Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 142, Sunday 27 September 2026 Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII)

He said to his sons, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today’ (see Matthew 21: 28) … in a vineyard Perpignan in the south of France (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII, 27 September). Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. I also plan to visit the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford later this morning.

Today in the Jewish Calendar is the second day od Sukkot 5787. Yom Tob Day 1 started at sunset on Friday night (25 September) and ended last night (26 September), and Yom Tob Day 2 started yedsterday evening and ends this evening (27 September).

Meanwhile, before today begins, 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.

‘Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ (Matthew 21: 25) … the baptism of John in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 21: 23-32 (NRSVA):

23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ 24 Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ And they argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” 26 But if we say, “Of human origin”, we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’ 27 So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29 He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Rome or Paris? Black or White? … are all decisions a clear choice between conflicting contrasts? … wallpaper in a restaurant in Templeogue, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Black or White?

Dog or Cat?

Land or Sea?

Wet Bob or Dry Bob?

Paris or Rome?

Wine or Beer?

It’s the sort of game we all play in our families at one time or another. I loved playing ‘Matching Pairs’ with my sons when they were at the early learning stage.

For adults, there are similar jokes about two kinds of people we compare or contrast: ‘There are two types of people: those who divide people into two categories, and those who don’t.’ For the mathematicians: ‘There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.’ And for those with a more subtle sense of humour: ‘There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.’

The readings in the lectionary today give us contrasting pairs. In the first reading (Exodus 17: 1-7), we see contrasts between adults and children; water and wilderness; testing and thirsting; obeying and quarrelling; responsible freedom and slavery without responsibility. The Psalm (Psalm 78) contrasts images of ancestors and children, day and night, rock and river, and so on. In the Epistle reading (Philippians 2: 1-13), the Apostle Paul presents the stark contrasts offered in Christ of slavery and freedom, deity and humanity, fear and trembling, heaven and earth.

These images prepare for the matching pairs or clashing contrasts in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 23-32).

In the week before his Crucifixion, Christ has just shown the importance of faith in understanding God’s ways. Now, as he teaches in the Temple, representatives of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and the elders, ask who has given him the power and authority to say and do all that he has said and done in his ministry.

However, Christ declines to answer them until they first answer his question, one that will show whether they have the faith needed to understand his answer.

Those who come to question Christ are skilled in the Law. But this is of little help when it comes to deciding whether a prophet is genuinely from God, in this case Saint John the Baptist.

If they say that Saint John the Baptist was from God, they ought to have repented as he urged them. If they say John was not from God, they risk losing face and credibility with the crowd who are now following Christ. The Sanhedrin judged such issues, but their answer shows their incompetence.

In the second part of this reading (verses 28-30), Christ tells a parable about admission to the kingdom. Like the first son in this parable, people once regarded as disobedient and having lived evil lives, such as tax collectors and prostitutes, have turned to God. But people like the second son, who have given lip-service to the law of God, have not lived out what they say they believe. The second son in the parable addresses the father as κύριος (kyrios), not merely Lord, but in the Septuagint a way of addressing God, yet remains disobedient. br />
However, there is still time.

The Gospel reading is set in the immediate aftermath of Christ’s entry in triumph into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his cleansing of the Temple. When he returns to the Temple the following day, he is confronted by the religious and civic leaders, the guardians of belief and tradition, who challenge and question him about his power and authority.

The ‘chief priests and the elders of the people’ are the leaders in the Temple hierarchy, and also at the apex of society in Jerusalem – questioning Jesus about what gives him authority. In particular, they ask what gives him the right to behave as he does, and especially the right to claim he is acting in God’s name when he is behaving like that.

It is a question that Christ might have expected, under the circumstances. The exchange takes place when he enters the Temple. The day before had been an eventful day: when Christ enters Jerusalem and the crowds hail him as king. He next goes into the Temple courts, he overturns the tables and the seats of the money changers and the dove sellers, and he speaks about the destruction of the Temple.

The Temple authorities have been offended. Quite naturally, they have to confront him.

Who does he think he is?

What gives him the right to force his way in and stir things up?

What authority has he to behave like this?

But, in a clever manoeuvre, Christ answers their questions by asking his own question. It was acceptable then, but every bar room lawyer knows now that you are not allowed to ask questions that allow only a choice between two convicting answers, loaded questions like: ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’

Loaded questions are loaded with presuppositions, often with built-in fallacies and false dichotomies. And the chief priests and the elders fall into a trap that every sixth-form debater would know how to set and how to escape.

There is a great deal of humour here. Those who are skilled in the Law failed to see the flawed legal trap. And in doing this they display their innate inabilities, their incomparable incompetence, their own failures in judgment.

In this reading, Christ answers with a two-part question. And once again, he turns the tables on those who confront him. They are taken aback; they are caught in a dilemma: if they answer one way, they are caught out; if they answer the other, they are still caught out. It is a dichotomy, a nd either way they cannot win.

As they are left mulling this over, Christ tells the parable of two sons and a father. The second dichotomy, the second comparison, the second either/or choice, is posed when Christ tells this parable about a father who sends his two sons, a willing son and an unwilling son, to work in the family vineyard.

It is a sharp contrast between being and doing. The two sons remind me once again of the T-shirt I have joked about for years and that eventually I bought in the Plaka in Athens with the words:

‘To do is to be’ – Socrates

‘To be is to do’ – Plato

‘Do be do be do be do’ – Sinatra

The American publisher Cyrus Curtis (1850-1933) once said: ‘There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.’

