Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston: a 1950s church in suburban Oxford with important works of modern art

The Church of Saint Michael and All Angels on the corner of Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road, Oxford … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September), and in anticipation of this feast day, I visited the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels in New Marston in suburban Oxford last week when I was visiting churches in the Headington area last week.

During my two visits to Headington last week, and in between appointments in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

I found Saint Michael’s Church, which was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, at the bottom of Jack Straw’s Lane on the corner with Marston Road.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the High Altar, chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

New Marston is a suburb about 2 km (1.25 miles) north-east of the centre of Oxford. The area is built on land that was originally part of the Manor of Headington, and it was rural until the 19th century, when housing began to develop along Marston Road from St Clement’s towards the village of Marston.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was built 70 years ago in 1954-1956 on the corner of Marston Road and Jack Straw’s Lane as a chapel of ease for the parish of Saint Andrew, Headington. New Marston’s early Anglican needs were first met by a mission hall built on Ferry Road in 1919 until the new church was consecrated in September 1955.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (1884-1959), who was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor for 23 years. At first, Dale specialised in designing houses for private clients. From the 1930s, he was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor and he was noted for designing, restoring and furnishing Church of England parish churches.

Like Charles Ponting (1850-1932) to whom he had been articled, Dale’s church architecture was strongly Anglo-Catholic. However, whereas Ponting continued to work in the Gothic Revival idiom long after it had passed out of fashion, Dale adopted Italianate architecture for his churches.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the west end … the church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale was born in London and was educated at University College School, Hampstead. He began trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1900, was articled to Charles Ponting in Marlborough, Wiltshire (1901-1904), was assistant to the architect Edmund Buckle (1904-1906), and qualified as an architect in 1906.

He was a captain in the Army Cyclist Corps during World War I and was mentioned in despatches. After World War I, Dale moved to Banbury and designed a series of council houses in several villages. Two of his earlier works are Edwardian houses in Hampstead Garden Suburb, one of which has been described as ‘an excellent house of the Lutyens school’. Dale later moved to Oxford, where he designed his own house on Woodstock Road, and later moved again to Bradmore Road.

As Oxford Diocesan Surveyor, Dale designed at least four parish churches in the Oxford area, and also designed restoration work or new furnishings for a number of parish churches. His churches in the Diocese of Oxford include: Saint Francis of Assisi (1930-1931), Cowley, built on a site provided by Morris Motors as a temporary daughter church of Saint James, Cowley; Saint Alban the Martyr (1933), Oxford, replacing a chapel of ease built for Saint Mary and Saint John Church in 1889; Saint Michael and All Angels (1954-1956), New Marston, built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington; and Saint Swithun (1956-1958), Kennington.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael and two large reliefs of angels, by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale died in 1959 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. His son Simon Dale (1919-1987) was also an architect. He was beaten to death at The Heath, the house he and Susan had restored at Hopton Castle, Herefordshire.

The only suspect, Dale’s former wife, Baroness Susan de Stempel, was cleared of his murder due to insufficient physical evidence. The case remains ‘one of West Mercia Constabulary’s relatively few unsolved murders’. But that’s a story for another evening, perhaps.

TL Dale’s churches reflect the various brands of classicism popular in church architecture in England in the mid-20th century and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston, is perhaps his most ambitious. It is an interesting essay in a sort of stripped Italian baroque manner, typical of Anglo-Catholic taste from the 1920s on.

The statue of Saint Michael by the sculptor Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael’s was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington. Although the building is slightly limited by its corner site, it is substantial in scale and has been described as being in a ‘vaguely Italian renaissance style’. Its notable features include its campanile, its elliptical windows and its tall, box-like chancel.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael in a niche at the top of the gable, and two large reliefs of angels flanking the oval window, by John Bunting (1927-2002) and Michael Groser (1918-2009). The Latin wording above the west door says: Gloria in Altissimis Deo et in Terra Pax (‘Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace’).

Bunting and Groser were probably responsible for the carvings inside the church, including a suspended rood with the Crucified Christ flanked by figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John, the frontal to the altar and the Stations of the Cross. The statue of Saint Michael is by Groser, the painting of the Annunciation and a series of reliefs are by Bunting, and the reredos above the High Altar was painted by Leon Underwood (1890-1975).

The suspended rood, with figures of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John, is by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

John Bunting was one of Leon Underwood’s students. He later taught for many decades at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, where his students included Antony Gormley, creator of the ‘Angel of the North’, Martin Jennings, whose works include the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras station and the statue of Philip Larkin in Hull, and the painter Andrew Festing.

Michael Groser was born in his grandfather’s rectory in St Winnow, Cornwall. His father, the Revd St John Beverley Groser (1890-1966), was an Anglican priest and a prominent Christian socialist. He was said to be ‘the best-known priest in the East End’ and Kenneth Leech said that he was ‘one of the most significant Christian socialist figures in 20th century Britain’. He was present at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. He was appointed the Warden of the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in 1948. He played Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1951 film adaptation of TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, produced and directed by George Hoellering.

