COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
Rynek Główny (Central Square) in the heart of Kraków’s mediaeval Old Town … Polish has 43 million speakers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
I continue to be overwhelmed by the viewing and reading figures for this blog, although the figures have slowed down last month after record-breaking and overpowering statistics the previous month. These figures are about to reach 43 million this evening (4 July 2026), having passed 42 million ten days ago (24 June 2026), the 41 million mark two weeks earlier (9 June 2026), and the 40 million mark at the end of May (28 May 2026).
These viewing and reading figures are overwhelming and this blog continues to reach a volume of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 22 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone.
Half of all hits or reader figures have been within the past six months, with 21.5 million hits since 13 January 2026. I first began blogging back in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures continue to be overwhelming on many occasions. Of the ten days of busiest traffic on this blog, three were in May (1, 6 and 14 May 2026), three were the previous month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), three were in March, and one was in February:
• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2026)
• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 322,038 (26 April 2026)
• 318,835 (6 May 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
The daily average was over 187,000 throughout May, but that figure was distorted by the exceptionally high number of hits on three days. There were about 71,000 hits a day last month, with a total of 2,132,098 hits in June. Yet, ten years ago, in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000.
More than 43 million foreign travellers visited Greece in 2025
To put this latest figure of 43 million into perspective:
Polish is a West Slavic language primarily spoken in Poland and is the official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. It is the sixth-most-spoken among languages of the European Union, and with a total or 43 million speakers, mainly in Poland and parts of Lithuania.
Around 43 million EU residents are foreign citizens. Almost 14 million of them are citizens of EU Member States other than the one in which they reside. The rest are citizens of non-EU countries. On average, 3.1% of the people who live in an EU country are from another EU country, and 6.4% have the nationality of a non-EU country.
The Paleogene Period (also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period 23.04 Ma.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) killed at least 43 million people in 2021, equivalent to 75% of non-pandemic-related deaths globally. Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths, or at least 19 million deaths in 2021, followed by cancers (10 million), chronic respiratory diseases (4 million), and diabetes (over 2 million).
A woman sued a casino in New York in 2017 when it told her the slot machine displaying a $43 million jackpot was faulty and offered a steak dinner instead. Katrina Bookman took a selfie showing the machine saying ‘printing cash ticket $42,949,672.76’ at the Resorts World Casino. But she was escorted out and was told the next day she could have only $2.25, and the courts later ruled in favour of the casino.
Foreign travellers who visited Greece in 2025 reached 43.31 million, representing an increase of 6.4% compared to 40.69 million in 2024. This rise contributed to total travel receipts of €23.63 billion, up 9.4% year-on-year.
43 million square metres is 43,000 sq km, which is total size of Denmark proper, excluding Greenland and the Faroe Islands, making it the 133rd largest country in the world by land area.
43 million minutes add up to 81 years, 9 months, and 22 days (plus 2 hours and 40 minutes), based on standard time conversions. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take almost 82 years, from late 1944, to reach today’s figure of 43 million.
I retired from active parish ministry over four years ago, on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 100-120 people on average continue to read my daily prayer diary on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 to 840 or more people each week.
This evening, I am truly grateful to the real readers among those 43 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I am thankful for the faithful core group of 100-120 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each morning.
Flags outside the Apollon Hotel in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete … around 43 million EU residents are foreign citizens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
‘The Daughter of Jairus’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)
Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas came to end on yesterday with the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2 February 2026) or Candlemas. We begin Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar today, the liturgical colour returns from white to green, and it is little more than two weeks to Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026) and the beginning of Lent.
Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Anskar (865), Archbishop of Hamburg and Missionary in Denmark and Sweden. i have an appointment with the dentist in Stony Stratford, later this morning. But, before my 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.
‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … a crowded boat in the Mediterranean (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Mark 5: 21-43 (NRSVA):
21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24 So he went with him.
