Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 32, Saturday 21 March 2026

Christ and Nicodemus depicted in a window in Saint Mary de Castro Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are about to enter the last two weeks of Lent, and tomorrow is the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), sometimes still known as Passion Sunday. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury and Reformation Martyr.

During the day, there is an open invitation to a ‘Come and Sing’ workshop and an informal performance of Fauré’s Requiem, conducted by Jacob Collins in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, with Laurence Caldecote playing the Willis pipe organ. Singers aged 8 and above are welcome, and registration begins at 9:30 am. There are rehearsals at 10 am, 11:15 am 1:15 pm, with coffee and lunch breaks, and the performance is from 4:30 to 5. Singers of all parts – Trebles, Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses – are welcome: adult singers £16, job seekers and students £8, children 8-16 free.

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

1, 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.

Christ is laid in the tomb by Nicodemus, from the Stations of the Cross in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 7: 40-52 (NRSVA):

40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ 41 Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ 46 The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ 47 Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law – they are accursed.’ 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ 52 They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, watched by the Virgin Mary, lay the Body of Christ in the tomb … Station XIV in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Holy Week begins in just over a week, when we remember the events leading up to the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel readings have started to have a more ominous tone, and in the Gospel at the Eucharist today (John 7: 40-52), we continue to hear how he was opposed and rejected by people who wanted to arrest him.

In today’s reading, we hear how Nicodemus challenged the ways in which the religious leaders of the day were plotting pursuing Jesus and seeking to arrest him. Nicodemus only appears in Saint John’s Gospel, and this is the second of his three appearances.

Earlier in this Gospel, Nicodemus had lengthy conversations with Jesus in the dark (see John 3: 14-21). He is a leading Jew of the day, a Pharisee and a rabbi, a doctor of the law, a member of the ruling Sandhedrin. He comes to visit Jesus at night, and he comes with a bundle of questions.

But, despite his erudite learning, he finds it difficult to understand the answers Christ gives to his questions. Yet, it is all so simple: ‘God so loved the world …’ (John 3: 16).

In fact, what Jesus says is deeply profound. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, the neighbouring island of Patmos, the island where Saint John spent his time in exile.

Pythagoras is best known for his calculations about right-angle triangles. But he also provides an insight into one of the key concepts in Saint John’s writings. His understanding of the cosmos (κόσμος) includes the earth, the planets, the stars, the whole created order – ideas derived from Pythageros of Samos.

It is as though everything is wrapped into and lives within God’s skin. To put it more simply, we live in God’s womb, and it is there that God loves us. It is not that God so loved the saved, or men, or humanity, or even the world. What Christ says is that God so loved the cosmos, the whole created order, that he gave, or rather sent, his only-begotten Son.

Nicodemus is a little nonplussed, but he comes back again and again, a second time (John 7: 45-51) and a third time (John 19: 39-42), and his third encounter is on Good Friday. From someone who was questioning first of all, and was so afraid that he comes to talk to Christ in the dark, Nicodemus moves on in Chapter 7 to become someone brave enough to speak up against the plot to arrest Jesus.

Then later, in Chapter 19, Nicodemus comes to anoint the body of Christ after he has been taken down from the Cross. When Christ dies on the Cross, and the women come to bury him, Joseph of Arimathea provides the grave (Matthew 27: 57; Mark 15: 43; Luke 23: 50-56; John 19: 39-40). Nicodemus steps forward to provide the customary embalming spices, and he assists the women in preparing the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42).

Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, estimated at about 33 kg, to embalm Christ’s body. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the former Pope Benedict XVI observes that ‘the quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.’

So, in the story of Nicodemus, we find birth is linked with death, new birth is linked with new life, and before darkness falls Nicodemus really comes to possess the Body of Christ, to hold the Body of Christ in his hands, and in anointing him to recognise him as priest, prophet and king.

The faith and discipleship of Nicodemus develop slowly over the passage of time in Saint John’s Gospel – from fear and questioning, to bravery and speaking up, to acting and wanting to hold for himself the Body of Christ.