Michael Groser moved to London with his parents in the 1920s and attended the Mercers’ School. After a degree in English Literature at Leeds University, he studied for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, Yorkshire, where his father had once been a student. As a conscientious objector during World War II, he was sent to a coalmine near Huddersfield, but managed to study sculpture part-time at Leeds School of Art.

He later moved to Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, and then to Banbury, and sang occasionally with the choir at New College, Oxford. As an actor, he played the Third Priest in Murder in the Cathedral (1951), alongside his father. He moved to Co Cork in 2004, and when he died in Bantry in 2009, he was buried at Church Cross, near Skibbereen.

The painting of the Annunciation by John Bunting above the altar in the Lady Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael's Church, New Marston, was consecrated in September 1955 and superseded the Ferry Road mission hall, which was then deconsecrated and sold for secular use.

Saint Michael’s became a parish church in its own right in the Diocese of Oxford in 1963, with a new parish formed from parts of Headington, Marston and Saint Clement’s parishes.

The church built by Kingerlee & Sons. The ground for the new vicarage in Jack Straw’s Lane was bought in 1952, but the vicarage was not built until 1966-1967.

In recent years, a problem with subsidence has left the church needing extensive repairs and when I visited the church last week much of the south side of the building was covered in scaffolding.

The campanile at the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Revd Elaine Bardwell has been the Vicar of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston since 1996. Saint Michael’s uses modern Catholic worship and has a smallish congregation that welcomes all comers. The main Sunday service is the Parish Eucharist at 10 am, and there is a short said Eucharist on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 am.

The tall, box-like chancel and south side of Saint Michael’s Church seen from Jack Straw’s Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 144, Tuesday 29 September 2026, Saint Michael and All Angels

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young at Saint Pancras Church, London … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 27 September 2026) and today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September 2026). Many churches are holding special events to mark this day. In Pusey House, Oxford, the preacher at Evensong and High Mass this evening is my friend, the Revd Dr Jonathan Lewis-Jong, Vicar of Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Oxford. Later this evening, I plan to write about my visit to the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels in New Marston, Oxford.

Meanwhile, this morning, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time 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.

Angel I by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 4: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

Angel II by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Like many people, I never cease to be fascinated by the Caryatids that make Saint Pancras Church facing Euston Station in London a unique and captivating church. But I wonder how many pass by in the daily commute and miss the opportunity to appreciate Emily Young’s ‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ in the church gardens.

I stopped to look again at ‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ yesterday between train journeys to and from Euston when I was meeting a long-standing friend for coffee. This sculpture in onyx and can be viewed in the church grounds from Upper Woburn Place, around the corner from Euston Road. An inscription on a plaque between the sculpture and the railings reads: ‘In memory of the victims of the 7th July 2005 bombings and all victims of violence. ‘I will lift up my eyes unto the hills’ Psalm 121.’

Nothing moves in this image, a silent reminder of what is being commemorated in the sculpture. Because Saint Michael’s face has only one eye, and this is closed, some critics have wondered whether the quotation is ill-chosen. But the full context is provided in Psalm 121: 1-2:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills –
from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

The London bombings over 20 years ago on 7 July 2005, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks that targeted commuters on the public transport system in the morning rush hour.

Three homemade bombs packed into backpacks were detonated in quick succession on Underground trains on the Circle line near Aldgate and at Edgware Road, and on the Piccadilly line near Russell Square; later, a fourth bomb went off on a bus in Tavistock Square, near Upper Woburn Place and Saint Pancras Church.

Apart from the four bombers, 52 people of 18 different nationalities were killed and more than 700 people were injured in the attacks. It was Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie, and the first Islamist suicide attack in the UK.

Emily Young has been described as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor’ and ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ On different occasions, as I have strolled through London, I stopped and taken time at an open-air exhibition at ENO Southbank of works by Emily Young.

A number of her works have formed a sculpture trail or garden at the NEO Bankside development on South Bank in ‘Emily Young: Sculptor Trail.’ The exhibition was both a continuation and a broadening of her presence on the South Bank, echoing three large-scale works on long-loan facing the Tate Modern from NEO Bankside.

Emily Young’s sculptures of five angel heads in stone stand on five columns in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, London. The sequence of heads are mounted on columns under the arcade of a new classical-inspired building to the north west side of Saint Paul's, redeveloped as part of the redesign of Paternoster Square at the top of Ludgate Hill.

Her five angels’ heads are placed dramatically on columns in the arcade of Juxon House and almost face the west front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

Emily Young’s works are instantly recognisable and accessible. She deals in spectacular lumps of stone – quartzite, onyx, marble, alabaster – to which she gives an identity by carving a face but leaving the remainder of the rock displayed in its raw, craggy intensity, as if the face had grown or evolved organically. The Financial Times says: ‘Her sculptures meditate on time, nature, memory, man’s relationship to the Earth.’

