It’s quite clear by now that I was never going to be welcome at the World Cup in the US … not that I ever planned to go

I have no plans to visit the US … well, certainly not for the next three years

Patrick Comerford

Well, it looks like I’m not going to be able to go to the World Cup next year. Not that I ever planned to. But it’s quite clear by now that I’m not welcome.

I’m still hoping that Ireland qualifies in the playoffs against Czechia in March and then against either Denmark or North Macedonia. But I’m going to have to cheer on Ireland and England next summer from the welcome warmth of the pubs in Stony Stratford.

In my wildest dreams – even if I could afford to, even if some unexpected generous benefactor made the unexpected gift of a World Cup package – I would never think of spending most of June and July being ferried around Mexico, Canada and the US. I have no doubt that it’s going to be fun, and the fans who get there are going to have wonderful experiences – at least in Mexico and Canada.

But there are no circumstances I can imagine that would allow me to be in the US at this time: not for the World Cup, not for holidays or family celebrations, not even through sheer curiosity. Even if I was presented with the impossible, unimaginable surprise gift of an all-expenses-paid package, I am not going to be in the US next summer, under any circumstances. Frankly, I am not going to be in the US for at least the next three years.

It’s not that I would not like to go. I have been to Florida, and I once stopped briefly in New York, and I always thought I would be back. When I was working on the Foreign Desk in The Irish Times between 1974 and 2002, I was involved in planning and editing the news of no less than seven US Presidential elections (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), and I worked on editing US news on day-to-day basis.

I always thought I would get there for more than a holiday, perhaps for a short period of work experience, or an academic exchange or conference. At one time in the 1990s, I was invited to consider taking a course at Episcopal Divinity School beside Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an offer I have sometimes regretted not taking. There are still so many places I dream of visiting and seeing, from Boston, New York and much of New England or Quaker Pennsylvania to California and Oregon.

But I’m not going to the US as a tourist, a football fan or out of theological or cultural curiosity for the next three years at least.

Over the past week, US government agencies and departments have started imposing Donald Trump’s demand that all tourists to the US have to reveal their social media activity from the last five years. The mandatory new disclosures apply to the 42 countries whose nationals are currently permitted to enter the US without a visa, including Ireland and the UK.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) is also demanding that any potential visitors or tourists disclose any and all telephone numbers and any email addresses they have used in the last decade, provide face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics, and hand over the names, addresses, birthdates and birthplaces of family members, including children.

I cannot remember the six or seven email accounts I have had to use professionally within the past ten years, and I no longer have access to them. I have no problem with biometric details been garnered from my passport at many airports these days. But I certainly have no permission to breach all data provisions and provide intimate personal details of my sons, my ex-wife, my sisters and brothers, their spouses, their children and their grandchildren – even if I did know them.

I deleted my XTwitter account many months ago because there was so much far-right extremism there, and the hatred and racism were not only tolerated but encouraged. I certainly am not going to allow some goon from ICE or Homeland Security at an airport leaving me standing and abused verbally as they scroll though my many Facebook accounts, my Pinterest pins, my YouTube clips, or my four different blogs.

All of this is in response to an executive order issued by – a diktat from – Donald Trump demanding restrictions to ensure visitors to the US ‘do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles’.

Of course I ‘do not bear hostile attitudes’ toward US citizens. How could any have blanket hostility towards the citizens of any one country?

I have many distant cousins – second, third or even more distant cousins – who are US citizens. I cannot imagine I agree with all of them on every political issue, all the time. But they are part of my extended family, and long after Trump has left or been removed from office, those US citizens shall remain part of understanding of what extended family means.

When I was a child, my father’s first cousin in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Margaret Linders, regularly sent us bundles of children’s books and comics, so I was familiar with Clark Kent, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Lex Lothar and life in Smallville long before they featured in films. I was still in my teens, still thinking Woodstock was the most creative event my generation had heard of, when my brother moved to Durham, North Carolina, as a PhD research student at Duke University – he died there 55 years ago this week, and is buried there. One of the last photographs of him was outside the United Nations Building in New York in front of the sculpture by Yevgeny Vuchetich, ‘Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares’ (1959).

Of course I ‘do not bear hostile attitudes’ toward US culture. Part of my growing up included heavy doses of US pop music, musicals and composers, television comedy and domestic soap operas, Hollywood films and actors, and works of literature, architecture and art, from Elvis and Joan Baez to George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein; from Jack Benny and Woody Allen to Mr Ed and Green Acres; from TS Eliot and Robert Frost to Sylvia Plath and Maya Angelou, Bob Dylan and Alan Ginsberg; from Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry to Walter Gropius and Abram Edelman; from James McNeill Whistler and Man Ray to Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock; from Fiddler on the Roof and the Wizard of Oz to ET and Apocalypse Now. I too enjoyed the work of Rob Reiner, and find Trump’s response to the double murders loathsome and beneath contempt. And for that I am content to be labelled the organge felon as being infected with what, in his schoolyard bullying tnatrums, he smugly refers to as Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Every journalist admires and is indebted to the bravery and innovative work of Pulitzer Prize-winning writers like Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Harper Lee, and Truman Capote who never did actually win the Pulitzer Prize.

Every campaigner for human rights and social justice and against war and racism has been inspired by Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and the Berrigan Brothers.

Every theologian I know has read Thomas Merton, Paul Tillich, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Katie Cannon, has read Walter Brueggemann, Stanley Hauerwas, John Shelby Spong and William Stringfellow.

Of course I ‘do not bear hostile attitudes’ towards US institutions. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral and would never think of changing the name of the Kennedy Center in Washington to anything crass or vulgar.

Of course I ‘do not bear hostile attitudes’ towards the US ‘founding principles’. If only US politicians today – and the President in particular – shared my respect for those principles, including the rights to life, liberty and property, for popular sovereignty and the rule of the people rule, for republican principles or representative rule, for individual liberty, the rights to free speech and due process, for equality, the separation of powers and the separation of religion and state, for checks and balances, federalism, and majority rule with minority rights, all codified in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

My respect for those ‘founding principles’ includes a desire to see them extended to all democracies and all nations, including Trumps new allies and friends in Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. This respect leads to a desire to see the present president of US being impeached for breaching each and every single one of those principles. In a letter in the Guardian today (16 December 2025), Wal Callaby writes: ‘You couldn’t make it up. You quote Donald Trump as saying “But we always take people from places like Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? … The only thing they are good at is going after ships.’ … the day after US troops seized a tanker of Venezuelan oil. Piracy is piracy, no matter who does it.’

But, I have to admit I ‘bear hostile attitudes’ towards the US government – not any or every US government, but this specific administration, its president, its vice-president, its senior office holders, and the putrid, fetid, racist, hate-filled atmosphere they have created, encoraged and sustained.

Not that they need access to my passwords. They already have their bots at work. The biggest rises in views of my blog postings this year coincided with three major events this year: Trump’s inauguration, Trump’s farcical birthday parade, and Trump’s demands for access to the social media accounts of potential tourists. What a dreadfully insecure president the man is, but we must continue to insist in saying that the emperor.

Nor are they are going to miss me. California is already preparing for a significant decline in foreign visitors this year, for example, and Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles already reports a 50% fall in footfall.

There were growing fears that the World Cup is going to be chaotic with US immigration raids continuing apace. Human rights organisations are warning that Fifa risks becoming ‘a public relations tool of an increasingly authoritarian US government’. With cross-border travel between Mexico and the US increasingly fraught, the Sport and Rights Alliance is demanding Fifa ensures protection against ‘racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and unlawful immigration enforcement’, both of local communities and of visiting fans during the tournament.

I shall be watching the World Cup – and cheering on England and (hopefully) Ireland – next summer from the welcoming comfort of the Old George and some of the other pubs in Stony Stratford.

Truman Capote and Harper Lee … they represent the best of 20th century American writing and literature

Remembering Shakespeare in Southwark Cathedral

The Shakespeare window in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am in London today, at a meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency Us, previously USPG (the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

On my way to the Us offices at Harling House in Great Suffolk Street, I walked from Liverpool Street Station to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and walked across the the London Millennium Footbridge over the Thames to the Globe Theatre on the Southwark side of the river, just 10 minutes walk from here.

