Praying in more than 100 places of worship in Lent and Easter, 2021

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint George, Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Dave Buckle, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

During the Seasons of Lent and Easter this year (2021), and in the week after Pentecost, I kept a daily prayer diary on my blog each morning, win three parts:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Beginning of Ash Wednesday (17 February), and continuing until this morning (29 May), this prayer diary continued for 15 weeks, with photographs from over 100 churches, chapels, cathedrals, synagogues and places of worship.

I thought it might be worthwhile to have links to each of these postings and sets of photographs as this phase of my prayer diary comes to an end today.

The chapter and choir stalls in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick … installed as Precentor four years ago on 19 February 2017 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 1: cathedrals where I have been a chapter member:

1, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (17 February)
2, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare (18 February)
3, Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway (19 February)
4, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where I was also ordained deacon in 2000 and priest in 2021 (20 February)

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton … one of the four churches in the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 2: churches where I have been placed or served in ministry:

5, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (21 February)
6, Castletown Church, Co Limerick (22 February)
7, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (23 February)
8, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert, Co Kerry (24 February)
9, Saint Maelruain’s Church, Tallaght, Co Dublin, where I was a reader and my two sons baptised (25 February)
10, Whitechurch Parish Church, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin (26 February)
11, The Chapel, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin (27 February)

Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford, was built in the 1820s on a site donated by Sir John Keane of Cappoquin House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 3: Churches from my childhood:

12, Mount Melleray (public church), Cappoquin, Co Waterford (28 February)
13, Mount Melleray (Monastic Church), Cappoquin, Co Waterford (1 March)
14, Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (2 March)
15, Saint Mary’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (3 March)
16, Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, Co Waterford (4 March)
17, Saint Mary’s Church, Julianstown, Co Meath (5 March)
18, Saint Peter’s Church, Drogheda, Co Louth (6 March)

Stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross in the Franciscan chapel at Gormanston College, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 4: churches and chapels that have connections with my education:

19, Ballinskelligs Priory, Co Kerry (7 March)
20, The Chapel, Franciscan College, Gormanston, Co Meath (8 March)
21, Friends’ Meeting House, Tokyo (8 March)
22, The Chapel, Trinity College Dublin (10 March)
23, Kimmage Manor, Dublin (11 March)
24, The Chapel, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co Kildare (12 March)
25, The Chapel, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (13 March)

The Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, and the Tudor East Façade of Saint John’s Hospital facing onto Saint John Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 5: seven places that influenced and shaped my spirituality and my values:

26, The Chapel, Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (14 March)
27, Lichfield Cathedral (15 March)
28, Saint Iberius’s Church, Wexford (16 March)
29, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (Saint Patrick’s Day, 17 March)
30, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Johannesburg (18 March)
31, Coventry Cathedral (19 March)
32, The Chapel, USPG offices, London (20 March)

Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Pugin’s ‘Irish Gem’ overlooking the River Slaney in Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 6: seven Pugin churches:

33, Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford (21 March)
34, Saint Giles’s Church, Cheadle, Staffordshire (22 March)
35, Saint Peter’s College, Wexford (23 March)
36, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, Co Kerry (24 March)
37, Saint Mary’s Church, Tagoat, Co Wexford (25 March)
38, Holy Cross Church, Lichfield (26 March)
39, Saint Michael’s Church, Gorey, Co Wexford (27 March)

The katholikon or main church in the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 7: seven places of pilgrimage and spiritual refreshment:

40, Saint Thomas’s Church, Dugort, Achill Island, Co Mayo (28 March)
41, Cathedral of the Presentation, Rethymnon, Crete (29 March)
42, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome (30 March)
43, Cathedral of Saint James, Santiago de Compostela (31 March)
44, Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos (1 April)
45, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem (Good Friday, 2 April)
46, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai (3 April)

The panel depicting the Resurrection of Christ on the Royal or MacMahon tomb in the Franciscan Friary, Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 8: in Easter week, Resurrection images in seven churches

