The Lampedusa Cross made from the wreckage of a refugee boat in a church porch in St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
There is a Facebook page for people known as ‘Church Crawlers’. I suppose I have been an inveterate church crawler, not just for religious reasons, but because I enjoy the varieties in architecture, the history and lore, the collections of art works and treasures, the icons and stained glass, the stories of people of faith, and the differences in approach to how we use sacred and liturgical space.
My inquisitive and inquiring visits include not only churches and cathedrals, but also meeting houses, cemetery and airport college and hospital chapels, as well as halls, synagogues, mosques and temples – Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh. I am constantly impressed less by the buildings themselves and more by how people of faith try, fail and try yet again and again to provide sacred and safe space where we can give expression to our quest for the love of God and the compulsion to love one another.
‘Church Crawlers’ are spectators, but also part of the journey alongside people of faith as pilgrims and understand the religious significance of being refugees in a hostile and often unwelcoming world.
In my visits to St Albans this month, I was reminded how the story of Christians there begins with the simple of offer of refuge and sanctuary to a priest on the run in a time of persecution, and results in one of the great abbeys of mediaeval England and one of the great cathedrals of the church today.
The stories of the synagogues in St Albans are also reminders of the plight of religious refugees first fleeing the pogroms in Poland, the Baltics and Tsarist Russia and then the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. The mosques are reminders of the welcome south Asians received in this country in the post-war decades.
In the porch of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen Church, the Roman Catholic parish church on Beaconsfield Road in St Albans, a small display case contains a simple reminder of the inseparable link between religion and refuge, and how it is so relevant today.
The Lampedusa Cross was made from the wreckage of a refugee boat that capsized in the Mediterranean over 10 years ago. A boat carrying 466 people from Somalia and Eritrea was crossing the Mediterranean from Tunisia caught fire near the Italian island of Lampedusa on the night of 11 October 2013. The vessel capsized and sank near the island.
In all, 311 people were drowned that night; 155 people were rescued and taken to a church on Lampedusa. The islanders pooled resources to feed and clothe the survivors and to bury the bodies washed up on the shore.
Francesco Tuccio, a carpenter who attended the church that provided sanctuary and cared for the survivors, began making small crosses from the wood of the boat and giving them to survivors and the islanders who cared for them. Earlier that year, he had made a larger cross, chalice and plate for Pope Francis when he visited the island.
Francesco Tuccio made a cross from the boat’s wreckage for each of the 155 survivors, and several larger ones as symbols of community.
On of those crosses was acquired by the British Museum in London five years ago in 2016. It has toured English museums and art galleries to encourage debate and reflection on the plight of migrants.
The cross was displayed in Coventry Cathedral when Coventry was the UK City of Culture and it has visited Manchester, Hastings, Derby, Ipswich, Bristol and Rochester, and was seen in museums, art galleries, churches and cathedrals.
On its tour, the cross was accompanied by a display of 12 miniature boats made from bicycle mudguards and packed with burnt matches, representing people making the perilous crossing on the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe. The boats were made by the Syrian-born artist Issam Kourbaj as part of a series, ‘Dark Water, Burning World.’
The Lampedusa Cross diplay in the church porch in Saint Alban and Saint Stephen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
During the tour, Hartwig Fischer, the director of the British Museum, said: ‘The wood of the cross is a reminder of the passage, not only of these vulnerable refugees who staked everything on the boats being able to safely transport them, but of the human beings throughout history who have sought refuge on similar perilous journeys. I hope visitors around the UK will connect with the poignancy of the cross and be able to reflect upon the ongoing disruption, upheaval and hope that it symbolises.’
Jill Cook, the curator of ‘Crossings: Community and Refuge’, said: ‘The Lampedusa Cross reminds us of all the histories that are lost and of the thousands of people who are not otherwise remembered. The wood with its paint blistered by the sun and smelling of salt, sea, and suffering embodies a crisis of our times, as well as hope.’
She added: ‘The cross invites discussion of the varied reactions to one of the great tragedies of our time. It is an artefact shaped by tragedy that symbolises those who have nothing and desperately seek to share in a better future.’
