29 February 2024

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
16, 29 February 2024,
Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne depicted in a window of the Church of All Saints Pavement, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began earlier this month on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 25 February 2024).

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne depicted in a window in the baptistry in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 16, Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is commemorated in Common Worship on 20 March. He was probably born in the Scottish lowlands around the year 640. At the age of eight, a prophetic remark from a playmate turned his mind to sober and godly thoughts, and his upbringing as a shepherd gave him ample time for prayer.

One night, he saw a dazzling light in the sky and angels carrying a soul up to heaven, and resolved to dedicate his life to God. Some years later, Cuthbert came to Melrose Abbey asking to be admitted as a monk. From there, he began his missionary work, which he continued from Lindisfarne when he became abbot there.

He was consecrated bishop in 685. He remained an indefatigable traveller and preacher, walking all over his diocese, and spending time as a hermit on Farne Island in between.

After only a year, however, he felt his end coming and resigned his office. He died on Farne in the company of a few of his monks.

Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (right) in the Church of All Saints Pavement, York, with Saint Paulinus of York (centre) and Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne (left) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Luke 16: 19-31 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25 But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27 He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house – 28 for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29 Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30 He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31 He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”.’

The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31) … a stained glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Banbury, Oxford

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 29 February 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 ‘Lent Reflection: Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Bianca Daébs (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (29 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Thank you for our Salvation in Christ, and thank you Father, for the freedom we have in him.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Hilda of Whitby

Tomorrow: Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar

The story of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31) has inspired great artists, and composers like Vaughan Williams

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

A mid-Lent retreat in
Lichfield Cathedral, with
walks by Stowe Pool
and in the countryside

Stillness descends on Lichfield Cathedral and the waters of Stowe Pool after sunset (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)


I was back in Lichfield earlier this week (26 February 2024) for one of my own self-guided mini-retreats. We are mid-way through Lent, and I followed the daily liturgical cycle in Lichfield Cathedral, but also had lunch in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, one of my favourite restaurants and bijou hotels.

There were long walks along Beacon Street and Strafford Street and in the countryside along Cross in Hand Lane, heading out towards Farewell, and shorter walks during the day around the Cathedral Close, Stowe Pool and Minister Pool, and in the Herb Garden at Erasmus Darwin House and in Beacon Park.

There were visits to visits to the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill and Saint Mary’s Church (now the Hub) in Market Square, and a little time to browse in some bookshops.

The Hedgehog Vintage Inn, once the home of the composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), who rented the house from the Earl of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I attended the mid-day Eucharist at the High Altar in the cathedral, and returned at the end of the day Evening Prayer in the Lady Chapel, with some quiet time for prayer and reflection.

I am working at the moment on proposals for two, paired guided historical walking tours, along Tamworth Street in Lichfield, and along Lichfield Street in Tamworth. So, I took time to photograph some of the older buildings on Tamworth Street, including the Methodist Church, the former Regal Cinema, and some of the locations associated with the poet Philip Larkin, who had many family connections with Lichfield.

These regular visits to Lichfield are an important part of my spiritual life and health. Lichfield – in particular, the Cathedral and the chapel in Saint John’s – helped to shape and grow my spiritual life and Anglican values when I was a teenager. For most of my life, they have been like a spiritual home for me, and, for more than 50 years, I have continued to return constantly, a few times each year, to pray, to reflect, to give thanks, for pilgrimage, and to be still.

Comberford Hall seen from the train between Tamworth and Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The train journey between Milton Keynes and Lichfield Trent Valley rakes only an hour, making it much easier to plan these return visits.

On the final part of the train journey, between Tamworth and Lichfield, the train passes by Comberford Hall and Comberford village as it crosses the River Tame, and a smile comes across my face. The place has given me joy ever since my teens, when I decided to follow in the footsteps of my great-grandfather in search of the family history.

But there are reminders throughout Lichfield of Comberford family links: a hassock with the family name in the north aisle of the Cathedral; or an antique map in the window of the Studio in the Old Garage, Bird Street, beside the Garden of Remembrance.

Comberford on a map in the Studio shop window in Lichfield … between Lichfield and Tamworth, above the ‘W’ in Offlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There was no choir in the Cathedral on Monday evening, but Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer was led by the Canon Chancellor, Canon Gregory Platten.

At the end of the day, there was comfort in the words of Psalm 74, the Psalm for Evening Prayer that day:

The day is thine, and the night is thine :
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth :
thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalm 74: 17-18)


Another verse in that evening psalm recalls how ‘all the earth is full of darkness’ (verse 21). Before catching a late train back to Milton Keynes, I went for another walk around Stowe Pool in that interesting light we get after sunset before darkness settles in, when the sky is deep blue, there are still hints of the sun in the distant west, the cathedral and the trees are still reflected in the waters, and it is possible to imagine and pray for a world that is at peace.

