COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
Today (9 February) is International Greek Language Day
Patrick Comerford
The Greek Carnival season, Απόκριες (Apokries) runs for about three weeks in February or early March, leading up to Clean Monday, the start of Lent. It is marked with major events and parades, with costumes, feasts, parties celebrations before the fasting period of Lent begins. This year, Απόκριες runs from Sunday 1 February to Sunday 22 February.
Meanwhile, today (9 February) is International Greek Language Day. My Facebook friend the Greek writer Pantelis Goularas named me this morning among a number of writers, journalists, poets and musicians whose work make connections between Greece and Ireland. He writes:
Ειδικές αναφορές στον Patrick Comerford που συχνά πυκνά ασχολείται με την ελληνική γλώσσα και άλλα θέματα σχετικά με το παρελθόν και το παρόν της Ελλάδας, στο εξαιρετικό blog του, και τον φίλο Bruce Clark με θητεία πολλών χρόνων στην Ελλάδα και την έκδοση βιβλίων ελληνικού ενδιαφέροντος. Επίσης ο αγαπημένος φίλος Paddy Sammon, που προσάρμοσε τους στίχους του “Γελαστού παιδιού” στην Ιρλανδική γλώσσα πάνω στη μουσική του Μίκη Θεοδωράκη.
‘Special mentions to Patrick Comerford who often deals with the Greek language and other issues related to the past and present of Greece, on his excellent blog, and his friend Bruce Clark with many years of service in Greece and publishing books of Greek interest. Also dear friend Paddy Sammon, who adapted the lyrics of “Laughing Child” into Irish to the music of Mickey Theodorakis.’
Another writer and Facebook friend, the Athens-based writer Irena Karafilly, marks International Greek Language Day today telling a joke about a man who says: ‘Strangest thing – every time I’d say good morning, someone would put a plate of squid in front of me.’ In Greek, καλημέρα (κaliméra) means ‘Good Morning’, but καλαμάρι (κalamári) means ‘squid’.
Irena Karafilly was born in the Urals, educated in Canada, and now lives in Greece, where she writes about immigrants and other outsiders. She has published seven books (five English, two Greek), dozens of poems and short stories, and has won several literary prizes. In recent days, she has offered some humorous reflections on the nuances and humour found in modern Greek phrases and sayings. Some of the common expressions that make no sense, either in English or Greek, depending on which you speak, that she posted to mark International Greek Language Day:
1, a Greek doesn’t say ‘I have no idea what’s going on’ … she says ‘I’ve lost my eggs and baskets’ (ἐχω χἀσει τα αυγἀ και τα καλἀθια).
2, a Greek doesn’t just ‘make your life hell’ … he ‘makes your life a roller skate’ (σου κἀνει την ζωἠ πατἰνι).
3, in Greece, a situation doesn’t just ‘get out of hand’ … it turns into ‘a whore’s fencepost’ (της πουτἀνας το κἀγκελο).
4, a Greek isn’t just ‘doing nothing’ … he’s ‘swatting flies’ (βαρἀει μὐγες).
5, a Greek house isn’t just ‘messy’ … it’s a ‘brothel’ (μπουρδἐλο).
6, a Greek isn’t just ‘very busy’ … she’s ‘running without arriving’ (τρἐχει και δεν φτἀνει).
7, a Greek doesn’t just ‘irritate you’ … she ‘breaks your nerves’ (σου σπἀει τα νεὐρα).
8, in Greece, something isn’t ‘unbearable’ … it ‘can’t be fought’ (δεν παλεὐεται).
9, Greeks aren’t just ‘exhausted’ … they are ‘in pieces’ (κομμἀτια).
10, a Greek isn’t just ‘high and mighty’ or a ‘diva’ … she is ‘astride a reed’ (ἐχει καβαλἠσει καλἀμι).
11, in Greece, people don’t just ‘turn you down’ … they ‘throw you an X’ (σου ἐριξε Χ).
12, a Greek isn’t just ‘stupid’ … he’s a ‘brick’ (τοὐβλο).
13, a Greek person doesn’t just ‘cheat on you’ … he ‘puts horns on you’ (σε κερατὠνει).
14, A Greek is not told to ‘go jump in a lake’ … he is told to ‘go see if the boats are moving’ (πἠγαινε να δεἰς αν κουνιοὐντε οι βἀρκες).
15, Greeks don’t just ‘get into a fight’ … they ‘become yarn balls’ (γἰναμε μαλλιἀ κουβἀρια).
16, a Greek isn’t just ‘fit’ … she is ‘slices’ (φἐτες).
17, Greeks who are really drunk aren’t ‘wasted’ … they are ‘pie’ (πἰτα).
18, also, they are ‘pie’ because they ‘drank their horns’ (ἠπια τα κερατἀ μου).
19, in Greece, a place isn’t ‘really far away’ … it’s ‘by the devil’s mother’ (στου διαὀλου την μἀνα).
20, a Greek doesn’t get ‘beat up’ … he ‘eats wood’ (τρὠει ξὐλο).
21, Greeks doesn’t say something incomprehensible is ‘all Greek to me’ … instead, they say it is ‘like you are speaking Chinese’ (εἰναι σαν να μου μιλἀς Κινἐζικα).
Not every word in the Greek dictionary can fit on a T-shirt … a T-shirt on sale in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
‘When they got out of the boat, people at once recognised him’ (Mark 6: 54) … the Ilen, the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships, at Foynes Harbour after sailing across the Shannon Estuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent just over a week away (18 February 2026) and the week began yesterday with the Second Sunday before Lent (8 February 2026).
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.
They ‘begged him that they might touch even the fringe his cloak’ (Mark 6: 56) … a choice of prayer shawls with fringes in the synagogue in Chania in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 6: 53-56 (NRSVA):
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
‘When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat’ (Mark 6: 53) … a moored boat in the harbour in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
Between now and Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026), we are in what the Church Calendar calls ‘Ordinary Time.’
Two striking emphases in Saint Mark’s Gospel are the stories of Christ healing about healing those on the margins and assuring those on the margins that they too are called into the Kingdom of God.
