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

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

Patrick Comerford

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

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

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

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

Today’s Reflections:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What would they prefer most?

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

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

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

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 August 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 23 to 29 August 2026 (pp 32-33), is ‘Legacies of History’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Dr Rachele Evie Vernon O’Brien, a Jamaican-born theologian and advocate.

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

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

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

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

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

Remembering the 200th anniversary of Raffles, his role in Singapore, and his opposition to slavery

The original statue of Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore … he died 200 years ago on 5 July 1826 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Stamford Raffles, who died on 5 July 1826 on his 45th birthday. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826) is best remembered as the founder of modern Singapore. Tradition says he first landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819 at Raffles Landing. The site is at Boat Quay in the Civic District, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore’s central business district.

Stamford Raffles was the British colonial governor of the Dutch East Indies in 1811-1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen in 1818-1824. He was involved in the capture of the island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars, although it was returned under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1824. He also wrote The History of Java (1817), and the Rafflesia flowers are named after him.

Raffles played a major role in further establishing the British Empire’s reach in East and South-East Asia. He secured control over the strategically located Singapore from local rulers in 1819 to secure British access along the Strait of Singapore and in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

His ventures were initially not endorsed by the British government and led to tensions between the British and the Dutch. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 established their respective spheres of influence, with the Dutch relinquishing their claims to Singapore while Britain ceded Bencoolen to them. A port was subsequently established in Singapore, and maritime trade between Europe and Asia increased rapidly.

While Raffles is largely credited for the founding of contemporary Singapore, the early running of day-to-day operations was mostly done by William Farquhar, who served was the first Resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823.

However, his historical role has become a subject of public debate, with critics characterising him as an imperialist. These perspectives argue that celebratory narratives of colonialism can overlook the history of the population that predated his arrival.

The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles at Raffles Landing in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born on 5 July 1781 on board the ship Ann, off the coast of Port Morant in Jamaica, to Captain Benjamin Raffles (1739-1811) and Anne (née Lyde) Raffles (1755-1824). The young Raffles went to school at the Mansion House Academy, Hammersmith, where his subjects included Latin, Greek, French, arithmetic, book-keeping and geography.

At the age of 14, he started working as a clerk for the East India Company. In 1804, at the age of 23, Raffles married Olivia Mariamne Devenish, a widow 10 years his senior.  He was sent to Penang Island in British Malaya in 1805, starting his long association with South-East Asia. The British invasion of Java took a total of 45 days, during which Raffles was appointed the lieutenant-governor of the Dutch East Indies by Lord Minto before hostilities formally ceased. As lieutenant-governor, Raffles restricted the local slave trade and tried to replace of the Dutch system of forced agricultural labour.

Raffles was devastated when his wife Olivia died on 26 November 1814. He left Java shorty before it was handed back to the Dutch after the Napoleonic Wars. He set sail for England in early 1816 to clear his name and on his way he visited Napoleon, who was in exile on St Helena, but found him unpleasant and unimpressive.

Back in London, Raffles was knighted in 1817 by the Prince Regent, the future George IV, and on 22 February he married his second wife, Sophia Hull, and they later set sail to Bencoolen, present-day Bengkulu in Indonesia.

Raffles arrived in Bencoolen on Sumatra on 19 March 1818, where he became the lieutenant-governor, and he set about reforms immediately, abolishing slavery.

At the time, Major-General William Farquhar was the British Resident of Malacca. Raffles sailed to Malacca in late 1818 to secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura, where he secure permission to set up a settlement. At this point in the history of Singapore, the name Lion City was used.

Raffles Hotel, named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, first opened in 1887 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819 at Raffles Landing. He established a post at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula on 29 January 1819, having ascertained there was no Dutch presence on the island of Singapore. Raffles and Farquhar found Temenggong Abdul Rahman with 400-500 residents in Singapore in Captain John Crawford recalled meeting ‘upwards of 100’ Chinese people there.

A formal treaty was signed with Hussein Shah who claimed to be the ‘lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingga and Johor to Mount Muar’. Hussein Shah had been the crown Prince of Johor, but while he was away in Pahang to get married, his father died, and his younger brother was made sultan, supported by some court officials and the Dutch. Raffles decided on behalf of the British Crown to recognise Hussein Shah as the rightful ruler of Johor.

Raffles declared the foundation of what was to become modern Singapore on 6 February, with control of the island transferred to the East India Company with much pomp and ceremony. Farquhar was officially named the Resident of Singapore, and Raffles was named as ‘Agent to the Most Noble the Governor-General with the States of Rhio (Riau), Lingin (Lingga) and Johor’. A small military presence was established with the trading post and, after issuing orders to Farquhar and the remaining Europeans, Raffles left the next day, 7 February 1819.

Raffles returned to Singapore, on 31 May. By then, the initial 500 villagers had grown to become 5,000 merchants, soldiers, and administrators, packed onto the island. Back in Singapore, Raffles established schools and churches in the local languages, he allowed missionaries and local businesses to flourish, a European town was built to segregate the population, separated by a river, carriage roads were built, and cantonments were built for soldiers, before Raffles sailed for Bencoolen once again on 28 June.

