Dr Williams’s Library leaves Bloomsbury after serving theologians and church historians for 300 years

Dr Williams’s Library first opened in 1730 and was on Gordon Square from 1890 until it closed in 2025 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

It is always sad to see a library – particularly a library with a large collection related to theology, church history and religious studies – to close or to move away and to find it is no longer be accessible.

For over a century, Dr Williams’s Library was in Bloomsbury, where it was housed in the former University Hall on the west side of Gordon Square, beside the former Catholic Apostolic Church, now the Church of Christ the King. But the library closed within the past two years, and the collection has been moved to Manchester.

From 1890 until it closed in 2025, Dr Williams’s Library was housed in University Hall, built in 1848 to designs by the architect Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), a pioneer in architectural education, a co-founder and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

Donaldson was born nearby at 8 Bloomsbury Square, the eldest son of the architect James Donaldson (c 1756-1843). His maternal uncle, the architect Thomas Leverton (1743-1824), is said to have designed the south range of Bedford Square.

After attending King Edward Grammar School, St Albans, Donaldson trained as an architect and travelled widely. He found a clerical job at the Cape of Good Hope before joining an expedition to attack the French-owned island of Mauritius. He visited Italy and Greece in 1818-1823 with John Lewis Wolfe and WW Jenkins. Back in London, he joined his father’s practice and designed 4 Hamilton Place for Richard Bingham (1764-1839), 2nd Earl of Lucan, who had extensive estates in Co Mayo.

Donaldson’s first significant work was Holy Trinity Church, Brompton (1826-1829), in South Kensington. With Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Charles Robert Cockerell, he was a member of the committee formed in 1836 to determine whether the Parthenon or Elgin Marbles and other Greek statuary in the British Museum had originally been coloured.

Donaldson reworked substantial sections of the Wilkins building at University College London (UCL) and designed the Flaxman Gallery and library buildings. He also designed All Saints’ Church, Gordon Street (1842, closed 1909, destroyed by bombing 1940) and was involved in the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Donaldson pioneered the academic study of architecture and in 1841 he became the first Professor of Architecture at University College London, a post he held until 1865. He was a co-founder of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1834, was its honorary secretary until 1839, then its foreign secretary for another 20 years.

He designed the institute’s Mycenaean lions medal with the motto Usui civium, decori urbium. He was awarded the institute’s royal gold medal in 1851 and was its president in 1863-1864. He was described by the Prince of Wales in 1879 as ‘the father of the Institute and of the profession’.

Thomas Leverton Donaldson designed the former library on Gordon Square as University Hall in 1848 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Donaldson designed the one-time library on Gordon Square as a Hall of Residence for students of University College London, following an architectural competition. It was built in stone and brick in the late Gothic style in 1848-1849. It was built as University Hall to mark the passing of the Dissenters’ Chapels Act in 1844.

From 1853, University Hall was shared with Manchester New College. Henry Morley, professor of literature at University College and editor of Morley’s Universal Library was the principal of University Hall in 1882-1890.

Manchester New College acquired the lease in 1882 but moved to Oxford in 1890, the building was bought by the trustees of Dr Williams’s Charity to house their library.

The Revd Dr Daniel Williams (1643-1716), a leading nonconformist minister in Dublin and London, endowed the library in his will

The founder of the library, the Revd Dr Daniel Williams (1643-1716), was a leading nonconformist minister in both Dublin and London in the late 17th and early 18th century.

Williams was born into a Welsh family, probably in Wrexham, and his early plans to enter ministry were interrupted by the Restoration of Charles II and the Act of Uniformity (1662). After a few years preaching in England he moved to Ireland, where he was a domestic chaplain to Mary (Chambré) Brabazon, Countess of Meath in 1664-1667.

Williams was then one of the ministers of the Wood Street Chapel, near Whitefriar Street in Dublin, for 20 years, from 1667 to 1687. The chapel had its roots in early Puritans and Presbyterians and became one of the Dublin congregations that lead to the formation of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Unitarian Church in Dublin.

As religious tensions heightened in Dublin during the reign of James II, Williams believed his life was in danger. He fled to London in 1687, and soon found an influential place amongst London Presbyterians, particularly after the death of Richard Baxter (1615-1691).

He was appointed minister to the Presbyterian congregation in Hand Alley, Bishopsgate, and despite repeated requests to return to Dublin, he remained at Hand Alley for the rest of his life. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1709 from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in recognition of his outstanding services to nonconformity.

Williams died at the age of 72 in January 1716 and was buried in Bunhill Fields. His congregation eventually moved towards Unitarianism, but has long since disappeared.

In his will, he left instructions for his trustees to house his collection as a public library for nonconformist ministers, tutors and students in the City of London. He also left bequests to Saint Thomas’s Hospital, the University of Harvard, and to support missionaries in Scotland, Ireland, and New England.

His trustees built and equipped a library that first opened in Red Cross Street, Cripplegate, almost 300 years ago in 1730. Over the years, the collections were enlarged with gifts of books, manuscripts and portraits. His original benefaction of about 7,600 books became a small part of a library that eventually extended beyond Puritanism to include Biblical subjects, church history, Byzantine studies, philosophy, literature and more.

The library’s original home was bought by the Metropolitan Railway Company and demolished in 1865. The library moved to Bloomsbury and was housed at No 8 Queen Square from 1865 to 1873. It then moved into premises designed by the architect Thomas Chatfeild Clarke (1829-1895) in Grafton Street, now Grafton Way, off Tottenham Court Road.

Dr Daniel Williams remembered in a plaque at the entrance to the former library (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

When Manchester New College moved to Oxford, the library’s trustees acquired University Hall, Gordon Square, in 1889 and the library moved there in 1890. The library had close ties with Unitarians and several of its first directors were ministers associated with Newington Green Unitarian Church, London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use.

The Revd Robert Travers Herford (1860-1950), librarian of Dr Williams’s Library from 1914 to 1925, was a scholar of rabbinical literature, and he was one of the first Christian scholars of the Pharisees to take a neutral view between Talmud and New Testament. He is commemorated by a blue plaque on the façade of the building. His brother, the Revd Ulric Vernon Herford (1866-1938), was one of the most colourful and eccentric Unitarian ministers in Oxford. He was a Unitarian minister in Oxford in the 1890s before seeking consecration by the Nestorian Church in India as Metropolitan Mar Jacobus I in 1902, and then formed the Evangelical Catholic Church.

