Captain Alfred Dreyfus with his broken sword … a statue by Tim Mitelberg in the courtyard of the Jewish Museum in Paris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
The lower house of the French parliament, in a unanimous vote this week, has approved the retroactive promotion of Captain Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general,130 years after the Jewish French officer was wrongly convicted of treason in 1894 in one of the most notorious cases of antisemitism in France.
The bill sets out to promote Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general, for one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in France. The National Assembly or lower house unanimously approved the legislation, seen also as an act of reparation and a symbolic condemnation of modern antisemitism in France today.
The draft law was proposed by a former prime minister, Gabriel Attal, the leader of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party. All 197 deputies present voted in favour in the National Assembly on Monday. To take effect, it still needs the approval by the Senate or upper house in a separate vote.
The rapporteur of the proposed law, Renaissance deputy Charles Sitzenstuhl, said the vote ‘will go down in history’ and called on senators ‘to quickly adopt the text’.
Dreyfus was condemned at a time of rampant antisemitism in the French army and wider French society in the late 19th century. The symbolic promotion comes at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in France.
‘Promoting Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general would constitute an act of reparation, a recognition of his merits, and a tribute to his commitment to the Republic,’ said Gabriel Attal, who was France’s youngest prime minister but was in office for less than eight months last year.
‘Accused, humiliated and condemned because he was Jewish, Alfred Dreyfus was dismissed from the army, imprisoned and exiled to Devil’s Island,’ Attal said in advance of the vote, calling on the National Assembly to unanimously ‘repair the indignity and bring honour to the Republic.’
‘The antisemitism that hit Alfred Dreyfus is not a thing of the past,’ said Attal, whose father was Jewish. He urged France to reaffirm its ‘absolute commitment against all forms of discrimination.’
Dreyfus was a 36-year-old army captain when he was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attaché. The accusation was based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German's wastepaper basket in Paris. Dreyfus was put on trial amid a virulent antisemitic press campaign and in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war.
The novelist Emile Zola wrote his celebrated front-page article on the Dreyfus case under the banner headline J’accuse (‘I accuse’), accusing the government and army of ‘treason against humanity’ by playing to the public’s antisemitism.
The Dreyfus affair is seen as a stain on French history. The trial reportedly persuaded Theodor Herzl, who covered it as a journalist, to turn to Zionism.
Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island, the infamous penal colony in French Guiana, and publicly stripped of his rank.
Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the intelligence services, reinvestigated the case in secret and discovered the handwriting on the incriminating message was that of another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. When Picquart presented the evidence to the general staff of the French army, he was driven out of the military and jailed for a year, while Esterhazy was acquitted.
Dreyfus was brought back to France in June 1899 for a second trial. Initially he was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Later he was officially pardoned, but was not cleared of the charges.
The high court of appeal eventually overturned the original verdict in 1906, exonerating Dreyfus. He was reinstated with the rank of major, served during World War I and died in 1935 at the age of 76.
The supporters of the present bill believe that had Dreyfus been able to pursue his career under normal circumstances, he would have risen to the top in the French army.
The French parliament’s National Defence and Armed Forces Committee had voted overwhelmingly a few days earlier to promote Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general. When the committee was debating the bill, Charles Sitzenstuhl suggested Dreyfus could be reburied in the Pantheon in Paris, the mausoleum reserved for France’s greatest heroes, although that decision rests with President Macron. In 2021, he opened the world’s first museum about the Dreyfus affair in Paris.
The Mur des Names or Wall of Names in the Mémorial de la Shoah lists 76,000 French Jews deported and murdered by the Nazis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
The journalist John Litchfield wrote this week that the Dreyfus case ‘changed the course of French history. It discredited the forces of extreme nationalism, antisemitism, clericalism and nostalgic royalism that might otherwise have pushed France into a kind of proto-fascism or Francoism 30 years before Hitler, Mussolini or Franco.’
But for many decades ‘the Dreyfus case’ continued to divide France. In a speech to mark the centenary of Zola’s article in 1998, President Jacques Chirac said: ‘The Dreyfus Affair … tore French society apart, divided families, split the country into two enemy camps, which attacked each other with exceptional violence ... It was a reminder, that the forces of darkness, intolerance and injustice can penetrate to the highest levels of the state.’
Of the 577 deputies, only 197 voted on Monday: 38 were from the far-right Rassemblement National, the political heirs of the Vichy regime of 1940-1944 which rehabilitated the senior officers who lied and cheated to frame Dreyfus; the bill was also approved by 41 members of the hard-Left La France Insoumise, which has been accused in recent months of antisemitism in its unconditional support for the Palestinian cause.
