Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 46, Wednesday 4 June 2025

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … the astrolabe in Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (8 June 2025). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII), and today the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls Petroc, the sixth century Abbot of Padstow.

Later today, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … the Twelve Apostles in the top row of icons in the iconostasis in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Duke Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on image for full-screen view)

John 17: 11-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 11 ‘And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.’

‘I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves’ (John 17: 13) … the apse in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [29 May 2025], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [8 June 2025].

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 11-19) follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), and Christ has just ended his instructions to his disciples, which conclude with the advice, ‘In the world you face persecution But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).

We are now reading from his prayer to the Father (John 17: 1-26), in which he summarises the significance of his life as the time for his glory – his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – has arrived.

This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, as it includes many of the elements of prayer a priest offers when a sacrifice is about to be made: glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God’s work (verses 2, 6-8, 22, 23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).

In the Orthodox Church, this passage is also read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (1 June 2025), a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. We are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of that council this year and its formulation of the Nicene Creed. That council condemned the heresy of Arianism that taught that the Son of God was created by the Father and that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist. Christ’s words here bear witness to his divinity and to his filial relationship with the Father.

In his time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ looks up to heaven. He prays to the Father, asking him to ‘glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.’ Christ waits to be restored to his glory. He has come to earth to provide eternal life to all who believe. Now he prays to the Father for the disciples.

He has made the Father known to those who would believe. To John, the ‘world’, or the cosmos, is notable for its unbelief and hatred. The disciples have been faithful to ‘your word,’ to truth, to God, to Christ’s teachings.

They have come to realise the relationship of the Son to the Father. They know Christ’s origin and mission. This prayer is on behalf of believers, who are God’s, and not on behalf of all people. We hear that belonging to God implies belonging to the Son. Christ’s power and authority have been shown to them.

In his High Priestly Prayer, Christ asks four things of the Father:

• that they may be ‘one,’ as he and the Father are (verse 11)

• that they may have ‘my joy’ (verse 13)

• that they may be protected from the influence of evil (verse 15)

• that they may be able then to fulfil his mission in the world (verses 17-18).

Christ asks the Father to ‘protect them in your name,’ by his authority and as his representatives. The Father has given Christ this authority. He has protected them, except for one: Judas.

In fulfilment of ‘the scripture’, or by God’s will, he asks the Father to set them apart or sanctify them as they are sent out into the world (verses 17-19)… a theme we face again next Sunday, the Day of Pentecost.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world’ (John 17: 11) … the Friendship Globe in a park in Kuching marking Malaysia-China Friendship (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 4 June 2025):

The new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covers the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025. The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) is ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and was introduced on Sunday by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to prayer today (Wednesday 4 June 2025):

Lord, we look outwards and ask for your provision for those who encounter food insecurity in their communities. We look to you, Bread of Life. We commit to generosity.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … going out into the world from All Saints’ Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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 monks of Mount Sinai have closed Saint Catherine’s Monastery to protest at a court ruling threatening their future

The monks of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai have closed their gates to all visitors following an Egyptian court ruling last week (Photograph: Friends of Mount Sinai)

Patrick Comerford

The monks of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai have closed their gates to all visitors in a symbolic act of protest following an Egyptian court ruling last week that threatens the future of the monastery.

According to Greek news reports yesterday, the monastic community of about 20 monks has resolved to remain in seclusion, mourning and praying for the monastery’s protection, and is giving no timeline for reopening.

There is a swelling tide of concern across the Orthodox world and in Greek-speaking community around the world about the future of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai following a disturbing ruling last week by a court in Egypt that appears to threaten the survival of the world’s oldest continually-inhabited Christian monastery.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery was founded in the Sinai Peninsula in the sixth century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, known for its ancient manuscripts and icons and revered in all three major monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

It was there God spoke to Moses through the Burning Bush and gave him the Ten Commandments; it was there Elijah hid in a crag in the rock; and it was there, Muslims believe, Muhammad was a visiting trader prior to the beginnings of Islam, perhaps even visiting Saint Catherine’s Monastery. It said the monastery was granted a letter of protection from Muhammad in the seventh century and this was reaffirmed by the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in the 16th century.

In recent days, Orthodox leaders around the world have reacted with alarm and the Greek government has spoken out strongly after an Egyptian court ruling last week (28 May). The ruling threatens the monastery’s autonomy and its future and raises fears that Saint Catherine’s could be seized by the state and the monks evicted, and fears for religious freedom in Egypt.

With President Mary McAleese welcoming a group of Egyptian Christian and Muslim leaders to at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin in 2006

I was a guest on Mount Sinai when I visited Egypt several times while I was working on a programme on Christian-Muslim dialogue about 20 years ago. During those visits, I met Christian and Muslim leaders throughout Egypt, wrote for The Irish Times on the monastery’s library. I have stayed in Cairo, where I walked by the Nile and visited the pyramids and the Sphinx; Alexandria, where the dogmatic debates helped produce the Creeds, Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai; and in monasteries in the Western Desert associated with the Desert Fathers.

Perhaps one of the most unusual experiences during those visits was to preside at the Eucharist at dawn at the top of Mount Sinai with a small group, celebrating with bread and wine taken from the dinner table the night before in Saint Catherine’s Monastery.

During those years, I arranged a visit by Irish bishops to meet Christian and Muslim leaders in Egypt, and reciprocal visits to Ireland that included visits to Aras an Uachtaráin and the Chester Beatty Library, a reception in the Egyptian Embassy, events in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the chapel in Trinity College Dublin, and the Irish Islamic Centre in Clonskeagh. In all those exchanges, my work was facilitated and encouraged by the Egyptian embassy in Dublin and the Irish, British and Vatican embassies in Cairo, Egyptian church leaders of all traditions, and the offices of the secretary general of the Arab League.

