Seeking the Numinous – Then and Now

Inspiration for and elements of the work of Sir Ninian Comper, church

architect, designer and furnisher (1864-1960)

by Simon M O’Corra

Introduction

Although Sir Ninian Comper during a seventy one year career (1889-1960),

occasionally expounded in print on his detailed theories of beauty in relation

to his work and his search for the numinous therein, not much if any,

Others concerning these issues have presented commentary. This

paper seeks to address this fact by exploring his divine, and to him, natural

inspiration and the elements in his work which best express that inspiration. It

will also point to the way in which Comper is able to help us to find our

spiritual way today by trusting in God-given beauty allowing a church to

“Pray of Itself” (1), it being a prayer.

The search for the light

In most major Comper works there are three ingredients the use of which

make him stand out from other architect/designers; an unerring eye for space

and liturgical shape; a masterly ability to decorate including the mixing of a

variety of styles; an ecclesiologist’s skill in producing painted (not

stained) glass, which he made, to draw the eye to the image depicted in

vibrant and warm colours by leaving the surrounding glass clear. It is this

light which assists the viewer to see the most important part of the church,

the altar. Comper had previously expounded his maxim for the altar at the

presentation of his first paper of 1893 given at St Paul’s Cathedral on

29th November i.e. "We want neither sideboard, nor mantelpiece, nor a box

bed, but the table and altar of sacrifice which should stand as much as

possible in the open". (2) It is clear that his work did, and still does,

just that.

 A superb example of lambency can be found in St Philip’s Cosham, with its

whitewashed walls and clear glass save part of the still unfinished east

window. Here Comper has created a masterful design with five major

components (font, west gallery, organ case, altar with ciborium housing the

Blessed Sacrament and Lady Chapel) all radiant with natural light in

abundance from the aforementioned windows. Alternatively in the convent

chapel of the motherhouse of All Saints, London Colney clear glass is used

but beyond the fantastic ciborium is a glorious Jesse Tree east window.

This combination of clear glass, gilded ciborium and colourful east light

makes for a dazzling display which evokes awe in the viewer. Finally, John

Betjemen’s most frequently mentioned of Comper’s churches St Cyprians

Clarence Gate has a rich screen stretching across the entire width of the

Church, it has gleaming chapels, a wonderful high altar with decorated

buckram frontal and dossal and a refulgent tester, all of which barely need

further light to achieve their purpose and yet Comper installs clear glass

in the nave windows to highlight his handiwork with that of God’s own. A

triumph.

The ultimate importance of and search for beauty

In a paper presented in 1932 Comper spoke of the challenge of blending the

earlier individual work of others into his own unique style. He summed up

the problem by quoting Socrates in Plato’s Banquet " a man should from his

youth seek for forms, which are beautiful. At first he should love but one of

them; then recognise the beauty, which resides in one as the sister of that

which dwells in the other. And if it is right to seek for beauty generally,

a man must have little sense who does not look upon the beauty of all bodies

as one and the same thing. At first, that is, he seeks in youth for unity in

Beauty by exclusion and ends by finding it in inclusion". (3)

Comper also left thoughts, even later in his career, on a definition of

beauty by suggesting that God has given us a key to the definition of beauty

in his creation, a revelation and image of himself. The Lord bids us to

consider the lilies of the field, which he has created for no apparent

purpose but their beauty. A measure of this is in the way that some find

their faith encapsulated in a flower. It is possible to find a definition of

beauty in God’s work, i.e. in nature. Man’s work can be beautiful only in so

far as it conforms to this ethos. (4) A more modern comment along these

lines can be found in Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple where Shug Avery

talks of the nature of God as seen in the flowers which are the title of the

book "God loves everything you love—-and a mess of stuff you don’t. But

more than anything else, God loves admiration". (5)

Comper maintained that "The whole history of the altar through all its

periods reveals the high place given to beauty in the Christian Church. All

the arts have been enlisted by her to do honour to he lord in the Eucharist"

Even "the dance, so conspicuous in the Old Testament, and in Beato

Angelico’s pictures, is still to be found in Spain; and notably at Seville,

on the feasts of the Corpus Christi and La Purissima and at the Carnival,

when the Seises, or six boy-canons, whose school was founded in the

Thirteenth century, dressed as pages of the time of Philip the Third, dance

a minuet with castanets while the Canons are prostrate before the altar."(6)

Seeking the ultimate liturgical plan

Setting beauty aside, although as we will see later in descriptions of

Comper’s work it best operates in conjunction with it, we must turn to his

liturgical planning. Comper’s upbringing in Aberdeen where his father

The Reverend John Comper was a leading light in the later flowering of the

Oxford Movement in Scotland perfectly equipped him with a knowledge of

liturgy, ecclesiology and theology which coupled with his mother’s

encouragement towards the arts and his own detailed studies into church and

Art history over many years and supplemented by visits to Europe and North

Africa all played a part in the making of the genius he undoubtedly is.

 
Discussing Comper’s liturgical and architectural eye, Peter Hammond said

“St.Philip’s, Cosham, completed in 1938, bears little resemblance to

anything that the man in the street is likely to associate with functional

architecture. There is no church built in this country since the beginning

of the century which is so perfectly fitted to its purpose. It is the work

of an architect for whom architecture is essentially the handmaid of the

liturgy, and Christian tradition something far more vital than a storehouse

of precedents and historical detail. This church functions as the great

majority of modern churches-for all their display of contemporary clichés-do

not. It is a building for corporate worship: a building to house an altar". (7)

Comper was an innovator ahead of his time in re-introducing the nave altar.

