24 July 2025

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
76, Thursday 24 July 2025

Looking with eyes and listening with ears … street art in Rathmines, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 20 July 2025).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand’ (Matthew 13: 8) … street art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 10-17 (NRSVA):

10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 11 He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

‘They … listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn’ (Matthew 13: 15) … ‘Reflections of Bedford’, a sculpture by Rick Kirby on Silver Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday (Matthew 13: 1-9), the quotation from Jesus began and ended with the word ‘Listen.’ In this morning’s reading, he speaks about those who seeing but do not perceive, who hearing but do not listen or understand.

Today’s reading continues from the Parables of the Kingdom and forms an interlude between the parable of the sower and its interpretation. Jesus is asked by the disciples why he speaks to the people in parables.

There seems to be an implication that Jesus is speaking clearly to his disciples, who are insiders, but in riddles to the people because they are outsiders. But this also seem to contradict the purpose of speaking in parables, which is to use helpful and familiar images to lead people to a better understanding of a deeper message. Indeed, the parable of the sower is a good example.

Perhaps once again we are dealing with the difference between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The ‘insiders’ are those who give Jesus a ready hearing. Naturally, they are more open to hearing about the ‘mysteries’ of the Kingdom and to assimilating what they hear. The ‘outsiders’, on the other hand, are precisely so because they have closed minds and are not ready to listen.

Speaking of the ‘insiders’, Jesus says: ‘For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away’ (verse 12). Those who have opened themselves to the Word of God will find themselves evermore enriched.

But le those who have not even begun to accept the Word will end up in an even worse predicament than the one they are in now, for they look but do not see, they listen but do not hear or understand (verse 13).

This happens, not because the parables are difficult, but because the hearers are not prepared to listen.

Jesus then quotes from the Prophet Isaiah (9: 13), who might better understood as speaking in an audibly sarcastic tone:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn –
and I would heal them.”

I find it disturbing when I realise someone is talking at me rather than to ne, and certainly not talking with me. In a similar way it is disturbing to realise someone hears me, but is not actually listening to me.

At one stage during tense trade union negotiations many years ago, the employer’s representative responded to my presentation, saying: ‘I hear what you are saying.’

I retorted: ‘Yes, but does it just go in one ear and out the other?’

I asked for an adjournment, and from the union side we said we would return to the talks when he indicated he would not only listen to us, but engage with us and comit his side to meaningful discussions. We waited outside for 10 or 15 minutes, and felt we truly were outsiders. We were about to leave the building when we were called back inside. He had heard, and he had listened, and instead of talking to and and at us, he began to talk with us. Confidence was restored, and we soon reached a settlement.

If we are prepared to see and to listen acitvely and to be fully engaged, both actions can make radical changes in our lives, in our attitudes, in our values and priorities, in our relationships. But too many people remain effectively blind and deaf.

‘Lord God, we pray for the House of the Epiphany, bless its mission in training clergy and laity’ (USPG Prayer Diary, 24 July 2025) … the House of the Epiphany, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 24 July 2025):

The theme this week (20 to 26 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21). I introduced this theme on Sunday with reflections from Sarawak and the Diocese of Kuching.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 24 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we pray for the House of the Epiphany, bless its mission in training clergy and laity. We pray too for diocesan schools, including Saint Thomas’s and Saint Mary’s in Kuching.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour 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:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of James:

Merciful God,
whose holy apostle Saint James,
leaving his father and all that he had,
was obedient to the calling of your Son Jesus Christ
and followed him even to death:
help us, forsaking the false attractions of the world,
to be ready at all times to answer your call without delay;
through 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.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Lord God, we pray for … diocesan schools, including Saint Thomas’s and Saint Mary’s in Kuching’ (USPG Prayer Diary, 24 July 2025) … Saint Mary’s School, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

23 July 2025

Bedlam in Lichfield: how
Comberford descendants
continued for generations
in the Heveningham family

Pipe Hall near Lichfield … once home of the Heveningham family (Photograph © Pipe Green Trust)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing at the weekend about William Stanley (1474-1552) of Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth, and how I came across his will in the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, where it is part of the Weld Family Papers, including papers of the Stanley, Heveningham, Simeon, Weld and Eyre families, dating from 1293 to 1809.

William Stanley was the second son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall and Dame Ellen Lee. He came to live at Comberford Hall when he married the much younger Margaret Comberford (1494-1568), daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy FitzHerbert. She was a sister of Humphrey Comberford, of Comberford Hall and Master of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1530; Richard Comberford, the putative ancestor of the Comerfords of Kilkenny and Wexford; Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral; and John Comberford of Wednesbury.

William and Margaret had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s, and they were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), who married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574) of Pipe Hall. Yet, despite this late marriage and having only one child, the descendants of William Stanley and Margaret Comberford continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations and for centuries long after they died.

The lines of descent from William and Margaret are tangled, confusing and difficult to unravel. But they tell tales of a failed court battles to recover family estates at Pipe, near Lichfield; the intrigues of a schemer who had his wife’s cousins locked up in the Bethlehem Asylum, the original Bedlam in London; illegitimate children written out of their aunt’s will; and the spiralling decline into poverty of descendants of a oncle landed family who became leather workers and tailors in Lichfield, and fell into oblivion in subsequent generations, eventually employed as low-paid housemaids in the Cathedral Close.

These are stories of recusancy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, of royalists who lost their estates, of soldier’s lost children brought from Ireland to live in Lichfield, and of young men who went into exile in the West Indies, Jamaica and Virginia. These are stories of downward social mobility, but they also show how the descendants of the Comberford family in the Stanley, Heveningham and Wakelin families, persisted in living in the Lichfield area for 350 years or more after the death of William Stanley of Comberford Hall.

Comberford Hall, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth … William Stanley was living at Comberford when he made his will in 1552 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

William Stanley and Margaret Comberford had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s, and they were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy.

Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), who married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574), daughter of Mary Moyle and Erasmus Heveningham. Dorothy and Christopher were the parents of Dorothy Heveningham and Sir Walter Heveningham, of Aston and Pipe, and the descendants of these lines of the Stanley and Comberford families continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations.

