got into my mini van NDK 939G and drove over back to my digs in Kidderminster intoxicated with happiness and stunned by what I had just seen. Here were two men, seemingly quite normal but never ordinary, not parodies camping it up, variously fun and serious who clearly loved each other living together. How we talked that night, I was drunk on the talk but also on the validation I had that there was something totally normal about what we now call being gay.
Remember, that the very word only really began to used commonly later that year and that was far away from Amblecote vicarage, in Greenwich village, Manhattan, in New York City were a near riot occurred between the patrons of bar patronized by ‘homosexuals’ and the police. We did not use the word gay in those days. At The Johns the talk was not of gay liberation it was gay liberation. We were living it. Here in the love the two Johns had for each other was a special generous place where others, many of whom are here today met with a glass of gin or whatever on arrival, good food and wine and generous hospitality and laughter and talk.
Paul and I have a shared fantasy on our journey from Leicester to The Tank House. When we turn off the A38 at Droitwich and take the road to Ombersley we suddenly enter what we call Narnia. That world of Worcestershire and then Herefordshire that is like no other part of the country. Those of you who live here it is home but for those of us who cross the great plain of the Midlands east to west it is magical. Then we pass through Ombersley, round the roundabout near Ombersley Court in the stables of which John was born, or so he told us, with its LODGE and the Dower House on the right, down to the Severn, up up up to Tenbury Wells, then over St Michaels, to Leominster, then, almost there, through Pembridge along the A44 then finally down the lane to Weston and to our destination, The Tank House.
Standing there since the 1430s, a priest’s house, in the garden, the paradise the Johns made since 1974. I linger over the place names because of the specialness of these parts as locations for the friendship ties that bind many of us here today. Many of us know each other because we met at The Tank House, a few of us from before, from Salperton even Ombersley. Our friendships with the Johns have so contributed to the quality of our lives. And the differing personalities of the two Johns so much part of the welcoming embrace. And now we have lost, in a physical way, JH. Although watching the video of him reciting Sonnet 18 in the TH garden only quite recently reminds us of what we have lost and what will never lose….including the wicked turning away after the last line and cheekily sending himself up.
Friendship is the great consolation, especially at times of great loss. Such as now. There cannot be great love without great loss when it inevitably happens.
We are enormously grateful to you John Hencher and to you John Cupper for the generosity of how you have shared your love for each other with all of us here. In your great loss, dear John, we your family of friends stand with you in solidarity and love. Thank you.
This is what Brian Viner said
John, ladies and gentlemen, I have to admit that I stand before you with no stipend at all ... I am standing up here, stipendless, and feeling immensely grateful to you John, for this privilege. Talking about John comes so easily to all of us, but we don’t all get the opportunity to do it in front of an audience ... I can almost hear him chuckling at the double-entendre.
It’s about eight years since my wife Jane and I first met John. We had moved from London to deepest Herefordshire, and were wondering who our kindred spirits were going to be. To our surprise, we found them in a group of people several decades our senior: Shelagh, Jim, Nancy, John and John.
I can remember the first time Shelagh invited us for lunch, because she said she wanted us to meet some old and dear friends of hers, the Johns, and I hope I can be forgiven for confessing that we went with slight apprehension, feeling that the fun we’d routinely had with our contemporaries in London was unlikely to be replicated with, if John and Shelagh and Jim will forgive me, the senior citizenry.
How preposterously, indeed unforgivably wrong we were. That first lunch, and all the many others that followed it after the seven of us had formed what we grandly called the Friday Luncheon Club, were like mini-festivals of riotous laughter, and much of that laughter, it has to be said, was provoked by Hencher. In my career in journalism I have been lucky enough to meet some of the most celebrated tellers of anecdotes: Peter Ustinov, Billy Connolly, Albert Finney, but hand on heart, I can say that none of them had quite John’s panache with a story.
The best of them were those that had arisen from his own extraordinarily rich life. There was one that I told in my column in The Independent last week, and knowing the circulation of The Independent I think I can safely retell it here.
In 1966, when John was vicar of a church in Amblecote, near Stourbridge, a man from the diocesan magazine came to interview him. John was young, attractive, charismatic, with excellent living-quarters and a medium-sized stipend. The man from the diocesan magazine said “I don’t understand, Father, why you aren’t married. I’m sure you’re looking out for a wife. Do tell me what you look for in a prospective wife.”
John made no attempt to duck the question. “I would want someone who liked dogs and looked like Ingrid Bergman,” he said.
