The former Ionian Parliament building became Holy Trinity Anglican Church in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is focussing this week on USPG’s links with the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican Church in Japan, and this week’s anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (6 August 1945).
Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.
During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect 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.
This week’s theme is seven churches on the Greek island of Corfu, and my photographs this morning (7 August 2021) are of Holy Trinity Church, the Anglican church in Corfu.
The former chaplain’s residence now serves as Holy Trinity Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
There has been an Anglican presence in Corfu since 1814 Corfu, when Corfu and the other Ionian Islands became a British Protectorate. The High Commissioner, the administrators, and the soldiers and sailors based in Corfu, required a place of worship, and a chapel was built in the Doric style in the Old Fortress and was named Saint George.
Saint George’s remained the garrison church until 1864, when Corfu and the other Ionian Islands were incorporated into the modern Greek state. The Greek Parliament in Athens wanted to turn the old fortress into a military base, and Saint George’s became an Orthodox church.
Indeed, this was the church where Prince Philip, later the Duke of Edinburgh, was baptised according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church in 1921.
When the former Anglican Church of Saint George in the Old Fortress in Corfu became a Greek Orthodox in 1864, the Anglican community was left without a church. On the other hand, with the incorporation of Corfu and the Ionian Islands into the Greek state, Corfu no longer needed a parliament building. The Greek government offered the former Ionian Parliament building to the Anglican community. The building was designed by a Corfiot architect John Chronis.
The gift was ratified in Greek law in 1869, and the building was given to the ‘British community of Kerkyra (Corfu) of the Anglican faith so long as it might serve as a house of worship of the said persuasion.’
The deed of consecration was signed in 1870, the Ionian Parliament building became Holy Trinity Church, and the premises to the rear became the parsonage or residence of the Anglican chaplain.
Holy Trinity Church was in a unique position because it belonged not to the British Government nor any church body, but solely and entirely to the Anglican community in Corfu. The church flourished from 1869, with a permanent resident chaplain until 1940, and for 71 years the church served the island’s many British residents.
At the outbreak of World War II, most British residents left Corfu, and the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society (now ICS) was appointed trustee of the church.
The church was bombed during World War II, leaving only parts of the outside walls. Although the parsonage to the rear suffered bomb damage, it provided shelter for the Maltese community. However, with the slow return of British residents to post-war Corfu, the Mayor of Corfu took advantage of this situation, the city took over the church, restored the building, and retained it.
Later, through negotiations, the residence part of the building was retained, repaired and served many uses. While he was the British Vice Consul, Major John Forte set about recovering this part of the building. Major John Forte is also known for reviving the game of cricket in Corfu, and for helping to prevent L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, from setting up a university on Corfu in 1968.
Fifty years ago, on Easter Day 1971, Holy Trinity Church Corfu reopened on a permanent basis for the first time in 31 years.
Half a century later, Holy Trinity Church is part of the Diocese in Europe and has a vital congregation that continues to reach out to residents and visitors alike in Corfu.
Holy Trinity Church maintains an Anglican presence and outreach in the heart of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Matthew 17: 14-20 (NRSVA):
14 When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, 15 and said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.’ 17 Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ 20 He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’
Saint George’s Church was an Anglican and garrison church in Corfu until 1864 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (7 August 2021) invites us to pray:
Let us pray for the Japanese Anglican Church in the UK.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Major John Forte is known for reviving the game of cricket in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
07 August 2021
‘He will make an end to war … he will
break the bow and smash the spear’
Patrick Comerford
This has been a busy day, taking part in the annual Hiroshima Day commemorations in Merrion Square, Dublin, and speaking as president of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Irish CND).
It is 76 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and it is 42 years since I visited Hiroshima in 1979. But that visit, and my meetings with hibakusha or victims of the bomb, are still fresh in my memory.
This evening, for my Friday evening reflections, I am reflecting on some prayers and readings on the theme of world peace in Service of the Heart, a prayer book edited by Rabbi John D Rayner and Rabbi Chaim Stern, and published in 1967 by the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues.
The prayer beginning ‘May it be your will …’ is from The Language of Faith, edited by Nathan Tucker, and comes, in turn, from Likkutey Tefillot, a collection of person prayers ascribed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1811), the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement and a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism.
The responsive reading beginning ‘Keep your tongue from evil …’ draws on the psalms and readings in the Mishnah (M Avot) and the Babylonian Talmud (B Gittin).
All reading:
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 understand you, who are to be praised for ever.
Let your glory fill our minds and 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.
Responsive reading:
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace,
loving your fellow-men, and bringing them to the Torah.
The whole Torah exists only to bring peace, as it is written, ‘Its
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.’
‘Peace, peace, to the far and the near,’ says the Lord.
‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
He will make an end to war throughout the world; he will break
the bow and smash the spear; he will make the chariot of war
go up in flames.
Justice shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness shall abide
in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness shall be
peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and
confidence for ever.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea.
They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree,
and none shall make them afraid.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Shabbat Shalom
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