Comberford on a hassock in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mid-Lent, by Christina Rossetti

Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by God’s Will:
Surely God’s Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest:
At noon take heart, being mindful of the west,
At night wake hope, for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint;
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed,
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.

A walk along Cross in Hand Lane in the countryside north of Lichfield, near the Hedgehog Vintage Inn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

28 February 2024

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
15, 28 February 2024,
Saint Hilda of Whitby

Saint Hilda (614-680), the founding Abbess of Whitby, depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Whitby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began earlier this month on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 25 February 2024).

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Whitby Abbey played a crucial role as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in the year 664 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 15, Saint Hilda of Whitby

Saint Hilda of Whitby is commemorated in Common Worship on 19 November. She was born in the year 614 of the royal house of Northumbria and was baptised in York at the age of 12 by Saint Paulinus. Encouraged by Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, she became a religious at the age of 33.

She established monasteries first at Hartlepool and two years later at Whitby. This house became a great centre of learning and was the meeting-place for the important Synod of Whitby in the year 664 at which it was decided to adopt the Roman tradition in preference to Celtic customs.

Although Hilda was a Celt in religious formation, she played a crucial rôle in reconciling others of that tradition to the decision of the Synod of Whitby. She is also remembered as a great educator, exemplified in her nurturing of Cædmon’s gift of vernacular song. She died on 17 November 680.

Cædmon, who was encouraged by Saint Hilda, is commemorated with a cross in Saint Mary’s churchyard in Whitby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 20: 17-28 (NRSVA):

17 While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, 18 ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; 19 then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. 21 And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ 22 But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23 He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

The Synod of Whitby was called in 664 to resolve differences, including the calculation of the date of Easter (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 28 February 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 ‘Lent Reflection: Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Bianca Daébs (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (28 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

Thank you for our Salvation in Christ, and thank you Father, for the freedom we have in him.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely

Tomorrow: Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Whitby Abbey was suppressed in 1539 at the dissolution of the monastic houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 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

Red Lion Square, reminders
of Fenner Brockway, and
the death of a student
on a protest 50 years ago

The statue of Fenner Brockway (1888-1988) by Ian Walters in Red Lion Square in Holborn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my strolls around Bloomsbury, Holborn and Fleet Street earlier this month, I visited a number of London churches that I have blogged about in recent days. But I also stopped to visit Red Lion Square, a small square in Holborn.

This square was home in the Victorian era to many of the pre-Raphaelites. It has a sculpture commemorating Fenner Brockway, a father-figure – or, perhaps, a grandparent figure – in the modern peace movement.

I remember Red Lion Square too as the place where 50 years ago Kevin Gately, a young student, was left dead during a protest against fascism and racism on 15 June 1974. He was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Britain for over half a century, and no one has ever been held responsible for his death.

Although Oliver Cromwell’s head is said to be buried in the antechapel in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, some sources say that after the Restoration the bodies of Cromwell, his son-in-law Henry Ireton, and a third regicide John Bradshaw, were dumped in a pit on the site of the square in 1661 after they had been exhumed and beheaded posthumously.

Red Lion Square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon, who was active in redeveloping the City after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Barbon was the eldest son of the Fifth Monarchist Praise-God Barebone (or Barbon), who gave his name to ‘Barebone’s Parliament’, the predecessor in 1653 of Cromwell’s Protectorate. At his baptism in 1640, his father gave Nicholas an unusual tongue-twister of a baptismal name: ‘If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned.’

Barbon’s developments, including squares, streets and houses on the Strand, Bloomsbury, St Giles and Holborn, linked the City of London with Westminster for the first time. Red Lion Square took its name from the Red Lion Inn, reputed to be the most important pub in Holborn. It was a fashionable part of London in the 1720s, when the residents included an eminent judge Sir Bernard Hale and Sir Robert Raymond, Lord Chief Justice.

Red Lion Square was ‘beautified’ under an Act of Parliament in 1737. But, by then, it had become a ‘receptacle for rubbish, dirt and nastiness of all kinds and an encouragement to common beggars, vagabonds and other disorderly persons.’

Charles Lamb was painted at No 3 in 1826 by Henry Mayer. A generation later, many of the Pre-Raphaelites lived and worked on Red Lion Square. Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived at No 17 in 1851, while William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Richard Watson Dixon also lived at No 17 from 1856 to 1859. No 8 was a decorator’s shop run by Morris, Burne-Jones and others from 1860 to 1865, and it was the first headquarters of Marshall, Faulkner & Co, founded by William Morris.

At the same time as these Pre-Raphaelites were living and working in Red Lion Square, Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), a towering figure in 19th century theology, lived at No 31. He was sacked as Professor of Theology at King’s College London in 1853 because of his leadership in the Christian Socialist Movement, but became a professor of theology at Cambridge in 1866.

However, Red Lion Square may have become unfashionable by 1860s. Anthony Trollope, in Orley Farm (1862), reassures his readers that one of his characters is perfectly respectable, despite living in Red Lion Square.

The landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson laid out the square as a public garden in 1885. In 1894, the trustees of the square passed the freehold to the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and it then passed to the London County Council.

The centrepiece of the garden today is a statue by Ian Walters (1930-2006) of Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), which was installed in 1986. There is also a bust of Bertrand Russell.

Archibald Fenner Brockway was a socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, journalist and anti-war activist. He was born in Calcutta, the son of missionary parents, the Revd William George Brockway and Frances Elizabeth (Abbey). After leaving school, he worked as a journalist and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1907. He later recalled he was introduced to socialism through Keir Hardie. He soon became the editor of the Labour Leader (later the New Leader).

He became a vegetarian in 1908 and by 1913 he was a committed pacifist. At the outbreak of World War I, he was involved in forming the No-Conscription Fellowship to campaign against the government attempts to introduce conscription. The Labour Leader offices were raided in August 1915 and he was charged with publishing seditious material. He was acquitted but was arrested again in 1916 for distributing anti-conscription leaflets. After refusing to pay a fine, he was sent to Pentonville Prison.

He was arrested a third time for refusing to be conscripted after he was denied recognition as a conscientious objector. He was court-martialled for disobeying army orders, and was jailed in the Tower of London, in a dungeon under Chester Castle and in Walton Prison, Liverpool, before he was transferred to Lincoln Jail. There he spent some time in solitary confinement until he was released in 1919. He revisited Lincoln Jail with Éamon de Valera in 1950.

Following his release, he became an active member of the India League. He became secretary of the Independent Labour Party in 1923 and later its chair.

Brockway stood for Parliament several times, including standing against Winston Churchill in a by-election in 1924. He was elected the Labour MP for Leyton East in the general election in 1929. In Parliament he was outspoken and was once ‘named’ (suspended) by the Speaker while demanding a debate on India.

He lost his seat in 1931 and he disaffiliated from the Labour Party the following year, along with the rest of the ILP. He stood unsuccessfully for the ILP in the 1934 Upton by-election and in Norwich in the 1935 election.

He was the first chair of War Resisters’ International in 1926-1934. But, despite his long-standing pacifism, he resigned from War Resisters' International at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and helped to recruit British volunteers to fight Franco’s fascist forces, including Eric Blair – better known as George Orwell. He wrote a number of articles about the Spanish Civil War, and was influential in having George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia published.

He chaired the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors throughout World War II, and continued as chair until he died. He tried to return to Parliament, but was unsuccessful as an ILP candidate in by-elections in Lancaster (1941) and Cardiff East (1942).

After World War II, he visited the British occupation zone in Germany as a war correspondent in 1946, and wrote about the visit in German Diary, published by the Left Book Club.

Brockway rejoined the Labour Party, and after an absence of over 18 years he returned to the Commons in 1950 as MP for Eton and Slough. He forced a Commons debate in 1950 when the Labour Government banished Seretse Khama from what would become Botswana after he married an English woman, an action seen an affront to apartheid South Africa.

He was one of the founders of War on Want in 1951, and from the 1950s on he regularly proposed legislation to ban racial discrimination, and spoke out against responses to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. He strongly opposed nuclear weapons and was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

He narrowly lost his seat in the 1964 election. Later that year, he was made a life peer, with the title Baron Brockway of Eton and of Slough in the County of Buckingham.

As Lord Brockway, he campaigned for world peace and against the war in Vietnam. With Philip Noel-Baker founded the World Disarmament Campaign in 1979. It was through these campaigns that I met him in the early 1980s. He died on 28 April 1988, six months shy of his 100th birthday.

Fenner Brockway was a prominent member of the British Humanist Association and the South Place Ethical Society. His Conway Memorial Lecture in 1986 was chaired by Michael Foot and the Brockway Room at Conway Hall on Red Lion Square is named after him.

Conway Hall – the home of the South Place Ethical Society and the National Secular Society – opens on to Red Lion Square. Many remember it to this day for the protests against a meeting by the National Front in Conway Hall on 15 June 1974. In the chaos and disorder that afternoon and the police response, Kevin Gately, a student from the University of Warwick in Coventry, was left dead.

Peter Cadogan (1921-2007), who was chairman of the South Place Ethical Society from 1970 to 1981, took the controversial decision to allow the National Front to book the meeting in Conway Hall. The counter-demonstration was organised by Liberation, a movement opposing colonialism and of which Lord Brockway was the president.

In scenes that must have been reminiscent of the Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936, the police led the National Front marchers around the south and east sides of Red Lion Square and into Conway Hall. A total of 51 people were arrested that day – all were counter-protesters and none was among the National Front.

Kevin Gately was 20 when he died as the result of a head injury that afternoon. He was not a member of any political organisation and he had come to London from Coventry for the day. It was his first protest march, and he was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Great Britain for at least 55 years.