In 1820, Raffles appointed Thomas Otho Travers (1785-1844) as the Resident of Singapore, but Farquhar remained in charge. Travers was born and died in Cork, and his wife Mary Leslie was also Irish.

Boat Quay and Raffles Place, the commercial and tourism heart of Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, personal tragedies began to accumulate on Raffles: His eldest son, Leopold Stamford (1819-1821), died during an epidemic on 4 July 1821; his youngest son, Stamford Marsden (1820-1822), died of dysentery on 3 January 1822; and his oldest daughter Charlotte (1818-1822) died 10 days later. A devastated Raffles grew restless and depressed, and decided to visit Singapore for one last time before retiring and heading home to England with his wife Sophia and their only surviving child, Ella.

Raffles was back again in Singapore in October 1822. By then, the colony was a bustling hub of trade and economic activity. But Raffles was disappointed that Farquhar continued to tolerate the slave trade. In response, Raffles drew up the Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan, and levelled of a small hill south of Singapore River to create Commercial Square, now Raffles Place.

He originally allocated a piece of land between Hill Street and North Bridge Road in his Town Plan of 1822 for an Anglican church. However, due to a lack of funds, it was another 12 years before work began on building the first church, which eventually became Saint Andrew’s Cathedral.

Raffles dismissed Farquhar in April 1823, and took direct control. John Crawfurd, who had followed Raffles for over 20 years, became the new Resident of Singapore. Raffles also called a meeting that led to the founding of Raffles Institution.

In the final few weeks of his last stay in Singapore, in 1823, Raffles drafted a series of administrative regulations that aimed to govern Singapore, he outlawed gambling, imposed heavy taxation on drunkenness and opium smoking, and banned slavery, a police force and magistracy were set up, and what had been a trading post became a proper city.

Now feeling that he had completed his task in establishing Singapore, Raffles finally boarded a ship for home on 9 June 1823. On the way back, during a final stop in Bencoolen, tragedy befell Raffles once more when his youngest daughter, Flora Nightingall, who was born on 19 September, died on 28 November.

Raffles finally arrived back in England on 22 August 1824, over a year after he left Singapore. His longest tenure in Singapore was only eight months, but ever since he has been regarded as the founder of Singapore.

Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles first convalesced in Cheltenham and then moved to Berners Street, London, at the end of November 1824, before moving to his country estate at Highwood in North London. By then he was seriously much too ill and he died of apoplexy or what we might today call a stroke at Highwood House in Mill Hill, north London, on his 45th birthday, 5 July 1826.

Because of his firm opposition to slavery, Raffles was refused burial inside Saint Mary’s Church, Hendon, by the vicar, the Revd Theodor Williams, whose family had made its fortune in Jamaica in the slave trade. The actual whereabouts of his body was unknown until 1914, when it was found in a vault. A life-size figure in white marble by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1832 sits in Westminster Abbey.

Raffles was survived by his second wife Sophia Hull and their daughter Ella. Ella died in 1840, aged 19. Sophia remained at Highwood House until her death in 1858, at the age of 72.

Two Singapore Slings … and a bag of peanuts … in the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In Singapore, his legacy is commemorated by the Raffles’s Landing Site and the use of his name for many places and institutions, including Raffles City, Raffles Hospital, Raffles Hotel, Raffles College, currently National University of Singapore (NUS), and in the names of a number of primary and secondary schools.

There are three public statues of Raffles in Singapore, one made of white polymarble along the Singapore River, another made of bronze in front of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and a contemporary bronze sculpture at Fort Canning Park.

The black statue of Raffles that stands in the shadow of the clock tower of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall in Empress Place, Singapore, was originally located in the middle of the Padang, facing the sea. It was placed there to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession, but it was moved as part of Singapore’s centenary celebrations in February 1919. The statue was moved again at the end of the Japanese occupation, but was placed back in its location after World War II.

However, tourists generally give more attention to a copy of the original statue, a white statue of polymarble made from a cast of the black statue. The copy stands by the Singapore River near Empress Place at the spot believed to be his original landing site. It was placed there in 1972 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore.

Writing about Raffles in the Guardian in 2012, Victoria Glendenning said: ‘He was an idealistic entrepreneur, a romantic imperialist, passionately anti-slavery, and more concerned with transforming the lives of the peasants than making immediate profits for the company. He made no fortune for himself. Volatile, inconsistent, energetic, resilient, he wanted fame, and he wanted to do good.’


Following Raffles on a boat journey on the Singapore River, passing Raffles Landing (Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 68, Wednesday 16 July 2025

Philip Jackson’s monument of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg at Wallenberg Place, near Hyde Park in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 13 July 2025). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Osmund (1099), Bishop of Salisbury.

