‘Faith of Our Fathers’ Anglo Catholic Pageant
Other names
- Pageant of the Faith in Northumbria
Pageant type
Performances
Place: City Hall (Kingston upon Hull) (Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire, East Riding, England)
Year: 1933
Indoors/outdoors: Indoors
Number of performances: 4
Notes
4–6 May 1933
4, 5 May at 7.30pm and 6 May at 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Pageant Master: Earle, E. Haworth
- Director of Music: Albert E. Riley
- Assistant Director of Music: A. Hall
- Costumes: Under direction of the Women’s Auxilliary of the A.A.C.
Names of executive committee or equivalent
Executive Committee
- Chairman: Rev. H. Hope Scott
- Vice-Chairman: Rev. T.W. Davison
- Hon. Secretary and Treasurer: C.L. Weissenborn
- Rev. A.W. Jackson, Rev. Wilfrid Coggill, Rev. J.R. Trotter, Rev. E.K. Ellis, Mr. E. Haworth Earle, W. Winne, W.R. Colman, W. Wells, W. Archer, G.R. Simpson, G. Bevan, D. Staning, Mrs Marr, Mrs Nicholson, Miss Davis
Costume Committee
- Mr Earle
Finance Committee
- Rev. F. Hope Scott
- W. Wells
- C.L. Weissenborn
Production Committee
- Rev. A.W. Jackson
Patrons included the Lord Archbishop of York, Lord Bishop of Hull, Dean of York, Viscount Halifax, Lord and Lady Mayoress.
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Jackson, A.W.
Notes
Rev. A.W. Jackson
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
Centenary of the beginning of the Oxford Movement in 1833
Audience information
- Grandstand: Not Known
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
2s 8d–1s 3d.
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Prologue
Episode 1. Paulinus and Edwin of Northumbria
Scene i. Edwin is surrounded by pagan thanes and priests, and is greeted by Ethelburga, who craves lodging for her chaplain Paulinus.
Scene ii. Edwin presides over a discussion between heathen and Christians in his court.
Scene iii. Edwin is baptised by Paulinus in York at Easter 627AD, whilst peasants debate what it means.
Episode 2. The Celtic Missionaries
Scene i. St Aidan. The saint is on Iona and hears an account of the failure of the Northumbrian mission.
Scene ii. St. Oswald. St Oswald recites his past history and St Columba appears for him to reassure him of his path.
Scene iii. The Venerable Bede. Bede recites the final sentence of the Gospels to a scribe and then dies.
Scene iv. St Hilda and Caedmon. Hilda blesses the shepherd Caedmon for his skill in singing.
Episode 3. St John of Beverley
St John is kneeling with companions, one of whom provides him with a basket of loaves. John teaches a dumb boy to speak.
Episode 4. The Founding of Meaux Abbey.
William le Gros tells his wife of an intention to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, whilst his retainer Leech warns that his increased girth means he won’t be able to ride his horse. A monk tells him he may be granted dispensation to do other work for the Church, building an abbey. This is followed by a Tableau showing the decision to build the abbey in a particular spot.
Episode 5. Coming of the Friars
Scene i. Brother Juniper and St Francis discus nature and care to all animals. St Francis heals a leper.
Scene ii. A beggar is given hospitality at the Franciscan convent in Beverley
Episode 6. Michael de la Pole and the Charterhouse, c.1380
Richard de Ferribie, mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull greets Sir Michael de Pole, who has arrived to found a House of the Carthusian order for aged poor folk. Sir Michael is acclaimed by the crowd and addresses them.
Episode 7. The Consecration of Holy Trinity Church, 1425
Pedlars are selling their wares. Town criers announce the arrival of the Mayor of Hull and a procession. The Bishop knocks his pastoral staff three times on the church before entering.
Episode 8. The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1537
Mary and Richard Godwin sit in dejection because Mary’s husband (and Richard’s father) has been killed and the pilgrimage of Grace turned to bloodshed with its members slaughtered. John Hallam, a fellow pilgrim, enters looking for Robert Godwin; he is told that he is dead. They all criticise Henry VIII, and Hallam tells them of a further plot. Mary is afraid that her son will become inflamed with this talk. Richard goes with John Hallam. The scene moves to the trial of Hallam and Richard Godwin, who are pronounced guilty of treason.