Emily Young was born in London in 1951 into a family of writers, artists and politicians. Her grandmother, the sculptor Kathleen Scott (1878-1947), was a colleague of Auguste Rodin, and the widow of the Polar explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, ‘Scott of the Antarctic’. Her works include a statue of Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, now in Beacon Park, Lichfield. She later married Emily Young’s paternal grandfather, the politician and writer Edward Hilton Young, 1st Lord Kennet.

Emily Young’s father, Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Lord Kennet, was also a politician, conservationist and writer. Her mother was the writer and commentator Elizabeth Young; her uncle was the ornithologist, conservationist and painter, Sir Peter Scott.

She was still a student when she achieved fame (or notoriety) in 1971 as the inspiration for the Pink Floyd song See Emily Play written by Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. But the song had earlier origins in the 1960s. She was 15 when she met Syd Barrett at the London Free School in 1965. ‘I used to go there because there were a lot of Beat philosophers and poets around,’ she said many years later. ‘There were fundraising concerts with The Pink Floyd Sound, as they were then called. I was more keen on poets than rockers. I was educating myself. I was a seeker. I wanted to meet everyone and take every drug.’

As a young woman, Emily Young worked primarily as a painter while she was studying at Chelsea School of Art in 1968 and later at Central Saint Martins. She travelled around the world in the late 1960s and 1970s, spending time in the US, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, France, Italy, Africa, South America, the Middle East and China, encountering a variety of cultures and developing her experiences of art.

In the early 1980s, she abandoned painting and turned to carving, sourcing stone from all over the world. Travelling from a London childhood, to a European education, to a life lived as an artist round the world, she began to interact with the timeless quality of stone to produce breath-taking sculptures of luminous intensity and great beauty.

As well as marble, she carves in semi-precious stone – agate, alabaster, lapis lazuli. These not only reflect and refract the light – but glow with a passionate intensity (as Winged Golden Onyx Head), revealing the hidden crystalline structure of the material and the subtle layers the time has laid down, showing the liquid qualities of hard rock.

The primary objective of her sculpture is to bring the natural beauty and energy of stone to the fore. Her sculptures have unique characters because each stone has an individual geological history and geographical source. Her approach allows the viewer to comprehend a deep grounding across time, land and cultures. She combines traditional carving skills with technology to produce work that is both contemporary and ancient, with a unique, serious and poetic presence.

Emily Young now divides her time between her studios in London and Italy. Her permanent installations and public collections can be seen in many places, including Saint Paul’s Churchyard, Saint Pancras Church, NEO Bankside, and the Imperial War Museum in London; La Defense, Paris; Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and the Cloister of Madonna Dell’Orto, Venice.

After years of being feted as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor,’ the art critic of the Financial Times called her ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ The Daily Telegraph has written: ‘Emily Young has inherited the mantle as Britain’s greatest female stone sculptor from Dame Barbara Hepworth.’

She recently explained: ‘So my work is a kind of temple activity now, devotional; when I work a piece of stone, the mineral occlusions of the past are revealed, the layers of sediment unpeeled; I may open in one knock something that took millions of years to form: dusts settling, water dripping, forces pushing, minerals growing – material and geological revelations: the story of time on Earth shows here, sometimes startling, always beautiful.’

She told an interviewer: ‘I carve in stone the fierce need in millions of us to retrieve some semblance of dignity for the human race in its place on Earth. We can show ourselves to posterity as a primitive and brutal life form – that what we are best at is rapacity, greed, and wilful ignorance, and we can also show that we are creatures of great love for our whole planet, that everyone of us is a worshipper in her temple of life.’

The American composer Fran Schultz, who lives in Howell, New Jersey, said some years ago that my writing about Emily Young’s angels have inspired her composition and recording, ‘How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin.’

Fran describes the composition as in the genre of rock, instrumental and digital electronic music. The musical instruments include a Steinway Grand Piano, Oak Piano Dream Synthesiser, Stutter Stack and Classic D6.

She is generous on her website when she extends ‘special thanks to Patrick Comerford for his writing and his allowing me use of his photos.’ She said she wrote ‘How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin’ because of my ‘inspirational writing.’

She added: ‘I also enjoyed reading all the links he provided about the artist, Emily Young, his thoughts and quotes by her. I thank him very much for letting me make use of his photographs for this piece of music and to the artist Emily Young for making them.’

She continued: ‘The connection point for me in his writing was immediate in his succinct and direct insightful recognition of such questions and in my seeing how in social media distracts us into questions that are essentially “A metaphor for wasting time discussing trivial topics that have no practical value, or asking questions whose answers hold no practical value, or asking questions whose answers hold no consequence, at times when we have more urgent concerns to debate”.’

She was unexpectedly generous when she said my ‘writing has many layers of depth to it that I particularly am drawn to in the subjects of architecture, sculptures, history, theology, questions, the deeper meaning of things and the beauty of things we might not have noticed or fully appreciated before. I love his thoughtful responses to the questions and what brought those very questions up upon reflecting the sculptures made by Emily Young as he was taking a walk in London … and taking photos. Hope you enjoy his writing and enjoy my music too!’

She then offered a link to my website and my article of 25 February 2023, ‘Emily Young’s Five Angels on Columns,’ HERE.

