‘Animals in War’ in Milton Keynes recalls Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’

‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae in Campbell Park is tribute to Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

My search for public sculpture in Milton Keynes continued in Campbell Park in recent days when I came across ‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae (1998) in a hollow below the Belvedere in Campbell Park. This work of public sculpture was a gift from the Scottish sculptor and artist to the people of Milton Keynes in 2015 in memory of Edna Eguchi Read (1929-2012), who was an active promoter of public art in the new city.

Ronald Rae’s sculpture symbolises the aftermath of war and is a poignant memorial to all animals that died in wars, in particular horses that died in their millions in World War I. The soldier in the sculpture is missing half an arm and is wearing a gas mask, also referring to the horrors of chemical warfare.

The sculpture in Kemnay granite was previously on loan to Bletchley Park. The Public Arts Trust, Milton Keynes, working with partners Bletchley Park, the Parks Trust and Milton Keynes Council moved this large, 6 ton sculpture across Milton Keynes, and it was unveiled in Campbell Park on 30 July 2015 by Dr Charles Robert Saumarez Smith, secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Edna Read was a well-known pacifist and bought one of Ronald Rae’s other war related sculptures, ‘After Hiroshima’ which she donated to the Buddhist temple at Willen in Milton Keynes.

When ‘Animals in War’ was being unveiled, Ian Michie, chair of the Public Arts Trust in Milton Keynes, recalled how Edna Read had worked with the development agencies to integrate the work of artists into its buildings and landscape and to promote the image of Milton Keynes as ‘the City of Sculpture.’

She was instrumental in many of the city’s cultural organisations, including the Milton Keynes Gallery and Theatre Company, Aim Gallery, the Public Arts Trust and the Sculpture Walk for Emigré Artists at Bletchley Park.

The plaque at the sculpture describes her as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ and an ‘irresistible force and champion of public art in Milton Keynes’.

The director of MK Gallery, Anthony Spira, also paid tribute, saying: ‘Edna was an irrepressible force determined that Milton Keynes should have the highest standards of arts and culture possible. Her formidable energy, enthusiasm and skills of persuasion have given her a legendary status within the history of art in Milton Keynes, from the 1970s when she personally picked up paintings by Modern Masters including Wassily Kandinsky from galleries in Cork Street for display at Milton Keynes Library.’

Will Cousins, chair of MK Gallery, said: ‘Anyone who came into contact with Edna was left in no doubt about her passion for the arts and Milton Keynes. Her belief in the power of art to transform place and people was inextinguishable.’

She had a vision for Campbell Park as a sculpture park. She died aged 83 following a road accident in November 2012. Her funeral service was held in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Milton Keynes.

‘Animals in War’ is a granite memorial to all animals that have died in wars, in particular the horses who died in their millions in World War I. The soldier with half an arm missing and wearing a gas mask is a reference to the horrors of chemical warfare.

Ronald Rae was born in Ayr in 1946. His works are entirely hand-carved in granite and over the course of 58 years he carved 58 large granite monoliths, many of which are in public and private collections throughout the UK.

Rae’s largest work to date is the 20 tonne ‘Lion of Scotland.’ His sculptures have been exhibited in Milton Keynes (1995-1999), Regent’s Park, London (1999-2002), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, and Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (2006-2007).

Many of his granite sculptures in public places have Biblical themes, including five sculptures depicting the ‘Tragic Sacrifice of Christ’ in Alloway, ‘Abraham’ at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the ‘Return of the Prodigal’ in Perth, the ‘Good Samaritan’ in Glenrothes, and his Celtic Cross at Erdington Railway Station, Birmingham. His ‘Fallen Christ’, outside the MacLeod Centre on the island of Iona, is to the memory of Jim Hughes, a member of the Iona Community.

His eight-tonne sculpture ‘Fish’ was installed on the waterfront at Cramond in 2009 after a successful fundraising campaign by the Cramond Community. His ‘Cuddling Couple’ outside Milton Keynes Central Station was bought by the Commissions for the New Towns after a major exhibition of his work in Milton Keynes in 1995-1999.

Looking at the sunset on Sunset Boulevard from Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 38, 31 January 2024

An icon of Christ with the Samaritan Woman at the Well in the Monastery of Arkadi in the mountains above Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and the week began with the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers John Bosco (1888), founder of the Salesian teaching order. Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation on Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading on the Sunday before last (21 January, John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.

In keeping with the theme of that Gospel reading, I am continuing with last week’s thoughts in my reflections each morning until the Feast of the Presentation:

1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Water from a water jar at a well at Myli restaurant in Platanias, near Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

11, The meal that never was: the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42):

In the story in Saint John’s Gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 5-42), the Disciples are already doing something unusual: they have gone into the city to buy food. But this is no ordinary city – this is a Samaritan city, and any food they might buy from Samaritans is going to be unclean according to Jewish ritual standards.

While the Disciples are in Sychar, Jesus sits down by Jacob’s Well, and begins talking with a Samaritan woman who comes to the well for water. And their conversation becomes a model for how we respond to the stranger in our midst, whether they are foreigners or people of a different religion or culture.

The Samaritan woman is an outsider because of her gender, ethnicity, religion and lifestyle. Yet she becomes one of the great pre-Resurrection missionaries, for ‘many … believed in Jesus because of this woman’s testimony’

I heard years ago about a wedding that was about to take place, but the bride’s brother could not travel home to Ireland because of fears about something.