The Heveningham family in Staffordshire is traced back to Erasmus Heveningham of the manor of Aston in Staffordshire and his wife Mary Moyle. Erasmus came to Staffordshire from Ketteringham in Norfolk and he inherited by marriage the Staffordshire estates of Sir John Stanley of Pipe, her maternal grandfather.

Their only child was:

Christopher Heveningham, acquired in 1565 from John Stanley and Jane his wife, a 300-acre estate at Clifton Camvile. He died in 1574, but made no will. He married Dororthy, daughter and only child of William Stanley of Comberford Hall. William Stanley was a brother of John Stanley, father of Isabel, whose daughter Mary Moyle married Erasmus Heveningham – meaning Christopher married his grandmother's first cousin.

Dorothy’s mother, Margaret Comberford , wife of William Stanley, was a daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Ralph Fitzherbert of Norbury, Derbyshire.

Dorothy was named in 1581 as one of ‘the most obstinate and dangerous recusants’ in Staffordshire. She paid a fine of £10 a year for herself and her ‘servant’ Katherine Comberford in 1586, when they faced legal penalties for their recusancy. Katherine Comberford was a close family relation, for Dorothy’s mother (Margaret, wife of William Stanley) was a daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy (Fitzherbert) of Norbury.

John Comberford of Wednesbury, in his will dated 23 April 1559, left to ‘Cristall Hennyngham’ a black damask gown and left monetary bequests to his sister Margaret Stanley and his niece Dorothy Heveningham.

Dorothy and Christopher Heveningham were the parents of:

1, Walter Heveningham, of whom next.
2, William Heveningham.
3, Erasmus Heveningham.
4, Mary, married Anthony Fitzherbert, strengthening the links with the Comberford family.
5, Dorothy married (as his second wife) Sir Henry Townsend of Count, Shropshire.

The eldest son of Dorothy and Christopher Heveningham:

Sir Walter Heveningham (ca 1552-1636), of Pipe, was about 11 when his father died. He was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire (1609). He married Anne Fitzherbert of Norbury, strengthening the ties of kinship with the Comberford family. He died in 1636. They were the parents of an only son and three daughters:

1, Nicholas Heveningham, only son, of whom next.
2, Mary, who married (1) Richard Brereton of Malpas, Cheshire; and (2) Sylvester Plunket.
3, Margaret, born 1591, married Christopher Horton of Catton, Derbyshire, in Lichfield Cathedral in 1610.
4, Elizabeth.

The only son of Sir Walter Heveningham and Anne Fitzherbert was:

Nicholas Heveningham (ca 1583-1627). He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and died 20 December 1627. He married Elizabeth Bowes, a descendant of the Stanley family of Elford, and they were the parents of three sons:

1, Walter Heveningham (1609-1691), born at Pipe Hall near Lichfield in 1609. He was a Roman Catholic, and was a royalist during the Civil War. He died in Aston, November 1691. He married Mary Middlemore of Edgbaston, also from a Royalist and Recusant family. They had no sons as male heirs, but had two daughters:

1a, Mary (1646-1694) married Walter Fowler, and had no children.
2a, Bridget, the eventual sole heiress, married Sir James Simeon, who retained Pipe Hall and the Heveningham estates near Lichfield in the face of bitter legal disputes that eventually brought about the financial and social ruin of the Heveningham family. Bridget and James Simeon had three children: Sir Edward Simeon, 2nd Baronet; Sir James Simeon, 3rd Baronet; and Margaret, who married Humphrey Weld of Lulworth Castle, Dorset. The estates of Aston and Pipe Hall then passed to the Weld family.
2, Simon Heveningham (ca 1617-1699), of whom next.
3, Christopher Heveningham, of Pipe, educated went to Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1632, MA 1635). He fought as a royalist during the civil war, and died unmarried.

The ‘Site of the First Bethlehem Hospital 1247-1676’ near Liverpool Street Station, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The second son of Elizabeth (Bowes) and Nicholas Heveningham:

Simon Heveningham (ca 1617-1699). He was born ca 1617. Unlike the Puritan and Whig Heveninghams of Suffolk, the Staffordshire branch were Cavaliers, and mostly ‘Recusants’. Pipe Hall was plundered by Roundhead soldiers about the time that Heveningham Church was desecrated by Puritan fanatics. Simon married Katherine Alport and they were the parents of three sons and a daughter:

1, John Heveningham, born after 1658; died 1689-1691 in the Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam), London.
2, Henry Heveningham, born after 1658; died 25 November 1701 in the Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam), London.
3, Christopher Heveningham (1658-1737), of whom next.
4, Dorothy, living unmarried in 1691.

The three brothers, John, Henry and Christopher, were educated abroad as Roman Catholics. When they returned to England, Sir James Simeon, who had married their first cousin Bridget, had John and Henry committed to the Bethlehem Asylum or Bedlam, London, to prevent them claiming the Heveningham estate that his wife had inherited. John died within a few weeks and Henry died 10 or 12 years later. Simeon also sent the third brother Christopher to the West Indies, where he remained many years and was said to be dead.

However, Christopher returned to England and conformed to the Church of England. This third son of Simon Heveningham was:

Christopher Heveningham (1658-1737). He was born in Lichfield ca 1658, and along with his two older brothers, was educated abroad as a Roman Catholic. After returning to England, he settled in Lichfield and his name is found in the poll-books of Lichfield down to 1718.

He married Mary Brooke, only daughter and heir of William Brooke of Elford in Meryvale Church, near Atherstone, on 28 November 1692. She too was descended from the Stanley family of Elford.

Christopher Heveningham dissipated his wife’s fortune in his legal attempts to recover the Heveningham estates from the Simeon family. Shortly before their marriage, on 11 and 12 November 1692, Mary Brooke mortgaged The Holms and other lands attached to Elford Mills, to Samuel White of Middleton, Warwickshire, as security for repaying £63 on 13 November 1694.