And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 31 And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32 He looked all round to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’
35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
‘Christ raises the daughter of Jairus’ (left), in the Hardman window by JH Powell at the west end of the nave in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 5: 21-43) tells the stories of how Christ responds to the plight of two very different people: a young girl who is on her deathbed, and a woman who has been suffering for the previous 12 years, as long as the young girl has lived.
The women in this Gospel reading remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament: three women in all, the dying girl, the older woman, and the girl’s mother.
The young girl who is on her deathbed and her mother are from a religious family; the older woman who interrupts this story, and who disrupts Jesus and intrudes on the crowd, has endured a lifetime of suffering. The two principal women in this story both suffer and are marginalised, are seen as not worth bothering about, because of their gender and because of their age.
This reading reminds us that Christ calls the unnamed, the marginalised, and the long-suffering from the outside into the community. They call out, just as the psalmist cries out, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’ (Psalm 130: 1).
God is attentive to our pleas, despite everything that has gone wrong, God forgives, God is merciful, God offers unfailing love and freedom, God’s love for us surpasses the love of any father or mother for their children.
In this Gospel reading, one of the key people is the daughter of a leading member of the local synagogue. But religious position and social status are of little value when a small child is struck with a death-threatening illness or disease.
In both cases these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding woman, and a dying or dead woman. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.
One young woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. One older woman, who has lost everything, who is at risk of being marginalised, even by the Disciples, is offered the hope of her proper place in the community.
The crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake becomes a large crowd pressing in on him.
Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard, whose demands are met.
But in this case, it is not the loud and the proud, the rich or the famous, who grab the attention of Christ – it is a weak, timid, neglected impoverished, exploited and sick woman. All her money has gone on quacks, and she has no man to speak up for her.
But look at what Christ does for her. Without knowing it, he heals her. And when he realises what has happened, he calls her ‘Daughter.’
In a society where men had the only voices, where to have a full place in society was to be known as a Son of Israel, she is called ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, in the world, and before God.
It is shocking that when the unnamed girl dies the first reaction of some key local figures is to upbraid her father for seeking help, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy.
Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for both the older and the younger woman.
Some years ago at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (the United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh, I heard powerful and engaging stories of how projects supported by USPG are empowering women around the world.
Canon Delene Mark from South Africa gave harrowing accounts of gender-based violence, people trafficking, child murder and forced prostitution.
Sheba Sultan from the Church of Pakistan reminded us that women in Pakistan cannot achieve anything without tackling bigotry and intolerance.
We heard from India where the Delhi Brotherhood is challenging gender-based violence, including rape and murder.
The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, now the Archdeacon of Liverpool, talked about gender justice, which is much more than ending gender-based violence. She shared a vision of equality for men and women created equally in the image and likeness of God, made one in Christ, called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and living with the promise of abundant life for all.
We were challenged each day to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for women? Speaker after speaker insisted that the Gospel is Good News – but only if we read it, accept its consequences for us, and then live it out.
The Gospel is Good News for women like the two women in the Gospel story and for the women I heard about at that USPG conference. But … only if we read it and if we put it into practice.
Newspapers on sale at a kiosk in Rethymnon in Crete … when and how is the Gospel good news for people on the margins? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 3 February 2026):
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: ‘Serving the Lord with Dignity’ (pp 24-25). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Mauricio Mugunhe, Executive Director of Acção Social Anglicana, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 3 February 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we pray for the spiritual growth and unity of IAMA. May Christ remain at the centre of the province’s life and mission.
The Collect:
God of grace and might,
who sent your servant Anskar
to spread the gospel to the Nordic peoples:
raise up, we pray, in our generation
messengers of your good news
and heralds of your kingdom
that the world may come to know
the immeasurable riches of our Saviour 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:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Anskar and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … a few moments by the beach and the boats in Rethymnon (Patrick Comerford)
Katie Miller, wife of the White House insider Steve Miller, has posted a map of Greenland in the colours of the American flag emblazoned with the word ‘Soon’
Patrick Comerford
JD Vance is meeting the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Greenland next week to push Trump’s bullying demands to hand over the island. In advance of those talks, Greenland’s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen says the island’s 57,000 residents will not be bullied by the US into selling its sovereignty to the US.
