Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 82, Tuesday 28 July 2026

‘The field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom’ (Matthew 13: 38) … a field ready for the harvest near Lismore, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII, 26 July 2026). I am on my way to Luton this morning to catch a flight to Dublin for a short, one-day family visit. But, as the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Harvest or weeds? … a field near Cross in Hand on the northern edges of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 36-43 (NRSVA):

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37 He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’

Fields of green and gold beside Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

There are some positive images in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 36-43) of the righteous shining like the sun in God’s kingdom and chilling images of others being thrown into ‘the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’.

But throughout history, humanity has stooped to burn what we dislike and what we want to expunge, and we have done it constantly.

We have been burning books as Christians since Saint Athanasius ordered the burning of texts in Alexandria in the year 367. In the Middle Ages, and sometimes even later, we burned heretics at the stake. When that stopped, we burned anything deemed to be an occasions of sin.

They were burned publicly as an accompanying theme for the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena in the early 15th century. These included mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards … even musical instruments, and, of course, books, song sheets, artworks, paintings and sculpture. In his sermons, the book-burning friar regularly called for Jews and gays to be either isolated from society or eliminated from the human community.

Later in Florence, the supporters of Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects, including cosmetics, art, and books in 1497.

On the other hand, Franz Kafka’s last request to his friend Max Brod in 1921 was to ‘burn all my diaries, letters, manuscripts … completely and unread’.

But, more recently, the Nazis staged regular book burnings, especially burning books by Jewish writers, including Thomas Mann, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein. Extremists of all religious and political persuasions want to burn the symbols and totems of their opponents, whether it is Pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran and effigies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in Florida or jihadists burning the Twin Towers in New York.

Today we are witnessing efforts by the Trump regime to suppress free speech by journalists in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the BBC and the Associated Press, capriciously excluding journalists from the White House press pool, demeaning women journalists as ‘Miss Piggy’ and threatening to strip NBC and ABC of their licences to broadcast.

The hypocrisy of these threats is aggravated by claims from the Trump regime that it is defending free speech when it attacked Britain and other European countries for seeking to curb violence and racism on US-based social media platforms.

The limits of our extremists seem to be defined by their inflammatory words.

But who is being burned in this morning’s Gospel reading?

Who is doing the burning?

And who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth?

Contrary to many shoddy reading of this Gospel reading, Christians are not asked to burn anyone or anything at all. And, if we have enemies, we are called not to burn them but to love them.

Christ has been speaking by the lake first to the crowd, telling them the parable of the wheat and the weeds (verse 24-30). The word that we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizania), a type of wild rice grass, although Saint Matthew is probably referring to a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.

Christ then withdraws into a house, and has a private conversation with the Disciples (verses 36-43), in which he explains he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).

The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41). It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today. It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).

The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, Paul, a doulos, slave, or servant of Jesus Christ (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1). The same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1) to introduce themselves in their letters.

In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3).

In other words, the apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.

This is one of eight parables about the last judgment found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and six of the seven New Testament uses of the phrase ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) occur in this Gospel (Matthew 8: 12; 13: 42; 13: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51; and 25: 30; see also Luke 13: 28).

When it comes to explaining the parable to the disciples in today’s reading (verses 36-43), the earlier references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.

The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).

Farmers are baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places already. In a few weeks’ time, many farmers will be seen burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and planting new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.

It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.

Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out. Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.

But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.

The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.

The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat, what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.

We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them about issues like sexuality, women bishops and priests, and other issues that we mistake for core values.

The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.

It is not without good reason that the Patristic writers warn that schism is worse than heresy (see Saint John Chrysostom, Patrologia Græca, vol. lxii, col. 87, On Ephesians, Homily 11, §5). We do not need to demythologise this morning’s reading. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.

When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals and their families and friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.

When I want a Church or society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!

But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and hopefullu they may realise the same about me.

‘The field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom’ (Matthew 13: 38) … harvest fields in Fisherwick, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 28 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 26 July to 1 August 2026 (pp 22-23), is ‘Lives in Transit’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 28 July 2026) invites us to pray:

God of mercy, hold close all who are weary and long to return home, particularly refugees. In their endurance, be their strength; in their uncertainty, be their peace; and in their suffering, be their hope that does not fail.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow


Franz Kafka’s last wishes … a video in the recent exhibition, ‘Kafka: Making of an Icon’, in the Weston Library in Oxford (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 2026: 73, Sunday 19 July 2026, Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII)

‘There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matthew 13: 42) … Gnasher and Gnipper in the ‘Beano’ always seemed ready to gnash their teeth

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 19 July 2026). Later this morning I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, singing with the choir and reading the first lesson.

Having stayed up last night to see England beat France 6-4 for third place in the World Cup, there are two interesting sporting events attracting my attention later today: the All-Ireland hurling final between Limerick and Galway this afternoon, and the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain this evening. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A field ready for the harvest off Cross in Hand near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 (NRSVA):

24 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28 He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29 But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn”.’

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37 He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’

Fields of green close to Comberford village, between Tamworth and Lichfield in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections:

In my imagination, when I was a child, not only were the summers long and sunny, but weekend entertainment was simpler and less complicated. The highlights of the weekend seemed to be Dr Who and Dixon of Dock Green, and the weekly editions of the Eagle and the Beano.