After a V-1 flying bomb destroyed Essex Hall, the headquarters of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the library offered rooms to displaced workers, and they stayed there for 14 years, until 1958. In 1976, the library acquired the library of New College London, which until then had trained Congregationalist ministers.

Dr Williams’s Library closed in 2025 and its copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio was sold by Sotheby’s at auction in 2006 for £2.8 million. After a prolonged discussion, the trust agreed to house its collection in the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, and the Library moved to Manchester in 2024-2025.

Meanwhile, Manchester New College, which moved from Gordon Square to Oxford in 1889, later became Harris Manchester College and became a constituent college of the University of Oxford in 1996.

The Revd Robert Travers Herford was the librarian of Dr Williams’s Library in 1914-1925 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

As for the Wood Street congregation where Williams ministered in Dublin for 20 years, it was joined in 1762 by the Dissenters of Mary’s Abbey and together they moved to Great Strand Street where a new meeting house opened in 1764. They were joined there in 1787 by the Cook Street congregation.

In the 1850s, the Strand Street congregation decided that it needed a new church on a more prominent street. The Unitarian Church on Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin, opened in June 1863, and it was joined by the Eustace Street congregation in 1867.

The Saint Stephen’s Green congregation in Dublin is part of Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland and also maintains links with Unitarians in England, Scotland and Wales through the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

The Unitarian Church on Saint Stephen’s Green … the spiritual heir to the ministry of Daniel Williams in Dublin in the late 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

City Quay Church in Dublin looks forlorn among the new tower blocks and offices on the banks of the River Liffey

City Quay Church, or the ‘Dockers’ Church’ on the south bank of the River Liffey in Dublin, overshadowed by 21st century office developments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

In my coach journeys to and from Dublin Airport along the quays in recent days, I realised how often I have passed City Quay or the ‘Dockers’ Church’ on the south quays, but I have never visited it.

City Quay Church, or the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on City Quay, Dublin, is a small Catholic church perched on the waterfront on the south bank of the River Liffey. When it was built it was opened in 1863, primarily to minister to the dock workers and merchants who lived in the area, and to the sailors passing through the port. But today it is dwarfed by the rising office blocks that symbolised the regeneration and transformation of Dublin’s quays.

City Quay Church was built in 1861-1863 as a chapel of ease to Saint Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, on the initiative of Father Joseph Christopher McCann (1807-1867), and City Quay Church became a parish church in its own right in 1908.

The church was designed by John Bourke, who worked on several churches, convents, schools and hospitals throughout Ireland. He was awarded first premium by Dublin Corporation for his design for Dublin baths and wash houses in 1847, and was one of the earliest members of the Dublin Mechanics’ Institute.

His other works include the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Chapelizod, the tower and spire at Saint Peter’s Church, Phibsborough, the completion of Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, and the Mater Hospital in Eccles Street, Dublin.

Bourke lived at 27 South Richmond Street, Portobello (1845-1854) and 13 Lower Charlemont Street (1855-1871). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (FRIAI) in 1863. He died suddenly on 10 November 1871 in Dr Hayden’s consulting room in Harcourt Street, having gone there feeling unwell. He was buried at Glasnevin cemetery on 14 November 1871. His obituary in the Irish Builder praised his ‘unswerving integrity’ and said he ‘was justice personified between contractor and client.’

The belltower and spire at City Quay Church were added in 1888-1890 to a design by the Dublin-born architect John Loftus Robinson (1848-1894). His father John Joseph Robinson (1819-1895) owned a tailoring and drapery business at 13 College Green in the 1850s; he later lived in Booterstown and was a member of Blackrock Town Commissioners.

John Loftus Robinson received his architectural training in the office of Edward Henry Carson. From an early stage, he was interested in sketching and drawing mediaeval English and Irish architecture, and many of his drawings were published in The Architect.

Robinson had his own office by 1872 at 198 Great Brunswick Street, where he continued to practise until he died in 1894. His commissions were mainly for Catholic churches and religious houses in the Dublin area, although he did some commercial and domestic work.

Robinson played an active part in public life and represented Trinity Ward on Dublin City Council. An ‘ardent Parnellite,’ he was an active member of the National Liberal Club in London and was secretary to the Nationalist Party on Dublin Corporation. He also chaired Kingstown Township Commissioners for many years, and as chair was largely responsible for the creation of the People’s Park in Dun Laoghaire.

Robinson was a member of the Architectural Association of Ireland, and honorary secretary (1873-1875), a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (FRIAI), a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (FRSAI). He died of typhoid fever on 12 October 1894. His funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery was attended by Archbishop Walsh, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, several MPs, and members of Dublin Corporation, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and ‘nearly every leading architect in Dublin.’ His son, John Joseph Robinson, was also an architect.

The Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was first built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Westland Row. The foundation stone was laid on 25 September 1861 by Archbishop Paul Cullen, later Cardinal Cullen. church was completed in a short time and was blessed by Archbishop Cullen on 20 September 1863. Robinson’s bell tower and spire were added in 1888-1890, and the three-storey presbytery, designed by Lucius O’Callaghan and James Henry Webb, was built in 1914-1915.

City Quay Church became a parish church in 1908. It was known as the ‘Dockers’ Church’, catering for the seamen and dockers working on City Quay, and for over 160 years, the church has been a central hub in Dublin’s docklands, a haven in the community it has served for six generations.

The church’s neo-Gothic style was typical of Catholic church design in the late 19th century. With the adjoining presbytery and gate screen, it forms part of an interesting group of church-related structures.

City Quay Church is a freestanding gable-fronted double-height church, built in 1863. It has a 10-bay nave with a square-plan three-stage bell tower west of the entrance or front elevation. There is a pitched slate roof with carved limestone cross finials. The cut limestone wall at the entrance front has a shallow projecting central breakfront with shouldered buttresses.

