20 January 2025

A Sunday morning at
the Sung Eucharist
in Saint Olave’s Church
at Marygate in York

Saint Olave’s Church, Marygate, York … known for its liberal Catholic tradition of liturgy, music, prayer, theological understanding and preaching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During out weekend stay in York, I attended the Sunday Eucharist in Saint Olave’s Church on Marygate in the city centre on Sunday morning (19 January 2025, Epiphany II).

Saint Olave’s Church is one in a group of four city centre parishes in York that also includes All Saints’ Church, Pavement, he Guild Church and Civic Church of York; Saint Denys Church, Walmgate; and Saint Helen with Saint Marin, Stonegate.

Saint Olave’s aims to be a worshipping, learning and healing community that is non-judgmental, that offers gentleness, security and acceptance. The four churches share a vision of working together to serve all the people in their parishes, including residents, visitors and students, and of being part of the life of the city, while maintaining and developing the traditions of each church.

Saint Olave’s Church is within the liberal Catholic tradition of Anglican liturgy, which is enriched by music, prayer, theological understanding and preaching. Music is at the heart of worship at Saint Olave’s, and the Sung Eucharist on Sunday mornings is at the heart of life in the church.

Major festivals are also celebrated with a Sung Eucharist, either on the day itself or on the nearest Sunday, and there is a healing Eucharist once a quarter. The church uses Common Worship for the Eucharist, Baptism and other services and the church uses the hymnbook Common Praise.

In Saint Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, for the Sung Eucharist on Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The celebrant and preacher at the Sung Eucharist yesterday (19 January 2025, Epiphany II) was the Revd Kingsley Boulton, assistant curate. He was ordained priest at Saint Olave’s last year (6 January 2024). He was a reader for 35 years before his ordination as Deacon in 2018, and was a librarian by profession before he retired.

The Revd Canon Liz Hassall is the Rector Saint Olave’s, Keith Wright is the Director of Music, and Dr Maximillian Elliott is the Assistant Director of Music. The music yesterday included music by Dieterich Buxtehude, Luca Marenzio and Ralph Vaughan Williams and the hymns reflected both the Gospel reading (the Wedding at Cana, John 2: 1-11), and the Week of Prayer for Christian Ununity.

The worship at Saint Olave’s has been described as being formal, but with a lightness of touch, creating time for reflection and allowing a sense of God’s presence. The Catholic tradition is reflected in the use of vestments and incense and a full team of servers.

The diverse congregation is drawn from within the parish and from a wider area of York and surrounding villages. St Olave’s members support local charities and the work of Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). Members of Saint Olave’s are actively involved with the other York City Centre Churches in writing letters for Amnesty International and as part of the Community of the Cross of Nails. Both activities are based at Saint Martin’s Church, Coney Street, the church in York that is dedicated to peace and reconcilliation.

The ruins of Saint Mary’s Abbey Church form the boundary of Saint Olave’s churchyard (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Olave’s is the first church in the world dedicated to Saint Olaf, the former warrior King of Norway, who converted Norway to Christianity and was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad (Stiklarstaðir) in 1030. His cult spread rapidly throughout the Viking world.

Saint Olave’s was founded by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, who was buried there in 1055. A carved coffin lid from this period, possibly from Saint Olave’s, is in the Yorkshire Museum nearby and be from Siward’s grave.

After the Norman Conquest, Saint Olave’s was given to a group of Benedictine monks who came to York from the new foundation of Whitby via Lastingham. They built neighbouring Saint Mary’s Abbey, one of the greatest monasteries of mediaeval England. The ruined nave of the abbey church now forms the boundary to Saint Olave’s churchyard.

For the next 400 years, Saint Olave’s remained part of the abbey, serving the Bootham and Marygate area. The monks held the revenues previously due to Saint Olave’s as a parish church, leading to years of disputes and neglect.

A statue of Saint Olave over the north porch … Saint Olave’s Church, Marygate, is the first church ever dedicated to Saint Olaf (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church was given parochial status in the 15th century and the parishioners were ordered to repair the building. The church was rebuilt after 1466, when Archbishop George Neville ordered repairs, and the north aisle and wall was extended, which accounts for the asymmetrical placing of the tower.

