http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18380#.UrUIscKA1jo
BECKONING THE WORLD TO BECOME ANGLICAN: JOHN BETJEMAN
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonlinewww.virtueonline.org
December 17, 2013
Sir John Betjeman was deservedly the most popular English poet of the 20th century. With Alfred Lord Tennyson he ranked equally as most conspicuous and beloved of Britain's Poet Laureates over the last two hundred years. A man of the media (radio, television, and obviously print), he loved the adulation of the people and delighted the nation with charm, humor, and pathos. A champion of things Victorian he guided his admirers to an intelligent appreciation of all that was fine and deserving of preservation in English culture, custom, and especially in the area of architecture.
Betjeman was a complicated character - amusing, amorous (I am weak for your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn), anxious, and Anglo-Catholic.
Wonder beyond Time's wonders, that Bread so white and small
Veiled in golden curtains, too mighty for men to see,
Is the Power that sends the shadows up this polychrome wall, Is God who created the present, the chain-smoking millions and me;
(St. Saviour's, Aberdeen Park, Highbury, London
(To counter the exaggerated esteem toward the Eucharist see W. Griffith Thomas, The Catholic Faith, Chapter X11, Controversies About Holy Communion, and also Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Theology of the English Reformers, Chapter 6, The Sacraments, Altar or Table?: "Christ did institute the sacrament of his body and blood at his last supper at a table, and not at an altar, as it appeareth manifestly by the three evangelists. And St. Paul calleth the coming to holy communion the coming unto the Lord's Supper. And also it is not read that any of the apostles or the primitive church did ever use an altar in the administration of holy communion. Wherefore, seeing the form of a table is more agreeable to Christ's institution and with the usage of the apostles and the primitive church than the form of an altar, therefore the form of a table is rather to be used than the form of an altar in the administration of the holy communion (Nicholas Ridley). Reformed folk will be concerned at the favouring of BCP 1549 in North American "traditional" Anglicanism and must note that the term "altar" was expunged from the more considered version of 1552).
His intellect struggled with faith, his conscience with his infidelities, his vocation with the temptation to be comedic and an entertainer rather than a literary figure of gravitas. He was sucked into the snobbery of being acquainted with the aristocracy, the intellectual elite, and the world of celebrity, and yet the ordinary folk found him accessible as a poet and congenial as a person. On the surface he was easy-going and lovable, beneath the public persona he grappled with insecurity, depression and guilt. Perhaps the lines from In a Bath Teashop, written during an affair, express his disquiet at the time: She such a very ordinary little woman; He, such a thumping crook.
In spite of his doubt he was a man of deeply religious sentiment and practice. He was utterly devoted to Anglicanism as he knew and interpreted it in aesthetic and sacramental terms. Churches were his great love and he examined and described them in minute and affectionate detail. Mood, ethos, ritual, music, atmosphere enthralled him. He was acutely aware of his spiritual weakness and flawed way of life.
To observe his experience of inner conflict, mental turmoil and uncertainty is painful and evinces such a huge disparity between the public veneer that he labored to create and the turbulence of his inner life. He did not condone his own poor behavior toward spouse and family and there is a deep sense of his frustration with his flaws that causes the onlooker to recognize him as an example of a fine artistic but fallen individual aware of the moral helplessness of sinful man and the power, the titanic power, of our base impulses.
We cannot tell or measure what grace may be accomplishing, and what it ultimately achieves, in tormented and distracted souls. We have all, one trusts, come into contact, with our proclivity to evil and our impotence to deal with it if our lives are void of divine assistance and God's mercy has not yet intervened. We cannot help but anguish over the plight of our fellow human beings who simply share our own self-desperation. We all wallow by nature in the same muck and can only be extricated by electing love.
In Betjeman's ideal world everyone would have been Anglican. His wife's conversion to Rome shocked and grieved him. He made great mental attempts to adhere to credal orthodoxy, attended services with regularity, and availed himself frequently of the confessional in search of a peace that eluded him. He loved to comment wryly on other traditions as evinced in the poem Calvinistic Evensong:
The six bells stopped, and in the dark I heard
Cold silence wait the Calvinistic word;
For Calvin now the soft oil lamps are lit
Hands on their hymnals six old women sit.
