THE LEONARDO DA VINCI EXHIBITION

 

Yesterday was Ann’s birthday, so after a late breakfast we made our way by train and tube to the National Gallery to visit the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition. We bought our tickets several weeks ago and paid the cover price but we gather that such is the demand that for the daily tickets people are queuing from 6.00 a.m. for up to 3 hours to get one of the few daily tickets available. On E-Bay today I saw tickets being offered form £125 to £300.

I have to say that the exhibition is just wonderful and to see, in the same room, the two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, one owned by the Musee du Louvre, the other by the National Gallery is just breath taking. I doubt whether it will ever by possible to gather together again such a collection of da Vinci’s works. For me the highlight was The Burlington House Cartoon where the Virgin is pictured seated on the lap of her mother St. Anne with the baby Jesus and the infant St. John, drawn in charcoal and white chalk.

It was also interesting to see Christ as Salvator Mundi which has recently been restored and acknowledge as a da Vinci masterpiece.  We then went to the separate exhibition in the Sunley Room which featured “The Last Supper” which within 20 years of painting was judged to be ruined due to the technique used by Da Vinci. Fortunately a full-scale copy was made by a sympathetic pupil prior to the original deteriorating and this was a great help during restoration work which was carried out in Milan over a 20 year period from 1978 – 1998 and is now available to view by pre-booked tickets.

We both thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition and after a brief wander round the Constable pictures made our way to Oxford Street for a little shopping and then to Spaghettis House for dinner.

Women bishops: it's now clear that the General Synod has lied to Parliament and the Church–FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH BLOGS 29th NOVEMBER

The Rev Dr Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael, Cornhill and St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London. He is Chaplain to six Livery Companies of the City of London and has written for many publications including the Wall Street Journal.

 

By Peter Mullen

Women bishops are coming, and there's no protection for traditionalists.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, appearing before a parliamentary committee of the House of Lords, urges that, once women are consecrated as bishops – he is confident of their acceptance being voted by the General Synod – they should be fast-tracked to membership of the House. So real bishops – I mean male bishops – who have served in the episcopate for years will be sidelined by the incoming women.

Isn’t this what we used to call discrimination?

In 2010 the General Synod confirmed its determination to proceed to the consecration of women bishops. Disconcertingly, the resolution does not include any proposal to provide statutory provision for those who in conscience cannot accept women’s episcopacy. So the benign genius of Dr John Habgood, when Archbishop of York, which offered the notion of two integrities at the time when women priests were originally approved by the General Synod, has now been overthrown. The latest synodical resolution will also abolish the roles of the Provincial Episcopal Visitors – the so called flying bishops – created in 1993 to provide pastoral oversight for those conscientiously unable to accept the priesthood of women.

Thus, as John Broadhurst, former Bishop of Fulham, said on Radio Four when the inadequate synodical resolution passed: The Synod has lied to Parliament and it has lied to the Church.

We must understand clearly what the new draft measure amounts to. It is a plain denial that those unable to accept women priests or bishops have any integrity at all. Dr Habgood’s agreeable compromise has been arbitrarily done away with and now, by implication, there is only one integrity in the Church and it belongs exclusively to the supporters of women priests and bishops. But synodical approval for women priests was obtained in 1992 on the proviso that alternative pastoral arrangements be made for those opposed. It was this which ensured that women’s ordination became a reality, for it is very likely that many members of Synod would have rejected the innovation if the safeguard of the flying bishops, providing alternative pastoral oversight, had not been forthcoming.

Dr Williams should not count his chickens. It is still not too late to hope that this manifest injustice to conscientious dissenters from the consecration of women bishops will so stick in the craw of all but the most hardened feminist apparatchiks in the Synod that they will vote the measure down

I have taken the liberty in reproducing in full the above article which appear in today’s Daily Telegraph Blogs as I consider what it says to be of great importance.

ADVENT PROSE

ADVENT ONE AND AN EARLY MORNING SURPRISE

The phone call came just after 8.00 a.m.; our Organist & Choirmaster had been taken ill so please would I play the organ. No problem I said and then it dawned on me that tonight is the Advent Nine Lessons and Advent Hymns/Anthems. So it was of to church early to have a Choir Practice prior to the Parish Mass with just enough time to look at a couple of items for tonight and to arrange for a short practice before the actual service. I hope it will be OK this evening!!!!!!!!!!

PRAYER FOR ADVENT 1

Almighty God,
give us grace that we may cast away
the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life
in which thy Son Jesus Christ came
to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again
in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,
one God, now and for ever.

BACK FROM AFGHANISTAN

On Wednesday Ann and I were in Bath Abbey for the Thanksgiving Service to celebrate the return to the UK of the 21st Signal Regiment (Air Support) from Afghanistan. This was the occasion when the Regiment was presented with the Freedom of the City of Bath and paraded round the city.Later in the day we were present at the Medal Presentations at Colerne the Regiments present base in the UK. We were particularly proud when our son Major John Jennings led his squad of men into the Abbey. John has been in Afghanistan twice recently and we are very glad to see him home safe and well. Deo Gratias

Major John Jennings

The Freedom of the City

The March Past

After the Presentation of Medals when we were frozen stiff sitting outside for a couple of hours – (it was bitterly cold on the parade ground – they even bought out blankets for the VIPS!!!!!!) – we were served with chicken curry. which we really needed! The men who have been roasting in high temperatures in Afghanistan must have  really suffered as they were still wearing their desert kit. It was a lovely day and wonderful to see John.

TECHNICOLOURED MITRE AND CHASUBLE IN WASHINGTON

Washington National Cathedral was the setting when Mariann Budde was consecrated Bishop on her appointment as the Bishop of Washington. Virtueonline gives a report on what happened:-

“The first service at the Washington National Cathedral following the August 23, 2011, earthquake was a cacophony of odd errors and uncomfortable mistakes. The many problems created a service who as one participant said "was not up to Episcopal standards." That statement puts it mildly with misspoken words, a malfunctioning pipe organ, poorly practiced musical groups, squealing microphones and a flustered Mariann Edgar Budde.

The service focused on bringing together many diverse musical elements with the opening processional done by a three-man group of Native Americans called Southwest Eagle Dancers. The lengthy constant drumming and chanting created a distinct tension as listeners wondered what religious tradition they were from. Clergy processed in to the syncopated drums and no singing.

Before the Episcopal Church bishops and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori walked in, the sounds of the pipe organ began the introduction and first verse of "I bind unto myself today." After the second verse, the organ dropped out and the singing stopped and an eerie silence filled the Cathedral only relieved by the sound of walking feet. Everyone began to look at each other as the silence grew to over one minute. The organ started with verse three, played about four measures and abruptly broke off. Another long and uncomfortable silence began during which time the bishops continued their tense procession for another two minutes. Then the next sound heard to the congregation with its many empty seats was a tinny, electric keyboard. The hymn finished with this bizarre musical accompaniment that was too quiet for the hymn. Everyone was murmuring in speculation about what happened but no answers were given.”

Read the rest of this wonderfully amusing report here
The sad thing is that what happems in the USA today is likely to happen in the UK tomorrow.