Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 20, Wednesday 27 May 2026

I was reminded in Crete that ‘The Beggars’ Opera’ translates into Greek as Η λαϊκή όπερα (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (5 April 2026), came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), and in the Church Calendar we are back in Ordinary Time since Mondday.

Later this evening I hope to be involved in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, as we prepare for the arrival of a new rector. 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.

Saint John (left) and Saint James (see Mark 10: 35-45) … a window in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Columbia, South Carolina, given ‘In Memory of Mr and Mrs Michael Comerford’

Mark 10: 32-45 (NRSVA):

32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; 34 they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’

35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ 36 And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ 37 And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ 38 But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ 39 They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

In Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity … the Christ-figure is wearing a simple deacon’s stole, and is seated with the Father and the Holy Spirit to his left and to his right

Today’s Reflections:

Whenever I read today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 32-45), I think back to my childhood days. I remember all those preparations for football matches or beach cricket, as we lined up to pick sides. And how we all wanted to be among the first to be picked for a team.

Everyone wanted to be picked first, everyone wanted to line up there beside one of the two captains, no-one wanted to be picked last, even when there were enough places for everyone to get a game.

I can still see them: 9- or 10-year-old boys, jumping up and down on the grass, waving our hands or pointing at our chests, and pleading: ‘Me, me, please pick me, I’m your friend.’

‘Me, me, please pick me.’

And then when we were picked, oh how we wanted the glory. Slow at passing the ball, in case I might not score the goal. Better to lose that ball in a tackle than to pass it to someone else and risk someone else scoring the winning goal.

And that’s who James and John remind me of: wanting to be picked first, wanting to be the first to line up beside the team captain, being glory seekers rather than team players.

No wonder the other ten were upset when they heard about this. But they were upset, not because they wanted to take on the servant model of priesthood and ministry. They were upset not because James and John had not yet grasped the point of it all. They were upset because they might have been counted out, because they might have missed out being on the first team, on the first XI.

And their upset actually turns to anger. Not the sort of behaviour you would expect from team players.

Did James and John think that opting to follow Jesus, becoming disciples, was a good career move?

And what did James and John want in reality?

They wanted that one would sit on Christ’s right hand and the other on his left.

Now, even that might not have been too bad an ambition. The man who stood at the right hand of the Emperor in the Byzantine court was the Emperor’s voice. What he said was the emperor’s word. And so, in the creed, when we declare our belief that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, we mean not that there is some heavenly couch on which all three are seated, comfy and cosy, as if waiting to watch their favourite television sit-com.

When we say that Christ ‘is seated at the right hand of the Father,’ we mean that Christ is the Word of God. In some way, In some way, this is what Andrei Rublev was conveying in his icon of the Visitation of Abraham, his icon of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament. In that icon, the Father and the Spirit are seated to the right and left of the Son. Indeed, in that icon, Christ is wearing not the elaborate high-priestly stole of a bishop, but the simple stole of a deacon at the table.

For James and John to want to be seated at the right and left of Christ in his glory – not when they were sitting down to a snack, or travelling on the bus, or even at the Last Supper, but in his glory (see verse 37) – they were was expressing an ambition to take the place of, to replace God.

But to be like God means to take on Christ’s humility. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and then God asks us, invites us, to return to that image and likeness when Christ comes in our image and likeness – not as a Byzantine emperor or a Roman tyrant, but just as one of us.

Wanting to be first, wanting to be noticed by those with power and privilege, is not a model for diaconal ministry. It is good that those who serve the Church as bishops and priests are reminded that they were first ordained as deacons and that they remain deacons … that the diaconal ministry, the ministry of service, is at the heart of the ministry of the Church.

In a sermon over 400 years ago, on Whit Sunday 1622, the Caroline Divine Lancelot Andrewes says all three orders of ministry depend on this one ministry of diakonia, through which they truly become a ‘ministry or service; and that on foot, and through the dust; for so is the nature of the word.’

In his epistles, a word that Saint Paul uses for ministry is διακονία, the ministry of the διάκονος, the one who serves like those who wait on tables, the ministry of those who help meet the needs of and remind us of those who are neglected and needy by either collecting or distributing charity and making sure they are fed.

The word liturgy (λειτουργία) is the work for and of the people. But in its truest sense this is not the work of nice people, good people, people like us, but in its crudest use in Greek the work of the many, the service of riff-raff, even the beggars.

I was reminded in Crete some years ago that The Beggars’ Opera translates into Greek as Η λαϊκή όπερα. It was a reminder that the liturgy of the Church only becomes a true service when we also serve the oppressed, when we become God’s ears that hear the cry of the poor, and act on that, when through the Church Christ hears that cry of the bruised and broken.

The Greek word λαός (laós) means the people, and the laós might even mean the rowdy, the masses, the populace. Liturgy is not necessarily a sacred word. This word liturgy is well-understood by everyone in Greece. The term is neither technical nor purely theological. I am not good at supermarket shopping, but local shops in Crete have signs that regularly announce ‘Opening Hours’ as ώρες λειτουργίας (ores leitourgías) – the hours of service, or the hours for serving the public.

Deacons are to encourage us all, archbishops, bishops, priests, laity, to take stock again. We are challenged by diaconal ministry to move from merely acting out the liturgy to making the church a sacrament, a taste, a sign, a token of the promise of, a thirsting for the Kingdom of God.

