Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 124, Wednesday 9 September 2026

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you’ (Luke 6: 22) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the and the week began with the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026). Today the Church of England in the Calendar in Common Worship remembers Charles Fuge Lowder (1820-1880), who, in many ways, epitomise the 19th-century Anglo-Catholic ‘slum priest’.

I have another medical appointment later this morning, to review recent blood tests as my sarcoidosis and Vitamin B12 levels continue to be monitored. Later, I hope to return to the choir rehearsals 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.

‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry’ (Luke 6: 25) … full meals at restaurants in Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

‘Blessed are you who weep now …’ (Luke 6: 21) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Hebrew Bible.

But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:

• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), part of which we read on Monday;
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.

Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In today’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.

The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.

The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:

• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).

Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.

Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).

This Gospel reading today is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?

Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.

If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a sign of the Kingdom of God?

If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?

Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’

‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’ … Oscar Wilde or Saint Augustine? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 9 September 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 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 9 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father in heaven, we thank you for Nolene and for carrying her through when she felt overwhelmed and alone. Thank you for walking beside her step by step. Remind us to trust you too and know that you are with us.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God:
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you’ (Luke 6: 26) … street art in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 123, Wednesday 10 September 2025

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you’ (Luke 6: 22) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII, 7 September 2025). Later today, I hope to be part of a meeting of local clergy at Heron’s Lodge in Loughton. 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.

‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry’ (Luke 6: 25) … full meals at restaurants in Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

‘Blessed are you who weep now …’ (Luke 6: 21) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Old Testament.

But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:

• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), part of which we read on Monday;
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.

Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In this morning’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.

The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.

The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:

• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).

Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.

Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).

This Gospel reading is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?

Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.

If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a a sign of the Kingdom of God?

If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?

Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’

‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’ … Oscar Wilde or Saint Augustine? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 10 September 2025):

The theme this week (7 to 13 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Cementing a Legacy’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 10 September 2025) invites us to pray:

God, we thank you for the partnerships that made this project possible. May USPG continue to work alongside the mission of the diocese and support its community so your glory may be known.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you’ (Luke 6: 26) … street art in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Five Churches close to Marylebone station with different stories and a variety of traditions

Saint Mary’s Church, Bryanston Square, is a prominent landmark Marylebone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Marylebone in Central London is part of the West End, and Oxford Street marks its southern boundary. An ancient parish and then a metropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs of Westminster and Paddington to form the City of Westminster in 1965.

The name Marylebone originates from an ancient hamlet located near Marble Arch, on the east banks of the Tyburn. A parish church dedicated to Saint Mary was built there in 1400. The name Marylebone is derived from Saint Mary-burne, or ‘the stream of Saint Mary’, the Anglo-Saxon word burna meaning a small stream.

The ancient parish church, or Saint Marylebone Parish Church, has been rebuilt several times at various locations within the parish. Saint Marylebone Parish Church on Marylebone Road was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813-1817.

On a recent weekend, with an hour or so on my hands, I visited five other churches in Marylebone, each with a different style, flavour and history, and each within a short five or ten minute walk from Marylebone Station or Baker Street.

Saint Mary’s Church, Bryanston Square, was designed by Robert Smirke in the Greek Revival style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

1, Saint Mary’s Church, Bryanston Square:

Saint Mary’s Church, Bryanston Square, is a prominent landmark in the heart of London. It was built in 1823-1824 as one of the Commissioners’ churches, 600 new churches built by the Church Building Commission between the 1820s and 1850s in thanksgiving for and as a celebration of Britain’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo, and to meet the needs of growing populations in the suburbs.

Saint Mary’s was designed by Robert Smirke (1780-1867), best known as the architect of the British Museum. He designed Saint Mary’s to seal the vista from the lower end of Bryanston Square towards York Street. It is a brick building in the Greek Revival style, with a rounded stone portico, a round tower and a small dome, topped by a cross.

The tower rises in three stages from a plain drum base. The main stage has an engaged order of fluted columns with Graeco-Egyptian capitals carrying deep entablature with acroteria to a blocking course and a wreathed clock in drum base to a crowning arcaded cupola with a stone dome and a cross finial. Some internal remodelling was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1874.

The tower of Saint Mary’s has a crowning arcaded cupola with a stone dome and a cross finial (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A major project to restore the Grade 1 listed building to its original Georgian splendour as carried out in 2000-2002.

