Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 64, Friday 10 July 2026

‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves’ (Matthew 10: 16)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2026). Later this evening, I hope to take part in the rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles for the service next Monday welcoming the new Rector of Stony Stratford, the Revd Dr David Jarratt.

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.

‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matthew 10: 16)

Matthew 10: 16-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 16 ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.’

‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matthew 10: 16)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 16-23) continues yesterday’s account of the commission and mission of the Twelve (Matthew 10: 7-15), as the Twelve continue to receive are given their instructions and commission for mission among the ‘lost sheep’: they are going out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so they need to be wise ‘as serpents and innocent as doves’ and to be aware of the threats and dangers they face.

The image of wolves in sheep’s clothing may lead us to ask how we recognise wolves in sheep clothing or false prophets who hijack abuse the name of Christ and Christianity today?

I hope I never get use to the blasphemous obscenities and images that come from Donald Trump. When he speaks he is often flanked by a Catholic Vice-President, JD Vance, a Catholic Secretary of State, Mario Rubio, who has also been a Baptist and a Mormon, and a Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who is a member of the Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship and who claims God blesses his war-mongering, his violence, his genocide, and invoking God to sanction his evil actions.

Let me offer four names to consider:

1, Allie Beth Stuckey seeks to legitimise the concept of ‘toxic empathy’ in her book Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion. She describes herself as a Reformed Baptist, is a regular guest on Fox News, and is heard on the podcast ‘Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey’, distributed by Blaze Media, known for its recent film hijacking the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to promote ultra-right ‘Christian Nationalism’ in the US.

Stuckey studied communications at Furman University and has been a publicist and social media strategist on behalf of pro-Trump and MAGA causes. But she has no theological education or degrees that qualify her to make her judgmental theological pronouncements.

Stuckey once made a video that purported to be an interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in which the politician appeared to give bizarre answers to questions put to her by Stuckey. It emerged later that the video plagiarised footage from other interviews spliced to appear as answers to Stuckey’s questions. When the video was widely exposed as a hoax, Stuckey said it was ‘satirical’ and ‘a joke’, but she has not made similar videos or jokes about right-wing politicians.

In her book, Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion (2024), Stuckey claims that when politics are driven by empathy rather than truth, innocent people pay the price. She claims empathy has become the highest virtue but like so many other words, such as tolerance, justice and acceptance, the word has been hijacked by people who exploit compassion for their own political ends.

She claims ‘toxic empathy’ is the primary tool of persuasion used by progressives to manipulate well-meaning Christians. She says they use toxic empathy ‘by employing our language, our Bible verses, our concepts and then pervert them to morally extort us into adopting their position.’

Stuckey argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation by left-wing activists, claiming they bully people into believing that they must adopt progressive positions to be loving. She associates toxic empathy with the issues she is obsessed with: abortion, gender, sexuality, immigration and social justice. She argues empathy should derive from God’s definitions of love, goodness, and justice, and argues there are logical pitfalls and moral consequences for toxic empathy.

‘Our language, our Bible verses, our concepts’? Stuckey seems to imply the Bible and the language of Christianity are the sole preserve of far-right fundamentalists. She complains someone of the same religion can read the shared religious text and come to a different conclusion about its meaning, such as coming to the conclusion that the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus in the Gospels meant what they said about responding with human decency to the outcast, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned, the widowed, and the orphan.

But her notion that there is one and only one correct understanding of Scripture, is a false notion … one might even say it is a toxic notion.

Q, Wolf or Sheep? True prophet or false?

2, Pastor Paula White-Cain, a televangelist and a prominent figure in the charismatic movement, has been a longtime spiritual adviser to Donald Trump and is a proponent of ‘prosperity theology’, which takes advantage of vulnerable believers, promising material blessings in return for donations.

In the past, she has been the pastor at churches that bought her a waterfront mansion for $900,000, paid over $1 million in salaries to her and her family members and paid for their private jet, yet failed to pay mortgages and electricity bills and filed for bankruptcy. One church alleged White had stolen $600,000 in audio-visual equipment.

She chaired the evangelical advisory board for Trump’s 2016 campaign, delivered the invocation at his inauguration in 2017, became his special adviser on the Faith and Opportunity Initiative at the Office of Public Liaison in 2019, and offered an opening prayer before Trump’s speech at the rally shortly before the US Capitol was stormed on 6 January 2021.

White has warned that ‘Christians that don’t support President Trump will have to answer to God.’ Last year (7 February 2025), he appointed White to lead the White House Faith Office.

She once criticised immigration advocates who cited the Gospel account of Jesus’ escape to Egypt as a child, saying: ‘Yes, he did live in Egypt for 3½ years. But it was not illegal. If he had broken the law, then he would have been sinful and he would not have been our Messiah.’

Q, Wolf or Sheep? True prophet or false?

3, Mike Huckabee – or, more formally, the Revd Dr Michael Dale Huckabee – is Trump’s ambassador to Israel. He is an ordained Baptist minister, but has also been the Governor of Arkansas (1996-2007), and has hosted a talk show on Fox News. He has claimed, wrongly, that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and alleged Obama supported the Mau-Mau rebels; he outlawed same-sex marriage in Arkansas; and he has repeated the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

He denies global warming, opposes anti-discrimination legislation, is vocal in opposing migration into the US, and opposes gun control measures. Within hours of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he told Fox News: ‘We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?’

Before his present appointment, he opposed Palestinian statehood and rejected Palestinian identity as ‘a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.’ At an event in the West Bank in 2017, he said: ‘There is no such thing as a West Bank – it’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities. They’re neighbourhoods. They’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.’

When he presented his credentials to President Isaac Herzog, Huckabee claimed Iran wants to destroy Israel and the US. He hardly has the credibility or the credentials to be an impartial mediator or negotiator in any part of the Middle East, or in any conflict.

Q, Wolf or Sheep? True prophet or false?

4, Vance Boelter – or, more formally, the Revd Dr Vance Luther Boelter – was arrested in connection with the killing of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife last year (14 June 2025). It turns out he has been an evangelical missionary who has preached in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in recent years, and has long been a Trump supporter and a registered Republican voter.

Boelter has pleaded guilty to killing Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband Mark Hortman at their home in Champlin, a suburb of Minneapolis, and with shooting and wounding Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman at their home.