And to do this great task, as the ambitious pair, James and John, are reminded in today’s Gospel reading, those in ministry must first be deacons, servants and slaves. We could translate the Greek original of verse 43 (ἀλλ' ὃς ἂν θέλῃ μέγας γενέσθαι ἐν ὑμῖν, ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος) as: ‘and whoever wishes to become great among you must be your deacon.’

To be a great Church we must be a Servant Church, a deacon Church, ‘For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for [the] many’ (Mark 10: 45).

Christ asks us this Gospel reading whether we are willing to drink the cup that he drinks, or to be baptised with his baptism (see verses 38 and 40).

Of course James and John were. See how this hot-headed pair, the sons of Zebedee, went on to serve the community of the baptised and the community that shared in the one bread and the one cup, the community that is the Church, the community that in baptism and in the shared meal is the Body of Christ.

James was executed by the sword and became one of the first Christian martyrs (see Acts 12: 1-12). John too lived a life of service to the Church: he was exiled on Patmos, and although he died in old age in Ephesus, there were numerous attempts to make him a martyr. Martyrdom comes in many forms. In essence the word means witness, and tut the first step in martyrdom is dying to self, to self-ambition, to self-seeking, to self-serving.

‘For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for [the] many’ (Mark 10: 45).

Ώρες Λειτουργίας, ‘Ores Leitourgías’ … opening hours or the time for serving the public in a supermarket in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 27 May 2026):

This week in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), from 24 to 30 May 2026 (pp 58-59), the theme is ‘Carriers of the Flame’ and was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 27 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Breathe your fire into our hearts so we may pass the flame of faith to the next generation, and raise up new voices for mission and service.

The Collect:

O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Gracious God, lover of all,
in this sacrament
we are one family in Christ your Son,
one in the sharing of his body and blood
and one in the communion of his Spirit:
help us to grow in love for one another
and come to the full maturity of the Body of Christ.
We make our prayer through your Son our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Ώρες Λειτουργίας, ‘Ores Leitourgías’ … opening hours or the time for serving the public in a hairdresser’s shop in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 21, Wednesday 14 January 2026

Jesus heals Saint Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a stained-glass window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Blisworth, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 11 January 2026), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

The snowy, wintery weather of the last week or so forced the cancellation of the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, last Wednesday. But I am going to miss this evening’s rehearsals as we go to a funeral today, the first of two funerals in two days. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Jesus Heals Simon Peter's Mother-in-Law … a panel in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 29-39 (NRSVA):

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ 38 He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Jesus heals Saint Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a stained-glass window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Blisworth, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 1: 29-39) is the story of Christ healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.

There are four parts in this morning’s Gospel reading:

1, Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (verses 29-31);

2, Jesus heals many other people, including people with diseases and people who are exorcised of demons (verses 32-34);

3, Jesus retreats to a deserted place to prayer but is ‘hunted’ out by Simon and his companions (verses 35-38);

4, Jesus returns to preaching in the synagogues in Galilee (verse 39).

Most people Jesus meets in the Gospel stories are unnamed, so that many of the women he heals are not named too. Indeed, in the healing stories told of men, only Lazarus and Malchus are named. But the high priest’s servant Malchus is only named by John (John 18: 10), and not in the synoptic gospels. Mark refers to blind Bartimaeus, but this is a reference only to the name of the blind man’s father and not the name of the blind man himself (see Mark 10: 46).

In all the Gospel stories in which Jesus heals women, the women too are anonymous. In today’s Gospel reading, even Simon Peter’s mother-in-law remains unnamed, and she is identified only by her relationship to Simon Peter. Indeed, there is no reference at all to her daughter, Simon Peter’s wife.

All three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tell this healing story (see Matthew 8: 14-15; Mark 1: 29-31; Luke 4: 38-40). Matthew says Jesus ‘touched’ the woman's hand, Mark say he ‘grasped’ it, and in Luke he simply ‘rebuked the fever’. Mark says the house was the home of Simon and Andrew, who both interceded with Jesus for the woman. Luke alone says she had a high fever.

The healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is the first story of physical healing in Saint Luke’s Gospel, and it follows immediately after the first story of spiritual healing, of an unnamed man in the synagogue in Capernaum. In Saint Mark’s Gospel, this story follows immediately after the calling of the first disciples, Andrew, Peter, James and John. In all three synoptic Gospels, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and of a demon-possessed man trigger a wave of sick and possessed people being brought to Jesus.

Mother-in-law jokes illustrated many seaside postcards and were part of the stock-in-trade of comedians in the 1960s and well into the 1970s. Those mothers-in-law were never named, and the jokes served to emphasise the domestic role – perhaps servile role – of women in homes and families in those days.

But mothers-in-law were also mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, nieces and daughters; they had careers, hopes and ambitions, fears, illnesses, and sufferings; they had love and emotions; and they had names … none of which were acknowledged in those postcards or comic sketches.

Those attitudes were reinforced by many of the ways in which I have heard men in the past interpret this morning’s reading. Yet a closer reading of this story shows that it does not reinforce a woman’s place as being servile or secondary, the ‘complementarian’ view offered by some commentators who claim they are ‘conservative evangelicals.’

It is not a story about a woman taking a late Saturday morning weekend sleep-in on her bed, and then getting up ‘to make the tea’.

