Saint Etheldreda’s Church, a hidden church close to Hatton Garden, was once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely

Saint Etheldreda’s Church on Ely Place, once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely, is one of the oldest churches in England in use by the Catholic Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

On previous visits to the Holborn area in London, I have visited Hatton Garden and Ye Olde Mitre, which is one of the oldest, most hidden and discrete pubs in London. I found it down a narrow alleyway off Hatton Garden that is easy to walk by without noticing, yet it has a fascinating history.

Ye Olde Mitre was originally built in 1546 for the servants of nearby Ely Palace, although it was rebuilt in 1773. It is known for a cherry tree that Elizabeth I and Sir Christopher Hatton – who gave his name to Hatton Garden – are said to have danced around. A stone bishop’s mitre on one wall may be from either the old palace or the gatehouse.

But each time I visited Hatton Garden and Ye Olde Mitre in the past, I had neglected to continue on down the narrow alley to Ely Place. When I did so on my most recent visit to Holborn, I was rewarded not only with finding myself on Ely Place but also with a visit to Saint Etheldreda’s Church, once the chapel of the Bishops of Ely, who had their London residence at Ely Palace or Ely House. Today, it is one of the oldest churches in England in use by the Catholic Church.

Ye Olde Mitre in a hidden alley between Hatton Garden and Ely Place, is a reminder of the presence of the Bishops of Ely (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Ely Place is a gated cul-de-sac of terraced houses near Holborn Circus in the London Borough of Camden. The street is just a minute’s walk from the bustle of Holborn and the busy diamond and jewellery shops of Hatton Garden. The street is a quiet enclave and is privately managed by its own body of commissioners and beadles.

Ely Place sits on the site of Ely Palace or Ely House, the London residence of the Bishops of Ely from 1290 and 1772. The bishop’s palace and surrounding land was later sold and redeveloped into Ely Place, and only the bishop’s mediaeval chapel was preserved, which today is Saint Etheldreda’s Church.

John de Kirkby bought the land in this part of Holborn in 1280. He became Bishop of Ely in 1286 and he left the estate to the Diocese of Ely when he died in 1290. The mediaeval Bishops of Ely often held high offices of state requiring them to live in London and Ely Palace was their official residence.

The cloister steps leading to the upper chapel in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Shakespeare refers to Ely Palace or its grounds in two plays, Richard II and Richard III. John of Gaunt moved to the palace in 1381 after the Savoy Palace was destroyed during the Peasants’ Revolt. In King Richard II, this where he delivers the speech in which he refers to England as ‘this royal throne of Kings, this sceptre’d isle’.

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon attended a feast given in 1531 by the Bishop of Ely, Nicholas West, which is said to have lasted for five days. The sumptuous feast is rumoured to have been one of the first public signs of trouble in their marriage as Henry VIII and Queen Catherine dined in separate rooms.

James Butler (1496-1546), 9th Earl of Ormond, was visiting London with his household on 17 October 1546, when they were invited to dine at Ely Palace as guests of the Bishop of Ely. Butler, who had served in the household of Cardinal Wolsey in his youth, had crossed Sir Anthony St Leger, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and was poisoned along with his steward, James Whyte, and 16 of his household, probably on St Leger’s instructions.

John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, was acting on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots when he was held at Ely House under house arrest from 14 May until 17 August 1571.

The crypt or lower chapel in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The estate was granted to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1577 and a new lease gave Hatton control of the freehold. He gave his name to Hatton Garden which now occupies part of the site.

The estate was sold to the Crown in 1772, and the cul-de-sac that is now Ely Place was built by Robert Taylor. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely, commissioned a new Ely House, built by Taylor on Dover Street, Mayfair.

Ely Place retained its anomalous status into 1920s, supposedly remaining under the jurisdiction of Ely in Cambridgeshire and not part of London. Beadles guarded the entrance and closed the gates to all strangers. Even the police had to ask permission to enter, and beadles’ voices could be heard calling out throughout the night.

Saint Etheldreda’s Church is dedicated to Æthelthryth or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Etheldreda’s Church was the chapel of Ely Palace or Ely House, the London residence of the Bishops of Ely. It is dedicated to Æthelthryth or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673. The building dates from between 1250 and 1290 and is one of only two surviving in London from the reign of Edward I.

After the Tudor Reformations, the Bishops of Ely continued to oversee the chapel. Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, leased part of the house and lands surrounding the chapel to Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Elizabeth I, in 1576. Hatton borrowed extensively from the crown to pay for the refurbishment and upkeep of the property, and while he was the tenant the crypt was used as a tavern.

In the early 17th century, the chapel briefly became a haven for English Catholics when the upper church was granted to the Spanish ambassador, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña (1567-1626), Count of Gondomar, in 1620 to use as his private chapel. It was regarded as Spanish soil and so Catholics were allowed to use the church. But in the midst a diplomatic dispute between England and Spain, Gondomar was recalled to Spain two years later and his successor was not given use of the chapel.

Inside Saint Etheldreda’s Church, restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) to its 13th century designs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In an incident known as the ‘Fatal Vespers’, 95 people were killed on 26 October 1623 when the upper floor of Hunsdon House, the residence of the French ambassador in Blackfriars, collapsed when 300 people were gathered to hear a clandestine Catholic sermon; 19 of the victims were buried in the crypt of Saint Etheldreda’s.

Matthew Wren (1585-1667), Bishop of Ely (1638-1646, 1660-1667) and uncle of the architect Sir Christopher Wren, worshipped at Saint Etheldreda’s before he was imprisoned in 1641. The palace and the church were requisitioned by Parliament in 1642 for use as a prison and hospital during the English Civil War. During the Cromwellian era (1649-1660), most of the palace was demolished and the gardens were destroyed.

