Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 61, Tuesday 7 July 2026

‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9: 38) … walking through the fields in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2026). Last night or in the early hours of this morning, I went back on my pledge to watch only World Cup fixtures that were broadcast from the co-hosts Mexico and Canada. It was my lone, single protest against the Trump regime and the way it has corrupted the world of football, along with so much else in our world today. But over the last 48 hours, Trump has intervened in yet another blatant breach of the rules of the game, and yet again Infantino allowed Trump to play all the cards (pardon the pun). I felt I had stayed awake with the rest of the world, hoping Belgium would win, knowing at the end that 4-1 is justice not just for Belgians but for football fans everywhere.

Now, tired as I am, I am taking some quiet time this morning before this new day begins to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons’ (Matthew 9: 34) … a gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 9: 32-38 (NRSVA):

32 After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.’ 34 But the Pharisees said, ‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.’

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

‘He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36) … sheep on a small holding in Platanias, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 9: 32-38) recalls the healing of the demoniac who is mute and then follows Jesus as goes through cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the good news, curing the sick, and showing compassion for the crowds, for they are ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’

Today’s reading brings us to the end of the section in Saint Matthew’s Gospel recounting 10 miracles of Jesus (chapters 8 to 9). The last of those miracles involves a man whose deafness results from being possessed by a demon. It follows immediately after the cure of two blind men, a story that is not read in this current cycle of readings but one that is told again in Matthew 20. It seems to correspond to the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10, although there are significant differences.

When the people bring this man to Jesus, he drives out the demon and immediately the man is able to speak. There is a double reaction. The people are astounded, but the Pharisees suggest Jesus casts out demons through the power of ‘the ruler of the demons’, an absurd and illogical suggestion.

This reading then summarises so much of what Jesus was doing. But behind all that he does is his deep compassion for the needs of the people, for they are ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (verse 36).

He sees their plight, and tells the disciples: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (verses 37-38).

Ministry and mission must embolden the Church to name the needs of people who are ‘harassed and helpless’. This is not bringing politics into religion, but refusing to allow politics to silence us in the demands put on us by being faithful to our religious calling.

The labourers in the field cannot be confined to bishops and priests, to the members of church commissions and committees and to those who work with mission societies and development agencies.

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few and the people are ‘harassed and helpless’ more than ever. How do I respond with compassion, vocally, practically and effectively?

‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9: 38) … walking through fields along Comberford Lane in Wigginton in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 7 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 7 July 2026) invites us to pray:

God of mercy, bring healing to survivors of gender-based violence and comfort those who mourn. Stir the Church and wider community towards justice, protection, and lasting change.

The Collect of the Day:

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 Reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36) … a window in Saint John-in-Hampstead Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 18, Wednesday 22 April 2026

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread on the Isla Jane Bakery stall in Buckingham Market (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 19 April 2026).

Later this evening, I hope to be at the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery on Tamworth Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 35-40 (NRSVA):

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in a shop window in Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

When the people push their questions onto Jesus, he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14). In the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of God’s name is closely related to the emphatic statement ‘I AM’ (see Exodus 3: 14; 6: 2; Deuteronomy 32: 39; Isaiah 43: 25; 48: 12; 51: 12; etc.). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, most of these passages are translated with as ‘I AM’, ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi).

The ‘I AM’ of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint and the ‘I AM’ of Saint John’s Gospel is the God who creates us, who communicates with us, who gives himself to us.

But what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as ‘the Bread of Life’?

I once spent some time at Easter in Cappadocia, in south-central Turkey, because I was teaching a module on Patristics and I was interested in sites associated with the three Cappadocian Fathers: Saint Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, his brother Saint Gregory (335-395), Bishop of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus (329-390), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.

They challenged heresies such as Arianism and their thinking was instrumental in formulating the phrases that shaped the Nicene Creed, and we were celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed last year.

Saint Basil is also remembered for his challenging social values. He wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’

So faith and belief must be related to how we live our lives as Christians.

Bishop Frank Weston, who was the Bishop of Zanzibar from 1908, held together in a creative combination his incarnational and sacramental theology with his radical social concerns formed the keynote of his address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. He believed that a true sacramental focus gave a reality to Christ’s presence and power that nothing else could.