Black gowned and sinister he now appears,
Curate-in-charge of aged parish fears.
This playfulness continued in his children's book Archie and the Strict Baptists. His Teddy Bear Archibald was his constant companion away from home and in some sense perhaps the personification of an accusing conscience.
Betjeman's attachment to Anglicanism brought him into contact with many eminent and gifted High Church clergymen (and it is on many of these saintly and scholarly men that the writer of this article relies). It is here that we discover the undercurrents, perhaps a strong prevalence, of homosexual behaviour and likely pederasty within the CofE.
Betjeman was befriended by some churchmen with a predilection for boys and young men and these tendencies constitute an unsavory element in his story. An aesthetic attraction to Anglicanism, its ceremony, fancy clerical garb, rich ornamentation, the handling of vessels and sanctuary appointments and objects exerts a magnetic drawing power on some folk of a certain inclination, sublimated or satisfied, and church choirs and other parish activities are possible danger zones for the young who are misled, exploited and abused by men supposedly appointed to act as their shepherds and protectors throughout a period of early adolescence when male sexuality is ambivalent.
It is no surprise that Anglicanism would eventually prove open toward same-sex relations with pressure from certain ecclesiastical quarters and certain folk of English public (private elsewhere) school background where "experimentation" is not unfamiliar.
Continentals, especially the French, have in the past referred to homosexuality as a particularly English practice. Of course now this moral evil is very widespread and a matter of deep concern by reason of its prohibited nature and pernicious effects. Betjeman's fondness for Anglicanism was multi-faceted.
It was literary in his admiration of the Prayer Book. He liked the blending of reasonableness with mystery and this combination stirred his mind and his imagination. He preferred the decency, order, and air of reverence that he found in Anglicanism compared with other traditions (not sloppy or superstitious). For him it was all so agreeably English - just the right religion for the nation that expressed the soul of its innate piety.
A Church of England sound,it tells
Of "moderate" worship, God and State,
Where matins congregations go
Conservative and good and slow
To elevations of the plate.
(Church of England thoughts occasioned by hearing the bells of Magdalen Tower from the Botanic Garden, Oxford on St. Mary Magdalen's Day)
One senses and understands the feelings of Betjeman whenever a cathedral or ancient country church is entered. It is possible to hunker down in a pew and be transported through the ages pensively contemplating the social history of generations of worshippers and local citizens,
Our churches are our history shown In wood and glass and iron and stone (Churchyards), and mulling over the evolution of religious thought throughout the centuries as it has affected the minds of the people of faith (one particularly likes to sit in St. Georges, Hanover Square and contemplate the ministry of William Romaine). But the sorrow that confronts one in the tour of English places of worship is the rarity of gospel truth that would soon light them up with divine glory and fill them with the warmth of divine presence. Varying churchmanships have deprived communities of a clear presentation of Jesus Christ and the redemption he has wrought.
Betjeman was familiar with the history of his church, he may have lampooned some varieties of Anglicanism, and we all set ourselves up for valid criticism or amusement, but he was kind and respectful of worthy evangelicals and wrote generously of Augustus Toplady specifically, principally as a hymn writer but with respect for his Calvinism - which is more than many contemporary evangelicals would do as a result of the way in which Toplady's character and convictions have been continually misconstrued.
"Augustus Toplady is, to me one of the most fascinating and attractive characters of the Eighteenth Century". Trains and Buttered Toast, edited by Stephen Games, John Murray (Publishers) 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH 2007. A delightful compilation of Selected Radio Talks.
There are sides to Betjeman that are immensely endearing and there are the darker sides common to us all, which only grace can heal. His Anglicanism may not be the Anglicanism for the whole world, as he wittily wished, but his allegiance to the Church of England, as is the case with C.S. Lewis, between whom and JB there was much mutual dislike, might just prompt some some folk to look towards Anglicanism and even discover its anchorage in the Reformation.
When things go wrong its very tame
To find we are ourselves to blame,
It gets the trouble over quicker
To go and blame things on the Vicar.