Today, Saint Mary’s is an HTB-linked charismatic evangelical church led by the Revd John Peters. The congregation is a church plant from Holy Trinity Brompton and Saint Paul’s, Onslow Square, and was allocated the church building by the Bishop of London in 2002. Saint Mary’s is a long-standing member of the New Wine network of churches.

The church holds two services on Sunday: an informal 11 am service, with groups for children and youth, and an informal service 5:30 pm, and there are several midweek groups and courses. I can easily find details and times for serving coffee and pastries on Sunday mornings and afternoons, but can find no details about when Holy Communion or the Eucharist is celebrated on Sundays.

Christ Church, Cosway Street, built in the 1820s, was designed by Thomas and Philip Hardwick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

2, Christ Church, Cosway Street:

Christ Church, Marylebone, also known as Christ Church, Lisson Grove, and Christ Church, Cosway Street, is a Grade II* listed building, mid-way between Paddington Station and Regent’s Park. It was was one of the first of the Commissioners’ churches, and was built in the 1820s to designs by Thomas and Philip Hardwick.

The parish of Christ Church, Cosway Street, was created in 1825 by Act of Parliament as one of four new district rectories within the ancient parish of St Marylebone. The Revd George Saxby Penfold was the first rector, and in 1828 he was succeeded by a notable classical scholar, Robert Walpole, a grandson of Horatio Walpole and a great-nephew of Sir Robert Walpole, prime minister.

Constance Lloyd, later the wife of Oscar Wilde, was baptised at Christ Church in 1858.

The former church is now a multi-sports centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Christ Church is an example of square Georgian neoclassical architecture, covered in pale limestone, with a four-columned Ionic portico, a blank pediment, and further pairs of pillars on each side.

A square tower rises above the church, with clock faces and Corinthian pillars. Above this is an octagonal cupola with a roof shaped like a bell. Inside the church are an eight-bay Corinthian arcade, with Corinthian pilasters on the east wall, clerestory windows above an entablature, and a brick-built nave with a low arched ceiling with ribs and oval panels. The church also has galleries.

Some alterations to the church in 1887 were also designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield.

A post-war scheme to reorganise the Marylebone parishes in 1945 was not implemented until 1952. With parish reorganisation in the Diocese of London again in the 1970s, the parish of Christ Church was united with Saint Paul, Rossmore Road, in 1971 to create the parish of Christ Church and Saint Paul. Christ Church was declared redundant and closed in 1977.

The former church became an antiques market and then a restaurant. It was bought in 2014 by Greenhouse Sports, a youth charity, and was refurbished as a multi-sports centre, while the crypt was converted into changing rooms and meeting rooms.

Saint Paul’s Church on Lisson Street and Rossmore Road replaced the former Bentinck Chapel on Lisson Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

3, Saint Paul’s Church, Lisson Street:

Saint Paul’s Church, on Lisson Street and Rossmore Road in North Marylebone, was designed by JW Higgins and was built by voluntary contributions as Saint Paul’s Chapel in 1837-1838 soon after the closure of the Bentinck Chapel on Lisson Street. It was consecrated in 1838 and was assigned a district. The solemnisation of baptisms was authorised in 1838 and marriages in 1860.

After World War II, Saint Paul’s parish was united with Emmanuel, Maida Hill, and Saint Matthew, Maida Hill, to form the parish of Saint Paul with Saint Matthew and Emmanuel. The parish was united with Christ Church, Cosway Street, in 1971. Saint Paul’s Church became one of the parish churches of the parish of Christ Church and Saint Paul, St Marylebone, until Christ Church was closed in September 1977.

The interior of Saint Paul’s has been subdivided and refurbished, but the reredos remains in place (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In recent years, the interior of Saint Paul’s has been subdivided and refurbished, the galleries have been removed, and the worship space is in part of the nave and the sanctuary area. The reredos and the windows remain in place.

Canon Clare Dowding is the Rector of Saint Paul’s, Priest in Charge of Saint Cyprian’s and Area Dean of Marylebone; the Revd Rachel Sheppard is the Assistant Curate; and the Revd Michele Lee is the Associate Priest.

The Parish Eucharist is celebrated in Saint Paul’s every Sunday at 10 am, Morning Prayer is said on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 9:15, Evening Prayer is said every Monday at 4:30, and Holy Communion is celebrated every Friday at 8:30 am. Through a partnership with West London Synagogue and Foodcycle, Saint Paul’s offers a free community meal every Wednesday night to over 70 people at the church.