For the past week, the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare has been celebrated throughout this part of London, and the offices in Great Suffolk Street are just a short walk from Southwark Cathedral, where Shakespeare is commemorated by a window and a statue in the South Aisle.

Every year a birthday celebration is held in Southwark Cathedral in honour of England’s greatest playwright. Last Saturday [23 April], the special Shakespeare service in Southwark Cathedral blended liturgical worship, music and performance. The celebration drew on extracts of four plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest – all currently playing in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe.

It was a fitting celebration of Shakespeare’s life and legacy in his workplace parish. Although he was never a regular worshipper in London, many members of his acting company were on the parish register of Saint Saviour’s Church.

The church was first known as Saint Mary and later as Saint Mary Overy (‘over the river’), and Southwark was part of the Diocese of Winchester. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the church was renamed Saint Saviour’s, and only became a cathedral in 1905 with the formation of the new Diocese of Southwark.

The famous first folio of Shakespeare’s plays, produced after his death by two members of his acting company – John Hemings and Henry Cordell – lists all the company’s members. Over half (but not William Shakespeare) also appear on the parish register of Saint Saviour’s.

The window, showing characters from some of Shakespeare’s plays, was designed by Christopher Webb to replace one that was destroyed during World War II. The window was unveiled in 1954 by Dame Sybil Thorndike, who made her stage debut half a century earlier in 1904 in a regional production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and went on to perform in hundreds off Shakespearean productions.

Beneath the window is a recumbent alabaster figure of Shakespeare, carved by Henry McCarthy in 1912. The Bard is show resting and reading outside the Globe Theatre. The background depicts 17th century Southwark in relief, including the Globe Theatre, Winchester Palace and the tower of Saint Saviour’s.

Shakespeare’s brother Edmund was buried in Saint Saviour’s in 1607, and although the position of Edmund’s grave is not known today, he is commemorated by an inscribed stone in the paving of the Choir.

A Kempe window in the cathedral commemorates Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield-born author, lexicographer, critic and conversationalist. He was a friend of the Thrale family who were local brewers, and often stayed with them. His friends James Boswell and David Garrick were responsible for reviving English national interest in Shakespeare as a poet and playwright.

The Samuel Johnson window in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Tony Hisgett/Wikipedia)

A journey through Lent 2016 with Samuel Johnson (2)

Good advice from Samuel Johnson in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am travelling to London this morning [11 February 2016] for a meeting of the Trustees of Us (the United Society), the Anglican mission agency previously known as USPG (the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel).

Samuel Johnson once declared: “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Reading over today’s agenda and anticipating the discussions, I imagine too when one tires of demanding social justice, one is tired of life.

During Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on words from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield lexicographer and writer who compiled the first authoritative English-language dictionary.

Johnson said: “By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” So, what should I be looking for in London today on my way to and from this meeting? Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell, quotes this pious Anglican of the 18th century as saying:

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.

Continued tomorrow.

Yesterday’s reflection.

A family of Cambridge theologians with deep roots in Co Monaghan

Dean Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858-1933) … a great Cambridge theologian whose parents were Irish-born (Portrait: Aidan Savage/Wells Cathedral)

Patrick Comerford

All Saints’ Church is in the heart of Cambridge. It stands on part of the site of Westcott House, the Anglican theological college on Jesus Lane, on a corner opposite Jesus College, and just a few steps away from Sidney Sussex College, where I was studying once again last autumn.

All Saints’ Church on Jesus Lane, Cambridge … one of the best-preserved Victorian Anglo-Catholic Gothic Revival churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I visit All Saints regularly, and when I dropped in once again a few weeks ago while I was at Westcott House, the church was hosting an exhibition by a local pottery group. All Saints closed as a parish church over 40 years ago and since 1981 it has been vested in the Redundant Churches Fund, now the Churches Conservation Trust. It is occasionally used for worship by a variety of groups and is kept open almost daily by volunteers and the students of Westcott House.

All Saints remains one of the best-preserved Victorian Anglo-Catholic Gothic Revival churches in England. The church was designed by the architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) and was built in 1863-1864. The beautiful interior includes works by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, Charles Eamer Kempe, Frederick Leach, Wyndham Hope Hughes and other artists of the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements.

All Saints was Bodley’s first church in the Decorated Gothic style of the early 14th century (1300-1320). It is one of his most successful churches and became his favourite.

The site of the original All Saints’ Church, opposite Trinity College and close to the Divinity Schools (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The parish dates back to the Middle Ages. The original church stood opposite Trinity College and close to the Divinity Schools, on a site now marked by a triangular piece of open land and a memorial cross. This was the old Jewish quarter of Cambridge, the church was known as All Saints in the Jewry and the vicars were appointed by Jesus College.

A landmark church

Much of the interior decoration of All Saints’ Church is the work of William Morris and his partnership (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The old church was rebuilt and restored on several occasions, but the site was cramped and dark, and by the mid-19th century it was too small. Jesus College donated the site for a new church in Jesus Lane, the foundation stone was laid on 27 May 1863, the church was consecrated on 30 November 1864, and the new church, with its tower and spire, was completed in 1869-1871. It was once the tallest building in Cambridge, and the spire of All Saints, modelled on the parish church in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, remains a landmark that can be seen throughout Cambridge.

Inside, works by William Morris include the large five-light East Window and later decorative features include work by Charles Eamer Kempe and Frederick Leach. The Cambridge church historian, Owen Chadwick, who died last summer, says Kempe’s work represents “the Victorian zenith” of church decoration and stained glass windows.

The chancel arch painting of Christ in Glory is by Wyndham Hope Hughes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bodley devised all the wall paintings in the nave, the nave aisle, the sanctuary, and the east end of the south chancel aisle. The walls and roofs are decorated with colourful stencil patterns in red, green and gold, with pomegranates and seeds as a sign of the Resurrection, monograms of IHS and IHC for Christ and a crowned M for the Virgin Mary, as well as inscriptions from the Psalms, the Beatitudes and the Book of Revelation.

The pulpit was designed by Bodley and the panels were painted by Wyndham Hope Hughes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The ceilings are decorated with symbols of the Four Evangelists and the roofs are the work of Frederick Leach. The tempera painting on the chancel arch of Christ in Glory, flanked by his mother and Saint John the Evangelist and surrounded by angels, is by Wyndham Hope Hughes. The pulpit was designed by Bodley and the panels painted by Hughes show Saint Peter, Saint John the Baptist and Saint John Chrysostom.

The church has an oak chancel screen and the rood beam was fitted as a girder to counteract a structural weakness in the base of the tower. The choir stalls are also designed by Bodley, while at the west end, the octagonal 15th century font survives from the old church.

The East Window is one of the great treasures of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The East Window (1866) is one of the great treasures of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, with 20 figures designed by Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and William Morris. The nave windows include one designed by Kempe as a memorial to three former vicars and showing three saintly Cambridge Anglicans: the priest poet George Herbert, the theologian Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott and the missionary Henry Martyn.

The last addition to the church is a window celebrating women in the Church (1944). The four women depicted are Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer; Josephine Butler, the social reformer who worked with prostitutes; Mother Cecile Isherwood, who founded a community of Anglican nuns in South Africa; and Nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed in World War I.

With a decline in the number of resident parishioners, All Saints’ Church closed when the last vicar, the Revd Hereward Hard, retired in 1973.

A Monaghan family

Saint Patrick’s Church, Monaghan, where generations of the Robinson family were baptised, married and buried (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

One of the early vicars of All Saints was Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858-1933), a Cambridge theologian who is part of the long theological tradition that includes Charles Gore, Joseph Lightfoot, Fenton Hort and Brooke Westcott and that reaches back to John Cosin, Lancelot Andrewes and Richard Hooker. He was one of the great Patristic scholars at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Armitage Robinson was part of the generation of Cambridge theologians that followed the great Dublin-born Patristic scholar, Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892), who, with Brooke Westcott, was the editor of The New Testament in the Original Greek. But I was surprised to learn during recent visits to Cambridge that Robinson also had strong Irish family connections, for both his father and his mother were Irish-born.

