24 July 2022

Praying with the World Church in
Ordinary Time: Sunday 24 July 2022

‘Padre Nuestro, que estas en el Cielo … Our Father, who art in Heaven’ … the words of the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish in the shape of a Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time. Today is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (24 July 2022). Later this morning, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Giles. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections in this prayer diary.

My morning reflections since 2 March included short reflections on a psalm or psalms. This series of reflections came to a conclusion yesterday with reflections on Psalm 150.

The annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) takes place this week in the High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. The conference, which begins tomorrow afternoon, has the theme ‘Living Stones, Living Hope.’

I am continuing my prayer diary each morning this week in this way:

1,Reading the Gospel reading of the morning;

2,a short reflections on the reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

Luke 11: 1-13 (NRSVA):

1 He [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

Today’s reflection:

There are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the New Testament: in Matthew 6: 9-13; and in this reading, in Luke 11: 2-4. However, Saint Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than Saint Matthew’s more familiar version, the one we normally use in our prayer life, in our liturgy and in our Church life.

In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ teaches the Lord’s Prayer within the context of the Sermon on the Mount. But in Saint Luke’s Gospel, immediately after visiting the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Christ finds a private place to pray. It is then that the disciples ask him to teach them ‘to pray, as John taught his disciples’ (Luke 11: 1).

The disciples are already familiar not only with the prayers of Saint John the Baptist, but also with traditional Jewish prayers in the home, in the synagogue and in the Temple in Jerusalem.

As a rabbi and a religious leader, Christ is responsible for teaching his followers how to fulfil Jewish religious commandments, including the obligation to pray at certain times and in certain forms.

Then and now, a religious community has a distinctive way of praying; ours is exemplified by the Lord’s Prayer, which is a communal rather than individual prayer, expressed in the plural and not the singular:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.

We approach God in a personal way, as Father. We then bring before him five petitions, the first two placing ourselves in God’s presence (‘hallowed be your name’ and ‘your kingdom come’), the next two bring our needs before God, both physical (‘daily bread,’ verse 3) and spiritual (forgiveness, verse 4), and the final petition has an eschatological dimension (‘the time of trial,’ verse 4).

The ‘time of trial’ is the final onslaught of evil forces, before Christ comes again, but also refers to the temptations we experience day-by-day.

So there is a temporal and an eternal dimension to these petitions, even when we pray for ourselves in the here and now.

At the USPG Conference in Swanwick, Derbyshire, some years ago, I was invited to speak about ‘Spirituality and Mission’ and to facilitate two interest groups.

In searching for resources for mission, at one point I pointed to the traditions of prayer within Anglicanism, including the offices of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer – especially the canticles, the mission-loaded language we find in all the rites of Holy Communion, and in prayer, including public prayer, the intercession, and – of course – the Lord’s Prayer.

Sometimes we miss out on the impact of the Lord’s Prayer because we are so familiar with it. But in the public worship of the Church we often facilitate people missing out on the impact – particularly the mission impact – of the Lord’s Prayer when we privatise it.

How many of us were taught to pray the Lord’s Prayer as a private personal prayer as children, perhaps even saying it kneeling by our bedside, hands joined together, fingers pointing up?

So often, in the Liturgy, we encourage people to kneel for the Lord’s Prayer, as if this was now both the most sacred and the most personal part of the Liturgy, rather than asking them to remain standing and to continue in collective prayer.

Or, at great public events, including mission conferences, I am sorry to say, we invite everyone present to say the Lord’s Prayer in their own first language, so that it becomes a private, personal prayer, detached from and ignoring where everyone else is at each stage in the petitions.

For those of us who have English as our first language, we notice how others finish a lot later than we do – the Finns in particular, but even the Germans too. Each language has its own rhythms and cadences, so it sounds as if we are in Babel rather than praying together, collectively and in the plural.

The privatisation of the Lord’s Prayer, even on Sundays, takes away from its mission impact and from the collective thrust of each of the petitions.

The teaching is delivered not to an individual but to the disciples as the core, formative group of the Church. God is addressed not as my but our Father, and each petition that follows is in the plural: our daily bread, our forgiveness, our sins, our debts, how we forgive, and do not ‘bring us.’