There are pointed arch windows, a trefoilated five-light window with trefoil tracery, trefoilated lancet windows with carved tracery, stained glass windows, a projecting pedimented porch, a pointed arch doorcase, timber battened doors, carved tracery, statue niches, a decorative mosaic in the tympanum, carved timber confessionals and timber painted Stations of the Cross, carved timber pews, a timber altar and lectern, a carved white marble altar rail, a reredos, side altars, and a gallery with an organ.

A Calvary scene inside reputedly made by William Pearse adds artistic interest, as does a mosaic that may have been designed by Arthur Gibney.

In the mid-1950s, the parish had a population of 30,000, but within a decade that figure had fallen to just 2,5000 residents, as the majority of residents were moved under protest to newly built suburbs on the north and south sides of the Liffey into houses built by Dublin Corporation.

In recent years, office blocks and apartments have reached heights far greater than the church spire that once dominated the skyline along the south quays. Above and behind the church, glass buildings symbolise the property developments and economic changes in Dublin 2.

Towering above the church on its east side, No 13-18 City Quay is a nine-storey office block designed by Henry J Lyons & Partners in 2018 on a site bounded by City Quay, Prince’s Street South and Gloucester Street, with 13,5000 sq metres of commercial office space. The façade is primarily factory-fabricated curtain walling panels with floor-to-ceiling glazing front by a series of deep bronze anodised aluminium extruded fin profiles. It is now the headquarters of Grant Thornton.

Many office workers in the surrounding buildings have moved into the area and now use the church as a space to reflect and pray, meaning City Quay Church has become unique among Dublin inner city churches with its growing numbers.

Ten years ago, people in the community objected to developments in the area in 2016, and parishioners objected to disturbances, infringement and an eight-storey building blocking natural light in the church and the adjoining school. A settlement was reached with the developer TIO in 2018 on paying €3.5 million for some work. The first phase of the project, involving the restoration of the courtyard in front of the church was completed in 2019.

City Quay National School beside the church was upgraded at a cost of €1 million and €2 million was available for work on the interior of the Church. But the work has yet ti start, an inside, I understand, the church is in a poor state. Plaster is falling off the walls, it is damp-ridden, it needs rewiring and the sacristy is in an unfortunate state.

• City Quay is one of four mensal parishes in Dublin where the Archbishop of Dublin is the parish priest, and Archbishop Dermot Farrell has been in this role since February 2021. The priests assigned to these parishes are the administrators, and Father Alan Hilliard is the administrator of City Quay Parish. Sunday Masses are at 6 pm (Saturday vigil mass) and 11:30 am.

The Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on City Quay, Dublin, was designed by John Bourke and the belfry was added by John Loftus Robinson (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Five photographs of Dublin are included in a new pocket guide for visitors and tourists

The new 100-page ‘Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026’, edited by Sally Davies, includes five of my photographs

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Dublin last week for a family visit, and naturally there was a rush of memories even in the short gap of five of six hours, between arriving in the airport and leaving for the airport once again.

I visited the house in Knocklyon where I lived for over 20 years from 1996 to 2017, and Christ Church Cathedral, where I had been a canon for 10 years. But I also saw schools and I had attended, childhood and family homes, the church where I had been confirmed, streets I had played on, suburbs where I spent some of my childhood and teenage years, places where I had worked, and bookshops I once frequently browsed in.

It is not a good idea to have fly-in/fly-out-again to places you have once lived in, and not to have time to meet family members, friends and former colleagues and neighbours. I need time to amble around, to stop and talk, to sit and sip coffee, to stroll through old haunts.

When I moved back to Dublin in my mid-20s, from the Wexford People to The Irish Times, I felt out of place, and it took many years to adjust to life there. I left this time with memories and a small degree of feeling out of place, but also the hope of being back again in the weeks or months ahead, for family visits and perhaps the possibility of a reunion of the 1969 year from Gormanston.

But I left too with the pleasure of knowing that five of my photographs have been used by Sally Davies in her new slimline 100-page Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026, which she has edited for Smarttraveller.

Three of these photographs were taken last year, and my photographs in this new guide include churches, street art and photographs of the Portobello and ‘Little Jerusalem’ area of Dublin.

Last year, she used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide and one photograph in her County Kerry Visitor Guide, both also published by Smarttraveller365.

The Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026is a 100-page publication produced as a comprehensive directory for tourists. It features travel ideas, local business listings and discount coupons and covers a wide range of visitor essentials, including where to eat and stay, directories of restaurants, pubs, and accommodation, and highlights of major historical landmarks, museums and hidden gems, as well as special deals, exclusive offers and service discounts.

In her introduction, Sally Davies says ‘we have a deep passion for Ireland and have crafted this guide to share the hidden gems and unforgettable experiences to be had in the city’.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (p 24), has this accompanying text:

Close to the US Embassy, and Herbert Park, is St Bartholomew’s Church, designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt, built in the Gothic revival style with sandstone facings and Dublin granite. The stairway to the clock tower is in the shape of an Irish round tower, the influence of the Celtic Romantic period. It is also known for its fine music and the choir of boys and men is the only remaining all-male parish church choir in the Church of Ireland. Formed in 2003, the girls choir also plays a prominent role.

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, seen from Grafton Street and Ann Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Anne Street (p 30) has this accompanying text:

Home to John Brereton Jewellers, which has five star reviews for their excellent customer service and help with choosing from their unique pieces of diamond jewellery. The street has pharmacies, several cafés one of which is Dolce Sicily, serving showstopping delights from poached cod with orange and fennel salad to pistachio tiramisu, delicious!

Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, which is a rustic shop selling a huge array of cheeses, and accompaniments, who teamed up with the Centre of Food Culture and Samhain Festival to create a mouthwatering festival every November. The imposing St Ann’s Church faces you, known for its concerts, recitals and stained glass windows.

Sir David Attenborough in street art on the corner of Longwood Avenue and the South Circular Road in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Three of photographs from the Portobello, ‘Little Jerusalem and Rathmines areas (pp 44-45) are published with these paragraphs:

Portobello, meaning “beautiful harbour” in Irish, came to be in the 18th century.