47, The Myrrh bearers, Lichfield Cathedral (4 April)
48, The Peel window, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, Staffordshire (5 April)
49, Saint John’s Monastery, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex (6 April)
50, Saint Michael’s Church, Greenhill, Lichfield (7 April)
51, Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (8 April)
52, The Franciscan Friary, Ennis, Co Clare (9 April)
53, Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona (10 April)

The Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth … the burial place of generations of the Comberford family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 9: seven family chapels and churches:

54, Saint Mary and Saint George Church, Comberford, Staffordshire (11 April)
55, The Comberford Chapel, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (12 April)
56, The Moat House Chapel, Lichfield Street, Tamowrth (13 April)
57, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, Wiltshire (14 April)
58, The Comerford family chapel, Ballybur Castle, Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny (15 April)
59, Saint Mary’s Church, Callan, Co Kilkenny (16 April)
60, Waterford’s two Cathedrals (17 April)

The bimah in the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 10: seven synagogues:

61, Terenure Synagogue, Rathfarnham Road, Dublin (18 April)
62, Leicester Avenue Synagogue, Rathgar, Dublin (19 April)
63, Bevis Marks Synagogue, London (20 April)
64, Etz Hayyim Synagogue, Chania, Crete (21 April)
65, Pinkas Synagogue, Prague (22 April)
66, the New Synagogue, Berlin (23 April)
67, the Old Synagogue, Kraków (24 April)

The katholikon or main church of the Monastery of Vlatádon, Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 11: seven monasteries, abbeys and friaries:

68, Franciscan Friary, Askeaton, Co Limerick (25 April)
69, Saint John’s Monastery, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex (26 April)
70, Saint Benedict’s Abbey, Ealing (27 April)
71, Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick (28 April)
72, Vlatádon Monastery, Thessaloniki (29 April)
73, Stavropoleos Monastery, Bucharest (Orthodox Good Friday, 30 April)
74, Monastery of Arkadi, Crete (1 May)

Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the Church of Aghios Georgios in Panormos on Easter afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 12: seven churches in Crete (Easter week in Greece):

75, the two parish churches in Tsesmes and Platanes (Orthodox Easter, 2 May)
76, Church of the Four Martyrs, Rethymnon (3 May)
77, Cathedral of the Presentation, Rethymnon (4 May)
78, The Church of the Ascension and Saint George, Panormos (5 May)
79, The two churches in Piskopianó (6 May)
80, Aghios Vasilios, Koutouloufari (7 May)
81, Saint Catherine of Sinai, Iraklion (8 May)

Peterborough Cathedral seen from the Guildhall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 13: seven English cathedrals:

82, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London (9 May)
83, Peterborough Cathedral (10 May)
84, Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral (11 May)
85, Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral (12 May)
86, Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Ascension Day, 13 May)
87, Saint Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham (14 May)
88, Ely Cathedral (15 May)

The Barn Chapel in the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 14: seven churches and chapels with links with USPG:

89, College of the Ascension, Birmingham (16 May)
90, High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (17 May)
91, Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire (18 May)
92, Westcott House, Cambridge (19 May)
93, Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine, Limehouse, London (20 May)
94, Saint Margaret’s Church, Westminster (21 May)
95, Two retreat house chapels: Saint Columba’s House, Woking, and the Kairos Centre, Maryfield Convent, Roehampton (22 May)

Inside Great Saint Mary’s, the University Church in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Week 15: Pentecost images in churches and six churches in the Greater Churches Network in the Church of England:

96, Pentecost images (Day of Pentecost, 23 May)
97, Bath Abbey (24 May)
98, Saint Mary the Great, Cambridge (25 May)
99, Saint Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden, Essex (26 May)
100, Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, London (27 May)
101, Saint Martin in the Bullring, Birmingham (28 May)
102, Christ Church, Spitalfields, London (29 May)

Tomorrow (30 May 2021) is Trinity Sunday, and we are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. I plan to continue this daily prayer diary each morning in the coming weeks.