Later today, I hope to attend Evensong in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. 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 centrepiece of the Mary Elmes Bridge is designed to create the impression of a menorah (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

Mary Elmes (1908-2013) … the only Irish-born person among the Righteous Among the Nations

Today’s Reflection:

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.’ – (Matthew 11: 25)

In today’s short Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 11: 25-27), Christ thanks the Father for choosing the simple and uneducated (‘infants’) over ‘the wise and the intelligent.’ Christ is the Father’s representative, and those who know the Father know him because of Christ.

The Liturgical Calendar of the Episcopal Church in the US honours the ‘Righteous’ on 16 July. The date may have been chosen because it is a day before the presumed anniversary of the execution of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg on 17 July 1947 while he was a prisoner at Lubyanka Prison.

The Righteous Among the Nations is an honorific used at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.

The term originates with the concept of ‘righteous gentiles’, a term used in rabbinical Judaism for non-Jews who abide by the Seven Laws of Noah.

When Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, was founded in 1953, one of its tasks was to remember the ‘Righteous among the Nations’, who are also offered honorary citizenship of Israel.

So far, about 25,000 people from 45 countries are recognised in this way.

The only Irish woman on this list is Mary Elmes from Cork, who risked her life to save Jewish children from the Nazi gas chambers. The children she rescued include Michael Freund, a boy of five, and his two-year-old little brother, Ronald Friend, who went on to become a Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook, New York.

Mary Elmes was born in 1908 and was educated in Trinity College Dublin, the London School of Economics and in Geneva. She joined the London University Ambulance Unit in February 1937, and worked in a children’s hospital during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1939, she joined thousands of refugees fleeing Spain across the Pyrenees into France. There she continued her work with the Quakers, and provided food supplies and school books for children.

When the Nazis started taking people on trains from France to concentration camps, Mary Elmes and the Quakers started a campaign to move children under the age of 16 to children’s colonies. Under this ruse, she transported many children across the border, hiding them in her car and driving them high into the Pyrenees. We shall probably never know how many children were saved by ‘Miss Mary,’ as she was known.

She was arrested in January 1943 and was held for six months in a prison near Paris. After the war, she married Roger Danjou, they settled in France and they were the parents of two children. She made frequent return visits to Cork before she died in 2002. She never sought special recognition and even declined the Légion d’Honneur. Her bravery was eventually recognised by Yad Vashem in 2013.

The Psalm at the Eucharist today (Psalm 103: 1-7) promises justice in a world that is suffering injustice and oppression:

The Lord works vindication
and justice for all who are oppressed (verse 6).

We are about to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945. But war is an every-day reality for children, women and non-combatant men throughout the world today – in particular, I have the people of Ukraine and Russia and the people of the Middle East, the people of Gaza, Palestine and Israel, in my prayers this morning.

Who speaks out today for the victims of racism, war and genocide?

Who speaks out today for the children who are the innocent victims of the failed politics of adults?

Who speaks out these days for the children being ‘disappeared’ and the families being broken up on a daily basis by ICE and Homeland Security throughout the United States?

In the Collect today we pray:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy …

The bronze wall is draped with the Swedish flag made up of 100,000 ‘Schutzpässe’, the protective passes Raoul Wallenberg used to rescue Hungarian Jews (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 16 July 2025):

The theme this week (13 to 19 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Shaping the Future: Africa Six.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager: Africa, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 16 July 2025) invites us to pray

Almighty God, guide USPG and all who support women’s leadership in the Church, that they may walk faithfully alongside those they serve.

The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
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,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs by Imre Varga in the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park at the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Denis Lane McSwiney, the architect from Cork who designed the Catholic Cathedral in Singapore

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, designed by Denis Lane McSwiney from Cork, is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During our visit to Singapore last month, I visited a large number of churches, cathedrals and other places of worship, and admired the work of a number of Irish-born architects, including George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844) from Drogheda, who designed the original Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, the Armenian Church and many public buildings, and Denis Santry (1879-1960) who was born in Cork.

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore was designed by yet another Irish-born architect, Denis Lane McSwiney (1800-1867), who was also born in Cork, and who returned to live there when he retired. The cathedral is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Singapore. It sits within shaded grounds in the Museum Planning Area in the Civic District of Singapore, and it is bounded by Queen Street, Victoria Street and Bras Basah Road.

The Roman Catholic Church in Singapore at first was part of the Diocese of Malacca, established in 1558. But the history of a continuous Catholic presence in Singapore begins soon after Singapore was established as a British trading port in 1819, when European Catholics started arriving on the island.

Singapore was transferred to the Vicariate Apostolic of Ava and Pegu in 1838 and then to the Vicariate Apostolic of Siam in 1840. In 1841, the Catholic Church in Singapore was placed under the jurisdiction of the Vicariate Apostolic of Western Siam, the Vicariate Apostolic of the Malay Peninsula and then the Vicariate Apostolic of Malacca-Singapore.

The site of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore was allotted by the Resident Councillor, George Bonham, to Father Jean-Baptiste Boucho (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

At first, Catholic Masses were celebrated in private homes, including the home of the Irish-born architect Denis McSwiney, until a small chapel was built.

The chapel was built wood and attap and had neither a tower nor spire. This first chapel stood on the site of the former Saint Joseph’s Institution buildings, now the site of the Singapore Art Museum, but it soon was too small for the rapidly expanding Catholic congregation.