But the two sons illustrate a serious dilemma: Those who respond negatively to what they are asked to do, may eventually do it … and recognise their initial wilfulness. Those who say they are going to do something they are tasked with, but then refuse to follow-up, to deliver, to do, refuse to recognise their own wilfulness yet persist in their sinfulness.

How often have we responded to people because of their words rather than their deeds and found we have completely misjudged them?

The two sons are asked to go to work in the family vineyard. One son says: ‘I will not.’ In a Mediterranean village culture, in which there is no such thing as personal privacy, this son’s reaction to his father shames the father publicly. The other son says: ‘I go, sir.’ In public, he appears to be what a good son should be.

But the tables are turned when we learn that the son who mouths off actually goes to work in the vineyard, while the son who seems at first to be good and dutiful turns out to be disobedient.

So, those who say they are compliant and say they are doing the right thing have headed off to do things their own way, while claiming they are doing what God wants.

On the other hand, Christ tells all present that even prostitutes and tax collectors who appear to be disobedient might actually end up with a true place in the vineyard. In today’s context, who are the people I keep excluding from the kingdom yet are being called in by God?

Paradoxes aside, most of us are not like one son or the other … most of us are like both sons, and wrestle with their responses and their approaches throughout our lives.

nvitation to a party, a book launch, a wedding, often have four little letters at the end: ‘RSVP’? Have you ever been one of those people who, anxious not to offend, sends back a reply saying yes, I’ll be there, and then something else crops up, and I fail to turn up?

I admit that at time I have been invited to events, ignored the RSVP line in the bottom corner, and then, at the last moment, turned up. And, I have to confess, I have, at least one or twice, accepted … and not turned up. On which evening do you think I was most appreciated, most welcomed? It is more forgivable to be socially awkward than to be wilfully rude.

When we strive with the demands of Christian living, with Christian discipleship, it is easy to be like one of these sons. There are times when we may find it difficult to do what God is asking you to do. We wait, we think, we ponder, but eventually we answer that RSVP and seek to do God’s will. We say ‘No’ countless times, and then realise how worthwhile it all is: labouring in the vineyard should be hard work, but it leads to a good harvest and good wine.

I have to be careful to distinguish between God’s will and my own will. When they coincide, there are countless blessings. But when they are in conflict, I need to beware of pretending that one is the other, that I am answering the Father’s call and doing his work, when in reality I am doing what I want to do myself, and telling others what I want rather than what God wants.

In The Great Divorce, CS Lewis claims: ‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done”.’

Doing and Being … advice on a T-shirt in the Plaka in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 27 September 2026, Trinity XVII):

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 is introduced today with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:

‘Language is more than words; it carries culture, identity, and connection. It preserves memory, shapes community understanding, and gives voice to what matters most. At the USPG International Consultation 2026, the Right Revd Dushantha Rodrigo and the Right Revd Sally Hernández García shared examples of how language can both divide and heal communities.

‘In Sri Lanka, Tamil and Sinhala communities have long histories and rich cultural traditions. After independence, political decisions once excluded Tamil speakers from official recognition, leading to unrest, lost opportunity, and deep division. In short, “Two languages, one country; one language, two countries.” The Church responded by using language as a bridge, offering services, hymns, and liturgy in Tamil, Sinhala, and English so communities could worship together. “Presenting the gospel in different languages gives us credibility in a multi-lingual nation. No message means no hope at all,” explained Bishop Dushantha. Language here becomes access to the gospel and a pathway to reconciliation.

‘In Mexico, Indigenous languages continue alongside Spanish, allowing communities to express faith in ways that honour local culture. Translating the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical materials is not only technical work but an act of inclusion and respect.

‘As a linguist myself, it was amazing to worship in many different languages. It offered a tangible reminder that God is not bound by language or culture, and that when every voice is honoured, worship and mission are enriched and made more complete.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 27 September 2026, Trinity XVII) invites us to pray as we read and mediate on Matthew 21: 23-32:

He said to his sons, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today’ (see Matthew 21: 28) … in a vineyard in Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘John came to you in the way of righteousness’ (Matthew 21: 32) … Saint John the Baptist in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, near Iraklion in Crete (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

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion

The statue of Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas on Plateia Dikastirion is often a gathering place before demonstrations in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling earlier this week how I recently came across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and realised that I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave the photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I decided to start an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over the next few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The marble statue of Eleftherios Venizelos on Plateia Dikastirion (Πλατεία Δικαστηρίου, Dikastirion Square or Courthouse Square) is close to site of the Roman Forum and close to the junction of Via Egnatia and Aristotelous Avenue.

The sculpture is 3.73 metres high and is the work of the sculptor, painter and poet Giannis Pappas (1913-2005). He was born in Constantinople, and following the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, his family moved first to Corfu and then to Athens. He studied at the Institut Français in Athens, and at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Paris Law School.

He returned to Greece during World War II, and was posted with the Greek navy to Alexandria, where he remained until 1951, returning to Athens in 1952. His early students included Giorgos Georgiadis, whose cast bronze sculpture of Aristotle sits on Aristotelous Square and whose interview with To Vima partly inspired this series. Pappas was Director of the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1959 to 1969.

Pappas completed the marble statue of Eleftherios Venizelos in Thessaloniki In 1977. His other works that I am familiar with include the statue of Pantelis Prevelakis at the Town Hall in Rethymnon. Facing it is a statue of Venizelos by Giannis Kanakakis (1903-1978), a notable sculptor from Rethymnon.