If being a priest is about presenting God through Christ to the world in word and sacrament, and presenting the world through Christ to God in word and sacrament, then Nicodemus both receives and presents the Body of Christ, in a very Eucharistic way, and is a model for priesthood.

Sometimes, when I have taken hold of the Holy Communion, both presiding and as a recipient, I find myself kissing my hands afterwards. To hold the Body of Christ, as Nicodemus does, is, paradoxically, both an awesome and a liberating experience, not just tinged but filled with love.

Has Christ taken hold of you?

Have you taken hold of Christ?

The statue of Pythagoras by Nikolaos Ikaris (1989) on the harbour front in Pythagóreio on the Greek island of Samos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 21 March 2026):

The theme this week (15-21 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Lament and Hope’ (pp 38-39). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Kennedy Jones, Church Engagement and Fundraising Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 21 March 2026, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) invites us to pray:

We pray for racial justice worldwide. May we be moved to act with love and courage, confronting inequality and standing alongside those whose dignity has been denied.

The Collect:

Father of all mercies,
who through the work of your servant Thomas Cranmer
renewed the worship of your Church
and through his death revealed your strength in human weakness:
by your grace strengthen us to worship you
in spirit and in truth
and so to come to the joys of your everlasting kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyr Thomas Cranmer:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent V:

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Jesus is laid in the tomb … Nicodemus is included in the tableau by Vincenzo Onofri in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna (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: 164, Thursday 23 October 2025

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luke 12: 51) … a sculpture beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

‘And you yourself a sword shall pierce’ … Station IV of Ken Thompson’s Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Once again we are confronted with a Gospel reading this morning that is difficult, with its images of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence that the day before we mark United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (verse 51).

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 49-53), we hear warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without questioning or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me a few years ago during a visit to Longford. One afternoon, as part of a church history ‘field trip’ from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, three of us went to see the restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Longford.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning in 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-style cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral.

The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In the Gospel reading today (Luke 12: 49-53), Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In this Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12: 51) … Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in Tamworth points to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 23 October 2025):

My prayers this morning include prayers that the prayers Pope Leo and King Charles share in Rome later today lead to closer links between the Roman Catholic Church and the member churches of the Anglican Communion, mutual respect, recognition and co-operation, so that dialogoue may eventually bring hope for multual inter-communion, perhaps even in my own lifetime.

The theme this week (19 to 25 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advancing Theological Education for Young Women in Africa’ (pp 48-49). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Esmeralda (Essie) Pato, Chair of the Communion-Wide Advisory Group for USPG; she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 23 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, thank you for USPG’s commitment to investing in theological education. Bless all those who are supported through these scholarships, that they may grow in knowledge and faith to serve your kingdom.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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:

We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast:
for here we receive you,
here the memory of your passion is renewed,
here our minds are filled with grace,
and here a pledge of future glory is given,
when we shall feast at that table where you reign
with all your saints for ever.

Additional Collect:

God, our judge and saviour,
teach us to be open to your truth
and to trust in your love,
that we may live each day
with confidence in the salvation which is given
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Giles’s Church, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 100, Sunday 17 August 2025, Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX)

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … evening clouds above Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the River Thames in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX).

Later this morning, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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.

‘End of the beach’ at Platanias in Rethymnon … but do we know how to read the signs of the end of the times? (see Luke 12: 54-56) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-56 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples:]

49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?’

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

When I was a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics in the early 1980s, we all had to do a residential placement in Northern Ireland in a church that was in a tradition other than our own. I spent time with Shankill Road Methodist Church in Belfast, while others went to Roman Catholic, Presbyterian or Anglican churches.

One Anglican student, a priest from Barbados, was placed with the Redemptorists in Clonard Monastery.

As his placement came to end, there was one experience he had not yet explored. On his last Sunday evening, he went to hear Ian Paisley preach in the Martyrs’ Memorial Church on Ravenhill Road.

When he returned to Clonard Monastery, unscathed, an old priest asked him, tongue in cheek, ‘Well, did the Big Man give you an old-style Redemptorist sermon filled with hellfire and brimstone?’

Perhaps this is the sort of sermon some people may expect in churches this morning with the lectionary readings.