The centrist Modem party, the party of the prime minister, François Bayrou, refused to take part. They said that the vote, sponsored by their coalition partners, Renaissance, gave both the far-right and the far-left a cheap opportunity to whitewash their antisemitism.
France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the US, as well as one of the largest Muslim communities in the EU.
There has been a rise in reported attacks against the of Jewish community in France since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 and the Israelis attacked the Gaza Strip.
The Holocaust memorial in Paris, three synagogues and the Chez Marianne restaurant were vandalised with paint last Friday night in what was seen as a co-ordinated antisemitic attack. Green paint covered the walls of the Agoudas Hakehilos synagogue, the Tournelles synagogue and he Belleville Synagogue, as well as the Shoah Memorial for French victims of the Holocaust. All five locations are close to each other in the Marais district, the historic Jewish centre of Paris.
‘Whatever the perpetrators and their motivations, these acts do not only target walls: they violently stigmatise French Jews, their memory and their places of worship,’ the French Jewish group CRIF said. ‘These paint sprays are a stain on our republican values.’
The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said: ‘I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Antisemitism has no place in our city or in our Republic.’
Last year, France registered 1,570 anti-Semitic acts, according to Interior Ministry figures, over three times more than the 436 recorded in 2022. Since 2012 they have fluctuated between 311 and 851 per year.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
The Synagogue Agoudas Hakehilos on rue de Pavée … one of three synagogues in the Marais daubed with paint last weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
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06 June 2025
Daily prayer in Easter 2025:
48, Friday 6 June 2025
‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep feeding on a small farm at Platanias in Rethymnon, Crete (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 on Sunday next (8 June 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945.
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.
‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ … John 21: 15-19 was the Gospel reading at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis on 26 April
John 21: 15-19 (NRSVA):
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’
The Risen Christ by the shore of Tiberias with the disciples and their catch of fish (John 21: 1-14) … a fresco in Saint Constantine and Saint Helen Church, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 20-26) moves forward from our recent readings from Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33) and his prayer to the Father as the High Priestly Prayer (John 17: 1-26) to the post-Resurrection appearances.
This morning’s reading was also part of the Easter Gospel reading (John 21: 1-19) at the Eucharist on the Third Sunday of Easter (4 May 2025), and provides the setting by the shore of Tiberias, where the Risen Christ is with the disciples as they catch water in the lake. That reading is often divided into two parts: we read the first part (verses 1-14) on the Friday of Easter Week (25 April 2025); the second part (verses 15-19) was the Gospel reading read at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis the following day (26 April 2025).
In today’s reading, the Risen Christ has three questions that he puts to Peter after breakfast by the shore. They appear a little confused or repetitive in most English translations, but the difference is clear in the original Greek.
In his first two questions to Peter, Christ uses the verb ἀγαπάω (agapáo).
CS Lewis talks in one of his books of The Four Loves:
• The first, στοργή (storgé), is the affection of familiarity;
• the second is φιλία (philia), the strong bond between close friends;
• the third, ἔρως (eros), Lewis identifies not with eroticism but with the word we use when we say we are in love with someone;
• the fourth love is ἀγάπη (agape), the love that takes no account of my own interests, that loves no matter what happens – it is the greatest of loves, it reflects the love of God.
Perhaps, the first time, Christ asks: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than you and your friends love one another but in the way God loves you?’ (John 21: 15).
But Peter is either evasive or misses the point, and answers with a different verb: φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 15).
‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘feed the little ones the Good Shepherd welcomes into the fold’ (verse 15).
Then a second time, we can imagine him asking more simply: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me the way God loves you?’ (verse 16).
But Peter once again misses the point, and answers with the verb φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 16).
‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘look after those in the flock the Good Shepherd tends’ (verse 16).
But then he asks a third question: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ (verse 17).
Many English-language translations say Peter was upset, felt hurt, when Christ asked him a third time. We might be tempted to think this is because he was asked the same question repetitively, three times, that his answer was not listened to the first or second time round.
But this third time, Christ asks a different question, using Peter’s verb φιλέω (phileo), as if to ask: ‘OK Peter, do you love me as your brother?’ (verse 17).
This time around, Peter replies using the same word Christ uses in his third question. But, more importantly, he confesses Jesus as Lord (verse 17), as Lord of everything. This confession of faith comes the third time round from the disciple who earlier denied Christ three times (see John 18). And Christ then asks him to feed the whole flock, all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, lambs, ewes, lost ones, found ones, white sheep, black sheep, fluffy sheep, bedraggled and dirt-covered sheep – the whole lot (21: 17).