Father Jean-Marie Beurel, a priest from the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (MEP), secured a plot of land from the government to build a brick-and-mortar church. Denis McSwiney helped secure the site, which was allotted by the Resident Councillor, George Bonham, to Father Jean-Baptiste Boucho, a French missionary who had come from Penang.

The Government surveyor, John Turnbull Thomson (1821-1884), prepared the first design for the church, but it was considered too expensive to build and difficult to maintain. The design that was then accepted was by Denis McSwiney.

Donations came from both the local Catholics and Catholics abroad, including Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily who was then the Queen of France, and later from Archbishop Michael J O’Doherty of Manila, who was from Co Mayo.

Inside the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church was designed by Denis Lane McSwiney (1800-1867) or Denis Lesley McSwiney from Cork, who came to Singapore in 1828. He was born in Cork on 11 October 1800, one of eight children of Patrick McSwiney and Ellen McSwiney; his brothers included two priests, Father Daniel McSwiney (1787-1845), parish priest of Bandon, Co Cork, and Father Patrick McSwiney (1791-1865), President of the Irish College, Paris (1828-1850).

McSwiney joined the East India Company and became a staff sergeant and then a public works sub-conductor, working in Madras (Chennai) and at Fort St George, the first English fortress in India. He married Anne Marren in Fort St George on 19 March 1825, and their first son, Patrick McSwiney, was born there in 1826 and baptised on Saint Patrick’s Day, 17 March. Denis McSwiney arrived with his family in Singapore in 1828. His daughter Ellen was born there in 1829, but died eight days later.

In Singapore, McSwiney became a merchant and contractor and clerk to the Irish-born architect George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844) from Drogheda.

Coleman was the first Superintendent of Public Works in Singapore and had a key role in designing and building much of early Singapore after it was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. His surviving buildings in Singapore include the Armenian Church, Maxwell’s House, later the Old Parliament House, Caldwell House and, perhaps, the Jamae Mosque that gives its name to Mosque Street.

McSwiney was the father of two more children who were born in Singapore: a son Daniel Lawrence McSwiney (1830) and a daughter Julianna (1833-1862).

Anne McSwiney died at the age of 33 on 1 November 1833; Denis returned to Ireland on leave in 1835 and resigned from the East India Company on 4 January 1836. He married his second wife, Catherine (Kate) Mary Harnett, in Cork on 28 November 1836. They returned to Singapore, and two more daughters were born there: Maryann (1837) and Helen (1838).

The High Altar and sanctuary in the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

On McSwiney’s return, the French bishop celebrated Mass in his house on the corner of Bras Basah and Queen Street. Denis was involved in securing a site for the church, building work began on 18 June1843, and the Church of the Good Shepherd was completed on 6 June 1847.

His work done, McSwiney left Singapore for good with his second wife Kate and their children. They left on 7 October 1847 on board the Eleanor Russell and arrived in London four months later on 12 February 1848. They then returned home to Ballyvolane House, Cork, which had been the McSwiney family home for several generations.

His surviving son Daniel Lawrence emigrated to the US at the age of 19 in 1849. His only surviving daughter Marian Josephine married Robert Ferguson, of Queenstown (Cobh).

Denis McSwiney died at the age of 66 at Adelaide Terrace, Cork, on 22 August 1867. His will included property at Ballyvolane and in Singapore. His widow Catherine died in Queenstown (Cobh) aged 72 on 15 December 1869.

McSwiney designed only one other known building in Singapore: the first Assembly Rooms was built on the site of the old Hill Street Police Station, but it had become unserviceable in 1858, 10 years after it was built.

A monument to John Connolly from Tullamore who laid the foundation stone of the Church of the Good Shepherd in 1843 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The foundation stone of the Church of the Good Shepherd was blessed by Bishop Jean-Paul-Hilaire-Michel Courvezy, Vicar Apostolic of Malacca-Singapore, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, 18 June 1843, and was laid by John Connolly, a merchant from Tullamore, King’s County (Offaly). The completed church was blessed and opened by Father Beurel on 6 June 1847.

McSwiney’s design was said to owe much to Coleman’s original Saint Andrew’s Church, but it was inspired by two churches in London: Saint Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, and Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.

The cathedral is in the shape of a Latin cross, and its Tuscan columns surround the perimeters of the church. The stained-glass panels above the entrance doors and windows include one depicting the Madonna and Child, and another with Saint Joseph.

The main entrance at the west end of the cathedral serves as the porte-cochère (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The main entrance at the west end of the cathedral serves as the porte-cochère. The two side entrances at the nave are in the form of diminutive porticos and are smaller and less imposing than the entrances at the ends of the transept.

Over the centre door is a statue of the Good Shepherd in a niche, with an inscription over it that reads ‘I am the Good Shepherd’.

The nave is a simple hall without aisles. There are two transepts, also without aisles, and these are screened off by two doric columns on each side.