Within five years, in a deed dated 15 April 1699, Samuel White’s interest was transferred to William Lovelace of Clifton Campville. In this deed, Christopher Heveningham is described as late of Elford, now of Burton upon Trent, and Mary his wife as daughter and heir of the late William Brooke, late of Haselour, Staffordshire, 'nephew and heir of John Brooke of Harleston, Staffordshire.

In a final deed, dated 10 May 1700, Isaac Hawkins of Burton upon Trent and William Lovelace assign their interest in the property mortgaged by Christopher and Mary Heveningham, including the Holms, Elford Mills and other lands in Elford, to John Goldsmith of Lichfield, milliner, and Ellinor his wife. By then, Christopher Heveningham was living in Lichfield.

The Johnson memorial in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield … Christopher Heveningham was a juror at the trial of Michael Johnson in 1718 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christopher and his son Henry were on the panel from which the jury was selected in 1718 for the trial in Lichfield of Michael Johnson, father of Samuel Johnson, although only Christopher was selected.

He has been described as ‘a rolling stone’ who wasted his wife’s inheritance in unprofitable litigation, and as consequence his children and their descendants lived in more humble circumstances. He seems to be the ancestor of many Heveningham, Henningham and Wakelin families who continued to live for generations in Lichfield, Wolverhampton and the South Staffordshire and Birmingham areas.

Towards the end of his life, Christopher Heveningham moved to Tenford, near Cheadle, Staffordshire, where he bought a house from Edward Hale. He made his will on 23 November 1737 and it was proved in the Lichfield Diocesan Court on 3 March 1738. The inventory totals £25 6s 11d. His wife Mary had died in 1721 was buried from Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, on 4 April 1721.

Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, at night … many members of the Heveningham family were baptised and buried from here (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Mary and Christopher Heveningham were the parents of five sons and a daughter:

1, Ann Heveningham (1692-1692), born in Elford, and died in infancy in Elford.
2, Henry Heveningham (1693-1748), of Spade Green on Abnall’s Lane, Lichfield, of whom next.
3, Walter Heveningham (1694-1734), fellmonger (leather trade), of Lichfield, born 1695, baptised in Elford 11 January 1695. He died in 1734 and was buried at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 19 June 1734. His will is dated 7 April 1734 and was proved in Lichfield on 7 February 1735.
4, Christopher Heveningham (1698-1748), of whom after his brother Henry.
5, Brooke Heveningham (1700-1703), baptised at Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 11 January 1700, buried in June 1703. 6, Henrietta Maria, born Lichfield 170, baptised in Saint Chad’s 11 January 1701. She married (1) John Rumbold of Eccleshall, near Stafford,12 April 1722; (2) William Picken of Eccleshall, 2 July 1732.
7, Brooke Heveningham (1703-1773), of Lichfield and Tenford, near Cheadle. He was born in Lichfield in 1703, and baptised on 1 June 1703 in Saint Mary’s. He was left his father’s personal estate, including the messuage at Tenford. He died in 1773 and was buried on 25 April 1773 at Saint Mary’s.

Elford Hall, the ancestral home of Mary Brooke who married Christopher Heveningham, was demolished in 1964 (Photograph © Lost Heritage/Staffordshire Past Track)

The eldest son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham:

Henry Heveningham (1693-1748) was baptised at Elford on 8 February 1693. He was married three times: (1), Mary Ledward, married in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 13 February 1715, died 1716, buried 23 June 1716 at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield; (2), Dorothy (‘Dorillio’) Walters in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 16 February 1717, died 1734, buried at Saint Michael’s, 20 June 1734; (3), Mary Perry (1693-1768), ca 1730.

At the end of his days, Henry Heveningham was living in Woodhouses, west of Lichfield. Woodhouses, with neighbouring Burntwood and Ediall, was part of Saint Michael’s Parish Lichfield, and Pipe Hall manor house is in Woodhouses. Henry died in 1748 and was buried at Hammerwich on 4 February 1748.

His widow later moved to Highgate, near London, and in her will, dated 7 January 1763, she left all her property to her daughter Mary Heveningham, including seven acres in Saint Michael’s Parish, Lichfield.

Henry’s children seem to have included:

1, John Heveningham.
2, Charles Heveningham (1737-1782), mercer and draper, of Dam Street, Lichfield, of whom later.
3, Thomas Heveningham (ca 1743-1823), mercer and draper, of North Street, Wolverhampton. He was twice married: (1) Elizabeth Reeve in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 11 April 1774; (2) Sara Fleeming in Kingswinford, Staffordshire, on 31 March 1791. He died in Wolverhampton on 23 April 1823, and his widow Sara died in 1833. In all, he was the father 19 children, and their descendants are scattered widely.

Other sources say Henry was also the father of:

1, Edward Heveningham, who died in 1758 and was buried in Saint Chad’s, Lichfield, 26 August 1758; his only son, also Edward Heveningham, had no children; his daughter Mary was buried at Saint Chad’s on 2 May 1753.
2, John Heveningham, living in 1764, and identified with the father of John Heveingham of Chesterfield County, Virginia, who made his will on 18 December 1809.

The second named son of Mary and Henry Heveningham was:

Charles Heveningham (1737-1782), mercer and draper, of Dam Street, Lichfield. He was born in Lichfield in 1737, and it is said he spent part of his childhood in Pipe Hall. He was a Roman Catholic. He married Mary Robinson in Appleby, Leicestershire, on 6 June 1771. He died in Lichfield and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 6 May 1782; his wife Mary died in 1820, and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 25 October 1820.

Mary (Robinson) and Charles Heveningham were the parents of:

1, Charles Heveningham (1772-1800), born in Lichfield 9 July 1772, died in Jamaica 1800, in the same year as his mother.
2, Elizabeth Heveningham (1774-1823), born in Lichfield 18 August 1774, died 1823. She married in Saint Philip’s Church, Birmingham, ca 1800 to William Warner of Kitwell Hall, Worcestershire. Their daughter Margaret (born 6 June, 1827) married as her third husband Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald (1787-1860), 2nd Baronet, of Lisheen, Co Tipperary.
3, Henry Heveningham (1776-1807), born Lichfield 7 June 1776, died unmarried in Manchester 1807, buried at Bridgewater Street Wesleyan Chapel on 5 July 1807.
4, Mary Heveningham (1777-1849).
5, John Heveningham ( 1778-1785), buried 10 April 1785 at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield. 6, George Heveningham (1782-1782), died an infant, buried 29 September 1782 in the same grave as his father.