I may have been just a little too old (16) for the first appearance of Gnasher (1968), the pet dog of Dennis the Menace in the Beano. The G- tagged onto the beginning of the name of both Gnasher and his son Gnipper is pronounced silently, just like the silent P at the beginning of Psmith, the Rupert Psmith in so many PG Wodehouse novels.

Most of the Beano speech bubbles for both Gnasher and Gnipper consist of normal English words beginning with the letter ‘N’ with a silent ‘G’ added to the beginning, as in ‘Gnight, Gnight.’

I was a little too old for the introduction of Gnasher, but nonetheless my friends in my late teens and early 20s loved Gnasher and Gniper, joked about those silent ‘Gs’ and even recalled how as children we had joked about ‘weeping and G-nashing of teeth.’

There is very little to joke about in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 36-43). The idea of people being thrown into the furnace of fire is not a very appealing image for children, and so to joke about it is a childhood method of coping.

But throughout history, humanity has stooped to burn what we dislike and what we want to expunge, and we have done it constantly.

We have been burning books as Christians since Saint Athanasius ordered the burning of texts in Alexandria in the year 367 CE. In the Middle Ages, and sometimes even later, we burned heretics at the stake. When that stopped, we burned anything deemed to be an occasions of sin.

They were burned publicly as an accompanying theme for the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena in the early 15th century. These included mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards … even musical instruments, and, of course, books, song sheets, artworks, paintings and sculpture. In his sermons, the book-burning friar regularly called for Jews and gays to be either isolated from society or eliminated from the human community.

Later in Florence, the supporters of Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects, including cosmetics, art, and books in 1497.

On the other hand, Franz Kafka’s last request to his friend Max Brod in 1921 was to ‘burn all my diaries, letters, manuscripts … completely and unread'.

But, more recently, the Nazis staged regular book burnings, especially burning books by Jewish writers, including Thomas Mann, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein.

Extremists of all religious and political persuasions want to burn the symbols and totems of their opponents, whether it is Pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran and effigies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in Florida or jihadists burning the Twin Towers in New York.

The limits of our extremists seem to be defined by their inflammatory words.

But who is being burned in this morning’s Gospel reading?

Who is doing the burning?

And who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth?

Contrary to many shoddy reading of this Gospel reading, Christians are not asked to burn anyone or anything at all. And, if we have enemies, we are called not to burn them but to love them.

Christ has been speaks by the lake first to the crowd, telling them the parable of the wheat and the weeds (verse 24-30). The word that we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizania), a type of wild rice grass, although Saint Matthew is probably referring to a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.

Christ then withdraws into a house, and has a private conversation with the Disciples (verses 36-43), in which he explains he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).

The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41).

It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today.

It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).

The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Paul, a doulos or slave, or servant of Jesus Christ), (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1), and the same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1) to introduce themselves in their letters.

In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3).

In other words, the Apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.

This is one of eight parables about the last judgment that are found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and six of the seven New Testament uses of the phrase ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) occur in this Gospel (Matthew 8: 12; 13: 42; 13: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51; and 25: 30; see also Luke 13: 28).

When it comes to explaining the parable to the disciples in today’s reading (verses 36-43), the earlier references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.

The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).

Farmers are baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places already. In a few weeks’ time, many farmers will be seen burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and the planting of new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.

It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.

Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out. Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.

But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.

The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.

The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat, what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.

We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them about issues like sexuality, women bishops and priests, and other issues that we mistake for core values.

The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.

It is not without good reason that the Patristic writers warn that schism is worse than heresy (see Saint John Chrysostom, Patrologia Græca, vol. lxii, col. 87, On Ephesians, Homily 11, §5). We do not need to demythologise this morning’s reading. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.

When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality, they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals and their families and friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.

When I want a Church or society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!

But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and they may discover the same about me.

‘The field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom’ (Matthew 13: 38) … fields of green off Comberford Lane, between Wigginton and Comberford in south Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 19 July 2026, Trinity VII):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 19 to 25 July 2026 (pp 20-21), is ‘Flood Relief in Mozambique’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update from the Revd Mauricio S Mugunhe, Executive Director Anglican Social Action, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola (the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola):

Since late 2025, Mozambique has endured a severe cyclonic season that culminated in catastrophic flooding across the southern regions in January 2026. Following heavy rainfall, many rivers including the Umbeluzi, Maputo, and Incomati overflowed, while cities such as Matola, Xai-Xai, and Maxixe experienced severe flooding due to blocked drainage systems. The government declared a national red alert.

The scale of the disaster has been immense. According to national authorities, more than 720,000 people have been affected, over 120 lives lost, and tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed. In the Gaza Province in the south of Mozambique, where the new Anglican Diocese of Maciene is located, over 40% of its territory was submerged and over 150 km of roads destroyed. Communities remain displaced, with some cut off by damaged roads, and there is an increased risk of water-borne disease.