A public inquiry by Lord Scarman denied there was any evidence that Gately had been killed by the police. Inquiries and reports refused to blame the police or the National Front for his death. Liberation was never involved in political violence, but the far-left groups who infiltrated the counter-demonstration never accepted any responsibility for their role in the afternoon’s mayhem. And Peter Cadogan always maintained that he had allowed the National Front to book the Conway Hall only in the interests of freedom of speech.

Kevin Gately and Blair Peach, who was killed in Southall in 1979, have been described as martyrs against fascism and racism, but they are largely forgotten.

As I stood in front of Fenner Brockway’s statue in Red Lion Square on a bright February morning, I recalled the price FD Maurice paid for his socialism, the radicalism of the Pre-Raphaelites, and how many of Fenner Brockway’s values remain relevant to the needs of Britain and the world today. But I also wondered who is going to remember Kevin Gately later this year on the 50th anniversary of his death or murder.

As I thought of this year’s inevitable general election, I thought of Fenner Brockway’s many efforts to get elected. But I realised too, 50 years after that dreadful and deadly afternoon in Red Lion Square, how many of the demands of the National Front have since become mainstream policies in the Conservative Party, including withdrawal from what became the European Union, caps on immigration and the forced deportation of vulnerable immigrants.

Red Lion Square in London, with Conway Hall in the distance to the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

27 February 2024

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
14, 27 February 2024,
Saint Etheldreda of Ely

Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, depicted in stained glass in Ely Cathedral

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began earlier this month on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 25 February 2024). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (27 February) remembers the life and ministry of George Herbert (1633), priest and poet.

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Ely Cathedral and its towers rise above the surrounding landscape … it has long been known as the ‘Ship of the Fens’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 14, Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely

Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, is commemorated in Common Worship on 23 June. Saint Etheldreda (Audrey) was born in Suffolk in the seventh century, a daughter of the king. She desired to commit her life to prayer and chastity and, after two arranged and unconsummated marriages, founded a religious house at Ely for both men and women, over which she ruled as abbess.

At her death on 23 June 678, she was revered as a woman of austerity, prayer and prophecy. Her abbey is now part of Ely Cathedral.

Ely has Europe’s largest collection of mediaeval monastic buildings still in domestic use (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 23: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7 and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

The unique Octagon or Lantern Tower is the glory of Ely Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 27 February 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 ‘Lent Reflection: Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Bianca Daébs (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (27 February 2024) invites us to pray:

Pray for God to be at the centre of our human relationships – with family members, colleagues, friends, and all in our lives.

The Collect:

King of glory, king of peace,
who called your servant George Herbert
from the pursuit of worldly honours
to be a priest in the temple of his God and king:
grant us also the grace to offer ourselves
with singleness of heart in humble obedience to your service;
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:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant George Herbert revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Ethelburga of Barking

Tomorrow: Saint Hilda of Whitby

The Porta or great gateway to the monastery in Ely now houses the King’s School library (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

Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, facing
onto Trafalgar Square, remains
‘the church of the ever-open door’

Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, facing onto Trafalgar Square, is one of the best-known churches in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Martin-in-the-Fields has a prominent position looking out across Trafalgar Square that makes it one of the best-known churches in London. Architecturally, spiritually, culturally and socially, Saint Martin’s has helped to form the world around it, and it is a welcoming place where people of different faiths regularly pray together.

For many years, a photograph of a former Vicar of Saint Martin’s, Canon Dick Sheppard, hung over my desk in my study in the house in Firhouse where I lived for 20 years until the mid-1990s. His pacifism and his social activism were among the many influences on the development of my Anglicanism and my spirituality.

Saint Martin’s was involved in founding the Anti-Apartheid Movement and many other campaigns and charities, including Amnesty International, Shelter and The Big Issue, and over the decades has been supportive of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Christian CND. It is one of the churches in London that is a joy to drop into, whether to have coffee or lunch in the crypt or to pray in the church.

Inside Saint Martin-in-the-Fields … architecturally, spiritually, culturally and socially it has helped to shape the world around it (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There has been a church on the site since at least the medieval period, when the area was farmlands and fields beyond the London wall. The site is outside the city limits of Roman London, a mile west of Ludgate, and excavations have uncovered burials dating from around the year 350.

But the earliest surviving reference to the church is in 1222, when there was a dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London about the church. The Archbishop of Canterbury decided in favour of Westminster and the monks of Westminster Abbey began to use it.

Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 to keep plague victims away from the Palace of Whitehall. At this time, the church was ‘in the fields’, in an isolated position between the cities of Westminster and London.

By the early 17th century, the local population had increased and the congregation had outgrown the building. King James I granted an acre of ground for a new churchyard in 1606, and the church was enlarged eastward over the old burial ground. At the same time, the church was ‘repaired and beautified.’

Galleries were added later in the 17th century to accommodate more people. The creation of the new parishes of Saint Anne, Soho, and Saint James, Piccadilly, and the opening of a chapel in Oxenden Street also relieved some of the pressure on space. The burials there in the 17th century included Robert Boyle and Nell Gwyn.