His father, the Revd George Robinson (1819-1881), was the vicar of a poor Somerset parish near Bristol and Bath. George was born in Monaghan where his father, Joseph Robinson (1782-1866), a printer and bookseller, lived at No 1 The Diamond, beside the parish church. Joseph was descended from a family that lived in Seagoe area of Co Armagh since the 17th century, and later in Monaghan and Clones. He is buried in the vault of Saint Patrick’s Church, Monaghan.

George Robinson was educated at Trinity College Dublin and was ordained deacon (1844) for Donaghcloney in the Diocese of Dromore by Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester, and priest (1845) for Barr in the Diocese of Clogher by John Leslie, Bishop of Kilmore. In 1847, he moved to England, where he was curate in Saint James’s, Clapham, Vicar of Keynsham, Somerset and Vicar of Saint Augustine’s, Everton, Liverpool.

George Robinson was back in Ireland in 1854, when he married Henrietta Cecilia Forbes in Collon, Co Louth. She was a daughter of Arthur Forbes and Caroline (Armitage), of Craigavad, Co Down. George and Henrietta had 13 children, including six sons who were priests and two daughters who were deaconesses. He died in 1881 in Marseilles, where he was buried.

Patristic scholarship

First Court in Christ’s College, Cambridge … Armitage Robinson was a Fellow and Dean, and Forbes Robinson was a Fellow, chaplain and Junior Dean (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Inside Great Saint Mary’s, the university church in Cambridge, where Armitage Robinson was assistant curate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Armitage Robinson studied classics and theology at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1881. After graduation he was a Fellow of Christ’s College (1881-1889), and became a chaplain to Lightfoot, who had become the Bishop of Durham in 1882. He then became Dean of Christ’s College (1884-1890), and was also Assistant Curate of Great Saint Mary’s, the university church in Cambridge (1885-1886), before becoming Vicar of All Saints in 1888.

The Chapel of Emmanuel College … Forbes Robinson was Chaplain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

During Robinson’s three years at All Saints’ Church (1888-1892), artists from the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts Movement continued to decorate and enrich the church. For a brief time (1891-1892), his curate at All Saints was one of his many clerical brothers, Canon Forbes Robinson (1867-1904), a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Forbes Robinson later became Chaplain of Emmanuel College (1891-1896) and Chaplain and Junior Dean of Christ’s College (1896-1904), and was an expert in the Coptic Gospels.

When Armitage Robinson resigned from All Saints, he became Norrisian Professor of Divinity (1893-1899) in Cambridge, and a canon of Wells Cathedral (1894-1899). As a theologian, he succeeded to the mantle of the Cambridge ‘triumvirate’ of Westcott, Lightfoot and Hort. He wrote a commentary of the Epistle to the Ephesians, he visited the libraries of Venice with Archbishop Gregg of Dublin, visited Patmos and Athens, and was known for his work on Patristic texts, including the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas and the works of Saint Irenaeus, Saint Perpetua and Origen.

Armitage Robinson was Rector of Saint Margaret’s, Westminster (1899-1900) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

He left Cambridge to become Rector of Saint Margaret’s, Westminster (1899-1900), and a Canon of Westminster Abbey (1899-1902). Then, at the age of 44, he became the Dean of Westminster Abbey (1902-1911), where he revised and modernised the coronation ceremonies.

Armitage Robinson became the Dean of Westminster Abbey at the age of 44 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

He moved to become Dean of Wells Cathedral (1911-1933), where he had close links with Dom Cuthbert Butler and the Benedictine monks of Downside Abbey, took part in the bilateral Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations at Malines convened by Cardinal Mercier and Lord Halifax, and became known for his publications in history.

Robinson received an honorary doctorate (DD) from Trinity College Dublin in 1908, and in 1920 he returned to his father’s alma mater as the Donnellan Lecturer, with a series of lectures on Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache. When he died on 7 May 1933, he was buried in Wells Cathedral.

Family of theologians

Bishop John Robinson, author of Honest to God (1963), was a nephew of Armitage Robinson (Photograph: Trinity College Cambridge)

Five of the Robinson brothers were Church of England priests, a unique tally in any family. Apart from Armitage and Forbes, the others were: Canon Arthur William Robinson (1856-1928), a canon of Canterbury Cathedral and the author of several books, who inherited a house called The Wood just outside Monaghan; the Revd John Robinson, who died while he was a CMS missionary in Nigeria; and Canon Charles Henry Robinson (1861-1925), who died while he was Editorial Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG, later USPG and now Us).

Another brother, Edward Forbes Robinson (1864-1921), was a missionary teacher in South Africa, where he died, and Dr Frederick Augustine Robinson (1870-1906) was a medical missionary with the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), and died in Natal. Two sisters, Elizabeth and Cecilia, were deaconesses, and a third sister, Henrietta, married a priest, the Revd Charles Edward Bishop.

Canon Arthur Robinson’s son was the famous theologian, New Testament scholar and bishop, John AT Robinson (1919-1983), author of In the End, God (1951) and Honest to God (1963) and Bishop of Woolwich (1959-1969). He studied theology at Westcott House and before becoming a bishop was the Dean of Clare College, Cambridge. After retiring as Bishop of Woolwich in 1969, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in theology and Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge. He preached his last sermon, ‘Learning from cancer,’ to a packed college chapel six weeks before he died.

John Robinson was Dean of Clare College, Cambridge, before becoming Bishop of Woolwich (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Robinsons are an outstanding clerical, theological and missionary family, but until my visits to All Saints’ Church I was not aware of their family roots in Ireland and the Church of Ireland.

John Robinson was Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, before he died (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This essay was first published in January 2016 in the ‘Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough) and the ‘Diocesan Magazine’ (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory’).

New Year’s honour recognises work with refugees in Greece

Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, the Senior Anglican Chaplain in Athens

Patrick Comerford

Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, the Senior Anglican Chaplain in Athens, has been made an MBE in the British New Year’s Honours List.

Bishop David Hamid of the Diocese in Europe says this “is a most fitting award recognising Father Malcolm’s outstanding achievements and extraordinary service, particularly during this time of financial hardship facing the Greek people and the huge numbers of refugees arriving in Greece and transiting through the country.

Writing on his blog yesterday, Bishop David said: “Father Malcolm has been instrumental in bringing together Churches and other groups to work together to address these challenges.”

When Bishop David spoke to Father Malcolm on the telephone to congratulate him, he said humbly: “But none of this could have been achieved without the collaboration and co=operation of others.”

“That is true, of course,” said Bishop David, “but it was Malcolm’s drive, passion and vision that harnessed this collaboration. For that, this honour is most fitting.”

The official citation reads:

“Rev Canon Malcolm McNeille Bradshaw, Senior Chaplain, Anglican Church in Greece. For services to interfaith understanding and community charities in Greece.”

Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Father Malcolm Bradshaw spoke at a special meeting organised by the Anglican mission agency Us (the new name for USPG) when the General Synod of the Church of England met in November 2015.

At the meeting, organised to discuss the refugee crisis in Europe, he said:

I want you to imagine that last night you were on the Turkish coast. You would have been one of over 5,000 people, largely from Syria, awaiting a dinghy onto which will be crowded something like 50 people, 40 per cent of those will be women and children.

And then you’ll set off. You’ll set off at night time because you do not want to be tracked down by whoever is floating around in the Aegean Sea during the daytime, to be able to get across to one of the Greek islands. One of the closest of these islands is Lesbos. It’s a 12 km journey.

You will have nobody on that dinghy who has experience of the sea. Somebody will take hold of the tiller and will head towards a lighthouse, a lighthouse on Lesbos. But the lighthouse is a warning sign that this is a dangerous coastline, and yet it’s that lighthouse that you’re drawn to.

So you arrive at the lighthouse at Lesbos, faced with a very rocky terrain, one where ropes may be needed to get down to the coastline. The possibility is that your dinghy will be slashed by the rocks and there will be a scramble to get off the boat. In the course of that scramble there are going to be some, women and children largely, who are going to lose their lives.