In the face of this suffering, the Church is called to respond. The Anglican Church in Mozambique has mobilised to provide food, clothing, blankets, mosquito nets, and other essentials, while also supporting the rebuilding of safer homes. With the support of USPG, we have been able to extend this ministry of compassion by offering immediate relief and contributing to longer-term recovery for displaced families. Even in the midst of loss, we trust in God’s presence among those who suffer, and in the calling of the Church to be a sign of hope and healing in the world.

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 19 July 2026, Trinity VII) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43.

‘But gather the wheat into my barn’ (Matthew 13: 30) … a barn near Comberford Hall, between Tamworth and Lichfield in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Collect of the Day:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Franz Kafka's last wishes … a video in the recent exhibition ‘Kafka: Making of an Icon’ in the Weston Library in Oxford (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

Ten Brexit Lies that still rankle ten years after the vote – why do they still have the last word?

The Big Lie in the Brexit campaign … and the Real Truth (Photograph: Liberal Democrats)

Patrick Comerford

It is ten years since the United Kingdom voted 52-48 per cent in a referendum on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union. The leave campaign sold their message with a tissue of lies that have not gone away in those ten years since, and the nation is more divided than ever.

Not satisfied with the wind of division they had then sown across the land, in every village, town and cities, many of the key figures in the ‘Leave’ campaign are now reaping the whirlwind of racism and hatred, stirring up ‘cold rage’, misogyny, Islamophobia on the streets, calling for mass deportations, and targeting minorities that include Muslims, Sikhs and any other group they decide to hate today.

That year we were approaching the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, and when a number of bookshops placed some of her best-known works on display in 2017, I wondered whether the juxtaposition of the titles was a reminder that the Brexit vote was 48% ‘Sense and Sensibility’ but 52% ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

I remember the big red bus rolling into Lichfield, and how the then Conservative MP was grinning like a Cheshire Cat, prattling on as he repeated the lies and half-truths peddled by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage.

On the Remain side, the attempts to talk about the damage that would be inflicted on the UK economy by leaving were supported by almost every prominent economist. Michael Gove declared dismissively ‘we have had enough of experts’, presumably meaning all those economists and business leaders who said Brexit would be a disaster. One of the few economists who disagreed, Patrick Minford of Cardiff University, claimed Brexit would increase GDP by 6.8% and would reduce prices for consumers. So much for his expertise.

Was the Brexit vote 48% ‘Sense and Sensibility’ but 52% ‘Pride and Prejudice’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The lies of that campaign still rankle, as those the lack of political leadership, still less bravery, from both David Cameron as Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.

David Cameron could have had enough foresight to demand a two-thirds majority and to rule out a paper-thin divisive margin. It was a dereliction of political responsibility on a fundamental issue for short-term political gain. He whistled a little tune as he turned back into No 10 after announcing his resignation. It was the same frivolity that had had marked his role in the whole campaign.

The Labour Party could have energetically pointed out that the EU had ensured women’s rights, children’s rights, workers’ rights, students’ rights, consumer rights, human rights, that the EU had brought economic and political stability in the decades immediately after World War II, that trade within the EU had created jobs and brought hope to the regions, that the Common Agricultural Policy had benefitted farmers and regional communities, that more open borders had benefitted trade and been a boon to tourism.

That’s a list of ten or more benefits of EU membership that ought to have been repeated by Cameron and Corbyn, and repeated again and again. But there are ten lies that were repeated throughout the campaign and that have never been swept away in the ten years since.

Brexit did not take away Britain’s international responsibilities, commitments and obligations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Brexit campaign repeated numerous high-profile pledges, misrepresentations and claims that failed to materialise, that never amounted to even half-truths, and that are still embedded in my memory:

1, The big red bus was plastered with claims that Britain sends £350 million a week to the EU, and pretending that the same money could be used instead to fund the NHS instead. The UK’s net contribution to the EU was significantly lower, and no such £350 million dividend was ever realised. Instead, successive Tory governments, from David Cameron and Teresa May to Boris Johnson, Liz ‘Lettuce’ Truss and Rishi Sunak, continued to underfund and under-resource the NHS, while Nigel Farage seems intent on seeing the NHS scrapped and health care privatised, so that it is available only an ability-to-pay rather than a needs basis.

2, ‘Take back control of our borders’: This lie had many voters believe the Brexit vote would give powers to deport and turn people away who wanted to make a life in Britain, either by choice or by necessity, and resolve all immigration issues. But this closed-border, small-island big lie is having a lasting and damaging impacts. The number of hate crimes doubled in the days after the referendum and jumped by 41% in the month following it. Their promise was not just empty, it was also divisive and dangerous. Net migration to the UK continued to rise, while British passport-holders found they were facing rigorous border checks and sometimes missing flights or even holidays. Michael Fabricant seems not to have realised the irony in his complaints last weekend that he had to queue with his passport at airports in France.

3, Leave campaigners claimed negotiating a free trade deal with the EU would be the easiest thing imaginable and that the UK would sign numerous deals soon after leaving. Instead, negotiations took years, new trade barriers were introduced, and the UK had to leave both the single market and the customs union.