The eight large windows in the nave together with the other six at the transept and two at the sacristy are arched. Originally there were eight large windows in the transept until the walling up of the two fronting Victoria Street. The original timber louvred casements of the windows were replaced by glass shutters with green glass in 1937. The stained glass windows in the lunettes of the nave and transept windows were presented to the cathedral by Bishop Charles Arsène Bourdon.

The timber ceiling is in a concave form and is made up of three rows of six rectangular panels. All 18 panels are rather simply ornamented, with a simple rectangular border and a ceiling rose at their centres. The ceiling roses in the centre row are larger and more elaborate than those in the side rows. From the centre of each circle hangs a lamp.

The ceiling edge ends in a deeply moulded plaster cornice that runs along the length of the cathedral. As the height of the east end has been raised at different times, the dimensions of the entablature no longer relate to the columns properly, as their bases have been raised.

There are two confessionals to the left and right side of the nave and they are topped with pediments ornamented with a circle and cross at the centre. The Stations of the Cross are a set of 14 oil paintings on the walls of the nave. At the crossing is the final grave of Bishop Edouard Gasnier, the first bishop of the revived Diocese of Malacca.

The baptistry is in the north transept.

There are memorial plaques to John Connolly, Bishop Michel-Esther Le Turdu and Father Jean-Marie Beurel.

The 30-stop pipe organ in the choir loft is the oldest working pipe organ in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The 30-stop pipe organ in the choir loft was installed by Bevington & Sons of London in 1912. It is the oldest working pipe organ in Singapore and the only pipe organ in a Roman Catholic Church in Singapore.

The cathedral was once lit with Victorian crystal chandeliers, but these have since been replaced with simpler lamps. Electric lighting was introduced in 1913 and electric fans in 1914.

The steeple was added in 1847 to a design by the Scottish architect Charles Andrew Dyce, modelled on the steeple John Turnbull Thomson added to the Saint Andrew’s Cathedral. It has three distinct sections: a rectangular cuboid base, an octagonal mid-section, and a six-sided conical top. A budded cross surmounts the steeple.

The three cathedral bells were cast by the Crouzet-Hildebrand Foundry in Paris.

The dedication to the Good Shepherd is associated with Saint Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert. It is said Father (later Bishop) Imbert was the first Catholic priest to celebrate Mass in Singapore, when he was on his way to Korea. Bishop Imbert was betrayed and arrested at a time when Catholics were being persecuted in Korea. He encouraged his fellow priests to surrender to prevent the extermination of Catholics in Korea, telling them ‘the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.’ He was beheaded on 21 September 1839.

When news of the Korean martyrs reached Singapore, it inspired Bishop Boucho and Father Beurel to name the new church after the Good Shepherd. Bishop Imbert and the other Korean martyrs were canonised in 1984, and his relics are enshrined in the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

Within the cathedral grounds, the original Parochial House was built in 1859 and is now Archbishop’s House. A second Parochial House, now the Cathedral Rectory, was designed by Father Charles-Benedict Nain and built in 1911.

Father Beurel was also built two mission schools in Singapore. He visited Paris in 1851 to recruit teachers and two teaching congregations – the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Christian Brothers) and the Congregation of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) – came to Singapore and founded Saint Joseph’s Institution and the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus.

The bishop's cathedra in the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd … the church became a cathedral in 1888 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church became a cathedral in 1888 when the Diocese of Malacca was revived. Bishop Edouard Gasnier, the first bishop of the revived Diocese of Malacca died in 1896 and is buried in the cathedral. His successor, Bishop René-Michel-Marie Fée, was consecrated bishop in the cathedral in 1896, and he consecrated the church as a cathedral on 14 February 1897.

Improvements to the cathedral were gradual. The dwarf wall, gate pillars and ornamental cast iron gates and railings around the grounds were completed in 1908.

When the Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II, the cathedral was used as an emergency hospital.

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd was gazetted a national monument on 28 June 1973.

A major structural restoration of the cathedral in 2013-2016 addressed structural defects caused by new developments nearby. A new annexe building and basement were built at this time. The cathedral reopened on 20 November 2016 and was rededicated on 14 February 2017, 120 years after the original consecration in 1897.

The grounds include a bronze life-size statue of Pope John Paul II, a 7.38 meter-high cross, statues of the Virgin Mary and the Good Shepherd, and a statue of the Homeless Jesus by Timothy Schmaltz.

The Diocese of Malacca became the Archdiocese of Malacca in 1953, the Archdiocese of Malacca-Singapore in 1955, and the Archdiocese of Singapore in 1972. The present Archbishop of Singapore is Cardinal William Goh.

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd was gazetted a national monument in 1973 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Denis Santry from Cork and the architectural legacy of Swan and Maclaren in Singapore

Raffles Hotel, Singapore … one of the many prestigious designs by Swan and Maclaren, where Denis Santry was a partner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

In recent years, I have been exploring how three prominent Irish figures shaped the streets and vistas of Singapore in the 19th century: Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), the Governor with family roots in Co Wexford; George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), the architect who was born in Drogheda; and William Cuppage (1807-1871), with family roots in Coleraine and Coolock, who first began to develop Emerald Hill, an architectural heritage area off Orchard Road, almost 200 years ago.