The west end and the organ in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The walls and roof of the church had fallen into a state of decay by 1710, and parliament passed an act in 1720 to rebuild the church. The architect James Gibbs, who also designed Saint Mary le Strand, which I described yesterday (25 February 2024), was commissioned to design the new church.

At first, Gibbs suggested a church with a circular nave and domed ceiling, but this was rejected for being too expensive. He then produced a simpler, rectilinear plan.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 19 March 1722, and the last stone of the spire was put in position in December 1724. The spire of Saint Martin’s rises 59 metres (192 ft) above the level of the church floor.

The baptismal font in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The west front of Saint Martin’s has a portico with a pediment supported by a giant order of Corinthian columns, six wide. The order is continued around the church by pilasters.

In his design, Gibbs drew on the works of Sir Christopher Wren, but departed from Wren’s practice in his integration of the tower into the church. He constructed it within the west wall, so that it rises above the roof, immediately behind the portico, an arrangement also used by John James at Saint George’s, Hanover Square (1724).

The church is rectangular in plan, with the five-bay nave divided from the aisles by arcades of Corinthian columns. There are galleries over both aisles and at the west end. The nave ceiling is a flattened barrel vault, divided into panels by ribs. The panels are decorated in stucco with cherubs, clouds, shells and scroll work, designed by Giuseppe Artari and Giovanni Bagutti.

Gibbs’s design has influenced the design of many churches world-wide, including Saint Andrew’s in the Square (1739-1756), Glasgow, Saint Michael’s Charleston, South Carolina (1751-1761), Saint George’s, Dublin (1802), Saint Andrew’s Egmore (1818-1821), Madras (Chennai), and the Dutch Reformed Church in Cradock, South Africa.

The burials in the new church included the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac and the furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale . The churchyard to the south of the church was removed to make way for Duncannon Street, built in the 19th century to provide access to the newly created Trafalgar Square. Two small parcels of the churchyard survived, to the north and east of the church, and have been restored in recent years, with the addition of seating.

The pulpit in Saint Martin’s … Canon Dick Sheppard, the Vicar from 1914-1927, saw Saint Martin’s as ‘the church of the ever-open door’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The work of the church today is informed by the practical Christianity, exemplified in the life of its patron saint. After a career in the Roman army, Saint Martin became Bishop of Tours. In an instinctive act of generosity, he shared his cloak with a beggar. But the ultimate blessing was given to Saint Martin when the beggar returned to him in a dream as Christ.

The example of Saint Martin was followed by Canon High Richard Laurie (Dick) Sheppard (1880-1937), who was the Vicar of Saint Martin’s from 1914-1927. During World War I, he gave refuge to soldiers on their way to France. He began programmes for the area’s homeless and saw Saint Martin’s as ‘the church of the ever-open door’ – and the doors have remained open ever since.

His book We Say No (1935) was published a year before he founded the Peace Pledge Union in 1936, and he was involved in the formation of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship shortly before he died.

Dick Sheppard’s immediate successor, Canon William Patrick Glyn (‘Pat’) McCormick (1877-1940), who was vicar in 1927-1940, came from a prominent Irish clerical (and ricket playing) family. His father, Canon Joseph McCormick (1834-1914), played cricket for Ireland under the alias of J Bingley, the name of one of the schools he had attended, to disguise his participation from his parishioners in Dunmore East, Co Waterford.

Pat McCormick was an international cricketer and rugby player, and was supported by SPG (now USPG) as a priest working in South Africa in 1903-1914. At Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, he did much to help the homeless and poor, he regularly preached on BBC Radio and was the first clergyman to appear on British television. During his time, the crypt in Saint Martin’s was restored in 1937.

Canon Pat McCormick restored the crypt in Saint Martin’s in 1937 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

With changing needs in society in the 1960s, Saint Martin’s was concerned for the welfare of new arrivals in the emerging Chinatown and welcomed a Chinese congregation. Today, the Ho Ming Wah Chinese People’s Day Centre provides vital services for the Chinese community in London.

The church has a close relationship with the royal family, whose parish church it is, and with 10 Downing Street and the Admiralty. But it is also familiar to anyone and everyone who has taken part in a protest that has ended in Trafalgar Square.

The present set of 12 bells, cast in 1988, are rung every Sunday between 9 am and 10 am by the Saint Martin in the Fields Band of Bell Ringers.

The East Window designed by Shirazeh Houshiary was installed above the High Altar in 2008 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Work on a £36 million renewal project began in 2006, and the church and crypt reopened in 2008. A new East Window designed by Shirazeh Houshiary, the Iranian-born English sculptor, artist and painter, was installed above the High Altar in 2008 to mark the final stage of the project

The Altar was designed by Shirazeh Houshiary and Pip Horne, creators of the East Window, and was dedicated at the Patronal Festival of Saint Martin of Tours on 13 November 2011.

