The ruins of the Byzantine basilica in Thyatira … the church in Thyatira is addressed in the fourth of seven letters in the Book of Revelation (Photograph: Klaus-Peter Simon/Wikipedia )
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (10 January 2023). The week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (7 January 2024).
Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship also remembers William Laud (1645), Archbishop of Canterbury.
Now that I have recovered from last week’s bout of Covid-19, I hope to attend a meeting in Saint Mary’s Church, Shenley Church End, at lunchtime, and to take part in a choir rehearsal in Stony Stratford this evening. But, before the day begins, I am taking some time this morning for reading, reflection and prayer.
My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of the seven churches named in Revelation 2-3 as one of the recipients of letters from Saint John on Patmos;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
A mound with the ruins of Thyatira, the least-known and least-important of the seven Churches of Asia
The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 4, Thyatira:
Thyatira is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John as he describes his revelation on Patmos: Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22).
The fourth letter in these chapters is addressed to the Church in Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), which is known for its love, faith, service, and patient endurance, but which also tolerates the teachings of a beguiling and prophet who refuses to repent (2: 20).
The letter to the Church in Thyateira or Thyatira (Θυάτειρα) is the longest of the seven letters, although the city was the least-known and least-important of the seven cities. But Thyatira was materially the most insignificant city among the seven churches addressed in Chapters 2 and 3.
Thyatira, a Lydian city dating back to the seventh century BCE, was a stronghold for Hellenistic Pergamum. The ancient Greek names for the city were Pelopia (Πελόπεια) and Semiramis (Σεμίραμις).
Thyatria was known for its trade guilds, including bakers, potters, slave-dealers, bronze-smiths, wool workers, linen weavers and tanners. These guilds sponsored periodic feasts in honour of their own adopted idols, and these rituals excluded Christians from the guilds and trades.
During the Roman era (first century CE), Thyatira was known for its dyeing facilities and was a centre of the purple cloth trade. Lydia, one of Saint Paul’s converts, was a rich woman who traded in purple cloth from Thyatira (see Acts 16: 11-16).
The city fell to the Goths and later to the Arab invaders, but enjoyed a brief revival under the Byzantine rule of the Laskaris dyasty.
The Greek-speaking Orthodox population of Thyatira was expelled in 1922 during the ‘Asia Minor catastrophe’ with its bloody massacres and ‘population exchanges.’ Today, the Turkish city of Akhisar occupies the site of Thyatira.
The Church of Thyatira survives today in so far as the title of Archbishop of Thyateira was revived in 1922 by the Patriarch of Constantinople for the Exarch for Western and Central Europe. Archbishop Nkitas (Loulias) of Thyateira lives in London and has pastoral responsibility for the Greek Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland.
Verse 18:
Christ is introduced to the Church of Thyatira as the Son of God, the only occasion on which this title is used in the Book of Revelation. He has eyes like a flame of fire (see 1: 14) and feet like burnished bronze (see 1: 15), the second image particularly appropriate in a city where the bronze-makers were a powerful economic force.
Verse 19:
The Christians of Thyatira are commended for their love, faith, service and patient endurance. Love is the crowning virtue at the head of this list; faith is also alive; service is the diakonia of servant ministry.
Verse 20:
However, there is one major problem in the Church there. Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab, worshipped Balaam, ate food offered to idols, and indulged in sexual immorality (see I Kings 16: 31, 19-19; II Kings 9). This links the problems in Thyatira with those in Pergamum.
The woman singled out for condemnation may have been a priestess of the sibylline oracle, one of the female seers of the cult of Apollo, who claimed to prophesy in states of ecstasy. They were consulted not only by pagans but by some Jews too, and some Christians may have been consulting this woman too, or she may have been allowed to attend the Church in Thyatira.
The warning to the Church in Thyatira is direct and to the point.
Verse 26:
If the Christians of Thyatira can put all this behind them, then those who conquer will be given power to rule over the nations, which is symbolic of being in the Kingdom of God, which is possible to attain in this world.
Verse 28:
The image of the morning star or the planet Venus may refer to Christ. The rabbis interpreted the text in Numbers 24: 17, ‘a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,’ as applying to the Messiah. Christ is the messianic herald of the new world that is dawning.
As with all seven churches, the church in Thyatira is called on to hear the message: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Revelation 2: 29).
The ruins of ancient Thyatira (Photograph: Akkinvet/Wikipedia)
Mark 1: 29-39 (NRSVA):
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ 38 He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
‘That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons’ (Mark 1: 32) … a winter sunset on Minister Pool, below Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 10 January 2024):
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: ‘Whom Shall I Send’ – Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Davidson Solanki, USPG Regional Manager, Asia and the Middle East.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (10 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
We pray for the people of the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East as they face uncertainty and unrest in their country. Lord, bring peace and stability.
The Collect:
Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
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:
Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Yesterday’s reflection (Pergamum)
Continued tomorrow (Sardis)
With the Revd Dr Alan McCormack (then Dean of Residence, Trinity College Dublin), and Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira (then Archbishop of Hong Kong) at a conference in Rome in 2005
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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