The verb for serving, διακονέω (diakoneo), used in verse 31 in reference to this woman means to wait, attend upon, serve, or to be an attendant or assistant. Later, in Acts and other places in the New Testament, it means to minister to, relieve, assist, or supply with the necessaries of life, or provide the means of living, to do the work of the διάκονος or deacon (see I Timothy 3: 10, 13; I Peter 4: 11), even to be in charge or to administer (see II Corinthians 3: 3, 8: 19-20; I Peter 1: 12, 4: 10).

The word describing this woman’s service also describes the angels who minister to Jesus after he is tempted in the wilderness (Mark 1: 13; Matthew 4: 11), the work of his female disciples (Luke 8: 1-3), and describes Martha of Bethany when she serves while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’s feet and learns, before Jesus specifically affirms Mary’s choice (Luke 10: 38-42).

Most significantly, this word describes Jesus himself, when he explains to his disciples that ‘whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many’ (see Mark 10: 43-45).

Being healed is not just about personal relief but also about being restored to a place where one can serve and contribute to the community. The Book of Common Prayer describes God as the one ‘whose service is perfect freedom,’ and this is modelled by Peter’s mother-in-law. Her response to Jesus healing her is a model not just for women but for all Christian service.

In the kingdom, serving is not women’s work, it is the work of each and every one of us.

James Tissot ‘The Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-law’ (La guérison de la belle-mère de Pierre), 1886-1894 (Brooklyn Museum)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 14 January 2026):

The theme this week (11-17 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 14 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for signs of hope like Walid’s recovery. May your Spirit empower continued acts of compassion, courage, and skill, even in the face of immense need.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Christ Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a fresco in Visoki Dečani Monastery, a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo and Metohija, 12 km south of Pec (© Copyright: Blago Fund Inc)

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: 11, Tuesday 11 November 2025

At my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 … priests remain deacons after ordination to the priesthood (Photograph: Valerie Jones)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. This week began with the Third Sunday before Advent, which was also Remembrance Sunday (9 November 2025. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, ca 397, and today is Armistice Day or Remembrance Day (11 November).

I have a meeting of the Town Council Working Group in Stony Stratford later this evening. But, before today begins, before having breakfast, 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.

With Archbishop Walton Empey at my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 (Photograph: Valerie Jones)

Luke 17: 7-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ‘7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

‘Will you strive for justice and peace …, and respect the dignity of every human being’ … a reminder of the Baptismal Covenant and the charges to ordinands in the Episcopal Church during a protest in the US

Today’s reflections:

Slaves were expected to do their duties, and no master would absolve a slave of them. So how then could a slave eat before his master? The master stands for God and the slave for his people.

There are two Greek words for service in this short passage.

In verse 8, the word to serve, διακονέω (diakonéo), relates particularly to supplying food and drink. It means to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon. It is the same term that gives us the word ‘deacon’ in the ministry of the Church.

In the New Testament, the service of this type of servant is different to the role of a steward or a slave. It means to minister to someone, to render service to them, to serve or minister to them; to wait at a table and to offer food and drink to the guests. It often had a special reference to women and the preparation of food. It relates to supplying food and the necessities of life.

The story is told about a young curate in his first year of ordained ministry, and who was attending a parish function for pensioners. When he was asked by the rector’s wife to go around the tables and top up the cups of tea, he protested, insinuating that this was not what he had been ordained for.

‘Oh,’ said the rector’s wife. ‘Did you not know it’s a deacon’s job to serve at tables?’

The second word, δοῦλος (doulos), in verses 7, 9 and 10, refers to a slave, someone who is in a servile condition. But this word also refers metaphorically to someone who gives himself or herself up to the will of another, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing the Kingdom.

The Greek word translated worthless (ἀχρεῖος, achreios, verse 10) means those to whom nothing is owed, or to whom no favour is due. So, God’s people should never presume that their obedience to God’s commands has earned them his favour.

Do those of us in ministry expect extra credit and rewards other than knowing that we have answered the call of God and the call of the Church?

Do we expect our faith to sow seeds for the faith and deeds of others that bears fruit for which we gain no praise or glory?

Are we engaged in lives of service?

Are we expecting to be servants and slaves in the ministry of the Church?

At the ordination of deacons, bishops recall that deacons ‘remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry.’

They go on to say: ‘Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless [those with no-one to care for them] and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.’

Deacons are asked at ordination: ‘Will you be faithful in visiting the sick, in caring for the poor and needy, and in helping the oppressed? Will you promote unity, peace and love …?’

When I was ordained a priest, I was reminded that I still remain a deacon in the Church of God, a slave and a servant of God and of his Kingdom.

An image of Saint Martin of Tours at Carfax Tower, a reminder of Saint Martin’s Church in Oxford … his feastday is 11 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 11 November 2025):

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 (Tuesday 11 November 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord of justice, we lift up all those who speak truth to power at COP30 and beyond. Give courage to leaders and activists striving for policies that safeguard our planet. May their work reflect your righteousness and wisdom.

The Collect:

God all powerful,
who called Martin from the armies of this world
to be a faithful soldier of Christ:
give us grace to follow him
in his love and compassion for the needy,
and enable your Church to claim for all people
their inheritance as children of God;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Martin revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Anglican participants at the 2012 Edinburgh consultation on the diaconate (from left): Canon Patrick Comerford, Canon Frances Hiller, Revd Sarah Gillard-Faulkner, Bishop John Armes, Elspeth Davey, Church Relations Officer, Scottish Episcopal Church

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 Christmas 2024-2025: 22, Wednesday 15 January 2025

Jesus heals Saint Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a stained-glass window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Blisworth, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 12 January 2025), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Jesus Heals Simon Peter's Mother-in-Law … a panel in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mark 1: 29-39 (NRSVA):

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ 38 He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Jesus heals Saint Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a stained-glass window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Blisworth, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 1: 29-39) is the story of Christ healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.