Legislation in 1772 allowed the Bishops of Ely to sell the property to the Crown. The site, including the chapel, was sold on to Charles Cole, a surveyor and architect. He demolished all the buildings on the site apart from the chapel and built Ely Place. The chapel was extensively refurbished in the Georgian style and was reopened in 1786. It was taken over in 1836 by the National Society for the Education of the Poor, which hoped to convert the Irish Catholic immigrants then moving into the area, but the church closed again a short time later.

The East Window by JE ‘Eddie’ Nuttgens is generally regarded as his finest work (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Revd Alexander D’Arblay of Camden Town Chapel, a son of the novelist and diarist Fanny Burney, reopened Ely Chapel as a place of Anglican worship in 1836, but died within a year on 19 January 1837. The church was leased in 1843 to Welsh Anglicans, who held services there in the Welsh language.

When the chapel was put up for sale by auction in 1874, it was bought by Father William Lockhart, a former Anglican and a priest in the Rosminian order. The Institute of Charity or Rosminians had worked in Nottingham and Leicester and later in North London, and Cardinal Henry Manning wanted them to work in the slum areas of Holborn.

Lockhart, who was the Rector of the North London Mission, was chosen for the task. He had been a friend in Oxford of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and it is said that Lockhart’s decision had finally convinced Newman that he too should become a Roman Catholic.

Lockhart learned in December 1873 that Saint Etheldreda’s was about to be sold at auction. He faced competition from the Welsh Episcopalians, who had the backing of a Welsh steel magnate. But at the sale, the Welsh made a mistake: they thought Lockhart’s agent was theirs, they stopped bidding, and Saint Etheldreda’s was sold to the Rosminians for £5,400.

John Francis Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed the choir screen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Under Lockhart’s direction, the crypt and upper church were restored by the prolific Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) to their original 13th century designs. John Francis Bentley (1839-1902), the architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed a choir screen incorporating a confessional, an organ and a choir gallery; his other works include Holy Rood Church, Watford. The royal coat of arms, added during the reign of Charles I, was moved to the cloister. A relic donated by the Duke of Norfolk was said to be a piece of Saint Etheldreda’s hand, and is kept in a jewel cask to the right of the high altar.

The restoration was completed in 1878, the year Scott died, and a Catholic Mass was celebrated in Saint Ethelreda’s for the first time in over 200 years. The upper church was reopened on the Feast of Saint Etheldreda, 23 June 1879.

Saint Etheldreda’s includes a chapel or upper church, and a crypt or undercroft, and is used for Masses, Baptisms, weddings and funerals. Because Saint Etheldreda was traditionally invoked for help with throat infections, the Blessing of the Throats is held annually in the chapel.

The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments scheduled the chapel as an ancient monument in 1925. But during the Blitz, the church was hit in May 1941 by a bomb that tore a hole in the roof and destroyed the Victorian stained glass windows. It took seven years to repair the structural damage.

The West Window by Charles Blakeman (1964) depicts Catholic martyrs during the Reformation era (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The interior of Saint Etheldreda’s is said to have the largest expanse of stained glass in London. The east window by JE ‘Eddie’ Nuttgens, generally regarded as his finest work, one of the few in which he ‘let his imagination take command and soar’, was installed in 1952. It depicts the Trinity (centre), the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (top row), as well as the Virgin Mary (left) and Saint Joseph (right), with Saint Etheldreda of Ely (far left) and Saint Bridget of Kildare (far right). At the base, Nuttgens has placed a sturdy version of the Last Supper mostly in bright golds and reds whose clearly articulated composition surely reveals the influence of his friend and neighbour Eric Gill.

Later, his pupil and friend Charles Blakeman created stained glass for the nave, west window and crypt. The West Window by Blakeman was added in 1964, depicting Catholic suffering during the Reformation. Three Carthusian monks and two other priests were put to death for refusing to acknowledge Henry Vlll as head of the Church are shown in the centre of the window, while Christ triumphant hangs on the Cross above the Tyburn Gallows.

The windows in the south wall depict scenes from the Old Testament, and the windows in the north wall show scenes from the New Testament.

Two groups of four statues of English Catholic martyrs from the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were installed along the north and south walls In the 1960s. They include Saint Edmund Gennings, Saint Swithun Wells, Saint Margaret Ward, Blessed John Forest, Blessed Edward Jones, Blessed John Roche, Saint Anne Line and Saint John Houghton.

For many years, Saint Etheldreda’s was the oldest Catholic church building in England, but since 1971 that place has been taken by the 12th-century church of Saint Leonard and Saint Mary in Malton, North Yorkshire. Saint Etheldreda’s has been fully restored and is an active church today. The crypt, also used as a chapel, is a popular, atmospheric venue for baptisms.

The steps leading down to the crypt in Saint Etheldreda’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Pilgrims visit the church as a stopping point on the London Martyrs’ Way, a pilgrimage route developed by the British Pilgrimage Trust and to venerate the hand relic of Saint Etheldreda.

Saint Etheldreda’s Church is open Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm, and Sunday 8 am to 12:30 pm. The nearest tube stations are Chancery Lane (Central Line) and Farringdon (Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan Lines). Ye Old Mitre is only open Monday to Friday.

Sunday Masses in Saint Etheldreda’s Church are at 9 am (English) and 11 am (Sung Latin); Weekday Masses are at 1 pm, Monday to Friday; Masses on holy days are at 1 pm and 6 pm.