The Mehmet Kapantzi Villa in Thessaloniki, was the home of Eleftherios Venizelos from 1917, when he headed a revolutionary government (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Pappas knew Eleftherios Venizelos personally and his statue in Thessaloniki shows a lively Venizelos in motion, capturing his strong political personality. The face is very realistic, he places his left leg in front, resting on the marble column. His upraised right hand makes him look like he is giving a political speech or beckoning the people, while he is grasping a solid column behind him, representing his steadying influence on Greek politics and affairs.

Eleftherios Venizelos (1864-1936) was born near Chania in Crete and was the Prime Minister of Crete before the island was incorporated into the modern Greek state and he was Prime Minister of Greece on eight occasions, from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933.

Venizelos had such a profound influence on political life in Greece that he is seen as ‘the maker of modern Greece’ and was widely known as the ‘Ethnarch’. Through his political moves, Greece doubled its area and population with the incorporation of Thessaloniki into Greece in 1912 and with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and most of the Aegean islands.

Against the king’s wishes, Venizelos brought Greece into World War I on the side of the Allies, causing the ‘National Schism’, with the pro-Venizelos northern provisional government based in Thessaloniki and the pro-royal government in Athens. The Mehmet Kapantzi Villa on Leoforos Vasilissis Olgas, one of the most beautiful buildings in Thessaloniki, was the home of Venizelos from 1917 as he headed a revolutionary government based in Thessaloniki.

Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial concessions in Western Anatolia and Thrace. After the ‘Asia Minor Disaster’, he signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which provided for the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations and initially, he had the warm support of refugees. He was forced into political exile.

When Venizelos died in Paris in 1936, his body was brought back to Crete and he was buried at the Akrotiri peninsula on the outskirts of Chania.

The Centre Union (Ένωσις Κέντρου, Enosis Kendrou), the party founded by Georgios Papandreou in 1961, became the ideological heir to the Liberal Party. After the colonels took power, its legacy was eclipsed by PASOK, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. I was reminded of the enormous contribution to Greek policial life by generations of the Papandreou family last week with the death of Margaret Chant Papandreou in Athens on 8 September 2026.

The statue of Eleftherios Venizelos on Plateia Dikastirion continues to be a regular gathering place before political demonstrations in Thessaloniki.

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

The statue of the writer Pantelis Prevelakis by Giannis Pappas in front of the Town Hall in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square – and a shiny toe

Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis on the east side of Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was recalling last night how I have come across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki but realised that I have written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I decided to start an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over the next few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

I came across these photographs after reading an interview with the sculptor Giorgos Georgiadis in To Vima last month, so it seems appropriate that the first of these sculptures should be his statue of Aristotle on Aristotelous Square.

The cast bronze sculpture of the philosopher Aristotle on the east side of Aristotelous Square was completed in 1990 by the Greek sculptor Giorgos Georgiadis. The square in the heart of Thessaloniki with Aristotle’s name was designed by the French architect Ernest Hebrard following the devastating Great Fire in 1917.

The statue is framed by the Electra Palace Hotel and the Olympion Cinema and close to the waterfront. It shows Aristotle seated and deep in thought, wearing a traditional cloak and sandals, and holding a papyrus scroll in his hand. The statue is remarkable for its detail, including the impressive in the folds of his clothes, his facial expression and the soles of his feet. His name is carved on the marble base.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is a pioneer of Greek philosophy, alongside Plato and Socrates. He was Plato’s student and a teacher of Alexander the Great. He was born in Stagira in Halkidiki, in the region of Macedonia. At the age of 17, he went to Athens, where he studied for 20 years at the Academy of Plato.

When Alexander the Great was born, Aristotle was invited to deliver a speech in front of his cradle. The only thing he said was: ‘I wish, when one day you become a king, you will be as indifferent and apathetic about the language of flattery, as you are indifferent and apathetic about the speech that your father made me deliver now in front of you.’ King Philip of Macedonia later entrusted Aristotle with the education of his son.

When Aristotle returned to Athens, he founded his own school, the Lyceum of Aristotle. His writings range from politics and morality to science and technology.

A popular feature of the statue of Aristotle in Thessaloniki is the unusually bright, golden left big toe, a sharp contrast with the dark bronze patina of the rest of the sculpture. The distinct colouration is the result of decades of constant touching by students, passers-by and tourists, who are told that rubbing the big toe transfers a portion of Aristotle’s intellect, wisdom and intelligence.

Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis on the east side of Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At 92, Giorgos Georgiadis remains Greece’s leading sculptor and when he was interviewed in To Vima last month, he was described as ‘the Last Anthropocentric Sculptor’. His career has spanned almost seven decades. His partner, the internationally renowned ceramist Maria (‘Maro’) Kerasioti, has been a constant presence in his life, throughout the most decisive shifts in his work.

He grew up in Marousi, north-east of Athens, after the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the family’s hasty and violent expulsion from Smyrna. He studied under the sculptor, painter and poet Giannis Pappas (1913-2005), whose sculptures in Thessaloniki include the marble statue of Eleftherios Venizelos on Plateia Dikastirion (Πλατεία Δικαστηρίου, Dikastirion Square or Courthouse Square).

‘The Epinikia’ is one of the most emblematic series by Georgiadis and was a milestone in his career. For several years his focus was on a seated female body and chose it for the entire ‘Epinikia’ series because it ‘symbolises motherhood and the perpetuation of humanity’.

The series came about during the years of the dictatorship. He produced it ‘during the abhorrent dictatorship the colonels imposed on Greece. Many of my colleagues, and not just sculptors, expressed themselves in a kind of silent protest through similar themes during that period.’ The title means ‘the victory celebrations that followed a victory, the triumphal chant, the paean’. In many of these works, ‘with its loose folds and pleats, the fabric signifies liberation, release, and serenity’.