Of course, interfaith relations and religious freedoms were not perfect in Egypt in those days. But they were an example of how they could be worked on, nurtured and encourage. So, I too am disturbed by last week’s ruling and the way its reopens questions about the vulnerability of religious heritage sites in Egypt and religious freedom for both Muslims and Christians.

A court in Sinai has ruled that the state owns Mount Sinai as public property (Photograph: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate)

A court in Sinai ruled last Wednesday in a land dispute between the monastery and the South Sinai governorate, declaring that the monastery ‘is entitled to use’ the land and the archaeological religious sites in the area, all of which ‘the state owns as public property’.

The ruling by the South Sinai Court of First Instance allows for the registration of monastery land in the name of the Egyptian government. The monastery tried to register its land independently in 2012, and submitted documents showing ownership dating back centuries, including the Ottoman decree. But the court ruled that all that evidence is insufficient. The Egyptian General Authority for Land Survey applied in 2021 to register the land as government property, and this request was upheld by the court last week.

The ruling comes in the midst of a controversial government development project is underway to boost visitor numbers to the area, which is popular with both pilgrims and adventure tourists. The area includes a town named after the monastery and a nature reserve. Observers say the project has harmed the ecosystem of the nature reserve and threatens both the monastery and the local community.

The court has effectively turned the area over to the state and the ruling leaves the monastery and the 18-20 monks who live there as tenants at will of the government of the day. The monastic community now fears it is on the brink of eviction and that the entire Sinai Brotherhood is now seen as squatters, disregarding their 15-century presence there.

In a phone conversation on Friday with Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt said Cairo is ‘fully committed to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine’s monastery, and ensuring it is not violated.’

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said rumours of confiscation were ‘completely unfounded’ and denied any change to the monastery’s legal or spiritual status, saying it ‘does not touch the monastery’s spiritual value, religious significance, or the cemeteries associated with it’. It said the ruling ‘preserves the special and sacred status of the monastery.’

But these responses fail to indicate whether the president and the government accept the monastery and its lands are owned by the monastic community of Saint Catherine’s.

The Greek Prime Minister’s office said Mr Mitsotakis emphasised the importance of ‘preserving the pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox character of the monastery and resolving the issue in an institutional manner’, based on an agreement between the two countries.

Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Pharan, and Raitho, and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai (Photograph: Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine)

In a telephone interview from Cairo at the weekend with the National Herald in Boston, Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Pharan, and Raitho, and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, spoke about the recent developments at the monastery.

Archbishop Damianos said: ‘For over ten years now, we have been in and out of court, because our right of ownership over this barren land – which we always considered ours, handed down to us by sanctified individuals – is being denied … These are holy places visited by people from around the world, from which the Egyptian government benefits; yet they do not wish to recognise them as our property.’

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has called on the Egyptian government and President Sisi to maintain the status quo of Saint Catherine’s Monastery. In a statement last Friday, the Ecumenical Patriarchate said it was ‘disappointed and saddened’ by the ruling and called on the Egyptian government to respect long-standing traditions agreements on Saint Catherine’s Monastery ‘where God once spoke to humankind’.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has said it is ‘deeply troubled’ and reasserted its jurisdiction over and protection of the monastery.

Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens said the court ruling is ‘scandalous’ and a ‘violent infringement of human and religious rights’ by the Egyptian judicial authorities. He has warned that the monastery’s property would now be ‘seized and confiscated’ despite ‘recent pledges to the contrary’ by Sisi to Mitsotakis. He added: ‘The property of the monastery is being seized and confiscated, and this spiritual lighthouse of Orthodoxy and Hellenism is now facing a question of real survival.’

A copy of the earliest icon from Mount Sinai in the chapel of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Despite the rapid growth of tourism in Egypt and the development of resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh, the Sinai Peninsula has long been a remote region. It takes six or seven hours to travel from Cairo to Saint Catherine’s at the foot of Mount Sinai, and for generations the Sinai Desert remained the wilderness it must have been when the Children of Israel trekked through here for 40 years after they fled from slavery in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery, dating to the fourth century, is the principal tourist attraction in the desert. As a spiritual centre, Saint Catherine’s is a pivotal place in the development of Orthodox spirituality:

• the first Christian icons may have been produced in the fourth century, and the earliest surviving icons, found in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, date from the sixth or seventh century;

• Saint John Klimakos, a monk of Mount Sinai who died in the year 606 CE, has been strongly influential on theology, spirituality and iconography through The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a spiritual classic in which he recommends the use of the Jesus Prayer.

• the tradition of iconography from Mount Sinai and Crete strongly influenced Western art after Michael Damaskinos and his pupil El Greco moved from Crete to Italy in the 16th century.

‘We have three types of tourists visiting us,’ the monastery’s abbot, Archbishop Damianos once told the Greek journal Odyssey. ‘There are the devout, there are art lovers who came to see our treasures, and then there are the worst kind – those who come because they consider a daytrip to Saint Catherine’s to be the cultural part of their beach holiday.’

For many visitors, the monastery is the starting point for a daunting three-hour climb to the 600-metre summit of Mount Sinai. The daily trek, led by Bedouin camel drivers, sets off before 3 a.m. so climbers on the rough, steep path are saved from the burning sun. Later in the day – until this week’s closure – the monastery has been open to tourists for only 2½ hours, from 9:30 to noon, and it has remained closed on Fridays, Sundays and all Greek Orthodox holidays.

An old print of Saint Catherine’s Monastery I once had in the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In this remote corner of the Christendom, the monks of Saint Catherine’s continue to value the desert silence but they have also acquired some of the benefits of 21st-century technology.

The most visible legacy of the Desert Fathers at Saint Catherine’s is a unique library and collection of icons, textiles and religious artefacts. The Icon Gallery includes rare sixth-century icons that survived the ravages of the iconoclast controversy in the eighth and ninth centuries. The library includes 3,500 bound manuscripts, 2,000 scrolls and fragments, and more than 5,000 early printed books, of an age and linguistic diversity matched only by the Vatican Library.