The Prophet Isaiah, in words that echo the Psalm, speaks of vineyards that yield only wild grapes (verses 2, 4); breaking and trampling down walls (verse 4); vines giving way to briars and thorns (verse 6); bloodshed instead of justice, a cry instead of righteousness (verse 7).

The Epistle reading speaks of mockings and floggings (verse 36), chains and jails (Hebrews 11: 36), prophets being stoned to death, sawn in two and killed by the sword (verse 37), or wandering in deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes (verse 38).

And then, we hear the warnings in the Gospel reading of fire on earth (verse 49), families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53), people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired Ian Paisley’s sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists, for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without question or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me some years ago during a visit to Longford. One Sunday afternoon, three of us headed off from the Church of Theological Institute in Dublin on what we had come to call our church history ‘field trips.’ We wanted to see the completed restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-like cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral. The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In this Gospel reading, Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In today’s Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

In the second half of the Gospel reading, Christ chides the crowd for not recognising the signs he bears. They know how to forecast the weather, but they cannot forecast, watch for the signs of, the coming Kingdom of God.

There is a fashion in the Church today for ‘fresh expressions of the Church’ that blow where the wind blows. They seek to be fashionable and claim that they are relevant.

Sometimes, you may not know whether you are in a coffee shop or in a church, whether you are in the guiding hands of a barista or of a priest. The old forms of church have been abandoned, and with it we may ask whether they have thrown out the core content too.

I visited one of these churches one Sunday morning. Yes, there was a rambling sermon of 35 or more minutes. Yes, there was a time of ‘fellowship’ where people turned around their chairs and were chummy with one another, in a clumsy sort of way.

There was one reading, but no Gospel reading. There was no confession and absolution, no Creedal statement, no Trinitarian formula in the prayers. The prayers prayed for those present and those like them, but there were no prayers for people outside, no prayers for a world that is divided and suffering, no challenge or judgment for those who have created the plight and sufferings of wars, refugees, racism, homelessness, economic injustice and climate change.

In this smug self-assurance, without any reference to the world outside, there was no challenge to discipleship, to live up to the promises and challenges of Baptism.

And, needless to say, there was no Sacrament, and no hint of there ever being a sacramental ministry.

Content had been abandoned for the sake of form. But the form had become a charade. For the sake of relevance, the church had become irrelevant.

The challenge of our Baptism is a challenge for the Church to be a sign of, a sacrament of, the Kingdom of God.

We can be distracted by the demands and fashions of what pass as ‘fresh expressions of Church’ and never meet the needs of a divided and suffering world.

Or we can be nourished by Word and Sacrament and respond to the demands of our Baptism in a discipleship that seeks to challenge and confront a suffering and divided world with the values and promises of the Kingdom of God.

But it is costly. And in that struggle, like Simeon warns Mary, we may find ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

‘When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes’ (Isaiah 5: 4) … grapes on a vine at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 17 August 2025, Trinity IX):

The theme this week (17 to 23 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Tell the Full Story’ (pp 28-29). This theme is introduced today with reflections from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG:

At a workshop entitled ‘Atoning for the Sins of Our Past’ held at Oxford’s Centre for Black Theology, I had the privilege of joining faith leaders and scholars in a thoughtful exploration of critical topics, including Black theology, whiteness, and reparative justice. Led by Dr Anthony Reddie and Ms Thandi Soko de Jong, the event fostered open and honest dialogue on the enduring impacts of colonialism, encouraging meaningful engagement with historical injustices and their contemporary implications. The key takeaway was clear: we need to tell the full story.

Remembering the Slave Trade and its Abolition requires us to recall a violent, complex and poorly understood history in which the English Church, state and monarchy collaborated to benefit financially from the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. This is a highly distressing realisation for all.

In our work of repentance and repair, we must be willing to dwell in the discomfort of this reality. Within the Church of England, the tradition of moving too quickly towards conversations about white Christian abolitionists, rather than white Christian enslavers has imposed further pain and insult, particularly for Caribbean descendants. This simply perpetuates the system of racist violence enshrined within the slave trade.