It was in the days long before the fear of the Covid-19 pandemic. But it was also a time long before texts and ’phone messages. He thought about sending a telegram, but did not know how to say something that was appropriate yet different. He asked his local vicar for a perfect, but short, Bible quote that could be sent in a quick telegram.

The vicar thought for a while before he suggested, ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.’

So, he wrote down every word – and the reference, I John 4: 18 – and headed to the post office to send the telegram. But he was short of a money and was taken aback when he was told he would be charged not just for each word but for each character and letter.

Cost overcame filial affection, and he decided to just send the Bible reference and one extra word: ‘Read I John 4: 18.’

When it reached the Best Man, something had gone amiss, the number I was missing and the message said simply: ‘Read John 4: 18.’

At the wedding, the best man read out words we in that Gospel reading: ‘You have had had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.’

I wonder how we would react or respond to the Samaritan woman if we were to meet her at the well, or in the local corner shop or pub?

She is an outsider in very sense: she is a Samaritan, she works in the mid-day heat, she is unaccompanied, she has a very questionable lifestyle. As if to underline how marginalised she is, she is left without a name, without a name that identifies her as human, as a child of God.

In the Bible, to be known by name is to be a child of God (see Exodus 33: 17; Isaiah 43: 1). So, let’s look at some details about this anonymous woman and her lifestyle.

She is a Samaritan, yet Christ constantly points to Samaritans as examples of how to live out a faith-filled life: the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37); or the healed Samaritan who is the only one among ten to go back and say thanks (Luke 17: 11-19).

She is a Samaritan, which means she is a monotheist, but people refused to accept Samaritans worshipped the same God – perhaps the parallel today is the way many Muslims face Islamophobia.

The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is a model for all our encounters with people we see as different, or as strangers, or as having a lifestyle we do not understand.

This woman is theologically informed, to the point that she is able to argue with Jesus: where should we worship God?

She may be well versed in Scripture: it has been suggested that Samaritans were Biblical fundamentalists who would only accept the first five books of the Bible as authoritative Scripture – is she wedded to those five books and not open to God’s continuing revelation?

She is confident in a way that she might be described in that English way as ‘gobby’ – not afraid to engage with men in conversation as an equal.

But let us also look at this woman’s lifestyle. We might try to calculate the number of men in her life. Verse 18 says she has had five. Then Jesus says, ‘the one you have now is not your husband.’ This brings the total to six.

Jesus at the well, Jacob’s Well, now becomes the seventh man in her life. Seven is the perfect number in the Old Testament. It is the number of completeness, wholeness, and healing.

The story also illustrates the status of women in that time, among both Jews and Samaritans. Without doubt, there was an imbalance of power when it came to marriage. Divorce was relatively easy for men, but practically impossible for women.

Even then, as I so often point out, the translation here is often very slipshod. The original text says: ‘For you have had five men [not husbands] (πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας), and now the one you have is not your man.’

So, we cannot presume any marital status, or lack of marital status here.

Where else in the Gospels do we meet women who are in a similar dilemma?

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, we meet Mary Magdalene ‘from whom seven demons had gone out’ (Luke 8: 2). And Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 20: 27-38) also has the story of the Sadducees who posed the dilemma of a woman who is widowed in quick succession so she is married off to one brother after another, and when she dies she has been the wife and widow of seven men.

Once again, the priority of Jesus in that story is not morality or family property rights, but the right of the woman to her own integrity, her own inherit value, her own right to eternal life with equality in the eyes of God.

The woman who was married off to seven brothers never made herself the victim, never chose her own misfortune. She too is to be seen as a child of God.

Just as it was never a woman’s choice to be a widow, so it was generally true that it was never a woman’s choice to be divorced. At the time, women could often only acquiesce to what their husbands wanted to do.

In those days too, a woman who was divorced often ended up as being what was once spoken of as ‘damaged goods’. To this day, a divorced Jewish woman still cannot remarry without her former husband’s written permission, a controversial document known as the get (גט‎), which men may withhold as a means of controlling women.

Without that permission in first century Judaea, the prospects for a spurned and rejected women were dismal, financially and socially. For a divorced woman without a private source of income there were only two choices: remarriage or the streets.

This woman has been through the mill. Now she is living with a sixth man, even though they do not seem to be married.

Jesus offers no comment about her status. Instead, he treats her with dignity and respect. On that day, indeed, he is outrageous in transgressing the taboos of the day: a Jewish, single man, speaking to a multi-married, Samaritan woman in public; a rabbi discussing fine points of theology with a woman.

He could have condemned her lifestyle. Instead, he meets her deepest needs in her heart.

He is the seventh man in her life. He is perfect. Jesus is the man she has been looking for her whole life. Jesus is her living water. Jesus heals her heart. Jesus completes her creation. Jesus is her sabbath rest.

When the woman says she is waiting for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus tells her: ‘I am he.’

Just then, the Disciples return from their search for food in Sychar, although they may have come back with nothing. The meal with Jesus that had been planned and expected never seems to take place.

The empty-handed disciples are taken aback by the conversation they have come upon. They are so shocked by what they see and hear that remain silent. Their silence reflects their inability to reach out to the stranger.