However, he concluded: ‘But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then … you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.’

So, from Basil the Great in the fourth century to great mission pioneers in the Anglican Communion in recent generations, sacramental life is meaningless unless it is lived out in our care for those who are hungry, who are suffering and who are marginalised.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry’ (Saint Basil) … the rock-hewn Chapel of Saint Basil at Göreme in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 22 April 2026):

‘Turning Waste into Wonder’ provides the theme this week (19-25 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 48-49. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from Linet Musasa, team member of the Partners in the Gospel Comprehensive Climate Change initiative of the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 22April 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, guide the Provincial Climate Change Campaign across 47 dioceses. May it change hearts, encourage action, and strengthen the Church’s witness for creation care.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Collect on the Eve of Saint George:

God of hosts,
who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection;
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 Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in traditional icon-style on a door in Koutouloufári in Crete (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

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 10, Tuesday 14 April 2026

Nicodemus visits Christ at night … a window in Saint John-at-Hampstead Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II) or, in the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, with Easter Day.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up’ (John 3: 14) … a window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, in memory of Joseph Gray of Maids Moreton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 3: 7-15 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9 Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10 Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’

‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes’ (John 3: 8) … travelling from Dalkey to Bray on the Dart at Killiney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the readings for three days this week, from Monday to Wednesday, we meet Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee, a rabbi, a teacher and a member of the Sanhedrin. He has a Greek name – Νικοδημος (Nikodemos) means ‘victory of the people’ – and this Greek name probably indicates he is an urbane and sophisticated man.

Nicodemus appears three times in Saint John’s Gospel:

1, He visits Christ at night to discuss Christ’s teachings (John 3: 1-21)
2, He reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person should be heard before being judged (John 7: 50-51)
3, At the Crucifixion, he provides the embalming spices and helps Joseph of Arimathea to prepare the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42)

In this first encounter, Nicodemus comes to Christ by night. Perhaps he did not want to be seen consulting Jesus, who is newly-arrived in Jerusalem and is already causing a stir. But we should remember too that Saint John’s Gospel uses poetic and dramatic contrasts: heaven and earth, water and wine, seeing and believing, faith and doubt, truth and falseness. Here too we have the contrast between darkness and light, the world that is in darkness is being brought into the light of Christ.

Nicodemus is a good and pious Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious court. But, despite his positive attitudes to the Mosaic Law, what is the foundation of his faith?

Nicodemus acknowledges Christ is a teacher sent by God. But is this enough – is it simply an understanding of Christ without faith? At this point, Nicodemus sees but does not believe; he has insight but does not have faith.

Christ’s reply puts the emphasis back on faith rather than on law, on believing more than seeing. But does Nicodemus understand this?

Nicodemus seems to misunderstand what he hears. He thinks Christ is speaking about a second physical, natural birth from a mother’s womb.

The dialogue that follows includes two of the most quoted passages in Saint John’s Gospel:

• ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above’ or ‘born again’ (verse 5)

• ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (verse 16)

Today’s reading is placed between these two well-known sayings. Christ tells Nicodemus: ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’ (verse 8).

Nicodemus is confused or perplexed and asks: ‘How can these things be?’ (verse 9). Christ responds, asking him: ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?’ (verse 10).

The conversation moves from the general to the particular, from the faith of many to the faith of one individual. When Jesus recalls in verse 7, ‘Do not be astonished that I said to you’, the Greek pronoun used (ὑμᾶς) is in the accusative plural form of the second-person pronoun. It signifies ‘you’ as the direct object when the speaker or writer addresses a group; so Jesus has been teaching a number of people, a group, or many people.

But when Jesus goes on to say, ‘Very truly, I tell you … yet you do not receive our testimony’ (verse 11), the first use of the word ‘you’ is singular, meaning you yourself, but the second use is plural.

It is difficult to notice these shifts in the English translations, to notice how Jesus moves from the second person singular to the first personal plural, from ‘you’ to we, then ‘you’ (plural) and ‘our’.

Who is the ‘we’ here, who owns what is ‘our’?

