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

Saint Mary's Church, Luton, with its chequered walls is a mediaeval church on a 1,000-year-old site

Saint Mary’s Church in the centre of Luton is one of the largest churches in Bedfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary’s Church in the centre of Luton is one of the largest churches in Bedfordshire and is a fine example of mediaeval architecture. Saint Mary’s is over 900 years old but there has been a church on the same site for over 1,000 years, and the church has been rebuilt and refurbished constantly over the centuries.

In her recent history of Saint Mary’s Church (2000), Katheryne Rogers describes the church as ‘Luton’s Medieval Jewel’ and tells ‘the stories behind the chequered walls’. It has been said that Saint Mary’s is a ‘medieval oasis surrounded by roundabouts, and sandwiched between the Arndale mall and University of Bedfordshire.’

The first church on the site was built ca 930 by King Athelstan in thanksgiving for his victory over the Danes. The land was owned by the king in Saxon and early Norman times and the church was richly endowed. The castle may have stood where the university is now and beside the River Lea.

The present Saint Mary’s was first built in 1121, but there has been a church on the same site in Luton for over 1,000 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The present church was first built in 1121 by Robert FitzRoy (1090-1147), 1st Earl of Gloucester, and it was consecrated in 1137. The church was first built in a cruciform shape without aisles. But with the increases in population of Luton, the north and south aisles were added within 40 years of each other at the start of the 13th century.

As the church continued to be extended, a tower was built, and the transepts were extended, with twin arches opening into the new chapels on the east sides of the transepts. A vaulted sacristy with an upper room was built north of the chancel and a new font was given a canopy of richly carved stone in an octagonal shape.

Further restoration and rebuilding work was carried out in this time, the Someries chapel was extended, the sacristy was rebuilt further east, the west tower was made taller and most of the windows were renewed.

All this work was carried out with the help of John Wenlock (ca 1400/1404-1471) of Someries Castle, MP for the Bedfordshire, Speaker of Parliament and Baron Wenlock. His family had been connected with the church since 1389, and the chapel was renamed the Wenlock Chapel in 1461.

Wenlock switched sides five times between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses and has been called ‘the prince of turncoats’. Some historians suggest this behaviour was commonplace during the Wars of the Roses; others say that even when Wenlock was not actually changing sides, he was engaged in ‘fence sitting par excellence’. He was killed on the battlefield at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, allegedly by his own commander, the Duke of Somerset, who blamed Wenlock’s indecisiveness for the defeat of the Lancastrians.

The other chapels in Saint Mary’s Church include the Hoo Chapel and the Barnard Chantry chapel and the church also has monuments to the Rotheram family.

The 14th-century octagonal baptistery in the western bay was a gift from Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III, to the people of Luton to encourage their spirits following the Black Death. It has a bowl-shaped Purbeck marble font and is the only Baptistry in England with a walk-in stone canopy surrounding it.

The south door (1530) is known as the Wolsey Door, after Cardinal Wolsey, a patron of the church.

The west tower of Saint Mary’s Church, Luton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The architecture of Saint Mary’s is varied as the church has been renovated and rebuilt many times. The basic layout is a cruciform shape, with north and south aisles and many chapels and extensions in various directions heading off the main church. The total length of the church is 53 metres (174 ft), the total width is 17 metres (56 ft), and the height is 27 metres (89 ft).

The outside of the church is clad in a distinctive flint and stone chequer, which makes the church stand out in the town. The chequerwork pattern of dark flint and light stone is characteristic of the north Chilterns.

The church is Grade I listed and the only one to be a Grade I listed building in Luton.

A statue on the west side of the tower of of Saint Mary’s Church, Luton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church underwent a major and sympathetic restoration in 1865-1885 led by the Victorian architect George Edmund Street (1824-1881), when the Revd James O’Neill was the Vicar of Luton (1862-1895). The distinctive flint and stone chequer was extended to cover most of the church. Giles Gilbert Scott supervised repairs to the Wenlock Chapel in 1904-1905, and the tower was restored in 1906.

The parish hall and offices and vestries were built as a block in the chequered style at the east end of the church in 1968-1969 to provide more space. At the time, they aroused much controversy, with one critic suggesting ‘they look like a public toilet and bear no architectural relationship to the church’.

The Magnificat Window in the south transept was installed in 1979, replacing a window damaged by vandalism. The abstract stained glass window was designed by Alan Younger (1933-2004), one of the most important stained-glass artists in post-war Britain. The window represents the Virgin Mary’s emotional explosion of happiness and outpouring of gratitude during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth when she was pregnant with the Christ Church. Alan Younger also designed the Great West Window installed in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, in 1975.

The church has also installed projection screens, moved the pulpit to its former position and replaced the Victorian heating system.

The clock was restored in time for the millennium and was officially reopened in 1999 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The clock was installed in 1901, and faced west across the town. Described as a Cambridge quarter clock with an eight-day movement, it was built by JW Benson at. The quarters were chimed on the second, third, fourth and seventh bells, and the hours struck on the tenor bell.

However, after two overhauls in 1909 and 1949 and the installation of a new bell, the clock’s mechanism’s seized and gave up in 1979. The bell was not heard for 28 years, until the University of Bedfordshire, offered to help restore the clock in time for the new year and the millennium. The clock was officially reopened on Armistice Day 11 November 1999.

The graveyard surrounding the church is no longer used. Power Court, the area next to Saint Mary’s Church, has been due to be renovated for years. Currently Luton Town Football Club proposes to develop the site with a stadium, apartment blocks, retail and other facilities.