In the monastery library, Father Justin told me how the most valued treasure was once the Codex Sinaiticus, dating from the fourth century. It was ‘borrowed’ in 1865 by a visiting German scholar, Constantin Tischendorf, who promptly presented it to the Tsar; Stalin sold it for £100,00 to Britain in 1933, and the codex now rests in the British Museum. Half a century ago, 15 missing folios were found in the monastery’s north wall in 1975, leaving the monks with part of the oldest existing copy of the New Testament.

One of the copies of the ‘achitames’ with the imprint of Muhammad’s hand, guaranteeing the protection of Saint Catherine’s Monastery under Islamic rule

Father Justin also showed me one of the copies in the library of the achitames or document with the imprint of Muhammad’s hand, guaranteeing the protection of Saint Catherine’s Monastery under Islamic rule. In the year 635 CE, the monks of Mount Sinai sent a delegation asking for Muhammad’s patronage and protection. The request was granted and was honoured when the Muslims conquered the Sinai in the year 641 CE.

Later, in 1009, the mad Caliph al-Hakim built a mosque within the monastery walls, with an unusual qibla pointing towards Jerusalem rather than Mecca as the direction for prayer. The monks continue to keep open the only mosque to survive within the walls of a monastery, and Father Justin described it as one of the ‘many examples of tolerance, respect and affection’ between Christians and Muslims in Egypt.

The monks admit they would find it difficult to survive without the support and kindness of their local Muslim neighbours. The local Bedouin, from the tiny Jabiliyya tribe, claim descent from 200 Greek soldiers brought by the Emperor Justinian from Alexandria and Thrace to fortify and guard the monastery in the sixth century.

Although they are Muslims, Father Justin told me how they join in many of the monastery festivals and look to the abbot, who is also Archbishop of Sinai, as their community leader, protector, judge, and even as their ‘grandfather’.

He spoke of the support of international donors, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Courtauld Institute in London, have helped the monks to develop a programme of refurbishment and conservation in the library.

Father Justin pointed out that without this outside help, the resources of the monastery would have been overwhelmed by the task of safeguarding its treasures. The droves of tourists may disturb the morning peace of one of the most isolated monasteries in the world, but the west’s generosity has brought benefits too.

The Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai is now the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of Sinai is the smallest self-governing Christian denomination in Egypt – its few members include Archbishop Damianos, who is also the Abbot of Mount Sinai, and the 20-25 monks who come mainly from Mount Athos and other parts of Greece. In addition, there are some small dependencies nearby, and four dependencies of Mount Sinai in Greece.

Archbishop Damianos has lived at the monastery since the age of 27, and he was 91 last weekend, just days after the court ruling.

When I was in Crete for Easter in April, I visited two churches in Iraklion that have been traditional dependences of Mount Sinai: Saint Catherine’s Church, now the Museum of Christian Art; and the mediaeval Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites. The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, where I have studied in Cambridge, is also under the patronage of Saint Catherine.

An icon of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was one of five or six icons I had on the wall above my desk when I was on the staff of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin.

Archbishop Damianos, who is in Cairo, plans to return to Athens within the coming days, while an official Greek delegation is expected in to visit Egypt this week. The monks plan to launch a global awareness campaign, appealing to Christian churches and other religious communities.

Meanwhile, it is important that they receive messages of support from religious leaders around the world, and that Egyptian embassies are made aware of the concerns and feelings of people everywhere.

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 45, Tuesday 3 June 2025

‘Father … glorify your Son’ (John 17: 1) … a modern icon in the Monastery of Varlaam in Meteora (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (8 June 2025). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘For the words that you gave to me I have given to them’ (John 17: 7) … Christ as the Great High Priest with an open Bible … an icon in the Church of Saint Spyridon in Palaiokastritsa, Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.’

‘For the words that you gave to me I have given to them’ (John 17: 7) … Christ as the Great High Priest with an open Bible in an icon in the Church of the Metamorphosis in Piskopiano, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [29 May 2025], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [8 June 2025].

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 1-11) follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), and Christ has just ended his instructions to his disciples, which conclude with the advice, ‘In the world you face persecution But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).

We now read from his prayer to the Father (John 17: 1-26), in which he summarises the significance of his life as the time for his glory – his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – has arrived.

This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, as it includes many of the elements of prayer a priest offers when a sacrifice is about to be made: glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God’s work (verses 2, 6-8, 22, 23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).

In the Orthodox Church, this passage is also read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (1 June 2025), a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. We are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of that council this year and its formulation of the Nicene Creed. That council condemned the heresy of Arianism that taught that the Son of God was created by the Father and that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist. Christ’s words here bear witness to his divinity and to his filial relationship with the Father.

Verses 1-2: the Father gives this glory to the Son, and this adds to the Father’s glory because of the authority the Father has given to the Son over all people, with the promise of eternal life.

Verse 3: this eternal life is knowing the Father and Christ, who has been sent by the Father.

Verses 4-5: Christ glorifies the Father by finishing the work he has been given, and he is being restored to glory in the Father’s presence, a glory Christ had in God’s presence before the world existed.

Verse 6: Christ has made God’s name known in the world, and those who have heard him and have been obedient to the word of God.

Verses 7-8: the disciples now know that the Father is the source of all that the Christ has been given, they know that he has been sent from the Father, and that the Father sent him into the world.

Verse 9: Christ’s petitions are on behalf of his followers.

Verse 10: Those who follow Christ are committed to God’s care.

Verse 11: Looking forward to the time after his departure – after his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – Christ now asks the Father to protect the disciples in the world, and prays that they may have a unity that reflects the unity of the Father and the Son … ‘that they may be one, as we are one.’

