Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 23, Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King

Christ enthroned in majesty in the centre of the Christ the King or Cooper Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and today is the Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday next before Advent. Later this morning, I hope to be part of the choir at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The music this morning includes the motet Locus Ipse composed in 1869 by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and a version of Psalm 46 (Deus Noster Refugium, God is our hope and strength) by Martin Luther.

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Three royal crowns for Christ the King … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 23: 33-43:

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38 There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Christ the King depicted in the East Window (1948) by Lilian Josephine Pocock in the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and the Sunday next before Advent (23 November 2025). Our readings bring us to the end of the Church Year. The Gospel reading also marks the last Sunday at the end of our journey in the Lectionary with Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. We will begin it all again next Sunday, with a new cycle of readings, beginning with Advent Sunday (30 November 2025), and reading through Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

But this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 23: 33-43) gives us time to pause and reflect on the fact that we have followed Christ for seven months or so through Saint Luke’s Gospel. We have seen Saint Luke’s distinctive emphases on the poor and their inclusion in the Kingdom, the inclusion of those not normally invited as guests to the great feasts.

In the Gospel reading, we are at the moment when Christ is crucified. The crucifixion is truly emphasised on Good Friday, but this morning the emphasis is on Christ the King and the request by one of the criminals to ‘remember me’ in the kingdom.

The Epistle reading (Colossians 1: 11-20) includes a hymn praising Christ as the king of this kingdom, listing his royal attributes in poetic form (verse 15-20):

‘In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’

The Gospel reading may seem out of sequence as we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas. However, the Crucifixion is one of the ways in which we see Christ revealed to the world as King. The Crucifixion is his triumph rather than his defeat, and it leads not to our death but to his Resurrection and our promise of life in all its fullness, personalised in the way Christ assures the second criminal of the immediate promise of a place with him in Paradise.

This reading challenges to accept that today, this day (σήμερον, símeron), this very day, is the time to respond to the claims the kingdom makes on us (verse 43).

This reading may seem to be a little out of sequence on a Sunday morning. We are preparing for Christmas, you may think, not for Good Friday and Easter. But we forget that so easily. I hear on all the radio chat shows people already talking about this being the Christmas Season … before Advent has even started. In Britain, people are even talking about a Christmas election, rather than an Advent election.

But Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, with the Lectionary readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.

We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.

It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.

It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.

It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.

That is why in the weeks before Advent we have readings that remind us about what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from next Sunday (30 November), and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.

Kingship may not be a good role model for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected – although many of the elected heads of state in many countries good models for democratic leadership either. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. Let me share some examples:

• We are familiar with a model of monarchy that paradoxically appears to be benign on the one hand and appears aloof and remote on the other hand, at the very apex of a class system defined by birth, title and inherited privilege.

• In other northern European countries, the model of monarchy is portrayed in the media by figureheads who are slightly daft do-gooders, riding around on bicycles in parks and by canals in ways that threaten to rob kingship of majesty, dignity and grace.

• Or, take emperors deposed in my own lifetime: Halie Selassie sat back in luxury as his people starved to death; Emperor Bokassa, was a tyrant accused of eating his people and having them butchered at whim.

• In the United States, it seems Trump would rather be king than a President with the usual checks and balances of a democratic society. • Even in Britain and Ireland, we sometimes need to be reminded that the word minister, whether we use it for government ministers or church ministers, is supposed to convey the idea of service, serving the people and serving God. The petition in the Book of Common Prayer pleads: ‘Endue thy ministers with righteousness’; and the response is ‘And make thy chosen people joyful’.

This morning, this Sunday before Advent, gives us time to pause and reflect on why, as we were reading our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel, we have been following Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. For it is there that he will be revealed in glory as the Son of Man and the King.

Discussing how the Lectionary can at times provide readings that are incongruous or out of season, Canon Giles Fraser – who resigned as Canon Chancellor of Saint Paul’s because of the cathedral’s response to the Occupy protests – wrote in the Church Times many years ago [4 November 2011]:

‘For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings and with silly arguments about sex. Now is the time for a new debate and a new emphasis. For if we are not fully involved with complex discussions about the relationship between financial justice and the way our financial institutions work, then we might as well give up on being a proper Church and admit that we are the spiritual arm of the heritage industry.’

He recalls that the Evensong readings set for his last sermon in Saint Paul’s Cathedral included: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation’ (Luke 6: 20, 25).

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us in a way that is uncomfortable, but with things that must stay on the agenda of the Church.

The genius of power is revealed in those who have it and can use it but only do so sparingly. Christ’s choice is not to gratify those who want a worldly king, whether he is benign or barmy. Instead, he displays supreme majesty in his priorities for those who are counted out when it comes to other kingdoms.

Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not coming again as a king who is haughty and aloof, daft and barmy, or despotic and tyrannical. Instead he shows a model of kingship that emphasises what majesty and graciousness should mean for us today – giving priority in the kingdom to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner and the refugee.

In the current negative stormy debate about refugees, asylum seekers and migrants on small boats, a debate fuelled by racism, prejudice and extremism, I find comfort in the opening words of the Psalm this morning and its descrption of God as ‘our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46: 1). The Psalmist goes on to say, ‘Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam’ (verses 2-3).

As we prepare for Christmas, we should be preparing to enjoy time with our families and friends, time for a good winter’s holiday. But we should also remember the reason we have Christmas, the reason Christ came into the world, and the reason he is coming again.

We can look forward to seeing the Christ Child in the crib and to singing about him in the carols. But let us also look forward to seeing him in glory.

Let us be prepared on this Feast of Christ the King to see him in the hungry, the thirsty, the unwelcome stranger, those who are naked and vulnerable, those who have no access to adequate health care, the refugees and asylum seekers facing endless taunts and bullying day-by-day, those who are prisoners, those who have no visitors and those who are lonely and marginalised.

A sculpture of Christ the King at the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 November 2025):

The theme this week (23 to 29 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice’ (pp 58-59). This theme is introduced today with Reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG, who writes:

Since its launch 30 years ago, the Global 16 Days Campaign has brought together over 6,000 organisations across 185 countries, reaching more than 300 million people in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV). I first encountered it when I worked for a grassroots women’s organisation and now, over eight years on, I am pleased that USPG also lend their voice to the campaign. The ‘16 Days’ initiative enables USPG to amplify our commitment to gender justice, raise awareness, and reflect on the progress that our church partners have made in ending gender-based violence.

However, the campaign lives on because there is still so much work to be done in the fight against gender-based violence. These 16 days provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing reality of GBV across the globe and to consider our responsibility, as Christians, to demand accountability and work towards an end to GBV and discrimination in all areas of life. As we are called to ‘mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12: 15), true activism cannot exist without empathy. Yet, mourning alone is not enough – our faith compels us to take action and make a tangible difference for the women and girls who endure injustice.

During these 16 days, I encourage you not only to reflect but also to look within your own communities for ways to practically support survivors of GBV and advocate for an end to discrimination.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 November 2025, Christ the King) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Luke 23: 33-43.

Christ the King in the Selby-Lowndes family war memorial window in Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Post Communion prayer may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Christ the King … an image in this weekend’s notices at the Anglican Church of Saint Thomas in Kefalas, Crete,

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 the Kingdom Season: 14, Friday 14 November 2025

‘On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away’ (Luke 17: 31) … the rooftops of Saint Mark’s Basilica and Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent, and this week began with the Third Sunday before Advent, which was also Remembrance Sunday. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (14 November) remembers Samuel Seabury (1729-1796), the first Anglican Bishop in North America.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Likewise anyone in the field must not turn back’ (Luke 17: 31) … winter fields along Cross in Hand Lane, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 17: 26-37 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 26 ‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them 30 – it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.’ 37 Then they asked him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.’

‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man’ (Luke 17: 26) … ‘Noah and the Dove’ (2006), a sculpture by Simon Manby in the courtyard of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 17: 26-37) is one of the stories about preparing for the kingdom of God and the arrival of the Son of God on earth, not only as the incarnate Christ Child at Christmas in nativity story or in a decorative crib, but also as Christ the King.

As we prepare for the Feast of Christ the King in nine days’ time (Sunday 23 November 2025) and for Advent, we should expect many of our readings to have apocalyptic themes, looking forward to that Coming of Christ the King at his second coming.

The apocalyptic images in today’s Gospel reading anticipate some of these themes, looking back at unexpected terrors in the past and with apocalyptic warnings about what the future may hold.

TS Eliot’s poem East Coker, the second of his Four Quartets, is set in late November and ends:

In my end is my beginning.

But it opens:

In my beginning is my end.

The radical author, professor, preacher and peace activist, the Revd Robin Meyers, once described by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu as ‘scholarly, pastoral, prophetic, and eloquent,’ has written: ‘Life itself passes daily judgment on the idea that [God is in control], that good deeds and righteous living exempt us from mindless tragedy, or that the meek will inherit anything other than a crushing debt and a dead planet.’

But in a sermon some years ago in the First [Congregational] Church in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the First Sunday of Advent, his former colleague, the church historian, the Revd Dr J Mary Luti of Andover Newton Theological School, responded: ‘Nonetheless, and hoping against hope, today’s scriptures emphatically encourage us to stand firm, to refuse to throw in the towel. God really is in charge, they assert, and one day you won’t have to take that on faith.’

