The Church of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen … the tower is a local landmark in St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
During my recent visits to St Albans, I have visited St Albans Cathedral and a number of churches in the area, including Saint Michael’s, which I described yesterday, and Saint Alban’s and Saint Stephen’s Church or Ss Alban and Stephen Church on Beaconsfield Road, the Roman Catholic parish church in St Albans.
Saint Alban’s and Saint Stephen’s Church is close to St Albans City railway station in the centre of St Albans, and its tall tower is a prominent landmark in this part of St Albans.
Saint Alban Roe (1583-1642), a Benedictine priest and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, is an important figure in the Roman Catholic presence in St Albans in the immediate aftermath of the Reformation. He was born Bartholomew Roe in Suffolk in 1583 and educated at Cambridge.
After visiting prisoners in the Abbey Gatehouse at the west end of St Albans Abbey, he became a Roman Catholic. He studied at the English College in Douai, then became a Benedictine in 1612, and was ordained in 1615 as Father Alban, taking the name of the first English martyr.
As Father Alban, he became a founder member of the new English Benedictine Community at Saint Edmund, Paris. He returned to England but he was arrested, deported twice, and then jailed, and even spent some time in the Abbey Gatehouse in St Albans. He was found guilty of treason and was executed at Tyburn on 21 January 1642.
He was canonised by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He is one of the seven martyrs depicted in the modern sculptures by Rory Young in the mediaeval nave screen in St Albans Cathedral.
Inside the Church of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen on Beaconsfield Road, St Albans, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
It was almost 200 years after the execution of Saint Alban Roe before the first Roman Catholic mission was started in St Albans in 1840. Father William Crook travelled to St Albans from Saint Edmund’s College in Ware and hired a room at the White Hart Inn on Holywell Hill.
Alexander Raphael, the Whig MP for St Albans and a former MP for Carlow, planned to build a church in St Albans in 1847. He commissioned the architect Charles Parker, who had been a pupil of Jeffry Wyatville and who also designed Saint Raphael’s Church, Surbiton.
Raphael bought a site beside Verulam House . However, when he died in 1850 he had not fully paid for the church. The site was then sold to the philanthropist Isabelle Worley of Sopwell House. She paid for the church to be completed according to the original plan, but as an Anglican church. Christ Church was consecrated in 1859. The church later became a Methodist church and later became private offices. It is now a Grade II listed building.
When Alexander Raphael’s old church became an Anglican church, the original Roman Catholic mission in St Albans came to an end.
A new Catholic mission was started in St Albans in the 1860s by a former Anglican priest, Father George Bampfield, who joined the Oratory of Cardinal John Henry Newman in 1857 and is remembered as an educator of the poor and a pioneer of Catholic evangelisation in Hertfordshire and North Middlesex. He came to St Albans from Barnet on horseback and first said Mass in a cottage on London Road.
Inside the Church of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen on Beaconsfield Road, St Albans, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
The formation of the present parish began when a small church was built in London Road. The foundation stone of a new church was laid by Cardinal Henry Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, on 22 June 1877. The church was funded by Major James Gape and was designed by the architects TJ Willson and Samuel Joseph Nicholl. Nicholl also designed Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, Wellingborough, and Saint Charles Borromeo Church, Westminster.
The church was dedicated to Saint Alban and Saint Stephen, the first English martyr and the first Christian martyr. It was opened by Cardinal Manning on 22 June 1878. It had a capacity for 80 people and cost £1,100.
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were invited to take charge of the mission in St Albans in 1899. They were founded in France in 1854 by a diocesan priest, Father Jules Chevalier, who was touched by the sufferings of the people and saw this human tragedy calling for compassion.
The church was no longer large enough to accommodate the growing congregation by 1900 and there was no space around the church to build an extension.
A statue of Saint Alban in Saint Alban and Saint Stephen Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
The priest at the time, Father Michael Tierney, received permission from Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster, to build a new church on Beaconsfield Road and to sell the church on London Road. This was the third attempt to build a permanent Roman Catholic church in St Albans.