Those people on the margins include people who are seen as sinners, foreigners and unclean, especially women and children. The ways they are belittled is symbolised in our Gospel readings all last week:
• The healing of the ‘possessed’ man who lives among the tombs (Mark 5: 1-20, 2 February 2026, if the Presentation or Candlemas had been transferred to the day before);
• a dying girl who is only 12 years old and a woman unable to find help from doctors for 12 years (Mark 5: 21-43, 3 February 2026);
• Christ lays his hands on and curing sick people (Mark 6: 1-6, 4 February 2026);
• the disciples are sent out in all their vulnerability and poverty (Mark 6: 7-13, 5 February 2026);
• Herod’s fears and wicked response when he hears of these healings and miracles (Mark 6: 14-29, 8 February 2026);
• And then Jesus has compassion for the people who are neglected by their leaders and rulers (Mark 6: 30-34, 7 February 2026).
In today’s reading, Jesus seems to be trying to get away from all the demands and all the expectations that are being laid on his shoulders. The apostles have come back after being sent out two-by-two, and are telling him all they have done and all that has happened.
Now they need a break, and Jesus takes them on a boat and they head off to a quiet place. But there is no escaping the crowd, the people and their demands.
And they ‘bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was’. This happens wherever he goes – in villages and cities, farms and market places (Mark 6: 55-56). It is just enough for them to touch the fringe of his cloak and those who touch it are healed (verse 56).
What did they think they were doing by touching the ‘fringe of his cloak’?
This is not just an act of hope, hoping for healing, but an act of faith, claiming a place in the community of faith, reaching out for love.
Wearing a prayer shawl reminds the wearer and those who see this of all the 613 commandments in Jewish tradition, of the covenant with God.
In touching Christ’s cloak, the sick people are claiming their place at the heart of the community of faith. They are making Jesus ritually unclean, but those who touch him are healed. In touching Christ, they are ‘touched’ by God’s power, and Christ draws them into the Kingdom of God.
These people follow Jesus around everywhere. He has compassion on them because they are ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’ They need healing, not just in mind and body, but in their families and in their society, in political and religious society, in the economy and in the villages, cities, farms and marketplaces where they seek the healing that Christ offers.
Faith and healing come together.
These connections are made in a prayer or poem in the Service of the Heart, a prayer book I use regularly for my personal prayers and reflections. This poem or prayer ‘Lord God of test tube and blueprint’ is by Norman Corwin (1910-2011):
Lord God of test tube and blueprint,
Who jointed molecules of dust and shook them till their name was Adam,
Who taught worms and stars how they could live together,
Appear now among the parliaments of conquerors and give instruction to their schemes:
Measure out new liberties so none shall suffer from his father’s colour or the credo of his choice:
Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit by postponing it pretend:
Sit at the treaty table and convoy the hopes of the little peoples through expected straits,
And press into the final seal a sign that peace will come for longer than posterities can see ahead,
That man unto his fellow man shall be a friend forever.
Norman Lewis Corwin once declared: ‘I believe in promise, just promise … any species that can weigh the very earth he’s standing on, that can receive and analyse light coming from a galaxy a billion light years distant from us, any species that can produce a Beethoven and a Mozart and a Shakespeare, and the extraordinary accomplishments of our species, scientifically and in medicine and in the humanities, there’s illimitable opportunity for promises to be delivered and met.’
I fell on the street in London around this time last year and ended up in the A&E unit in University College London Hospital with a bruised and swollen face, eye and lips. There I was acutely aware of how hospital staff, medical researchers, scientists, doctors, nurses, porters, and cheerful receptions are all working with the ‘Lord God of test tube and blueprint’ and offering hope and healing to people of faith and of none.
‘When they had crossed over, they … moored the boat’ (Mark 6: 53) … a moored boat on the shore of Canon Island, in the Shannon Estuary, near Kildysert, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Monday 9 February 2026):
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: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 9 February 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we pray for Bradon, his family, and all volunteers serving refugees. Strengthen each heart and mind with courage and compassion, guide every action with wisdom, and protect from harm and exhaustion while offering care to the most vulnerable.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Bay Lough, the ‘bottomless’ lake near the Vee in the Knockmealdown Mountains … ‘Petticoat Loose’ and the monsters were condemned to its waters until ‘Tomorrow’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
I was musing a few evenings ago about the Greek word for tomorrow and how we can joke that the word avrio (αύριο) can never convey the same urgency that mañana has in Spanish.
Our anxieties about tomorrow are raised again in the Gospel reading tomorrow (Matthew 6: 25-34), when Jesus says: ‘But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? … Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own’ (Matthew 6: 30, 34).
Tomorrow seemed to be a far-away world to us as children on those Sunday afternoons when we were regularly brought on family outings to the ‘Vee’, a scenic, V-shaped hairpin bend in the Knockmealdown Mountains, with spectacular views across the Golden Vale and three counties, Waterford, Tipperary and Cork.
At the Vee we were halfway between Cappoquin and Clogheen, and only a few miles from my grandmother’s farm, we were entertained with stories and tales about Samuel Grubb and the grave where he was buried standing, and about ‘Petticoat Loose’ and the monsters in Bay Lough, the ‘bottomless’ lake, who came up and asked, day after day, ‘Is it tomorrow.’
The grave of Samuel Grubb overlooking the Vee and the Golden Vale (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Samuel Richard Grubb (1855-1921) was a wealthy landowner of Quaker descent and a former High Sheriff of Co Tipperary. His distinctive, beehive-shape grave stands on Sugarloaf Hill overlooking the Vee and the Golden Vale. He said he wanted to be buried on the mountainside, standing upright, so that he could keep watch over ‘his people’ and ‘his fields’ at Castle Grace, where he farmed over 1,600 acres.
Before he died, Grubb designed his grave of rubble stone, looking like one of the clochans on the Great Skellig. Some say he asked to be buried there because the Grubb family had been by the Society of Friends or Quakers before Samuel was born for attending ‘balls at which music and dancing form a chief part’.
Grubb died on 6 September 1921 and was buried four days later, with the Revd J Talbot of Clogheen conducting the burial service. Grubb was buried standing up, with his dog beside him, although some people in the area said the men who buried him put him in the grave upside down.
From his grave 2,000 ft up in the mountains, there are panoramic views across the Golden Vale, and of the Galtee Mountains, the Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon. On clear summer days as we looked across the valley below, and the villages of Clogheen, Ardfinnan and Ballyporeen (later known as the ancestral home of Ronald Reagan) were pointed out to us, and the towns of Cahir and Clonmel. The Grubb family sold Castle Grace near Clogheen in 2019, although many of his descendants continue to live in the area, including Nicholas Grubb who lives in Dromana House at Villierstown, near Cappoquin.