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘With worshipful hearts, help us to see how we can be a light to you today’ (USPG Prayer Diary) … candles in the narthex of Saint Titus Church in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 3 June 2025):

The new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covers the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025. The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) is ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and was introduced on Sunday by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to prayer today (Tuesday 3 June 2025):

Heavenly Father, thank you that you call us to serve you in big and small ways. With worshipful hearts, help us to see how we can be a light to you today.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The 10 days between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost are an ‘in-between’ time … confusing signs on the beach in Bettystown, Co Meath (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

Catching up with old friends and meeting new friends as Pusey House celebrates its 140th anniversary in Oxford

Evensong in Pusey House, Oxford, was an appropriate way to pray and reflect after a day in hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

After my day of tests and consultations at the John Radcliffe Hospital at the end of last week, I took a walk by the river at the Head of the River and Folly Bridge, with a little time to clear my head.

But I was in need of time too for prayer and reflection at the end of the day, before the long journey back to Stony Stratford. The choices were varied, and included Choral Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral or the Chapel of Queen’s College. Eventually, I decided to go to Sung Evening Prayer followed by Benediction in the Chapel of Pusey House on Saint Giles.

There was a warm welcome from the Principal and staff and many of the people working and living at Pusey House, and it was good to catch up with the Revd Dr Matthew Cheung-Salisbury, who had been the Priest-in-Charge at Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, until Easter. I had missed his farewell to Stony Stratford because I was spending Easter in Rethymnon in Crete.

The Principal of Pusey House, the Revd Dr George Westhaver, joined Pusey House in 2013. He is a former chaplain at Lincoln College, and completed his PhD at the University of Durham under the supervision of Professor Andrew Louth, on Pusey’s unpublished lectures, ‘Types and Prophecies of the Old Testament’.

I also met up with Father Benjamin Drury, who has been the senior chaplain in Athens since last year. It was interesting to find out that his first curacy was spent in Stony Stratford, and that he lived during that time in Bunsty Court in Galley Hill. He grew up in Richmond, Yorkshire, spent most summers in Greece in his godparents’ village, and has an MPhil in Byzantine Studies.

Throughout the academic year 2024-2025, Pusey House is marking its 140th anniversary with special services and events (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Throughout the academic year 2024-2025, Pusey House is hosting a number of special services and events to mark its 140th anniversary. Pusey House was opened on 9 October 1884 as a memorial to Edward Bouverie Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, and for 40 years one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement.

Pusey House is marking this 140th anniversary with an interesting programme of special services, lectures, conferences, study days and other events.

According to its founding documents, Pusey House exists to promote theological study and holiness of life, and to provide spiritual counsel and comfort to members of the university. In their work to renew Catholic life and witness in the Church of England, Pusey and his colleagues also sought to understand and respond to needs of society in their day.

One of the basic principles of the Oxford Movement was that the life of the mind and the life of prayer belong together, and that holiness of life overflows in ministries of love and service. Pusey House today continues to seek to embody these founding principles.

Ninian Comper’s golden ciborium in Pusey House is regarded as a perfect example of his later style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I was in London the day before those day-long tests in Oxford. But I noticed the programme for Ascension Day (Thursday 29 May) included High Mass at which the preacher was the Revd Paul White of Saint Andrew’s, Linton Road; Sung Mass at which the preacher was the Principal of Pusey House, the Revd Dr George Westhaver, and a lecture by Harry Spain on ‘Ninian Comper at Pusey House’.

Canon Frederic Hood (1895-1975), the then Principal of Pusey House, commissioned his friend Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) to reorder the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament at Pusey House in 1935. The resulting scheme, complete with its golden ciborium – which illustrated my prayer diary on this blog this morning (2 June 2025) – is regarded as a perfect example of Comper’s later style: ‘unity by inclusion’.

The architectural historian Harry Spain is a former sacristan of Pusey House. He looked at theory and significance of Comper’s work in Pusey House, traced his sources of inspiration from fourth century Algeria to Botticelli, and explored Comper’s connections to Oxford and the work of Pusey House.

The preacher at High Mass yesterday (Sunday 1 June) was the Revd Prof Joshua Horden, Professor of Christian Ethics in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Next Friday (6 June) the Preacher at Choral Evensong at 5:30 is is Professor Charles Foster, Visiting Professor at HeLEX: Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies.

Pusey House is hosting the conference, ‘Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation, and the Human Person’ on 7-9 July 2025 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The annual Friends’ Festival takes place in Pusey House on Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday. The day includes High Mass at 11 am with a sermon by the Principal. Then, at 12:15 pm, to mark the House’s 140th Anniversary, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Irene Tracey, will address the congregation. A buffet luncheon will follow. Later this month, the Pusey 140 Concert on Sunday 21 June (4 pm) is being performed by the Choir of Pusey House.

Then, next month (7-9 July 2025), Pusey House is hosting the fourth in a series of theological conferences, ‘Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation, and the Human Person’. The conference is looking at Christian theological anthropology and the doctrine of humankind’s creation and restoration in the image and likeness of God.

The Church confesses that human beings are made in both the image and likeness of God. The restoration and perfection of this image in the human person and in the whole body of Christ, knit together in one, is fundamental to God’s purposes for humankind and the whole cosmos.

The conference will consider how the creation and salvation of the human being is revealed and taught in both the Old and New Testaments, and its reception by the Fathers of the Church. The discussion will look at how theologians through the ages related the divine image and likeness to the developing dogmas of the Triune deity and of Christ as the Incarnate Word.

The speakers have been invited to draw on both the riches of the catholic tradition and contemporary philosophical theology. All this will enable the conference to consider current debates about the human person and community, and the great questions of mediaeval Catholic, Reformation and modern theology will be posed:

• How is the image damaged by sin?
• How are humans restored by faith and participation in God’s sacramental economy to grow in the likeness of God?
• How does grace use human nature, and how is human nature perfected by grace?
• How is the human person conformed to Christ, and brought to participate in the divine nature?

The organisers hope that the conference will serve not only the furnishing of our minds, but also the transforming of our lives and communities by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, that we may all grow together in the image and likeness of God.

