English Altars 2 : Walsingham

Splendid reredos of the High Altar in the
Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston USA
Image: http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/walsingham-tabernacle/

In a previous post, we described a style of altar commonly known as The English Altar. As the name would suggest such altars developed into a particular style in England, although since the nineteenth century they have come to spread to other parts of the English-speaking world. 

The form of reredos complementing the English Altar falls into two principal varieties : (a) a dossal or curtain of rich fabric, suspended from a railing and carried around three sides of the altar; (b) a low wall which is either of painted timber or carved from stone (or an admixture of the two). In this post, we are pleased to discuss an English altar of the second variety and, indeed, one built in very recent years.

The splendid reredos of Our Lady of Walsingham Church
whilst faithfully reproducing the original altar in England,
succeeds in improving its proportions.
For reasons that are not clear,
the freestanding altar does not follow the literate design of the reredos
but happily is usually covered with an antependium.

This is the High Altar found in the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston (Texas, USA), a building conceived and built in a very simply Gothic idiom as recently as 2003. The church was designed by the architectural firm of Cram and Ferguson. The High Altar of this church is a near-replica of the altar in the Slipper Chapel, being the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom. The work of reproducing this reredos in Texas was given to the Spanish firm of Granda Liturgical Arts, and is of the highest quality. It is a welcome relief from their usual Spanish oeuvre.

The English shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was founded in the eleventh century. Walsingham became a renowned place of pilgrimage in England - second only to Canterbury Cathedral. Although several kings and queens of England, Scotland and France had made the pilgrimage, this did not prevent the Shrine being despoiled and brought to ruin by the vile King Henry VIII.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a building used as a barn was discovered to be the original Walsingham Shrine. It was rebuilt and restored to religious use through the efforts of a devout woman, Charlotte Boyd. In 1934, the first Mass was celebrated in the Chapel in more than four centuries. The altar in the chapel was designed and built in the early twentieth century by a local artisan named Lilian Dagless. It is an interpretation of the form of reredos commonly found in England until the time of the Reformation. A carved bas-relief of the Crucifixion with Our Lady and S' John is the central scene of the reredos; on either side there are reliefs of the martyrs S' Catherine of Alexandria and S' Lawrence carrying the instruments of their martyrdom. All of these bas-reliefs are crowned by slightly-projecting canopies of Gothic tracery. Blue and red polychrome, highlighted with gold gilding, completes the ornament of this wonderful work.

Reredos of the Altar of the Slipper Chapel
in the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, England.
This reredos is smaller than the Houston replica
but has an additional arcade of tracery at its base.
The cresting along the top of this reredos is also more robust than in Houston.
We also note riddel curtains on either side of this altar
and that the not-very-large tabernacle is fittingly veiled.
http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/walsingham/walsinghamslipperaltar.jpg

General view of the wonderfully-liturgical chancel of
the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston.
The freestanding altar is usually covered with an antependium
so that it becomes visually central and not over-powered by the gilded reredos.
Little shelves added to either end of the reredos (on which flowers are placed)
are infelicitous later accretions and detract visually from its aesthetics.
http://peregrinacionvirtual.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/32-nuestra-senora-de-walsingham_17.html

Despite Mass usually being offered ad orientem in the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, the altar is detached from the reredos and therefore is free-standing. It is possible for Mass to be offered versus populum at this altar. Here is another example of how a flexible approach to the General Instructions on the Roman Missal can result in a suitable setting for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy which respects both aesthetics and liturgical principles.

The Cardinal-Archbishop of Galveston-Houston offering Mass at the High Altar.

An English Altar : Cantley UK

Chancel of the Anglican church of Saint Wilfrid in Cantley (UK).
This sumptuous setting features an altar clothed with a rich frontal,
a carved reredos, with adjacent riddel curtains and a
tester suspended above, being an English form of the altar canopy.
Note that the low reredos finishes where the reveals of the East
window commence, so that the window itself appears as a
continuation of the reredos, whilst not being obscured by it.

In this post, we look at a further example at what is described as The English Altar which, as the name suggests, has its origins in England when that fair isle was still Catholic. These are a mediaeval variety of High altar, but also found in small chapels within churches or domestic oratories etc.

Meeting examples of English altars, we find that the altar was typically clothed in a rich frontal but, lacking a gradine or step upon the altar table, the candlesticks (often only two) rested directly upon the altar.

Sometimes a rather low reredos abutted the altar, whilst at each corner there was a post or small column. Usually angels surmounted the four posts. Curtains, known as riddels were suspended on either side of the altar, between the posts.

