Sep 29, 2024

Nicholas Ferrar

T. S. Eliot concluded his poem Four Quartets with the memorable words: “And all shall be well andAll manner of thing shall be well.”

T.S. named his final quartet “Little Gidding” in honor of Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637), who moved his extended family to a nearly deserted English village called Little Gidding in 1626. Forty members of the Ferrar family took up residence in a dilapidated manor house and abandoned church to escape a London plague and recover from a failed business venture with the Virginia Company in the New World. They restored the buildings to their former glory and constructed a one-room schoolhouse for the fifteen children who lived there. Nicholas called it his “religious retirement.” The Bible served as the children’s primary reading text, and considerable time was given to memorizing the Psalms, so much so that locals came to regard the Little Gidding children as “Psalm children.” The family tilled the land and engaged in bookbinding to make ends meet. They gathered for prayer six times daily in a fashion reminiscent of monastic orders. Family members took turns praying through the watches of the night in keeping with the biblical injunction to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5.17). Nicholas, a deacon in the Anglican church, led worship with everyone dressed in their Sunday best. Guests came to Little Gidding, including King Charles, who visited there three times. Puritans became suspicious of this “Protestant Nunnery” and sent delegates to investigate. What they found wasn’t a formal religious order, but a family devoted to Scripture and prayer in rhythm with the Book of Common Prayer. When Nicholas died, his two siblings led the way until their deaths in 1646, when the community disbanded. Among Nicholas’ devotional writings was a prayer he regularly offered before communion:

…With these favors and mercies, O Lord, we acknowledge ourselves most happy: we ought to be joyful in adversity, in the depth of affliction, and in the height of distress. How much more are we bound to thee for Thy merciful continuances of blessings which we enjoy! We are bound, O Lord, but unable to perform this duty as we ought, yet since Thou hast invited us, we now come to the performance thereof to render to Thy Divine Majesty the most humble and hearty acknowledgment of our own demerits and Thy infinite goodness. We beseech Thee, that Thou will enlarge our hearts, and open our mouths, that our prayers may be set forth in Thy sight as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as a sacrifice unto Thee, for the only merits of thy dear Son, in whose name and meditation we offer up both our prayers and praise and together with them ourselves, that they being sanctified by Thy grace, may be acceptable to Thee. Amen.

Peter Peckard, Memoirs on the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, 1790.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.