It is 80 years since Denmark said no to the Truman administration’s offer of $100 million in gold for Greenland. The answer remains unchanged.
Donald Trump in his bluster and threats, says he wants to annex Greenland, by purchase or, if necessary, by force if necessary. ‘We need Greenland,’ one senior US official. ‘It’s so strategic.’
A third option mentioned by the White House is a new form of association between the two, although the scope of this is not clear.
Under a 75-year-old agreement, the US already has the only military base in Greenland and the island government has been open to it expanding its presence and to encouraging US investment in extracting rare minerals.
Under the terms of this agreement, the US is supposed to consult Denmark and Greenland before making ‘any significant changes’ in its military operations on the island and the US explicitly recognises it as ‘an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark’.
But the US military presence in Greenland in the past has regularly involved egregious breaches of those legal agreements. In the 1960s, the US tried to build a subterranean network of secret nuclear missile launch sites in the Greenlandic ice cap, without ever seeking consent from the Danish Government.
Project Iceworm was run from Camp Century from 1960 to 1966 before it was deemed unworkable and abandoned. The missiles were never fielded, the reactor was removed and Camp Century was abandoned. However, hazardous waste remains buried under the ice and has become an environmental concern.
The Danish government did not know about the programme at the time and only heard about it three decades later in 1997, when Danes was perusing declassified US documents and searching for records of the crash of a nuclear-equipped B-52 bomber near the Thule air base in 1968.
On the other hand, Denmark and Greenland have always shown an ability to reach amicable settlements to territorial disputes with Greenland’s nearest geographical neighbour, Canada. A border dispute began in 1973 over the ownership of Hans Island, a small island in Nares Strait directly between Greenland and the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The dispute was amicable and was resolved in 2022, when Denmark and Canada agreed to divide the island in half, meaning Greenland’s one and only land border is not with Denmark or the US, but with Canada.
Canadians may well fear that if the US forcibly acquires Greenland, Canada will be surrounded on three sides by the US, with Alaska to the west.
The flag of Greenland … the well-founded fears of Canada and Denmark may also be shared by many EU member states
Indeed, the well-founded fears of Canada and Denmark may also be shared by many EU member states whose sovereign territories may become the target of US covetous eyes. Any US aggression in Greenland may give permission to Putin to think he can be aggressive, and with impunity, towards other member EU member states, particularly Finland, the three Baltic states that were once part of the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and perhaps Poland and Romania too. The US claims to Greenland, and recent unilateral actions in the Caribbean – abducting Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and imposing a blockade on and attacking ships and boats – show the Trump regime regards the North Atlantic and the Caribbean as its backyard, and has no fears about how once friendly NATO and EU member states respond.
If Trump can claim Greenland, which is Danish, what’s to stop him from claiming Guadeloupe and Guiana which are French, or any of the other islands that are French Dutch, Spanish, Danish and Portuguese sovereign territories and that are parts of the European Union in a variety of ways.
Although Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it is not officially a part of the European Union, yet it relates to the EU through the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) and receives support from the European Development Fund, Multiannual Financial Framework, European Investment Bank and other EU programmes.
It is often forgotten that the EU includes sovereign territory of a number of member states not just in Europe, but on all continents. French sovereign territory, for example, includes the five overseas departments and regions of France: French Guiana in South America, a part of the Guianas; Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, a part of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles; Martinique in the Lesser Antilles; Mayotte in the Mozambique Channel and the Comoro Islands; and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
Collectively, the special territories of the EU have a population of 6.1 million people and a land area of about 2,733,792 sq km, and Greenland makes up around 80 percent of that area. The smallest by land area is the island of Saba in the Caribbean (13 sq km). The largest region by population, the Canary Islands, accounts for more than a third of the total population of the special territories. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is the only special territory without a permanent population.