This happened last night, and it happens every night. Of late, five thousand have been travelling across to the Greek islands. If you arrive at Lesbos then you will find that you are already on a crowded island. At present, there are facilities to care for 2,500 people, but you’ll find that you’re just one of 6,000 refugees on the island. And the facilities for caring for 6,000, though improving, are limited. And last Saturday you would have been one among 20,000 because of a ferry strike. Just basic facilities for feeding, hygiene, and clothing to provide a change for the wet clothes you’re in, exist but in very limited form.

That’s the island of Lesbos. There are the other Greek islands too which are receiving regularly each night refugees from Turkey. The journeys are provided by the smugglers. You’re paying over €1,000 per person to be on one of those dinghies. Once you’re on the island you’re join not only fellow refugees but also the local Greek indigenous population which is itself in crisis – there’s austerity, and there’s going to be hunger on the streets of Greece this winter in a way that we’ve not known for years. In my own congregation there are those who are living on pensions that are now a third of what they used to be because of the austerity programme.

So you enter a country where you have a government that’s unable to care for its own population, let alone the size of the population that is now flooding into Greece. But the government has not responded to the refugee crisis. It has not set up the basic framework and structures that is needed – so the business of registering, of coming into Europe, is just a scramble. Many are registered yet there are some who become impatient and simply move on. And when there is a ferry strike and you can’t move on, then tensions build up between the refugees and the local community – 20,000 refugees on Lesbos, which has an indigenous population of 27,000!

So, having registered, you then get onto a ferry boat to head for the Greek mainland, which you pay for – the Syrians have got money, they can pay. And then once you arrive in Athens there’s buses galore, set up by the smugglers, to take you up to the northern border – that’s if you’re a Syrian. If you’re an Afghan, you don’t have the required money, so you make your way to Victoria Square in Athens. There’ll be guys down at the port who will say, ‘Can I help you?’

‘Yes, can you tell me how to get to Victoria Square?’

‘Ok, you give me €50 and I’ll tell you.’

All the Afghans need is a ticket costing €1.20 to get to Victoria Square!

Once at Victoria Square, there you’ll find the smugglers to the fore. What appear to be tourist agencies, forget it! These are the smugglers. And there the deals take place.

The use of a telephone is vital. Every Syrian has a good mobile because that is the only means whereby he can plot his route through. Social media is key – instant information about the route, what is happening, what to avoid, what is possible. He will also have numbers necessary for making contact with the smugglers. And four o’clock in the morning, from that square, a flood of buses leave to make their way up to the northern border.

Arriving at the northern border and what do you find? At this present moment you’re one of something like 3,600 people who are encamped – encamped is not the word for it – who are living in a field full of olive trees. And the European countries are now blocking the borders and only letting through what they consider to be genuine refugees – which are the Syrians and the Iraqis, and maybe some of the Afghans.

Anyone else is blocked at the border. And so we now have, in Greece, a growing population of refugees, migrants, whatever you want to call them, who cannot get beyond that border. And if they do get beyond that border they are being sent back to Greece. So I’ve met in Victoria Square Afghans who are crying because they’ve got up into central Europe but have been sent back because they’re not considered genuine refugees. What are they to do when they’re at the border, or when they’re back in Athens? Who is going to assist them to get back to their home countries – when the people themselves don’t want to go back to their home countries largely because of fear? They have already spent significant amounts of money to get this far and now to no avail.

So is Greece at the point where it will become the European refugee camp?

On the island of Samos, there’s an organisation called Medical Intervention we’ve given money to which can provide for 250 refugees, but they have 600. And that 600 are largely Afghans and they can’t move any further.

So is Greece now becoming the dumping ground for all those that cannot get beyond the borders - a country which has already got its own immense problems?

I’ve just been explaining something of the extremity of the situation that we’re facing. And it’s an extremity that doesn’t stop.

Last night 5,000 came in. And tonight, another 5,000. And the following night, another 5,000. Some predict that the winter months might lead to a slow down. As yet this has not proved true. At present there’s only the slightest indication that such a slowdown might happen.

These are people who are largely fleeing exactly the same people that have placed fear into the people of Paris, perhaps the people of London. It’s the same cause. And till now it is Syrians from within Syrian who are on the move not the two million who are in the refugee camps on the Syrian/Turkish border. Those within the camps have not as yet begun to stir - but they could. How are we to respond?

The Churches in Greece are trying to do their bit. It is very difficult because the government has not provided a comprehensive framework into which we can make our contribution. The government has basically said: ‘These refugees do not want to stay in Greece. The smugglers can do the job. Let the smugglers get them through the country. We’re not getting involved because we’ve got our own problems.’ The government will only get involved when a particular situation throws up a public outcry – or is highlighted by the international press. Otherwise they leave it to the smugglers. And the smugglers are totally in control of the movement of the refugees – no government is. The smugglers are the ones who are advertising to the Syrian: ‘We can do it! Give us the money and we’ll deliver you.’ There’s no government intervention on this. It’s the smugglers who are doing the running. They control the flow of migrants. There are stories that on the Turkish coastline do this at gun point harassing people to get into the dinghies. If one route into northern Europe is blocked the smugglers will find another. Governments are dancing on the side.

In all this, there is an attempt to respond to the situation. UNHCR is perhaps the only organisation that is providing some degree of cohesion to what is happening in Greece. We now have a flood of NGOs – we’ve got so many NGOs up in Lesbos that they’re tripping over each other, but there’s no co-ordination. So there’s a lot of duplication and a waste of resources. This is largely because the government won’t take up the issue. The government is appealing to the rest of Europe to take more of the Afghans that are stranded in Greece. It’s not receiving much of a response.

The churches in Athens have tried to come together to co-ordinate their efforts. We, as the Anglican Church in Athens, have been working with the migrants for the past six years. The Anglican chaplaincy and the Orthodox Church came together six years ago to provide a soup kitchen – we call it the ‘Church in the Street’ programme – and we have been providing 800 meals each day for the past six years, largely focused on the refugees. The strange thing is, we’re no longer feeding refugees, we’re now feeding the indigenous population in Athens because of the austerity. All that the refugees want is to be out of Athens and to travel north.

So, of late, the various churches – the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, the Greek Evangelicals, the Salvation Army, the Swedish Church, the German Evangelicals the Anglicans – have come together to co-ordinate our response and to be able to share the resources we have in responding to the crisis.

We’ve also been sent a consultant by Us – Max McClellan – who has proved his worth. He’s only with us for a month, but he brings a wisdom born out of his experience from UNHCR. He’s working very hard in making contact with all the agencies to assist us to know how to make a response.

And Anglican Churches on that route – through the western Balkans right up into Germany and beyond – are trying to make their response. The Anglican Church in Hungary made a substantial response, but now Hungary has closed its border. But, we have to remember that in the diocese there are other routes – there’s Italy, and there’s the Spanish route. So these are other regions where the Anglican congregations of the Diocese in Europe are trying to make a response.

What I would like to impress on you is the injustice that is happening here. Britain is implicated in this movement of refugees. Archbishop Rowan [Williams] was with His Beatitude Hieronymus, the Archbishop of Athens, some years ago, and His Beatitude turned to Archbishop Rowan and said: ‘We are a small and impoverished nation and yet we have to pick up the consequences resulting from decisions made by the big nations. We were not part of the decision making process but we pick up the consequences.’ He was referring to the United States’ and Britain’s involvement in Iraq – and where are those nations today to pick up the consequences of their decisions? Why is it being left to the impoverished nations, like Greece – faced with the consequences of decisions made by the United States and Britain, for good or for ill? There is an injustice here. And I believe Britain has a responsibility for the consequences of what it caused – whether the decision to go into Iraq was right or not – and I would like to see that reflected strongly in government policy.

On the island of Samos, Medical Intervention is working with hundreds of Afghan refugees (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Us International Programmes Manager, Davidson Solanki, reported from a recent trip to Athens, in Greece, where he observed refugees in shock, confusion on the ground, and hope that things can change:

In Victoria Square, Athens, migrants congregate having arrived from the Greek islands.

