Chairman's Newsletter - November 2024

     MERVYN HAIGH WAS Bishop of Coventry in 1940 at the time of The Coventry Blitz.   In March 1962 BBC Radio recorded an interview with Bishop Haigh in readiness for broadcast the week before the Cathedral’s Consecration in May that year.
     During the interview he was asked about the night of 14^th November 1940.

     “It began about half past six.   It caught me and the three women living in the Bishop’s House at the time by surprise.   The incendiaries came so quick after the warning, and some heavy explosives, that I did not think it wise to try and reach our shelter in the garden, so we went down into the coal cellar, and we hoped to be out in two or three hours.   As a matter of fact we were there for 10 hours, and, of course, grew increasingly black- indeed, as black as any miner could be.
     During that time I made every attempt to go out and see what was happening in the city and to the churches.   I could not see anything from the entrance to the coal hole, but I could see everything by going out into the street and looking across the Grammar School fields.  
     Well, I got to that fence about half a dozen times and appreciated the fact that the Cathedral was burning.   It is extremely doubtful whether I could have got there, but I could not rest until I got started.   At half past four in the morning I started out.
      The heat of the rubble was so great that at times I wondered if it would scorch me, but it didn’t.   In the end I got through to Bayley Lane to the east end of the Cathedral.  Somehow I climbed in through a window to see practically the whole building, mountains of rubble with the side walls still standing and, of course, the glorious tower and spire.
     The Provost and his helpers had just left – the water that they were using having completely failed.   If I am asked what I felt as I stood there, I can only say, first of all, a kind of horror and awed amazement.   I felt as if somehow Coventry had had its heart torn out.   After a time it came over me that I was witnessing what within a few hours the whole world would be witnessing in imagination and reading about.
     So I went home and, a little later, called on the Provost.   I happened to be his first caller, and even then he was full of that gallant spirit that he has shown ever since.   Even then he was talking about rebuilding and resurrection.”

At 5.30am Mr Edwards was one of a small group of people at the Provost’s House.   He later described how they were all huddled around an oil stove trying to heat porridge by candlelight when suddenly the Bishop stood in the dimly-lit doorway looking pale and drawn – “but he gave out courage and confidence; and however intensely he suffered he never lost faith or abandoned hope.”  
     The BBC interview was recorded in March 1962 at the North Wales home of Bishop Haigh.   It was broadcast on Sunday 20^th May 1962.   Bishop Haigh died that very day at the age of 74 years.

 

 

The FRIENDS were founded in 1934. 
2024 is the FRIENDS 90^th Anniversary Year.  
At the Annual General Meeting members were challenged with the following question.
 

 

The FRIENDS COUNCIL welcomes your suggestions and ideas on this and on any other topics for consideration.
 

         
 

AS A RESULT of the elections at this year's Annual General Meeting the following representatives were elected.  
The Friends Council meets 4 times a year.   With the Chairman's permission members are welcome to attend Council meetings as visitors.   Why not come and see for yourself what goes on?  
At the AGM the Chairman gave notice that he is standing down as Chairman at the end of this year.   A new Chairman will be elected at the AGM 2025.  
To help the Friends Council succession planning, please get in touch with any of the members in the above list with your ideas for the future.   Shall we continue to plan regular meetings?  Shall we change the FRIENDS newsletter in some way - or should we discontinue it?  The FRIENDS Council will always try to reflect the views of the members, so it is important to speak out.  

    

Legacies.   At the AGM it was reported that in 2023 the FRIENDS received legacies totalling £52,557.
Mavis Weitzel deceased.   Mavis was a longstanding member of the FRIENDS.   As an active member of the congregation she served the Cathedral in many ways including the Cathedral Sunday School and as a Schools Department speaker.   She served as a Cathedral Churchwarden.   To the FRIENDS she left £10,000.
Val Millman deceased.   The FRIENDS received £42,557 from the estate of Val Millman who was a member of the Cathedral congregation in the 1970s.    Val taught at the Sidney Stringer school during its pioneering years as the first urban community college in the 1970s and early 1980s, and subsequently worked as teacher advisor (equal opportunities) for Coventry City Council during the next two decades.
     When you leave a legacy to the FRIENDS, you know that it will be spent on specific projects that are approved by your fellow members to enhance the building or ministry of the Cathedral.  
     If you prefer it is also possible to add your legacy funds to the Cathedral’s permanent endowment by leaving assets directly to Coventry Cathedral. 

Coventry Cathedral Chorus directed by Luke Fitzgerald.
 Tickets £20 are available on the door but for an advance purchase discount contact Jill Pacey by email at [email protected] or by phone 01676 532436.

THIS OLD SECONDHAND car badge featuring the Cathedral was recently offered for sale online for £5.
 