Humour, sarcasm, and a pervasive irony coexist in his sculptures, alongside the tragic element. His work frequently shows a strong connection with ancient Greek literature and myth, seen in the series ‘Mythology Backwards’, with the entire series cast in bronze, his favourite material.

For almost 70 years, he has expressed himself through different materials, often working in one for a period of time before moving on to another. He has also have tackled a subject that is not human-centric with horses. He began sketching them at a stud farm in Marathon and the work soon captivated him and became a unique professional experience.

In a crowning moment for any artist, the Minister of Culture at the time, Melina Mercouri (1920-1994), decided in 1984 that he and his late friend the painter Christos Karas would represent Greece at the Venice Biennale in the spheres of painting and sculpture.

His interviewer Panos Kougias said in To Vima last month that Georgiadis ‘has a rare politeness and a generosity of spirit from a bygone era’, and described how his studio spreads out around us like a living archive of a life.

‘The great French sculptor Auguste Rodin … wrote, as a kind of wish, that it would be a great blessing for humanity if nations were governed and their fates decided by artists’ Georgiadis said. ‘Then, lasting peace and justice among people would prevail on the planet, without wars and weapons of mass destruction.’

Next: Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, near the White Tower

Giorgos Georgiadis in his atelier (Photograph: Panos Kougias/To Vima Intl Edition, 2026)

51 million km for a future Tsar, 51 million Soviet war dead, 51 million radio listeners, and 51 million blog hits to date

The ‘Eastern journey of Nicholas II’ a journey of Nicholas II was a 51 million km the included a visit to the Acropolis in Athens

Patrick Comerford

Once more I am overwhelmed by the viewing and reading figures for this blog. These figures reached a total of 51 million shortly before midnight last night (5 September 2026), passing the million mark for the third time within a week. It comes soon after reaching the 50 million early the day before (4 September 2026) and 49 million four days previously (31 August 2026). These figures passed the million mark on three other days last month: 48 million (24 August), 47 million (17 August) and 46 million (9 August).

I continue to find these viewing and reading figures overpowering at times, and this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 30million hits or visitors in 2026 alone.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been in little more than six months, with 25.5 million hits since 28 February 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures are overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, three were this month (1, 4 and 5 September 2026), three were in May (1, 6 and 14 May 2026), three were the previous month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), and one in March.

• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 647,187 (5 September 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)
• 407,835 (4 September 2026)

• 356,335 (1 September 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2026)
• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 322,038 (26 April 2026)
• 318,835 (6 May 2026)

The daily average was about 118,700 hits a day throughout August, and has been about 400,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

Souvenir Santas at St James’ Park … Matias Fernandez-Pardo has joined Newcastle United for a reported fee of £51 million (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

To put this new figure of 51 million into context:

Matias Fernandez-Pardo joined Newcastle United this month on a long-term contract from Lille. The 21-year-old forward arrived at St James’ Park for a reported fee of £51 million.

The figure of 51 million people is associated with an extraordinary, incredible and unbelievable claim by Trump that Vladimir Putin actually fought in World War II. In a claim that seems typical of the man’s fantasism, Trump said: ‘I talked to Putin. He lost 51 million people [in World War II] and he did fight … He fought with us in World War II and everybody hates him.’

Putin was born on 7 October 1952. Nor could Trump have ever fought in World War II – he was born on 14 June 1946, and, in any case, he had ‘bone spurs’ when it came to conscription.

More people than ever are listening to UK radio, with the latest figures reporting a record weekly audience of 51 million people.

51 million sq metres is 51,000 sq km – the size of both Bosnia Herzegovina and Costa Rica – and 51 million km is 51,000 km. The ‘Eastern journey of Nicholas II’ in 1890-1891 was a journey made by Nicholas Alexandrovich – then Tsarevich of Russia – around the greater part of Europe and Asia between October 1890 and August 1891.

His journey by rail and sea took him to Vienna, Athens, Alexandria and Egypt, and on to present-day Sri Lanka, India, Java, Singapore, Siam (Thailand) and China. The 51,000 km journey included 15,000 km by rail and 22,000 km by sea. In Japan, the future tsar survived a failed assassination attempt before travelling on to Vladivostok and back to St Petersburg.

51 million minutes, taking account of leap years, is 96 years, 352 days and 16 hours. This means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in late 1929.

I retired from active parish ministry about 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week.

This evening, as this blog passes 51 million hits, I am truly grateful to the real readers among those 51 million hits. In particular I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 121, Sunday 6 September 2026, Creation in Christ, Trinity XIV

‘All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being’ (John 1: 3) … Christ the Pantocrator in the dome of the parish church in Panormos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026).

This weekend includes the Festal Weekend in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, coming between the Feast of Saint Giles (1 September) and the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 September). There were children’s activities in the church yesterday, a Festal Eucharist this morning at which I hope to sing with the choir, and Calverton Fete is at All Saints’ Church, Calverton, this afternoon.

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.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … light pours into the darkness in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

The statue of Pythagoras (1989) by Nikolaos Ikaris (1920-1994) on the harbour front in Pythagóreio on the Greek island of Samos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is the traditional Gospel reading on Christmas morning. Now we hear it again this morning (John 1: 1-14), when the Church Calendar in the Church of England marks Creation in Christ.

These opening verses in Saint John’s Gospel are like the opening verses of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis. They talk of a new creation, and a creation in which God is pleased, God is very pleased.