Our calling today is to kneel at the foot of the cross, to remember the violent sacrifices made for us and, out of our discomfort, begin to reimagine the kind of world we want to hand down to our descendants.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 17 August 2025, Trinity IX) invites us to read and meditate on Luke 12: 49-56.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … morning clouds above the beach in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 32, Saturday 5 April 2025

Christ and Nicodemus depicted in a window in Saint Mary de Castro Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are about to enter the last two weeks of Lent, and tomorrow is the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), sometimes still known as Passion Sunday. I am hoping to attend the pop-up café and Easter Market at the Greek Orthodox Church community hall in Stony Stratford later this morning, before going to Milton Keynes University Hospital to return the heart monitor that was fitted to me on Thursday afternoon.

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.

Christ is laid in the tomb by Nicodemus, from the Stations of the Cross in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 7: 40-52 (NRSVA):

40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ 41 Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ 46 The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ 47 Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law – they are accursed.’ 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ 52 They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, watched by the Virgin Mary, lay the Body of Christ in the tomb … Station XIV in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Holy Week begins in just over a week, when we remember the events leading to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel readings have started to have a more ominous tone, and in the Gospel at the Eucharist today (John 7: 40-52), we continue to hear how he was opposed and rejected by people who wanted to arrest him.

In today’s reading, we hear how Nicodemus challenged the ways in which the religious leaders of the day were plotting pursuing Jesus and seeking to arrest him. Nicodemus only appears in Saint John’s Gospel, and this is the second of his three appearances.

Earlier in this Gospel, Nicodemus had lengthy conversations with Jesus in the dark (see John 3: 14-21). He is a leading Jew of the day, a Pharisee and a rabbi, a doctor of the law, a member of the ruling Sandhedrin. He comes to visit Jesus at night, and he comes with a bundle of questions.

But, despite his erudite learning, he finds it difficult to understand the answers Christ gives to his questions. Yet, it is all so simple: ‘God so loved the world …’ (John 3: 16).

In fact, what Jesus says is deeply profound. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, the neighbouring island of Patmos, the island where Saint John spent his time in exile.

Pythagoras is best known for his calculations about right-angle triangles. But he also provides an insight into one of the key concepts in Saint John’s writings. His understanding of the cosmos (κόσμος) includes the earth, the planets, the stars, the whole created order – ideas derived from Pythageros of Samos.

It is as though everything is wrapped into and lives within God’s skin. To put it more simply, we live in God’s womb, and it is there that God loves us. It is not that God so loved the saved, or men, or humanity, or even the world. What Christ says is that God so loved the cosmos, the whole created order, that he gave, or rather sent, his only-begotten Son.

Nicodemus is a little nonplussed, but he comes back again and again, a second time (John 7: 45-51) and a third time (John 19: 39-42), and his third encounter is on Good Friday. From someone who was questioning first of all, and was so afraid that he comes to talk to Christ in the dark, Nicodemus moves on in Chapter 7 to become someone brave enough to speak up against the plot to arrest Jesus.

Then later, in Chapter 19, Nicodemus comes to anoint the body of Christ after he has been taken down from the Cross. When Christ dies on the Cross, and the women come to bury him, Joseph of Arimathea provides the grave (Matthew 27: 57; Mark 15: 43; Luke 23: 50-56; John 19: 39-40). Nicodemus steps forward to provide the customary embalming spices, and he assists the women in preparing the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42).

Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, estimated at about 33 kg, to embalm Christ’s body. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the former Pope Benedict XVI observes that ‘the quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.’

So, in the story of Nicodemus, we find birth is linked with death, new birth is linked with new life, and before darkness falls Nicodemus really comes to possess the Body of Christ, to hold the Body of Christ in his hands, and in anointing him to recognise him as priest, prophet and king.

The faith and discipleship of Nicodemus develop slowly over the passage of time in Saint John’s Gospel – from fear and questioning, to bravery and speaking up, to acting and wanting to hold for himself the Body of Christ.

If being a priest is about presenting God through Christ to the world in word and sacrament, and presenting the world through Christ to God in word and sacrament, then Nicodemus both receives and presents the Body of Christ, in a very Eucharistic way, and is a model for priesthood.