The work was finished by 1471, when the church also had a clerestory in the nave, and the tower was rebuilt between 1478 and 1487.

Following the dissolution of Saint Mary’s Abbey in 1539, Saint Olave’s remained a parish church.

The altar, chancel and east window in Saint Olave’s Church, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During the Civil War, Charles I established his headquarters in the King’s Manor nearby. During the siege of York, the Parliamentary army set up a battery of cannons on the roof of Saint Olave’s, using it as a gun platform. In the bombardments of the siege in the summer of 1644, both the church and the area around Bootham and Gillygate were devastated.

The church was completely rebuilt and restored in 1720-1721, using stones from the abbey ruins, and the mediaeval clerestory was removed.

The church ended at the present chancel arch until 1887, and the different cross-sections of the east columns of the nave arcade may represent this. The present chancel was built in 1887, and the 15th century glass was put in the present east window. The stone corbels and stops in the chancel were left uncarved and unfinished at that time.

Four candles … Saint Olave’s Church is within the liberal Catholic tradition of Anglican liturgy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church is built of magnesium limestone in the perpendicular style. Some original mediaeval stone can be found in the tower structure. The east window includes 15th century glass. The internal monuments and memorials are largely 18th century.

As part of the late Victorian restorations initiated by the Revd William Croser Hey, the 18th century whitewash was removed from the walls and columns, revealing the 1721 stonework once again.

A vestry was converted to form the Chapel of the Transfiguration in 1908, a new vestry was built on the north side of the church, and the chancel was extended. The new sanctuary was created at the chancel steps in 1986 and a nave altar was introduced. The corbels and stops in the chancel were carved by the York sculptor Charles Gurrey in 2000-2001, completing the chancel.

The bells of Saint Olave’s were cast in 1789 by Robert Dalton, the last peal cast by a York bellfounder, ending a York tradition that lasted over 600 years. The bells were restored in 1988 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. Further maintenance was carried out in 2018.

The Bapismal fornt in Saint Olave’s Church, York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• Canon Liz Hassall has been Priest-in-Charge of the York City Centre Churches since 15 December 2020. The usual services at Saint Olave’s are: Sunday 8:30, Said Eucharist; Sunday 10:30, Sung Eucharist; Wednesday 9:15 pm, Compline; Friday 11:30, the Eucharist. Saint Olave’s is open during the day for visitors and people who wish to pray.

Saint Olave’s is one of four churches that are included the York City Centre Churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025:
27, Monday 20 January 2025

Feasting and fasting are important topics in all three Abrahamic faiths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II), with readings that focussed on the Wedding at Cana, the third great Epiphany theme, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Christ.

Today is the Third Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Richard Rolle of Hampole (1349), Spiritual Writer.

Two of us are on our way back to Stony Stratford from York this morning on an overnight/early morning coach, after a weekend that included a family celebration in Harrogate on Saturday night. 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, 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.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak’ … the HIV+ Women’s Group Quilt at Open Heart House at an exhibition in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19 Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

Ramadan bread on sale as sunset draws in Kuşadasi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading yesterday, the story of the Wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11), one of the three great Epiphany themes, along with the Visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12, 6 January 2025, The Epiphany), and the previous Sunday’s story of the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist (Luke 3: 17-17, 21-22, 12 January 2025). These three themes at Epiphany tell us who Christ truly is: truly God and truly human.

That wedding theme in yesterday’s Gospel reading is continued today, with a wedding feast used to illustrate a debate about feasting and fasting.

Richard Rolle from Thornton, Yorkshire, who is remembered in the church calendar today, lived close to the Cistercian nuns at Hampole, where he wrote prolifically on mysticism and asceticism. He believed fasting and other ascetic practices were important for simplifying the self and eliminating vices.

However, he also warned against ascetic fasts that were too extreme, and in his Form of Living he advises moderation – moderation in fasting, prayer, sleep, and clothing.

Feasting and fasting are important themes in the three Abrahamic faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

For many Jews, the central act of worship and prayer is not what happens in a synagogue on a Saturday morning, but the shared family meal in the home on Friday evening, when the candles are lit and blessings are said over the shared wine and bread.