Saint Michael’s Church, Greenhill, Lichfield … many members of the Heveningham family are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The third son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham was:

Christopher Heveningham (1698-1748), currier in the leather trade, of Lichfield. He was born in Elford and was baptised on 6 December. 1698. He married Mary Saxelby (1694-1744) of Abbot’s Bromley. He lived in Lichfield and his name appears in the poll books in Lichfield in 1721 and 1727.

Mary died in Lichfield in 1744 and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 22 April 1744; Christopher Heveningham died in Lichfield in 1748 and was buried on 28 February 1748 at Saint Michael’s. They seem to have been the parents of three sons and two daughters:

1, Edward Heveningham (1721-1760), born in Lichfield in 1721, and baptised in Saint Mary’s 21 April 1721. He joined the army and some accounts say he moved to America in 1747 and may have descendants living in the US. Other accounts say he married Mary …, and settled with her and their sons Edward and John in the hamlet of Woodhouses west of Lichfield in 1759, a daughter Anne having died in Lichfield in 1758. Edward died in 1760, and was buried at Saint Chad’s on 30 June 1760.
2, Thomas Heveningham, apprenticed to his father Christopher, a currier, and was living after 1754.
3, Joseph Heveningham (1729-1765) of Lichfield, possibly Joseph Henningham who married Mrs Mary Harris in Saint Martin’s Church, Birmingham, on 7 June 1789.
4, Mary (1727-1806), born in Lichfield in 1727 and baptised on 1 March 1727 in Saint Mary’s. She and her sister Arabella later went to live with the Weld family at Lulworth Castle, Dorset. She married the Revd Daniel William Remington, later a canon of Lichfield Cathedral, in Hall Green Chapel, Yardley, Birmingham, on 15 March 1754. She died in Lichfield on 21 February 1806. Her husband was the Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, and Sub-Chanter of Lichfield Cathedral.
5, Arabella Heveningham (d 1820) of the Cathedral Close, Lichfield. In her will dated 7 September 1814, she mentions her niece Mary White, and Mary White’s son, Thomas Henry White.

The third child and second son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham was:

Joseph Heveningham (1729-1765), born in Lichfield 1729 and baptised in Saint Mary’s 20 December 1729. Joseph may have followed his elder brother, Edward into the army. He died in Lichfield in 1765. A pencilled note or marginal entry in a Heveningham pedigree in the William Salt Library, Stafford, says he was the father of Arabella Heveningham. Her mother’s name is unknown, no marriage has been found for Joseph, and the 1851 census shows that Arabella was born in Ireland.

Arabella Heveningham (1765-1854), of The Close, Lichfield. She was born in Ireland ca 1764/1765. Both Arabella Heveningham (d 1820) and Canon Edward Remington (d 1832) of Lichfield left legacies to Arabella and her children.

In her will, the elder Arabella Heveningham, who died in 1820, left an annuity for life of £20 16s 0d, paying an income of 8 shillings a week, to Arabella Wakelin (formerly Arabella Heveningham) of Lichfield, widow, and left legacies to her three daughters Mary, Ann and Susanna, and bequests to her sons by Thomas Wakelin.

Bore Street, Lichfield, at night … Arabella and Thomas Wakelin lived on Bore Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The younger Arabella Heveningham married Thomas Wakelin (1770-1802) in 1788, when the Revd Edward Remington officiated at their wedding. Thomas was the son of George Wakelin of Wolverhampton and Susanna White of Stowe, Lichfield. He was a tailor, breeches maker and glover and lived in Bore Street, Lichfield.

Arabella and Thomas Wakelin were the parents of seven children, three sons who received bequests of £5 each and four daughters, of whom three received bequests of £10 each in the will of her aunt Arabella Heveningham:

1, Mary Wakelin, born in Lichfield 1789, baptised Saint Mary’s, 25 October 1789; she married John Burgess in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 18 January 1809.
2, Elizabeth Wakelin, born Lichfield 1791, baptised Saint Mary’s, 3 October 1791, believed to have died young.
3, Francis Thomas Wakelin (1793-1853) of Lichfield, of whom next.
4, Ann Wakelin, born Lichfield 1795, baptised Saint Mary’s, 11 November 1795, she married Philip Thompson in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 24 July 1814.
5,Thomas Wakelin (1798-post 1861), tailor, of Lichfield. Born in Lichfield in 1798, baptised Saint Mary’s 8 April 1798. He was admitted a freeman of Lichfield before William Morgan, Senior Bailiff, Thomas Bown, Master, and John Larkin, Warden, on 13 July 1826. He later lived in Birmingham. He married Sarah Hughes of Tamworth in Saint Martin’s, Birmingham, in 1822, and they were the parents of five daughters and five sons.
6, Susanna Wakelin, born Lichfield 1800, baptised Saint Mary’s, 27 July 1800.
7, Samuel Wakelin born Lichfield 1802, baptised Saint Mary’s, 16 May 1802.

After her husband Thomas Wakelin died in 1802, Arabella (Heveningham) Wakelin was the mother of three further children born between 1806 and 1811. Although their father’s name is not known, she gave them the Wakelin name when they were baptised:

8, Charles Augustus Wakelin, born Lichfield 1806, baptised Saint Michael’s, 18 February, 1806. He may have married Sara Wright.
9, Caroline Wakelin, born Lichfield ca 1808-1811, baptised, Saint Michael’s, 29 August 1811, with her brother Louis.
10, Louis Wakelin (1811-1863) born Lichfield 1811, baptised Saint Michael’s, 29 August 1811, with his sister Caroline. He was married twice: (1) Ann Smith, in Saint George’s, Birmingham, 29 July 1832; (2) Mary Smith, in Birmingham, 27 December 1847. He was living on Stowe Street, Lichfield, in 1851, with his mother.