Sometimes, when I have taken hold of the Holy Communion, both presiding and as a recipient, I find myself kissing my hands afterwards. To hold the Body of Christ, as Nicodemus does, is, paradoxically, both an awesome and a liberating experience, not just tinged but filled with love.

Has Christ taken hold of you?

Have you taken hold of Christ?

The statue of Pythagoras by Nikolaos Ikaris (1989) on the harbour front in Pythagóreio on the Greek island of Samos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 5 April 2025):

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), has been ‘Inspiration of the Holy Spirit.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Rock Higgins, Rector of Saint James the Less Episcopal Church, Ashland, Virginia, and the Triangle of Hope Youth Pilgrimage Lead for the Diocese of Virginia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 5 April 2025) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

‘So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation’ (II Corinthians 5: 17-18).

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
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 blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent V:

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Jesus is laid in the tomb … Nicodemus is included in the tableau by Vincenzo Onofri in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna (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 2024: 166, Thursday 24 October 2024

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the font in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI).

The Jewish festival of Simchat Torah begins at sunset this evening (24 October 2024), and ends after nightfall tomorrow (25 October 2024).

The Simchat Torah festivities begin with the evening service, when all the synagogue’s Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried around the sanctuary in a series of seven hakafot or circuits, accompanied by dancing and singing that in some places overflows out onto the street. Each circuit is announced by a few melodious invocations imploring God to Hoshiah Na (‘Save us’) and ending with the refrain, Aneinu v’Yom Kor’einu (‘God answer us on the day we call’).

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luk 12: 51) … a sculpture beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

‘And you yourself a sword shall pierce’ … Station IV of Ken Thompson’s Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Once again we are confronted with a Gospel reading this morning that is difficult, with its images of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence that on a day that is marked as United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! (verse 51)

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

They are images that might have inspired ‘hellfire and brimstone’ sermons. But they have inspired too great creative and literary minds in the English language, from William Shakespeare and William Blake to TS Eliot in the Four Quartets:

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire. ( – Little Gidding)

If we dismiss these apocalyptic images because they have been hijacked by fundamentalist extremists for their own religious and political ideals, then we miss an opportunity to allow our values to challenge those ways we may be allowing our lives to drift along without questioning or examination.

Fire and water were a challenge for me a few years ago during a visit to Longford. One afternoon, as part of a church history ‘field trip’, three of us went to see the restoration work at Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Longford.

The cathedral was destroyed in a blazing fire early on Christmas morning in 2009, but was restored and rebuilt so beautifully that it has been voted Ireland’s favourite building.

Outside, it still looks like a grey, classical revival, fortress-style cathedral. But inside it is filled with light and joy. It has risen from the ashes, and its restoration is truly a story of redemption and resurrection.

As we walked into the cathedral, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful baptismal font that has been placed at the main entrance door to the cathedral.

The font was sculpted by Tom Glendon and the blue mosaic work by Laura O’Hagan is a creative representation of the Water of Life.

This font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

Baptism is not a naming ceremony, it is not about my individual experience, it is never a private event. It is a public event, and it incorporates me into the unity, the community of the Body of Christ.

In our Gospel reading today, Christ challenges us with three themes: Fire, Baptism and Division.

In the Bible, fire can represent the presence of God – think of the pillar of fire in the wilderness (Exodus 13: 17-22) or the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4).

It can represent judgment (see Revelation 20: 7-10), and it can represent purification – the prophets Zachariah (13: 9) and Malachi (3: 2-3) speak of the refiner’s fire in which God purifies his people, as a refiner purifies silver by fire.

At the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-38), old Simeon foresees how the Christ Child ‘is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (verses 34-35).

The sword that pierces the soul of the Virgin Mary, the sword that has killed the prophets, the sword the divides families, is a reminder that Christ, who embodies the presence of God, simultaneously judges and purifies.

In the New Testament, Baptism represents both judgment and purification and Saint John the Baptist connects it with fire (Luke 3: 16-17).