The disciples do not recognise Jesus as he stands on the beach just after daybreak (verse 4). But despite their initial blindness, their initial failings, their initial denials, God continues to call them.
And so too with us. God calls us in all our unworthiness to feed his lambs, to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep, not just the little ones, not just the big ones.
Do you love him enough, as he loves you, to see this as enough fame to bask in?
Do you love him enough to feed his little ones when others want to ignore them, despise them, call them racist names, see their children as extra added burdens, want to send them back?
Do you love him enough to see this as the benchmark against which you and I, society, the Church, priests and people together, all we are involved in, mark how we relate to the myriad, the thousands and thousands, to all living life?
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep and lambs near the River Great Ouse, between Calverton and Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Today’s Prayers (Friday 6 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 pray today (Friday 6 June 2025):
Our great God, we ask for your mercy for people living amongst us who are marginalised because of illness or incapacity. Be their Healer; help us to show compassion.
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
Today’s Gospel reading is set by the shore after daybreak … early morning on the town beach in Rethymnon after Easter (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
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 on Sunday next (8 June 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945.
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.
‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ … John 21: 15-19 was the Gospel reading at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis on 26 April
John 21: 15-19 (NRSVA):
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’
The Risen Christ by the shore of Tiberias with the disciples and their catch of fish (John 21: 1-14) … a fresco in Saint Constantine and Saint Helen Church, Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 20-26) moves forward from our recent readings from Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33) and his prayer to the Father as the High Priestly Prayer (John 17: 1-26) to the post-Resurrection appearances.
This morning’s reading was also part of the Easter Gospel reading (John 21: 1-19) at the Eucharist on the Third Sunday of Easter (4 May 2025), and provides the setting by the shore of Tiberias, where the Risen Christ is with the disciples as they catch water in the lake. That reading is often divided into two parts: we read the first part (verses 1-14) on the Friday of Easter Week (25 April 2025); the second part (verses 15-19) was the Gospel reading read at the funeral Mass of Pope Francis the following day (26 April 2025).
In today’s reading, the Risen Christ has three questions that he puts to Peter after breakfast by the shore. They appear a little confused or repetitive in most English translations, but the difference is clear in the original Greek.
In his first two questions to Peter, Christ uses the verb ἀγαπάω (agapáo).
CS Lewis talks in one of his books of The Four Loves:
• The first, στοργή (storgé), is the affection of familiarity;
• the second is φιλία (philia), the strong bond between close friends;
• the third, ἔρως (eros), Lewis identifies not with eroticism but with the word we use when we say we are in love with someone;
• the fourth love is ἀγάπη (agape), the love that takes no account of my own interests, that loves no matter what happens – it is the greatest of loves, it reflects the love of God.
Perhaps, the first time, Christ asks: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than you and your friends love one another but in the way God loves you?’ (John 21: 15).
But Peter is either evasive or misses the point, and answers with a different verb: φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 15).
‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘feed the little ones the Good Shepherd welcomes into the fold’ (verse 15).
Then a second time, we can imagine him asking more simply: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me the way God loves you?’ (verse 16).
But Peter once again misses the point, and answers with the verb φιλέω (phileo): ‘I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK’ (verse 16).
‘OK,’ says Christ, ‘look after those in the flock the Good Shepherd tends’ (verse 16).
But then he asks a third question: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ (verse 17).
Many English-language translations say Peter was upset, felt hurt, when Christ asked him a third time. We might be tempted to think this is because he was asked the same question repetitively, three times, that his answer was not listened to the first or second time round.
But this third time, Christ asks a different question, using Peter’s verb φιλέω (phileo), as if to ask: ‘OK Peter, do you love me as your brother?’ (verse 17).
This time around, Peter replies using the same word Christ uses in his third question. But, more importantly, he confesses Jesus as Lord (verse 17), as Lord of everything. This confession of faith comes the third time round from the disciple who earlier denied Christ three times (see John 18). And Christ then asks him to feed the whole flock, all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, lambs, ewes, lost ones, found ones, white sheep, black sheep, fluffy sheep, bedraggled and dirt-covered sheep – the whole lot (21: 17).
The disciples do not recognise Jesus as he stands on the beach just after daybreak (verse 4). But despite their initial blindness, their initial failings, their initial denials, God continues to call them.