Saint Mary’s Church is in the Diocese of Saint Albans and stands in the Open Evangelical tradition. It is known for its youth work in the town and its pioneering peace and reconciliation ministry. The Vicar of Luton is Canon Mike Jones, and the ministry team includes the Revd Andy Pike, the Rev Joseph Adewale and the Rev Chris Adams. Saint Mary’s is open on Tuesday to Thursday, from 9 am to 1 pm, and on Sundays from 9 am to 12 noon.

The parish hall and offices and vestries were built as a block in the chequered style at the east end of the church in 1968-1969 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Sunday services are at 9 am and 10:30 am. The 9 am service is quiet and reflective with Holy Communion and hymns, followed by tea and coffee. The 10:30 service alternates between All-Age worship and Holy Communion. A Shona-language service on the third Sunday afternoon each month is designed for the Zimbabwean community.

The Sunday services in Saint Mary’s Church, Luton, are at 9 am and 10:30 am (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Mural on Art Deco cinema highlights the risks to the architectural legacy of George Street in Luton

The mural by Sarah Hodgkins of Charlotte Designs recalls the glory days of the ABC Savoy Cinema in Luton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

My flights between Luton and Dublin this week were both delayed for quite some time this week, and it can be grim experiences sitting around airports for hours, trying to rebook missed coach connections and idling on phones yet trying to keep them charged because Ryanair now demands that all boarding passes must be on phones.

Luton Airport is small and much easier to get through, and unlike many airports the coffee shops stay open until late in the night, which mean that, although airports are never pleasant places in which to spend lost hours, Luton is a good airport to leave from and to arrive back at.

I saw little of Luton early on Thursday morning or in the late hours of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, but I have enjoyed my visits to Luton in Bedfordshire in recent weeks, looking for Saint Mary’s Church, the art deco buildings on George Street.

George Street at the junction with Market Hill in Luton … the entire street in on the Heritage at Risk Register (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

George Street, as an entire street in the heart of Luton, has been added to the Heritage at Risk Register by Historic England because it is at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

The street, running from Saint Mary’s and Market Hill to Luton’s art deco Town Hall, has 36 Grade II listed buildings. It is the historic heart of Luton and was once the centre of the hat-making industry, but Historic England warns that many of its buildings are ‘now in poor condition’ and the street lacks purpose.

Historic England says George Street lacks ‘a clear function and purpose’ and is ‘hampered by the physical barrier of the ring road’. It says revitalising George Street and helping it evolve to meet the needs of a contemporary town centre is critical to the future of this characterful street, and to revitalising the heritage of Luton’s town centre.

No 27 George Street at the corner of Chapel Lane is an attractive arts and crafts building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At one end of the street, 27 George Street is at the corner of Chapel Lane and is an attractive arts and crafts building. George Pigott was a butcher there in 1871, but the Pigott family probably had a butcher’s shop at No 27 since at least 1839. The Pigotts were still there in 1898, but Boots the chemists were there by 1903.

A plaque on the Chapel Street return frontage indicates that the present building was built in 1915. The other date indicates that something was established there in 1874 but it cannot refer to the Pigotts or to later tenants, including Boots, founded in 1849, or Hepworths, founded in 1864.

Boots continued to occupy the corner-site building until at least 1960, but the premises were vacant by 1965. J Hepworth tailors had moved there by 1968 and they were still there in 1975. The estate agents Taylors are on the corner site today [2026] , with Mano coffee shop next door.

Plaques on the Chapel Street frontage indicate the building was built, founded or rebuilt in 1874 and 1915 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Back on George Street, one of the most eye-catching delights in the past two years or so is the way the long-derelict ABC Savoy Cinema has been covered in a colourful 1930s-inspired mural by the artist Sarah Hodgkins. The dilapidated building at the heart of the George Street Conservation Area has stood empty and neglected for about quarter of a century. But once it was a stylish venue which the entertainment for generations of people in Luton.

The 1,892-seat cinema opened as the Savoy on 17 October 1938. The building was designed for Associated British Cinemas (ABC) by the architect William Riddell Glen (1885-1950) and built on land leased from the then Luton Corporation. The Art Deco styling was very fashionable at the time and echoed much of the architecture of surrounding buildings, including the Town Hall at the far end of George Street.

The interior was decorated in shades of pink and green, with plush pink carpets and staff sporting a smart green uniform. The Savoy changed its name to the ABC in 1961. It closed in April 1971, was gutted and rebuilt and reopened as a three-screen multiplex in September 1971. It was renamed the Cannon in April 1986. When a new 10-screen Cineworld multiplex opened a short walk down the street in 1998, the Cannon was renamed ABC, and continued for another two years until the three-screen cinema closed its doors for the last time on 23 November 2000.

The ABC Savoy Cinema opened in 1938 but has been vacant since 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The mural at the front of the former cinema includes elements suggested by local residents, with references to Vauxhall Motors, the film ‘Blinded by the Light’, and local singer and songwriter Myles Smith, who was recognised at the BRIT Awards last year (2025).

While the site awaits development, the mural artist Sarah Hodgkins of Charlotte Designs was commissioned to make the cinema frontage more attractive and create a much needed focal point for the area. The aim was to make a sympathetic and colourful façade for the building that complements the wider environment of the town centre, brightening the area and enabling increased footfall and placemaking.

Art Deco emerged as a new style in the 1920s and 1930s. It originated in France and captured the prosperity and glamour of post-World War I modernism and advancements, with its classical influences, geometric motifs, and streamlined architectural styles. Many of the Art Deco values and themes fitted neatly into the requirements for the ABC Cinema in Luton.

