‘The One and The Many’: a sculptor’s exploration of creation and imagination in the heart of Fitzrovia

‘The One and The Many’ is a large sculpture by Peter Randall-Page beside the recently-restored Fitzrovia Chapel in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling earlier this week my visit to the recently-restored Fitzrovia Chapel in Pearson Square, off Mortimer Street in London. In a sunny corner, beside the chapel and beneath the tall blocks of a new development, ‘The One and The Many’ is a large sculpture by Peter Randall-Page reminding us of humanity’s shared search for the meaning of creation and our origins.

Peter Randall-Page sculpted ‘The One and The Many’ ten years ago (2015) from a naturally eroded Bavarian granite boulder, weighing 25 tonnes and measuring 3519 x 2240 x 2065 mm and inscribed over its entire surface with marks carved in low relief.

‘The One and The Many’ is primarily a celebration of human ingenuity and imagination. ‘Our ability to convey meaning to one another, through time and space, by making marks has revolutionised human culture and society,’ Peter Randall-Page has said. ‘The human desire to make the world meaningful seems to be ubiquitous and intrinsic to our very nature.’

Embracing many cultures, his sculpture is in the heart of Fitzrovia, an area with a rich and vibrant cultural history and thriving creative community.

It is inscribed with many of the world’s scripts and symbols, from the writings of ancient Babylonia to Mongolian ‘ornamental’ seal script. They recount stories of the creation in poetic musings, sacred scriptures and epic tales of our origins.

Almost all cultures and languages across time have creation myths and narratives that seek to explain how our world came into being, and this leap of imagination illustrates the essence of creativity across many cultures and languages. One of the earliest uses of written language was almost certainly to set down these stories by making marks on clay, papyrus and vellum.

Based on scholarly advice and artistic preferences, Peter Randall-Page chose over 30 variations on the creation myth from around the world. He included writing systems from the earliest cuneiform script in ancient Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago to modern languages. The selected texts from ancient and modern writings were then arranged and inscribed onto the vast boulder, in effect the earth itself.

The texts themselves are creation stories from various cultures, each conveyed in their own writing systems, and the chosen lines speak of cosmology and the material and poetical formation of the universe in a variety of cultures.

There are quotations and texts in Minoan Linear A from Crete, Sanskrit, Japanese, Cyrillic, Ogham Irish Script, Korean, Mongolian, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Lycian and Arabic, to name but a few.

He tried to avoid pictograms and hieroglyphics, preferring to concentrate on writing as abstract mark making. He has included Braille and Morse Code, but not musical notation or mathematical symbols. A quotation from Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame is represented in Morse Code, and a quotation from Jorge Luis Borges’s short story ‘God’s Script’ is written in Braille.

In this way, ‘The One and The Many’ is an exploration of the ways we have contemplated, through a wealth of poetic musings and epic narratives, the theme of ‘In the beginning’, and it is also a celebration of human ingenuity and imagination.

Our human ability to convey meaning to one another through time and space, by making marks has revolutionised human culture. In Peter Randall-Page’s own words, ‘These myths and legends have been distilled by a kind of “cultural natural selection” over countless generations and as such they often tell us more about the human condition; our hopes and fears, than about literal cosmology.’

The naturally eroded boulder chosen for the sculpture is a fragment of solidified magma, the material the planet is made of. Its overall form is the result of innumerable chance events over a geological timescale stretching back to the creation of the Earth itself.

Peter Randall-Page has and international reputation for his large-scale sculptures, drawings and prints inspired by geometric forms and patterns from nature. He has undertaken numerous large-scale commissions and exhibited widely. He was elected a Royal Academician in 2015. His work is held in public collections world-wide, including the Tate Gallery, the British Museum and the Eden Project.

His sculpture ‘After the Winter’ was bought in 1981 by the Milton Keynes NHS Trust in anticipation of the opening of the new hospital. To this day, it is situated in a small courtyard space near the Eaglestone Restaurant, one of many that offer a quiet oasis at the hospital.

‘The One and The Many’ is permanently located at Fitzroy Place, Pearson Square, off Mortimer Street, London, and was commissioned by Exemplar and Aviva, developers of Fitzroy Place and project managed by Patrick Morey-Burrows of ArtSource.

• A dedicated website theoneandthemany.co.uk gives more background on the project as well as translations of the inscribed texts.

‘The One and The Many’ is a celebration of human ingenuity and imagination (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 55, Thursday 3 July 2025, Saint Thomas the Apostle

Saint Thomas the Apostle … a sculpture on the west façade of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025) and the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Today, the Calendar of the Church of England celebrates Saint Thomas the Apostle.

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.

The icon of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 20: 24-29 (NRSVA):

24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

A detail in the icon of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The Calendar of the Church of England commemorates Saint Thomas today (3 July), while the Orthodox Church remembers the doubting of the Apostle Thomas on the first Sunday after Easter; this year Thomas Sunday was on Sunday 27 April 2025.

In the Gospels, Saint Thomas is named ‘Thomas, also called the Twin (Didymus).’ But the name ‘Thomas’ comes from the Aramaic word for twin, T'oma (תאומא), so there is a tautological wordplay going on here.

Syrian tradition says the apostle’s full name was Judas Thomas, or Jude Thomas. But, who was his twin brother – or sister?

I have often visited Didyma on the south coast of Anatolia. There, the Didymaion was one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. Apollo was the sun-god, the son of Zeus; he was the patron of shepherds and the guardian of truth, and in Greek and Roman mythology he died and rose again.

Is the story of Saint Thomas’s doubts an invitation to the followers of the cult of Apollo to turn to Christ, the true Son of God the Father, who is the Good Shepherd, who is the way, the truth and the light, who has died and who is truly risen?