Saint Cyprian’s Church is the first new church completed to Sir Ninian Comper’s designs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

4, Saint Cyprian’s Church, Glentworth Street:

Saint Cyprian’s Church in Marylebone is a Grade II* listed building at the north end of Glentworth Street (formerly Park Street) and near the Clarence Gate Gardens entrance to Regent’s Park. The church off Baker Street was designed by Sir Ninian Comper and was consecrated in 1903, but the parish was founded in 1866.

The parish was formed as part of the work of the slum priest Father Charles Gutch (1822-1896), a senior fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, for 52 years. His campaigning Anglo-Catholic views and pastoral mission to London’s poor led him to propose a mission church in the then slum enclave north-east corner of Marylebone. The new mission district was formed from portions of the parishes of Saint Marylebone and Saint Paul, Rossmore Road, although neither the Rector of Saint Marylebone nor the Vicar of Saint Paul’s approved of his Anglo-Catholic style or his pastoral approach.

The mission district was in an area where church attendance was poor and it was densely populated with overcrowded slums. Saint Cyprian’s Mission Chapel, designed by George Edmund Street, was a low-budget conversion of a terraced house on Park Street and a mews hay barn, and about 150-180 people could be squeezed in.

Saint Cyprian’s Church was modelled on the wool churches of East Anglia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Gutch died in 1896, without realising his vision of a permanent church and was succeeded by the Revd George Forbes. The new Saint Cyprian’s Church was designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) in a Perpendicular Gothic style and was built in 1901. It was modelled on the wool churches of East Anglia, and was the first new church completed to Comper’s designs.

Saint Cyprian’s is built of red brick with stone dressings, with a nave with clerestory and two aisles. There is no tower, but a small bellcote on Chagford Street. It has large Perpendicular windows but the stained glass designed by Comper is confined to the east end.

Sir John Betjeman described Saint Cyprian’s as ‘Comper’s superb church … a Norfolk dream of gold and light within’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Although I did not get inside Saint Cyprian’s that afternoon, the church is regarded by many as one of London’s most beautiful church interiors. In its design, Saint Cyprian’s reflects Comper’s emphasis on the Eucharist and the influence of the Oxford Movement. He said his church was to resemble ‘a lantern, and the altar is the flame within it.’

The sanctuary fittings include a carved and painted rood screen and parclose screens around an English Altar, surrounded on three sides by hangings and a painted dossal, riddel posts with angels and a painted and gilded reredos.

The left-hand screen leads to what was originally called the All Souls’ Chapel, later re-dedicated as the Chapel of the Holy Name. The right-hand screen separates the liturgical south aisle from the Lady Chapel. The central screen below the rood was completed in stages up to 1938. The gilded square tester over the high altar was completed in 1948 and shows Christ holding an open book with a Greek inscription: ‘I am the Light of the World’.

The poet Sir John Betjeman once described Saint Cyprian’s as ‘Comper’s superb church … a Norfolk dream of gold and light within.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner also praised Comper’s work at Saint Cyprian’s: ‘If there must be medieval imitation in the twentieth century, it is here unquestionably done with joy and care.’

The Parish Mass in Saint Cyprian’s on Sundays is at 10:30 am, and Choral Evensong is sung on the second Sunday of each month at 6 pm. Canon Clare Dowding is the Priest in Charge.

Rossmore Hall Evangelical Church on Rossmore Road in Marylebone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

5, Rossmore Hall Evangelical Church:

Rossmore Hall Evangelical Church, also known as Paragon Gospel Hall, is a Brethren church on Rossmore Road, off Lissom Grove in Marylebone. It may have taken its name from Rossmore Hall, a mission hall that once stood on Morning Lane in Hackney.

A ‘Mystery Worshipper’ or visitor from the site Ship of Fools described it as sandwiched between two residential houses on a Georgian street, and said in a report: ‘Rossmore Hall is basically a big square room with a high ceiling. At one end there is a long wooden plaque on the wall, with ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ painted on it in gold Gothic lettering, and beneath this an upright piano and a Victorian harmonium.’

A Portuguese-speaking congregation uses the hall on Sunday afternoons.