Mike Chapman’s sculpture ‘In the Beginning’ was commissioned to mark the new millennium and was part of the 1999 Trafalgar Square Christmas celebrations. Carved in a 4.5 tonne block of Portland Stone, this work is now permanently on display at the entrance to the church.

Last month, a service in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields celebrated the 80th anniversary of the ordination as priest of the Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi (1907-1992) in Hong Kong on 25 January 1944. She was the first woman to be ordained a priest in a church in the Anglican Communion.

Mike Chapman’s sculpture ‘In the Beginning’ is on display at the entrance to the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church frequently appears in films and television programmes and in many book, including David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens, A Room with a View (1908) by EM Forster, The Parasites (1949) by Daphne du Maurier, 1984 by George Orwell, in which a future totalitarian regime abolishes religion and turns the church into a military museum, and Winter of the World (2012) by Ken Follett.

The church hosts regular lunchtime and evening concerts. The Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, co-founded by Sir Neville Marriner and John Churchill, has become one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. The first organ in the church was built by Christopher Schreider in 1727. The present organ in the west gallery was built in 1990.

The crypt houses an art gallery, bookshop, gift shop and the London Brass Rubbing Centre, and the café hosts concerts that support the programmes of the church.

A notice board remembers the Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first Anglican woman priest, ordained in 1944 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Martin’s continues to look beyond its own doors and plays an active role in wider social, humanitarian and international issues. The Vicar’s Christmas Appeal on BBC Radio 4 has been broadcast annually since 1924, and now raises over £2 million a year for disadvantaged people.

The Connection at Saint Martin’s, next to the church, supports 7,500 homeless and vulnerable people in London each year, providing accommodation, medical and dental care, skills training, and creative activities.

Saint Martin’s is open throughout the week from 9 am to 5 pm. The Revd Dr Sam Wells has been the Vicar of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields since 2012. He is also Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College and a regular contributor to ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio 4.

The Revd Sally Hitchiner is the Associate Vicar for Ministry, with responsibility for life in the church. The Revd Richard Carter is the Associate Vicar for Mission, engaged in the education programme, international links and hospitality.

• Sunday services in Saint Martin in the Fields include: 10 am, Parish Eucharist, followed by coffee in the church hall; 1:30, Cantonese Service; followed by refreshments in the Ho Ming Wah centre in the crypt; 3:15, Choral Classics; 5 pm, Choral Evensong.

The Connection at Saint Martin’s supports 7,500 homeless and vulnerable people in London each year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

26 February 2024

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
13, 26 February 2024,
Saint Ethelburga of Barking

A stone statue of Saint Ethelburga (left) at All Hallows by the Tower, London … she has her abbess’s staff in her right hand and Barking Abbey in her left hand (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began earlier this month on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and yesterday was the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II, 25 February 2024).

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated by the Church of England in the Calendar of Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Church of Saint Ethelburga-the-Virgin on Bishopsgate sits in the shadows of the Gherkin and the other tall buildings in the City of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 13, Saint Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking

Saint Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, is commemorated in Common Worship on 11 October. She was a sister of Erkenwald, Bishop of London, and was probably of royal blood.

As the Venerable Bede describes her, it seems she may well have owned, as well as been made Abbess of, the joint monastery at Barking. There was a tradition developing of monks and nuns sharing monasteries, often with a woman superior, for example Hilda at Whitby and Cuthburga at Wimborne. Although they lived quite separate lives, often divided by high walls, they would occasionally celebrate the Daily Office or the Mass together. There was also probably an element of safety involved with the ever-present threat of marauding Danes.

It is said the Church of All Hallows by the Tower in London stands on land granted to Abbess Ethelburga and Barking Abbey, when her brother Erkenwald was Bishop of London. The church claims to be the oldest church in the City of London, although recent research questions these claims.

Tucked beneath the shadows of the Gherkin and the other tall buildings of the City, Saint Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate is one of the few surviving mediaeval churches in the City of London. The church projects right onto the footpath on Bishopsgate and is near Liverpool Street station.

The foundation date of the church is unknown, but a church dedicated to Saint Ethelburga has stood on this site for at least nine centuries. This one of the few mediaeval City churches not destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and it continued to stand during the Blitz and World II. It is now home to Saint Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

The Venerable Bede said: ‘Her life is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her, when she departed this world.’ He relates many miracles associated with her.

Saint Ethelburga died on 11 October 675. from the late 10th century, Barking Abbey followed the Rule of Saint Benedict. Every year, the Ethelburga Walk, a 14 km walk, takes place from Barking Abbey to Saint Ethelburga’s Centre in Bishopsgate.