         

Vicar In Disgrace

REV ROBERT H BAYNES is the Vicar of St Michael’s, Coventry whom I mentioned in passing at the FRIENDS AGM.   He held that post from 1866 to 1879, before St Michael's became a Cathedral.
     Coventry can boast of many prominent churchmen in the city over the centuries, but in the 19^th century Baynes was the most popular and successful Vicar of St Michael’s Church.   As you read on you will learn that he came to a sad end.
     A charismatic preacher, Baynes’ sermons attracted thousands of worshippers to St Michael’s.   He was very down to earth in his approach to life and faith, so it is said that the newcomers were drawn mainly from the industrial and middle classes to whom his sort of practical approach appealed.
     St Michael’s Church life and its congregations were boosted immediately he arrived in Coventry.   At the end of his first year as Vicar, he had made such an impact that the churchwardens organised a collection and presented him with £134 collected from grateful parishioners.   (That is c.£10,000 when allowance is made for  inflation.)
     The Vicar played a full part in Coventry society and involved himself in many local causes.   He became chaplain to the Warwickshire Rifle Battalion as well as to the Hospital for Chronic and Incurable Diseases in Leamington.
     He was a prolific writer as you can see from this list of his publications.    He wrote mainly religious poetry, hymns and manuals of family prayer.   If you search the internet today you will discover that a number of his books have been reprinted and are still available.   Lyra Anglicana: Hymns and Sacred Songs (1862) sold thirty thousand copies within three years of publication and by 1879 sales had reached sixty-nine thousand.
     Baynes is better known as a poet and compiler of books of sacred poetry rather than as an original hymn-writer, although even today some of his hymns are still used, particularly in the USA.
     In 1870 he was offered the chance to become the first Bishop of Madagascar.  On hearing that he might be leaving, and in an effort to persuade him to stay his Coventry parishioners offered to increase the value of his living by £300 a year.   A dispute about the appointment of a bishop arose between the two leading missionary societies of the time, so to avoid controversy within the Church he withdrew his acceptance and remained in Coventry.   Two years later he was made an honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral.   At that time Coventry was within the Worcester diocese.  
     Rev Baynes was an active freemason and he played a leading role in the establishment in Coventry of a new freemasons Lodge named St Michael’s Lodge.   He presented the new Lodge with a Bible and in St Mary’s Hall on the 29^th January 1877 he was installed as the first Worshipful Master of St Michael’s Lodge.   The musical portion of the service included an original hymn that he composed especially for the occasion.
     By the time that Baynes left Coventry the number of regular communicants at St Michael’s had grown from 2326 to 8121.   It is calculated that he delivered 2791 sermons during his time in the city.
     His fame as a preacher was widespread, and he preached in London on numerous occasions.   In 1879 he gave a paper to the Monthly Church Conference of the Diocese of London  'Is the pulpit of the national church as real a power as it ought to be, and if not, why not?'   
     It was just months later when he was advised by his doctors that for the sake of his health he must slow down and lighten his work burden without delay.   He left Coventry to become Rector of Toppesfield, near Halstead, Essex (1879-80) followed by his appointment as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Folkestone (1880-85).

     In retirement and with time on his hands the much-loved former Vicar of St Michael’s turned to drink.   It sent him off the rails and in his last years he was convicted and imprisoned several times for fraud and theft.  
     In July 1888 at Oxford he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for obtaining food and lodgings by false pretences.   He had failed to attend the adjourned court hearing and had been arrested in Glasgow.   The court was told that it was only the generosity of his brother in paying off his debts that kept him out of the County Court.  
     Baynes served other prison sentences in Bristol for theft and assault.   In October 1892 he was convicted of indecent assault on a girl aged 10 years in Twickenham.
     Rev Baynes died at Oxford in March 1895 in extraordinary circumstances.   It is reported that his clothes accidentally caught alight as he stood in front of the open fire in his lodgings.
 

JOHN PIPER’S BAPTISTRY window repairs featured in last month’s FRIENDS newsletter.   A little-known fact about John Piper is that amongst his many talents was expertise as a designer of firework displays.
     Piper is well known as a painter and a designer of stained-glass windows, but he was also a printmaker, and designed sets for both opera and theatre.  His work included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics.   Then to top them all were his skills with FIREWORKS.
     With the work at the Cathedral well behind him, he was commissioned in 1965 to design a spectacular £3,000 firework display over the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London to celebrate the opening of the first Commonwealth Arts Festival.
     His display captured the imagination of people from around the globe, and was followed in 1968 by his design of a major firework display over the Thames to celebrate the 4^th Festival of London. (PHOTO ABOVE)   In this display Flying Saucers and the Niagara Falls were sent up into the sky from the National Theatre site on the South Bank.
     Piper designed another huge firework display in London to mark the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, and the Queen saw even more of his pyrotechnical work on 24^th May 1979 when she opened the extension to the TATE.   On that occasion Piper even included fireworks in his design for the cover of the TATE brochure.

            

TO SUPPORT THE work of SHARE in ROMANIA members of the Cathedral congregation have arranged a sponsored virtual DUCK RACE starting at the source of the River Danube and finishing at the Romanian Delta.     Ever since 1994 members of the Cathedral congregation have been supporting work with some of the poorest families in Romania through the UK charity SHARE. (no.1002326)   The sponsorship money will help SHARE to send young qualified therapist volunteers to work in the SPERANTA care home for disabled children in Sibiu, Transylvania.    More online information is available at     http://share.charity
     The DUCK RACE starts on Saturday 9th November and ends two weeks later on Saturday 23rd November.  The owner of the winning Duck wins £50.   When you sponsor a duck you can follow its progress each day online.

 A duck costs £3 and can be bought online using the link -
https://www.balloonrace.net/skyg
There are still a few lonely ducks on the river waiting for sponsorship!