There are four parts in this morning’s Gospel reading:

1, Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (verses 29-31);

2, Jesus heals many other people, including people with diseases and people who are exorcised of demons (verses 32-34);

3, Jesus retreats to a deserted place to prayer but is ‘hunted’ out by Simon and his companions (verses 35-38);

4, Jesus returns to preaching in the synagogues in Galilee (verse 39).

Most people Jesus meets in the Gospel stories are unnamed, so that many of the women he heals are not named too. Indeed, in the healing stories told of men, only Lazarus and Malchus are named. But the high priest’s servant Malchus is only named by John (John 18: 10), and not in the synoptic gospels. Mark refers to blind Bartimaeus, but this is a reference only to his father’s name and not the name of the blind man himself (see Mark 10: 46).

In all the Gospel stories in which Jesus heals women, the women too are anonymous. In this morning’s Gospel reading, even Simon Peter’s mother-in-law remains unnamed, and she is identified only by her relationship to Simon Peter. Indeed, there is no reference at all to her daughter, Simon Peter’s wife.

All three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tell this healing story (see Matthew 8: 14-15; Mark 1: 29-31; Luke 4: 38-40). Matthew says Jesus ‘touched’ the woman's hand, Mark say he ‘grasped’ it, and in Luke he simply ‘rebuked the fever’. Mark says the house was the home of Simon and Andrew, who both interceded with Jesus for the woman. Luke alone says she had a high fever.

The healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is the first story of physical healing in Saint Luke’s Gospel, and it follows immediately after the first story of spiritual healing, of an unnamed man in the synagogue in Capernaum. In Saint Mark’s Gospel, this story follows immediately after the calling of the first disciples, Andrew, Peter, James and John. In all three synoptic Gospels, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and of a demon-possessed man trigger a wave of sick and possessed people being brought to Jesus.

Mother-in-law jokes illustrated many seaside postcards and were part of the stock-in-trade of comedians in the 1960s and well into the 1970s. Those mothers-in-law were never named, and the jokes served to emphasise the domestic role – perhaps servile role – of women in homes and families in those days.

But mothers-in-law were also mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, nieces and daughters; they had careers, hopes and ambitions, fears, illnesses, and sufferings; they had love and emotions; and they had names … none of which were acknowledged in those postcards or comic sketches.

Those attitudes were reinforced by many of the ways in which I have heard men in the past interpret this morning’s reading. Yet a closer reading of this story shows that it does not reinforce a woman’s place as being servile or secondary, the ‘complementarian’ view offered by some commentators who claim they are ‘conservative evangelicals.’

It is not a story about a woman taking a late Saturday morning weekend sleep-in on her bed, and then getting up ‘to make the tea’.

The verb for serving, διακονέω (diakoneo), used in verse 31 in reference to this woman means to wait, attend upon, serve, or to be an attendant or assistant. Later, in Acts and other places in the New Testament, it means to minister to, relieve, assist, or supply with the necessaries of life, or provide the means of living, to do the work of the διάκονος or deacon (see I Timothy 3: 10, 13; I Peter 4: 11), even to be in charge or to administer (see II Corinthians 3: 3, 8: 19-20; I Peter 1: 12, 4: 10).

The word describing this woman’s service also describes the angels who minister to Jesus after he is tempted in the wilderness (Mark 1: 13; Matthew 4: 11), the work of his female disciples (Luke 8: 1-3), and describes Martha of Bethany when she serves while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’s feet and learns, before Jesus specifically affirms Mary’s choice (Luke 10: 38-42).

Most significantly, this word describes Jesus himself, when he explains to his disciples that ‘whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many’ (see Mark 10: 43-45).

Being healed is not just about personal relief but also about being restored to a place where one can serve and contribute to the community. The Book of Common Prayer describes God as the one ‘whose service is perfect freedom,’ and this is modelled by Peter’s mother-in-law. Her response to Jesus healing her is a model not just for women but for all Christian service.

In the kingdom, serving is not women’s work, it is everybody’s work.

James Tissot ‘The Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-law’ (La guérison de la belle-mère de Pierre), 1886-1894 (Brooklyn Museum)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 15 January 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Bag of Flour’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 15 January 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that people like Yusuf may have safe and equitable access to critical aid like food and water.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Christ Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law … a fresco in Visoki Dečani Monastery, a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo and Metohija, 12 km south of Pec (© Copyright: Blago Fund, Inc)

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: 12, Tuesday 12 November 2024

At my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 2000 … priests remain deacons after their ordination to the priesthood (Photograph: Valerie Jones, 2000)

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.

Before today begins, before having breakfast, 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.

With Archbishop Walton Empey at my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 (Photograph: Valerie Jones)

Luke 17: 7-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ‘7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

The procession in the cathedral garth in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, after the ordination of deacons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

Slaves were expected to do their duties, and no master would absolve a slave of them. So how then could a slave eat before his master? The master stands for God and the slave for his people.

There are two Greek words for service in this short passage.

In verse 8, the word to serve, διακονέω (diakonéo), relates particularly to supplying food and drink. It means to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon. It is the same term that gives us the word ‘deacon’ in the ministry of the Church.