Denis Santry (1879-1960) was both an architect and cartoonist. As a cartoonist, he was a pioneer of animated cartoons in South Africa; as an architect, he designed several prominent structures in Singapore and Kuching, including the Sultan Mosque and the Cenotaph in Singapore and the General Post Office and the Brooke Obelisk in Kuching.

Santry was born in Cork on 14 May 1879, the son of Denis Santry, a carpenter and joiner, and Mary Ellen (Foley). After an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker, he studied at the Cork Municipal School of Art from (1894-1896) and the Crawford School of Art (1895). He was articled to the architect James Finbarre McMullen in 1897, and with a Lane scholarship studied at the Royal College of Art, London (1897-1898). There he won the Queen’s Prize for freehand drawing before returning to work with McMullen.

Santry moved to South Africa in 1901 and worked in Cape Town with the architects Tully and Waters and William Patrick Henry Black. He married Madeline Marian Hegarty, also from Cork, in 1904.

Santry also became a cartoonist with the South African Review, the Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail, and was a pioneer of animated cartoons in South Africa. His cartoons were reproduced in several countries during World War I.

The Cenotaph on Connaught Drive, Singapore … designed by Denis Santry of Swan and Maclaren in 1922 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

After World War I, Santry moved to Singapore in 1918, and became a partner in the architectural firm Swan and Maclaren. There he designed several prominent buildings and monuments, including the Sultan Mosque, the Cenotaph, the Maritime Building, built as the Union Building, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building and the Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church.

Santry’s principal work in Kuching is the General Post Office (1931), with its neoclassical façade and the Brooke coat-of-arms crowning the pediment. The GPO was commissioned by Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963), the third and last Rajah of Sarawak.

In Kuching, Santry also designed the Brooke Obelisk in front of the Old Court House. It was unveiled 100 years ago on 13 October 1924 by Charles Vyner Brooke in memory of his father, Charles Brooke, who ruled as the second Rajah from 1868 to 1917.

The General Post Office, Kuching, designed by Denis Santry in 1931 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Denis Santry was the first president of the Saint Patrick’s Society Singapore, which held its first meeting in the Victoria Memorial Hall in 1925.

He was a member of the board of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, a frequent contributor to the Straits Produce, a satirical magazine, and helped to found the Singapore Society of Architects and the Institute of Architects of Malaya.

Santry retired to England in 1934 and lived in Kent. But he returned to South Africa in 1940 and died in Durban on 14 April 1960.

The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall designed by Swan and Maclaren … Denis Santry was a board member (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Swan and Maclaren Group, where Santry was a partner, is one of the oldest architectural firms in Singapore. It was one of the most prominent architectural firms in Singapore when it was a crown colony in the early 20th century, and the practice has designed numerous heritage buildings in Singapore and Malaysia.

The company began in Singapore as Swan and Lermit in 1887, when it was formed by two surveyor engineers, Archibald Alexander Swan (1857-1911) and Alfred Lermit (1850-1921). Lermit left the partnership in 1890, and it became Swan and Maclaren after James Waddell Boyd Maclaren (1863-1910) joined as a partner in 1892.

Regent Alfred John Bidwell (1869-1918) joined the firm in 1897, when he arrived in Singapore after working for a few years in Kuala Lumpur. He was the first professionally trained architect in Singapore since George Drumgoole Coleman practised there in the 1820s and 1830s.

Bidwell dominated the work of Swan and Maclaren from 1897 to 1911, and his talent and reputation made it the dominant architectural practice in colonial Singapore, with the most prestigious commissions. Many of those buildings are still standing and some have been gazetted as national monuments, including Raffles Hotel (1899), the Teutonia Club (1900, now Goodwood Park Hotel) and the Victoria Memorial Hall (1905), now the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall.

The Raffles Hotel was one of the first of numerous projects by Bidwell with Swan and Maclaren. The practice rebuilt the Teutonia Club in 1900 in a new location on Scotts Road after it moved from its location near Raffles Hotel on North Bridge Road. Bidwell applied the south German architectural style in his design of the clubhouse.

In his design of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Bidwell duplicated the adjacent original Town Hall that later became the Victoria Theatre, and he also designed the clock tower joining the two buildings.

Bidwell also designed the three-storey Stamford House, formerly the Oranje Building, completed in 1904. By then, Swan and Maclaren was the largest architectural practice in Singapore. The firm worked on the extensions and rebuilding of the Victoria Memorial Hall in 1905, and the Chesed-El Synagogue on Oxley Rise was built that same year.

Singapore Cricket Club on Connaught Drive was designed by Swan and Maclaren (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Singapore Cricket Club was extended and refurbished in 1907, and the Eastern Extension, later Telegraph House and today Sofitel So Singapore, was built at 35 Robinson Road.

The firm designed and built one of the largest shops in early Singapore, John Little on Raffles Place, across the square from Robinson and Co, in 1907. Swan and Maclaren rebuilt Saint Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street in the Gothic style in 1906-1912.