The conference in Pusey House next month has the theme ‘Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation, and the Human Person’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The conference follows previous Pusey House theological conferences on the Holy Trinity (the Transforming Vision, 2016), the Person of Christ (Totus Christus, 2018), and the Holy Spirit (Descent of the Dove, 2022).

The conference speakers include:

• Gary A Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought, University of Notre Dame
• John Behr, Regius Chair in Humanity, University of Aberdeen
• Joanna Collicutt, Karl Jaspers Lecturer in Psychology and Spirituality, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Supernumerary Fellow Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and Oxford Diocesan Advisor for Spiritual Care for Older People
• David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, Windsor, Nova Scotia
• Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford
• Paul Dominiak, Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in Bachelor of Theology for Ministry Exams, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
• Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies and Tutor in Theology, Christ Church, University of Oxford
• Jennifer Frey, Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tulsa
• Malcolm Guite, Life Fellow, Girton College, University of Cambridge
• Joshua Hordern, Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Oxford
• Chris Kugler, Assistant Professor of Theology, Houston Christian University
• Andrew Louth, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham, and Rector Emeritus of the Orthodox Parish of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Bede, Durham
• Pia Matthews, Senior Lecturer, Saint Mary’s University, Twickenham, and Lecturer, Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea
• Grant MacAskill, Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis, University of Aberdeen
• Aidan Nichols, Lector, Study House of the English Dominican Province
• Simon Oliver, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, University of Durham
• Michele Schumacher, Privatdocent, University of Fribourg
• Alexis Torrance, Archbishop Demetrios Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Joseph White, Rector Magnificus, Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome
• Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of St Andrews.

Meanwhile, the Library at Pusey House remains one of the hidden gems of Oxford. The Library began with Pusey’s personal collection of rare books. The library now holds over 75,000 volumes. Its main specialism is the history of the Oxford Movement, but it also has extensive holdings in patristics, liturgy, doctrinal theology and broader church history.

The Library at Pusey House remains one of the hidden gems of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 44, Monday 2 June 2025

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 13) … the Risen Christ above Sir Ninian Comper’s baldacchino in the Chapel in Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (8 June 2025). Yesterday is the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … Charles Stanley Peach (1858-1934), Christ superimposed on the plan of a Church, 1910. Pencil and watercolour with gold paint on paper, 1300 × 750 mm

John 16: 29-33 (NRSVA):

29 His disciples said, ‘Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.’ 31 Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … the Crucifixion and the Ressurection depicted in windows in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

As I was saying in my reflections yesterday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [29 May 2025], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [8 June 2025].

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 16: 29-33), we continue reading from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ when Jesus talks with the Disciples at the Last Supper about their future and the future of the Church after he leaves them.

The disciples now claim to understand exactly what Jesus is talking about, although it seems they really do not. It is not until later that they grasp the meaning of his words fully.

In the coming days, they will be scattered in all directions and leave Jesus alone as he faces death. In the years ahead, they will be scattered abroad, and they too will face persecution and death. But they are to take courage, for Christ has conquered the world and overcome evil in the world. The disciples and we can share in his peace and in his victory: ‘I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (verse 33).

The term ‘Christus Victor’ has become an influential phrase through Christus Victor by the Swedish bishop and theologian Gustaf Aulén (1879-1977), first published in Swedish as Den kristna försoningstanken (The Christian Idea of the Atonement) in 1930, and in English as Christus Victor in 1931.

Aulén reinterpreted the classic ransom theory of atonement, which says that Christ’s death is a ransom to the powers of evil that had held humankind in captivity. It is an understanding of the atonement until the time of Anselm of Canterbury. What became the satisfaction theory of atonement or penal substitutionary atonement sees Christ’s suffering as paying the penalty for human sin, and continues to dominate western theological thinking, particularly among ‘conservative’ evangelicals.

The concept of Christus Victor (‘Christ the Victor’) as a description of Christ’s triumph over evil and death through his death and resurrection, emphasises God’s victory over the forces of sin and darkness and highlights Christ’s role as the cosmic liberator, rescuing humanity from the bondage of evil and restoring a relationship with God.

The Christus Victor view has its roots in early Patristic teachings, and the Eastern Orthodox Church still holds to the view of the atonement put forward by Irenaeus and that is called ‘recapitulation’, in which Jesus became what we are so that we could become what he is.

For Irenaeus, the ultimate goal of Christ’s work of solidarity with humanity is to make humankind divine. Of Jesus he says, he ‘became what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he is himself.’ These ideas were shared by many other Church Fathers, including Sainr Athanasius, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Augustine and Saint Maximus the Confessor. They have been most influential within the Eastern Orthodox Church, and this Eastern Orthodox theological development out of the recapitulation view of the atonement is called theosis (‘deification’).

Aulén argues that theologians have incorrectly concluded that the early Church Fathers held a ransom theory of atonement. Aulén argues that the Church Fathers’ theory was not that the crucifixion is the payment of a ransom to the devil, but rather that it represents the liberation of humanity from the bondage of sin, death and the devil. As the term Christus Victor (Christ the Victor) indicates, the idea of ‘ransom’ should not be seen as some sort of business transaction, but more in the terms of a rescue or liberation of humanity from the slavery of sin.

He sees the concept of Christus Victor as uniting Christ and his Father at the Crucifixion in a subversive condemnation of the unjust powers of darkness, a drama and a passion story in which God conquers the Powers and liberates humanity from the bondage of sin: ‘The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.’

The Christus Victor theory is becoming increasingly popular with both paleo-orthodox evangelicals because of its connection to the early Church Fathers, and with liberal Christians and peace churches because of its subversive nature, seeing the death of Jesus as an exposure of the cruelty and evil present in the worldly powers, and the resurrection as a triumph over these powers.

The Christus Victor theory has also influenced liberation theology in Latin South America, as well as feminist and black theologies of liberation.