The panoramic view from the Vee across south Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Close to the Vee Gap, on the county boundaries of Waterford and Tipperary, Bay Lough is on the side of Knockaunabulloga in the Knockmealdown Mountains, close to Saint Declan’s Way, the path Saint Declan trod as he made his way from Ardmore to Cashel.
Bay Lough is easily accessed from a car park on the Co Waterford side of the lake. Many people believe it is a ‘bottomless’ lake and that it is not possible to swim across it, even though it is quite small. In late May and early June, the rhododendrons are in bloom at the lake, providing spectacular views from Bay Lough to Clogheen.
Folklore in South Tipperary and West Waterford says the lake is the place where Petticoat Loose was banished, condemned as penance to drain the ‘bottomless’ lake with a thimble until tomorrow came.
Local folklore portrays Petticoat Loose as a vengeful ghost, a banshee or a haunting witch and sometimes identify her as Mary Hannigan. She was said to be a 6-ft tall, strong woman who did a man’s work on the farm, drank like a man, fought like a man and wrestled and fought the local men when they mocked her. But she was known too for adulterating milk and for her wicked behaviour. They say she killed a bull with a single blow of her first, killed a farmhand with his own spade, and threatened to kill anyone who told on her.
Mary Hannigan was born in the early 19th century, the only child of a well-to-do farming family who lived in the townland of Colligan, near Clogheen, and she was known for her love of dancing and drinking. During one drunken dance, as she spun around, her skirt was caught on a nail and fell to the ground, causing mirth and leading to laughter and jeering. The incident raised her anger and left her with the name ‘Petticoat Lucy’ or ‘Petticoat Loose’.
She met her future husband on the dance floor, but the marriage lasted only a year, and he met an early death. Local people whispered that Mary’s lover, a local hedge-school teacher, had murdered him.
Then, one night during a drinking session in a pub in Dungarvan, Mary drank half a gallon of beer, suddenly slumped forward onto the table and died. There was a big wake but no priest was called, even for the burial.
Seven years after her death, there were several sightings of Petticoat Loose, seen as a ghost with red hair or as a monstrous horse-headed figure who had returned to haunt people on the Vee road. She was also seen in the pubs and dance halls and became the terror of the Vee road, although – for some inexplicable reason – she never harmed any man with the name John.
She continued to haunt the Vee road close to Bay Lough, and it became a common practice for people travelling at night to carry religious relics or hazel sticks as protection.
Finally, people who were living in fear of Petticoat Lucy called on a local priest to rid the area of Mary and her nightly visits. One night, the priest and two men spotted her coming across a field. When the priest asked her name, she replied ‘I’m Petticoat Loose’, telling him she would do evil wherever she was.
‘We will see’, the priest replied. ‘I will place you head downwards.’ He took out a bottle of holy water and sent her to the far banks of the deepest lake, telling her: ‘You shall be condemned until judgment day to empty it with a thimble!’
The priest is said to have died two weeks later – some say she had drained the life out of him.
Many people say Petticoat Loose still sits on the far bank of Bay Lough with her thimble, vainly trying to empty the lake, waiting for tomorrow. Some say she sometimes appears out of the water and asks the same questions over and over again: ‘When will judgment day come?’ ‘Is it tomorrow?’
She is often associated with other spirits and monsters trapped in the lake by Saint Patrick. He told them to stay there and wait, and that he would be back tomorrow. So, they are still there, deep in the dark waters, waiting for tomorrow. Petticoat Loose, or one of the monsters, is said to surface occasionally to ask ‘Is it tomorrow?’
It is only possible to walk about half way around Bay Lough and few ever swim in the lake (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Bay Lough is a favourite for walkers and family outings, although it is only possible to walk about half way around the lake, and few ever swim in it, frightened off by tales that Petticoat Loose waits below to grab your legs and pull you down.
Perhaps the idle tale that Samuel Grubb was buried upside down was conflated or confused with the story that Petticoat Loose had been sent head down into the lake. As children we revelled in those stories, pretending to be only slightly scared. But in the 1950s and the early 1960s, the men in the family had probably driven up to the Vee and Bay Lough to get better radio reception.
Back on my grandmother’s farm near Cappoquin, in a valley below the Knockmealdowns, the mountains often blocked reception of what was then Radio Éireann. Instead, I grew up listening to the BBC Light Programme, nourished by a daily diet of programmes that included the Archers, Mrs Dales Diary, Hancock’s Half Hour, Housewives’ Choice, Listen with Mother, Woman’s Hour, and, of course, the Goons. Petticoat Loose may have been as far from Petticoat Lane as I could imagine, yet I understand how I grew up in rural Ireland with Received Pronunciation or ‘BBC English’ as my first language.
In those years, the Waterford hurlers were at their peak, reaching the All-Ireland finals in 1957, 1959 and 1963, and the men in the family needed better reception to hear the match commentaries. The ‘wireless’ was taken from the house, brought with us up to Bay Lough or Grubb’s Grave and connected to the car battery so my uncles could listen to Mícheál Ó hEithir’s match commenaties while we children played and picknicked by the lake shore or on the mountainside.
As a treat later, we were brought back to the ‘Cats’ near Melleray for lemonade and crisps, while the men celebrated the match result – or drowned their sorrows. Later we might even be allowed to listen to the music or watch the dancing at the ‘Stage’ … if we behaved ourselves.
The working week resumed on Monday morning. Cows were to be milked, animals had to be fed, there was shopping to do in Cappoquin, and children had to go to school. Tomorrow always came.
Tomorrow brought work, school and shopping in Cappoquin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
‘Earth may not pass till heaven shall pass away’ (Christina Rossetti) … a February sunset at Minster Pool in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Today [8 February 2026] is the Second Sunday before Lent, which is also known in some parts of the Anglican Communion as Creation Sunday. In the past, this Sunday was known as Sexagesima, one of those odd-sounding Latin names once used in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays in Ordinary Time between Candlemas and Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima.
These weeks, between the end of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, are known as Ordinary Time. We are in a time of preparation for Lent, which in turn is a preparation for Holy Week and Easter.