(Blame the Vicar)
The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church. He is a regular contributor to Virtueonline
BECKONING THE WORLD TO BECOME ANGLICAN: JOHN BETJEMAN
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonlinewww.virtueonline.org
December 17, 2013
Sir John Betjeman was deservedly the most popular English poet of the 20th century. With Alfred Lord Tennyson he ranked equally as most conspicuous and beloved of Britain's Poet Laureates over the last two hundred years. A man of the media (radio, television, and obviously print), he loved the adulation of the people and delighted the nation with charm, humor, and pathos. A champion of things Victorian he guided his admirers to an intelligent appreciation of all that was fine and deserving of preservation in English culture, custom, and especially in the area of architecture.Betjeman was a complicated character - amusing, amorous (I am weak for your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn), anxious, and Anglo-Catholic.
Wonder beyond Time's wonders, that Bread so white and small
Veiled in golden curtains, too mighty for men to see,
Is the Power that sends the shadows up this polychrome wall, Is God who created the present, the chain-smoking millions and me;
(St. Saviour's, Aberdeen Park, Highbury, London
(To counter the exaggerated esteem toward the Eucharist see W. Griffith Thomas, The Catholic Faith, Chapter X11, Controversies About Holy Communion, and also Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Theology of the English Reformers, Chapter 6, The Sacraments, Altar or Table?: "Christ did institute the sacrament of his body and blood at his last supper at a table, and not at an altar, as it appeareth manifestly by the three evangelists. And St. Paul calleth the coming to holy communion the coming unto the Lord's Supper. And also it is not read that any of the apostles or the primitive church did ever use an altar in the administration of holy communion. Wherefore, seeing the form of a table is more agreeable to Christ's institution and with the usage of the apostles and the primitive church than the form of an altar, therefore the form of a table is rather to be used than the form of an altar in the administration of the holy communion (Nicholas Ridley). Reformed folk will be concerned at the favouring of BCP 1549 in North American "traditional" Anglicanism and must note that the term "altar" was expunged from the more considered version of 1552).
His intellect struggled with faith, his conscience with his infidelities, his vocation with the temptation to be comedic and an entertainer rather than a literary figure of gravitas. He was sucked into the snobbery of being acquainted with the aristocracy, the intellectual elite, and the world of celebrity, and yet the ordinary folk found him accessible as a poet and congenial as a person. On the surface he was easy-going and lovable, beneath the public persona he grappled with insecurity, depression and guilt. Perhaps the lines from In a Bath Teashop, written during an affair, express his disquiet at the time: She such a very ordinary little woman; He, such a thumping crook.
In spite of his doubt he was a man of deeply religious sentiment and practice. He was utterly devoted to Anglicanism as he knew and interpreted it in aesthetic and sacramental terms. Churches were his great love and he examined and described them in minute and affectionate detail. Mood, ethos, ritual, music, atmosphere enthralled him. He was acutely aware of his spiritual weakness and flawed way of life.
To observe his experience of inner conflict, mental turmoil and uncertainty is painful and evinces such a huge disparity between the public veneer that he labored to create and the turbulence of his inner life. He did not condone his own poor behavior toward spouse and family and there is a deep sense of his frustration with his flaws that causes the onlooker to recognize him as an example of a fine artistic but fallen individual aware of the moral helplessness of sinful man and the power, the titanic power, of our base impulses.
We cannot tell or measure what grace may be accomplishing, and what it ultimately achieves, in tormented and distracted souls. We have all, one trusts, come into contact, with our proclivity to evil and our impotence to deal with it if our lives are void of divine assistance and God's mercy has not yet intervened. We cannot help but anguish over the plight of our fellow human beings who simply share our own self-desperation. We all wallow by nature in the same muck and can only be extricated by electing love.
In Betjeman's ideal world everyone would have been Anglican. His wife's conversion to Rome shocked and grieved him. He made great mental attempts to adhere to credal orthodoxy, attended services with regularity, and availed himself frequently of the confessional in search of a peace that eluded him. He loved to comment wryly on other traditions as evinced in the poem Calvinistic Evensong:
The six bells stopped, and in the dark I heard
Cold silence wait the Calvinistic word;
For Calvin now the soft oil lamps are lit
Hands on their hymnals six old women sit.