The three spires of Lichfield Cathedral seen from Erasmus Darwin’s Gardens, soaring above the backs of the houses facing onto the Cathedral Close (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Pentecost 2021: 96, Images on the Day of Pentecost

‘Come Holy Spirit’ … the holy water stoup in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Seasons of Lent and Easter this year, I took some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The fifty days of the Season of Easter come to an end today, the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this morning are a collection of photographs from churches, while my photographs for the rest of the week are from six churches in the ‘Major Churches Network,’ churches once known as the ‘Greater Churches’ in England – large parish churches that had

As this series of reflections comes to an end, or moves to a new phase, my photographs this morning (23 May 2021) include images of the Holy Spirit and of Pentecost from a variety of churches in England, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Italy: Lichfield, London, Prague, Tara (Co Meath) and Venice.

‘The Day of Pentecost’ or ‘The Descent of the Holy Spirit’ by Titian in the Church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 26-27, 16: 4b-15 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples:] 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

4b ‘I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

‘I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

Evie Hone’s window in Saint Patrick’s Church on the Hill of Tara, Co Meath, has images of the Pentecost interspersed with images of Saint Patrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (23 May 2021, Pentecost) invites us to pray:

Almighty Lord,
May we be filled by the Holy Spirit,
And spread your Good News across the nations.
Let us celebrate the diversity of humankind,
Using language as a gift not a barrier.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Church of the Holy Spirit in the grounds of Prague Castle and Prague Cathedral (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

The Holy Spirit in a fresco in a side chapel in Westminster Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 95, two retreat house chapels

Inside the chapel at Saint Columba’s House in Woking (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

We have come to the end of ‘in-between week’ after Ascension Day and tomorow is the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

This morning (22 May 2021), my photographs are from two retreat houses: the Kairos Centre in south-west London, close to the campuses of Roehampton University and overlooking Richmond Park, where USPG trustees held a residential meeting in November 2018; Saint Columba’s House on Maybury Hill in Woking, where we met in November 2019.

Previous venues for residential meetings have included Westcott House in Cambridge and the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in Limehouse.

The Kairos Centre, where we met in 2018, is a retreat and conference centre in an urban oasis in south-west London, standing in acres of landscaped gardens close to the campuses of Roehampton University and overlooking Richmond Park.

The tranquil setting of peaceful, secluded gardens provides a place to pray, space to think and time to meet. Kairos is keen to be a resource for the local community in response to the Lord’s invitation to ‘come and rest a while.’

The Kairos Centre is at 12 Roehampton Court, later known as Maryfield Convent, was built in 1913/1914 to a Georgian design. The architect was Frank Chesterton, who also designed part of Hampton Court and Ibstock School. The house was by the Poor Servants of The Mother of God in 1927 as a novitiate.

During World War II, Digby Stuart College nearby was hit by a bomb and a Jesuit novice was killed in an air raid in 1941. The novitiate was moved from Maryfield to Corston near Bath. Maryfield was hit by a basket of bombs in 1944, but the novices returned in 1945.

From 1974 to 1995, The Novitiate was relocated to the top floor of the convent and the remainder of the house became a residential home for women with learning disabilities.

Part of the New Wing was refurbished in 1995 and became the present Retreat and Conference Centre known as the Kairos Centre. Meanwhile, the Generalate continues to have offices in the main building.

The Chapel at the Kairos Centre was blessed and opened on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1939. Much of the building work of this chapel was helped by the generosity of Miss Agnes Foley. The Altar was made by Rock of Dublin, Gunnings of Dublin supplied the sanctuary lamp and candlesticks, and a marble plaque depicting the Annunciation came from Italy.

The side altar was donated by a Mr Segrue, and Agnes Foley gave the organ and a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child that stands in front of the main building.

The stained-glass windows above the High Altar were the gift of a benefactor of Corston Convent. The words underneath these stained-glass windows declare in Latin: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (see John 3: 16).

The Crucifix and alabaster panelling at the back of the altar and around the Sanctuary was put in place in 1949-1950 as a ‘Thanksgiving Offering’ for the community living through the London bombing during World War II, especially on the night of the burning on 4 February 1944.

