02 October 2024

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
144, Wednesday 2 October 2024

‘Disturb us, Lord … when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore’ … sails and boats in the harbour in Rethymnon at sunset (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

We began a new month yesterday and we are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. The week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII).

I have a busy day ahead, with a number of journeys and meetings, and it looks like I am going to miss the choir rehearsal in Stony Stratford this evening. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Disturb us, Lord … when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore’ … sunset on the River Deel at Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Luke 9: 57-62 (NRSVA):

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 59 To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 60 But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ 61 Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ 62 Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

A shofar or ritual horn in the Casa de Sefarad or Sephardic Museum in Córdoba … the central observance of Rosh Hashanah includes blowing the shofar in synagogues (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘He supports the fallen’

Rosh Hashanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎), the Jewish New Year, celebrates the birthday of the universe, the day God created Adam and Eve. This year, Rosh Hashanah 5785 begins at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1 (2 October 2024) and ends after nightfall on Tishrei 2 (4 October 2024). Together with Kol Nidrei (Friday 11 October) and Yom Kippur (Saturday 12 October), it is part of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe or High Holidays, and the 10 Days of Repentance.

Most synagogues and Jewish communities will hold Erev Rosh Hashanah services this evening (Wednesday) and Rosh Hashanah services tomorrow (Thursday). The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is blowing the shofar (ram’s horn), normally blown in synagogues as part of the day’s services.

Rosh Hashanah traditions include round challah bread studded with raisins and apples dipped in honey, as well as other foods that symbolise wishes for a sweet year. Other Rosh Hashanah observances include candle lighting in the evenings and refraining from creative work.

It is almost a year since the shocking and startling events on 7 October, the worst tragedy for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. A year later, war and conflagration ard engulfing the Middle East and yet many of the hostages are not yet home. Next Monday’s anniversary is doubtlessly shaping how Jews all over the world are heading into the High Holydays and a time of reflection in the coming days.

Many Jewish people during this period will experience sadness, anger, pain, loss, grief, suffering, hopelessness yet hope, and many other emotions. The plaintive cry of the shofar, which will be heard in Jewish communnities tomorrow and on Friday, will sound like a collective wail to many, the outpouring of the soul, and a prayerful wish for a peaceful tomorrow. The Amidah is the prayer said by pious Jews three or four times a day. The second blessing of the Amidah includes the reminder: ‘He supports the fallen, heals the sick, sets the captives free.’

Sir Francis Drake … ‘it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory’

Today’s Reflection:

Saint Luke is a great story-teller, and we are all captivated by his stories of healing and his parables: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the unjust steward, and so on.

So this morning’s Gospel reading comes as a little surprise. The first impression is that there’s no story here, no drama, no healing, no showing how society’s perceived underdog is really a model for our own behaviour, for my behaviour – indeed a model of how God behaves, and behaves towards us.

Instead, what we have what reads like a series of pithy statements from Jesus: like a collection of sayings from the Desert Fathers or even a collection of popular sayings from Zen masters.

Good stories about wayward sons and muggings on the roadside make for good drama, and healing stories are great soap opera. But they only remain stories and they only remain mini-stage-plays if all we want is good entertainment and forget all about what the main storyline is, what the underlying plot in Saint Luke’s Gospel is.

The context of this reading is provided a few verses earlier, when Saint Luke says the days are drawing near and Jesus is setting his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9: 51).

It is a challenge to us all. We are called to live not for the pleasure of a dramatic moment, but to live in the one great drama that is taking place: to set our faces on the heavenly Jerusalem; to live as if we really believe in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

We are called not to be conditional disciples – being a Christian when I look after everything else, sometime in the future. We are called to be committed disciples – to live as Christians in the here-and-now.

There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but only if he can hold on to his wealth and property (Luke 9: 57-58). There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but not until he has looked after burying his father (Luke 9: 59-60). There is the man who wants to follow Jesus, but who thinks first he must consider what his friends and those at home would think before he leaves them (Luke 10: 61-62).

Of course, it’s good to have a home of my own and not to live in a foxhole. Of course, it’s good that each of us should take responsibility for ageing parents and to bury them when they die. Of course, it’s good that we should not walk out on our families, our friends and our responsibilities.

Of course, domestic security, filial duty and loyal affection are high ideals. But they are conditional, while the call of the kingdom is urgent and imperative. And it demands commitment in such a way that it puts all other loyalties in second place.

Jesus is not saying that these men had the wrong values. But he sees how we can use values so that we can end up with the wrong priorities.

