Catching up on the history of the churches in Oman, from Biblical times to dialogue and a new Anglican church

Farewell to Muscat … without visiting any of the religious centres (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

My brief and furtive passages through Muscat Airport early on Friday morning and two weeks earlier left me with no time to consider the long history of the Christian presence in Oman. But in sleepless bouts brought about by jet lag in the last two days, I have been catching up on some of the stories, form Biblical times to a late 19th century Anglican missionary bishop, Oman’s role in advancing Christian-Muslim dialogue and peace-making in the Gulf region and Middle East, and the emergence of a new Anglican church in Muscat.

Christian churches in Oman are mainly found in the Muscat area, Sohar, and Salalah, meeting the needs of a large expatriate population. The major denominations include Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and various Protestant and evangelical groups.

Islam is the official state religion, and Article 28 of the constitution limits freedom of religious practices to the boundaries of Islamic law and proselytising in public is forbidden. Instruction in Islam is compulsory in public schools, but people who are legally non-Muslims are exempted from this.

Christianity is the religion of 3.63% of the population of Oman, with about 90 Christian congregations. Almost all Christians there are from other countries, including the Philippines, India and some Western countries.

Oman can claim to be one of the Biblical lands: Job’s tomb is claimed to be in Oman, although it is one of three places that claim to be his burial place; the Queen of Sheba, who brought spices to King Solomon (see I Kings 10), held territories in what is now south Oman; and the gifts brough to the Christ Child by the Magi may have been from the region, such as frankincense and myrrh found in the Dhofar. Later, it is said, the Apostle Thomas brought Christianity to the shores of Oman on his way to India.

The Chronicle of Arbela, which may date from the mid-sixth century, tells of a diocese at Bet Mazunaye, an area that included Oman. The Bishop of Sohar or Beit Mazunayeh attended synods in the years 424, 544, 576 and 676 CE.

There are few official records of Christianity in Oman from that time until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1504. Portugal occupied from 1507 to 1650 and the ruins of what is thought to have been a church have been found in Suhar.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in Ruwi is the oldest Catholic church in Muscat

The Roman Catholic Vicariate, the Anglican Church, the Protestant Church of Oman, and the al Amana Centre are among the recognised religious bodies in Oman, and there is a Christian cemetery in Muscat.

Roman Catholics, who number 138,000 in Oman, make up almost 70% of all Christians in the sultanate. They are part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Soth Arabia, with four parishes in Oman – Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church and Holy Spirit Church in Muscat, Saint Anthony’s Church, Sohar, and Saint Francis Xavier Church, Salalah. Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in Ruwi, the oldest Catholic church is in Muscat, was built in 1977. Most Catholics in Oman are from India and the Philippines, as well as some from Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Eastern Orthodox Christians in Oman are part of the Archdiocese of Baghdad, Kuwait and Dependencies and of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. There are 24,000 Orthodox Christians in Oman, accounting for 12.5 per cent of Christians in the country The first Orthodox church in Oman, Saint Constantine and Saint Helen, was built in Muscat in 2019.

Bishop Thomas Valpy French died three months after arriving in Muscat in 1891

For Anglicans, Oman is part of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf in the Anglican or Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Anglican presence in Oman dates back to Bishop Thomas Valpy French (1825-1891), who became the first Bishop of Lahore in 1877, and who moved to Muscat in 1891 shortly before he died.

Thomas Valpy French was born in the Abbey, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, on 1 January 1825, a son of the Revd Peter French, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Burton upon Trent, for 47 years, and was educated at University College, Oxford (BA 1846, MA 1849; Fellow 1848-1853)

French joined the Church Mission Society (CMS) in 1850 and was sent to Agra in India, where he founded Saint John’s College. French learnt seven languages, including Hindustani, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Arabic, and moved to the Punjab in 1861, but ill-health forced him to return for England in 1862. He was consecrated the first Bishop of Lahore in 1877 and remained there until 1887. He founded the Lahore Divinity College, supervised the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Hindustani and Pashto, and visited Kashmir and Iran before returning to England in 1887, once again due to ill health.

French insisted all must be equally welcome and respected within a house of worship, with no differences defined by race ot station, or between individuals in ‘a House of Prayer for all people.’ French arrived in Muscat on his final missionary journey on 8 February 1891 and was the first missionary to visit the region. He had just started setting up his work there when his health started failing. He was cared for by Portuguese Catholic missionaries until he died on 14 May 1891 in Muscat, and he was buried in a Christian cemetery.

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury has described French as a personal hero. He has said that while French ‘seems to have made no converts’ during his final years in the Middle East, he was not there primarily to make converts but out of ‘the desire to be where Jesus was … to be in the company of Jesus Christ.’

Bait al Noor church in Ruwi, Muscat, is part of the Protestant Church in Oman

Two years after French’s death, missionaries from the New Jersey-based Arabian Mission opened a mission station in Muscat in November 1893. Peter Zwemer (1868-1898), a younger brother of Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952), one of the founders of the Arabian Mission, arrived in Muscat in 1893 and died in 1898.

The mission set up schools, medical facilities with missionary doctors and a printing press in Muscat. For much of its history the primary focus of the mission was the Arabic church, but with the advent of oil the English-language congregation become the main focus.