Eu Yan Sang at 267 to 271 South Bridge Road, built in 1910, was the first Eu Yan Sang outlet in Singapore set up by the Chinese businessman and philanthropist Eu Tong Sen. The building was designed by Bidwell, and Swan and Maclaren also designed the Eu Villa, a large villa for Eu Tong Sen on Mount Sophia in 1913, built at a cost of $1 million.

Swan and Maclaren also designed the Jinrikisha Station on Neil Road in 1913 and rebuilt part of the Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road in 1916.

The Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road was partly rebuilt by Swan and Maclaren in 1927 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Meanwhile, Bidwell left Swan and Maclaren in 1915 to establish his own practice. By then, he was the most important architect in Singapore. He died on 6 April 1918, Denis Santry moved to Singapore that same year and became a partner in Swan and Maclaren.

After World War II Denis Santry designed the Cenotaph for Swan and Maclaren in 1922. The granite memorial at the Esplanade Park commemorates the soldiers who died in World War I. Its reverse side was inscribed with the names of soldiers who died in World War II.

Between World War I and World War II, the firm’s projects included the Sultan Mosque (1924-1928), Ocean Building (1923), Hongkong Bank Chambers (now HSBC Building) (1925), Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church (1930) and the Singapore Turf Club (1934). Denis Santry was the principal architect on many of these projects.

The former Great Southern Hotel at 70 Eu Tong Sen Street was designed by Swan and Maclaren and was known as the Raffles Hotel of Chinatown. It was popular with celebrities from Hong Kong and China, was the first Chinese hotel in Singapore to boast a lift service.

The Majestic Theatre at 80 Eu Tong Sen Street was originally a Cantonese opera house designed by Swan and Maclaren by Eu Tong Sen in 1927 for his wife after she was reportedly refused admittance to an opera performance elsewhere. A highlight of this art deco building is its decorated façade of hand-painted tiles depicting opera characters and flying dragons.

Swan and Maclaren completed the construction of the ‘Eastern Extension’ at 35 Robinson Road, later known as Telegraph House, in 1927. Today, it is the Sofitel So Singapore. Swan and Maclaren also rebuilt part of the Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road in 1916.

Swan and Maclaren remained an important practice after World War II, continuing with projects such as Singapore Polytechnic’s original campus at Prince Edward Road, and Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral in Kuching. However, it lost some of its dominance with increased competition from both local and foreign companies.

Swan and Maclaren is among the oldest extant architectural practices in the world. The founders of the practice, Swan and Maclaren, are both buried in their native Scotland. Today, the Swan and Maclaren Group has its headquarters in UE Square, Singapore, and the firm continues to design numerous projects in Singapore.

Saint Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street was rebuilt by Swan and Maclaren in 1906-1912 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The architect from Cork who designed the GPO in Kuching for the Brooke family

The General Post Office in Kuching is an outstanding example of the mixed and cosmopolitan architectural legacy of the city (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The General Post Office in Kuching is an outstanding example of the mixed and cosmopolitan architectural legacy of the city and one of the reminders of the days when the Brooke family ruled as the ‘White Rajahs’ of Sarawak.

The GPO is a highly visible part of the city’s architectural grandeur, stands on Jalan Tun Haji Openg, on the corner with Carpenter Street, and close to both Saint Thomas’s Cathedral and Padang Merdeka, the main square in the heart of Kuching.

Although it was built in 1931, it looks like an early 19th century public building, with its neo-classical grandeur and its Corinthian columns – the only building in Sarawak in this style.

This elegant neo-classical masterpiece was designed by the Irish-born architect Denis Santry (1879-1960) of Swan and Maclaren Architects Singapore, the same architectural practice that designed Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral in Kuching.

Denis Santry was both an architect and cartoonist. As well as the Post Office in Kuching, he designed several prominent structures in Singapore, including the Sultan Mosque and the Cenotaph.

Santry was born in Cork on 14 May 1879, the son of Ellen and Denis Santry, a carpenter and joiner. He served his apprenticeship to his father as a cabinetmaker and then studied at the Cork Municipal School of Art (1894-1896) and the Crawford School of Art, Cork (1895). In 1897, he was articled to the architect James Finbarre McMullen (1859-1933), whose best-known work is the Honan Chapel at University College Cork (1914-1916).

Santry then studied at the Royal College of Art in London (1897-1898) under a Lane scholarship. There he won the Queen’s Prize for freehand drawing. After graduating, he returned to McMullen’s office and worked there for the next two years.

Santry moved to South Africa in 1901 due to ill health. He worked at Tully & Waters, an architectural practice in Cape Town (1901-1902), and then with the architect William Patrick Henry Black (1867-1922). His cartoons began appearing in 1903 in local newspapers and magazines with the pseudonym ‘Adam’. He married Madeline Hegarty in 1904.

Later, Santry moved to Johannesburg where he worked with the Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail as a cartoonist, and also become a pioneer of animated cartoons in South Africa.