Here, we met many young people, young families, women and children who were tired, hungry, anxious and scared, and some of them were traumatised.

With the Salvation Army, we helped to distribute food, and we gave the children schoolbags containing stationery. Everyone had a huge smile, which was very satisfying to see.

I was in Athens to learn more about the situation, travelling with Father Malcolm Bradshaw from the Anglican Chaplaincy in Athens, Isobel Owen from the Anglican Alliance, and Max MacClellan, formerly of UNHCR.

We mostly met refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I talked to one young man who told me, in good English, that his journey from Afghanistan had taken him many days, travelling to Iran, to Turkey, to the Greek islands, and finally to Athens. Next, he planned to go to Austria or Germany, where he hoped to fulfil a vision to study and live a good life.

He and his friends told me that in Afghanistan extremist groups wanted them to join the conflict, the Jihadist movement, but they didn’t want to do this because it would be dangerous. They said their country was full of chaos and uncertainty, and that’s why they were running away.

Maria, of the Salvation Army, said we were there to bless him and his friends, and we prayed together that God would keep them safe. They were very thankful.

I found the people and the authorities in Greece to be in a kind of denial. First they told themselves the refugee crisis would not be coming to Greece, but it did. Now they think it’ll be a temporary situation, but it seems the crisis will continue for months. And if country borders north of Greece are closed, the migrants might be stuck indefinitely in Greece, where there is already a recession and great need. Athens is going to be in the eye of the storm. The government has set up a camp at the Olympic stadium, where around a thousand refugees are being provided with shelter, food, medicine and clothing. However, there were fears the local authorities might close this facility before Christmas.

So it is significant that the churches in Greece have agreed to work together. It is especially significant in the context of Greece, where the churches have not had a history of working together.

We met to discuss the matter in the UN offices in Athens. The atmosphere was positive and upbeat, with a genuine desire to work ecumenically.

The five churches in question are the Greek Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church in Athens, the Greek Evangelical Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Salvation Army.

Our aim is to work together to identify and fill in some of the gaps left by other aid operations.

Santa’s ‘Elder Brother’ joins the ‘Black Santa’ appeal

Collecting with the Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon David Gillespie, in Dawson Street this afternoon (Photograph: Fred Deane, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout this Advent, I have been encouraging all I meet to support agencies and organisations that work with Syrian refugees in Greece, especially the Anglican mission agency Us (the new name for USPG, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel).

However, this afternoon, I turned to home-based charities and spent some hours outside Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, shaking and rattling the collection buckets to the sound of Christmas music for the annual ‘Black Santa Sit-Out’ organised by this parish in Dublin’s south inner city.

I joined the Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon David Gillespie, the Verger, Fred Deane, and Mervyn Jones just as the carol singers were leaving Saint Ann’s after a morning’s work in support of this appeal.

Unlike last winter, there was no rain today, and I was able to wrap myself up well against the chill factor that made the day feel colder than it actually was. And it was all worth while.

The sit-in was launched last Thursday [17 December 2015] by Archbishop Michael Jackson and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, who were joined by 60 schoolchildren from Kildare Place School, Rathmines, who provided festive musical accompaniment under the direction of their principal, Ian Packham.

Adding to the festive spirit on Dawson Street, the collectors are being joined by other choirs each day, including Castleknock National School, Saint James Primary School, Francis Street CBS, Saint Stephen’s Church Choir, Catholic University School, Taney Parish Junior School, Alexandra College, Cornucopia Brass Group, Irish Life Choir, Revenue Choir, AIB Choral Society, Permanent TSB Staff Choir, John Scotus School, Loreto College, Seafield Singers, the Dublin Male Voice Choir, the Line Up Choir, Steadfast Band and the Brook Singers.

This is the 15th year that this sit-out appeal has been held at St Ann’s, and to date it has raised over €400,000 for charity. The Black Santa Appeal gets its name because the clergy involved wear black cloaks. The original concept began in 1975 when Dean Samuel Crooks started standing outside Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, at Christmas time. A similar idea was taken up by my dear friend, the late Canon Norman Ruddock, when he became Rector of Wexford 20 years ago, and is being continued by his successor, Canon Arthur Minion.

Dawson Street is lined with coffee shops, boutiques and big-name clothes shops. Despite the disruption caused by recent works laying tracks for a new Luas line, it remains one of Dublin’s most fashionable shopping streets. Those who passed by and stopped included colleagues and former colleagues from Trinity College Dublin and The Irish Times, and parishioners from throughout Dublin.

As with last year [2014] and my experience two years before that [2012], I could not avoid being impressed once again to see people rolling up €50, €20 and €10 notes to place in the collecting tins. But I am more impressed to see some people putting in small change, counting out what they could afford and leaving themselves with only enough coins for the bus fare home, or deciding to forgo that cup of coffee they may have planned as a treat today.

Of course, the widows’ – and widowers’ – mite are always the most impressive contribution … indeed, on a cold afternoon, as the darkness closes in, they are the most heart-warming.

I was cheered too by children pointing me out to their parents, remarking on my white beard, and asking (despite the fact that I was covered in black clothing from head to toe): “Is that the real Santa?”

One group of children wanted a special photograph with me after their parents explained to them that I was “Santa’s elder brother.” Indeed!

The sit-out at Saint Ann’s continues outside this city centre church each day until late on Christmas Eve, singing carols and collecting money for homeless charities.

By the end of today, we had surpassed the record €30,000 collected last year. Every cent collected goes to local charities, including the Salvation Army, the Simon Community, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Peter McVerry Trust, which all work with the homeless. Other charities supported include Protestant Aid, Barnardos, the Laura Lynn Foundation and the Solas Project. Indeed, this is not so much charity as justice.

If you still have Christmas shopping to do in Dublin, and you are in the city centre, remember there are still two or threedays to go until Christmas, and call around to Saint Ann’s in Dawson Street. Even a cheery word will raise the morale of my friends and colleagues. And you could make a difference to one homeless person or family this Christmas.

The Christmas scene in a window in Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Waiting in Advent 2015 with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (11)

Love and the Cross … a small heart encircled by a ring on the Dowdall wayside cross in Duleek, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are half-way into the second week of Advent, and this evening [9 November 2015], the students and staff of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute are holding are annual carol service at 7 p.m. in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines. This year the service takes the form of the traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.

The collection this year is going to the Advent Appeal launched by the Anglican mission agency Us (the new name for USPG, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) on behalf of the Diocese in Europe and its work with refugees, especially from Syria, in Greece and throughout Europe this winter. This is work that makes the selfless love of Christ visible among suffering people in their very plight today.

Throughout Advent this year, I am tracing my way through my own Advent Calendar. As we wait and prepare for Christmas, I am inviting you to join me each morning for a few, brief moments in reflecting on the meaning of Advent through the words of the great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).

This morning, I offer a brief reflection on Love and the Cross. In Ethics, Bonhoeffer writes:

“A love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. As the one who acts responsibly in the historical existence of humankind, Jesus becomes guilty. Out of his selfless love, out of his sinless nature, Jesus enters into the guilt of human beings; he takes it upon himself.”

Readings (Church of Ireland lectionary): Psalms 11, 12; Amos 8: 1-14; Revelation 1: 17 – 2: 7.

The Collect of the Second Sunday of Advent:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
Give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Advent Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection.

Continued tomorrow.

'There will be distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’

‘This most tremendous tale of all, / Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford,

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin,

Sunday 29 November 2015,

The First Sunday of Advent:

11 a.m., The Cathedral Eucharist

Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Psalm 25: 1-9, I Thessalonians 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36.

I pray that I may I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The English Poet Laureate John Betjeman loved to tell the story of a Japanese prince who arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford, as an undergraduate in 1925, the same year as Betjeman came up.

The President of Magdalen, Sir Thomas Herbert Warren (1853–1930), was known as a poet too, a bad poet although he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He was also an insufferable snob, and Jeremy Paxman says he “was perhaps the greatest snob in England.”

When Prince Chichibu arrived at Magdalen in 1925, Herbert Warren hoped he would soon be followed by his elder brother, the future Emperor Hirohito. The prince told Warren he was a direct descendant of the sun goddess Ametarasu, and let him know: “At home I am called the son of God.”

