WENCHOSTER CALENDAR - MAY

 

 

I'm ten days late with the Diocese of Wenchoster calendar this month. I hope that you don't organize your life by their calendar, because, by now, you're in chaos.

On the origins of the name Wenchoster:

"The Romans occupied Britain for some four centuries, yet the names they gave to their towns have been supplanted. We all know that castra means a camp, and can recognise Winchester. Gloucester, Doncaster, Caister and Wroxeter as Roman stations; but to the romanised Britons these were Venta Bulgarium, Glevum, Danum, Venta Icenorum and Viroconium and the present names all derive from the Old English ceaster, a word borrowed from the Latin. There are so many of these names ending in variations of -chester that the English must have given them to almost any site on which fortifications were found, sometimes, no doubt, to places strengthened before the Romans came."

England and Wales A Traveller's Companion.
Arnold Fellows. Oxford University Press. 1964. pp. 62-63.

So to Wenchoster, and Wen-ceaster meaning of a fortified place on the wen or bend of the river, and certainly the cathedral occupies a promontory of low-lying land around which the sluggish Wen still flows, but to the Romans, the place was Venta Codpiecium, meaning a place where the air stank of fish. Until the 17th century the tidal estuary into which the Wen flows still allowed a substantial fishing industry along the banks of the river, and for a time in the 1760's the southern transept of the cathedral was used for mending nets and salting trout.

Since I was curious to learn more about the three days of Rogation Revels preceding Ascension Day, I Googled around and found this post by Maggi Dawn:

Today, tomorrow and Wednesday are the three days of the Minor Rogation – the three days before Ascension Day, which always falls on the Thursday 40 days after Easter.

The word “Rogation” comes from the Latin rogare (to ask), and traditionally yesterday’s gospel reading would have been from John 16: “Ask and ye shall receive”.

In times past, people would fast on the Minor Rogation days in preparation for Ascension Day, but Rogation Days are also associated with farming because farmers used to have their crops blessed by the priest (like Lent and Easter, the fact that Christianity emerged in the Northern hemisphere has meant that the meaning of the religious festivals is tied up with the time of year – so just as the resurrection is associated with Spring, so Rogation’s prayers became associated with the sowing of crops. It’s intriguing to wonder how the timing or the meaning of Christian Festivals might have differed had Christianity moved south instead of north.)

Another tradition of the Minor Rogation was the ceremony of “beating the bounds” (also known as ‘gang-day’). The priest, churchwardens and choir would lead the parishioners in a procession around the parish boundary, praying for the protection of the parish in the coming year. (And in some parishes that would have been quite a long walk.)

The Sunday before Ascension was formerly known as Rogation Sunday. During the three weeks between Rogation Sunday and Trinity Sunday, as in Lent and Advent, no marriages were solemnized.

Most of the rogation traditions have fallen into disuse now, perhaps partly because we are far less a farming nation than we used to be. But for many students, this month is a marathon of revision and exams, so perhaps we could revive the “asking” of rogation into that context.

Description of high mass at Wenchoster Cathedral

No words can adequately express the spirituality of the Holy Mysteries.

Worship in awe and wonder.

+

and no coughing!

Ah yes. Sometimes there are no words.