As GB Caird pointed out in his commentary on Saint Luke’s Gospel, sometimes the most difficult choices in life for most of us are not between good and evil, but between the good and the best. I’m sure these three ‘wannabe’ disciples presented good excuses. But discipleship on my own terms is not what Jesus asks of me. It can only be on his terms. There is no conditional discipleship, there is only committed discipleship.

As advertisers remind us constantly, there are terms and conditions attached to most things in life. But there can be no terms and conditions attached when it comes to being a disciple, to being a follower of Jesus.

As his ship, the Elizabeth Bonaventure, lay at anchor at Cape Sakar on 17 May 1587 after the sacking of Sagress, Sir Francis Drake wrote to Elizabeth I’s secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham: ‘There must be a begynnyng of any great matter, but the contenewing unto the end untyll it be thoroughly ffynyshed yeldes the trew glory.’

These words were later adapted by Eric Milner-White (1884-1963), who is credited with introducing the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols during his time as Dean of King’s College, Cambridge (1918-1941). In a collection of prayers he compiled and published in 1941 as he was moving from King’s to become Dean of York, he adapted Drake’s words in what has become a well-known prayer:

O Lord God,
when thou givest to thy servants
to endeavour any great matter,
grant us also to know that it is not the beginning,
but the continuing of the same unto the end,
until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory;
through him who for the finishing of thy work
laid down his life, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

— after Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596)

But there is another prayer that is also attributed to Francis Drake. After the Golden Hinde sailed from Portsmouth to raid Spanish Gold before sailing on to California, he is said to have written:

Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true
because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrived safely
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
we have lost our thirst
for the waters of life;
having fallen in love with life,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision
of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly —
to venture on wider seas
where storms will show your mastery;
where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
the horizons of our hopes;
and to push back the future
in strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
who is Jesus Christ.

This prayer exists in different versions, and many of these versions include lines that sound too modern to be Drake’s own words. Indeed, it is difficult to be certain whether any of this prayer was written or prayed by Drake himself, although, as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, he would certainly have understood its sentiment.

There is a well-known saying: ‘A ship in the harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.’ Food, shelter, and warmth are not enough on their own. In order to flourish, we need a dream – a sense of purpose. A dream come true is, by definition, not a dream any more. And when our dreams come true, we need to dream new dreams, for: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 28.19).

So often, it is true, church life is a tussle between young people who want to try new things and older people who so want to keep things as they are. But young adventurers also need older people with wisdom and perspective who can still retain and nurture a healthy sense of adventure.

Drake’s prayer expresses the excitement of faith. It is so easy for some to dismiss faith as a crutch for the weak and prayer as a sign of weakness. But if all our prayers were prayers for help, then would there be nothing more to life than merely coping with it and whatever it brings us?

‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9: 62) … sculpture in Kanturk, Co Cork, of Thady Kelleher (1935-2004), World and All-Ireland Ploughing Champion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 2 October 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 ‘One God: many languages.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 2 October 2024) invites us to pray:

May we embrace the value of multilingualism as a reflection of God’s creativity and design, affirming the inherent dignity of each language and its speakers, and striving to create inclusive spaces, including in our churches, where all languages are honoured and respected.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

Additional Collect:

God, our judge and saviour,
teach us to be open to your truth
and to trust in your love,
that we may live each day
with confidence in the salvation which is given
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Foxes have holes … but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Luke 9: 57) … a fox on the lawn at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin (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

Three former churches
in Hampstead, how they
survived, and the new
uses they have found

Saint Stephen’s Church on Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, has been rescued from vandalism and near-loss (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my rambles around Hampstead last week, I visited the two Saint John’s: Saint John-at-Hampstead, the ancient parish church on Church Row, and Saint John’s Downshire Hill, the last remaining proprietary chapel within the Diocese of London.

But I also took time to see three of the many former churches found throughout Hampstead: Saint Stephen’s Church, considered the masterpiece of SS Teulon; the former Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church with its unusual hexagonal shape and now one of the world’s largest recording rooms; and the former Trinity Presbyterian Church, now a private house on the corner of the High Street and Willoughby Road.

Saint Stephen’s Church on Rosslyn Hill is a remarkable, restored Grade I listed building that has been rescued from vandalism and near-loss and is being used by the public and the community once again.

The initiative to build Saint Stephen’s came from churchgoers at Saint John’s, Downshire Hill, in 1864 when they decided to build a district church for the people living on new streets between Belsize Park and Hampstead such as Lyndhurst Road and Thurlow Road.

The site for a new church on Rosslyn Hill was donated by Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson (1800-1869), who was the lord of the manor of Hampstead and patron of the living. He had wanted to develop the area with housing but was frustrated by the terms of his father’s will and by protests from the local residents.