These posts are held to be the survival or remnant of that early period when altars in England were covered with a civory or ciborium.

The beautifully carved, polychromed and gilded reredos, the work of Sir Ninian Comper.
The Crucifixion is the central motif, being flanked by angels.
On either side may be observed small statues of saints.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the English altar underwent a revival, mainly in Anglo-Catholic churches. But they also came to be employed in Catholic churches (we have previously seen an example from Downside Abbey).  In Anglican circles, a foremost exponent of this style of altar was the renowned architect Sir Ninian Comper, who was the designer of the furnishing and decorations depicted in this post.

In 1894 he was able at St. Wilfrid's to erect a pure Gothic altar for the first time in a parish church. The altar was of stone and stood free from the east wall. Modelled on the evidence of medieval illuminations, it had four riddel posts, hung with curtains suspended by silk cords looped in split rings running on black iron rods. The posts supported gilded figures of kneeling angels holding tapers, taken from precedents discovered by Bodley in Nuremberg. There were no gradines, or shelves, for a crucifix and six candlesticks, only a low reredos, carved coloured and gilded. Two candlesticks lay on the mensa and the altar was covered by an embroidered, panelled frontal and narrow frontlet. There was an overhanging canopy, or tester.  (From the monograph Sir Ninian Comper by Fr. Anthony Symondson S.J.)

We may qualify the above by observing that the Gothic period in England covered several centuries, during which time no one style of altar could claim to be "Gothic".

A magnificently embroidered altar frontal of dark red velvet.
Its appearance is cheapened by the ubiquitous strip of lace obscuring the superfrontal.

Although this form of altar is not common in Catholic churches, there is no reason why it could not be, even in a more simplified form. There are examples of such altars where a tabernacle is placed centrally. We shall continue to present examples of such arrangements in further posts.

The above photographs were taken from the following flickr site, where many more marvellous photographs of this church may be seen.

The Primacy of the Altar

The Lady Chapel of the Abbey-Church, Downside (UK).
This form of altar - known as an English Altar - with its reredos, paraments and tester over and above all
was the work of the renowned English architect Sir Ninian Comper.
The altar, by its manner of decoration, is the obvious focal point of this beautiful chapel.
The photograph was taken by a friend of the Saint Bede Studio, Father Lawrence Lew OP.

“The altar of holy Church is Christ, as John testifies, when he says in his Apocalypse that he saw him as a golden altar standing before the throne. In him and through him the gifts of the faithful are offered to God the Father.” This extract from the old Roman Pontifical for the ordination of subdeacons elucidates the teaching of the Church that the altars of our churches signify Christ, although Christ himself is at once the priest, victim and Altar of Sacrifice. The distinguished theologian and liturgist, Canon A. Croegart, emphasises the primacy of the altar in eucharistic devotion: “Without the eucharistic sacrifice, there would be no communion; without communion, there would be no reserved sacrament, nor any of the other forms of devotion connected with the worship of the reserved sacrament. Everything depends upon the altar, yet this order of importance is all too frequently ignored.” His conclusion is obvious, yet startling: “the altar is not an ornament of the church, but rather..the church is an architectural ornament housing and covering the altar. [1] The jewel does not exist for the casket, but the casket is adapted to and serves the jewel...Therefore, it is important that the altar should be prominent in the church. By its central position and sumptuousness, the altar should, straightaway, draw the attention of those who enter the church.” [2]

Astonishingly, in recent decades, as a manifestation of faulty understandings of the nature of the Mass, sanctuaries have been re-arranged (or built anew) to make THREE or more focal points : the altar, the "president's" chair and the ambo. Such an arrangement is a complete innovation, having no precedent in the history of the Church's liturgy and architecture. Such arrangements have done, in fact, positive harm in the name of liturgical purism : they have skewed the Faithful's understanding of the Mass and created spaces not of worship, but of obscure novelty.

The creation of a variety of focal points for the furnishings of the sanctuary, none of which is aligned with a central axis.
The ugliness of this arrangement can only destroy recollection of the sacred.
Catholic Student's Chapel at the University of California, Berkeley USA.

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[1]          The consecration of the altar and the church, which sets them apart permanently for the purposes of divine worship, is the primary reason for the sacredness of a church. Consequently, the notion that removing the Blessed Sacrament from view somehow makes it permissible to stage concerts and other secular events within a church is misguided.

[2]            Canon A. Croegart, The Mass: A Liturgical Commentary (vol. one), 1958, pp. 4-5.