The Blessed Sacrament Chapel

Tabernacle

This is where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved perpetually in church for the priest to take to the sick or dying at any time of the day or night. The consecrated bread is kept in the tabernacle and that is a fairly new one but it has the door of the old one. There is another tabernacle in the wall which contains the holy oils with which the priest anoints the sick or dying and also those being baptised, so this is where the sacramental symbols of the church are kept. The roof boss is a pelican. The pelican also appears on the top of the canopy over the altar. In the Middle Ages, the pelican was believed to feed its young by plucking its breast and the blood would flow and the chicks would feed off that. To mediaeval man this was a symbol of Christ who feeds us in the Eucharist with his blood. The other bosses are from the church in Charing Cross Road mentioned earlier. Two are angels with portable organs and there is an angel with the chalice of the Eucharist and the Bible with the scriptures. Together these symbols combine as a witness to the Sacrament which is celebrated here.

The picture above the altar has been there since 1976. Fr Jermyn, the third Vicar, had been Vicar of a parish in Norfolk and in the manor house at Gunthorpe where Captain Sparks lived there was this marvellous 19th century picture, a copy of the Virgin and Child by Murillo. This picture was ultimately given to the parish. The stained glass window in the south wall shows Mrs Johnson at prayer amid the green fields of Kenton. Those who can remember her know whether it is a true picture or not. St Mary’s in the background as it was planned, with various pinnacles and bits that were never built, an interesting historical record.

Mention was made earlier of the gift from the Tsar of Russia. Queen Mary and the present Queen Mother gave some gifts to this church. In the 1920’s the Diocese of London had a fund called the Forty Churches Fund which was to build forty churches in the London suburbs. A meeting was held at St James’ Palace in 1928. The then Duchess of York, the late Queen Mother, went to this meeting and Fr Johnson gave a talk. After the meeting, she spoke with the Queen and they decided to send gifts to St Mary’s.

The Queen gave an Icon [also in the south wall] which was given to her father, the Duke of Teck, when he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 1880’s with the Kaiser and King Edward Vll, then Prince of Wales. The Patriarch of Jerusalem gave this to the Duke. It is over 300 years old and shows St Nicholas, the Virgin Mary, Christ harrowing hell, the three Mary’s at the tomb, St George, St Theodore and the saints of Mount Sinai.

Their faces are painted and there is a silver cover known as a “riza” placed over the paintings. A riza is designed specifically for the icon it is to cover. It leaves open spaces where the face, hands, and feet of the icon’s subject can be seen, although in this case only the faces. The haloes on rizas are often more elaborate than on the original icons. The purpose of a riza is to honour and venerate an icon, and ultimately the figure depicted on it. Because candles and lampadas (oil lamps) are burned in front of icons, and incense is used during services, icons can become darkened over time. The riza helps protect the icon.

The Icon was not the only thing Queen Mary gave St Mary’s. In 1911 she had a Durbar with her husband, George V, in Delhi when she was crowned Empress of India and she sent to St Mary’s the Durbar dress.

It was made into an altar frontal and a set of vestments which despite their fragility are still used at Easter and Christmas. Queen Mary also gave a very fine Spanish silver Corpus which is on the High Altar cross.