Anders describes the flag store: one of the church’s invisible places. It’s in the
space between the nave ceiling and the church roof.
I thought members of the congregation might like to know the system that governs the flying of flags from the church’s flagpoles. The latest addition is a pair of St George’s flags, generously given by a local resident. These are rectangular, but in slightly squarer proportions than the ones we have been using, and should fly better when raised.
St George’s flag has since time immemorial (the seventeenth century?) been the flag of the Church of England, and we fly it as the C of E’s flag rather than as a national flag. It is flown at especially festive times in the Christian year – from Easter Day to Pentecost (in celebration of Christ’s resurrection), from Christmas Day to Candlemas (in celebration of Christ’s birth), on the Feast of St John the Baptist (in celebration of our patron saint), and on other important church occasions (e.g. Remembrance Sunday) at my discretion. A single St George’s flag is flown at half-mast following the death of a former incumbent or churchwarden (happily, a rare event).
The Union flags are flown to mark royal occasions. They will be up, for example, on 14 November (His Majesty’s birthday), and whenever Buckingham Palace directs that Union flags should be flown (commands are sent out from the Palace to the bishops, and cascaded down to parish clergy). Union flags are flown at half-mast as and when instructed by Buckingham Palace.
We also have an MCC flag in the flag store (just the one). This has been flown very occasionally, and without any proper authority, when we have had a big MCC event in church – for example, when we held a big service in summer 2014 to celebrate the bicentenary of the present Lord’s Cricket Ground.
In Sweden, it’s a natural and everyday thing to fly the Swedish flag, and for a detached house to have its own flagpole. Most of the time a pennant is flown, but a flag is raised for special occasions – birthdays in the family, Midsummer, even the arrival of special guests. I remember as a child how the flag would be flown to welcome us when we went to stay with aunts or grandparents, and I loved it. One of my uncles gave me and Jules a Swedish flag as a wedding present. We have, alas, had little opportunity to fly it, and we will have none at all in Trevi – but we still have it.
For various compliance reasons that restrict who may go up onto the roof, it’s almost always the clergy (and mostly me) who raise and lower the flags. And as climbing up onto the roof to fly the flags is a bit of an undertaking, we are not always as prompt in putting them up or taking them down as we should be!
– Anders