These men made no contact with the people in Sychar, but this woman rushes back to tell them about Jesus. No one in the city was brought to Jesus by the disciples, but many Samaritans listened to what the woman had to say.

Because of this woman’s testimony, many of the people in Sychar believe, she brings them (literally) to Christ, and they come to believe for themselves that Christ is ‘truly the Saviour of the world’ (verse 42).

‘Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city’ (John 4: 28) … water jars by a well in Argiroupoli in the mountain in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 6: 1-6 (NRSVA):

6 He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.

‘Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well’ … a working well gives its name to To Pigadi, a restaurant in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 31 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Welcoming the Stranger – A Candlemas Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (31 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for Holy Trinity in Brussels and for their Community Kitchen – may it continue to provide hot meals to those who are in need.

The Collect:

God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Generous Lord,
in word and eucharist we have proclaimed the mystery of your love:
help us so to live out our days
that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (The Wedding Banquet, Matthew 22: 1-14)

Continued tomorrow (The Heavenly Banquet, Luke 14: 15-24)

A hidden well and pitcher in a colourful side alleyway near the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The icon of the Samaritan woman in the monastery in Arkadi is placed above a well in the cloisters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ by Justin Tunley links Milton Keynes across the centuries of time

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial or armillary by Justin Tunley in Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Campbell Park in Milton Keynes twice in recent days, and was pleasantly surprised as I continued to come across more works of public sculpture that are placed across the city.

Campbell Park is the main park in the centre of Milton Keynes, and the venue for many open-air events. Close to the Rose, which was the venue for the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at the weekend, the Labyrinth is one of the highest points in the park.

The swirls of the paved and grassy maze of the Labyrinth near Silbury Boulevard are surrounded by a substantial evergreen hedge. There are steps to the north and then paths and parkland to the south and east following the hill crest.

At the centre of the Labyrinth, the ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial or armillary designed by the sculptor Justin Tunley in 1995 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Milton Keynes Housing Association and the launch of its new name as Midsummer Housing.

The designer and artist Justin Tunley lives and works in Milton Keynes, where he has worked as a design consultant since the early 1990s. He studied at Teeside Polytechnic, Middlesborough (1983-1986), and the Royal College of Art, London (1986- 1988), and trained as an industrial designer. Much of his work is concerned with items for serial production and he has worked with other designers, architects, landscape architects, artists, sculptors and planners.

Justin Tunley’s brief in Campbell Park was to design something related to the Midsummer Housing logo of a sundial, and the result was his Armillary Sphere set into the Labyrinth. It is made in laser cut steel with stone carving. The date in Roman and Arab numerals ‘MCMXCV’ denotes the unveiling of this sculpture on Midsummer’s Day, 21 June 1995.

An armillary sphere is also known as a spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil. It is a model of objects in the sky or the celestial sphere. It consists of a spherical framework of rings, centred on the Earth or the Sun, and it represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features, such as the ecliptic. With the Earth as centre an armillary sphere is known as Ptolemaic. With the Sun as centre, it is known as Copernican.

The ‘Armillary Sphere’ is a working sundial at the centre of the Labyrinth in Campbell Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

An armillary sphere differs from a celestial globe, which is a smooth sphere and whose principal purpose is to map the constellations. In an armillary sphere, a central ‘gnomon’ or shadow caster runs through the centre of the sphere, parallel to the axis of the earth. The gnomon casts a vertical shadow over the inside face of the planetary ring running around it. As the earth rotates, the relative positions of the sun, gnomon and planetary ring change, moving the shadow in a clockwise direction.

Justin Tunley’s ‘Armillary Sphere’ in Campbell Park is a fully functional sundial. His distinctive series of vertical and angled cuts around the planetary ring represent Roman numerals. Those on the lower face represent Greenwich Mean Time and those on the upper face represent British Summer Time. The large holes running along the centre of the band mark the hours, the smaller holes represent 10 minute intervals.

The concept of an armillary sphere was invented separately in ancient China, possibly as early as the 4th century BCE, and in classical Greece in the 3rd century BCE, with later uses in the Islamic world and mediaeval Europe. An armillary sphere also features on the national flag of Portugal.

So, this sculpture, in its own way links sculpture and science, and the new city of Milton Keynes with the discoveries of ancient China and classical Greece, and the Labyrinth of Knossos with the Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The vertical and angled cuts around the planetary ring represent Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 37, 30 January 2024

Preparing the table in Southwark for a wedding reception (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and the week began with the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Charles King and Martyr, executed 375 years ago on this day in 1649. Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation on Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading on the Sunday before last (21 January, John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.

In keeping with the theme of that Gospel reading, I am continuing with last week’s thoughts in my reflections each morning until the Feast of the Presentation:

1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Banqueting at the end-of-term dinner with the Durrell School of Corfu … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

10, The Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22: 1-14):

‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sometimes, the ways I can behave as a snob can catch me off-guard and unexpectedly, and I shame myself.

When I was growing up, the snobberies and class distinctions of previous generations were challenged in an old-fashioned way, in the movie My Fair Lady (1964), based on George Bernard Shaw’s earlier play, Pygmalion (1913).

But Pygmalion also inspired what I think is a much funnier movie, Hoi Polloi (1935), with the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe.

Two professors are arguing about whether our social behaviour is caused by environment or heredity. It is a very funny take on the old Nature v Nurture argument.