The Protestant Church in Oman was supported by the Reformed Church in America and became a partnership between the RCA and the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, with both traditions appointing pastors and supporting what has become a multidenominational, multicultural and multinational church.

The PCO that has provided an umbrella group for a number of churches and traditions, with two campuses in Muscat, Ruwi and Ghala, and one in Salalah in the south and Sohar in the north. There are English, Arabic, Tagalog (Filipino) and Korean congregations. The PCO also oversees or sponsors more than 60 congregations in Ruwi and Ghala, and 21 denominations in Oman all come under its umbrella.

Al Amana Centre is one of the few Christian-led organisations in the Muslim-majority world working toward sustainable peace. It has been cultivating dialogue and deep understanding in Oman for over130 years. The centre’s roots are in the work of the Reformed Church in America and it works to foster peace and deeper mutual understanding between all people of faith.

Inside the Anglican Church of Saint John, Muscat

Prince Charles (now King Charles III) was a guest at a service in Bait al Noor church (House of Light) in Ruwi, Muscat, in 2016 to mark the 125th anniversary of the final missionary journey of Bishop Thomas Valpy French. Recent Anglican clergy in Oman have included Alan Gates (1978-1980), John Hall (1980-1982), Daniel Lloyd (1982-1984), Richard Boulter (1984-1986), Ray Skinner (1987-1989), Robert Fieldson (1990-1995), Gerard Storey (1995-1999), John Aldis (2000-2001), Mike Clarkson (2004-2006), Ruth Lichtenberger (2005-2007), Benjamin Chase (2006-2007) and Chris Howitz.

Until the end of January 2023, the Revd Chris Howitz, like Anglican priests in Oman before him, worked under the local auspices of the PCO. The Church of Saint John, Muscat, emerged with reconfiguring the Anglican presence in Oman and an opportunity for a fresh start. The new Church of Saint John was celebrated at the Eucharist on 13 April 2023, attended by Archbishop Michael Lewis and about 100 people, including people who have continued with the PCO, representatives of the RCA and staff of the Al Amana Centre.

Bishop Sean Semple of Cyprus visited Saint John’s Church, Muscat, at the end of last year (13 November 2025 ). He met officials of Oman’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the PCO and thanked them for the partnerships with the Anglican Church in Muscat.

• The Prayer Diary of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf today (8 March 2026) invites prayers for ‘the Provinces of the whole Anglican Communion, their people, and Primates’ and for ‘St John’s, Muscat, Oman’.

The Revd Chris Howitz and the Church of Saint John, Muscat

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 18, Saturday 7 March 2026

Minarets and church domes on the skyline in Rethymnon in Crete … the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important aid in the Christian-Muslim dialogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began over two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2025), and tomorrow is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III). The Church Calendar today remembers Perpetua, Felicity and their Companions (203), Martyrs at Carthage.

I am back in Stony Stratford after two weeks in Kuching and a long and arduous journey that took me through Oman in the Gulf on Thursday and Friday. Later this morning, I hope to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, the pop-up Greek café which opens every first Saturday of the month at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, between 10:30 am and 3 pm. Later in the day I hope to find somewhere appropriate to watch this afternoon's Six Nations rugby matches between Scotland and France (14:10) and England and Italy (16:20).

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, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Parable of the Prodigal Son depicted in a window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 (NRSVA):

1 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable:

11 … ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22 But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31 Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found”.’

The Church of the Annunciation in Kaş in southern Turkey was converted into the Yeni Cami or New Mosque in 1963 … how does the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the Lectionary (Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32) is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one of the best-known parables, even among people who seldom go to church, and it is one of the parables that are unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.

I have spent two weeks in Kuching, where I was woken each morning by the bells of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral and the call to prayer from neighbouring mosques, and my journey back to England has brought me back through Muscat and the Middle East. During these weeks, both in Malaysia and in Oman, I have conscious of the way in which Lent and Ramadan overlap for Christians and Muslims this year. This morning I am also reminded this morning of a course on Muslim-Christian dialogue I did over 30 years ago, back in 1995, when how I learned how the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important resource in this dialogue.

At the time, I was the newly-appointed Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times, and I was writing a number of features on Islam and on Muslim-Christian dialogue. I realised I needed to ‘upskill’ myself in these areas, building on my theological education, and the editor, Conor Brady suggested I identify some short courses that could equip me in these fields.

I took two courses, one year after another. The first was a short residential course at CME level in the then Church of Ireland Theological College (now CITI) in Dublin in 1995, organised by my friend the Revd Declan Smith of the Church Mission Society (CMS), who died earlier this year (2 January 2026)`.

That course was delivered by the Revd Dr Colin Chapman, a British missiologist who specialises in Islamic studies. He worked in the Middle East for 18 years for CMS and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He taught in Cairo, Bethlehem and Beirut, where he was a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Near East School of Theology (1999-2003). He also taught at Trinity College, Bristol, and was the principal of Crowther Hall, the CMS college in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Colin Chapman’s publications include Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam (1988, 2007), Islam and the West (1998), Whose Promised Land?: the continuing conflict over Israel and Palestine (1983, 1992, 2002, 2015), Whose Holy City? Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004) and ‘Islamic Terrorism’: Is There a Christian Response?’ (2005).

