61 million sq m in Sinai, 61 million with a disability, £61 million for the Ashmolean, and 61 million blog readers

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford completed a £61 million redevelopment in 2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached a new record, with a total of 61 million readers or hits by about 9 pm last night (11 October 2026). This is the second time this month that this blog has passed the million-reader mark, having reached 60 million readers or hits a week earlier (4 October 2026). Before this, last month (September 2026) was an exceptionally busy time on this blog, with a steady, overwhelming rise in viewing and reading figures, passing the million mark on 10 occasions last month alone.

These viewing and readership figures continue to be overpowering as this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 40 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone, and more than 10.4 million last month (September), the highest total in any single month since I began blogging.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been within a little more than six months or so, with 30.5 million hits since early April 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year, the daily figures have often been overwhelming, with an average of 130,000 to 140,000 so far this month.

Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 61 million into perspective:

Results from a randomised controlled trial of political mobilisation messages delivered to 61 million Facebook users during the US congressional elections in 2010 show that the messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real-world voting behaviour of millions of people. The messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users’ friends, and friends of friends.

A £61 million redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford was completed in November 2009 and officially reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in December 2009. The project, designed by Rick Mather Architects, replaced poor 19th-century additions behind the 1845 Grade I-listed Charles Robert Cockerell Greek revival building.

An estimated 61 million adults in the US – about 1 in 4 adults – are living with a disability. They have described as the largest and fasted growing minority in the US, yet they are constantly jeered and mocked by Donald Trump at public events.

Amid fears of renewed conflict in Northern Ethiopia, the EU is providing €61 million in humanitarian funding to help the most vulnerable people in Ethiopia affected by conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks and climate-related hazards, including the impact of El Niño.

A £61 million fund to encourage people to save treasured local assets was launched in June as part of a set of reforms aimed at putting more power in the hands of communities in the UK. The £61 million fund is aimed at encouraging local people to step in and save pubs, shops and other community gems.

61 million metres is 61,000 km and 61 million square metres is 61,000 sq km. The Sinai Peninsula between the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba at the north end of the Red Sea, has an area of 61,000 sq km (approximately 23,500 sq miles), or about 6 % of Egypt’s total area.

Voyager 1 has a Sun relative velocity of about 17 km/s which is about 61,000 km/h. Voyager 1 has been traveling at 38,000 mph since 1977 and will keep drifting through interstellar space for millions of years.

Switzerland has around 61,000 km of rivers and streams and 1,500 lakes.

61 million minutes is equal to 115 years, 11 months, and 23 days, which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in November 1910.

I retired from active parish ministry over 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week. As this blog moves beyond 61 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among that 61 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.

Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai … the Sinai Peninsula has an area of 61,000 sq km or 61 million square metres

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 157, Monday 12 October 2026

Edith Cavell depicted in a bronze bust on her memorial by Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937) outside the Erpingham Gate at Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 11 October 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Wilfrid of Ripon, Bishop, Missionary, 709; Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845; and Edith Cavell, Nurse, 1915.

Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Patriotism is not enough’ … the Edith Cavell Memorial in Saint Martin’s Place, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 29-32 (NRSVA):

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!’

The Edith Cavell Memorial near Trafalgar Square is the work of the sculptor Sir George Frampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

In this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 29-32), as the crowds seem to ask for a sign, Christ says there have been many signs in the past, including Jonah’s visit to Nineveh, and the queen of the South who ‘came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon’. The women who make dramatic appearances in Saint Luke’s Gospel are often outspoken, vocal and wise women who confound what have become traditional perceptions of women in those times. I think this morning of the way Donald Trump pwersitently and habitually seeks to demean women journalists or back to the year before last when Trump’s running mate, the now Vice-President JD Vance, referred to Kamala Harris and spoke dismissively of ‘childless cat ladies’ who are ‘mean and mean spirited.’

The Trump administration is infected in a systemic way with racism, misogyny, antisemitism and violence, and seems to be nourished by and to feed on all four. Yet, this morning, a woman who might have easily been a sort of ‘childless cat lady’ yet has political power, the Queen of the South, is acclaimed for travelling great lengths in her search for wisdom.

Two fearless women who showed wisdom and compassion rather than pursuing power are Elizabeth Fry (1845), the Prison Reformer, and Edith Cavell (1915), Nurse, who are commemorated in the Calendar of the Church of England today (12 October).

Edith Cavell (1865-1915) is a striking example of those childless women who provide moral leadership in the face of violence and hatred and who realised the inappropriate values inherent in what passes as patriotism. I have been to see monuments to her close to Norwich Cathedral, where she is buried, in Saint Martin’s Place, close to Trafalgar Square and Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, and in Peterborough Cathedral.

Edith Cavell was a matron at Berkendael Medical Institute in Brussels when World War I broke out in 1914. She nursed soldiers from both sides without distinction and helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. She was arrested in August 1915, court-martialled, found guilty of treason, and shot by a German firing squad 110 years ago on 12 October 1915.

A month before the end of World War I, her statue in Norwich by Henry Pegram (1862-1937) was unveiled by Queen Alexandra on 12 October 1918, the third anniversary of her execution. It stood originally in the middle of the road opposite the then Cavell Rest Home for Nurses, which was housed un part of the Maids Head Hotel. The depiction of the soldier offering a wreath represents the men she protected at the cost of her own life.

Her body was brought back from Belgium to Britain in May 1919 for a state funeral at Westminster Abbey and she was buried at Norwich Cathedral.