4, Leave campaigners, including Penny Mordaunt, then the Armed Forces Minister, claimed Britain would be forced to join an EU army if it stayed in the EU. Ten years later, the EU does not have a unified standing army, and both the US and Russia have done their utmost to divide Europe, particularly in terms of a response to the war in Ukraine and Putin’s campaign to undermine European unity.

5, The Leave campaign, with barely disguised anti-Muslim rhetoric, claimed Turkey, with a population of 76 million, was joining the EU. The implication was that millions of Muslim migrants would flock to the UK. Needless to say, Turkey has not joined the EU, is a further than ever from joining.

6, The more intolerant campaigners tried to insist that leaving the EU would mean leaving all international agreements. They soon learned that European Court of Human Rights has nothing to do with the EU, and was in fact the brainchild of Winston Churchill – the same Winston Churchill the far-right wants to own when it comes to rotating images on £5 notes. The UK still has responsibilities and obligations in international law.

7, Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed that Brexit would reduce the cost of clothes, food and wine by 20%. He has probably never shopped in Asda, or talked to people doing the weekly big shop, or parents on budgets buying school clothes for their children. He may know the price of a bottle of his favourite Bordeaux, Cos d’Estournel, but does he know the price of a pint of milk?

8, It was claimed that Britain’s energy bills would be slashed by £2 billion a year if voters backed Brexit, because ministers could scrap the ‘unfair’ VAT tax on gas and electricity. Boris Johnson claimed Brexit would benefit the poorest families because they pay three times more of their income on household energy bills than the richest households. Surely even Boris Johnson has noticed the rise in energy bills. This is the same Boris Johnson who later spoke about ‘levelling up’, which proved to be nothing more than empty words.

9, Tim Martin of Wetherspoons claimed he had calculated that Brexit would offer a saving of 3.5p per meal. Instead, costs in any of his pubs that I have visited have risen above inflation in the past ten years. Although, I have to admit, I have been in fewer than ten Wetherspoons in my life.

10, The greatest lie after the vote ten years ago was that Britain had voted, that No means No, and there was going to be no going back. The false logic in that would mean there should be no more general elections, the people have voted, and that’s that. And what, then, of the referendum in 1975 that decided to stay in the Common Market? Who said, in addition, that 52% of voters all voted for a ‘hard Brexit’. If even half of that 52% voted only for a ‘soft Brexit’, then 74% voted against a ‘hard Brexit’. And everyone is entitled to change her or his mind ten years later.

How long must we live with the consequences of a vote ten years ago?

It was clear during the run-up to referendum in 2016, that anti-immigrant feeling could easily turn into violence. The murder of Jo Cox by a neo-Nazi was the most horrific example and came a week before the vote. We have seen in recent weeks how the most vocal Brexit campaigners have been the least willing to condemn the racist violence on the streets, and Farage traduced Jo Cox’s memory and ignored her murder when he claimed this morning in a BBC interview ‘I have been physically the most attacked and endangered politician for now well over a decade.’

Indeed, the British people had not spoken: Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain, Wales voted by a whisker to leave, England alone voted by a large margin to leave. It was hardly a united nation or a united kingdom.

All the lies I list this evening have gone unexamined and unquestioned by the right-wing newspapers that printed them. There has been no soul-searching, no acceptance that they gave the oxygen of publicity to lies and to liars, no taking responsibility for an entire nation being gaslit into voting for something that has brought immense economic damage down on the nation. There has been no remorse, no apology, no accountability. The liars still peddle their lies ten years later and a nation continues to suffer as the consequence.

A voice for sanity at Birkbeck University of London in Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 81, Tuesday 29 July 2025

Gnasher and Gnipper in the ‘Beano’ always seemed ready to gnash their teeth

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 27 July 2025). The Church Calendar today (29 July 2025) remembers Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Companions of our Lord. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Harvest or weeds? … a field near Cross in Hand on the northern edges of Lichfield last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 36-43 (NRSVA):

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37 He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’

Fields of green and gold beside Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

In my imagination, when I was a child, not only were the summers long and sunny, but weekend entertainment was simpler and less complicated. The highlights of the weekend seemed to be Dr Who and Dixon of Dock Green, and the weekly editions of the Eagle and the Beano.

I may have been just a little too old (16) for the first appearance of Gnasher (1968), the pet dog of Dennis the Menace in the Beano. The G- tagged onto the beginning of the name of both Gnasher and his son Gnipper is pronounced silently, just like the silent P at the beginning of Psmith, the Rupert Psmith in so many PG Wodehouse novels.

Most of the Beano speech bubbles for both Gnasher and Gnipper consist of normal English words beginning with the letter ‘N’ with a silent ‘G’ added to the beginning, as in ‘Gnight, Gnight.’

I was a little too old for the introduction of Gnasher, but nonetheless I and my friends in our late teens and early 20s loved Gnasher and Gniper, joked about those silent ‘Gs’ and even recalled how as children we had joked about ‘weeping and G-nashing of teeth.’

There is very little to joke about in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 36-43). The idea of people being thrown into the furnace of fire is not a very appealing image for children, and so to joke about it is a childhood method of coping.

But throughout history, humanity has stooped to burn what we dislike and what we want to expunge, and we have done it constantly.

