The Parish Church of St George the Martyr, Waterlooville

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At the installation of our curate Revd. Timon Singh as Priest-in-charge of St Dunstan’s Bellingham last year, the Bishop of Woolwich preached a welcoming sermon with many allusions to the 17th Century cleric Lancelot Andrewes.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) was regarded as a remarkably powerful preacher and the foremost theologian of his time. Under his influence the direction of the course of Anglo-Catholicism was set for later times. It is recorded that King James I held him in awe and his contemporaries valued his opinion on all matters pertaining to matters religious and secular. He was revered by Archbishop Laud, and a friend of George Herbert (the celebrated composer of hymns).

After graduating at the University of Cambridge he held the post of Dean of Westminster, then successively Bishop of Chichester (1605), Ely (1609) and Winchester (1619). He accompanied King James to make episcopy acceptable to the Scots and oversaw a considerable part of the translation of the Authorised Version of the Bible. He was learned in Hebrew, Latin and Greek and many of his sermons were replete with classical allusions.

Andrewes was also the author of prayers. Here are two examples:

Body of Christ give me strength.

Blood of Christ redeem me.

Water from the side of Christ wash me.

Weals of Christ heal me.

Sweat of Christ refresh me.

Within your wounds Christ hide me.

So that I find in you -

 A sure ground for faith

 A founding for hope

 And the assurance of sins forgiven.

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Help me to give honour to those who have authority over me

And to care and provide for those who depend on me.

To conquer evil with good.

To control my body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect.

Help me not to live for money but to be content with what I have,

To speak the truth in love,

Not to give way to jealousy,

Not to let passions be my guide.


On the death of Lancelot Andrewes, the young 17 year old John Milton wrote an elegy in Latin extolling his virtues. Both were the outstanding intellectual giants of their day.

Rod Dawson



Easter Edition 2013

A Prayerful Pious Preacher