‘What Habits Do You Want to Give Up’ … ‘Where Do You Need Strength’ … signs at Saint Mary’s Church, Bryanston Square (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

After so many years, I have my first visit to Hatchards of Piccadilly, England’s oldest bookshop

Hatchards, the oldest bookshop in England, was founded by John Hatchard on Piccadilly since 1797 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Hatchards is the oldest bookshop in England and has been on Piccadilly since 1797, when the shop was founded by John Hatchard. So, I cannot understand why I never stepped through its doors until I was in Piccadilly yesterday.

Of course, I have walked past Hatchards many times before and have been along Piccadilly throughout my life. Most memorably, I spent working time in Piccadilly when the Athens News commissioned me to write a major two-page feaure on ‘Byzantium 330-1453’, an exhibition hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts in the Main Galleries in Burlington House for five months in 2008-2009.

I have been to Hatchards other outlet at Saint Pancras station last year, when Charlotte and I were on our way to Paris, yet somehow I had missed the shop on Piccadilly all my life. But then, there are many places I have never visited on Piccadilly, including Fortum and Mason, right next door to Hatchards.

The street façade of the Piccadilly wing of Burlington House reflected in the windows of Hatchards, the oldest bookshop in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I was in Piccadilly yesterday with the Anglican mission agency USPG and the publisher SPCK for the celebrations of Founder’s Day in Saint Jame’s Church. And, of course, on Charlotte’s recommendation, I spent some time afterwards in Hatchards, which is prominently located between Saint James’s and Fortum and Mason and across the street from Burlington House.

SPCK is one of England’s oldest publishers – founded by Thomas Bray in 1698, it is older than John Murray (1768), and younger only than Cambridge University Press (1534) and Oxford University Press (1586). It seemed only right, after celebrating with one of England’s oldest publishers, to then spend some time too in England’s oldest bookshop.

Hatchards has had a shop on Piccadilly for 228 years. The business was founded by the bookseller and publisher John Hatchard ((1769-1849) at 173 Piccadilly in 1797. John Hatchard was still in his 20s when he took over the bookshop at 173 Piccadilly formerly run by Richard White and bought a collection of merchandise from a bookseller Simon Vandenbergh.

The shop moved along Piccadilly in 1801, to No 189-190, and the street number of the second shop changed to No 187 in 1820. Meanwhile, the site of the first shop had been cleared in 1810 to build the Egyptian Hall.

Hatchard had deep religious views and was an abolitionist and he became the main publisher for works associated with the Clapham Sect. William Wilberforce, Sir Walter Scott, Sir John Hawkins and Lord Spencer were among the figures of the day who frequented Hatchard’s back parlour. Sydney Smith writing in the Edinburgh Review in 1810, described Hatchard’s visitors as ‘a set of well-dressed, prosperous gentlemen, assembling daily at the shop well in with the people in power, delighted with every existing institution and with every existing circumstance.’

Hatchard died at Clapham Common in 1849, and there is a memorial to him in Saint Paul’s Church, Clapham. His grandson, George Josiah Palmer (1828-1892), was the founder and editor of the Church Times.

Later in the 19th century, Hatchards was Oscar Wilde’s favourite bookshop, and he signed his books sitting at the ground floor main table – still known today as ‘Oscar’s Table’.

Hatchards was bought for £6,000 by the convicted fraudster Clarence Hatry (1888-1965). Ten years earlier, the fall of the Hatry group which had been worth about £24 million (equivalent to £1,840 million today), contributed to the Wall Street crash of 1929. Hatry turned around the ailing business at Hatchards, and in 1946 he also acquired the publishers T Werner Laurie Ltd. Within four years, he owned the largest retail book business in London.

Hatchards was acquired by William Collins & Sons in 1956, and it expanded its number of retail outlets in the 1980s, opening branches across the United Kingdom. It was bought by Pentos in 1990. Pentos, in turn, was acquired by Waterstones who rebranded all the shops apart from Hatchards on Piccadilly. Waterstones also owns Hodges Figgis in Dublin, which was founded in 1768 and is the oldest bookshop in Ireland.

Today, Hatchards has a reputation for attracting high-profile authors and holds three royal warrants. The shop opened its new outlet in St Pancras station in 2014, beside a new branch of Fortnum and Mason, continuing a pairing that goes back over two centuries. A third shop opened in Cheltenham in 2022.