We have been burning books as Christians since Saint Athanasius ordered the burning of texts in Alexandria in the year 367. In the Middle Ages, and sometimes even later, we burned heretics at the stake. When that stopped, we burned anything deemed to be an occasions of sin.

They were burned publicly as an accompanying theme for the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena in the early 15th century. These included mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards … even musical instruments, and, of course, books, song sheets, artworks, paintings and sculpture. In his sermons, the book-burning friar regularly called for Jews and gays to be either isolated from society or eliminated from the human community.

Later in Florence, the supporters of Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects, including cosmetics, art, and books in 1497.

On the other hand, Franz Kafka’s last request to his friend Max Brod in 1921 was to ‘burn all my diaries, letters, manuscripts … completely and unread'.

But, more recently, the Nazis staged regular book burnings, especially burning books by Jewish writers, including Thomas Mann, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein. Extremists of all religious and political persuasions want to burn the symbols and totems of their opponents, whether it is Pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran and effigies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in Florida or jihadists burning the Twin Towers in New York.

Today we are witnessing efforts by the Trump regime to suppress free speech by journalists in the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, capriciously excluding journalists from the White House press pool, and threatening to strip NBC and ABC of their licences to broadcast. The hypocrisy of these threats is aggravated by claims from the Trump regime that it was defending free speech when it attacked Britain and other European countries for seeking to curb violence and racism on US-based social media platforms.

The limits of our extremists seem to be defined by their inflammatory words.

But who is being burned in this morning’s Gospel reading?

Who is doing the burning?

And who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth?

Contrary to many shoddy reading of this Gospel reading, Christians are not asked to burn anyone or anything at all. And, if we have enemies, we are called not to burn them but to love them.

Christ has been speaking by the lake first to the crowd, telling them the parable of the wheat and the weeds (verse 24-30). The word that we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizania), a type of wild rice grass, although Saint Matthew is probably referring to a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.

Christ then withdraws into a house, and has a private conversation with the Disciples (verses 36-43), in which he explains he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).

The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41). It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today. It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).

The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Paul, a doulos, slave, or servant of Jesus Christ), (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1), and the same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1) to introduce themselves in their letters.

In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3).

In other words, the Apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.

This is one of eight parables about the last judgment found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and six of the seven New Testament uses of the phrase ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) occur in this Gospel (Matthew 8: 12; 13: 42; 13: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51; and 25: 30; see also Luke 13: 28).

When it comes to explaining the parable to the disciples in today’s reading (verses 36-43), the earlier references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.

The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).

Farmers are baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places already. In a few weeks’ time, many farmers will be seen burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and the planting of new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.

It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.

Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out. Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.

But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.

The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.

The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat, what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.

We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them about issues like sexuality, women bishops and priests, and other issues that we mistake for core values.

The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.

It is not without good reason that the Patristic writers warn that schism is worse than heresy (see Saint John Chrysostom, Patrologia Græca, vol. lxii, col. 87, On Ephesians, Homily 11, §5). We do not need to demythologise this morning’s reading. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.

When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals and their families and friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.

When I want a Church or society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!

But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and hopefullu they may realise the same about me.

‘The field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom’ (Matthew 13: 38) … harvest fields last week in Fisherwick, between Lichfield and Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 29 July 2025):

The theme this week (27 to 2 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reunited at Last’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from Raja Moses, Programme Coordinator, Diocese of Durgapur, Church of North India.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 29 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Loving Father, we lift up all survivors of trafficking who have suffered fear, abuse and trauma. Bring healing, restore their dignity, and give hope for the future.

The Collect:

God our Father,
whose Son enjoyed the love of his friends,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
in learning, argument and hospitality:
may we so rejoice in your love
that the world may come to know
the depths of your wisdom, the wonder of your compassion,
and your power to bring life out of death;
through the merits of Jesus Christ,
our friend and brother,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
your servants Mary, Martha and Lazarus revealed your goodness
in a life of tranquillity and service:
grant that we who have gathered in faith around this table
may like them know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
and be filled with all your fullness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Franz Kafka’s last wishes … a video in last year’s exhibition, ‘Kafka: Making of an Icon’, in the Weston Library in Oxford (Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflections

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 Libeň Synagogue in Prague has survived floods, the Holocaust and being a warehouse and theatre

The Libeň Synagogue in Prague … the Jewish quarter in Libeň was once the second most significant Jewish area in Prague (Photograph: Fe’our/Wikipedia, CCL)

Patrick Comerford

I have been to Prague a number of times and, like every visitor with an interest in Jewish history, I have walked through the streets the Josefov and visited seven of the city’s synagogues, the Jewish Museum, the Ceremonial Hall for funerals, the Old Jewish Cemetery and the grave of Rabbi Löw, the Maharal. I have listened to the stories of the Golem and I have searched out the many sites associated with Franz Kafka.

The synagogues I have visited in Prague include the Old-New Synagogue, the High Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, the Klausen Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue and the Jerusalem Synagogue.

But in recent weeks, as I was researching the genealogy and story of Lyela Julia Edelman Brandeis Comerford (1880-1946), I came across the stories of the Jewish quarter in Libeň, and a forgotten Jewish community and synagogue in Prague that are almost totally unknown to the millions of tourists who visit the Czech capital each year. They all visit the Charles Bridge, but how many of them know of the Libeň Bridge?