‘I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … a window in the funeral chapel in Saint Joseph’s Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 2 June 2025):

The new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covers the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025. The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) is ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and was introduced yesterday by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to prayer today (Monday 2 June 2025):

Gracious God, thank you for calling us in your mercy to be your saints. Set us apart for a life filled with your Spirit, that we may be a blessing to others.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33) … a window in Saint Peter and Saint Church, Watford, Northamptonshire (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

Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Mayfair with a curious past is a reminder of continuing war and suffering in Ukraine

The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile … once a Congregational church on Duke Street in Mayfair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us were in Mayfair the other day when we found an unexpected but timely reminder of the continuing plight of the people of war-racked Ukraine. While the war in Ukraine continues to wreak havoc, and as Trump fiddles and Putin burns away, it seems appropriate that one of the main churches in London that offers succour to Ukrainian refugees takes its name from the Holy Family in Exile.

The Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile stands on Duke Street in London and is the cathedral of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family. It is the seat of the Ukrainian Catholic bishop in Britain and his eparchy or jurisdiction overlaps with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster and other dioceses.

Duke Street is in Mayfair, off Oxford Street, and the cathedral is open for every day. We visited on Ascension Day, and throughout the day, it seems, there was a constant flow of people through the doors, many in tears, praying silently, visibly upset and distressed.

The Ukrainian Cathedral was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and was built in 1888-1891 as the Congregational King’s Weigh House Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church was first designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905) in 1888 and built in 1891 as the Congregational King’s Weigh House Chapel.

Waterhouse is associated with the Gothic Revival in architecture, but he worked in other styles too. He best-known works include Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London. He designed many town halls, several hospitals, churches, chapels (such as the Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church, Hampstead), banks, and university buildings Cambridge (such as the chapel in Gonville and Caius College), in Oxford (such as the Broad Street frontage and college dining hall in Balliol College), Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.

He was born to Quaker parents, and at an early stage in his career he was heavily influenced by John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice (1849) and by AWN Pugin’s Contrasts (1836) and The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841).

The spectacular elliptical or horseshoe-shaped wooden gallery beneath an elliptical ceiling (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The King’s Weigh House Chapel was built as a Congregational chapel in 1888-1891, but traced its story back to a congregation formed ca 1695, when Thomas Reynolds was called as minister. The congregation built a meeting house over the King’s Weigh House in Little Eastcheap in 1697, and took its name from this building. ‘Merchant Strangers’ were required to have their goods weighed at the King’s Weigh House so that customs duties could be assessed.

The chapel’s ministers included the Revd Thomas Binney (1798-1874) from 1829-1869, popularly known as the ‘Archbishop of Nonconformity’. During Binney’s ministry, the Weigh House site was acquired for street widening at London Bridge.

William Tate designed a new chapel in Fish Street Hill seating 1,000 people In 1833-1834. Prominent members during that time included Samuel Morley (1809-1886), the radical MP, philanthropist and abolitionist, and George Williams (1821-1905), who founded the YMCA in 1844.

The chapel site was compulsorily purchased by the Metropolitan Railway in 1882. By then, the members lived in the suburbs and the chapel needed to find a new location. The Duke of Westminster offered a site in Mayfair, part of which was included a small Congregational chapel on Robert Street, now Weigh House Street. The new chapel was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who also designed Eaton Hall for the Duke of Westminster.

The church was built on a site on the corner of Duke Street and Binney Street provivded by the Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church was built on a site on the corner of Duke Street and Binney Street in what has been described as the Carolingian Romanesque style. It is built in brick with plentiful buff terracotta dressings and tiled roofs. It has an oval nave and a tower in the south-west corner, built in a Romanesque style. The ceramic tiles were made by Craven Dunnill and faience tiling was by Burmantofts.

Inside, the ground floor is rectangular in shape, but above it, at first floor level, is a spectacular elliptical or horseshoe-shaped wooden gallery and an elliptical ceiling. There are glazed brick walls and four structural columns faced in faience.

The architect Sir John James Burnet (1857-1938) designed sympathetic alterations to the chancel in 1903, including the east window with glass by Anning Bell, the east screen wall and the flanking organ cases.

Sir John James Burnet designed the alterations to the chancel, including the east window with glass by Anning Bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The symmetry of the tripartite west entrance front on Duke Street is broken by the south-west corner tower with a steeple and, to the left, a gable ventilation turret. The triple arcaded porch is approached by a flight of steps. There is centre group of tall narrow round arched lancets, a relieving arch, and an elaborated gable with arcaded machicolations.

The tower has narrow arcaded screens at the middle stage and an octagonal bell stage, square, pinnacled, corner buttresses, and coupled gabled doorways at the head of the steps on Binney Street.

When the Revd William E Orchard (1877-1955) ministered in the chapel from 1914, the style of worship became increasingly more Catholic and liturgical. He resigned in 1932 and became a Roman Catholic priest three years later.

Orchard ordained the Revd Claud Coltman and the Revd Constance (Todd) Coltman as assistant ministers on 17 October 1917. Constance had been a member of the church before training at Mansfield College, Oxford, and she was one of the first woman to be ordained in a mainstream English denomination. The couple married the day after their ordination, and they later ministered in Wolverton from 1932 to 1940.

The congregation of the King’s Weigh House Chapel closed 60 years ago in 1965 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

After Orchard left, the life of the King’s Weigh House Chapel was marked by decline in the 1930s. During the Blitz in World War II, a German bomb fell on the chancel during a Communion service on 20 October 1940, killing the minister’s wife and injuring one other person. The building then became a fire watching centre and rest centre. When the war ended in 1945, 22 members tried to revive the chapel. The Revd WJE Jeffery became the minister, with assistance from Claud and Constance Coltman who returned in 1946.

After the war damage was repaired, the church was rededicated in 1953. But the attendance declined in the 1950s and the 1960s, and the small Weigh House congregation decided to merge with Whitefield Memorial Church on Tottenham Court Road 60 years ago in July 1965.

The congregation was disbanded in March 1966 and the building was bought by the Ukrainian Catholic community in 1967. The former Congregational chapel become the new centre of a Ukrainian apostolic exarchate, created by Pope Pius XII in 1957.