The art deco Luton Town Hall is one of 36 Grade II listed buildings on George Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The artist Sarah Hodgkins painted the scene in March 2025. She is an award-winning mural artist, with over 20 years of practice and more than 750 hand-painted murals completed for businesses, councils, hospitals, schools and private individuals. She is based in Northamptonshire and works throughout the UK under the name Charlotte Designs, the business she founded in 2005. She talked to the local community about what they would like to see and what themes would be of interest to them. Her design features a city street with a park in the background, and there are stylised clouds and an aeroplane.

The centre section is essentially the front of a 1930s cinema, with Art Deco architecture and steps down. There are two posters on either side of the doors, one shows a poster for ‘Blinded by the Light’, a film made in Luton in 2019 and featuring many scenes on George Street; the other is a poster by Myles Smith, a Luton based artist.

The section along George Street West is more of an evening scene, representing the use of the area as both a daytime and evening hub. It shows a jazz band and dancers, a nod to both the Jazz age and to the Luton carnival. The mural also includes a nod to the new Luton Town Football Club stadium. The upper section features a sunrise image, a symbol of hope that featured widely in Art Deco art. The sunrise image is flanked by traditional Art Deco styling and proudly has Luton as its main feature text. The fascias are purposefully simple in their design so they do not overshadow the upper and lower murals. They complement the mural’s style and colour palette and show both former names of the cinema, the Savoy and ABC Cinema. Both these elements were printed and installed by The Treacle Factory.

However, behind the new façade, the building remains empty and forlorn since the ABC Savoy closed over 25 years ago, awaiting longer-term development. The age of the building means that there is asbestos internally, which requires specialist removal, a time-consuming and expensive process.

Before leaving Luton that afternoon, I sat in Mano Coffee at 25 George Street, next door to Traynor’s estate agents in the former arts and crafts shop of Pigott’s and Boots on the corner of Chapel Lane. But there is more to discover about the architectural heritage of Luton, and more to say in the days to come, hopefully, about Saint Mary’s Church, the 900-year-old parish church in the centre of Luton.

Mano Café and Taylor’s estate agents on George Street, Luton, on the corner with Chapel Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In search of the lost mediaeval and war-time Jewish communities in the heart of Dunstable,

By late 1942, the Jewish congregation in Dunstable had moved to 132 Luton Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

It is quite some time since I posted a variety of blog postings on Friday evenings, reflecting on an aspect of Jewish spirituality and prayer life or looking at synagogues or the sites of synagogues I have visited and places of interest in Jewish history, culture and life.

However, with the rise in antisemitism across these islands in recent months, I suspended these posts, unwilling to identify the location of synagogues or Jewish sites I was visiting. My fears seemed to be confirmed when the former East London Central Synagogue on Nelson Street in the East End suffered an arson attack shortly after I had written about its sale and its past history.

However, when I was in Dunstable last week I decided to resume me searches, looking for the sites of places that had served as synagogues, albeit briefly, and searching for stories of local Jewish history and past Jewish communities in the south Bedfordshire town.

Dunstable, with a population of about 40,000, is the fourth largest town in Bedfordshire, about 30 km south-east of Milton Keynes, 8 km west of Luton and 50 km north of London.

There is no active, organised Jewish community or synagogue in Dunstable these days, and the nearest active Jewish congregation is Luton United Synagogue, about 8 km away. But Dunstable has had two Jewish communities in the past: a mediaeval community that survived until Edward I proclaimed the Edict of Expulsion in 1290; and a war-time community, mainly of evacuees, that lasted until the early 1950s.

Mediaeval Dunstable had a small but notable Jewish community in the 12th and 13th centuries. Thomas, the Prior of Dunstable, borrowed £50 from Aaron of Lincoln, a Jewish banker and financier, in 1185. Aaron of Lincoln (1123-1186) was a prominent financier and one of the wealthiest individuals in 12th century England. He ran a major banking network with agents across the country, he financed major building projects, including Dunstable Priory, St Albans Abbey, Lincoln Minster, Peterborough Abbey, and several cathedrals.

Aaron of Lincoln died in 1886, and three years later, during anti-Jewish riots and violence in 1189, the entire Jewish community in Dunstable was forced to choose accepting baptism or facing massacre.

However, Jews may have returned to the town quite quickly, albeit in small numbers. In what seems to have been an antisemitic diatribe in 1210, when a great storm destroyed the Priory Church, the Prior of Dunstable, Richard de Morins, documented his vision of two Jews who said the Anti-Christ would be born 40 years later.

Mossy, a Jew, unsuccessfully sued the same Prior of Dunstable for £700 in 1221. His friends paid the king a mark of gold and £100 to save him from hanging for forgery. A converted Jew named Henry obtained a letter from the Pope in 1275 promising that the prior, William le Breton, would maintain him and his family.

Following the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, all Jews were forced to leave England, effectively ending the mediaeval presence of Jews in Dunstable, although there is no record of the number forced of people who were forced to leave the town.

Aaron of Lincoln (1123-1186) financed major building projects, including Dunstable Priory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In the inter-war and war-time years, the Cohen family owned Barwythe Hall, near Dunstable, from 1931 until 1945. The most prominent member of the family was Harold Cohen (1873-1936), the Liverpool-born businessman, communal leader and philanthropist. He was a major benefactor to Liverpool University and Harold House, which was named in his honour, was the main centre for Jewish communal organisations, youth activities and social events in Liverpool from the 1920s until it closed in 2009.