Passover or Pesach begins this year on the evening of Saturday 12 April 2025, and ends after nightfall on 20 April. Passover involves elements of both feasting and fasting, with the Seder meals but removing all leavened foods or chametz and abstaining from all food and drink that includes anything leavened or fermented, such as bread, crackers, cookies, pretzels and pasta, and most brands of beer, whiskey, vodka and gin.

The Eucharist is the central act of worship for Christians. The Church of Ireland, for example, teaches that ‘Holy Communion is the central act of worship’ and ‘warmly’ invites ‘all communicant members of Christian churches to join us at the Lord’s Table.’

The Iftar meals are shared, communal and spiritual experiences for Muslims.

Fasting is not only a Christian tradition, but is a form of spiritual discipline in all the great religious traditions: think of Yom Kippur, the great Jewish fast, or of Ramadan, a whole month of fasting for Muslims.

The association between feasting and fasting and the quest for justice are emphasised by Orthodox Christians in the prayers and readings on Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα), which marks the beginning of Lent and which falls on 3 March this year (2025).

Greeks traditionally mark Clean Monday (Καθαρή Δευτέρα) by gathering for a traditional κούλουμα (koulouma) celebration, flying kites and eating halva. A special kind of azyme bread (λαγάνα, lagana) is baked only on this day. Some Orthodox Christians abstain from eating meat, eggs and dairy products throughout Lent, eating fish only on major feast days.

Liturgically, Clean Monday – and Lent itself – begins with a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which ends with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, when those present bow down before each other and ask for forgiveness. In this way, they begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love.

The theme of Clean Monday is set by the reading appointed for the Sixth Hour (Isaiah 1: 1-20), which says in part:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool
(verses 16-18).

In the first week of Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates the hope that, as the Vespers that Wednesday say, ‘the springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open.’

Ramadan this year starts on Friday 28 February and concludes on the evening of Sunday 30 March. I have visited in Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey during the month of Ramadan, or Ramazan as it is known in Turkey, and I have found it is a very spiritual time to be in a country with a predominantly Muslim population.

In Kuşadasi, a resort town on the Aegean coast, I have noticed how among tourists no-one is affected by Ramadan – the cafés, bars and restaurants are open, and life goes on as normal. But during Ramadan, practising Muslims are taught not to eat, drink, or have sexual relations between dawn and sunset. I realised there how it must be tough on the cooks and waiters in hotels, restaurants and bars as they cook and serve food and watch the tourists eating and drinking throughout the day.

One tradition in many places in Turkey is the ‘Ramazan Drummer,’ a ‘human alarm clock’ who starts to stroll and beat his drum in the streets around 3 am to wake up those who are fasting so that they can rise and prepare the Sahur, the morning meal before sunrise.

The fast of Ramadan is broken each evening with Itfar, which is a celebration and a sharing with the community. In the evening, a cannon booms out to announce the end of the fast and the beginning of darkness.

Stewed fruits are indispensable foods at both iftar dinners and sahur breakfasts. Stuffed bagels are associated with sahur, while Turkish bread is preferred at the evening meal.

But, before the evening meal, the fast is traditionally broken with olives and water firstly, with the main meal following later. It is unhealthy to fill empty stomachs with heavy foods, and – in any case – for centuries the olive has been considered a holy food by every religious tradition in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Once the sun goes down, many restaurants become busy with local people who come out to eat with their family members. Or people rush home to be with their families to enjoy the Iftar, or the breaking of the fast.

Many young people use those evenings to meet and visit their friends, and there is often a party atmosphere … although most of this passes unnoticed by the many young Turks in Kuşadasi working until well into the night in the hotels, tourist shops and bars, and the young tourists who know little about the spiritual values of feasting and fasting and of tolerance and justice, and how they are intertwined.

I find it interesting that there is going to be a partial overlap this year between Lent and Easter, Passover and Ramadan.

‘The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to Open’ … an image in the journal Koinonia, Lent 2011, Vol 4, Issue 13, Kansas City, MO

Today’s Prayers (Monday 20 January 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 20 January 2025) invites us to pray:

Father, help these young people to carry the spirit of unity and cross-cultural understanding into their communities, that they may be your instruments of reconciliation in a divided world.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal Lord,
our beginning and our end:
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Sunset in the Aegean at Ladies Beach in Kuşadasi … practising Muslims are expected to fast from sunrise to sunset each day during Ramadan (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