Ely Court, a narrow alley running between Ely Place and Hatton Garden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 42, Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … a carving of Saint Philip on the pulpit in Saint Philip’s Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter, and today is the Tuesday of Holy Week (31 March 2026). In addition, Passover begins tomorrow evening (1 April 2026) and continues until Thursday 9 April 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, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … Saint Philip (left) in a stained glass window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 20-36 (NRSVA):

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

Inside the Church of Aghios Philippos off Adrianou Street in Athens … for a Jewish family to give their son the Greek name Philip at the time may have been risqué (Photograph: Patrick Comerford) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 12: 20-36), it is Palm Sunday and some Greeks are in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. This year, Passover begins tomorrow evening [1 April 2026], so that Passover this year overlaps with Holy Week and Easter.

These visiting Greeks in Jerusalem are trying to find Jesus. They approach Philip, whose Greek name indicates he probably understands them, and they say to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

For a Jewish family to call their son Philip in those days might have been risqué – if not scandalous. The Greek name Philip (Φίλιππος) means ‘one who loves horses.’ But it is not as simple as that. The name represents much more.

Philip of Macedon, who died in 336 BCE, was the father of Alexander the Great. A century later, Philip V (Φίλιππος Ε) of Macedon (221-179 BCE) was an attractive and charismatic young man and a dashing and courageous warrior, and the inevitable comparisons with Alexander the Great gave him the nickname ‘beloved of all Greece’ (ἐρώμενος τῶν Ἑλλήνων).

Philip was also a common name in the Seleucid dynasty, which inherited the Eastern portion of Alexander’s Empire. The Seleucid Empire, based in Babylon and then in Antioch, was a major centre of Hellenistic culture that maintained the dominance of Greek culture, customs and politics.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed aggressive Hellenising (or forcible de-Judaising) policies that provoked the Maccabean Revolt in Judea. A century later, two of the last four Seleucid rulers, before their kingdom fell to the Romans, were Philip I and his son Philip II.

So the name Philip would be associated with a family that had been fully Hellenised and that was opposed to the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans.

At the time of Christ, we find the confusing figure of Herod I or Herod Philip I, the husband of Herodias and father of Salome; and Herod the Great’s son, Philip the Tetrarch or Herod Philip II, who married Salome and who gave his name to Caesarea Philippi (Καισαρεία Φιλίππεια), in the Golan Heights.

Philip the Apostle is very much a Hellenised Jew, perhaps from a non-practising Jewish family in Bethsaida, which was part of the territory of the Tetrarch Philip II. He may represent the very antithesis of Nathanael, the guileless Jews waiting for the expected Messiah.

Yet Philip the Greek seeks out Nathanael the Jew (see John 1: 43-46), just as Andrew, with a Greek name, seeks out Simon, his brother with the Hebrew name (see John 1: 40-42). At the very beginning of Christ’s mission, the barriers between Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile, are already broken down. And their calling, Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathanael, shows how we are called both individually and in community.

Did Philip join Jesus at the wedding in Cana (see John 2: 1-11)? Probably, although we cannot know with certainty.

Philip figures most prominently in Saint John’s Gospel. Christ asks Philip about feeding the 5,000. Later, Philip is a link to Greek speakers when they approach Philip and say: ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip advises Andrew and together these two tell Jesus of this request (see John 12: 21-26), which we read about today. At the Last Supper, Philip’s question (John 14: 8) leads to the great Farwell Discourse (John 14: 9 to John 17: 26).

In the second part of this Gospel story, we are pointed not just to the Cross, but to the resurrection. This is not just a story for Lent, but a story filled with the Easter promise of the Resurrection.

In the long run, the conclusion to this story is found in the experience of Greeks visiting Jerusalem after the Resurrection, just 50 days later, at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on devout people of every nation, and the disciples find they are heard by each one present in their own language. It becomes a foundational experience for the Church.

Saint Paul finds it so transforming that he reminds his readers that in Christ: ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek (οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην), there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3: 28).

Am I like Philip and Andrew, too comfortable with a Christ who fits my own cultural comforts, my own demands and expectations?

Do I all too easily lock Christ away in my own ‘churchiness,’ to the point that the stone might never have been rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning?

What prejudices from the past do I use to dress up my image of Christ today?

If Saint Paul is right, then Christ reaches out too to those who are marginalised in our society because of their gender, sexuality, marital status, colour, language or religious background.

In Christ there is no Catholic nor Protestant, no male and female, no black and white, no gay and straight, no distinction between those born on these islands and those who arrive here as immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers or refugees.

And every time I reduce Christ to my own comfortable categories I keep him behind that stone rolled across the tomb.

‘Some Greeks came to Philip … and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’ (John 12: 20-21) … the monument of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, looking out towards Mount Olympus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 31 March 2026, Tuesday of Holy Week) invites us to pray:

Lord of the Sabbath, help us to trust in you, cast our burdens upon you, and know you sustain us in life’s pilgrimage. When darkness falls or the road is hard, send your Spirit to comfort us and assure us of your presence.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Some Greeks … came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee’ (see John 12: 20-21) … Saint Philip depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Andrew’s Church, Rugby (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

Praying the prayers for peace written by Eric Milner-White as I listen to the sounds of war

Eric Milner-White (1884-1963) … his prayers are so relevant today

Patrick Comerford

For many years, I maintained a website and Facebook page for a project I had called the Dead Anglican Theologians Society. The project has been moribund for the past five years, but should I ever have thoughts about breathing new life into it, some of the 20th century theologians I ought to include are Alfred Hope Patten (1885-1958), Bishop Mowbray Stephen O’Rorke (1869-1953) and Eric Milner-White (1884-1963), three key Anglican theologians in the first half of the 20th century.

I was reminded of their innovative contributions to Anglican theology when I was in Walsingham earlier this month as one of the speakers at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage (10-13 March 2026).

