A BOWL produced from a churchyard yew tree by a neighborhood woodturner has been presented to Pope Francis by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, during his ecumenical pilgrimage to Rome earlier this month.
The bowl was made by the Suffolk woodworker Brian Wooden. “It seems quite unreal, but I’m more than happy,” Mr Wooden said this week. “The real pleasure comes from knowing that Bishop Graham sees the bowls pretty much as good enough to supply as gifts.”
He began woodturning as a hobby about 15 years ago, and was used to hearing comments about his surname, he said. “The biggest laugh was once we applied to hitch the Norfolk Forestry Club.”
Most of his work is given to family and friends, but he also takes commissions and sells pieces when he gives talks on woodturning. His bowl is now amongst an enormous array of gifts given to popes over the centuries, from pictures and plants to a live elephant, Hanno, given to Pope Leo X by the King of Portugal in 1514, and painted by Raphael.
To raise money for the renovation of the thatched roof of St Edmund’s, Kessingland, Mr Wooden, who’s retired, has made bowls, vases, pens, and even clocks from the salvageable parts of rotten beams. He has also made candlesticks for the church.
Some of the yew that he uses comes from churchyard trimmings. He has also used oak blown down within the 1987 storm, and wood from a ship that was being restored.
“The Bishop mentioned that he was going to Rome, and that he would take a bowl with him. I used to be, none the less, extremely surprised when he sent me some pictures.”
The pilgrimage wherein the Bishop took part was organised by Churches Together in Norfolk and Waveney.