Lyela Brandeis Comerford was the second wife of Judge Frank D Comerford (1879-1929), a son of Isaac Comerford from Co Galway, and he was her third husband. She was a granddaughter of Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman (1832-1907), the first resident rabbi in Los Angeles, a niece of both the architect and a president of the best-known synagogue in Los Angeles, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and she was a sister-in-law of one of the passengers who died on the Titanic in 1912.

But Lyela’s links with the Jewish community and synagogue in Libeň come through her first husband, H Hugo Brandeis (1868-1912). He was the son of Jonas Leopold Brandeis (1836-1903), a dry goods merchant, and Francesca Teweles (1845-1905), both Jewish emigrants from Prague to the US.

Inside the Libeň Synagogue in Prague … Jonas Leopold Brandeis was born in Libeň in Prague in 1836

The Brandeis family was once a prominent rabbinic family in Prague. The extended family included the Dante scholar Irma Brandeis (1905-1999); and Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941), an associate justice on the US Supreme Court (1916-1939), who gave his name to Brandeis University.

Judge Louis Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Supreme Court. During his career, he fought railroad monopolies, defended workplace and labour laws, challenged antisemitism and helped create the Federal Reserve System. He was a courageous and militant advocate of social justice. He was seen as being incorruptible, was known as the ‘People’s Lawyer’, and The Economist called him ‘A Robin Hood of the law.’

Jonas Leopold Brandeis was from Libeň in Prague, then in the Austrian empire and now the capital of the Czech Republic. Franciska ‘Fannie’ Teweles was born in Prague. They emigrated to the US around 1856 and were married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, around 1862.

The Jewish quarter in Libeň was the second most significant Jewish settlement in Prague and was second only to the Old Town of Josefov. It stretched between today’s streets of Voctářova, Kozelužská, Vojenova and the now lost streets of Jirchářská and Kožní.

Jews probably began to settle in that area in the early 16th century after Jews were expelled from king’s towns in 1541 and 1557. The old synagogue in Koželužská Street stood at the very centre of this Jewish settlement and it dated from 1592. The Jewish community had its own cemetery near the Libeň Bridge and its own self-government building.

The Jewish district in Libeň was greatly extended in the first half of the 18th century, when the Jews expelled from inner Prague by Maria Theresa moved there.

The Aron haKodesh or holy ark in the Libeň Synagogue in Prague

The original small synagogue was in use for two centuries before it was rebuilt in 1770. But Libeň was frequently hit by floods, and the synagogue, which stood in an area that was hardest hit, became unfit for use. After a particularly severe flood in 1845 the authorities proposed demolishing the synagogue.

The Jewish community bought a new site, and the foundation stone of a new synagogue was laid on 23 November 1846 in a ceremony attended by the Archduke Stephen of Habsburg, the last Palatine of Hungary.

The new synagogue was consecrated and officially opened 12 years later, in 1858. It was built in the neo-Romanesque style with Moorish elements. It was a two-storey, three-aisle building with a rectangular ground floor and saddle roof. The original façade had distinctive decorative stucco with a core design lining the crown ledge and both gables.

The west front has a three-section high entrance with three portals beneath a large rounded top window that once had rich stucco decorations, including the Ten Commandments and the Star of David at the top. The east façade has a round window a six-pointed stucco star filled with coloured stained glass. The façade was simplified in the 1930s.

Inside, the foyer leads into the main worship area and two solid newel staircases facing each other lead to the upper, women’s balcony that runs along three sides.

The main interior area is arranged in three aisle styles with the two side upper balcony arcades placed atop five huge pillars, and a four-section dome. The walls and pillars were decorated with a painted marble imitation, and parts of the stucco décors have a festive polychrome colour dominated by blue and green.

The elevated Bimah shows traces of the place for a Shulchan or table for reading from the Torah, and a decorated railing at the edge.

The wooden Aron haKodesh or holy ark for holding the Torah has slim side columns and a semicircular extension with a gold Hebrew sign and the Star of David at the centre. Underneath, a series of embossed symbols are reminders of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. A gold-plated carved Crown of David is at the top.

The galleries in the Libeň Synagogue in Prague, rebuilt in 1846-1858

During World War II, the Jews in Libeň were gradually deported to concentration camps. The synagogue was forcibly closed in 1941 and, like many synagogues in the Czech Republic, was converted into a warehouse storing confiscated Jewish property.

The decimated Jewish community was never revived in Libeň after the war, and there was a new wave of antisemitism in the post-war years. The synagogue fell into further dilapidation and was used first as a produce warehouse and later to store the props of the nearby SK Neumann Theatre, later the Pod Palmovkou Theatre.

The old Jewish cemetery was destroyed, as was the building with the rabbi’s residence and administrative offices. Several blocks in the area were taken down in the immediate vicinity of the synagogue in the 1980s to make way for building the B line metro stop Palmovka. The synagogue itself was removed from the demolition plans only at the last minute.