Bishop Algernon Stanley, auxiliary bishop of Westminster, laid the foundation stone on 22 July 1903. The church was designed in the Italian style by the architect John Kelly (1840-1904) of Kelly and Birchall of Leeds and was built in 1903-1905 by local builders, Christopher Miskin & Sons.
Kelly and Birchall also designed the Grade II listed Saint Luke’s Church on Gibbon Road in Kingston upon Thames (1886-1887) and the Grade II* listed Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, London (1891-1893).
The church was dedicated and blessed by Francis Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, on 1 January 1905.
A Mass centre started at Skyswood Primary School in 1959 and later moved to Saint John Fisher’s School.
The Baptism Font in the Church of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
The church was enlarged in 1965-1967. The nave was extended, the old sanctuary was demolished and replaced with a larger one with side chapels. Side aisles, a bell tower, a choir gallery and a larger narthex were added. The extensions were designed by the architects Broadbent, Hastings, Reid & Todd. With the extensions, the church’s capacity went from 400 people to 600 people, and the church was then very much as it is seen today.
An old school at the back of the church was demolished and replaced with a parish hall and sacristy. A new presbytery was built in 1974, and includes a the prayer room for parishioners and parish groups.
The church was consecrated on 4 May 1977. The church roof and the top windows were replaced in 2005. The Sacred Heart Centre opened in 2013, following a complete renovation of the meeting rooms and hall.
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart decided reluctantly to hand the parish back to the Diocese of Westminster in June 2019.
• The parish priest of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen is Father Michael O’Boy, former Vice Rector and Dean of Studies at Allen Hall Seminary. Mass is at 6 pm on Saturdays and at 8 am, 9:30 am, 11:30 am and 6 pm on Sundays. In addition, Mass is celebrated in the Lady Chapel in St Albans Cathedral by a Roman Catholic priest at 12 noon every Friday.
The Church of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen in St Albans was designed by John Kelly of Leeds and built in 1903-1905 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
22 January 2024
Daily prayers during
Christmas and Epiphany:
29, 22 January 2024
A variety of bread gathered in a basket in a restaurant in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and yesterday was the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Vincent of Saragossa (304), Deacon, first Martyr of Spain. Today is also the fifth day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
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) The Gospel reading yesterday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of yesterday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
An icon of the Feeding of the Multitude
2: The feeding of the multitude (John 6: 5-15)
Saint John’s Gospel contains no institution narrative but gives us to most detailed account of the conversation around the dinner table at the Last Supper, this Gospel.
Instead the whole Gospel can be seen as a Eucharistic commentary, a commentary that continues, of course, in the Book of Revelation.
Indeed, the first of the Signs in Saint John’s Gospel is the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-12), and Saint John’s Gospel concludes not with the Ascension but with another meal, the breakfast by the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and the conversation that follows (John 21).
The Early Church, as it read the Fourth Gospel, would have understood each meal in the light of the Resurrection, with a post-Resurrection faith and understanding, and in the light of the weekly Eucharistic meal. And this understanding, of course, would also have applied to John’s account of the Feeding of the Multitude, which we also know as the miracle of the loaves and fish.
There are six different accounts of two miracle stories associated with the Feeding of the Multitude.
The first story, the feeding of 5,000, is reported by all four Gospels (see Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 31-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6: 5-15). This is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – that is found in all three Synoptic Gospels and in Saint John’s Gospel. The second story, the feeding of 4,000 is told by both Mark (Mark 8: 1-9) and by Matthew (Matthew 15: 32-38), but not by either Luke or John.
According to the Gospel narratives, the first feeding of the multitude takes place after Jesus has been teaching in an area away from the towns. He insists that the people are fed where they are, rather than being sent away to the nearest towns. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that this takes place in a desert place near Bethsaida, but the Fourth Gospel does not identify the location, merely telling us that this is a grassy place on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Tiberias.
The only food the disciple can find among the crowd is five small loaves of bread and two fish. Saint John also tells us that these came from a single boy in the crowd (verse 9). Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it the people – which is precisely what happens in the Eucharist: the bread is taken, blessed, broken and given in every Eucharist, and that would have been immediately understood by those who heard this story being read out loud in the Early Church.