She says: ‘Advent intends to make a pre-emptive strike on despair as the Church sets out on another year of following Christ from manger to grave, and beyond.’

As we approach Advent, we find ourselves in a unique position, standing both at the beginning and at the end, at the turning–point of the liturgical year. This peculiar experience of living within a paradox is a characteristic of the Christian faith. However, perhaps the greatest paradox of Advent, we shall find, is the tension between the joyous anticipation of the birth of Jesus and the inevitability of the cross.

In a true sense, Advent does not end at Christmas. The nativity, the Incarnation, cannot be separated from the crucifixion, the Atonement and the Resurrection. The purpose of Christ’s coming into the world, of the ‘Word made flesh’ and dwelling among us, is to reveal God and his grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection.

So, at the beginning of things, we think about the end of things. The Gospel reading today reflects this emphasis on Christ’s second coming and include themes of accountability, judgment, but also prompts us to renew our hope of eternal life. In the words of TS Eliot,

What we call the beginning is often the end
and to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. (TS Eliot, Little Gidding)

‘I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left’ (Luke 17: 34) … a corner bedroom in Ballybur Castle, once the home of the Comerford family in Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 14 November 2025):

Samuel Seabury, who is remembered in the church calendar in Common Worship today (14 November), was born in Connecticut in 1729 and, after graduating from Yale, was ordained priest in England and assigned by SPG (the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, now USPG) to a church in New Brunswick, in New Jersey.

During the American War of Independence, he was a chaplain in the British army. After the war, at a meeting of the clergy in Connecticut, he was chosen to seek consecration as bishop. However, after a year of fruitless negotiations with the Church of England, he was ordained bishop by the nonjuring bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church on 14 November 1784.

Returning to America, he held his first Convention in Connecticut in August 1785 and the first General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1789. The church adopted a version of the Scottish Eucharist. Samuel Seabury died on 25 February 1796.

The theme this week (9 to 15 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hope for the Future’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Chief Executive Officer at Hope for the Future, to mark COP30 in Brazil this week.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 14 November 2025) invites us to pray:

God of wisdom, we pray for those in positions of authority making decisions at COP30 and beyond. May their hearts attune to the cries of the earth and its people. May they pursue policies that protect the most vulnerable and honour the integrity of creation.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Samuel Seabury in a stained-glass window in Saint Giles Church, Cambridge … he is remembered in Common Worship on 14 November (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

Christ the King, a Bloomsbury church shared by two polar opposites that are opposed to the ordination of women

The English Chapel in the Church of Christ the King facing Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, now used by Forward in Faith (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

In my recent self-guided ‘church crawling’ tours in London of churches in Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia and Soho, one of the unusual ones is the Church of Christ the King facing Gordon Square in Bloomsbury.

The church was built for the Catholic Apostolic Church, an eclectic group that has faded into oblivion but that still exists on paper, and is used today by two by two different groups at polar opposites in Church of England, united by their opposition to the ordination of women and their narrow views on sexuality.

This church in Bloomsbury is of cathedral dimensions and is only 500 metres south of Euston station. I have been familiar with it from the outside for half a century or so but – until recent weeks – it has never seemed to be open.

It was open at lunchtime when I was in Bloomsbury a few weeks ago, and I took the opportunity to visit one part of the church, the English Chapel, which Forward in Faith describes as a ‘Place of Quiet Prayer and Reflection.’ I have yet to find the other part of the building, known as Euston Church, to be open when I am in that part of Bloomsbury.

The Church of Christ the King on Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, was built for the Catholic Apostolic Church or Irvingites and designed by Raphael Rodrigues Brandon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of Christ the King is beside the former Dr Williams’s Library, which closed earlier this year (2025), and it is close to University College London. The building belongs to the trustees of the Catholic Apostolic Church. But the building has been divided and segmented in recent years, with the former main part of the church now used by the Euston Church for Sunday services, while the former Lady Chapel or English Chapel at the east end is used by Forward in Faith for weekday services.

The church has been a Grade I listed building since 1954, one of the 129 churches in London with this listing.

The church was designed in the Early English Neo-Gothic style with a cruciform plan by John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon (1817-1877) for the Catholic Apostolic Church or ‘Irvingites’ in 1850-1854, and Brandon designed the interior in 1853.

The Catholic Apostolic Church, also known as the Irvingite Church, originated in London around 1831. Edward Irving (1792-1834), a former clergyman in the Church of Scotland, is sometimes credited with organising the movement. Their former church on Adelaide Road in Dublin is now a Lutheran Church.