‘Oscar’s Table’ on the ground floor … Hatchards was Oscar Wilde’s favourite bookshop and he signed his books sitting at the main table (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Hatchards is no ordinary Waterstone’s shop – it is a unique British institution and a landmark building on Piccadilly. It is familiar to many with its curving bay windows and its prominently displayed royal warrants above the front doors. Inside, the shop has a grand, four-storey staircase and mementos of the past through the building, with historic photographs, old catalogues, Oscar Wilde’s table, which continues to be used for book signings, and an anonymous painting said to be a portrait of the founder John Hatchard.

The shop also displays an array of first editions from Margaret Atwood, Samuel Beckett, Ted Hughes, DH Lawrence and Iris Murdoch. The shop continues to host regular book signings and author events. Indeed, many of those authors are also regular customers, and the shop remains a literary haven for authors.

As for the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly, built in 1812 on the site of the first Hatchards shop, it became a venue for exhibitions, popular entertainments and lectures, and became known as ‘England’s Home of Mystery’. But after less than a century, it was demolished in 1905 to make way for flats and offices.

Hatchards is the oldest bookshop in England. But it is not the oldest bookshop on these islands. That accolade goes to Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street in Dublin, which was founded in 1768, and is the third-oldest functioning bookshop in the world, after the Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon (1732) and Pennsylvania’s Moravian Book Shop (1745).

Hodges Figgis opened in Dublin in 1768 at 10 Skinner’s Row, near Christ Church Cathedral, and has had many addresses since then, including 32 Grafton Street (1797), 104 Grafton Street (1819), 20 Nassau Street (1920), 6-7 Dawson Street (1945), and Saint Stephen’s Green (1974). Since 1979, Hodges Figgis has been at 56-58 Dawson Street, the former Browne and Nolan bookshop. Like Hatchards, Hodges Figgis is now owned and operated by Waterstones. But then, so too are Dillons and Foyles in London and Blackwell’s in Oxford.

Hopefully, Hatchards, and all those other unique bookshops, maintain their style and presence for generations to come. And, hopefully, I shall be back in Hatchards the next time I am in Piccadilly.

Hatchards is familiar to many with its curving bay windows and creative window displays (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 124, Wednesday 11 September 2024

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you’ (Luke 6: 22) … the Battle of Cable Street mural in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (8 September 2024).

Later today, I hope to be part of a meeting of local clergy at Saint Mary’s Church, Wavendon, and the choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford resumes its rehearsals this evening after the summer recess. 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.

‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry’ (Luke 6: 25) … a full meal at a restaurant in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

‘Blessed are you who weep now …’ (Luke 6: 21) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Old Testament.

But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:

• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55);
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.

Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In this morning’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.

The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.

The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:

• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).

Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.

Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).

This Gospel reading is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?

Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society today. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.

If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a a sign of the Kingdom of God?

If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?

Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’

‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’ … Oscar Wilde or Saint Augustine? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 11 September 2024):

Each year, on 14 September, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Cross, known as ‘Holy Cross Day’ throughout the majority of the Anglican Communion. 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 ‘What does the holy cross mean to you?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 11 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Alleluia, alleluia. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Alleluia.

The Collect:

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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:

Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you’ (Luke 6: 26) … street art in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Visiting the chapel in Magdalen College, Oxford, with its reredos and landmark tower

The chapel in Magdalen College, Oxford, founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks, in my visits to Oxford, I have visited many churches, colleges and chapels. After attending the mid-day Eucharist in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, it seemed important too to visit Magdalen College, which is also named in honour of Saint Mary Magdalen, and in particular to visit the college chapel.

Magdalen College is beside the River Cherwell and facing the Botanic Garden, with the porter’s lodge on High Street, close to Magdalen Bridge. This is the college where CS Lewis was a Fellow, and where he had a fractious relationship with John Betjeman as a tutor.

The large, square Magdalen Tower is an Oxford landmark, and in a tradition dating back to the reign of Henry VII, the college choir sings from the top of the tower at 6 a.m. on May Morning.

Founder’s Tower leads from Saint John’s Quad into Cloister Quad (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Magdalen College was founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England and named after Saint Mary Magdalene. The college succeeded a university hall, Magdalen Hall, founded by Waynflete in 1448, and from which the college drew most of its earliest scholars. The name of Magdalen Hall was revived for a second Magdalen Hall, established in the college grounds around 1490. It moved in the 19th century to Catte Street where it became Hertford College.

