COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
The Oak Chapel at the Crownhill Crematorium in Milton Keynes was opened 15 years ago, on Saturday 27 August 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
I was at two funerals in recent weeks, one day after another. I have been at crematorium funerals before, and back in 2010 I was even elected a Fellow of the Society of Crematorium Organists (FSCO). But this was my first time I was in the Oak Chapel and the Crownhill Crematorium in Milton Keynes.
Crownhill Crematorium is about 2 km west of Milton Keynes, with its main entrance off Dansteed Way. It is on a 7 ha site that incorporates informal woodland walks, water features, and a layout that provides privacy and a calm atmosphere for mourners and visitors.
Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC) identified the need for a crematorium for the new town in 1971. Several areas were considered, including Tattenhoe, Willen, Kents Hill, Walton, and Crownhill, when the Crownhill site was chose in 1978, the area was then agricultural land off Watling Street, with four fields and four small ponds, one in each.
The phased development began in 1979, with plans for a chapel, a site for a second chapel, a crematorium in the middle and a cemetery spreading around the foot of the slope down to Watling Street. The crematorium designed by Roger Hobbs opened in 1982 but within a short span of time the rapid population growth of the city meant it could not meet the increased demands.
The Oak Chapel at the Crownhill Crematorium was designed in 2011 by the architect Adrian Morrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
A large new complex, including the Oak Chapel, crematorium and offices, was built in the south-east half of the site in 2011 as the new operational focus, and was designed by the architect Adrian Morrow. He has designed an impressive list of buildings and has worked with first-class architectural practices.
The proposals called for a spiritual and tranquil design using austenitic stainless steel clad, cycloid form concrete roof vaults, located over thermally separated split concrete columns.
Adrian Morrow’s Oak Chapel is part of the striking architecture at the Crownhill complex, with its blend of exposed in-situ concrete cycloids, warm oak timber, stainless steel and striking stained glass windows, all within a tranquil woodland setting.
Andrew Morrow’s design is an aesthetic homage to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth designed by Louis Kahn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Morrow’s design is an aesthetic homage to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by the architect Louis I Kahn (1901-1974) and widely recognised as one of the most significant works of architecture of our time.
The Oak Chapel is a 145-seat multi-faith space featuring natural light, fine acoustics, and bespoke stained glass created by Julian Stocks.
The building includes a waiting area, a porte cochère, a chapel with a circular sanctuary, a catafalque, a Japanese garden, a cremator room for two new cremators, staff accommodation, a wreath court, and a promenade with a rill.
Julian Stocks designed the stained glass artwork Aqua in ultramarine blues, aquamarine and turquoises (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Julian Stocks, who designed the stained glass, was inspired by the cycloid geometry within the chapel roof. The cycloid is one of the strongest natural forms and the design includes references to the mathematics associated with this structure.
The cycloid is found in nature in wave formation and water dynamics. The title of the artwork, Aqua, is taken from the Latin for water.
Water has endless positive associations and this theme supports the abstract architectural qualities in the design. Waves and the confluence of water are central to the design. These patterns are consciously soothing and lead the eye through the artwork and into the architecture. The choice of colour is also designed to be comforting and is based on a palette of ultramarine blues, aquamarine and turquoises.
A water feature at the Oak Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Sustainability has been a prime consideration in the planning at Crownhill. Many of the building materials selected are Green Guide A rated. The principal spaces are naturally ventilated by means of windcatchers.
The roof was originally designed before the sustainability requirements imposed the rows of windcatchers, and in some small way distract from the simplicity of extruded vaults used by Louis I Kahn.
Heat energy is recovered from the plant to heat the building. Additional free winter heating and summer cooling is provided by ground source heat pumps. The grounds have been developed into a wildlife garden with SUDs ponds, with sustainable drainage systems.
The Japanese-style gardens and the woodland setting support the privacy of families and mourners (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
The building was carefully planned to maintain the privacy of families and mourners, with a clear route from the entrance to the waiting room, chapel, flower court and garden of remembrance. The calming design uses height, daylight, water and views to allow visitors time for contemplation.
The first service in the Oak Chapel was held 15 years ago, on Saturday 27 August 2011. A commemorative plaque quotes Winston Churchill: ‘We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.’
Some of the shapes also reminded me of the Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima, a saddle-shaped concrete structure designed by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and built in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in August 1952.