To settle a bet, the two professors take three binmen – Larry, Curly and Moe – train and coach them for three months, dress them up, and send them off to a posh, society dinner.

Their behaviour descends into farce, and it looks as if one professor has won his bet: our social behaviour is dictated by inherited class.

But then the tables are turned – literally. Everyone else at the party descends to the same riotous behaviour. At a base level, we are all the same, even if some refuse to accept it.

Nature or nurture? It was an important statement that we all share the same humanity, coming as racism and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1930s.

The title of the movie, Hoi Polloi, is a way of expressing class-based social prejudice. It is a Greek phrase, meaning ‘the many’ and it was used in Victorian England by people who had the benefit of a classical education in English public schools and the universities, to describe the masses, who they presumed did not understand the phrase.

Gilbert and Sullivan use the phrase to mock those who used it in their comic opera Iolanthe. Later, it was used by English public schoolboys in the 1950s and the 1960s, when they referred to ‘oips’ and ‘oiks.’

The term hoi polloi also appears in a scene in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, speaks negatively about the use of the definite article ‘the’ in front of the phrase.

Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) raises his hands and speaks: ‘The hoi polloi. Doesn’t it mean the herd?’

Keating replies: ‘Precisely, Meeks. Greek for the herd. However, be warned that, when you say “the hoi polloi” you are actually saying “the the herd.” Indicating that you too are “hoi polloi”.’

This morning’s Gospel reading begins with a very joyful occasion – a posh nosh, a planned wedding, and generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But, instead of the farce in that movie with the Three Stooges, it quickly descends into very difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.

The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God.

But the parable I have chosen this morning, the parable of the Wedding Banquet in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, is particularly difficult. This is his third parable about the kingdom of heaven, is particularly difficult. It tells the story of a king hosting a wedding banquet for his son. The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.

To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends out troops to put down the rebellion.

The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν) in verse 9, means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre, but refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates, where those who wanted to be hired as labour, those who were refused entry, those who were on margins, could be found. Other translations catch this significance when they refer to the highways and the byways.

Notice how the invitation gathers in all people, ‘both good and bad’ (verse 10).

Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness.

If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?

And would you behave that way?

Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?

Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?

Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?

Where do you find Good News in this parable?

Christ’s audience would naturally associate a festive meal with the celebration of God’s people at the end of time. The wedding feast is a recurring image in the Bible of the heavenly banquet and the coming kingdom.

What is meant by the many and the few here?

I have read that in Western thought many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. In Eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.

We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when praising the Athenian democracy. He contrasts them with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. He advocates equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many’ … you being us, the Church, the few in this parable; but the many, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called too.

Christ dies for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, and not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning. And who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.

This story has elements of harshness and tragedy, and some of the responses seem out of proportion to the crime.

The first guests are those who are hostile to Christ. The one who arrives without wearing wedding robes represents those who do not count the cost in becoming disciples. The judgment on anyone who does not prepare will be at least as severe as that on those who reject Christ. The final verse is the moral of the story – a generalisation of Christ’s intent in telling the parable: ‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Wedding garments were provided to all comers, so refusing to wear one was not a matter of pleading poverty – it was a deliberate and direct insult to the host.

Yet is the king in the parable a paragon of virtue or a model for how Christ behaves? Christ’s condemnation of violent retaliation is clear and consistent, not only in his teaching throughout his ministry but also in his example of becoming subject to death on a cross.

I have difficulties with the traditional, exclusive claims made in many interpretations of this parable, the standard storytelling of this parable. Is Christ proclaiming that God will retaliate violently when God’s messengers are attacked?

The wedding feast is a consistent image of the messianic banquet. How often do we try to shorten and edit the guest list for the party? The task of the slaves is to gather all – ‘both good and bad.’ If it is for anyone to decide who should be ejected, that call belongs to the king.

But there is another, alternative reading of this Gospel passage. The guests have been compelled to come to the banquet, not because they have something to celebrate, but because they are in fear of the tyrant.

In this telling, Christ is the only one who speaks out and who protests against the king’s tyranny, the tyranny of the kingdoms of this world, by refusing to wear the robe, and ended up being rejected, being ejected, and being crucified on behalf of the many, on behalf of all those who are marginalised, thrown out, expelled.

For many are called to the way of the Cross, but few are chosen.

On the other hand, we might think of the person who was invited by the king, but who does not change. Many are invited to Christianity, come to the banquet, but do not change, thinking that God’s grace will cover it all.

As with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s discussions of Cheap Grace and Costly Grace, we are invited to the banquet, but we must change.

Or you might see the guest who shows up without the wedding garment as being like someone coming to a party but refusing to party. How often am I like that person? Are you?

‘Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready’ (Matthew 22: 3) … preparing for a banquet (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 5: 21-43 (NRSVA):

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24 So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 31 And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?”’ 32 He looked all round to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

A summer wedding in Arkadi Monastery in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 30 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Welcoming the Stranger – A Candlemas Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (30 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Accept, we pray, our sorrow for the times when we have not shown compassion and mercy to those You have created in love and for love. Help us grow in courage and hope, always ready to welcome the stranger.