So folks say …

In 1861 there was a terrible tragedy on Portobello Bridge. Horses pulling a horse-drawn bus reared up and broke through the bridge railings and plunged the bus down into the canal lock. All but the driver and conductor drowned. One was the father of the Gunne brothers who opened the Gaiety Theatre and one was the niece of Daniel O’Connell. It is said this was the work of the vindictive ghost of the lock keeper, who himself drowned after being sacked for drunkenness. All passengers had to alight before crossing the bridge and walk over after the incident.

In the 1800s, the land round Portobello was part of the Kingsland estate with parkland and fountains before the developers built housing on it, and many entertainers performed there. One of which was Charles Blondin -who had previously crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope and cooked omelettes on a stove on the tightrope, which he distributed to lookers-on. His performance in Dublin though, ended in disaster, when his tightrope broke, leading to the scaffolding collapsing which killed two workers, who fell.

In 1858, the Portobello Gardens was leased and while a band played, acrobats entertained and fireworks were set off.

In the mid 1900s, Ever-Ready Batteries was the main employer for the area at Portobello Harbour. When the factory closed, small businesses took over the area and the remainder of the harbour was drained and mainly filled in.

During the late 1900s, many Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Portobello, which was given the nickname “Little Jerusalem”.

The area is vibrant with many walls covered in street art, this one of David Attenborough.

Or this on the side of a Chinese restaurant.

A mural on the side of a Chinese restaurant in Rathmines on the corner of Lower Rathmines and Richmond Hill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

You must visit the fabulous Bretzel Bakery, who strongly believe in the nutritional goodness of sourdough bread.

The Bretzel Bakery & Cafe serves award winning breads, pastries, cakes, sandwiches & coffee until 4pm every day of the week on Lennox Street, Portobello.

Along the western edge of Portobello, you will find cafés and bars along Clanbrassil Street Lower and dozens on the eastern side at St Kevins Camden Street Lower and Harcourt Street.

The Bretzel on Lennox Street has survived the many social changes in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In her acknowledgements towards the end of the guide (p 94), Sally Davies is generous in her tribute to me when she writes:

‘Thank you for your continuing support with your incredible knowledge (of the world!) and help in allowing me to use your photos Patrick Comerford’

She also provides a link to this blog: www.patrickcomerford.com

I hope she produces more of these guides to other parts of Ireland.

Saying goodbye to Dublin at Dublin Airport last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in the Ordinary Time 2026: 31, Sunday 7 June 2026, First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity I)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me’ (Matthew 9: 9) … the Triptych of Saint Matthew by Andrea di Cione (1343-1368), also known as Orcagna, in the Uffizi, Florence

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the First Sunday after Trinity (7 June 2026). Stony Live 2026, Stony Stratford’s Festival of music, dance and arts, began yesterday (6 June 2026) and continues until next Friday (14 June 2026), and today’s events include Stony Classic, with the town filled with displays of classic and vintage cars. The afternoon events include the Big Lunch @The Riverside Fair from 12 noon to 4 pm on the Millfield, and is being opened by the Mayor of Milton Keynes Paul Trendall, and local author Sarah Pinborough.

Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today even 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 Matthew represented in a group of the Four Evangelists on columns at the porch in University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26 (NRSVA):

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12 But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

Saint Matthew the Evangelist represented in a carving on the choir stalls in the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Penkridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26) in the Lectionary is divided into two parts: verses 9-13 tell of the call of Matthew the tax collector, and the questions that are raised by the dinner that follows in Matthew’s house; verses 18-26 tell of two healing miracles – the daughter of a leader of the synagogue (verses 18-19, 23-26), and a woman who is healed when she touches the fringe of Jesus’ cloak (verses 20-22).

The gravestone of a Levite family in the Jewish cemetery in the Lido, Venice … hand-washing and foot-washing for the priests are part of the ministry of Levites (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Part 1 (verses 9-13):

Saint Matthew the Evangelist (מתי/מתתיהו, Gift of Yahweh; Ματθαίος) is one of the Twelve and is identified with both the author of the first of the four gospels and with Levi the publican or tax collector in the Gospels according to Saint Mark and Saint Luke.

Tax collectors were considered unclean ritually, they worked for the occupying power and they were suspect financially. As with Peter and Andrew, Christ sees Matthew the tax collector beside the sea, and he responds immediately to Christ’s call to follow him.

Christ first called fishers as first four disciples: Andrew and Peter, then James and John. His next choice of a tax collector seems a bold move. Tax collectors were typically local Jews who were employed by the Romans to collect taxes from the people. They extracted money from their neighbours and local people to cover the expenses of the foreign rulers and occupiers.

Some translations use the word publican instead of tax-collector. The word publican is a translation of the Greek word for tax-farmer, and we come across it also in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18: 9-14).

The Romans paid tax collectors well, and seemingly did not care if the collectors took more than the tax required. They were free to take as much as they could for themselves – once the Romans had been paid.

Rome collected three principal kinds of taxes: a land tax, a head tax, and a customs tax of 2% to 5% of the value on goods being moved around. A tax office or booth stood near a city gate or port to collect the custom tax from people engaged in commercial trade, such as fishers exporting dried fish or farmers sending surplus crops to a larger city.

Tax collectors were seen as collaborators and as greedy, and they were despised. This attitude was reflected in the words of Jesus when he said: ‘If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector’ (Matthew 18: 17).

The Greek terminology indicates Matthew is a low-level tax collector. Unlike Zacchaeus, he is not a chief tax collector. The words tax booth, or tax office translate the Greek τὸ τελώνιον (to telōnion, ‘revenue or tax office’). Perhaps the booth indicates he collects tolls along the road along the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have been seen as a state-sponsored thief who socialised on the fringes of respectable society.

But when Jesus calls Matthew to follow him, Matthew becomes the disciple of a rabbi who is well-respected, invited him into his home, and organises a welcoming banquet for Jesus, to which he invites other tax collectors.

Dining with Matthew damages Jesus’ reputation in the eyes of the religious leaders, local Pharisees and teachers of the law. To eat with a Gentile or tax collector was regarded by strict Pharisees as rendering one spiritually or ceremonially unclean, to the point that even a house entered by a tax collector could be considered unclean.