All Hallows by the Tower claims to be the oldest church in the City of London and to have been founded by Saint Ethelburga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 36-38 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 36 ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

Saint Ethelburga’s is one of the few surviving mediaeval churches in the City of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 26 February 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 ‘Lent Reflection: Freedom in Christ.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by the Revd Bianca Daébs (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (26 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray Lord that you open our hearts so that we love our neighbours and welcome all.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Chad of Lichfield

Tomorrow: Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely

‘Forgive, and you will be forgiven’ (Luke 6: 37) … Saint Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation is a ‘maker of peacemakers’ (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

25 February 2024

Saint Mary le Strand in
London finds new life as
‘the Jewel in the Strand’ in
a new pedestrianised area

The Church of Saint Mary le Strand is at the heart of the newly pedestrianised district of Strand-Aldwych in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Church of Saint Mary le Strand is a landmark building at the heart of the Strand-Aldwych District in London and is a celebrated architectural gem. Simon Jenkins in England’s Thousand Best Churches describes it as ‘the finest eighteenth century church in London.’

The Strand is part of West End theatreland and runs for 1.2 km from Trafalgar Square east to Temple Bar, where the street becomes Fleet Street in the City of London. Saint Mary le Strand is known as one of the two ‘Island Churches,’ the other being Saint Clement Danes, a few steps to the east. Until recently, the church formed a traffic island to the north of Somerset House and south of Bush House, once the headquarters of the BBC World Service. Close by are King’s College London, the Royal Courts of Justice and Australia House.

Saint Mary le Strand is in a prominent place on the processional route from Westminster and Buckingham Palace to the City of London. But to generations of bus drivers and taxi drivers, it was known as ‘Saint Mary’s in the Way,’ and sadly it was seen by motorists and urban planners alike as little more than an eyesore or an obstruction on what was long a congested artery.

Now the church is at the heart of the newly pedestrianised district of Strand-Aldwych and, with its elegant and dignified worship space, it is being embraced once more as a sanctuary and place of peace in this part of the City of Westminster.

Inside Saint Mary le Strand, the first major work designed by James Gibbs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I first visited Saint Mary le Strand when I was a teenager, and I called in again last week when I was back in London and strolling from Smithfield through the City, down Fleet Street and into Trafalgar Square.

The church is the second in the area to have been called Saint Mary le Strand. The first church was a short distance to the south. The date of its foundation is unclear but it was mentioned in a judgment in 1222, when it was called the Church of the Innocents, or Saint Mary and the Innocents.

That church was pulled down in 1549 by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, to make way for Somerset House. The parishioners were promised a new church. But it was never built, and they were forced to move to Saint Clement Danes nearby and afterwards to the Savoy Chapel.

After the Great Fire and the rebuilding of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the City Commissioners proposed a scheme to build 50 new churches for London, with Saint Mary’s as the first. The site of the present church was once occupied by a great maypole. It was the scene of May Day festivities in the 16th and 17th centuries, but it was severely decayed by the early 18th century.

The parishioners successfully petitioned the Commissioners in 1711 for a new church to be built in the Strand. The church became part of an extensive new church building effort in the early 1700s (‘Queen Anne Churches’). Saint Mary le Strand was the first of the 12 new churches built in London under the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, at a cost of £16,000.

Saint Mary le Strand is a beautiful example of baroque design by James Gibbs (1682-1754), an Aberdeen-born architect who had a sophisticated knowledge of ancient, Renaissance and contemporary European architecture. The church was his first major project following his return from Rome, where he had trained in the studio of Carlo Fontana.

The new church was planned, in part, as a monument to Queen Anne and to the High Church ascendancy of her final years. But when Queen Anne died in 1714, the House of Hanover and the Whig government wound down the commission, and only 12 of 50 planned churches were built. Those that were built – the others were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and Thomas Archer – are among the outstanding examples of English church architecture.

Building work began in February 1714, and from the outset the architecture of Saint Mary le Strand proved controversial. The architect later expressed unhappiness at the way that his plans had been altered by the Commissioners. According to Gibbs, the church was originally intended to be an Italianate structure with a small campanile over the west end and no steeple.

Gibbs planned a 76 metre (250 ft) column surmounted with a statue of Queen Anne to the west of the church. A great quantity of stone was brought to the spot, but the plan was abandoned when Queen Anne died. Instead, Gibbs was ordered to reuse the stone to build a steeple, which was completed in September 1717 but which fundamentally altered the plan of the church.

The extravagant Baroque ornamentation of the exterior was criticised at the time. The prominent situation of the church has also been problematic. Gibbs designed the ground floor without windows in order to keep out the noise of traffic on the Strand.

The interior is richly decorated with a plastered ceiling in white and gold, with a ceiling inspired by Luigi Fontana’s work in the church of Santi Apostoli and Pietro da Cortona’s Santi Luca e Martina, both in Rome. The porch was inspired by Cortona’s Santa Maria della Pace. The walls were influenced by Michelangelo and the steeple shows the influence of Sir Christopher Wren.