The Collect:

King of kings and Lord of lords,
whose faithful servant Charles
prayed for those who persecuted him
and died in the living hope of your eternal kingdom:
grant us by your grace so to follow his example
that we may love and bless our enemies,
through the intercession of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Charles:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (A banquet with Levi, Luke 5: 27-32)

Continued tomorrow (The meal that never was: the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4: 5-42)

‘Those who had been invited to the wedding banquet … would not come’ (Matthew 22: 3) … empty tables at a wedding reception in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth … Charles I, a guest of the Comberford family in 1619, is remembered in ‘Common Worship’ on 30 January (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Almshouses and how mediaeval hospitals become very modern charities

The Retreat almshouses in Stony Stratford were designed by Swinfen Harris in the Queen Anne revival style in 1892 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I spent a day in Birmingham last week at a training day in Acocks Green for the trustees of almshouses. Since 2023, I have been one of the eight trustees of the Retreat, an almshouse in Stony Stratford that has four residents.

The group of cottages behind the shops at 14 and 16 High Street, Stony Stratford, are dates from 1892 and were designed by the prominent local architect the Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924) in the Queen Anne revival style in 1892.

The founding documents of the Retreat say the ‘cottages for aged or infirm persons over 60 years of age who are inhabitants of the united parishes of St Mary Magdalene and St Giles Stony Stratford … and such parts of the adjoining parishes of Calverton and Wolverton within a distance of 500 yards of the Market Square in Stony Stratford’.

The training day last week was organised by the Almshouses Association, and was attended by trustees from almshouses across the Midlands. It was a four-module course with CPD accreditation, led by Harriet Lemon. We were at Mason Court, an almshouse with 45 bright, modern apartments in landscaped gardens in Olton, a suburb of Solihull on the edge of Birmingham.

Mason Court is part of the Sir Josiah Mason Trust (SJMT), founded in 1868 by Sir Josiah Mason, a Victorian industrialist and philanthropist, and is the corporate trustee of three charities: Sir Josiah Mason’s Almshouse Charity, Sir Josiah Mason’s Care Charity and Sir Josiah Mason’s Relief in Need and Educational Charity.

The Sir Josiah Mason Trust has been providing almshouse accommodation since 1858, 10 years before the trust was formed as a charity. The original almshouses were in Erdington and first provided a home for 30 ‘aged women’ and 20 orphan girls.

Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield … a modern almshouse with a mediaeval foundation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

One of the modules on last week’s course in Mason Court was on the history of almshouses.

Many people know of historic almshouses throughout England, but few realise how vibrant and relevant the almshouse movement is today. Almshouses provide a strong sense of community, offer safety and security, and make it possible for people to continue to live independently in their locality, often near their families.

At a time when there is a severe shortage of affordable rental accommodation, the role of almshouses has become more vital than ever. In some rural areas, almshouses are the only provider of accommodation for people in need.

Almshouses are managed by volunteers or trustees, usually people who want to become involved in order to preserve good quality accommodation for people in need in their area. Trustees’ support ensures residents retain their dignity, freedom and independence, with the opportunity to live independently in a safe and secure environment.

Almshouse charities today have to invest heavily to modernise and update their dwellings to provide 21st century living, either in building new, contemporary, purpose-built flats and bungalows or refurbishing what are often listed buildings.

Some almshouses employ a warden or a manager to provide support for the residents and assist in managing the charity. A small number of larger almshouses offer extra care and residential care.

Dr Milley’s Hospital is a 15th century almshouse on Beacon Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Since my late teens, I have been aware of four almshouses in Lichfield. Saint John’s Hospital is beautiful set of buildings, and some years ago I was invited to preach in the chapel there, which had a strong influence on my spirituality since I was 19. Dr Milley’s Hospital is an almshouse on Beacon Street dating back to 1624, Newtown’s College in the Cathedral Close also offers almshouse accommodation. William Lunn’s Homes on Stowe Street has 12 almshouses and date from the 17th century.

The history of almshouses stretches back to mediaeval times when religious orders cared for the poor. Originally called ‘hospitals’ or ‘bede houses’, providing hospitality and shelter.

The oldest almshouse foundation still existing is thought to be the Hospital of Saint Oswald in Worcester founded ca 990. It is believed that Saint Oswald, then Bishop of Worcester, created this sanctuary where the brothers could ‘minister to the sick, bury the dead, relieve the poor and give shelter to travellers who arrived after the city gates had closed at night.’

Ford’s Hospital in Coventry, a 16th century half-timbered almshouse, is one of the most perfect examples of timber-framed architecture and one of the finest examples of 16th-century domestic architecture in England. It is named after William Ford, a merchant who in his will in 1509 endowed the almshouses built around a narrow courtyard. Bond’s Hospital or Bablake Hospital in Hill Street was founded by Thomas Bond, a wealthy draper and former Mayor of Coventry, in 1506.

Other almshouses or former almshouses that I am familiar with and that I have written about in the past include Dorothy Wilson’s Hospital at Walmgate in York, the almshouses on Church Street and Parson’s Fee in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the former Wortley Almshouses in the centre of Peterborough, the former Stafford’s Hospital in Shenley Church End, and the former Saint John’s Hospital in Coventry. Almshouses I have looked at in Ireland include Shee’s Almshouse, Kilkenny, Boyle’s Almshouse in Youghal, Co Cork, and Villiers Almshouse and the Widows’ Almshouses off Nicholas Street in Limerick.

