20.5 million visitors to Hong Kong, 20.5 million boxes of oranges, 20.5 million metres from Madrid, and 20.5 million blog readers

Florida produces 20.5 million boxes of oranges a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers, reaching yet another overwhelming landmark, with 20.5 million hits late last night (25 December 2025), with more than 5000,000 readers in the past week alone and almost 2 million visitors to this blog so far this month with over 1.95 million by mid-afternoon today, an average of about 75,000-80,000 hits each day so far in December.

This is the fourth time this month alone that this site has passed the half million mark, having hit the 20 million mark last week (18 December 2025), 19.5 million readers the previous Sunday (14 December 2025), and the 19 million mark less than three weeks ago (9 December).

I began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark earlier this year (12 January), almost 15 years later.

So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were this month alone and four were in January:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 140,417 (16 December 2025)

• 122,398 (17 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 94,824 (12 December 2025)
• 93,584 (25 December 2025)
• 93,575 (11 December 2025)

The latest figure of 20.5 million is all the more staggering as more than half of those hits (10.5 million) have been within this year, since 12 January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has continued to be phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 20.5 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 20.5 million people look like?

• Where do we find 20.5 million people?

• What does £20.5 million, €20.5 million or $20.5 million mean?

• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

Madrid is about 20.5 million metres from Wellington by air, the greatest distance between any two capitals … Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on a monument in Madrid to Cervantes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Globally, 20.5 million people die each year from Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD), making it the leading cause of death.

Coronavirus wiped out more than 20.5 million years of human life worldwide, according to a findings published in the journal Scientific Reports.

An estimated 20.5 million (17.2%) Americans aged 40 years and older have cataracts in one or both eyes.

Nine million fewer viewers tuned in for Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony than for Joe Biden’s in 2021. According to the audience measurement company Nielsen, 24.6 million people watched Trump take office, compared with 33.8 million who saw Biden’s inauguration. That number was significantly down on the 30.6 million Americans who watched coverage of Trump’s first inauguration. Trump’s viewing figures are the lowest since Barack Obama’s second inauguration, in 2013, which drew 20.5 million viewers.

Delhi, the capital of India, has a population of about 20.5 million in its metropolitan area, while the metropolitan area of Mumbai also has a population of about 20.5 million. The metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, with a population of about 20.5 million people, is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Israeli Ministry of Settlements and National Mission, which is headed by a far-right settler leader, budgeted $20.5 million (75 million shekels) last year for security equipment for ‘young settlements’ – the term it uses for unauthorised Jewish farms and outposts in the West Bank. The money was quietly authorised last December while Israelis were focused on the war in Gaza.

20.5 million metres is 20,500 km or 12,700 miles, which is close to the greatest distance between any two capital cities, the air distance between Madrid in Spain and Wellington in New Zealand (20,350 km, 12,645 miles).

New Zealand has a coastline of about 20,500 km (12,700 miles) if its offshore islands and the Chatham Islands are included.

Limerick City and County Council Active Travel team has been allocated €20.5 million by the National Transport Authority (NTA)for the design, planning and construction of walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure.

The number of animals farmed for their fur has plummeted from 140 million in 2014 to 20.5 million in 2024.

Greggs shared a record £20.5 million with some long-serving staff members earlier this year after recording a jump in sales and profits in 2024.

Hong Kong welcomed 20.5 million visitors last year, the world’s fourth most visited city, following Bangkok (32.4 million), Istanbul (23 million) and London (21.7 million).

Florida produces 20.5 million boxes of oranges a year, along with 1.9 million boxes of grapefruit, and 500,000 boxes of tangerines.

20.5 million people die each year from Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD), making it the leading cause of death worldwide … street art in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

And 20.5 million minutes is approximately 38.99 years or 341,666.67 hours. If this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would have taken almost 39 years to reach this 20.5 million mark.

So, yet again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 90-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings and Christmas Card postings at noon throughout this month.

It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 600 to 700 people twice a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 20.5 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

The busy side streets off Nathan Road in Hong Kong … Hong Kong welcomed 20.5 million visitors last year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christmas Cards from Patrick Comerford: 2, 26 December 2025

The Christmas scene in a window in All Saints' Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I sent out very few Christmas cards this year. Instead, at noon each day throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, I am offering an image or two as my virtual Christmas cards, without comment.

My images for my Christmas Card at noon today, on Saint Stephen’s Day (26 December 2025), are of the Christmas scene in the window by an unknown artist in the Baptistry in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, near Stony Stratford, on Christmas Night.

The Christmas scene in a window in All Saints' Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 2, Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day

Saint Stephen before the Council … a window by CE Kempe (1837-1907) in the south aisle in Lichfield Cathedral in memory of John Toke Godfrey-Faussett (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

Christmas is not over; this is the second day of Christmas and today is Saint Stephen’s Day, the feast of Saint Stephen the deacon and first 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, 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.

An image of Saint Stephen in Saint Stephen Walbrook, London … on the site of a seventh century Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 17-22 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 17 ‘Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’ … Christmas decorations at a house in Padbury, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading in the lectionary for the Eucharist today tells us nothing about the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Instead, the story of his martyrdom is found in one of today’s other readings (Acts 7: 51-60).

About 55 years ago, when I was training to be a chartered surveyor with Jones Lang Wootton and the College of Estate Management then part of Reading University, a file for an investment or development property in Dublin went missing one day. It was an important portfolio, and ought to have been filed under ‘S’ for ‘Saint Stephen’s Green.’

Eventually, the file was found under the letter ‘G’.