When Arabella was about 70, she married Sampson Robinson (1776-1850) of the Swan (now Swan Cottage), Blithbury, as his second wife in Mavesyn Ridware, Staffordshire, on 30 June 1835. After he died, she was living with her son Louis and his family in Stowe Street, Lichfield, at the time of the 1851 census, when she says she was born in Ireland. When Arabella died on 4 March 1854, she is described as an Inn Keeper, although it is not known at which inn Arabella was the inn keeper.

The Guildhall, Lichfield … Francis Thomas Wakelin was admitted a Freeman in 1817(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The eldest son of Arabella (Heveningham) and Thomas Wakelin was:

Francis Thomas Wakelin (1793-1853), tailor, of Lichfield. He was born in Lichfield in 1793 and was baptised in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 29 April 1793. Francis inherited £5 from his great aunt, Arabella Heveningham, in 1820, and he inherited £50 from the Revd Edward Remington in 1832.

He an apprentice to Thomas Worrall of Lichfield, a tailor and a freeman of the Company of Tailors, for seven years. He was admitted to the Taylor’s Company, Lichfield, on 24 July 1817, before George Dodson and Dr Francis Sachaverell Darwin, Bailliffs of Lichfield, and Stephen Simpson, Town Clerk. He was a journeyman tailor and lodging at 89 Stowe Street, Lichfield, in 1851. He died in 1853. He married Ann Taylor (1795-1844) in Aston Juxta, Birmingham, on 26 December 1815, and they were the parents of three sons eight daughters, including:

1, Susanna Wakelin (1820-1854), a lady’s maid with the Mott family in the Close, Lichfield. John Mott (1787-1869), who rebuilt No 20 on the Cathedral Close, was Sheriff of Lichfield in 1836 and Mayor of Lichfield in 1850.
2, Francis Wakelin (1822-1889), baptised in Lichfield 6 January 1822, died in Walsall 1889. He married Jane Withnall and they were the parents of Elizabeth (Whitehead), Bertha (Pople) and Herbert Wakelin.
3, Arthur Wakelin (1824-1895), born in Lichfield, 23 September 1824, died 22 August 1895 aged 70 in West Bromwich. He married Mary Ann Wheelwright in Lichfield on 23 September 1848, and they were the parents of Evangeline Maria (Wakelin) Bowerman.
4, Sarah Wakelin (born Lichfield 1831), was a housemaid with the Mott family in the Close, Lichfield.

I am quite sure that through these families there are descendants of the Comberford family who continue to live in the Lichfield area.

The Cathedral Close in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sources and references include:

The Visitations of Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
Michael Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire 1500-1850 (Gracewing, 2006).

The Heveningham family tree on Geni (last accessed 21 July 2025).
The Heveningham Family of Staffordshire’ (last accessed 21 July 2025).
The St. Leger-May Family Home Page (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘Townships: Wall with Pipehill’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), pp 283-294. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp283-294 (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘Burntwood: Manors, local government and public services’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp205-220 (last accessed 21 July 2025).

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
75, Wednesday 23 July 2025

The Sower and the Seed … an image in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 20 July 2025). Today, the Church Calendar remembers Saint Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain’ (Matthew 13: 8) … fields at Cross in Hand Lane, in rural Staffordshire, near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!’

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain’ (Matthew 13: 8) … walking through fields in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

In a posting about Broadcasting House yesterday (22 July 2025), I quoted the Latin inscription in the main reception area that refers to the Parable of the Sower: ‘This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931 John Reith being Director-General, and they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished hence, and that people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.’

This theme is repeated in Eric Gill’s sculpture of ‘The Sower’ in the reception area. Both the inscription and the statue emphasise the importance of listening for the BBC’s broadcasting.

The quotation from Jesus in this morning’s Gospel reading begins and ends with the word ‘Listen.’

The opening word of the Rule of Saint Benedict is ‘Listen’, ausculta: ‘Listen carefully, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure it pierces your heart, so that you may accept it in willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father’ (Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 1, translated by Patrick Barry). His advice is as short and as succinct a directive on how to prepare to pray as I can find.

Benedictine prayer became more accessible in popular culture 20 years ago when the BBC screened the television series, The Monastery (2005), in which Abbot Christopher Jamison guided five modern men (and three million viewers) into a new approach to life at Worth Abbey in Sussex.

Since then, Dom Christopher’s best-selling books following the popular series, Finding Sanctuary (2007) and Finding Happiness (2008), have offered readers similar opportunities. He points out that no matter how hard we work, being too busy is not inevitable. Silence and contemplation are not just for monks and nuns, they are natural parts of life.

Yet, to keep hold of this truth in the rush of modern living we need the support of other people and sensible advice from wise guides. By learning to listen in new ways, people’s lives can change and Dom Christopher offers some monastic steps that help this transition to a more spiritual life.

Saint Benedict of Nursia wrote the first official western manual for praying the Hours in the year 525. Benedictine spirituality approaches life through an ordering by daily prayer that is biblical and reflective, and Benedictine spirituality is grounded in an approach to spiritual life that values ‘Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life.’

The major themes in the Rule are community, prayer, hospitality, study, work, humility, stability, peace and listening.

This distinction between liturgical prayer and private prayer, which is familiar to modern spirituality, was unknown to the early monks. Apart from one short reference to prayer outside the office, Chapter 20 of the Rule is concerned with the silent prayer that is a response to the psalm. Listening to the word of God was a necessary prelude to every prayer, and prayer was the natural response to every psalm.

When a scribe asks Jesus which of the 613 traditional commandments in Judaism is the most important (see Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 10: 25-28), Christ offers not one but two commandments or laws, though neither is found in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 4-21). Instead, Christ steps outside the Ten Commandments when he quotes from two other sections in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, Leviticus 19: 18).

And the first command Christ quotes is the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, …’ (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) (Mark 12: 29), recited twice daily by pious Jews. The shema, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד, is composed from two separate passages in the Book Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, 11: 13-21), and to this day it is recited twice daily in Jewish practice.