Ford’s Hospital in Coventry is one of the best examples of timber-framed architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

By the early 16th century, there were about 800 mediaeval hospitals spread across England. But at the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, many were either sold off to landowners or left to ruin.

During the late 16th century, the mediaeval craft guilds founded many hospitals to provide care for the ‘elderly decayed’ members in their declining years.

Today, links with the City Livery Companies remain strong, with many still retaining their own almshouses. Famous amongst these was the Mercer, Richard (Dick) Whittington. Benefactors came from all walks of life: kings and queens, archbishops and clergy, the aristocracy, merchants and liverymen. Many benefactors were driven by conscience and the needs of their fellow men, and perhaps some believed they were helping to secure their own salvation.

In more recent Georgian and Victorian times, almshouses became more urban in character.

During the Victorian era, housing became a huge social problem as people migrated to towns looking for work. Scandalous conditions of the workhouses inspired wealthy philanthropists to endow almshouses, generally for their local area and in groups of 6-12 dwellings. It is estimated that some 30% of current almshouses were founded during this period.

Almshouses are often splendid historic buildings with fascinating features such as dedications, statues, inscriptions, coats of arms, clock towers and sundials. Many retain beautiful chapels where regular services are held and also provide delightful gardens for their residents. They are often laid out in the traditional three-sided square providing a sense of security and community for their residents.

A unique feature of an almshouse charity that has been consistent throughout the ages is that they are governed by locally recruited, volunteer trustees with purely altruistic motives.

Many of these beautiful, original buildings are still in use and are being restored and extended in order to provide warm, comfortable homes with modern heating, bathrooms and kitchens.

Mason Court … a modern almshouse in Birmingham and the venue for last week’s course (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 36, 29 January 2024

The Triptych of Saint Matthew by Andrea di Cione (1343-1368), also known as Orcagna, in the Uffizi, Florence … Saint Matthew is also identified with Levi

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and the week began yesterday with the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024).

Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation on Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading the previous Sunday (21 January, John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.

In keeping with the theme of last Sunday’s Gospel reading, I am continuing with last week’s thoughts in my reflections each morning until the Feast of the Presentation:

1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Matthew represented in a group of the Four Evangelists on columns at the porch in University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

9, A banquet with Levi (Luke 5: 27-32):

The call or Levi is the second of three times where Saint Luke describes Jesus’ call of the Twelve (Luke 5: 1-11; 6: 12-16). Christ first calls fishers as first four disciples: Andrew and Peter, James and John. The next choice of a tax collector seems a bold move.

Tax collectors were typically local Jews who were employed by the Romans to collect taxes from the people. They extracted money from their neighbours and local people to cover the expenses of the foreign rulers and occupiers.

Some translations use the word publican instead of tax-collector. The word publican is a translation of the Greek word for tax-farmer, and we come across it again in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18: 9-14).

The Romans paid tax collectors well, and seemingly did not care if the collectors took more than the tax required. They were free to take as much as they could for themselves – once the Romans had been paid.

Rome collected three principal kinds of taxes: a land tax, a head tax, and a customs tax of 2% to 5% of the value on goods being moved around. A tax office or booth stood near a city gate or port to collect the custom tax from people engaged in commercial trade, such as fishers exporting dried fish or farmers sending surplus crops to a larger city.

Tax collectors were seen as collaborators and as greedy, and they were despised. This attitude was reflected in the words of Jesus when he said: ‘If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector’ (Matthew 18: 17).

The Greek terminology indicates Levi is a low-level tax collector. Unlike Zacchaeus later in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 19: 2), he is not a chief tax collector. The words tax booth, or tax office translate the Greek τὸ τελώνιον to telōnion, ‘revenue or tax office’. Perhaps Levi’s booth indicates he collects tolls along the road along the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have been seen as a state-sponsored thief who socialised on the fringes of respectable society.

When Jesus walks along the shore (Mark 2: 13-14), he sees Levi. But instead of passing by, ignoring Levi or showing contempt or disgust, he calls him to follow him. Levi becomes now the disciple of a rabbi who is well-respected, invited him into his home, and organises a welcoming banquet for Jesus, to which he invites other tax collectors.

But dining with Levi damages Jesus’ reputation in the eyes of the religious leaders, local Pharisees and teachers of the law (Luke 5: 30). To eat with a Gentile or tax collector was regarded by the strict Pharisees as rendering one spiritually or ceremonially unclean, to the point that even a house entered by a tax collector could be considered unclean.

The identity of Levi and his identity with Matthew are the subject of much speculation. Saint Mark also identifies Levi as the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2: 14). But he is also identified with Matthew in lists of the Twelve (see Luke 6: 14-16). Saint Matthew’s Gospel lists him specifically as Matthew the tax collector (see Matthew 10: 3), identified with the author of Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew is a Greek form of a Hebrew name, מַתִּתְיָהוּ‎ (Matityahu), meaning ‘Gift of God’ and transliterated into Greek as Ματταθίας (Mattathias). Many New Testament figures have two names: Simon becomes Cephas or Peter, Saul becomes Paul.

Mark and Luke name the tax collector as Levi, indicating he may have been a descendent of the tribe of Levi, which included the priests and Levites. But instead of a holy service in the Temple, this Levi is an unholy civil servant in his tax booth.