Today, the Oak Chapel in Crownhill Crematorium provides a tranquil and dignified space for cremation services, and it is also used for blessings at weddings.
The calming design uses height, daylight, water and views to allow mourners time for contemplation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Iokasti, a restaurant in Koutouloufari in Crete … are there comparisons between Iocasta and her daughter in ‘The Phoenician Women’ and the Greek-speaking Syro-Phoenician or Canaanite woman in the Gospels? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Oswald (642), King of Northumbria and Martyr, and tomorrow is the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mikis Theodorakis recorded ‘Symphony No 4, of the Choral Odes,’ in Athens in May 1987
Matthew 15: 21-28 (NRSVA):
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24 He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26 He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27 She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ 28 Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
Mikis Theodorakis, Symphony No 4, Movement 2, Euripides, ‘Phoenician Women’ (Φοίνισσαι)
Today’s Reflections
Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 15: 21-28) is set in the district of Tyre and Sidon and tells of the Canaanite or Syro-Phoenician woman and her encounter with Christ.
In Saint Matthew’s account, she is a Canaanite woman (verse 22); in Saint Mark’s account (Mark 7: 27-31), she is a Greek-speaking or Syro-Phoenician woman (verse 26).
In the classical world, Phoenician women were pushy women. About 400 years earlier, the great Greek playwright Euripides wrote his tragic play The Phoenician Women (Φοίνισσαι, Phoenissae), rewriting a similar story used by Aeschylus in his play, Seven Against Thebes, and dealing with tragic events following the fall of Oedipus.
The title of the play by Euripides, The Phoenician Women, refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi and who are trapped in Thebes by the war.
The two key women in the play by Euripides are Jocasta (Ἰοκάστη) and her daughter Antigone (Ἀντιγόνη), who have survived against all odds. They challenge the accepted concepts in Classical times of fate and free-will.
In the face of death, they refuse to accept what other people regarded as their destiny, they refused to be pushed aside, marginalised and dismissed as the men around then compete for power.
So, in the time of Christ, educated, Greek-speaking people, including those around Tyre and Sidon, would expect a Greek-speaking Phoenician woman and her daughter to be pushy in the face of what appears to be a cruel fate, even if this involves confronting successful or ambitious men: they are prepared to stand up to kings and rulers, prepared to challenge them, and prepared to risk rejection and exile.
Faced with her daughter’s needs, this pushy woman ignores the disciples: she is direct and aggressive in demanding healing and justice. And in demanding justice and healing for her daughter, she is, of course, demanding these for herself too.
The dialogue between this woman and Christ must have sounded crude and aggressive to those who had gathered around to hear what was going on.
This pushy woman forces herself into the house, addresses Jesus in Messianic terms, and demands not that he should heal her daughter, but that he should show mercy. On whom? On her tormented daughter? On the distressed mother? The NRSV translation is clear, where the RSV is not: in the original Greek, she asks for mercy for herself (verse 22).
At times, when I have reading and re-reading this Gospel reading, I have found myself listening yet again to the second movement, ‘The Phoenician Woman,’ in Symphony No 4 (Of the Choral Odes), written in 1986-1987 by the great modern Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021) for soprano, alto, narrator, mixed choir and symphonic orchestra without strings.
Symphony No 4 by Theodorakis contains just two movements based on texts by Aeschylus (Eumenides) and Euripides (The Phoenician Women). The remastered version of this CD was recorded live at Athens at the world premiere of the composition. The booklet includes the completely translated libretto, extensive liner notes and some personal remarks of the composer himself.
In this symphony, Theodorakis provides a setting of Eumenides by Aeschylus and The Phoenician Women by Euripides, brought together in a massive work that conveys classical Greek tragedy through the form of a modern choral symphony.
In his fourth symphony, Theodorakis weaves together three traditions: the symphonic tradition and the integration of vocals into symphonic works; the tradition of great tragic women figures, which he takes up in his operas Medea, Electra and Antigone; and the particularly Greek perception of history.
In his notes written for this symphony, Theodorakis suggests that, because the word symphony is derived from Greek, it is best left to a Greek to define it. He is not concerned with the conventional western sonata form, and this long, two-part work derives its tension and power from its ancient Greek texts, following its own logic rather than abstract rules.