In this reading, we are introduced to key concepts in Saint John’s thinking: word or logos (λόγος, logos), life (ζωή, zoe), light (φῶς, phos), belief and being sent, testimony or witness, truth, and the cosmos (κόσμος, cosmos).

The word cosmos appears in this passage four times, and later, when Saint John goes on to tell us that ‘God so loved the world …’, he actually says ‘God so loved the cosmos that he sent his only Son …’ (John 3: 16).

The cosmos is the Universe, but the word specifically refers to a complex and orderly system or entity, the very opposite of chaos. The word cosmos gives us words in the English language like: cosmology, trying to understand the reasons for existence and its significance; or, more simply, cosmetics, an equal presence of order and beauty, an attempt to bring order or even beauty to the chaos of our skin, our facial appearance.

The term was first used by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras (ca 570 BCE to ca 495 BCE), the philosopher we remember because everyone in school learned the theorem to which he gives his name: ‘The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.’

Pythagoras lived on the Greek island of Samos, and he influenced every Greek philosopher who came after him, including Plato and Aristotle. He is said to have been the first to prove that the earth is a sphere; he shaped how we think of numbers and musical notation, the perfect consonances of music; he taught the immortality of the soul; … and he was the first philosopher to develop the concept of the cosmos, the harmony of the created universe.

His followers, the Pythagoreans, believed in a superior divinity, the One God, above all other gods. Because of this belief in one God, and their rejection of the pantheon of mythical Greek gods, Pythagoras and his followers were labelled as atheists.

He was the first philosopher to give the word cosmos to the universe on the basis of his concepts of order and harmony which he believed govern all things.

He said that humanity and the universe are made in the image and likeness of God, and that understanding God, the universe and humanity are inter-connected.

In Pythagorean thinking, the cosmos is not just the whole world, but the whole universe, the whole created order; it is the earth and all that encircles the earth like its skin.

For Pythagoras, all things are related, just as in an ecosystem. In this thinking, the universe is a living organism and not an inanimate machine.

His followers compared a just and well-ordered society to a well-tuned lyre. While each note retains its individuality, all are proportionally linked together in a larger whole to form a musical scale, and all are interdependent in terms of their reliance on one another (Plato, Republic 443 D-444). Justice is present in any well-functioning organism, society, and the soul.

The word cosmopolitan, an important concept in modern philosophy and political discourse, is, of course, derived from the κοσμοπολίτης (kosmopoliítes) found in classical and koine Greek, formed from the words κόσμος (kosmos), world, universe, cosmos or created order, and πολίτης (politês), citizen, one of a city.

Contemporary usage defines the term as ‘citizen of the world’. But the word cosmopolitan was coined by the Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic or Diogenes of Sinope in the fourth century BCE. When Diogenes was asked from what city he hailed, he replied that he was a citizen of the world, κόσμος πολίτης (kósmos polítēs), or κοσμοπολίτης (kosmopolites), a citizen of the world, rejecting narrow local loyalties.

The plural, κόσμου πολῖται (kosmou politai), means ‘citizens of the world’ or even ‘citizens of the universe’, of the whole created order. The phrase originates from Cynic and Stoic philosophy, describing the idea that human beings belong to a single, universal community rather than being defined solely by their local city-state or nation. At the time, the broadest basis of social identity among Greeks was either the individual city-state or the culturally and linguistically homogeneous Hellenic group.

Diogenes lived from ca 413/403 to ca 324/321 BCE, and he was one of the founders of Cynicism. He was renowned for his ascetic lifestyle and radical critiques of social conventions, and he became a legendary figure whose life and teachings have been recounted, often through anecdote, in both antiquity and modernity. He Diogenes advocated a return to nature, the renunciation of wealth, and introduced early ideas of cosmopolitanism by proclaiming himself a citizen of the world. Rather than declaring his lineage, city, social class, or gender, he defined himself as a human being, implicitly asserting the equal worth of all human beings.

When Saint John the Divine wrote the Book of Revelation, he was in exile on Patmos, the neighbouring island of Samos, where Pythagoras was born, and like Pythagoras, he too was in exile in a cave.

So, is it any wonder that the idea of the cosmos, the harmony of the created universe, is a key concept in the writings of Saint John?

The word cosmos occurs 188 times in the New Testament, and the vast majority of these occurrences (104) are in Saint John’s Gospel and his three letters.

The first use of the word cosmos in the New Testament is in the Gospel reading this morning. When Saint John uses the word here – ‘He was in the cosmos, and the cosmos came into being because of him’ (John 1: 10) – he is referring not to humanity, not to the world as our planet Earth, but to the created universe, the sum total of everything, not here and now but past, present and future, the orderly universe created by God to be in harmony.

When we care for the cosmos, the created order, we reflect the life of Christ. It is not a marginal, side issue for the Church, but it is at the heart of the mission of the Church, because it is at the heart of why the Word has become flesh and dwells among us (John 1: 14).

The fifth of the five marks of mission agreed in the Anglican Communion is: ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and re-new the life of the earth.’

As we celebrate Creation in Christ and continue to mark Creation Time, it is good to be reminded that the care of creation, the cosmos, is not an added-on extra to our priorities in mission; rather, it underpins and explains all we do in mission. When we care for the cosmos, the integrity of creation, we are being like Christ.

The Tower of Lysicrates in the Plaka in Athens was once known as the Lantern of Diogenes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 6 September 2026, Creation in Christ):

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 6 to 12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme is introduced today with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany:

It was a deep pain that hurt so bad it made me feel sick. I looked into the mirror and saw black and brown lines. The image couldn’t possibly be me - an unrecognisable, swollen face. My head continued to spin out of control. All I felt was helplessness, anger and frustration.