On 24 September 1959, the body of the order’s founder, Mother Magdalen Taylor (1832-1900), was moved from her grave in Mortlake Cemetery to a side chapel on the anniversary of the day 90 years earlier when she founded the Poor Servants of the Mother of God in 1869.

After Vatican II, the High Altar in the chapel was moved to a new position in the Sanctuary to face the people. Every bit of the old altar was carefully taken apart and placed again in a new design in work carried out by Gunnings of Dublin in October 1968.

Saint Columba’s House on Maybury Hill in Woking, where me met in 2019, is a refurbished retreat and conference centre a mile from the centre of Woking and just 30 minutes by train from the heart London.

Saint Columba’s House is part of the registered charity, Saint Peter’s Home and Sisterhood, and maintains its original Anglican foundation.

The Sisterhood of Saint Peter was founded as a new Anglican religious community on 25 June 1861 through the active support of Benjamin Lancaster, a London businessman. Susan Oldfield was appointed the first Reverend Mother for the Sisterhood, and the community became actively engaged in health and care provision.

At first, the community was based in Brompton Square in London. The sisters moved to Kilburn in North London a few years later in 1869. Saint Peter’s Home, Woking, was built in 1883. It became the Mother house of the Community during World War II when bombs destroyed the Kilburn Convent.

Over the decades the Woking complex had a convent, a hospital, a home for the elderly, a guest house, a home for adults with learning difficulties and a retreat house. I was invited to preach in the chapel when we met as USPG trustees in 2019.

A new community was established by the sisters in Seoul in Korea in 1925 by an Irish-born nun who spent much of her childhood in Limerick.

Mother Mary Clare (1883-1950), who was born Clare Emma Whitty, spent much of her childhood at No 11 The Crescent, Limerick, on the corner of Barrington Street. She joined the Community of Saint Peter in 1912 and spent much of her life in Korea.

On the outbreak of the Korean War, she turned down an offer from the British embassy to evacuate from Seoul, deciding to stay with her congregation. When the North Korean forces retreated from Seoul Mother Mary Clare and other foreign civilian prisoners were marched forcibly to the northern part of North Korea.

On the last part of this ‘Death March,’ Mother Mary Clare died on 6 November 1950 and she was buried in a shallow grave near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by five French-speaking Roman Catholic sisters. They used an improvised bier to bring her to the top of a neighbouring hill, close to the camp, where they dug her grave.

Saint Columba’s House on Maybury Hill in Woking

John 21: 20-25 (NRSVA):

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Inside the chapel at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (22 May 2021, International Day for Biological Diversity) invites us to pray:

Let us also give thanks for the great diversity of species that inhabit our planet. Bless our efforts to preserve God’s creation.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The High Altar in the chapel at the Kairos Centre is the work of Gunnings of Dublin (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

The Crucifix and alabaster panelling at the back of the altar and around the Sanctuary in the Kairos Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 94, Saint Margaret’s, Westminster

Saint Margaret’s, Church, Westminster Abbey … the venue for a special USPG service in 2012 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

This morning (21 May 2021), my photographs are from Saint Margaret’s Church at Westminster Abbey (November 2012), where I was invited to take part in a special USPG service in November 2012, when I shared in leading the intercessions, and followed by a reception in Church House hosted by Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Saint Margaret’s is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square. The church is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch and is the parish church of the House of Commons.

Saint Margaret’s, along with the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, form a World Heritage Site. Westminster Abbey began as a Benedictine Abbey, founded in 1065 through the patronage of King Edward the Confessor. However, the monks of the new Monastery of Saint Peter in Westminster were disturbed at their daily office by the people of Westminster who came to hear Mass. The monks built a smaller church next to the abbey to serve the local people, thus leaving the monks in the abbey undisturbed. Saint Margaret’s was built in the late 11th century, although there is no precise date for its foundation.

The first church was Romanesque in style and survived until the reign of Edward III (1327-77). The nave was then replaced with one in the Perpendicular style. Towards the end of the 15th century, the whole church had fallen into a state of dilapidation and needed to be rebuilt.