And so too with us. God calls us in all our unworthiness to feed his lambs, to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep, not just the little ones, not just the big ones.
Do you love him enough, as he loves you, to see this as enough fame to bask in?
Do you love him enough to feed his little ones when others want to ignore them, despise them, call them racist names, see their children as extra added burdens, want to send them back?
Do you love him enough to see this as the benchmark against which you and I, society, the Church, priests and people together, all we are involved in, mark how we relate to the myriad, the thousands and thousands, to all living life?
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
‘Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21: 15-17) … sheep and lambs near the River Great Ouse, between Calverton and Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Today’s Prayers (Friday 6 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 pray today (Friday 6 June 2025):
Our great God, we ask for your mercy for people living amongst us who are marginalised because of illness or incapacity. Be their Healer; help us to show compassion.
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
Today’s Gospel reading is set by the shore after daybreak … early morning on the town beach in Rethymnon after Easter (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
05 June 2025
From Karl Marx to Groucho Marx,
the ‘Spirit of Soho’ is a mural with
a tour of Soho’s streets and people
The ‘Spirit of Soho’ mural on the corner of Broadwick Street and Carnaby Street in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
I was recalling yesterday the benefits of having my head in the air while I am walking on the streets of London, and contrasting the benefits of seeing art above on the walls and buildings with the risks of tripping and falling on the street below.
It had been many years since I had walked through Carnaby Street, but Charlotte and I were there last week and we took time to enjoy the ‘Spirit of Soho’, a mural on the corner of Broadwick Street and Carnaby Street.
Towering over the whole scene is a woman in an outstretched skirt that becomes all that makes Soho so full of life. This bright, colourful mural shows Soho, bordered by the shops of Oxford Street and Regent Street with the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue bisecting it, and China Town in the bottom south-east corner.
There are tributes to the Soho of yesterday and today with a mixture the old and the new, from Ronnie Scott’s and the Gay Hussar to chain restaurants and coffee shops.
Soho was a green hunting ground favoured by royalty and the aristocracy in the 16th and 17th centuries – Soho either gave its name to or took its name from the hunting cry ‘Soho’. The hunting grounds gave way in the 18th century to grand houses that hosted parties for the fashionable and the elite in London society.
As migrants moved in, Soho was transformed with workshops and restaurants and becoming a creative hub for poets, writers, artists, designers, jewellers, and musicians – and the mural pays tribute to all of them.
The mural is on a gable end at on a street corner and faces onto Broadwick Street, a narrow street. It is filled with activity but because of its location, I had to look at it from close range and from a number of angles in an effort to see everything crowded into this creative composition.
Saint Anne holds out her skirt to give shape to a map of Soho, with its streets and lanes and their landmarks spreading out beneath her (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Crowning the mural is Saint Anne, who gives her name to Saint Anne’s Church in Dean Street, Soho. The Spirit of Soho has a distracted expression on her face, with a dragon entangled in her tresses and a street parade dancing down her arm, and her skirts are open, as if to let a bustle of activity tumble onto the street below.
The flame-haired Saint Anne holds out her skirt to give shape to a map of Soho, with its streets and lanes and their landmarks spreading out beneath her. Crowded together under the fruit-laden hem of her skirt is an eclectic collection of some of the musicians, craftsmen, writers and other creative people who have lived or worked in the area.
Shaftesbury Avenue and the theatres along it can be seen on her skirt, there too is Oxford Street, and one whole corner contains China Town, including the pagoda and Lee Fung supermarket. At the west fringe stands Liberty’s department store with its Tudor-style timber frame.
There is a host of pubs, restaurants and coffee shops and an overflowing abundance of fruit and vegetables. The books and magazines woven into her skirt pay tribute to the writing and publishing industries in Soho. Here too are film makers, clothes traders, recording studios and the makers of musical instrument. Dotted around are dogs and hares, harking back to the time when Soho was a royal hunting ground in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The huddled residents of Soho include Karl Marx reading Das Kapital behind Mozart’s shoulder (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
At the bottom of the mural, a huddle of notable Soho residents and clientele includes Karl Marx (1818-1883), reading Das Kapital, behind Mozart’s shoulder, and the artist William Blake (1757-1827).
Marx lived in Dean Street in the 1850s with his family, above what became the Quo Vadis restaurant. During his time in Soho, Marx and his wife suffered the death of three of their infant children. He wrote his proposal for the Communist Manifesto in a room above the Red Lion on Great Windmill Street.