Videos show Boelter preaching from 2021 to 2023 at La Borne Matadi, a church in Matadi, on the western coast of the DRC. In one sermon he says ‘God is going to raise up apostles and prophets in America to correct his church.’ Boelter says he was ordained in 1993, claims a doctorate from Cardinal Stritch University, a private Catholic college in Wisconsin that was shut down in 2023, and says he studied at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, a charismatic ‘Spirit-filled Bible School’. His other intended targets included Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee last year, and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women members of Congress.

He is due to be sentenced later this month (23 July 2026), when he faces two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus 40 years.

To this day, Trump has had neither the courtesy nor the courage to pick up the phone and offer words of consolation and assurance to these three politicians or anyone else named on Boetler’s hit list. Then, on the other hand, perhaps it is no small mercy that he has not managed to shift the blame onto migrants or refugees, yet.

Q, Wolf or Sheep? True prophet or false?

We are sent out like sheep among wolves. We are, in a way, defenceless, because we renounce any use of violence. There are wolves out there eager to destroy us because, despite our message of love, justice and peace, we are seen as a threat to their activities and ambitions.

We are to be as wise as snakes and innocent as doves. We are to be as inventive and creative as we can be in dealing with the world. But we are to be innocent, not in the sense of being naive, but in the sense of being completely free of even any suspicion of wrongdoing. The ends do not justify the means.

At every Eucharist, we hear that Jesus in his Body is handed over to us: ‘This is my Body, which is given up for you.’

When we are handed over we are not to be anxious about what to say. The enemies of the Gospel do not have the final answer when it comes to truth, love and justice.

Of course, Jesus never calls on us to go out of our way to seek persecution or to be hated, and we are to make Christianity as attractive as possible. But Christianity and the values of the Kingdom are being traduced, supposedly in the name of Christ, by key people at the very heart of political life in the US today.

Has the time come when true Christians can run no further, or when it is clear we have to take a stand and cannot compromise? We need to know the sheep from the wolves, to be in some way as wise as serpents and innocent as doves, to be assured also of the promise that those who endure to the end will be saved.

At every Eucharist, we hear that Jesus in his Body is handed over to us: ‘This is my Body, which is given up for you’ ... Communion bread being prepared at Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 10 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 10 July 2026) invites us to pray:

Faithful God, we give thanks for the FeAST network and the way it nurtures learning, friendship, and justice-oriented theology. Bless the network with deepened relationships, shared vision, and long-lasting fruit that glorifies your name.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘See, I am sending you out like sheep …’ (Matthew 10: 16) … sheep on a farm in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (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

Saint Mary Magdalen Church on Comerford Road began as a mission in Brockley in 1895

Saint Mary Magdalen Church, on the corner of Comerford Road and Howson Road, Brockley, was designed by Young Bolton and built in 1898-1899 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

When I was visiting Comerford Road in Brockley, south-east London, earlier this week, I visited Saint Mary Magdalen Church, which stands on the corner of Comerford Road and Howson Road. Saint Mary Magdalen is a much-altered Italianate church built in 1898-1899 and designed by the little-known architect Young Bolton, who died in 1903.

The mission at Brockley began in 1895 and a plot measuring 1,321 square yards was bought. A school was opened that year, with an upper floor that was used as a temporary chapel. This was soon inadequate and Bishop Francis Bourne sanctioned building an inexpensive church, for which he advanced £2,000. Bishop Bourne was Bishop of Southwark (1897-1903) and Archbishop of Westminster (1903-1935), and in 1911 he was made a cardinal.

At the time, about 370 Catholics were living in the area, and the church was built to seat 300 people. Bishop Bourne blessed and laid the foundation stone on 9 July 1898. The new church was blessed and solemnly opened by Bishop Bourne on 16 March 1899.

Inside Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A new Angelus bell was blessed and hung in one of the towers in 1900 and was rung for the first time on Easter Sunday 1900.

The stone pulpit was blessed and used for the first time on 24 July 1904, the patronal feast. It was presented to the mission priest, Father James Hayes by parishioners from his previous parish in Sutton.

When two new missions were opened in Nunhead and Forest Hill in 1905 and 1906, they took away parishioners from Brockley. Subsequently, the Bishop of Southwark, Bishop Peter Amigo, decided to place the Augustinians of the Assumption in charge of Saint Mary Magdalen. Bishop Amigo is often remembered as the bishop who imposed ‘minor excommunication; on the Modernist priest George Tyrrell and restricted the possibility of a full Catholic burial when Tyrrell died in 1909.

The Assumptionists, formally the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption (AA), were founded in Nîmes, France, in 1845 by Father Emmanuel d’Alzon. In late 19th century France, the Assumptionists were controversial at the time of the Dreyfus Case as they actively promoted the conspiracy theory that unnamed Jews were destroying French institutions, in particular the army and the Catholic church.

The Assumptionists were suppressed throughout France in 1900, accused of accumulating a fund to support a royalist movement to overthrow the Republic. Many priests went abroad, including the Assumptionist priests who arrived on Comerford Road in 1906. They remained at Comerford Road for 91 years, until July 1997.

The first Assumptionist mission priest at Comerford Road was Father Marie-Louis Deydier, who spent three terms at Brockley.

The sanctuary and High Altar in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The richly decorative high altar is one of the few original furnishings to survive in the church. It was designed by Father Gregory Chedal, was blessed on 10 December 1911 and survives as the present high altar.

A Calvary designed by Joseph Dutton was unveiled as a war memorial in 1917, and it was completed a year later with the addition of a marble tablet in the form of an open book with the names of the war dead.

When Father Chedal returned from World War I in 1919, he began completing the four side altars dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Peter and Saint Joseph. But, apart from their statues, nothing survives of these four side altars.

Father Chedal also began work on the Lady Chapel with a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. By December 1919, the altars were in place, the sacristy was enlarged by removing a wall and inserting a door that connected the sacristy and the presbytery. The new altars were blessed at the silver jubilee service on 7 October 1920, and Brockley became an independent parish that year.

The Lady Chapel in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The presbytery on Comerford Road was refurbished, the church roof repaired in 1926, and a statue of Saint Theresa was blessed. The church was repaired in 1926-1927 and the Lady Chapel was decorated.