Among the other speakers that week was the Methodist minister and theologian, Canon Norman Wallwork of Exeter, who is an ecumenical canon of Wells Cathedral as Prebendary of Holcombe, and who spoke in the Catholic Church of the Anunciation in Walsingham on ‘The Marian Prayers of Eric Milner-Scott’.

The Very Revd Eric Milner Milner-White (1884-1963) was a priest, liturgist, academic and decorated military chaplain. He was a founder of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, an Anglican dispersed community, and was its superior from 1923 to 1938, and he was the Dean of York from 1941 to 1963.

He is best-known for developing the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at the end of World War I when he was the Dean of King’s College, Cambridge.

Eric Milner-White was the Dean of King’s College Chapel from 1918 to 1941 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Eric Milner-White was born in Southampton on 23 April 1884, the son of Sir Henry Milner-White, a barrister and company chairman, and Kathleen Lucy (née Meeres). He was educated at Harrow and King’s College, Cambridge, where he had a scholarship to read history. He graduated in 1906 with a double-first and received the Lightfoot Scholarship.

After theological training at Cuddesdon College, Milner-White was ordained deacon in 1908 and priest in 1909 in Southwark Cathedral). His curacies were at Saint Paul’s, Newington (1908-1909), and Saint Mary Magdalen, Woolwich (1909-1912), before he returned to King’s College as chaplain in 1912, when he was also appointed a lecturer in history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

He volunteered as an army chaplain at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and was on the Western Front and in Italy. He was Mentioned in Despatches on 24 December 1917 and decorated with the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1918.

He resigned his commission on 5 January 1918 and returned to Cambridge as the Dean and a Fellow of King’s College. He was re-appointed as an honorary chaplain to the armed forces in 1921. He was a founder of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd and also the order’s superior from 1923 to 1938.

During his time at King’s College, Milner-White introduced the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. It was first broadcast in 1928 and has now become a major part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule.

His experience as an army chaplain led him to believe that more imaginative worship was needed by the Church of England, and the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s was held on Christmas Eve 1918. The order of service was adapted from the order created by Edward Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for Truro Cathedral on Christmas Eve 1880.

That first service at King’s largely followed Benson’s original plan, including the Benedictions before each reading, several of which were later amalgamated by Milner-White into his Bidding Prayer.

The service was first broadcast from King’s by the BBC in 1928 and, except for 1930, has been broadcast every year since. Even throughout World War II, despite the stained glass having been removed from the Chapel at King’s and the lack of heating, the broadcasts continued. Since World War II, it has been estimated that each year millions of listeners worldwide listen to the service live on the BBC.

The bidding prayer, adapted by Eric Milner-White and now in use in King’s Chapel, prays:

‘Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmas Eve our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels; in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger.

‘Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our disobedience unto the glorious Redemption brought us by this Holy Child; and let us make this Chapel, dedicated to Mary, his most blessèd Mother, glad with our carols of praise:

‘But first let us pray for the needs of his whole world; for peace and goodwill over all the earth; for unity and brotherhood within the Church he came to build, and especially in the dominions of our sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, within this University and City of Cambridge, and in the two royal and religious Foundations of King Henry VI here and at Eton:

‘And because this of all things would rejoice his heart, let us at this time remember in his name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed; the sick in body and in mind and them that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; all who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.

‘Lastly let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.

‘These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven, in the words which Christ himself hath taught us:

‘Our Father …’

Milner-White was instrumental in inspiring the composer Herbert Howells to write his Collegium Regale service settings when he challenged Howells to write music for King’s College in 1941. Howells remarked that his composition was ‘the only Te Deum to be born of a decanal bet’. The settings have since become a well-known part of Anglican repertoire.

Collegium Regale: https://www.patrickcomerford.com/2014/12/hymns-for-advent-6-spotless-rose-by.html

York Minster was the Dean of York Minster from 1941 until he died in 1963 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Milner-White remained at King’s until 1941, when he was appointed Dean of York by Archbishop William Temple. During his time as dean, he directed the replacement of many of York Minster’s windows and undertook a great deal of writing on liturgy and he was a member of the literary panel that produced the New English Bible in 1948-1962.

Milner-White’s honours included CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1952), the Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity (1952), and an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Leeds (1962).

Milner-White died of cancer in the deanery of York Minster on 15 June 1963.

Milner-White realised during World War I that the ministry of the Church of England, particularly the services for the burial of the dead, did not meet the needs of the troops in the trenches. He made those views clear in an essay ‘Worship and services’ in The Church in the Furnace in 1918.

He continued to press for prayers additional to those in the Book of Common Prayer to meet the needs of modern congregations. Of his own prayer publications, probably the best known is Daily Prayer (1941), which he compiled with Canon George Wallace Briggs (1875-1959), and which includes a selection of prayers for public, private and school worship.

His other works include Occasional Prayer (1928), Memorials upon Several Occasions (1933), revised as After the Third Collect (1953), A Cambridge Bede Book (1936), and A Procession of Passion Prayers (1950), which became an important resource for Holy Week.

Towards the end of his life, he published two further books of prayers: My God, My Glory (1954) and Let Grace Reign (1960), dedicated to the Vicars Choral of York Minster ‘with my deep love and gratitude’.

During that week in Walsingham earlier this month, the US war against Iran was gathering pace, and the overpowering, intrusive and invasive noise of the overflights were a constant, persistent and pernicious reminder throughout each and every day of the presence of the US air force at the RAF bases nearby in Feltwell, Lakenheath and Mildenhall.