The Synoptic Gospels tells us that there are 5,000 men there that day, not counting the women and children. So, perhaps, 15,000 or more people are fed in groups of fifty and a hundred. Then, after the meal is over, the disciples collect the scraps, filling 12 baskets.
Saint Luke’s account links the Feeding of the Multitude with Christ talking about both his coming death and the coming of the Kingdom (see Luke 21-27).
In the Fourth Gospel, the preceding food miracle is at the Wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. Now we have a miracle with bread. The Eucharistic connection of bread and wine is obvious even to the first-time reader.
But the story is also full of Messianic hope because it recalls the story of King David. When David first fled from King Saul, he fed his small group of followers, those who acknowledged him as the rightful king, with the priest’s bread, asking the priest: ‘Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here’ (I Samuel 21: 3).
In the Fourth Gospel, the account of the Feeding of the Multitude is followed with the conversation Jesus has with the crowds who follow him to Capernaum. The main motif in the passage (verses 26-59) centres on Jesus saying: ‘I am that bread of life’ (verse 48). In this way, Jesus links the Feeding of the Multitude with the feeding of the people in the wilderness with manna and with the heavenly banquet and the coming of the kingdom (see John 6: 25-40).
More strikingly, this story echoes that of Elisha who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (2 Kings 4: 42-44), saying: ‘For thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left”.’ The feeding of the multitude therefore may be seen as a demonstrative prelude to Jesus words, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in will never be thirsty’(John 6: 35).
And the feeding with the fish is a prelude to, looks forward to another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias … that breakfast with the disciples when Jesus feeds them with bread and fish.
Once again, Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to those he is feeding (John 21: 13).
The fish is an early Christian symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, capitalised ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words, spelling out Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).
Yet, Jesus puts no questions of belief to either the disciples or the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They did not believe in the Resurrection – it had yet to happen. But Jesus feeds them, and feeds them indiscriminately.
The disciples wanted to send them away, but Jesus wants to count them in.
Jesus invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.
How welcome is the stranger in my church?
How would I feel when, just as I was looking for a moment’s rest and peace, I was disturbed by the arrival of three strangers?
How far does my hospitality extend?
How seriously do I listen to what strangers have to say to me?
The miracle of the five loaves and two fish … a modern Ethiopian painting in Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 3: 22-30 (NRSVA):
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ 23 And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ – 30 for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
Feeding the 5,000 … a modern Greek Orthodox icon
Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 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: ‘Provincial Programme on Capacity Building in Paraná.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (22 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
We pray for the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil, that the Church and its work may be a testimony to the love of God.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
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:
Almighty Father,
whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world:
may your people,
illumined by your word and sacraments,
shine with the radiance of his glory,
that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God of all mercy,
your Son proclaimed good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
and freedom to the oppressed:
anoint us with your Holy Spirit
and set all your people free
to praise you in Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection (The Wedding at Cana)
Continued tomorrow (The meal with Mary and Martha)
The ΙΧΘΥC symbol carved into marble and highlighted by later visitors in Ephesus
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
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today, and yesterday was the Third Sunday of Epiphany (21 January 2024). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Vincent of Saragossa (304), Deacon, first Martyr of Spain. Today is also the fifth day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
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) The Gospel reading yesterday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of yesterday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of seven meals Jesus has with family, friends or disciples;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
An icon of the Feeding of the Multitude
2: The feeding of the multitude (John 6: 5-15)
Saint John’s Gospel contains no institution narrative but gives us to most detailed account of the conversation around the dinner table at the Last Supper, this Gospel.
Instead the whole Gospel can be seen as a Eucharistic commentary, a commentary that continues, of course, in the Book of Revelation.
Indeed, the first of the Signs in Saint John’s Gospel is the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-12), and Saint John’s Gospel concludes not with the Ascension but with another meal, the breakfast by the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and the conversation that follows (John 21).
The Early Church, as it read the Fourth Gospel, would have understood each meal in the light of the Resurrection, with a post-Resurrection faith and understanding, and in the light of the weekly Eucharistic meal. And this understanding, of course, would also have applied to John’s account of the Feeding of the Multitude, which we also know as the miracle of the loaves and fish.