In the mid-20th century, a modern Jewish community was established in Dunstable during World War II, mainly for evacuees who had fled from other parts of the UK.

The Dunstable United Synagogue Membership Group was formed following a meeting in October 1941 called by Jewish residents and World War II evacuees. During the war, the congregation first met in a hut until it was requisitioned by builders, with Jewish refugees worshipping at a temporary synagogue in Poynters Road, Dunstable.

The Revd Louis Blumenthal (1912-1985) was the minister in Dunstable from 1941 until at least 1943. He had previously served as the reader of Leyton and Walthamstow New Federated Synagogue, later known as Queen’s Road Synagogue, east London (1936-1939).

For most years, festival services were held in Dunstable Town Hall or in a school hall and Hebrew classes for the children were held by Rabbi Waxman at Burr Street School. Weekly Hebrew classes were held at Dunstable Grammar School and other schools in 1942.

By September 1942, the congregation had moved to 132 Luton Road, Dunstable, and this continued as the community address until at least late 1946. Following the appointment of the Revd Judah Hosea Rockman in 1946, Hebrew classes were held at two separate venues on Sunday mornings.

By 1946, the congregation was also using a temporary synagogue at Watling House, 123 High Street North, which was described as ‘very unsuitable’ and ‘bleak’. This developed into the Dunstable Hebrew Congregation, which was established about 1947. A hall adjoining 119 High Street North, Dunstable, was offered to the congregation in July 1947 for its exclusive and free use for services, classes and other activities by Barnett Green president of the congregation from 1947 to 1955.

The membership group was affiliated to the United Synagogue. When the war-time membership group scheme came to an end, the congregation was one of only five small membership groups that applied for affiliation status with the United Synagogue. The congregation became an affiliated synagogue of the United Synagogue in 1948.

The last recorded minister in Dunstable was the Revd I Gross, from 1950 until about 1952. There appears to have been no further references to the congregation in the Jewish Chronicle after 1951, the congregation had closed in 1955, and the Dunstable United Synagogue membership group, which met at the Town Hall, was disbanded by the mid-1950s.

For community events, religious services, or kosher resources today, most Jewish people living in the Dunstable and Central Bedfordshire area are connected with the Luton congregation. There is no Jewish cemetery in Dunstable, and Bushey Cemetery, about 30 km away, was established in 1947. Any former members of the Dunstable congregation were probably absorbed into the Luton Hebrew Congregation.

When I went looking for signs of the Jewish community in Dunstable last week, it seemed the two addresses at High Street North have been replaced in recent decades by social housing, although the house on Luton Road is still standing.

As for the former Dunstable Town Hall at 11 High Street North, which had hosted festival services for many years, it was sold in 1965 and demolished in 1966, and the site has been redeveloped for commercial purposes. The present building is a branch of the Santander bank, while the town hall has been located since the 1990s in the Grade II-listed Grove House.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

The two buildings used by the Jewish community in Dunstable in the 1940s have been replaced in recent decades by social housing (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 28, Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi

The Communion vessels on a side altar after the Eucharist in Christ Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We have returned to Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with Trinity Sunday (31 May 2026), and in the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today is the Feast of Corpus Christi (4 June 2026) or the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion.

I have some long journeys ahead of me later today, and I am going to miss this evening's readings and rehearsals by the local playreading and drama group in the library in Stony Stratford. But before today begins, as I wait in Luton Airport, 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 present in the Eucharist … an icon in the central door of the iconostasis in the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 51-58 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 51 ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflections:

The Cambridge priest-poet Malcolm Guite, in a posting on his blog two years ago (30 May 2024), recalled how the Feast of Corpus Christi was marked in mediaeval times with a processions in which the consecrated elements were taken out of the church and processed on the streets, ‘showing that the Word made flesh was not just in a box labelled ‘church’ but in our midst, just as he was on the streets of Nazareth and Jerusalem’.

The Feast of Corpus Christi is marked in the calendar of many Anglican churches on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and is being celebrated in many English churches and cathedrals today. For example, there is a Solemn Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral at 7:30 this evening, when the setting is Benjamin Britten’s Missa Brevis. Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, is celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Sung Eucharist at 7:30 pm.

Traditionally, there has been a Corpus Christi procession in Cambridge each year, with the Sung Eucharist at St Bene’t’s Church at 7 p.m., then moving along Trumpington Street, passing Corpus Christi College, Fitzbillies and the Fitzwilliam Museum as it processes to Little Saint Mary’s for Benediction, followed by refreshments.

Pusey House in Oxford is celebrating Corpus Christi this week evening with High Mass at 6 pm and a Corpus Christi procession to Keble College Chapel, the preacher this evening is the Right Revd Dr John Hind, sometime Bishop of Chichester.

At All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, the Corpus Christi celebrations include High Mass at 6.30 pm, when the preacher is Father David Houlding, who has chaired the Catholic Group on General Synod; the music includes: Missa Aeterna Christi Munera by Palestrina Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, and Tantum Ergo by Henschel.

In that blog posting marking the Feast of Corpus Christi in 2024, Malcolm Guite also offered a trio of sonnets about the experience of receiving Holy Communion, each from a slightly different angle.

His first two sonnets were published in Sounding the Seasons (2012), his cycle of 70 sonnets for the Church Year. The book is available on both Amazon UK and the USA, and is also out on Kindle:

1 Love’s Choice

This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.