The Sunday known as Sexagesima, although falling 57 days before Easter, was given this name representing 60 days before Lent. In the Western Church, these Sundays before Lent were a preparation for Lent: the refrain alleluia was forbidden in services, and the Alleluia acclamation at the Eucharist was replaced by the Tract, usually verses from the Psalms. The liturgical colour was also changed, so that purple or violet vestments were worn.
In very visible and audible ways, the three Sundays before Lent became an extension to Lent, and the longer period was often called ‘the Greater Lent.’ However, while their traditional names have a certain nostalgic beauty associated with them, they have no real logical, liturgical foundation and they make no sense numerically.
In recent years, the ‘-gesima’ Sundays before Lent have become part of Ordinary Time, and from the late 1960s on they were no longer regarded as a pre-penitential season, and this Sunday is now counted as the Second Sunday before Lent.
Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Sexagesima’ takes its title from this Latin name once used for the Second Sunday before Lent. We are more likely to associate Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) with Christmas rather than Ordinary Time or Lent because two of her poems, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and ‘Love came down at Christmas,’ are among the best-loved and most popular Christmas carols.
She was born in London, the daughter of Gabriele Rossetti, an exiled Italian poet, and she was a sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet. Their brother William Michael Rossetti and sister Maria Rossetti were writers too.
At the age of 14, Christina Rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown and left school. Bouts of depression and related illness followed. During this period she, her mother and her sister became absorbed in the Anglo-Catholic movement that developed in the Church of England, and religious devotion came to play a major role in Christian Rossetti’s life.
She spent much time spent alone, in prayer, in a single life, devoted to Christ and to working with the marginalised. Her writings have strongly influenced writers such as Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Jennings and Philip Larkin. She is honoured in the liturgical calendar of the Church of England and other Anglican churches on 27 April.
Christina Rossetti, by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Sexagesima, by Christina Georgina Rossetti:
Yet earth was very good in days of old,
And earth is lovely still:
Still for the sacred flock she spreads the fold,
For Sion rears the hill.
Mother she is, and cradle of our race,
A depth where treasures lie,
The broad foundation of a holy place,
Man’s step to scale the sky.
She spreads the harvest-field which Angels reap,
And lo! the crop is white;
She spreads God’s Acre where the happy sleep
All night that is not night.
Earth may not pass till heaven shall pass away,
Nor heaven may be renewed
Except with earth: and once more in that day
Earth shall be very good.
‘… and once more in that day / Earth shall be very good’ (Christina Rossetti) … a February walk along Cross in Hand Lane on the northern edges of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
‘Look at the birds of the air …’ (Matthew 6: 26) … birds in the air at sunset at Malahide Castle, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are ten days away (18 February 2026), and today is the Second Sunday before Lent. Later this morning, I hope to be involved in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, reading one of the lessons.
But, before my day 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.
‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink’ (Matthew 6: 25) … tables set for dinner at Pigadi restaurant in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Matthew 6: 25-34 (NRSVA):
25 [Jesus said:] ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1: 1) … ‘on the seventh day he rested from all his work’ (Genesis 2: 2) … sunrise at Igoumenitsa in northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflections
The three Sundays before Lent once had special Latin names in the Book of Common Prayer, names that were shared in most traditions in the Western Church. These Sundays were known as Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. The names were based on counting up seventy days to Easter, perhaps in some ways paralleling the seven days of creation.
This Sunday, the Second Sunday before Lent, was known as Sexagesima Sunday – a bit of a tongue twister, even for those of us who did Latin at school. I find it much easier that in many parts of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales this is known as ‘Creation Sunday.’ It is so appropriate, with our growing awareness about climate change and the threats to God’s creation – emphasised by recent weather fluctuations, including the storms and floods in recent weeks in both England and Ireland, and the debates about carbon emission and climate change.
Care for the creation is not a marginal concern for the Church, nor a matter of the Church keeping up with current social and political trends and fashions. The fifth of the Five Marks of Mission accepted throughout the Anglican Communion is:
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
The first reading this morning (Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3) is a celebration of creation, a poetic description of God’s creation, reaching its climax or fulfilment in the creation of humanity and God’s relationship with us.
Like all good stories, this story begins at the beginning: ‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1: 1).
At first, there was chaos, ‘an empty, formless void’ (verse 2). However, the life-giving power of God, the ‘wind’ or Spirit ‘from God’, sweeps over this chaos. The creation story is then told in the form of a poem or hymn, with a refrain, ‘And God saw that it was good’ (verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 20, 25).
God then says, ‘Let us’ (26), invoking the royal plural. The creation of humanity is the climax of the creation story. We are made in God’s image and likeness: the Hebrew words used here are צֶלֶם (Tselem), referring to a shadow, outline, or representative figure, emphasising the functional role of humans representing God on earth and דְּמוּת (demuth), suggests a resemblance in form or character. The Greek word in the Septuagint (LXX) is εἰκόνα (eikona, accusative of eikon), ‘image’, denoting es a likeness, portrait, or representation, and implies an exact copy or reproduction.
Because of God’s blessings, we have procreative power, we are to be fruitful and to multiply, and to have dominion over the earth, acting as God’s regents, taking responsibility for a just rule in and care for the creation.
And we are told not only that ‘God saw that it was good’ – as on the other days of creation – but, ‘indeed, it was very good’ (verse 31).
The seventh day is then the day of rest, a reminder of the Sabbath. God blesses the seventh day, and God sets it apart or makes it holy. There is no evening at the end of this day – this relationship between God and humanity is to continue for ever, to the end of the story (see Revelation 21 and 22).
The late Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan) Sacks has pointed out that few texts have had a deeper influence on Western civilisation than the first chapter of Genesis, with its momentous vision of the universe coming into being as the work of God. Set against the grandeur of the narrative, what stands out is the smallness yet uniqueness of humans, vulnerable but also undeniably set apart from all other beings.
The psalm (Psalm 136) this morning echoes the wonder and humility we might feel as we realise the splendour of creation and know and find the love of God in this creation.
God who made the heavens and the earth, who spread out the waters, who made the great lights, the sun, moon and stars, is the loving God whose steadfast love endures for ever.
The honour and glory that crowns the human race is possession of the earth, which is the culmination of God’s creative work: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over [it]’ (Genesis 1: 28).