Warren took a deep breath, coughed and put the prince in his place: “You will find, your highness, that we have the sons of many famous fathers here.”

Magdalen College, Oxford ... waiting for the son of God? John Betjeman was an undergraduate, and CS Lewis was his tutor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Our Gospel reading this morning (Luke 21: 25-36) tells the story of the arrival of the Son of God on earth, not as a child in a Christmas nativity story or in a decorative crib, but “with power and great glory.”

We are warned to be on guard for that coming of Christ and his Kingdom so that our hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch us unexpectedly, like a trap.

But, as we prepare for the coming of Christ, are we trapped?

Are we trapped in the commercialism of Christmas?

There are 12 days of Christmas. But not one of them is in November. Yet for many weeks now, we have been inundated with Christmas catalogues and advertising.

I hope I am not like the Grinch or an insufferable snob. But I cannot go into a shop anywhere in this city for some weeks now without being polluted with cheap Christmas jingles that are a travesty of the original Christmas carols they represent.

Does the decoration of our shops, even of our churches, lead our eyes to the coming Christ or away from him?

To return to John Betjeman: he spent time in Dublin during World War II as the British press attaché, and was an active parishioner in Saint John’s, Clondalkin. In a lecture to the clergy of the Church of Ireland in 1943, he said the “fabric of the church is very much concerned with worship. The decoration of a church can lead the eye to God or away from him.”

Betjeman’s poems are often humorous, with a wry, comic verse often marked by satire. He is one of the most significant literary figures of our time and was a practising Anglican, and his beliefs and piety inform many of his poems.

It is appropriate then to invite us to consider Betjeman’s poem ‘Christmas.’ In the first few verses, he describes the frivolous ways we prepare for Christmas:

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
‘The church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children’s hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

Many people feel threatened by the present state of the world, and they are looking for hope. But is is hope that cannot be found in the shops and the magazines, in the jingles and the baubles. They have little to do with the coming of Christ and his kingdom, or how we can show that we believe in his coming and show in our actions what we think are the priorities of the Kingdom of God, how they challenge the present state of the world.

Our Gospel reading this First Sunday of Advent speaks not of baubles and fripperies but speaks frighteningly about the state of the world today, telling us how “on the earth [there is going to be] distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.”

It might be more accurate, and true to the original Greek to translate this verse so that it speaks about the people on the earth being perplexed by the sound and the echoes of the sea and the surf.

It is not difficult to think this morning of the people from many nations who are confused and endangered by the sea and the surf and the waves: the people fleeing war and violence and mass murder in Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and Afghanistan, and who are being washed up against the rocks on the treacherous shores of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

David Hamid, an Anglican suffragan bishop in the Diocese in Europe has warned that this is the “largest crisis that Europe has had to face since World War II.”

Us has produced prayer cards providing guided reflections for each Sunday during Advent, inviting people to pray for refugees around the world as we light our Advent candles.

Two weeks ago, I spent three days [11-13 November 2015] at a meeting of the Trustees of Us, the Anglican mission agency previously known as USPG or the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It was a residential meeting in Westcott House, the Anglican theological college in Cambridge. And during those three days I heard again and again of the work Us or USPG is doing with refugees throughout Europe.

When people began to arrive in the parks and squares in central Athens from the ferry boats from the islands, Saint Paul’s Anglican Church and the churches in Athens responded immediately. This response has brought the churches together. This is on-the-ground ecumenism in action. Years and years of dialogue are now bearing fruit.

But Bishop David is worried that the rest of Europe fails to see that these are people who deserve basic humanitarian assistance while their status is sorted out. It is ironic, surely, that the people who are fleeing Isis in Syria, then become victims once more when they are refused compassion because of the violence Isis is now reeking in European capitals.

Winter is closing in and threatens to make the sea-crossings even more treacherous.

Freezing temperatures, heavy rains, and strong storms across Europe have not slowed down the surge of refugees. These people were desperate before they ever left. They are desperate now. And they face a winter with little protection from the cold, with no weather-proofing kits, with damaged tents, without winter clothes.

One way the Church is responding to this crisis is the decision by the Anglican Diocese in Europe and the mission agency Us (or USPG) to fund an emergency centre for refugees run by volunteers at the remote Pharos Lighthouse on the Greek island of Lesvos.

The refugees arrive cold and wet having crossed 15 km from Turkey, typically in small rubber boats crowded with up to 50 people.

Often these crossings are at night to avoid Turkish coastguard patrols by day. Attracted by the beam of the lighthouse, they land on the rocky shore below, soaked through, tired and hungry. The light of the lighthouse on Lesvos can lead the fleeing refugees to either a perilous end on the rocky shore or to hope for the future provided by these volunteers.

Yet they are still 6 km from the nearest village, Klio, a six-hour walk across rugged, rocky terrain. They need dry clothes, food, medical care and shelter before resuming their journeys.

Two abandoned buildings next to the lighthouse are being turned into a changing area and a field kitchen. Tents are providing shelter and volunteers are working around the clock, seven days a week, providing food, clothing and medicines. These volunteers have also asked for ropes to help the refugees climb up the rocky shores, safety helmets and headgear for the children and babies, wetsuits, night vision binoculars, heaters, lighting and walky-talkies.

Rachel Parry, Us Director for Global Relations, sees this as just one “small but highly significant response that is benefitting hundreds of very vulnerable refugees at a critical stage of their journey.”

I listened to these stories in Cambridge over those few days, those stories of how Us and the Diocese in Europe are trying to be lights of hope in this dismal, dark winter.

Throughout Advent, Us is appealing for donations to fund the Diocese in Europe as it reaches out to refugees throughout Europe, and the Diocese in Europe has asked Us to be the official agency for Anglican churches on these islands to channel donations for its work.

The Advent candles on the Advent wreath represent the Patriarchs, the Prophets, Saint John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary, all pointing to Christ in the midst of darkness, despite the disasters of famines, earthquakes and wars.

We can be beacons of hope. We can show in how we live our lives this Advent that we believe, that we want, good to triumph over evil, and to show that the Light of Christ shines in our hearts.

In the last three stanzas of his poem ‘Christmas,’ John Betjeman proclaims the wonder of Christ’s birth in the form of a question: “And is it true...?”

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

‘God was man in Palestine / And lives today in Bread and Wine’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This sermon was preached in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 29 November 2015.

Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our deliverer,
Awaken our hearts
to prepare the way for the advent of your Son,
that, with minds purified by the grace of his coming,
we may serve you faithfully all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Luke 21: 25-36

25 Καὶ ἔσονται σημεῖα ἐν ἡλίῳ καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ ἄστροις, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς συνοχὴ ἐθνῶν ἐν ἀπορίᾳ ἤχους θαλάσσης καὶ σάλου, 26 ἀποψυχόντων ἀνθρώπων ἀπὸ φόβου καὶ προσδοκίας τῶν ἐπερχομένων τῇ οἰκουμένῃ, αἱ γὰρ δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν σαλευθήσονται. 27 καὶ τότε ὄψονται τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐν νεφέλῃ μετὰ δυνάμεως καὶ δόξης πολλῆς. 28 ἀρχομένων δὲ τούτων γίνεσθαι ἀνακύψατε καὶ ἐπάρατε τὰς κεφαλὰς ὑμῶν, διότι ἐγγίζει ἡ ἀπολύτρωσις ὑμῶν.

29 Καὶ εἶπεν παραβολὴν αὐτοῖς: Ἴδετε τὴν συκῆν καὶ πάντα τὰ δένδρα: 30 ὅταν προβάλωσιν ἤδη, βλέποντες ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν γινώσκετε ὅτι ἤδη ἐγγὺς τὸ θέρος ἐστίν: 31 οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὅταν ἴδητε ταῦτα γινόμενα, γινώσκετε ὅτι ἐγγύς ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ. 32 ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται. 33 ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ παρελεύσονται, οἱ δὲ λόγοι μου οὐ μὴ παρελεύσονται.

