Holy Trinity Church, Oxford, the church on Blackfriars Road lost in 1950s slum clearances

Blackfriars Road, Oxford … Holy Trinity Church was built in 1845 and demolished in 1957 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

As I made my way from the Grandpont area of south Oxford, crossing the River Thames and Gasworks Pipe Bridge to search for the site of the former Greyfriars at Westgate, I could not but notice the ecclesiastical tone to many of the street names between the river and Westgate Oxford: Friars Wharf, Preachers Lane, Blackfriars Road, Trinity Street …

This southern part of Saint Ebbe’s parish was once known as the Friars, recalling the Greyfriars or Franciscans and Blackfriars or Dominicans who settled in Saint Ebbe’s in the early decades of the 13th century.

The two friaries were abolished in the 1530s at the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, and most of their buildings were demolished. But their memory lived on in the local placenames such as Greyfriars, Friars Wharf, Preachers Lane, Trinity Street and Blackfriars Road.

That part of Saint Ebbe’s parish changed dramatically in the early decades of the 19th century when the gasworks opened on the north bank of the River Thames in 1818. As the population of Saint Ebbe’s increased, a schoolroom was licensed for services in 1842 and a new parish – Holy Trinity – was formed from the southern part of Saint Ebbe’s parish, with a stipend of £150 provided for the incumbent.

Holy Trinity, Blackfriars Road, Oxford ca 1910 … opened in 1845 and closed in 1954 (Photograph © Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxfordshire County Council)

The new parish church, Holy Trinity Church, was designed in Early English style by the Oxford-based architect Henry Jones Underwood (1804-1852). It was built on the corner of Blackfriars Road and Trinity Street in 1844-1845 and opened in 1845.

Around the same time, a similarly-named Holy Trinity Church was being built in the village of Headington Quarry, Oxford, in 1848-1849. That church was designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott and later became known for its associations with CS Lewis.

Henry Jones Underwood, the architect of Holy Trinity Church, Blackfriars Road, was a brother of the architects Charles Underwood and George Allen Underwood, and spent most of his career in Oxford. He trained in London as a pupil of Henry Hake Seward and then joined the office of Sir Robert Smirke.

Underwood moved to Oxford in 1830 to work on alterations to the Bodleian Library. Much of his subsequent work involved designing churches and educational buildings as the city and the university expanded and the Oxford Movement increased in influence. He designed the library of the Oxford Botanic Garden (1835), and Saint Paul’s Church, Walton Street (1836), the first new parish to be created in Oxford and the first new church to be built in Oxford since the Reformation. Both were built in the Greek Revival style, but Underwood is best known for his work in the Gothic Revival style.

Underwood also designed Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas Church in Littlemore for John Henry Newman in 1835, and it became a model for his other churches. The church was originally built as a chapel of ease to the parish of the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Oxford. Littlemore became its own parish in 1847 and in time the church became a centre of Anglo-Catholicism.

Underwood’s other works in Oxford included Saint John the Baptist Church, Summertown (1831, demolished 1924); buildings for Exeter College on Turl Street and Broad Street (1833-1834); rebuilding Cardinal Wolsey’s Almshouses to make a grander entrance for Pembroke College (1834); and the north aisle of Saint Thomas’s Church (1846). Underwood died by suicide in 1852 at the White Hart Hotel, Bath, and JC Buckler completed his extension to Oxford Prison, now the Malmaison Hotel.

A legacy photograph of the interior of Holy Trinity Church, Blackfriars Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Trinity parish was in one of the poorest quarters of Oxford and the church was built from cheap materials. There were two services each Sunday in 1854 and a monthly Communion service. The parish was a densely populated and very poor area to the south of the city centre. Great poverty, many beer shops, Sunday work in the colleges, ‘unbelieving masters’, and people tainted with ‘Calvinism and infidelity’ were blamed for what were regarded at the time as small church attendance figures.

By 1869, there were four Sunday services, with Holy Communion every Sunday and on holy days, and daily Morning and Evening Prayer. At the request of the churchwardens and ‘principal parishioners’ a surpliced choir had been introduced, all indicating the influence of the Tractarian movement and early Anglo-Catholicism.

Daily Morning Prayer was abandoned in 1872, but the number of Easter communicants rose steadily from 135 in 1872 to 199 in 1884. The patronage of Holy Trinity belonged alternately to the Crown and the Bishop of Oxford until 1881, when the Revd Edward Penrose Hathaway (1818-1897) bought the advowson and vested it in the Oxford Churches Trust.