We can never be quite sure about Saint Thomas in Saint John’s Gospel. After the death of Lazarus, the disciples resist Christ’s decision to return to Judea, where there had been an attempt to stone Jesus. But Thomas shows he has no idea of the real meaning of death and resurrection when he suggests that the disciples should go to Bethany with Jesus: ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ (John 11: 16).

And, while Thomas saw the raising of Lazarus, what did he believe in?

Could seeing ever be enough for a doubting Thomas to believe?

The Apostle Thomas also speaks at the Last Supper (John 14: 5). When Christ assures the disciples that they know where he is going, Thomas protests that they do not know at all. He has been with Christ for three years, and still he does not believe or understand. Seeing and explanations are not enough for him. Christ replies to his remarks and to Philip’s requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father.

In the Resurrection story in Saint John’s Gospel, Saint Mary Magdalene – who is commemorated later this month on 22 July – does not recognise the Risen Christ at first. For her, appearances could be deceptive, and she thinks he is the gardener. But when he speaks to her, she recognises his voice, and then wants to hold on to him. From that moment of seeing and believing, she rushes off to tell the Disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord.’

Two of the disciples, John the Beloved and Simon Peter, have already seen the empty tomb, but they fail to make the vital connection between seeing and believing. When they hear Mary’s testimony, they still fail to believe fully. They only believe when they see the Risen Lord standing among them, when he greets them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and when he shows them his pierced hands and side.

They had to see and to hear, they had to have the Master stand over them in their presence, before they could believe.

On the first Easter Day, the Disciples locked themselves away out of fear. But where is Thomas? Is he fearless? Or is he foolish?

For a full week, Thomas is absent and does not join in the Easter experience of the remaining disciples. He has not seen and so he refuses to believe. When they tell him what has happened, Thomas refuses to accept their stories of the Resurrection. For him hearing, even seeing, are not enough.

Thomas wants to see, hear and touch. He wants to use all his learning faculties before he can believe this story. He has heard, but he wants to see. When he sees, he wants to touch … he demands not only to touch the Risen Christ, but to touch his wounds too before being convinced.

And so, for a second time within eight days, Christ comes and stands among his disciples, and says: ‘Peace be with you.’

The traditional icon depicting the event recalled in John 20: 19-31 emphasises the closed door, a significant part of the narrative: ‘the doors were locked’ (verse 19). After Christ’s arrest, the disciples tried to hide from the authorities out of fear. They returned to the last place where they had seen him alive, the upper room, around the same table where they had shared that last meal.

The young Thomas was not present the first time round and had said to the others: ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe’ (John 20: 25).

Christ appears within the disciples’ hiding place, where the door is firmly shut. His presence is real, and he invites Thomas: ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’ (John 20: 27).

In this icon, Christ’s right arm is raised not so much in blessing but revealing his right side with its open wound. Saint Thomas is raising his right hand, about to touch the wounded side, but not actually placing his finger in the open wound.

The wounds from the nails on the Cross can also be seen in Christ’s hand and feet. The traditional icons following Byzantine iconography and style show Christ standing in front of the closed door of a large domed building, with his right arm raised; we can see the signs of the nails on his hands. In many icons, Christ holds a scroll in his left hand.

The Apostles, divided in two groups, watch Thomas touch Christ’s side.

The familiar term ‘doubting Thomas’, referring to the Apostle, is used to describe someone who unreasonably doubts someone’s word. Where Orthodox icons depicting this scene have inscriptions, they do not refer to the doubts of Saint Thomas. Instead, the usual Greek inscription reads Η ψηλάφηση του Θωμά (I Psilafisi tou Thoma), ‘the Assurance of Thomas.’ Often English icons are inscribed ‘The Belief of Thomas.’ The icons show not a ‘Doubting Thomas,’ but a reassured Thomas. This is the Thomas who bends before the Risen Christ to touch his wounds and exclaims: ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20: 28).

The Church Fathers recognised that although Saint Thomas doubted, his doubt was not unreasonable. Christ responded, spurring Saint Thomas to a confession of Christ’s Divinity that is more explicit than anywhere else in the Gospels.

Looking out from the scene, Christ’s response to Thomas is also for us: ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’ (John 20: 29).

Mary was asked in the garden on Easter morning not to cling on to Christ. But Thomas is invited to touch him in the most intimate way. He is told to place his finger in Christ’s wounded hands and his hand in Christ’s pierced side.

Yet we are never told whether Thomas actually touches those wounds with his fingers. All we are told is that once he has seen the Risen Christ, Thomas simply professes his faith in Christ: ‘My Lord and my God!’

In that moment, we hear the first expression of faith in the two natures of Christ, that he is both divine and human. For all his doubts, Saint Thomas provides us with an exquisite summary of the apostolic faith, contained within the Nicene Creed, whose 1,700th anniversary we are commemorating this year.

Too often, perhaps, we talk about ‘Doubting Thomas,’ when we might better call him ‘Believing Thomas.’ His doubting leads him to questions. But his questioning leads to listening. And when he hears, he sees, perhaps he even touches. Whatever he does, he learns in his own way, and he comes not only to faith but to faith that for this first time is expressed in that eloquent yet succinct acknowledgment of Christ as both ‘My Lord and My God.’

In our society today, are we easily deceived by appearances?

Do we confuse what pleases me with beauty and with truth?

Do we allow those who have power to define the boundaries of trust and integrity merely to serve their own interests?

Too often, in this world, we are deceived easily by the words of others and deceived by what they want us to see. Seeing is not always believing today. Hearing does not always mean we have heard the truth, as we know in politics today. It is easy to deceive and to be deceived by a good presentation and by clever words.

