Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 17, 10 January 2024

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

Oxford Castle has survived neglect and civil war to become a museum and hotel

Oxford Castle dates back to a Norman castle of the motte and bailey type (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I first visited Oxford in my late teens, but I only visited Oxford Castle for first time almost 30 years later when I was visiting theological colleges in Oxford in 2007. The castle site was first opened to the public in 2002-2006, and I was visiting Wycliffe Hall and Ripon College, Cuddesdon, in 2007 when the Revd Lister Tonge, a future Dean of Monmouth who was then in chaplaincy in Oxford, took some time off to bring me to see Oxford Castle.

Oxford Castle is on the west side of central Oxford and close to the bus and train stations. I decided to have another look at the castle during a recent visit to Oxford, although it was a rainy day, and any castle climb was not going to be repaid with panoramic or merely clear views of what Matthew Arnold first called the ‘dreaming spires of Oxford.’

Nevertheless, the large, partly ruined mediaeval castle is an impressive site and building. Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century.

The castle played an important role in the conflicts of the time, but most of it was destroyed in the English Civil War, and it later became a prison. When the prison closed in 1996, Oxford Castle was redeveloped as an hotel and visitor attraction.

The mediaeval remains of the castle including the motte, Saint George's Tower and crypt. The surviving rectangular Saint George’s Tower probably predates the remainder of the castle and may have been a watchtower associated with the original Saxon west gate of the city.

Oxford Castle was built by the Norman baron Robert D’Oyly (d’Oilly) the elder in 1071-1073. D’Oyly arrived in England with William the Conqueror, who granted him extensive lands in Oxfordshire.

D’Oyly built the castle to dominate the town. In time, he became the foremost landowner in Oxfordshire. He was made hereditary royal constable of Oxford Castle, although Oxford Castle is not recorded in the Domesday Book (1086). D’Oyly built his castle to the west side of the town, using the natural protection of a stream off the River Thames, now called Castle Mill Stream, and diverting the stream to form a moat.

Oxford Castle was an urban castle, overlying a portion of the Saxon town wall. The north gate of the wall is the Saxon tower now associated with the church of Saint Michael at the North Gate, while the west gate is occupied by the apparently Saxon tower of Saint George, incorporated into the fabric of the later Norman castle.

The initial castle was probably a large motte and bailey, copying the plan of the castle that D’Oyly had built 19 km away at Wallingford. The motte was originally about 18 metres (60 ft) high and 12 metres (40 ft) wide, built like the bailey from layers of gravel and strengthened with clay facing. There are suggestions that the bailey may have built first, using the pre-existing Saint George’s Tower as the first keep. This would mean that in its initial design the castle was a ringwork rather than a motte and bailey.

By the late 12th to early 13th century, the original palisade walls and wooden keep were replaced in stone. The new curtain wall incorporated Saint George’s Tower, the tallest of the castle towers, and now believed to have survived from late Saxon times.

The date of the remaining towers is uncertain, although many sources date the southernmost, round tower, of which the base still remains, to 1235. In at least one source, it is referred to as ‘Henry III’s Tower.’

Saint George’s Tower may be a Saxon building on the site of an earlier church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The buildings inside the walls included a chapel with a crypt attached to Saint George’s Tower, which may be on the site of an earlier church. The chapel originally had a nave, chancel and an apsidal sanctuary. It had a typical early Norman design, with solid pillars and arches.

D’Oyly and his close friend, Roger d’Ivry endowed a chapel with a college of priests in 1074. At an early stage, this chapel was dedicated to Saint George. The crypt of this chapel still survives, but in a new location within the castle: it was moved and rebuilt in 1794.

The ten-sided stone shell keep (18 metres, 58 ft) was built in the 13th century to replace an earlier wooden structure. It closely resembled those of Tonbridge Castle and Arundel Castles. The keep enclosed a number of buildings, leaving an inner courtyard only 7 metres (22 ft) across. Stairs inside the keep led down to an underground stone chamber, with an Early English hexagonal vault and a deep well providing water in times of siege.

Robert D’Oyly the younger, nephew of Robert D’Oyly the elder, had inherited the castle by the time of the civil war of the ‘Anarchy’ in the 1140s. After initially supporting King Stephen, Robert declared his support for Empress Matilda, Stephen’s cousin and rival for the throne. The Empress marched to Oxford in 1141 to base her campaign at the castle. Stephen responded by marching from Bristol in Autumn 1142, attacking and seizing Oxford and besieging Matilda in the castle.

Stephen set up two siege mounds beside the castle, called Jew’s Mount and Mount Pelham. On these mounds, which have since vanished, Stephen placed siege engines, and then waited for Matilda’s supplies to run low over the next three months.

Matilda, however, made good her escape from the castle in December. The popular version says she waited until the Castle Mill Stream was frozen over and then dressed in white as camouflage in the snow. She was lowered down the walls with three or four knights, and escaped through Stephen’s lines in the night as the king’s sentries tried to raise the alarm. On the other hand, William of Malmesbury suggests she escaped from one of the gates.

Matilda safely reached Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Castle surrendered to Stephen the next day. After the war, Henry D’Oyly, younger son of Robert D’Oyly, reclaimed the position of constable of Oxford Castle in 1154.

The castle was attacked again in the Barons’ War (1215-1217), prompting further improvements in its defences. Falkes de Breauté, who controlled many royal castles, demolished the Church of Saint Budoc south-east of the castle in 1220 and built a moated barbican to further defend the main gate. The remaining wooden buildings were replaced in stone, including the new Round Tower which was built in 1235.