With that constant reminder of war and the threat of a conflagration that could yet engulf the world, it was good that morning to hear Norman Wallwork remind us of prayers for peace and in times of war written by Eric Milner-White, a much decorated and valiant army chaplain who knew the horrors of war at first-hand:

For the Peace of the World:

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, and no strength known but the strength of love: we pray you so mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under one banner, of the Prince of Peace; as children of one God and Father of all; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

(Occasional Prayers, 1928)

For the Peace of the World:

O God, as you would fold both heaven and earth in a single peace: Let the design of your great love descend upon the waste of our anger and sorrow; and give peace to your Church, peace among the nations, peace in our dwellings, and peace in our hearts; through your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

(< i>Memorials upon Several Occasions, 1933)

And there was a prayer, based on Psalm 141: 3, that reminded me of the way Donald Trump is, to say the least, economical with the truth:

Set a guard, Lord, upon our tongues:
that we never speak the cruel word which is not true;
or being true, is not the whole truth;
or being wholly true, is merciless;
for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Daily Prayer, 1941)

A year before his death, he wrote a prayer based on words by the poet John Donne (1572-1631) in a sermon preached at Whitehall on 29 February 1627. These words have also been provided with choral settings by many composers, including Peter R Hallock and William Harris:

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends or beginnings, but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of your glory and dominion,
world without end.

King’s College Chapel is known for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols revived by Eric Milner-White (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 41, Monday 30 March 2026, Monday of Holy Week

Mary anoints the feet of Jesus in Bethany … a window in the north aisle of Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter, and today is the Monday of Holy Week (30 March 2025).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Hardman window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, with the Anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

‘There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him’ (John 12: 2) … dinner in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary (John 12: 1-11) is an extended version of the Gospel reading eight days ago on the Fifth Sunday in Lent or Passion Sunday (Lent V, John 12: 1-8).

Many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, the then Rector of Killanne and Killegney, Co Wexford, the late Canon Norman Ruddock (1935-2006), invited me to speak at one of his Lenten reflections in Clonroche, Co Wexford.

I was then living on High Street in Wexford, working as a journalist with the Wexford People, and I was probably invited as a Lenten speaker because I also had a weekly column in the local newspapers in Co Wexford and Co Wicklow.

I remember how Philip Corish kindly drove me to and from Wexford that evening. Later that year, he was elected an Alderman on Wexford Corporation, and he would go on to become a Mayor of Wexford, while Norman Ruddock later became the Rector of Wexford, and he was a constant encouragement to me to go forward for ordination.

I remember that evening in 1974 as a balmy spring evening, and Norman Ruddock remarked on how my talk was challenging politically and socially. There was only one written follow-up: an anonymous parishioner sent me an unsigned letter, telling me I had abused the Gospel for political purposes. She (or he) chose to remind me of a saying in today’s Gospel reading: ‘You always have the poor with you’ (John 12: 8), or perhaps ‘The poor will always be among us!’ (Matthew 26: 11).

That was more than half a century ago. I never kept that letter, but I still think about it when I hear far-right activists criticising people like me, accusing us of being ‘Woke’ or showing ‘empathy’.

These verses continue to be misinterpreted and weaponised as a justification of wealth accumulation and ignoring the plight of the poor and the causes of their poverty.

As today’s Gospel reading makes very clear, it is Judas Iscariot who elicits this response from Jesus. On a second reading, it appears Jesus is saying that no matter what he says, does or teaches, Judas and people like him (you plural) are going to constantly neglect to hear the cry of the poor, literally the beggars (πτωχός, ptōchos).

The setting in John 12 is a destitute village, Bethany, whose name means ‘house of the poor’, ‘house of affliction’ or ‘house of misery’; in Matthew 26, it is the house of Simon the Leper, one of the poorest of the poor in a village full of poor people.

In the parallel story in Mark 14: 7, Jesus says: ‘For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish’. If anyone thinks ‘the poor will always be among you’ is a universal statement that somehow allows them to avoid responsibility from seeking to eliminate poverty, Mark 14: 7 turns that interpretation on its head.

In addition, we should remember that when Jesus cites Scripture he expects those who are listening to be familiar with the passage, and that they should be able to finish the quotation as they take it to heart. Jesus here is quoting from Deuteronomy 15, but the full passage (Deuteronomy 15: 1-11) he cites provides the context:

15 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. 2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbour, not exacting it from a neighbour who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. 3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. 8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

I suppose all I was doing that Lenten evening over 50 years ago was sharing my interpretation of Biblical economics – an interpretation that is even more relevant today.

‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 30 March 2026, Monday of Holy Week):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 30 March 2026, International Day of Zero Waste) invites us to pray:

Suffering God, as Christians walk the way of the Cross this Holy Week, remind us that what unites us in faith is greater than our divisions. May we be true partners in the Gospel wherever your mission takes us, without counting differences in practice.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The ‘Homeless Christ’ by the Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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 ‘30 million-word-gap’, $30 million for the rich few, 30 million tourists in Greece, and 30 million blog readers

Professor Dana Suskind, the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative … this blog had an accumulated a total of 30 million hits by late yesterday afternoon

Patrick Comerford

The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to surprise me, and these figures passed the 30 million mark by lunchtime this afternoon (29 March 2026).

This is the fifth time this month alone that the million figure in readership numbers has been passed: 29 million four days ago (25 March), 28 million on 20 March, 27 million on 12 March, and 26 million at the beginning of the month (1 March). The number of hits on two days this month have been the highest daily figures I have ever recorded: 323,156 on Friday (27 March 2026) and 318,307 on 1 March.

This year so far has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (15 million) have been within little more than eight months, since 25 July 2025. The total hits last month (February 2026) had been the highest monthly total ever (3,386,504), but that figure has already been outpaced this month, with a total of over 4.2 million by early this afternoon.