The Hebrew word Shema is translated as ‘listen’ or ‘hear.’ But it means more than to just hear the sound, it means ‘to pay attention to, or to ‘focus on’. In fact, it has an even deeper meaning, requiring the listener or hearer to ‘respond to what you hear’. It calls for a response to what I hear or I am told, to act upon or do something related to the command. In other words, shema often means ‘Listen and Obey.’ They are two sides of the same coin so that comes to my ear is understood and results in action. Not to take proper action, not to respond, not to follow in discipleship, is to not listen at all.

‘Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty’ (Matthew 13: 8) … trees and shaded gardens in Platanias in suburban Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 23 July 2025):

The theme this week (20 to 26 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21). I introduced this theme on Sunday with reflections from Sarawak and the Diocese of Kuching.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 23 July 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the priests, parishes and mission areas of the Diocese of Kuching, throughout Sarawak and Brunei and in parts of Kalimantan in Indonesia.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour 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:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘We pray for the priests, parishes and mission areas of the Diocese of Kuching’ (USPG Prayer Diary, 23 July 2025) … looking out from Saint Gregory’s Chapel, Giam, in Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

22 July 2025

Broadcasting House in
London, a controversial
sculpture by Eric Gill, and
an Irish architect’s designs

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. It is one of the first purpose-built broadcast buildings in the world and was completed in 1932. The first radio broadcast from the building was on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May 1932.

The main building is in the Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. Broadcasting House is a Grade II* listed building and over the years, has been extensively renovated and extended. A new wing added in 2005 is now known as the John Peel Wing.

Broadcasting House was designed by the architect George Val Myer (1883-1959), in collaboration with the BBC’s civil engineer, Marmaduke Tudsbery. The interiors were mainly the work of the Australian-born Irish architect Raymond McGrath (1903-1977).

Val Myer and Francis James (‘FJ’) Watson-Hart (1880-1953) had been working in 1927 for a consortium headed by Lord Waring that owned sites at the bottom of Portland Place. The BBC identified the sites as the location for its new building, and Val Myer, who began as the landlord’s architect, came to undertake the leaseholder’s bespoke design.

Myer named his original design ‘the Top Hat design’. With its clean-cut lines and allusions to New York Art Deco, and its accentuated front section with its clock tower and aerial mast, Myer’s design has often been compared with the streamlined liners of the 1930s.

Inside, the reception has Art Deco light fittings and a mosaic floor, while the decoration matches the 1930s colours. The interior designs for Broadcasting House were the first major commission for Raymond McGrath. He was a Cambridge-educated architect, illustrator, printmaker and interior designer and for the greater part of his career he would live in Dublin, where he was the principal architect for the Office of Public Works in Ireland.

The gilded Latin inscription on the ceiling arch of the main reception area describes Broadcasting House as a ‘temple of the arts and muses’ and welcome workers and visitors alike to a palace of art and creativity: ‘This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931 John Reith being Director-General, and they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished hence, and that people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.’

Broadcasting House links emphatically to the rest of Regent Street with its use of Portland stone. But it was modernistic in spirit, and the building showcases works of art, most prominently Eric Gill’s statues of Prospero and Ariel, from The Tempest by Shakespeare. The reception area also has a statue of ‘The Sower’ by Gill, and there are additional carvings of Ariel in many bas-reliefs on the exterior, some by Gill and others by Gilbert Bayes (1872-1973).

Gill was among the most prominent sculptors of the 20th century. The choice of Prospero and Ariel was seen as fitting at the time as Prospero was a magician and scholar and Ariel was a spirit of the air, representing in some way radio waves.

Prospero and Ariel by Eric Gill in the niche above the main entrance to Broadcasting House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The most important group by Gill is in the niche above the main entrance and shows Prospero, Ariel’s master, sending him out into the world. Gill accepted the BBC’s suggestion that the literary subject of the carvings should be Shakespeare’s Ariel, who, as the invisible spirit of the air, might well serve as a personification of broadcasting.

The two panels by Gill on the west front show ‘Ariel between Wisdom and Gaiety’, and ‘Ariel hearing celestial music’, and a panel on the east side represents ‘Ariel piping to children’.

Directly above this group, at the seventh floor level, is a rectangular clock that is without chimes but that uses an amplifier and loudspeaker to reproduce the chimes of Big Ben.

The great surface area of the west face is relieved partly by vertical breaks in the massing of the windows, and partly by a carved balcony on the third floor, the BBC coat of arms between the third and fourth floors, and groups of sculpture at appropriate places on the level of the first floor. The carving of the BBC coat of arms and the frieze of the ‘birds of the air’ and ‘waves’ or ‘rays of light’ on the balcony front were designed by the architect.

Inside, Gilbert Bayes was commissioned to create 12 friezes for the walls of the Concert Hall, later the Radio Theatre. His carvings on the west wall are of classical scenes such as poetry, dancing and music; those on the opposite wall depict modern scenes. Bayes is best-known for his ‘Queen of Time’ (1908), which supports the clock above the main entrance at Selfridge’s on Oxford Street.

The great surface area of the west face on Portland Street with a carved balcony on the third floor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Gill carved his statue of Prospero and Ariel onsite in 1931 and 1932, and it was one of his many high-profile commissions. He later said he did not understand why the Shakespearean characters were relevant and that his statue actually depicted God and Jesus. Other reports said Gill had sculpted them as God and Man, rather than Prospero and Ariel, and that there is a small carved picture of a beautiful girl on the back of Prospero.

From the beginning, some features of the statue were controversial, including the size of the sprite’s genitalia. A question was tabled in the House of Commons, but the popular story that Gill was ordered to modify the statue is not substantiated.

The statues of Prospero and Ariel have become controversial once again in recent years with revelations from Gill’s diary that he engaged in paedophilia and questions about whether the statue reflect his sexuality.

Despite his keen interest in religion and pious appearance, Gill’s private diaries revealed a life of sexual deviancy. After his death in 1940, his diaries revealed he had sexually abused his two eldest daughters, documented an incestuous relationship with at least one of his sisters, and gave accounts of sexual activity with the family dog.

