Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 11 October 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Wilfrid of Ripon, Bishop, Missionary, 709; Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845; and Edith Cavell, Nurse, 1915.
Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and 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.
Luke 11: 29-32 (NRSVA):
29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!’
Today’s reflections:
In this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 29-32), as the crowds seem to ask for a sign, Christ says there have been many signs in the past, including Jonah’s visit to Nineveh, and the queen of the South who ‘came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon’. The women who make dramatic appearances in Saint Luke’s Gospel are often outspoken, vocal and wise women who confound what have become traditional perceptions of women in those times. I think this morning of the way Donald Trump pwersitently and habitually seeks to demean women journalists or back to the year before last when Trump’s running mate, the now Vice-President JD Vance, referred to Kamala Harris and spoke dismissively of ‘childless cat ladies’ who are ‘mean and mean spirited.’
The Trump administration is infected in a systemic way with racism, misogyny, antisemitism and violence, and seems to be nourished by and to feed on all four. Yet, this morning, a woman who might have easily been a sort of ‘childless cat lady’ yet has political power, the Queen of the South, is acclaimed for travelling great lengths in her search for wisdom.
Two fearless women who showed wisdom and compassion rather than pursuing power are Elizabeth Fry (1845), the Prison Reformer, and Edith Cavell (1915), Nurse, who are commemorated in the Calendar of the Church of England today (12 October).
Edith Cavell (1865-1915) is a striking example of those childless women who provide moral leadership in the face of violence and hatred and who realised the inappropriate values inherent in what passes as patriotism. I have been to see monuments to her close to Norwich Cathedral, where she is buried, in Saint Martin’s Place, close to Trafalgar Square and Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Church, and in Peterborough Cathedral.
Edith Cavell was a matron at Berkendael Medical Institute in Brussels when World War I broke out in 1914. She nursed soldiers from both sides without distinction and helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. She was arrested in August 1915, court-martialled, found guilty of treason, and shot by a German firing squad 110 years ago on 12 October 1915.
A month before the end of World War I, her statue in Norwich by Henry Pegram (1862-1937) was unveiled by Queen Alexandra on 12 October 1918, the third anniversary of her execution. It stood originally in the middle of the road opposite the then Cavell Rest Home for Nurses, which was housed un part of the Maids Head Hotel. The depiction of the soldier offering a wreath represents the men she protected at the cost of her own life.
Her body was brought back from Belgium to Britain in May 1919 for a state funeral at Westminster Abbey and she was buried at Norwich Cathedral.
The sculptor Sir George James Frampton (1860-1928) accepted the commission for her monument in London, but declined any fee. He adopted a distinctively Modernist style for the memorial, which comprises a 3 metre high statue of Cavell in her nurse’s uniform, sculpted from white Carrara marble, standing on a grey Cornish granite pedestal. The statue stands in front of the south side of a larger 12-metre grey granite block. The top of the block is carved into a cross and a statue of a mother and child, sometimes interpreted as the Virgin and Child.
The inscription on the pedestal beneath her statue reads: ‘Edith Cavell / Brussels / Dawn / October 12th 1915 / Patriotism is not enough / I must have no hatred or / bitterness for anyone’. The last three lines quote her comment to the Revd Stirling Gahan (1870-1958), the Irish-born Anglican chaplain in Brussels, who shared Holy Communion with her on the night before her execution.
The face of the granite block behind the statue of Cavell bears the inscription ‘Humanity,’ and higher up, below the Virgin and Child, ‘For King and Country.’ Other faces of the block read ‘Devotion’, ‘Fortitude’ and ‘Sacrifice.’ On the rear face of the block is a carving of a lion crushing a serpent, and higher up is the inscription ‘Faithful until death.’
The memorial was unveiled by Queen Alexandra on 17 March 1920. The site was chosen because it was beside the first headquarters of the British Red Cross at 7 Saint Martin’s Place.
Edith Cavell was born on 4 December 1865 in Swardeston, near Norwich, where her father, the Revd Frederick Cavell (1824-1910), was the vicar for 45 years; her maternal grandmother was Irish. She was educated at Norwich High School for Girls, and at boarding schools at Clevedon, Somerset, and Laurel Court, Peterborough.
In 1888, when she was 23, Edith was governess in Keswick Hall, near Norwich, for the children in the Gurney family, the Quaker family of Elizabeth Fry, who is also commemorated in Common Worship today (12 October). She later spent five years with a family in Brussels, and began nursing training in London at the age of 30.
At the invitation of Dr Antoine Depage, she became the matron of a new nursing school in Brussels in 1907. She was visiting her widowed mother in Norfolk when World War I broke out. She returned to Brussels, where her clinic and nursing school were taken over by the Red Cross.
After the German occupation of Brussels in November 1914, Edith began sheltering British soldiers, helping them to escape to the neutral Netherlands, and hiding wounded British and French soldiers and Belgian and French civilians of military age.