Too often, in the evangelical traditions, there is an emphasis on personal faith and personal salvation that makes no connection with collective faith, the faith of the Church, and makes no connection with the message of salvation not just for individuals, for humanity, or even the world, but the whole created cosmos.

When Christ speaks of the wind in verse 8, the Greek word used (πνεῦμα, pneuma) means both spirit and wind, while the word ‘sound’ (φωνή, phōnē) can also be translated as ‘voice’. I am reminded of Ezekiel 36: 25-27, where it says: ‘I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.’

Nicodemus has floundered around; he really fails to grasp what Jesus is saying and its implications. His question is phrased: ‘How can this be?’ (RSV), or: ‘How can these things be?’ (NRSV). Others suggest that his question should be translated as: ‘How can these things happen?’ or even more literally: ‘How is it possible for these things to happen?’

A teacher ought to be aware of the truth. But Nicodemus seems to be behaving like a weak pupil.

In verse 12, we find a contrast between earthly things, such as the parable of the wind (see verse 8), and heavenly things, as in supreme spiritual realities. And Nicodemus is offered a choice. Which choice does he make?

Christ descended from heaven to bring eternal life, participation in God’s life. In verse 13, we read the first of Saint John’s three sayings about the Son of Man being lifted up, and it is comparable to three passages in Saint Mark’s Gospel on the Son of Man’s passion (see Mark 8: 31; Mark 9: 31; Mark 10: 33).

The word ‘lift up’ (verse 14) refers to both Christ being lifted up on the Cross and Christ being lifted up into heaven – the cross is the first step on the ladder of the ascension. For the imagery being drawn on here see also Numbers 21: 4-9. The writer of the Book of Wisdom calls the serpent a symbol of salvation (Wisdom 16: 6). But this verse also recalls the earlier remark to Nathanael that he would see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (see John 1: 51).

Nicodemus would have left Jesus that night challenged to ask whether he needed to move beyond the Law to an encounter with the living God, an encounter that brings death and rebirth. But the dialogue continues in tomorrow’s Gospel reading (John 3: 16-21).

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!

Nicodemus depicted in a wall-painting in Saint Guthlac’s Church in Passenham, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 14 April 2026):

‘Stocked with Hope’ provides 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), pp 46-47. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 14 April 2026) invites us to pray:

God, bless all who join CNI’s sessions on dignity and equal rights in various parts of North India. Strengthen their voices to guide others toward respect, fairness, and equality.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ 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:

Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up’ (John 3: 14) … an icon of the Elevation of the Holy Cross in Arkadi Monastery, near Rethymnon in Crete (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

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 16, Monday 15 December 2025

‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (Matthew 21: 25) … Saint John the Baptist in a statue beside the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We have passed the half-way mark in the Season of Advent, and the countdown to Christmas continues gathered pace. The week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025), also known as Gaudete Sunday, and last night was also the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

An icon of Saint John the Baptist in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 23-27 (NRSVA):

23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ 24 Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ And they argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” 26 But if we say, “Of human origin”, we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’ 27 So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (Matthew 21: 25) … a window in Saint Mary's Church (the Hub), Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

We are two-thirds of the way through Advent, and yesterday was the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday (14 December 2025), a day when the readings and prayers recall Saint John the Baptist.

The liturgical colour on Gaudete Sunay is rose or pink, adding a note of joyful anticipation, and we lit the third, pink-coloured candle on the Advent Wreath. In many churches and cathedrals yesterday, naturally, choirs sang Gaudete! gaudete! Christus est natus, an Advent carol that was a hit in the charts in England for Steeleye Span over 50 years ago at Christmas 1973.

Saint John the Baptist is recalled again in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 21: 23-27), when Jesus speaks once again about Saint John the Baptist and his authority to baptise and teach.

The religious leaders of the time approach Jesus one day in the Temple and ask him: ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ (verse 23).

Jesus seldom directly answers provocative questions when they are put to him, and in this case, as so often, he answers with a question of his own: ‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (verse 25).

His questioners find themselves in a quandary. If they answer ‘from heaven’ or with divine authority, they may well be asked why they did not receive John’s baptism even though had come to see John baptising. Did they feel they had no need to be baptised themselves? If they had allowed themselves to be baptised, did they accept they were then sinful and the unclean?