Magdalen College took over the site of Saint John the Baptist Hospital, initially using the hospital buildings until a new building was completed in 1470-1480. At its incorporation in 1458, the college consisted of a president and six scholars. With the Founder’s Statutes in 1487, the foundation had a President, 40 fellows, 30 demies or scholars, four chaplain priests, eight clerks and 16 choristers, and also appointed a Master and an usher to the Grammar School.

The founder’s statutes refer to pronouncing the name of the college in English. The name is pronounced like the adjective ‘maudlin’ because the late mediaeval English name Mary Magdalene was Maudelen, derived from the Old French Madelaine.

Saint Swithun’s Tower leads from Saint John’s Quad into Saint Swithun’s Quad (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Oxford and Magdalen College were supporters of the royalist cause during the English Civil War. In 1642, Magdalen College donated over 296 lb of plate to fund the war effort – the largest donation by weight from an Oxford college.

Magdalen College had tactical significance for the king’s forces. The royalist ordnance occupied Magdalen’s Grove in 1643-1645, and Prince Rupert is said to have stayed in the college. During the first Siege of Oxford, Charles I surveyed the battle from Magdalen Tower.

Following Oxford’s fall to Thomas Fairfax at the end of the First English Civil War, the Fellows were purged by the Puritans for political and religious reasons. The president of Magdalen, John Oliver, was replaced by John Wilkinson, and 28 of the fellows, 21 of the demies or scholars, and all but one of the servants were also expelled. With the royalists removed, the college hosted Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell in 1649. John Oliver was reappointed after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, along with 17 fellows and eight demies.

During the reign of James II, in an attempt to impose Catholicism on the university, Bishop Bonaventure Giffard was imposed as president and the fellows were expelled. The restoration of the fellows after James II is marked each year at a special banquet, the Restoration Dinner.

The Great Quad or the Cloister seen from the Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Magdalen College is organised around five quads. The irregularly shaped Saint John’s Quad is the first on entering the college, and includes the Outdoor Pulpit and old Grammar Hall. It connects to the Great Quad or the Cloister through the Perpendicular Gothic Founders Tower. The Chaplain’s Quad runs along the side of the Chapel and Hall, to the foot of the Great Tower. Saint Swithun’s Quad and Longwall Quad, which contains the Library, date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Among the political figures taught at Magdalen was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who studied theology. He graduated at 15 and remained in Oxford for further study, eventually becoming a Fellow of Magdalen. Wolsey rose from humble origins to become Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of York, and adviser to Henry VIII. Wolsey founded Cardinal College in Oxford, which Henry VIII renamed Christ Church after Wolsey’s fall from power.

The Magdalen College Boat Club (MCBC) was founded in 1859. It participates in the two annual Oxford bumps races, Eights Week and Torpids.

Oscar Wilde read Greats at Magdalen from 1874 to 1878. Wilde described ‘the two great turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison.’

Wilde began an affair in 1891 with Alfred Douglas, who was then a student at Magdalen. Wilde was convicted in 1895 and was sentenced to two years’ hard labour. After his release, Wilde moved to France and spent the last three years of his life in poverty.

Erwin Schrödinger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 while he was a Fellow of Magdalen. He later moved to Ireland and lived on Kincora Road in Clontarf from 1938 to 1955 while he was writing What is Life? I have looked for his cat in Magdalen College, but I never found him.

The gateway with statues of Saint Mary Magdalen (centre), Bishop William Waynflete holding a model of the college, and Saint Swithun of Winchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Magdalen owes much of its prominence since the mid-20th century to famous fellows such as CS Lewis and AJP Taylor.

CS Lewis was a Fellow and English tutor at Magdalen for 29 years, from 1925 to 1954. Lewis was one of the Inklings, an informal writing society that included JRR Tolkien and that met in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen. Lewis was the tutor of the future Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. But they had a difficult relationship and Betjeman struggled academically. Betjeman left having failed to obtain a degree in 1928, but was made a doctor of letters by the university in 1974.

Seamus Heaney, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, was a Fellow of Magdalen from 1989 to 1994.

Like many Oxford colleges, Magdalen admitted its first women undergraduates in 1979.

The gateway is a Victorian structure with three statues facing High Street: Bishop William Waynflete (left), founder of Magdalen College, holding a model of the college; Saint Mary Magdalen (centre), holding a jar of ointment; and Saint Swithun or Swithin (right), Bishop of Winchester.

The chapel in Magdalen College has been influenced by the Oxford Movement and the Catholic Revival in the Church of England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The chapel in Magdalen College is a place of worship for members of the college, the University of Oxford and many people beyond.