The actress and opera singer Teresa Cornelys (1723-1797) is depicted winking at her former lover, the Italian playboy Casanova (1725-1798), who in turn blows her a kiss. Her parties in the mid-1700s at her home, Carlisle House in Soho Square, were legendary, and she had a daughter Sophia during her affair with Casanova.
To the left and right are six scenes depicting cultural life in Soho. The three panels on the left feature a film animator in his studio, believed to be the late Bob Godfrey, the fashion trade, and international restaurants. The three on the right show the Palladium, Carnaby Street and Ronnie Scott’s, replete with Ronnie Scott, jazz musician George Melly (1926-2007), the poet Welsh Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) and the Irish writer Brendan Behan (1923-1964).
A green border at the bottom carries small images of Soho parish school, a dog and hare standing on a Union Jack, a Willow Pattern dish, and Soho Street Theatre. Blue plaques name the sponsors and some of the traditional trades of Soho.
A night at Ronnie Scott’s with Ronnie Scott, George Melly, Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The mural was created by the Soho community in 1991 and was co-ordinated by the Free Form Arts Trust, who designed and executed the work, and Alternative Arts, who co-ordinated the workshops and public programme that were part of the project.
The mural was restored in 2006 by Shaftesbury PLC and the Soho Society, and the clock was reactivated by the Lord Mayor of Westminster. Now, when the clock strikes the hour, it looks as though Karl Marx is sipping a can of Coca-Cola while Theresa Cornelys winks at Casanova and he blows kisses back to her.
In among the streets of Soho I also spotted Groucho Marx of the Marx brothers, an allusion to the Groucho Club on Dean Street … so this is a work of street art that brings us through the streets of Soho, not only from Casanova to Brendan Behan but also from Karl Marx to Groucho Mark.
• The Spirit of Soho is on the Berwick Street side of 9 Carnaby Street, Soho, London W1F 9PB. The nearest stations are Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.
The Spirit of Soho is on the Berwick Street side of 9 Carnaby Street, Soho (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
I was recalling yesterday the benefits of having my head in the air while I am walking on the streets of London, and contrasting the benefits of seeing art above on the walls and buildings with the risks of tripping and falling on the street below.
It had been many years since I had walked through Carnaby Street, but Charlotte and I were there last week and we took time to enjoy the ‘Spirit of Soho’, a mural on the corner of Broadwick Street and Carnaby Street.
Towering over the whole scene is a woman in an outstretched skirt that becomes all that makes Soho so full of life. This bright, colourful mural shows Soho, bordered by the shops of Oxford Street and Regent Street with the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue bisecting it, and China Town in the bottom south-east corner.
There are tributes to the Soho of yesterday and today with a mixture the old and the new, from Ronnie Scott’s and the Gay Hussar to chain restaurants and coffee shops.
Soho was a green hunting ground favoured by royalty and the aristocracy in the 16th and 17th centuries – Soho either gave its name to or took its name from the hunting cry ‘Soho’. The hunting grounds gave way in the 18th century to grand houses that hosted parties for the fashionable and the elite in London society.
As migrants moved in, Soho was transformed with workshops and restaurants and becoming a creative hub for poets, writers, artists, designers, jewellers, and musicians – and the mural pays tribute to all of them.
The mural is on a gable end at on a street corner and faces onto Broadwick Street, a narrow street. It is filled with activity but because of its location, I had to look at it from close range and from a number of angles in an effort to see everything crowded into this creative composition.
Saint Anne holds out her skirt to give shape to a map of Soho, with its streets and lanes and their landmarks spreading out beneath her (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Crowning the mural is Saint Anne, who gives her name to Saint Anne’s Church in Dean Street, Soho. The Spirit of Soho has a distracted expression on her face, with a dragon entangled in her tresses and a street parade dancing down her arm, and her skirts are open, as if to let a bustle of activity tumble onto the street below.
The flame-haired Saint Anne holds out her skirt to give shape to a map of Soho, with its streets and lanes and their landmarks spreading out beneath her. Crowded together under the fruit-laden hem of her skirt is an eclectic collection of some of the musicians, craftsmen, writers and other creative people who have lived or worked in the area.
Shaftesbury Avenue and the theatres along it can be seen on her skirt, there too is Oxford Street, and one whole corner contains China Town, including the pagoda and Lee Fung supermarket. At the west fringe stands Liberty’s department store with its Tudor-style timber frame.
