Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 9, Wednesday 11 February 2026

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … hearts at Winchester Walk near Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (8 February 2026), and Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are just a week away (18 March 2025).

Later today, I hope to take part in both a lunchtime meeting of clergy in the Milton Keynes area at the Servant King Church in Furzton and in the evening in choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Before today begins, however, 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.

‘There are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles’ (Mark 7: 4) … pots and pans in the kitchen in Bryce House on Garinish Island, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 14-23 (NRSVA):

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

‘Why do your disciples … eat with defiled hands?’ (Mark 7: 5) … preparing to eat lunch at a restaurant in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

During my hospital visits, I find it interesting to see how many people still wear face masks and sanitise their hands in those places. It is so easy to forget how we were all wearing facemasks in public places not so long ago, sanitising our hands, and how we got used to having our temperatures taken in many buildings.

The arguments about sanitising our hands and wearing facemasks are a very different order of argument to the arguments in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 7: 14-23) about washing my hands before I prepare food, and about presenting that food with clean cups and plates and knives and forks.

It is so easy for me to look at the people I do not like and then to find passages in the Bible that shore up, that support and that justify that prejudice, and that make me feel good because I now feel a little more smug, a little more superior.

And that is precisely the moment when the Jesus of today’s Gospel reading steps in and upbraids me, and calls me a hypocrite.

As we saw with the Gospel reading yesterday (Mark 7: 1-13), in Greek, the word hypocrite (ὑποκριτής, hypokrités) was used for an actor who masked or hid his face. It came to mean someone who plays a part on stage. Because these people did not speak their own words, this label came to mean a pretender, what we call today a hypocrite.

When I speak words that are taken at random, or taken out of context in the Bible, I need to be careful I am not using them out of context, or condemning people for a fault that is not necessarily theirs, something I project onto them.

Some years ago, I came across this piece of doggerel inside a church porch in Ardmore, Co Waterford:

I was shocked, confused bewildered
as I entered heaven’s door,
not by the beauty of it all,
nor the lights or its décor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp –
the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from sixth class
who swiped my lunch box twice.
Next to him was my old neighbour
who never said something nice.

Bob, who I always thought
would rot away in hell,
was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
looking oh so well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How come these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.

‘And why is everyone so quiet,
so sombre – give me a clue?’
‘Hush child,’ he said ‘they’re all in shock.
They weren’t expecting you.’

If I saw myself the way others see me, I would be less reluctant to open my mouth so often.

But the Church is full of people who continue to judge others – even other members of the Church – and justify their judgmentalism with passages of Scripture they quote out of context, sometimes even claiming passages of Scripture that simply do not exist – for example the way an altered version of Ezekiel 25: 17 is recited in Pulp Fiction by Jules Winnfield (Samuel L Jackson). It is a cinematic invention heavily influenced by a similar speech in The Bodyguard (1976), but is now quoted as Scripture, chapter and verse, by violent ultra-right activists.

Literalist hypocrisy it is not just about washing hands and pots and pans. If it was only that, it might be funny.

There are people who condemn people for their sexuality, they look down on people because of who they fall in love with or marry, they even claim to uphold Biblical standards of marriage. But David, for example, offered no Biblical standards of marriage; and Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines, hardly offered a Biblical standard of marriage either.

I find it quite shocking, yet it seems inevitable, that many people in the Church use arguments about sexuality, bolstered with phrases such as ‘Biblical standards of marriage,’ to express prejudices about sexuality. Some even remain opposed to women being ordained priests and bishops.

This is using another voice, another set of words, Biblical quotations, to express what is not in the Bible; the very origins of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the classical Greek and in this reading readily come to mind.

In the Church, there can be no discrimination against people in ministry based on gender, age, sexuality, marital status, ethnicity, class or cultural background, or language, for God knows no such discrimination.

I too easily become a hypocrite when I use the words or behaviour of others to condemn them, without having the courage to say exactly where I stand.

Father Tikhon (Murtazov) was a much-loved Russian spiritual guide who died in 2018. A nun, Sister Olga (Schemanun of Snetogorsk Monastery), recalled how he welcomed everyone who came to visit him and who asked for his guidance and prayers.

Amazed at his kindness, she asked him one day: ‘Why don’t you refuse anyone? You bless whatever they ask of you.’

‘We’re in difficult times now,’ he said. ‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

‘It’s better to sin by love than by strictness.’

We should worry as much about making careless wounding remarks as much as we would worry about preparing food unhygienically.