The roles of the Levites include washing the hands, and sometimes the feet of the kohanim after they remove their shoes and before they ascend the platform to give the priestly blessing to the congregation. As this custom developed, the association of the Levites with this washing led to iconographic depictions of pitchers, ewers, and bowls on the tombstones of Levite families.

Levi abandons his lucrative business as a tax collector, and is called too to be a new form of Levite, to minister to Christ the great high priest.

In accepting Jesus’ invitation, Levi extends his own invitation: he holds a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others eat with them in his large house, suited to a wealthy man. Yet those who are invited are seen as thieves, unbelievers, open sinners and social pariahs.

Did the guests also include Peter and Andrew, James and John, who once despised Levi who extracted tolls on their fish exports. When they see Jesus warmly accepting Levi, did they too accept him? Or did it take time?

Were they hurt to hear their new fellow disciple put down with the question put not to Jesus but to them: ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ (Luke 5: 30).

I imagine Levi’s banquet included sumptuous food and excellent wines. When Jesus accepts Levi’s invitation to a great feast, the Greek phrase used for this meal is δοχὴν μεγάλην (dochēn megálen), a ‘great reception’ or ‘great banquet.’

The very same phrase is used in Daniel 5 in the Septuagint to describe Belshazzar’s great banquet at which 1,000 of his nobles drank wine from the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem so that the king, his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. This is no intimate dinner party for a few guests.

At Belshazzar’s great banquet, the writing is on the wall (Daniel 5: 5-6), the king becomes terrified and pale, his nobles are baffled and unable to answer his question despite the offer and of great rewards. But the queen also reminds the king that there ‘is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods’ … with ‘a keen mind and knowledge and understanding’ (Daniel 5: 11, 12).

The religious people present may have realised the parallels and wondered whether Levi’s ‘great banquet’ also points to the presence of someone like God, filled with the Holy Spirit.

The gravestone of a Levite family in the Jewish cemetery in the Lido, Venice … hand-washing and foot-washing are part of the ministry of Levites (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 5: 1-20 (NRSVA):

1 They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ 8 For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ 9 Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Saint Matthew the Evangelist represented in a carving on the choir stalls in the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Penkridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 29 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Welcoming the Stranger – A Candlemas Reflection.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (29 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for all people and families who are displaced from their homelands. May we always be mindful of the humanity and dignity of each displaced person.

The Collect:

God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Generous Lord,
in word and eucharist we have proclaimed the mystery of your love:
help us so to live out our days
that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (Breakfast by the shore, John 21: 1-17)

Continued tomorrow (The Wedding Banquet, Matthew 22: 1-14)

Two evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, depicted in a window in All Saints’ Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Four modern icons in St Albans Cathedral tell the story of Saint Amphibalus

Saint Alban, England’s first martyr and saint … an icon in St Albans Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

For the past two years, an icon of Christ from Rethymnon has been on display in our main room in in Stony Stratford and the two icons in our kitchen include one from Romania of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, and a copy of an icon of Saint Alban, the first martyr in England.

It was interesting to see the original icon of Saint Alban in St Albans Cathedral earlier this month. But the cathedral also has a series of modern icons from 2021 made by Peter Murphy and telling the story of Saint Amphibalus and Saint Alban.

Peter Murphy was born in Leeds in 1959, and moved to Liverpool and later to Durham. He went to the Jacob Kramer College of Art and the University of East London, and then trained with the iconographer Guillem Ramos Poqui in London.

In his icons, Peter Murphy uses traditional techniques from mediaeval religious painting, including egg tempera paint and gold leaf. He is a former vice-chair of the Society of Tempera Painters and is a member of the British Association of Iconographers. He runs workshops and courses in Britain, Canada, Greece, and Italy and leads tours in Italy and Sicily.

Peter’s icons has been commissioned for a number of churches and cathedrals, including St Albans Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey and Hereford Cathedral, and has been employed by a number of museums for special exhibitions. He has recreated a triptych by Simone Martini for the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and created a mural of 10 scenes from the life of Benedict Biscop for Bede’s World Museum in Jarrow.

He is the chief tutor at the Saint Peter’s Centre for Sacred Art, in Saint Peter’s Church in the heart of Canterbury, and a visiting tutor in Byzantine iconography and early Italian painting and gilding techniques in the Edward James Foundation at West Dean College, Sussex.

Peter Murphy’s icons of Saint Amphibalus and Saint Alban, close to the Shrine of Saint Amphibalus in St Albans Cathedral, tell the story of Saint Amphibalus and how he was saved by Saint Alban.

These new icons are based on the Life and of St Alban and Passion of Saint Amphibalus, created at St Albans Abbey in the 1200s by Matthew of Paris.

1, Saint Alban shelters the priest Saint Amphibalus, who teaches Alban about the life of Christ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

2, When danger threatens the two men exchange cloaks, Saint Amphibalus escapes but Saint Alban is arrested and executed. (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

3, Saint Amphibalus continues to baptise converts (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

4, Saint Amphibalus is captured and murdered at Redbourn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The icons were a gift to St Albans Cathedral in 2021 by Sir Martin Smith and his wife Elise. He has had a 40-year career in the financial services sector, including investment management and banking. He chairs the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has been involved with the Royal Academy of Music, the Glyndebourne Arts Trust, the Ashmolean Museum, the Science Museum and English National Opera.