Too often, we accept or judge people by their appearances, and we are easily deceived by the words of others because of their office or their privilege. But there are times when our faith, however simple or sophisticated, must lead us to ask appropriate questions, not to take everything for granted, and not to confuse what looks like being in our own interests with real beauty and truth.

A detail in the icon of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas in the iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 3 July 2025, Saint Thomas the Apostle):

I am sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which is taking place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year is ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centres around the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325). Updates of the conference as it happens are available by following USPG on social media @USPGglobal.’

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 3 July 2025, Saint Thomas the Apostle) invites us to pray:

Lord God, on this Feast of St Thomas the Apostle, please deepen our faith and renew our calling to serve you. As the USPG conference concludes, may all go forth with courage, conviction, and a spirit of unity.

The Collect:

Almighty and eternal God,
who, for the firmer foundation of our faith,
allowed your holy apostle Thomas
to doubt the resurrection of your Son
till word and sight convinced him:
grant to us, who have not seen, that we also may believe
and so confess Christ as our Lord and our God;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

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)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

14 million readers, 14 million residents, 14 million refugees and 14 million passports

A wall painting in a shelter in Budapest housing Ukrainian refugees … more than 14 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached yet another new peak last night (1 July 2025), totalling up 14 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010.

Yet again, this is yet another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once again I am left not with a sense of achievement but with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

After I began blogging, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.

But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal over the past few months, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), 12 million early last month (3 May 2025), 12.5 million a month later (6 June 2025), 13 million less than two weeks later (17 June 2025), 13.5 million a week later (24 June 2025) and 14 million a week last night (1 July 2025).

Last month (June 2025) was the second month that this blog ever had more than 1 million hits in one single month, with 1,618,488 hits by the end of the month (30 June). This followed January’s record of 1 million hits by the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).

In recent months, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in June alone, four were in January 2025, and one was in this month (1 July 2025):

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 82,043 (23 June 2025)
• 81,037 (21 June 2025)

• 80,625 (22 June 2025)
• 79,981 (19 June 2025)
• 79,165 (20 June 2025)
• 69,722 (18 June 2025)
• 69,714 (30 June 2025)
• 69,657 (1 July 2025)

This blog has already had 4,466,445 hits in the first half of this year, over 31 per cent of all hits ever.

Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.’ It may only be a hunch, but it’s an educated hunch or a journalist’s experienced instinct when I say I have not failed to notice some patterns.

Some of these days were in the week before and after Trump’s inauguration, the others were in the days around his damp-squib military parade in Washington DC on 14 June and his hair-brained decision to attack Iran. Indeed, the overwhelming number of hits are not from Ireland, the UK and Greece, as I might expect, but from the US.

It’s not paranoid either to imagine how the bots at work in some ugly, dim basement in Washington are trawling far and wide for anyone critical of the Trump regime. The costs may be minimal, but it’s still money that could be better spent on healthcare, education, rehiring air traffic controllers or reinstating DEI programmes.

I doubt that my criticisms of Trump, Rubio, Vance, Hegseth and Musk are going to make it easy to get a visa to visit the US over the next four years, should I ever want to visit the place under the present dystopian regime. I’d prefer to boost my ego and convince myself that my popularity is growing and that I have become a ‘must-read’ writer for so many people every day. But, sadly, I don’t think that’s so.

On the other hand – and in this lies my greatest fear – if a minor critic of the Trump regime outside the US such as me is feeling watched and intimidated at this level, try to imagine how many critics inside of the Trump regime and ICE inside the US feel they really are being monitored, intimidated and bullied into silence.

More than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes since 2011 … collecting shoes for refugee children from Syria (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Putting all this aside, with this latest landmark figure of 14 million hits by today, 1,618,488 hits in June alone, and over 1.4 million hits in January, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 14 million people look like?
• Where do we find 14 million people?
• What does £14 million, €14 million or $14 million mean.
• What would it buy?

The film 14 Million Screams is so-called because 14 million young girls are forced to be married every year, and 700 million women have been married before the age of 15.

Several cities have populations of around 14 million people, including Istanbul, Karachi, Tokyo, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai and Cairo … although this figure depends on how specific metropolitan areas are defined, and who is doing the counting.

A sculpture of a kouros, an athletic youth, and valued at $14 million was among the antiquities recently returned to Greece after being stolen and illegally sent to the US. Dozens of stolen antiquities were repatriated to Greece including 47 antiquities seized from the collection of billionaire investor Michael Steinhardt in 2021 after a search that lasted many years across many countries.

Greece’s efforts to manage the challenges posed by the tourism industry, with extensive taxes and regulations targeting holiday homes, seem to have fallen short. Despite hefty fines and additional charges imposed by the government, the number of residential properties surged by nearly 10 per cent last year.

Figures show there were 14 million overnight stays by foreign tourists using short-term rentals like Airbnb for their holiday accommodation last year (2024), an increase of 2 million on the previous year (2023, prior to Greece implementing policies to address issues caused by over-tourism, such as sky-rocketing rents and deteriorating public services.

The Syrian crisis is one of the largest displacement crises globally. Since 2011, more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. This includes both internally displaced people and refugees who have crossed borders.

The director-general of the International Organisation for Migration, Amy Pope, said last October that over 14 million people had also fled their homes in Sudan, either inside the country or over its borders. They include the 11 million people who have been internally displaced within the country, and the 3.1 million who have crossed borders.

As the frontline shifts and hostilities increase, more than 14 million Ukrainians are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War I. Over 6.3 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries and 3.7 million people are internally displaced. This means nearly one-third of the population of Ukraine has been forced to flee their homes, including more than half of all Ukrainian children.