Brandon’s church in Gordon Square is incomplete, lacking two bays at the west side, a planned façade and his planned crossing tower and spire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon was a Gothic Revival architect and writer, and he carried out much in collaboration with his younger brother Joshua Arthur Rodrigues Brandon, until Joshua died in 1847. They were the sons of Joshua Rodrigues Brandon (1785-1864), a West India merchant from a prominent Sephardic family, and his wife Mary Anne Hunter (1786-1856). Both Raphael and Joshua Brandon were keen adherents of the Neo-Gothic style and they jointly produced a series of three works on Early English ecclesiastical architecture that became 19th century architectural pattern books.

The Brandon brother designed several stations and engine-houses in the style of mediaeval manor houses on the London and Croydon Railway, disguising chimneys as early Gothic church bell-towers. After Joshua died, Raphael Brandon went into partnership with Robert Ritchie until 1856.

Raphael Brandon’s other designs include Colchester Town Hall (1843-1845), which has since been replaced, and the restoration of Saint Martin's Church, Leicester, now Leicester Cathedral, in the 1860s, as well as the north aisle of Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge.

Thomas Hardy worked briefly for Brandon, and based his description of Henry Knight’s chambers in his novel A Pair of Blue Eyes on Brandon’s office at Clement’s Inn. Brandon also employed James Rawson Carroll (1830-1911), architect of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and the Mageough Home in Dublin and many works throughout the village of Ardagh in Co Longford.

The Cloisters, beside the East porch at Gordon Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Brandon’s church in Gordon Square is built of Bath stone, with a tiled roof. The structure is incomplete, lacking two bays on its liturgical west side, Brandon’s a planned façade and his planned crossing tower with a 150 ft spire. The tower base that was built has mostly blind arcading.

The cruciform plan is made up of a nave with full triforium and clerestory, side aisles, sanctuary and Lady Chapel. All of the exterior corners have octagonal corner turrets with gabled niches and terminating in spires with gablets. The façade has pinnacle buttresses and corbelled parapets.

The main entrance is at the east end, from Gordon Street, through a gabled porch with angle buttresses, with mouldings, a pointed-arch door and a two-light and oculus plate tracery window above the door. This entrance links onto the Lady Chapel through an octagonal turret and a two-light room. In addition, a north side entrance is approached by a cloister walk from the porch.

Brandon’s planned façade at the west end was never built (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The five-bay nave is only 13 ft lower than the nave in Westminster Abbey. It has a gabled east façade with three large lancet windows below five smaller ones. Inside, it has a timber hammer beam roof with angels and central bosses of snowflake design, as well as a double-arcaded triforium. It also has a cathedra for the ‘angel’ or bishop of the Catholic Apostolic Church.

The crossing has roll-moulded arches on clustered columns. The transepts are gabled, with two layers of three lancets below a rose window. The south transept windows are the most notable. The lancets depict Christ in Majesty with ranks of saints, apostles and angels and earth below, while its rose window is by Archibald Keightley Nicholson, with a dove in the centre surrounded by musician angels and cherubim and seraphim.

The three-bay sanctuary has a roof with stone rib-vaulting and foliated bosses. The sanctuary lamp was designed by AWN Pugin.

The High Altar, now in the English Chapel, is carved with images of the Visit of the Magi, the meal at Emmaus, and the Ascension (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The three-bay Lady Chapel or English Chapel, now used by Forward in Faith, is beyond this sanctuary, separated from it by a screen behind the high altar with open traceried window to the chapel. The chapel itself has a richly painted timber roof and stone angel along with an east façade with arcaded lancet windows below a small rose window and gable, along with gabled and pinnacled buttresses.

When the church was built in the early 1850s, it was criticised for what was seen as its lack of originality of design. Since then, however, it has been appreciated for the combination of 13th and 15th century Gothic precedents in its design, which indicate the extent to which the Brandon brothers had studied ecclesiastical architecture.

The church was opened on Christmas Eve 1853 as the ‘central cathedral’ of the Irvingites. Brandon donated the original oak tabernacle for the High Altar The altar, now in the English Chapel, is carved with three New Testament scenes: the Three Wise Men presenting gifts to the Christ Child; the Risen Christ at the supper in Emmaus; and the Ascension.

A Gray and Davison organ was installed in 1853, and the early organists included Edmund Hart Turpin (1835-1907).

The East Window (1948) by Lilian Josephine Pocock depicting Christ the King (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church was damaged during World War II but was restored in 1946. The East Window in the English Chapel depicting Christ the King (1948) is by Lilian Josephine Pocock (1883-1974), a stained glass artist as well as a theatrical costume designer, book illustrator and watercolourist who is closely associated with the work of Karl Parsons (1884-1934), who was a member of the church.

The chapel has 24 carved stone niches around its sides. Above them, Pocock’s window of Christ the King is complimented by a set of windows on the north and south sides by AE Buss for Goddard & Gibbs (1954).