Traumatic experiences like these are not an unusual experience – a first for me, but nothing that other women haven’t experienced. Could I find my way back from the depths of such overwhelming despair? How can I do this when I am in a country where I am a foreigner, and at a disadvantage in every aspect of the word.

“Are other women going through this same emotional and psychological torture due to similar experiences?”, I asked myself. The findings were overwhelming. With the power of prayer, I knew I was not walking the journey back to the top on my own. God was at my side every step of the way. He showed me the path, gave me wisdom, strength and vision.

Now on a road better than I could have ever imagined, in the same country, I created a group within the English Anglican Church in Hamburg called “Magnificat”. This group is all about empowering women. We give financial support to Ukrainian refugees, made up of women and children, in Romania and put on activities for women in Hamburg too. I listen to each of their stories. It’s been a year now and the bond is still there. Magnificat continues to uplift them, as it does me.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 6 September 2026, Creation in Christ) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 18: 15-20.

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … by Minster Pool in Lichfield at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Holy and eternal God,
you are the Maker of heaven and earth,
you are the Word through whom all things were made,
and you are the Spirit, the giver of life:
draw us into the mystery of your love,
that with all creation we may proclaim your praise,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or

O God and Father of all that was, is and ever shall be,
help us to be thankful for all that is made
at the hands of your Son
and through the wisdom of your Spirit,
that we may care in heart and in deed for the life of our world,
to the praise and glory of your holy name.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our Creator,
by your gift the tree of life was set
at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 4) … My Village Barok by the Sarawak River in Kuching at night (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 112, Friday 28 August 2026

‘Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom … and five were wise’ (Matthew 25: 1-2) … sculptures at the West Front of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Augustine (430), Bishop of Hippo, Teacher of the Faith.

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.

‘Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom … Five of them were foolish’ (Matthew 25: 1-2) … sculptures at the West Front of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 1 ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25: 1)

Today’s Reflections:

The setting for the Gospel reading (Matthew 25: 1-13) is on the Mount of Olives, looking down on the Temple. Christ has been teaching there in the week leading up to the Passover, and in the week leading up to his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

In the verses immediately before this reading (Matthew 24: 45-51), Christ tells the parable of a master who leaves his household for a time, but suddenly returns. If, while he is away, his servant lives a godly, ethical life, he is ‘blessed’ when the master returns. On the other hand, if he thinks his master is delayed in returning, misbehaves and lives a life of debauchery, he will be condemned when his master returns.

In fact, the master will return when the servant least expects him to return.

The wise and foolish young women in verse 2 can be compared to the wise man and the foolish man who each build a house, one on firm foundations, the other on sand (see Matthew 7: 24).

In Christ’s day, weddings could last for days, as we know from the story of the Wedding at Cana (see John 2: 1-11). Weddings still go on, for days on end, in Greece and other Mediterranean countries today.

In Christ’s day, the groom and his family would gather at his household, while the bride and her family and guests would gather at her household. The groom and his family then make their way to the bride’s house to meet the bride. When the groom arrived, he would take the bride inside, the marriage would be consummated and the wedding celebrations would continue.

In this parable, the party goes ahead without the bridesmaids who have not prepared themselves properly for the arrival of the groom, and who hastily rush away and try to return in the pretence that they had been prepared all along.

It was normal at Jewish weddings for the bridegroom to be delayed (verse 5). So, the sudden, early arrival of the bridegroom (verses 10) is unexpected and surprising to those who are the first to listen to the telling of this parable.

Oil is not only a symbol of life but also a symbol of repentance and anointing (see Matthew 6: 17). Each of the wise bridesmaids has made her preparation and has made sure she is spiritually prepared. But being prepared is something we cannot transfer to others. Their refusal to give oil to the foolish bridesmaids is not an act of selfishness but a lesson in how each of us is expected to make his or her own preparations.

The Greek word that the NRSVA translates as ‘bridesmaid’ and the RSV as ‘maidens’ (verse 1) is παρθένος, which means a virgin, a marriageable maiden, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man, or a marriageable daughter.

But this word has resonances that go beyond single, chaste women. This is the word that also gives us the name of the Parthenon in Athens. Athena Parthenos (Ἀθηνᾶ Παρθένος, Athena the Virgin) was the title of a giant-size statue in gold and ivory of the Greek goddess Athena in the Parthenon in Athens.

It was the best-known cult image of Athens, and was seen as the greatest achievement of Phidias, the most acclaimed sculptor in ancient Greece.

There may be a reference here, therefore, to cult worship, often in the night and under the cover of darkness, and true worship of God, which should take place in the light. If so, there is an interesting connection between this Gospel reading and the persistent Johannine theme of darkness and light and the true worship Christ invites us to take part in.

Other Johannine parallels can be found in the Book of Revelation:

‘Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready’ (Revelation 19: 7).

‘And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Revelation 21: 2).

The surprise created by the early arrival of the bridegroom is added to as two further developments unfold in the story: the door is shut against those who arrive late (verse 10); and the groom refuses to recognise the foolish bridesmaids: ‘I do not know you’ (verse 12). Those who are not prepared, or are too late in their preparation, are refused entry to the Kingdom.

The surprise is shocking when we think that this is the same Jesus who taught, healed, and broke bread with anyone who would join him, and who has particular compassion for the poor and outcast. Why now is Christ portrayed as someone who would shut the door on half of those who are waiting for his arrival?

But what are the expectations of the majority of people in our society today?

What would they prefer most?

The values of this world’s kingdoms … or the demands and expectations of the Kingdom of God?

