Chairman's Newsletter - August 2022

                                 August 2022

 

Seize the day!
 

THE FRIENDS HAVE learned of a forthcoming auction that will include the cartoon by John Hutton for one of the west screen engraved angels.   The angel in the cartoon stretches across three glass panels in the screen.


     The Hutton cartoon is part of an estate and the executors were initially hoping to raise at least £2,000 from its sale.   The executors have agreed to accept the pre-auction sum of £1500 if it can be raised by the Friends of Coventry Cathedral as they would like the angel to wing its way to Coventry.
     The cartoon is in the north of England, so I asked the Cathedral Archivist, Dianne Morris, if she would be kind enough to view it.   She has reported –

“They are just amazing, and I was lost for words when I first saw them.   There is a triptych of images, with the image in the middle signed by John Hutton.   They are white chalk on black cartridge paper and measure approximately 8’ by 3’.   They are framed and glazed”.

     The photo of the 3 panels that I have reproduced is deceptive because the glass has reflected the room in which they stand.   In Coventry on the west screen the angel is in the top row of angels on the baptistry side of the building.   The photo of the west screen shows the angel in the cartoon but with an outside view, rather than the inside view of the cartoon.

An appeal for £1800 to bring home the Hutton Angel

The Hutton cartoon is an original work of art that is now offered to the Friends before it goes to auction.   We have a month to raise £1800, a sum to include the cost of specialised transport to bring the cartoons back to Coventry.

I appeal for your help.   Will you please help the Hutton Angel to fly back to Coventry?

How can I help?
 

Contributions (payable to The Friends of Coventry Cathedral) can be sent to the following address:
          Hutton Angel Appeal
          63 Daventry Road
          Coventry CV3 5DH
Payment can also be made direct to the Friends account at

marking the payment “Hutton Angel”.

 

 

 

THE QUEEN’S BATON followed a route around Coventry city centre on its way to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that started a week later.

Thousands of people lined the route as fifteen nominated baton bearers carried the baton through Coventry.   The photo shows baton bearer Mikey Akers in Coventry Cathedral Ruins, as the baton was taken around the city’s famous landmarks.

In Coventry the baton’s final destination was the Assembly Festival Gardens where it was greeted with confetti canons before a laser light show in the Cathedral Ruins.
 

 

On Mondays in August at 12.30pm there is a free recital on the magnificent Harrison & Harrison organ of Coventry Cathedral.   The full music programme booklet is available at the Cathedral and music information can also be found on the Cathedral website.

             1^st August 2022      Manuel Piazza (New Haven, Ct.)     
              8^th August 2022     Michael Stephens-Jones (Guildford)
          15^th August 2022    Mark Swinton (St Mary’s, Warwick)
   22^nd August 2022   Carolyn Craig (New Haven, Ct.)
                     29^th August 2022    Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music)
       

 

Honorary

Doctorate

for Dean
On the 25^th July the University of Warwick was handed an honorary doctorate following the reading of the following citation.
John is Dean of Coventry, carrying responsibility for the overall leadership of the Cathedral’s ministry both locally and internationally. Coventry Cathedral is well known for its pioneering work in reconciliation, following its destruction in November 1940. The new Cathedral, consecrated in 1962, is an outstanding example of twentieth century art and architecture, combining the medieval ruins and new building in a narrative journey from destruction to the hope of new life. Under John’s leadership, the Cathedral has navigated significant recent challenges in moving towards financial sustainability, and has been proud to take a central position in the bid and delivery for the City’s programme as City of Culture 2021.
John has a background in Practical Theology and an MPhil in the atonement theology of Tillich and Rahner, and is passionate about weaving the threads of reconciliation and the arts into a contemporary witness which is offered to all, regardless of faith or background.
 

 

  

A COLOURING BOOK promoting the work for reconciliation that is undertaken in Coventry is now available online from the Cathedral (or direct from the Cathedral Schools Service).   The price is £6.
     The book has been designed, written and illustrated by Cathy Renken (photo left) who is an artist living and working in Coventry.   The story book fits in with lessons taught in schools about war, peace and reconciliation. It is suitable for five to fourteen year olds and aligns with the national school curriculum of Key Stages one, two and three.
     Production was made possible through the generosity of Clive Benfield of Benfield Homes.   Members may recall that his father, K B Benfield, a former Lord Mayor, led the 1970s Cathedral appeal to “Save Our Spire”.
     The Benfield family has long been connected with the Cathedral.   Clive’s grandfather was a Cathedral churchwarden, his parents were married there, and his brother, Michael, was the last child to be christened at the old cathedral before it was bombed.
     Clive said:    “The Cathedral – both old and new – has always played an important part in my family and I want to do whatever I can to support it. That is why I am proud to sponsor this beautiful book with its important story of peace and reconciliation.
 “I remember climbing very tall ladders reaching up to the top of the spire when I was working with my father and it has been amazing to have played a part in the Cathedral’s reconstruction and everything it means to people in Coventry and across the world.”
     The whole project has been managed by Peter Wilford of the City of Coventry Freemen’s Guild.  
     Woven into pages showing local sites that are familiar to many of us and that are designed for colouring you will find examples from the history of both City and Cathedral that have made Coventry a City of Peace and Reconciliation.
 

          
 

THIS DIAMOND JUBILEE Year allows us to look back at 1962, the year of the Cathedral’s Consecration.   That momentous day, 25^th May 1962, was followed by the Cathedral Festival, probably best remembered today for the premiere performances of Britten’s “War Requiem”.
     As part of the Coventry Cathedral Festival “I Will Arise!” is a lesser known morality play that was performed in Leamington Parish Church during June 1962 by the Stroud Players.   It is a play on the selected list of The Religious Drama Society and it has strong links with Coventry Cathedral.  
     The play was premiered in Coventry Cathedral in 1944 on a stage erected amidst the rubble in the Ruins.   The producer on that occasion was E Martin Browne, who had already achieved a national reputation as a producer of religious drama.   The photo taken from a newspaper cutting shows the producer (2^nd from right) giving instructions to two of the actors with his assistant producer (far left).
     From 1962 to 1965 E Martin Browne was the Drama Adviser to Coventry Cathedral.   At that time there was also a full-time Cathedral Director of Drama, Martyn Colbourn, appointed 1960.
     The play was written by Thomas Baden Morris, who is regarded as the most prolific one-act playwright of the 20^th century, with over 100 published one-act plays.   “I Will Arise!” is one of his most widely performed plays in churches, community halls and theatres.   It featured in the 1949 Memorial Ceremonies of the Battle of Arnhem, and has been broadcast by BBC Radio both in English and on the Arabic Service.   It has even been translated into Welsh!
 

Reviews
“The performance of T B Morris’s play has the qualities which the play itself possesses – sincerity, purpose, pattern and clarity.   I WILL ARISE! Is much more than a representational play: it is fine drama…and there is beauty in it all.”   (John Bourne in the Coventry Evening Telegraph) 

“Many listeners who heard the morality play I WILL ARISE! must have been stirred by the challenge it proclaimed … the play conveyed its challenge in unequivocal terms but in scenes of great beauty.(Birmingham Mail reviewing the BBC broadcast).
 

Su McClellan
was ordained priest last month.  
For the last year she has been based at the Cathedral part-time as a deacon whilst continuing to lead the Church Engagement Team at the charity Embrace the Middle East.
The photo was taken at her first celebration of communion at the high altar.