I did not have a good night with several interruptions. My fault because I gone to sleep for only a few minutes while watching the opening of England's important game against Croatia, which at the time was considered a good thing because I missed Croatia's first goal and was barely awake when they scored a second. Everything was wrong torrential rain and pitch looked horrible, the outcome of playing an American league Football match. I then stayed up too long playing quick chess level two against the computer and should have stopped when I reached 300 recorded games 19 drawn 1 defeat but only 46 winning streak, with 56 reached before the decision to record everything so that in fact some 470 games have been played at this level, and of course I lost attention and allowed a draw. I then started to think about matters put off during the day and hey presto I did not sleep immediately on going to the loo or felt inclined to get up again and work. I even remember the dream on waking early this morning.
Because tonight I am out for a Judy Collins Concerts I decided on a cooked lunch, a beef spaghetti stir fry and a glass of wine knowing I would want to then sleep, which I did but only to be woken by the two deliveries within half an hour of each other. There was nothing for it but to return to work but first I checked emails to find a reminder from Travel Lodge that their over Christmas and New year into January accommodation sale was still available and decided to book another trip to Croydon making use of a free First Class Travel which had arrived a couple of days before, as a consequence of using the new GNER online booking system for the December trip. I had checked the cost of accommodation but decided to wait to see if I needed to use the voucher for a visit concerning the inquiries about the premature and preventable death of my aunt, but then received a letter which suggested it could be two to three months before progress although the reasons for the delay appeared to be good ones. I first checked the availability of accommodation and found that a saving could be made of £41 was possible instead of £31 if I adjusted travel dates and then contacted the GNER promotions line to check on the availability of seats and because it was first class was allocated individual airline forward facing type seats. Because the seats reservations are sent by post I provided my address to then learn that the assistant was born in the next street and attended the school opposite the Arbeia Roman fort which was the subject of yesterday's writing. The omens were propitious. It had become a good day.
St Peter's Wearmouth, Sunderland
St Paul's Jarrow
For thirty years I regularly travelled along the A183 from Seaburn into Sunderland City Centre, passing the church of St Peter's(5)' at the centre of its grassed over burial ground. However my interest was first aroused when as a consequence of an arson attack in 1984, the chancel roof was destroyed with much other damage and for a time the church appeared no more than a shell. Since then it had been restored into the active community church of today which because the historical significance of its history, hopes to become part of a World Heritage site in 2010, along with St Paul's Jarrow and the adjacent exhibition of Bede World in the grounds of Jarrow Hall.
In the seventh century, the King of Northumbria generously gave a site at Wearmouth, large enough to support seventy families, to one of his noblemen, Benedict Biscop, who after visiting Rome decided to renounce his role in society and create
a monastery and a church in the Roman manner. St Benet had a bold vision going to France of find masons and glaziers to train local people to create coloured glass into windows, lamps and vessels for the first time in Great Britain, thus commencing an art which remains in the city to this day. In Victorian England, Sunderland along with Newcastle became major centres for the industrial production of bottles and plate glass, and during the twentieth century all Pyrex ovenware was produced in the city, although during the period of my walks production was moved to France. However skilled glass blowing into objects of beauty continues at the National Glass centre today(6), a few yards away, and the craft is being promoted by Sunderland University(7) whose new complex of buildings is overlooked by the Church.
Our knowledge of the development of Christian worship and learning in Northumbria is due to the St Bede AD673-735AD, usually referred to as the Venerable Bede, through his major work on the Ecclesiastical History of the British People, and his Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow. It was a year after his birth that work on the Monastery commenced and at the age of seven he was entrusted to the care and teaching of the monastery in which he was to spend the rest of his life, although the greater part is believed to be at the Jarrow extension whose ruins can be viewed.
St Benet continued to work on his vision travelling across the channel; to bring back paintings and at one point the chief Cantor was offered by the Pope to promote the chanting and singing of psalms as choir master to the Monastery. Such was the reputation quickly established by St Peter's that eight years later St Benet commenced to develop a Monastery on two sites, also with the separate church of St Paul, at Jarrow.
As you drive along the A185 from South Shields to Jarrow, past the Port of Tyne Authority and south bank dockland and turn into Church Road there is no hint of the historical treasure a short distance away. The Jarrow location is on the banks of the river Don which runs into the Tyne and provided a river and sea route for the monks to maintain contact between the two sites. Today it is possible to also follow a clearly marked land journey of some thirteen miles between to the Churches, travelled on foot once year as a pilgrimage, or can be followed in one of six stages, or cycled (5)
My visits to the two churches and the monastery ruins at St Paul's were important experiences in my life as one obtained a sense of serious Christian belief and worship far stronger that at St Peter's and the Vatican at Rome when visiting again after the Millennium, I thought Christ would have attacked with as much vigour as he is reported to have the done the money lenders within the confines of the Jewish Temple. I would be surprised if any modern day Benedict Biscop would be inspired to try and recreate the circus which the Vatican has become, I have a similar reaction to the films of the hordes of pilgrims visiting Mecca, given my understanding that both men preached religions which were about the values and standards of every aspect of individual life, spirit within rather than the ostentation, exhibitionism and ritualistic worship which many religions have become and is why I was drawn to the Society of Friends in the 1960's after losing my Catholic faith. Over time I came to appreciate work of architecture and other forms of art which express the wonders of nature and the human experience and I can understand the emotional excitement and joy believers of individual faiths experience on visiting shrines and other holy places, and how such visits can affect the way lives are then led. I found St Peter's and St Paul to be good places where to sit and reflect and most will find the fellowship of others offered by their communities of great value.
No comments:
Post a Comment