Woodbine Willie (midweek message)

Woodbine Willie

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

March 8, 2017

Today is the feast day of Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), an Anglican priest and poet who served as a military chaplain on the western front in World War I.  The BBC in a profile broadcast about him told the story that once Fr. Kennedy was crawling out to support a group of soldiers putting up barbed wire in the front of their trench.  When one of the soldiers noticed him and asked “Who are you?” Fr. Kennedy answered simply, ”The church.” “And what is the church doing out here?”, asked the soldier. “Its job” Kennedy replied.

He was beloved by the troops, who gave him the nickname “Woodbine Willie” because of his practice of procuring and handing out the popular woodbine brand cigarettes to the soldiers in the trenches.

James Joyce in Finnegans Wake mentions Studdert: “tsingirillies’ zyngarettes, while Woodbine Willie, so popiular with the poppyrossies…”.

The rock group Divine Comedy also refer to him in their song, ‘Absent Friends’:

Woodbine Willie couldn’t rest until he’d
given every bloke a final smoke
before the killing

Kennedy’s published books of poetry include Rough Rhymes of a Padre (1918) and More Rough Rhymes (1919).

His experience in the trenches changed him, and throughout his life he was a committed Christian socialist and pacifist.  A poem that reflects his view of how social justice and mercy are interconnected reads: 

Indifference

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do,’
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

One of his poems, now hymn #9 in our hymnal, reflects ideas that are close to the hearts of many members of our parish: 

Not here for high and holy things
we render thanks to thee,
but for the common things of earth,
the purple pageantry
of dawning and of dying days,
the splendor of the sea,

the royal robes of autumn moors,
the golden gates of spring,
the velvet of soft summer nights,
the silver glistering
of all the million million stars,
the silent song they sing,

of faith and hope and love undimmed,
undying still through death,
the resurrection of the world,
what time there comes the breath
of dawn that rustles through the trees,
and that clear voice that saith:

Awake, awake to love and work!
The lark is in the sky,
the fields are wet with diamond dew,
the worlds awake to cry
their blessings on the Lord of life,
as he goes meekly by.

Come, let thy voice be one with theirs,
shout with their shout of praise;
see how the giant sun soars up,
great lord of years and days!
So let the love of Jesus come
and set thy soul ablaze,

to give and give, and give again,
what God hath given thee;
to spend thyself nor count the cost;
to serve right gloriously
the God who gave all worlds that are,
and all that are to be.

Grace and Peace,  Fr. Tony+