The exhortation to ‘keep awake’ (verse 13) is a call to be prepared – for the coming of the Kingdom of God, for the Second Coming of Christ.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens … the word παρθένος has resonances that go beyond single, chaste women (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 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, from 23 to 29 August 2026 (pp 32-33), is ‘Legacies of History’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Dr Rachele Evie Vernon O’Brien, a Jamaican-born theologian and advocate.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 28 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Holy God, where the legacy of Codrington reveals pain or contradiction, bring your healing. Turn learning into action, and shape your Church to reflect your love more clearly in the world.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
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:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Augustine to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you’ (Matthew 25: 11-12)

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 2026: 107, Sunday 23 August 2026, Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII)

‘On this rock I will build my church’ (Matthew 16: 18) … the monastery of Simonopetra, built on a rocky clifftop on Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 23 August 2026) and the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.

Later this morning, I hope to be at in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, reading one of the lessons. 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 reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Christ giving the keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter (see Matthew 16: 19) … a mosaic on the façade of Saint Peter’s Church, Saffron Hill, on Clerkenwell Road, Lonon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 16: 13-20 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

The Acropolis, the highest point in Athens, stands on an extremely rocky outcrop … a poster seen in a Greek restaurant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

One of my pleasures in visiting Athens is standing at the top of Acropolis (Ἀκρόπολις) and taking in the breathtaking views in every direction across the city and out to the port of Piraeus.

The Acropolis is the highest point in Athens. It stands on an extremely rocky outcrop and on it the ancient Greeks built several significant buildings. The most famous of these is the Parthenon. This flat-topped rock rises 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 hectares (7.4 acres).

Below, immediately north-west of the Acropolis, is the Areopagus, another prominent, but relatively smaller, rocky outcrop. Its English name comes from its Greek name, Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areios Págos), the ‘Rock of Ares,’ known to the Romans as the Hill of Mars.

In classical Athens, this functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide. It was said Ares was put on trial here for deicide, the murder of the son of the god Poseidon. In the play The Eumenides (458 BCE) by Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother.

Later, murderers would seek shelter here in the hope of a fair hearing.

Here too the Athenians had an altar to the unknown god, and it was here the Apostle Paul delivered his most famous speech and sermon, in which he identified the ‘unknown god’ with ‘the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth’ (Acts 17: 24), for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (verse 28).

This is the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech by the Apostle Paul. He quotes the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and he must have known that the location of his speech had important cultural contexts, including associations with justice, deicide and the hidden God.

The origin of the name of the Areopagus is found in the ancient Greek, πάγος ( pagos), meaning a ‘big piece of rock.’

Another word, λιθος (lithos) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble – it is the Greek word that gives us words like lithograph and megalithic, meaning Great Stone Age.

When I see breathtaking sights like these, I understand how culturally relevant it was for Christ to talk about the wise man building his house on a rock rather than on sand (see Matthew 7: 21-29, 25 June 2026).

Ordinary domestic buildings might have been built to last a generation or two, at most. But building on rock, building into rock, building into massive rock formations like the Acropolis, was laying the foundations for major works of cultural, political and religious significance that would last long after those who had built them had been forgotten.

And so, when Christ says to Saint Peter in the Gospel reading this morning that the Church is going to be built on a rock, he is talking about the foundations for a movement, an institution, an organisation, a community that is going to have lasting, everlasting significance.

In the past, Christians have got tied up in knots in silly arguments about this Gospel story. Some of us shy away from dealing with this story, knowing that in the past it was used to bolster not so much the claims of the Papacy, but all the packages that go with those claims. In other words, it was argued by some in the past that the meaning of this passage was explicit: if you accepted this narrow meaning, you accepted the Papacy; if you accepted the Papacy, then you also accepted Papal infallibility, Papal claims to universal jurisdiction, and Papal teachings on celibacy, birth control, the immaculate conception and the assumption of the Virgin Mary.

And that is more than just a leap and a jump from what is being taught in the Gospel reading today. But to counter those great leaps of logic, Protestant theologians in the past put forward contorted arguments about the meaning of the rock and the rock of faith in this passage. Some have tried to argue that the word used for Peter, Πητρος (Petros), is the word for a small pebble, but that faith is described with a different word, πητρα (petra), meaning a giant rock, the sort of rock on which the Greeks built the Acropolis or carved out the Areopagus.

But they were silly arguments. The distinction between these words existed in Attic Greek in the classical days, but not in the Greek spoken at the time of Christ or at the time Saint Matthew was writing his Gospel. Πητρος (Petros) was the male name derived from a rock, πητρα (petra) was a rock, a massive rock like Petra in Jordan or the rocks of the Acropolis or the Areopagus, and the word lithos (λιθος) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble.

And Saint Peter is a rock, his faith is a rock, a rock that is solid enough to provide the foundations for Christ’s great work that is the Church.

How could Saint Peter or his faith be so great? This is the same Peter who in last week’s Gospel reading (Matthew 15: 21-28; 16 August 2026) wanted Christ to send away the desperate Canaanite woman because ‘she keeps shouting at us.’

This is the same Peter who a week before (Matthew 14: 22-33; 9 August 2026), tried to walk on water and almost drowned, and Christ said to that same Peter: ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ (verse 31).

This is the same Peter who, in the week before that (Matthew 14: 13-21, 2 August), was among the disciples who wanted to send away the crowd and let them buy food for themselves (verse 15).

This is the same Peter who seems to get it wrong constantly. Later in this Gospel, he denies Christ three times at the Crucifixion (Matthew 26: 75). After the Resurrection, Christ has to put the question three times to Peter before Peter confesses that Christ knows everything, and Christ then calls him with the words: ‘Follow me’ (John 21: 15-19).