In the New Testament, the service of this type of servant is different to the role of a steward or a slave. It means to minister to someone, to render service to them, to serve or minister to them; to wait at a table and to offer food and drink to the guests. It often had a special reference to women and the preparation of food. It relates to supplying food and the necessities of life.

The story is told about a young curate in his first year of ordained ministry, and who was attending a parish function for pensioners. When he was asked by the rector’s wife to go around the tables and top up the cups of tea, he protested, insinuating that this was not what he had been ordained for.

‘Oh,’ said the rector’s wife. ‘Did you not know it’s a deacon’s job to serve at tables?’

The second word, δοῦλος (doulos), in verses 7, 9 and 10, refers to a slave, someone who is in a servile condition. But it also refers metaphorically to someone who gives himself or herself up to the will of another, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing the Kingdom.

The Greek word translated worthless (ἀχρεῖος, achreios, verse 10) means those to whom nothing is owed, or to whom no favour is due. So, God’s people should never presume that their obedience to God’s commands has earned them his favour.

Do those of us in ministry expect extra credit and rewards other than knowing that we have answered the call of God and the call of the Church?

Do we expect our faith to sow seeds for the faith and deeds of others that bears fruit for which we gain no praise or glory?

Are we engaged in lives of service?

Are we expecting to be a servant and a slave in the ministry of the Church?

At the ordination of deacons, bishops recall that deacons ‘remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry.’

They go on to say: ‘Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless [those with no-one to care for them] and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.’

Deacons are asked at ordination: ‘Will you be faithful in visiting the sick, in caring for the poor and needy, and in helping the oppressed? Will you promote unity, peace and love …?’

When I was ordained a priest, I was reminded that I still remain a deacon in the Church of God, a slave and a servant of God and of his Kingdom.

‘Will you strive for justice and peace …, and respect the dignity of every human being’ … a reminder of the Baptismal Covenant and the charges to ordinands in the Episcopal Church during a protest in the US

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 12 November 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 ‘A Look at Education in the Church of the Province of Myanmar’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Nadia Sanchez, Regional Programme Coordinator, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 12 November 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for the work, ministry and people of the Church of the Province of Myanmar.

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 Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

20 years in ordained ministry and some of my guiding challenges

At my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 with (from left) Canon Roy Byrne, who was ordained priest that day, and the Revd Avril Bennett and the Revd Tim Close, who were ordained deacons (Photograph: Valerie Jones, 2000)

Patrick Comerford

I was ordained deacon 20 years ago today [25 June 2000], and priest 19 years ago yesterday on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist [24 June 2001].

At the ordination of deacons, bishops recall that deacons ‘remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry.’

They go on to say: ‘Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless [those with no-one to care for them] and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.’

Deacons are asked at ordination: ‘Will you be faithful in visiting the sick, in caring for the poor and needy, and in helping the oppressed? Will you promote unity, peace and love …?’

In today’s world, with the rise of racism, anti-Semitism and far-right populism, who needs compassion that is extended with humility?

How do I care for the sick, the poor and the needy, and speak up for the oppressed today?

How do we promote unity, peace and love among all?

I hope these challenges have guided me through 20 years of ordained ministry, and that continue to challenge me in the years ahead.

I recalled yesterday how my path to ordination began 49 years ago when I was a 19-year-old in Lichfield, following very personal and special experiences in a chapel dedicated to Saint John the Baptist – the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield.

Later that same day, after Choral Evensong in Lichfield Cathedral, I was challenged by, I think, Canon John Yates (1925-1980), then the Principal of Lichfield Theological College (1966-1972) and later Bishop of Gloucester and Bishop at Lambeth. He amusingly asked me whether a young man like me had decided to start going back to church because I was thinking of ordination.

As I said yesterday, I had taken the scenic route to ordination. Eventually I was ordained deacon by Archbishop Walton Empey in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on 25 June 2000 along with the Revd Averill Bennett and the Revd Tim Close – Canon Roy Byrne was ordained priest that day too – and I was ordained priest a year later on 24 June 2001.

With Archbishop Walton Empey at my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 (Photograph: Valerie Jones, 2000)

I had been in reader ministry in Saint Maelruian’s Parish, since 1994, and was ordained for Whitechurch Parish, Rathfarnham. I remained there as a curate until 2006, when I joined the full-time staff of the Church of Ireland Theological College.

This morning, I pray for those preparing for ordination and recall and pray too for the 13 other men and women who were ordained deacons that same summer 20 years ago:

● The Revd Avril Bennett, a resource teacher at Kildare Place School, was ordained for the Parishes of Crumlin and Chapelizod (Dublin). She is now an NSM curate in Saint Maelruain’s, Tallaght (Dublin).

● The Revd Christopher Bennett was ordained for the parish of Larne and Inver (Connor). He is now curate assistant, Belvoir (Down).

● The Revd Tim Close was ordained for Glenageary (Dublin), and is now priest-in-charge of the Church of the Ascension, Cloughfern, Newtownabbey (Connor).

● The Revd Hilary Dungan was ordained for Saint Mark’s Parish (Armagh). She retired as Rector of Maryborough in 2011, and she has been an interim, part-time Dean of Residence and Chaplain in Trinity College Dublin.

● Canon Michael Johnston became Bishop’s Vicar and curate assistant in Kilkenny (Ossory). He was the Rector of Shinrone (Killaloe) the Prebendary of Saint Munchin’s and Tulloh (Limerick and Killaloe) until he recently retired from ministry.