At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 9 million hits or visitors in 2026.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached eight times this month alone. Half of the 29.5 million hits have been within the last nine or ten months, since mid-July.

Throughout this year and last, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog, six were this month (March), three were in February, one was in January, and two were in January 2025:

• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)

• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 270,983 (25 March 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 234,737 (26 March 2026)
• 228,931 (18 March 2026)

The number of readers continues to be overpowering and the daily averages are currently running at almost 145,000 hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

The west façade of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela … Galicia in Spain covers 30 million square metres or 30,000 sq km (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

To put today’s figure of 30 million in context:

In her book Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain, Professor Dana Suskind, the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, explains why the most important yet simple thing a parent can do for a child’s future success in life is to talk to him or her. Her book, first published in 2015, looks at the recent science behind this truth, and outlines how parents can best put it into practice.

She argues that academic achievement begins on the first day of life with the first word said by a mother just after birth.

A study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1995 found that some children heard 30 million fewer words by their fourth birthdays than others. The children who heard more words were better prepared when they entered school. These same children, when followed into third grade, had bigger vocabularies, were stronger readers, and got higher test scores. This disparity in learning is referred to as the achievement gap.

Professor Dana Suskind learned of this 30 million word gap in the course of her work as a cochlear implant surgeon at University of Chicago Medical School and began a new research programme along with her sister-in-law, Beth Suskind, to find the best ways to bridge that gap.

The Thirty Million Word Initiative has developed programmes for parents to show the kind of parent-child communications that enables optimal neural development and has tested the programmes in and around Chicago across demographic groups.

They encourage parents to follow the three Ts:

• Tune in to what the child is doing;

• Talk more to the child using lots of descriptive words;

• Take turns with your child as you engage in conversation.

She shows parents how to make the words they serve up more enriching. For example, instead of telling a child, ‘Put your shoes on,’ one might say instead, ‘It is time to go out. What do we have to do?’ The lab’s five-year longitudinal research programme received funding so they can further corroborate their results.

The neuroscience of brain plasticity could contribute to some of the valuable and revolutionary research in medical science today. It enables us to think and do better and is making a difference in the lives of people both the old and young.

The term ‘30-million-word gap’, often shortened to ‘word gap’, was originally coined by Betty Hart and Todd R Risley in their book Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children and later reprinted in the paper ‘The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3’. In their study of 42 Midwestern families in the US, Hart and Risley recorded an hour’s worth of language in each home once a month over 2½ years.

Prior to the 30-million-word-gap study, extensive research had noted strong institutional variation in student success on standardised tests. Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018) replicated Hart and Risley's study and found that the number of word gaps varied within the same backgrounds of socioeconomic status. Garcia and Otheguy (2016) were interested in the origins and validity of the Language Gap, and how the preconceptions of it impact bilingual and bidialectical children, specifically from Latino and Black backgrounds.

Hart and Risley’s research has been criticised by scholars. Paul Nation criticises the methodology, noting that comparing the tokens (words produced) and number of types (number of different words) in unequal samples is not comparing vocabulary sizes. Other critics theorise that the language and achievement gaps are not a result of the amount of words a child is exposed to, but rather alternative theories suggest it could derive from the disconnect of linguistic practices between home and school.

A recent replication of Hart and Risley’s study with more participants has found that the ‘word gap’ may be closer to 4 million words, not the oft-cited 30 million words previously proposed. Hart and Risley’s research has also been criticised for a perceived racial bias, with the majority of the welfare families and working-class families being African American, or that it ignores the fact that language and culture are taught differently.

Nonetheless, the 30-million-word gap has received widespread attention. The Clinton foundation’s ‘Too Small to Fail’ initiative which hosted the White House Word Gap event in 2014, resulted in the US Department of Health and Human services funding remedial efforts to address the Word Gap.

The University of Chicago, School of Medicine's Thirty Million Words Initiative provides intervention for caregivers and teaches to show them how to optimise their talk with their children. The Word Gap theory can be seen as part of a larger development in modern educational reform and movement: the Achievement Gap discourse.

The effects of the Achievement Gap Discourse cause several cultural phenomena – ‘cultural gate-keeping’, in which policy makers and education reformers decide and label students as more or less capable and worthy than others. The achievement gap became an especially strong interest for study at the turn of the century, and the early 2000s when a plethora of studies looked at factors such as standardised test scores, presence in class, GPA, enrolment, and dropout rates in secondary and post-secondary education.

The Oxford Word Gap is used to describe the word gap found between ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes in the UK.

Meanwhile, in other measurements, according to the 2024 Knight Frank Wealth Report, there are about 225,000 individuals in the US with net assets of $30 million or more, just 0.07% of the population. Yet, about a third of Americans cannot cover a $500 emergency, and more than 11% – almost 38 million people – live in poverty in the US. Meanwhile, a tiny fraction of individuals control more wealth than entire nations.

This imbalance destabilises democracy, distorts our economy, and limits human potential. A recent report in Time magazine points out that far from expanding opportunity, this excessive wealth locks millions out of the chance to innovate and build, weakening growth for all. The report says a simple wealth tax of 50% annually on household wealth above $30 million would not dismantle ambition. Instead, it would convert excessive wealth for the very few into opportunity for all.

Countries with populations of about 30 million people include the Ivory Coast and Nepal. Greece is one of the world's most popular tourist destinations – more than 30 million visitors travel there every year. But a report by ABC in Australia last month suggests the population of Greece is in freefall, with predictions it will drop by 20 per cent by 2050.