Saint Peter is so like me. He trips and stumbles constantly. He often gets it wrong, even later on in life. He gives the wrong answers, he comes up with silly ideas, he easily stumbles and trips, like I do, on the pebbles and stones that are strewn across the pathway of life.

But eventually, it is not his own judgment, his own failing judgment that marks him out as someone special. No. It is his faith, his rock solid faith.

Despite all his human failings, despite his often-tactless behaviour, despite all his weaknesses, he is able to say who Christ is for him. He has a simple but rock-solid faith, summarised in that simple, direct statement: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

Who do you say Christ is?

Who is Christ for you?

I often spend time off in Lichfield, where I began working as a freelance journalist for the Lichfield Mercury 55 years ago in 1971. George Fox, the founding Quaker, once walked barefoot through the streets of Lichfield. But he also challenged his contemporaries with these words: ‘You may say Christ saith this, and the apostles say this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of the Light and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?’

Who is Christ for you? Is he a personal saviour? One who comforts you? Or is he more than that for you? Who do you say Christ is?

It is a question that challenges Peter in this Gospel reading. Not who do others say he is, but who do you say Christ is?

Peter’s faith is a faith that proves to be so rock-solid that you could say it is blessed, it is foundational. Not gritty, pebbly, pain-on-the-foot sort of faith. But the foundational faith on which you could build a house, carve out a temple or monastery, or a place to seek justice and sanctuary, rock-solid faith that provides the foundation for the Church.

There are other people in the Bible and in Jewish tradition who are commended for their rock-solid faith, including Abraham and Sarah (see Isaiah 51: 1f).

It is the sort of faith that will bring people into the Church, and even the most cunning, ambitious, evil schemes, even death itself, will not be able to destroy this sort of faith (verse 18).

Throughout the Bible, as people set out on great journeys of faith, their new beginning in faith is marked by God giving them a new name: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul, and Simon son of Jonah is blessed with a new name too as he becomes Cephas or Peter, the rock-solid, reliable guy, whose faith becomes a role model for the new community of faith, for each and every one of us.

Why would Christ pick me or you? Well, why would he pick a simple fisherman from a small provincial town?

It is not how others see us that matters. It is our faith and commitment to Christ that matters. God always sees us as he made us, in God’s own image and likeness, and loves us like that.

The faith that the Church must look to as its foundation, the faith that we must depend on, that we must live by, is not some self-determined, whimsical decision, but the faith that the Apostles had in the Christ who calls them, that rock-solid, spirit-filled faith in Christ, of which Saint Peter’s confession this morning is the most direct yet sublime and solid example.

Apostolic faith like Saint Peter’s is the foundation stone on which the Church is built, the foundation stone of the new Jerusalem, with Christ as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2: 20; Revelation 21: 14).

It does not matter that Saint Peter was capable of some dreadful gaffes and misjudgements. I am like that too … constantly, every day.

But Christ calls us in our weaknesses. And in our weaknesses, he finds our strengths. So that, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in the Epistle reading this morning, the Church is then built up by the gifts that each one of us has to offer, ‘each according to the measure of faith that Christ has assigned’ (Romans 12: 3).

Our weaknesses can be turned to strengths if we accept the unique gifts each of us has been given by God and joyfully use them, lovingly use them, in God’s service, for building up his kingdom.

Let us not be afraid of our weaknesses. Let us not be afraid of the mistakes we inevitably make. But let us accept the gifts God has given us. Let us use those to build up our faith, to build up the Church, and to serve Christ and the world.

Symbols of Saint Peter, the crossed keys and the upside-down cross, on a hassock at the font in Saint Peter’s Church, Lingwood, Norfolk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 August 2026, Trinity XII):

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 23 to 29 August 2026 (pp 32-33), is ‘Legacies of History’. This theme is introduced today with a reflection by the Revd Dr Rachele Evie Vernon O’Brien, a Jamaican-born theologian and advocate:

The Revd Levon Alkins is a recent graduate of Codrington College and assistant curate in Barbados. In an extract from Legacies of History, he reflects on how younger generations are wrestling with the Church’s history of slavery and its lasting impact.

“When we think about the church and slavery,” he says, “we look at it from an unfortunate point of view - how could someone who is promoting the gospel also promote slavery?” He notes that many young people struggle with this contradiction and that some “don’t even want sometimes to get involved in the church… because the church upholds something that wasn’t right.”

He names the tension clearly: “On the one hand the church says you have to love, but on the other hand, the church is treating people without love because we are using people for labour to gain profits.” His words highlight the gap between the gospel’s call to love and the failures of human institutions.

Yet he also points towards hope. He urges the Church “not [to] dwell too heavily on the past, but look into the relevance for the future.” This forward-looking hope is grounded in formation and reflection, pointing to Codrington College as “an institution … where one can come and learn about spirituality,” alongside the importance of forgiveness.

Legacies of History brings Caribbean perspectives to the forefront, helping churches reflect faithfully on history, justice, and mission. Explore and use the resource in your church or small group at www.uspg.org.uk/legacies-of-history.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 August 2026, Trinity XII, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition) invites us to pray:

God of truth, as your Church reflects on its history, give us wisdom and honesty. Help us face the past with humility, recognise our mistakes, and follow your call to reconciliation.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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:

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Bartholomew:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace
truly to believe and to preach your word:
grant that your Church
may love that word which he believed
and may faithfully preach and receive the same;
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.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

A statue of Saint Peter in Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org