A HANGING pyx, which holds the reserved sacrament, is rare, but
a newly commissioned silver one now hangs in St Mary with St
George, in the London parish of Hornsey. Designed
and made by a young English silversmith, Phil Jordan, it
commemorates the ministry of a previous Rector of Hornsey,
Prebendary Geoffrey Seabrook, who died after a long illness in
2011.
Made from solid silver, it was wholly financed by the
fund-raising efforts of the congregation, which included a
champagne-and-shepherd's-pie lunch, wine-tasting, a barn dance, a
junior Summer Fayre, a school non-uniform day, a concert by the
English Baroque Choir, and many personal donations.
"My predecessor, Fr Geoffrey, was a man of great commitment to
this parish," the current Rector, the Revd Bruce Batstone, says,
"and a model for the Christian life nourished by the sacraments of
this place.
"It was always his hope to reserve the sacrament more centrally
in the church, and it is a fitting memorial to his nearly 40 years
of service for the new pyx to hang directly above the altar that
the people of this congregation will remember him standing
behind."