The Catholic international development agency CAFOD lent a Lampedusa Cross to the parish of Saint Alban and Saint Stephen in St Albans for a week in 2016, when it was a focus of prayer.
CAFOD last year gave the parish a Lampedusa Cross made by Francesco Tuccio. The parish says: ‘The cross is a reminder of the children, men and women who, today, are leaving their homes and risk lives to flee persecution.’
In the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG tomorrow, the Revd Annie Bolger of the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels, points out: ‘Due to climate crises, war, famine and many other factors, the UNHCR estimates that 117.2 million people were forcibly displaced or stateless in 2023. The numbers will only rise in the year ahead and may simply overwhelm us. We cannot possibly imagine the trauma and difficulty that each person’s story represents. That is why Jesus came among us as a refugee: to remind us of the humanity and dignity of every displaced person.’
The display in the church porch in St Albans includes words from Pope Francis: ‘We ourselves need to see that refugees … are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved.’
The Lampedusa Cross is a reminder of the harsh reality facing vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and how facile and inhumane are the words of those who reduce their responses to these crises to simplistic catchphrases such as ‘Stop the Boats.’
A welcome reminder from Pope Francis in the church porch in Saint Alban and Saint Stephen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
27 January 2024
Daily prayers during
Christmas and Epiphany:
34, 27 January 2024
The Supper at Emmaus … a window by Daniel Bell of Bell and Almond in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today. Tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024), and today is Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January 2024).
Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer. Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading last Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of Sunday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week have included:
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.
‘The Road to Emmaus’ icon by Sister Marie Paul OSB of the Mount of Olives Monastery, Jerusalem (1990), commissioned by the Canadian theologian Father Thomas Rosica
7, The Meal on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35):
By a huge margin, the Bible story quoted most often at the first week of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible in 2008 was the story of disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus, according to the Canadian theologian Father Thomas Rosica, who briefed English-speaking journalists on the synod speeches.
It is said the story kept coming up at the synod in Rome because so many bishops and other synod members saw it as the perfect example of what the Church must do with the Scriptures: discuss them with people, explain them and let them lead people to recognise Jesus.
The Superior General of the Salesians, Father Pasual Chavez Villanueva, told the synod that the story gives precise instructions for how to evangelise the young, emphasising that it is Jesus who evangelises through his word and that evangelisation takes place by walking alongside people, listening to their sorrows, and then giving them a word of hope and a community in which to live it.
Father Chavez told that synod that today’s young people definitely share with the disciples ‘the frustration of their dreams, the tiredness of their faith and being disenchanted with discipleship.’ They ‘need a church that walks alongside them where they are.’
The story of Jesus and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus is a rich one and one that offers a model for Christian life and mission.
After seeing all their hopes shattered on Good Friday, two disciples – Cleopas and another unnamed disciple – head out of Jerusalem, and are walking and talking on the road as their make their way together.
Emmaus was about 11 km (seven miles) from Jerusalem, so it would have taken them two hours, perhaps, to get there, maybe more if they were my age.
Somewhere along the way, they are joined by a third person, ‘but their eyes were kept from recognising him’ (verse 16, NRSV), or to be more precise, as the Greek text says, ‘but their eyes were being held so that they did not recognise him.’
They cannot make sense of what has happened over the last few days, and they cannot make sense of the questions their new companion puts to them. When Jesus asks them a straight question, they look sad and downcast.
I get the feeling that Cleopas is a bit cynical, treating Jesus as one of the visitors to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, and asking him if he really does not know what has happened in the city. In his cynicism, Cleopas almost sounds like Simon the Pharisee asking his visitor Jesus whether he really knows who the woman with the alabaster jar is.
Like Simon, Cleopas and his friend thought Jesus was a Prophet. But now they doubt it. And the sort of Messiah they hoped for was not the sort of Messiah Jesus had been preparing them for, was he?
And they have heard the report of the women visiting the tomb, and finding it empty. Hearing is not believing. Seeing is not believing. And believing is not the same as faith.