King Henry III turned part of Oxford Castle into a prison (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Henry III turned part of the castle into a prison to hold troublesome university clerks, and also improved the castle chapel, replacing the older barred windows with stained glass in 1243 and 1246. With Beaumont Palace nearby to the north of Oxford, however, the castle never became a royal residence.

The fortifications, particularly the castle gates and the barbican, were in poor condition by the 14th century, the castle lost much of its military value and strategic significance and fell into increasing disrepair, and the site was turned to use primarily for county administration and as a prison.

Henry IV was at Oxford Castle on 13 January 1400 for the trial of rebels who had taken part in the Epiphany Rising, or the Revolt of the Earls. They supported Richard II, Henry’s cousin who had been murdered by starvation.

The castle then became the centre for the administration of the county of Oxford, a jail, and a criminal court. The Assizes were held there until 1577, when plague broke out in what became known as the ‘Black Assize.’

‘Jail fever’ or typhus broke out during the trial of Rowland Jenks, ‘a saucy, foul-mouthed bookseller,’ and over 300 people died, including the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, two knights, 80 gentlemen, the entire grand jury for the session, and Sir Robert D’Oyley, a relative of the founder of the castle.

After that, assizes were never held at the castle.

A year later, a map of Oxford in 1578 shows the curtain wall, keep and towers remained, but the barbican had been demolished to make way for houses. The moat was almost entirely silted up by 1600, and houses had been built all around the edge of the bailey wall.

James I sold Oxford Castle to Francis James and Robert Younglove in 1611, and they in turn sold it to Christ Church in 1613. The college then leased it to a number of local families. But Oxford Castle was then in a weakened state, an a large crack ran down the side of the keep.

A map of the castle prepared for Christ Church in 1615 shows the keep on its mound, Saint George’s Tower with associated buildings and sections of the curtain wall remaining to the north and south, and the next tower to the south, plus a single remaining tower to the north-east, as well as the castle mill and a southern entrance to the castle complex. Houses and gardens had been laid out over more than half of the castle ditch or moat, which still contained water.

When the First English Civil War broke out in 1642, the Royalists made Oxford their capital. Parliamentary forces besieged Oxford in 1646, and the city was occupied by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby. He improved the fortification of the castle rather than the surrounding town, and in 1649 demolished most of the mediaeval stonework, replacing it with more modern earth bulwarks and reinforcing the keep with earthworks to form a gun-platform.

During the third English Civil War, the Parliamentary garrison pulled down these defences in 1652 and retreated to New College, causing great damage to the college in the process.

Oxford Castle served primarily as the local prison after the Civil War (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

After the Civil War, Oxford Castle served primarily as the local prison. The owners, Christ Church College, leased the castle to wardens who made their profit by charging prisoners for their board and lodging. The prison also had a gallows to execute prisoners.

For most of the 18th century, the castle prison was run by the Etty and Wisdom families and was in increasing disrepair. The keep was demolished early in the 18th century, when the top of the motte was landscaped into its current form.

The prison reformer John Howard visited the castle several times in the 1770s, and criticised its size and quality, including the extent to which vermin infested the prison. Partly in response to this criticism, the county authorities decided to rebuild Oxford Prison.

The castle was bought by the Oxford County Justices in 1785 and rebuilding began under the London architect William Blackburn. The wider castle site had already begun to change by the late 18th century: New Road was built through the bailey and the last parts of the castle moat was filled for building the new Oxford Canal terminus.

As the new prison was being built, the old chapel attached to Saint George’s Tower was demolished and part of the crypt was repositioned in 1794. The work was completed under Daniel Harris in 1805. As the new governor, Harris used convict labour from the prison to conduct early archaeological excavations at the castle with the help of the antiquarian Edward King.

The site continued to be developed in the 19th century. The new buildings included the new County Hall (1840-1841), built in the style of a toy castle, and the Oxfordshire Militia Armoury (1854). The prison was extended in 1876, growing to occupy most of the remaining space.

The inmates included children, the youngest being a seven-year-old girl sentenced to seven days hard labour in 1870 for stealing a pram. Prison reforms led to renaming the county prison as HM Prison Oxford in 1888.

The new Victorian buildings included the new County Hall, built in style of a toy castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The prison was closed in 1996 and the site reverted to Oxfordshire County Council. The Oxford Prison buildings have since been redeveloped as a restaurant and heritage complex, with guided tours of the historic buildings and open courtyards for markets and theatrical performances.

The complex includes a hotel in the Malmaison chain, Malmaison Oxford, occupying a large part of the former prison blocks, with cells converted as guest rooms. However, the parts of the prison associated with corporal or capital punishment have been converted to offices rather than being used for guests.

The full extent of the original castle is somewhat obliterated today, especially with the intrusion of the newer County Hall into the east side, while New Road runs over the location of north-east portion of the curtain wall with its two square towers.

The remains of the original barbican lie underneath the modern Westgate shopping centre. The two oldest parts of the castle are Grade I listed buildings, and include: the 11th-century motte with its 13th-century well-chamber, Saint George’s tower, listed as Norman, but now believed to be Saxon, the relocated crypt chapel, and the 18th-century D-wing and Debtors’ Tower.

The castle complex today includes the Malmaison Oxford in a large part of the former prison blocks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)