Internal adjustments were then made to adapt the building to the Ukrainian Catholic liturgy. New pews were provided, the old pulpit was removed and a confessional designed by JF Bentley was brought from Westminster Cathedral. The building was Grade II* listed in 1970.

The iconostasis was created by Father Juvenalij Mokrytsky, a Ukrainian monk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The cathedral closed temporarily in 2007 when part of the ceiling collapsed, but it was soon refurbished. The iconostasis created by a Ukrainian monk, Juvenalij Mokrytsky, was not damaged by the collapse.

The Ukrainian exarchate was elevated to the status of an eparchy or full bishopric by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, and building is now the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile. The cathedral became a rallying point for the Ukrainian community in Britain during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski invited leading political and religious figures invited to speak in the cathedral.

The cathedral clergy include Father Mykola Matwijiwskyj, Parish Priest, Father Andrii Malysh, Father Mark Woodruff, who chairs the Society of Saint John Chrysostom, Father Bohdan Bilunyk and Father Andrew B Choma. The Divine Liturgy, usually in Ukrainian, is served on Sundays at 8 am, 10 am, 12 noon and 5 pm, with celebrations throughout the week too. The cathedral also has ‘Mission Points’ in Crawley, Feltham, High Wycombe, Luton and Waltham Cross.

The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral seen from the Italianate Brown Hart Gardens on the opposite side of Duke Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Across the street from the cathedral, on the other side of Duke Street, the Italianate Brown Hart Gardens is a 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) public garden on top of an electricity substation. The gardens began life as the Duke Street Gardens where a communal garden was laid for the working class families then living in Brown Street and Hart Street.

The street level gardens were removed in 1902, and the Duke Street Electricity Substation was built in 1902-1905 in a Baroque style to a design by the architect Charles Stanley Peach (1858-1934). To compensate local residents for the loss of the old communal garden, the Duke of Westminster insisted that a paved Italian garden was placed on top of the substation, and this was completed in 1906.

After being closed for 20 years, the site was revamped and reopened to the public in October 2007. Further refurbishment in 2013 funded by the Grosvenor Estate includes a glass building at the west with the Garden Café run by Benugo, and more than 60 seating and planter items.

The Brown Hart Gardens and the electricity substation glimpsed from Weighbridge Street and the south side of the Ukrainian Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 43, Sunday 1 June 2025, Seventh Sunday of Easter

The head of Medusa, depicted with snakes in her hair, at the Temple of Apollo in Didyma (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (8 June 2025). Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII).

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is presiding at a Patriarchal and Synodal Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George in the Phanar today commemorating the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed. During the Divine Liturgy, a special Patriarchal Encyclical will be read aloud.

In the Jewish calendar, the holiday of Shavuot or Shavuos (שָׁבוּעוֹת‎, ‘Weeks’), or the Festival of Weeks, begins at sunset this evening.

Later this morning, I am singing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. The Stony Live Festival, which began yesterday, has a number of events I am looking forward to later in today, including Classic Stony.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Delphi and the ruins of the Temple of Apollo … the slave-girl in Philippi was part of the cult of Apollo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 20-26 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

An icon of the Mystical Supper or the Last Supper in a shop window on Eth Antistaseos street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, or the Sunday after Ascension Day. We are, I suppose, in some ways, caught in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday, and the Day of Pentecost, next Sunday [8 June 2025].

In this ‘in-between time,’ the disciples and other followers of Jesus and their family members are gathered together in an upper room, devoting themselves to prayer (see Acts 1: 13-14), and there Matthias is chosen to join the Twelve (see Acts 1: 23-26).

The Gospel reading this morning (John 17: 20-26) is part of Christ’s great prayer at the Last Supper for his disciples and for the future Church after his departure, after the Ascension. All the readings this morning are a call to look forward to being with Christ in glory, which is an appropriate preparation for the Day of Pentecost, next Sunday.

Today’s reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20-21) is the promise that Christ is coming, and that with him he brings the New Jerusalem, the new Heaven and the New Earth. He is our Beginning and our End.

But how do we respond to him in this in-between time?

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16: 16-34), Saint Paul has arrived on European soil for the first time, and he is in Philippi. We heard last Sunday how he and his companions were welcomed by Lydia, a prosperous businesswoman who becomes a Christian.

Now we hear of two miracles: the curing of a slave-girl who is possessed, which puts Paul and Silas in prison (verses 16-24), and the miraculous earthquake that leads to the conversion and baptism of the jailer and his family (verses 25-34).

The slave-girl’s cry when she realises who Saint Paul is and the response of Saint Paul to her plight are reminders of the stories of the exorcisms carried out by Christ himself. There too evil spirits recognised God and spoke the truth. Saint Paul continues what Christ began; it is Christ who cures (‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ verse 18).

The slave-girl’s owners bring two false charges against Paul and Silas. They stir up the crowd and justice follows swiftly: Saint Paul and his companions quickly find themselves in jail.

But even this has interesting consequences, for instead of killing himself, the jailer and his family are baptised too, and they join the heavenly banquet, they share the meal, rejoicing (verses 32-34), and so they come into Communion with the whole Church.

Taken out of context, this first reading is quite stark and raises many questions.

The first woman Saint Paul meets in Europe is Lydia. She is from Thyatira, a city in the area of Lydia that was a centre of the cult of Apollo and Artemis, and one of the great Lydian temples to these twins was at Didyma, near the Lydian city of Sardis.

Lydia’s wealth, social standing and independence are unusual for a woman of her time. She and her household are baptised, and she provides lengthy hospitality for Saint Paul and his travelling companions.

Lydia’s freedom of choice when it comes to religious matters contrasts with the plight of the second woman Saint Paul meets in Europe. She is an unnamed woman, a slave-girl who is described in some translations as a ‘damsel’ (e.g. KJV). Unlike Lydia, she has no name, no wealth, no independence from men, and no freedom of religious choice.