His Cross and Crescent was submitted in conjunction with his thesis ‘Teaching Christians about Islam: a Study In Methodology’ at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak, at the Department of Theology in the University of Birmingham in September 1993, a year before I took his course in Dublin.

He was strongly influenced by the work of the American theologian Professor Kenneth Bailey (1930-2016), who also taught at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (1962-1985) and at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem.

On that course in Dublin, as throughout his work, Colin Chapman drew heavily on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which he finds unique in the context of Christian-Muslim dialogue. He finds it especially valuable as a story told by Jesus himself, because it presents the message of Jesus and as a story that can be told, elaborated, dramatised and discussed in ways that are culturally familiar within Middle East contexts.

Kenneth Bailey, in his study of the parables of Jesus, believes that the basic message of Jesus can be summed up as the costly demonstration of unexpected love, God’s yes to all people. Not only does he proclaim his love, but he actually defines and declares his love in action. As Colin Chapman interprets Kenneth Bailey’s writing, this demonstration of God’s unexpected love is costly for him, since in a sense he suffers in the process of forgiving.

Colin says the Parable of the Prodigal Son expresses all these points with special force. The father loves his sons – both the rebellious son who wants to leave home, and the older son who has such a cold and formal relationship with him. He goes on loving them, even when we might expect him to want to punish us and reject us. He demonstrates his love to both of them in ways that would have been considered surprising, if not shocking, in Middle East societies. And in demonstrating his love to them, the father suffers in the process.

Colin has summarised Bailey’s understanding of the significance of the Prodigal Son’s homecoming: ‘On his return, the prodigal is overwhelmed by an expected visible demonstration of love in humiliation. He is shattered by the offer of grace, confesses unworthiness, and accepts restoration to sonship in genuine humility. Sin is now a broken relationship which he cannot restore. Repentance is now understood as acceptance of grace and confession of unworthiness. The community rejoices together. The visible demonstration of love in humiliation is seen to have dear overtones of the atoning work of Christ.’

This parable comes from a culture that is similar to the culture of the Islamic world, Colin argues. The strong emphasis in Islam on the unity of the family and family loyalties and the fact that most of the Muslim world is in Africa and the Middle East should make it easy for Muslims to understand what is happening in the story, he suggests.

But the parable also raises question for Muslims, he points out. What Muslim could imagine a younger son asking for his share of the inheritance while his father is still alive? Should a father not punish his sons when they dishonour the name of the family? Has the elder brother got to swallow his pride and welcome home his younger brother who has disgraced himself?

The second course was a year later, in 1996, in the College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham. It was led by the Principal, the Revd Canon Dr Andrew Wingate, in association with USPG. That course in 1996 included Saint Patrick’s Day, and Andrew surprised me by asking me to preach at the Eucharist in his college chapel that Sunday.

CMS moved some of its training to Cowley, Oxford, in 2005 and closed Crowther Hall. The United College of the Ascension closed in 2006. Some of its work, and that of the Department of Mission, continues in the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, based in the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, an ecumenical theological foundation close to Birmingham University.

Later, Andrew Wingate was the founding director of Saint Philip’s Centre for Study and Engagement, Leicester, where I was involved in yet another a course in interfaith dialogue 2012. He continued to be available as a consultant and teacher in Inter-Faith Relations, and we continued to meet at USPG conferences and events.

I drew heavily on Colin Chapman’s work when I produced resources on Christian-Muslim dialogue for CMS and when I was a lecturer in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. Later, in semi-retirement in Milton, Cambridge, he assisted at All Saints’ Church. We met occasionally at Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge, when I was studying at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and staying ay Sidney Sussex College.

I have been a lifelong supporter of USPG, and I sometimes wondered whether some people in USPG saw me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I worked for CMS for four years (2002-2006), or did CMS see me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I subsequently joined the boards of USPG in Ireland and became a trustee of USPG?

The former College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham, where I studied Christian-Muslim dialogue in 1996 (click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 March 2026):

The theme this week (1-7 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been: ‘Saint David’s Day’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sarah Rosser, Team Vicar in the Netherwent Ministry Area, Diocese of Monmouth, Church in Wales.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 7 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for ourselves: help us to know your love, to listen for your call, and to live as salt and light in the world.

The Collect:

Holy God,
who gave great courage to Perpetua, Felicity and their companions:
grant that we may be worthy to climb the ladder of sacrifice
and be received into the garden of peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyrs Perpetua, Felicity and their companions:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent III:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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

Lent and Ramadan overlap for Christians and Muslims this year … a sign by the Floating Mosque in Kuching. Can the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (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

Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott, the Buckinghamshire village church built by the father of Sir George Gilbert Scott

Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott, near Buckingham, was built in 1827 by Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I walked from Buckingham to the nearby village of Gawcott last week, I was particularly interested in seeing the village where the Victorian Gothic revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) was born, and the parish church built in 1827 by his father, the Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835).

Although Gawcott was long without a church, mediaeval Gawcott was a prebend of Buckingham, and the estate known as Prebend End Manor, or Buckingham with Gawcott Manor, formed part of the endowment of Buckingham Church at the time of the Domesday Book.

Gawcott probably had a church by 1580, although little is known about its history. After the church disappeared, the villagers were left with the option of attending church in either Padbury or Hillesden, or in Buckingham, Radclive or Tingewick.