From 1963 to 1994, it was known as the University Church of Christ the King and served the Anglican Chaplaincy to the universities and colleges of the Diocese of London. This new role was initiated on 6 October 1963 at the Eucharist, with Bishop Robert Stopford of London presiding and at Evensong, with Bishop JWC Wand preaching.

At the time, the poet Sir John Betjeman wrote much about the building and the need to preserve it intact. He spoke enthusiastically of its proportions, including the chapel behind the high altar which he referred to it as the ‘Apostles’ Chapel, which was renamed the ‘Lady Chapel’. The University Chaplaincy first called the building Christ the King after the figure of Christ the King in the central stained-glass window.

In practice, the church was a worship centre for students living in the university halls nearby. It was also a popular student venue, and the Crypt Café was run in the basement until 1992. Occasionally, the church was a venue for London-wide events, with a strong emphasis on music in worship under successive musical directors, including Ian Hall, Alan Wilson and Simon Over.

The memorial service for the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner was held in the church on 6 December 1983.

The 25th anniversary of the role of the church in university chaplaincy was celebrated at a Thanksgiving Eucharist on 27 November 1988, with the Right Reverend Michael Marshall preaching. But this came to an end in the following years. The last chaplaincy Sunday service was held on 28 June 1992. The weekday celebrations of the Eucharist continued in the English Chapel until the last chaplaincy service on Ash Wednesday, 16 February 1994, with the Revd Alan Walker of the University of Westminster.

The Diocese of London surrendered its lease on the church to the trustees of Catholic Apostolic Church on 30 June 1994.

Forward in Faith describes the English Chapel as a ‘Place of Quiet Prayer and Reflection’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Forward in Faith movement has used the Lady Chapel or English Chapel at the east end of the church since 1996, and has its offices at 2A The Cloisters. Forward in Faith was formed in 1992 in opposition to the ordination of women to the priesthood. In its early years, the movement had a number of evangelical members, but today its membership is overwhelmingly Anglo-Catholic.

The English Chapel is open from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Morning Prayer at 9 am, Mass at 12:30 pm and Evening Prayer at 3 pm on those three days. The chaplain is Father Peter Hudson SSC.

Euston Church, a church plant from Saint Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate, started meeting in the church in September 2015. It began in 2010 with a church plant from Saint Helen’s, Bishopsgate, involving 40 people. It moved to Christ the King, Gordon Square, five years later. Sunday services are at 11 am, 3 pm and 5 pm, and it is also open when there is an organ recital, usually the Second Friday of the month at 1:10 pm, except August.

The Vicar, the Revd Kev Murdoch, trained at Oak Hill Theological College and Saint Mellitus College and on the Ministry Training Scheme at Saint Helen’s, Bishopsgate. Their website tells a lot about when tea and coffee and biscuits are served, but does not say when the Eucharist is celebrated.

Forward in Faith and Saint Helen’s, Bishopsgate, could be said to be at polar opposites of Anglican ecclesiology, liturgy and sacramental theology. Yet it seems appropriate that both groups, in their shared implacable opposition to the ordination to women that must appear to many as misogynist, share a church building that was once the pride of a curious but virtually moribund denomination that has been relegated to the footnotes of Victorian church history, and yet, at the same time, are separated from one another by a large dividing screen inserted in recent decades.

A screen has been inserted to separate the spaces used by Forward in Faith and Euston Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 24, Sunday 24 November 2024, Christ the King, Sunday before Advent

‘Crown him with many crowns’ … three crowns in a window in the former Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and today is the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King. It will be good to back again at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning, when I reading one of the lessons and leading the intercessions.

But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The mediaeval carving of Christ in Glory in the canopy at the West Door in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 18: 33-37 (NRSVA):

33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ 34 Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ 35 Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ 36 Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ 37 Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’

Christ the King at the centre of Charles Eamer Kempe’s window, ‘The Tree of the Church’ (1895), in the south transept in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and the Sunday next before Advent (24 November 2024). Many of us may remember this Sunday from our childhood as ‘Stir-up Sunday.’ It was a play on words: the traditional collect in the Book of Common Prayer on this Sunday, the last Sunday in the Church Year, invited us to pray:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

This was, of course, the time of the year that mothers and families began to stir-up the mixture for Christmas cakes and puddings, ‘stirring up’ the mixture that played on those words about ‘the fruit’ as they went about their good works.

The Christmas decorations, including trees and lights, are up in the streets and the shops in Stony Stratford and Milton Keynes. We are still a full calendar month away from Christmas Eve, but for some time now the Shopping Centres would have us believe Christmas has arrived as shop owners and traders try to breathe a festive air into our lives.