While the creation narrative in Genesis clearly establishes God as the Master of the Universe, it is humanity who is appointed master or guardian of the earth.
But this raises fundamental questions about our place in creation and our responsibility for it. A literal interpretation suggests a world in which people cut down forests, slaughter animals, and dump waste into the seas at our leisure, much as we see in our world today.
On the other hand, Rav Kook (1865-1935), the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, says any intelligent person should know that Genesis 1: 28, ‘does not mean the domination of a harsh ruler, who afflicts his people and servants merely to fulfil his personal whim and desire, according to the crookedness of his heart.’
Could God have really created such a complex and magnificent world solely for the caprice of humans?
Genesis 1 is only one side of the complex biblical equation. It is balanced by the narrative of Genesis 2, which features a second creation narrative that focuses on humans and their place in the Garden of Eden. The first person is set in the Garden ‘to till it and keep it’ or ‘to work it and take care of it’ (Genesis 2: 15).
The two Hebrew verbs used here are significant. The first verb – le’ovdah (לעובדח) – literally means ‘to serve it.’ The human being is thus both master and servant of nature.
The second verb – leshomrah (לשמרח) – means ‘to guard it.’ This is the same verb used later in the Bible to describe the responsibilities of a guardian of property that belongs to someone else. This guardian must exercise vigilance while protecting and is personally liable for losses that occur through negligence.
This is, perhaps, the best short definition of humanity’s responsibility for nature as the Bible presents it.
We do not own nature; ‘The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it’ (Psalm 24: 1) We are its stewards on behalf of God, who created and owns everything. As guardians of the earth, we are duty-bound to respect its integrity.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) put this rather well in an original interpretation of Genesis 1: 26, ‘Let us make humankind in our image according to our likeness.’ Us? Who would God consult in the process of creating humans?
Rabbi Hirsch suggests the ‘us’ in this verse refers to the rest of creation. Before creating us as humans, destined to develop the capacity to alter and possibly endanger the natural world, God sought the approval of nature itself. This interpretation implies that we would use nature only in such a way that is faithful to the purposes of the Creator and acknowledges nature’s consent to the existence of humanity.
The mandate in Genesis 1 to exercise dominion is, therefore, not technical, but moral: humanity would control, within our means, the use of nature towards the service of God. This mandate is limited by the requirement to serve and guard as seen in Genesis 2. The famous story of Genesis 2-3 – the eating of the forbidden fruit and the subsequent exile of Adam and Eve – supports this point.
Not everything is permitted. There are limits to how we interact with the earth. When we do not treat creation according to God’s will, disaster can follow.
We see this today, Rabbi Sacks says, as scientists predict more intense and destructive storms, floods, and droughts due to human-induced changes in the atmosphere. If we do not take action now, we risk the very survival of civilisation.
In the Gospel reading (Matthew 6: 25-34) this morning, we continue reading from the Sermon on the Mount. In verse 24, Christ tells us not to be anxious, to be troubled with cares, in a way that gives priorities to my own interests, that is preoccupied with or absorbed by my own self-interest.
Our self-preoccupation and self-absorption cannot lengthen our lives (verse 27). And he points to examples from nature, simple examples from creation, like lilies on the hillsides, grass in the fields, and the birds of the air, to illustrate God’s care for all creation.
‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today’ (verse 34).
I have been musing on recent evenings about the way we use the word tomorrow, both in Greek, where the word αύριο (avrio) seldom conveys a sense of immediacy or urgency, and in Irish folklore, where the word tomorrow is sometimes deployed to advantage against malign or even evil forces.
In today’s Gospel reading, Christ is saying that being self-absorbed about our own petty needs will not give us a new tomorrow. But caring for the little details of nature, like God cares for the little details of creation, will ensure that our tomorrows reflect God's plans for the creation.
The Midrash says that God showed Adam around the Garden of Eden and said, ‘Look at my works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy my world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.’
Creation has its own dignity, and while we have the mandate to use it, we have none to destroy or despoil it. Rabbi Hirsch says that Shabbat was given to humanity ‘in order that he should not grow overbearing in his dominion’ of God’s creation. On the Day of Rest, ‘he must, as it were, return the borrowed world to its Divine Owner in order to realise that it is but lent to him.’
If we see how we have a unique opportunity to truly serve and care for the planet, its creatures, and its resources, then we can reclaim our status as stewards of the world, and all these things will be given to us as well.
‘Even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these’ (Matthew 6: 29) … watching a mother sparrow feed her chicks in a nest in the ceiling of Aghias Anna Church, Maroulas, near Rethymnon in Crete (Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 8 February 2026, Second Sunday before Lent):
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: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead, who writes:
‘I’m writing from Calais, where I have spent five years working with refugees. Many people ask me, “What can be done about the small boats?” From what I’ve seen, the only real answer is to create safe routes across the English Channel – ways for people to claim asylum without having to risk their lives. The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, with freezing waters and dangerous currents. Lifejackets for the crossing are hard to obtain and often confiscated by authorities. When legal pathways are available – like family reunion visas or humanitarian corridors – people use them, because they are safer and cheaper.
‘The right to seek sanctuary was hard-won after World War II. We must remember that history, because if we forget it, we risk repeating the same mistakes.
‘One of the most important parts of justice is keeping families together. It is deeply painful when children are separated from their parents for years, even after asylum is granted. This is not right, and it can be changed. There is hope on the horizon: the Refugee Family Reunion Bill currently in the House of Lords. While it is only a first step, it is a crucial step toward a more just world, the world Jesus calls us to pursue.
‘I want to encourage everyone to take action – not only through donations, but by standing with families, writing to MPs, and advocating for safe and humane policies. Together, we can ensure that hope, justice, and compassion guide the choices we make. Every small act of advocacy brings us closer to a world where families are safe, reunited, and valued.
‘As a first step, watch and share the video Victims of the Border: A Memorial on YouTube @USPGglobal. Hear some of the stories of those who journeyed in hope.’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 8 February 2026) invites us to pray as we read and meditate today’s Gospel reading.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
‘But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today …’ (Matthew 6: 30) … green fields and countryside at Cross in Hand Lane, north of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Team Ireland alpine skiier Cormac Comerford from Glenageary, Co Dublin, in Piazza Walther (Photograph: David Fitzgerald/ Sportsfile/ Irish Examiner)
Patrick Comerford
Cormac Comerford from Glenageary, Co Dublin, finished 34th in the men’s downhill today on the opening day of the Alpine skiing at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, where Franjo von Allmen from Switzerland delivered a sensational performance to win the first gold medal of the Games.