● The Revd Melanie Lacy, ordained for Saint Comgall’s, Bangor (Down). She was the Ireland team leader at the Crosslinks mission agency and today she is Director of the Theology and Praxis for Children’s and Youth Ministry stream at Oak Hill College, London.

● The Revd David Luckman, a former RE teacher in Poole, Dorset, was ordained for Saint Mark’s, Portadown (Armagh), and has been the Ireland team leader at Crosslinks since 2015.

● The Revd Alan Millar, once in ordained ministry in the United Church of Canada, was ordained for Drumglass, Dungannon (Armagh). He was the Rector of Rathcoole (Connor) from 2006 until he retired in 2011.

● The Revd Willie Nixon, who had worked on the family farm, was ordained for Saint Paul’s, Lisburn (Connor), and has been the Rector of Drumbeg (Down) since 2012.

● The Revd Daniel Owen, who had worked in an outdoor activity centre in Sligo and in the RCB offices in Dublin, was ordained for Saint Donard’s Parish, Belfast (Down). Since 2015, he has been the chaplain at Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham.

● The Revd David Somerville, a former RE teacher in Rathfriland, was ordained for Shankill Parish, Lurgan (Dromore). He was the Rector of Richhill Parish (Armagh) and had been appointed a Vicar Choral in Armagh Cathedral when he died suddenly in 2016.

● The Revd Alice Stewart was ordained for the Church of the Ascension, Cloughfern (Connor).

● The Revd Louise Stewart was ordained for Saint John’s Church, Malone Road, Belfast (Connor). Since 2011, she has been the Rector of Finaghy (Connor).

Letters of ordination as deacon on 25 June 2000 by Archbishop Walton Empey

The Collect for vocations to Holy Orders:

Almighty God,
you have entrusted to your Church
a share in the ministry of your Son our great High Priest:
Inspire by your Holy Spirit the hearts of many
to offer themselves for ordination in your Church,
that strengthened by his power,
they may work for the increase of your kingdom
and set forward the eternal praise of your name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Inside the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield … the beginning of the road to ordination (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When we start speaking in slogans we stop listening to one another

‘I’m gonna tell God everything’

Patrick Comerford

We can fall so easily into the trap of using silly slogans and think we are engaging in meaningful debate.

Falling back on slogans allows us to the illusion of engaging in debate without actually listening to what others are saying. We might hear what they say but not actually listen to the contributions they are trying to make to a complex and multi-layered debate.

Slogans always indicate that I believe I am right and above criticism. And they say to the other person that while I may hear what they are saying I am not listening to the point of being able to modify, let along change my mind because of what they are saying.

For example, Donald Trump’s election campaign is filled with sloganeering and cheap quips, and those who oppose him are in danger of not listening to him and letting him hold the stage by belittling his hairstyle or making cheap jibes about his lifestyle.

I sometimes think the ‘Brexit’ campaigners managed to win too because of their slogans that broached no argument and left no space for listening. Constantly throughout the referendum they told voters not to listen to experts.

Slogans and a refusal to listen seem to be the hallmarks of what passes as political debate. And they reduce political debate to pantomime.

‘Look out. He’s behind you.’

‘Oh no, he’s not.’

‘Oh yes, he is.’

Late on Friday, I reposted a photograph on Facebook of a fatally injured three-year-old child in Syria. The captions read: ‘The last thing a 3-year-old Syrian said before he died: “I’m gonna tell God everything”.’

The original poster had added a quotation from Dorothy Day: ‘Those who cannot see the face of Christ in the poor are atheists indeed.’

One person, replying to my posting, commented: ‘How do u know he died and why and when.’

To which a former schoolfriend replied: ‘That’s really not the point.’

The quick retort was: ‘Yes Religion kills.’

But that retort was immediately deleted not by me but the person who had posted it. I knew of it only through email notifications, and never saw it on my Facebook page. Someone who had confused uttering slogans with contributing to a debate had almost immediately withdrawn his slogan, which I alone could see, and so, I believed, he had withdrawn from a debate he thought he had created. But then he reposted it yet again late last night after I had logged out following a long and demanding Sunday, and then removed it yet again a short time later.

It was one of those Sundays that point to the very positive and life-affirming roles of religion in society today. In the morning, I had taken part in the National Famine Commemorations in Glasnevin, when the main speaker was President Michael D Higgins. I was invited to represent the Church of Ireland, Bishop Eamon Walsh led prayers on behalf of the Roman Catholic church, and there were prayers from representatives of the Methodist, Quaker, Jewish and Muslim communities too. In my prayers, I specifically draw comparisons between Irish people on the Atlantic fleeing the Famine in the 1840s, and Syrian people in the Mediterranean fleeing conflict today.

Later in the afternoon, I was at the ordination of two new deacons in Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. In his charge to the new new deacons, Bishop Alan Abernethy reminded them that ‘Deacons ... remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry.’

He continued: ‘Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless [i.e., those for whom nobody cares] and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.’

Undoubtedly religion – or rather, the distortion of religions – contributes to violence and wars over the centuries. Who can deny this, from Islamic State and its ideological coaches in Saudi Arabia, back through generations of strife in Northern Ireland, the Buddhist monks who were Japanese kamikaze pilots, to the Crusades, and further back through time.