30 million square metres is 30,000 sq km, or the size of Lesotho, a country that is landlocked in Southern Africa and the largest of only three sovereign enclaves in the world, the others being San Marino and Vatican City, which are surrounded by Italy. It is also the approximate size of Armenia and of Galicia in Spain and Normandy in France.

30 million minutes is 57 years and 14 days. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take 57 years, from March 1969, to reach this latest figure of 30 million.

It is four years since I retired from active parish ministry on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 100-120 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A similar number have been reading my recent series of postings on the churches and chapels of Walsingham over the past two weeks. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700-800 or more people each week.

This afternoon, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 30 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain thankful to the faithful core group of about 100-120 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.

Greece has more than 30 million visitors travel there every year, but an Australian news report suggests the population of Greece will drop by 20 per cent by 2050 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 40, Sunday 29 March 2026, Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday in Lent)

The Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) … a Hardman window (1869) in the north aisle of Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, the ‘cathedral of Huntingdonshire’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have come to the last week in Lent, and Holy Week begins today with Palm Sunday or the Sixth Sunday in Lent (29 March 2026), and next Sunday (5 April 2026) is Easter Day.

Later this morning, I am one of the readers at the Palm Sunday Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, which begins with a procession from the Market Square at 9:15.

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, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday … an icon by Theodoros Papadopoulos of Larissa

Matthew 26: 14 to 27: 66 (NRSVA):

14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 18 He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’ 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; 21 and while they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ 22 And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ 23 He answered, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’ 25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’

26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

31 Then Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written,
“I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”
32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ 33 Peter said to him, ‘Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.’ 34 Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ 35 Peter said to him, ‘Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And so said all the disciples.

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38 Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ 39 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ 40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42 Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ 43 Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ 49 At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. 51 Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. 58 But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, ‘This fellow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.”’ 62 The high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?’ 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, ‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ 64 Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power
and coming on the clouds of heaven.’

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your verdict?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, 68 saying, ‘Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?’

69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ 70 But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ 71 When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ 72 Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ 74 Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ 5 Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.’ 7 After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. 8 For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’

11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You say so.’ 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?’ 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

15 Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. 17 So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ 18 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. 19 While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21 The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ 22 Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ 23 Then he asked, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’

24 So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ 25 Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ 26 So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ 30 They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

32 As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36 then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37 Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’

38 Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ 41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42 ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.”’ 44 The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.

45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ 47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ 48 At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ 50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

55 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” 64 Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ 65 Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can. 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

‘Christ the Bridegroom’ … a new icon in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading for the Liturgy of the Passion (Matthew 26: 14 to 27: 66) this morning is so long that it was traditionally known as the ‘Long Gospel’. It is so long, even in the abbreviated option that is available (Matthew 27: 11-54), that I imagine many sermons this morning are going to be very short, relying instead on dramatised readings of the passion narrative.

The other Palm Sunday Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 1-11), for the Liturgy of the Palms, is so familiar that few people are going to hear new reflections on the story of that well-known entry into Jerusalem.

Few people are likely to hear the first reading provided in the lectionary from the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 50: 4-9a), and very few preachers are likely to seek inspiration from it.

In the Orthodox Church, Palm Sunday and Easter Day are each a week later this year (5 and 12 April). Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday and continuing through the evening of Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church observes a special service known as the Service of the Bridegroom. Each evening service is the Matins or Orthros service of the following day (for example, the service held on Sunday evening is the Orthros service for Holy Monday). The name of the service is from the figure of the Bridegroom in the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25: 1-13), and the icon of Christ the Bridegroom is inspired by many of the images of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.

The 19th century French writer Victor Hugo included the Prophet Isaiah in his list of the six great writers of Western literature, alongside Aeschylus, Homer, Job, Dante and Shakespeare.

This reading is well known as the third ‘Servant Song’ of Isaiah – in all, there are four servant songs of Isaiah: Isaiah 42: 1-4; Isaiah 49: 1-6; Isaiah 50: 4-11; and Isaiah 52: 13 to 53: 12.

But this third Servant Song is relatively unknown. It builds on and develops the two previous songs in chapter 42 and chapter 49 in that the Servant of God, for the first time, suffers in this reading. In words that are adapted by George Frideric Handel in his oratorio Messiah (1742), he ‘gave his back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard’ (50: 6).

So, the Servant Song in the Palm Sunday readings provides vital insights into an individual’s suffering for the sake of the nation and for the sake of the world.

There are many questions about the identity of Isaiah’s servant.

In the past, the sufferings of the Suffering Servant in the writings of Isaiah have been identified by Jewish scholars with the sufferings of the whole children of Israel, and in more recent years, by some scholars, in particular with the experiences of the Holocaust.

Christians have traditionally identified Isaiah’s Suffering Servant with the suffering and crucified Christ, the Christ who is condemned to death in the Gospel reading for Liturgy of the Passion. And, for early Christians, there was only one answer. For them, Christ clearly was the one long predicted by the prophet.

Most especially, they saw him in the fourth ‘Servant Song’ (Chapters 52-53), where the servant was ‘despised and rejected’ (53: 3), ‘a man of suffering’ (53: 3), who ‘has borne our infirmities’ (53: 4), who ‘carried our diseases’ (53: 4), who ‘like a lamb was led to the slaughter’ (53: 7), who ‘bore the sin of many, and made intercession for our transgressions’ (53: 12).

For those early Christians, that fourth song was clearly about the one they had experienced in Christ’s life and particularly in his death on the cross.

So, perhaps, that fourth song in Isaiah 52-53 might seem to be more appropriate a reading this morning as we face into Holy Week – and one of the readings on Good Friday [3 April 2026] is part of that fourth song (Isaiah 52: 13 to Isaiah 53: 12). So why was this passage (Isaiah 50: 4-9a), the third song, chosen instead as one the readings on Palm Sunday for Year A, B and C?