Cormac Comerford made his Olympic debut this afternoon in skiing’s queen event at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, finishing the 3,442-metre course in a time of 2:04.40. He started out last among the field and came 34th among the 36 starters, well pleased with his effort on a highly technical, and in parts treacherous, course.
‘It’s an incredible feeling to make my Olympic debut today in this weather, on this slope,’ he told The Irish Times. ‘To bring it down Stelvio is a huge achievement, coming from the artificial slope back home. There’s a huge sense of pride. I made a few mistakes in the run, it felt smoother in training, but that’s racing and I’m really proud to have brought it down.’
‘I’m excited to be here,’ he said. ‘If I’m proud, I hope I can make Ireland proud as well.’ He was the first member of Team Ireland to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina when he hit the slopes on the opening day of the games.
Ireland has been sending teams to the Winter Olympics for many years, but it is 24 years since Dublin-born Clifton Wrottesley (Lord Wrottesley) came up one place shy of a medal for Ireland in the skeleton at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.
Cormac Comerford’s Olympic scholarship meant fewer pressures in a sport that costs him €40,000 a year to compete in. This is important for him, as he remembers how hard it was when first started out professionally after starting to study engineering at TU Dublin (Technological University Dublin). His summer work included ‘a lot of sailing instruction and labour on construction sites.’
He says he spent too many of his early years on the circuit sleeping in bus stations and carting a ski bag the weight of his own body to different events and different countries in order to shave pennies off his budget.
It took him six years to qualify for his engineering degree because of the time spent away from home. He could, as he joked himself, be a doctor by now. But scholarships from Trinity, FBD and from the Olympic Federation of Ireland were critical in allowing him to stay on track and in pursuit of his dream.
He competed in the World Championships in 2017 for first time. He is now at his peak, among the top five per cent in the world, 23rd in the World Championships, ‘and hopefully going a lot higher.’
Cormac Comerford found that breaking into a sport where Ireland have no tradition was hard, and his achievements were often belittled. ‘I remember watching Shane O’Connor on the TV at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and thinking, ‘Imagine if I could do that, how cool would that be?’ So going into Milan-Cortina would be massive for me. To achieve that childhood dream would be the cherry on the cake.’
When Cormac Comerford was eight and growing up in Glenageary, his aunt first took him up the dry ski slopes in Kilternan in south Co Dublin. Now, 21 years later, after his fourth qualification attempt, Comerford is among the four Irish athletes taking part in Milano Cortina 2026.
Cormac Comerford … ‘It’s been a childhood dream of mine’ (Photograph: RTÉ)
The 25th Winter Olympics are spread across six locations in north Italy this year. They opened last night (6 February 2026) and continue for the next two weeks until Sunday 22 February. Cormac Comerford’s journey there has been has been a difficult one and his childhood dream of reaching the Olympics has been tested repeatedly over the years.
‘It’s been a childhood dream of mine, since I first put on a pair of skis, up at the Ski Club of Ireland. I fell in love with the sport, and when I got to watch Shane O’Connor at the Olympics in 2010, that’s when the seed was really sown’, he says.
Cormac is competing in all four events in Milano Cortina: the downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom. He has also competed in five World Championships, when he finished inside top-30 in the European Cup. The three other Irish athletes are Anabelle Zurbay (17), who was born in Minnesota; Thomas Maloney Westgård born on the island of Leka in Norway to a Galway mother and Norwegian father, and Ben Lynch, who has lived in Vancouver since he was three.
Cormac Comerford previously reached the minimal qualifying criteria in alpine skiing for Sochi 2014, Pyeongchang 2018, and Beijing 2022, but each time he missed out on the strict quota for Irish representatives. Yet he never let go of that dream. ‘Being an Irish ski racer can also be incredibly lonely, there aren’t many of us, it’s a really hard path to forge.’
‘There were a few turning points,’ he recalls, ‘like when I started in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), my whole career was hanging on me getting a scholarship there. Thankfully they believed in me, I got some extra support, and it was enough to help me keep the dream alive.’
None of his family are skiers. He grew up playing GAA underage with Cuala, alongside Con O’Callaghan, and was also involved in rugby, hockey, sailing, and surfing. But, ultimately, skiing came out on top.
His specialist event is the slalom, the mix of technical and physical demands, dodging between 50 or 60 gates, 8 to 11 metres apart, while flat-out downhill at 60 kph for between 40 seconds to a minute.
His first event was on Saturday, the day after the opening ceremony in the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
It is 34 years since Team Ireland first competed at the Winter Olympics, at Albertville 1992, and the four athletes selected for Milano Cortina bringing to 37 the number of Irish Winter Olympians. For Cormac, the lifelong dream is finally being realised.
Cormac Comerford works as a mechanical engineer in the off-season, and spends most of the winter travelling Europe, training and competing. He recalls how he spent too many of his early years on the circuit sleeping in bus stations and carting a ski bag the weight of his own body to different events and different countries in order to shave pennies off his budget.
Cormac Comerford grew up in Glenageary in south Dublin. He was a sporty child, lining out for Cuala in both GAA codes, and playing rugby at Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock. His mother’s passion for sailing also meant he spent a lot of time on the water. But trips with his aunt to Ireland’s only artificial ski slope in Kilternan caught his imagination from the age of eight.
He loved the individuality of downhill skiing, its niche status in Ireland appealing because it meant Comerford could hone his craft under the radar. ‘There was no noise around the sport, especially in Ireland,’ he says. ‘It was just me in my own world with the racing. That's what really pulled me in and kept me hooked.’
He is competing in four different events at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and faces three more Alpine skiing events: on Wednesday (11 February) in the Super-G (Alpine Skiing) in Bormio; next Saturday (14 February), in the Giant Slalom Run 1 and 2 (Alpine Skiing) in Bormio; and on Monday 16 February in the Slalom Run 1 and 2 (Alpine Skiing), also in Bormio.
The closing ceremony is in Verona on Sunday 22 February.