‘I filed it under G for Green,’ the person who did the filing explained.

But for many Dubliners, it is probably not Saint Stephen’s Green, but ‘Stevenses Green,’ as in ‘Dr Steevenses Hospital’ and ‘Stevenses Day.’

I find it hard to call today ‘Boxing Day.’ For me, 26 December is always going to be Saint Stephen’s Day.

Stephen is a family name: my grandfather, father, eldest brother and a nephew were all baptised Stephen – four successive generations with the name Stephen Comerford. But my reasons for insisting on retaining the name of Saint Stephen’s Day is not some quirky genealogical sentimentality or some misplaced filial loyalty.

It is theologically important to remind ourselves on the day after Christmas Day of the important link between the Incarnation and bearing witness to our Resurrection faith.

Saint Stephen’s Day today (26 December), Holy Innocents’ Day two days later (28 December), and the commemoration of Thomas à Beckett on 29 December are reminders that Christmas, far from being surrounded by sanitised images of the crib, angels and wise men, is followed by martyrdom and violence. Close on the joy of Christmas comes the cost of following Christ. A popular expression, derived from the leading 17th century Quaker William Penn, says: ‘No Cross, No Crown.’

Saint Stephen the Deacon is the Protomartyr of Christianity. The Greek word or name Στέφανος (Stephanos) means ‘crown’ or ‘wreath’ and the Acts of the Apostles tell us that Saint Stephen earned his crown at his martyrdom when he was stoned to death around the year 34 or 35 CE by an angry mob encouraged by Saul of Tarsus, the future Apostle Paul.

Stephen was the first of the seven deacons chosen in the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem. While he was on trial, Saint Stephen experienced a theophany: But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ (Acts 7: 55-56).

The Lion’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem is also known as Saint Stephen’s Gate because of the tradition that Saint Stephen was stoned there. In 415 CE, a church was built in Saint Stephen’s honour in Jerusalem to hold his relics. The relics were later moved to Constantinople. Today, those relics are said to be buried under the altar of the Church of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome.

The ‘Feast of Stephen’ is inextricably linked with Christmas through the English carol Good King Wenceslas, although during my visits to Prague, I have been aware that the Czechs have a far better claim than the English to Good King Wenceslas.

Today is a public holiday in the United Kingdom as Boxing Day. But as Saint Stephen’s Day, today is still a public holiday in Ireland and many other countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and parts of France, the Philippines and Spain. In the Orthodox Church, Saint Stephen’s Day is celebrated on 27 December, and is known as the ‘Third Day of the Nativity.’

Saint Stephen Walbrook, a Wren church in the heart of the City of London, has been listed by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the 10 most important buildings in England.

Saint Stephen’s Church in Mount Street Crescent, Dublin – popularly known as the ‘Pepper Canister Church’ – is one of the last churches built in the classical style in Dublin. Saint Stephen’s, which opened in 1824, was designed by John Bowden and Joseph Welland. The tower and portico were modelled on three elegant monuments in Athens: the Erechtheum on the Acropolis (the portico), the Tower of the Winds (the campanile), and the Monument of Lysicrates (the cupola). But the Victorian apse, which was added in 1852, owes its inspiration to the Oxford Movement.

However, the most impressive church I have visited that is named after the first martyr is the Stephansdom, the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, in Vienna, which dates back to 1147.

I first visited the Stephansdom many years ago, while I was a panellist at a seminar organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 2002, and I have returned to visit the cathedral a number of times since then.

A memorial tablet there recalls Mozart’s relationship with the cathedral. This was his parish church when he lived at the ‘Figaro House’, he was married there and two of his children were baptised there. He was named an adjunct music director in the Stephansdom shortly before his death, and his funeral was held in the Chapel of the Cross in the cathedral in 1791.

The Stephansdom has 23 bells, and it is said Beethoven realised the full extent of his deafness when he saw birds flying from the bell tower and realised he could not hear the bells toll.

I have also visited Saint Stephen’s House, the theological college in Oxford popularly known as ‘Staggers,’ which is firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, maintaining high standards of liturgy and intellectual rigour.

Saint Stephen’s House was founded in 1876 by leading Anglo-Catholics members of the Anglo-Catholic Movement, including Edward King, then Regius professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford and later Bishop of Lincoln.

King was one of the outstandingly holy men of his time. Other founding figures included Henry Scott Holland, one of the leading figures in the development of the Christian social teaching of the time. It was he who suggested the name of the house.

Saint Stephen’s has moved since its foundation, and since 1980 it has been located at Iffley Road in East Oxford in the former monastery of the Cowley Fathers, where it is said Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany where he met with martyrdom.

Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom illustrates how none of this architecture or grandeur, nor the extension to the Christmas holiday provided by this saint’s day, would have any meaning today without the faithful witness of Saint Stephen, the first deacon and first martyr, who links our faith in the Incarnation with our faith in the Resurrection.

A tranquil morning in Saint Stepehen’s Green, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we give thanks for the mothers and babies at Mvumi Hospital who are HIV-free. We celebrate this gift of life and health, and pray that you will continue to be present by your Spirit.

The Collect:

Gracious Father,
who gave the first martyr Stephen
grace to pray for those who took up stones against him:
grant that in all our sufferings for the truth
we may learn to love even our enemies
and to seek forgiveness for those who desire our hurt,
looking up to heaven to him who was crucified for us,
Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
we thank you for the signs of your mercy
revealed in birth and death:
save us by the coming of your Son,
and give us joy in honouring Stephen,
first martyr of the new Israel;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The interior of the Stephansdom or Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna (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