Despite the lights and the late nights, Christ is at the heart of Christmas, and that waiting for Christ, anticipating Christ, should be at the heart of the Advent season, which begins next Sunday (1 December 2024).

Advent is the season of preparing for Christmas, and in the weeks before Advent we even prepare for Advent itself, with readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.

We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. It was never meant to be, but we have made it comfortable with our Christmas card images of the sweet little baby Jesus, being visited by kings and surrounded by adoring, cute little animals and hosts of fluffy white angels. The reality, of course, is that Christmas was never meant to be a comfortable story.

Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.

It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.

It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.

It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.

But these sorts of images do not sell Christmas cards or help to get the boss drunk under the mistletoe at the office party.

That is why – in these weeks before Advent – we have readings that remind us what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from next Sunday, and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.

Kings may not be a good role model for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. It is worth asking some questions:

What do you think a good king or a good ruler – a good president or good prime minister – should be like?

Without descending into party politics or party favouritism, how do you think a good ruler should behave in the interests of his or her people?

Do you remember how, as children, we would play games like ‘three wishes’? If you had to make decisions for this country – indeed, if you had to make decisions for the future of the world – what three priorities would rise to the top of your list?

In the second reading this morning (Revelation 1: 4b-8), Saint John writes to the Church as if we are gathered before the throne of God, and reminds us that God has made us a kingdom and made us priests serving God, mediators between God and the rest of humanity.

Christ comes again at the end of the age as judge and king, he is the beginning and the end, the Alpha (Α) and the Omega (Ω), the sovereign over all, the one who was, and is, and is to come.

The Gospel reading (John 18: 33-37), at the moment when Christ is on trial before Pilate, might seem a more appropriate reading for Holy Week than the week before Advent, a more appropriate preparation for Easter than for Christmas.

But at this stage, Pilate demands to know whether Christ is a King: ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ (John 18: 33).

And he answers: ‘My kingdom is not from this world … For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice’ (John 18: 36-37).

Christ comes not just as a cute cuddly babe wrapped up in the manger and under the floodlights of a front window in a large department store. We are also preparing for the coming of Christ as King.

In this reading, Christ rejects all dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not happy with Pilate trying to project onto him models of kingship that are taken from the haughty and the aloof, the daft and the barmy, or the despotic and the tyrannical.

As he is being tortured and crucified, his tormentors and detractors still try to project these models of kingship onto Christ as they whip him and beat him to humility, as they crown him with thorns and mock him, and finally as he is crucified for all the world to see.

What sort of a king did Pilate expect Christ to be?

Indeed, what does majesty and graciousness mean for you today?

Do you remember how, as children, we would play games like ‘three wishes’? If you had to make decisions for this country – indeed, if you had to make decisions for the future of the world – what three priorities would rise to the top of your list?

If I had three wishes for my community, my country, my continent, my world, would they, in truth, reflect my own selfish interests and those of my own inner circle?

Or, in truth, would they reflect the values of Christ, the coming King whose reign is marked by justice and mercy, peace and love?

Would I be found among those who belong to the truth and listen to his voice?

John Piper’s ‘Christ in Majesty’ … the East Window in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 24 November 2024, Christ the King, the Sunday next before Advent):

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 ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update:

Championing Justice, specifically ecological, economic, racial and gender justice, forms a key part of the mission of USPG. We stand with organisations such as the Anglican Alliance and Mothers’ Union in our hope to see women and men, girls and boys, living in just, equal and mutually supportive relationships, with each individual recognised as made in the image of God.

We support initiatives led by church partners. The Social-Economic Development of Women programme of the Church of North India launched in October 2023 to address gender inequalities, and promote work for rural women through entrepreneurship training and access to finance. The Anglican Council of Malawi’s three-year Gender Justice through Girls’ Education advocacy campaign seeks to improve retention and transition rates of girls in education as well as increase knowledge on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

16 day of Activism (25 November to 10 December) allows us to add our voice to all demanding an end to gender-based violence in every region of the world - we will continue to work with our partner churches and agencies to support this.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 24 November 2024, Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday next before Advent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

We implore you, O Lord, to stir up the desires of your faithful people so that they will abundantly bear the fruit of their good deeds and be abundantly blessed by you. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Christ the King in the reredos in the former Saint Mary’s Church in the centre of Lichfield (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

Saint Mary’s Church in Bletchley, a modern church dating back to the 12th century

Saint Mary’s Church on Church Green Road, Bletchley … the parish church for many of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Saint Mary’s Church on Church Green Road, Bletchley, earlier this week for a meeting earlier this week, and I arrived a little early so I could take photographs and learn a little about this interesting church which is full of character and history.