2, Hide and Seek

Ready or not, you tell me, here I come!
And so I know I’m hiding, and I know
My hiding-place is useless. You will come
And find me. You are searching high and low.
Today I’m hiding low, down here, below,
Below the sunlit surface others see.
Oh find me quickly, quickly come to me.
And here you come and here I come to you.
I come to you because you come to me.
You know my hiding places. I know you,
I reach you through your hiding-places too;
Touching the slender thread, but now I see –
Even in darkness I can see you shine,
Risen in bread, and revelling in wine.

Malcolm Guite’s third sonnet for Corpus Christi is about the 16th century oak communion table in the Church of Saint Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge, and is from his book The Singing Bowl (2013), also published by Canterbury Press:

3, This Table

The centuries have settled on this table
Deepened the grain beneath a clean white cloth
Which bears afresh our changing elements.
Year after year of prayer, in hope and trouble,
Were poured out here and blessed and broken, both
In aching absence and in absent presence.
This table too the earth herself has given
And human hands have made. Where candle-flame
At corners burns and turns the air to light
The oak once held its branches up to heaven,
Blessing the elements which it became,
Rooting the dew and rain, branching the light.
Because another tree can bear, unbearable,
For us, the weight of Love, so can this table.

A recent Corpus Christi procession at Pusey House, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi):

A new edition of Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), was published last week, in time for the USPG conference in the High Leigh, Hertfordshire, which opened on Tuesday (2 June) and continues until today (4 June). The theme this week, from 31 May to 6 June 2026 (pp 6-7), is ‘Peacebuilding in the Gulf’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection from Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 4 June 2026, Corpus Christi) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the gift of Holy Communion, in which Christ nourishes and sustains us. May it inspire us to love and serve one another with humility.

The Collect:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament
you have given us the memorial of your passion:
grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries
of your body and blood
that we may know within ourselves
and show forth in our lives
the fruits of your redemption;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you, our God and Father,
for you have fed us with the bread of heaven
and quenched our thirst from the true vine:
hear our prayer that, being grafted into Christ,
we may grow together in unity
and feast with him in his kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The emblem of the Guild of Corpus Christi in Leicester, the Host and Chalice, seen in 15th century glass fragments in the Guildhall in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

A walk about the streets of Dunstable, with tales of Roman roads, royal funerals and a mediaeval priory

he Clock Tower and Market Cross in the Square on the west side High Street South in Dunstable was built in 1999 as a Millennium project (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

In these warm, sunny days, I have taken some time off to walk around Luton and Dunstable in the warm sunshine and to explore the history and architectural legacy of these two neighbouring towns in south Bedfordshire.

I have been in Luton before, visiting some of the sites of the synagogues and some mosques and churches, but usually I am only passing through on my way to and from the airport, catching flights to Ireland or Greece. Until these weeks, I have only been through Dunstable on buses to or from the airport. So I took the opportunity earlier this week to visit Dunstable, to wander through its streets and to take time appreciating its older buildings and its history.

Dunstable, with a population of about 40,000, is the fourth largest town in Bedfordshire. The market town is east of the Chiltern Hills, about 30 km south-east of Milton Keynes, 8 km west of Luton and 50 km north of London.

Dunstable is on the route of the Icknield Way, said to be ‘the oldest road in Britain’, and the centre of the town marks the crossing point of Watling Street and the Icknield Way. There was a settlement there by the 40s and 50s CE, when the Romans arrived and paved Watling Street and the Icknield Way. The Romans knew the posting station as Durocobrivis or Durocobrivae and the name is found in the Antonine Itinerary, a register of the stations and distances along roads across the Roman Empire.

the Old Sugar Loaf Inn on High Street North dates make to Dunstable’s days as a coaching inn on Watling Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The oldest part of the town is where the Icknield Way and Watling Street cross each other, and these two roads continue to divide the into four quadrants that have each been developed in stages.

Several explanations are offered for the meaning of the modern name of Dunstable, relating it to a thief called Dun, to an Anglo-Saxon name meaning a boundary post, or to words that refer to market place on a hill.

The area was occupied by the Saxons ca 571 CE, and Dunstable may have been founded in the sixth to eighth centuries, and the layout of the town may date from Anglo-Saxon times. What became Bedfordshire was part of the Kingdom of Mercia, and Dunstable and the surrounding area suffered from later Norse raids under King Sweyn Forkbeard and King Cnut of Denmark.

Henry I started to clear the woodlands and built a royal residence or hunting lodge, Kingsbury, in 1123 at what is now the Old Palace Lodge Hotel on Church Street. He also founded Dunstable Priory in 1131. Dunstable was one of 12 places where an Eleanor Cross marked the funeral entourage of Eleanor of Castile in 1290, when her coffin stayed overnight in the priory before moving on to St Albans and to Westminster Abbey.

During the English Civil War, Roundhead troops were stationed in Dunstable, the town was plundered by Charles I’s soldiers 1644, and the soldiers of Fairfax destroyed the Eleanor Cross.

Donna Maria on Church Street is a timber framed building said to date back to 16th or even the 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Later, the town prospered with a large number of coaching inns. It was only one or two days’ ride on horse from London and was a suitable place to rest overnight. Two pubs in Dunstable still have coaching gates: the Old Sugar Loaf Inn on High Street North, and the Saracen’s Head on High Street South. However, the importance of Dunstable as a significant market town diminished as neighbouring Luton grew.

Dunstable had been an ancient borough from the 12th to 16th centuries, but lost its borough status after the Reformation. Dunstable became a borough again in 1864 but the municipal borough was abolished in 1974, becoming part of South Bedfordshire, and then of Central Bedfordshire.