Two bells cast at the Paccard foundry at Annecy, France, were blessed and hung in the tower in 1929. Electricity was introduced to the church along with an electric organ blower by the end of 1930.

During the inter-war years, the Catholic community in the Comerford Road area and in wider Brockley grew to over 2,000 with the development of the Honor Oak Estate, rehousing people from Deptford, Rotherhithe and Bermondsey.

The organ was repaired and overhauled about 1937, and repairs were also made to the west front, towers, and the wall along Comerford Road.

Inside Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road, facing the west end, entrance and organ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During World War II, a time bomb fell nearby on 16 September 1940 and the parish priest removed the Blessed Sacrament and the Lady Chapel’s altar stone before the bomb exploded the next day. The Lady Chapel was completely destroyed, the north wall pushed inwards and the sanctuary furnishings were severely damaged. Only the high altar and Saint Peter’s altar remained intact. Although the presbytery was rendered uninhabitable, the priests returned to the house by late 1940.

A school room served as a temporary chapel until the church reopened on Easter Sunday 1943 while repairs were continued.

The second phase of restoration began in late 1948, the sanctuary roof and the Lady Chapel were rebuilt and the smashed pulpit was reconstructed. New coloured glass was inserted in all the windows and an upper room was added to the sacristy. The restoration was almost complete by 1950. A new floor was planned, as well as refurbishing seats and kneelers, repairing the organ, and works to the lighting and cleaning.

Bishop Cyril Cowderoy blessed the new Lady Chapel and the new altar in December 1951.

Father Patrick O’Neil repositioned the west doors in the tower in the 1950s, creating a central large door in place of a row of five windows, and the two side doors were replaced by windows. The former south-west porch inside became a baptistery but is now a toilet.

The organ choir gallery in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

There were plans to demolish the presbytery and three adjoining houses to build a larger church, but these came to nothing. The parish bought Saint Cyprian’s Hall from the Anglican parish of Saint Hilda, Crofton Park. There were renewed plans to build a new church in 1968, but once again these plans were not realised. The font was moved closer to the sanctuary in 1980. A new hall was built behind Saint Cyprian’s Hall in 1981 and opened in 1982.

The organ was overhauled in 1985 and alterations involved raising the sanctuary floor, removing the altar rails and the pulpit, and inserting a sound-proof confessional.

The Lady Chapel altar was brought forward and a reconciliation room was created. When the Lady Chapel was renovated in 1996, its small tabernacle was removed.

The high altar survives largely as it was designed by Father Gregory Chedal in 1911. It is made from Bath and Portland stone and marble. The frontal depicts the Last Supper and is flanked by statues of the four evangelists. The reredos includes a Calvary with a kneeling Saint Mary Magdalen. On either side are niches with the patron saints of the Assumptionists, Saint Monica and Saint Augustine of Hippo, mother and son.

The west façade of the church facing Howson Road has a second floor niche with a statue of Saint Mary Magdalen. The side elevation now facing Comerford Road has five large round-headed nave windows separated by shallow wall strips.

The World War I memorial in the ground of sSaint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The World War I memorial in the church grounds has a wooden cross with a sculpture of the Crucified Christ, set on a brick plinth with plaque. It has been designated with a Grade II listing because of its design and ‘as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community’ during World War I. The memorial was the idea of Father Marie-Louis Deydier, who had been a military chaplain. It was unveiled on 7 July 1917 at a ceremony attended by the Mayor of Lewisham, Sir John and Lady Knill, the Assumptionist Provincial, the Lord Mayor of London, and relatives of the dead. The marble tablet designed by Joseph Dutton was added the following year.

The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, or the Cabrini Sisters, opened a day and boarding school in Wickham Road in 1902, and stayed until 1922, when their lease expired. Three years after they left, the Oblate Sisters started a new school in Wickham Road. Saint Cyprian’s Hall was sold in 2009, and the school hall is now used as a church hall.

The Assumptionist Fathers left Comerford Road in 1997 due to a fall in vocations, although they continue to run communities in Bethnal Green, London, and Hitchin, Hertfordshire. The parish is now under the care of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit or Spiritans, known to many as the Holy Ghost Fathers. In Ireland, they are associated with places such as Kimmage Manor, Blackrock College, Saint Mary’s College, Rathmines, and Saint Michael’s in Dublin and Rockwell College, near Cashel, Co Tipperary.

• The parish priest is Father Nathaniel Ewusi; Father Christian Enechukwu is the assistant parish priest; and the Revd Willian Dunphy is the parish deacon. Weekend Masses: Saturday, 6:30 pm Vigil Mass, Sunday, 8:30, 10 and 11:30 am; weekday Mass: Monday to Saturday 9.30 am; Holy Day Masses: 9:30 am and 8 pm.

Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road, is under the care of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit or Spiritans, once known as the Holy Ghost Fathers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 63, Thursday 9 July 2026

‘If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town’ (Matthew 10: 14) … a multilingual welcome at a church in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2026). Later this evening, the Greek School in Stony Stratford is holding its Summer Celebration from 5pm in Stony Stratford. This promises to be a relaxed, friendly evening to round off the school year, with children’s films, games and activities from 5 pm, a Greek BBQ with souvlaki all evening, and film for the grown-ups from 7 pm. The invitation is to come along, eat well, and support a small local school.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

‘Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts’ (Matthew 10: 9) … a selection of old coins in an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 7-15 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 ‘As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.’

‘If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town’ (Matthew 10: 14) … a welcome sign at Athens International Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 7-15) continues yesterday’s account of the commission and mission of the Twelve (Matthew 10: 1-7), as the Twelve are given their instructions for mission among the ‘lost sheep’: they are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; they are to give without expecting payment in return, travel lightly, be humble in accepting generosity, and to wish peace to all; and they are reminded of the dreadful consequences of hospitality not offered or hospitality spurned.

The particularly Greek concept of hospitality or φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (philoxenia) fits in well with what might be called the sacrament of hospitality. But most of the discussions about sacramental hospitality are actually discussing to whom should we extend hospitality at the Eucharist rather than any potential sacramental understanding of generous hospitality itself.