You can listen to Fran Schultz’s composition, ‘How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin’, HERE.

Angel III by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 29 September 2026, Saint Michael and All Angels):

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 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 29 September 2026, Saint Michael and All Angels) invites us to pray:

Lord God, through the example of Saint Michael, defend and guide those who work for reconciliation. Give them courage so every voice may be heard and every community united in peace.

Angel IV by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Angel V by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (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

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young in the gardens of Saint Pancras Church near Euston Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 19, Thursday 18 December 2025

‘When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’ (Matthew 1: 24) … a mosaic in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, Co Westmeath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, and Christmas Day is just a week away. This week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025), also known as Gaudete Sunday.

We are catching a train to London later this morning for some pre-Christmas family meetings and perhaps lunch together. 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, 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 betrothal of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary … a panel in the Saint Joseph Window by the Harry Clarke studios in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Kilmallock, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 1: 18-24 (NRSVA):

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child … a statue at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), we continue in a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked yesterday (17 December). It is followed today (18 December) by O Adonai, O Root of Jesse tomorrow (19 December), and then O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), continues the Nativity narrative in the first Gospel. This is a reading about choices, about obedience to God’s plans, and about the fulfilment of God’s plans for all nations.

So often we talk about the Virgin Mary and her obedience, about Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the birth of Christ But it means Joseph is often pushed to the side of the stage. Joseph says ‘Yes’ too, but he says it silently; he has no scripted lines; he has no dramatic part or role; he is mute; but he is obedient.

And, like the earlier Joseph, his Biblical namesake, he too is dreamer of dreams and a doer of deeds.

Saint Matthew’s nativity story lacks the romantic imagery of Saint Luke’s account, whose heady mixture of heavenly angels with earthy shepherds is missing. Instead, the hope of all the earth takes shape under the sign of arrangements being made for a betrothal that is apparently violated. The gifts of God’s grace and the promise of God’s reign are hidden, are to be searched for and to be found in the midst of what appears be a tawdry story.

The Virgin Mary may have been a mere teenager at the time, just 14 or 15. And, like so many other teenage brides, she turns up for her wedding – pregnant! Joseph knows he could not possibly be the father. He decides to do the right thing and take off, quietly dropping out of the arrangement.

If Joseph goes ahead, then this child is going to be known in his family, among his neighbours, perhaps by everyone who needs to know, as illegitimate for the rest of his life. His critics indelicately remind Jesus of this in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself’ (John 8: 41). The original Greek is more direct, crude and blunt: they taunt him that they were not conceived through illicit intercourse.

These fears and sneers, those social judgments and wagging fingers, must have been confronting Joseph like a nightmare. Yet the angel of Joseph’s dream makes a startling suggestion. He tells him to marry Mary, and then he is to name the child. To take on naming the child requires becoming his father. And this is suggested not as a nice thing to do, a courteous thing to do, a gallant or gentlemanly sort of thing to do. Joseph is told why: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (verse 21).

It is not a promise of immediate reward. Joseph is not promised that if he does this he is going to earn points towards the forgiveness of his own sins; that God will see him as a nice guy; that unexpected prosperity is on the horizon; or even that if he lives long enough, this child may grow up, be apprenticed to him, take over the family business, and act as a future pension plan.

If Joseph is not the father of the Child Jesus, he must have wondered what the angel meant by ‘his people’ and ‘their sins.’ But the forgiveness here is spoken of in apocalyptic terms. It is the declaration of a new future. To be forgiven is to receive a future. Forgiveness breaks the simple link between cause and effect, action and reaction, failure and disaster, rebellion and recrimination.

Advent is a time of repentance, forgiveness and expectation. It is a time of preparation, anticipation and hope. It is a time for dreaming dreams, and putting behind us all our nightmares.

Joseph dreams something wonderful. God would enter the world; God would be born to his new, young wife, Mary. But to believe this, Joseph had to trust not only his dream, but to trust Mary, to trust the future child, to trust God.

Do you love the people you trust and trust the people you love?

To trust the Virgin Mary, Joseph must have truly loved her. But trust in this predicament must have gone beyond trust. Joseph must have truly glimpsed what it is to trust God, to have hope in God, to love God, to have faith in God.

Joseph dreams a dream not of his own salvation, but of the salvation of the world.

Sometimes, like Joseph, we are supposed to trust God and then get out of the way. Do you trust that God is working through the people you love? Do you trust that God is working through people you find it difficult not to love but merely to like … working through God’s people for their salvation?

Too often we forget about poor Joseph. We tend to focus on the story of the Virgin Mary, but the Annunciation occurs not just to Mary, but to Joseph too. And they both say ‘Yes.’

And Joseph says a second ‘Yes’ too later when he agrees to the angel’s prompting to flee with Mary and the Christ Child to Egypt.

Joseph listens, God sends a messenger again, Joseph dreams again, and he remains true to God, he answers God’s call.

Joseph has no speaking part; he just has a walk-on part in this drama. But his actions, his obedience to God’s call, speak louder than words. Yes, God appears over and over again, to men, women, to ‘all sorts and conditions of people.’

Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to all children who seem unwanted and who are easily pushed to one side. Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to the promises the Coming Christ brings to all who are marginalised and in danger today, for because of his ‘Yes’ God is among us.

Advent is an opportunity to echo that ‘Yes’, time and time again.

Mary’s ‘husband Joseph [was] a righteous man’ (Matthew 1: 8-19) … Joseph and the Christ Child depicted at Saint Joseph’s Cottage in Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 18 December 2025):

The theme this week (14 to 20 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 18 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Sisters as they travel across the islands by boat, canoe, and on foot. May their journeys be safe, and may their pastoral care, Scripture teaching, and witness bring encouragement to isolated communities.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Joseph depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 140, Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young at Saint Pancras Church, London … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September 2025) and today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September).

This morning, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time 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.

Angel I by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 4: 47-51 (NRSVA):

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ 48 Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ 49 Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ 50 Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ 51 And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

Angel II by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Like many people, I never cease to be fascinated by the Caryatids that make Saint Pancras Church facing Euston Station in London a unique and captivating church. But I wonder how many miss the opportunity to appreciate Emily Young’s ‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ in the church gardens.

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ is in onyx and can be viewed in the church grounds from Upper Woburn Place, around the corner from Euston Road. An inscription on a plaque between the sculpture and the railings reads: ‘In memory of the victims of the 7th July 2005 bombings and all victims of violence. ‘I will lift up my eyes unto the hills’ Psalm 121.’

Nothing moves in this image, a silent reminder of what is being commemorated in the sculpture. Because Saint Michael’s face has only one eye, and this is closed, some critics have wondered whether the quotation is ill-chosen. But the full context is provided in Psalm 121: 1-2:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills –
from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

The London bombings twenty years ago on 7 July 2005, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks that targeted commuters on the public transport system in the morning rush hour.

Three homemade bombs packed into backpacks were detonated in quick succession on Underground trains on the Circle line near Aldgate and at Edgware Road, and on the Piccadilly line near Russell Square; later, a fourth bomb went off on a bus in Tavistock Square, near Upper Woburn Place and Saint Pancras Church.

Apart from the four bombers, 52 people of 18 different nationalities were killed and more than 700 people were injured in the attacks. It was Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie, and the first Islamist suicide attack in the UK.

Emily Young has been described as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor’ and ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ On different occasions, as I have strolled through London, I stopped and taken time at an open-air exhibition at ENO Southbank of works by Emily Young.

A number of her works have formed a sculpture trail or garden at the NEO Bankside development on South Bank in ‘Emily Young: Sculptor Trail.’ The exhibition was both a continuation and a broadening of her presence on the South Bank, echoing three large-scale works on long-loan facing the Tate Modern from NEO Bankside.

Emily Young’s sculptures of five angel heads in stone stand on five columns in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, London. The sequence of heads are mounted on columns under the arcade of a new classical-inspired building to the north west side of Saint Paul's, redeveloped as part of the redesign of Paternoster Square at the top of Ludgate Hill.

Her five angels’ heads are placed dramatically on columns in the arcade of Juxon House and almost face the west front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

Emily Young’s works are instantly recognisable and accessible. She deals in spectacular lumps of stone – quartzite, onyx, marble, alabaster – to which she gives an identity by carving a face but leaving the remainder of the rock displayed in its raw, craggy intensity, as if the face had grown or evolved organically. The Financial Times says: ‘Her sculptures meditate on time, nature, memory, man’s relationship to the Earth.’

Emily Young was born in London in 1951 into a family of writers, artists and politicians. Her grandmother, the sculptor Kathleen Scott (1878-1947), was a colleague of Auguste Rodin, and the widow of the Polar explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, ‘Scott of the Antarctic’. Her works include a statue of Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, now in Beacon Park, Lichfield. She later married Emily Young’s paternal grandfather, the politician and writer Edward Hilton Young, 1st Lord Kennet.

Emily Young’s father, Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Lord Kennet, was also a politician, conservationist and writer. Her mother was the writer and commentator Elizabeth Young; her uncle was the ornithologist, conservationist and painter, Sir Peter Scott.

She was still a student when she achieved fame (or notoriety) in 1971 as the inspiration for the Pink Floyd song See Emily Play written by Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. But the song had earlier origins in the 1960s. She was 15 when she met Syd Barrett at the London Free School in 1965. ‘I used to go there because there were a lot of Beat philosophers and poets around,’ she said many years later. ‘There were fundraising concerts with The Pink Floyd Sound, as they were then called. I was more keen on poets than rockers. I was educating myself. I was a seeker. I wanted to meet everyone and take every drug.’

As a young woman, Emily Young worked primarily as a painter while she was studying at Chelsea School of Art in 1968 and later at Central Saint Martins. She travelled around the world in the late 1960s and 1970s, spending time in the US, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, France, Italy, Africa, South America, the Middle East and China, encountering a variety of cultures and developing her experiences of art.

In the early 1980s, she abandoned painting and turned to carving, sourcing stone from all over the world. Travelling from a London childhood, to a European education, to a life lived as an artist round the world, she began to interact with the timeless quality of stone to produce breath-taking sculptures of luminous intensity and great beauty.