Since all this was revealed in Fiona MacCarthy’s biography of Gill in 1989, calls for the removal of his public artworks have grown. But the BBC has declined to remove his work from Broadcasting House, saying he is one of the pre-eminent British artists of the 20th century.

Gill’s statue of Prospero and Ariel was vandalised in January 2022 by a man using a hammer and who wrote on the statue: ‘Time to go was 1989’ and ‘noose all paedos’. The statue was damaged a second time in May 2023 by a man with a hammer. BBC staff reportedly heard him shouting ‘paedophile’ as he struck the statue.

The Grade II*-listed statue was restored and unveiled in April (2025). The estimated total costs of the restoration and protective work in line with the building’s Grade II* status was put at £529,715. A protective screen was installed in front of the sculpture ‘to avoid future damage’.

At the time, a spokeswoman said the BBC ‘in no way condones Gill's abusive behaviour’ but that it ‘draws a line between the actions of Gill, and the status of these artworks’. The head of BBC History, Robert Seatter, said: ‘Gill’s abusive behaviour and lifestyle are well documented and the BBC in no way condones his behaviour. So while it is right that the fabric of the building is restored, we must also ensure people are fully informed about the history connected to it.’

The BBC coat of arms and the frieze of the ‘birds of the air’ and ‘waves’ or ‘rays of light’ on the balcony front at Broadcating House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

As for Raymond McGrath, the architect who designed the interiors for Broadcasting House, he moved to Dublin in 1940 when he was appointed Senior Architect at the Office of Public Works. He was appointed Principal Architect in 1948, and held that post until 1968.

His first major work for the OPW was the decoration of the interior of Áras an Uachtaráin. After a fire in the state apartments at Dublin Castle in 1941 he took charge of the team responsible for the restoration work.

McGrath is credited with giving a recognisable ‘look’ to Ireland’s state buildings. These included specially designed woollen carpets, Waterford glass chandeliers and Irish silk poplin hangings, along with fittings that included 18th-century chimney-pieces and ornamental plasterwork. He supervised and co-ordinated the decor as well as the architecture, drawing on his extensive knowledge of Irish Georgian architecture.

In the 1950s, he worked on a series of specially-woven carpets that became the hallmark of his government work. They were installed in public buildings in Ireland and in Irish embassies around the world, most notably in Paris, Rome, Washington and Ottawa.

McGrath also designed the Royal Hibernian Academy building in Ely Place, and in 1968 he became the RHA’s professor of architecture. For many years, he also championed a new National Concert Hall. He died in Dublin on 2 December 1977 at the age of 74.

The clock uses an amplifier and loudspeaker to reproduce the chimes of Big Ben (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
74, Tuesday 22 July 2025,
Saint Mary Magdalene

Saint Mary Magdalene at Easter Morning … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 20 July 2025). Today, the Church Calendar celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene.

I have yet another medical appointment later this morning, this time for my regular B12 injection that helps me to cope with my Vitamin B12 deficiency. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSVA):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

A modern icon or Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in Rethymnon (Photograph © Alexandra Kaouki)

This morning’s reflection:

At times on my way back down the mountains from the Monastery of Arkadi to the coast of Rethymnon in Crete, I have stopped briefly to see the small church in Nea Magnesia that is dedicated to Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene.

This is one of only two churches dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene on the island of Crete.

Nea Magnesia is 12 km east of Rethymnon, near Skaleta and off the road to Panormos. Today it is fast becoming part of the resort facilities building up east of Rethymnon. But in the 1920s, this village was first settled by Greek-speaking people who had been expelled from their homes in western Anatolia.

They arrived in Crete with their Greek language, traditions and culture and dedicated their church to Saint Mary Magdalene, whose feast in the Church calendar, east and west, falls today [22 July 2025].

The other church in Crete dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene is an impressive Russian-style church on Dagli Street in Chania, with an onion dome and surrounded by a beautiful garden in the district of Chalepa. The church was built in 1901-1903 by Prince George, the High Commissioner of Crete before it was incorporated into the modern Greek state.

The church was funded by the Czarist Russia and was opened in 1903 in the presence of Queen Olga, Prince George, Bishop Evgenios of Crete and a small number of invited guests.

I often pass Chalepa on my way to the and from Chania Airport. With its imposing mansions and luxury villas, Chalepa is a beautiful part of Chania, east of the city on the coastal road to the airport and Akrotiri.

Chalepa was the venue for some of the most important political events in Crete in the 19th century. Here Prince George had his palace as the High Commissioner or governor of the semi-autonomous Cretan state in the closing days of Ottoman rule, and here too the Great Powers had their consulates.

Chalepa was also the home of Eleftherios Venizelos, who played a decisive role as Prime Minister of Greece during a critical time in Greek history in the early 20th century. The family house was built by his father, Kyriakos Venizelos, in 1877. Today, his family home houses the Eleftherios K Venizelos National Research and Study Foundation, which plans to turn the house into a museum.

An icon of Saint Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection, Μη μου άπτου (Noli me Tangere) by Mikhail Damaskinos, is one of the important exhibits at the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion.

This icon dates from ca 1585-1591. Initially it was in the Monastery of Vrondissi and was transferred to old church of Saint Menas in Iraklion in 1800.

One of the most inspirational icons of Saint Mary Magdalene I have seen in Crete is an icon by Alexandra Kaouki when she had her old workshop near the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

According to Greek tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene evangelised the island of Zakynthos in 34 CE on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after both Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Mary of Cleopas. A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery.

During the Middle Ages, Saint Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, but these claims are not supported in any of the four Gospels.

Instead, the Gospels tell us she travelled with Jesus as one of his followers, and that she was a witness to his Crucifixion and his Resurrection, Indeed, she is named at least 12 times in the four Gospels, more times than most of the apostles. Two Gospels specifically name her as the first person to see Christ after the Resurrection (see Mark 16: 9 and John 20).