Gibbs also took ideas from Saint Paul’s Cathedral – completed in 1711 after almost half a century of work – and reworked Wren’s ideas in a new context. The semi-circular projections of the west and east elevations, for example, were inspired by the north porch and east end of Saint Paul’s, and inside the east end resembles Wren’s design in many ways.

The church was consecrated 300 years ago on 1 January 1724 by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, and the Revd John Heylyn became the first rector of the rebuilt church.

James Gibbs went on to design Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in 1722–1726 and which I visited immeidately after that same afternoon.

The High Altar and apse in the Church of Saint Mary le Strand (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Bonnie Prince Charlie is alleged to have renounced his Roman Catholic allegiance in the church to become an Anglican during a secret visit to London in 1750.

One of the decorative urns surmounting the exterior of the church fell in 1802 and killed a passer-by during a procession.

John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow, the parents of Charles Dickens, were married in the church in 1809.

The church was restored in 1871 by Robert Jewell Withers, who removed the box pews and had them re-formed into elegant benches with scrolling sides. The tiled floor in the nave and chancel are also his work. His changes were met by praise, and survive to this day.

Over the three centuries since its consecration in 1724, the road surrounding the church was gradually widened, taking great bites out of the churchyard and threatening to devour the church itself.

The church narrowly escaped destruction twice in the 20th century. At the start of the 20th century, London County Council proposed to demolish the church to widen the Strand. A campaign involving the artist Walter Crane succeeded in averting this, although the graveyard was obliterated and the graves were moved to Brookwood Cemetery.

During World War II, the Blitz caused much damage to the surrounding area and the church was damaged by a nearby bomb explosion, but avoided destruction.

The pulpit in Saint Mary le Strand (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Threats to the church only seemed to grow, and Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) wrote his last poem in 1980 as part of a campaign to protect the church and to raise funds for its restoration.

It seemed time had finally run out for Saint Mary le Strand in 2017. With the congregation in single digits, the Diocese of London prepared to sell it off to become a UK outpost of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. Stripped of furniture and fittings, one of London’s architectural glories would have been reduced to little more than an empty shell. The members of the parish church council all resigned in protest.

Since 2022, however, the church’s urban context has been completely transformed. Gone are the streams of traffic that smothered it on either side, replaced by raised beds and picnic benches, part of a scheme to unite the campuses of three of London’s universities, King’s College, the London School of Economics and the Courtauld Institute, into a single ‘Global Cultural Thinking Quarter’.

Once an inconvenience, the church is now hailed as the ‘Jewel in the Strand’, the focus of London’s newest piazza. The project is not yet totally successful, the zigzagging benches in the supposedly Italianate piazza have been described as having ‘a strange, playground quality,’ and the aims of the Global Cultural Thinking Quarter are criticised as being ill-defined. Yet, a once unappealing street is now abuzz with people, and many of them are visiting the church too.

One major ambition is to make the raised ground floor accessible and to turn the crypt into a multipurpose space for events and church activities. Above ground, the church hopes to restore original features and relight the space to show its highlight the plasterwork ceiling to better advantage. The church has been awarded a grant of £3.9 million and is currently fundraising for the additional £4.5 million. Saint Mary le Strand is inviting people to sponsor flowers on its famous ceiling as part of a fundraising drive.

The church launched the ‘Jewel in the Strand’ campaign last September. The spectacular floral plaster ceiling will be the centrepiece of the church’s transformation, with donors invited to sponsor a flower, including roses, acorns and sunflowers.

The ‘Jewel in the Strand’ project is central to the wider Strand Aldwych Project. Works will begin in September 2025, with the formal reopening planned in late 2026.

The ‘Jewel in the Strand’ project at Saint Mary le Strand is central to the wider Strand Aldwych Project (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

St Mary-Le-Strand by John Betjeman:

Shall we give Gibbs the go by
Great Gibbs of Aberdeen,
Who gave the town of Cambridge
The Senate House Serene;
Every son of Oxford
Can recognise he’s home
When he sees upon the skyline
The Radcliffe’s mothering dome.

Placid about the chimney pots His sculptured steeples soar,
Windowless he designs his walls
Above the traffic’s roar.
Whenever you put stone on stone
You edified the scene,
Your chaste baroque was on its own,
Great Gibbs of Aberdeen.

A Tory and a Catholic
There’s nothing quite so grand
As the baroque of your chapel
Of St Mary in the Strand.

• The Revd Canon Dr Peter Babington has been the Priest in Charge at St Mary le Strand since September 2020. Previously he was the Vicar of Bournville (2002-2020). His great-grandfather, Richard Babington (1869-1952), was the Dean of Cork in 1914-1951. The church has three services during the week: Tuesday, 1 pm; Said Eucharist; Wednesday, 6 pm, Sung Eucharist with Hymns; Thursday, 8 pm, Compline (Night Prayer) online via Zoom.

Sir John Betjeman wrote his last poem in 1980 as part of a campaign to save Saint Mary le Strand (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)