When I find myself disagreeing fundamentally with people, I wonder do I listen to them even half as patiently as Jesus did with these two.
There are no interruptions, no corrections, no upbraidings. Jesus listens passively and patiently, like all good counsellors should, and only speaks when they have finished speaking.
And then, despite their cynicism, despite their failure to understand, despite their lack of faith, these two disciples do something extraordinary. They press the stranger in their company not to continue on his journey. It is late in the evening, and they invite him to join them.
On re-reading this story I found myself comparing their action and their hospitality with the Good Samaritan who comes across the bruised and battered stranger on the side of the road, and offers him healing hospitality, offering to pay for his meals and his accommodation in the inn.
These two have also come across a bruised and battered stranger on the road, and they offer him healing hospitality, offering him a meal and accommodation in the inn.
Jesus had once imposed himself on Zacchaeus and presumes on his hospitality. Now Cleopas and his companion insist on imposing Jesus on their hospitality. The guest becomes the host and the host becomes the guest, once again.
He goes in to stay with them. And it is not just a matter of finding him a room for the night. They dine together.
And so, in a manner that is typical of the way Saint Luke tells his stories, the story of the road to Emmaus ends with a meal with Jesus.
And at the meal – as he did with the multitude on the hillside, and with the disciples in the Upper Room – Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to those at the table with him (verse 30).
Their time in the wilderness is over, the Lenten preparation has been completed. The one who has received their hospitality now invites them to receive the hospitality of God, and to join him at the Heavenly Banquet.
Their journey continues. Our journey continues. Christ is not physically present with us on the road. But we recognise him in the breaking of the bread. And we, being many, become one body, for we all share in the one bread.
The Supper at Emmaus … a mosaic in the Church of the Holy Name, Beechwood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 4: 35-41 (NRSVA):
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
He was made ‘known to them in the breaking of the bread’ (Luke 24: 35) … bread baked for the Easter Eucharist at Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 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 on Sunday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (27 January 2024, Holocaust Remembrance Day) invites us to pray in these words:
Today we remember the atrocities of the Holocaust. May we continue to commemorate these tragic events in the hope that they will never happen again.
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.
Collect on the Eve of Epiphany IV:
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of 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.
Yesterday’s reflection (The Last Supper)
Continued tomorrow (Breakfast by the shore, John 21: 1-17)
The reredos in the Priory Church of the Holy Trinity, Micklegate, York, depicts the Supper at Emmaus and six saints associated with the north (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
The Supper at Emmaus (left) and the Apostle Thomas (right) in a window in Christ Church, Leomansley, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today. Tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV, 28 January 2024), and today is Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January 2024).
Before this day begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer. Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Friday (2 February). The Gospel reading last Sunday (John 2: 1-11) told of the Wedding at Cana, one of the traditional Epiphany stories.
In keeping with the theme of Sunday’s Gospel reading, my reflections each morning throughout the seven days of this week have included:
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.
‘The Road to Emmaus’ icon by Sister Marie Paul OSB of the Mount of Olives Monastery, Jerusalem (1990), commissioned by the Canadian theologian Father Thomas Rosica
7, The Meal on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35):
By a huge margin, the Bible story quoted most often at the first week of the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible in 2008 was the story of disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus, according to the Canadian theologian Father Thomas Rosica, who briefed English-speaking journalists on the synod speeches.
It is said the story kept coming up at the synod in Rome because so many bishops and other synod members saw it as the perfect example of what the Church must do with the Scriptures: discuss them with people, explain them and let them lead people to recognise Jesus.
The Superior General of the Salesians, Father Pasual Chavez Villanueva, told the synod that the story gives precise instructions for how to evangelise the young, emphasising that it is Jesus who evangelises through his word and that evangelisation takes place by walking alongside people, listening to their sorrows, and then giving them a word of hope and a community in which to live it.
Father Chavez told that synod that today’s young people definitely share with the disciples ‘the frustration of their dreams, the tiredness of their faith and being disenchanted with discipleship.’ They ‘need a church that walks alongside them where they are.’