As I asked yesterday, can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hate as much as we put into seeing we have sanitised our hands, were wearing colourful facemasks a few years ago, seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church on Sunday morning – or even as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

Classical masks from the theatre in Athens in the Acropolis Museum … the word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for an actor who masked or hid his face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 11 February 2026):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Safe Routes’ (pp 26-27). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 11 February 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray that the Church in the UK may be a steadfast and courageous voice for refugees. Inspire us to speak against racism and injustice, to welcome and protect those seeking safety, and to act with compassion and integrity toward every displaced person in need.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come’ (Mark 7: 21) … street art in Porto (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 Ordinary Time 2025: 62, Thursday 10 July 2025

‘If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town’ (Matthew 10: 14) … a colourful welcome on India Street in Kuching in Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Third Sunday after Trinity (Trinity III, 6 July 2025). I am travelling to Oxford later today and staying there overnight in advance of an early-morning medical procedure tomorrow.

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts’ (Matthew 10: 9) … a selection of old coins in an antiques shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 10: 7-15 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 ‘As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.’

‘If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town’ (Matthew 10: 14) … a welcome sign at Athens International Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 7-15) continues yesterday’s account of the commission and mission of the Twelve (Matthew 10: 1-7), as the Twelve are given their instructions for mission among the ‘lost sheep’: they are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; they are to give without expecting payment in return, travel lightly, be humble in accepting generosity, and to wish peace to all; and they are reminded of the dreadful consequences of hospitality not offered or hospitality spurned.

When I was discussing the particularly Greek concept of φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (philoxenia) in a blog posting last night (9 July 2025), I talked about a need to understand the sacrament of hospitality. But most of the discussions about sacramental hospitality are actually discussing to whom should we extend hospitality at the Eucharist rather than any potential sacramental understanding of generous hospitality itself.

The reference to Sodom and Gomorrah in today’s reading is a reminder of the story in Genesis 19, in which two angels are sent to destroy Sodom. Lot welcomes them into his home, but all the men of the town surround the house and demand that Lot surrender his visitors that they may ‘know’ them carnally (see Genesis 19: 5). Lot offers the mob his virgin daughters to ‘do to them as you please’, but they refuse and threaten to do worse to Lot.

In response, the angels strike the crowd blind, and tell Lot: ‘the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it’ (Genesis 19: 13).

The next morning, because Lot had lingered, the angels take Lot, Lot’s wife, and his two daughters by the hand and out of the city, and tell Lot to flee to the hills and not look back. Lot says that the hills are too far away and asks to go to Zoar instead. Sulphur and fire are then rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (Genesis 19: 24-25). Lot and his daughters are saved, but his wife disregards the warning, looks back, and is turned into a pillar of salt.

‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ would become bywords for destruction and desolation (see Deuteronomy 29: 21-23). Other Biblical books initially attribute a variety of non-sexual sins to the inhabitants of Sodom. It is only much later that what came to be labelled ‘unnatural’ sex and homosexuality began to be included on these lists, and eventually homosexuality was interpreted as the primary sin of Sodom.

Sodom and Gomorrah, or the ‘cities of the plain’, were used historically and in modern discourse as metaphors for homosexuality, and are the origin of the English words sodomite, a pejorative term for male homosexuals, ‘sod’, a vulgar English slang term for male homosexuals, and sodomy, which is used in a legal context under the label crimes against nature to describe anal or oral sex (particularly homosexual) and bestiality.

The origin of the argument that sodomy was sinful is found in a contested reading of one word in the story. Citing Sodom and Gomorrah, Christian authorities began to label and condemn acts of sodomy as the worst of all sexual sins, and one of the worst crimes in general. For many centuries, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was used by the Church to justify criminalisation of sexual practices between men, and people labelled sodomites were often punished by execution.

To this day, the phrase ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ remains a rallying call among some far-right groups in Northern Ireland.

However, since the mid 20th century, scholars in increasing numbers have seen the great sin of Sodom as the inhospitable treatment of guests. Much of the debate in modern interpretation of the greatest sin of Sodom, and whether the story concerns or condemns homosexuality, rests on interpreting the moment the mob from Sodom confronts Lot about his guests.

Today, many scholars dispute the interpretation that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah involve homosexuality. They cite Ezekiel 16: 49-50 and interpret the sin as arrogance and lack of hospitality. As with Ezekiel, later prophetic reproaches of Sodom and Gomorrah do not condemn, implicate, or even mention homosexual conduct as the reason for the destruction of the city. Instead, they assign the blame to other sins, ranging from adultery, sexual violence and exploitation and dishonesty, to a lack of charity and an unwillingness to extend appropriate and generous hospitality.