The reference to Sodom and Gomorrah in today’s reading is a reminder of the story in Genesis 19, in which two angels are sent to destroy Sodom. Lot welcomes them into his home, but all the men of the town surround the house and demand that Lot surrender his visitors that they may ‘know’ them carnally (see Genesis 19: 5). Lot offers the mob his virgin daughters to ‘do to them as you please’, but they refuse and threaten to do worse to Lot.

In response, the angels strike the crowd blind, and tell Lot: ‘the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it’ (Genesis 19: 13).

The next morning, because Lot has lingered, the angels take Lot, Lot’s wife, and his two daughters by the hand and out of the city, and tell Lot to flee to the hills and not look back. Lot says that the hills are too far away and asks to go to Zoar instead. Sulphur and fire are then rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (Genesis 19: 24-25). Lot and his daughters are saved, but his wife disregards the warning, looks back, and is turned into a pillar of salt.

‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ would become bywords for destruction and desolation (see Deuteronomy 29: 21-23). Other Biblical books initially attribute a variety of non-sexual sins to the inhabitants of Sodom. It is only much later that what came to be labelled ‘unnatural’ sex and homosexuality began to be included on these lists, and eventually homosexuality was interpreted as the primary sin of Sodom.

Sodom and Gomorrah, or the ‘cities of the plain’, were used historically and in modern discourse as metaphors for homosexuality, and are the origin of the English words sodomite, a pejorative term for male homosexuals, ‘sod’, a vulgar English slang term for male homosexuals, and sodomy, which is used in a legal context under the label crimes against nature to describe anal or oral sex (particularly homosexual) and bestiality.

The origin of the argument that sodomy was sinful is found in a contested reading of one word in the story. Citing Sodom and Gomorrah, Christian authorities began to label and condemn acts of sodomy as the worst of all sexual sins, and one of the worst crimes in general. For many centuries, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was used by the Church to justify criminalisation of sexual practices between men, and people who were labelled sodomites were often punished by execution.

To this day, the phrase ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ remains a rallying call among some far-right groups in Northern Ireland.

However, since the mid-20th century, scholars in increasing numbers have seen the great sin of Sodom as the inhospitable treatment of guests. Much of the debate in modern interpretation of the greatest sin of Sodom, and whether the story concerns or condemns homosexuality, rests on interpreting the moment the mob from Sodom confronts Lot about his guests.

Today, many scholars dispute the interpretation that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah involve homosexuality. They cite Ezekiel 16: 49-50 and interpret the sin as arrogance and lack of hospitality. As with Ezekiel, later prophetic reproaches of Sodom and Gomorrah do not condemn, implicate, or even mention homosexual conduct as the reason for the destruction of the city. Instead, they assign the blame to other sins, ranging from adultery, sexual violence and exploitation and dishonesty, to a lack of charity and an unwillingness to extend appropriate and generous hospitality.

If the obsession with equating gay sexuality with the sin of Sodom that is found among many evangelicals to this day was tempered even by true Biblical literalism and instead became widespread condemnation by those evangelicals, particularly in Trump’s America, of sexual violence and exploitation, dishonesty and an unwillingness to offer generous hospitality to the stranger, imagine what a different place the United States of America would be this day.

But, perhaps, I ought to conclude with a story retold this week that conveys how we can mis-hear and misinterpret words because of our already determined cultural presuppositions and prejudices.

In its obituary of Lord (David) Lipsey, the journalist and Labour peer who died tragically last year, the Guardian recalled how he had founded a newspaper at his school in Bryanston and interviewed his future mentor, Anthony Crosland, then the Education Secretary and who was committed to abolishing public schools. The young interviewer reported Crosland saying prep schools were ‘stinking breeding grounds of sodomy’. Years later, Lipsey came across a Crosland speech and realised he had misheard the last word. It should have been ‘snobbery’.

Fáilte Romhat … words of welcome above the door of a pub in Doonbeg in Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 9 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 9 July 2026) invites us to pray:

God of truth, grant us the courage to face division with humility, honesty, and compassion. Lead communities towards justice, healing, and unity.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

A welcome sign at Terminal 4 in Heathrow Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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

Comerford Road is typical of the Victorian and Edwardian terraces and streets throughout Brockley

Comerford Road in Brockley is a Victorian and Edwardian developmnt of terrached housing in the London Borough of Lewisham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

There was a time in the 1970s and 1980s when I seemed to know the area around Lewisham in south London quite well, staying occasionally with family connections in Catford at a time when I was very active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and speaking at some of the large anti-war demonstrations in London.

Catford was only half an hour’s walk, at most, from Comerford Road in Brockley, and both are in the London Borough of Lewisham. Yet, in all those years, I never visited Comerford Road until yesterday afternoon.

I caught a bus from Waterloo to the junction of Brockley Road and Comerford Road at lunch time on Tuesday afternoon, and in the summer sunshine enjoyed the opportunity to explore a part of London I had never known before.

Brockley Jack is one the earliest and best-known buildings in Brockley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Comerford Road is in the SE4 postal code area and is immediately off Brockley Road, facing the main entrance to a large local cemetery. The area developed rapidly from market gardens, pear orchards and brickfields into a built-up residential shopping hub during the Victorian suburban boom.

Brockley may mean ‘Broca’s clearing in the woods’ or perhaps ‘the clearing by the brook’. Brockley was once in Kent, but it has been part of London from 1900 on. It first developed as a small settlement on the Lewisham side of the boundary between Lewisham and Deptford. Today, it stretches from Lewisham Way to Forest Hill.

Before the rapid Victorian expansion, the land sat within the ancient Manor of Brockley, created in 1189. It lay near the path of the Croydon Canal, which opened in 1809, and historic agricultural routes.

The area was built up in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Until that time the principal buildings were Brockley Farm, Manor Farm, Brockley Hall, the home of the Noakes family of brewers, and the Brockley Jack public house, then a picturesque timber-framed building owned by the Noakes family and said to have been a favourite haunt of highwaymen. The old Brockley Jack was once one of the most photographed pubs in south-east London.

The area around Brockley Road was built up and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The London and Croydon Railway, which runs through Brockley, opened in 1839, but Brockley Station was not built until 1871. Brockley Lane station, now closed, followed in 1872, and Crofton Park station in 1892.