In this Gospel reading, however, Christ is referring not to the baptism he brings but to the baptism he receives. He not only brings the fire of judgment and purification, but he bears it himself also.

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

• not by might but by forgiveness (think of forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 11: 4);
• not by fear but by courage (‘be not afraid’ in Luke 1: 13, 30, 2: 10, 5: 11, 8: 50, 12: 4, 7, 32);
• not by power but by humility (see Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55).

But it is easy to be lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power rather than the promises that come with our Baptism.

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12: 51) … Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in Tamworth points from the train station to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 24 October 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 ‘Persistence in Prayer’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager Europe & Oceania, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 24 October 2024, United Nations Day) invites us to pray:

We give thanks to the United Nations and the work it does to foster international cooperation on complex issues such as trade and conflict.

The Collect:

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
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:

Father of light,
in whom is no change or shadow of turning,
you give us every good and perfect gift
and have brought us to birth by your word of truth:
may we be a living sign of that kingdom
where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
in whose service lies perfect freedom:
teach us to obey you
with loving hearts and steadfast wills;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The United Nations Peace Garden near the West Door of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick … today is United Nations Day (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 2024: 91, Friday 9 August 2024

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … the Byzantine-style crucifix by Laurence King (1907-1981) in the crypt of Saint Mary le Bow on Cheapside in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X). The Church Calendar today (9 August 2024) remembers the life and work of Mary Sumner (1921), founder of the Mothers’ Union. Today also marks the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

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.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross, Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 16: 24-28 (NRSVA):

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

‘For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?’ (Matthew 16: 26) … torn and ragged banknotes in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

In this Gospel reading (Matthew 16: 24-28), Christ and the disciples are near the villages of Caesarea Philippi, in today’s Golan Heights. Christ has both commended Peter for his faith and warned him of the danger of being a stumbling block.

To their dismay, Christ now speaks openly about his imminent death and resurrection. He then describes true discipleship: first, a disciple must follow him and renounce self-centeredness (verse 23). Those who are prepared to give even their lives for his sake and for the sake of spreading the good news will find true life verse 24). But those who opt for material well-being deny their true selves and lose out (verse 26).

There is a cost to discipleship, but the challenge to take up the Cross and to follow Christ is open to all.

God in Christ has come to enfold humanity. The cross will not stop the proclamation of the Good News, nor will it keep salvation history from breaking into the cosmos.

So often, in the face of criticism, the Christian response is either to shut down or to retreat to a different understanding of God and Jesus. But Christ tells the people that if they want to follow him on the journey, there is a cost to discipleship.

We are challenged to take up our cross and follow Christ on that journey.

Christianity cannot be reduced to an individual mental or philosophical decision. It is a journey with Christ and with not only the disciples but with the crowd, the many, who are also invited to join that journey.

If Saint Peter knew what was ahead of him, perhaps he might have been even more vocal in rebuking Christ in yesterday’s Gospel reading. But the triumph comes not in getting what we want, not in engineering things so that God gives us what we desire and wish for, so that we get a Jesus who does the things we want him to do. The triumph comes in the Resurrection.

True discipleship and true prayer mean making God’s priorities my priorities: the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the isolated, the marginalised, the victims, the unloved. If that is difficult, nobody said that being a Christian was going to be easy, that being a Christian would not cost anything.

As the German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have put it, being a disciple means having to pay the cost of discipleship. There is no cheap Christianity and there is no cheap grace.

Pope Francis puts it another way. Referring to discipleship and the traditional Lenten fast, he once asked, ‘Do you want to fast this Lent?’ And then, he answered:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness; fill your hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words; be silent and listen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer distinguishes between cheap grace and costly grace, and reminds us of the ‘Cost of Discipleship’

Today’s Prayers (Friday 9 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 ‘Understanding each other by walking together’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Right Revd Eduardo Coelho Grillo, Anglican Bishop of Rio de Janeiro.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 9 August 2024, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples) invites us to pray:

Father God / Kthhe Mnedo (Great Spirit), we pray to you for freedom from unjust systems that exist and continue the oppression of Indigenous people around the world.