The sculptor Sir George James Frampton (1860-1928) accepted the commission for her monument in London, but declined any fee. He adopted a distinctively Modernist style for the memorial, which comprises a 3 metre high statue of Cavell in her nurse’s uniform, sculpted from white Carrara marble, standing on a grey Cornish granite pedestal. The statue stands in front of the south side of a larger 12-metre grey granite block. The top of the block is carved into a cross and a statue of a mother and child, sometimes interpreted as the Virgin and Child.

The inscription on the pedestal beneath her statue reads: ‘Edith Cavell / Brussels / Dawn / October 12th 1915 / Patriotism is not enough / I must have no hatred or / bitterness for anyone’. The last three lines quote her comment to the Revd Stirling Gahan (1870-1958), the Irish-born Anglican chaplain in Brussels, who shared Holy Communion with her on the night before her execution.

The face of the granite block behind the statue of Cavell bears the inscription ‘Humanity,’ and higher up, below the Virgin and Child, ‘For King and Country.’ Other faces of the block read ‘Devotion’, ‘Fortitude’ and ‘Sacrifice.’ On the rear face of the block is a carving of a lion crushing a serpent, and higher up is the inscription ‘Faithful until death.’

The memorial was unveiled by Queen Alexandra on 17 March 1920. The site was chosen because it was beside the first headquarters of the British Red Cross at 7 Saint Martin’s Place.

Edith Cavell was born on 4 December 1865 in Swardeston, near Norwich, where her father, the Revd Frederick Cavell (1824-1910), was the vicar for 45 years; her maternal grandmother was Irish. She was educated at Norwich High School for Girls, and at boarding schools at Clevedon, Somerset, and Laurel Court, Peterborough.

In 1888, when she was 23, Edith was governess in Keswick Hall, near Norwich, for the children in the Gurney family, the Quaker family of Elizabeth Fry, who is also commemorated in Common Worship today (12 October). She later spent five years with a family in Brussels, and began nursing training in London at the age of 30.

At the invitation of Dr Antoine Depage, she became the matron of a new nursing school in Brussels in 1907. She was visiting her widowed mother in Norfolk when World War I broke out. She returned to Brussels, where her clinic and nursing school were taken over by the Red Cross.

After the German occupation of Brussels in November 1914, Edith began sheltering British soldiers, helping them to escape to the neutral Netherlands, and hiding wounded British and French soldiers and Belgian and French civilians of military age.

She was arrested on 3 August 1915, charged with harbouring allied soldiers and war treason, despite not being a German national, and was sentenced to death. The First Geneva Convention guaranteed the protection of medical personnel, but this was forfeit if used as cover for belligerent action. At her trial, she made no attempt to defend herself.

The British government said it could do nothing to help her. But Hugh S Gibson of the US legation at Brussels made it clear to the German government that executing her would further harm Germany’s already damaged reputation. He reminded the Germans of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania.

The sentence of death by firing squad was confirmed at 4:30 pm on 11 October 1915, to be carried out before dawn the next day. Her final words to the German Lutheran prison chaplain, the Revd Paul Le Seur, were, ‘Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country.’

Pastor Le Soeur realised that Edith could not receive spiritual help from someone in a German uniform. He hurriedly called for Horace Gahan who was not at home, but eventually the message reached him to meet the chaplain at his lodgings. Learning of Edith’s fate was a very shocking moment for him.

Gahan arrived with a pass at Saint Gilles Prison after 8:30 that evening 110 years ago, 11 October 1915, and went to Edith’s cell. There he found her calm and resigned. He recalled her words, ‘I have no fear or shrinking; I have seen death so often it is not strange, or fearful to me!’

They shared Holy Communion together and he stayed for an hour. She spoke kindly of her treatment in prison and said, ‘But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’

The meeting ended after they softly recited together the hymn Abide with Me. On leaving, he said ‘God Bless’; she smiled and replied tenderly, ‘We shall meet again.’

Sixteen men, forming two firing squads, carried out the death sentence on her and four Belgian men in Schaerbeek at 7 am on 12 October 1915. News reports after her execution were found to be only true in part. Even the American Journal of Nursing repeated the fictional account that she fainted and fell because of her refusal to wear a blindfold in front of the firing squad. Allegedly, while she lay unconscious, the German commanding officer shot her dead with a revolver. She was 49.

Pastor Le Seur, the German army chaplain, recalled at the time of her execution, ‘I do not believe that Miss Cavell wanted to be a martyr … but she was ready to die for her country … Miss Cavell was a very brave woman and a faithful Christian.’

Immediately after her execution, Horace Gahan wrote a moving account of their last meeting. It was sent through the US Legation to the Foreign Office in London, where it was released. Her story was used in war-time propaganda as an example of German barbarism and moral depravity.

Edith Cavell became the most prominent British female casualty of World War I, and many memorials were created around the world to remember her.

The reredos of the Last Supper behind the altar in Holy Trinity Church, Essex Street, Norwich, where Edith worshipped with her mother, was dedicated as a memorial to her. The Edith Cavell Health Care Campus is on the site of the former Edith Cavell Hospital in Peterborough, and there is a memorial to her in Peterborough Cathedral. She is also remembered in Peterborough in the name of the Cavell car park at the Queensgate shopping centre.

The Revd Horace Sterling Townsend Gahan (1870-1959), who shared Holy Communion with her on the evening before her execution, continued to live in Brussels until 1923, and there he was sometimes known affectionately as ‘Father Pat’ because of his Irish origins.