Hathaway was a former barrister and ‘an austere old-fashioned evangelical’ who founded the Oxford Churches Trust in 1864 to appoint evangelical clergy to local parishes and to counter the increasing influence of the Tractarian movement and early Anglo-Catholicism. Through his zeal, he played a central role in establishing a strong evangelical tradition at several Oxford churches, including Saint Ebbe’s, Saint Aldate’s, Saint Clement’s, Holy Trinity, and Saint Peter-le-Bailey, and his trust appointed him the Rector of Saint Ebbe’s from 1868 to 1874.

Hathaway paid £1,000 for the advowson of Holy Trinity in 1881 and this was used to increase the stipend. A further augmentation was made in 1890 to meet the gift of a house for the living. The net income of the benefice in 1898 was £228.

Attendance figures at Holy Trinity remained steady or even increased until World War I, when most of the adult parishioners were either in the army or employed in war work. During World War I, 90 men from the parish died in the war and they were later commemorated on the Holy Trinity War Memorial.

The Oxford Churches Trust, founded by Hathaway in 1864, exchanged the advowson of Holy Trinity with Simeon’s Trustees in 1914 for that of Saint Matthew’s, Grandpont, and Simeon’s Trustees remained patrons of Holy Trinity until Holy Trinity was united with Saint Aldate’s in 1956.

Photographs of Holy Trinity Church, inside and outside, ‘appear to be rarer than rocking horse droppings’

Some of the poorer houses in the area were cleared in the 1930s, but a major redevelopment plan was delayed by World War II.

By 1951, the fabric of Holy Trinity Church was in poor condition. Meanwhile, the population of the area was declining as slum clearance programmes gathered pace. Holy Trinity Church was closed in 1954 and the parish of Holy Trinity was united with Saint Ebbe’s in 1956. The building was deemed unsafe, and with encroaching urban clearance the church was demolished in 1957.

The 1914-1918 war memorial was removed from the church during demolition. It was later discovered in the 1980s resting against a wall in the rear garden of the former Holy Trinity Rectory. The memorial was eventually moved to Saint Aldate’s Parish Centre in Pembroke Street, and was later stored in a wooden case at Saint Ebbe’s Church. The memorial has since been removed from its rotten mounting and is said to be in a poor condition, covered in patina or crust.

Eventually, over 900 properties in the area were demolished, the last – 84 Blackfriars Road – in 1978. Many streets were wiped from the map or renamed. The records of Holy Trinity Church were deposited with the Bodleian Library in 1975 by the then Rector of Saint Aldate’s, and were transferred to Oxfordshire Archives in the 1980s. Further records were deposited in 2019.

No trace remains today of what was perhaps one of the shortest-lived churches in Oxford. One site says photographs of Holy Trinity Church, inside and outside, ‘appear to be rarer than rocking horse droppings’. The name of the church survives in the full name of Saint Ebbe’s Parish, which is formally Saint Ebbe with Holy Trinity and Saint Peter le Bailey, while the names of Friars Wharf, Preachers Lane – once known as Gas Street – Blackfriars Road and Trinity Street are reminders of the ecclesiastical communities that were once part of life the area.

Preachers Lane … a reminder of the ecclesiastical presence in the area in the past (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Ebbe’s Church, part of church life in Oxford for 1,000 years, but standing apart from diocesan life

Saint Ebbe’s Church, Oxford … the north side faces onto Pennyfarthing Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

In Oxford last week, after visiting Holy Rood Church and Saint Matthew’s Church in Grandpont, searching for the extensive site of Greyfriars, the mediaeval Franciscan friary, and walking through the sites of the old gasworks and the slum clearance programmes in Saint Ebbe’s parish in the 1950s and 1960s, I decided to see once again whether I could see inside Saint Ebbe’s Church.

Saint Ebbe’s Church on Pennyfarthing Lane in central Oxford describes itself as a ‘conservative evangelical’ church, identifying with groupings such as ReNew, Gafcon and ReNew network’s Alternative Selection Panel (ASP).

Saint Ebbe’s has been part of life in Oxford for more than 1,000 years. Although the mediaeval and later church was largely rebuilt in the early 19th century, the tower and parts of the nave were retained and, along with the finely carved 12th century doorway, they form an imposing composition.