The European Economic Area (EEA) has 32 special territories of EU member states and EFTA member states that for historical, geographical, or political reasons have a special status with the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
The special territories of EU member states fall into three separate categorises:
• 9 Outermost Regions (OMR) that form part of the EU, though they benefit from derogations from some EU laws due to their geographical remoteness from mainland Europe;
• 13 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) that do not form part of the EU, but co-operate with the EU through the Overseas Countries and Territories Association;
• 10 special cases that form part of the EU.
The Outermost Regions were recognised in the Maastricht Treaty (1992), and confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) form part of a member state of the EU. EU law applies in these outermost regions, but because of their significant distance from mainland Europe they have derogations from some EU policies. They are part of the EU customs area, although some fall outside the Schengen Area and the EU VAT Area.
The status of an uninhabited French territory, the abandoned island of Clipperton – in the North Pacific and 1,280 km off the coast of Mexico – remains unclear and it is not explicitly mentioned in primary EU law. It is an interesting place in this discussion because it was briefly occupied by the US in 1944-1945.
Today, the nine Outermost Regions of the EU are parts of the national territories of France, Portugal and Spain:
• France (6) : French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Martin, Mayotte, Reunion;
• Portugal (2): Azores, Madeira;
• Spain (1): the Canary Islands.
We all know of Trump’s golf courses in Scotland and Ireland. But he has also owned a holiday home in one of these EU Caribbean islands since 2013. Le Château des Palmiers in a beachfront estate on Plum Bay in the French part of the island of St Martin, which is shared by France and the Netherlands. The estate once had a price tag of £21.5 million; after a tropical storm he dropped the asking price to £13 million but he still has not been able to sell it.
The 13 Overseas Countries and Territories of the EU are parts of Denmark, France and the Netherlands:
• Denmark (1): Greenland;
• France (6): French Polynesia, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis-et-Futuna;
• the Netherlands (6): Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten.
As a group, the Dutch islands are still known as the Dutch Caribbean. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km off the coast of Venezuela, and in Dutch law Aruba and Curaçao are defined as countries; Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten are known as the SSS islands. These islands are so close to Venezuela, the Netherlands can identify with Danish fears about Trumps threats to Denmark’s sovereignty in Greenland.
In addition, there are 10 special cases involving territories that are part of Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain but with unusual political borders and geographical locations:
• Cyprus (1): the UN Buffer Zone;
• Denmark (1): Faroe Islands;
• Finland (1): Åland;
• Germany (2): Büsingen am Hochrhein and Heligoland;
• Greece (1): Mount Athos;
• Italy (2): Livigno and Campione d’Italia;
• Spain (2): Ceuta and Melilla.
The cities of Melilla and Ceuta have had an autonomous system of rule since 1995. In addition, the plazas de soberanía or ‘strongholds of sovereignty’ are a series of Spanish territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco. They are closer to Africa than Europe.
Quite separately, there are five European microstates that are not EU members: Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City. Gibraltar left the EU with the UK at Brexit, but an agreement last year (June 2025) creates a special relationship, joining Gibraltar to the Schengen Area and establishing a customs union with the EU, yet preserving UK sovereignty.
If Trump gets his small grubby hands on Greenland this year, could it be Guiana, or Guadeloupe soon after? He has already spoken of Gaza as desirable real estate; could he also have eyes on Gibraltar, with desires for the Mediterranean as a playground to twin with the Caribbean? Nothing is beyond the realm of possibility when it comes to the capricious whims of an autocrat. The fears of Denmark today should be the fears of all EU member states too.
A humorous Danish response to US claims on Greenland
Galley Hill, started half a century ago in 1971-1972, was the first large housing scheme built by Milton Keynes Development Corporation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Patrick Comerford
Suburban housing is often unremarkable architecturally. But the suburban housing on the south side of Stony Stratford includes the houses in Galley Hill and Fullers Slade, regarded as innovative and revolutionary when they they were built half a century ago and the houses in Latimer, which has been described as one of ‘Britain’s hidden architectural gems,’ offering ‘superlative modern living in landscaped surroundings.’