The area of the original Brockley is now called Crofton Park, after the railway station which in turn was named after a building estate. The central focus of Brockley has since become the junction of Drakefell, Shardeloes, Brockley and Upper Brockley Roads, which is known as Brockley Cross.

The north part of Brockley was owned by the Tyrwhitt-Drake family who developed the estate – previously used for market gardening – from the late 1840s. They built substantial three- or four-storeyed houses for the professional classes, though many were later divided into flats.

The building on the corner of Comerford Road and Brockley Road dates from 1840 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Comerford Road was developed and named during the late Victorian expansion of the area in the 1870s to 1880s. However, I have been unable to find sources that confirm suggestions that Comerford Road in Brockley was named after Maurice Comerford (1853-1920), who was involved in establishing The Stage newspaper. Maurice Comerford was the business manager and co-founded the entertainment trade paper The Stage in 1880 with the founding editor Charles Lionel Carson.

There are certainly other possibilities for the origins of the name of Comerford Road, and there were Comerford families in nearby Deptford from the early 19th century.

For example, Michael Comerford (1814-1867). He was born ca 1814 in Deptford, then in Kent but now part of the East End of London. He was the immediate ancestor the Comerford family of music hall artists and actors. They were also descended from some of the most interesting Sephardic families of Seville, Venice, Amsterdam and the East End of London.

Comerford Road was developed and named during the late Victorian expansion of Brockley in the 1870s to 1880s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The building on the corner of Comerford Road and Brockley Road dates from 1840, and by 1900 the junction of Comerford Road and Brockley Road had been firmly established as a local parade. Old postcards from the time show the junction as a central shopping parade, overlooked in the distance by Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, built in 1882.

Saint Mary Magdalen Church was built at the corner of Comerford Road and Howson Road in 1898-1899, and was designed by the architect Young Bolton.

Many parts of Brockley and Crofton Park were damaged during World War II, particularly by V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets, and the area north of Crofton Park Station on Brockley Road suffering many strikes.

Comerford Road suffered bomb damage on the first day of the Blitz, 7 September 1940, when houses at 46-48 and 41-53 Comerford Road were damaged. An incendiary bomb fell on enclosed ground at rear of 75 Comerford Road, and a time bomb damaged Saint Mary Magdalene Church on 16 September 1940.

Saint Mary Magdalen Church was built on Comerford Road in 1898-1899 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At its west end, beside Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Comerford Road is crossed by Howson Road, where the poet and painter David Jones (1895-1974) lived for much of his life. Other famous residents of Brockley have included the Irish socialist Jim Connell (1852-1929), author of the anthem ‘The Red Flag’, the actress Lillie Langtry (1853-1929), the radio and music hall comedian Will Hay (1888-1949) and the comedian Spike Milligan (1918-2002).

Brockley was named in 2021 as the best area of London to live in. In many ways, By and large, Comerford Road is typical of a part of south-east London that remains rich in Victorian and Edwardian domestic architecture, historic trees and original lanes and mews.

The outstanding feature on Comerford Road is Saint Mary Magdalen Church at 73 Comerford Road with a War Memorial in the church grounds that has a Grade II listing of its own.

But more about the church on Comerford Road and its war memorial in the days to come, hopefully.

Comerford Road is typical of a part of south-east London that remains rich in Victorian and Edwardian domestic architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 62, Wednesday 8 July 2026

The Twelve Apostles … an icon in the church in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2025). I hope to take part in a meeting of local clergy in the Milton Keynes area later today at the Urban Farm in Wolverton. Later, this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

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 Twelve Apostles depicted in the East Window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 10: 1-7 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near”.’

The Synaxis of the Apostles … an icon in the Cathedral in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 1-7) reminds us of the commission and mission of the Twelve. We read yesterday of Christ in ordinary, everyday situations, going ‘about all the cities and villages’ (Matthew 9: 35), mixing with ordinary people. These are people who need hope, people who are sick, sore and sorry, people who are distressed, marginalised and suffering, and Christ has compassion for them, because they are harassed and helpless, ‘like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36).

They are ordinary people, indeed, in ordinary places, in ordinary time, but suffering and often isolated and marginalised in their everyday lives.

We read this morning how, in answer to their plight, to carry out his mission, Christ chooses 12 disciples, 12 ordinary people, with ordinary backgrounds and careers: Peter, who denies him three times; Andrew his brother, a fisherman; James and John, ‘Mammy’s boys’ who jockey for position, unsure of what the Kingdom of God is about; Philip, who could easily turn away Greek-speaking Gentiles; Matthew, despised as a tax collector; Thomas who doubts him; Judas who betrays him … (see Matthew 10: 2-4).

In our ordinary everyday lives, Christ calls us to follow him, not for our own self-satisfying feeling of being good, but to proclaim the Good News; not for our own advantage and enrichment, but because that is what the suffering world needs.

We are called as ordinary people to do that; our Baptism is our commission to do that; our Confirmation is our ‘Amen’ to that.

Christ sends the 12 out in mission to the marginalised and the outcast. They are to gather to the lost sheep proclaim the ‘good news,’ as Saint John the Baptist announced, that ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near’, is at hand.

We might also ask whether our churches are open enough to gather in the lost sheep, whether we delight in meeting strangers in our midst and bringing them in, sharing God’s welcome and hospitality found, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

As we prepare to welcome a new rector, the Revd Dr David Jarratt, to Stony Stratford next week (13 June 2026), I find myself thinking once again about the well-known prayer of welcome by Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711):

O God, make the door of this house
wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship,
and a heavenly Father’s care;
and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and hate.
Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children,
nor to straying feet,
but rugged enough to turn back the tempter’s power:
make it a gateway to thine eternal kingdom.

The 12 Apostles depicted in the smaller rows of icons in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 8 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 8 July 2026) invites us to pray:

Loving God, renew the Church as a welcoming home where women, young people, and other minorities find dignity and belonging. Break down exclusion and form communities of love and grace.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Figures of the 12 Apostles surround the 16th century tomb of a knight and lady in the churchyard at Saint Mary’s Church, Thurles, Co Tipperary (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

IOCS announces early details of Winter School in Cambridge on ‘Monastic Tradition and Theology’

Patrick Comerford

I first started going to summer schools in Cambridge organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in 2008. I wanted to upskill myself as I prepared to offer an elective in patristic studies to theology students on a masters course, and my participation in the summer school that year, based in Sidney Sussex College, was made possible financially by being awarded the Oulton Prize in Patristics and by financial support from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.