As well as marble, she carves in semi-precious stone – agate, alabaster, lapis lazuli. These not only reflect and refract the light – but glow with a passionate intensity (as Winged Golden Onyx Head), revealing the hidden crystalline structure of the material and the subtle layers the time has laid down, showing the liquid qualities of hard rock.

The primary objective of her sculpture is to bring the natural beauty and energy of stone to the fore. Her sculptures have unique characters because each stone has an individual geological history and geographical source. Her approach allows the viewer to comprehend a deep grounding across time, land and cultures. She combines traditional carving skills with technology to produce work that is both contemporary and ancient, with a unique, serious and poetic presence.

Emily Young now divides her time between studios in London and Italy. Her permanent installations and public collections can be seen in many places, including Saint Paul’s Churchyard, Saint Pancras Church, NEO Bankside, and the Imperial War Museum in London; La Defense, Paris; Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and the Cloister of Madonna Dell’Orto, Venice.

After years of being feted as ‘Britain’s foremost female stone sculptor,’ the art critic of the Financial Times called her ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.’ The Daily Telegraph has written: ‘Emily Young has inherited the mantle as Britain’s greatest female stone sculptor from Dame Barbara Hepworth.’

She recently explained: ‘So my work is a kind of temple activity now, devotional; when I work a piece of stone, the mineral occlusions of the past are revealed, the layers of sediment unpeeled; I may open in one knock something that took millions of years to form: dusts settling, water dripping, forces pushing, minerals growing – material and geological revelations: the story of time on Earth shows here, sometimes startling, always beautiful.’

She told an interviewer: ‘I carve in stone the fierce need in millions of us to retrieve some semblance of dignity for the human race in its place on Earth. We can show ourselves to posterity as a primitive and brutal life form – that what we are best at is rapacity, greed, and wilful ignorance, and we can also show that we are creatures of great love for our whole planet, that everyone of us is a worshipper in her temple of life.’

Angel III by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels):

The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 29 September 2025, Saint Michael and All Angels) invites us to pray in these words:

O God, who has given us the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, grant us your protection and guidance. May we, with the help of your heavenly hosts, stand firm in the faith and be strong in your service.

Angel IV by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Angel V by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, London (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

‘Archangel Michael The Protector’ by Emily Young in the gardens of Saint Pancras Church near Euston Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Inspiring a composer’s ‘Epiphanies’ before this 40-day season draws to a close

‘And three trees on the low sky’ (TS Eliot, ‘The Journey of the Magi’) … three trees against the setting sun in winter on Cross in Hand Lane, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The season of Christmas and Epiphany comes to an end tomorrow with the celebration of the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas (2 February). Many churches celebrated moved these celebrations to Sunday (28 January), for understandable practical and pastoral considerations. But that also means people often miss out on the significance of the season having a full 40 days – just as Lent is a season of 40 days.

The Epiphany events might better be described as epiphanies, as they include three major epiphanies recounted in the Gospel readings that are traditionally read during the Sundays throughout the season: the Visit of the Magi, the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist, and the Wedding at Cana.

The Epiphany readings became part of my readings, reflections and prayers in my prayer diary each morning throughout this season. On the Day of Epiphany (6 January 2024), my reflections on my prayer diary also discussed TS Eliot’s poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi.’

So it was a delightful surprise a few days later to find once again that my reflections had inspired the American composer Fran Schultz, a long-standing Facebook friend who lives in Howell, New Jersey. She described my Epiphany blog posting and my interpretation of Eliot’s poem as an ‘insightful’ and ‘inspirational piece’.

She went on to say: ‘I think his writing inspired me to make the music and to present the theme in a new light.’

Fran composed ‘Epiphanies’ on the night of 6 January 2024 and released it a week later, on 13 January 2024. She describes this composition as in the genre of pop, symphonic and soundscape. The recording includes Orchestral Strings, String Movements, Warm Synth Pad Future Strings and Percussions.

Later, she said: ‘Thanks so much Patrick. Thank heavens for the wisdom you provide.’

Last year, Fran said my writing and ideas had inspired another composition and recording, ‘How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin.’ On her website, she was generous when she extended ‘special thanks to Patrick Comerford for his writing and his allowing me use of his photos.’

She introduced that new piece saying ‘How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin’ was ‘very inspired’ by a recent piece I had written and that she wrote that piece of music because of my ‘inspirational writing.’

She added: ‘I also enjoyed reading all the links he provided about the artist, Emily Young, his thoughts and quotes by her.’

She continued: ‘The connection point for me in his writing was immediate in his succinct and direct insightful recognition of such questions and in my seeing how in social media distracts us into questions that are essentially “A metaphor for wasting time discussing trivial topics that have no practical value, or asking questions whose answers hold no practical value, or asking questions whose answers hold no consequence, at times when we have more urgent concerns to debate”.’

