Anglicans and Catholics came together in Warwick to honour two local martyrs, the Blessed Robert Grissold and the Blessed John Sugar, following the painting of icons of the two men by artists from St Luke’s Icon Centre in Rowington.
Revd Susan Mobberley writes:
A few years ago, some members of the Icon Centre felt prompted to paint Robert Grissold and John Sugar. Grissold originally came from Rowington, and it was on the road between Rowington and Baddesley Clinton that the two were arrested, probably after Father Sugar had been saying mass at Baddesley Clinton House. This was in a time when being a Catholic was a treasonable offence and so after a year spent in Warwick gaol, refusing to conform and attend services of the Church of England, Grissold and Sugar were executed on Gallows Hill in Warwick in 1604.
They were men of their times, embroiled in the conflicts of the Elizabethan era, whose deaths demonstrated an admirable witness to their faith as they understood it. In recognition of their witness and martyrdom they were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.
As members of the ecumenical Icon Centre we felt it was part of the ongoing witness of the Church to work together as Catholic and Anglican painters to honour the memory of these men. Although we have greater religious freedom today in the UK, we remain all too aware of the longing of Our Lord for unity, and of those who are persecuted for their faith in the worldwide Church.
In painting these icons in this spirit of ecumenical co-operation, it felt important also to reflect this in an occasion of denominational co-operation over the icons’ blessing and reception. So, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8th September), members of St Mary Immaculate RC Church in Warwick attended choral evensong at The Collegiate Church of St Mary Warwick, with the icons present in the sanctuary. Following a magnificent rendering of Gaudeamus Omnes, clergy and people of both denominations processed with the icons along Church Street, Castle Street, Castle Lane and West Street to St Mary Immaculate Church where the icons will have their home. There, prayer continued with Vespers and a joint blessing of the icons by the Revd. Susan Mobberley and Father Patrick Mileham.