But religion played no role in motivating the greatest mass murderers of the last century – Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. Indeed, in those cases, it was religious believers who were the victims and not the perpetrators. But I am hardly going to fall back in any debate about mass murder and genocide on slogan such as ‘Atheism kills.’ It would be crass and fail to engage with the enormity of the horrors we have inflicted and experienced in the modern world.

Nonetheless, I am adding to my repertoire some more fatuous slogans that indicate to others that I am preparing myself to refuse to listen and to refuse to debate.

They include:

Politicians kill: politicians legalised apartheid, segregation, subjugation, oppression and division, and they passed legislation that made the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Scientists kill: scientists invented zyklon gas, the atomic bomb, napalm.

Engineers kill: they gave us guided missiles that have left us with a misguided humanity.

Economists kill: their theories have allowed politicians to ignore the plight of the overwhelming majority of humanity in favour of market forces, which will always have more power and wealth than the poor. Why, their proposals for austerity have destroyed the lives of many thousands of people in Ireland and Greece alone.

If we get get caught up in slogans and arguments such as these, we forget the plight of a three-year-old child in Syria and others like him, and we perpetuate systems in wish the oppressed continue to be oppressed.

And the point of it all is, anyway, that People kill. But that is not going to kill my faith in humanity.

And yes, as Dorothy Day said: ‘Those who cannot see the face of Christ in the poor are atheists indeed.’

Leading prayers at the National Famine Commemoration in Glasnevin Cememetery on Sunday morning, with President Michael D Higgins

Reflecting on an ordination anniversary and the role of deacons in the Church

An icon of Saint Philip the Deacon with the Ethiopian Eunuch, by Ann Chapin (2008)

Patrick Comerford

I was ordained deacon 16 years ago today [25 June 2000], and yesterday I celebrated my ordination as priest 15 years ago on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist [24 June 2001].

As I was reflecting on these anniversaries yesterday, I recalled too how my path to ordination began 45 years ago when I was a 19-year-old in Lichfield, following very personal and special experiences in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, and in Lichfield Cathedral in 1971.

As priests, we normally celebrate the anniversary of our ordination to the priesthood, and reflect on it sacramentally. But I wonder whether we reflect on the same way on the significance of our ordination as deacons, despite all the token assents we give to the notion that we remain deacons after our ordination to the priesthood?

When candidates are presented to the bishop for ordination in the Church of Ireland as deacons, the bishop declares:

Deacons in the Church of God serve in the name of Christ, and so remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry. Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.

When called upon to do so, they may baptize, preach and give instruction in the faith.

Deacons assist the bishop and priest under whom they serve. When the people are gathered for worship, deacons are authorized to read the Gospel, lead the people in intercession, and distribute the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

The bishop asks those who are being ordained deacon a number of questions, including:

Will you be faithful in visiting the sick, in caring for the poor and needy, and in helping the oppressed?

Will you promote unity, peace, and love among all Christian people, and especially among those whom you serve?

Will you then, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, continually stir up the gift of God that is in you, to make Christ known to all people?

Over the past week or two, I have been celebrating with one of my students, the Revd Kevin Conroy, who has celebrated completing his MTh dissertation examining the diaconate and our understanding of it in the Church of Ireland.

An added pleasure in supervising Kevin’s research is his achievement in being awarded the Weir Prize at the end of this academic year.

Kevin lives in Wicklow and has served his internship as a deacon in Saint Brigid’s, Stillorgan, and All Saints’, Blackrock, with the Revd Ian Gallagher.

In his dissertation, he asks: “In the light of recent discussions among the Porvoo member Churches, is the permanent diaconate a distinctive ministry for implementation within the Church of Ireland, and what are the consequences for understanding the three-fold ministry?”

An interesting aspect of Kevin’s dissertation comes when he turns to the Preamble and Declaration to the Constitution of the Church of Ireland, which declared in 1870: “The Church of Ireland will … maintain inviolate the three orders of bishops, priests or presbyters, and deacons in the sacred ministry.”

It would be unimaginable to have a diocese without a bishop and priests, but many dioceses are without deacons, and those dioceses with deacons see them as deacons in transition to the priesthood.

I have taken part in some of these Porvoo Consultations, and it has been a real pleasure to journey with Kevin during this research.

I travelled a similar journey with the Revd Suzanne Cousins, whose dissertation topic is: “Generous Love in Multi-faith Ireland: towards mature citizenship and positive pedagogy for the Church of Ireland in local Christian-Muslim mission and engagement.”

She describes the aim of this research as identifying “hindrances to Christian engagement in Church of Ireland parishes and dioceses, with a view to stimulating the future development of a contextualised teaching resource on Christian-Muslim engagement for use by clergy and laity in the Church’s changing mission context.”

Once again, this is a subject area that I have worked on in a number of contexts, and it is a particular pleasure that the external examiner has considered this work to have been carried out at doctoral standard and has recommended it for publication. We celebrated together over lunch on Thursday [23 June 2016].

Suzanne lives in Newcastle, Co Down, and has served her internship as a deacon in Saint Mark’s, Newownards, with the Revd Chris Matchett. She is to be ordained priest in September to serve in the parish of Saint Columba’s, Moville, Co Donegal, in the Diocese of Raphoe, and Kevin is to be ordained priest to serve in the parish of Saint Patrick’s, Dublin, in the Diocese of Dublin.

As I reflect on the anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate, I have a special prayer for these two deacons in particular as they prepare to move on the priesthood.