If the obsession with equating gay sexuality with the sin of Sodom that is found among many evangelicals to this day was tempered even by true Biblical literalism and instead became widespread condemnation by those evangelicals, particularly in Trump’s America, of sexual violence and exploitation, dishonesty and an unwillingness to offer generous hospitality to the stranger, imagine what a different place the United States of America would be this day.

But, perhaps, I ought to conclude with a story retold this week that conveys how we can mis-hear and minterpret words because of our already determined cultural presuppositions and prejudices.

In its obituary of Lord (David) Lipsey, the journalist and Labour peer who died tragically earlier this week, the Guardian recalled on Tuesday how he had founded a newspaper at school in Bryanston and interviewed his future mentor, Anthony Crosland, then the Education Secretary and committed to abolishing public schools. The young interviewer reported Crosland saying prep schools were ‘stinking breeding grounds of sodomy’. Years later, Lipsey came across a Crosland speech and realised he had misheard the last word. It should have been ‘snobbery’.

A welcome sign in English, Hebrew and Greek at Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 10 July 2025):

The theme this week (6 to 12 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Following in the Footsteps of Saint Thomas.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Mark Woodrow, USPG Bishop’s Nominee for St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and Parish Priest and Rural Dean in Suffolk.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 10 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Loving God, we pray for churches across India. May they be strengthened amidst change, fill the gaps left by departing youth, and guide all who follow you into deeper trust.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining
and whose power we cannot comprehend:
show us your glory as far as we can grasp it,
and shield us from knowing more than we can bear
until wemay look upon you without fear;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

God our saviour,
look on this wounded world
in pity and in power;
hold us fast to your promises of peace
won for us by your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

A welcome sign at Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield (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 day to learn about the story of Westminster College, the college chapel, and the work of the Woolf Institute

Celebrations and pre-Christmas drinks with the IOCS at Westminster College, Cambridge, last weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

It was a true joy and pleasure to be back in Cambridge last weekend and to take part in the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. The celebrations provided a delightful opportunity for about 70 people to celebrate and reflect on the work of IOCS over the past quarter of a century in promoting a ‘Generous Orthodoxy’.

I had been a student on the summer courses IOCS offered at Sidney Sussex College over many years (2008-2016), and this was an opportunity to renew old friendships and to make new friends.

It was my third time back in Cambridge this year. But Saturday – as well as being a day of celebrations and reflections – was also a day for prayer and worship, and it was my first time to visit Westminster College and its chapel, to visit the Woolf Institute and to learn about its work.

Westminster College on Madingley Road, Cambridge, is the theological college of the United Reformed Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Westminster College on Madingley Road, Cambridge, is the theological college of the United Reformed Church, training people for ordained ministry and also providing wider theological training in the URC.

The college was founded in London in 1844, after the synod of the newly-formed Presbyterian Church in England in 1842 decided to set up ‘as speedily as possible’ a college that would provide men with ‘a literary, philosophical and theological education, to qualify them for the office of Holy Ministry in the Presbyterian Church.’

The new English Presbyterian College was formed at Exeter Hall on the Strand in 1844. The Revd Dr Peter Lorimer (1812-1879) was appointed the first principal in 1845 and was also Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Criticism, teaching Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldee, as well as exegetical theology.

The college then had three successive homes in Bloomsbury: 51 Great Ormond Street, (1852-1858), 29 Queen Square (1858-1864) and Queen Square House, Queen Square (1864-1899). It was involved in the proposals in 1890 for a new federal University of Westminster, involving most of London’s higher-education institutions. When these proposals failed, the college moved to Cambridge in 1899 as Westminster College.

The portraits of Agnes Smith Lewis (left) and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in the Dining Hall in Westminster College (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The site near the centre of Cambridge was bought from Saint John’s College, and was the gift of Scottish twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis (1843-1920) and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843-1926), both noted biblical scholars, linguists and orientalists. They are known for their study of one of the earliest versions of the earliest Gospel manuscripts, the Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus, discovered in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.

The contributions of these sisters to Biblical studies also include the publication of the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a sixth-century palimpsest that contains portions of the Old Testament and New Testament, and palimpsest manuscripts in Aramaic of the Forty Martyrs of the Sinai Desert and the Story of Eulogios, the Stone Cutter. They edited many other key manuscripts in Syriac and Arabic.

They found many of the manuscripts in the antiquities market in Cairo and acquired them for the library in Westminster College. While Lewis and Gibson were travelling in the Middle East in 1897, they also found and bought some fragments of parchment of the Cairo Genizah. With the support of Solomon Schechter, they made several more trips to the Middle East, locating the majority of the Genizah at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. Schechter identified the fragments as part of the Hebrew Wisdom of Sirach.