It was an innocuous, throwaway remark but when it appeared in the diocesan magazine, the local newspaper picked it up. And once it had been in the local paper, several national newspapers ran the story. Then, indeed, the story crossed the Atlantic. ‘English Vicar Seeks Wife’ was the headline in the Toronto Star. “In the leafy English village of Amblecote,” began the story in the New York Times, which incidentally caused great mirth in Amblecote, one of the centres of the Midlands glass-making industry. In the Sunday Express, a Giles cartoon featured a vicar’s housekeeper telling him that Ingrid Bergman was on the phone. For three or four days, John was world-famous.
He deserved to be famous. But then we would have to have shared him with strangers. One of our fondest memories is of his 75th birthday lunch, at a restaurant in Ombersley, the Worcestershire village in which John had grown up. John told us that his father had been chauffeur to Lord Sandys, the owner of Ombersley Court, and that he, his parents and his sisters had grown up in a flat above the stables. Now for some reason, the Ombersley Court stables were chosen, during the war, as a safe haven for the nation’s ceremonial state carriages. So at the restaurant that day, in a stage whisper that might have been heard in nearby Droitwich, John announced to us - I hope the Dean will forgive me, and indeed him - that he’d had his first sexual experience in Queen Victoria’s funeral coach. It was the conversation stopper of all time. “I remember that the interior was all black and purple,” he boomed. “And I still get excited when I smell mothballs.”
John was not a man to relinquish attention once he had grabbed it so thrillingly. He went on to tell us that he bore no resemblance at all to his late father, the chauffeur, but enjoyed the distinctive features of one of Britain’s most prominent aristocratic families, the Earls of Dudley. He had once seen a portrait of the 11th Earl, who had been a friend of Lord Sandys and on whom his highly attractive, rather flighty mother used to wait at shooting parties. Apparently it could easily have been a portrait of him. If his suspicions were true, then I think it’s fair to say that John brought some real class to the Dudley line.
He was, after all, nothing if not a class act. And when he had an audience that wasn’t right for his stories, he found other ways to entertain. Our children loved him. He and John used to come to us on Boxing Day and he would perform wonderful magic tricks - indeed his greatest trick was making our children look forward more to Boxing Day, knowing that the Johns were coming for lunch, than they did to Christmas Day itself.
John, I hope that you will continue to come to us on Boxing Day, not that any of us will need the excuse of the festive season to clink glasses in loving memory of a truly wonderful, funny, warm, talented man, who so enhanced all our lives. Thank you.
The celebration included a poem written just after John died by Meg Cox.
John Redux
We left earlier than we had before
sooner than we wanted,
and held the swing doors open for each other
with care. Not talking.
A man was leaving at the same time, smiling,
and we stood aside for him and the new baby
he held in his hands, unswaddled,
carried before him like a gift or an offering.
Then the daylight surprised us,
as when you leave a matinee
and not looking back we followed
into a changed air.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Bach's St John Passion and anti-Judaism
As we approach Holy Week and the last three days before Easter Sunday (The Triduum) my attention is always drawn to the content of the various 'passion' accounts that are read. Traditionally, on Palm Sunday it is from Matthew but on Good Friday it is that of the gospel of John. Increasingly, as I get older, I find that account more and more unbearable with its reiterated refrain of "The Jews...." did this or that. Since my interest in early modern northern European visual culture began to get serious my conflicts over this gospel passion have intensified.
This year I am reading Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism and Bach's St John Passion OUP 1998. I have only come to Bach's St John Passion late in life. Although I have known the Matthew Passion well over the decades it is only in the last decade that my attention has widen to 'the other' passion. The CD by New College, Oxford remains a must. Marissen's book sits between musicology, religion, history and, for me, is compelling. It ends with an annotated literal translation of the libretto. He wears his scholarship lightly.
Every time I hear the first chorus, I find it musically spine tingling.
This year I am reading Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism and Bach's St John Passion OUP 1998. I have only come to Bach's St John Passion late in life. Although I have known the Matthew Passion well over the decades it is only in the last decade that my attention has widen to 'the other' passion. The CD by New College, Oxford remains a must. Marissen's book sits between musicology, religion, history and, for me, is compelling. It ends with an annotated literal translation of the libretto. He wears his scholarship lightly.
Every time I hear the first chorus, I find it musically spine tingling.
More John Hencher videos
This is a link to a wonderful video made by John's niece, Laura
http://youtu.be/96SQ0-IujOA
The Carpenters, how splendid.
http://youtu.be/96SQ0-IujOA
The Carpenters, how splendid.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Picasso in LE1
From this weekend the magnificent collection of Picasso ceramics is on permanent display at the New Walk Museum in Leicester. It is worth a trip. http://www.leicester.gov.uk/picasso/
Combined with the holdings of German expressionist art (the largest outside Germany) there is much to see here in an unpretentious city museum. It just needs more visitors, more money spending on the building and decent explanatory printed materials. Do come and see it.