On the other hand, if they answer ‘human’, they run the risk of offending the people who had no doubts about all this and who respected John as a prophet. They answer lamely, ‘We do not know’ (verse 27). And so Jesus refuses to reply to their question.

The Greek word for authority used here is ἐξουσία (exousia), which comes from the verb ἔξεστι (exesti) and refers to something that is lawful, may be done, is permitted or permissible.

The English word ‘authority’ comes from the Latin auctoritas, an abstract noun from the verb augere, to increase or to make bigger. The same verb gives us the word author.

A person with ‘authority’ is not merely someone who wields coercive power over others. The exercise of genuine authority is not to control or keep in line. Exercised properly, authority is being an agent in releasing the potential that is in people, to be an empowering agent.

Jesus does not wield coercive authority. He invites people to follow him; he came to serve, not be served, he came to lead people into the full development of all they could be and were meant to be. His authority is the authority of outreaching love.

How have I exercised authority in my own life – as a parent, a priest, a teacher, as a writer or journalist who may influence the thinking, the decisions and the actions of others? Is the world a little better, a little more loving because of what I say or do?

‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (Matthew 21: 25) … a detail in an icon in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 15 December 2025):

The theme this week (14 to 20 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 15 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for all those seeking retreat at Tetete Ni Kolivuti. May they find rest, guidance, and renewal of spirit as they reflect and draw closer to God.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint John the Baptist baptises Christ … one of the windows by Alfred Bell of Clayton and Bell in Saint John-at-Hampstead (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

Two windows in Pusey House remember an Irish-born architect and his son who died on the ‘RMS Leinster’

Pusey House, Oxford, was designed by the architect Temple Lushington Moore (1856-1920), who was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During my two recent days in hospital in Oxford – the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Churchill Hospital – over the past two weeks or so, I have ended each day attending Evensong in the Chapel of the Resurrection in Pusey House.

Last Friday evening, I noticed two sets of two-light windows near the chapel that commemorate two architects, father and son, with intimate links with Pusey House and with strong Irish identities.

Temple Lushington Moore (1856-1920), the architect of Pusey House, was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly. His only son, Richard Temple Moore (1891-1918), was killed when the RMS Leinster was torpedoed and sunk off Dublin a mere month before the end of World War I.

The Irish-born architect Temple Lushington Moore was commissioned to design the chapel and college buildings at Pusey House in 1911 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Pusey House on St Giles’, Oxford, is firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and is celebrating its 140th anniversary throughout the academic year 2024-2025. It was founded in 1884 in memory of Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and, for 40 years, a leading figure in the Oxford Movement.

The first principal of Pusey House was Charles Gore (1853-1932) in 1884-1893. Gore edited Lux Mundi in 1889, delivered the Bampton Lectures in 1891, and founded the Community of the Resurrection at Pusey House in 1892. Later, he became Bishop of Worcester and the first Bishop of Birmingham, before returning to Oxford as Bishop of Oxford.

At first, Pusey House occupied two townhouses on the present site on St Giles’ from 1884 to 1912. In 1903, a Leeds solicitor, John Cudworth, left a bequest of £70,000 to Pusey House, which then had a growing ministry to the university. When Darwell Stone (1859-1941) was Principal (1909-1934), the Irish-born architect Temple Moore was commissioned in October 1911 to design new college and chapel buildings.

Two pairs of two-light windows by Henry Victor Milner in Pusey House commemorate Temple Lushington Moore and his only son Richard Temple Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Temple Moore has been described as ‘England’s leading ecclesiastical architect from the mid-Edwardian years’. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner said that he was ‘always sensitive in his designs and often interesting.’

His designs reflect his Anglo-Catholic practice and values. His work can be seen across England, particularly in the North. He is known for a series of fine Gothic Revival churches built about 1890 and 1917 and he also restored many churches and designed church fittings.

He designed about 40 new churches, including the Anglican cathedral in Nairobi, restored older churches, and made alterations and additions to others, and designed fittings and furniture for many church interiors. He also designed and altered country houses, schools, vicarages, parish halls, a court house, and memorial and churchyard crosses.

