The following extracts are taken from The Manx Church Magazine, when the vicar of St. Matthew's was the Rev H. S. Taggart M.A.
Last year we were able to present a play entitled “Saint Martin of Tour”, on behalf of funds for the Mission, which benefited to the extent of many pounds by the effort. May we solicit the interest and support of our readers in a similar undertaking and for the same object. This time the play will be “The Monks of the South.”
We have received the following report from the matron of the Bradstock
Lockett Hospital Home, with reference to a little girl who left us for
the Home some months ago.
“Knowing you are interested in the case, I am writing to tell you how much she has improved since she came here. From a forlorn sad child, she is now a bright and happy child who can smile and play with other children. She has gained over four pounds in weight and her cheeks are rosy, and one would hardly recognise her.”
The Vicar is writing to express his pleasure in receiving such a report, and would like to have a contribution to send as a thank-offering for the work of the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society. The Misses A. Robinson and Gertie Radcliffe have kindly consented to organize a Silver Thimble League among us, and we hope that they will receive every encouragement in their good work. Each member of the League undertakes to provide two articles of work, either of a useful or ornamental nature, and also subscribe annually one shilling towards defraying the expenses of the League. The articles are sold annually at a small sale of work held in the School.
P.S. The Waifs and Strays Society became the Church of England Children’s Society which we still support.
The following is the programme for the month: March 6th Astronomy, March 13th Cookery, March 20th Pictures, March 27th Members Admission.
The following letter and report have been received from the London headquarters of the Coral League: “I am sending you the report of Achiliana, which you will be pleased to have. Will you kindly see that her Saint Matthew’s friends know about it as it may help to keep up their interest in the child they have adopted. People have been very generous and we are most grateful for your help; in these difficult times when our financial position is extremely grave, we simply trust that all will continue to do their level best to help us to carry on with the great work we have in hand. Yours sincerely Ethel C Douglas.” The report reads as follows: “Name of child, Achiliana; school, Lulindi; nice pleasant child; frightfully stupid at school, but quite sensible at home, I hear. She is often employed now in nursing her nephew Jermano, the son of her sister Lois. Her brother Gerard has left school and begun to work. I think she is anxious for baptism.”
Those who were present at the Lantern Lecture given by Mr Clifton Kelway, at Noble’s Hall, on the 4th April, enjoyed a great treat. It was shown that the English church herself was Catholic, in spite of much that might appear to contradict it. Attempts to deprive her children of their heritage had failed. Men had been imprisoned and persecuted because they would obey the Church and her Prayer Book. The result, under God, was that the worship of the church today, was, generally speaking, of a very different order from that which obtained a hundred years ago.
Describing St Matthew’s Church and its Chaplain some 90 years ago, a certain writer used the words: “Holy Thursday was the same as any other Thursday”. It is true that things are not as they ought to be, but, thank God, they are very much better than they have been, and the day has long since passed away when it was possible to make such a statement as the above. So far as the last Holy Thursday is concerned, we are very happy to be able to state that it was well kept by young and old; better, so far as we can judge, than on any previous occasion. A number of brass vases were presented by the scholars of the Middle School, who paid a special visit to the church on the Sunday within the Octave for the purpose of offering their gift. The kindergarten scholars and teachers made a similar present on Whit Sunday, the special purpose of their gift being the decoration of the windows of the Church, when we are keeping Festival. It was a fitting celebration of our Mother’s Birthday.
On the 22nd September through the kindness of Mr. Leigh Goldie-Taubman, over 50 children belonging to the South Quay Mission were entertained at the Nunnery. A large number of prizes were provided by our generous host who himself superintended the races and provided for the youngsters a veritable feast before they returned in triumph to their homes.
Acknowledgments
During the past month we have received some beautiful lace work for the altar from Mrs. Langfield and also purificators from the late Attorney-General Mr. Ring, who shows in this and many other kindly ways that he does not forget us.
We are about to re-start our Brass Band and shall be grateful for any help our readers may give us in the form of gifts of instruments or money to purchase new ones or mend the instruments we have. If this notice meets the eye of any old bandsman who still has an instrument in his keeping, may we ask him to be good enough to return it as soon as possible to the Vicar or to Mr. Spence, who kindly placed his knowledge and experience at our disposal to put us on our feet again.
We had a very successful evening at the Villa Marina, on the 20th November, and are very grateful to those kind friends who helped us so splendidly by offering prizes for the occasion…We hope to collect a sufficient sum of money to enable us to pay the £30 required for the thorough overhauling of all our Band instruments, and at the same time enable St Matthew’s Albion FC to carry on.