When we say ‘Amen’ at the end, are we really saying ‘Amen’ to the holiness of God’s name, to the coming of Kingdom, to the needs of each being met, on a daily basis, to forgiveness, both given and received, to being put on the path of righteousness and justice, to others falling into no evil or into no harm?

As a prayer, it contains each of the five Anglican points of mission. But if we privatise it, we leave little room for its mission impact to grab hold of those who are praying, and leave little room for our own conversion, which is a continuing and daily need.

And so, let the kingdom, the power and the glory be God’s as we pray together:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.

In the public worship of the Church we often facilitate people missing out on the collective impact of the Lord’s Prayer … the choir stalls and chapter stalls in Lichfield Cathedral before Evensong (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘The Way Towards Healing,’ looking at the work for peace of the Churches in Korea. This theme is introduced this morning by Shin Seung-min, National Council of Churches in Korea, who writes:

The Korean people’s greatest pain is division. A Korean poet says, in his poem, ‘The Centre of the Body’: ‘The centre of the body is not the thinking brain, nor is it the breathing lungs, nor is it the heart pumping blood. The place in pain, where you cannot help but touch, the wounded place, to that place our whole mind is moving.’

27 July 2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the Korea Armistice. During the last seven decades, Korean people have lived under a state of war, hating and killing each other. 70 years is enough, and now it is time to end the war.

In July 2020, more than 375 religious and civic NGOs launched the ‘Korea Peace Appeal’ campaign to end the Korean War and conclude a Korea peace agreement. This campaign will continue until July 2023, aiming to collect 100 million signatures. The NCCK is responding by urging its partner churches to join in the campaign and gather as many signatures as possible.

Sunday 24 July 2022:

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

‘Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they will be called children of God.’
Peaceful God,
May we seek unity and resolve division.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

How a Comerford family of
vets moved from Wexford
to London and East Anglia

Home Farmhouse, Potton, Bedfordshire … home in the early 20th century of Colonel Augustine Ambrose Comerford (1886-1944), a vet and army officer

Patrick Comerford

In recent research I have come across the details of a branch of Comerford family who originated in Co Wexford in the early 19th century, moved to London and later to East London, Essex and East Anglia, and lived in subsequent generations in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Bedfordshire.

This Comerford family includes two veterinary surgeons and a colonel who fought in both World Wars and was decorated with the DSO and was mentioned in dispatches ‘for distinguished services in the field.’

The story of this Comerford family begins with:

Michael Comerford (1800-1870) was born in Wexford in 1800. He emigrated to England. He married in the Royal Belgian Chapel, Southwark, later the site of Saint George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, 13 January 1844 Ann Cox (1814-1893), who was born in Nottingham on 21 September 1814, the daughter of Henry Cox (1781-1873).

Michael and Ann Comerford lived at 26 Regent Place, Islington. After her husband’s death, Ann later lived at 268 Vicarage Road, Leyton (1871), 3 Woodgrange Road, West Ham (1881), and Saint Pancras, London (1891) . She died in West Ham on 10 January 1893.

Michael and Ann Comerford were the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters:

1, Anne (1844-1913), born 7 March 1844, Clinger Street, Hoxton Old Town. She lived in Clevedon, Somerset (1911) and died 14 October 1913 in Woodford, Essex.
2, James Comerford (1845-1908), born 1845 Islington. He lived in 42 Bank Street, Lower Booths, Coventry (1861), Leyton, Essex (1871), West Ham (1901), and Southport, Lancashire (1908). He died at 13 Walmor Road, Birkdale, 29 November 1908, aged 63.
3, Thomas Comerford (1847-1906), born 1847, Shoreditch. He lived in Islington (1861), Leyton (1871), West Ham (1881, 1901), and died at Forest Gate, Essex, 8 June 1906, aged 59.
4, William Comerford (1849-1927), born Islington 1849, lived in Islington (1851, 1861), Leyton (1871), West Ham (1881, 1901), and The Cliff, Marine Parade, Clevedon, Somerset (1911). He died at Woodford, Essex, 22 May 1927.
5, Michael Henry Comerford (1852-1928), of whom next.
6, Ruth Maria Comerford (1855-1927). Born Islington 1855, lived Islington (1861), Leyton (1871), West Ham (1901), Clevedon, Somerset (1911). She died at Woodford, Essex, 1 December 1927.

