Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (145) 20 October 2023, Week of Prayer for World Peace (6)

‘So hope for a great sea-change / on the far side of revenge. / Believe that a further shore / is reachable from here’ (Rabbi Nico Sokolovsky) … sunset from the shore at Fintramore in Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 15 October 2023).

I stayed up late last night, watching the by-election results, especially in the Tamworth constituency, early this morning. But I am awake now, and before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began on Sunday, and so my reflections each morning this week are gathered around this theme in these ways:

1, A reflection on the Week of Prayer for World Peace ;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began with ‘A Call to Prayer for World Peace’ signed by faith leaders in 1974

A Week of Prayer for World Peace:

The International Prayer For Peace:

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe

Day 6, Peacemakers: For those who hold to their belief in peace with justice in often difficult situations:

Although the people living across the ocean are, I believe, all our brothers and sisters – why are there constant troubles in the world?
– Shinto

Praying for my peace, which is your peace, our peace.

As we all know, peace is not just the absence of war, for our peace is shattered by all kinds of violence physical and verbal: a sharp word can make us feel insecure, an angry look may make us feel weak or worse still aggressive, all kinds of violence is war on the other.

And this kind of war creates the division, a division of them and us. And division of course is a major source of conflict internal and external. This separation between the other and myself breeds the violence within me.

So I pray for the sake of myself, my own peace of mind, so that I myself am at peace, and offer that peace which is love and learn to love my neighbour as myself.

That is my prayer for my peace … your peace … our peace.
– Jehangir Sarosh, Zoroastrian

History says ‘Don’t hope
On this side of the grave.’
But then once in a lifetime
the longed-for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
– Rabbi Nico Sokolovsky (Jewish)

O Great Spirit of our Ancestors, Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, respect, and be kind to each other so that they may grow with peace in mind. Let us learn to share all the good things that you provide for us on this Earth.
– A Native American Prayer for Peace

… When we stand together, we are strong enough to fundamentally alter the existing socio-political reality … Because where there is struggle there is hope.
– www.standing-together.org Jewish & Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice

O Allah, the Sustainer of Harmony and Justice, we beseech You for peacemakers, virtuous and just.

In times of hardship, they hold firm to their belief, working tirelessly for peace, bringing solace and relief.

Bless those who strive to bridge divides, with compassion and understanding that resides. Grant them wisdom, clarity, and fortitude, to spread harmony, in every neighbourhood.

O Allah, shower them with Your boundless grace, as they strive to create a harmonious space. Protect them from harm, both seen and unseen, and let their efforts flourish, fruitful and keen. Ameen.
– Islamic

‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ … words on the reredos in the Unitarian Church, Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 1-7 (NRSVA):

1 Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.

4 ‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. 7 But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.’

‘Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows’ … sparrows on the beach at Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:

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 ‘Helpline to women in need.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (20 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us give thanks for the Delhi Brotherhood Society, its Women’s Helpline programme and the many other initiatives the Society coordinates across Delhi.

The Collect:

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
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.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Holy and blessed God,
you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son
and filled us with your Holy Spirit:
may we honour you,
not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began on Sunday 15 October 2023

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

Milton Keynes Museum brings back memories of printers’ traditions and days of ‘hot metal’

Memories of old print rooms and case rooms at Milton Keynes Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Charlotte and I have had a number of visits to Milton Keynes Museum in recent weeks, particularly to dedicated Printing Section, showcasing the printing industry, and which has brought back many happy memories of the days of ‘hot metal’ when I had student jobs in the late 1960s in a printing firm and later when I worked closely with printers when I was a journalist in Lichfield, Wexford and Dublin.

Milton Keynes Museum is set in beautiful farmland, close to Wolverton, Britain’s first railway town, and it tells the story of Milton Keynes from long before the New Town was planned and developed.

The museum is run mainly by volunteers and is based at Stacey Hill Farm, where the Victorian parlour, scullery and kitchen have been lovingly recreated in the old farmhouse.

One gallery tells the story of the Milton Keynes area from pre-history through to the 1800s, with a rich collection of archaeological finds. Another gallery tells the story of the new town’s creation and stories of Marshall Amplification, Red Bull Racing, the Parks Trust and the Open University. Regular events, displays, recreations and family days are part of the museum experience.

Milton Keynes Museum is based at the former Stacey Hill Farm (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The museum is located on the outskirts of Wolverton. When Stacey Hill Farm was new, the farmstead was surrounded by countryside, but today it overlooks the new town of Milton Keynes.

Soon after the decision was taken in 1967 to build Milton Keynes, local residents formed the Stacey Hill Society and were collecting items representing their heritage. Many of these items came from farms and factories that were closed down to make way for the new development. These collections eventually became the basis of the museum.

With the support of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, the collection was stored at Stacey Hill Farm, part of an estate that had once been bought by the physician, Dr John Radcliffe, in 1713 when he became MP for Buckingham.

Milton Keynes Museum has a dedicated Printing Section, showcasing the printing industry that has been in the Wolverton area since 1878.