In Isaiah 50, the servant is given a clear and powerful description. But so too is God. Four times in this passage (verse 4, 5, 7, 9) the Lord is known as the ‘Lord God,’ an address that is unique in Isaiah. Other versions render this as ‘Sovereign Lord,’ and it catches attention because of the double title of God (adonai Yahweh). Perhaps, we should see this as a way of emphasising the dependence of the servant on God.

The word the servant uses to describe himself (lemudim, verse 4) has been translated ‘of a teacher,’ or ‘of those who learn,’ or ‘of the learned.’

It is not clear whether the word means that God has given the servant the tongue of a teacher or learner. But we all know that the best teachers are those who are the most eager learners. Theological teachers, in particular, need to listen to human wisdom and divine wisdom, need to listen to creation and to the Creator. To have the tongue that teaches, I must first have an ear that hears. The servant of God is one who learns and proclaims a message from God.

The prophet implies by that language that the servant is not necessarily a leader, he does not always need to be out front, but he is the one who can speak well when right speech is needed. Indeed, God’s gift of speech is given ‘that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word’ (50: 4b).

The primary role of the servant is to pay special attention to the ‘weary,’ to those who are in desperate need of encouragement and support, to those on the margins, who are neglected, who are in danger of being forgotten.

This role of listener and right speaker is given to the servant ‘morning by morning,’ again and again (50: 4c).

In contrast to other prophetic figures, who may have received the Word of God while in the Temple praying (Isaiah), while watching the flock (Amos), or in dreams or in visions (Ezekiel), the prophet here emphasises the daily inspiration that came to him.

The suffering servant was so committed to the task that he gave his ‘back to those who struck me’ and his ‘cheeks to those who pulled out the beard.’ Neither did he ‘hide (his) face from insult and spitting.’

These acts – striking, beard pulling, insulting and spitting – are harsh, demeaning actions in a shame-based culture. Each of these deeds is designed to humiliate and denigrate a person, forcing him or her to ‘turn back,’ to reject the course he or she had first decided to follow and to conform to society’s norms and expectations.

However, this servant is not going to be deterred from his task of being a careful listener and a true encourager, no matter what insults are heaped upon him.

Although the message will be proclaimed, it is his suffering that is emphasised here. Just as the mouth speaks what the ear hears, so the parts of the body that suffer are stressed here. His persecutors strike him on his back and, when they pull out hairs from his beard, they attack him at the front too. They hurt him physically when they strike him, and they hurt him psychologically when they taunt and insult him.

The Suffering Servant was empowered to take on his suffering and to not turn his back because ‘the Lord God helps me’ (verse 7a). Because of the presence of the Lord God, the servant feels no ‘disgrace’ and has ‘set my face like flint.’

This second image suggests the unbreakable conviction of the servant to do what he has been called for.

The remainder of the passage enumerates the absolute conviction of this servant to act on the call of the Lord God in all things:

and I know I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near (Isaiah 50: 7c-8a).

The servant can perform the work of the Lord God, however difficult and dangerous it may be, because the Lord God stands with the servant.

We live in a society and a culture where we try to avoid suffering. The Covid-19 or Corona Virus pandemic recently showed how in our culture we feel sickness and ill-health have to be avoided at all costs. We take out insurance against every inevitability and if, despite that, we end up in hospital we blame the system, the NHS, the medical professionals, even the government.

Until the recent pandemic, suffering was no longer appreciated or reflected on in our culture. We had become more interested in the exploits of the rich and famous than in the suffering of the marginalised and the global majority.

Yet, we should know, of all people, that suffering is at the heart of our experience of life, and the servant whose story we hear today is the one who leads us on the way to it. And In the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Day, we are invited again to be brought once more to the mystery of divine suffering.

We know that suffering and rejection must never have the last word. All suffering must eventually be put to an end, because that is the promise of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The Suffering Servant offers us the opportunity this Palm Sunday to look forward to Easter hope and the hope of the Resurrection.

The entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday … a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 29 March 2026, Palm Sunday):

The theme this week (29 March-4 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is a ‘Holy Week’ reflection’ (pp 42-43). This theme is introduced today with reflections by the Revd Kenson Li, Assistant Curate of Manchester Cathedral and a Trustee of USPG:

‘Read Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29.

‘This is known as the Psalm of the Liturgy of the Palms.

‘Manchester Cathedral, where I work, is over 600 years old. Yet we have no stained-glass windows that date back to when the cathedral was built: this is because we were bombed by the Germans in the Second World War and suffered some damage after the IRA bombing in 1996. Across the city, we see memorials to other tragic losses of life: the Peterloo Massacre memorial opposite Bridgewater Hall, and ‘The Glade of Light Memorial’ outside the Cathedral, commemorating the lives lost in the terrorist attack in Manchester Arena.

‘But Manchester is not a sad city; we are an energetic city that is full of life. I think this is because, to quote from Oasis, our city’s most famous band: we don’t look back in anger.

‘As we journey towards the Cross, we have much to lament for: the evil humanity is capable of, the destruction greed and ideologies bring … but at the same time, we have much to give thanks for: the love of God which triumphs over death and sin, the reconciliation between humans made possible because of the forgiveness which radiates from the Cross of Christ. I don’t think God was looking back in anger when Jesus was crucified. I think God was looking towards a future that is full of light and life. May we do the same as we gaze upon the wondrous Cross this Good Friday, and every day of our lives.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 29 March 2026, Palm Sunday) invites us to pray:

Jesus, Son of God and son of David, you entered Jerusalem in meekness to perfect our love through death. May all who dwell in the land of your birth know that love and forgiveness are always stronger than weapons and greed.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Buro Taxi’ … riding on a donkey in Mijas in south-east Spain (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