Dunstable grew in the 20th century as an engineering centre. Shops were concentrated along High Street North and High Street South, the old Watling Street, the Quadrant Shopping Centre opened in 1966, and the Eleanor’s Cross retail area, was developed in 1985 to cater for smaller shops.

The Luton Dunstable Busway, linking Dunstable with Luton and Luton Airport, was completed in 2013. Much of the busway runs along the lines of an old railway that has been converted into a guided busway.

The cultural centres in Dunstable include the Grove Theatre and the Little Theatre, and the town’s facilities include Central Bedfordshire College, several parks and open spaces and the Priory House Heritage Centre.

The Icknield Way Path passes through the town on a 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. The Icknield Way Trail, a route for walkers, horse riders and off-road cyclists also passes through the town.

The Anchor Gateway in High Street North led into the former White Horse Inn, where Henry VIII stayed in 1537 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

I wanted to spend time in Dunstable Priory and to see some of the other churches sites in the town, to explore some of its history – including the priory grounds, the site of the Eleanor Cross and the site of Henry VIII’s annulment from Catherine Aragon – and to see some of the many listed buildings there too.

The building known today as Priory House is the oldest extant building in Dunstable, aside from the parish church, and is nationally rare for its surviving 13th century vaulted ground floor undercroft. It stands close to the anciient crossroads at the heart of the town, opposite the market place on the south side of the High Street, and close to the mediaeval monastic precinct.

Donna Maria, an Italian restaurant at 26 Church Street, is a timber-framed building that dates from the 17th century or earlier, with an 18th century brick frontage and an early 19th century pair of shopfronts, and jettied at the side facing Little Alley. Signs at the door claim it is both a ‘15th century timber framed building’ and a ‘16th century building’ that was saved from demolition by a successful campaign.

Marshe Almshouses at 97-107 Church Street is a traditional almshouse dating from 1743 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

No 13 High Street North incorporates the Anchor Gateway, an early 17th century gatehouse with an interesting design. At the ground floor level is a round-arched carriageway with Roman Doric half columns and entablature; the first floor has two three-light stone mullion casements, and the gable above has brick coping and a central stone tablet; and on each side of the archway there are pointed arched niches.

The Anchor Gateway in High Street North was the original entrance to the former White Horse Inn, where Henry VIII once stayed in 1537 having refused to stay at the Priory. It eventually became the Anchor Inn. According to local lore, the king played a game of bowls on the green behind the inn, near the site of Christ Church today.

Marshe Almshouses at 97 to 107 Church Street is a traditional almshouse almost 300 years old, dating from 1743. It is worth noticing the six sash windows and six ‘dummy’ windows in pairs, the three coupled doorways, and the central projection with a pediment and tympanum that includes a circular panel with a coat-of-arms and the inscription ‘This lodge was built & endowd [sic] in 1743 pusuant [sic] to the will of Mrs Blandina Marshe’.

The Old Sugar Loaf Inn is a 350-year-old coaching inn at 46 High Street North, dating from 1660 and with an early 19th century Roman Doric porch over the pavement. It seems to have been called the Grocers Arms in the late 17th century and used a sugar loaf cone as its sign, so that it was known as the Sugar Loaf in 1688. Jane Cart, a rich heiress, bought the premises in 1717 and renovated the building.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stopped to change horses at the inn on 26 July 1841 when they were on a four-hour journey from Windsor to visit Woburn Abbey as guests of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford. In its heyday, was the most prestigious inn in Dunstable, catering to the nobility and but discouraging visits by less-distinguished people who came to the town in stagecoaches. Today, it is popular with local rugby supporters. The inn’s eye-catching sign – a gigantic conical sugar loaf – is no longer seen on top of the portico.

The Old Post Office at 67 High Street North was designed by the architect Noel Ackroyd Rew (1881–1959) and was built in 1912. He designed several Edwardian-era post offices in the region, and All Saints’ Church, Berkhamsted (1905) and Berkhamsted School Chapel.

The Clock Tower and Market Cross in the Square on the west side High Street South was built in 1999 as a Millennium project.

The Old Post Office at 67 High Street North was designed by the architect Noel Ackroyd Rew (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

I had started the day with the surprise and pleasure of an authentic Greek coffee at the Greek Bakers in 36a High Street North, close to the Quadrant Shopping Centre, and ended the day slowly sipping a glass of white wine looking out on the walled gardens at the Old Palace Lodge Hotel, across from Dunstable Priory on Church Street.

I had seen so much and heard so much and there is a lot to talk about, including stories about Dunstable Priory, Saint Mary’s Church, designed by Desmond Williams, and some other churches in Dunstable, as well as stories of royal hunts and haunts, royal funerals, marriages and annulments and the fate of the town’s Eleanor Cross.

And there are stories too of two Jewish communities in Dunstable: the mediaeval Jews who were forced into mass conversions, and the war-time Jewish community that struggled to keep Jewish life going into Dunstable into the 1950s.

But more about these stories from Dunstable in the days to come, hopefully.

The quadrants created in Dunstable by roads dating back to the Roman era give the Quadrant shopping centre its name (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Bury Park Church in Luton opened in 1895 but closed in 2023 as churchgoing changed in recent decades

The former Bury Park Church in Luton was designed by George Baines (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have passed through Luton in Bedfordshire on several occasions in recent year, catching flights at Luton Airport. But when I visited Luton recently, I spent much of the day visiting the synagogue and Jewish sites in the town and a few mosques.

I have to return to Luton soon to visit its many churches. But the one church I took notice of during a recent visit was Bury Park United Reformed Church on the corne of Bury Park Road Waldeck Road, a former Congregational and United Reformed church that closed recently and a Grade II listed building.