The chapel was built between 1474 and 1480, but owes its present appearance largely to neo-Gothic works in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The roof looks like a stone vaulted ceiling, but is a facsimile in plaster made in 1790 by the architect James Wyatt (1746-1813). Wyatt’s redevelopment of the chapel included a number of modifications to give it a more Gothic appearance. But, apart from the ceiling, Wyatt’s other contributions were removed when the chapel was redesigned in 1828.

A painting or mural of the Last Judgment by Isaac Fuller was placed at the east end of the chapel after 1662. When this was taken down during work in the early 1830s by the architect Lewis Cottingham (1787-1847), fragments of the original reredos were uncovered behind it. These showed that the original reredos had had three tiers of niches, each tier containing 13 niches.

Cottingham replaced Fuller’s painting with the present reredos, with a design based on those remains. The reredos remained without figures until 1864-1865, when it was completed by the neo-Gothic sculptor Thomas Earp of Lambeth, with figures designed by Clayton and Bell. The central image in the top tier depicts the Risen Christ appearing to Saint Mary Magdalen.

The reredos is the work of Lewis Cottingham and was designed by Clayton and Bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The chapel was cleaned and restored in 1980. During this work, the tomb of John Patten, father of the founder, Bishop William Waynflete, was salvaged from the derelict church of All Saints’ Church in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and finally placed in the niche intended for it in the antechapel.

The stained glass windows in the chapel facing Saint John’s Quad feature a grisaille depiction of the Last Judgment. These windows, dating from 1792, are a reconstruction by the glass painter Francis Eginton of an earlier 17th-century window that was destroyed in a storm.

The stained glass window by John Piper in the antechapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The stained glass window by John Piper (1903-1992) in the antechapel depicts the Nativity. The animals and birds are saying in Latin: ‘Christ is born this night in Bethlehem.’

Piper’s idea is from an Elizabethan wall painting in Shulbrede Priory, Sussex. The Latin words in the mouths of the creatures are: Cock, Christus natus est (‘Christ is born’); Goose, Quando? Quando? (‘When? When?’); Crow, In hac nocte (‘On this night’); Owl, Ubi? Ubi? (‘Where? Where?’), Lamb, ‘Bethlehem! Bethlehem!’ The sounds of the Latin words resemble the noises made by the animals and birds.

A mediaeval legend said that on the night of Christ’s Nativity birds and animals gained the power of speech. The window also depicts the Tree of Life in the Book of Genesis and in the Book of Revelation. Underneath is a line from Christopher Smart (1722-1771) in Benjamin Britten’s ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’: ‘Let man and beast appear before him and magnify his name together.’

The tomb of John Patten, father of the founder Bishop William Waynflete, in the antechapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

As a chapel in the High Anglican tradition, the chapel has been influenced by the Oxford Movement and the Catholic Revival in the Church of England.

Said and sung services are held daily during term. The choir sings Choral Evensong or Evening Prayer every day at 6 pm except on Mondays. The Sung Eucharist is celebrated at 11 am on Sundays. Compline is sung once a week, and is followed by a service of Benediction twice each term. Mass is also sung on major holy days.

The Dean of Divinity (chaplain), the Revd Dr Andrew Bowyer, came to Magdalen in 2019 from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was college chaplain for four years and a tutor at Westcott House.

Said and sung services are held daily in the chapel during term (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Magdalen is one of the three choral foundations in Oxford, and the formation of the choir was part of the college statutes. The other choral foundations are New College and Christ Church. The choir sings during chapel services, college gaudies and at other special events.

The choir has 12 academical clerks, or choral scholars, and two organ scholars, all students at the college, and 16 choristers, all with scholarships at Magdalen College School. The director of music, known as the Informator Choristarum, is currently Mark Williams.

The Great Tower, built in 1492-1509, is 144 ft tall and an imposing landmark on the eastern approaches to Oxford’s city centre. It has a peal of 10 bells hung for English change ringing. They were cast at a number of different foundries.

As part of Oxford’s annual May Morning in a tradition dating back 500 years, the choir sing pieces including the Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of Magdalen Tower at 6 a.m. on 1 May, and the Dean of Divinity blesses the university, the city and the crowds below on Magdalen Bridge and the High Street.

Magdalen Tower seen from Magdalen Bridge, a landmark in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)