Inside Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott, Buckinghaminghamshire, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John West, a wealthy lace buyer in Gawcott, decided to build a church in Gawcott in 1806 out of his own resources. By 1817, however, the roof needed major repairs, and due to the long, dry summers in 1825 and 1826 the building subsided and the whole building gave way. At first the church was held up by 19 strong props, but by the end of 1826 it had to be closed. The last service there was held on Christmas Day 1826, and demolition began the following day.

At the time, the Vicar of Gawcott was the Revd Thomas Scott, who had arrived in the village 20 years earlier. Scott was the grandson of the biblical commentator Thomas Scott (1747-1821), a friend of the hymn writer John Newton, who was a curate nearby in Olney. Both the elder Thomas Scott and Newton were among of the founders of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799, and Scott was the Rector of Aston Sandford in Buckinghamshire from 1803 until his death in 1821.

John Henry Newman described the elder Thomas Scott as ‘the writer who made a deeper impression on my mind than any other, and to whom (humanly speaking) I almost owe my soul’.

The altar and apse in Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Soon after his arrival, the younger Thomas Scott’s son, George Gilbert Scott, was born in Gawcott on 13 July 1811. Later, Thomas Scott set about designing the basic church that still stands today, raised the necessary financing, and supervised the building work by James Willmore of Buckingham.

Unlike other churches in neighbouring villages, Holy Trinity Church in Gawcott does not stand on a prominent position within the street scene. Instead, it is screened by surrounding buildings and a high hedgerow along the south side of Main Street.

Scott’s church is rather plain in appearance and it is said that it did not impress his son, the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. It was dismissed scathingly by John Camp in his book Portrait of Buckingham (1972), where he descried it as ‘hideous pseudo-classicism’.

Holy Trinity Church was completed in 1827, and since then it has seen alterations and renovations. Gawcott was formed into an ecclesiastical parish on 4 November 1862.

Looking towards the west end of Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The classical-style church is a Listed Grade II* building. It fronts onto the small village green and the south side of Main Street, with Charlotte Cottage (Grade II listed) to the east. Under the supervision of Thomas Scott’s grandson and George Gilbert Scott’s son, the architect John Oldrid Scott, the gallery at the west end of the church was removed in 1894 and the present ceiling was installed.

The church has a polygonal apse, a wide aisleless nave and a small west tower. The apse is lower than the nave and has blank east wall, and the windows have round-arched heads. The west end has six-paned, double-leaf doors on either side of the tower with plain raised stone surrounds and low pediments on console brackets, with windows above the doors.

The front is surmounted by half pediments that flank the tower. The tower has three stages and a west window similar to those in the nave and on same scale.

The monument to the Revd Thomas Scott behind the pulpit in Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Inside the church, the chancel arch has an elliptical-arched head imposts, the nave and apse have flat plaster ceilings. Items of interest in the church include two round arch-headed boards that have survived from the earlier church demolished in 1826. They have been moved from the east end to the north wall, with the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed on one board, and the Ten Commandments on the other.

The original communion rails have been moved forward from the entrance to the apse and has symmetrical turned balusters. The early 19th century hexagonal pulpit has panel mouldings on its sides. The organ dates from the early 19th century. The chandeliers were installed in 1894, and were restored and rehung in 1995.

The wall monumentsin the church include a white marble monument to the south of the apse to the parish benefactor John West who paid for previous chapel, and one to the north of the apse, behind the pulpit, in memory of Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835).

The inscription on Scott’s memorial records his 27 years of service and building the present church ‘on the site of the former Chapel which had fallen to decay, by assistance of friends tho not without considerable personal expense.’

Scott left Gawcott to become the Rector of Wappenham, Northamptonshire, where his son, Sir George Gilbert Scott, was the architect of a new vicarage.

Some Scott family graves in the churchyard in Gawcott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In recent years, the roof and the parapets of the church have been repaired, new windows were installed and the lighting update. The tower was reduced during major work in 1979, and as a consequence the bell chamber was lost. The bell was then rehung above the roof of the tower and the clock has been silent since.

Another major restoration was carried out in 1990, beginning with the north wall of the main churchyard. The north slope of the roof was removed after the architect declared the roof was dangerous, with rot in the north end of each of the three western single span joists.

The church interior was restored after the plaster on the lower walls was found to be damp, and new panelling was installed, matching the panelling in the sanctuary. The nave floor was been replaced.

After these renovations and alterations, Holy Trinity Church was reconsecrated by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford in June 2002. More recently, new kitchen and toilet facilities have been installed in the church.

Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott, seen from the south-east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

• Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott, is part of the Lenborough Benefice, which also includes Saint Cecilia’s, Adstock, All Saints’, Hillesden, and Saint Mary’s, Padbury. The interim vicar is the Revd Dr Quentin Chandler, who is also Head of Vocations and Director of Ordinands (DDO) in the Diocese of Oxford. Sunday services at 10:30 rotate between the four churches in the benefice and include: ‘Café Sunday (first Sunday); Benefice Communion (second Sunday); ‘Care and Share’ (third Sunday); and Holy Communion (fourth Sunday).

