'Harvey’s Lectern: Christ Blessing the Children' (2003) by Jonathan Clarke, at St Mary Islington, commissioned by Carrie and Karl Lewis, reflecting both Mark 10.13-16 and Acts 1.6-9. Photo: Victor Virdi, 2003.

 

Carrie and Karl, bereft,

In two thousand and three.

 

‘May we have a memorial

In your church

For our son, Harvey,

Who died only

Three months old?’

 

Tragedy and memory.

 

Brutal and beautiful,

Founded in foundry

In Bury St Edmund’s,

Molten metal evaporates

Polystyrene mould.

Death is destroyed

By liquid joy

And lasting treasure.

 

Harvey’s Lectern

Remembers his life

And the lives of

All the children of Islington

Now with Christ,

 

Kinetically crafted,

It moves with the ages,

From Jesus embracing children –

The smallest has an H on his chest –

To blessing disciples,

As he ascends to the Father,

Who knows the cost

Of losing a Son:

Epicentre of love.

 

In the photo

Of the sculpture,

Pointed shadow

Pierces heart:

Presentation in Temple:

Punctured in Jerusalem

And Islington.

 

The book rest, at the back,

Attached to Christ, at the front,

Rides the gashed

Ellipse of the world.

 

Engraved with the beloved name,

Poignant dates

And text of blessing children,

It waits with weight,

At different levels,

On aluminium notches.

 

Christ descends for a child,

Or ascends for an adult,

To read the Bible.

Gravity holds

The rest in place,

In remembrance of him,

Baby Harvey:

Tangible blessing.

 

(c) Graham Kings

Launde Abbey, 30 June 2026

 

Notes:

1. Jonathan Clarke’s site is https://jonathanclarke.co.uk . For a 13 minute film of the process of him making sculptures from polystyrene and cast-aluminium, see https://jonathanclarke.co.uk/film
2. St Mary Islington’s site is https://www.stmaryislington.org   
3. In my Signs and Seasons: a guide for your spiritual journey(Canterbury Press, 2008), pp. 29-31, in the chapter entitled, ‘Suffering: Lent’, I describe my first meeting Carrie and Karl and the  significance of ‘Harvey’s lectern Christ Blessing the Children’.
4. ‘By liquid joy and lasting treasure’ echoes the lines, ‘Solid joys and lasting treasure, none but Zion’s children know’ in the hymn, ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken’ by John Newton.
5. ‘Jesus embracing children’: see Mark 10.13-16:

People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

6. ‘Remembers his life’: the book rest is engraved with the words:

In loving memory of

Harvey Karl Harry Lewis

17^th January to 26^th March 2003

and all the children of Islington now with Christ.

‘Let the little children come to me

for to such belong the Kingdom of God.’

Jesus took them in his arms

laid his hands on them

and blessed them. Mark 10.14-16.

st mary islington.

7. ‘Epicentre of love’. A phrase from the sermon ‘Suffer Little Children: Why Does God Permit it?’, by Andrew Bush, Professor of Paediatrics at Imperial College, London. This sermon, preached at St Mary Islington on 18 January 2009, by a close friend, was the best I heard at St Mary’s, where I served as vicar 2000 – 2009, and furnished the key meditation in writing the poem.

8. ‘Pierces heart’ refers to the photo, by Victor Virdi, of the sculpture, in which Jesus’ left-hand casts a pointed shadow from the sun over his chest. It echoes the spear of the soldier in John 19.33-34:

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. 

9. ‘Presentation in Temple’ refers to the words of Simeon to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Luke 2. 35-36:

Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

10. For my other poems in this series, click here.

 

 Photo: Graham Kings, 17 June 2026, at St Mary Islington.