The windows by Henry Victor Milner in Pusey House commemorating Temple Lushington Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Temple Lushington Moore (1856-1920) was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on 7 June 1856, the son of an army officer, Major-General George Frederick Moore (1817-1884), and Charlotte Reilly (1827-1922), the youngest daughter of John Lushington Reilly, of Scarvagh House, Co Down, and Louisa Hancock Temple of Watertown, Co Westmeath. Charlotte Reilly was also related to Power Le Poer Trench (1770-1839), the last Church of Ireland Archbishop of Tuam, and to Archbishop William Alexander of Armagh.

So the names Temple and Lushington come from his mother’s side of the family, with ancestral roots in Co Down, Co Westmeath and Co Galway.

Moore grew up in Scotland, moved to London in 1875, and was articled to the architect George Gilbert Scott jr (1839-1897), known as ‘the Middle Scott’. Although Moore set up his own practice in 1878, he continued to work closely with Scott, helping to complete his works when Scott’s health deteriorated.

From the early 1880s he travelled widely studying buildings on the continent, chiefly in Germany, France and Belgium. He was particularly impressed by the great mediaeval brick churches of north Germany, echoes of which can be found in some of his own impressively austere designs.

Moore married Emma Storrs Wilton (1856-1938), the eldest daughter of the Revd Richard Wilton of Londesborough, in 1884.

Moore is known for his Gothic Revival churches built in 1890-1917. He also restored many churches and designed church fittings. The National Heritage List for England designates at least 34 of Moore’s new churches as listed buildings. Two of these, Saint Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate, and All Saints, Stroud, are listed at Grade I, and at least 16 of the others are at Grade II*. His other works include the restoration of the Treasurer’s House and Saint William’s College, York.

Stuart Kinsella of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, has also identified at least two cathedral and two churches in Ireland, one of each in Co Armagh and Co Galway, where Moore designed repairs and improvements: Dumore, Church, Co Galway (1887), Acton Church, Poyntzpass, Co Armagh (1890-1891), the Bishop’s Chapel in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (1890-1891), and Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Tuam (1894).

Moore was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1905, and his pupils included Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), son of George Gilbert Scott jr.

The windows by Henry Victor Milner in Pusey House commemorating Richard Temple Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Moore designed a large Gothic building around a quadrangle for Pusey House. The centrepiece is the two vaulted chapels separated by a stone pulpitum, based on those found in ‘mediaeval Franciscan priories.’

Moore’s only son, Richard Temple Moore (1891-1918), was articled to his father, worked with him on his designs for Pusey House, and was expected to continue the practice. The Chapel and part of the Library were complete by 1914, and most of the remaining portions of the building were finished in 1918.

But Richard Moore was killed in the closing days of World War I. He had enlisted as a private in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and was a military passenger on the RMS Leinster when it was sunk by torpedoes in the Irish Sea on the morning of 10 October 1918. The Kingstown-Holyhead mailboat, was 16 miles out of Dublin that morning heading for Holyhead when it was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat 123.

The RMS Leinster was carrying 771 passengers and crew. They included a crew of 76, 22 postal sorters from Dublin working in the ship’s onboard postal sorting room, and 180 civilian passengers, men, women, and children. The greatest number of passengers on board, however, were service personnel. Many of them like Richard Moore were going on leave.

Richard Moore was just 27 and was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Dublin. Officially, 501 people died in the sinking, making it both the greatest ever loss of life in the Irish Sea and the highest ever casualty rate on an Irish owned ship. The dead are remembered at the RMS Leinster Memorial in Dun Laoghaire, and for many years by the Leinster Memorial Church at the Seamen’s Institute (1919-1923) on the corner of Eden Quay and Marlborough Street, Dublin, designed by WM Mitchell & Sons.

One of the inscriptions on the paired windows in Pusey House reads: ‘To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Richard Temple Moore, Royal Wilts Yeomanry, Drowned on SS Leinster Oct 10 1918 aged 27 years. Only son of Temple Moore, Architect, and his partner on this building.’

