Milton Keynes has a new statue to celebrate Jenny Lee and the White Paper in 1966 that set up the Open University

The fibreglass model of Andy Edwards’s bronze statue of Jenny Lee outside Milton Keynes station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

A fibreglass model of a new statue honouring Jennie Lee, the driving force behind the creation of the Open University, has been drawing a lot attention in Station Square in Milton Keynes, since was unveiled two months ago on 24 March.

The full-size fibreglass model was created by the sculptor Andy Edwards and is on display in Station Square to gather public feedback before the final bronze artwork has its permanent installation later this year (2026), celebrating the 60th anniversary of Jennie Lee’s 1966 White Paper that led to the establishment of the Open University in 1969.

The early fibreglass model of the bronze sculpture has been placed in Station Square to ensure it has maximum visibility among residents and visitors to Milton Keynes. The initiative, led by Milton Keynes City Council and the Open University, honours her legacy in transforming education for over 2.3 million students world-wide.

The artist Andy Edwards is using the fibreglass model to collaborate with local people to fix on the final placement of his statue in Station Square. He engaged in similar exercises in the past with other high-profile commissions, such as his Beatles sculpture in Liverpool.

The Open University was established in Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, in 1969. Since then it has taught more than 2.3 million students worldwide, and has around 200,000 students today.

The installation celebrates the 60th anniversary of Jennie Lee’s 1966 White Paper that led to the establishment of the Open University (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Jennie Lee (Baroness Lee of Asheridge) was a trailblazing politician who championed universal access to education and the arts. The statue honours her role in founding the Open University in Milton Keynes and her lifelong commitment to the arts, education and public service.

Jennie Lee was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1904, and was elected MP for North Lanark in 1929. She was one of the first women to be elected to the House of Commons and at the age of 24 was also the youngest member of the House at the time. Later she sat as MP for Cannock in Staffordshire (1945-1970).

In 1934, Jennie Lee married the left-wing Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan, who died in 1960. She became Minister for the Arts in Harold Wilson’s government in 1964. Her White Paper for the Arts in 1965 insisted that the arts should be central to everyday life and publicly supported for the benefit of all, cementing the establishment of a national cultural policy through the Arts Council.

She produced the landmark White Paper on the University of the Air in February 1966, laying the groundwork and effectively founding the Open University. She fought for a university that was both open to everyone and that operated to the highest standards. She died in November 1988.

The sculptor Andy Edwards is founding director of Cornovii Edwards. He was selected to make this statue because of his outstanding portfolio of previous commissions, including the Beatles and Bob Marley in Liverpool, former Manchester United football manager Sir Alex Ferguson in Aberdeen, David Bowie and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as his knowledge, passion and enthusiasm for the opportunity to celebrate the life and work of Jennie Lee.

Andy Edwards said that without Baroness Lee and the Open University, he would not have followed a career as a sculptor.

He said his sculpture shows Jenny Lee ‘at the height of her powers’ and added: ‘I had that image of her addressing people in my mind and that is a prime part of this likeness, which also reflects Jenny throughout the ages.’

The leader of Milton City Council at the time, Councillor Pete Marland, unveiled the fibreglass version of the statue at Station Square on 24 March 2026. The final bronze statue will be installed at Station Square later this year, and the fibreglass version will remain on display at the Open University campus.

The Jennie Lee Archive collection is based at the Open University, and the archive team is working closely with Andy Edwards on developing the commission. The project is being funded through contributions from housing and infrastructure developers.

The final bronze statue will be installed at Station Square later this year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 46, Wednesday 20 May 2026

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … the astrolabe in Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing through Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday next Sunday (24 May 2026). This week began with the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026), and today the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls Alcuin of York (804), Deacon, Abbot of Tours.

Later today, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. 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.

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … the Twelve Apostles in the top row of icons in the iconostasis in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Duke Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025; click on image for full-screen view)

John 17: 11-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 11 ‘And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.’

‘I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves’ (John 17: 13) … the apse in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

As I was saying in my reflections on Sunday, we are, in some ways, caught in the church calendar in an in-between time, between Ascension Day, last Thursday [14 May 2026], and the Day of Pentecost next Sunday [24 May 2026].

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 17: 11-19) follows Christ’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper (John 14: 1 to 16: 33), and Christ has just ended his instructions to his disciples, which conclude with the advice, ‘In the world you face persecution But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (John 16: 33).

We are now reading from his prayer to the Father (John 17: 1-26), in which he summarises the significance of his life as the time for his glory – his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – has arrived.

This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer, as it includes many of the elements of prayer a priest offers when a sacrifice is about to be made: glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God’s work (verses 2, 6-8, 22, 23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).

In the Orthodox Church, this passage is also read on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, a day remembering the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year 325. We celebrated the 1,700th anniversary of that council last year and its formulation of the Nicene Creed. That council condemned the heresy of Arianism that taught that the Son of God was created by the Father and that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist. Christ’s words here bear witness to his divinity and to his filial relationship with the Father.

In his time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ looks up to heaven. He prays to the Father, asking him to ‘glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.’ Christ waits to be restored to his glory. He has come to earth to provide eternal life to all who believe. Now he prays to the Father for the disciples.

He has made the Father known to those who would believe. To John, the ‘world’, or the cosmos, is notable for its unbelief and hatred. The disciples have been faithful to ‘your word,’ to truth, to God, to Christ’s teachings.

They have come to realise the relationship of the Son to the Father. They know Christ’s origin and mission. This prayer is on behalf of believers, who are God’s, and not on behalf of all people. We hear that belonging to God implies belonging to the Son. Christ’s power and authority have been shown to them.

In his High Priestly Prayer, Christ asks four things of the Father:

• that they may be ‘one,’ as he and the Father are (verse 11)

• that they may have ‘my joy’ (verse 13)

• that they may be protected from the influence of evil (verse 15)

• that they may be able then to fulfil his mission in the world (verses 17-18).

Christ asks the Father to ‘protect them in your name,’ by his authority and as his representatives. The Father has given Christ this authority. He has protected them, except for one: Judas.

In fulfilment of ‘the scripture’, or by God’s will, he asks the Father to set them apart or sanctify them as they are sent out into the world (verses 17-19) … a theme we face again next Sunday, the Day of Pentecost.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world’ (John 17: 11) … the Friendship Globe in a park in Kuching marking Malaysia-China Friendship (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 20 May 2026):

The theme this week (17-23 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Breaking Barriers: Gender Justice in Malawi’ (pp 56-57). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Tamara Khismisi, Projects Coordinator, Anglican Church in Malawi.

The USPG prayer diary invites us to pray today (Wednesday 20 May 2026):

Gracious God, we pray for girls like Lina who face poverty, school dropout, and lack of guidance on menstrual and reproductive health. Grant each one access to knowledge, sanitary products, and dignity to manage health and attend school confidently.

The Collect:

God of wisdom, eternal light,
who shone in the heart of your servant Alcuin,
revealing to him your power and pity:
scatter the darkness of our ignorance
that, with all our heart and mind and strength,
we may seek your face
and be brought with all your saints
to your holy presence;
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:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Alcuin
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’ (John 17: 18) … going out into the world from All Saints’ Church, Calverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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