The Old Rectory in Gawcott, facing the west end of Holy Trinity Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 18, Saturday 22 March 2025

Minarets and church domes on the skyline in Rethymnon in Crete … the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important aid in the Christian-Muslim dialogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began over two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and tomorrow is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Parable of the Prodigal Son depicted in a panel in the East Window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 (NRSVA):

1 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable:

11 … ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22 But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31 Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found”.’

The Church of the Annunciation in Kaş in southern Turkey was converted into the Yeni Cami or New Mosque in 1963 … how does the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the Lectionary (Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32) is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one of the best-known parables, even among people who seldom go to church, and it is one of the parables that are unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.

We are going to hear this parable again in the Gospel reading (Luke 15: 1–3, 11b–32) tomorrow week, on Lent IV or Mothering Sunday (30 March 2025). I shall reflect on this parable again that morning (see HERE). But this morning I am reminded how the Parable of the Prodigal Son was used in a course on Muslim-Christian dialogue I did 30 years ago, back in 1995.

At the time, I was the newly-appointed Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times, and I was writing a number of features on Islam and on Muslim-Christian dialogue. I realised I needed to ‘upskill’ myself in these areas, building on my theological education, and the editor, Conor Brady suggested I identify some short courses that could equip me in these fields.

I took two courses, one year after another. The first was a short residential course at CME level in the then Church of Ireland Theological College in Dublin in 1995, organised by the Revd Declan Smith of the Church Mission Society (CMS).

That course was delivered by the Revd Dr Colin Chapman, a British missiologist who specialises in Islamic studies. He worked in the Middle East for 18 years for CMS and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He taught in Cairo, Bethlehem and Beirut, where he was a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Near East School of Theology (1999-2003). He also taught at Trinity College, Bristol, and was the principal of Crowther Hall, the CMS college in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Colin Chapman’s publications include Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam (1988, 2007), Islam and the West (1998), Whose Promised Land?: the continuing conflict over Israel and Palestine (1983, 1992, 2002, 2015), Whose Holy City? Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004) and ‘Islamic Terrorism’: Is There a Christian Response?’ (2005).

His Cross and Crescent was submitted in conjunction with his thesis ‘Teaching Christians about Islam: a Study In Methodology’ at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak, at the Department of Theology in the University of Birmingham in September 1993, a year before I took his course in Dublin.

He was strongly influenced by the work of the American theologian Professor Kenneth Bailey (1930-2016), who also taught at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (1962-1985) and at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem.

On that course in Dublin, as throughout his work, Colin Chapman drew heavily on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which he finds unique in the context of Christian-Muslim dialogue. He finds it especially valuable as a story told by Jesus himself, because it presents the message of Jesus and as a story that can be told, elaborated, dramatised and discussed in ways that are culturally familiar within Middle East contexts.

Kenneth Bailey, in his study of the parables of Jesus, believes that the basic message of Jesus can be summed up as the costly demonstration of unexpected love, God’s yes to all people. Not only does he proclaim his love, but he actually defines and declares his love in action. As Colin Chapman interprets Kenneth Bailey’s writing, this demonstration of God’s unexpected love is costly for him, since in a sense he suffers in the process of forgiving.

Colin says the Parable of the Prodigal Son expresses all these points with special force. The father loves his sons – both the rebellious son who wants to leave home, and the older son who has such a cold and formal relationship with him. He goes on loving them, even when we might expect him to want to punish us and reject us. He demonstrates his love to both of them in ways that would have been considered surprising, if not shocking, in Middle East societies. And in demonstrating his love to them, the father suffers in the process.

Colin has summarised Bailey’s understanding of the significance of the Prodigal Son’s homecoming: ‘On his return, the prodigal is overwhelmed by an expected visible demonstration of love in humiliation. He is shattered by the offer of grace, confesses unworthiness, and accepts restoration to sonship in genuine humility. Sin is now a broken relationship which he cannot restore. Repentance is now understood as acceptance of grace and confession of unworthiness. The community rejoices together. The visible demonstration of love in humiliation is seen to have dear overtones of the atoning work of Christ.’

This parable comes from a culture that is similar to the culture of the Islamic world, Colin argues. The strong emphasis in Islam on the unity of the family and family loyalties and the fact that most of the Muslim world is in Africa and the Middle East should make it easy for Muslims to understand what is happening in the story, he suggests.

But the parable also raises question for Muslims, he points out. What Muslim could imagine a younger son asking for his share of the inheritance while his father is still alive? Should a father not punish his sons when they dishonour the name of the family? Has the elder brother got to swallow his pride and welcome home his younger brother who has disgraced himself?

The second course was a year later, in 1996, in the College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham. It was led by the Principal, the Revd Canon Dr Andrew Wingate, in association with USPG.

I was reminded earlier this week how that course in 1996 included Saint Patrick’s Day, and Andrew surprised me by asking me to preach at the Eucharist in his college chapel that Sunday.

CMS moved some of its training to Cowley, Oxford, in 2005 and closed Crowther Hall. The United College of the Ascension closed in 2006. Some of its work, and that of the Department of Mission, continues in the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, based in the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, an ecumenical theological foundation close to Birmingham University.

Later, Andrew Wingate was the founding director of Saint Philip’s Centre for Study and Engagement, Leicester, where I was involved in yet another a course in 2012. He is now a consultant and teacher in Inter-Faith Relations, and we meet occasionally at USPG conferences and events.

