The Chapel of the Holy Spirit in the Church of St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens, S.W.

And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs Sing the old Latin hymns of Peace and Love And benedictions of the Holy Ghost.”

LONGFELLOW, Divina Commedia.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE consecration of the new Chapel of the Holy Spirit by the Bishop of London, on Tuesday, the 25th May, 1909, marks the completion of the large scheme for the enlargement and beautifying of St. Peter’s, upon which the Church Council has been earnestly engaged for nearly three years. The new organ has already been very fully described in the “Dedication Service” booklets of last year, and it has been suggested that some description of the chapel may be of interest to many who worship at St. Peter’s. Those who read it must pardon the writer if from inexperience or lack of knowledge he has failed adequately or accurately to describe it, or if, in describing it, he may have been driven by the depth of his own feelings to strike too personal a note.

The chapel has been erected to form at once an integral portion of the church and a feature distinctive in itself. Ancient precedents for such treatment are numerous, wherein a richness of material or ornament marks the chapel as a pious memorial or its erection as an act of devotion. In this case it is attached to the north side of the chancel, and opens from the north transept by a wide and simply moulded archway in harmony with the chancel arch. A short neck, lighted by a long lancet, connects it somewhat more richly with the chancel.

Occasion has been taken to gain light in this corner of the building, and the exigencies of lighting in a confined area have largely controlled the form of the chapel. It consists upon the ground floor of three bays, in the upper part of two only. The east window is thrown back from the party wall, and carried by a rich segmental arch at the end of the second bay. The recess thus formed at the east end shelters the altar and reredos under a panelled vault into which the canopies grow.

The two loftier bays of the chapel have LIERNE and slightly domical vaults, each compartment intersected by the figure of a cross formed by the ribbing, which is brought down in an Ogee point to the wall rib. The springers are arranged to form canopies over a series of sixteen figures—Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs and Holy Church, the Archangel Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin in the Annunciation flanking the east window. The head of our Lord crowns the eastern vault, and in the surrounding bosses angels bear the emblems of the Passion. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, surrounded by angels bearing the insignia of the various learned societies with which the donors are associated, decorate the western bay.

Upon the walls the ornament is confined to the lower parts, which are richly arcaded on the north side, and occupied by Sedilia and Piscina on the south. A bronze railing with gates separates the chapel from the transept, and access is given to the chapel from the clergy vestry by a narrow carved oak door. With the exception of the mullions of the windows which are of Doulting stone, only fine Bath stone has been used in the interior of the chapel, the exterior being finished in Doulting and Kentish Rag.

The above is a concise general description of the chief features of the chapel drawn from notes kindly furnished by Mr. W. D. Caröe (the architect), of 3, Great College Street, Westminster, to whose designs and under whose supervision the chapel has been erected. So far, therefore, there is not much difficulty. The difficulty begins when we commence to try and describe the many details of the chapel interior. It is almost impossible to convey adequately to a reader all the many thoughts and ideas that have been worked up into and enwrapped in the carved stone or painted glass or mosaic that will go with other things to complete the little chapel. There is much that is very personal about it, perhaps too deep for words, but the spirit of the chapel may be the more easily comprehended, if only those who read this will remember three things. In the first place, it is a morning chapel primarily, nay, essentially, intended for the administration of the Holy Communion. In the second place, it is to be dedicated to the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Truth,” the promised Comforter by whose light the hearts of all faithful people were to be taught and all the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ were to be brought into remembrance. Lastly, it is a chapel which has been built to the glory and praise of God, and as a memorial by children and descendants to their beloved parents and forefathers, of whom many, though born in New England and educated at her Universities of Harvard and Yale, have always valued and kept close the ties that bound them to that older England in which their forefathers were born, and to those older Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in which their forefathers were nurtured. Those who in the days before the Commonwealth went forth from the Old England across the broad Atlantic to lay the foundations of a Commonwealth not unworthy to be called by the name of New England carried with them from Oxford and from Cambridge the spirit of places where Culture was not as yet largely dissociated from Religion, and where faithful regard was as yet paid to a founder’s injunction: “Religionis puritatem ac vitæ ad posteros nostros propagare.” Their descendants may be pardoned if, looking back through the centuries to the great Universities of those days, and regarding them as centres not merely of culture, but also of religious light and truth, they picture them as being the instruments by which the Holy Spirit has moved the world, and have tried in the vaulting of the chapel roof to transmute this idea into carved stone.

With these explanatory remarks it may now be possible to enable the reader the more easily to catch the spirit of the place.

THE GROINED ROOF.

The groined roof is divided into two bays, and in each bay there is a large central boss, having eight bosses encircling it, four large and four small ones, the four small ones being in each case the further away from the centre. In the eastern bay from the central boss looks down upon us the face of the Redeemer, crowned with thorns, surrounded by six angels carrying in their hands shields bearing the emblems of the Passion. The other two bosses in this bay are foliated and bear the “Alpha” and “Omega.”