Gahan was born in Lurganboy, Co Donegal, on 11 November 1870, a son of Frederick Beresford Gahan, an engineer, and his wife, Katherine Jane (Townsend). He was ordained deacon (1894) and priest (1895), and worked in parishes in the Church of England until 1905, when he returned to Ireland. He moved to Brussels as the Anglican chaplain of Christ Church, just as World War I was about to break out. He returned to England and a parish in Leicester in 1923, and died in 1959.

Meanwhile, all those fears I had about the dangers of Trump returning to the White House, with his brutal interpretation of ‘patriotism’, have become a reality in the two years months since I first wrote about those fears while I reflected on Edith Cavell and Elizabeth Fry. The circumstances of Edith Cavell’s military-style execution came to mind again as Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, gloated and smirked in recent days at the plan he has concocted to livestream a military execution in the name of patriotism.

I am reminded too of two pithy sayings in the Pirkei Avot or Ethics of the Fathers: ‘Your house should be open wide, and you should treat the poor as members of your household’ (1: 5) … ‘On three things the world continues to exist: On justice, truth, and peace’ (1: 18). And I am reminded too of Edith Cavell’s words in prison before her death, ‘But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’

The monument to Edith Cavell near Norwich Cathedral, where she is buried (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 12 October 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 12 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we give thanks for Guilherme and the ways that you have grown him through the Emerging Leaders Academy. Uphold him in his studies and responsibilities at church, to remember that you are his source of strength..

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who called our forebears to the light of the gospel
by the preaching of your servant Wilfrid:
help us, who keep his life and labour in remembrance,
to glorify your name by following the example
of his zeal and perseverance;
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:

Holy Father, who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Wilfrid and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Edith Cavell was a student teacher in the 1880s at Laurel Court, beside Peterborough 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

Holy Trinity Church, a Gothic church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, designed by Gilbert Scott and with links with CS Lewis

Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and was built in 1848-1849 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During two recent visits to Headington in Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

But, perhaps, the best-known church in the area is Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, known particularly for its associations with the Belfast-born writer CS Lewis (1898-1963), who lived and worked for most of his life in Oxford, and who was a regular parishioner in Holy Trinity Church for more than 30 years.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At first sight, Holy Trinity Church may look like a mediaeval church. But, in fact, it only dates back less than 200 years to April 1849. It is built in the 15th century decorated style, with a nave, north aisle, south porch, and a gable bell-cote with two bells at the west end.

The church was designed by the prolific Gothic Revival architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), who is known for designing, building and renovating churches and cathedrals in the Gothic style. He was born in Gawcott, on the outskirts of Buckingham, and designed he Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, Glasgow University, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, and King’s College Chapel, London. His work in Oxford includes the Martyrs’ Memorial and Exeter College Chapel.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in 1848-1849 to serve the needs of people living and working in the then-active quarry.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, looking west from the chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford (1845-1869), was instrumental in getting the church built in Quarry, which he described in a sermon on 9 June 1847 as a ‘hamlet’ in a ‘wild, rural district’. He claimed Headington Quarry had been ‘long cursed by the neighbourhood of Oxford vice’ and said its ‘peculiar circumstances’ demanded ‘the sympathy and assistance of … Christian neighbours’.

Early subscriptions towards building the church included £50 from Charles Tawney, who also gave the site for Headington National School. There were large donations too from the Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood, Vicar of Saint Andrew’s, Headington, and Lord of the Manor of Headington (£25); John Matthews of Headington Manor House (£21); George Ballachey of Bury Knowle House (£20); and Digby Latimer of Headington House (£20).

Other contributors included the heads of Worcester College, University College, New College, Queen’s College, Trinity College, All Souls’ College and Exeter College, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, and the Revd Edward Pusey. Later subscribers included Magdalen College (£200) and Queen Victoria (£20), as well as Oriel College, Brasenose College, Corpus Christi College, Lincoln College, Merton College, Wadham College and Worcester College.

The stone was quarried from Quarry Farm Pit, and the contractors were Wyatt’s of Oxford.

The chancel, High Altar and East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce laid the foundation stone of the church on 19 June 1848, and consecrated the new church on 22 November 1849. The first Vicar was the Revd Thomas Masterman in 1849-1851. The vicarage house at 42 Quarry Road was built in 1868 for the Revd Arthur Dalton. It was designed by the architect Arthur Blomfield, who designed Saint Barnabas’s Church, Jericho, the following year. The vicarage was converted into flats in 1992.

Holy Trinity Church is a Grade II listed building, with a nave that includes an east window by Sir Ninian Comper, a chancel, a north aisle with the Lady Chapel, a large double bellcote and diagonal buttresses. It is built in coursed rubble limestone with ashlar detailing and stone locally quarried at Quarry Farm Pit, and has red tile roofs.

There are two-light, three-light and lancet windows and a tall south-west porch with two windows. The low north aisle has squat, square-headed windows in a late mediaeval style.

The East Window designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) depicts Christ in Glory and was installed in 1951 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Inside, the chancel is the same height as the nave, there is a stone arcade, a chancel arch, and a stone pulpit and font, with plain benches in the nave and aisle. Above the altar, the East Window was designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) and depicts Christ in Glory. The window was installed in 1951 as a memorial to parishioners who died in World War II.

The symbol at the top of the East Window is that of the Holy Trinity with the heraldic symbols of the Diocese of Oxford and the Oxford industrialist Lord Nuffield below. Comper’s distinguishing strawberry mark is in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

The first piece of stained glass in the church, a window depicting the Crucifixion, was placed in the East Window by the Revd Arthur Dalton, vicar of the parish in 1867-1870. The centrepiece has since been installed in the Lady Chapel.