I drew heavily on Colin Chapman’s work when I produced resources on Christian-Muslim dialogue for CMS and when I was a lecturer in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. He is now enjoying semi-retirement in Milton, Cambridge, where he sometimes assist at All Saints’ Church. We have met occasionally at Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge, when I have been studying at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and staying ay Sidney Sussex College.

I have been a lifelong supporter of USPG, and I sometimes wondered whether some people in USPG saw me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I was worked for CMS for four years (2002-2006), or did CMS see me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I subsequently joined the boards of USPG in Ireland and became a trustee of USPG?

The former College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham, where I studied Christian-Muslim dialogue in 1996 (click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 22 March 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Truth: The Path to Reconciliation’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 22 March) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the Anglican Church of Southern Africa as a beacon of hope and reconciliation, empowering them to advocate for justice and embody Christ’s love.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all aersities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent III:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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 Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A church in a provincial town in Egypt … can the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (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

Two Saint Johns in Hampstead: 200 years of controversies at Saint John’s, Downshire Hill

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … a proprietary chapel that is not a parish church in the Diocese of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

There are two Church of England churches in Hampstead that are named Saint John: Saint John-at-Hampstead which is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint John’s Downshire Hill.

Saint John-at-Hampstead is the ancient parish church on Church Row, and I was writing about yesterday. Saint John’s Downshire Hill is not actually a parish church but a proprietary chapel.

The two Saint John’s in Hampstead have very different histories, styles of worship and values. To add to the confusion, but there is also a debate about the patronage of Saint John-at-Hampstead: was the saint in question Saint John the Baptist or Saint John the Evangelist?

I decided to visit both churches – or the church and the chapel – when I was in Hampstead last week.

>Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … facing what should be the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead, is a proprietary chapel rather than a parish church in the Diocese of London. It is in the Parish of Saint Stephen with All Hallows, and, although most people refer to it as Saint John’s Church, it is legally and formally a chapel. Nor should it be confused with Saint John-at-Hampstead, on Church Row.

As much of the area was being developed in the early 19th century, a new church was considered an essential for the new houses and their residents. Downshire Hill was laid out at the beginning of the 19th century and the street was probably named after Wills Hill (1718-1793), 1st Marquess of Downshire. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768-1772, the period leading up to the American War of Independence, and his Irish estates included Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, now the official government residence in Northern Ireland, and Blessington House, Co Wicklow, which was burned down in 1798.

Later residents of Downshire Hill included the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the actress Peggy Ashcroft and the Irish-born scientist John Desmond Bernal.

A site on Downshire Hill was bought from the Manor of Belsize in 1812 by a group who handed the site on in 1817 to a three people: the Revd James Curry, who financed the project; Edward Carlisle, a lawyer; and William Woods, a speculative builder who was involved in developments in Hampstead and other parts of London.

Curry offered to pay the cost of the building if he was appointed the minister. The new chapel was dedicated to Saint John, indicating, perhaps, that it was originally planned as a chapel of ease for the parish church of Saint John-at-Hampstead.

The building was completed in 1823, but Curry had fallen ill by the time the first service held on 26 October 1823. Instead, the first minister was the Revd William Harness (1790-1869), a classical scholar and a friend from school days of the poet Lord Byron.

Curry died soon after the opening, Woods gave up his interest in the building in January 1824, and Harness left in 1825 when his popularity as a preacher brought him an invitation to become the incumbent of Saint Peter’s Church, Regent Square (1826-1844). The four ministers who succeeded Harness each remained for only a short period.

The property was bought in 1832 by the Revd John Wilcox (1780-1835), who admired George Whitefield, a key figure in the revival in Britain and America in the 18th century. Wilcox saw Downshire Hill as the ideal place to carry on Whitefield’s evangelical legacy and put the evangelical tradition associated with the chapel on a firm footing.

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … facing what should be the liturgical west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wilcox immediately met strong opposition from the Revd Samuel White, who had been the Vicar of Saint John-at-Hampstead since 1807 and who disagreed strongly with the Calvinist teachings of Wilcox. White’s permission was needed to hold services and to preach sermons in the parish, and Downshire Hill was in his parish.

White accused Wilcox of neglecting the two churches where he already ministered and charged him with illegally officiating in a private chapel without the consent of the local incumbent. Wilcox threatened that without White’s approval he would preach as a dissenter. But, when Wilcox ignored White’s demands, White began formal proceedings against him.

The consistory court ruled in favour of White, but local feeling was on the side of Wilcox. The poet John Keats, who was living nearby in what is now Keats House, referred to White as ‘the Person of Hampstead quarrelling with all the world.’ A petition was signed by influential local people including the then Lord of the Manor of Belsize, Lord Galloway, and the writer Sara Coleridge, a daughter of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The court ruling stood, and the chapel stayed closed until 1835. The chapel remained controversial in church circles in the years that followed, and Wilcox remained in the area, teaching local children at Saint John’s Church School, which he founded on Downshire Hill at his own expense.

The Bevington organ in the west gallery was built in 1873 and installed in 1880 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When Wilcox died in December 1835, the trustees of Saint John’s Downshire Hill were able to appoint an alternative minister who had White’s approval. The Revd John Ayre was the minister for 20 years there, from 1835 and 1855, and was the longest-standing minister there for many years after. In 1851, 1,370 people attended a service at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached.