The story of these women is told by Janet Soskice, Professor Emerita of Philosophical Theology at Cambridge, in her book Sisters of Sinai (2009), and their portraits hang above the High Table in the Dining Hall in Westminster College.

Inside the college chapel in Westminster College, facing the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Following an appeal for funds, particularly among Presbyterians in England, Westminster College commissioned a new building designed in the Arts and Crafts style by Henry Thomas Hare (1860-1921), the architect who also designed Oxford Town Hall (1897), and the college was built in 1897-1899.

The college began to amalgamate with Cheshunt College, Cambridge, in 1967, in advance of the union of the Congregational Church in England and the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church in 1972.

Cheshunt College, the former theological college of the Congregationalists, was founded in 1768 by Selina Countess of Huntingdon after six Anglican students were expelled from St Edmund Hall, Oxford because of their alleged Methodist leanings. It moved to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, in 1792 and to Cambridge in 1906.

Inside the college chapel in Westminster College, facing the liturgical west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The college chapel was the gift of Sir William Noble (1863-1935), later Lord Kirkley, and his wife Margaret (née Dixon) to commemorate their son William Black Noble, who died in 1915 during World War I, and was dedicated in 1921. Noble was a shipowner and a partner in Cairns, Noble & Co, who ran the Cairn Line.

The chapel looks more like a traditional Cambridge college chapel than a Presbyterian meeting house. It includes an antechapel with a gallery, a screen with gates leading into the choir, and a raised apse. The communion table is designed for standing rather than sitting, although it is set forward from the wall.

Three of the 11 stained-glass windows in the college chapel by the Scottish artist Douglas Strachan (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The 11 stained-glass windows in the chapel are by the Scottish artist Douglas Strachan (1875-1950). Beginning at the far right as one enters is a series of windows, four from the Old Testament on the right and five from the New Testament on the left. Linking all the windows is the text of the canticle Benedicite opera omnia in the top panels: ‘O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord.’

The sequence begins with Ezekiel’s vision of God on one side of the organ and then Noah sacrificing at an altar after the Flood on the other. In the antechapel is a scene of the Ark of the Covenant in procession and another of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

The Old and New Testaments are linked by figures over the gallery, Law and Love, before coming to a Nativity scene, the Baptism of Christ, the Temptations, Christ stilling the storm and, finally, Saint John’s vision of the New Jerusalem.

Other symbolism and figures in the chapel includes the signs of the Zodiac, a Bambi-like deer, a robin in the snow and Sir Isaac Newton.

The decoration of the apse was completed in 1929 by W Jowsey, and there is some fine needlework in the hassocks.

An icon of the Samaritan Woman at the Well … a gift from the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There are two small icons on the screen, a reminder of the role of the college in facilitating ecumenical dialogue involving the Orthodox Church.

An icon of the Samaritan Woman at the Well was a gift from the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. A small version of Andrei Rublev’s ‘Hospitality of Abraham’ was presented by Bishop Konstantin Tikhvinsky (Goryanov) of Tikhvin, Rector of St Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, when he visited Westminster College in 1999.

The war memorial plaques include one with the names of both English and German students who died in World War II.

The Dining Hall in Westminster College … the portraits of Lewis and Gibson hang above the high table (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

To this day, the portraits of Lewis and Gibson hang above the high table in the Dining Hall in Westminster College. But the college sold many of the manuscripts found by Lewis and Gibson to the Green Collection in 2010 and they have since been put on show in the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC.

Three years later, the Cairo Genizah collection was sold by Westminster College for £1.2 million in 2013. The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford and Cambridge University Library got together to buy the collection.

Westminster College used the money to help finance a refurbishment of the college in 2013-2014.

Preparing for a celebration of the Holy Communion in the chapel in Westminster College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Westminster College is not part of the University of Cambridge officially, but with other courses and institutes, including the IOCS and the Woolf Institute, it forms the Cambridge Theological Federation, which is affiliated with the university. Most students at Westminster College work for either a BA or MA degree from Anglia Ruskin University or a BTh or BA degree from Cambridge University.

The 11 member and associate member houses of the Cambridge Theological Federation are: the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide; the Eastern Region Ministry Course (Anglican); the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion; the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Orthodox); the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology (Roman Catholic); Ridley Hall (Anglican); Wesley House (Methodist); Westcott House (Anglican); Westfield House (Lutheran); Westminster College (Reformed); and the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths.

Westminster College has been home to both the Woolf Institute and the Faraday Institute since 2017. The Margaret Beaufort Institute has a home at the Woolf Institute since moving in October from Lady Margaret House in Grange Road, the convent of the Canonesses of Saint Augustine.