This poor girl is possessed – the translation we read this morning says she has ‘a spirit of divination.’ And other people make money out of that. The Greek here is much more specific than this English translation: she ‘has the spirit of Python’ (εχουσαν πνευμα πυθωνος).

No, she is not possessed by the humour of Monty Python. Nor has she swallowed a snake. Πύθων in Greek mythology was the name of the Pythian serpent or dragon that guarded the oracle at Delphi and was slain by Apollo.

And so, Python became one of the names of Apollo, the Greek god of light and the sun, the fine arts, music, poetry, medicine, eloquence and prophecy, the patron of shepherds and the guardian of truth. He is the son of Zeus, and in Greek mythology he dies and rises again.

The oracle at Delphi, the priestess of Apollo, was said to be inspired by Apollo. Her words about the future were regarded as the oracles of the god.

This possessed young woman is a minor oracle of the cult of Apollo. She is exploited by a group of men who make a pretty income from her utterances, what the reading describes as her ‘fortune-telling.’ The original word to describe her (μαντεύομαι) tells us she is not just some ‘Mystic Meg’ in a red-top tabloid or a fortune teller with a turban in a circus tent looking at the palms of hands. She is a seer, she delivers an oracle, she is a priestess of the cult of Apollo.

The priestesses of Apollo were said to give their answers from their bellies – the seat of emotions – while their mouths were closed.

How does this oracle of Apollo behave when she is confronted with the disciples of the good shepherd, the one who is the way the truth and the light, the Son of God who died and rises again?

But there is a contradiction here: if she is an oracle and slave of Apollo, why is she proclaiming that Saint Paul and his companions are the slaves of the Most High, proclaiming the way of salvation?

And I find myself asking, why does she keep on doing this, for days and days on end (see verse 18)?

Why is Saint Paul so annoyed with what she says?

Was he right to ignore her for the first few days?

Or has he come to realise her plight, the full enormity of her religious enslavement?

If she is already proclaiming, for many days, the God that Paul and Silas proclaim as the Most High God, and she is acknowledging that they are preaching salvation, surely she has already lost her value to her owners before they start blaming Saint Paul and his exorcism?

She may be stating the truth, but she is not serving the truth. How often are we deceived by people who claim to speak the truth but whose intentions are so contrary to what is truthful and wholesome?

And if the financial dependence and the religious slavery of this girl are in contrast to the financial independence and religious freedom of the more mature Lydia, then her slavery to exploitative religion, her imprisonment to those who make a fortune out the cult of Apollo, is in contrast with the subsequent imprisonment for Christ’s sake suffered by Paul and Silas.

The story comes between two sets of conversions and baptisms – those of Lydia and her household and of the jailer and his entire family.

Of course, later, when Saint Paul challenges the cult of Artemis in Ephesus, he is jailed by those facing financial loss, just as he is jailed in Philippi for challenging the exploitative cult of Apollo.

But this reading raises a number of questions:

Are there appropriate and inappropriate times, means and places for proclaiming the Gospel?

Is there an appropriate time or place to be annoyed or irritated by what other people are saying in the name of Christianity?

Are we aware of times when religion is used as a way of trapping and abusing vulnerable people because of their social status, their gender, their sexuality, their marital status or their ethnic background?

Are there times when religion is used for making a great deal of money for others?

Do we appreciate and pray for those who suffer for the faith, sometimes in hidden and unseen circumstances, perhaps even in the silence of their own homes?

Apart from acknowledging God most high and preaching the way of salvation, which even this oracle of Apollo can acknowledge, how do we show our faith and our life in Christ in the way we live our own lives?

Is Christ’s prayer at the Last Supper for his Church, which we hear in the Gospel reading, brought to life in the way we live as the Church, in this parish, in this diocese, in this land?

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The Temple of Apollo in Didyma … one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 1 June 2025, Easter VII):

I am one of the contributors to the new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), covering the period from 1 July to 20 November 2025.

My contribution, for the week 20-26 July, reflects on ‘Diversity in Sarawak’ (pp 20-21).

The theme in the prayer diary this week (1-7 June) is ‘Volunteers’ Week’ and is introduced today by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG. She writes:

‘Read I Corinthians 1: 1-3.

‘I grew up in the Southern American states of Tennessee and Virginia. My five sisters may not have agreed, but according to our local Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church I was considered a saint. Saved by grace, yes, but a saint!

‘There are saints in your local church, too. Individuals who offer rides home from church each week, or offer to hand out service sheets and make visitors feel welcome, or organise collections for the local foodbank. They do these things out of compassion and kindness, or a desire to meet basic needs and to see justice done. USPG’s partners across the Anglican Communion are no different. Within provinces, dioceses, deaneries, mission areas, benefices and local parish churches, there are the saints “in every place” sharing God’s love.

‘Saint Martin and Saint Jane in the Diocese of Bath and Wells host a curry night each year to raise funds for USPG. Saint James ran a half marathon to raise awareness and support for the Churches of South Asia. Saint Richard in Derby organises a 20-mile sponsored walk each year to benefit USPG’s church partners around the world.

‘There are so many more saints, hosting bake sales, plant sales, blind raffles, canal walks and wine and cheese nights. All for sisters and brothers they’ve never met, but with whom they stand together against injustice and believe together for a world where individuals are loved, accepted and thriving.

‘From 2-8 June, we’re celebrating Volunteers’ Week. A chance to say a huge thank you to all our wonderful USPG ambassadors.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 1 June 2025, Easter VII) invites us to pray in this way:

Read and meditate on Ephesians 1: 15-19. Lord God, we thank you for the ambassadors of USPG who inspire local churches and communities to support mission around the globe through prayer, worship and financial support. Strengthen and bless their work, we pray.

The Collect:

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

An icon of the first Council of Nicaea in 325 ... the 1,700th anniversary is being commemorated throughout the Orthodox Church today

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