Speaking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The ‘Church of Ireland Notes’ in ‘The Irish Times’ today [1 August 2020] concludes with these two paragraphs:

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is offering recorded sermons as a Sunday resource for parishes. The next recorded sermon from USPG, for Sunday 9 August 9th, has been recorded by the Canon Patrick Comerford of Rathkeale Group of Parishes, who is a Trustee of USPG, and marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. This sermon can be ordered emailing Gwen Mtambirwa, USPG Mission Engagement Co-ordinator, gwenm@uspg.org.uk.

Meanwhile, Canon Comerford, who is President of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is speaking at CND’s annual Hiroshima Day commemoration in Merrion Square, Dublin, next Thursday.

A Sunday sermon resource from USPG for 9 August

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been offering recorded sermons as a Sunday resource for parishes throughout these islands.

The next recorded sermon from USPG will be available for Sunday 9 August (Trinity IX), and is being recorded by the Canon Patrick Comerford, who is a Trustee of USPG.

The Gospel passage (Matthew 14: 22-33) that Sunday recounts Christ’s calming of the storm. On what will be the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki – which was home to one of the largest and oldest Christian communities in East Asia – Patrick asks, ‘Where do we find calm in the storms of the world today?’

Patrick is Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes, and the Precentor in the joint chapter in these dioceses.

You can order this sermon for your church or parish by emailing Gwen Mtambirwa, USPG Mission Engagement Co-ordinator, gwenm@uspg.org.uk. In the email, include the name of your church (if it is for a church service), the time of the service, and if you have one, attach a high-resolution photograph of your church attached to your email as a jpeg.

USPG, one of the oldest Anglican mission agencies, sends out these sermons on the Thursday prior to the Sunday involved.

This news report is published in the August 2020 edition of ‘Newslink,’ the Limerick and Killaloe diocesan magazine (p 18).

‘We have not come into this world for strife and discord’

Patrick Comerford

One of the resources I continue to draw on for my personal prayers is Service of the Heart, a Jewish prayer book I first acquired back in 1974, when I was living in Wexford.

This Service of the Heart was published in London over half a century ago by the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues in 1967. Two of the principal contributors to this book were Rabbi John Rayner and Rabbi Chaim Stern, who wrote or rewrote many of the prayers.

My prayer this evening seems appropriate as I prepare for next week’s 75th anniversary commemorations of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In another part of this book, Rabbis Chaim Stein says ‘Auschwitz and Hiroshima are among the dread and tragic symbols of this age.’

This prayer, however, comes from The Language of Faith, edited by Nahum N Glatzer, and it came in turn from Likkutey Tefillot, a collection of personal prayers ascribed to Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav (1772-1811):

May it be Your will that war and bloodshed shall vanish from the earth, and that a great and glorious peace may reign in all the world. Let all who dwell on earth perceive and understand the basic truth, that we have not come into this world for strife and discord, hatred and envy, greed and bloodshed, but that we have come into this world only to know You and understand You, who are to be praised for ever.

Let Your glory fill our minds and our hearts. Teach us so to use our skills and understanding that through us Your presence may come to dwell on earth, and that Your power and the splendour of Your kingdom may be known to all mankind, Amen.

Shabbat Shalom