Alpine skier Cormac Comerford from Glenageary … representing Ireland in skiing at the Winter Olympics in Milan (Photograph: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile)
‘Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts’ … Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde preaching in Washington last year (Photograph: Washington National Cathedral / Facebook)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than two weeks away (18 February 2026) and tomorrow is the Second Sunday before Lent. Later today, I hope to attend Το Στέκι Μας (Our Place), the pop-up Greek café at the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, from 10:30 to 3 pm, with traditional Greek desserts and Greek coffees and delicacies.
Later this afternoon, after Ireland’s crushing 36-14 defeat by France the night before last, I hope to find appropriate places to watch the Six Nations rugby fixtures between Italy and Scotland (14:10) and England and Wales (16:40).
But, 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.
‘The Gulf of Empathy’ (Watercolour: Jerome Steuart)
Mark 6: 30-34 (NRSVA):
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
A quotation from Psalm 82 reposted on social media many times after Bishop Mariann Budde’s sermon in Washington last year
Today’s Reflections:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 6: 30-34), we read what might be described as the ‘curtain-raiser’ to the feeding of the 5,000.
The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (see Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 12-17; John 6: 1-15), with only minor variations on the place and the circumstances.
In the verses immediately before, in yesterday’s reading, Saint Mark tells of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, who was executed after he denounced Herod Antipas for marrying his brother Philip’s wife, while Philip was still alive (see Mark 6: 14-29).
The disciples of Saint John the Baptist took his body and buried it – a foreshadowing of how his disciples are going to desert Christ at his own death and burial – and they then go to Christ to tell him the news (verses 29-30).
When Jesus hears this, he takes a boat and withdraws to a deserted place. But the crowds follow him on foot around the shore and find him, and when he comes ashore there is a great crowd waiting for him. He has ‘compassion for them, and because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things’ (verse 34).
I cannot help but think this morning of the immediate relevance of the sequence of events where the cruel actions of a despotic leader are followed immediately by Jesus showing compassion for the wandering and oppressed people ‘because they were like sheep without a shepherd’, and he teaches them and he feeds them.
It is just over a year since Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, in her sermon at the National Cathedral prayer service in Washington (21 January 2025), urged Donald Trump to show mercy and compassion towards scared individuals, including ‘gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families’, towards immigrants and those fleeing war and persecution.
But in a response to Bishop Budde online, in a lengthy, bullying rant on social media the next day, Trump labelled her a ‘Radical Left hard line Trump hater’ who had ‘brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way’, claiming she was ‘nasty’ in her tone.
Bishop Mariann opened her sermon by praying: ‘O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on Earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’
And she concluded: ‘Have mercy, Mr President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.
‘May God grant us all the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.’
As Sarah Jones, senior writer for Intelligencer, wrote, ‘For MAGA, the Line Between God and Trump Has Blurred.’ She wrote, ‘MAGA has chosen its god-king … The god-king is human, fallible, and frail, and his worship distorts the world.’ For some, the choice between Herod and Jesus may have been difficult at the time, with severe consequences. But for many the choice today is stark, and the moral options are clear, no matter what the cost is going to be.
Those stark choices are being made, and the costly but moral choices are being made. According to a report in the Church Times yesterday, Episcopal bishops in the US are warning that Americans must be prepared to lose their lives as they stand up for their values in the crisis caused by Trump’s immigration clampdown.< (‘US Bishops: Prepare for era of martyrdom, 6 February 2026, p 10)br />
More than 150 bishops of the Episcopal Church have signed an open letter calling on Americans to ‘stand by their values and act.’ The Presiding Bishop, Dr Sean Rowe, is quoted in the New York Times saying: ‘I think that we may be called on to put our bodies on the line and that we should be ready to do that. We all have a responsibility to resist this as Christians and that kind of resistance my cost us our life.’
‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while’ (Mark 6: 31) … searching in a deserted place for a place of rest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 February 2026):
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), has been: ‘Serving the Lord with Dignity’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Mauricio Mugunhe, Executive Director of Acção Social Anglicana, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 7 February 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we know that unless you build the house, the builders labour in vain. Direct IAMA according to your purpose, and uphold the vision with steadfast faith.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
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 truth,
we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life:
strengthen our faith
that we may grow in love for you and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of our salvation,
help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies
and poison our minds
and to choose again your gift of life,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Lent:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
‘They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves’ (Mark 6: 32) … boats by the River Blackwater at Cappoquin Rowing Club in Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (12 February) with a guide price of more than £2 million. The synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded in 1923, and is being sold on behalf of the Federation of Synagogues.
This is the only surviving purpose-built synagogue in the East End and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End. It was closed in 2020 after a leak in the roof caused part of the ceiling to collapse and also because of the impact of Covid-19 on attendance numbers.
Ever since, the synagogue in Whitechapel has been largely disused. It remains a locally listed heritage asset, however, and any development by new owners would involve taking consideration of this listing.
The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue in 1923 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
By the early 1890s, there were shuls (synagogues), chevrot (benevolent societies) and steiblech (informal places of worship) all over the Spitalfields, Whitechapel and the Saint George’s area. The East End had become a centre of Jewish life by the early 20th century, with a Jewish population of about 250,000 people and about 150 synagogues.
Most of these people were Yiddish-speaking first-generation immigrants from East Europe, unlike other, longer-established Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in the country, which had come in earlier generations from the Low Countries.
Nelson Street is in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, and previously in Stepney, and extends for 1,000 ft east from New Road, off Commercial Road. It runs parallel with Varden Street, immediately to the north, and crosses over Turner Street and Philpot Street. The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.
It was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue (Hebrew name: Ohr HaChaim D’bnai Berdichev) in 1923, at a time when the East End was a crowded Jewish neighbourhood, largely made up of immigrants. Initially the style of service (nosach) was Sfardish or Sphardish, also known as Askenazi Sfard, which is not to be confused with Sephardi. The name Sfardish refers to a style of service that differs slightly from mainstream Ashkenazi and is similar to Hassidic usage. The order of service and certain extra words in some of the prayers are similar to the Sephardic tradition, but the Hebrew pronunciation and tunes are Ashkenazi, as were most of the Nelson Street congregation.
There were other Sfardish shuls in the area, such as Philpot Street Sfardish synagogue, which eventually amalgamated with Nelson Street.