The tapestry behind the altar was designed by Father Elias Polomski and is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was refurbished and redecorated in the early 1990s, at the initiative of the vicar, the Revd Christopher Hewetson. The altar area and the chancel were remodelled, when the old curtain that hung in front of the east window was swept away, the stone work was cleaned, much of the floor was renewed, new lighting was installed, and the bosses were regilded. Two clergy stalls were added, and the roof was boarded because of the decay of the original plaster.

At the same time, the altar was moved from the east wall in the chancel, allowing west-facing celebrations of the Eucharist.

During the refurbishment and redecoration, old and decaying curtains were removed, and a new tapestry was hung behind the altar in 1994. It was designed by Father Elias Polomski, curate of the parish in 1990-1994. It is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity and depicts the three angels who visited Abraham in Genesis 18. The other panels of the tapestry depict the rocks, oak trees and ponds of Shotover, to the east of the parish, with a scattering of Greek long-necked sheep.

It took volunteers from the parish over 2,000 hours and two years to complete the tapestry. The completed tapestry was dedicated by the Bishop of Oxford on 17 July 1994.

The chancel window depicting Saint Andrew and Saint Philip confuses the Gospel scenes associated with each saint (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The chancel two-light window depicting Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Headington, and Saint Philip, are in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Philip Doyne (1916-1924). But the windows were assembled incorrectly in the workshop, so that each saint has the Gospel scene associated with the other.

The chancel organ was built by Kenneth Tickell of Northampton and was installed in 1992. The colours and pipe shades were also designed by Father Elias Polomski.

The chancel also has a credence table in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Eric Bleiben, and a piscina in memory of a former sacristan, Anne Kimber.

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s as a memorial to the Revd Ronald Heald, vicar in 1956-1990. The altar and chairs were also designed by Father Elias Polomski and made by Hugh Croft of Devon. Other furnishings include the carpet, chandelier, icon from Athens, and an antique Persian lamp and chain.

The Athens icon was bought by Father Charles Smith of Corpus Christi Church when he was in Athens in May 1994 for the Greek Orthodox Easter. The Trinity icon was a gift from Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Georgian Baptist Church, who had studied in Oxford, and was blessed by him on Trinity Sunday 2010. The statue of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child is a copy of a French Gothic statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The iconof the Theotokos was bought in Athens in May 1994 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The stained glass by the pulpit depicts the Archangel Gabriel and was installed in 1910 in memory of the Revd Charles Longland, who died in 1908 and his daughter Mary Elizabeth who had died in her teens. The scroll has Gothic script with the words ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16).

The Baptistry window shows the Holy Spirit descending on the font. It was installed in 1916 in memory of Kate Johnston, wife of the Revd Charles Johnston (Vicar in 1891-1916).

The Narnia window in the north aisle by Sally Scott in the north aisle includes images from CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and was installed in 1991.

The vestry, which is a 20th century addition, is single-storeyed with a flat roof and extends north from the east end of the aisle.

The Narnia window by Sally Scott in the north aisle was installed in 1991 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, is still remembered today for its associations with the writer CS Lewis, who was a regular parishioner for more than three decades. He is commemorated in the Narnia window and in his simple grave is in the churchyard. CS Lewis and his brother Warren Lewis, began attending the church in 1930 and remained active in this church until their deaths, CS Lewis in 1963 and WH Lewis in 1973. But more about CS Lewis and Headington Quarry in the days to come, hopefully.

• The Revd Martin Little is the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry. Sunday services are 8 am, Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer); 10 am, Parish Communion; 6 pm, evening service once a month, varying from Choral Evensong to seasonal celebrations, to informal worship. Midweek services include Holy Communion at 10 am, Wednesday, and Morning Prayer at 9 am, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in the 15th century decorated style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 156, Sunday 11 October 2026, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX)

Waiting for guests at the Tai Tai restaurant in Kuching … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 11 October 2026). In Saint Mary and Saint Giles Parish, Stony Stratford, we celebrating the Harvest Festival at the Parish Eucharist later this morning. The Calendar of the Orthodox Church today celebrates the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical or Second Council of Nicaea in the year 787, with the restoration of the veneration of holy icons and the formal rejection of the Iconoclast heresy.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Go therefore into the … streets, and invite everyone you find to the … banquet’ (Matthew 22: 9) … empty tables at restaurants in the side streets in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 22: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’

‘Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready’ (Matthew 22: 3) … waiting for diners at the Black Horse in Great Linford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sometimes, the ways I can behave as a snob can catch me off-guard and unexpectedly, and I shame myself.

When I was growing up, the snobberies and class distinctions of previous generations were challenged over 60 years ago in an old-fashioned way in the film My Fair Lady (1964), based on George Bernard Shaw’s earlier play, Pygmalion (1913).

But Pygmalion also inspired what I think is a much funnier film, Hoi Polloi (1935), with the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe.

Two professors are arguing about whether our social behaviour is caused by environment or heredity. It is a very funny take on the old Nature v Nurture argument.

To settle a bet, the two professors take three binmen – Larry, Curly and Moe – train and coach them for three months, dress them up, and send them off to a posh society dinner.

Their behaviour descends into farce, and it looks as if one professor has won his bet: our social behaviour is dictated by inherited class.

But then the tables are turned – literally. Everyone else at the party descends to the same riotous behaviour. At a base level, we are all the same, even if some refuse to accept it.