The housing development in Galley Hill was built as a rent-to-buy housing scheme and was designed under the influence of the architect Professor Derek John Walker (1929-2015), then the Chief Architect for Milton Keynes Development Corporation.
Derek Walker is remembered primarily for his work in urban planning and leisure facilities through his firm Derek Walker Associates. He studied architecture at Leeds Art School and planning at the University of Pennsylvania before setting up an architectural practice in Leeds in 1960. From 1970 to 1976, he was the Chief Architect and planner of Milton Keynes.
Walker recruited a team and over seven years produced a landscaping strategy for the new city, eleven village plans, the structure for the programme for producing 3,000 houses a year with supporting community, leisure, retail and sporting and cultural facilities.
He designed many buildings, and possibly the most celebrated is the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. When it opened in 1979 it was a unique concept for 1 million sq ft (93,000 sq m) of retail space planned around covered landscaped streets. It has since been giving Grade II listing.
Walker was involved with the architects Norman Foster and Frank Newby in New York, and he was Professor of Architecture and Design at the Royal College of Art in 1984-1990.
Galley Hill, started half a century ago in 1971-1972, was the first large housing scheme built by Milton Keynes Development Corporation. Concrete shells were delivered to the site and clad with brick. The mono-pitched roof design was reflected in later developments in other parts of Milton Keynes.
Some of the houses intially served as a post office, a temporary school, a doctor’s surgery and a curate’s house for Saint Mary and Saint Giles Parish.
The Local Centre in Galley Hill was the first of its type in Milton Keynes. It was built alongside a grid road, which was part of the plan for Milton Keynes, with a mix of shops, meeting place and a community workshop. The meeting place and workshop in the centre have been partly refurbished in recent weeks.
Fullers Slade was conceived as a reinterpretation of the traditional terraced house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Neighbouring Fullers Slade was the second large fully council owned estate built by Milton Keynes Development Corporation in the early 1970s. It was also important in establishing the architectural reputation of the city. The original design was conceived as a reinterpretation of the traditional terraced house and was built using simple modular techniques to get around the shortage of traditional building skills at the time.
The long terraces in Fullers Slade were originally cedar clad and were set in copious parkland with no rear garden overlooked at the back.
Fullers Slade was influenced, directly or indirectly, by Wayland Tunley working with Derek Walker, and it has been widely illustrated in publications, including in the Architects’ Journal (1975). However, the estate became very run down in recent decades, was beset by building condition and site security issues. It was considered one of the most deprived estates in Britain, and was one of seven similar estates in Milton Keynes earmarked by the council to be regenerated as part of an ambitious billion pound programme.
The architectural significance of all these developments is recognised in the second edition of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Buckinghamshire, edited by the architectural historian Dr Elizabeth Williamson.
Latimer was used frequently in advertising to set the modern design agenda for Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Nearby Latimer is a significant early courtyard-based private housing scheme. It too has been recognised in Pevsner and in important publications such as the Architect’s Journal (1975). Latimer was used frequently in advertising to set the modern design agenda for Milton Keynes as a developing new town from the mid-1970s on.
The houses at Latimer were built in 1974-1975 and are perhaps the best built during this period, in terms of both location and architectural design. They were sold originally with an asking price of £18,250.
The houses at Latimer were designed by the architectural practice of Frost Nicholls in collaboration with the landscape architect Michael Ellison.
Brian Frost (1939-2021), who died last year, belonged to a generation who believed good architecture would contribute to a better future for all. Most of his work was in housing – more by chance than intention, he later maintained – and demonstrates a passion for care and quality in buildings. The partnership of Frost and Nicholls lasted until 1977, and Brian Frost later worked with the prize-winning architect Sir James Stirling (1926-1992).