Combined with the holdings of German expressionist art (the largest outside Germany) there is much to see here in an unpretentious city museum. It just needs more visitors, more money spending on the building and decent explanatory printed materials. Do come and see it.
Sonnet 18
This is John Hencher
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
John Cupper gave me permission to post this video of John. I am deeply grateful to have seen it and to share it with viewers of the blog.
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
John Cupper gave me permission to post this video of John. I am deeply grateful to have seen it and to share it with viewers of the blog.
How much for a papal knighthood?
The news that Fr Michael Seed of the Friars of the Atonement has been accused of selling papal knighthoods will come as no surprise to some. For his order, the Friars of the Atonement in NYC, to say they have "no idea" what he has been getting up to in London does rather make me wonder what the word order as in religious order might mean. For the purists among us, I know that, technically, he is a member not of a religious Order but of a religious congregation as there were not Orders allowed after the Jesuits in the 16th century.
I hope not to have to quote the Daily Mail too often but this report is worth scanning not least for the wonderful photographs.
See and behold.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370323/Tony-Blairs-priest-fixed-papal-knighthoods-cash.html
I hope not to have to quote the Daily Mail too often but this report is worth scanning not least for the wonderful photographs.
See and behold.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370323/Tony-Blairs-priest-fixed-papal-knighthoods-cash.html
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Lent, lengthen, spring
Lent is coming to a close soon. Here is Ps 50/51 to remind us that it is about something positive - changing our hearts - rather than giving up things...
Leicester Bach Society St Matthew Passion 8 April 2011 St James the Greater Church
On the eve of Passion Sunday, we were treated to an excellent peformance of J S Bach's Lutheran masterpiece The Passion according to St Matthew. Held by many to be the supreme achiement of Bach it certainly challlenges all who attempt it. We know it disappeared from being performed after it was put together in the 1740s and it was rediscovered by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdhy in 1840. Bach, unlike Handel, did not write operas. This is high baroque. The arias are of the form ABA and how appropriate these days, unlike when I was a lad, they are done ABA where the second A is sometimes decorated. 17th century Lutheran piety is so close to Post Trent Roman Catholic piety of the same time, or a bit earlier. The Good Night Jesus just before the final wonderful chorale is, for me, utterly touching, fitting in the context of the music and the spirituality from which the whole emanates.
It was first performed as a Good Friday evening/vesper service with the the congregation singing the chorales. Performance practice now varies from the "no applause- this is a sacred work" to, as on Saturday in Leicester, a perfornance in a church with applause. LBS was augmented by girl singers from Southwell Minster School. Two of the soloists dropped out late because of illness, their replacements standing in a very short notice. The double choirs were confident. The musicians in the two oechestras excellent ably supported by organ and harpsichord contino players. The conductor, Richard Laing, held it together with great authority. For me, the stars were the two choruses. My only slight criticism were the choice of the original German rather than an English translation which seemed to drain confidence a bit from some of the choir. This often meant their noses, I presume for security reasons, were stuck in their scores rather than watching the conductor. It's a small point and did not spoil the evening.
Speeds: I hold the view that Bach was essentially a dance musician and underpinning even the Matthew Passion there are subterreanean dance rhythms alive. The problem is once the choir size get about 2 or 3 to a part the speeds seem to slow down and the the underlying dance pulse goes. Getting back to what were original choir/voice size needs some very confident singers. Last night, it was a biggish choir, or rather two moderate choirs and it struck a decent balance. Out of the choir have also got to come the bit parts like the maids and Pilate.
The venue, St James the Greater, early 20 century CE modelled on the basilica at Torcello, is splendid, accoustically good and welcoming - especially for those with mobility difficulties. It was a moving and powerful evening for those for whom it is the start of Passiontide and for those others for whom it is not, an experience to be savoured. The welcome programme notes from the Chair of LBS and the evening's conductor were models of setting a complex piece in a context that makes sense for 2011. It is good to have a decent programme booklet and for only a £1 is a treat. If only Mr Laing had turned to the audience/congregation at the start of each chorale and let us join in this mighty work in the way, I assume, JS Bach originally intended.
From You Tube:
It was first performed as a Good Friday evening/vesper service with the the congregation singing the chorales. Performance practice now varies from the "no applause- this is a sacred work" to, as on Saturday in Leicester, a perfornance in a church with applause. LBS was augmented by girl singers from Southwell Minster School. Two of the soloists dropped out late because of illness, their replacements standing in a very short notice. The double choirs were confident. The musicians in the two oechestras excellent ably supported by organ and harpsichord contino players. The conductor, Richard Laing, held it together with great authority. For me, the stars were the two choruses. My only slight criticism were the choice of the original German rather than an English translation which seemed to drain confidence a bit from some of the choir. This often meant their noses, I presume for security reasons, were stuck in their scores rather than watching the conductor. It's a small point and did not spoil the evening.