The story of Jesus and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus is a rich one and one that offers a model for Christian life and mission.
After seeing all their hopes shattered on Good Friday, two disciples – Cleopas and another unnamed disciple – head out of Jerusalem, and are walking and talking on the road as their make their way together.
Emmaus was about 11 km (seven miles) from Jerusalem, so it would have taken them two hours, perhaps, to get there, maybe more if they were my age.
Somewhere along the way, they are joined by a third person, ‘but their eyes were kept from recognising him’ (verse 16, NRSV), or to be more precise, as the Greek text says, ‘but their eyes were being held so that they did not recognise him.’
They cannot make sense of what has happened over the last few days, and they cannot make sense of the questions their new companion puts to them. When Jesus asks them a straight question, they look sad and downcast.
I get the feeling that Cleopas is a bit cynical, treating Jesus as one of the visitors to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, and asking him if he really does not know what has happened in the city. In his cynicism, Cleopas almost sounds like Simon the Pharisee asking his visitor Jesus whether he really knows who the woman with the alabaster jar is.
Like Simon, Cleopas and his friend thought Jesus was a Prophet. But now they doubt it. And the sort of Messiah they hoped for was not the sort of Messiah Jesus had been preparing them for, was he?
And they have heard the report of the women visiting the tomb, and finding it empty. Hearing is not believing. Seeing is not believing. And believing is not the same as faith.
When I find myself disagreeing fundamentally with people, I wonder do I listen to them even half as patiently as Jesus did with these two.
There are no interruptions, no corrections, no upbraidings. Jesus listens passively and patiently, like all good counsellors should, and only speaks when they have finished speaking.
And then, despite their cynicism, despite their failure to understand, despite their lack of faith, these two disciples do something extraordinary. They press the stranger in their company not to continue on his journey. It is late in the evening, and they invite him to join them.
On re-reading this story I found myself comparing their action and their hospitality with the Good Samaritan who comes across the bruised and battered stranger on the side of the road, and offers him healing hospitality, offering to pay for his meals and his accommodation in the inn.
These two have also come across a bruised and battered stranger on the road, and they offer him healing hospitality, offering him a meal and accommodation in the inn.
Jesus had once imposed himself on Zacchaeus and presumes on his hospitality. Now Cleopas and his companion insist on imposing Jesus on their hospitality. The guest becomes the host and the host becomes the guest, once again.
He goes in to stay with them. And it is not just a matter of finding him a room for the night. They dine together.
And so, in a manner that is typical of the way Saint Luke tells his stories, the story of the road to Emmaus ends with a meal with Jesus.
And at the meal – as he did with the multitude on the hillside, and with the disciples in the Upper Room – Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to those at the table with him (verse 30).
Their time in the wilderness is over, the Lenten preparation has been completed. The one who has received their hospitality now invites them to receive the hospitality of God, and to join him at the Heavenly Banquet.
Their journey continues. Our journey continues. Christ is not physically present with us on the road. But we recognise him in the breaking of the bread. And we, being many, become one body, for we all share in the one bread.
The Supper at Emmaus … a mosaic in the Church of the Holy Name, Beechwood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 4: 35-41 (NRSVA):
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
He was made ‘known to them in the breaking of the bread’ (Luke 24: 35) … bread baked for the Easter Eucharist at Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 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 on Sunday by Christina Takatsu Winnischofer, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (27 January 2024, Holocaust Remembrance Day) invites us to pray in these words:
Today we remember the atrocities of the Holocaust. May we continue to commemorate these tragic events in the hope that they will never happen again.
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.
Collect on the Eve of Epiphany IV:
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of 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.
Yesterday’s reflection (The Last Supper)
Continued tomorrow (Breakfast by the shore, John 21: 1-17)
The reredos in the Priory Church of the Holy Trinity, Micklegate, York, depicts the Supper at Emmaus and six saints associated with the north (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
The Supper at Emmaus (left) and the Apostle Thomas (right) in a window in Christ Church, Leomansley, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
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