The synagogue was returned to the Jewish Community in Prague after the political upheavals in 1989, and once again is known as the Synagogue in Palmovka or Libeň Synagogue. Since 1995, the building has been used regularly by the Serpens Association for cultural and social events, including artistic, theatrical and musical events.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Lyela Julia Edelman Brandeis Comerford (1880-1946) … genealogical research led me to the stories of the Jewish quarter in Libeň, and a forgotten Jewish community and synagogue in Prague

How Charlotte Street in London became the ‘spine of Fitzrovia’

Charlotte Street was first laid out in the 1760s and has become the ‘spine of Fitzrovia’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During one of my recent strolls through Fitzrovia in London, I found myself on Charlotte Street, where the Fitzroy Tavern gives its name to the area of Fitzrovia.

Charlotte Street has been described as the ‘spine of Fitzrovia’. Fitzrovia is known for its bohemian and artistic history, known as a meeting place for artists and intellectuals, and the Fitzroy Tavern, on the corner of Charlotte Street and Windmill Street, became a celebrated meeting place for intellectuals, writers, artists, craft workers and immigrants.

I am well-acquainted with Charlotte Street in Wexford, Charlotte Street and Charlotte Way in Dublin, Charlotte Quay in both Limerick and Dublin, and I have walked along Charlotte Street or Charlottenstrasse in Berlin, and I have gone in search of Charlotte Street in Prague, Franz Kafka’s location for Metamorphosis.

The Fitzroy Tavern, on the corner of Charlotte Street and Windmill Street, has given Fitzrovia its name (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia was first laid out in 1763 and was named after Queen Charlotte, who married King George III in 1761. She was Britain’s longest serving queen consort, serving for 57 years and 70 days.

The street was originally residential but it later attracted a literary and artistic community, and became popular with craftsmen. The area has been home to many prominent figures, including writers like Dylan Thomas and George Orwell, and artists such as Augustus John.

Charlotte Street is historically part of the parish and borough of Saint Pancras, in central London. The street’s northern and southern extensions are Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place.

The southern half of the street has many restaurants and cafés, and a lively nightlife; the northern part is more mixed in character, and includes the former offices of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and a University College London student hall of residence, Astor College. The street also has its own residential population, living above the ground floors.

The Queen Charlotte on the corner of Goodge Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Charlotte Street, together with Charlotte Place, previously Little Charlotte Street, was one of four streets in and around Fitzrovia that took Queen Charlotte’s name. The other two have since been renamed Hallam Street and Bloomsbury Street.

From the 19th century on, the parish and borough of Saint Pancras was home to a large, mostly middle-class, German population. Charlotte Street and the surrounding locality was a thriving centre of this community, and the street acquired the nickname Charlottenstrasse, after its famous namesake in Berlin.

The parish and borough boundaries of Saint Pancras is now part of the London Borough of Camden and the parish and borough of Marylebone ran through the area, mostly along Cleveland Street. These ancient boundaries are many centuries old, and they have been inherited by the modern boroughs in London.

Charlotte Street and Charlotte Place were wholly in Saint Pancras, but a minor adjustment to that boundary around 1900 now means that a small part of the boundary separating the London Borough of Camden and the City of Westminster runs along a short section of Charlotte Street.

The Charlotte Street Hotel opened at 15 Charlotte Street in 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The nearest tube station is Goodge Street to the east. Goodge Street itself crosses Charlotte Street halfway up. To the east and parallel with Charlotte Street is Tottenham Court Road, to the south is Oxford Street.

The street has a mixture of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century buildings and is known for its many restaurants with a wide range of cuisine. At the height of the Jewish West End, there were numerous Jewish businesses in Charlotte Street, including Rudin, the trimming merchants, Resnick the butcher, Kahn’s salt beef bar, drapers, dairies, hosiers and tobacconists. French restaurants included l’Etoille, which opened in 1904, and Italians opened Bertorellis in 1912.

The Scala Theatre, opened in 1905, was located on Charlotte Street. A theatre first stood on the site in 1772. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the Prince of Wales’s Theatre. It was rebuilt in 1904 and was famous for Christmas productions of Peter Pan. The Jewish community once used the theatre for High Holy Day services, fundraising events for the West Central Clubs and Yiddish film shows. It was destroyed by a fire and demolished in 1969.

The Charlotte Street Hotel is a boutique hotel that opened at 15 Charlotte Street in 2000, its interiors decorated with modern British art, including works by such artists as Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry.

It was once the location of Schmidt’s Restaurant, which opened as a deli in 1901 and it became a restaurant after World War I. The spy Donald Maclean, a key figure in the Cambridge Five, is said to have spent his last night in England there before fleeing in 1951, and it remained one if the ‘in places’ until it closed in the 1970s.

The Fitzroy Tavern was known to Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Durrell, Augustus John and George Orwell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Queen Charlotte is a pub on the corner of Goodge Street. It was first licensed in 1767, and was once known as the Northumberland Arms. The present building dates from 1897 and the name was changed to the Queen Charlotte in 2018.

The Fitzroy Tavern at 16 Charlotte Street was built as a coffee house in 1883, and became a pub in 1887. Judah Kleinfeld, a Polish-Jewish immigrant became the landlord. Kleinfeld had a novel way of encouraging chariry: customers threw money to the ceiling on darts, it was taken down annually, counted and the ‘pennies from heaven’ were used to give local children a fun day out.