34 Προσέχετε δὲ ἑαυτοῖς μήποτε βαρηθῶσιν ὑμῶν αἱ καρδίαι ἐν κραιπάλῃ καὶ μέθῃ καὶ μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς, καὶ ἐπιστῇ ἐφ' ὑμᾶς αἰφνίδιος ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνη 35 ὡς παγὶς. ἐπεισελεύσεται γὰρ ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς καθημένους ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς. 36 ἀγρυπνεῖτε δὲ ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ δεόμενοι ἵνα κατισχύσητε ἐκφυγεῖν ταῦτα πάντα τὰ μέλλοντα γίνεσθαι, καὶ σταθῆναι ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

29 Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

A major step to putting a stop to human trafficking and forced labour

The ‘Financial Times’ has chosen ‘Stop the Traffik’ as its season appeal partner this Christmas

Patrick Comerford

The Financial Times has chosen Stop the Traffik as its 2015-2016 charity seasonal appeal partner this year. To mark the launch of this Christmas appeal, a new report on human trafficking, Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and the FTSE 100, is being launched at a breakfast briefing this morning [20 November 2015] in the Financial Times Conference Centre in London.

The invitation says people trafficking is one of the major rights issues of our time. Businesses, shareholders and investors now have responsibility to act to prevent this terrible crime. With the Modern Slavery Act 2015 now in force, directors of UK companies have an obligation to disclose how they are tackling this risk across their businesses and – crucially – within their supply chains.

Stop the Traffik is a global charity working to prevent human trafficking and to disrupt its supply chains around the world, and the Financial Times is a powerful new partner with the clout to make a real difference in the battle against forced labour and trafficking around the world.

This morning’s joint report on human trafficking and forced labour highlights the business risks arising from human trafficking and the impact of the Modern Slavery Act. The report has been developed in recent months in a partnership between Stop the Traffik and other agencies, including the Anglican mission agency, Us (previously USPG, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel).

This ground-breaking research has been endorsed by Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and is supported by Us (USPG), Stop the Traffik (STT), Finance Against Trafficking (FAT), the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), and Rathbone Greenbank.

I am a Trustee of Us (USPG) which has helped to fund this academic research into the links between human trafficking and the global activities of FTSE 100 companies. The report also highlights best practice so that lives can be saved.

The research is motivated by a concern that FTSE 100 companies may inadvertently become involved in human trafficking through links with suppliers around the world. The report provides essential guidance to investors and executive teams to help disrupt this global crime.

Rachel Parry, Global Relations Director for Us (USPG), says: “Human trafficking is a highly profitable global trade – more profitable than the drugs trade. People who have been trafficked – typically those from poor or vulnerable communities – can end up as slave labour which can be embedded within the supply chains utilised of many well-known companies.”

She says the research digs deep into the phenomenon of human trafficking, taking as its focus the supply chains of the FTSE 100 companies, and exploring how human trafficking is a part of the picture.

“We want to see FTSE 100 companies better informed to help them ensure there is as little risk as possible that their supply chain is somehow touched by the traffickers’ trade,” says Rachel.

Financial Times appeals have raised over £16 million for charities over the last 10 years, including the International Rescue Committee, Action Against Hunger, Camfed, Room to Read, Sightsavers, The Global Fund for Children, Wateraid and World Child Cancer.

The annual appeal runs from November to January, raising money and increasing awareness of the chosen charity through editorial coverage of its work. Seasonal appeal charities are selected by staff, and readers and corporate partners are encouraged to donate.

John Thornhill, deputy editor of the Financial Times and head of the seasonal appeal committee, says: “The Financial Times is delighted to be working with Stop the Traffik for this year’s seasonal appeal. Over 21 million people are victims of forced labour, a global crime that generates profits of £150 billion each year. Through our journalism and the support and generosity of our readers, we can help shed light on human trafficking and strengthen Stop the Traffik’s efforts to end it.”

Ruth Dearnley, CEO of Stop the Traffik, says: “With the potential to elevate the international economic conversation around 21st century slavery, the FT and Stop the Traffik can lead the empowerment of people, the tools of technology, and the gathering and sharing of knowledge necessary to bring disruption to this global crime at a moment in our world’s history.”

One person is sold every 30 seconds, according to Finance Against Trafficking. Every year, 1.2 million children are trafficked across or within countries, according to UNICEF. And up to 800,000 people – mostly women and girls – are trafficked across international borders, according to the report Trafficking in Persons published in 2007 by the US State Department.

This morning’s report has a further focus on an advocacy resource raising awareness of human trafficking aimed at churches and church-based organisations, so that they are better informed to join the campaign against human trafficking, both as shareholders and responsible community members.

The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) is a church-based investor coalition and membership organisation. It was established over 25 years ago and raises awareness on business issues related to human rights, economic justice and environmental stewardship.

Finance Against Trafficking works to raise awareness, equip and resource companies to help them effectively address all areas of their business that can be affected by people trafficking and manage the risk and threats to their businesses, supply chains and reputation.

Rathbone Greenbank Investments (RGI) provides personalised and professional investment management services for investors who want to ensure their investments reflect their environmental, social and ethical concerns.

‘When you hear of wars and rumours of wars … this is but the beginning of the birth pangs’

A typical scene in the European refugee crisis: refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean being rescued by Irish Naval personnel from the ship LÉ Eithne (Photograph: Irish Defence Forces/Anglican Communion News Service/Us)

Patrick Comerford,

Zion Church, Rathgar, Dublin,

Sunday 15 November 2015,

The Second Sunday before Advent

10.30 a.m., Morning Prayer 2.

Readings: Daniel 12: 1-3; Psalm 16; Mark 13: 1-8.

May I speak to you in the name of the + Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Winter has arrived, the evenings are closing in, the nights are getting longer, and the year is coming to an end.

The church seasons are changing too. Advent, which marks a New Year in the Church, begins the Sunday after next [29 November 2015]. Carol services are being planned, Christmas gifts are being wrapped, Christmas cards are being written, and for many places the last posting date for Christmas [4 December 2015] is looming.

In the midst of darkness, there is always hope.

But in the darkness it is also natural that we should think of our greatest fears.

In our Gospel reading this morning, Peter, Andrew, James and John are with Christ on the Mount of Olives, looking across to Jerusalem and the Temple.

But Christ’s entry into Jerusalem is not going to be triumphant, and he warns these four disciples – these four who act almost like Christ’s ‘kitchen cabinet’ in the Gospels – that the future is not going to be all plain sailing.

He talks about false teachers, wars and rumours of wars, nations fighting against nation, earthquakes, famines and natural disasters.

All of us have been shocked by the violence in Paris in the past 36 hours. The attacks in Paris and a few days earlier in Beirut were designed to shake the very foundations of all our societies. They are an assault on our shared humanity, and our tolerance, liberty and respect – the values that ought to underpin the world we share.

In the past week, many of us have been remembering the wars in the last 100 years that threatened not once but twice to destroy Europe. We are still in the middle of the centenary marking World War I, and this year has marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. And we remembered those who fought in both wars and who were promised that these were “wars to end all wars.”

Yet the Anglican suffragan Bishop in Europe, Bishop David Hamid, has said in the past week that the refugee crisis in Europe is the “largest crisis that Europe has had to face since World War II.” He warns that churches, governments and aid and mission agencies need to prepare for a “medium- to long-term situation” to a crisis that is “not going to go away quickly.”

I spent three days in the past week [11-13 November 2015] at a meeting of the Trustees of Us, the Anglican mission agency previously known as USPG or the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

It was a residential meeting in Westcott House, the Anglican theological college in Cambridge. And during those days I heard again and again of the work Us or USPG is doing with refugees throughout Europe.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that so far this year over three quarters of a million refugees and migrants have arrived by boat in Europe. Most of them – around 620,000 – have arrived in Greece; while Italy has received over 140,000 people, Spain almost 3,000 people and Malta over 100.

The UNHCR also says almost 3,500 people have died or gone missing on the journey. Over half the migrants trying to reach Europe come from the Syria, and another one-in-five is from Afghanistan.