Speeds: I hold the view that Bach was essentially a dance musician and underpinning even the Matthew Passion there are subterreanean dance rhythms alive. The problem is once the choir size get about 2 or 3 to a part the speeds seem to slow down and the the underlying dance pulse goes. Getting back to what were original choir/voice size needs some very confident singers. Last night, it was a biggish choir, or rather two moderate choirs and it struck a decent balance. Out of the choir have also got to come the bit parts like the maids and Pilate.
The venue, St James the Greater, early 20 century CE modelled on the basilica at Torcello, is splendid, accoustically good and welcoming - especially for those with mobility difficulties. It was a moving and powerful evening for those for whom it is the start of Passiontide and for those others for whom it is not, an experience to be savoured. The welcome programme notes from the Chair of LBS and the evening's conductor were models of setting a complex piece in a context that makes sense for 2011. It is good to have a decent programme booklet and for only a £1 is a treat. If only Mr Laing had turned to the audience/congregation at the start of each chorale and let us join in this mighty work in the way, I assume, JS Bach originally intended.
From You Tube:
The is not Leicester Bach Choir but it gives a flavour of the work even on a tinny lap top.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Counting gays
LE2 is part of the city of Leicester which prides itself in being ONE Leicester. If we see this as an aim rather something already gained then who can complain? By and large the different groupings represented in the city do get along. Casual observation leads me to think this is because the various groups, by and large, get along by not having too much to do with each other. Class is usually ignored. (For those readers not au fait with the socio-economics of the demographics, LE2 is mixed but not too poor, with some parts being decidedly bourgeoise, or as the estate agents' speak: desirable.) I sometimes think the only place the different groups do meet on an equal footing is in NHS out-patient waiting rooms and that can get a bit fraught at times. It is helpful to have a rough translation guide to such phrases as, "I don't recognise this place any more". Usually uttered by older, white males referring to the city of Leicester. Not infrequently they have moved to the suburbs or the county or even to Rutland.
The City Council seem to have some difficulty in recognising one group living in the city - broadly under the LGBT label - and we are often left wondering why this should be so. Many other aspects of diversity in the city are celebrated. Examples include: Diwali, various Sikh and Muslim feasts and, for Christians, the increasingly popular, Good Friday enactment in the city centre. Trying to trace just how LGBT presences in City Council come and go is challenging. The City Council may be trying to keep some faith groups that have decidedly homonegative views on board. Who knows, unless we talk about it openly? Perhaps the up coming Mayoral hustings at the LGBT centre in Wellington Street may provide some answers. Better still, if you get the chance to ask any candidates at the upcoming elections in May, you might get some interesting answers. At least, it will get the topic aired more.
For the more theoretically keen amongst us there may be those who challenge the notion of 'community ' being applied to LGBT people in the way, for example, it could be to Somalis or Irish groups. We can discuss this more.
Anyway, a recent article by a demographer in the Washington Post may help start, or at least inform, the discussion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gay-people-count-so-why-not-count-them-correctly/2011/04/07/AFDg9K4C_story.html
The City Council seem to have some difficulty in recognising one group living in the city - broadly under the LGBT label - and we are often left wondering why this should be so. Many other aspects of diversity in the city are celebrated. Examples include: Diwali, various Sikh and Muslim feasts and, for Christians, the increasingly popular, Good Friday enactment in the city centre. Trying to trace just how LGBT presences in City Council come and go is challenging. The City Council may be trying to keep some faith groups that have decidedly homonegative views on board. Who knows, unless we talk about it openly? Perhaps the up coming Mayoral hustings at the LGBT centre in Wellington Street may provide some answers. Better still, if you get the chance to ask any candidates at the upcoming elections in May, you might get some interesting answers. At least, it will get the topic aired more.
For the more theoretically keen amongst us there may be those who challenge the notion of 'community ' being applied to LGBT people in the way, for example, it could be to Somalis or Irish groups. We can discuss this more.
Anyway, a recent article by a demographer in the Washington Post may help start, or at least inform, the discussion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gay-people-count-so-why-not-count-them-correctly/2011/04/07/AFDg9K4C_story.html
Thursday, 7 April 2011
John Hencher - funeral arrangements
John Hencher's funeral will take place at Hereford Crematorium
on Wednesday 13th April at 12.45. Details from: http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/community_and_living/life_events/1401.asp
The Times obituary notice reads as follows:
John Bredon Hencher, died in Herefordshire on 3rd April 2011,
aged 79 years. John was an actor, a priest and an inspirational
teacher, and for 17 years was on the staff of Monmouth School.
He was the partner of John Cupper for 43 years. A great gap is
left in the lives of his family and friends. John's life will shortly
be celebrated in Hereford and enquiries should be made to John C.
or to AW Hughes and Son, Gladestry, 01544 370217.