The inscription on the windows in Pusey House commemorating Richard Temple Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Temple Moore had lived his later life in Hampstead, in Downshire Hill and then at 46 Well Walk, where he died on 30 June 1920. He was buried in the churchyard at Saint John’s Church, Hampstead, which he had altered in 1912. His son-in-law Leslie Thomas Moore continued his practice and completed some of his commissions.

The second set of wording on the paired windows in Pusey House reads: ‘ADMG and in memory of Temple Moore, Architect of this building. Died June 30 1920 aged 64.’

Temple Moore’s south range of the quadrangle at Pusey House remained unexecuted at the time of his death, and was only finished in 1925 to sympathetic designs by John Duke Coleridge (1879-1934).

The smaller Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was reordered between 1935 and 1939 by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960). Comper and Moore were both invested in medievalism and, more broadly, in the richness of architectural revivalism. Comper’s work in the chapel includes a gilded baldacchino surmounted by the Risen Christ and attendant angels, and the stained glass in the east window.

The inscription on the windows in Pusey House commemorating Temple Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The two two-ight windows in Pusey House commemorating Temple Moore and his son Richard are by Henry Victor Milner (1866-1944), who painted windows and church furnishings for many of Moore’s churches.

Milner worked for Burlison and Grylls for some time, and his work with Moore in his churches from 1887 on seems to have been commissioned independently.

The architectural historian Harry Goodhart-Rendel once described Pusey House as the best specimen of Gothic design in the city of Oxford. Pusey House continues its work as the centre of Anglo-Catholicism in Oxford but, far from being an architectural showpiece, Pusey House Chapel remains a place of living worship, where the offices are chanted and the Mass is celebrated every day.

The former Leinster Memorial Church on Eden Quay in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 18, Wednesday 7 May 2025

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery on Tamworth Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

Tomorrow is VE Day (Victory in Europe), and as this week’s commemorations continue, there is a special coffee morning with a VE Day theme in Stony Stratford Library. Later this evening, I hope to be at the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in a shop window in Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 6: 35-40 (NRSVA):

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread on the shelves in the Bretzel in Portobello in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

When the people push their questions onto Jesus, he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14). In the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of God’s name is closely related to the emphatic statement ‘I AM’ (see Exodus 3: 14; 6: 2; Deuteronomy 32: 39; Isaiah 43: 25; 48: 12; 51: 12; etc.). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, most of these passages are translated with as ‘I AM’, ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi).

The ‘I AM’ of the Hebrew Bible and the ‘I AM’ of Saint John’s Gospel is the God who creates us, who communicates with us, who gives himself to us.

But what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as ‘the Bread of Life’?

I spent some time at Easter ten years ago in Cappadocia, in south-central Turkey, because of my interest in sites associated with the three Cappadocian Fathers: Saint Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, his brother Saint Gregory (335-395), Bishop of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus (329-390), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.

They challenged heresies such as Arianism and their thinking was instrumental in formulating the phrases that shaped the Nicene Creed, and we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed this year.

Saint Basil is also remembered for his challenging social values. He wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’

So faith and belief must be related to how we live our lives as Christians.

Bishop Frank Weston, who was the Bishop of Zanzibar from 1908, held together in a creative combination his incarnational and sacramental theology with his radical social concerns formed the keynote of his address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. He believed that a true sacramental focus gave a reality to Christ’s presence and power that nothing else could.

However, he concluded: ‘But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then … you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.’

So, from Basil the Great in the fourth century to great mission pioneers in the Anglican Communion in recent generations, sacramental life is meaningless unless it is lived out in our care for those who are hungry, suffering and marginalised.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry’ (Saint Basil) … the rock-hewn Chapel of Saint Basil at Göreme in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 7 May 2025):

My prayers today include the Papal Conclave which begins today (7 May), when members of the College of Cardinals start voting for a new Pope in a secret ballot, with four rounds of voting per day until one candidate receives two-thirds support.

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides 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). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 7 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we ask for ample provision for refugees, that food, clothing, essential gear will be given to them along the way.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in traditional icon-style on a door in Koutouloufári in Crete (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

Tracing James Comerford, whose miniature portrait was painted shortly before his marriage in 1829

The miniature portrait of James Comerford (ca 1829) by François Theodore Rochard, in the Lady Cohen Collection at Kenwood House

Patrick Comerford

I recently came across a miniature portrait of James Comerford, dating from ca 1829, by the French miniaturist François Theodore Rochard and now in the Lady Cohen Collection at Kenwood House in Hampstead.