The Collect:

Faithful and loving God,
who called Mary Sumner to strive for the renewal of family life:
give us the gift of your Holy Spirit,
that through word, prayer and deed
your family may be strengthened and your people served;
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:

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

Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross and follows Christ … Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Nuffield College and the embarrassment of Lord Nuffield’s lifelong antisemitism

Nuffield College, Oxford, owes its name and endowments to the indistrialist William Morris, Lord Nuffield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Oxford University is in the process of confronting the legacy it has inherited that are rooted in slavery, racism and colonialism.

The ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ protests have raised questions about the continuing presence of the statue of Cecil Rhodes looking down on the High Street, with many calls for its removal. It has become a focus for public debate on racism and the legacy of colonialism. In response, Oriel College has placed a small notice below his statue on the Rhodes Building, explaining that his statue is controversial and that the college is addressing this.

For three centuries or more, the library at All Souls College was known as Codrington Library. But in 2020, All Souls College decided to stop using that name to make plain its abhorrence of slavery.

Nuffield College is a small postgraduate college specialising in the social sciences (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

However, with the frightening rise in antisemitism, perhaps Nuffield College also needs to critically examine its legacy and the way it continues to honour William Morris (1877-1963), Lord Nuffield, and to address his Nazi sympathies and his vociferous and vile lifelong antisemitism.

Nuffield College is a small postgraduate college, specialising in the social sciences. The new Porters’ Lodge at the large Worcester Street gates and main entrance opened last Friday (3 May). This was the main entrance location planned by the architect Austen Harrison in the original designs for Nuffield College, and the previous entrance at New Road has been closed.

Nuffield College owes its name to its founder, William Richard Morris (1887-1963), first Viscount Nuffield. The college website portrays him as a benevolent industrialist and ‘one of Britain's greatest philanthropists.’ He founded the Nuffield Foundation and the Nuffield Trust and bestowed his largesse on Oxford, giving away millions to worthy causes.

Morris once declared: ‘I can only promise you this, that for the rest of my life I will do my best for mankind.’ But it was a hollow promise, for Morris was a pro-Hitler Nazi sympathiser and was once the leading financier of far-right politics in pre-war Britain, and also an oppressive and cruel employer.

The college website labels him ‘the British Henry Ford.’ The website misses the irony in this, for Henry Ford was a virulent racist and clung to his antisemitic views throughout his life, and used his vast resources and influence in a sustained campaign to spread bigotry and conspiracy thinking. Ford refused to employ Jews in white-collar jobs, and he was a supporter of various antisemitic organisations, including the Ku Klux Klan.

So I find it baffling, to put it mildly, that Nuffield, who was a Nazi sympathiser and an antisemitic racist, is still apparently feted uncritically in Oxford.

Nuffield helped the Radcliffe Hospital to purchase the Radcliffe Observatory site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Morris always managed to maintain a veneer of social respectably and he became Sir William Morris in 1929 when he was given the title of baronet. But by then his fascist sympathies were known publicly and he played a central role in the growth of fascism in pre-war Britain in the 1930s

He became a bankroller of extremist politics in 1930, when he donated £50,000 – the equivalent of £3 million today – to Oswald Mosley’s New Party, later the British Union of Fascists.

Mosley’s blackshirts wanted a Britain that was exclusively for people of ‘British Birth and Parentage,’ and advocated collaboration with Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany. He described William Morris as his ‘chief backer’. In 1932, Morris gave Mosley another £35,000 – £2 million today – to set up Action, the blackshirt ‘newspaper’.

Action was violently antisemitic, speaking of the ‘filthy, obscene Jewish Communists.’ It wanted to deprive Jews of the vote and advocated ‘holding them under restraint’ to protect native Britons. It claimed Jews controlled the ‘financial democracy’ of the world, oppressed hard-working Britons and stole their money for their own kind. It accused Jews of seeking to ‘destroy Christianity’ while using their control of the media to divert eyes elsewhere.

Action also defended the Nazi treatment of Jews, describing it as ‘mild’ and ‘justified’ and claiming it was far less harsh than the treatment of Catholics in other parts of Europe.