The west end and tower of Saint Ebbe’s Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church stands on the site of an earlier church dedicated to Saint Æbbe before 1005. Most sources suggest that this was the Northumbrian Saint Æbbe of Coldingham, but it has been suggested that Æbbe of Oxford was a different saint. The name was first recorded ca 1005, when the church was granted to Eynsham Abbey by Ealdorman Æthelmær the Stout and it was already recorded as the ‘ancient Saint Ebbe’s.’

The earlier church had a nave and north aisle under the same roof, a chancel and north chapel, with a tower and north and south porches. The church seems to have been rebuilt ca 1170, and this is the date of the earliest surviving fabric The nave dated from the 12th century or earlier. The north wall was 15th century, as was the chapel.

When the Franciscans arrived in Oxford in 1224, they settled beside the church, outside the city wall, where they built a large friary, Greyfriars, that completely overshadowed Saint Ebbe’s. The Franciscans were given permission to make a ‘little gate’ in the city wall, to give them access to the city, and this is reserved in the name, Littlegate Street.

Meanwhile, the mediaeval synagogue in Oxford was established in 1228 close to Saint Ebbe’s Church, opposite Pennyfarthing Lane. Among the great Franciscan scholars in Oxford by the end of 13th century, Roger Bacon, was a philosopher and scientist whose work included research into light, lenses and gunpowder. He died in 1294 and was buried in the parish. He gives his name to Roger Bacon Lane, where Saint Ebbe’s church offices are now located.

The Franciscan philosopher and theologian Roger Bacon gives his name to Roger Bacon Lane, where Saint Ebbe’s has its church offices (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For centuries, Saint Ebbe’s Parish was one of the poorest parts of the city. The church was partially rebuilt in 1648 after part of the church tower fell in 1648, and the whole church was thoroughly repaired in 1696.

By 1813, two architects reported the church was in a dangerous condition. On their recommendation it was demolished, but for the lowest part of the tower, probably dating from the 12th century, and 22 ft of walling at the south-west corner.

A new church, including the nave and chancel, was built 1814-1816 to a design by William Fisher in the Early English style on the same site but extending further north to include the site of the former rectory house on the corner of Saint Ebbe’s Street and Church Street.

The new or rebuilt church was paid for mainly by the Bishop of Oxford and Oxford colleges, but was already described as being too small by 1826. However, it was not enlarged until 1862-1868, when it was enlarged and restored under the diocesan architect, George Edmund Street, who added a south aisle with windows in the Decorated style, created a north aisle by inserting an arcade, and rebuilt the top stage of the tower.

The East Window is a memorial to Thomas Valpy French (1825-1891), who was the Rector of Saint Ebbe’s until 1850. He went to Lahore in Pakistan as a missionary, became the first Bishop of Lahore, and died in Muscat.

The Norman door beside the tower of Saint Ebbe’s Church was inserted in the west wall in 1904-1905 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church tower was heightened in 1904-1905 to designs by the Oxford-based Gothic Revival architect Alfred Mardon Mowbray (1849-1915). At the same time, a 12th century door from the old church was inserted in the west wall to the south of the tower base. This Norman doorway, from ca1170, had been taken from the south wall in 1813. It has two orders of colonettes, decorated scallop capitals, an inner arch order of beakhead and an outer order of zig-zag.

The Church of Holy Trinity, Blackfriars Road, was designed by the Oxford-based architect Henry Jones Underwood (1804-1852), who was best known for his Gothic Revival architecture. The church opened in 1845, but it was deemed unsafe in the 1950s, it was demolished in 1957, and the parish was merged with Saint Ebbe’s.

During slum clearance programmes in the 1950s and 1960s, many families in the area relocated to newer housing estates on the periphery of Oxford, the gasworks beside the church were demolished in 1960, and the surrounding tightly-packed residential terraces were replaced by new houses and commercial property.

The parish of Saint Peter-le-Bailey merged with Saint Ebbe’s in 1961, when Saint Peter’s Church was transferred to Saint Peter’s College for use as the college chapel.

Many of the properties in the parish of Saint Ebbe’s were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the Westgate Shopping Centre, now Westgate Oxford. The church underwent further restoration in 2017 under the direction of Quinlan Terry. During that restoration, some of the internal fittings were sold off as architectural antiques and the organ was moved to Saint Denys Church, York.