The miniature is a watercolour on ivory, and shows a young James Comerford with short curling brown hair, wearing a dark blue coat and top coat, checked cravat, with spy glass and fob seals, an ivy draped urn to his and right, a sunset sky.

The reverse of James Comerford’s portrait is inscribed in a later hand with the identification of James Comerford as the sitter, together with the information that he married ‘Ann Birrell’. An associated miniature of Ann Birrell by Rochard is fully signed by the artist and inscribed with his Howland Street address and the date 7 February 1829.

In an age before photography – and long before ‘selfies’ – these portable images served as intimate tokens of love and friendship or as reminders of lost, absent or deceased loved ones.

The miniature of James Comerford was part of the Lady Cohen Collection, featuring 65 miniatures by some of the leading artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was given to English Heritage through the Cultural Gift scheme of Arts Council England’s. Bryony Cohen is the wife of the retired High Court Judge, Sir Jonathan Lionel Cohen.

Louise Cooling, the English Heritage curator at Kenwood, said the collection was of outstanding art historical importance. The miniatures are mostly watercolour on ivory, and the miniatures include a double portrait of Mrs Wadham Wyndham and her sister Miss Slade by Andrew Robertson, a late miniature by Jeremiah Meyer, and a work by the last great Scottish miniaturist Robert Thorburn (1818-1885).

The heyday of the portrait miniature coincides with the time when Kenwood was home to the first three Earls of Mansfield and their families. For example, over eight years William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, commissioned 13 miniature copies of his portrait by Joshua Reynolds. ‘A large number of the miniatures commissioned by people who lived at Kenwood are lost, having likely been given away as gifts,’ Louise Cooling says.

The French miniaturist François Theodore Rochard (1798-1857) moved to London ca 1820, joining his brother who was already living there. Rochard was a popular portrait painter specialising in miniatures and in water colours and won two silver medals from the new Society of British Artists in 1823. He retired after his marriage in 1850 and he died in London on 31 October 1857.

His brother, Simon Jacques Rochard (1788-1872), was a painter of portrait miniatures in France, England and Brussels. He was only 20 when he painted a portrait of the Empress Joséphine for Napoleon and later other portraits of the imperial family. After Napoleon’s return from Elba in 1815, he was drafted into the army but fled to Brussels. There he received commissions to paint miniatures, including at least one of the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

Shortly after this, he moved to London, and there he painted numerous miniatures of leading society figures such as Princess Charlotte (1766-1828).

Kenwood House is a stately home on the north fringes of Hampstead Heath. The house was built in the late 17th century and was remodelled in the 18th century for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, by Robert Adam. The house and part of the grounds were bought by Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, in 1925 and donated to the nation. It is now owned by London County Council and a popular visitor attraction, and holds a significant number of historic paintings and art works, including 63 Old Master paintings, while the gardens have sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Eugène Dodeigne.

James Comerford (1720-1808) and Anne (Langton) Comerford were pained by John Comerford (1720-1808) in 1794 and 1797 (Comerford family collection)

But I was curious to know the identity of this James Comerford whose portrait was painted in 1829 by the fashionable portraitist François Theodore Rochard, along with his future wife who is named at Kenwood in the catalogue of the Lady Cohen Collection as ‘Ann Birrell’.

My attention was drawn to this portrait last week as I was trying to trace an English artist in the 1950s who signed his work BP Comerford, and found myself researching the work and career of the artist Charles William (Bill) Comerford (1905-1961).

I am familiar with the work of the Irish miniaturist John Comerford (1770-1832), and some of his works are also the collection of miniatures in Kenwood House. John Comerford was a regular guest at the Langton House in the Butterslip, Kilkenny, of James Comerford (1720-1808) and Anne (Langton) Comerford, and painted miniature portraits of each of them in 1794 and again in 1797.