Nature or nurture? It was an important statement that we all share the same humanity, coming as racism and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1930s.

The title of the film, Hoi Polloi, is a way of expressing class-based social prejudice. It is a Greek phrase, meaning ‘the many’ and it was used in Victorian England by people who had the benefit of a classical education in English public schools and the universities, to describe the masses, who they presumed did not understand the phrase.

Gilbert and Sullivan use the phrase to mock those who used it in their comic opera Iolanthe. Later, it was used by English public schoolboys in the 1950s and the 1960s, when they referred to ‘oips’ and ‘oiks’.

The term hoi polloi also appears in a scene in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, speaks negatively about the use of the definite article ‘the’ in front of the phrase.

Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) raises his hands and speaks: ‘The hoi polloi. Doesn’t it mean the herd?’

Keating replies: ‘Precisely, Meeks. Greek for the herd. However, be warned that, when you say “the hoi polloi” you are actually saying “the the herd.” Indicating that you too are “hoi polloi”.’

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 1-14) begins with a very joyful occasion – a posh nosh, a planned wedding, and generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But, instead of the farce in that film with the Three Stooges, it quickly descends into very difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.

The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God.

But the parable in this morning’s Gospel reading is particularly difficult.

The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.

To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends out troops to put down the rebellion.

The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν, verse 9), means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre. It refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates.

This is the place where those who want to be hired as labour gather, where those who are refused entry wait without hope, this is where those who are on margins are found. Other translations catch these images when they talk about the highways and the byways.

And the king’s invitation, in verse 10, goes out to all people, ‘both good and bad.’

Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness. In this case, the robe probably symbolises the white robe worn for baptism.

Do we wear that robe all the time? In other words, do we live up to our promises of discipleship made at Baptism – summarised in the call to love God and to love others?

If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?

And would you behave that way?

Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?

Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?

Are you the bride or groom, sidelined and marginalised at our own wedding, incidental to all the power playing and role playing?

Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?

Where do you find Good News in this parable?

What is meant by the many and the few here?

In our western way of thinking, the word many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. But in eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.

We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when he extols democracy in Athens.

He contrasts ‘the many’ with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), the few who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. Pericles demands equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many.’ The word ‘you’ here means us, the Church, the few in this parable. But the phrase ‘the many’ here, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called to the banquet too.

Christ’s invitation is not just to you and me, who know we are invited to the banquet. It is also for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, the ones who are not usually invited to the posh nosh, the Larry, Curly and Moe in our midst.

The invitation to come in, to celebrate at the banquet, symbolised in the Eucharist this morning, is not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning.

Who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.

A grave in Kerameikós, Athens, where Pericles delivered his funeral oration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 11 October 2026, Trinity XIX):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group:

‘The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy’ (Psalm 126:3).

Here’s an update on my experience since the Emerging Leaders Academy in Kenya, organised by USPG and the Anglican Communion Youth Network, where I met young people from across the Anglican Communion and was inspired by how the Kingdom of God is being expressed through their ministries.

Since returning to Brazil, I have been applying both the practical and theoretical learning from the programme in my daily life, especially in my relationships. A key practice has been active listening, helping me to be more attentive to others’ voices, understand their struggles, and build deeper connections.

We are also developing a training course for young leaders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, aiming to share what was learned during the formation and strengthen leadership rooted in Christian principles and the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. This will include online sessions throughout the year, alongside an in-person course to deepen leadership practice.

This journey has been made possible through the support of Bishop Cézar and the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil. Praise be to God for all who continue to support this work.

For more on Anglicanism – its history, saints, and liturgy – you can find thoughtful content on Guilherme’s Instagram @discipuladoanglicano (in Portuguese).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 11 October 2026, Trinity XIX) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 22: 1-14.

The Collect of the Day:

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts
; 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:

Holy and blessed God,
you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son
and filled us with your Holy Spirit:
may we honour you,
not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Lord,
whose steadfast love never ceases
and whose mercies never come to an end:
grant us the grace to trust you
and to receive the gifts of your love,
new every morning,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Those who had been invited to the wedding banquet … would not come’ (Matthew 22: 3) … empty tables at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth (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

The Orthodox Church today celebrates the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical or Second Council of Nicaea in 787, with the restoration of the veneration of holy icons and the formal rejection of the Iconoclast heresy

An autumn concert, a new sculpture, and two photographs: a week in the cultural life of Stony Stratford

The new Mapstone sculpture by Broadbent Studios … installed in the Market Square in Stony Stratford this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I was singing with the Choir at the Autumn Concert in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford this afternoon (10 October) with a full programme that involved the parish choir, the parish band and the handbell-ringers.

It has been a busy, enriching week for me culturally, including this afternoon’s concert, watching the installation of a new sculpture in the Market Square in Stony Stratford, and seeing the use of two of my photographs in a local news magazine.

The choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church is directed by Jacob Collins and as contribution to the programme this afternoon included John Rutter’s setting of ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ by the poet and hymnwriter Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917); ‘My Beloved Spake’ by Becky McGlade, based on the Song of Songs 2: 10-12; and the ever-popular South African hymn ‘Siyahamba’.

The composer and conductor Sir John Rutter founded the Cambridge Singers who have recorded many of his works for his own label Collegium Records. His compositions, extended pieces for choir and orchestra, such as Requiem and Magnificat, and his many choral works include For the beauty of the earth, Christmas Carol and A Clare Benediction. He is known for Christmas carols and his Carols for Choirs anthology series compiled with David Willcocks.