The presses and guillotines in the museum were manufactured in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and most were used by local firms. The two principal firms – McCorquodale & Co and Muscutt and Tompkins – followed a general pattern in printing. Printing books, newspapers and magazines for national circulation was concentrated in a few large firms, while printing of posters, bills, circulars and tickets provided a living for many small businesses.

McCorquodale opened a branch in Wolverton in 1878 to provide jobs for the daughters of men employed in Wolverton Carriage Works. It started with 20 employees aged from 13 to 21 years, who worked a 54-hour week.

The firm’s early work in Wolverton included printing registered envelopes for the General Post Office – envelope making was the only area of the printing industry consistently to employ more women than men. Other government work followed, as well as printing Bradshaw’s Guide to railway timetables. By 1886, the number of staff had risen to 120 women and 20 men.

The equipment used in the early years were the platen, sheet-fed rotary and Wharfedale presses. They were fairly slow machines, and many presses were required.

At one time, McCorquodale employed around 900 people in Wolverton. Now there are only around 240 due to the use of high speed presses, and numbers may fall even further as the company moves towards computer-controlled operations.

Muscutt and Tompkins was located a few hundred metres from McCorquodale. Originally a wholesale and retail newsagents, they moved into printing when William Tompkins bought a large Golding Jobber press, on display in the museum, and a small platen press at a sale in the late 1930s.

Printing did not begin until 1946 when Reg Tomalin returned to work for the family firm after World War II. The company work in general printing included headed notepaper, Christmas cards, dance tickets, and notepads. Although the demand was limited and orders were usually in small quantities, printing continued at Muscutt and Tompkins until Reg Tomalin died in 1967.

The museum’s Columbian hand press came from High Wycombe and takes pride of place in the Print Room. Beside it is the similar but much smaller Albion hand press, bearing the date 1845, that was used in Olney.

The jobbing platen presses range from a small hand fed treadle machines, through belt driven Golding Jobber and Cropper. The largest machine in the collection is an 1880s Wharfedale, stop cylinder manufactured by W Dawson and Sons, Otley. It has been modified with a flyer delivery added in 1906. A proofing press from McCorquodale’s is the most modern item in the collection. Among the wide range of associated artefacts is a Furnival Express guillotine that lacks any of the safety features required today.

Muscutt and Tompkins in Wolverton moved into printing after the late 1930s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

As a teenage schoolboy in the 1960s, I spent a number of summers working as a copyholder or proofreader’s assistant at Irish Printers, a large printing business in Dublin, located first off Aungier Street in the city centre and then at Donore Avenue, off the South Circular Road.

Those experiences gave a lifelong taste for and delight in the world of printing and graphic design, knowing and appreciating the differences in and uses of typefaces and point sizes.

They prepared me too for working with printers in the caseroom and on the stone as a subeditor, laying out making up pages first in the Wexford People and then in The Irish Times. I had acquired an instinctive knowledge of what would work in designing and making up the pages of newspapers and magazines.

But I also had an earlier foretaste at the Lichfield Mercury in the early 1970s of the changes that computerisation was going to bring to the newspaper industry. Those days of ‘hot metal’ vanished rapidly when I was working at The Irish Times.

As the changes swept through the newspapers, many printers – because they knew and understood how typefaces work and the importance of proofreading – made excellent sub-editors … I think of good colleagues and friends such as the late Seán O’Toole and Derek Richards, who died earlier this year.

However, these recent visits to the printing section in the Milton Keynes Museum have also brought back a vocabulary and language that is unique to the printing world. I knew my linotype from my monotype and my stereotype, my italics from Roman, a dash from a hyphen, and flat beds from rotaries; I learned about orphans and widows, why pages had even numbers on the left and odd numbers on the right, and how typefaces increased in point sizes; I even became a dab had at reading upside down and back-to-front.

One display in the museum is a reminder of many printers’ sayings that have passed into our everyday language, including:

‘Getting the wrong end of the stick’ – reversing the letters
‘Upper case and lower case’ – capitals and small letters
‘Minding your Ps and Qs’ – mixing up letters
‘Being a dab hand’ – using print ink dabbers
‘The devil is in the detail’ – the detailed work of typesetters?
‘Stereotype’ – method of printing from a plate
‘Cliché’ – solid cast metal plate
‘Against the grain’ – a reference to the grain in paper
‘Making a good impression’ – quality of print produce
‘Hot off the press’ – related to hot metal typeface
‘Out of sorts’ – running out of typeface
‘Come a Cropper’ – catching your fingers in the press.

That last phrase, ‘Come a Cropper’, reminded me of one colleague in Wexford who actually lost part of his finger. On the other hand, I always thought the saying ‘The devil is in the detail’ referred to the ‘printer’s devil,’ the printer’s apprentice who attended to details such as correctly mixing tubs of ink and fetching type while minding his Ps and Qs, or, more importantly telling q from p and d from b.

• Milton Keynes Museum continues to be open in October from Wednesdays to Sundays, 10:30 am to 4:30 pm, and from 1 November on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Minding my Ps and Qs and knowing the right type (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)