Professor Cliff Nicholls studied architecture at South Bank and Greenwich Universities. He won the European prize for Architecture in 1991. He became Dean of Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 1994 and Head of the School of Architecture and the Visual Arts at the University of East London in 2003. He has been a visiting professor in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Jinzhou, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
No 13 Latimer was used as the show-house when the development first opened (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
In their competition-winning design for Latimer in Calverton End, Frost and Nicholls were inspired by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918-2008), particularly by his houses in Fredensborg and in Kingo near Helsingør in 1963. Utzon is best known for his design of the Sydney Opera House (1973), and Frost and Nicholls were inspired at Latimer by Utzon’s courtyard form.
No 13 is a good example of the houses at Latimer and it was used as the show-home when the development first opened. It is a detached four-bedroom house arranged over three levels with a large, open plan living and dining space at its core. The house is a rare example in Britain of a ‘courtyard house’ where the accommodation is arranged around an open courtyard.
The use of glass throughout the house allows for plenty of light, while the surrounding planting of trees ensure a high degree of privacy. Aside from glass, the house’s exterior is formed of dark brick and dark stained timber, which is also visible throughout the interior, beside white-painted brick.
The Architects’ Journal in 1975 devoted 11 pages to an in-depth study of the Frost Nicholls houses at Latimer, with a set of photographs by the celebrated architectural photographer John Donat (1933-2204).
The Journal covered almost every aspect of the project from the construction of the houses to discussions of details such as the timber trellises on the exterior of the houses.
Writing in the Architects’ Journal, Peter Collymore described how ‘inhabitants returning home through the open rolling landscape of Buckinghamshire will arrive in a private sheltered haven that could be pleasant and calming.’ He praised ‘the remarkable light quality – and a sense of space which is most pleasing,’ while the ‘private gardens are positioned to receive maximum sunlight and minimum overlooking.’
Half a century after it was built, Latimer remains one of the best courtyard schemes built in Britain during a golden age of low-rise housing. At the time Latimer was built, sustainability was not a significant concern, but its compact setting and choice of materials continue to offer much to learn from today.
The Local Centre in Galley Hill was the first of its type in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral is in the historic Greek neighbourhood in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
Patrick Comerford
I was in Vienna for just a few hours on Thursday [7 November 2019], catching a bus from Bratislava with the intention of visiting the Jewish quarter and a number of Jewish centres, including the Jewish Museums at Dorotheergrasse the Judenplatz, the city’s last surviving synagogue on Seitenstettengrasse, the Holocaust Memorial in the Judenplatz, and the site of mediaeval ghetto.
I also wanted to use this opportunity to revisit the Stephansdom or Saint Stephen’s Cathedral after 14 years, as well as a number of churches and buildings, including Peterskirche and the Haas-Haus.
But for the first-time ever – and this was my fifth visit to Vienna – I also visited Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the historic Greek neighbourhood in Vienna’s Innere Stadt or old town.
The area has also been known as the Fleischmarkt, for this was the city of the city’s first meat market from 1220. Greek merchants first settled around the Fleischmarkt in the early 18th century, and there have been Greek Orthodox churches on this site since 1787, following the Patent of Toleration issued by the Emperor Joseph II in 1781.
The Griechische Kirche or Greek Church was designed by the Danish-born architect Theophil Hansen in the Byzantine Revival style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The neo-Byzantine style Griechische Kirche or Greek Church, with its rich, gilt structure, was designed by the Danish-born architect Theophil Hansen (1813-1891) in the Byzantine Revival style.
The cathedral was officially opened on 21 December 1858. The exterior features two-tone brickwork and gilded archways. The elaborately ornamented sanctuary shows a stylish allusion to Baroque church architecture that is typical of southern Germany and Austria.
A number of frescoes for the facade and vestibule were commissioned from the Austrian painter and art professor Carl Rahl, with other frescoes by Ludwig Thiersch.
Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was born Theophilus Hansen in Copenhagen on 13 July 1813, and later became an Austrian citizen. He is known particularly for his buildings in Athens and Vienna and is an outstanding representative of neoclassicism.
After training with the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and studying in Vienna for some years, he moved to Athens in 1837, where he studied architecture and design, with particular interest in Byzantine architecture.
In Athens, Hansen designed his first building, the National Observatory of Athens, and two of the three neighbouring buildings forming the so-called ‘classical trilogy’: the Academy of Athens and the National Library of Greece, alongside the National and Cappodistrian University of Athens, designed by his brother Christian Hansen.
There have been Greek Orthodox churches on the site of the cathedral since 1787 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The Greek-Austrian financier Georgios Sinas called Hansen back to Vienna in 1846. There Hansen took up an apprenticeship with noted Austrian architect Ludwig Förster.
In his early works, such as the museum at the Arsenal in Vienna, Hansen still displayed a more romantic style. In later years, he became the most outstanding representative of Renaissance-inspired historicism or the Neo-Renaissance style, which also came to be known as Viennese-style. This style extended into the smallest details of the interior design and partially accepted the courses of a synthesis of the arts.
Hansen became one of the most influential architects of the Viennese Ringstrasse. His best-known work is the Austrian Parliament building, designed in the style of an ancient, neo-classic temple and a reference to the Greek beginnings of democracy.
Hansen was originally a staunch critic of the Classical style that was taught to him at the Copenhagen Academy. Over the years, however, he came to incorporate Classical elements into his forms.
Hansen’s Musikverein in Vienna is one of the most notable concert halls in the world. Its design and acoustics are often admired and copied in music houses.
Hansen worked with Austrian sculptor Vincenz Pilz and artist Carl Rahl, as well as the architect Otto Wagner. The Emperor Franz Joseph honoured Hansen in 1884 with a title in the Austrian nobility as Freiherr or Baron von Hansen. He died in Vienna on 17 February 1891.
The Greek-Austrian financier Georgios Sinas financed the building of the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
Hansen’s Greek cathedral in Vienna was financed by the Greek-Austrian diplomat and philanthropist Simon Sinas (1810-1876), and this was one of their many collaborations in Vienna and Athens.
Simon Sinas (Σίμων Σίνας), or Simon von Sina, was an Austrian banker, aristocrat, benefactor and diplomat of Greek descent. He was born in Vienna on 15 August 1810, but his family were Greeks who came originally from Moscopole in what is south Albania today.
He was the Greek consul in Vienna, and later the Greek minister to Austria, Bavaria and Germany. His father, Georgios Sinas, was also a benefactor and diplomat, and Simon Sinas expanded his father’s business.
Simon Sinas made major donations to educational and scientific foundations in Austria, Hungary and Greece. While he was the Greek Ambassador in Vienna, he hosted the ‘Greek Ball’ in the Palais Sina for which Johann Strauss II composed the Hellenen-Polka (Hellenes Polka).
Sinas became director of Austria’s central bank, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, and established the Simon Georg Sina banking house in Vienna. After the Second Schleswig War or German-Danish War came to an end in 1864, Sinas funded the return of Austrian forces from Schleswig-Holstein. Sinas held a seat in the Herrenhaus or upper house in the of Austrian parliament from 1874.
Along with Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Vienna, Sinas was the donor or financed many public buildings, including the Hungarian Academy of Budapest, the Athens Orthodox Cathedral and the Athens Academy, and others. He died in Vienna on 15 April 1876.
The parishioners of the Greek Cathedral in Vienna have included the family of the conductor Herbert von Karajan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
In the past, the parishioners of the Greek Cathedral in Vienna have included the family of the conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989). They were descended from Georg Karajan (Geórgios Karajánnis, Γεώργιος Καραγιάννης), was born in Kozani, in the Ottoman province of Rumelia, now in Greece.