Saint Mary’s was the local church and a focal point for many of the people who worked at Bletchley Park breaking the secret German codes during World War II, and they would have found solace and spiritual support at Saint Mary’s Church.

Bletchley is now one of the suburban or satellite towns of Milton Keynes, but the original 12th century chapel of ‘Bicchelai’ stood on high ground where Saint Mary’s Church stands today.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley, facing east … the chancel arch dates from the late 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Mary’s Church is listed Grade I because of its 12th century origins, the 12th century door or chancel arch, its rebuilding from the late 13th to the 15th century, the mediaeval roofs, the 15th century tomb of Richard Grey, Lord Grey de Wilton, and other interesting monuments.

The plan or outline includes a chancel with a north chapel, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch and a west tower. Outside, Saint Mary’s is embattled throughout and is largely Perpendicular in appearance, with some Decorated windows and doorways. The chancel has a fine Decorated-style east window, entirely renewed in the 19th century, and two 19th Perpendicular style windows in the south wall and a 19th century doorway.

From the late 12th century, early priests in Bletchley were provided by the Benedictine monks at the Priory in Newton Longville. Later rectors were nominated by the de Grey, Wilton and Willis families, who have memorials in the church.

The church dates from Norman times and is built of limestone rubble with lead roofs. It is largely Perpendicular in appearance, with some Decorated windows and doorways. But the only surviving part of the Norman chapel is the arch of the south doorway, moved to its present position and reset ca 1300-1330.

The south porch was built around the south door, the earliest part of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

This curious south door is the earliest part of the church. The inner part has continuous mouldings and is probably late 13th century. The outer orders have rich Romanesque mouldings including a beakhead, and may be a former chancel arch or doorway reset and remodelled in the late 13th century. A porch was built to protect the archway in 1330, although rebuilding and restoration over the years have left little of the original porch.

The church was rebuilt in stages from the late 13th to the 15th century. The original chancel was replaced by the current building by 1290. The floor plan was almost in its final form by 1330, although there were further additions in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The north chapel east window is early 14th century with renewed, Decorated tracery, and there are traces of another 14th century window in the north wall, but otherwise the chapel and north aisle windows are late 15th century. The north aisle has a late 14th century north door. The 15th century nave clerestory has four windows on each side, each with three lights.

The east window in the south aisle dates from ca 1330 and has good Decorated tracery. The south aisle west window is 15th century, and there are two late Perpendicular style windows in the south wall.

Inside, the church has a very complete mediaeval fabric dating from the late 13th to 15th century, and has good mediaeval roofs.

The late 13th century chancel arch has the inner order on moulded capitals, and a contemporary south arcade has four bays, with chamfered arches and moulded capitals and bases. The blocked late 13th century clerestory has foiled circle openings above the arcade. A former rood loft door survives on the south side.

The two-bay chancel north arcade has ballflower decoration on the central capital. The arcade does not extend the full length of the chancel, and a small 14th century door at the east end of the arcade into the chapel indicates that both arches of the arcade were intended, as now, to be blocked by tombs. A blocked, trefoil-headed squint is beside the door. The 14th century arch between the chapel and the north aisle has recut head corbels.

The 14th century north arcade of four bays increases in length towards the west. The east respond has a 14th century head corbel and the west respond capital, may have been reset and has stylised flowers. The third pier has a 15th century capital.

The three-stage west tower was built in 1410 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The final change to the shape of the building came in 1410 with the erection of the three-stage west tower (20 metres, 64 ft). The tower has a north-west diagonal buttress, a south-west stair turret rising above the parapet and a large Perpendicular west window. The tower arch has polygonal responds, and there is a 15th century clerestory. There is a small, probably 19th century timber gallery with a glazed, traceried screen below in the tower arch.

The piscina and sedilia in the chancel date from the late 13th or early 14th century, with four arches carried on attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. There is a trefoil-headed, 14th century piscina in the north chapel.

The tomb of Richard Grey (1393-1442) in the north chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Much of the 14th century work, and probably also the 15th century work, is associated with the Grey family, who held the manor of Over, West or Old Bletchley from the early 13th until the mid-17th century. The north chapel was intended as a chantry chapel and family mausoleum, although only the tomb of Richard Grey (1393-1442), 6th Lord Grey de Wilton, survives in the north chancel.

Grey accompanied Henry V to France at the time of the Battle of Agincourt. His grandmother, Lady Petronilla Butler, Baroness Talbot, was a daughter of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond. His monument is an armoured alabaster effigy on a chest panelled with quatrefoils. A 17th century helm hangs above.

Browne Willis (1682-1760), the early antiquary, owned the Bletchley estate from 1699 to 1760, and was responsible for refurbishing the church in 1704-1707. He had the church ‘repaired and beautified’, and the chancel was provided with a new ceiling and painted with the twelve Apostles ‘in the Verrio manner’, indicating an exuberance of clouds, draperies and rich decoration after the manner of Antonio Verrio (1639-1707).