He particularly requested no mourning clothes.
Donations in John's memory will be made to
Almeley Quaker Meeting House and Marie Curie Care.
on Wednesday 13th April at 12.45. Details from: http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/community_and_living/life_events/1401.asp
The Times obituary notice reads as follows:
John Bredon Hencher, died in Herefordshire on 3rd April 2011,
aged 79 years. John was an actor, a priest and an inspirational
teacher, and for 17 years was on the staff of Monmouth School.
He was the partner of John Cupper for 43 years. A great gap is
left in the lives of his family and friends. John's life will shortly
be celebrated in Hereford and enquiries should be made to John C.
or to AW Hughes and Son, Gladestry, 01544 370217.
He particularly requested no mourning clothes.
Donations in John's memory will be made to
Almeley Quaker Meeting House and Marie Curie Care.
1000 hits
Thanks for looking at the blog again. The stats panel (hidden from viewers I think) reveals that there have been over 1000 hits since it started, where they (you) are geographically based and really interesting stuff like what type of operating system was used.
Any comments about colours/design welcome.
Thanks for looking and for the comments - on line or via email.
Thanks for all the comments, privately or from Fb, about the life and death of John Hencher. John Cupper gets to see them all.
Bernard
Any comments about colours/design welcome.
Thanks for looking and for the comments - on line or via email.
Thanks for all the comments, privately or from Fb, about the life and death of John Hencher. John Cupper gets to see them all.
Bernard
The Jewish roots of Christianity and Islam
Blog followers will know of my interest, borderline obsession, with the closeness of the Abrahamic faiths. Hackneyed, I know, I am always reminding people that it is not possible to get a cigarette paper between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so close are they. The problem, well one of the problems, is that to members they look different. My assertion is that this is superficial and, the deeper one gets into the fundamentals, the ideology (there I go again upsetting yet more people), the more alike they not only look but are.
What follows is from a thread on The Guardian's Comment is Free this week:
The question: What would you add to the Bible?
The Jordan codices, which tabloids are already calling call the Jesus diaries, could yield wonderful revelations. Perhaps they contain new information about the life and beliefs of early Christian disciples who fled eastward around the time of the first century war in which the Jerusalem temple was destroyed. We cannot yet know whether these metal plates are a new Dead Sea scrolls epiphany, a Turin shroud conundrum, or even a Hitler diaries job. I leave that judgment to others more qualified in archaeology than me.
Assuming the plates' authenticity, what would I look for in them? Clear policy statements from Jesus about human rights? Or economics? War and peace? Race? Apostolic ministry and gender? How about a definitive statement on sexual orientation? Convenient as these might be, the gospels already contain plenty of clues about principles to help untangle those subjects. People who quarry the gospels for narrow fundamentalist soundbites usually end up with something incompatible with Jesus's first principles.
What I could do with is more solid evidence as to the character, theology and daily life of Palestinian Christians during the period in which they were simply Jews, interacting with the various factions and strands of Jerusalem life in the same sociological context as the gospels record.
John's gospel in particular often uses the term "Iudaeoi" to describe Jesus's debating opponents. To translate this as, simply, "the Jews" ignores its local and regional context. There is a strong north-south divide in the background to the gospels. When Nicodemus stands up for Jesus in John 7:52 he is accused of being "a Galilean". Peter in Matthew 26:83 is identified as a follower of Jesus by his northern accent. Examples can be found all over the gospels.
On some occasions "Iudaeoi" must mean particular groups of Jews, particularly "Judaeans" – members of the southern temple establishment, as opposed to northerners, Galileans, Jesus-followers.
It is crazy to think Christianity can be understood from within or without, separated from its Jewish roots. The assumption that "Iudaeoi" applied to Jesus's opponents always means "Jews" has spawned 2,000 years of wrong, and inspired people from Tomás de Torquemada to Jack the Ripper. Christians have built on a simple linguistic misunderstanding a toxic "replacement" theology that has spawned ignorance among Christians about their own identity, and shameful cruelty against Jews.
I'd like the Jordan codices to provide hard evidence to help us map much more clearly the factions and interests of first-century inhabitants of Jerusalem, including Jesus's first disciples. I'd love to know more fully who was who and what was what, not only for the light it sheds on the gospels, but because if Christians were better able to understand their Jewish roots, they might be able lay to rest, once and for all, a shameful history of racism and discrimination, which has done nobody any favours.
What follows is from a thread on The Guardian's Comment is Free this week:
The question: What would you add to the Bible?