Matthew is a Greek form of a Hebrew name, מַתִּתְיָהוּ‎ (Matityahu), meaning ‘Gift of God’ and transliterated into Greek as Ματταθίας (Mattathias). Many New Testament figures have two names: Simon becomes Cephas or Peter, Saul becomes Paul. Mark and Luke name the tax collector as Levi, indicating he may have been a descendent of the tribe of Levi, which included the priests and Levites. But instead of a holy service in the Temple, this Levi is an unholy civil servant in his tax booth.

The roles of the Levites include washing the hands, and sometimes the feet of the kohanim after they remove their shoes and before they ascend the bimah or platform to give the priestly blessing to the congregation. As this custom developed, the association of the Levites with this washing led to iconographic depictions of pitchers, ewers, and bowls on the tombstones of Levite families.

Mattew abandons his lucrative business as a tax collector, and is called too to be a new form of Levite, to minister hand and foot to Christ the great high priest. In accepting Jesus’ invitation, Matthew extends his own invitation: he invited Jesus to dinner in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others eat with them in his large house, suited to a wealthy man. Yet those who are invited are seen as thieves, unbelievers, open sinners and social pariahs.

Did the guests also include Peter and Andrew, James and John, who once despised Matthew who extracted tolls on their fish exports? When they see Jesus warmly accepting Matthew, did they too accept him? Or did it take time? Were they hurt to hear their new fellow disciple put down with the question put not to Jesus but to them: ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ (Matthew 9: 11).

Christ dines with people whose trades made them ritually unclean and social outcasts. When the religiously powerful question his actions, Christ replies: ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners’ (verse 13). Christ calls and invite into his Kingdom those in need of repentance, not those who think they are righteous in God’s eyes.

Christ healing the woman in the crowd … a modern Orthodox icon

Part 2 (verses 18-26):

The second part of this Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 18-26) tells two stories about Christ’s response to the plight of two very different women: a 12-year-old 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.

Both of them remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament. One is the daughter of a leading male figure in the synagogue. But religious position and social status in the local community are of precious little value when a small girl is at the point of death.

In both cases hope has run out, for a little girl and for an old woman. In restoring their health, Christ teaches what faith means, Christ offers new hope, and Christ shows what love is.

In both cases, these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding older woman, and a dying young woman. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.

This passage presents us with a large cast of dramatis personae, people who receive the gentle, caring, loving pastoral attention of Christ in equal measure, each within the list of people we are told should be our priority.

They include:

The crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake are going to learn what the Kingdom of God is like, not through another sermon or another lecture, but by seeing what Jesus does. After hearing this Gospel story, would each and every one of them be happy to wear one of those wristbands with the initials ‘WWJD’ – ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ If they looked at our actions for an example of Christian lifestyle, would they know what Jesus does?

Jairus, as he is named in the parallel passage in Saint Mark’s Gospel (Mark 5: 21-43), is a respected provincial leader. He shows what true worship truly is when he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. He prays, entreats, begs, not on behalf of himself, but on behalf of a sick and dying girl. If we were to look at ourselves today, would we see ourselves placing our lives at the feet of Christ, and making our first priorities the needs of others who cannot speak for themselves?

By now the large crowd is pressing in on Jesus. They really want to see what he is on about, what the Christian lifestyle is about. And who becomes the focus of attention within this crowd?

Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard and whose demands are met.

In this case, though, 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, in very affectionate language, he calls her ‘Daughter’ (verse 22).

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, he takes hearts and calls her ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, she is commended for her faith, she is restored personally and communally, she is offered healing, and she is also offered peace. From now on, she can be at one with herself, with her society, with the world and with God.

But perhaps there was a danger that all this could become a sideshow for the crowd. The young girl’s father appears to have been forgotten. His household – perhaps religious and community leaders too – tell him to give up on Christ.

Christ does not want to put on a sideshow, either to impress the pressing crowd or to prove wrong the inner circle around this man. In Saint Mark’s account, accompanied by just his three closest friends – Peter, James and John … the three disciples who would soon witness the Transfiguration – he goes directly to the house of the dying girl, where her family and neighbours are in great distress, where the funeral the funeral dirges can already be heard.

It is shocking that the first reactions of some of the key local figures seem to be to upbraid the father for seeking whatever help he can find for his daughter, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy. We can see that in his despair this man was finding no hope from his own community.

Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for the woman who has been suffering for 12 years. She has spent all her money with consultants and doctors and specialists. None of them has been able to offer her a cure, and now that all her money has run out, all her hope has run out too. All this is compounded by the fact that she is ritually unclean … no man should come near her.

Even as he is being told not to bother coming, even when he is being laughed at, Christ keeps focussed on who is important here – not those who shout the loudest and who press their demands.

Twelve-year-olds have no say, no voice, no power. But Jesus now offers this girl new life, new hope, a new future, a full place in society. When Jesus was her age, he was in the Temple, lost in discussion and debate with the doctors of the law. God becomes present in the presence of the young and vulnerable.

I missed the three-day annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (the United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh, Hertfordshire last week (2 to 4 June). But I recall how many years ago at this conference (2015), I heard powerful and engaging stories of projects supported by USPG that are empowering women, from these islands to South Africa, from the West Indies and West Africa to India and Pakistan.

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 described the lives of women in Pakistan, from tribal people with few resources and many restrictions, to the elite women who have lives of luxury but find cultural values also stop them from living life to the full.

Anjun Anwar, a Muslim woman born in Pakistan, spoke of her experiences on the staff of Blackburn Cathedral. The Revd Dr Monodeep Daniel shared the work of the Delhi Brotherhood in challenging gender-based violence, including rape and murder. The Revd Dr Evie Vernon spoke of women challenging injustice and violence in Jamaica and in Liberia.

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, now the Archdeacon of Liverpool, talked about gender justice and shared a vision of equality for men and women who are created equally in the image and likeness of God, who are made one in Christ, who are called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and who live with the promise of abundant life for all.