The former Saint Ebbe’s Rectory in Paradise Square was designed by George Edmund Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The old Saint Ebbe’s Rectory in Paradise Square stands in the last remaining part of the grounds of the Greyfriars, the mediaeval Franciscan friary. It was once ‘a large plot of ground partly enclosed by a rivulet and whereon was so pleasant a grove of trees, divided into several walks, ambits and recesses, as also a garden and orchard adjoining, that by the citizens of Oxon was called Paradise.’

The rectory was designed by GE Street and built in 1852 and altered in 1868. This two-storey stone house has gables, mullioned windows and a stair turret can be seen in this view.

A blue plaque on the former rectory commemorates the Revd Dr John Stansfeld (1854-1939), the Rector of Saint Ebbe’s in 1912-1926. As a civil servant, he studied part-time for degrees in theology (Exeter College) and medicine, and he ran the Oxford Medical Mission in Bermondsey before moving to Saint Ebbe’s parish.

A blue plaque on the former rectory commemorates Canon John Stansfeld, a former Rector of Saint Ebbe’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Ebbe’s was then a poor and overcrowded parish. He set up a medical dispensary in the rectory garden and fought to have public baths built in Paradise Square. As in Bermondsey he was a firm believer in the importance of boys’ clubs and recruited undergraduates to run them.

Canon Stansfield used his personal resources in 1919 to buy 20 acres of land at Shotover to set up summer camps and a country retreat for the urban poor of Saint Ebbe’s. It continued until 2014 as the Stansfeld Outdoor Study Centre.

The former rectory was the Cherwell Tutorial College in recent years and it now houses the Oxford Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma.

The south side of Saint Ebbe’s Church, Oxford … Saint Ebbe’s describes itself as a ‘conservative evangelical’ church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today, Saint Ebbe’s describes itself as a ‘conservative evangelical’ church, but the Guardian has described it as ‘a hardline evangelical church in Oxford.’ The church has passed resolutions to reject the ordination of women and female leadership in the church. It receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Bishop Rob Munro, and before him from Bishop Rod Thomas when he was the Bishop of Maidstone.

Canon Vaughan Edward Roberts has been the Rector of Saint Ebbe’s since 1998. He was educated at Winchester College, studied law at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and studied for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1991 and priest in 1992. He joined Saint Ebbe’s in 1991 as a curate under the Revd David Fletcher, who once ran the controversial, abusive Iwerne camps associated with his brother Jonathan Fletcher and the late John Smyth. When David Fletcher retired from Saint Ebbe’s, Vaughan Roberts succeeded him as rector in 1998.

Jonathan Fletcher, who had a high-profile and influential ministry, was the vicar of Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon, and was also a regular preacher in Saint Ebbe’s. A recent report has exposed his bullying, coercive and abusive behaviour over many years, with a long-running pattern of sexual and spiritual abuse.

Since 2009, Roberts has also been Director of the Proclamation Trust, founded to train ‘conservative evangelical’ preachers by Dick Lucas and Jonathan Fletcher. ReNew network’s Alternative Selection Panel (ASP) was involved in the recent ‘alternative ordinations’ this year and last year conducted by Bishop Martin Morrison of the breakaway Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa at the East London Tabernacle, a Baptist chapel in Mile End.

These ‘alternative ordinations’, which have been reported in the Church Times (4 July 2025 and 26 June 2026). But the men involved have not been named, and I cannot find out whether any of them are linked with Saint Ebbe’s. Five of the seven deacons are graduates of the Proclamation Trust’s Leaders’ Training Course (LTC), formerly known as Cornhill Plus.

Vaughan Roberts was one of more than 100 clerics who signed a letter in 2018 criticising the approach of the bishops in the Diocese of Oxford to sexual ethics, claiming ‘the situation [in the diocese] is serious.’ In a recent book, he described struggles with unwanted same-sex attraction, and later confirmed this in an interview, but said he does not define himself as homosexual and that he has chosen to remain celibate.

The East End of Saint Ebbe’s Church … the East Window is a memorial to a former rector, Bishop Thomas Valpy French (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

When I arrived at Saint Ebbe’s last week, the church was closed, and even the garden beside the church was padlocked on a hot sun-soaked summer afternoon.