The Woolf Institute in the grounds of Westminster College is also part of the Cambridge Theological Federation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Woolf Institute, where most of our discussions took place on Saturday afternoon, was founded in 1998 by Edward Kessler and Martin Forward to ‘provide an academic framework and space in which people could tackle issues of religious difference constructively.’ It is dedicated to the study of interfaith relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims and aims to foster greater understanding and tolerance.

The institute began as the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, and expanded over time to include the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations and the Centre for Policy and Public Education. The three centres were combined in 2010 and renamed as the Woolf Institute in honour of Lord (Harry) Woolf, a patron of the institute and former Lord Chief Justice.

The Woolf Institute also contributes to the MPhil in Middle East Studies at the University of Cambridge, and offers a doctorate in collaboration with the Cambridge Theological Federation and Anglia Ruskin University.

Edward Kessler, the founder president of the Woolf Institute, is a leading thinker in interfaith relations, primarily Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, and chairs the Commission on the Integration of Refugees. He is a Fellow of Saint Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and is also a Principal of the Cambridge Theological Federation.

The Woolf Institute, the venue the IOCS seminars on Saturday, was founded in 1998 by Edward Kessler and Martin Forward (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Greeks have a word for it: 47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Acropolis? … part of the Parthenon frieze in the Acropolis Museum in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Going around the Acropolis Museum in Athens some years ago, I overheard a tourist in one guide, who was gazing on the displays of the frieze, exclaim out loud, in wonder and awe: ‘Look, the Four Horsemen of the Acropolis.’

This is not an apocryphal story. But I can only imagine how difficult it must be for any tour guide to explain to someone so knowledgeable and informed as that man the difference between the words Acropolis, Apocalypse and, perhaps even, Apocrypha … and apoplectic.

The English word apocalypse comes directly from the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις (apokállipsis), derived a combination of απο- (apo-), a prefix used like ‘un-’ in English and meaning ‘away from’ or ‘not’; and καλύπτω (-calypto) meaning to cover, veil or hide. So, an apocalypse is something hidden that is unveiled, uncovered or revealed.

In Greek mythology, Calypso (Καλυψώ) was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia. Her name comes from καλύπτω (kalyptō), ‘to cover’, ‘to conceal’, or ‘to hide’, so her name means ‘she who conceals.’ She was believed to conceal vital knowledge and was a reclusive character on her island.

Homer says in the Odyssey Calypso she detained Odysseus for seven years against his will and promised him immortality if he would stay with her. But Odysseus preferred to return home and eventually, after the intervention of other gods, Calypso was forced to let Odysseus go.

Imagine a new sculpture or work of art about to be unveiled in a town square. It is still under wraps while people gather and the speeches are made. After the ceremonies, a chord is pulled, the cloth falls off, and the statue, which has remained unseen, is unveiled and revealed. This quite simply is an apocalyptic moment. It is a dramatic moment, but without being melodramatic.

But the word apocalyptic has melodramatic significance because many of us associate these words with the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. Many years ago, I caught a ferry from Kos to Patmos, and climbed halfway up the mountainside to the Cave of the Apocalypse (Σπήλαιο Αποκάλυψης), between the villages of Chóra and Skala. The cave marks the place where Saint John received his visions recorded in the Book of Revelation.

The opening verse introduces the book as: Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ …’ Indeed, some translations give Apocalypse as the title of the book. Its many revelations, often horrific, are typically regarded as apocalyptic, including the four horsemen in Chapter 6.

The four horsemen ride on white, red, black, and pale horses, and all save for the figure of Death are portrayed as human in appearance. The first horseman rides a white horse, carries a bow, and is given a crown as a figure of conquest. The second horseman carries a great sword and rides a red horse as the creator of war and slaughter. The third rides a black horse symbolising famine and carries a pair of scales. The fourth horse is pale, and on it rides Death, followed by Hades.

‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ (Ezekiel 37: 3) … skulls in the ossuary in Arkadi Monastery from a battle in 1866 during the Turkish occupation of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

These revelations have given the word apocalypse negative connotation, similar to Armageddon, the final cataclysmic battle (see Revelation 16: 16) and the end of the world.

But apocalyptic literature is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597-587 BCE). In this genre, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically involve symbolic imagery drawn from the Hebrew Bible, cosmological and pessimistic historical surveys, the division of time into periods, esoteric numerology, and claims of ecstasy and inspiration.

Almost all examples are written under pseudonyms, claiming as their author a hero from the past, as with parts of the Book of Daniel (7-12), composed during the 2nd century BCE but bearing the name of Daniel from the 6th century BCE.