Th GPO in Kuching was designed by the Irish-born architect Denis Santry (1879-1960) of Swan and Maclaren Architects Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Santry moved to Singapore in 1918 and joined Swan & Maclaren as a partner. There he was the architect of several prominent buildings and monuments, including the Sultan Mosque, the Cenotaph, the Maritime Building, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building and the Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church. He was the first president of the Saint Patrick’s Society Singapore, was a frequent contributor to the Straits Produce, a satirical magazine, and helped to found the Singapore Society of Architects and the Institute of Architects of Malaya.

After designing the GPO in Kuching, Santry retired to England in 1934 but he returned to South Africa in 1940. After World War II, he resumed his practice as a result of lost income caused by the Japanese occupation of Malaya. He died in Durban on 14 April 1960.

His magnificent GPO in Kuching has remained in continuous use as the General Post Office since it was completed in 1932, almost a century ago. This architectural marvel, approximately 100 ft in length, is a remarkable sight to behold.

The building was commissioned by Charles Vyner, the third Rajah of Sarawak. Its neoclassical façade was quite a contrast to the style of buildings favoured by James Brooke and Charles Brooke, the first and second Rajah.

The site of Santry’s post office was once a police station and also the Rajah’s stables, where the Rajah’s the horses were fed, watered and groomed, with a coach house, hay loft and harness room, and surrounded by areca palms. The stables were part of an era when horses were reserved for the elite, but the new post office symbolised the city’s transition into modernity in the decade immediately before World War II.

The GPO also served as a telegram service centre and the Kuching branch of the Chartered Bank, and for a time an annexe behind the building served as the office of the Land and Survey Department. Some 3,300 mailboxes were installed in the post office to provide mail receiving services for people who did not have correspondence addresses.

The coat-of-arms of the Brooke family as the Rajahs of Sarawak displayed on the GPO in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The façade of the GPO has semi-circular arches, intricately adorned column capitals, and friezes, showcasing a blend of form and function. Deep parapet walls hide the pitched roof, the colonnaded portico serves as a corridor, while the rear of the building is simple and austere.

The grandeur of the building is further accentuated by 12 towering Corinthian columns standing proudly at the main entrance, reaching heights of 30 ft. In the pediment above the Corinthian columns, the coat-of-arms of the Brooke family is a reminder of an era of benevolent rule that stood outside the British colonial system. Other buildings that have survived from the reign of Sir Charles Vyner Brooke include the Old Courthouse and the Astana.

The Brooke motto, part of the heraldic decoration, proclaims: Dum Spiro Spero, ‘While I breathe, I hope.’ It is also the motto of many places and organisations, including the State of South Carolina, and of many other families, including the Hoare baronets of Annabella, Co Cork, the Cotter baronets of Rockforest, Co Cork, the Viscounts Dillon, and the Sharp and Sharpe families.

The sense of dum spiro spero is found in the writings of the Greek poet Theocritus (3rd Century BCE), who wrote: ‘While there’s life there’s hope, and only the dead have none.’ That sentiment seems to have become common by the time of Cicero (106-43 BCE), who wrote to Atticus: ‘As in the case of a sick man one says, ‘While there is life there is hope’ [dum anima est, spes esse], so, as long as Pompey was in Italy, I did not cease to hope.’

The grandeur of the GPO is enhanced by 12 towering Corinthian columns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Ten years after the GPO was built, however, hope may seemed to come to end for many in Kuching when the Japanese invaded on Christmas Eve 1941. The capture of the city was notified to the British Far East Command in Singapre with a pithy, single-line telegram sent from the GPO that declared: ‘Pussy’s in the Well.’

Kuching became Kyuchin in Japanese, and in July 1942 the Chartered Bank in Kuching was converted into a branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank.

Despite invasion, war, the end of the Brooke era, and the subsequent end of British colonialism, the GPO has continued to survive in Kuching in an era that sees traditional postal services being replaced, by digital alternatives such as emails, instant messaging, and online banking and communications.

The Sarawak state government has considered applying to have the post office listed as a UNESCO heritage site. The building remains a cherished symbol of Kuching’s heritage, its architectural splendour is a reminder of a bygone era.

The GPO remains an integral part of Kuching’s architectural heritage and a reminder of a bygone era (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 112, Friday 30 August 2024

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

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (30 August) remembers John Bunyan (1688), spiritual writer.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

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

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

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

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

Today’s Reflection:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What would they prefer most?

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

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

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

Today’s Prayers (Friday 30 August 2024):

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 the ‘Theological Education Executive Leadership Programme in Africa.’ The course is expected to start in August 2024 and run until December 2025, and this theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Fran Mate, Regional Manager Africa, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 30 August 2024) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we pray for all students of theological education. We pray that they will dig deep in your word and in their relationship with you so that they will be spiritually fruitful. May they be ambassadors of reconciliation and messengers of salvation.

The Collect:

God of peace,
who called your servant John Bunyan
to be valiant for truth:
grant that as strangers and pilgrims
we may at the last rejoice with all Christian people
in your heavenly city;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm’s statue of John Bunyan in Bedford, erected in 1874 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

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