The Jordan codices, which tabloids are already calling call the Jesus diaries, could yield wonderful revelations. Perhaps they contain new information about the life and beliefs of early Christian disciples who fled eastward around the time of the first century war in which the Jerusalem temple was destroyed. We cannot yet know whether these metal plates are a new Dead Sea scrolls epiphany, a Turin shroud conundrum, or even a Hitler diaries job. I leave that judgment to others more qualified in archaeology than me.
Assuming the plates' authenticity, what would I look for in them? Clear policy statements from Jesus about human rights? Or economics? War and peace? Race? Apostolic ministry and gender? How about a definitive statement on sexual orientation? Convenient as these might be, the gospels already contain plenty of clues about principles to help untangle those subjects. People who quarry the gospels for narrow fundamentalist soundbites usually end up with something incompatible with Jesus's first principles.
What I could do with is more solid evidence as to the character, theology and daily life of Palestinian Christians during the period in which they were simply Jews, interacting with the various factions and strands of Jerusalem life in the same sociological context as the gospels record.
John's gospel in particular often uses the term "Iudaeoi" to describe Jesus's debating opponents. To translate this as, simply, "the Jews" ignores its local and regional context. There is a strong north-south divide in the background to the gospels. When Nicodemus stands up for Jesus in John 7:52 he is accused of being "a Galilean". Peter in Matthew 26:83 is identified as a follower of Jesus by his northern accent. Examples can be found all over the gospels.
On some occasions "Iudaeoi" must mean particular groups of Jews, particularly "Judaeans" – members of the southern temple establishment, as opposed to northerners, Galileans, Jesus-followers.
It is crazy to think Christianity can be understood from within or without, separated from its Jewish roots. The assumption that "Iudaeoi" applied to Jesus's opponents always means "Jews" has spawned 2,000 years of wrong, and inspired people from Tomás de Torquemada to Jack the Ripper. Christians have built on a simple linguistic misunderstanding a toxic "replacement" theology that has spawned ignorance among Christians about their own identity, and shameful cruelty against Jews.
I'd like the Jordan codices to provide hard evidence to help us map much more clearly the factions and interests of first-century inhabitants of Jerusalem, including Jesus's first disciples. I'd love to know more fully who was who and what was what, not only for the light it sheds on the gospels, but because if Christians were better able to understand their Jewish roots, they might be able lay to rest, once and for all, a shameful history of racism and discrimination, which has done nobody any favours.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Martin Rees accepts Templeton Award
What follows is from Andrew Sullivan.
Martin Rees, a theoretical astrophysicist, has won the 2011 Templeton prize, which "honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works." Rees is nonreligious, but his acceptance statement makes clear his contribution to the greater good (pdf):
Martin Rees, a theoretical astrophysicist, has won the 2011 Templeton prize, which "honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works." Rees is nonreligious, but his acceptance statement makes clear his contribution to the greater good (pdf):
Some people might surmise that intellectual immersion in vast expanses of space and time would render cosmologists serene and uncaring about what happens next year, next week, or tomorrow. But, for me, the opposite is the case. My concerns are deepened by the realization that, even in a perspective extending billions of years into the future, as well as into the past, this century may be a defining moment. Our planet has existed for 45 million centuries, but this is the first in its history where one species—ours—has Earth’s future in its hands, and could jeopardize not only itself, but life’s immense potential.
See http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/kepler-alien-planets-illustration.jpg for graphic that depicts the the first 1,235 planets and stars NASA's planet-hunting telescope has found. 54 are deemed habitable like Earth.
John Hencher - further thoughts
John Bredon Hencher: actor, priest, teacher, calligrapher, friend
John always said he was born over a stable at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, attended Hartlebury Grammar School and moved to London to train as an actor in London, shifting his accent from its native burr to RP. The Bredon in his name celebrates the Worcestershire hill made famous by AE Houseman in A Shropshire Lad. John's acting career included BBC radio, Stratford and the Century Theatre in the north west of England with its fleet of blue wagons transforming into a real theatre. John and I used to wonder if we were ever there together when the blue wagons rolled into my hometown of Rochdale and out across the boards trod the young, red haired Hencher. The life of a travelling actor was not enough so John then went to train for ordination at Lichfield Theological College. He served his title at Pershore Abbey, was domestic chaplain to Mervyn Charles-Edwards, bishop of Worcester and spent six years of as Vicar of Amblecote, Stourbridge.
Their new home, dating back to 1429 and built for a local priest, in the black and white vernacular of Herefordshire, was surrounded by what eventually became a garden of great distinction complete with commissioned sculptures. The sheds had classical Latin quotations in John Hencher's characteristic hand.
He found a part-time post at Monmouth School combining teaching English with being a chaplain. He greatly enjoyed his years at Monmouth, having Rowan Williams as neighbour. His love of theatre led to many, professional level performances, in some of the great Shakespearian leads providing much enrichment to the school’s curriculum. His prodigious memory had much of Shakespeare and the romantic poems easily to hand.