She was unexpectedly generous when she says my ‘writing has many layers of depth to it that I particularly am drawn to in the subjects of architecture, sculptures, history, theology, questions, the deeper meaning of things and the beauty of things we might not have noticed or fully appreciated before. I love his thoughtful responses to the questions and what brought those very questions up upon reflecting the sculptures made by Emily Young as he was taking a walk in London … and taking photos. Hope you enjoy his writing and enjoy my music too!’

And she then offered a link to my website and my posting on 25 February 2023, ‘Emily Young’s Five Angels on Columns,’ HERE.

You can listen to Fran Schultz’s composition, ‘Epiphanies’, HERE.

Epiphanies © 2024 Fran Schultz

Saint Michael’s Church in St Albans is the most significant surviving Saxon building in Hertfordshire

Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans, is the best-preserved Saxon building in Hertfordshire and the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Michael’s Church on the western edges of St Albans in Hertfordshire is near the centre of the site of Roman Verulamium, the Roman Theatre and the Verulamium Museum.

Saint Michael’s Church is the best-preserved Saxon building in Hertfordshire, and many regard it as the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in England.

Saint Michael’s Church was built in the 10th century on the site of the basilica, the headquarters of Roman Verulamium. It may have been here that Saint Alban was tried for being a Christian before he was executed outside the town walls, perhaps where St Albans Abbey now stands.

According to the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris, Wulsin (or Ulsinus), Abbot of St Alban’s Abbey, founded a church on each of the three main roads into the town in the year 948 – Saint Michael’s, Saint Peter’s and Saint Stephen’s – to serve pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Saint Alban.

However, Wulsin may have been abbot ca 860-880, and the earliest parts of Saint Michael’s are at least a century later. The church certainly dates from the late Anglo-Saxon era and there may have been an earlier wooden church on the site.

Inside Saint Michael’s Church, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A stone church was built on a simple plan in the late 10th or early 11th century, with a chancel and a nave. The building includes much Roman material salvaged or purloined from the surrounding Roman ruins of Verulamium, including Roman brick used in the splays of the nave windows.

A north aisle and then a south aisle were added in the early 12th century. They were linked with the nave by arcades of plain round-headed arches cut in the north and south walls of the nave, leaving sections of the Saxon wall as piers. The arcades do not match: the earlier north arcade has three bays spaced irregularly; the later south arcade was built with four bays. The round-headed Norman window at the east end of the north aisle may also date from the 12th century.

When the aisles were added, the church became much darker inside. A clerestory with six Early English lancet windows on each side was added to the nave in the 13th century to increase the amount of natural light. Another Early English lancet window from this period survives in the north wall of the chancel.

Efforts were made to stabilise the south aisle when it became unstable, but it was demolished at a later date.

Inside Saint Michael’s Church, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The south chapel was added in the 13th century, and the easternmost arch of the south aisle became the entrance to the chapel. Three of the chapel’s windows are round-headed 13th century late Norman arches: two in the east wall and one in the south wall.

The south chapel is taller than the nave, so the more easterly windows on the south side of the clerestory now look into the chapel instead of outside. The church may also have been given a west tower in the 13th century.

The chancel and the north aisle were rebuilt ca 1340 and the chancel arch was enlarged. The Decorated east window, an ogee-headed south window and matching tomb recess in the chancel, and one of the windows in the north aisle, all date from this time.

Three of the single lancets on the north side of the clerestory were replaced in the 15th century with two-light square-headed windows, two large windows were inserted in the south wall of the south chapel and one in the south wall of the chancel.

The piscinas in the chancel and south chapel, and the octagonal font also date from the 15th century. The font is now known to have been carved from a single piece of stone. The 13th-century clerestory was given a new roof on stone corbels late in the 15th century.

Mediaeval wall paintings in the south chancel and the Ascension window by Burlison and Gryllis in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Also in the 15th century, a wooden tympanum was inserted in the 14th-century chancel arch and a ‘Doom’ was painted on it, spreading over the upper part of the east wall of the nave. A rood screen was added to the chancel arch at that time. It has since been removed, but stone stairs to it survive on the south side of the arch next to the south chapel.

The tower may have been remodelled in the late 15th or early 16th century. In its final form it had paired bell-openings, an embattled parapet and a polygonal stair-turret that was taller than the tower. A late Perpendicular west window of three lights was inserted in the west wall of the nave, probably early in the 16th century.

St Alban’s Abbey was suppressed in 1539 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The patronage of Saint Michael’s then passed from the abbey to the nearby Gorhambury Estate. One of the owners of Gorhambury was the Tudor politician, author, philosopher and early scientist Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

The 17th century monument in the chancel to Francis Bacon who died in 1626 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The most significant 17th century monument in Saint Michael’s is the monument to Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban, who died in 1626. It is in a round-arched recess inserted in the north wall of the chancel.

Bacon had a successful political career, becoming Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England before being forced out of office on charges of corruption. He then retired to Gorhambury, outside St Albans, where he devoted his time to the study of philosophy and developed what became known as the scientific method, the basis for modern science.