There is a host of pubs, restaurants and coffee shops and an overflowing abundance of fruit and vegetables. The books and magazines woven into her skirt pay tribute to the writing and publishing industries in Soho. Here too are film makers, clothes traders, recording studios and the makers of musical instrument. Dotted around are dogs and hares, harking back to the time when Soho was a royal hunting ground in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The huddled residents of Soho include Karl Marx reading Das Kapital behind Mozart’s shoulder (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
At the bottom of the mural, a huddle of notable Soho residents and clientele includes Karl Marx (1818-1883), reading Das Kapital, behind Mozart’s shoulder, and the artist William Blake (1757-1827).
Marx lived in Dean Street in the 1850s with his family, above what became the Quo Vadis restaurant. During his time in Soho, Marx and his wife suffered the death of three of their infant children. He wrote his proposal for the Communist Manifesto in a room above the Red Lion on Great Windmill Street.
The actress and opera singer Teresa Cornelys (1723-1797) is depicted winking at her former lover, the Italian playboy Casanova (1725-1798), who in turn blows her a kiss. Her parties in the mid-1700s at her home, Carlisle House in Soho Square, were legendary, and she had a daughter Sophia during her affair with Casanova.
To the left and right are six scenes depicting cultural life in Soho. The three panels on the left feature a film animator in his studio, believed to be the late Bob Godfrey, the fashion trade, and international restaurants. The three on the right show the Palladium, Carnaby Street and Ronnie Scott’s, replete with Ronnie Scott, jazz musician George Melly (1926-2007), the poet Welsh Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) and the Irish writer Brendan Behan (1923-1964).
A green border at the bottom carries small images of Soho parish school, a dog and hare standing on a Union Jack, a Willow Pattern dish, and Soho Street Theatre. Blue plaques name the sponsors and some of the traditional trades of Soho.
A night at Ronnie Scott’s with Ronnie Scott, George Melly, Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The mural was created by the Soho community in 1991 and was co-ordinated by the Free Form Arts Trust, who designed and executed the work, and Alternative Arts, who co-ordinated the workshops and public programme that were part of the project.
The mural was restored in 2006 by Shaftesbury PLC and the Soho Society, and the clock was reactivated by the Lord Mayor of Westminster. Now, when the clock strikes the hour, it looks as though Karl Marx is sipping a can of Coca-Cola while Theresa Cornelys winks at Casanova and he blows kisses back to her.
In among the streets of Soho I also spotted Groucho Marx of the Marx brothers, an allusion to the Groucho Club on Dean Street … so this is a work of street art that brings us through the streets of Soho, not only from Casanova to Brendan Behan but also from Karl Marx to Groucho Mark.
• The Spirit of Soho is on the Berwick Street side of 9 Carnaby Street, Soho, London W1F 9PB. The nearest stations are Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.
The Spirit of Soho is on the Berwick Street side of 9 Carnaby Street, Soho (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Daily prayer in Easter 2025:
47, Thursday 5 June 2025
‘I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may … see my glory’ (John 17: 24) … Christ in Glory depicted in the mosaics in the apse of the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (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), and today the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls Saint Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton (754), Bishop, Apostle of Germany, Martyr.
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.
‘I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may … see my glory’ (John 17: 24) … the south transept window by CE Kempe in Lichfield Cathedral depicts Christ in Glory (Photograph: 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.’
‘Christ in Glory’ … Graham Sutherland’s powerful tapestry in Coventry Cathedral (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 on Sunday next [8 June 2025].
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 20-26) 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 coming to the end of 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 and prays to the Father, asking him ‘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.’ (verse 21).
In this reading, Christ prays for the Church of all times. He looks beyond those who follow him now, to those who will come to believe through their witness. May the Church be rooted in the oneness he shares with the Father (verse 21), which is a relationship of mutual love (verse 23).
He prays that his followers may attain the ultimate goal: to share in Christ’s glory, which is founded in love that has been there before time began (verse 24).
His followers know that Christ has been sent by the Father (verse 25). Now he prays that as we are sent out into the world that ‘the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
Meanwhile, our reading tomorrow returns to the post-Resurrection appearances.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
‘I ask … that they may all be one’ (John 17: 20-21) … the former Bea House on Pembroke Park, Dublin, the home of the Irish School of Ecumenics in my student days in the 1980s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 5 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 pray today (Thursday 5 June 2025):
Father, we ask for your resources for communities where children struggle in school because of poverty or lack of resources. May you bring provision.
The Collect:
God our redeemer,
who called your servant Boniface
to preach the gospel among the German people
and to build up your Church in holiness:
grant that we may preserve in our hearts
that faith which he taught with his words
and sealed with his blood,
and profess it in lives dedicated to your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Boniface:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Sir Jacob Epstein’s figure, ‘Christ in Majesty,’ is raised above the nave in Llandaff Cathedral (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
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 Saint Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton (754), Bishop, Apostle of Germany, Martyr.