This was shown at the Strand Cinema, on the 12th December, to an audience which must have consisted of 600 persons. The pictures themselves were very interesting illustrating as they did the story of the Catholic revival from the days of John Keble to the present day; but it was the lecture of Mr. Clifton Kelway, who, with his vast knowledge of the subject and his large experience as a lecturer, made the occasion such a memorable one.
The vicar had the pleasure of presiding at the New Year’s party on the 3rd January, when an enjoyable programme was provided by a number of friends of the Institution, and each of the inmates received some useful present. It must be gratifying to all who are interested in the House to note the vast improvements that have been made in recent years.
P.S. The House of Industry is now, of course, the Ellan Vannin Home. The vicars of the Douglas parishes are still ex-officio members of the Board of Directors.
The Church House was the building next to the hall which is now Milan Indian Restaurant. Saint Matthew’s Band had a band-room there and there were other recreational facilities. Father Burnett sold the building to pay for the installation of the old radiant gas fires which were fastened to the pillars, eventually some of these were used to heat the halls.
The instruments have been thoroughly overhauled, and were no sooner in our hands than they were in use. The players, under the capable and painstaking tuition of Mr. Spence, are making excellent progress. We are badly in need of more instruments. If others would follow the example of a gentleman who recently presented us with an instrument, we would be very grateful.
We are happy to be able to say that the 10th June was very faithfully observed…. There was continuous intercession for the conversion of our land. There must have been an average of a dozen persons in Church during the whole time until midnight, when the responsibility of maintaining the intercession passed to the faithful on the other side of the water. The alms, amounting to £2. 13s, are to be sent to the Anglo-Catholic Congress Committee for the training of candidates for the sacred ministry.
A meeting of members was held on the 30th May, when the Vicar gave an appropriate address and admitted nine new members.
Every August for the last eleven years we have run a Camp for our Sunday School children. Before the Great War swallowed up so many of our boys in Camps of quite a different kind, we had CLB Camps at Andreas, Perwick Bay, and Port St Mary. Three times we have shared our pleasures with parishes across the water, in that way giving pleasure to about sixty Englanders. On an average we have taken forty into the country every year - a week for girls, and a week for boys. People say, ‘How is it done?’ Its early history had its birth in the Vicarage kitchen, for with the first treck went nearly all the Vicarage pots and pans, and rugs and blankets too. By the kindness of friends, gifts and a few subscriptions, we now have the tenancy for some years of the Old School House at Ballaugh. We charge 5s per head for a Camp week, which includes travelling. Again, the uninitiated ask, ‘How is it done?’ First, the Camp mother is one who has had long experience in ‘making a dinner for a big family of what some people would throw into the dust bin!’ Economy of scraps is the first thing. The generosity of people in the country in gifts of ‘kind’ is the next thing, including picnics, etc., which all save on the food bill. The kind gifts from a few men in business in Douglas, who know something of our work, all help the feeding department. And last, but not least, the paying guest fees of the ‘home party’ - that is the vicarage party, who have, since the youngest boy was three years old, camped with the rest; and as they grew old enough, have joined the ‘staff’, and so given up two weeks of the summer holidays to help to ‘run the Camp’, ending up with a free week for real fun when the Vicar has been able to be with us, which he has always managed until the last two years; his work has been organiser of outings, etc. Last, but not least, what we have missed so much this year and last, were the services he held daily in the Camp, whenever we have been, that was always catered for, and the happiness, joy, and geniality of our Camp centered in and radiated from that early morning worship. The days are spent in bathing, picnics, tales round the Camp fire, concerts, games, parades, orderly duties, and fun of all sorts - wet days no exception! And ‘that’s how it’s done.’ One who visited the Camp as a camper was heard to remark, ‘Now this is what I call ideal community life’ - and they had all things in common.
With our Patronal Festival recommences, year by year, our winter’s campaign. Let us try and start together ‘with a long pull, and a strong pull’, not frittering away in a week or two. Just as the summer season is for making money, our harvest of visitors is short, so our season for harvesting souls, our own and others, is short; the winter is soon gone, and we have much to do. Every year the ‘season’ is responsible for some back slides, and we know it. It is hard to get into the swing of regular hours and duties towards God. September 21st (St Matthew’s Day) is our rallying date….Preparation for St Matthew’s day begins now, with a resolution to go one better than this time last year towards making our little Island the House of Saints that it was in days of long ago. The very names, the ancient stones, the kiels, cry out to us today:-
Faith of our Fathers, faith and prayer
Shall win our country back to thee.
Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
A very successful Festival was held on the 4th September, when a large number of members attended from all parts of the Island. The programme for the winter’s session is already in hand, and the secretary is to be congratulated not only on the excellence of the programme itself, but on the early date at which it has been placed in the hands of the members. The opening meeting of the session will take place on the 29th October, when the Vicar has been asked to give an address on ‘The Practical Life of a Catholic’.