The cathedral has been the seat of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Austria since 1963, and is part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Beside the cathedral, the Griechenbeisl is one of other landmarks associated with the Greek community in Vienna. It was once frequented by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. A passage links the Griechenbeisl to Griechengasse or ‘Greek Street,’ with its own Greek restaurant, Artemis.
Greek merchants first settled around the Fleischmarkt in Vienna in the early 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
‘The Visit of the Magi’ … my photograph of an Ethiopian icon on Danish Christmas cards (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
My first Christmas cards for 2018 arrived this week at the Rectory in Askeaton. The four cards from Promissio, an evangelical Lutheran mission agency in Denmark, are illustrated with my photograph of an Ethiopian icon depicting the Visit of the Three Magi to the Christ Child in Bethlehem.
I took this photograph many years ago of a present brought from Ethiopia in the Christmas 2011-2012 by a neighbour who had bought the small icon on a street in Addis Ababa. I first used this image to illustrate a posting on TS Eliot’s poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi.’
Since then, this image has been used in New Zealand on the Christmas card of the magazine Tui Motu InterIslands Magazine in 2015, on the cover of a Presbyterian church magazine in Virginia, Peaks Postings, in January 2016, on an Epiphany card sent out by Bishop Jeffrey Lee in 2016 to the Diocese of Chicago in the Episcopal Church, and as a projected image during the Epiphany Eucharist and celebrations in the chapel at Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia in January 2017.
When Marius Weber got in touch with me, I was very happy to agree to Promissio using my photograph on its Christmas card this year.
Promissio declares that ‘With heart, mouth and hands, we will be God’s tools for people to have a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ!’
The agency co-operates with Lutheran Churches and Christian organisations in Ethiopia and Liberia. It says the goal of Promissio is to take part in the mission to which Jesus Christ has called his Church with the promise that he is with us until the end of the world.
Promissio began with a small group of Danes who wanted to work in Ethiopia. They founded a new mission agency in 1948 and named it the Danish Abessinier Mission, because Ethiopia was then called Abyssinia. Later that year, they sent Johan Lindblom and his wife Ingrid to Ethiopia as missionaries.
The mission has changed names several times since. In 1950, it became the Danish Ethiopier Mission, in 1969 it became the Danish Ethiopian Mission, and in 2014 the name was changed to Promissio.
For many years, Promissio’s work in Ethiopia in 1948 was concentrated in the Bale region of south Ethiopia, based at Lincho in Dodola. The Mekane Yesus Church was formed in 1959 by the association of Evangelical Lutheran congregations in Ethiopia, and its autonomy was recognised by the Ethiopian state in 1969.
This church has been Promissio’s primary partner in Ethiopia since 1959. Promissio also collaborates with the Ethiopian organisation Win Souls for God.
The church is known in English as the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus – Mekane Yesus means ‘the place where Jesus lives.’ It is one of the fastest-growing churches in the world and probably the world’s largest Lutheran church.
The Mekane Yesus Church has 8,564 congregations, 3,892 church locations, 3,976 priests, 7,620 evangelists, over 500,000 volunteers, and 8,310,129 members, of whom 4,593,645 are communicant members and about 65 per cent of the members are children and adolescents.
Promissio has worked in particular with the Wabe Batu Synod, with headquarters in Dodola, the Addis Ababa Synod, and with the church at the national level from Addis Ababa.
Many new churches are being built, and the Church is committed to education, health care, relief and development work. The church has its own mission agency, Mekane Yesus International Mission Society, which sends Ethiopian missionaries to other countries.
Promissio began working with the Lutheran Church in Liberia began in 1980, when it sent missionaries to Liberia. Promissio signed a new partnership agreement with the Liberian Church in 2013.
Promissio signed a co-operation agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana in 1984, and is looking at new possibilities for continued co-operation.
Although Promissio has no formal co-operation agreement with the Lutheran Church in Guinea, since 2008 it has supported some of its projects through the Lutheran Church in neighbouring Liberia.
The Adoration by the Magi ... an Ethiopian artist’s impression (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)