Although John was a priest, his spirituality was far wider and deeper than that which could be easily contained even in the then capacious, and now so sadly reducing, Anglican Church. He was not at home in the Sea of Faith movement, on the very edge of the church, or when he moved to an ambivalent position akin to Buddhism before finally finding a home, as many have like him, in the Society of Friends. His letter to Rowan explaining the reasons for leaving the Church of England and the reply he received spoke much about the relationship the two men had and how they could remain friends though in disagreement. The near silent worship he found with the Quakers chimed in with his deep interest in monastic life or more precisely with those who live a life based upon a rule. For John, his way of being a Quaker combined so many deep elements within him including the Bhutanese prayer flags that fluttered by the stream at the end of the Tank House garden.
John Hencher, the polymath, larger-than-life man, combined aspects of the characters of Hamlet, Lear and Falstaff but with much of John Keats in him developed, in his later years, yet another career at which he excelled – calligraphy. His works, on paper and wood, are now prized possessions. I think his finest pieces match those of David Jones – the Anglo-Welsh poet, calligrapher, painter and man of letters. His spirituality certainly does. But John was a man of relationships, friendships, love, the beauty of the English language and its supreme genius William Shakespeare.
At the end of The Tempest Prospero speaks the epilogue:
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
Next, every, time from now on you hear these words, hear John Hencher's voice.
A few days before he died, JH was watching the episode of Treasure Hunt together with JC. which had them had them pitted against clock. 26 March 1987. What a joy that episode was to us who just knew that the two of them would come home with the Treasure. Their personalities just shone out, together with their brains, was a sure fire winner.
Coronation Street was a must at The Johns. More follows on this soon
A few days before he died, JH was watching the episode of Treasure Hunt together with JC. which had them had them pitted against clock. 26 March 1987. What a joy that episode was to us who just knew that the two of them would come home with the Treasure. Their personalities just shone out, together with their brains, was a sure fire winner.
Coronation Street was a must at The Johns. More follows on this soon
If heaven is the Persian word for paradise, this was heaven. Even in the last years of his life, to be at a lunch party in the garden, among a crowd of friends, The Johns at home, the sun, the garden, the sculptures, the food, the wine, the talk, the talk, the talk, the laughter, here in Herefordshire….if heaven is half as good as this…At the heart of John’s life though was his love for John Cupper. ‘The Johns’, were always welcoming, always generous, and always full of laughter and delight. Many lives have been transformed, my own included, by the love that the Johns had for each other. Always a mark of a real relationship, there’s was one which overflowed to embrace many, many other people.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
John Hencher
Many of my friends will have heard me speak of my friends "The Johns". Well, one of them - John Hencher - died this afternoon in hospital in Hereford. He and "Little" John (Cupper) had been a couple for 43 years since they first met on Whit Monday 1968. I started work in January 1969 and met John Cupper at Kidderminster College. Soon I was invited to supper with them in their home at a Stourbridge Vicarage. We had eggs and gammon in the vicarage kitchen with dog Jesse very present in their lives.
After Stourbridge, they lived in a tiny lodge one roomed house at Ombersley (where John had been born in the stables, no comment), at Salperton in the Cotswolds then in Herefordshire until now.
My life was fundamentally changed by meeting the two of them. They were the first gay couple living an open, honest life I had ever met. This was very rare at the time. The Johns and I have been friends ever since - 42 years. For the last 18 months John Hencher has been cared for at their home, a fifteenth century priest's house in a hamlet in Herefordshire, by John Cupper, their friends and a team of carers.
John resigned his priest's orders some years ago, in disgust at the homonegativity of the Church of England and embraced the Society of Friends where he felt very welcome. He was the very best kind of Christian: polymathic, a character from Shakespeare - think Hamlet, Falstaff and Lear plus John Keats all in one person, deeply spiritual, bawdy, but never really offending, controlling, generous beyond generous beyond generous, the best of friends. He changed others' lives, the Johns' changed other people's lives. Paul and I always felt cherished by him. May he rest in peace. His spirit lives on.
After Stourbridge, they lived in a tiny lodge one roomed house at Ombersley (where John had been born in the stables, no comment), at Salperton in the Cotswolds then in Herefordshire until now.
My life was fundamentally changed by meeting the two of them. They were the first gay couple living an open, honest life I had ever met. This was very rare at the time. The Johns and I have been friends ever since - 42 years. For the last 18 months John Hencher has been cared for at their home, a fifteenth century priest's house in a hamlet in Herefordshire, by John Cupper, their friends and a team of carers.
