Needy Members of Corpus Sanctum. By Uncle Monty.

Needy Members of Corpus Sanctum.

Story and Photos By Uncle Monty.
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Platoons of neatly combed grey-haired lords and ladies
arrived on the dot at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on

Whitsun Tuesday to help celebrate the 354th Festival Ser-

vice of the Anglican Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy.

Such is the ancient clerical charity that was founded in

1655 by some sons of the clergy for needy members

of Corpus Sanctum.

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During the Commonwealth period under Cromwell,

those clergy who remained loyal to the English monarchy

were deprived of their benefice and thus oftentimes were

left plainly destitute. It was some of their son who then

founded the first Anglican clerical charity and for each

year since then the Festival Service has been held to raise

needed funds to help generations of needy clergy. The

Service itself is considered to be the oldest of its kind

in the Anglican Communion. As for the Catherdal

wandsmen or ushers directing us to our seats, they

came attired in formal morning coats and dark fitted

waistcoats with the Cathedral medallion held around

their Anglican necks by fine crimson ribbons.
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I sat for the first time in the Nave with my guest ticket

and I saw everything at elbow's length as the awe-inspiring

Cathedral processions and ceremony got under way with

thousands of others watching it has I did. St. Paul’s has been

known to hold as many as 22.000 people on such important

occasions as this.
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The English have always had the natural gift to make ceremony
despite our otherwise rather plain taste in so many other things.
The Festival Service was full of ancient ceremony and far from

plain. Historic symbols of high office I could have easily touched

as the illustrious company of Masters, Prime Wardens, High

Sheriffs, and Upper Bailiff of the Liveries of the City of London,

ceremoniously carried them by me as they moved between the

aisles from the West End of St. Paul's Cathedral. The fanfare had

already sounded as the combined cathedral choirs of Ripton, Truro,

and St. Paul's sang the Introit with the blessed words from Psalm

47 and the magificent music by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625).

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Then came in State The Lord Mayor and the Archbishop of

Canterbury in their full plumage of ancient office as some 13

or so bishops of the Anglican and Scottish Episcopacy had

gone before them. Held high was The Cross of Canterbury

for all to see at the beginning of the Festival Service.

The Ceremoniarius, along with the Dean and Chapter

and the Lord Bishop of London, added fullness to the

stunning processions as the Crucifer and Acolytes had

also given of their best.

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The 24-page Festival Service guide excited my deep sense
of occasion upon hearing the Dean, The Rt. Rev’d Graeme
Knowles, welcome us all along with the biblical readings from

The Chancellor, The Rev’d Canon Edmund Newell and The
Venerable John Morrison, and with prayers from the Succentor
of St. Paul’s, Rev’d Jason Rendall. Last, but most certainly not

the least, was the closing blessing of His Grace, The
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Douglas Williams,
who was resplendent in his ochre archiepiscopal vestment.

His fifth year as the 104th ABC was recently marked
in our Church history, too.
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At this year’s cathedral collection for the Corporation of the
Sons of the Clergy, it was expected to raise about three-quarters
of a million American dollars or about £375.000 English pounds
from those present at the annual Festival Service. So far this

year, the corporation has already raised over £1 million well

before the assembled service at St. Paul’s began. But such is

only a drop in the ocean for the ever growing financial needs

of the needy members of Corpus Sanctum. The public at large

don’t always realise that say the retired vicar or the clerical

widow may need urgent help like others in our modern society.

All too often, they’re isolated and forgotten as they struggle to
cope with mounting pressures of their neglected situation.
Thankfully, the Sons of the Clergy is there to help them at
where secular society otherwise fails to provide them help.
The clergy serve the people at many levels over many years
of service and thus it is our bound and duty and right to help

them whenever it is our turn to provide them with some of
their urgent needs. I was more than glad to give my little
bit towards such a worthy clerical charity as a devout
and determined Anglican that I am. Bravo …
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Among the Stewards of the Festival, who actively
contribute to the Corporation and who therefore retain
the ever-significant and rare title of Church Steward,
the names of some of them are herein marked: Sir
and Lady David Brewer, Baroness Byford, Sir and Lady
John Chadwick, Sir Christopher Clarke, Viscount Churchill,
Sir and Lady Robert Craufurd, Sir Robert Finch, Sir Brian

Jenkins, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, Sir Idris Pearce, Sir Michael
Savory, Sir and Lady Lawrence Verney, Sir Christopher
Walford, and Sir William Wells. And seated next to me was
Professor Michael Moss with his Westminster Abbey neck-

tie, his rolled-up brolly, his shy hearing aid, and his heavy

brown briefcase, and who sang like the once Luciano

Paroratti at times with the hymns he knew so well off by

heart. We also had a nice chat together, we did. Thus,

ended the astounding and memorable service.
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The next 355th Festival Service will be held

at St. Paul’s on Tuesday, May 12th, 2oo9.

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For more info on the corporation, check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_of_the_Sons_of_the_Clergy

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Bless you all, Uncle Monty.
+St. Pancrastide, 2oo8.

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My picture (above) of the Lord Bishop of London,

Right Rev’d Richard Chartres, shows him standing on

the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral after the end of the

Festival Service to which he helped officiate among the

other Anglican bishops so present. I had previously met

him at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and elsewhere, although

this was the first time I was able to get to photograph him

just as I wanted him without the stiffness of his bishopric.

I have also added design to the background of my

photograph of him to make it more attractive, visually.

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This is my first picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral
that I took just moments before I entered the
interior to attend the 354th Festival Service.
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My picture (above)
of the stone sculpture, in memory
of the 7/7 London Bomb victims, is that of the
Archangel St. Michael that I discovered at Upper
Woburn Place at this St. Pancrastide. I have added
design to the image to highlight the moving power
of the memorial sculpture so beautifully sculptured
in white English stone.
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A rare brass medallion of perhaps c. A.D. 545 of St. Benedict,
who is also the modern Patron Saint of Europe, that I recently
found in a tiny tattered box of old trinkets at Lewisham’s
weekly car boot sale held outside the Anglican Parish

Church there.
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