[Ely Events] An invitation to Westminster Abbey 19 June 2011

[Simon Kershaw]

[Arms of Westminster Abbey]Arms of the Ferrar family


  COMMEMORATING NICHOLAS FERRAR


  A SERVICE AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY


The Chairman and Committee of the Friends of Little Gidding
invite you
to join them at a Service
at Westminster Abbey
on Sunday, 19 June 2011 at 6.30pm
commemorating the Ordination of Nicholas Ferrar in 1626


/reserved seating in the Crossing
private visit to Poets' Corner
reception in the Abbey Garden/

The service will focus on the life and example of *Nicholas Ferrar*
who lived most famously at Little Gidding in the west of the diocese of Ely.
Hymns and anthems by Ferrar's friend *George Herbert*
and an extract from *T S Eliot's poem 'Little Gidding'*,
read by leading British poet and writer, *Ruth Padel*.
The service will be followed by a walk though *Poets' Corner* past the 
memorial to T S Eliot,
and out into the *Abbey Garden*, reputed to be the oldest garden in London,
where there will be an informal reception.

We hope that many of you will be able to come:
there will be plenty of room, but if you let us know in advance
that you plan to come then the Abbey can reserve seats for you and your 
friends.

On 4 June 1626, Trinity Sunday, at the age of 34,
Nicholas Ferrar was ordained a deacon
in the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey, by Bishop William Laud.
The Friends of Little Gidding and Westminster Abbey will commemorate this,
the start of the life of prayer and devotion that Ferrar lived at Little 
Gidding,
with a service at the Abbey on Trinity Sunday, 19 June.
The service will include extracts from Ralph Vaughan Williams's settings 
of George Herbert's poetry
(the words originally prepared for press by Nicholas Ferrar),
Joyce Ransome will read a short extract from her newly-published 
biography of Nicholas Ferrar,
and leading British poet, Ruth Padel, will read from 'Little Gidding',
T S Eliot's poem inspired by the tiny Cambridgeshire church,
which was consecrated by the life and witness of Nicholas Ferrar.

-- 
Simon Kershaw
simon at kershaw.org.uk
Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ely.anglican.org/pipermail/events-list.ely/attachments/20110529/5b01f831/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 3931 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://ely.anglican.org/pipermail/events-list.ely/attachments/20110529/5b01f831/attachment.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 2315 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://ely.anglican.org/pipermail/events-list.ely/attachments/20110529/5b01f831/attachment-0001.gif