We were challenged that year to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for women? Speaker after speaker insisted it 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 the two women in oday’s Gospel reading: they are at opposite ends of the scale in terms of both social status and age. Yet one does not come before the other. The younger woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. The 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.

Christ has equal compassion for both, and restores them to full life, physically, spiritually and socially, despite objections from men on the scene – the privileged men who have access to the house of Jairus, or the men around Christ who find that a poor, old sick woman is embarrassing.

The Gospel is Good News for women like these two women in this morning's reading, for the women I have heard at USPG conferences year after year. But it is only good news if we hear it and then put it into practice.

‘The Daughter of Jairus’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 7 June 2026, Trinity I):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 7 to 13 June 2026 (pp 8-9), is ‘Safe Churches in Zambia’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager for Africa, USPG:

‘Across the Anglican Communion, churches are working to strengthen safeguarding and create safer environments for children, young people and vulnerable adults. In Zambia, church leaders gathered in Lusaka earlier this year to take this work forward within the Church in the Province of Central Africa.

‘At the meeting, Dr K Mwanza reminded participants that Safe Church work is not only about policies and procedures, but about everyday behaviour and how people are treated in church communities: “Safe Church work is broader than safeguarding. It involves treating everyone with dignity and respect.”

‘This was reinforced by the Most Revd Albert Chama, Archbishop of the Province of Central Africa and Bishop of Lusaka, who warned: “Documents alone will not keep people safe.” He emphasised that real protection requires committed leadership, practical action, and communities willing to speak up when harm occurs.

‘The gathering also looked to the future by strengthening learning and training. Evangelist Canon Janet Munde highlighted the importance of building “a foundation of knowledge that will be passed on to the next generation.” The Very Revd Canon Jacob Manda added: “Our mindsets and attitudes have been changed, and we have been empowered to go out and [create] safe spaces partners in global mission 8 for all.”

‘The meeting reflects a growing commitment across the Anglican Communion to ensure churches are places of trust and care. Safeguarding is not separate from mission, but part of faithful discipleship, where children, young people and vulnerable adults are protected and able to flourish.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 7 June 2026, Trinity I) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26.

The Collect:

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘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)

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: 24, Saturday 17 January 2026

The Triptych of Saint Matthew by Andrea di Cione (1343-1368), also known as Orcagna, in the Uffizi, Florence … Saint Matthew is also identified with Levi

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). Tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany II, 18 January 2026), with readings that continue to focus on the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist, one of the three great Epiphany theme, alongside the Visit of the Magi and the Wedding at Cana.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Antony of Egypt (356), Hermit and Abbot, and Charles Gore (1835-1932), Bishop and Founder of the Community of the Resurrection.

Meanwhile, 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.

Saint Matthew represented in a group of the Four Evangelists on columns at the porch in University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 2: 13-17 (NRSVA):

13 Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples – for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

The gravestone of a Levite family in the Jewish cemetery in the Lido, Venice … hand-washing and foot-washing are part of the ministry of Levites (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 2: 13-17), Christ is in Capernaum, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. He has told a paralytic man that his sins are forgiven, but some religious authorities doubt his ability to do this, saying only God can forgive sins. He has proved that he is from God by also healing the man.

Tax collectors were considered unclean ritually, they worked for the occupying power and they were suspect financially. As with Peter and Andrew, Christ sees Levi the tax collector beside the sea, and he responds immediately to Christ’s call to follow him. Is this the same person as Matthew (see Matthew 9:9), the author of the first Gospel?

Christ first called fishers as first four disciples: Andrew and Peter, then James and John. His next choice of a tax collector seems a bold move. Tax collectors were typically local Jews who were employed by the Romans to collect taxes from the people. They extracted money from their neighbours and local people to cover the expenses of the foreign rulers and occupiers.

Some translations use the word publican instead of tax-collector. The word publican is a translation of τελώνης (telōnēs) the Greek word for tax-farmer, a collector of revenue or tolls, and we come across the same word in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18: 9-14).

The Romans paid tax collectors well, and seemingly did not care if the collectors took more than the tax required. They were free to take as much as they could for themselves – once the Romans had been paid.

Rome collected three principal kinds of taxes: a land tax, a head tax, and a customs tax of 2% to 5% of the value on goods being moved around. A tax office or booth stood near a city gate or port to collect the custom tax from people engaged in commercial trade, such as fishers exporting dried fish or farmers sending surplus crops to a larger city.

Tax collectors were seen as collaborators and as greedy, and they were despised. This attitude was reflected in the words of Jesus when he said: ‘If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector’ (Matthew 18: 17).

The Greek terminology indicates Levi is a low-level tax collector. Unlike Zacchaeus, he is not a chief tax collector. The words tax booth, or tax office translate the Greek τὸ τελώνιον (to telōnion, ‘revenue or tax office’ (Mark 2: 14). Perhaps Levi’s booth indicates he collects tolls along the road along the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have been seen as a state-sponsored thief who socialised on the fringes of respectable society.

When Jesus walks along the shore (Mark 2: 13-14), he sees Levi. But instead of passing by, ignoring Levi or showing contempt or disgust, he calls him to follow him. Levi now becomes the disciple of a rabbi who is well-respected, who invites him into his home, and he organises a welcoming banquet for Jesus, to which he invites other tax collectors.

Dining with Levi damages Jesus’ reputation in the eyes of the religious leaders, local Pharisees and teachers of the law (Mark 2: 16). To eat with a Gentile or tax collector was regarded by strict Pharisees as rendering one spiritually or ceremonially unclean, to the point that even a house entered by a tax collector could be considered unclean.

The identity of Levi and his identification with Matthew are the subject of much speculation. Saint Mark also identifies Levi as the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2: 14). But he is also identified with Matthew in lists of the Twelve (see Luke 6: 14-16). Saint Matthew’s Gospel lists him specifically as Matthew the tax collector (see Matthew 10: 3), identified with the author of Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew is a Greek form of a Hebrew name, מַתִּתְיָהוּ‎ (Matityahu), meaning ‘Gift of God’ and transliterated into Greek as Ματταθίας (Mattathias). It is similar to but not to be confused with the name Matthias (Ματθίας), another apostle, and the Greek word μαθητής (mathētēs), meaning disciple or learner, often used in the New Testament for followers of Jesus.