Back in 2016, the late Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness Christ’s resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ when he raised her commemoration today [22 July] from a memorial to a feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship issued a decree formalising the decision, and both the decree and the article were titled Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the congregation, said that in celebrating ‘an evangelist who proclaims the central joyous message of Easter,’ Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

Archbishop Roche said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

The decision means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same level of feast as that given to the celebration of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

The Church of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene, in Nea Magnesia, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 22 July 2025, Saint Mary Magdalene):

The theme this week (20 to 26 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21). I introduced this theme on Sunday with reflections from Sarawak and the Diocese of Kuching.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 22 July 2025, Saint Mary Magdalene) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the daily witness and worship of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral in the heart of Kuching, and for the Dean of Kuching, the Very Revd Kho Thong Meng, and the cathedral and diocesan clergy and staff.

‘Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’ (John 20: 1) … a statue of Saint Mary Magdalen above the gateway at Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of life and love,
whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name
and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles:
in your mercy, help us,
who have been united with him in this Eucharist,
to proclaim the good news
that he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘We give thanks for the daily witness and worship of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral in the heart of Kuching’ (USPG Prayer Diary, 22 July 2025) … the cathedral was designed by Alfred Church of Swan and Maclaren, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

21 July 2025

The Fitzrovia Mural at
Whitefield Gardens shows
life in the 1970s and 1980s
on Tottenham Court Road

The Fitzrovia Mural fills a gable end facing onto the Whitefield Gardens and Tottenham Court Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was discussing yesterday a recent visit to the Whitefield Memorial Church and the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road, London, with the colourful food stalls lining the footpaths in front of the church.

On the south side of the church, the Fitzrovia Mural is a huge mural that fills the gable end of a building at the east end of Whitefield Road, off Tottenham Court Road and faces onto the Whitefield Gardens.

The former graveyard the Whitefield Memorial Church is now an open plaza, and has been left as an open space for the past 80 years, ever since the last V2 bomb in World War II destroyed many buildings in the area on Palm Sunday, 25 March 1945.

Today, Whitefield Gardens is a popular place to sit and relax on these sunny summer days for shoppers strolling between Euston Road and Oxford Street or between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia and Soho and for people enjoying the fast food stalls that line the stretch of Tottenham Court Road in front of the church.

Simone the charismatic Italian waiter says the Fitzrovia Mural was painted in 1980 by Mick Jones and Simon Barber, working as the Art-Workers Co-Op (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Fitzrovia Mural was commissioned by Camden Council for the Fitzrovia community and was painted in 1980 by Mick Jones and Simon Barber, working together as the Art-Workers Co-Op. It was financed by the Greater London Artists’ Association and Camden Town Council.

The two split the work between them, with Mick Jones working on the top half and Simon Barber creating the images lower down. Inspired by local life and people, as well as wider themes in the area, they took six months to plan out the mural, and another 10 weeks to execute.

They used highly-figurative, narrative, cartoon-style humour, and acknowledge the influence of the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Their work comes together as one whole cohesive work of art, with a montage of scenes frozen in time, all telling the story of this part of Central London half a century ago. All of Fitzrovia life is there, from bars and restaurants to local market workers.

There to be seen are building sites, the Post Office Tower, now the BT Tower, an angry cat, a television ad for cigarettes, footballers, and people around a table, others ironing, reading a newspaper named Tower, reading a book or writing. Here too is the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who lived in Fitzrovia and drank regularly in the pubs. He died in 1953, long before the mural was painted, and is seen with his wife Caitlin Macnamara (1913-1994), whose family were from Ennistymon, Co Clare.

Horace Cutler is dressed like Dracula, while Dylan Thomas sits to dinner, bills are churned out and an architect plans more buildings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Horace Cutler was the leader of the Greater London Council (1977-1981) before it was abolished when Ken Livingstone was in office. The mural depicts Cutler dressed like Dracula, as though he was a vampire sucking the life out of London, dangling from a crane, pointing at Council Hall plans for skyscrapers and clutching blueprints for even more tower blocks.

There are many references to people with money riding roughshod over the common people: a greedy developer is worshipping his pile of money, which looks like a tower block; a clockwork architect on roller-skates at a drawing board churns out new plans; and a man in a fur coat reaches for a stack of bank notes with dice and cards nearby.

Office workers using early computer-like machines may be council workers or civil servants, churning out bills, rent demands and final notices.

Memories of the Middlesex Hospital, once part of life in Fitzrovia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There are scenes that refer to the Middlesex Hospital, where Peter Sellers died in 1980, the same year the mural was painted, and there is a nurse holding an umbrella for a pregnant woman as she gets into an ambulance.

For 260 years, the Middlesex Hospital was part of life in central Fitzrovia, and in 1747 it was the first hospital in England to provide maternity beds. The hospital was closed in 2005, and the site has been redeveloped as office and hospitality complex, with the former hospital chapel, the Fitzrovia Chapel, at its heart.

There is an array of men and women in non-European clothes such as saris: Fitzrovia and neighbouring parts of Camden have long been home to a thriving South Asian community and some of the best Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants in London.

Fitzrovia is known for its restaurants, especially around Charlotte Street and Goodge Street. Food is well represented on the mural with diners and waiting staff. The bow-tied epicure to the right of the mural shows how the area was increasingly attracting a more affluent clientele.

There some drinkers in a pub, there is a man mixing cocktails, and there is a central section of rush-hour traffic in the rain with taxis, buses, motorbikes and a cyclist.

Rush-hour traffic in the rain on Tottenham Court Road, with taxis, buses, motorbikes and a cyclist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

If you click on my images, they come up in full-screen size. See if you can spot Simone the charismatic Italian waiter, an ace window-cleaner behaving like a Peeping Tom as he catches a glimpse of a woman in the shower, the disk jockey, the innocent-looking boy, or the tailor who is part of a trade that has long been part of life in the area.

Over time, the mural suffered damage and had problems with mould, bleaching from the sun, peeling paint peeling and graffiti on parts of the lower section. But the mural has been rescued and restored recently, with help from Global Street Art, and its vivid colours have been refreshed.

The Fitzrovia Mural at Whitefield Gardens on Tottenham Court Road is a short walk from Goodge Street station and it continues to offer a window onto life in the area in 1980s and earlier decades.

The Fitzrovia Mural has been refreshed and continues to offer a window onto life almost half a century ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)