Bury Park Church was built as a Congregational church. The initiative to build the new chapel came from the King Street Congregational Chapel in Luton. The foundation stone of a temporary church that later became a schoolroom was laid on 3 June 1895 and the opening service in the new temporary building was held on 9 October 1895.

It took some time to raise the funds needed to build a permanent church building. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 7 April 1903 and the church opened for worship on 18 November 1903. It was built in the perpendicular Gothic style to designs by the architect George Baines (1851-1934), who is known for his many non-conformist chapels and churches.

George Baines was born in 1851 in Kimbolton, Huntingdon, the son of Joseph Baines (1825-1854), a draper, and Eleanor Constin (1819-1915). He married Alice Maria Palmer of Great Yarmouth in the Congregational Church, Stratford, London, in 1875 and they were the parents of four children, three daughters and a son born between 1871 and 1891.

Baines was articled to Jonathan Tobbs Bottle and Henry Olley in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, from 1867 to 1870 and then an assistant to William Gilbee Habershorn and Alfred Robert Pite. He established his own independent practice in Accrington, Lancashire, in 1871, but had moved to London by 1875. He became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA )in 1892.

His works include numerous Baptist chapels and churches, as well as Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches and chapels, and one Roman Catholic church, Our Lady Star of the See Church in Lowestoft (1900-1902). His other works include the Liberal Club in Lowestoft and the gymnasium in Durham Grammar School. Baines formed a partnership with his son Reginald Palmer Baines as G & RP Baines in 1901. He retired in 1929, and died in 1934.

Bury Park Church was built on a prominent corner site in Luton and the schoolroom to the east was built first, followed by the cruciform church. Baines designed the church in a neo-decorated and perpendicular style, and it was built in fine light red brick, with Costessey stone dressings and slate roofs.

There is a cambered tower on the corner, with a short spire and weathervane, and short diagonal angle buttresses; a moulded parapet and plain corner turrets; a cornice band with rosettes and gargoyles on buttresses; four-light louvred window in each face; and lancet windows, plain stone bands, and a door on west side.

The west front has a large gable with a decorated apex over a large seven-light window. A single-storey porch on a half hexagonal plan has a gabled parapet over the main door. The four buttresses have empty niches. A small turret on the south echoes the main tower.

The north side has a similar large gabled window and two two-light square headed windows underneath. It is flanked by two small turrets. The was a single-storey link to the schoolroom at the east, with three lancet windows in a coped gable over the porch entrance.

I did not get inside the closed church, but I understand that inside it had four large pointed arches springing from foliated capitals on square marble columns, a ribbed ceiling, and a semi-circular pew arrangement. The panelling behind the organ had the same ogee motif as that in the window tracery. The church also had some plain Art Nouveau-style glass and a two-manual 13-stop pipe organ by Norman and Beard.

Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea, laid one of the foundation stones in 1895 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

One of the foundation stones of the church was laid on 3 June in 1895 by Cyril Flower (1843-1907), 1st Baron Battersea, a former Liberal MP for Luton, a patron of the arts. He was the third of 18 children of Philip William Flower, a property developer, of Streatham. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1870.

Like his father, Cyril Flower also became involved in property development, primarily in Battersea. He was first elected to Parliament in 1880 as the MP for Brecon, and then sat for Luton from 1885 until 1892. He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury in Gladstone’s third Liberal administration. When his constituency in Luton was abolished in 1892, Gladstone put Flower in the House of Lords as Baron Battersea of Battersea. A year later, he turned down the offer to become the Governor of New South Wales in Australia. Flower was also a great art collector and a patron of James McNeill Whistler and also supported members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Flower married Constance de Rothschild in 1877. She was a daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild, and they met in 1864 through his friendship with her cousin, Leopold de Rothschild. However, Battersea was gay and a close friend and possible lover of Frederic WH Myers. His other friends included Henry James and Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

Battersea’s sexuality became a public scandal in 1902. One man and two underage teenagers from landed families were jailed after a trial in Norwich, but he was secretly granted immunity from prosecution by Arthur Balfour’s government, saving the rich Liberal peer and other prominent public figures from disgrace. He died of pneumonia in November 1907 at the age of 64. Lady Battersea died in November 1931.

The Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales came together in 1972 and formed the United Reformed Church and from then the church in Luton was known as Bury Park United Reformed Church.

Due to changing demographics in the area and dwindling numbers of churcgoers, the congregation amalgamated with the other United Reformed Churches in Luton and the church closed 2½ years ago after holding its last service on 9 July 2023. A sign outside still proclaims ‘Jesus Welcomes All’.

The north side of the former Bury Park United Reformed Church in Luton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 1, Sunday 30 November 2025, Advent Sunday

If you had to squeeze onto a small boat, what essentials would you take with you? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent begins today, the First Sunday of Advent (Sunday 30 November 2025), and this also marks the beginning of the Church Year. Later this morning, I hope to be part of the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

But, before the day begins, before breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

What are the essential items you pack for a journey? … bags packed at the end of a USPG conference in High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 24: 36-44 (NRSVA):

36 [Jesus said:] ‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’

Lighting the first candle on the Advent Wreath in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The First Sunday of Advent reminds us of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our fathers and mothers or ancestors in the community or family of faith, a reminder that is repeated when we light the first candle on the Advent Wreath in our churches this morning.

Often these were people who were on the move in times of trouble, upheaval and of danger. Think of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah – often on the move, facing long journeys, but always journeying with God.