Elements of apocalyptic literature are also found in Ezekiel 1-3, 37 (the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones) and 38-39; and Zechariah 1-6, and in apocryphal works such as 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. There are apocalyptic themes too in Isaiah (24-27, 33, 34-35), Jeremiah (33: 14-26), Joel (3: 9-17) and Zechariah (12-14).

The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament. But the account of the baptism of Jesus in Saint Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 3: 13-17) could be considered apocalyptic, for the heavens open for the presence of a divine mediator, the dove representing the Holy Spirit, and a voice communicates supernatural information, although there is no eschatological element.

The Gospel accounts foretelling the destruction of the Temple and predicting signs of the end times and the second coming (Matthew 24: 1-51; Mark 13: 1-37) are apocalyptic narratives that draw extensively on Daniel 7. The account of the Last Judgment, with the separation of the sheep and the goats is also apocalyptic in nature (Matthew 25: 31-46).

In addition, there are apocalyptic passages in some Pauline passages (see II Thessalonians 2: 1-12, the vision of the Man of Lawlessness), as well as II Peter 3 and Jude 14-15.

Previous words: 46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

Next word: 48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

Saint John the Evangelist in the Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos … two images on Greek postage stamps (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible

54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality

55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church

56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church

57, series to be continued.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 95, Tuesday 13 August 2024

‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 18: 3) … a stained-glass window in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Edtha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Jeremy Taylor (1667), Bishop of Down and Connor and teacher of the faith; Florence Nightingale (1910), nurse and social reformer; and Octavia Hill (1912), social reformer.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

He called a child, whom he put among them (Matthew 18: 2) … a stained-glass window in Saint Dunstan-in-the-West Church in Fleet Street, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14 (NRSVA):

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2 He called a child, whom he put among them, 3 and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

10 ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.

12 ‘What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

‘Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 18: 4) … a stained-glass window in the Chapel in Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

I think all of us have been disturbed in recent weeks about the terrors that are being rained down on children in the world today.

I say ‘children’ and not ‘innocent children,’ because there is no such being as a guilty child – there are only innocent children.

And the suffering and plight of children is all the more distressing when is caused by the calculations of adults who dismiss this suffering as merely the collateral damage brought about by war or because these children are dismissed as foreigners or outsiders.

For Christians, this distress must always be acute, must always demand our compassion, must always call for our response.

It cannot matter to us what label is placed on these children – whether the suffering Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are Christians or Muslim, whether the children kidnapped from a kibbutz in Israel are from secular or religious Jewish families, whether the children on boats in the English Channel are from Africa, Asia or the Middle East, whether the refugee children Charlotte and I visited across Europe on behalf of USPG last year are Ukrainian or Russian.

The disciples ask Christ in the Gospel reading today (Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14), ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He responds by calling a child, puts the child among them, and tells them: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’

We are not told whether this child is a boy or girl, Jew or Samaritan, Greek or Roman, a street urchin or the child of one of the Disciples.

Indeed, in all likelihood, the Disciples never noticed, for at that time a child was of no economic value and a burden on families until the child could earn his or her own way, or become the equivalent of a pension scheme for parents.

But Christ tells us: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

The Kingdom of Heaven is like little things. The Gospels remind us time and again that the Kingdom of Heaven is like small things:

• Sowing a seed;

• Giving a nest to the birds of the air;

• Mixing yeast;

• Turning small amounts of flour into generous portions of bread;

• Finding hidden treasure;

• Rushing out in joy;

• Selling all that I have because something I have found is worth more – much, much more, again and again;

• Searching for pearls;

• Finding just one pearl;

• Casting a net into the sea;

• Catching an abundance of fish;

• Drawing that abundance of fish ashore, realising there is too much there for my personal needs, and sharing it;

• Writing about it so that others can enjoy the benefit and rewards of treasures new and old.

And this morning we are told that Kingdom of God is like a little child – imagine a child playing on a beach in Gaza, falsely feeling secure in a school or hospital in Ukraine, maimed and injured in a mother’s arms at home, dying in a Gaza hospital, kidnapped at a music festival in Israel or in her parent’s home in a kibbutz, caught in terror in the midst of a far-right riot on our city streets, starving and despised in a refugee camp or in war the world ignores in Sudan, sea-sick in a crowded small boat in the English Channel, cowering in a cramped hotel room as rioters try to set the hotel alight.

In the face of these images I find myself thinking of the prophets, like Ezekiel in our first lectionary reading (Ezekiel 2: 8 to 3: 4), who are called to speaking ‘words of lamentation and mourning and woe’ and compelled to ‘go to the house of Israel and speak [God’s] very words to them.’