Church of Ireland experience of deacon interns shared in Edinburgh

Anglican participants at the Edinburgh consultation on the diaconate (from left): Canon Patrick Comerford, Revd Frances Hillier, Revd Sarah Gillard-Faulkner, Bishop-elect John Armes, Elspeth Davey, Church Relations Officer, SEC

The Church of Ireland was represented by Canon Patrick Comerfordof the Church of Ireland Theological Institute at a recent Seminar on Deacons, the Diaconate and Diakonia. The seminar in Edinburgh was organised by the Diaconate Working Group (DWG) of the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) as part of the Porvoo Communion consultations on the diaconate and diakonia ministry.

The seminar was chaired by the Bishop–elect of Edinburgh Very Revd Dr John Armes, secretary of the Diaconate Working Group.

The participants included the Right Revd Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness, representatives of the four Anglican Churches on these islands – the Church of Ireland, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and the Church of England – and representatives of a number of Churches in Scotland, including the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, the Salvation Army, and the United Reformed Church.

Bishop Armes said the seminar had been called because the Scottish Episcopal Church, as a member of the Porvoo Communion, is committed to exploring diakonia and diaconate, and in the light of the 2009 consultation in Oslo, is committed to exploring the meaning of diakonia and what to do about diakonia and diaconate.

The seminar was an exercise in extending this discussion by listening to the experiences of the other member churches of the Anglican Communion on these islands and the experiences of the other denominations in Scotland.

Canon Comerford spoke of the new ministry training programme at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and of the experiences of third–year ordinands who had been placed in parishes as ‘deacon-interns’ in their third year.

The Revd Deacon Frances Hillier said most permanent deacons in the Church of England tend to be NSMs, and tend to be in caring professions. Although some are canons and she is a bishop’s chaplain, they cannot be archdeacons.

Bishop Mark Strange said a number of people feel called to a different type of ministry in the community that is not tied up with being priests. He asked whether there is a role for deacons where it is not assumed that they are going to go on to being ordained priests.

The Revd Sarah Gillard–Faulkner described her experience as a deacon in the Church in Wales as being ‘a lone voice.’

The Revd Tony Schmitz spoke of a developing understanding in the Roman Catholic Church of ‘diakonia of altar, diakonia of word and diakonia of caritas.’

The Porvoo Contact Group meets in October, and a similar seminar will be called in Edinburgh again in preparation for the Porvoo Consultation in Dublin in March 2013.
This report was published on the Church of Ireland Theological Institute on 2 May 2012

New deacons and warm sunshine in Dublin

The River Liffey looked blue beneath the summer sky in Dublin yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Patrick Comerford

These days are like Mediterranean days in Dublin. The sun is shining brightly, the skies are clear blue, and the temperatures are in the mid-to-high 20s, and there’s a relaxed, carefree attitude in the streets and in the city centre.

The warm smiles on faces everywhere just show how much we appreciate the summer when it arrives and lingers for a little while in Ireland.

The Italian Quarter in Dublin had a Mediterranean feeling yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Between cathedral services, I had lunch in the Italian Quarter yesterday and the weather, the atmosphere, and the sea of Italian blue shirts were almost enough to tempt me to stay and watch the match between Italy and New Zealand.

In the morning, I subdeaconed at the Sung Cathedral Eucharist, and the preacher was the Right Revd Christopher Senyonjo, a retired bishop from West Buganda in Uganda, who is visiting Ireland as part of a six-week tour of Europe and the US. This was an opportunity to hear the personal witness of a courageous man of faith who has proclaimed God’s inclusive love and spoken truth to power in Uganda.

He has been inhibited from officiating as a priest and bishop in the Anglican Church of Uganda because of his support of Integrity Uganda and the greater LGBT community. He is one of the few voices in Uganda to speak out against homophobia and the “anti-Homosexuality” bill before the Ugandan parliament.

In the afternoon, four new deacons were ordained in the cathedral by Archbishop John Neill – the Revd Paul Arbuthnot, the Revd Terry Lilburn, the Revd Ken Rue and the Revd Martha Waller. Bishop Christopher Senyonjo was present again, as were Bishop Samuel Poyntz, and Bishop Jered Kalimba of Shyogwe. Bishop Jered has been a guest in my house during previous visits to Ireland, and some years ago he made Ken a canon of his cathedral in Rwanda.

The procession in the cathedral garth after the ordination of deacons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

It was a joy-filled afternoon, and as we processed out of the cathedral into the sunshine in the cloister garth afterwards, tourists and passers-by were caught up in the liturgical drama – it was a powerful illustration of the church’s witness to the city and the mission that underpins the ministry of every deacon.

It was impossible not to want to linger out there in the sunshine, chatting with families and friends as the sun continued to shine down on us all.

Evening sun on the Camac in Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Later, after coffee in the crypt, I stopped off first in Kilmainham. There, the Camac River is not one of the most beautiful or clean rivers in Dublin; but it was shining and silvery in the sun. At Kimmage Manor, my old theological college, the old manor house looked majestic against the clear blue sky.

Kimmage Manor and an oriel window against the evening sky (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

By 11 in the evening, I was still sitting out in my back garden, sipping a glass of Pinot Grigio and listening to the water bubbling out of the Lion’s Mouth behind me. It was only dusky, even though midnight was approaching, and the sky was still clear.

It brought back memories of many warm, balmy summer evenings, sitting out on a terrace in a small mountain village in Crete. Oh well, I’ll back there soon.

The Lion’s Mouth bubbling on a balmy summer's evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)