He probably also painted their nephew, James Comerford (1775-1825) of Newtownbarry (Bunclody), my great-great-grandfather, and James Comerford’s eldest son, Richard Comerford (1796-1848) of Newtownbarry, my great-grandfather’s eldest brother.

Richard Comerford (1796-1848) of Newtownbarry (left) and his uncle James Comerford (1775-1825, right) may have been painted by John Comerford ( Comerford family collection)

However, although they sat for John Comerford, neither James Comerford of Kilkenny nor James Comerford of Newtownbarry is the subject of the miniature portrait of James Comerford painted by Rochard in 1829 – both were dead by then.

I am now confident, however, that the sitter for Rochard’s portrait in 1829 was the Victorian book collector, antiquarian and notary James Comerford (1807-1881), who was married in 1829. This James Comerford was born at Holborn on 7 November 1807, in Castle Street, now Furnival Street, Holborn, and was baptised in Saint Andrew’s Church, Holborn, in March 1808.

He first practised as a notary public in partnership with TS Girdler as Comerford and Company at 27 Change Alley, Cornhill, London, from December 1827. Later, he practised from premises at 7 Tokenhouse Yard, Lothbury. James Comerford was also a magistrate or Justice of the Peace (JP), secretary to the Society of Public Notaries of London (1833), and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians (FSA, 1840).

He married 19-year-old Sarah Anne Bissett, daughter of Captain James Bissett, in Wilmington, Sussex, on 16 July 1828. So ‘Ann Birrell’ may be a misreading of Sarah Anne Bissett’s name in handwriting, and their portraits may have been commissioned in 1828, rather than 1829, in advance of their wedding.

Family tradition says that in his younger days James was something of a rake, who took fencing lessons from a fencing master, Henry Angelo, and fought a duel with a man named Atwood over his future wife. The adventurous and rakish spirit continued after their wedding, when Sarah and James Comerford took their honeymoon during the Belgian/Dutch civil war.

Sarah Anne Bissett was born in 1809, the daughter of a sea captain who died in the American war in 1812. Her eldest sister, Anna Maria Bissett, married the Revd Robert Philip Blake (1801-1841) curate of Wilmington, Sussex, and Stoke, near Guildford, at the time of Sarah’s wedding. He drowned at Niton, Isle of Wight, while swimming with his son, later the Revd Professor John Frederick Blake (1839-1906), lecturer in Comparative Anatomy, Charing Cross Hospital, London and Professor of Natural Science, University College Nottingham.

Between 1829 and 1851, James Comerford and his family were living at 7 Saint Andrew’s Place, Regent’s Park, London. By 1872, James Comerford was living in Framfield, Sussex.

Sarah and James Comerford were the parents of two sons and a daughter: James William Comerford (1829-1917), Charles Frederick Comerford (born 1831), and Emily Sarah (1842-1909), who married Henry Burchett in 1858 and later married the Revd Hamilton Brand.

James Comerford was a book collector and antiquarian. He built on his father’s earlier book collection, and amassed a library that included a large collection of county histories, local topographies and books of Catholic religious piety. He died on 8 March 1881 in the last cholera epidemic in London, and has many living descendants.

James Comerford’s bookplates have become collectors’ items … they perpetuate the claims of the Comerford family in Ireland to descent from the Comberford family of Staffordshire

After his death, his son, Colonel James William Comerford (1829-1917), sold his library and antiquarian collection at a Sotheby’s auction on 16-20 November 1881. His books occasionally come back on the market, but more often they are valued for his heraldic bookplates with the motto So Ho Ho Dea Ne, than as antique books.

The most notable object of antiquarian interest in James Comerford’s private collection was the ‘Bosworth Crucifix.’ This 15th century bronze processional crucifix, measuring 585 mm x 280 mm, is now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

The Bosworth Crucifix is said to have been dug up on the Field of Bosworth in Leicestershire around the year 1778, and came into the possession of the Comerford family around the year 1810.

I have still to see Rochard’s portrait of James Comerford’s wife Sarah Anne Bissett or ‘Ann Birrell’.

The Bosworth Crucifix … the most notable antiquarian item in James Comerford’s private collection, now in the collection of the Society of Antiquarians