The Abbot and Convent of Westminster received a grant from Pope Clement III in July 1189, confirming Saint Margaret’s Church was outside the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London.

The abbey and its properties, including Saint Margaret’s, were declared to be outside the Diocese of London in 1222 and also exempt from the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Robert Stowell began to rebuild the church in 1482, and the church was consecrated on 9 April 1523.

Until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, the church was served by the monks of the abbey, and the close relationship between Saint Margaret’s and Westminster Abbey has continued ever since.

From 1540, there was a short-lived Diocese of Westminster in the Church of England. The diocese, which survived until 1550, comprised the City of Westminster and the county of Middlesex, apart from Fulham, where Fulham Palace was the residence of the Bishop of London, and Westminster Abbey briefly became the Cathedral of Saint Peter.

When Queen Elizabeth I re-founded Westminster Abbey as a collegiate church in 1560, she maintained its exemption from episcopal authority and made the new foundation a ‘royal peculiar,’ subject only to the authority of the monarch as Visitor.

In 1614, Saint Margaret’s became the parish church of the Palace of Westminster, when the 17th century Puritans, unhappy with the liturgical abbey, chose to hold Parliamentary services in the Saint Margaret’s.

After the English Civil War and the Caroline Restoration, the Parliamentarians who had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred in 1661 and reburied in an unmarked pit in Saint Margaret's churchyard on the orders of King Charles II. A memorial to them is set into the external wall to the left of the main west entrance.

Other notable features include the East Window of Flemish stained glass, created in 1509 to commemorate the betrothal of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Other windows commemorate the printer William Caxton, who was buried at the church in 1491, Sir Walter Raleigh, who was executed in Old Palace Yard and then buried in the church in 1618, and the poet John Milton, who was a parishioner of the church.

The north-west tower of the church was rebuilt by John James in 1734-1738. At the same time, the whole building was encased in Portland stone. Both the east and west porch were added later by JL Pearson. The church’s interior was restored in 1877 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, who retained many of its Tudor features.

Saint Margaret’s Church and its parish were part of the ‘peculiar jurisdiction’ until 1840 when they were placed within the Diocese of London.

By the 1970s, the resident population of the parish had dwindled to a few hundred and in 1972 the Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret Westminster Act redefined the church’s status. Its parish was re-allocated to neighbouring parishes, while the church and its churchyard were placed once more under the governance of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, with one of the canons of Westminster Abbey serving as Rector of Saint Margaret’s.

The Revd Anthony Ball is a Canon of Westminster and Rector of Saint Margaret’s. Building work and the consequences of Covid-19 meant the church was closed to the public for a time. In recent months, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster have decided to end the Sunday morning service at Saint Margaret’s, but not without controversy.

MPs and staff members of the House of Lords and House of Commons are permitted to marry in the church, which is popular venue for society weddings. Those who have married here include the diarist Samuel Pepys, and prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan.

Inside Saint Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey … the venue for a special USPG service in 2012

John 21: 15-19 (NRSVA):

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ 17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

Saint Margaret’s lit up under the shadows of Westminster Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (21 May 2021, World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the wonderful array of languages, cultures and people that make up God’s world. May we strive for dialogue and development, embrace difference and love each other.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A shadow of darkness over Saint Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey (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

With Canon Richard Bartlett of USPG at the USPG service in Saint Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 93, Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine

Inside the Chapel of the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in Limehouse in the East End of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

This morning (20 May 2021), my photographs are from the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine’s in Limehouse, in the East End of London. I have stayed during residential meetings of trustees of USPG in November 2016 and in January 2018, and we had planned to meet there once again at the end of last year until the pandemic lockdown prevented this.

Saint Katharine’s stands at the East End crossroads connecting Stepney, Shadwell and Limehouse, close to the site of the old docks. It is just a few steps from Cable Street, the scene of a famous street battle 85 years ago between Oswald Moseley’s fascists and the East End communities who protected the local Jewish people against racist taunts and assaults on 4 October 1936.

The Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine’s dates back to 1147, when it was founded by Queen Matilda. Since then, this has been a centre for worship, hospitality and service for many centuries.

Originally known as Saint Katharine’s By The Tower, it has been a mediaeval church, hospital and centre of Saint Katharine’s precinct, a liberty housing over 2,000 people. It once had its own courts, prisons, factories and breweries and prisons.

Saint Katharine’s by the Tower – its full name was the Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church of Saint Katharine by the Tower – was a mediaeval church and hospital next to the Tower of London. The church was a royal peculiar and the precinct around it was an extra-parochial area, eventually becoming a civil parish that was dissolved in 1895.

Saint Katharine’s was founded in 1147 by Queen Matilda, the wife of King Stephen, in memory of two of her children, Baldwin and Matilda, who died in infancy and were buried in the Priory Church of Holy Trinity at Aldgate.

The endowment was increased by two Queens of England, Eleanor of Castile, who gave a gift of manors, and Philippa of Hainault. After a dispute over its control, Queen Eleanor granted a new charter in 1273, reserving the patronage of the Foundation to the Queens of England.

This was a religious community and mediaeval hospital for poor infirm people next to the Tower of London. The foundation included a Master, six ‘poor clerks’ or priests, three brethren, three sisters and a beadswoman. Unusually for that time, the brothers and sisters had equal rights.

Its status as a Liberty and the fact it was personally owned and protected by the Queen Mother, saved Saint Katharine’s at the dissolution of the monastic houses at the Reformation.

Commercial pressure for larger docks up-river led to Saint Katharine’s, with its 14th and 15th century buildings and some 3,000 inhabitants, being demolished in 1825 to provide a dock close to the heart of the City. The land was excavated and flooded to form a new dock. This was the smallest of London’s docks and was named Saint Katharine Docks.

The institution now called the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine’s moved to Regent’s Park, where it took the form of almshouses, and continued for 125 years.

After World War II, Saint Katharine’s moved back to its spiritual home in the East End in 1948, and moved onto the site in Limehouse of Saint James’s Church, Ratcliff, which had been destroyed in the Blitz.

The foundation was housed in the Georgian vicarage and over time a new complex has grown up around it, carefully built to preserve the sense of an oasis in the city.

In Limehouse, Saint Katharine’s became a retreat house with Father St John Groser, the revolutionary Anglo-Catholic slum priest, as Master. A decade earlier, he had played a significant role in the defence of Cable Street in 1936. He was joined by members of the Community of the Resurrection from Mirfield in providing worship and service in the area, and the foundation remained under the care of the Community of the Resurrection for 45 years until 1993.

The chapel was built in 1951 on the site of the bombed parish church of Saint James’s, Ratcliffe. But the 1950s were a period of austerity, and the chapel was dark with small windows and a central altar that limited its capacity and its flexibility for worship.

In 2004, Saint Katharine’s modernised and expanded its facilities to include a retreat and conference centre, so making available its hospitality more widely within the Church of England and to other churches, charities, voluntary and public sector bodies and to associated individuals.

The chapel was refurbished in 2004 by the architect Jonathan Dinewell. He transformed the chapel successfully with larger windows, relocating the choir stalls, moving the altar to the east under a Saint Katharine’s wheel rose window, and introducing some of the foundation’s historic monuments into the chapel. His restoration led to a much lighter and brighter interior, with its large windows and enhanced sense of peace.

At each side of the doors leading into the chapel are statues of Queen Philippa (left) and King Edward III (right). The glazed entry doors came from Andrew Pynter’s chapel built in 1828 when Saint Katharine’s moved to Regent’s Park.

Above the door are carved 17th century panels with putti, the side ones making music and singing.

The Altar in Welsh slate was designed by Keith Murray and carved with inscriptions from Roman catacombs by Ralph Bayer. The inscription on the altar facing into the chapel reads: ‘Behold I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious / and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded’ (I Peter 2: 6).

