Lessons from a "well seasoned" Saint

Autumn Landscape with Four Trees (1885) by Vincent van Gogh

Message for the Parish Magazine of St Giles-in-the-Fields, September 2023:

On the day the church remembers St Giles, the patron saint of leprosy sufferers, summer turns to autumn in the UK meteorological calendar. Seasonal change was a pet topic of the pioneering ecologist, ornithologist and priest Gilbert White. While many of his conclusions have since been disproved by modern science - such as his belief that swallows hibernate underground (rather than migrate) in winter - his observations about leprosy appear to be borne out, in part. 

A Bouquet for Saint Giles

Saint Giles and the Deer by The Master of Saint Gilles, c1500 (National Gallery)

‘Saint Giles and the Deer’ by the mysterious ‘Master of Saint Giles’ originally formed one section of a multi-panelled altarpiece dating from the early 1500’s. 

The painting and its companion piece ‘The Mass of St Giles” depict two of the three most popular stories about the saint mentioned in the accounts of his life, the most recent of which being The Golden Legend, a famous medieval hagiography.

 

Both paintings can be seen in The National Gallery and their website allows us to zoom in to see minute detail. The commentary for St Giles and the Deer states: “The different types of plants and flowers in the wilderness are perhaps a reference to the legend that the desert flowered around Giles’s hermitage.” Tantalisingly no description of the flora or what it might symbolise is offered - nor in The Golden Legend or other versions of the Life of St Giles - so I have attempted to make an educated guess!

Start:Stop-Celebrating St Francis of Assisi

The San Damiano Cross, the image of which inspired Francis of Assisi

Introduction

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. My name is Phillip Dawson. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link. 

Last week the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee published its report on ‘The UK's footprint on global biodiversity’ which highlighted the growing number of animal and plant species that are threatened with extinction. The UK’s consumption patterns, the report concluded, remain unsustainable and overseas development assistance that seeks to integrate poverty and environmental objectives remains rare. 

Someone who understood all about the integration of poverty and the environment   was Saint Francis of Assisi, who was remembered by the church this week. The spirituality that Francis embodied; one which integrated justice, peace and ecology, was unique in European Christianity at the time. Today Francis is inspiring a renewed focus on the relationship between humanity, its Creator and His creation, not least by the current Pope, who took his name.

Renouncing the riches and prestigious clothes of his merchant father, Francis of Assisi embraced a life of material poverty, working for food or begging for alms. He didn’t leave an environmental footprint of his own because he was always walking in the footprints of Christ.

The reading for the Feast of St Francis of Assisi is taken from the Gospel according to Saint Luke. 

Towards A Theology of Climate Change

Gaia by Juke Jerram, Salisbury Cathedral

Notes from a Church of England Webinar ‘The Theology of Climate Change’ given on Tuesday 21st September 2021 by Reverend Ruth Newton.

This was an interesting webinar given by Ruth Newton, a priest and ‘Eco-Champion’ for the Diocese of Leeds and a member of the Church of England’s General Synod. She is undertaking a Doctorate in Practical Theology at the University of Chester. The lecture proposes a new approach to a theology of Climate Change that is fit for the age of the 'Anthropocene' - one not based on the concept of environmental stewardship alone but that draws on other theological resources from the Christian faith.

BOOK REVIEW : Saying Yes to Life by Ruth Valerio

Saying Yes To Life - The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book 2020 by Ruth Valerio

Ruth Valerio uses the Days of Creation (Genesis 1) to form the seven chapters of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2020 Lent Book, which ends with a large bibliography and is accompanied by a website that contains five fifteen minute video clips and links to further resources associated with each chapter - which will be helpful for those using the book in the context of a weekly study group during Lent.