There are six different accounts of two miracle stories associated with the Feeding of the Multitude.
The first story, the feeding of 5,000, is reported by all four Gospels (see Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 31-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6: 5-15). This is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – that is found in all three Synoptic Gospels and in Saint John’s Gospel. The second story, the feeding of 4,000 is told by both Mark (Mark 8: 1-9) and by Matthew (Matthew 15: 32-38), but not by either Luke or John.
According to the Gospel narratives, the first feeding of the multitude takes place after Jesus has been teaching in an area away from the towns. He insists that the people are fed where they are, rather than being sent away to the nearest towns. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that this takes place in a desert place near Bethsaida, but the Fourth Gospel does not identify the location, merely telling us that this is a grassy place on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Tiberias.
The only food the disciple can find among the crowd is five small loaves of bread and two fish. Saint John also tells us that these came from a single boy in the crowd (verse 9). Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it the people – which is precisely what happens in the Eucharist: the bread is taken, blessed, broken and given in every Eucharist, and that would have been immediately understood by those who heard this story being read out loud in the Early Church.
The Synoptic Gospels tells us that there are 5,000 men there that day, not counting the women and children. So, perhaps, 15,000 or more people are fed in groups of fifty and a hundred. Then, after the meal is over, the disciples collect the scraps, filling 12 baskets.
Saint Luke’s account links the Feeding of the Multitude with Christ talking about both his coming death and the coming of the Kingdom (see Luke 21-27).
In the Fourth Gospel, the preceding food miracle is at the Wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. Now we have a miracle with bread. The Eucharistic connection of bread and wine is obvious even to the first-time reader.
But the story is also full of Messianic hope because it recalls the story of King David. When David first fled from King Saul, he fed his small group of followers, those who acknowledged him as the rightful king, with the priest’s bread, asking the priest: ‘Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here’ (I Samuel 21: 3).
In the Fourth Gospel, the account of the Feeding of the Multitude is followed with the conversation Jesus has with the crowds who follow him to Capernaum. The main motif in the passage (verses 26-59) centres on Jesus saying: ‘I am that bread of life’ (verse 48). In this way, Jesus links the Feeding of the Multitude with the feeding of the people in the wilderness with manna and with the heavenly banquet and the coming of the kingdom (see John 6: 25-40).
More strikingly, this story echoes that of Elisha who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (2 Kings 4: 42-44), saying: ‘For thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left”.’ The feeding of the multitude therefore may be seen as a demonstrative prelude to Jesus words, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in will never be thirsty’(John 6: 35).
And the feeding with the fish is a prelude to, looks forward to another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias … that breakfast with the disciples when Jesus feeds them with bread and fish.
Once again, Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to those he is feeding (John 21: 13).
The fish is an early Christian symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, capitalised ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words, spelling out Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).
Yet, Jesus puts no questions of belief to either the disciples or the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They did not believe in the Resurrection – it had yet to happen. But Jesus feeds them, and feeds them indiscriminately.
The disciples wanted to send them away, but Jesus wants to count them in.
Jesus invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.
How welcome is the stranger in my church?
How would I feel when, just as I was looking for a moment’s rest and peace, I was disturbed by the arrival of three strangers?
How far does my hospitality extend?
How seriously do I listen to what strangers have to say to me?
The miracle of the five loaves and two fish … a modern Ethiopian painting in Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 3: 22-30 (NRSVA):
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ 23 And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ – 30 for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
Feeding the 5,000 … a modern Greek Orthodox icon
Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 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: ‘Provincial Programme on Capacity Building in Paraná.’ This theme was introduced yesterday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (22 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
We pray for the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil, that the Church and its work may be a testimony to the love of God.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
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:
Almighty Father,
whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world:
may your people,
illumined by your word and sacraments,
shine with the radiance of his glory,
that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God of all mercy,
your Son proclaimed good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
and freedom to the oppressed:
anoint us with your Holy Spirit
and set all your people free
to praise you in Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection (The Wedding at Cana)
Continued tomorrow (The meal with Mary and Martha)
The ΙΧΘΥC symbol carved into marble and highlighted by later visitors in Ephesus
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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