The reredos above the altar is a remarkable relief of the Adoration of the Magi, which was moved out of the Cloister in 2004 and restored. The imagery is similar to a painting from the 1470s by Benevenuto di Giovanni in the National Gallery in London. Above the reredos, an east window was installed in 2004 depicting the wheel on which Saint Katharine was tortured before her martyrdom.

In front of the Altar, in the centre of the floor of the chapel, a Compass Rose was laid in 2004 with a circle of granite brought back from Saint Catherine’s Monastery on the slopes of Mount Sinai, the world’s oldest Christian monastery (see 3 April 2021).

The eight arms of the compass denote the seven days of creation and the day of the Resurrection, and point to the corners of the earth, calling us to ‘Go, proclaim the Gospel to all nations.’ The ring encircling the compass is inscribed with words of Saint Augustine of Hippo: ‘We do not come to God by navigation but by love.’

The richly carved choir stalls came from the mediaeval Church of Saint Katharine by the Tower. They are outstanding examples of 14th century wood-carving but, alas, are only a fragment of the 24 stalls that survived until the 18th century. All these stalls have misericords with delightfully lively figures.

The oak panels around the chapel are decorated with the coats of arms of some of the Masters of Saint Katharines’s from the 15th to the 19th century. The hexagonal pulpit has marquetry panels of domes and spired churches. It was once believed that this pulpit was a gift of former master Sir Julius Caesar, but recent studies suggest that it is an 18th century work based on earlier designs.

High on the west wall of the chapel hangs a crucifix carved by Michael Groser, son of the first post-war Master, Father St John Groser.

The entrance to the chapel with statues of Queen Philippa, left, and King Edward III, right (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 20-26 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

The Altar in the chapel designed by Keith Murray with the reredos above (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (20 May 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for innovative ways in which to share the Gospel during a pandemic. May we use this crisis as an opportunity to spread the Word.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Master’s stall among the choir stalls in the chapel (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

A carved relief of Saint Katharine on the north wall of the chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 92, Westcott House, Cambridge

The chapel and buildings of Westcott House appear to form visual cloisters for neighbouring All Saints’ Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

This morning (19 May 2021), my photographs are from Westcott House, Cambridge. This Anglican theological college on Jesus Lane was the venue for a residential meeting of USPG trustees in November 2015. I have also taken part in seminars in Westcott House organised by the Institute for Orthodox Institute for Christian Studies, which is based across the street at Wealey House, Jesus Lane, and I have visited Westcott House regularly when I have stayed around the corner at Sidney Sussex College.

During the residential meeting of USPG trustees in Westcott House, we met in the Knight Room, facing on one side onto Jesus Lane and out across the gardens of Jesus College, and on the other side onto the Front Court of Westcott House. We also took part the Community Eucharist in the college chapel.

Westcott House was founded in 1881 as the Clergy Training School by Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), then the Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge University and later Bishop of Durham.

Westcott was one of the Cambridge Triumvirate of Biblical scholars, alongside Joseph Lightfoot (1828-1899), who was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and who preceded Westcott as Bishop of Durham, and the Dublin-born Fenton Hort (1828-1892), Hulsean Professor of Divinity in Cambridge. Together, they produced The New Testament in the Original Greek, which lead to the Revised Version, the Revised Standard Version and eventually the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible.

William Derrick Lindsay Greer (1902-1972) became the first Irish-born Principal of Westcott House in 1944. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and Trinity College Dublin. He was the Secretary of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) in Britain and Ireland (1935-1944) before becoming the Principal of Westcott House. He later became Bishop of Manchester (1947-1970), and died in 1972.

Staff members over the decades have included many important Anglican theological minds, including Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury; John Habgood, Archbishop of York; Hugh Montefiore, Bishop of Birmingham; Alan Webster, Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London; and, of course, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. Others include Charles Freer Andrews, a missionary, educator and social reformer in India; Canon John Collins, a leading figure in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Anti-Apartheid Movement; and the theologians Don Cupitt, later Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Mary Tanner, Angela Tilby and Harry Williams.