But I have hope too, for I hear Christ’s words today: ‘in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Matthew 18: 5) … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 13 August 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager Asia and Middle East, USPG, on the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s new programme launched in accompaniment with USPG, ‘Whom Shall I Send.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 13 August 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for all the young people currently taking part in the ‘Whom Shall I Send’ programme. May they continue to learn and grow in their ministry.

The Collect:

Holy and loving God,
you dwell in the human heart
and make us partakers of the divine nature
in Christ our great high priest:
help us who remember your servant Jeremy Taylor
to put our trust in your heavenly promises
and follow a holy life in virtue and true godliness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

‘So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost’ (Matthew 18: 14) … a stained-glass window in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

The Jewish Museum in Paris tells the stories of over 2,000 years of Jewish history in France

Inside the Jewish Museum of Art and History (mahJ) in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in Paris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

France is home to the third largest Jewish community in the world – after Israel and the US – with a Jewish presence goes back more than 2,000 years. Jewish people have lived in the Marais neighbourhood in Paris since the Middle Ages, and most Jewish people in Paris lived in the Marais until about 1985.

I spent some time in the Marais while we were in Paris last month, visiting synagogues, shops, cafés and other sites associated with Jewish life and history in Paris, and the two museums that document the history of Jews in France: the Shoah Memorial, the Holocaust Museum of Paris, opened in 2005; the Jewish Museum of Art and History (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme), commonly known as mahJ, has one of the finest collections in the world of objects of worship and art works.

The museum is housed in the majestic setting of the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, a 17th-century mansion at 71 Rue de Temple. Originally the Hôtel d’Avaux, it was built in 1644-1650 to designs by the architect Pierre Le Muet for Cardinal Mazarin’s Superintendent of Finances, Claude de Mesmes, Comte d’Avaux. It was later bought by Paul de Beauvilliers, Duc de Saint-Aignan, who added the grand staircase.

The museum focuses on the Jewish culture of France. It opened in 1998 and is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. The permanent exhibition traces the history of the Jewish people of France, Europe and the Maghreb, through art and heritage. It is dedicated to preserving 2,000 years of Jewish history in France, with over 12,000 paintings, artworks, sculptures, furniture, religious artefacts and other items dating back to the Middle Ages.

Claude-Gérard Marcus, Victor Klagsbald, and Alain Erlande-Brandenburg initiated the project to set up the museum in 1985 and were supported by the City of Paris and the Ministry of Culture. At the time, there was a modest Jewish museum, on the rue des Saules. The then mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, provided the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais for the future museum.

The choice of location was poignant: when the French Vichy collaborators were rounding up Jews for the Nazis in 1942, several of the hôtel’s residents were arrested and deported, and 13 Jewish inhabitants were murdered in the Nazi death camps.

The Marais was also chosen because it had once been the centre of Jewish life in Paris. The architects Catherine Bizouard and Francois Pin redesigned the building as a museum, making at a centre for education and research and a cultural venue.

The permanent collection had three main sources: the Musée d’art Juif in Paris; the Muséenational du Moyen-Age, also known as the Musée Cluny, with a collection built up by Isaac Strauss in the 19th century; and long-term loans from museums such as the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre and the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie. In addition, there were loans from the Consistory of Paris, the Jewish Museum in Prague and the Fondation du Judaïsme Français.

The mahJ looks at Jewish history in France from its beginnings until the birth of the State of Israel, without including the Holocaust. The project for the Mémorial de la Shoah, now 800 yards metres the museum, already existed and was commemorating the Holocaust, and the two actually complement each other.

I have visited Jewish museums in other European cities, from Dublin and Seville to Krakow, Prague and Bratislava, from Thessaloniki and Rhodes to Venice and Vienna. Unlike other Jewish museums, though, the mahJ in Paris is not a community or confessional museum. Instead, it shows the story of Jewish life in France through time and space, and also helps to ask questions about Judaism and Jewish identity.

The permanent collection highlights the diversity and unity in rituals, beliefs, art, and material culture of Jewish communities in Europe and North Africa, and large part of the collection includes works of art from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century.

Mediaeval gravestones engraved in Hebrew were discovered in 1849 at the site of a 13th century Jewish cemetery in Paris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The story of Jews in France is unique, with both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews living side-by-side and the two traditions mingling. French Jews had a rich cultural life in the Middle Ages, with great thinkers such as the 11th century rabbi Rashi.

Philip August was the first European monarch to exile a country’s Jews, in 1182, but invited them back 16 years later. Philippe IV of France issued an edict in 1306 expelling Jews from France and Charles VI finally banned them completely in 1394.

The museum displays a number of mediaeval gravestones engraved in Hebrew, discovered in 1849 with the remains of a 13th century Jewish cemetery. They are testimony to the Jewish presence in Paris during the Middle Ages, despite many persecutions.