FS Pierpoint was a classics schoolmaster and a devout Tractarian, and he wrote ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ in 1864 at age of 29. He was born in, Bath, was educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, taught at Somersetshire College, and spent most of his life in Bath.

Becky McGlade studied music at Royal Holloway, University of London and leads a busy musical life as a composer, cellist and teacher. Her music has been performed throughout the UK, including by the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, the London Oriana Choir, the Choir of Ely Cathedral, and the BBC Symphony Chorus.

‘Siyahamba’ or ‘We are marching’ dates back to 1952. It became an anti-apartheid liberation song during the struggle against racism and segregation in South Africa and its worldwide popularity grew after it was published in 1984 in a collection Freedom is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa arranged by Anders Nyberg.

This afternoon’s autumn concert also included the church band, conducted by Fiona Collins, the church handbell ringers, directed by Kath Hindley, and children from Saint Mary and Saint Giles School.

Detail of the Map of Stony Stratford on the new sculpture in Market Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During the week I have also been watching the installation of Mapstone, a new sculpture by Broadbent Studios in the Market Square in Stony Stratford. The sculpture was commissioned by Stony Stratford Town Council and I was involved in this project from the beginning through the Town Centre Working Group, including the choice of location, the community engagement meetings, the commissioning and the tendering process.

Stony Stratford has a strong civic identity with a long history with a vibrant town centre that looks to the future, all celebrated in this new artwork by Stephen Broadbent and Peter Davidson and the stonemason Ade Wright. They conceived it as a symbol for Stony Stratford and have divided it into three zones expressing the past, present and future.

Stony’s origins as a fording point are reflected in the choice a river stone, suggesting endurance across changing times and standing upright so it might be seen from some distance.

The bottom zone represents Stony’s past. It is often said that the past is ‘mapped out’ or ‘carved in stone’, so a map of Stony is carved in this bottom zone, reflecting many maps of Stony from the Middle Ages up to today.

The top zone represents Stony’s future. The future has yet to be written, so nothing is carved into the stone there. Instead, slices of stone have been removed and replace them with translucent resin that refracts the light in different ways.

In between these two zones, the middle zone represents Stony’s present. That zone is very thin because the present is so fleeting. Yet the present is life, the beating heart of Stony. Here Stony speaks with its own voice in the words of a poem written by schoolchildren of the town, with the final line reading like a continuous loop.

The Mapstone was installed in the Market Square by Broadbent Studio this week, and is being officially unveiled next Saturday (17 October).

The Mapstone is being officially unveiled next Saturday, 17 October 2026 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In addition, I have made the front page of the Autumn edition of the local news magazine Town Crier, published and distributed by Stony Stratford Town Council.

My front-page photograph, and a second photograph inside on page 5 are of York House, and illustrate a report on how York House, a Grade II listed building and a part of community life in Stony Stratford for generations, is trying to raise £20,000 by December 2026 to secure its future.

The centre’s stable block, dating back to the 1850s, is unsafe and must be removed before it causes damage to York House itself and to make York House more accessible and useful for the whole community. A programme of fundraising events in the coming weeks include quizzes and playreading evenings.

More details are available on the York House Centre website: www.york-house.org.uk

Two photographs of York House on the cover and inside the Autumn edition of ‘The Twon Crier’ in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 155, Saturday 10 October 2026

‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ (Luke 11: 27) … an icon of the Nativity by Hanna-Leena Ward in her exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral earlier this year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 11 October 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644; and Thomas Traherne, Poet, Spiritual Writer, 1674.

Later this afternoon, I hope to sing with the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in the Autum Concert that includes the choir (directed by Jacob Collins), the church band (conducted by Fiona Collins), church handbells (directed by Kath Hindley), and children from Saint Mary and Saint Giles School (2:30 pm to 3:30 pm). Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ (Luke 11: 27) … an icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child by Hanna-Leena Ward in her exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral earlier this year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Luke 11: 27-28 (NRSVA):

27 While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ 28 But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’

Icons of the Virgin Mary as a mother and as an olderly woman (Γερόντισσα, Gerontissa) in Kalabaka, near the monasteries of Meteora (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

The Gospels – and in particular Saint Luke’s Gospel – are scattered throughout with short pithy sayings from Jesus that I am reminded of when I read the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, the Pirkei Avot (פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת) or Ethics of the Fathers in the Mishnah and Jewish tradition, or even the sayings of Zen masters.

This morning’s short Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 11: 27-28) quotes one of those short and pithy sayings or aphorisms from Jesus as it tells of his response to a woman who praises his mother’s womb and breast by reorienting blessedness away from biological kinship to those who hear and obey God’s word. Jesus does not reject the woman’s praise but redirects it to show that true blessedness comes from inner obedience rather than external relationship or family descent.

Jesus does not diminish Mary. Rather, he reveals that her greatness lies not in bearing his body, but in keeping his Word with a whole obedient heart.

The scene unfolds mid-discourse: Jesus has just cast out a demon, defended himself against accusations of Beelzebul, and spoken of the sign of Jonah and the lamp of the body (Luke 11: 14-26). ‘It came to pass, as he said these things’ ties the acclamation directly to the impact of his teaching and miraculous power – the crowd is astonished, and one woman’s astonishment breaks into voice.