A table tomb in the chancel is to his wife Katherine, who died in 1724. Unfortunately, both her tomb and Lord Grey’s tomb are partially hidden by an inserted floor in the sanctuary in the 1980s and by the screens for the service area.

Above these two monuments, on the north wall of the chancel, is an early, rare example of the coat-of-arms of Queen Anne which does not include the arms of Scotland, which were only added to hers in 1707.

The coat-of-arms of Queen Anne on the north wall of the chancel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A former rector, Thomas Sparke, who died in 1616, is remembered in a small, unusual brass by Richard Haydocke showing a bust on a tomb chest surrounded by allegorical and other figures, texts and arabesque ornament, set within an alabaster strapwork frame.

Sparke was the Rector of Bletchley in 1603 when he was summoned to the Hampton Court Conference, involved in revising the Book of Common Prayer and the publication of the Authorised Version (King James Version) of the Bible.

A small, fragmentary, late 16th century monument with coloured alabaster effigies of a man and eight children is said to have been brought by Browne Willis from Deptford church.

The font may date from the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The plain font with a circular bowl may date from the 17th century. The octagonal cover is early 17th century and has a spire with arabesques.

The church also has a rare pre-Civil War poor box dating from 1637.

The reredos above the altar was designed by Sir John Ninian Comper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The reredos in the chancel was designed by Sir John Ninian Comper (1864-1960) in the 1950s. The oak panelling on either side of the reredos is a war memorial dating from World War I.

The 19th and early 20th century stained-glass windows include two pairs of windows by Comper in the south porch.

The five-light East Window (1868) above the reredos by Henry Holiday (1839-1927) for James Powell and Sons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The five-light East Window (1868) above the reredos was designed by Henry George Alexander Holiday (1839-1927) for James Powell and Sons and depicts the Annunciation (two lights), the Good Shepherd (centre), and the Nativity (two lights). Holiday had succeeded Edward Burne-Jones as the chief designer for Powell in 1863, and established his own workshop in 1890.

The three-light window at the east end of the south aisle with three Resurrection scenes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The three-light window at the east end of the south aisle shows three Resurrection scenes: the Marys at the tomb, ‘Noli me Tangere’, and Mary Magdalene talking to the Disciples.

The Nativity window by Joseph Bell at the west end of the south aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The three-light window at the west end of the south aisle (1903) shows the Nativity with the Shepherds and the Kings. It is by Joseph Bell & Son of Bristol. The firm was established by Joseph Bell (1810-1895), and was continued by his son (Frederick Henry Bell 1847-1899) and grandson (Frederick George Bell 1878-1967) until 1923.

Christ the King in the Selby-Lowndes family war memorial window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The three-light window towards the east end of the north aisle, ‘Mors Janua Vitae’ (‘Death the Gateway to Life’), is a Selby-Lowndes family war memorial window that shows Christ the King in the centre holding a crown, with two angels and a soldier to the left and two angels with an orb and sceptre to the right.

Two pairs of windows by Sir John Ninian Comper in the south porch (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

There are two pairs of small, trefoil-shaped windows by Sir John Ninian Comper (1864-1960) in the south porch: the pair on the east side show angels holding a scroll, ‘In Memory of Catherine Rogers’; the pair on the west side (1959) show two angels ringing two church bells.

Browne Willis’s chancel paintings were removed during the restoration in 1868, when the chancel south door was also altered, and the church was refurnished. The architect, William White (1825-1900), was a leading architect of the Victorian Gothic Revival.

The church was restored by William White in 1838.

The church was refurnished in the late 20th century with furnishings and chairs for seating. The pews, choir stalls and pulpit were removed in the 1980s, and the current stone floor was installed. The White period furnishings were removed and a two-storey service and meeting room area was installed in the north chapel. At the same time, both the chancel arcade and the arch to the aisle were blocked by timber and glazed screens for the service area.

The de Grey family continues to be remembered in the area in the name of the Lord Grey School, a three-minute walk from the church.

Inside Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley, facing the west end and the 15th century tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The ministry team at Saint Mary’s Church includes: the Revd David McDougall, Vicar; the Revd Rachel Ciampoli, Curate, and the Revd Simon Faulks, Assistant Minister. In addition, the Revd Peter Landry is at Whaddon Way Church, Bletchley, and the Revd Ben Thorpe is the Vicar of Saint Joseph’s Church, Newton Leys.

The weekly services include a one-hour service every Sunday at 10 am, and a Wednesday Communion at 10 am.

Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley, seen from the north-east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)