On Sunday afternoon, October 5th, we hope to re-open our Bible class. The subject will be ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. The loan of copies of Bunyan’s masterpiece will be gratefully acknowledged. Any girls over seventeen will be welcomed at the Schools at 3.45 o’clock. We are hoping to see many new members. Officers, treasurer, registrar, secretary, pianist, and album keeper will be selected at this meeting. The treasurer’s account shows £2 subscribed to UMCA since Christmas; the secretary’s record shows a very regular attendance of senior members, but a most irregular attendance of juniors. We began the year with 34 members. For the sake of some whose time is limited, we hope to close the Class by 4.20, so hoping to make for regularity. The album is a great feature of our Bible Class; in it the secretary writes notes of the lesson, and pictures to illustrate it are pasted every week opposite the notes. Mr Lewthwaite, Duke Street, has made us a specially large scrap book of brown paper for the purpose. Postcards, sketches, and etchings, culled from many sources, fill the pages. We owe a debt of gratitude to some fellow-members of the National Home Reading Union, London, for the loan of study books and portfolios of illustrations and cuttings. -(NB -Would the members who borrowed ‘Omar K’ and ‘Fairie Queene’ please return.)
The feast of St Matthew falls at a very awkward time for many. The 21st September is just about the time when the season ends, and the local holidays begin. Nevertheless, the Festival was duly kept and the services well attended. It is usual to have a luncheon in the School on this occasion, but as the Festival fell on a Sunday this year we had to forgo this pleasant extra. On the evening of the 21st the Vicar read the sermon preached by Bishop Wilson at the dedication of our Mother Church on that day 216 years ago. It was long, and must have taken ¾ of an hour to deliver, but its faithful teaching of the Catholic Faith on the authority of the Church, and the Apostolic Ministry, the necessity of the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Holy Angels, the duty of worship and the reverent conduct of the worshipper, made it well worth while.
On the 19th and 20th January the Rev Father Vernon of the Society of the Divine Compassion is giving two addresses at Villa Marina on ‘The Catholic Religion’. We hope that all our readers will attend and do their utmost to ensure a large audience. The lecturer belongs to one of our Church’s Religious Orders, and is a well-known Missioner across the water, where it is no uncommon thing for him to address vast audiences of working people, who have been deeply impressed by his ability and fervour.
On the 7th December Dr Tootell, Mus.Doc., Dunelin, FRCO gave a most excellent recital, consisting of six items by some of the great organists and musicians, chosen with that taste and played with that ability which we have learnt to look for from him. Miss L. Kaneen was the vocalist on this occasion, and sang her two solos, ‘O rest in the Lord’ and ‘Abide with me’, with great clearness and devotional feeling. The collection is to be devoted to the purchase of new Prayer Books and Hymn books for use in the church.
We are very pleased to be able to announce that a beautiful stained glass window is to be erected in the Lady Chapel by His Worship the High Bailiff of Douglas (R.D. Farrant, Esq.), as a trustee of the Murray Estate, in memory of our dear old friend and fellow-worshipper, Miss M.L. Wood. We are very grateful to him for helping us in this way to commemorate one to whom we of St Matthew’s, and indeed the whole Island, owed so much. The work is being done by Morris and Company, of Merton Abbey, which was founded in 1861 by William Morris, the poet, to carry out his great revival of the decorative arts. It will be remembered that our beautiful window over the High Altar was the work of this firm.
We have already commenced work on the new building, and, if all goes well, the opening ought to take place in the second or third week in December. When it is known that the purchase money of the building itself is £1400, and that the cost of the work, which we are at present taking in hand, will amount to over £1100 it will be realised that we are in need of all the help we can obtain. We are hoping that we may shortly receive substantial help and encouragement in the form of donations from the charitable persons in the town who have realised that we are doing the work not only for the benefit of the people connected with the church, but for the comfort and welfare of the sailors, porters and coal-heavers, who have to spend much of their time on the Quayside, and have no place in which to meet and find shelter, particularly through the winter months.
(This is now the Indian restaurant next door. Father Burnett sold it to pay for gas heaters which were fixed to the pillars in church. Ed.)
Never did the church look more beautiful and never was it more eloquent of thankfulness and devotion than on Thursday, the 1st October, when we began our harvest festival. Large numbers of people gathered for the tea, so excellently prepared by the ladies, at six o’clock. This was followed by Evensong…..The festival was continued over the Sunday….At the close of Evensong, a most delightful organ recital was given by Dr. Tootell, who enabled us to realise the truth of the words of Carlyle, who described music as
‘an inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite, and lets us for moments gaze into it.’