She was arrested on 3 August 1915, charged with harbouring allied soldiers and war treason, despite not being a German national, and was sentenced to death. The First Geneva Convention guaranteed the protection of medical personnel, but this was forfeit if used as cover for belligerent action. At her trial, she made no attempt to defend herself.
The British government said it could do nothing to help her. But Hugh S Gibson of the US legation at Brussels made it clear to the German government that executing her would further harm Germany’s already damaged reputation. He reminded the Germans of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania.
The sentence of death by firing squad was confirmed at 4:30 pm on 11 October 1915, to be carried out before dawn the next day. Her final words to the German Lutheran prison chaplain, the Revd Paul Le Seur, were, ‘Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country.’
Pastor Le Soeur realised that Edith could not receive spiritual help from someone in a German uniform. He hurriedly called for Horace Gahan who was not at home, but eventually the message reached him to meet the chaplain at his lodgings. Learning of Edith’s fate was a very shocking moment for him.
Gahan arrived with a pass at Saint Gilles Prison after 8:30 that evening 110 years ago, 11 October 1915, and went to Edith’s cell. There he found her calm and resigned. He recalled her words, ‘I have no fear or shrinking; I have seen death so often it is not strange, or fearful to me!’
They shared Holy Communion together and he stayed for an hour. She spoke kindly of her treatment in prison and said, ‘But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’
The meeting ended after they softly recited together the hymn Abide with Me. On leaving, he said ‘God Bless’; she smiled and replied tenderly, ‘We shall meet again.’
Sixteen men, forming two firing squads, carried out the death sentence on her and four Belgian men in Schaerbeek at 7 am on 12 October 1915. News reports after her execution were found to be only true in part. Even the American Journal of Nursing repeated the fictional account that she fainted and fell because of her refusal to wear a blindfold in front of the firing squad. Allegedly, while she lay unconscious, the German commanding officer shot her dead with a revolver. She was 49.
Pastor Le Seur, the German army chaplain, recalled at the time of her execution, ‘I do not believe that Miss Cavell wanted to be a martyr … but she was ready to die for her country … Miss Cavell was a very brave woman and a faithful Christian.’
Immediately after her execution, Horace Gahan wrote a moving account of their last meeting. It was sent through the US Legation to the Foreign Office in London, where it was released. Her story was used in war-time propaganda as an example of German barbarism and moral depravity.
Edith Cavell became the most prominent British female casualty of World War I, and many memorials were created around the world to remember her.
The reredos of the Last Supper behind the altar in Holy Trinity Church, Essex Street, Norwich, where Edith worshipped with her mother, was dedicated as a memorial to her. The Edith Cavell Health Care Campus is on the site of the former Edith Cavell Hospital in Peterborough, and there is a memorial to her in Peterborough Cathedral. She is also remembered in Peterborough in the name of the Cavell car park at the Queensgate shopping centre.
The Revd Horace Sterling Townsend Gahan (1870-1959), who shared Holy Communion with her on the evening before her execution, continued to live in Brussels until 1923, and there he was sometimes known affectionately as ‘Father Pat’ because of his Irish origins.
Gahan was born in Lurganboy, Co Donegal, on 11 November 1870, a son of Frederick Beresford Gahan, an engineer, and his wife, Katherine Jane (Townsend). He was ordained deacon (1894) and priest (1895), and worked in parishes in the Church of England until 1905, when he returned to Ireland. He moved to Brussels as the Anglican chaplain of Christ Church, just as World War I was about to break out. He returned to England and a parish in Leicester in 1923, and died in 1959.
Meanwhile, all those fears I had about the dangers of Trump returning to the White House, with his brutal interpretation of ‘patriotism’, have become a reality in the two years months since I first wrote about those fears while I reflected on Edith Cavell and Elizabeth Fry. The circumstances of Edith Cavell’s military-style execution came to mind again as Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, gloated and smirked in recent days at the plan he has concocted to livestream a military execution in the name of patriotism.
I am reminded too of two pithy sayings in the Pirkei Avot or Ethics of the Fathers: ‘Your house should be open wide, and you should treat the poor as members of your household’ (1: 5) … ‘On three things the world continues to exist: On justice, truth, and peace’ (1: 18). And I am reminded too of Edith Cavell’s words in prison before her death, ‘But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’
Today’s Prayers (Monday 12 October 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, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 12 October 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we give thanks for Guilherme and the ways that you have grown him through the Emerging Leaders Academy. Uphold him in his studies and responsibilities at church, to remember that you are his source of strength..
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
who called our forebears to the light of the gospel
by the preaching of your servant Wilfrid:
help us, who keep his life and labour in remembrance,
to glorify your name by following the example
of his zeal and perseverance;
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:
Holy Father, who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Wilfrid and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
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