Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, Uk.: A Theological Look At The Carvings

As I am now back in England to stay, I shall, from time to time, tell you a little about Herefordshire, the very beautiful county in which Belmont Abbey is situated.  Besides being known for its Hereford beef cattle, it is simply drenched in history, being a place where Celt and Saxon meet and has a fine cathedral with a wonderful music tradition and a choir school that has its origins in the Middle Ages.  

Some time ago, I visited the small church of Kilpeck and the first thing that struck me was what a wonderful setting it would be for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom or, for that matter, the celebration of any
truly Catholic Eucharist.  Thus I came to look at the carvings both within and without in a liturgical frame of mind.  Then it struck me that the Eucharist is the key to understanding the meaning of the carvings, not of each one taken individually, but the theme that binds them all together in a  coherent whole. The liturgy is “heaven on earth” and, therefore, the interior of the church represents heaven because it is where the liturgy is celebrated.  The chaotic juxtaposition of pagan and Christian symbols on the exterior represents the world in which the Christian lives, but the Spirit that descends on the Church in the Eucharist forms an undercurrent, uniting the created world with Christ in heaven.

If the Eucharist is the central theme, then we must begin with the sanctuary and the altar, the most sacred part of the church called the apse.   It is on the altar of any church that heaven and earth meet.

   Over this altar, there is a carving of water cascading down along the stone seams, onto and around the altar table, and from there, it flows down the centre of the chancel and nave.

I quote from an Orthodox essay on water, but in this regard, the author is giving the Tradition common both to East and West:

For thousands of years water has been among the main religious symbols. This is indeed the case for the Orthodox Christian tradition where it is involved in liturgical mysteries from baptism and the Eucharist to the rites of the Blessing of the waters. Why is water so central to Christian religious life? Let us attempt to answer this question by turning to Biblical history and Christian tradition with particular reference to the office of Epiphany.
Water as a symbol of life as well as a means of cleansing, or purification, is of particular importance in Old Testament. It was created on the first day (Genesis 1:2, 6-8). The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). The earth was founded upon the waters (Genesis 1:6-7, 9-10). God commanded the water to bring out an abundance of living souls (Genesis 1:20-21). In some sense the element is close to God (Psalms 17; 28:3; 76:17, 20; 103:3; 148:4). God is compared with the rain (Hosea 6:3). Water brings life (cf. Exodus 15:23-35; 17:2-7; Psalms 1:3; 22:2; 41:2; 64:10; 77:20; Isaiah 35:6-7; 58:11) and joy (Psalm 45:5). It is a powerful purifying element and can destroy evil and enemies as in the stories of the Flood and the flight of Israel from Egypt (Genesis 3:1-15; Exodus 14:1-15:21). According to Old Testament Law, it cleanses defilement (Leviticus 11:32; 13:58; 14:8, 9; 15-17; 22:6; cf. Isaiah 1:16) and is used in sacrifices (Leviticus 1:9, 13; 6:28; 1 Kings 18:30-39), in which context the Bible mentions the living water (Leviticus 14; Numbers 5; 19). Water heals, as can be seen from the stories of Naaman the Syrian cured from his leprosy in the waters of Jordan (2 Kings 5:1-14) and the annual miracles at Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5:1-4). John the Baptist used the waters of the Jordan to cleanse people’s sins which reminded typical Jewish custom (Matthew 3:1-6; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:2-16; John 1:26-33) – even Christ came to be baptized (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10). On the other hand, water is also the habitat of serpents whose heads God crushed (Psalm 73:13-14) and of the dragon (Job 41:25; Psalm 103:26).
We can see from this the belief common in the Old Testament that water is a mystically powerful element which, being connected with God in some way, can cleanse sins, inner and outer defilement, and regenerate the human body. It is even possible to assert that water has taken on the religious symbol of life.

In the sanctuary of Kilpeck church the reference, I think, is to the water that gave life to the Garden of Eden, but more especially to the water that flows from the heavenly temple in Jerusalem in Ezekiel 47, 1 – 12:

The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar…. [3] As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. [4] He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. [5] He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in — a river that no one could cross. [6] He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. [7] When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. [8] He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. [9] Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. [10] Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds — like the fish of the Great Sea. [11] But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. [12] Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

In Catholic understanding, this river is the Holy Spirit, the source of life for the Church and the source of life for the Liturgy.  As it says in the passage. “Where the river flows, everything will live.“

The water  descends on the bread and wine and on the community when the priest, in the name of Christ, presents a petition asking the Father to send his Spirit on the bread and wine to make them the body and blood of Christ and on the community so that it may become capable of sharing in the heavenly Liturgy (Hebrews 12, and the Book of Revelation as a whole). 

The Holy Spirit is seen as the force that unites the eucharistic community with the ascended Christ to become one body with him as it prays “Holy, holy, holy” with the angels and saints.  It joins them as Christ enters into the heavenly sanctuary, united with those from the whole of humanity, past, present, and future, who are saved by this intimate union with him as they become his captives of love.

The liturgy is “this unprecedented power that the river of life exercises in the humanity of the risen Christ”.

The liturgy is “eternal (inasmuch as the body of Christ remains incorruptible) and will not pass away; on the contrary, it is this liturgy that “causes” the present world “to pass” into the glory of the Father in an ever more efficacious great Pasch” (63).The liturgy essentially involves action and energy; the heavenly liturgy tells us of all the actors in the drama: Christ and the Father, the Holy Spirit, the angels and all living things, the people of God (whether already enjoying incorruptible life or still living through the great tribulation), the prince of this world, and the powers that worship him. The heavenly liturgy is “apocalyptic” in the original sense of the word: it “reveals” everything in the very moment in which it brings it to pass.
 When the event is present, prophecy becomes “apocalyptic”.

The liturgy is this vast reflux of love in which everything turns into life.
Jean Corbon “The Wellspring of Worship”

We have this theme of water, coming down from heaven, going through the middle of the church, rising up in the doorway and producing the tree of life in the timpanum.

 The outside carvings collectively stand for the world in which we live.  It is a mixed world in which there is both good and evil, love and lust, monsters and dangerous wild animals that eat human beings, but also rabbits and pigs, humour and human affection.  Perhaps the horse and cross represent the anonymous Templars who pass through this world bearing Christ’s Cross and are buried in the church without names.   

Perhaps the foreign warriors in trousers carved on the doorpost stand for those who killed them, and at death’s door, the Templars discovered the tree of life growing out of the very waters that flow into God’s Church through the Eucharist, the Spirit that has aligned their death with that of Christ.  The gateway to death became the door to heaven, symbolised by the door through which the faithful enter for Mass.

Ordinary Folk