The church of St Philip provides conclusive proof that bringing the altar

forward allowing the people to surround it does not sacrifice mystery, if

anything it settles the intimate focus on the altar of sacrifice where the

sacred mystery of the consecration takes place. "This intimacy was still

further realised at the consecration of the Chapel of the mother-house of

the All Saints Sisters at London Colney by the Bishop of St Albans in 1927,

when an equal part of the worshippers was facing each of the four sides of

the altar". (8)

In an unexecuted instance of the Comper design oeuvre he was asked in the

1930s by Downside Abbey to assist them in the problem of the 500 boys at

its school being unable to hear what was going on at the high altar. He

suggested taking the monks stalls, which divided the newly extended nave

from the high altar, out and moving them towards the high altar and putting

another altar on the step of the chancel. They thought this too radical and

said no. However, interestingly enough this is exactly what they did do in

the 1970s.

 
At St Mary’s Wellingborough which was designed by Comper between 1906

And 1948 we can see a near perfect ecclesiastical and liturgical interior in

which the Catholic Anglican tradition can function. Everything which

encompasses Catholic ritual is possible and made delightful here. However,

unlike St Cyprian’s, Clarence Gate it has fixed pews and therefore limited

possibilities in terms of where the congregation can go. This is an oddity

as Comper said "Nor, if the church is to have an atmosphere of prayer must

not be cluttered up with pews and chairs. The introduction of fixed seats or

pews in our late medieval churches was a great abuse, to the evil of which

the Reformation added by renting the pews to the rich and setting part bare

forms for the poor". (9) It is perhaps yet another sign of his genius and

flexibility as a designer to bow to the dictates of his clients upon

occasion.

Expressing beautiful functionalism

Comper’s major work, the already mentioned, St Mary’s, Wellingborough is a

masterful example of beautiful functionalism. Every part of the church is

correct for its purpose: the gilded altar is at the liturgical heart of the

building, suitable for east or west facing liturgy, although Comper is

likely to have felt that westward facing possibilities were only ever an

unwitting and accidental benefit of such an open style; it has two side

chapels of differing designs to suit the need for a range of service styles;

a grand almost cathedral-like space for processions; copious amounts of

light for witnessing the beauty of the whole; and throughout it tells the

glorious story of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in visual terms. It truly can

bring one to one’s knees. (10)

Comper’s beautiful functionalism is easy to see in his work, but what makes

him so different from other church builders and furnishers? Their work

clearly can and does inform but Comper’s work is the apogee of worshipful

and functional beauty using nature as its source and not counting the cost

in the creating of it nor being afraid of offering God the finest that we

can furnish. Comper talking about the temple with the golden statue of

Athene in Athens made from the offerings of all her citizens said that "The

altar beneath its ciborium took the place of the statue, and the statesman

Akominatos, Metropolitan of the twelfth century added rich treasure and

silver doors to the great entrances. It is the lesson to be gathered from

the acceptance by our Lord of costliness lavished upon himself in his

presence on earth.". (11)

Conclusion

Comper’s Beauty by Inclusion whereby he combined many of the ecclesiastical

and secular styles into an amazing whole is created as mentioned before

through many influences not least the Almighty9s. He suggested that "In all

arts the Church took over the best traditions of Jews and Greeks adapting

and perfecting them to her use. And the measure of achievement is the

degree in which she succeeds in eliminating the sense of time and producing

the atmosphere of the heavenly worship." (12) This fits in with Comper’s view

that an architect should not wish to embellish a building with his/her own

stamp or the mark of the times but that his/her work should be timeless and

divinely appointed.

Doctor Pevsner, who did so much damage to Comper’s standing in the

ecclesiastical design world, is perhaps misguided in some of his comments in

the context in which he was presenting them. This is because when making

such comments he was not viewing Comper’s work from all angles to fully

comprehend Comper’s liturgical and aesthetic genius, but instead from his

own narrow and secular Modernist viewpoint. It is time to rehabilitate

Comper, the creative genius to his rightful place in church history and in

church and artistic life today an act which is, with the dawning of a new

century, at last underway.

A recent rehabilitation has been afforded by Simon Jenkins in his book England’s

Thousand Best Churches, "Comper’s amalgam of a light and open

architecture with pontifical sanctuary fittings yielded some of the most

brilliant churches of the early 20th century." (13)

References

1. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Full Account Page 17 SPCK 1950

2. Peter F. Anson, Fashions in Church Furnishings 1840-1940, Page 280, The
Faith Press, 1960

3. A.T. P. Cooper, Wimborne St Giles, “A Ninian Comper Restoration”

4. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain

it, Full Account Page 13-14, SPCK 1950

5. Alice Walker, The Colour Purple, 1983

6. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Full Account Page 8, SPCK 1950

7. Peter Hammond, Liturgy and Architecture, Page 75-6, Barrie and Rockliff,
1960

8. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Page 35, SPCK 1950

9. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Page 20, SPCK 1950

10. Simon M O’Corra, St. Mary’s Wellingborough by Sir J Ninian Comper,
Original Text, Church Buildings, August 2000

11. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Page 17-18, SPCK 1950

12. J. Ninian Comper, Of the Christian Altar and the Buildings which contain
it, Page 9, SPCK, 1950

13 Simon Jenkins, England’s Best One Thousand Churches, Page 418, Allen
Lane, The Penguin Press, 1999

Simon O’Corra February 26 2001