Meanwhile, Samuel White had died in 1841, the area was growing rapidly, and there was a need for a new parish church. Saint John’s was proposed as the new parish church in 1863, but this was rejected on the grounds that the church was too small and the site too small to build a larger church.

Instead, a new parish church, Saint Stephen’s Church, was built nearby at Rosslyn Hill and the Revd Joshua Kirkman of Saint John’s Downshire Hill became the first Vicar of Saint Stephen’s.

Canon Henry Wright (1833-1880), was secretary of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) was the minister of Saint John’s from 1872 until he drowned in Coniston Lake. The Revd Robert Baker Girdlestone (1836-1922), the first Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (1877-1889), was at Downshire Hill in 1889-1903.

Saint John’s faced financial difficulties during World War I, and in 1916 the freehold was bought by Henry Wright’s son, Albert Leslie Wright, who then leased the church to the congregation at a nominal rent. When he died in 1938, he appointed the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) as trustees to ensure the church continued to maintain an evangelical traditions.

Later ministers included: the Revd Jakób Jocz (1947-1956), who was born in Tsarist Lithuania, became President of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance and then was Professor of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto; Canon Douglas Butcher (1957-1960), a canon of Cairo Cathedral; the Revd Douglas Paterson (1962-1965), who later joined the Rwanda Mission; and Bishop Kenneth Howell (1972-1979), a former Bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

Typical of its time … the distinctive black and gold clock below the bellcote was made by John Moore of Clerkenwell in 1823 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Grade I listed building, with its Regency stuccoed and cream painted façade, looks more like a church typical of its period in New England. It has a Doric porch, portico and cupola. The distinctive black and gold clock below the bellcote was made by John Moore of Clerkenwell in 1823, its simple bold design typical of that period.

Inside, the vestibule has a double staircase. The main part of the church has a five-bay nave with galleries on three sides and no chancel. During restoration work in the 1960s, a frieze of biblical texts that had been obliterated in 1923 was rediscovered decorating the gallery and reredos and repainted in the original gold lettering.

The original wooden box pews have been moved to the sides of the church, below the galleries, or to the church hall. The Bevington organ in the west gallery was built in 1873 and installed in 1880.

The East Window (1882) depicts the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The East Window, dating from 1882, depicts the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist. Under it, the reredos frames the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, although these are obscured by a large drop-down screen. When I visited last week, there was no communion table and no pulpit. Perhaps they were moved during renovations in 2003-2004, and instead there is a raised stage with a small, fold-away table and two comfortable chairs.

During the 19th century, there were up to 50 proprietary chapels in London. Today, Saint John’s Downshire Hill is the only proprietary chapel remaining in the Diocese of London, one of only a handful in the whole of England. The running costs are met entirely by the congregation. It is financially separate from the Church of England, and does not contribute to or receive from funds in the Diocese of London.

The chapel is in the conservative evangelical tradition, and has passed resolutions rejecting both the leadership and the the ordination of women. Alongside Saint Luke’s Church, Hampstead, and churches such as All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, it looks for alternative episcopal oversight to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Rob Munro.

Looking out into the world? … a window below one of the galleries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church website refers to the church as the people ‘who have received forgiveness and new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus’ and says the building is ‘a place for God’s people to meet to pray, sing, encourage each other and hear teaching from His word, the Bible.’

Article 19 of the 39 Articles, ‘Of the Church’, says: ‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance …’

It is difficult to see how this chapel fits in with this understanding of the Church, to see or find out where ‘the Sacraments be duly ministered’ or to see where the ‘Word of God is preached’ in a way that distinguishes a sermon from a television interview or a cosy fireside chat on a stage that gives priority to space for a performance with modern musical instruments.

Apart from a fold-away table and two comfortable chairs, there is no sign of a pulpit or altar, of word and sacrament in Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Revd Tom Watts has been the senior minister of Saint John’s since 2018. The ‘Church Staff’ include David Rue, Associate Minister for Families, Corinne Brixton, Associate Minister for Women, and Aaron Ku, Assistant Minister. But there is nothing on the noticeboards or the website to indicate whether they are ordained or lay ministers.

The congregation has owned the building since 2003, when it bought it from the Wright family trustees who had owned it and leased it since World War I. The present trustees, who have legal oversight of the governance of Saint John’s Downshire Hill, are Daniel Barlow, Gareth Burns, Abi Naidu and Christopher Onaka.

The website refers to meetings, and says members of the congregation ‘meet together twice on Sundays’, at 10:30 and 6 pm, with both ‘meetings’ involving ‘music, prayer and the reading and teaching of the Bible’ and with the ‘focus on learning more about the God of the Bible, His Son Jesus Christ and what His word has to say about Him and our lives in relation to Him.’

But I could not find out anywhere when the Holy Communion or the Eucharist is celebrated at Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead. I wondered whether it is a mere conincidence that the only parts of the lettering that were rediscovered when the gallery and reredos were being redecorated and that are largely obscured by a large screen standing where the altar or holy table should be are those dominical words relating to the need to celebrate the Eucharist or the Holy Communion reguarly.