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.
‘I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may … see my glory’ (John 17: 24) … the south transept window by CE Kempe in Lichfield Cathedral depicts Christ in Glory (Photograph: 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.’
‘Christ in Glory’ … Graham Sutherland’s powerful tapestry in Coventry Cathedral (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 on Sunday next [8 June 2025].
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 20-26) 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 coming to the end of 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 and prays to the Father, asking him ‘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.’ (verse 21).
In this reading, Christ prays for the Church of all times. He looks beyond those who follow him now, to those who will come to believe through their witness. May the Church be rooted in the oneness he shares with the Father (verse 21), which is a relationship of mutual love (verse 23).
He prays that his followers may attain the ultimate goal: to share in Christ’s glory, which is founded in love that has been there before time began (verse 24).
His followers know that Christ has been sent by the Father (verse 25). Now he prays that as we are sent out into the world that ‘the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
Meanwhile, our reading tomorrow returns to the post-Resurrection appearances.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
‘I ask … that they may all be one’ (John 17: 20-21) … the former Bea House on Pembroke Park, Dublin, the home of the Irish School of Ecumenics in my student days in the 1980s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 5 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 pray today (Thursday 5 June 2025):
Father, we ask for your resources for communities where children struggle in school because of poverty or lack of resources. May you bring provision.
The Collect:
God our redeemer,
who called your servant Boniface
to preach the gospel among the German people
and to build up your Church in holiness:
grant that we may preserve in our hearts
that faith which he taught with his words
and sealed with his blood,
and profess it in lives dedicated to your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Boniface:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Sir Jacob Epstein’s figure, ‘Christ in Majesty,’ is raised above the nave in Llandaff Cathedral (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
04 June 2025
‘Dancer With Ribbon’ is
Michael Rizzello’s tribute
to Darcey Bussell high
above Oxford Street
‘Dancer With Ribbon’ (1997) by Michael Rizzello … Darcey Bussell in bronze perched above the entrance to Next at 116-122 Oxford Street, with the initials B&H behind her (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
I probably ought not to walk around London with my head in the air without making sure my feet are firmly planted on the ground and that I am watching what lies before me. That probably explains why had a bad tumble and fell crossing Oxford Street and ended up in A&E in University College Hospital four months ago (7 February 2025).
But, walking along Oxford Street with my head in the air, yet again, last week, I noticed for the first time Michael Rizzello’s bronze sculpture, ‘Dancer With Ribbon’, a bronze sculpture inspired by the former ballerina and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ judge Dame Darcey Bussell.
Michael Rizzello created this sinuous statue in 1997, when Darcey Bussell was well into her career. The bronze likeness perched above the entrance to Next at 116-122 Oxford Street was commissioned in 1996 when the former Bourne & Hollingsworth building was being redeveloped into the Plaza, a shopping and food outlet.
The building was designed by Slater and Moberly, an architectural partnership in London formed in the 1920s by John Alan Slater (1885-1963) and Arthur Hamilton Moberly (1886-1952). When Reginald Harold Uren (1906-1988) joined the practice in 1936, it was renamed Slater, Moberly and Uren, and it later became Slater, Uren and Pike.
Michael Gaspard Rizzello (1926-2004) was a sculptor and coin designer. Movement was a frequent element in his work – a difficult task in bronze – and it is famously seen in his statue of Lloyd George in Cardiff, where he shows the Welsh politician punching the air in a characteristic gesture.
Rizzello was born in London on 2 April 1926 of Italian parents, but never wanted to be a tailor like his father. He attended the London Oratory School and then enlisted in the army from 1944 to 1948.
He had a good baritone voice and almost became a professional singer. He had to choose between music and drawing, and chose to attend the Royal College of Art, where he won both the Drawing Prize and the Travelling Scholarship in Sculpture.
He studied sculpture in Rome for two years and was awarded the Prix de Rome 1951 for Sculpture at the British School at Rome. He began his career making wax heads for Madame Tussauds.
Rizzello had an unprecedented term of two five-year periods as President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. His public work includes Dancer with Ribbon in Oxford Street and David Lloyd George in Cardiff. His portrait busts include Nelson Mandela and a bronze portrait of Lady Astor in the Palace of Westminster. He also designed coins and medals, including the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and the £2 coin commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, both in 1995.