It is worth asking: ‘If a fire broke out in your house, what three possessions would you grab?’ Many priest colleagues have asked this question as they prepared their sermons on this morning’s Gospel (Matthew 24: 36-44), and the answers they get are interesting.

People include their laptops, their family photographs, their phones, their keys, their wallets or purses, cash or money, plastic cards, passports ... the family pet?

What would you take?

If you were forced to leave your home, or found yourself suddenly forced to abandon all that gives you security, would they really be worth taking?

Laptops are easily damaged, phones need to be charged and don’t always work in other countries, keys to an abandoned home no longer have any use, photographs fade, cash or money from an unstable country quickly loses value.

What would you take with you?

What do we cling to?

Anyone with an interest in old banknotes knows how it became meaningless to be a millionaire or even a multimillionaire in Weimar Germany, war-time Greece or Ceausescu’s Romania. They were in circulation at times when inflation became rampant in times of crisis in Europe. Had they been spent at the time they were issued they might have bought something of value. Had they been given away in their day, they might have helped the poor and the hungry.

But circumstances saw to it that those who became attached to their wealth on paper would lose all they had. Today’s Gospel reading challenges us to think again about what we cling to and what are our true values.

When our prosperity and wealth disappear, like the fast-fading value of old banknotes, are we in danger of feeling abandoned by God?

How would we grab our faith and take it with us if we rushed to escape a crisis?

What do you take with you on a journey?

Christ reminds those who are listening of the story of Noah. What Noah took with him on the ark is a reminder not only to anticipate our own future and our own needs to ensure that security, but to think of the needs of all life, of all creation.

Seasoned travellers know how to pack their bags.

What are the essential items you pack in your case?

Is it a small bag for an overhead cabin on a budget airline flight and a short overnight stay?

Or is it a large suitcase or two for a two-week holiday, filled with towels, sun cream and swimwear?

The list of essentials grows longer and longer as we think about it: passport, toothbrush, plastic cards, phone chargers, presents for hosts and friends, and changes of clothes and sandals, laptop, more than enough reading … so much more than we ever need or use.

Do you then regret having packed too much when you find there is not enough room for them on the way back because of restrictions on overhead bags?

I was supposed to be in Dublin this day two years ago (30 November 2023) for the launch of a new book, Christmas and the Irish: a miscellany, edited by my friend and colleague, Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth. I was at Luton Airport that morning when I realised I had left my passport back in Stony Stratford, buy by then it was too late to return to retrieve it. I missed my flight, I lost my hotel booking, and I missed the book launch, all because I had failed to take one essential travel item with me on the journey.

What do you think Mary and Joseph took with them for the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

Did they have essential and appropriate travelling papers?

Did they have enough cash to cope once they found there was no room for them in the inn?

Did they have enough with them when they made the next journey, from Bethlehem to Egypt?

Who helped them to find the missing necessities in Bethlehem, or in Egypt?

Mass migration is a major problem in the world today. Politicians seem to want us to think it is a problem for us here. But the people who suffer most are the people on the move themselves, children, women and men.

They cannot take with them what they need, never mind what they want.

On the journey, they face many threats and dangers, from exploitation and violence to extortion and human trafficking.

Of course, if they were Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, we would want to reach out and help to meet their needs.

Do I see the faces of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child in the people being taken across the channel on small boats or rafts, who are the target night-after-night in loud, baying protests outside cheap hotels and shoddy accommodation, who are vilified by far-right politicians and extremists for the sake of votes from the baying mobs?

Where can they find the Advent Hope and the present of Christ’s presence among his people this Christmas?

Did Mary and Joseph have essential and appropriate travelling papers with them as they travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem or when they fled as refugees from Bethlehem to Egypt? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 30 November 2025, Advent I):

The theme this week (30 to 6 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Kingdom is for All’ (pp 6-7). This theme is introduced today with a programme update from the Revd Magela, Vicar of Cristo Redentor Parish in Tocantins, Brazil and coordinator of Casa A+, a place of hope and healing for people living with HIV, who writes:

Read Luke 14: 21-23

Beloved, these words of Jesus are a cry against any policy that excludes, condemns, or silences. When we deny care to those who need it most – people living with HIV/AIDS, homeless populations, sex workers, black youth, trans people, people living in the peripheries – we are denying the Gospel itself.

Our calling as a Church is not to build walls, but to open paths. It is not to feed stigma, but to heal wounds. When laws criminalise the bodies and identities of key populations, the Kingdom is wounded. When funding is cut, Grace is denied. When prejudice decides who lives and who dies, we must rise up with spiritual and pastoral authority.

I have witnessed many people come to Casa A+ after suffering through years of misdiagnoses and severe health deterioration. People like Sinval and Sinair come to us after facing rapid decline in their health, but thankfully we are still able to help them. Our ultimate aim is not just to prevent deaths from AIDS, but also to combat the social stigma and isolation it causes. At Casa A+, we strive to offer life, dignity, and empowerment to those affected – transforming despair into hope.

As Christians in the Global South, we say with faith and courage:

We will not go back. We will not return to indifference.

We will not return to omission.

We will not return to complicit silence.

We will remain steadfast in our mission to proclaim a God who heals, welcomes, and transforms. A God who does not discriminate. A God who is in the trenches of public health, in shelters, in the voices that resist.

Because the Kingdom is for all people. And life is our liturgy.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray as we read and meditate on Matthew 24: 36-44.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Andrew:

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
call us by your holy word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
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

The first candle on the Advent wreath is a reminder of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our ancestors in faith (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