Many New Testament figures have two names: Simon becomes Cephas or Peter, Saul becomes Paul.

Mark and Luke name the tax collector as Levi, indicating he may have been a descendent of the tribe of Levi, which included the priests and Levites. But instead of a holy service in the Temple, this Levi is an unholy civil servant in his tax booth.

The roles of the Levites include washing the hands, and sometimes the feet of the kohanim after they remove their shoes and before they ascend the bimah or platform in the synagogue to give the priestly blessing to the congregation. As this custom developed, the association of the Levites with this washing led to iconographic depictions of pitchers, ewers and bowls on the tombstones of Levite families.

Levi abandons his lucrative business as a tax collector, and is called too to be a new form of Levite, to minister hand and foot to Christ the great high priest.

In accepting Jesus’ invitation, Levi extends his own invitation: he invited Jesus to dinner in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others eat with them in his large house, suited to a wealthy man. Yet those who are invited are seen as thieves, unbelievers, open sinners and social pariahs.

Did the guests also include Peter and Andrew, James and John, who once despised Levi who extracted tolls on their fish exports? When they see Jesus warmly accepting Levi, do they too accept him? Or does it take time? Are they hurt to hear their new fellow disciple put down with the question put not to Jesus but to them: ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ (Mark 2: 16).

Christ dines with people whose trades make them ritually unclean and social outcasts. When the religiously powerful question his actions, Christ replies: ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners’ (Mark 2: 16). He comes to call and to invite into his Kingdom those in need of repentance, not those who think they are righteous in God’s eyes.

Saint Matthew the Evangelist represented in a carving on the choir stalls in the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Penkridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 17 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), has been ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 17 January 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Christian Care Centre in Honiara and the women and children who find refuge there. May they experience safety, healing, and hope, and may the Sisters be strengthened in compassion and wisdom.

The Collect:

Most gracious God,
who called your servant Antony to sell all that he had
and to serve you in the solitude of the desert:
by his example may we learn to deny ourselves
and to love you before all things;
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:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Antony
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Epiphany II:

Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

An image of Saint Antony above the entrance to Saint Antony’s Church in Mitropolis Square, Rethymnon … he is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 17 January (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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: 13, Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany

The wise men or Magi waiting to be placed in the crib in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and it ends not today, the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), but continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, although many parishes and churches may have held their celebrations of Epiphany on Sunday (4 January 2026), with the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors. The Feast of the Holy Epiphany or Holy Theophany (Γιορτή των Αγίων Θεοφανείων) is being marked today (6 January) by the Greek Orthodox Community in Stony Stratford with Orthros (9 am), the Divine Liturgy, the Great Anointing and the Blessing of the Great Ouse.

On Mount Athos, the monks will celebrate the great feast of Christmas according to the old calendar tonight, and at 9 pm (Greek time) the radio station of the Holy Mountain will broadcast live the Christmas Vigil from the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi on Mount Athos (listen live HERE).

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.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel”.’

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Newman University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 2: 1-12) recalls the story of the visit of the Magi, one of the three Gospel stories associated with Epiphany. The other two traditional Epiphany are the Baptism of Christ, which we read about next Sunday (Epiphany I, 11 January 2026, Matthew 3: 13-17) and the following Sunday (Epiphany II, John 1: 29-42, 18 January 2026), and the Wedding at Cana, which we read about two weeks later (Epiphany IV, 1 February 2026, John 2: 1-11).

These days after Christmas can be a letdown for many people. For weeks, sometimes months, in advance, we had been preparing for the dawning of that one single day.

We write Christmas cards, draw up lists, go shopping, wrap the gifts, put up the tree and the decorations, listen to carols and Christmas songs, wear amusing Christmas jumpers and silly Santa hats, go to office parties, plan family meals, bring in the holly and the ivy, and light candles on the Advent wreath.

Then Christmas Day comes and goes in 24 hours, just like any other day.

Then what?

Few notice that yesterday was the twelfth day of Christmas. Fewer still realise that the Christmas season includes today’s important Feast of the Epiphany and that it continues until the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas on 2 February.

By now, in most homes and workplaces, the decorations are down, the cards have been binned, the trees have been recycled, the presents have been used and put away, and for some these days are something of an anticlimax.

The angels, the shepherds and the magi are ‘yesterday’s men.’ What are we to do?

Some of the best answers are provided in the poem ‘The Work of Christmas’, written by Howard Thurman (1899-1981), an African-American theologian, academic and civil rights leader, and included in his book The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations (1973):

The Work of Christmas, by Howard Thurman:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany):

The theme this week (4-10 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hidden Histories’ (pp 16-17). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Matthew Anns, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager at USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we praise you that through your Son you provide a way for healing and reconciliation.

The Collect:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
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 God,
the bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator of the heavens,
who led the Magi by a star
to worship the Christ-child:
guide and sustain us,
that we may find our journey’s end
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in the East Window in the chapel of Oriel College, Oxford (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 Advent 2025: 22, Sunday 21 December 2025, Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV)

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child and the Virgin Mary in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last week of Advent, and just days away from Christmas. Today is week the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV, 21 December 2025). In addition, tonight in the Jewish calendar is also the last night in Hanukkah, which began last Sunday night (21 December 2025).

Later this morning, I hope to be involved in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (9:30 am), to read one of the lessons at the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols (4 pm), and to sing with the choir at the carol service. Meanwhile, before this busy day begins, I am taking some quiet time this early morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV, 21 December 2025)

A statue of Saint Joseph on the façade of Saint Joseph’s Church, Terenure, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 1: 18-25 (NRSVA):

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

A statue of Saint Joseph in the grounds of Saint Joseph’s Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

Christmas is upon us, the last of the purple candles on the Advent Wreath, the one representing the Virgin Mary, is lit this morning. Indeed, the Virgin Mary is likely to be the main figure in many sermons today focusing on the Gospel reading.

The readings this Sunday are about choices, about obedience to God’s plans, and about the fulfilment of God’s plans for all nations. They bring us into the last week of Advent.