I continued to attend these IOCS summer schools in Cambridge from 2009 to 2016, thanks to in-service support from CITI, missing out only in 2012. Each year, the programme include lectures, daily worship in the chapel of Sidney Sussex, and a one-day visit or pilgrimage to Saint John’s Monastery in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex. I made many good friends, contributed to at least one IOCS video, returned to preach in the chapel in Sidney Sussex, and I began to think of Saint Bene’t’s as my parish church while I was staying in Cambridge. I was invited to preach and lecture in both Christ’s College and Sidney Sussex, interviewed the Irish-born chaplains of both colleges for newspaper features, and I also stayed in Clare College.

Cambridge became my academic home from home over those seven or eight years. But when I retired from academic life, responsibilities in parish ministry on Sundays, and then the restrictions ushered in by the Covid pandemic put an end to all that. I still continue to keep in touch with friends and developments in IOCS and with life in Sidney Sussex, I have returned for IOCS-organised seminars in Westcott House, Westminster College and the Woolf Institute, and I am back in Cambridge regularly, though not often enough.

I was pleased in recent days to read in its latest newsletter to friends, supporters and alumni, the IOCS is finalising details for this year’s Winter School, to be held in Westminster College, Cambridge, from Thursday 3 December to Saturday 5 December 2026.

The theme of this winter school is ‘Monastic Tradition and Orthodox Theology Today’. The programme will look at profound and sometimes unexpected ways in which the monastic tradition and theologians formed by it play a vital role in the rediscovery of ‘theology as a liturgy of the Church’, as it has been described by Archimandrite Vasileios of Iviron.

Archimandrite Vasileios Gondikakis (1936-2025) was a prominent Athonite monk, theologian and spiritual leader who played a pivotal role in the revival of monasticism on Mount Athos. Father Vasileios reformed and transformed Orthodox monasticism after he moved to Mount Athos in the mid-1960s and wrote about new inights in the sacramental worship of the Church and the silent retreat of monasticism. He was an integral part of a generation influenced by the lifestyle of Saint Paisios (1924-1994).

Father Vasileios was born in Iraklion in Crete in 1936. He studied in Athens and in France and worked as a teacher before going to Mount Athos. In 1965, and there he practiced asceticism under the guidance of Saint Paisios. He became the Abbot of Stavronikita in 1968, and in 1990 he became the Abbot of Iviron, where he lived until he died last year.

In a tribute to the former Abbot of Iviron, the theologian Father John Chryssavgis of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Holy Cross School of Theology, described Father Vasileios as a ‘paramount force in the restoration of monasticism on Athos and a prominent figure in the renewal of theology in the Orthodox world over the last decades.’

The IOCS winter school later this year will explore how monastic experience informs, perhaps transforms, our understanding of Scripture and of the human being, how it underpins pastoral service to ‘the world’, and its powerful witness to contemporary spiritual seekers hungry for the sacred.

Thursday and Friday (3 and 4 December) will be full days of lectures and discussions, while Saturday (5 December) involves a full-day visit to the Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights.

So far, the speakers at the IOCS winter school include:

• Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London;

• Archimandrite Antonios Kakalis, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Newcastle University;

• Hieromonk Nikolai Sakharov, the Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex;

• the Very Revd Dr Bogdan Bucur, Associate Professor of Patristics at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York;

• Mother Sarah, parish of Saint John of Kronstadt, Bath;

• Aidan Hart, the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts;

• Dr Kyriacos Markides, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Maine.

As the programme is finalised, I expect more details to follow in the weeks to come.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 61, Tuesday 7 July 2026

‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9: 38) … walking through the fields in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2026). Last night or in the early hours of this morning, I went back on my pledge to watch only World Cup fixtures that were broadcast from the co-hosts Mexico and Canada. It was my lone, single protest against the Trump regime and the way it has corrupted the world of football, along with so much else in our world today. But over the last 48 hours, Trump has intervened in yet another blatant breach of the rules of the game, and yet again Infantino allowed Trump to play all the cards (pardon the pun). I felt I had stayed awake with the rest of the world, hoping Belgium would win, knowing at the end that 4-1 is justice not just for Belgians but for football fans everywhere.

Now, tired as I am, I am taking some quiet time this morning before this new day begins 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.

‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons’ (Matthew 9: 34) … a gargoyle at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 9: 32-38 (NRSVA):

32 After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.’ 34 But the Pharisees said, ‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.’

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

‘He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36) … sheep on a small holding in Platanias, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 9: 32-38) recalls the healing of the demoniac who is mute and then follows Jesus as goes through cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the good news, curing the sick, and showing compassion for the crowds, for they are ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’

Today’s reading brings us to the end of the section in Saint Matthew’s Gospel recounting 10 miracles of Jesus (chapters 8 to 9). The last of those miracles involves a man whose deafness results from being possessed by a demon. It follows immediately after the cure of two blind men, a story that is not read in this current cycle of readings but one that is told again in Matthew 20. It seems to correspond to the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10, although there are significant differences.

When the people bring this man to Jesus, he drives out the demon and immediately the man is able to speak. There is a double reaction. The people are astounded, but the Pharisees suggest Jesus casts out demons through the power of ‘the ruler of the demons’, an absurd and illogical suggestion.

This reading then summarises so much of what Jesus was doing. But behind all that he does is his deep compassion for the needs of the people, for they are ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (verse 36).

He sees their plight, and tells the disciples: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (verses 37-38).

Ministry and mission must embolden the Church to name the needs of people who are ‘harassed and helpless’. This is not bringing politics into religion, but refusing to allow politics to silence us in the demands put on us by being faithful to our religious calling.

The labourers in the field cannot be confined to bishops and priests, to the members of church commissions and committees and to those who work with mission societies and development agencies.

The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few and the people are ‘harassed and helpless’ more than ever. How do I respond with compassion, vocally, practically and effectively?

‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9: 38) … walking through fields along Comberford Lane in Wigginton in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 7 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 7 July 2026) invites us to pray:

God of mercy, bring healing to survivors of gender-based violence and comfort those who mourn. Stir the Church and wider community towards justice, protection, and lasting change.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36) … a window in Saint John-in-Hampstead Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

At sea in the Aegean 30 years ago, when tensions between Greece and Turkey raised fears of war

Peaceful afternoons on the beach near Rethymnon are seldom interrupted by sonic booms and overflights, unlike 30 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have been coming to Greece and to Crete in particular, for almost 40 years, since the 1980s. I remember how I felt at home the very first morning, as I was being taken by coach from Iraklion Airport to Rethymnon. Greece grew on me very quickly, and there were times when I was back and forth to Greece two or three times a year, sometimes for family holidays, sometimes for social visits, and often as a working journalist, covering Greek politics, culture, economic crisises, tensions with Turkey in the Aegean. On other trips, I was visiting monasteries and churches, including Mount Athos and Patmos, or attending lectures and seminars in Athens, Thessaloniki and on the remote and tiny island of Halki off the coast of Rhodes.

One of those busy years was 1996, when I found myself writing about Greek life and politics on a regular basis. I was reminded of this last month when friends posted about the 30th anniversary of the death of Andreas Papanddreou, a towering and heroic modern Greek leader and a key figure in bringing about the collapse of the colonels’ regime in 1974. He died on 23 June 1996, and I wrote his obituary for The Irish Times the next day.

But 1996 was a busy year for me in Greece. I wrote profiles of the new prime minister, Costas Simitis, interviewed the foreign minister, Theodoros Pangalos, followed the tensions in the Aegean over the Turkey’s agressive claims to the islets of Imia, wrote features on the poetry of Yiannis Ritos and CP Cavafy, reported on the growing clamour for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to Athens, and analysed Greek political support for the application by Cyprus for EU membership.

In recent years, I have been returning regularly to Rethymnon and the suburban areas to the east at Platanias and Tsesmes and even further east at Panormos. It is a relatively quiet area for holidays, with the long sandy beches stretching for miles east of Rethymnon. There is a family-friendly and laid-back atmosphere, with few if any signs offering cheap beer to lager louts, as I have seen further east in places such as Hersonissos and Malia.

It is easy to fall asleep in the afternoon at places like Pavlos Beach in Platanias, undisturbed in the sunshine. But it was not always so, and it was not so 30 years ago, back in 1996. Not because of loud lager louts, not because Crete was attracting the wrong sort of tourists, and certainly not because of bad management on anyone’s part. But because of the threat of war.

An afternoon’s snooze on the beach was regularly interrupted in the 1980s and the 1990s by the sonic booms of overflying Greek air force jets, preparing or returning from buzzing their Turkish counterparts over the blue waters of the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

It almost came to a full-scale war between Greece and Turkey 30 years ago, and all because of a dispute over who owned the two tiny uninhabited rocky islets of Imia. I was flown into the middle of it all in 1996, and ended up as a part of a press posse that was threatened with coming under fire from the Turkish navy.

The dispute back in 1996 cost the lives of three crew members of a Greek Navy helicopter who died during a mission, and 30 years later, despite improved relations between Athens and Ankara in the intervening decades, many Greeks have not forgotten this tense time in modern Greek history a generation ago.

The crisis had international leaders scrambling to urge both sides not to come to blows over what was derided as a pile of rocks. But Greece insisted they were ‘Greek rocks’m and Athens refused to back down as Ankara tried to assert Turkish sovereignty. Greeks were reminded all too easily of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus over 20 years earlier on 20 July 1974.

Windmills at the entrance to the harbour in Rhodes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Imia is part of the Dodesanese islands, which are dripping with history and oozing with culture: Kos, where Hippocrates formulated the foundations of modern medicine; Patmos, where Saint John the Divine wrote the Book of Revelation; Kalymnos, Leros and Symi, with their neo-classical mansions; and Rhodes, where the giant Colossos once straddled the harbour of Mandhraki, holding aloft the flame of freedom that inspired the Statue of Liberty.

At the crossroads of three continents, this island chain was once ruled by Alexander the Great and Ptolemy; it has been occupied by the Romans, the Crusaders, the Venetians, the Knights of Saint John, the Turks, the Italians and Nazi Germany. Only with the end of World War II was it finally handed over by Britain and incorporated into the Greek state almost 80 years ago, in 1947.

Today, only 26 of the Dodecanese islands are inhabited: the largest, Rhodes, has about 100,000 people, but most have only a few hundred residents or less, and there are only 79 people left on Pserimos.

The large Turkish minorities in Rhodes and Kos and the mosques and minarets still dotting the skylines of many islands are ever-present reminders that Turkey occupied the Dodecanese for almost 400 years, from 1522 to 1912. Turkey is Greece’s nearest neighbour, and on many islands you can feel it is almost possible to touch the Turkish coast with its harbours and towns, houses and hotels.

On 29 December 1995, Turkey asserted the Imia islets were Turkish territory, registered in the prefecture of Bodrum. The dispute began when a Turkish cargo ship, Figen Akat ran ashore on the islets and had to be salvaged. It turned out that maps of were showing conflicting claims of the islets by Greece and Turkey, and there was a conflict between the Turkish captain and the Greek authorities over who was responsible for the salvage operation.

For more than 60 years, Turkey had accepted the maritime boundaries in the Aegean, defined by treaties and agreements with the Italians in 1923 and 1932, and ratified by the Treaty of Paris in 1947. The boundaries were never challenged by Ankara until that December. But, as Turkey faced a major political crisis with the unexpected electoral success of the Islamic Welfare Party, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara claimed for the first time that Imia was part of the Turkish province of Mugla.

The official response of Greece came on 9 January 1996. The then-Greek Foreign Minister, Theodoros Pangalos, sent a reply to Turkey claiming an indisputable Greek sovereignty over the islets. The dispute was escalated when the Mayor of the Greek island of Kalymnos and a priest landed on the islets on 26 January and raised a Greek flag on the rocky outcrop.

Tensions escalated, and on 27 January Turkish journalists from the daily Hurriyet landed on the largest of the two Imia islets, tore down the blue and white Greek flag and hoisted the red and white star and crescent of Turkey.