He founded the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford in 2008 and is a fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Lady (Elise) Smith is the founder and President of the Tetbury Music Festival.

The shrine of Saint Amphibalus was restored in 2020 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 35, 28 January 2024

Would we recognise Jesus on the shore early on Sunday morning? (see John 21: 4) … the beach at Platanias near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024).

Later this morning I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Holy Trinity Church, Wolverton, and we may go to the Taizé service there this afternoon. But, before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.

Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation on Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading last Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.

In keeping with the theme of last Sunday’s Gospel reading, I am continuing with last week’s thoughts in my reflections each morning until the Feast of the Presentation:

1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some [fish]’ (John 21: 6) … a fishing boat with its nets at the harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

8, Breakfast by the shore (John 21: 1-17):

Saint John’s Gospel concludes not with the Ascension but with another meal, the breakfast by the shore of the Sea of Tiberias after the Resurrection and the conversation that follows (John 21: 1-17).

The Early Church, as it read the Fourth Gospel, would have understood each meal in the light of the Resurrection, with a post-Resurrection faith and understanding, and in the light of the weekly Eucharistic meal. This understanding, of course, would also have applied to Saint John’s account of the Feeding of the Multitude, or the miracle of the loaves and fish.

The feeding with loaves and fish is a prelude to, looks forward to, another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias – that breakfast with the disciples when Jesus feeds them with bread and fish. Once again, Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to those he is feeding (John 21: 13).

The fish is an early Christian symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, capitalised ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words, spelling out Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).

The disciples that Sunday morning are not very successful at fishing, are they (John 21: 3)? So unsuccessful, indeed, that they are willing to take advice from someone they do not even recognise (verse 4 ff).

The disciples are at the Sea of Galilee or the Sea of Tiberias, back at their old jobs fishing. Peter, who denied Christ three times during his Passion, Thomas, who had initially doubted the stories of the Resurrection (see John 20: 24-29), Nathanael, who once wondered whether anything good could come from Nazareth (see John 1: 46), James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who once wanted to be so close to him that they wanted to be seated at his right hand and his left in the kingdom, and two other disciples who remain unnamed … how about that for fame, lasting recognition and success?

They are back on the same shore where there once were so many fish, so much bread left over after feeding the multitude, that they filled 12 baskets (John 6: 1-13). There are not so many fish around this time, at first. But then Saint John tells us that after Christ arrives 153 fish were caught that morning (verse 11).

This number is probably a symbol meaning a complete number. The number 153 is divisible by the sum of its own digits, and it is the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of cubes of its digits, since 153 = 1³ + 5³ + 3³. Aristotle is said to have taught that there were 153 different species of fish in the Mediterranean.

Whatever they say, the disciples must have thought they had managed the perfect catch that morning.

But the perfect catch was Christ – and, of course, they were the perfect catch for him too. When they came ashore once again he invites them to share bread and fish, to dine with the Risen Lord (21: 12-13).

To eat with the Risen Lord and to invite others to the Heavenly Banquet, so that every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea can say ‘Amen’ before the Throne of God … now that is what I call success (Revelation 5: 11-14).

And when others ask us, Do we love Christ?, when others ask us, Do we love them?, when others ask us, Do we love one another?, will we hesitate, like Peter in this reading, not knowing how to answer?

Or when they ask, will the answers be obvious in the ways we worship, in the way we live our lives, in the way we respond to others?

Beached … an old fishing boat on the sands at Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ 26 And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He[ commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

A fishing boat at the harbour in Panormos, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 28 January 2024, Epiphany IV):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Welcoming the Stranger – A Candlemas Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels:

As we approach the joyful celebration of Candlemas, we also remember the shadows cast over Jesus’ early experiences. Matthew’s Gospel speaks of a frightening threat to Jesus’ life, and an angel warns Joseph to flee from his homeland with Mary and his young son. They narrowly escape and seek asylum in Egypt.

The Holy Family’s refugee status enriches our Christian ethos towards refugees today. Due to climate crises, war, famine and many other factors, the UNHCR estimates that 117.2 million people were forcibly displaced or stateless in 2023. The numbers will only rise in the year ahead and may simply overwhelm us. We cannot possibly imagine the trauma and difficulty that each person’s story represents. That is why Jesus came among us as a refugee: to remind us of the humanity and dignity of every displaced person.

In Brussels, the existing infrastructure for refugees is inadequate, and many asylum seekers are living on the streets. We run a community kitchen in partnership with USPG that provides over 5,000 meals each week to people in need, the vast majority of whom are asylum seekers. This Candlemas, we remember the elderly Simeon taking the refugee child Jesus in his arms and praying for peace. Let us light our candles and remember that the light of Christ shines for all people.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (28 January 2024, Epiphany IV) invites us to pray in these words:

Light our darkness, O Lord,
and reveal the unspeakable
lest we forget the victims of our inhumanity.
Turn our hearts to repentance
and our actions to justice.

The Collect:

God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Generous Lord,
in word and eucharist we have proclaimed the mystery of your love:
help us so to live out our days
that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection (The Last Supper)

Continued tomorrow (A banquet with Levi)

Aristotle believed there were 153 different species of fish in the Mediterranean (see John 21: 11) … fish in a taverna in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org