Theodorakis is forceful and direct in his music. There is power in its dark scoring, austere counterpoint, massed unisons, and immense orchestral sonorities.
Admirers of Theodorakis take this work seriously and appreciate his commitment to Greek national culture. But others find it difficult to listen to with its sombre subject matter. Yet this is the very drama, focussed in the desperate plight of one woman and her daughter, that is played out in today’s Gospel reading.
Each time I read today’s Gospel story of this woman and her daughter, they remind me of Jocasta and her daughter Antigone (Ἀντιγόνη). One year, while searching for illustrations and resources for this I came across photographs I had taken of Iokasti, a delightful restaurant in Koutouloufari, east of Iraklion in Crete.
During the Covid Pandemic lockdown earlier that year, in Holy Week, the week before Greek Easter, the people at Iokasti posted on their Facebook page a video clip of ‘Oh my sweet Springtime’ (Ω γλυκύ μου έαρ). This is a song of lamentation sung on Good Friday and imagines the Virgin Mary narrating the Crucifixion and pouring out her pain and grief as the Mother of Christ.
This lament is sung with reverence, emotion and devotion throughout Greece, and it has been performed and recorded by many Greece’s best-loved singers.
The version posted by Iokasti in Koutououfari that year was a recording in Athens by the late Irene Papas (1929-2022) – who played the title roles in Antigone (1961) and Electra (1962) – of the musical arrangement of this hymn by the Greek composer Vangelis:
Αι γενεαί πάσαι, ύμνον τη Ταφή Σου, προσφέρουσι Χριστέ μου.
Καθελών του ξύλου, ο Αριμαθείας, εν τάφω Σε κηδεύει.
Μυροφόροι ήλθον, μύρα σοι, Χριστέ μου, κομίζουσαι προφρόνως.
Δεύρο πάσα κτίσις, ύμνους εξοδίους, προσοίωμεν τω Κτίστη.
Ούς έθρεψε το μάννα, εκίνησαν την πτέρναν, κατά του ευεργέτου.
Ιωσήφ κηδεύει, συν τω Νικοδήμω, νεκροπρεπώς τον Κτίστην.
Υιέ Θεού παντάναξ, Θεέ μου πλαστουργέ μου, πώς πάθος κατεδέξω;
Έρραναν τον τάφον αι Μυροφόροι μύρα, λίαν πρωί ελθούσαι.
Ω Τριάς Θεέ μου, Πατήρ Υιός και Πνεύμα, ελέησον τον κόσμον.
Ιδείν την του Υιού σου, Ανάστασιν, Παρθένε, αξίωσον σους δούλους.
All generations offer a hymn at your burial my Christ.
The Arimathean took you down from the cross and buried you in a tomb.
Women came with spices to give you perfume and prepare your burial.
Hither creation was made, let us sing hymns to praise our Creator.
Nourished from above with manna, lifted heels of contempt against their benefactor.
You are being buried by Joseph and Nicodemus, in the grave of the Creator.
Oh, my sweet spring, my sweetest child, where does your beauty fade?
Son of God Almighty, my God and Creator, how can I bear your passion?
Women with spices came very early in the morning to sprinkle the grave with perfume.
O my Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, have mercy on the world.
Allow us to serve you, O Virgin, to see you son’s resurrection, to be your worthy servants.
In weeping for her daughter, the Syro-Phoenician woman share in the weeping of the Virgin Mary for her son. And in Christ, we find compassion for all our sorrows and all our weeping.
‘Oh my sweet Springtime’ (Ω γλυκύ μου έαρ), a song of lamentation sung on Good Friday, arranged by Vangelis and recorded in Athens by the Irene Papas
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 5 August 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 (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America.
The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 5 August 2026) invites us to pray:
God of truth, we pray for those who cannot speak openly about injustice in Nicaragua. Give them courage in silence, and raise up voices beyond their borders to bear witness and seek justice.
The Collect of the Day:
Lord God almighty,
who so kindled the faith of King Oswald with your Spirit
that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom
and turned his people to the light of Christ:
grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit,
may always bear our cross before the world
and be found faithful servants of the gospel;
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:
Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Oswald:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of The Transfiguration:
Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured
before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
A table for one at Iokasti, a restaurant in the mountain village of Koutouloufari in Crete recalls the play by Euripides (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