Episode 9. The Laudians and the Puritans
A maypole dance is in progress and a young man plucks arrows from the target signalling the start of another round. The young men blame puritans for attempting to stop their fun, revelling in having the King and Archbishop on their side. The Priest encourages them to dance and play sports, rather than drink and participate in cock fights. Amos Lackjoy and Jeremiah Preachwell, stereotypical puritans, criticise the young men and women for Sabbath-breaking and are squarely mocked. However, they accurately predict Laud’s execution.
Episode 10. William Wilberforce and the Slaves
This is during one of Wilberforce’s candidatures for Parliament. The Hullensians are saying various offensive and racist things about the election. A sea captain encourages young girls not to become involved in politics. The captain declares he is for Wilberforce and abolition. Wilberforce makes a speech in favour of the abolition of slavery, swaying the crowd.
Episode 11. Father Stanton’s Mission, 1868
Father Stanton, who led a famous mission in London, comes to Hull to preach a sermon. Whilst very few come at first, eventually a crowd trickles in to hear him preach.
Episode 12. The Anglo-Catholic Progress at Leeds, 1927.
A Procession of all the characters in the Pageant, symbolising the church.
Epilogue
Key historical figures mentioned
- Æthelburh [St Æthelburh, Ethelburga] (fl. 664) abbess of Barking
- Eadwine [St Eadwine, Edwin] (c.586–633) king of Northumbria
- Áedán [St Áedán, Aidan] (d. 651) missionary and bishop [also known as Aidan]
- Oswald [St Oswald] (603/4–642) king of Northumbria
- Columba [St Columba, Colum Cille] (c.521–597) monastic founder
- Bede [St Bede, Bæda, known as the Venerable Bede] (673/4–735) monk, historian, and theologian
- John of Beverley [St John of Beverley] (d. 721) bishop of York
- Hild [St Hild, Hilda] (614–680) abbess of Strensall–Whitby [also known as Hilda]
- Cædmon (fl. c.670) poet
- Paulinus [St Paulinus] (d. 644) bishop of York and of Rochester
- William le Gros, count of Aumale and earl of York (c.1110–1179) magnate
- Pole, Michael de la, first earl of Suffolk (c.1330–1389) administrator
- Wilberforce, William (1759–1833) politician, philanthropist, and slavery abolitionist
- Stanton, Arthur Henry (1839–1913) Church of England clergyman
- Hallam, John (c.1495–1537) rebel
Musical production
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Hull Daily Mail
Book of words
- ‘Faith of Our Fathers’ Anglo Catholic Pageant, Kingston on Hull. Hull, 1933.
Other primary published materials
n/a
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Copy of Book of Words in the Treasure House, Beverley, PE 108/T66
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
Pageants were very popular with religious groups and churches during the interwar period. This is an example of one such pageant, held to commemorate the centenary of the High Church Oxford Movement, from which modern-day ‘Anglo-Catholicism’ originated. Performed four times in Hull City Hall, this was evidently a major and it seems also a successful event. Its aim was the celebration of the long continuities of Christian worship in Britain, in particular as they related to the history of Hull and its environs. The stress on continuity was very much in line with the tenets of the Oxford Movement and of Anglo-Catholicism, which sought to preserve (and reinstate) older Christian traditions within Anglicanism. Writing in the Foreword to the pageant programme, William Ebor declared that
The Pageant itself will, I am convinced, be most effective in bringing to life in people’s minds the long history of the Church as illustrated by men and events closely associated with Hull. It is good for us to be thus forcibly reminded of a great inheritance. The central thought of the Oxford Movement was that of the Church as one throughout the ages and across the continents, bearing its mission to the nations, but not being so absorbed into their tradition as to lose its own character as commissioned from on his for its task, and this thought is the theme of the Pageant.1
The Hull Daily Mail evidently agreed:
A spectacle magnificently devised and costumed, and carried through with dignity and appropriate solemnity with due regard for the period represented—such was the pageant, ‘Faith of Our Fathers’, unfolded before the eyes of a large gathering at City Hall last evening. This is the centenary year of the Oxford Movement, and in presenting the pageant the promoters desired to remind the people of Hull that the English Church claims direct descent from the Church of Aidan and Paulinus, and that the faith which the leaders of the Oxford revival have rekindled into flame is the faith of our own forefathers… With colourful scenes from the past, portrayed by large numbers of costumed players, the history of the Church is unfolded, and incidents in the past history in and around Hull are faithfully presented… Little imagination is needed to realise that the organisation and perfecting of so huge a pageant has been vast and exciting.2
Footnotes
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘‘Faith of Our Fathers’ Anglo Catholic Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1279/