IN MEMORY OF FRANCIS JOHN ERNEST RUDGE
8TH FEBUARY 1915 - 29TH AUGUST 2003
ARTIST: ANNA SKLOVSKY, MAY 2005.
St. Aldhelm is an example to us of how to obey the directive of Christ.
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."
Matthew 28 verses 19-20.
There are 5 themes in the window which illustrate this:
Five juggling balls
King Alfred was impressed with how Aldhelm went outside the church walls to make Christ known to his people. He tells the story of how when he was an Abbott, Aldhelm left his congregation while they were busy in worship and went out the bridge, in the role of a minstrel. He used various skills to draw a crowd so he could tell them the gospel. Christians today use 'street theatre' in order to reach people who will not venture inside. It is not a new idea! The present churchhere in Upper Edmonton has links with amateur dramatic societies. Laughter and fun are also part of the Christian life and aldhelm wrote riddles about ordinary things of life too. some of those which he wrote in Latin are still in print. He used his many skills to gather an audience.
Aldhelm the Bishop
At the age of 65 Aldhelm was made the first Bishop of Sherborne in A.D 705. He had a passion to convert his people to Christ. Congregations were formed and churches were built in various places throughout the Anglo Saxon kingdom of wessex. These include places such as Langton Matravers, Frome, Bradford on Avon, sherborne, Wareham, Malmesbury, and the Royal court of Corfe Castle. He was one of the most successful missionary bishops in the South of England for several centuries.
Manuscript
In his hand is a manuscript. Aldhelm wnt to canterbury to study Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He returned to Malmesbury where he gathered around him people who were themselves keen to learn. Some of his writings in Latin are still in print today. For several centuries after his death he was known as the first and indeed one of the finest anglo Latin scholars and poets. Although he was keen to teach, it did not stop Aldhelm from being able to teach the gospel in his native tongue.
Harp
Aldhelm was a gifted musician. He played various instruments of the day not just the harp, and composed his own songs that helped people relate to him as an ordinary person rather than an intellectual. Some four centuries later a biographer of Aldhelm was able to report that some of his songs were still being sung by the Anglo Saxon peasantry. Unfortunately, they were never written down, and also we do not know whether he wrote music for worship. Many Christians down the centuries have heard God's call to write or sing or play music that is not for worship. Through music aldhelm touched the lives of the ordinary people.
Malmesbury Abbey
Aldhelm lived most of his life in Malmesbury, and formed the tiny church there into a Christian community. After a visit to Rome, he returned with the Pope's blessing that he should form his community around the rule of Benedict. He became Abbott in 675 at the age of 35, and remained so up to his deathin AD 709. The Benedictines were not only strong on daily prayer and worship, but also simple living and strict morals. There was an abbey on the same site until Henry VIII th's time. The present 'Malmesbury Abbey' is now the Parish Church and is built around the ruins of the old abbey. There is a Chapel there dedicated to St. Aldhelm. The Abbey may have been his home and his base, but he went outside of the walls to evangelise, and chose to baptise the converts in the river rather than inside the Church.
God of Heaven,
You send the Gospel to the ends of the Earth and us as messengers to to every nation.
As you have fed us in his place so may we, like Aldhelm, feed and nourish those outside our church walls with the goos news of your saving love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.