Stairway to heaven? … the vestibule in Saint John’s Downshire Hill has a double staircase (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Last updated: 12 May 2026 (correctionof typos)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (18) 15 June 2023

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai … designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and reopened last December (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The First Sunday after Trinity was celebrated on Sunday (11 June 2023). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Evelyn Underhill (1941), Spiritual Writer, 1941.

Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.

Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Worshippers at the reopening of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai, on 12 December 2022 (Photograph: China Christian Daily)
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai:

Holy Trinity Church, Shanghai is the former Anglican church in the Huangpu District of Shanghai, and the oldest such cathedral in China. It was designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott and was consecrated in 1869.

A Scottish merchant in Shanghai, Thomas Chaye Beale of Dent & Co bought and donated the current site as a gift to the church. The first church on the site was of poor quality, and the roof collapsed after intense rainfall, on 24 June 1850.

Holy Trinity Cathedral was designed in the Gothic revival style by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The foundation stone was laid on 24 May 1866 and the church opened on 1 August 1869.

Holy Trinity Cathedral is known to local people as ‘the red church’ and is built in red brick with neo-Gothic detailing. Scott was commissioned to draw plans for the church as a replacement for the older timber-built church and to serve the growing Christian community in Shanghai.

Scott’s resulting design is spectacular and one of Scott’s masterpieces. At the time, the church had a nave, two transepts, two aisles and a chancel, each element fashioned in the Gothic style.

Holy Trinity is oriented liturgically towards Jerusalem to the west. The colonnades are carved from stone and the red exterior brickwork is perfectly laid out. Red brickwork is a primary theme throughout the building, with even the architraves on the façade being made from red brick.

Because of budgetary constraints, the original design was modified by William Kidner (1841-1900), one of Scott’s junior architects, who scaled down the extravagance of the original plans but planning to accommodate a growing congregation.

A spire was added to the original tower in 1901. The organ by JW Walker & Sons of London was installed in 1914, and was then the largest organ in Asia.

Bishop William Armstrong Russell (1821-1879) became the first Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of North China in 1872, and Holy Trinity became his cathedral. William Russell was a son of Marcus Carew Russell of Ballydavid House, Littleton, Co Tipperary. He was educated at Midleton College, Co Cork, and Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained in 1847 and went to China as a missionary that year.

Russell was appointed the first missionary bishop of North China in November 1872, and was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on 15 December. He died at Shanghai on 5 October 1879.

The Diocese of North China was based in Holy Trinity Cathedral from 1875 and in 1912 it became part of the Anglican Church in China, known as Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (CHSKH, or the Holy Catholic Church in China).

The boys’ school attached to the cathedral was built in 1928. The pupils included the author JG Ballard, and it features in his novel Empire of the Sun.

Like Russell, the last two missionary bishops based in Shanghai were Irish-born. Herbert James Molony (1865-1939) was born in Dublin, and educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He became the Bishop of Chekiang in 1907. A year later, the name and boundaries of his diocese were changed and he became Bishop of Zhejiang (Chekiang). The diocese included Hangzhou (Hangchow) and Ningbo (Ningpo), and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai, became the cathedral of the Diocese of Zhejiang. He retired to England in 1937, and died in 1939.

John Curtis (1880-1962) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a curate at Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin and then an army chaplain in Thessaloniki. He was Bishop of Zhejiang in 1929-1949. He retired to England in 1957 and died in 1962.

The last Bishop of Zhejiang was KH Ting, Ting Kuang-hsun or Ding Guangxun (1915-2012), from 1955. He was the last surviving Anglican bishop in China, and when he died he was chairperson emeritus of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and president emeritus of the China Christian Council.

The Anglican Church in China was forcibly amalgamated in 1958 with other churches in the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and the China Christian Council (CCC).

The cathedral spire was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, the church was confiscated by the Huangpu District authorities and it was converted into a cinema. A stage was installed in the chancel, a second floor and sloping floor were introduced and the brickwork was covered by plaster and painted. The cathedral was later used as police offices and the exit visa bureau in Shanghai.

The church fell into disrepair over time, but the church complex was handed over to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council as its headquarters in 2004. When I visited Shanghai, the former cinema seats were still in place. I visited the offices too, and I bought a full set of stoles in liturgical colours in the Amity shop.

The cathedral was restored by Zhang Ming Architectural Design Firm, carved teak pews were provided by a furniture factory in Zhejiang province.

Holy Trinity Cathedral Shanghai received a ‘Religious Venue Registration Certificate’ on 6 January 2022, and reopened to the public on 12 December 2022 after renovations. After being closed for 56 years, it is open once again, serving as a church.

The Protestant ‘National Lianghui’ office in Shanghai (Photograph: Flsxx/Wikipedia)

Matthew 5: 20-26 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

21 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.” 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.’

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Shanghai during reconstruction and redecoration (Photograph: Grafiti - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, wikimedia)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Opening the World for Children through Learning.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (15 June 2023) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the Church of Ceylon and for the long and cherished relationship that USPG hold with them. May it continue to flourish in the future.

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai, is one of Sir George Gilbert Scott’s masterpieces (Photograph: GilbertScott.org / ‘The Scott Dynasty’)

Collect:

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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.

Post Communion:

Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A stole bought in the Amity shop at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Shanghai (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