The parish is formally Saint Ebbe with Holy Trinity and Saint Peter le Bailey. The clergy team includes Canon Vaughan Robets, the Revd Peter Wilkinson, the Revd Glenn Nesbitt, the Revd Josh Skidmore, the Revd Al Horn, the Revd Tim Dossor and the Revd Ben Vane.

Saint Ebbe’s has three services each Sunday at 10 am, 4 pm and 6:30. Weekday services from Monday to Friday are at 8:45. The church possesses beautiful Communion plates of Elizabethan and Jacobean date. The church says all of these are still in regular use, and it uses gluten-free Communion and non-alcoholic Communion wine. But I am still unable to find when or how often the Eucharist is celebrated in Saint Ebbe’s, and I have still not been inside the church.

When I arrived at Saint Ebbe’s on a hot sun-soaked summer afternoon, the church was closed and the garden was padlocked (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Matthew’s Church serves a parish in Grandpont south of Folly Bridge and the River Thames in Oxford

The west end of Saint Matthew’s Church, facing onto Marlborough Road, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

When we were in Oxford earlier this week, and as temperatures rose during the day and the heatwave took a grip on the land, I spent part of the day walking by the river and in search of some churches and ecclesiastical sites I had not visited before, including Holy Rood Church near Folly Bridge on the Abingdon Road, and Holy Rood Church, the Roman Catholic parish church of Grandpont, which I was writing about yesterday.

Saint Matthew’s Church on Marlborough Road is the neighbouring Church of England parish church. The Grandpont area was named after the ‘grand pont’ or big bridge, which was more of a causeway with a series of bridges leading to the road to Abingdon. The causeway was first built by the Norman baron Robert d’Oilly, who had been made Governor of Oxford by William the Conqueror.

The low-lying land south of the River Thames at Folly Bridge remained part of Berkshire until it was incorporated into the City of Oxford in 1889. This opened the way for much house building in the area that became known as Grandpont.

It takes no more than half an hour to walk from one end of the parish to the other. It is just over a mile long, has an area of 0.4 sq miles and had 3,154 residents at the 2011 census. The parish begins at Folly Bridge, stretches south down the Abingdon Road, past Salter’s Steamers and the site of the original boatyards, and by Holy Rood Church. Within the bounds of the parish are college playing fields, the Buddhist Vihara house and the former South Oxford Baptist Church, now the home of the Oxford Salvation Army and a South Asian congregation.

Saint Matthew’s Church was designed by the London-based architects JT Christopher and EE White and was consecrated on 21 June 1890 by Bishop William Stubbs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The streets of Grandpont around Saint Matthew’s form a grid of Victorian and Edwardian terraces, with some student accommodation, and a development of retirement apartments. To the south and west of the parish is the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, New Hinksey, part of the Parish of South Oxford with New Hinksey. Saint John’s is in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England, with episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Ebbsfleet. From time to time, members of Saint Matthew’s have joined Saint John’s for services.

Immediately to the north of the parish, Saint Ebbe’s is a large evangelical church that shares the governance of Saint Ebbe’s Primary School with Saint Matthew’s. To the north and east of the parish, Saint Aldate’s is the large city centre church where Saint Matthew’s has its roots.

Canon Alfred William Millard Christopher (1820-1913), who had been the Rector of Saint Aldate's Church since 1859, raised funds to build a large church on Marlborough Road, one of the principal roads in Grandpont that followed the line of a former spur track from the nearby Great Western Railway.

Thw west door of Saint Matthew’s Church, facing onto Marlborough Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

aint Matthew’s Church, Grandpont, was designed in 15th-century Gothic style by the Bloomsbury-based architects JT Christopher and EE White. The partners were John Thomas Christopher (1830-1910), who had worked briefly in the office of William Burges (1821-1881), the architect of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (1863), and who may have been a younger brother of Canon Christopher; and Eley Emlyn White (1854-1900), who also designed Saint John’s Church, Watford. Whyte’s private life was turbulent: he separated from his wife and shot himself in Kensington in 1900 after shooting a young actress.

Saint Matthew’s Church was consecrated on 21 June 1890 by William Stubbs (1825-1901), Bishop of Oxford and former Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. The church became independent from Saint Aldate’s in the 1920s, with its patronage going to the Oxford Churches Trust, while the patronage of Saint Aldate’s remained with the Simeon Trustees.