In the western bay the large central boss is carved with the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the hovering dove, from which emanate rays of light spreading in every direction, and forming a radiating aureole about it. Around it, receptive of the light, are grouped angels carrying in their hands shields bearing the arms of the great Universities of England and New England and of the Colleges and School with which the donors of the chapel and their people have been associated. Oxford and Cambridge face Harvard, and Yale, and outside them on the outer ring Eton faces Trinity College, Cambridge, and New College, Oxford, faces Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Harvard being nearest to Emmanuel from which it directly derives descent. It may be of interest to note here that the secure foundation of civil and religious life in New England, and the subsequent pre-eminence of Massachusetts and Connecticut in shaping the policy of national life and in the vigour of their moral and intellectual life, is largely traceable to those who went forth from Oxford and Cambridge, and, as far as Cambridge is concerned, from Trinity and Emmanuel. New College is also pleasurably associated in our minds with our present Vicar, Rev. W. S. Swayne, as Trinity College, Cambridge, is with Mr. W. D. Caröe, the architect of the chapel.

On the day of consecration there will be sung before the Communion service Gounod’s anthem, “Send out Thy Light and Thy Truth, let them lead me,” one peculiarly appropriate in the case of a chapel to be dedicated to the Holy Spirit, and it may be of interest to some to note in connection with the carving of the bosses of this western bay how closely the mottoes of the Universities bear out the idea of their having been intended to be centres of religious light and truth, the motto of Oxford being “Dominus illuminatio mea,” whilst Harvard bears upon its shield “Veritas,” and Yale “Light and Truth,” or rather the Hebrew equivalents therefore, carrying us back in thought to the Urim and Thummim, the jewels indicative of purity and perfection that gleamed on the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest.

THE SPRINGERS.

Coming down now to the carved springers, we must bear in mind that the building of the chapel is “to the glory and praise of God,” and that it has been the object of the donors of the chapel to try and express in the springers and groined roof the spirit of the great festal expressions of Christian thanksgiving and praise contained in our Prayer Book in the “Te Deum Laudamus” (verses 1–13) and in the great Eucharistic thanksgiving. As we raise our eyes to the “angel” bosses of the groining and to the springers of the eastern bay we can say, “Therefore with the angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name,” “To Thee all angels cry aloud,” for the Redeemer looks down upon us surrounded by the angels, and beneath the springer canopies there stand the figures of the archangels, “the seven spirits that are ever before the throne of God,” and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom was given by the Early Church the sweet title of the Queen of the Angels, “Regina Angelorum.”

In the north-east springer stands St. Michael (like unto God) Captain-General of the Host of Heaven, Patron Saint and Prince of the Church Militant, the Archangel of the Judgment, bearing in his hands the sword and scales, and with his armour scarce covered by his ample cloak. By him stands St. Gabriel (God is my strength), the Archangel of the Annunciation, bearing in his hands the sceptre, and with the scroll inscribed “Ave Maria, Gratia Plena.” Facing them, in the south-east springer stands the Blessed Virgin Mary, and next her St. Raphael (the medicine of God), the chief of guardian angels, the angel of the pilgrims, with the pilgrim’s staff and gourd. In the south-west springer of this bay, Jophiel (the beauty of God), the archangel of Truth and guardian of the Tree of Knowledge, stands with the flaming sword next to Chamuel (one who sees God) the archangel of the Sacrament, holding the chalice in his hand, whilst in the north-west springer, Zadkiel (the righteousness of God), the angel who stayed the hand of Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, is seen, holding the sacrificial knife, with Uriel near him, Uriel, the archangel of the Light of God, bearing the Roll and Book.

Passing to the western bay we find, as we look round, that the springers continue the tale of praise to God, from all the glorious company of the apostles, from the goodly fellowship of the prophets, from Martyred Saint and Holy Church. St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, bearing the emblematic sword, is grouped with the youthful St. John, the beloved apostle, with the chalice in his hand from which the serpent issues, and at his feet the symbolic eagle. David the King, the psalmist prophet, with sceptre and harp, is with Isaiah, the “Prophet of Faith,” the great foreteller of the Messianic deliverance and of the Coming of the Prince of Peace. St. Stephen, the sweet proto-martyr of the Christian Church, stands in the south-west springer with St. Alban, the Christian soldier, and first of all our British saints and martyrs. Last of all, in the north-west springer is “Holy Church” represented by St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, “The Rock upon which the Church of Christ was to be built,” and by Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, wearing his cope, and carrying his archiepiscopal staff. It was said, half musingly, by one who saw this last springer in the carving, that the builders had, perhaps unconsciously, elected that Holy Church should be represented by a temple. The connection between the name and the object to be represented was, it is true, not perceived by them, but the selection was of fixed design. To those who knew and valued the great archbishop, who passed away in 1903 in the fulness of years, his great qualities and his eminent services to the Church seemed to mark him out as specially fitted to stand beside St. Peter, both truly representative of the Church of Christ.