Up to 14 million UK tourists risk being turned away at airport gates, according to a recent report. Only half of recent British visitors to Europe knew that a passport must be issued less than 10 years before departure ,and only one in three British passport holders knew that a passport must be valid for at least three months after the return date.

This means around 13.9 million travellers could have made one of these mistakes on their trip. The report also found that only two in five UK adults do not knew they are not be covered by their insurance policy if they make one of these passport errors.

The way statistics like this are mangled in the red-top tabloids never ceases to irritate me. When any of those 14 million tourists are turned back from the their planned package holiday in Benidorm, the Balearics or Benitses, it becomes the fault not of Brexit but of some faceless European bureaucrats in Brussels.

Those forgetful tourists are never bemoaned as illegal migrants without legal papers. But when any miniscule proportion of those 14 million displaced people or refugees – from, say, Sudan, Syria or Ukraine – try to cross the channel, they become illegal migrants without papers, and the victims of tabloid bile and racist caricature.

When any of those 14 million passport holders go island hopping in Greece, it’s fun and pleasure – it ought to be; when any of those 14 people use boats between France and the English coast, they became the target of vitriol from the likes of Daily Mail columnists and Reform voters.

The world has a population of 8.2 billion people, and 14 million people represent only 0.17% of all those people. So 14 million hits on this blog is quite a modest number, I have to concede.

One of the most warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary reaches an average of 80-85 people each day in the past month. It is over three years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to to 580 people a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all 14 million readers of this blog to date, and for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Up to 14 million UK tourists could be travelling abroad on invalid passports (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 54, Wednesday 2 July 2025

‘Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them’ (Matthew 8: 30) … sculptures of pigs throughout Tamworth celebrate the political achievements of Sir Robert Peel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025) and the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

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.

‘Two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him’ (Matthew 8: 28) … in the graveyard between Koutouloufari and Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 8: 28-34 (NRSVA):

28 When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ 30 Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. 31 The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ 32 And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water. 33 The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. 34 Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood.

A cartoonist’s take on the pigs in the Gospel accounts of the herd of swine the swine who rush down the steep bank into the lake

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 28-34) comes after yesterday’s account of Christ calming the storm as he and the disciples are in a boat crossing the lake or sea. In today’s reading, they arrive at the other side, where Jesus heals the Gadarene demoniacs.

This story appears in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew 8: 28-34; Mark 5: 1-20; and Luke 8: 26-39, and we read Saint Luke’s account the Sunday before last (22 June 2025, Trinity I, see HERE).

After Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee, he and his disciples arrive on the other side of the lake in the countryside surrounding Gerasa, present-day Jerash. This city, also known as Antioch on the Chrysorrhoas or the Golden River, was founded by Alexander the Great. It is 50 km south-east of the Sea of Galilee and 30 km north of Philadelphia, modern-day Amman.

However, Saint Matthew sets this story in Gadara (present-day Umm Qais), about 10 km from the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Either location poses questions, for neither Gadara nor Gerasa is near to the coast of the Sea of Galilee: Gadara was about a three-hour walking distance, while Gerasa was well over twice that distance.

The differing geographical references to Gadara and Gerasa can be understood in light of the social, economic, and political influence each city exerted over the region. In this light, Saint Matthew identifies the exorcism with Gadara as the local centre of power, while the city of Gerasa was a major urban centre and one of the ten cities of the Decapolis.

Whatever the location and setting of this story, it takes place deep inside Gentile territory. From the very moment they get off the boat, this story involves a place and people regarded as unclean by the standards among the disciples: this is Gentile territory, the people are ritually ‘unclean,’ the two men have unclean spirits, they men of visible and public shame living among the tombs, which are ritually unclean, and the pigs are unclean too.

Prisoners or people who had been deprived of their liberty lost the right to wear clothes. Tombs were ritually unclean places. Swine were a symbol of pagan religion and of Roman rule, but even they are subject to Christ’s authority.

This episode plays a key role in the theory of the ‘Scapegoat’ put forward by the French literary critic René Girard (1923-2015). In his analysis, the opposition of the entire city to the two men possessed by demons is the typical template for a scapegoat.

Which is more self-destructive:

the tormented lives of two demoniacs living among the tombs?

the herd of pigs rushing headlong over the precipice to certain drowning in the lake?

the swineherds who abandon their herd and rush back into the town?

the townspeople who placed all their collective guilt on these two men and forced them to live on the edges of the town or the margins of society?

or the people of the town when they demand that Jesus should leave immediately?

And we might ask ourselves this morning:

Who do you think we see as scapegoats today, as outsiders to be pushed to the margins, so that we can maintain the purity of our family, church or society?

Who do we expose and shame so that we can maintain the appearance of our own purity?

Are these the very people who might bring the good news to people on the margins, inviting them into the household of God?

‘Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them’ (Matthew 8: 30) … free-range pigs grazing in fields at Packington Farm, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 2 July 2025):

I am sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which takes place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year is ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centres around the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325). Updates of the conference as it happens are available by following USPG on social media @USPGglobal.’

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 2 July 2025) invites us to pray:

We thank you, Lord, for the USPG trustees and Communion-Wide Advisory Group – may their wisdom and experience continue to guide the work of USPG.

The Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Thomas:

Almighty and eternal God,
who, fothe firmer foundation of our faith,
allowed your holy apostle Thomas
to doubt the resurrection of your Son
till word and sight convinced him:
grant to us, who have not seen, that we also may believe
and so confess Christ as our Lord and our God;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Night settles on the Hayes Conference Centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire … the venue for the USPG conference this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daisy Stuart Shaw, pioneering woman in Lichfield life and politics, is celebrated with a plaque at her former home

The new plaque at 8 Bore Street, celebrating Daisy Stuart Shaw, Lichfield’s first woman mayor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

It is always good to see new plaques or ways of commemorating pioneering people who have made an impact on public and social life in Lichfield. When I was in Lichfield a few months ago, I had noticed the name of Daisy Stuart Shaw on the Friary Clock Tower. A few days later, a plaque honouring her was unveiled at the house on Bore Street where she lived 100 years ago.

So, it was interesting last week the see the plaque that was unveiled recently at No 8 Bore Street, to honour this pioneering and forward-thinking woman.

Daisy Stuart Shaw (1861-1955) was the wife of Dr Thomas David Stuart Shaw, a Lichfield GP. She was the first woman councillor to sit on Lichfield City Council (1919), the first woman to become Mayor of Lichfield (1927-1928) and the first woman to become an Alderman of the city.

Daisy Stuart Shaw was born Daisy Ramsay in Edinburgh in 1861. She had been a nurse before she married Dr Thomas David Stuart Shaw, a general practitioner. The couple moved from Gloucester to Lichfield 120 years ago in 1905 when her husband took over the practice of Dr Welchman, a medical practice in Bore Street that dated back to the 1850s.

No 8 Bore Street … Daisy and Thomas Stuart Shaw moved to Lichfield in 1905 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In Lichfield, Daisy became involved in working with the Victoria Cottage Hospital, which had opened on Sandford Street in 1889. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Freeford Manor, the home of the Dyott family near Lichfield, became a military hospital for soldiers wounded in action. Daisy worked there as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Red Cross nurse, looking after wounded soldiers.

In the last year of World War I, an act was passed in 1918 giving women the vote for the first time. The Act came after almost 30 years of campaigning, but was also a response to the women who had worked throughout the war in factories, farms and businesses. Thousands of men who had previously been disenfranchised, mainly because they were not house owners, were also given the vote.

Daisy Stuart Shaw became the first woman member of Lichfield City Council the following year when she was elected a councillor for the South Ward in November 1919. She was re-elected in 1923 and was a councillor for over 20 years. She took a particular interest in the rights of women, particularly women who were widows or on low incomes, in the welfare of children, and in housing reform.

Both Daisy and Thomas Stuart Shaw continued to be actively involved in the Victoria Cottage Hospital in the inter-war years. By the 1920s, the hospital on Sandford Street had become too small to meet the needs of an growing number of patients and the couple were involved in fundraising efforts to build a new, purpose-built, hospital on land off The Friary, on the other side of the Bowling Green public house.

Thomas provided his medical services to the new hospital voluntarily and they both dedicated many hours of their own time and funds, ensuring the success the new hospital in the days long before the National Health Service.

Meanwhile, Daisy was the first woman to become the Mayor of Lichfield, holding office in 1927-1928. As Mayor, she took part in the official reopening of the Clock Tower on The Friary in 1928, after it had been relocated, brick by brick, from its original location on the junction of Bore Street, Saint John Street and Bird Street. While Daisy was Mayor of Lichfield, the Sheriff of Lichfield in 1927-1928 was Joseph Henry Bridgeman, the son of Robert Bridgeman, the noted stonemason and wood carver, whose premises were on Quonians Lane, off Dam Street.

Daisy Stuart Shaw was Mayor of Lichfield when the Clock Tower was moved a new location in 1928 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Ten years later, Daisy was honoured when she became the first woman to be made an alderman of Lichfield by Lichfield City Council in 1938 in recognition of her long service and dedication, and for her tireless voluntary work in and around the city.

After almost 40 years in Lichfield, the Stuart Shaws retired in 1945 and moved away from their adopted city. The general committee of the Victoria Hospital made a presentation to them, recognising their ‘outstanding services of a public and charitable nature’.

Daisy died in 1955 in Castle Douglas in her native Scotland. Her widowed husband died in 1960.

After more than half a century, Daisy Stuart Shaw’s commemoration was championed by the city council chair, Councillor Ann Hughes, who said she ‘learned about Daisy through the Wayward Women history group which set up plaques temporarily across the city in 2021.’ Her story has also been told by local historian and tour guide Jonathan Oates in the local magazine CityLife in Lichfield and on social media platforms.

A blue plaque celebrating Daisy’s life and contribution was installed at 8 Bore Street, her former home, earlier this year. It was unveiled on 7 March at a ceremony that also marked International Women’s Day and that included the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Claire Pinder-Smith, and the town crier, Adrian Holmes.

Daisy Stuart Shaw was the first woman councillor, first woman mayor and first woman alderman in Lichfield (Photograph courtesy of the Saint Mary’s Lichfield Photographic Collection, via Jonathan Oates)

Sources/Further Reading:

Jono Oates, ‘Daisy Stuart Shaw’, Lichfield’s First Lady,’ CityLife in Lichfield, March 2025, p 47

(Professor) Janet Hunt, Staffordshire’s War: Voices of the First World War (Amberley, 2017)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 53, Tuesday 1 July 2025

‘And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him’ (Matthew 8: 35) … waiting gondolas near Saint Mark’s Square in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025) and the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so that these days are sometimes known as Petertide.

Today also brings us into the second half of the year. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Henry Venn (1797), John Venn (1813), and Henry Venn the younger (1873), priests and evangelical divines. 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.

The calming of the storm depicted in a window in the Chapel in Westminster College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 8: 23-27 (NRSVA):

23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ 26 And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. 27 They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’

On the water at Bako National Park, north of Kuching in Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 23-27) comes after yesterday’s account (Matthew 8: 18-22) of the crowds following Jesus being so great that he tried to get away to the other side of the lake. Now in this morning’s reading, Christ and the disciples are leaving the crowd and crossing to the other side of the lake or sea. But a storm blows up, and the disciples show how weak they truly are, with all their doubts and fears.