The monument is a life-sized sculpture showing Bacon sitting in an armchair in a relaxed pose. The sculptor may have been Nicholas Stone. A copy of the statue sculpted by Henry Weekes (1845) is in the chapel in Trinity College, Cambridge.

The octagonal font, wooden pulpit and Victorian pews in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Michael’s present wooden pulpit, tester and altar table date from the late 16th or early 17th century. The east wall of the south chapel may have been rebuilt in the early 17th century. Between its two lancet windows is a circular one that may date from this time. The present roof of the south chapel may also date from the 17th century.

The royal coat of arms on the west wall of the Lady Chapel dates from the reign of Charles II.

A west gallery was inserted in the nave late in the 17th century, and box pews were also added.

The church was restored in 1866 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. He had the box pews and west gallery removed and added the Gothic Revival south porch, which uses one of the 12th-century arches of the former south aisle.

The 19th century oak pews date largely from Scott’s reordering in the 1860s, and some incorporate late mediaeval or early modern linenfold panelling.

The south chapel or Lady Chapel in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, who left his mark on St Albans Cathedral at the same time, remodelled the west end of Saint Michael’s in 1896-1898 to his own designs and at his own expense. When he had the west tower demolished, the possible 13th century origins of the tower were discovered under its late Perpendicular external fabric.

Grimthorpe replaced the tower with a northwest tower in a ‘fanciful’ Gothic Revival interpretation of Early English Gothic. He extended the nave to the west, demolishing its old west wall and late Perpendicular west window, and also added a vestry on the site of the south aisle.

During these Victorian-era restorations, the 15th-century tympanum was taken down and the rest of the ‘Doom’ painting was obliterated.

The architect John C Rogers carried out further restoration work in 1934-1935 and added a second vestry on the north side of the chancel in 1938.

As well as Francis Bacon’s monument, Saint Michael's has some notable monumental brasses, including a 14th-century brass to John Pecock and his wife Maud in the south chapel.

Nathaniel Westlake’s window in the south chancel illustrates verses in the canticle ‘Te Deum’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The oldest glass in the church dates from the 17th century, and is a 13th century lancet window on the north side of the chancel, beside the Bacon monument. It may have come from the chapel in Gorhambury House. It shows the impaled heraldic arms of local families: Grimston impaling Croke, Grimston and Bacon impaling Cooke.

The other stained glass is mainly Victorian and the windows include:

Clayton and Bell: the Transfiguration (east window).

Burlison and Gryllis: the Ascension (south chancel); the visit of the Magi (north aisle); the Nativity (north aisle).

Nathaniel Westlake: a couple receiving Holy Communion at their wedding (bottom right), a woman and child by a man’s deathbed (bottom left), and above an illustration of words in the canticle Te Deum, ‘Make them to be humbled with thy saints in glory everlasting’ and ‘The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee’ (south chancel).

Ward and Hughes: two lancets showing the Beatitudes and a roundel with the Star of David (Lady Chapel, east end); Christ blessing the children (Lady Chapel, south wall); early events in the life of Christ, including the Wedding at Cana, the Presentation in the Temple, and the visit of the shepherds (Lady Chapel, south wall); Christ carrying the Cross and the angels announcing the Resurrection (Lady Chapel, south wall).

Hardman: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (north aisle); Saint Peter and Saint Paul (north facing clerestory); Saint Alban and Saint Stephen (north facing clerestory).

The west window, installed in 1866 and moved to its present place in 1899, depicts the three archangels, Gabriel, Michael and Rapael.

The surviving section of the ‘Doom’ painting is painted on a semi-circular section of wood (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

For me, though, the most fascinating survivals in the church are three remnants of mediaeval painting. One of the timber roof beams is painted, as well as a lancet window embrasure in the nave. But the most interesting painting is a section of a ‘Doom’, a depiction of the Day of Judgement painted on a semi-circular section of wood.

The Doom, dated to the 15th century, acted as a tympanum at the top of the chancel arch. The Doom was boarded over at the Reformation and was covered by layers of lime wash. It was only rediscovered in 1808 during building work. The entire scene was sketched, and the tympanum rescued, before the arch was rebuilt in its present form.

A tapestry on the south wall depicts the 1808 drawing of the entire Doom painting. As for the tympanum, it shows six figures rising up from their coffins on the Day of Judgment. Two of the figures wear a crown and another appears to be wearing a bishop’s mitre.

Saint Michael’s has been a Grade I listed building since 1950 because of its extensive late Anglo-Saxon fabric, the phases of expansion in the High Middle Ages, the 15th century nave roof, the tympanum with surviving part of the 15th century Doom painting, the late Elizabethan or early Jacobean pulpit, and Bacon’s Jacobean monument.

The three archangels, Saint Michael (centre), Saint Gabriel and Saint Rapael, in the west window in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

• The Revd Jonny Lloyd, former Minor Canon and Precentor of St Albans, is the Vicar of Saint Michael’s. Sunday services are at 8 am, Said Eucharist; 9:30 am, the Parish Eucharist; with a mid-week Eucharist on Wednesdays at 10:30. The church is open daily.

Saint Michael’s Church is open daily (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)