Their fourth son and fifth child:

Michael Henry Comerford (1852-1928) was born in Islington 6 March 1852. He was a veterinary inspector and a veterinary surgeon. He married Annie Turner (1852-1941) in Islington on 23 February 1876, from Lechlade, Boddington, Gloucestershire, daughter of William Turner (1817-1886) and Lucy (Tovey) Turner (1825-1900). They lived in West Ham (1876-1886), Stratford, Essex (1886-1890), Walthamstow (1901) and again in West Ham.

Michael Comerford died in Weymouth, Dorset, 19 October 1928, aged 76; Annie died in Woodford, Essex, 17 April 1941.

They were the parents of 11 children, four sons and seven daughters:

1, Agnes Mary Cecilia Comerford (1876-1973), born West Ham 21 October 1876, She died on 2 March 1973 in Woodford Green, Essex, at the age of 96.
2, Gertrude Frances (1877-1967), born 1877 in West Ham. She married Francis Wilberforce Garman on 20 June 1906 in Woodford Green, and they were the parents of seven children. She died 26 May 1967 in Woodford, Essex, aged 90.
3, Winifred Mary Comerford (1878-1968), born 9 December 1878 in West Ham, she died 20 June 1968, aged 89, in Erith, Bexley, Kent.
4, William Bernard Comerford (1880-1949) born 11 September 1880, West Ham. He married twice: (1) Mary Robertson, 14 July 1910 in Inverness; (2) Mary Sybil Macleod Mackenzie, 3 September 1937, in Glasgow. He died 6 July 1949 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, aged 68.
5, Francis Michael Comerford (1882-1964), of 18 Snakes Green, Woodford Green. Born 5 January 1882, West Ham. He married May Augusta Carroll (1892-1975), 4 January 1919 in Holborn; she was the daughter of James Carroll (1859-1933) and Elizabeth Sarah (Wade) Carroll (1864-1914). He died on 8 July 1964 in Woodford, Essex, at the age of 82; she died 28 March 1875 in Woodford. Francis and May were the parents of three children:
•1a, Winifred Mary (1920-2003), married William H Long (1947), and they were the parents of one son, Michael W Long (born 1948).
•2a, Francis James Comerford (1922-1997) born 2 February 1922, West Ham. He married twice: (1) Eileen Emma Clare Tye, and they were the parents of two children; (2) Louise DCT Winans, and they were the parents of three children. He died 15 November 1997 in Sevenoaks Common, Kent, aged 75.
•3a, Michael Brian Comerford (1926- ) born 11 December 1926, West Ham. He married Pamela Audrey McNaught on 27 December 1950.
6, Magdalen Comerford (1883-1890), born 12 July 1883, West Ham; she died in childhood 2 January 1890, Stratford, Essex.
7, Louis John Comerford (1884-1886), born December 1884, West Ham; died an infant, 15 May 1886 in Stratford, Essex.
8, (Colonel) Augustine Ambrose Comerford (1886-1944), of whom next.
9, Annie Hilda (1889-1968), born 1889 in West Ham. She was educated at La Sainte Union Catholic School, Highgate. She married Joseph Richard Van Zeller (1881-1918) on 24 April 1912 in Woodford Green. His family was originally from Portugal, and his sister Magdalen Mary Van Zeller (1888-1974) married Annie’s brother, Augustine Ambrose Comerford (see below). They were the parents of two daughters:
•1a, Emeline (born 1913);
•2a, Josephine (1915-1997), who married Anthony McMaster Maghull Yates (1915-1999) in January 1942 in Hendon. They were the parents of three children. She died 10 March 1968 in Weymouth, Dorset, aged 79.
10, Teresa Mary (Minnie) (1890-1983), born 1890 in West Ham. She was educated at La Sainte Union Catholic School, Highgate. She married Harry Roy Mitchell 22 July 1914, they lived in King’s Norton, Worcestershire. They were the parents of one daughter, Meryl Cynthia (born 1921), who married Albert J Hayman in April 1945 in Worcester. Teresa Mary (Comerford) Mitchell died on 23 April 1983 in Weymouth, Dorset, aged 92.
11, Marie Josephine Ruth (1891-1952), born 1891 in West Ham. She was educated at La Sainte Union Catholic School, Highgate. She married three times: (1) Merrick Orville Prismall (1917); (2) Maximillian Ponsonby Dalrymple (1924); (3) Claude Ernest Thompson (1936). She died in 1952 in Willesden, Middlesex, aged 61.