A brass plaque on the south wall is in memory of James Arthur Paintin of Marlborough Road, a steward on the Titanic who drowned when the liner sank in April 1912.

The Rev Wilfred Williamson was the vicar during World War I, when 66 men from Grandpont died in the war. Those 66 men are commemorated on the war memorial, and two of them, William Reginald King and Charles George Tyrrell, both 20, are commemorated in plaques on the north wall of the church.

Land behind the church to the east was leased from Brasenose College in 1921 and a small hall was built on the site. The vicarage was originally in Edith Road but a large house on the Abingdon Road was left to Saint Matthew's by an Oxford bookseller, and it remained the Vicarage until 1979.

The Revd (later Canon) David Keith Stather-Hunt (1896-1979) became Vicar in 1929 and remained until 1975. He had been in the Machine Gun Corps during World War I, and was a chaplain in the Territorial Army throughout World War II.

Saint Matthew’s Church struggled during World War II and in the absence of Stather-Hunt, despite Cecil Pain, a churchwarden and the local undertaker, urging him to return to Saint Matthew’s. After the war, and after a sharp disagreement in the parish in 1949, Saint Matthew's sub-let part of its land to Oxford City Football Club.

‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11: 1) … the lettering over the west door of Saint Matthew’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the congregation and Canon Stather-Hunt had aged, and church attendance was in decline. Only 12 parishioners attended his last AGM in February 1975, and at the age of 79 he retired as both Vicar of Saint Matthew’s and prison chaplain in Oxford at Easter 1975, with speculation that Saint Matthew’s would close and become a snooker hall.

Thanks to the efforts of the Revd Keith Weston, Rector of Saint Ebbe’s and Area Dean, the Revd Brian Ringrose became priest-in-charge in September 1975 on his return from mission work in India. When he moved to Scotland in 1979, Saint Matthew’s once again become part of Saint Aldate’s Parish, with the curate of Saint Aldate’s as priest-in-charge of Saint Matthew’s. The Revd John Woolmer, and the curates who followed him, lived at 60 Abingdon Road, and it became ‘the Vicarage’.

John Woolmer was succeeded as priest-in-charge by the Revd David Hawkins, who later became Bishop of Barking (2002-2014). Slowly, Saint Matthew’s began to grow again with the encouragement of Saint Aldate’s Church and the arrival of new, active parishioners.

When the church floor was being replaced in 1982, the congregation of Saint Matthew’s found hospitality for six weeks at Holy Rood Catholic Church on the Abingdon Road, the church I was writing about yesterday.

‘Thy face Lord will I seek’ (Psalm 27: 8) … the lettering over the south door of Saint Matthew’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Rev John Samways became the curate of Saint Aldate’s and priest-in-charge of Saint Matthew’s in 1986, and when the parish again became independent from Saint Aldate’s in 1995, he became the Vicar of Saint Matthew’s.

Brasenose College repossessed the adjacent Oxford City White House football ground in 1992 and began to redevelop the site, including land leased by Saint Matthew’s with the parish hall. At the same time, Saint Matthew’s bought a yard on the north side of the church. The compensation and changes enabled the parish to build Saint Matthew’s Family Centre beside the church, a new vicarage was built on Marlborough Road, and the church was refurbished.

When John Samways moved to Keynsham near Bristol, he was succeeded by the Revd Steve Hellyer as priest-in-charge from 1998 and then as vicar from 2010.

A glimpse inside Saint Matthew’s Church, Oxford, earlier this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Matthew’s Church today has a similar appearance to when it was built In 1890, The choir vestry has been removed, and the rood screen has been placed at the back of the church. It was decided in recent year to ‘worship in the round’, the pews are no longer fixed, the chairs are movable, and a projector and screen were installed in 2013.

Saint Matthew’s is in the centre of Grandpont, close to the river and city centre, and has an average Sunday attendance of 120, with about one-third living in the parish.

A new council estate was built in the early 1930s, and Stather-Hunt built a wooden church there dedicated to Saint Luke in 1933. That building served the Saint Luke’s end of the parish until it was rebuilt in 2013. The new Saint Luke’s was officially opened by the Bishop of Oxford in 2014. Saint Luke’s Church is about a mile away, in the Cold Harbour area and marks the southern-most point of the parish.

Saint Matthew’s and Saint Luke’s have their own distinct styles. Saint Matthew’s has an ‘Open Evangelical’ tradition, but the spirituality in the congregation includes the contemplative, the charismatic, and people with a passion for social action.