As we work our ways through the storms of life, we have many questions to ask about the purpose or meaning of life. Often, we can feel guilty about putting those questions to God. Yet, should we not be able to put our deepest questions and greatest fears before God?

In this Gospel reading, the frightened disciples challenge Christ and ask him whether he cares that they are perishing (verse 25). But he offers them words of peace before doing anything to remedy the plight in which they have been caught, and goes on to ask them his own challenging questions: ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ (verses 26). They, in turn, end up asking their own challenging question about who Christ is for them.

I enjoy being on boats, whether it is on punts in Cambridge or Oxford, island hopping in Greece, or cruising on rivers from the Shannon to the Seine or Sarawak. But I also recognise the fears of the disciples in this reading, having found myself in unexpected storms on lakes on the Shannon and on the waters of the Mediterranean. In retrospect, they were minor storms each time, but those memories give me some insights into the plight of refugees crossing choppy waters every day in the English Channel and in the Mediterranean.

The plight of the disciples in this reading seems like the working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type many of us experience at different stages: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Christ is asleep in the boat when a great gale rises, the waves beat the side of the boat, and it is soon swamped by the waters. He seems oblivious to the calamity that is unfolding around him and to the fear of the disciples. They have to wake him, and by then they fear they are perishing.

Christ wakes, rebukes the wind, calm descends on the sea, but still Christ challenges those on the boat: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Instead of being calmed, they are now filled with awe. Do they recognise Christ for who he truly is? They ask one another: ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’ (verse 27). Even before the Resurrection, Christ tells the disciples not to be afraid, which becomes a constant theme after the Resurrection.

Do those in the boat begin to ask truly who Christ is because he has calmed the storm, or because he has calmed their fears?

Through the storms of life, through the nightmares, fears and memories, despite the failures of the Church, past and present, we must not let those experiences to ruin our trusting relationship with God. Despite all the storms of life, throughout all our fears and nightmares, we can trust in God as Father and trust in the calm presence and words of Christ among us.

‘Then … there was a dead calm’ (Matthew 8: 26) … boats in the calm waters at Mesongi on the island of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 1 July 2025):

I am sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which takes place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year is ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centres around the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325). Updates of the conference as it happens are available by following USPG on social media @USPGglobal.’

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 1 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the first day of the conference. We pray particularly that you will use the speakers to inspire and encourage all to grow in your likeness.

The Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The Hayes Conference Centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire … the venue for the USPG conference this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Donegal House Clock in Lichfield hides stories of parlourmaids, contested wills and wealthy widows

The clock between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street, Lichfield … a gift of the Swinfen-Broun family in 1928 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Along with the Cathedral Bells ringing out across the Cathedral Close, and the many church chimes on the hour, quarter hour and half hour, Lichfield has two public or civic clocks that have been keeping time in Lichfield for generation.

The clock on the façade of Donegal House in Bore Street has been one of the landmarks on Bore Street for almost a century, while the Friary Clock, first erected in 1863 at the junction of Bird Street and Bore Street, was moved to its present site beside the Bowling Green roundabout in 1928.

I had a good look at the Friary Clock and its plaques four months ago, so it was good to see the Donegal House clock back in place last week on the front of Donegal House after some recent repairs and renovations

Apart from the internal workings, the clock was restored in 2015 by Smiths of Derby. Unfortunately, the clock had been losing time, and because of this the original internal gearing had to be replaced with an electric motor.

The original gearing from the clock is kept in the original winding house in the Lichfield Festival office in Donegal House, along with part of the original winding instructions as well as old pulley wheels and weights.

The clock was donated to the people of Lichfield by Mrs MA Swinfen Broun almost a century ago, in 1928 – months after the Friary Clock had been moved to a new site away from the centre of Lichfield. A plaque beneath the clock declares: ‘This clock was presented to the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Lichfield by Mrs M.A. Swinfen-Broun. Swinfen Hall Lichfield. On the 5th November 1928.’

The Swinfen-Broun clock has been repaired and restored once again in recent months (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Donegal House sits between the Guildhall and the Tudor Café. It was built for a local merchant, James Robinson, in 1730 but takes its name from the Chichester family, who held the titles of Earl and Marquess of Donegall, and who once owned vast estates near Lichfield, including Fisherwick Park and Comberford Hall.

Lichfield Council acquired Donegal House for use as offices in 1909. Plans to create a large new Council Chamber on the first floor of Donegal House never went ahead. Council meetings continued in Guildhall while Donegal House was used as offices, and connecting doors were made between the two buildings on ground floor and first floor.

Mrs MA Swinfen-Broun, who presented the Donegal House clock to the people of Lichfield, is often overlooked and most references to the clock discuss her husband, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Alexander Wilsone Swinfen-Broun (1857-1948). Indeed, even the plaque beneath the clock does not hint at her own original names.

Laura Swinfen Broun (1853-1932) was born Laura Crossley Eno on 17 September 1853, in Newcastle upon Tyne, a daughter of Elizabeth Ann (Cooke) Eno (1827-1907) and James Crossley Eno (1827-1915), a member of the Eno family of fruit salts fame.

Laura first married Dr John Nicholson Fleming (1848-1881), a doctor, in Gateshead, in July 1874. They lived at South Lodge, Champion Hill, Surrey, where he died on 3 July 1881, and he was buried in West Norwood Cemetery.