The eighth child and fourth son of Michael Henry Comerford and Annie (Turner) Comerford:

(Lieutenant-Colonel) Augustine Ambrose Comerford, DSO, MRCVS (1886-1944) was born in Stratford, Essex, 29 April 1886. He was educated Mount Saint Mary’s College, a Jesuit-run public school in Spinkhill, Derbyshire, and the Royal Veterinary College, London (1903-1909).

During World War I, he was commissioned lieutenant (1916) in the Army Veterinary Service (later the Royal Army Veterinary Corps), and was promoted captain (1920, with seniority backdated to 1917). He transferred to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps Territorial Army (1922), and was promoted major (1926). During World War II, he was Officer Commanding, 418th (Bedfordshire) Battery, 105th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment RA (Biggleswade), and a lieutenant-colonel and commanding office in 52 Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery (January 1939 to June 1940), fought in Western Europe, and was decorated DSO (1940) and was Mentioned in Dispatches (1941) ‘for distinguished services in the field’.

He married Magdalen Mary Van Zeller (1888-1974) on 15 October 1910 in Woodford Green. They were living at Dean House, Caxton, Cambridge (1911). Later, they lived at Home Farmhouse, Potton, Bedfordshire, a house listed as Grade II in 1976. The house dated from the 17th century though re-worked in the two succeeding centuries. The main block is timber-framed with colour-washed plaster over the exterior. The farm was previously owned by Henry Smith of Potton Manor, and was then bought by Percy Malcolm Stewart, chair of the London Brick Company.

Augustine Ambrose Comerford was living at Home Farmhouse in 1928. There were three reception rooms, a kitchen and a larder on the ground floor, six bedrooms on the first floor, and three small, disused attic rooms on the second floor has. Outside was a garage, two loose boxes partitioned off into vet’s kennels, a dispensary and a large garden.

He died 25 February 1944 in Huntingdonshire at the age of 58; she died 5 June 1974 in Cambridge at the age of 86.

They were the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters:

1, Cyril James Comerford (1912–1912), born Caxton, Cambridgeshire, 22 June 1912, died in infancy 14 October 1913, Caxton.
2, (Captain) Basil Michael Comerford (1913-1970), of whom next.
3, Eric Francis Comerford (1915-2009), born Caxton 1915, lived at 15 Chapel End, Great Gidding, Huntingdonshire. He married Jessie Charlotte Chapman (1913-1982) on 12 October 1939 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He died in 2009 in Great Gidding, Huntingdonshire, aged 94; she died in Kettering, Northamptonshire, September 1982.
4, Beryl Martin (1917-2004), born Bedford 28 April 1917, married January 1939 in Yarmouth, Norfolk, Ronald P Webber, died Swansea May 2004.
5, Doris M (1919- ), born 28 August 1919, in Biddenham, Bedfordshire. She married William Bertie Keeble (1919-2008) of Maldon, Essex, on 11 July 1945 in Chelmsford, Essex. He married again in 1976. They were the parents of two children.

The elder surviving son:

(Captain) Basil Michael Comerford (1913-1970), born Caxton 14 October 1913. He was educated at Beaumont College. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery Territorial Army (1933), lieutenant (1936), T/Captain (1942-1944) and honorary Captain (1946). He was attached to 105th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment RA (Bedford), and in 1937-1939 418th (Bedfordshire) Battery, 105th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment RA (Biggleswade). He was mobilised at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, ‘A’ Battery, 52nd Heavy Regiment RA. He was transferred to Royal Army Service Corps - Territorial Army Reserve of Officers (Class I), 1944-1946.

He married twice: (1) in Cambridge, 11 September 1939, Betty Gladys Gardner (1914- ), of Royston, Hertfordshire; (2) in Bedford, 8 September 1951, Anne Speir-Gray (1922-1976) of Swineshead, Huntingdonshire. Basil Comerford died 20 December 1970; Anne died 26 July 1976; they are buried in Easton, Cambridgeshire. They were the parents of two children, including a daughter:

1, Sarah Elizabeth Mary Comerford, born Huntingdon September 1961.

Saint George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark … Michael Comerford (1800-1870) from Wexford and Ann Cox (1814-1893) from Nottingham were married in 1844 in the Royal Belgian Chapel, Southwark, on this site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)