“The numbers of people on the move have not been seen for over 70 years,” Bishop David says. This problem is not going to go away soon, he says. “The end won’t be in sight, really, until we resolve the wars and people are able to live in security.”

Even if the wars stop tomorrow, four million Syrian people are living outside Syria and half the remaining people are displaced too, having left their homes, their villages and their towns. Rebuilding the region is a long-term task, and even if the wars ended tomorrow they cannot go home on Tuesday.

Bishop David says the challenge to Churches, governments and agencies in Europe is to work together on short-term responses, and medium to long-term situation.

When people began to appear in the parks and squares in central Athens having come from the ferry boats from the islands, the churches in Athens responded immediately.

Saint Paul’s Anglican Church and the other churches saw the need to co-ordinate their response and have drawn on their own limited resources to reach out together. This response has brought together Anglicans, the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, the Roman Catholic Jesuit refugee service, the Salvation Army, and the Greek Evangelical Church. This is on-the-ground ecumenism in action. Years and years of dialogue are now bearing fruit.

But Bishop David is worried that the rest of Europe fails to see that these people are human beings who deserve basic humanitarian assistance while their status is sorted out.

Christians and churches have a role to play in ensuring the truth of the refugee crisis is told without exaggeration. Bishop David says: “There is often exaggeration in some of the secular media. Sometimes this plays into people’s fear about the foreigner, fears of Islam, and all sorts of fears. I think we need to be clear, as Christians around the world, in making sure the truth is being told about this: that people are fleeing war zones, are fleeing persecution and are needing protection.”

Meanwhile, winter is closing in and threatens to make the sea-crossings even more treacherous for people fleeing war, persecution, and poverty. On one day alone in the past week or two, 22 people drowned in two shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea. On another day, the Greek coastguard rescued 242 refugees whose wooden boat sank north of the island of Lesvos. At least three people drowned, including two small boys.

‘The waves of the Aegean are not just washing up dead refugees, dead children, but [also] the very civilisation of Europe,’ says the Greek Prime Minister (Photograph: Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

Lifeless bodies are washing up on Greek and Turkish shores, including three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose death prompted global outrage. The Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, says: “The waves of the Aegean are not just washing up dead refugees, dead children, but [also] the very civilisation of Europe.”

The number of refugees arriving in Greece from Turkey has risen in risen week from 4,500 to 7,000 a day. More than 218,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe by sea last month [October 2015] – a record for any month and about the same number as the total number who arrived in 2014.

The UNHCR is warning that harsh winter conditions across Europe could lead to “a tragedy at any moment.”

Kate O’Sullivan, who works in Greece with Save the Children, says the winter months could be devastating. “The waves will continue to get higher, the water will get rougher,” she says. “Every time a boat goes down, it always seems to be the children who have drowned. Frankly, I am terrified for what the weather’s going to be like this winter.”

Freezing temperatures, heavy rains, and strong storms have not slowed down the surge of refugees (Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

But freezing temperatures, heavy rains, and strong storms across Europe have not slowed down the surge of refugees. These people were desperate before they ever left. They are desperate now. And they face a winter with little protection from the cold, with no weather-proofing kits, with damaged tents, without winter clothes. They need fuel, unconditional cash, kits, clothes, coal, stoves and blankets.

“The immediate imperative is to provide shelter. It cannot be that in the Europe of 2015 people are left to fend for themselves, sleeping in fields,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, says. “Every day counts,” he adds. “Otherwise we will soon see families in cold rivers in the Balkans perish miserably.”

Us has produced prayer cards providing guided reflections for each Sunday during Advent, inviting people to pray for refugees around the world as we light our Advent candles.

An example of the way the Church is responding to this crisis is the decision by the Anglican Diocese in Europe and the Anglican mission agency Us (formerly USPG) to fund an emergency centre for refugees at the remote Pharos Lighthouse on the Greek island of Lesvos.

The refugees arrive cold and wet having crossed 15 km from Turkey, typically making the journey in small rubber boats crowded with up to 50 people each.

Often these dangerous crossings are at night to avoid the Turkish coastguard patrols by day. Attracted by the beam of the lighthouse, they land on the rocky shore, soaked through, tired and hungry. Yet they are still 6 km from the nearest village, Klio, a six-hour walk across rugged, rock-strewn terrain. They need dry clothes, food, medical care and shelter before they can continue their journey to safety.

Local volunteers have been doing what they can to help them. I heard over these past few days how their work is getting a further boost with funding from Us and support from the Anglican chaplaincy in Greece.

Two abandoned buildings next to the lighthouse are being turned into a changing area and a field kitchen. Tents are being provided as shelter and volunteers are working there around the clock, seven days a week, providing food, clothing and medicines. These volunteers have also asked for ropes to help refugees climb up the rocky shores, safety helmets and headgear for the children and babies, wetsuits, night vision binoculars, heaters, lighting and walky-talkies.

Rachel Parry, Us Director for Global Relations, describes this as just one “small but highly significant response that is benefitting hundreds of very vulnerable refugees at a critical stage of their journey.”

The light of the lighthouse on Lesvos can lead the fleeing refugees to either a perilous end on the rocky shore or to hope for the future provided by these volunteers.

I listened to those stories in Cambridge over the past few days, those stories of Us and how the Diocese in Europe are trying to be lights of hope in this dismal, dark winter.

There is a real danger that because of the violence this weekend, the very people who are fleeing the violence of ISIS in Syria and their allies in the Middle East, will become their victims yet again, being blamed for violence perpetrated by people who are their very oppressors.

But despite all that is happening, there is hope. And we can be beacons of hope. We can show in how we live our life this coming Advent that we believe, that we want, good to triumph over evil, and to show that the Light of Christ shines in our hearts.

Throughout Advent this year, Us is appealing for donations to fund the Diocese in Europe as it reaches out to refugees arriving throughout Europe, and the Diocese in Europe has asked Us to be the official agency for Anglican churches on these islands to channel donations for its work.

The Advent candles on the Advent wreath represent the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary, all pointing to Christ in the midst of darkness, despite the disasters of famines, earthquakes and wars.

Despite all this, there is hope. And we can be beacons of hope. We can show in how we live our life this coming Advent that we believe, that we want, good to triumph over evil, and to show that the Light of Christ shines in our hearts.

And so may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This sermon was preached at Morning Prayer in Zion Parish Church, Rathgar, on 15 November 2015.

Where can the refugees find the lights of hope across Europe this winter? (Photograph: Picasa/Kate O'Sullivan/Save the Children)

Collect:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
Grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory,
we may be made like him
in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament you give substance to our hope.
Bring us at the last to that pure life for which we long,
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Mark 13: 1-8

1 Καὶ ἐκπορευομένου αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ λέγει αὐτῷ εἷς τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, Διδάσκαλε, ἴδε ποταποὶ λίθοι καὶ ποταπαὶ οἰκοδομαί. 2 καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Βλέπεις ταύτας τὰς μεγάλας οἰκοδομάς; οὐ μὴ ἀφεθῇ ὧδε λίθος ἐπὶ λίθον ὃς οὐ μὴ καταλυθῇ.

3 Καὶ καθημένου αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ Ὄρος τῶν Ἐλαιῶν κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἐπηρώτα αὐτὸν κατ' ἰδίαν Πέτρος καὶ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωάννης καὶ Ἀνδρέας, 4 Εἰπὸν ἡμῖν πότε ταῦτα ἔσται, καὶ τί τὸ σημεῖον ὅταν μέλλῃ ταῦτα συντελεῖσθαι πάντα. 5 ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἤρξατο λέγειν αὐτοῖς, Βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ: 6 πολλοὶ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγοντες ὅτι Ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ πολλοὺς πλανήσουσιν. 7 ὅταν δὲ ἀκούσητε πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολέμων, μὴ θροεῖσθε: δεῖ γενέσθαι, ἀλλ' οὔπω τὸ τέλος. 8 ἐγερθήσεται γὰρ ἔθνος ἐπ' ἔθνος καὶ βασιλεία ἐπὶ βασιλείαν, ἔσονται σεισμοὶ κατὰ τόπους, ἔσονται λιμοί: ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα.

1 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ 2 Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ 5 Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.