The Revd Dr Jenni Williams, the Vicar of Saint Matthew’s and Saint Luke’s, is a former tutor in Old Testament at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and the author of several books; the Revd Jon Williams is the associate vicar, the Revd Mike Rayner is the associate minister, and the Revd Rob Rogers and the Revd Bethan Willis are curates.

The staff team includes a families’ worker, youth worker and children’s worker.

• The usual Sunday services in Saint Matthew’s Church are: 10:30: Holy Communion, 6 pm: Evening Prayer (first Sunday); 9:45: Holy Communion, 10:30: Morning Prayer, 6 pm: Evening Prayer (second Sunday); 10:30: Holy Communion, 3 pm: Messy Church, 6 pm: Evening Prayer (third Sunday); 9:45: Holy Communion, 10:30: Morning Prayer, 6 pm: ‘Sustain’ (fourth Sunday); 10:30: Morning Prayer; 6 pm: ‘Sustain’ (fifth Sunday).

The east end Saint Matthew’s Church, Oxford, seen from Hodges Court (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Greyfriars in East Oxford, a convent with a publishing house, and two other religious sites in Oxford

The Church of Saint Edmund and Saint Frideswide or Greyfriars on Iffley Road in East Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my walkabout in Oxford last week, by the river, through Iffley in East Oxford, and in the city centre, I had opportunities to see from the outside four religious houses that have interesting places in the story of religious communities and community life in Oxford.

Greyfriars has one of the most distinctive buildings in Oxford; it is the only flint-stone Norman-style building in the city, and its green spire is prominent along the Iffley Road in East Oxford. Greyfriars is a Catholic parish and a Franciscan friary, and until 2008 it was also a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford.

The original Greyfriars church and friary in Oxford was founded by the Franciscans in the marshy St Ebbe’s area of the city in 1224. The mediaeval friars in Oxford included the theologian Robert Grosseteste, also Bishop of Lincoln and the first Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Other early Franciscans in mediaeval Greyfriars in Oxford included Roger Bacon, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and the Antipope Alexander V, who was from Neapolis in Crete.

The mediaeval friary was in the south-west corner of the city walls. Its footprint was extensive, running between the present-day Paradise Street and the Westgate Oxford Shopping Centre. The Franciscan order divided into two branches in 1517: the friars who had been living in city-convents and teaching in universities became known as Conventuals, while the friars who lived a more eremitical life became known as Observants; the Capuchins developed in 1528.

The original Greyfriars in Oxford continued as an educational and religious centre in the Middle Ages before being dissolved at the Tudor Reformations in 1538, and the Capuchins did not return to Oxford until 1905.

Greyfriars Church or the Church of Saint Edmund and Saint Frideswide on Iffley Road was built in 1910-1911 as a chapel of ease to the Jesuits of the Church of Saint Aloysius, Woodstock Road. The dedication recalls Saint Edmund of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, who gives his name to St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and Saint Frideswide, the patron of Oxford. It succeeded Saint Ignatius chapel in St Clement’s (1793) as the principal site of Roman Catholic worship in east Oxford.

The church was designed by the priest-architect William Edward (Father Benedict) Williamson (1868-1948). The builders were Hunt & Sons of High Wycombe. Williamson’s other works include the Jesuit church of Saint Ignatius in Stamford Hill, north London, and a range of monastic buildings at Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire – both, like his church in Oxford, in a neo-Romanesque style.

The church is listed Grade II for its architectural interest as an austerely dignified neo-Romanesque church by an accomplished architect, with a particularly serene and well-proportioned interior. The church is at the north end of the long range of buildings at Greyfriars on the west side of Iffley Road and is aligned north-south. The church is built in a plain neo-Norman style. The main entrance is through the tower, with an organ gallery above.

Meanwhile, the Capuchin Franciscans had returned to Oxford in 1905 when they founded Saint Anselm’s Friary, and it was recognised by the university as a house of studies in 1910. The Jesuits transferred responsibility for the Church of Saint Edmund and Saint Frideswide on Iffley Road in 1928 to the Capuchins who already ran a student hostel at Grosseteste House in a pair of nearby houses on Iffley Road. The present friary buildings, designed by the Oxford architect Gilbert Gardner under the supervision of Father Cuthbert Hess, were built in 1930-1931 to the south of the church.