Black gowned and sinister he now appears,
Curate-in-charge of aged parish fears.
This playfulness continued in his children's book Archie and the Strict Baptists. His Teddy Bear Archibald was his constant companion away from home and in some sense perhaps the personification of an accusing conscience.
Betjeman's attachment to Anglicanism brought him into contact with many eminent and gifted High Church clergymen (and it is on many of these saintly and scholarly men that the writer of this article relies). It is here that we discover the undercurrents, perhaps a strong prevalence, of homosexual behaviour and likely pederasty within the CofE.
Betjeman was befriended by some churchmen with a predilection for boys and young men and these tendencies constitute an unsavory element in his story. An aesthetic attraction to Anglicanism, its ceremony, fancy clerical garb, rich ornamentation, the handling of vessels and sanctuary appointments and objects exerts a magnetic drawing power on some folk of a certain inclination, sublimated or satisfied, and church choirs and other parish activities are possible danger zones for the young who are misled, exploited and abused by men supposedly appointed to act as their shepherds and protectors throughout a period of early adolescence when male sexuality is ambivalent.
It is no surprise that Anglicanism would eventually prove open toward same-sex relations with pressure from certain ecclesiastical quarters and certain folk of English public (private elsewhere) school background where "experimentation" is not unfamiliar.
Continentals, especially the French, have in the past referred to homosexuality as a particularly English practice. Of course now this moral evil is very widespread and a matter of deep concern by reason of its prohibited nature and pernicious effects. Betjeman's fondness for Anglicanism was multi-faceted.
It was literary in his admiration of the Prayer Book. He liked the blending of reasonableness with mystery and this combination stirred his mind and his imagination. He preferred the decency, order, and air of reverence that he found in Anglicanism compared with other traditions (not sloppy or superstitious). For him it was all so agreeably English - just the right religion for the nation that expressed the soul of its innate piety.
A Church of England sound,it tells
Of "moderate" worship, God and State,
Where matins congregations go
Conservative and good and slow
To elevations of the plate.
(Church of England thoughts occasioned by hearing the bells of Magdalen Tower from the Botanic Garden, Oxford on St. Mary Magdalen's Day)
One senses and understands the feelings of Betjeman whenever a cathedral or ancient country church is entered. It is possible to hunker down in a pew and be transported through the ages pensively contemplating the social history of generations of worshippers and local citizens,
Our churches are our history shown In wood and glass and iron and stone (Churchyards), and mulling over the evolution of religious thought throughout the centuries as it has affected the minds of the people of faith (one particularly likes to sit in St. Georges, Hanover Square and contemplate the ministry of William Romaine). But the sorrow that confronts one in the tour of English places of worship is the rarity of gospel truth that would soon light them up with divine glory and fill them with the warmth of divine presence. Varying churchmanships have deprived communities of a clear presentation of Jesus Christ and the redemption he has wrought.
Betjeman was familiar with the history of his church, he may have lampooned some varieties of Anglicanism, and we all set ourselves up for valid criticism or amusement, but he was kind and respectful of worthy evangelicals and wrote generously of Augustus Toplady specifically, principally as a hymn writer but with respect for his Calvinism - which is more than many contemporary evangelicals would do as a result of the way in which Toplady's character and convictions have been continually misconstrued.
"Augustus Toplady is, to me one of the most fascinating and attractive characters of the Eighteenth Century". Trains and Buttered Toast, edited by Stephen Games, John Murray (Publishers) 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH 2007. A delightful compilation of Selected Radio Talks.
There are sides to Betjeman that are immensely endearing and there are the darker sides common to us all, which only grace can heal. His Anglicanism may not be the Anglicanism for the whole world, as he wittily wished, but his allegiance to the Church of England, as is the case with C.S. Lewis, between whom and JB there was much mutual dislike, might just prompt some some folk to look towards Anglicanism and even discover its anchorage in the Reformation.
When things go wrong its very tame
To find we are ourselves to blame,
It gets the trouble over quicker
To go and blame things on the Vicar.
(Blame the Vicar)
The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church. He is a regular contributor to Virtueonline
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