Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and Sunday was the Third Sunday after Trinity. Today (28 June 2023), the Church Calendar in Common Worship celebrates Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher of the Faith, who died ca 200.
Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:
1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, Calne, Wiltshire:
My photographs this morning (28 June 2023) are from Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire.
For many generations, my family continued to regard Comberford in Staffordshire as our ancestral home, although my research shows convincingly that the name actually comes from the village of Quemerford.
Holy Trinity Church long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford family in this area. The church was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Calne, to serve Quemerford and the areas east of Calne. The site was donated by Lord Lansdowne, and the building costs were met by Canon John Guthrie (1794-1865), Vicar of Calne (1835-1865), largely at his own expense. The churchyard became the parish graveyard because the one at Saint Mary’s was overfull. The Vicar of Calne appointed an assistant curate to serve Holy Trinity in Quemerford.
A chalice and a paten both hallmarked 1866 were given to the church by the curate assistant, the Revd JRA Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), later Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (1883-1906), and are still used today.
The church was designed by CH Gabriel and is tall, of coursed rubble and in the Decorated style. It has a west bell cote and spirelet and consists of a chancel with north vestry and a nave with south porch. The chancel is long, has tall south windows and diapering in relief on the sanctuary’s walls and is separated from the vestry by a traceried screen.
The chancel arch is high and wide, and the nave has an open timber roof with cusped trusses and wind-bracing.
Originally there was stained glass in the east window, but a fire in February 1970 caused major damage to the roof, destroying windows and the organ. The church was rededicated on 25 January 1972. The church was not licensed for marriages until 1990.
Today, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is part of the Benefice of Marden Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury, with Saint Mary’s, Calne, and Saint Peter’s, Blackland. The post of Team Rector is currently vacant; the Team Vicar is the Revd Teresa Michaux, and the Acting Team Rector is the Revd Linda Carter.
Matthew 7: 15-20 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 15 ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.’
Today’s Prayer:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Freeing people from the Traps of Human Trafficking.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (28 June 2023) invites us to pray:
We pray for the Church in North India and all they are doing to prevent Human Trafficking and the support they are providing survivors.
Collect:
God of peace, who through the ministry of your servant Irenæus
strengthened the true faith
and brought harmony to your Church:
keep us steadfast in your true religion,
and renew us in faith and love,
that we may always walk in the way that leads to eternal life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Irenæus to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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
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