Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 125, Saint George’s Church, Aghios Gheorghíou Street, Rethymnon

The tiny Church of Saint George is tucked in behind the houses in Aghios Gheorghíou Street and Pateálrou Street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The General Synod of the Church of Ireland continues today, and once again I am likely to find myself in front of a the screen of my laptop for the next two or three days taking part in ‘Zoom’ meetings.

But, before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme for these few weeks is churches in Rethymnon on the island of Crete, where I spent two weeks in mid-September.

My photographs this morning (1 October 2021) are from the Church of Saint George, in a hidden corner of Rethymnon, off Patriárchou Grigroíou Street.

Inside the Church of Saint George, with its small, wooden iconostasis or icon screen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Aghios Gheorghíou Street is an almost-hidden cul-de-sac off Patriárchou Grigroíou Street in the narrow streets and alleyways of the old town of Rethymnon.

Only a discreet sign indicates that at the end of the street, tucked into the right behind taller houses, is the tiny single-aisle Church of Saint George, squeezed in against the back of the houses on neighbouring Pateálrou Street.

This church was originally a monastic foundation. It is a single-aisle chapel with a wooden iconostasis or icon screen.

The house next door on Aghios Gheorghíou Street has recently assumed the name of ‘Bishop’s House,’ although it is unlikely that the Bishops of Rethymnon ever lived here.

Every town in Greece seems to have a church dedicated to Saint George. In Rethymnon, there is a modern Church of Saint George in Rethymnon, on Egeou Street in the eastern suburbs, behind the long sandy beach, and to the east there is a modern church dedicated to Saint George in Panormos, above the harbour and the beach.

Looking out into the churchyard and Aghios Gheorghíou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.
16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

An icon of Saint George in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (1 October 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the development and renewal of friendships between USPG’s partner churches in the Global South.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A window onto the world … a window on the north wall of the church overlooks a neighbouring garden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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

The house beside the church is known as ‘Bishop’s House’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)