OXFORD DIOCESE PILGRIM PROJECT OXFORD DIOCESE PILGRIM PROJECT

Oxford Diocese Pilgrim Project: You might also like to visit St Giles, Stoke Poges other nearby churches in the Pilgrim Project: SL2 4NZ Holy Trinity, Cookham Website: www.stokepogeschurch.org Stanley Spencer

SS Michael and Mary Magdalene, Easthampstead Windows by Morris and Burne-Jones

PILGRIMAGE PRAYER

Pilgrim God, You are our origin and our destination. Travel with us, we pray, in every pilgrimage of faith, and every journey of the heart. Give us the courage to set off, the nourishment we need to travel well, and the welcome we long for at our journey’s end. So may we grow in grace and love for you and in the service of others. through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

 John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford St Giles,

Illustrations by Brian Hall © Diocese of Oxford Stoke Poges There has been a church at Stoke Poges since Saxon times. The church today is mainly Norman, with an Elizabethan side chapel integrated by the Victorians. For many the church is important because of its links with the poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771), who wrote his ‘Elegy written in a Country Churchyard’ here and is buried in the churchyard. Forty generations of Christians have come to the site of St Giles Church to worship over the past thousand years.

You will enter through the wooden porch. remember their godchildren and grandchildren. wrap it in black cloth and lay it on the tomb. In the churchyard stands the Yew Tree under The two great oak timbers in the front have There it would remain throughout Good Friday which, tradition says, Thomas Gray wrote his stood since the early 14th century. Conducting In the past, everyone was expected to attend and Holy Saturday as a sign that Jesus died and ‘Elegy’, one of the best known poems in the business transactions here was a sign of good church, from the very rich to the very poor. was buried. On Easter Day, the people found English language. Gray’s final resting-place faith up to the middle of the 16th Century. Until During the 13th century the only seats in the the tomb empty and the cross back on the altar is under the east window of the Hastings the middle of the 16th century most marriage church were against the wall where the weak surrounded by lighted candles. Give thanks for Chapel. A tablet in the wall opposite the tomb ceremonies were performed here. Pray for those would be allowed to sit down. The North Aisle the empty tomb and our Easter hope. records his burial ‘in the same tomb – 1771 – who have been married in this church. Pray for was added during that time to accommodate Thomas Gray, Esq., was buried August 6th’. A those preparing for marriage today. the growing number of people who attended. The first visible part of the Church as you came monument designed by the architect Wyatt The current pews were added to the church at up the path is constructed of red brick and was erected in 1799 adjacent to the church. When you step inside the church notice the the end of the 19th century. Pray for all those stone with Tudor-style mullioned windows. Inscriptions on the monument celebrate his massive Norman columns which support the who worship in this church today. Pray for the The ‘Hastings Chapel’ was built for the inmates poem and commemorate his death. In 1921, arches. Notice the font: although not the original, church in your own community. of an Almshouse which then stood quite near the monument, with three acres of land, was it has always stood opposite the entrance the Church, founded in 1557. You can see the bought by two local residents, and presented to symbolize that baptism gives admittance The tomb within the left side of the Chancel arms of Lord Hastings over the outside door. to the National Trust. Give thanks for the gift of to the church. Pray for new beginnings: for wall is that of Sir John de Molyns and is in the Give thanks for those who give generously to creativity, for poets, writers and artists, whose yourself, a friend or a situation that concerns form of an Easter Sepulchre. On Good Friday alleviate the suffering of the poor. Pray for those talents enrich our lives. you. Godparents and grandparents may like to the priest would take the cross from the altar, who in need of re-housing today.