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19 Dec, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Aaron, High Priest of the Israelites, wore a breastplate of judgement. It was a sacred linen, tied with golden cords and studded with twelve gemstones – ruby, topaz, emerald, sapphire – set in gold filigree. This breastplate enabled Aaron to determine God’s will.

#thread
Exodus sets out in careful detail how the breastplate was made, “It is to be square – a span long and a span wide – and folded double. Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be Carnelian, Chrysolite and Beryl ...

2/
... the second row shall be Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli and Emerald... Mount them in gold filigree settings. There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.”

3/
In his re-invention of the sgraffito technique, artist and archaeologist Heywood Sumner enriched his work with mosaic and painted glass. At Llanfair Kilgeddin, Monmouthshire, Sumner’s 1888 masterpiece, Aaron’s bejewelled breastplate was a perfect opportunity for embellishment.
4/
On his figure of Aaron, Sumner arranged coloured glass (no precious gemstones here) in a step-cut shape to create the impression of a jewelled breastplate.

Despite Exodus carefully setting out the rows of the gems, Sumner took artistic licence and created his own palate.

5/
Palette.

Typo. Sorry...
You deserve better!

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More from @friendschurches

Friendless Churches Profile picture
20 Dec
“When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even”

‘Good King Wenceslas’ is a rather odd carol. Who was Wenceslas, and why do we sing about him at Christmas?

#thread
⛪St Andrew's, Wood Walton, Cambridgeshire Image
Wenceslas was a 10thC Duke of Bohemia (his name in his native Czech was Vaclav). When he was a teenager, his mother sent assassins to murder his grandmother, and then set herself up as Regent.
When Wenceslas turned 18 he banished his mother and took control, giving half of the country to his younger brother, Boleslaus. But on 28 Sept 935, his brother invited him to a feast, and then murdered him. 😱
It was all very Game of Thrones!
Read 9 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
11 Dec
The Sound of Music has led generations of children astray.

Do is not a deer. Re is not a drop of golden sun. And Mi has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with an 8th-century poem to St John the Baptist.

#thread
About 1300 years ago, the monk and historian, Paulus Diaconus, lost his voice. During his illness, he composed a poem and dedicated it to St John the Baptist. 

It went:

Ut queant laxīs
resonāre fibrīs
Mīra gestōrum
famulī tuōrum,
Solve pollūtī
labiī reātum,
Sāncte Iōhannēs

2/
This translates as, So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.

3/
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
10 Dec
At St Mary’s, Eastwell the vitality of the frothy foliage balances the morbidity of the decaying church.
A picturesque lake created to the east of the church in the 1800s caused the collapse of building, as the chalk columns sucked moisture from the earth and crumbled...

#thread
In the 1940s, Eastwell Park in Kent was taken over by the army for tank training exercises. Shocks from nearby explosions didn’t help the vulnerable structure. But in February 1951, after weeks of heavy rain the nave roof collapsed and took the arcade with it.

2/
Six years later the church was dismantled. The bells were sold for scrap. The monuments found a new home in the @V_and_A.

A sad end for this lakeside beauty.

3/
Read 5 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
3 Dec
Our two churches in Lincolnshire stand in what was once Viking territory. In the late 9th C a swathe of Eastern and Northern England was occupied by Danes and other Norsemen, and governed by Danelaw.

/a Viking thread ...
Christian Anglo-Saxons labelled the Norse settlers 'heathens'. However, some Scandinavian pagans were buried in Christian churchyards. Others converted to Christianity, and over time, people, beliefs, art & languages from the different cultures became intertwined.
Anglo-Norse dialects developed, and they influenced local speech for hundreds of years. Even today, the English language has numerous words of Old Norse origin, like 'knife', 'kindling',  'egg', & ‘window' (literally - 'wind eye').
Many place names also have Viking roots ...
Read 8 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
29 Nov
Today, we thought we'd look back at some of our 'big saves'. 

First, St Peter’s, Wickham Bishops, Essex. We took it on in the ‘70s, repaired it, found four schemes of hugely important wall-paintings. Now a stained-glass artist works from the nave, and welcomes visitors.

#thread
To Caernarfon, to Hen Eglwys Baglan. An ancient church in the shadow of Snowdon and overlooking the Menai Straits. By the 1970s, it had been neglected for years, and was teetering on the edge when we took it on. Now, it is well-used and beloved by people all over the world.

2/
In Sussex, the little chapel at Milland fell into disuse and dereliction in the 1930s. By 1960, it looked like this. In 1974, working with a local group – who are still active today - haul this ancient place back from the brink. And just in the nick of time too. 

3/
Read 7 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
28 Nov
So far this year, we’ve taken three closed churches into our care. They were no longer needed for worship. Two would have been demolished.

Our places of worship are the spiritual investment of generations, and they should survive.

The churches we’ve saved in 2020 are… 
#thread
St Helen's, Barmby-on-the-Marsh, Yorkshire closed in 2007. The earliest record of a chapel here dates to 1388. In 1489, the parishioners petitioned at Rome for a grander church. This was granted. Only the nave survives from this date.

2/
The medieval tower with timber spire was ruinous by 1773, and was dismantled, rebuilt in red brick and crowned with a copper cupola. The chancel seems to have been added only in the 19th century, when the church was restored in 1854 by Thomas Clarke.

3/
Read 9 tweets

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