Jewish Emancipation in France began at the French Revolution, and Jews became citizens in 1790-1791. The consistories were created in 1808 when Napoleon organised French Judaism.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus with his broken sword … a statue by Tim Mitelberg in the museum courtyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus was a major setback for Jews in France at the end of the 19th century. He was accused of high treason and was only cleared years later. The museum’s Dreyfus archive consists of more than 3,000 manuscripts, letters, photographs, family heirlooms and official documents. Outside, in the centre of the courtyard, stands an 8-ft tall reproduction of a statue by the Polish-born French artist Louis ‘Tim’ Mitelberg (1919-2002) showing Dreyfus holding his broken sword.

A section on intellectual and political movements in Europe at the turn of the century includes the emergence of Zionism, the rebirth of the Hebrew language, the blooming of Yiddish culture, and the creation of political movements in Russia and Poland, with a small section looking at the creation of the state of Israel.

The museum decided not to have a collection devoted to the Holocaust because the Shoah Memorial had already been launched in Paris. However, the museum traces the lives of some East European, Russian, Polish and Romanian Jews who came to live in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. The museum traces the lives of 12 of these Jewish immigrants to Paris, illustrating Jewish life in the Marais before the deportations during World War II. Several scale models of synagogues from East Europe, most of them destroyed by the Nazis, are reminders of a world that has disappeared.

‘Circoncision’ (1740) … one of several paintings by Marco Marcuola depicting Jewish life in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

One room is devoted to Jewish life during the Italian Renaissance in Modena, Venice and other cities. It includes synagogue furnishings, including a rare Holy Ark (Aron haKodesh) from a synagogue in Modena, silverware, liturgical embroideries and several paintings attributed to Marco Marcuola (1740-1793) depicting Jewish life in Venice.

A 1720 masterpiece in late-Baroque style by Alessandro ‘il Lissandrino’ Magnasco depicts a Jewish funeral.

The ark from Modena is the only surviving 15th century Ashkenazi ark, and was probably made by the artists Lorenzo and Cristoforo Canozzi.

A small collection of 17th and 18th century Dutch engravings represent the wanderings of Spanish Jews after the expulsions in the 15th century. A series by Bernard Picart shows how Portuguese Jews integrated into communities in Amsterdam, London and Bordeaux after their expulsion in 1496-1497.

A glimpse inside a well-preserved 19th century painted sukkah from Austria or south Germany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

An entire room is dedicated to the holiday of Hanukkah, with an exceptional collection of Hanukkiyot, and another to Pesach or Passover. A well-preserved late 19th century painted sukkah or booth from Austria or south Germany was used for the festival of Sukkot (‘Tabernacles’). It is made of pine and its panels are decorated with scenes of an Austrian village, the first few words of the Ten Commandments, and a view of Jerusalem.

The Sephardic collection illustrates the wealth of traditions and ceremonies among Jews in the Maghreb and the Ottoman Empire. There are wedding costumes donated to the museum by Jewish Moroccan families living in France after decolonisation, including a ceremonial bridal dress late 19th century, silk velvet, gold braid handed down from mother to daughter in the one family in Tetuan.

A section on the Jewish presence in 20th century art highlights the Jewish cultural renaissance in Germany and Russia but also looks at important and sometimes forgotten artists, whose works include folklore, ornamental motifs, Biblical subjects and calligraphy, and the contribution of Jewish artists in the early 20th century.

The art collections in mahJ include works by Marc Chagall and Amedeo Modigliani, and others, including works by Amedeo Modigliani, Jules Pascin, Chaïm Soutine, Michel Kikoine, Jacques Lipchitz, Chana Orloff, Yitzhak Frenel and Emmanuel Mane-Katz.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) painted Les Portes du cimetière (‘The Gates of the Cemetery’) in 1917 shortly after finding his grandfather’s grave in Vitebsk. Ida Chagall donated this painting to the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1984, a year before he died. In this painting, he associates the themes of death and resurrection with Balfour Declaration and the initial hopes for Jewish liberation after the Russian revolution in 1917.

Chagall was also inspired by words from the prophet Ezekiel: ‘I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people! And I will bring you back into the land of Israel’ (Ezekiel 37: 12-14). Two other paintings by Chagall depict the life of Jews in the shtetls.

The museum also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions. The current temporary exhibition, ‘Salonika, Jerusalem of the Balkans, 1870-1920,’ looks at Jewish life in Thessaloniki in Greece. But more about that on another day, perhaps.

Shabbat Shalom

‘Les Portes du cimetière’ (‘The Gates of the Cemetery’) painted by Marc Chagall in 1917 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)