Four days later, Turkish troops landed on the smaller rocky outcrop. Tensions heightened as Greek, Turkish and NATO forces sailed to the islets. At dawn on 31 January, a Greek navy helicopter flying over Imia said reported that Turkish troops had landed on the islets. The helicopter then crashed in mysterious circumstances. The crash was blamed on bad weather conditions, but some reports said the weather reports amounted to a mutual cover-up to hide that it was shot down by Turkish fire.

Both Athens and Ankara were accused of concealing what really happened to prevent war. The two countries had been on the brink of war when President Clinton intervened and the Turkish troops withdrew.

The minaret of a mosque in Rhodes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At the time, I was the Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times and I found myself in the middle of this crisis. I flew to Athens to interview the new Greek Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, his Foreign Minister, Theodoros Pangalos, and other cabinet ministers. A few days later I was one among a small group of about two dozen journalists who travelled from Athens and boarded the NV Nissos in Kos Harbour, close to the Plane Tree of Hippocrates and the Mosque of Hatzi Hassan.

At the time, the NV Nissos offered day trips to Turkey on Saturdays and Sundays, leaving Kos at 9 a.m. and returning at 5 p.m. But this was to be no pleasure cruise. We were reminded of an ever-present fear of an invasion from Anatolia, 5 km across the stretch of water. The local people were talking in terms of ‘when the Turks come’, not ‘if’.

With blue skies and blue seas, it could have been an idyllic summer trip. Apart from goat herds and environmentalists, few people ever bothered to visit the more remote rocks off the coast of Kos, Kalymnos, Kalolymnos and Pserimos. The crew took down the sign reading ‘Turkey’ as we sailed off for the islets of Imia or Limnia, two flat pancakes less than two miles from Kalolymnos, almost 2½ miles from the Turkish island of Cavus, and over three miles from the western-most Turkish coast on the peninsula of Bodrum.

The Greek naval frigate HS Limnos, which had taken part in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, was fresh back from the Adriatic and had offered to take us out to look at the rocks. But before we left, Turkey protested formally and summoned the Greek Ambassador in Ankara, Dimitrios Nezeritis, to warn against the media trip.

It was no idle warning: two days earlier, a Greek coastguard vessel and a Turkish patrol boat had collided in Greek waters, a mile south of Imia.

As we sailed out of Kos, the military tension was palpable and visible. Greek and Turkish jets buzzed overhead sporadically, a Greek coastguard vessel and a navy ship were within sight and, in the distance, we could catch a glimpse of a ship with Turkish naval markings.

Costas Bikas, the Foreign Ministry spokesman from Athens on board the Nissos, insisted there was nothing out of the ordinary about the cruise and that it was none of Ankara’s business. But the Turks made it their business. As the Greek and Turkish jet fighters swooped low over the area, the Turkish foreign ministry took a group of foreign and local journalists out from Bodrum. Once again, there were new Turkish claims to the islets known to the Turks as Kardak – by Defence Minister Oltan Sunguklu and by naval spokesman Ali Kurunahmut, who told cruising journalists: ‘Kardak is a Turkish islet and we are in Turkish waters.’

Trailing both groups were reporters and camera crews from the Greek and Turkish press and television. The crisis had moved from territorial claims and counter claims to cruise and counter cruise for journalists in the Aegean. As Imia faded out of sight, we followed past Pserimos, Kalolymnos, Leros and Kalymnos, through the straits separating Kalymnos and Telendhos, into Pothia, the port harbour of Kalymnos – names that once tripped off the tongues of backpackers in the 1970s.

As we disembarked at the dockside in Pothia, the microphones and cameras crowded into our faces: the foreign media had become the message.

The rocky island of Kalymnos is famous for its traditional sponge fishing; its fame in the past rested on Homer’s reference in the Iliad to the ships from the ‘Kalyndian Islands’ taking part in the Trojan wars. That day, we felt war remained an ever-present threat to the peace of the islanders and their sponge fishers.

The Nissos returned to Kos to prepare for Sunday’s day trippers to Bodrum, and a launch from the Hellenic Coast Guard took us out from the harbour to the navy frigate Limnos, with its crew waiting to take us on to Rhodes. For four hours, we watched the crew tracking Turkish moves in the Aegean sea and skies, before our odyssey came to an end and Rhodes came into sight with its mediaeval castles and palaces, mosques and minarets and three harbours.

Two deer stand at each end of Mandhrki where the Colossos once straddled the entrance to the harbour, with ships passing through its towering legs. A small tug, the Herakles, took us ashore, reminding us of the apt inscription that once graced Colossus, praising the lovely gift of unlettered freedom. ‘For to those who spring from the race of Herakles, dominion is a heritage both on land and sea.’

The crisis was a temporary boost at home to Turkey’s Tansu Ciller as she searched (in vain) for a coalition partner to keep her in power. But it threatened to bring down Costas Simitis, Theodoros Pangalos and their Pasok government in Athens in 1996. Both sides agreed to withdraw their forces from the area around Imia and return to the status quo ante, although Ms Ciller continued to press Turkey’s claims to 3,000 Aegean islands – the sum total of all islands in Greek waters.

After intense pressure from the US, Greek and Turkish government removed their military forces from Imia. The territorial issue has remained unresolved since then. Imia and other islets in the Aegean are considered as ‘grey zones’ of undetermined sovereignty by Turkey.

When I returned to Crete a few weeks later for a family holiday in Piskopiano, my interviews with the Greek media and my appearances on Greek television became a topic of conversation over lunch with Greek friends on the island. Overhead, the sonic booms of fighter jets continued to break the peace of afternoon naps by the pool or on the beach.

When I returned a second time from Greece, The Irish Times published a major feature on my adventures on this day 30 years ago, 6 July 1996. I think the headline ‘Dropping Ankara in Rhodes,’ with its intended pun, was written by the then Design Editor, Andy Barclay.

The casual freedom of land and sea, to hop from one island to the next, is part of the lure of a holiday in the sun in many parts of Greece. But it is a freedom that comes with a price, a freedom that is valued by the local Greeks, and a freedom that is denied 30 years later to many refugees who come in search of it as they make the difficult passage from the coast of Turkey to the islands of the Dodecanese.

Greek and Turkish flags flying on a passenger ferry plying the Aegean between Greek islands and the Turkish coast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)