So often we talk about the Virgin Mary and her obedience, about Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the birth of Christ But it means Joseph is often pushed to the side of the stage.

Joseph says ‘Yes’ too, but he says it silently; he has no scripted lines; he has no dramatic part or role; he is mute; but he is obedient.

And, like the earlier Joseph, his Biblical namesake who is named in this morning’s psalm (Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19), he too is dreamer of dreams and a doer of deeds.

As I recalled when we had a similar reading last Thursday (Matthew 1: 18-24, 18 December 2025), Saint Matthew’s nativity story lacks the romantic imagery of Saint Luke’s account, whose heady mixture of heavenly angels with earthy shepherds is missing here. Instead, the hope of all the earth takes shape under the sign of arrangements being made for a betrothal that is apparently violated. The gifts of God’s grace and the promise of God’s reign are hidden, are to be searched for and to be found in the midst of what appears be a tawdry story.

The Virgin Mary may have been a mere teenager at the time, just 14 or 15. And, like so many other teenage brides, she turns up for her wedding – pregnant! Joseph knows he could not possibly be the father. He decides to do the right thing and take off, quietly dropping out of the arrangement.

If Joseph goes ahead, then this child is going to be known in his family, among his neighbours, perhaps by everyone who needs to know, as illegitimate for the rest of his life. His critics indelicately remind him of this in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself’ (John 8: 41). The original Greek is more direct, crude and blunt: they taunt him that they were not conceived through illicit intercourse.

These fears and sneers, those social judgments and wagging fingers, must have been confronting Joseph like a nightmare. Yet the angel of Joseph’s dream makes a startling suggestion. He tells him to marry Mary, and then he is to name the child. To take on naming the child means becoming his father. And this is suggested not as a nice thing to do, a courteous thing to do, a gallant or gentlemanly sort of thing to do. Joseph is told why: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (verse 21).

It is not a promise of immediate reward. Joseph is not promised that if he does this he is going to earn points towards the forgiveness of his own sins; that God will see him as a nice guy; or even that if he lives long enough, this child may grow up, be apprenticed to him, take over the family business, and act as a future pension plan.

If Joseph is not the father of the Child Jesus, he must have wondered what the angel meant by ‘his people’ and ‘their sins.’

But the forgiveness here is spoken of in apocalyptic terms. It is the declaration of a new future. To be forgiven is to receive a future. Forgiveness breaks the simple link between cause and effect, action and reaction, failure and disaster, rebellion and recrimination.

Advent is a time of, repentance, forgiveness and expectation. It is a time of preparation, anticipation and hope. It is a time for dreaming dreams, and putting behind us all our nightmares.

Joseph dreams something wonderful. God would enter the world; God would be born to his new, young wife, Mary. But to believe this, Joseph had to trust not only his dream, but to trust Mary, to trust the future child, to trust God.

Do you love the people you trust and trust the people you love?

To trust the Virgin Mary, Joseph must have truly loved her. But trust in this predicament must have gone beyond trust. Joseph must have truly glimpsed what it is to trust God, to have hope in God, to love God, to have faith in God.

Joseph dreams a dream not of his own salvation, but of the salvation of the world.

Sometimes, like Joseph, we are supposed to trust God and then get out of the way. Do you trust that God is working through the people you love? Do you trust that God is working through people you find it difficult not to love but merely to like … working through God’s people for their salvation?

Too often we forget about poor Joseph. Every year, we tend to focus on the story of the Virgin Mary. But this year, Year A, the Lectionary asks us to focus on Saint Joseph. The annunciation occurs not just to Mary, but to Joseph too. And they both say ‘Yes.’

And Joseph says a second ‘Yes’ too later in this Gospel, when he agrees to the angel’s prompting to flee with Mary and the Christ Child to Egypt.

Joseph listens, God sends a messenger again, Joseph dreams again, and he remains true to God, he answers God’s call.

Joseph has no speaking part; he just has a walk-on part in this drama. But his actions, his obedience to God’s call, speak louder than words.

Yes, God appears over and over again, to men, women, to ‘all sorts and conditions of people.’

Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to all children who seem unwanted and who are easily pushed to one side. Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to the promises the Coming Christ brings to all who are marginalised and in danger today, for because of his ‘Yes’ God is among us.

We have an opportunity to echo that ‘Yes’ this Advent and this Christmas and to say ‘Yes’ to the people who cross borders, who face a dangerous ‘No’ along the way, who face violence and the dangers of human trafficking, who face racism and rejection.

This is one way we can say ‘Yes’ to the coming Christ and the coming Christmas this Advent. In saying ‘Yes’ like this, we become signs of our faith, our hope, in the promises of the coming kingdom and the promises of Christ’s coming in Advent.

The Death of Saint Joseph depicted in a tableau in a side chapel in Saint Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 21 December 2025, Advent IV):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG:

‘As we edge towards Christmas, a season of hope, waiting, and light, we will focus on the Anglican Church of Tanzania and its impactful work of bringing care, protection, and hope to mothers and babies.

‘When I met Dr Albert Chalinzee, the Medical Officer in Charge, I was immediately struck by his quiet strength. Mvumi Hospital serves a vast rural area with very limited resources, yet the atmosphere is one of focus and dedication. Dr Chalinzee told me how, not long ago, infection rates among mothers living with HIV were close to 50 per cent. Through the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission programme, that figure has now dropped to just 0.3 per cent.

‘He spoke with pride about the mothers who now come early for care following advice led by the church, and leave holding HIV-free babies. “It has changed everything,” he said. “We are now able to treat mothers and share our stories of success.”

‘Much of the equipment is old, and the staff are stretched thin, but what keeps Mvumi going is not machinery or funding, it’s faith. Every hospital staff member I met there serves out of love for their community. As I left, I realised that Mvumi is more than a hospital; it is a backbone and safety net for a community who need it most.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 21 December 2025, Advent IV) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Matthew 1: 18-25.

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of the promised saviour:
fill us your servants with your grace,
that in all things we may embrace your holy will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child depicted in a mosaic in the pediment of Saint Joseph’s Church, Limerick (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