The phrase ‘lifted up her voice’ (ἐπάρασά τις φωνὴν eparasa tis phōnēn) is not merely colourful narration. Luke uses it elsewhere (Acts 2: 14; 14: 11) for moments of public, emphatic proclamation. This anonymous woman is not whispering a private thought; she is making a declaration before the crowd. Her words – ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you’ – are a Semitic macarism, a beatitude expressed in the idiom of Jewish wisdom literature, closely paralleling forms found in Proverbs and the Psalms.

To honour a great man by honouring his mother was a recognised cultural form of praise in the ancient Near East (see Judges 5:2 8). The woman’s instinct is not wrong; it is incomplete. Her praise reaches towards Mary but stops at the biological.

The Greek word for ‘blessed’ here is μακάριοι makarioi, the same root as the Beatitudes in Luke 6: 20-22 and the angel’s to greeting of Mary in Luke 1: 28, 42, 48. This echo is theologically loaded: the woman has unknowingly invoked the very category that the Gospel has already applied to Mary in the Magnificat – Mary’s prophecy that ‘all generations will call me blessed’ (μακαριοῦσίν, makariousin, Luke 1: 48).

The opening Greek word in Jesus’ response, μενοῦνγε (menounge) – translated variously as ‘on the contrary’, ‘yea rather’, or ‘indeed’ – is one of the most debated particles in Lukan Greek. It does not function as a simple negation (οὐ, ou, ‘no’) but as a strong, even emphatic, redirection and deepening.

Jesus is not dismissing the woman’s praise; he is relativising it upward. The logic is: ‘What you say is good – but hear something even greater.’ This corrective-affirmation is a characteristic Lukan rhetorical move. In Luke 10: 20, for example, Jesus tells the disciples not to rejoice in their power over spirits but in their names written in heaven – not a negation, but a re-ordering of joy.

‘Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it’ (φυλάσσοντες phulassontes) – the participle phulassontes means not merely passive reception but active guarding, cherishing, obeying. It is the language of a watchman, a keeper of a sacred deposit. This phrasing echoes Luke 8: 21: ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it.’ Together, these two passages form a deliberate Lukan bracket around Jesus’ public ministry, each time defining the true family of God in terms of obedient hearing.

The anonymous woman represents Israel’s instinct – long trained by Torah and prophecy – to seek blessedness in bloodline, covenant descent, and physical proximity to the holy. Jesus does not abolish this instinct but transfigures it: blessedness now flows from a new and universal covenant of the Word. In the spiritual sense, each of us is implicitly asked: where do you locate blessedness? In externals – national identity, family connection, religious ritual. Or in the interior act of hearing and guarding the Word?

Crucially, this passage implicitly glorifies Mary most of all by its logic: she is the one human being who most perfectly heard and kept the Word of God. The woman’s praise is not undone – it is shown to have a far deeper foundation than she imagined.

Excessive sentimentalism reduces Mary to a warm maternal figure disconnected from discipleship. Defensive minimalism downplays her entirely to avoid seeming unbiblical. Today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 27-28) corrects both. Mary is not blessed simply because she is tender and maternal; she is blessed because she heard the Word of God at the Annunciation (‘Let it be with me according to your word’, Luke 1: 38) and kept it through the the Passion, Crucifixion, and beyond. That makes her the first and model disciple, not merely an object of devotion.

The practical challenge in this reading is the same word Jesus uses: φυλάσσοντες phulassontes, to guard, to keep, to protect. Hearing the Word is often easy; but keeping it, letting it shape decisions about money, relationships, ethical behaviour, public, political and social action, interior life, my responses to racism, violence, poverty, injustice and oppression in society today, is the narrow gate.

Icons of the Virgin Mary at Ouranoupoli, the port town beside Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 10 October 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, 4-10 October 2026 (pp 44-45), has been ‘The Gun, The Sword, and The Bible’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Les Isaac OBE, founder and President of Ascension Trust and co-founder of Street Pastors.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 10 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for your Kingdom to be made real in clarity, unity and hope across the world. May all people come together to reflect your love and glory.

The Collect of the Day:

God our Saviour,
who sent Paulinus to preach and to baptize,
and so to build up your Church in this land:
grant that, inspired by his example,
we may tell all the world of your truth,
that with him we may receive the reward
you prepare for all your faithful servants;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Paulinus and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XIX:

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
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.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Virgin Mary as Panagia Platytera Παναγία Πλατυτέρα depicts her at the Annunciation at the moment she says, ‘Let it be with me according to your word’ (Luke 1: 38) … the apse in the church in Piskopianó in Crete (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

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 9, ‘Stolpersteine’ or ‘Stumbling Stones’ by Gunter Demnig, Vassilisis Olgas Avenue

‘Stolpersteine’ or ‘Stumbling Stones’ on the pavement on Vassilisis Olgas Avenue commemorate Greek Jews deported to Auschwitz (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have been recalling in recent weeks how I have come across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over these few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The sculptures I have looked at in recent weeks include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris in the campus of the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower, the Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square, and ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas in Fanarioton Square.

Before World War II, Thessaloniki was home to a vibrant, centuries-old Sephardi, Romaniote and Ashkenazi Jewish community with over 50,000 to 60,000 people. Following the Nazi occupation in 1941, forced labour, ghettoisation, and systematic mass deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau destroyed the vast majority of the community.

Throughout Europe, I regularly come across the Stolpersteine or ‘Stumbling Stones’ by the German artist Gunter Demnig. His project places engraved brass stones or cobblestones in front of the former homes, schools or work places of Holocaust victims who were deported and murdered by Nazi Germany. His Stolpersteine are small, cobblestone-sized brass memorials set into the pavement or footpath. His project began in Germany and has spread across Europe. So far, over 100,000 hand-engraved Stolpersteine have been laid in at least two dozen countries across Europe, making this dispersed project the world’s largest memorial. I have seen them in Berlin, Bratislava, Dublin, Prague, Venice, Vienna and in Thessaloniki.