John resigned his priest's orders some years ago, in disgust at the homonegativity of the Church of England and embraced the Society of Friends where he felt very welcome. He was the very best kind of Christian: polymathic, a character from Shakespeare - think Hamlet, Falstaff and Lear plus John Keats all in one person, deeply spiritual, bawdy, but never really offending, controlling, generous beyond generous beyond generous, the best of friends. He changed others' lives, the Johns' changed other people's lives. Paul and I always felt cherished by him. May he rest in peace. His spirit lives on.
Notre Dame de Paris
With the Triduum and Easter coming up soon I will be watching the liturgies from ND in Paris on French Catholic TV http://www.ktotv.com/cms/programmes
The contrast with St Peter's Rome and Westminster Cathedral are marked. Musically, Westminster wins with little competition though ND de Paris is improving. Rome is nowhere in my view. If you seek the roots of the word 'liturgy' and find 'worship' then you go off in a certain direction. See the word linking to that which 'the gathered people do as worship' then the outcome is quite different. For me, Judith Butler's concept of 'performativity' is helpful though it is a an odd sounding mouthful. Westminster is a first rate musical performance (heavily influnenced by the wonderful Anglican cathedral and collegiate traditions) with some contributions from the congregation. Paris's musical tradition goes back to the radical developments of the twelth century which led from monophony to polyphony. For those used to the sheer professsionalism of the Anglican cathedral and collegiate sounds, Paris is cheap and cheerful: one or two cantors, perhaps a small mixed (voice and ability) choir and a nave full of people who will have a go at the French or Latin congretational parts. Rome, almost all in Latin of course, is but a background to the papal liturgies. The singing is usually poor to middling. For those with a liking for Counter reformation baroque big-space liturgies this is the place to watch. B16 and his boys, and they are all boys, believe me. These days, of course, lace is big with the boys especially those with glitzy careers ahead of them, ad orientem, muttering in Latin to fewer and fewer of the faithful (whilst the rest of us sing 'Shine Jesus Shine' and other atrocious ditties because of the refusal to accept that musically we are a big house with lots of tunes, including SJS and worse etc). Sorry, rather got carried away with myself there. Where am I? Oh yes, back to ND de Paris Vespers for the Lent 4 with the celebrant splendidly arrayed in a PINK cope incensing the altar and the statute of ND to the right with her International Style Gothic S shaped body. By the end of the Vespers the cathedral is now packed ready for evening mass usually celebrated by the cardinal of Paris, Msg Andre 23.
Watch KTOTV.COM this Holy Week and Easter to see everything either from Paris and Rome then make up your own mind. Meanwhile, back at Westminster? One of the best church choirs in the world and how do you get to hear it other than being there? Buy a CD. The UK Catholic Church really needs to think about how its spends its resources. A tv channel might be worth the dosh. Happy mothers day.
The contrast with St Peter's Rome and Westminster Cathedral are marked. Musically, Westminster wins with little competition though ND de Paris is improving. Rome is nowhere in my view. If you seek the roots of the word 'liturgy' and find 'worship' then you go off in a certain direction. See the word linking to that which 'the gathered people do as worship' then the outcome is quite different. For me, Judith Butler's concept of 'performativity' is helpful though it is a an odd sounding mouthful. Westminster is a first rate musical performance (heavily influnenced by the wonderful Anglican cathedral and collegiate traditions) with some contributions from the congregation. Paris's musical tradition goes back to the radical developments of the twelth century which led from monophony to polyphony. For those used to the sheer professsionalism of the Anglican cathedral and collegiate sounds, Paris is cheap and cheerful: one or two cantors, perhaps a small mixed (voice and ability) choir and a nave full of people who will have a go at the French or Latin congretational parts. Rome, almost all in Latin of course, is but a background to the papal liturgies. The singing is usually poor to middling. For those with a liking for Counter reformation baroque big-space liturgies this is the place to watch. B16 and his boys, and they are all boys, believe me. These days, of course, lace is big with the boys especially those with glitzy careers ahead of them, ad orientem, muttering in Latin to fewer and fewer of the faithful (whilst the rest of us sing 'Shine Jesus Shine' and other atrocious ditties because of the refusal to accept that musically we are a big house with lots of tunes, including SJS and worse etc). Sorry, rather got carried away with myself there. Where am I? Oh yes, back to ND de Paris Vespers for the Lent 4 with the celebrant splendidly arrayed in a PINK cope incensing the altar and the statute of ND to the right with her International Style Gothic S shaped body. By the end of the Vespers the cathedral is now packed ready for evening mass usually celebrated by the cardinal of Paris, Msg Andre 23.
Watch KTOTV.COM this Holy Week and Easter to see everything either from Paris and Rome then make up your own mind. Meanwhile, back at Westminster? One of the best church choirs in the world and how do you get to hear it other than being there? Buy a CD. The UK Catholic Church really needs to think about how its spends its resources. A tv channel might be worth the dosh. Happy mothers day.
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