The Church Commissioners offered the commission to design a new church to the architect Ewan Christian (1814-1895), who lived in Hampstead and who restored Southwell Minster, Carlisle Cathedral, Christ Church, Spitalfields, and Saint Peter’s Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton. When he declined, the post went to Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873), who also lived in Hampstead.

Work on Teulon’s ‘mighty church’ began in January 1869 and it was consecrated within a year on 31 December 1869 by the Bishop of London. A district was assigned for a new church in 1870 and the Vicar of Hampstead was the patron.

Saint Stephen’s was finished within three years of its consecration. The steeple was completed 1871, with a peal of 10 bells by Taylors of Loughborough added in 1872. The clock and carillon were installed in 1873.

Inside Saint Stephen’s, considered by many to be Teulon’s masterwork (Photograph: Saint Stephen’s Restoration and Preservation Trust)

Saint Stephen’s, considered by many to be Teulon’s masterwork, is in Gothic style and markedly French in outline, with steep roofs and a massive square tower. The church has an apsidal chancel with north and south transepts, a massive tower with spires, an aisled nave with a west gallery and north, west and south porches.

The broad nave was well-lit. Placing the tower east of the nave created a long chancel, which led to much decoration. It was said to have one of most moving Victorian interiors.

When Teulon was offered the commission, he had requested to build the church in brick. For the exterior, he chose brick from Dunstable, which when new was described as varying in colour from pale grey to Indian red giving the church a mottled appearance.

The decorative stone bands on the exterior were of Kentish Rag from Maidstone and, as if to contrast the exterior, the inside walls were faced with grey, tallow and white bricks from Huntingdonshire laid in stripes and panels.

The most spectacular ornamental brickwork was under the tower and in the transepts and was slightly Moorish in style. The sculptural and mosaic decoration was unusually rich and varied, much of which was created by Thomas Earp and Antonio Salviati (1816-1890).

Salviati was originally from Venice, and had trained in Murano. He had already installed Venetian mosaics in more than 50 churches in England, including work on the altars, the walls, the choirs, the pavements, and the baptismal fonts. His work can be seen in Westminster Abbey, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, and Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, and in the Houses of Parliament and the Chamberlain Memorial Fountain in Birmingham.

The alabaster roundels, dating from 1880, included one of Latimer given by the architect Ewan Christian, who had become a member of the congregation, in a personal protest against Anglo-Catholicism.

The stained glass windows were by Lavers and Westlake, and Clayton and Bell, including a memorial window to Teulon.

Soon after Saint Stephen’s was completed, a school was established in the crypt. The chapel in south transept was in place in 1905, and the stalls and screen were designed by Temple Moore in 1912.

The cost of building was first estimated at £7,500, but with its rich ornamentation it cost three times more than estimated. The money was raised entirely by subscriptions and large donations from local people.

Saint Stephen’s was intended for ‘Low Church’ services, and had seating for 1,200 people. By 1886, the attendance figures were 752 in the morning and 620 evening; by 1903, these figures had dropped to 301 in the morning and 242 in the evening.

The church suffered from subsidence in 1896, 1898 and 1901, and serious cracking appeared in 1969 when the foundations for a new Royal Free Hospital were being dug. The church closed in 1977 and the parish was united with All Hallows’, Gospel Oak. The bells were returned to Taylors of Loughborough in 1982.

While new uses were being sought for the church, the interior was severely vandalised over the next 20 years. The Diocese of London appeared to have no firm plans for the building, and was criticised for neglect, as most of the fittings were stolen or vandalised.

Local campaigners were worried about a deteriorating structure that the Church of England was accused of leaving to rot. The Greater London Council made a grant for urgent repairs in 1985, and English Heritage deemed the restoration and preservation of Saint Stephen’s of the utmost importance.

After decades of neglect, when it was occupied by squatters, the church was joined with the school next door in 1998. Saint Stephen’s was restored over three phases in the early 21st century when it was leased to the Saint Stephen’s Restoration and Preservation Trust.

Salviati’s mosaic roundels of various Passion symbols can still be seen in the former chancel, and a few roundels featuring angels that surround a rose window above the entrance to the side chapel are intact. But most of his work in the nave seems to have been lost.

Michael and Andrea Taylor have been credited with a lengthy but successful struggle to rescue the building. Saint Stephen’s is now a venue for public and social events, music, wedding receptions and corporate functions and a focal point for educational and local community enterprises. Hampstead Hill School has a Nursery and Pre-Preparatory School based at Saint Stephen’s and the adjacent School Hall.

Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church was designed by Alfred Waterhouse with an unusual hexagonal shape (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The number of ‘nonconformist’ chapels in Hampstead remained small until the late 19th century. The former Congregational Church on the corner of Lyndhurst Road and Rosslyn Hill faces the former Saint Andrew’s Church, was built in 1884.

Congregationalists had no place of worship in Hampstead until New College at College Crescent, Finchley Road, was opened in 1851. New College Chapel was built on the corner of Upper Avenue and Adelaide Road in 1853. Although it was not part of the college, it was closely linked with it.

But Congregationalists did not have a chapel nearer Hampstead until the 1880s, partly because of the hostility of Anglican landowners. Lyndhurst Road Congregationalist Church on Rosslyn Hill originated in services held in an iron building on Willoughby Road by the Revd JB French from 1876. It was supported for two years by London Congregational Union until progress ceased and French resigned.

The theologian Robert Forman Horton (1855-1934) was persuaded by the stockbroker TT Curwen, a Hampstead resident, to preach at Sunday services in 1879-1880. Enthusiastic followers began mission work in Kentish Town and formed a church with about 60 members in 1880. Membership had reached 220 by 1883 and the iron church often held 600 people in a space for 440.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold the four-acre site at Rosslyn Grove to four of the church members, who kept less than an acre as a church site and sold the rest to finance the building.

The church was designed in 1884 by Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905) as an irregular hexagon of deep red brick with majolica dressings in Romanesque style, and a seating capacity of 1,500. A lecture hall and school were added later.

Waterhouse is associated with Gothic Revival architecture, and is best known for his designs for Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London. His other works include Eaton Hall in Cheshire, designed for the Duke of Westminster, the Hall in Balliol College, Oxford, the former Foster’s Bank on Sidney Street, Cambridge, and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on Great George Street, Westminster.

Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church was unusual as the body of the church is hexagonal, built in purple brick with red brick and terracotta dressings in a Romanesque style. The builders were J Parnell & Son and the church cost £15,970 to build.

Horton, the first non-Anglican to have a teaching position at the Oxford University since the Reformation, became the full-time minister in 1884, and remained until 1930. He was an influential writer and preacher, and his Sunday night lectures drew many working men. Attendance in 1886 was 857 in the morning and 1,165 in the evening.

Membership peaked at 1,276 in 1913, but fell to about 1,000 during World War I and to 613 in 1939.

The United Reformed Church (URC) was formed in 1972 with the union of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church of England and Wales. Lyndhurst Road Church became part of the URC in 1972, but it finally closed in 1978.

Lyndhurst Hall is now one of the world’s largest recording rooms. It was opened by Sir George Martin in 1992, and the music recorded here has been heard in cinemas and homes across the globe. The live area can accommodate a full symphony orchestra and choir simultaneously, with space for film scoring, orchestral recordings and live performances.

Trinity Close on the corner of Willoughby Road and Hampstead High Street is a former Presbyterian chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Trinity Close at the south end of Willoughby Road, close to Hampstead High Street and the Heath, is a former Presbyterian chapel in Hampstead dating back to 1862 which has been converted to residential use.

The house was part of a former Scottish Presbyterian Church that stood on the site and that dated back to the mid-19th century. Scottish Presbyterians began to worship regularly in Hampstead in 1832 in the house of Dr John Thompson on Pond Street. The Temperance hall in Perrin’s Court was rented in 1844 and recognised as preaching station.

It became known as Trinity Presbyterian Church and by the end of 1845 average Sunday attendances were 130 in the morning 80 in the evening. A pastor was appointed in 1846, the congregation moved to Well Walk Chapel in 1853, and when that building became dilapidated a site was bought on the corner of High Street and Willoughby Road in 1861.

The church was designed by Campbell Douglas and opened in 1862. The early members were mostly Scottish. The church was enlarged in 1882 and 1889. When the church closed in 1962, the members joined Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Finchley Road. Shops were built on part of the site and the rest of the building was converted into Trinity Close in the 1970s.

Trinity Close is now a four-bedroom home of almost 2,000 sq ft, with living spaces set over a vaulted upper level, two terraces, a private front garden and designated off-street parking.

The original Presbyterian presence in Hampstead dates back to the decade after the Caroline restoration. Those early Presbyterians met in Ralph Honeywood’s house on Red Lion Hill, where he had a chaplain from 1666, and they continued meeting there until Red Lion chapel was built close by. That congregation became Unitarian in the mid-18th century, and the story of Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel is one for another blog posting.

Saint Stephen’s, considered by many to be Teulon’s masterwork, has steep roofs and a massive square tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)