His daughter and son-in-law took over the pub in the 1930s, and continued running the pub into the 1950s. While they were there it became famous from the 1920s until the mid-1950s as a meeting place for artists, writers, intellectuals and bohemians, including Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Durrell, Augustus John and George Orwell.

Later, Donovan’s Sunny ‘Goodge Street’ was a moving romantic song depicting Fitzrovia and the area around Charlotte Street in London in the mid-1960s.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Charlotte Street was one of four streets in and around Fitzrovia that took Queen Charlotte’s name (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Greeks have a word for it: 50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

A butterfly in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete … the most beloved of natural metamorphoses may be the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

While we were staying on the Left Bank in Paris last year, my eye was caught by Les Metamorphoses, a shuttered and closed jewellery shop on Rue du Petit Pont, around the corner from the Shakespeare bookshop, forever associated with James Joyce, and across the river from Notre Dame.

Perhaps this shuttered, closed and forgotten shop, covered in spray paint and graffiti, took its name from the French translation of the Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by Ovid that is considered his magnum opus.

The trend-setting name sign was designed to be read in its mirror-like, reversed composition. Now it is part of a grey and deserted building, like part of the landscape of a wasteland. Perhaps, after all, it was named after a French translation of Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, first published in German as Die Verwandlung in 1915.

Many events last year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka on 3 June 1924. Few 20th century writers – apart from, perhaps, James Joyce and TS Eliot – receive as much attention as Kafka. Although he did not live to see his 41st birthday and worked for much of his life as an insurance clerk, Kafka is a giant on the stage of world literature.

The Metamorphosis, one of Kafka’s best-known works, tells of a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who lives ‘in the quiet but completely urban Charlotte Street.’ He could have believed that from his window he was peering out at a featureless wasteland, in which ‘the gray heaven and the gray earth had merged and were indistinguishable.’

One hundred years after the death of Franz Kafka, the University of Oxford celebrated his life and work, with a series of events. The #OxfordKafka24 programme included an exhibition at the Bodleian’s Weston Library, ‘Kafka: Making of Icon’, a public reading of The Metamorphosis in the Sheldonian Theatre, and a new limited-edition imprint of The Metamorphosis from Oxford University Press that was given to every Oxford student and distributed to schools and libraries – I was generously given a copy in Pusey House.

Butterflies on a display at the railway station in Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops, including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal’s body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, jellyfish, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behaviour.

Natural substances may also metamorphose, or undergo metamorphosis. Heat and pressure over thousands of years may eventually turn tiny organisms into petroleum, and coal into diamonds. The most beloved of natural metamorphoses are probably the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies and of tadpoles into frogs.

The word metamorphosis derives from the Ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis, ‘transformation, transforming’), from μετα- (meta-, ‘after’) and μορφή (morphe, ‘form’).

In Middle English, Methamorphoseos is the title of Ovid’s poem or its contents, borrowed from the Latin Metamorphōsēs, as the title of Ovid’s poem, literally, ‘transformations’ (Late Latin metamorphosis ‘transfiguration, change into another form’). This, in turn, was borrowed from the Greek metamórphōsis (from 1st century CE), ‘transformation’, from metamorphō-, a variant stem of metamorphóō, metamorphoûn, ‘to transform’.

Many ancient myths end in a metamorphosis. As Apollo is chasing the nymph Daphne, she calls on her river-god father for help and he turns her into a laurel tree to save her. Out of anger and jealousy, the goddess Athena turns the marvellous weaver Arachne into a spider that will spin only beautiful webs.

The Transfiguration or Metamorphosis depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

In Greek theology, the Transfiguration of Christ is known as the Metamorphosis (Μεταμόρφωσις). In New Testament usage, metamorphoûsthai means to be transfigured. The Transfiguration of Christ is recounted in the Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-8; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36) and is also referred to in II Peter 1: 16-18. Although Luke and II Peter do not use the word metamorphosis, the form of the word found in Matthew and Mark is μετεμορφώθη.

The other two uses of the Greek verb μεταμορφόω (metamorphoo) are both in the Pauline letters. In II Corinthians 3: 7-18, Saint Paul uses the word μεταμορφούμεθα as he discusses the glory of God’s revelation on Mount Sinai, which made Moses’ face shine. In Romans 12: 2, Paul challenges his readers: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [μεταμορφοῦσθε] by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.’

Charles Wesley takes up Saint Paul’s language of transfiguration in II Corinthians in his hymn ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’:

Finish, then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise!

The Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in the mountains above Hersonissos in Crete was established in 2002, completed in 2008 and dedicated in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The thematic prayer for Transfiguration Sunday (the Sunday before Lent, 2 March 2025) in the Revised Common Lectionary Prayers invites us to pray for a transfiguration of our own:

Holy God, mighty and immortal,
you are beyond our knowing,
yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
whose compassion illumines the world.
Transform us into the likeness of the love of Christ,
who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity,
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Les Metamorphoses in Paris … locked up and abandoned like Gregor Samsa? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Last word: 49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
Next word: 51, Bimah

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.

A butterfly in the garden in the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)