Laura was still in her late 20s and was left what was then a small fortune of £43,276 6s 9d – the equivalent of £6.7 million today. She was a wealthy widow still in her 30s when she married Colonel Michael Alexander Wilsone Broun on 13 October 1891, in Denham, south Buckinghamshire; she was 38 and he was 34.

He was born Michael Broun at Castle Wemyss in Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 9 July 1857, the second son of Charles Wilsone Broun (1821-1883) and his second wife Annie Rowland.

Charles Broun had spent his early childhood in a prosperous part of Glasgow. His father was called William Brown (1792-1884), and made some of his fortune in the slave trade. Charles preferred the affected or antiquated spelling of Broun, which his sons also used. After attending Glasgow University, he became a property developer and landowner, buying an estate at Wemyss Bay in Renfrewshire. There he built Castle Wemyss for his family, a large home with views across the surrounding countryside and out to the sea.

It is said that Anthony Trollope wrote part of Barchester Towers while was staying at Wemyss Bay, and that Portray Castle in The Eustace Diamonds is based on Castle Wemyss.

Charles Broun married his first wife Ellen Buchanan in 1846, but was widowed within a year. Two years after his first wife died, he married his second wife Annie Rowland. She was pregnant seven times in the space of 10 years, but only four of her children survived. She died at Castle Wemyss at the age of 37, when her youngest child was only one, leaving Charles a widower for the second time.

Three years later, Charles met Patience Swinfen, the widow of Henry Swinfen, who was the only son of Samuel Swinfen, the owner of Swinfen Hall, a large estate near Lichfield. Henry was a descendant of Samuel Swinfen, who built Swinfen Hall in 1757 and who, at various times, also owned Comberford Hall, in 1755 and again in 1759-1761.

The extraordinary tale of Patience Swinfen’s inheritance and her battle to become the chatelaine of Swinfen Hall have been told and retold in countless articles and books. The ex-parlourmaid’s claim to Swinfen Hall and her eventual victory was a Victorian sensation and the legal wrangles made national headlines. It is a story that is the stuff of trash novels, court intrigues and salacious rumour-mongering.

Henry Swinfen (1802-1854) had been living a dissolute and aimless life in Paris and London and was 29 when he met Patience Williams, the 18-year-old daughter of a Welsh farmer. When Henry first met Patience she was a parlourmaid in a lodging house in Bloomsbury. They married secretly in March 1831 without letting their parents know and spent the next 13 years travelling on Continental Europe. Attractive and much more intelligent than her husband, Patience charmed all she met, including Henry’s ageing father, Samuel Swinfen.

When Henry Swinfen died in June 1854, Patience had already charmed her way into the affections of her father-in-law, if not his bed. Samuel Swinfen was 80 and in his last illness he a made new will naming Patience as his heir. He promptly died three weeks later in July 1854. Patience had been left Swinfen Hall, 1,200 acres of land 4.5 miles south of Lichfield, and £60,000.

But her inheritances was challenged by other members of the Swinfen family and a series of court cases ensued involving several celebrated lawyers. Charles Rann Kennedy (1808-1867), who eventually acted for Patience, became involved with her in a romantic and sexual relationship, abandoning his wife and six children.

Kennedy won the case for Patience, but when he tried to claim a large fee from her she resisted and instead Patience married the widowed Charles Broun in 1861, much to Kennedy’s chagrin. Kennedy then dragged Patience and Charles back into the courts in what became a scandalous trial that the newly-wed couple eventually won.

Charles and Patience moved onto the Swinfen Estate near Lichfield, and two of Charles Broun’s children, including four-year-old Michael, adopted the name Swinfen-Broun, although they were not descended from the Swinfen family. As for Kennedy, he turned from calling Patience the ‘suffering Dame’ in his poetry or doggerel to calling her ‘the Serpent of Swinfen’. He was disbarred from practising law and when he died in 1867, he was bitter, disgraced and utterly broken.

The plaque below the Swinfen-Broun … the full name of the female donor is noticeably absent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Michael Alexander Swinfen-Broun, as he was now known, was sent to school at Rugby. From there, he was commissioned in the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1876.

He married the widowed and wealthy Laura Fleming in 1891 when she was 38 and he was 34. The following year, he became the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion of the South Staffords in 1892. He fought in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901-1902, and he remained an honorary colonel after he retired from the army in 1904. He was the High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1907 and was a senior magistrate in Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Brouns were generous patrons and benefactors of good causes in the Lichfield and Weeford areas. He was the President of the Lichfield Victoria Hospital for 14 years, they both gave major donations to the hospital, and they gave many gifts to the City of Lichfield, including a valuable collection of silver as well as the public clock on the wall between Donegal House and the Guildhall.

His other bequests to Lichfield included statues by Donato Barcaglia, known locally as ‘Old Father Time’, and by Antonio Rossetti, known in Lichfield as ‘The Reading Girl’.

Laura died at Swinfen Hall on 23 August 1932, at the age of 78, and she was buried in Weeford, outside Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Brouns were the parents of an only daughter, Elizabeth Doris Farnham (1893-1935), known as Elsie. She married John Adrian George (Jack) Farnham (1890-1930) at Saint Peter’s Church, Pimlico; she was 20 and by now the Eno heiress, he was 22. But the couple had no children, the marriage was unhappy; after five years, Elsie left Jack and they were divorced in 1925. Jack married again in 1926, but he died after a heart attack on 24 September 1930, aged only 40 and leaving a young widow and three young children.

Within three years of her mother’s death, the divorced Elsie died on 16 April 1935 and she was buried in Saint John the Evangelist churchyard in Frieth, Buckinghamshire.

Although widowed and bereft, Colonel Swinfen-Broun remained active in public life, and the City Council conferred the Freedom of Lichfield on him in 1938 as a token of gratitude for his generosity.