The memorials in Thessaloniki are on the footpath in front of the 1st High School of Thessaloniki (1ο Γενικό Λύκειο Θεσσαλονίκης). They commemorate 149 Jewish children who were expelled from the school and deported to concentration camps on 8 May 1943 – of the 149 schoolchildren, only six survived. Five other Stolpersteine were placed at the harbour in Thessaloniki on 21 October 2016 to honour five Jewish workers in the port who were arrested, deported, and exterminated at Auschwitz in 1943.

The initiative has been driven by local groups, including a former school pupil, Apostolos Dereklis, and the Citizens’ Initiative for the Stolpersteine in Thessaloniki, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Thessaloniki Office.

‘Stumbling Stones for Thessaloniki’ began as initiative by two Humanity in Action senior fellows, Regina Frentzou and Evanthia Panagiotou, with a social art project to recover collective memory and individual commemoration of the victims of the Nazis in Thessaloniki. They were inspired during their experiences in Berlin in 2014, and felt there was a lack of commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust in Greek cities, particularly in Thessaloniki.

The Villa Modiano, built for Joseph Modiano and his family, is now part of the High School on Vassilisis Olgas Avenue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Thessaloniki was once known as the ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’. Demnig’s Stolpersteine on Vassilisis Olgas are critical visual anchors on the footpath that force people to ‘stumble with their heads and hearts’ over the fate of the city’s Jewish population, which was wiped out almost entirely in 1943.

Leoforos Vasilissis Olgas or Queen Olga Avenue is lined with once elegant fin de siècle villas, some now decaying and crumbling. It was once the most elegant and one of the richest areas of the city, and the home of many ruling families at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and each villa tells its own unique story. Some are galleries, others house cultural and historical institutions. Many retain their detailed colourful decorations, some even their impressive furniture, all influenced by the eclecticism of the 18th and 19th century.

Several villas have been preserved after painful restoration efforts, including the Villa Mordoch, the Villa Ahmet Kapanci (1890), the Villa Mehmet Kapanci (1893) and the Villa Bianca. Others are still sadly awaiting restoration after many decades, including the Villa Hirsch and the Salem Mansion at No 20. The Salem Mansion was designed in 1878 by Xenophon Paionides (1863-1933) for the wealthy Jeborga (Τζεμπόργκα) Jewish merchant family in 1878. It was bought in 1894 by Emmanuel Salem, the most important Jewish lawyer in the city and his family gave it its name to the Salem Mansion (Η Επαυλη Σαλέμ).

The first High School of Thessaloniki is housed in two of these elegant villas on Vassilisis Olgas Avenue, the Villa Hadjimishev, probably designed by Frederic Charnot and built in 1890 for the Bulgarian Theodore Hadjimishev, who was forced to abandon the villa and the city during the Balkan Wars, and the Villa Modiano, built in 1899 and now the main school building.

The Villa Modiano was built for Joseph Modiano and his family. The family was originally from Italy and settled in Thessaloniki in the early 18th century. The Modiano and Allatini families created a trading empire in the Balkans, mainly in the fields of grain, silk and leather. The house later passed to Molho family and from 1918 on the Villa Modiano was part of the Boys’ High School. After World War II, it accommodated 15 to 22 refugee families in 1946-1958.

Demnig’s project has created the world’s largest decentralised memorial, and it has expanded to over hand-engraved stones spread across dozens of countries. These cobblestone-sized brass memorials are critical touchpoints for public history, local memory, and reflection, and the project fulfils the Talmudic teaching that ‘a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten.’

I have stumbled upon these brass plaques in many cities, including such as Berlin, Bratislava, Dublin, Prague, Venice and Vienna, as well as Thessaloniki.

Dublin’s first Stolpersteine or stumbling stones were installed on 1 June 2022 outside Saint Catherine’s National School on Donore Avenue – close to Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’. The six stones commemorate Irish Holocaust victims who grew up or had deep roots in Dublin: Ettie Steinberg Gluck, her husband Wojteck Gluck, and their baby son Leon, who were arrested in France and murdered in Auschwitz; Isaac Shishi, born in Dublin and murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania; and Ephraim Saks and his sister Jeanne (Lena) Saks, both from Dublin, who were murdered in Auschwitz.

El Malei Rachamim (‘God full of compassion’) is a prayer for the departed that asks for comfort and everlasting care of the deceased. It is said at Jewish funeral services, but different versions exist for different moments.

This version for the Shoah (Holocaust) is found in the Reform prayer book, Mishkan T’filah:

Fully compassionate God on high:
To our six million brothers and sisters
murdered because they were Jews,
grant clear and certain rest with You
in the lofty heights of the sacred and pure
whose brightness shines like the very glow of heaven.

Source of mercy:
Forever enfold them in the embrace of Your wings;
secure their souls in eternity.
Adonai: they are Yours.
They will rest in peace. Amen.

May their memories be a blessing, זצ״ל

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)

7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)

8, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square (8 October 2026)

9, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ (‘Stolpersteine’) by Gunter Demnig (9 October 2026)

Next: ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis by Vasilis Doropoulos, Ermou Street

The Villa Hadjimishev, built in 1890, is now part of the High School on Vassilisis Olgas Avenue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)