As public opinion turned against fascism, Morris became more subtle in his support for the far-right, and his veneer of social respectability was enhanced in 1934 when he was given a peerage with the title Baron Nuffield.

Although Nuffield stopped funding Mosley directly, for many more years he retained his subscription to antisemitic newspapers, including the Duke of Northumberland’s anti-Jewish newspaper The Patriot. He became a leading figure in the Anglo-German Fellowship, was founded in 1935 to enabled aristocrats and bankers to build bridges with Nazi Germany. The guests at their dinners included Nazis such as Heinrich Himmler, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Rudolf Hess, and leading members were guests at the Nuremberg rally in 1936.

Mosley’s blackshirts were actively organising violent attacks on Jews on the streets of London, and this reached a climax with the Battle of Cable Street in the East End of London on 4 October 1936.

Nuffield was a leading advocate of appeasement when he was advanced or promoted in the peerage by Neville Chamberlain in 1938 with the additional title of Viscount Nuffield.

During World War II, Morris was involved in the National Front After Victory, a far-right organisation later known as the National Front. Despite the defeat of the Nazis and Fascists in World War II, Morris clung to his extremist beliefs. He wrote in his diary, ‘It is a well-known fact that every government in my England is Jew controlled regardless of the party in power.’

The Morris Garages site on Longwall Street site was redeveloped in 1980 and is now student accommodation for New College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Admittedly, Morris donated generously to the university, helping to fund Nuffield College, donating generously to Saint Peter’s Hall which became Saint Peter’s College, endowing four medical professorships in the university, setting up the Oxford Medical School, and helping the Radcliffe Hospital to acquire the Radcliffe Observatory site.

But he amassed his wealth through his Oxford factories, where workers endured poor conditions and low wages. When his workers organised against the appalling conditions and low wages in his factories, Morris threatened to fire anyone who joined a union.

The buildings Morris first acquired in Longwall Street back in 1902 became the Oxford Garage and later the Morris Garages in 1910. The Longwall Street site was redeveloped in 1980, retaining the original frontage, and is now used as student accommodation by New College.

However, while the Longwall Street site of the Morris Garage lauds Nuffield’s achievements in the motor industry, I could see nothing referring to his ugly antisemitism, racism and bigotry.

I am not advocating that Nuffield College should change its name. But if Nuffield College or New College wanted to find someone else’s name to highlight and to start to bring some balance into the equation, I would suggest the name of Abe Lazarus (1911-1967), who led the first successful strike in a Morris factory in 1934.

Abraham Lazarus was born in London into a Jewish family. His mother was Irish and spent Abe’s early years nursing him through rheumatic fever. In his teens he became a Communist Party activist, but his trade union activities in Oxford were supported by local Labour Party activists too.

On the eleventh day of the strike at the Morris factories in 1934, the management agreed to raise wages and to recognise the unions. The victory of the striking Morris workers ushered in a wave of left-wing political activism across Oxford in the 1930s. The Labour Party saw a resurgence in Oxford, the Transport and General Workers’ Union saw an increase in members, and the Communist Party gained support among Morris factory workers.

Lazarus also helped to protect Oxford’s Jews from fascist intimidation in 1936 by organising crowds of students and workers to successfully disrupt a visiting Oswald Mosley the British Union of Fascists in Oxford during the ‘Battle of Carfax.’

Lazarus stood many times in the Cowley and Iffley ward in Oxford City Council elections, but was never elected. When he stood in Cowley in 1937, he was on a joint ticket with Frank Pakenham (1905-2001). He came close to winning the seat, and the election launched the political career of the future Lord Longford. Pakenham stood against Quintin Hogg in Oxford in 1945, but lost by almost 3,000 votes. That October, he was made a Labour life peer with the title of Baron Pakenham of Cowley in the City of Oxford. He later succeeded his brother as the Earl of Longford in 1961.

During his final years, Abe Lazarus worked as a librarian at the Bernal Peace Library. The modern office building the Labour Party and the Unite union share in Cowley is named Abe Lazarus House in his honour.

Shabbat Shalom

Would Abe Lazarus (1911-1967) be an appropriate figure to commemorate at Nuffield College? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)