FR PETER asks “WHAT DO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE ALL
HAVE IN COMMON APART FROM BEING FAMOUS?”
Edward Lear, Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence,
William Gladstone, John Henry Newman.
Read on and you may eventually find out!
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In October 2015 I undertook full-time cover for a church
in Taormina, Sicily. I had never been there before.
It is always fun to visit a new place and an enjoyable
challenge to minister and be of use to an unknown
congregation set in its own particular context.
The weather forecast for arrival day predicted ‘strong
storms with heavy rain’. This proved exactly right on
landing at Catania airport. The remainder of the journey
was in a car which after forty minutes started to wind
slowly ever upwards until it brought me to the top gate
of St George’s Anglican Church.
Things already felt surreal i.e. to be about to step out of
a car in totally drenching rain at a place utterly strange
to me and which somehow seemed to hang in mid air
halfway between the frothy sea and the glowering sky.
That was even before I saw Salvadore standing at the
top gate with raised umbrella in hand.
He was the very archetype of a faithful retainer from
some bygone era. Promptly he seized my large and
heavy suitcase as though weightless, and in seconds was
briskly leading me down a wet path from the gate to the
flat, neatly attached to the coastal side of the church.
The flat and church possess spectacular views over the
Aonian sea.
Salvadore showed me the flat’s layout and its internal
route to the vestry and through into the church.
Then, with a kind smile, he mentioned his ready
availability. Next moment he had simply vanished into
thin air! During the month I learned what a blessing he
and his wife Mima have been and are to this church.
Salvadore, it turned out, is a Roman Catholic who is a
kind of guardian angel of the church. He is its honorary
caretaker, gardener, verger, and sacristan, roles handed
down from his grandfather to his father and then on to
him. He lives directly opposite the bottom gate of the
church in a B&B. house he runs with his wife Mima.
The church vestry interested me. Its large colour picture
of Pope John Paul II with Archbishop Robert Runcie
assured me of the church’s proper Anglican background
and a picture of Archbishop Justin Welby showed its
continuing loyalty. Three small shields were also there
marking Royal British Legion War Graves pilgrimages in
1989, 1991 and 1997.
My first view inside the church itself impressed me as
much as did the outside stonework and garden the next
day. Features I found interesting include the window
behind the main altar with Jesus on the cross, flanked
by St Catherine and St George (in his armour). Also, on
the wall to the left of the altar, the framed altar frontal
embroidered for St George’s in the early 1920s by the
pupils at Miss Mabel Hill’s School of Lace. The carved
Stations of the Cross set in wooden frames affected me
and the three arches in Siracusa stone were striking.
The arches topped two central columns which divide off
a second aisle and could enable a side altar if needed.
The church has 3 war memorials viz., ‘1914-1918’,
‘Western Desert 1941-Alamein 1942/3-Sicily 1943’, and
‘the 3rd County of London Yeomanry sharpshooters’.
A study of the church’s history soon shows that it came
about mainly through the leadership, vision, inspiration,
commitment and generosity of the Hill family. A leap
into the present reveals that all this is now kept and
maintained by the affection of a small group of lay
members whose commitment, determination, acuity,
energy and generosity have found a way to keep the
church going for the present. Succeeding at this does
though depend on the willingness of clergy to come for
locum periods and minister free and freely to visitors
and congregation alike.
It also depends on financial generosity by those who
visit the church to receive Christian ministry, to worship
or pray or benefit in any other way, or even simply to
indulge their curiosity on a sightseeing trip with camera.
All are openly asked to give generously to the cause!
The priestly ministry involves presiding and preaching
on Sundays and special days, and opening the church in
daytime hours to welcome and talk with visitors.
These come not only from the U.K. and Italy but from
many other countries, nor are these only from Europe.
Ministry also involves officiating at weddings, funerals
and other services. I officiated at a wedding blessing to
celebrate the 33rd Anniversary of marriage for a visiting
American couple with family connections to Sicily and
similarly officiated at a baptism for the baby son of an
English couple with family ties to Sicily.
Sunday services can often turn out to be ecumenical!
At my first one an expected Anglican priest from South
Africa attended but unexpectedly so too did four other
priests or pastors of varying styles and denominations .
Also, in the light of the Meissen Agreement between
the Anglican Church and the Evangelical Churches of
Germany, on one Sunday in most months the service
held is a joint one with, in this case, a local Lutheran
community whose pastor ministers to Lutherans in
three separate areas of Sicily but is present on such
shared occasions to participate at St George’s.
Ecumenism doesn’t stop there. The day after arriving
I participated with St George’s lay ecumenical officer in
an annual service arranged by the Franciscan Sisters to
celebrate ‘the Passing of St Francis’. The Lutherans with
their pastor also participated and so too did a visiting
Franciscan priest/professor from the Pontifical Academy
in Vatican City, Rome, leading, and briefly giving his own
humble reflections. (In fact he has 88 publications to his
credit including some on the relevance to today’s
economic/ financial problems of the way of St Francis).
I was also impressed with the youth involvement in that
service. Some of the young men and women played an
important part in the liturgy. Afterwards they told me
they had just returned from a trip together to Assisi.
The very young played their part too, bringing a portion
of loaf to all clergy present who then broke off small
pieces and together walked among the congregation to
distribute these in Franciscan manner to everyone else.
There is also inter-faith sharing. A couple of days before
going home I attended, with a number of members of
St George’s, a meeting in Taormina Cathedral (Basilica
of San Nicolo di Bari) for a discussion between the local
imam & president, the Franciscan ecumenical officer
who also chaired, and the local RC parish priest.
Obviously I had some time off and was able to look
around Taormina. It is a dazzling jewel of Sicily, an
attractive, intriguing and fascinating town with its
mountainside setting, its architecture, its history, its
panoramic views (one can see Mt Etna with its snowcapped peak), its nearby beaches and its lively tourism
commerce.
One sunny day I was very fortunate to be able to visit
the ancient Greek theatre - which during its life had also
been considerably ‘Romanised’.
That visit alone was a phenomenal experience. From the
theatre’s highest point there was a panoramic view that
was breathtaking. In fact just to stand up in that ethos
and simply to be alive and breathing and aware was for
me an indescribable transcendental experience!
So now here comes the answer to my initial question.
What those famous people I named at the start all have
in common is that they have all spent a period of time in
Taormina!
But now wait for this tiny bit of history - something so
impossible to follow that I shall end with it. A certain
John Henry Newman, a young Anglican priest (later to
become Cardinal Newman) was in Taormina in 1833.
On the view from the Greek theatre he said that it was
“the nearest approach to seeing Eden.” He also said
“I felt that for the first time in my life I should be a
better and more religious man if I lived here.”
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Peter Tilley
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