Ladies take to the Gallery

N UNUSUAL and interesting exhibition will open tomorrow at the William Morris Gallery in Lloyd Park Forest Road, Walthamstow. On show will be some notable work by women stained glass artists of the arts and crafts movement.
This movement had by the 1900's radically transformed the craft of stained glass in Britain and Ireland.
One of the more spectacular works on exhibit will be a study called "Lumen Christi" by Margaret Agnes Rope who died in 1953. Margaret Rope became a Carmelite nun in 1920 but she continued to design and to make stained glass windows, including the wellknown Ralph Sherwin window at the English College in Rome.
Another Catholic whose work will be exhibled is Veronica Whall, who died in 1967. Like all true artists she was catholic rather than Catholic in her approach to her work.
Most of her windows were designed for Anglican churches as had been the case with her father, Christopher Whall, whose masterpiece is the glazing of Gloucester Cathedral's Lady Chapel.
Margaret Rope's stained glass panel "Lumen Christi", was executed in 1923. It depicts members of her own family and friends in church watching a Candelmass procession.
They are, from left to right, her mother, her brother, Michael, (in RAF uniform), her sister Irene and her husband (both in naval uniform), her sister Monica (in the habit of a Sister of Charity), Miss Peg, an old friend, and herself, somewhat caricatured.
The artist had a keen sense of humour but generally saved any caricaturing for rare portrayals of herself, no doubt through humility.
In the foreground of her remarkable panel is a portrait of Fr Carl Whiteford, another family friend, and the kneeling priest is Fr Henry Rope, subsequently archivist at the English College in Rome.
Her brother Michael was much involved with the development of airships in the 1920's and was tragically killed in the R101 disaster of 1930.
This somewhat offbeat but extremely well organised exhibition should be well attended. It displays a phase and chapter of English art which was specialised and has seemingly been neglected over the years.
I was first drawn to this excellent gallery when, a couple of years ago, it staged an exhibition featuring the works of the late Paul Woodroffe, the Chipping Campden stained glass artist and illustrator. It was the first retrospective exhibition of that remarkable man's varied career.
Lady in all but title
THE SOMEWHAT forlorn statue of a courageous lady stands staring at Frafalgai Square but attracts the attention of few passers by. It is of Edith Cavell who was born 120 years ago this week.
Edith Cavell did not think her life would be particularly adventurous when, in 1895, she first became a nurse and entered the London Hospital as a probationer.
But in 1907 shc became the first matron of Dr Depage's clinic, the Berkenclael medical institute in Brussels. She was in charge of the institute when it became a Red Cross Hospital in 1914.
With her nursing work as a cover she assisted many allied soldiers to escape from Belgium in 1914 and 1915, for which she was arrested by the Gerinans and placed in solitary confinement at St Gilles.
In October of that year she was brought to trial, confessed that her efforts had been successful and was condemned by court martial to death.
She was shot on October 12, 1915. How many remember her today?
1000 Years
WOLVERHAMPTON is celebrating its millenium and the Catholic community there are concurrently commemorating their own 1000 years of connection with the city.
On Sunday at 3 pm Archbishop Couve de Murville will be concelebrating Mass with a number of Wolverhampton priests. The venue will be the Civic Hall and the Mayor and civic leaders will be present.
At Bantock House Musuein there will be an exhibition of liturgical vessels and other valuable examples of ecclesiastical art not usually on display to the public.
There will also be a display of old photographs of Catholic life in Wolverhampton and a history of some of its churches. This will be in the public library at Snow Hill and has already started (lasting until Jan 2).
Particularly not to he missed by all accounts will be the exhibition of children's work showing the history of Wolverhampton Catholics. This will be held in the Civic Centre .from December 9-13.
The other
6summit'
WHILE the world's attention was focused on the Geneva meeting between the American and Russian leaders, another East-West dialogue was taking place from November 7-20 in Budapest tinder the sponsorship of the International Council of Christians and Jews and the Interchurch Peace Council.
Its theme was "JewishChristian Dialogue and its Contrittution to Peace". Participants came from Austria, Bulgaria, Canada and both East and West Germany, as well as from numerous other countries.
The British delegation consisted of Sir Sigmund Sternberg (Chairman of 1CCJ) and Mr William Simpson, who for many years so ably ran the affairs of the CC! in Britain.
Also there were Dr Stephen Roth, Director of the Londonbased Institute of Jewish Affairs, and Rabbi Andrew Goldstein of the Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue, and Mrs Ruth Weil. It was the first time that a meeting of this kind has been held in an Eastern country but I gather that it will by no means be the last.
There were two Hungarian Catholics present, Dr Tomas Nyiri of the Seminary in Budapest and Professor Bela Tarjanyi. Also attending was Professor Fr John Pawlinkowsky of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago whose scholarship and insights have given a strong lead to Christian-Jewish dialogue in the past.
The great hope is that a formal branch of the CCJ will be set up in Hungary.
Nothing like a dame
THE DEATH occurred two hundred years ago today of a certain Catherine Clive. An outof-the-way anniversary, admittedly, but perhaps all the more worthy of mention for that reason.
She was an actress and Dr Johnson said she was the best he had ever seen. But she flew into furious rages and hated to lose at cards. However, she became mellow and civilised in her later years when she went to live at Twickenham.
Her death, at Little Strawberry Hill, on December 6, 1785, was a lonely one, and in her garden her friend Horace Walpole placed an urn to her memory with the following inscription: Here lived the laughing-loving dame,
A matchless actress, Clive her name; The comic muse with her retired; And shed a tear when she expired.