He continued with this benevelonce and his most valuable gift to Lichfield was 12 acres of land at Beacon Park, given in 1943 to extend the recreation grounds and for use as a public park and garden. He died on 8 June 1948.

Swinfen-Broun left his estate to the Church and the City of Lichfield, and most of the land was sold off. Swinfen Hall was unoccupied for many years until 1987, when it was converted the main house into a hotel that closed in recent years.

Swinfen-Broun’s Barcaglia statue was sold at auction at Sotheby’s in London for £150,000 in 2008, as the council could no longer to provide it with a home that had suitable conditions to prevent its deterioration. ‘The Reading Girl’ is on display in the Hub at Saint Mary’s, Lichfield. And the Swinfen-Broun Clock is back in its place between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street in Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Broun Clock is back in place between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Further Reading:

Angela Coulter, A Stream of Lives (London, Troubador, 2021)

Swinfen Hall, Staffordshire, Heritage Impact Assessment, Donald Insall Associates, Chartered Architects and Historic Building Consultants, for Bushell Investment Group, June 2023, < https://docs.planning.org.uk/20240806/49/SGVKPUJEIFG00/stmiyo4snp9j4bdi.pdf >

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 52, Monday 30 June 2025

‘Foxes have holes … but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Matthew 8: 20) … a fox playing in the new mural by Nacho Welles in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025), the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and – in many dioceses – the Petertide ordinations.

Today also brings us to a point half-way through the year. 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.

The ‘birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Matthew 8: 20) … street art in Great Victoria Street, Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 8: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 A scribe then approached and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20 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.’ 21 Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 22 But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’

‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father’ (Matthew 8: 23) … the graveyard between the villages of Koutouloufari and Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 18-22) follows Saturday’s reading about healing incidents, including Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in her home in Capernaum (Matthew 8: 5-17). Today, we read about two half-hearted excuses when it comes to following Jesus, one from a man who says he wants to follow Jesus in the here and now, and one from a disciple who wants time out from following Jesus.

There are times when Jesus goes out of his way to meet the crowds, such as the occasion he is filled with compassion because he sees them as sheep without a shepherd. But in today’s reading, he gives orders to cross the lake apparently to avoid the crowds pressing in on him.

There are two kinds of crowds: those in real need of teaching and healing, and those who are driven by curiosity to see the unusual and the spectacle, for whom Jesus is a sensation, a wonder-worker, a superstar. But what does it truly mean to want to follow Jesus?

When a scribe approaches Jesus and says, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go’ (verse 19), it seems like a genuine and a generous offer. Buy Jesus reminds him of the cost of discipleship and there is no cheap grace: ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

To follow Jesus means, like him, to be ready to have nothing of one’s own. As Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, we cannot serve two masters at the same time. To follow Jesus is to accept a situation where we may find ourselves material possessions, to find that our security lies somewhere else.

Perhaps there is a suspicion there that the scribe is exchanging the stability of being a scholar or of academic life for the stability of being a disciple, still a student of God’s word. Karl Barth once said: ‘To understand the scriptures we must stop acting like mere spectators.’

Did this scribe take up the challenge?

Does it really matter?

Jesus is not so much testing the scribe, but testing the wider audience, the disciples, challenging you and me. Do I really want to Jesus? Or do I only want to follow him on my terms and conditions?

Another person, described as already being a disciple (verse 21), says to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ It is a reasonable request but Jesus’ reply sounds rather harsh: ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead’ (verse 22).

It would be a harsh-sounding reply to hear in our society today, just as it was then in both Jewish and Hellenistic society, where burying a dead parent is a filial obligation of the highest importance.

I know how some HR managers keep a count of the unusual number of grandparents some employees seem to have, and how often they need compassionate leave to attend a family fumeral.

It is quite clear a few verses earlier that following Jesus does not mean abandoning ageing or dying parents. We read on Saturday that when Simon Peter’s mother-in-law was sick and dying, Jesus went to the family home in Capernaum (Matthew 8: 14-17).

But what if the man’s father is not dead? What if what he is really saying, ‘I will come and follow you in the future, after my father is dead and buried.’ In those circumstances, is the man wishing for his own father’s death?

Is Jesus telling him this demand will be followed by one-after-an-another case of what looks like filial responsibility but becomes an excuse or even an obstacle to real unencumbered discipleship: after burial, his father’s will needs to be read; the seven days of shiva or mourning move on to the obligation to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer for 11 months; he needs to make sure his widowed mother is secure; the family farm or shop needs to be looked after because there is no one else to do so; there are younger brothers and sisters who are now without a father and who need a wage-earner in the home.

One excuse after another becomes one more reason after another not to follow Jesus, not just yet.

To follow Jesus is to enter a new family with a new set of obligations. Following Jesus has to be unconditional. We cannot say, ‘I will follow you if …’ or ‘I will follow you when I am ready.’ When he calls, we have to be ready, like the first disciples, to drop our nets, leave our boats and even our family members.

Discipleship calls us to a new way of life, and to leave behind the old ways of those who are spiritually dead. The rituals of society, including burial, have an important place in life that cannot be laid aside. But the call to the Kingdom is a call to an even more important set of values.

‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead’ (Matthew 8: 22) … a cross in the London Road Cemetery in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 30 June 2025):

The USPG Annual Conference takes place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year is ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centres around the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325). Updates of the conference as it happens are available by following USPG on social media @USPGglobal.’

‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 30 June 2025) invites us to pray:

Father God, we pray for all staff, speakers and delegates joining together for the USPG Conference. We pray for safe travel to the event and that the time together is centred around you, Lord.

The Collect:

Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The Hayes Conference Centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire … the venue for the USPG conference this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.