Rizzello was made an OBE in 1977. He died in London on 28 September 2004.
Rizzello’s vital, swirling image of Darcey Bussell has survived the recent development of the building as a flagship store for Next. The Bourne and Hollingworth shop was built 100 years ago in 1925 to designs by Slater and Moberly, but the interior has been totally rebuilt many times since.
The three green panels behind Darcey Bussell still carry the letters ‘B’ ‘&’ ‘H’. The building was named after the founders of the department store, the brothers-in-law Walter William Bourne and Howard E Hollingsworth, who started the business as a drapery shop in Westbourne Grove in 1894, and moves to the Oxford Street in 1902. The shop was remodelled by Slater and Moberly, but all the interiors were lost in the subsequent redesigning and rebuilding over the past century.
As for Darcey Bussell, she retired from ballet on 18 years ago on 8 June 2007. But she is still widely regarded as one of the finest British ballerinas – and you can see her dance if you keep looking up when you’re walking along Oxford Steet.
Patrick Comerford
I probably ought not to walk around London with my head in the air without making sure my feet are firmly planted on the ground and that I am watching what lies before me. That probably explains why had a bad tumble and fell crossing Oxford Street and ended up in A&E in University College Hospital four months ago (7 February 2025).
But, walking along Oxford Street with my head in the air, yet again, last week, I noticed for the first time Michael Rizzello’s bronze sculpture, ‘Dancer With Ribbon’, a bronze sculpture inspired by the former ballerina and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ judge Dame Darcey Bussell.
Michael Rizzello created this sinuous statue in 1997, when Darcey Bussell was well into her career. The bronze likeness perched above the entrance to Next at 116-122 Oxford Street was commissioned in 1996 when the former Bourne & Hollingsworth building was being redeveloped into the Plaza, a shopping and food outlet.
The building was designed by Slater and Moberly, an architectural partnership in London formed in the 1920s by John Alan Slater (1885-1963) and Arthur Hamilton Moberly (1886-1952). When Reginald Harold Uren (1906-1988) joined the practice in 1936, it was renamed Slater, Moberly and Uren, and it later became Slater, Uren and Pike.
Michael Gaspard Rizzello (1926-2004) was a sculptor and coin designer. Movement was a frequent element in his work – a difficult task in bronze – and it is famously seen in his statue of Lloyd George in Cardiff, where he shows the Welsh politician punching the air in a characteristic gesture.
Rizzello was born in London on 2 April 1926 of Italian parents, but never wanted to be a tailor like his father. He attended the London Oratory School and then enlisted in the army from 1944 to 1948.
He had a good baritone voice and almost became a professional singer. He had to choose between music and drawing, and chose to attend the Royal College of Art, where he won both the Drawing Prize and the Travelling Scholarship in Sculpture.
He studied sculpture in Rome for two years and was awarded the Prix de Rome 1951 for Sculpture at the British School at Rome. He began his career making wax heads for Madame Tussauds.
Rizzello had an unprecedented term of two five-year periods as President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. His public work includes Dancer with Ribbon in Oxford Street and David Lloyd George in Cardiff. His portrait busts include Nelson Mandela and a bronze portrait of Lady Astor in the Palace of Westminster. He also designed coins and medals, including the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and the £2 coin commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, both in 1995.
Rizzello was made an OBE in 1977. He died in London on 28 September 2004.
Rizzello’s vital, swirling image of Darcey Bussell has survived the recent development of the building as a flagship store for Next. The Bourne and Hollingworth shop was built 100 years ago in 1925 to designs by Slater and Moberly, but the interior has been totally rebuilt many times since.
The three green panels behind Darcey Bussell still carry the letters ‘B’ ‘&’ ‘H’. The building was named after the founders of the department store, the brothers-in-law Walter William Bourne and Howard E Hollingsworth, who started the business as a drapery shop in Westbourne Grove in 1894, and moves to the Oxford Street in 1902. The shop was remodelled by Slater and Moberly, but all the interiors were lost in the subsequent redesigning and rebuilding over the past century.
As for Darcey Bussell, she retired from ballet on 18 years ago on 8 June 2007. But she is still widely regarded as one of the finest British ballerinas – and you can see her dance if you keep looking up when you’re walking along Oxford Steet.
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 pray 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
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 pray 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
03 June 2025
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.
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.

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). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today temembers the Martyrs of Uganda (1885-1887 and 1977).
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 pray 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
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). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today temembers the Martyrs of Uganda (1885-1887 and 1977).
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 pray 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