Among the Irish alumni was Dr Maurice O’Connor (‘Con’) Drury was (1907-1976), who was an ordinand for just a year before he left Westcott House. Con Drury became a friend of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, while he was an undergraduate at Saint John’s College, Cambridge, and was instrumental in arranging Wittgenstein’s various visits to Ireland.

Inside the chapel of Westcott House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 11-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 11 ‘And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.’

Preparing for the Community Eucharist in the chapel of Westcott House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 May 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for religious communities, and the people who devote their lives to worship. May they have strength and peace in all they do.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A quiet corner near the chapel in Westcott House, Cambridge (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

The bell at the chapel in Westcott House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 90, High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon

The Barn Chapel in the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

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This morning (17 May 2021), my photographs are from the High Leigh Conference Centre, outside Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire. High Leigh is the planned venue for the USPG conference once again this year (20 to 22 July 2021), and I still have hopes that the roll out of the vaccine and the easing of travel restrictions may mean I can take part in the conference this year, the last year in my six-year term as a trustee of USPG.

I have taken part in many USPG conferences here in the past (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019), sometimes leading workshops, taking part in council and trustee meetings, and I presided at the Eucharist at the end of the 2012 conference. I was also the chaplain in 2006 at a joint conference of the Friends of the Church in China and the China Desk of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), when I led daily worship and celebrated the Sunday Eucharist.

The High Leigh Conference Centre is a beautiful Victorian country house, set in extensive parkland and landscaped gardens, surrounded by some of Hertfordshire’s most beautiful countryside. The house was built in 1853 by Charles Webb, a gold lace manufacturer, and was bought in 1871 by Robert Barclay, a member of a well-known banking dynasty and a committed Christian, who renamed it High Leigh.

For generations, members of the Barclay family were leading Quakers, and there is a Friends’ Meeting House on Lord Street, leading from Hoddesdon out to High Leigh. By the time they came to live at High Leigh, the Barclays were committed Anglicans.

On the stairs to the room where I was staying in High Leigh on the last occasion, the walls are lined with Victorian photographs of the Barclay family and their staff, and a stained-glass window in the original parts of the house shows an impaled Barclay coat-of-arms that has a bishop’s mitre as one of the two crests.

Robert Barclay (1843-1921) was the son of Joseph Gurney Barclay and Mary Walker Barclay; his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848-1911), was a granddaughter of the 19th century reformer and campaigner against slaver, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and their large family included many missionaries. Joseph Gurney Barclay (1879-1976), who was born at High Leigh, left Barclay’s Bank to be become am Anglican missionary in Japan, where his wife Gillian died in 1909.

Another son, the Revd Gilbert Arthur Barclay (1882-1970), was a vicar in Cumbria, Leicester and Essex, and an army chaplain and hospital chaplain. A daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Barclay (1885-1932), who was born in High Leigh, was a missionary in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Her sister, Clemence Rachel Barclay (1874-1952), married Bishop Edward Sydney Woods (1877-1953) in Hoddesdon in 1903. He was the Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Suffragan Bishop of Croydon, and Bishop of Lichfield (1937-1952).

Robert Barclay continued to live at High Leigh until he died in 1921. His family then sold the property on favourable terms to First Conference Estate, a company he had been a director of, so that the house could become a Christian conference centre. The generosity of the Barclay family is celebrated in a plaque in the Oak Room.

Hoddesdon is a parish is in the Diocese of St Alban’s, and the parish church, the Church of Saint Catherine and Saint Paul, is in Paul’s Lane.

The High Leigh Conference Centre is a beautiful Victorian country house, long associated with the Barclay family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 16: 29-33 (NRSVA)

29 His disciples said, ‘Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.’ 31 Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

An image of the Virgin Mary in a quiet corner at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (17 May 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the relationship between the Anglican Church in Korea and USPG.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The impaled Barclay and Buxton coats-of-arms with an episcopal mitre at High Leigh (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

The parish church of Saint Catherine and Saint Paul in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)