Nelson Street Synagogue was the East End’s last surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The foundation stone of Nelson Street Synagogue was laid by the synagogue president, B Bernstein, on 19 August 1923. The synagogue was designed by Lewis Solomon (1848-1928), an architect who designed several synagogues, and served as both the honorary architect of the Federation of Synagogues and architect and surveyor of the United Synagogue.
Lewis Solomon was born in 1848 to a Jewish family and was an apprentice and later clerk of works in the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt. He commenced practice on his own in London in 1872. Lewis Solomon and Son also redesigned the premises of the neighbouring Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road, which also survives, in 1921. His other works include Golders Green Synagogue and the Fulham and West Kensington Synagogue.
His practice was being run by 1923 by his son Digby Lewis Solomon (1884-1962). Lewis Solomon died in 1928, and the practice later became Lewis Solomon, Kaye & Partners.
Inside the East London Centre Synagogue on Nelson Street (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)
Nelson Street Synagogue has been described as having ‘an unassuming exterior and a stunningly beautiful interior.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described it in 1951: ‘Discreet brick exterior with two tiers of windows beneath round-headed arches with stone keystones. Fine classical interior. Galleries with iron railings between Ionic columns; coved steps, framed by a Venetian arch on Doric columns. Above the Ark, scrolled pediment with tablets of the law and Lions of Judah. Panelled pews and Bimah.’
Nelson Street Synagogue had a tradition of assisting local poor people, setting up of soup kitchens and other charities. It also provided a welcoming haven for refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.
The area around Whitechapel and Mile End was known at one time as London’s ‘Jewish Quarter’ and the poet Avram Stencl, himself a refugee from Nazi Germany arriving here in 1944, understood this at a much deeper level describing it as ‘the last shtetl’, with all the exile, struggle and longing that implies.
The East End of Nelson Street Synagogue, until recently one of the few surviving working synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The East End was heavily bombed during World War II, and the Jewish population moved on to new Jewish centres in north and north-west London, such as Stamford Hill, Golders Green and Hendon.
The consequent fall in membership numbers caused many East End synagogues to close and the congregations of the East End synagogues consolidated. Over the years, about 20 neighbouring synagogues were amalgamated with Nelson Street, but some of them lived on as names on commemorative plaques.
They include:
Belz Synagogue (by 1952), Berditchever Synagogue (by 1952), Buross Street, Cannon Street Road Synagogue (early 1970s), Chevra Shass, Commercial Road Great Synagogue (after 1968), Grove Street Synagogue (about 1949), Jubilee Street Zionist Synagogue (about 1967), Mile End Synagogue, New Road Synagogue (1974), Philpot Street Great Synagogue (after 1956), Philpot Street Sphardish Synagogue (after 1956), Rumanian Sidney Street Synagogue (by 1952), and the Sons of Britchan (B’nai Brichtan) Synagogue (1952).
The synagogue was renamed East London Central Synagogue in 1975. In recent years, it was left as the East End’s only surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining in the East End, along with Sandy’s Row Synagogue, and the Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road.
Because of these amalgamations, the shul on Nelson Street had a large collection of Torah scrolls, some dating back to the 18th century, although many are now of unknown origin.
Inside Nelson Street shul, once the most vibrant in the East End (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)
Nelson Street shul was once the most vibrant in the East End. Many people on social media recalled how it used to be full, especially during the high holydays and Yomim Tovim. The comments included ones that recalled Josif Weisz, a chazan from Romania with a beautiful tenor voice, and Rabbi Spetzman, an elderly rabbi with a flowing long beard who gave his sermons in Yiddish. Even in the 1980s ‘it was full of some amazing old characters … proper EastEnders.’
By the beginning of the 21st century, ‘the congregation consisted of about half a dozen stalwarts and a rabbi who walked each Saturday from Stoke Newington.’
The Jewish East End Celebration Society organised a number of Jewish East End activities 20 years ago (2003). These included an interview with Anna Tzelniker, a renowned Yiddish actor who worked with her father Meier and others in both mainstream and Yiddish theatre.
She was born in Romania and came to England as a teenager with her family in the early 1930s. She started her career in her father’s travelling Yiddish theatre company in Romania. Her many roles included five years in the West End stage production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Most of the Jewish communities in the East End have been dispersed in recent decades, and the East End now has a considerable Muslim population. , and the shul actively engaged in interfaith relations through the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, which includes the large East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road. The synagogue was also regularly visited by historical societies and walking tours, and took part in Open House London.
Leon Silver, a former president of the Nelson Street synagogue, grew up in the neighbourhood, and in his blog postings in recent years has discussed the tensions with local people and efforts to foster dialogue among faith communities A march to the synagogue from Aldgate eight years ago (January 2018) commemorated the East End’s Jewish heritage, and was followed by a multi-faith service of remembrance.
The synagogue was due to celebrate its centenary in 2023, and the architect Maxwell Hutchinson drafted plans to add museum and library space, so that the shul could build on its attraction as a tourist destination and become an historic Jewish centre in the East End.
But, after many years of attempts at renovation, it has fallen into a parlous state of disrepair, despite its rich and history, emblematic of both the history of the East End and of the Jewish community that was once a major part of it.
Today the East London Central Synagogue is daubed with disturbing graffiti, and the area to the immediate east is strewn with litter and its view marred by bins and rubbish from neighbouring premises. Inside, under all the white paint, I imagine there still may be plaques that recall the original donors with donations of 2s 6d, 5 shillings,10s 6d, and even £1 or a guinea (21 shillings).
When news of the pending sale was posted on social media in recent weeks, there were many suggestions that the synagogue should be converted into the Jewish Museum, presenting the history of Jews in the East End.
Yet, no matter whatever happens to the shul after next week’s auction, the Jewish presence in the East End is not coming to an end: the Congregation of Jacob shul is a six-minute walk away to the east, and Sandy’s Row and Bevis Marks Synagogues are a mile to the west.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
Nelson Street Synagogue once had plans to become a tourist destination and an historic Jewish centre in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
• Update (9 February 2026): The estate agents website says the former synagogue has been sold prior to auction, and a video on social media says that it was bought by a Muslim organisation, the Ashaadibi Education and Cultural Centre, which put down a £250,000 deposit ‘to secure the contract’ and has nine months to raise £3.5 million to secure the purchase.