The Capuchins first named the house Grosseteste House after the first head of the original Greyfriars. When the present building was completed in 1930, the name of Greyfriars was adopted once more.

Greyfriars became a private hall in the university in 1957. Greyfriars had an unusual position in Oxford, and the university hall and Franciscan friary were part of the same institution and coexisted on the same site. The friars and the students mingled on the site and shared mealtimes. The hall had a tradition of noted theology academics, but students were in a range of disciplines, including English, history, theology, geography and law. Greyfriars was closely linked with Balliol College, with a long-standing tradition of sporting links.

In October 2007, the Capuchins announced they planned to close Greyfriars as a permanent private hall, for financial and personnel reasons. All students and prospective applicants were transferred to Regent’s Park College, and the hall closed in June 2008, despite a last-minute attempt by the Holy See to save the hall. At the time Greyfriars closed, the fellows included Aidan Nichols and honorary fellows included Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham. There was surprise in some circles that the Greyfriars students did not migrate to Saint Benet’s Hall, the Benedictine PPH, or Blackfriars Hall, the Dominican PPH; Saint Benet’s Hall closed in 2022. The buildings continue to house the friary.

The Fairacres Road entrance to the Convent of the Incarnation off Iffley Road, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

As I was walking back from the River and Donnington Bridge towards Iffley Road, I found myself at the back gate of the Convent of the Incarnation on Fairacres Road, although the main convent entrance is at Daubeny Road. The Convent of the Incarnation – known as Fairacres – is home to around 15 sisters, and their work includes prayer, hospitality, study. And publishing.

The Sisters of the Love of God began in 1906, and their first convent was a small house in East Oxford. They moved a little further from the centre of Oxford in 1911, the present chapel was built in 1923.

As the community numbers grew from 1928 into the 1970s, new houses opened in Hemel Hampstead, at Burwash in Sussex and near Staplehurst in Kent, and a house opened in New Zealand in 1995. By 2005, falling numbers and increasing age led to closing the other houses, and community life since then has been centred in Oxford, where their story began.

Later this week, on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (Wednesday 24 June 2026), Sister Christine (South) will be blessed and installed as the new Reverend Mother of the Fairacres Convent.

The community established a small publishing house, SLG Press, in 1967 and produces a journal with short theological papers twice a year, the Fairacres Chronicle. The main publishing activity is a list of over 200 short books on prayer and the spiritual life, including a significant collection of Syriac patristics works and a series of contemplative poetry. The authors include AM Allchin, Professor Sebastian Brock, Father John Chryssavgis, Professor Andrew Louth, Professor John McGuckin, Archbishop Michael Ramsey, Sister Benedicta Ward, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Archbishop Rowan Williams.

The Convent of the Incarnation off Iffley Road is home to the Sisters of the Love of God and SLG Press (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At the corner of Holywell Street, St Cross Road and Longwall Street, a plaque to four Catholic Martyrs was erected at 100 Holywell Street in October 2008 and reads: ‘Near this spot George Nichols, Richard Yaxley, Thomas Belson, Humphrey Pritchard, were executed for their Catholic Faith, 5 July 1589.

The plaque was organised by Dr Joseph Shaw of Saint Benet's Hall, with permission from Merton College, the owner of the house. The four men are also remembered on the plaque commemorating all the martyrs of the Reformation, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, erected in the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin on 19 June 2008.

All four men were hanged at Holywell Gallows in Oxford in 1589 were Roman Catholics living in Oxford. The first two were priests, and the second two were laymen.

Father George Nichols was born in Oxford in 1550 and studied at Brasenose College. He was ordained in Reims in France in 1583, before being sent back to Oxford. Father Richard Yaxley (alias Tankard) Yaxley was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was ordained in Reims In 1585 and returned to England in 1586.

Thomas Belson was born at Brill in Buckinghamshire and studied at Saint Mary Hall, Oxford, and at the English College in Reims in 1584. He was a prisoner in the Tower of London for a while, before returning to Oxford, where George Nichols was his confessor.

Humphrey Pritchard, or Prichard or ap Richard, or ap Richard ap Gruffydd or Griffin or Griffith, was a Welsh servant at the Catherine Wheel Inn in Oxford, and a tailor. He was said to have served the Catholics who came to the inn in every way possible during the 12 or 14 years before his execution. Some Catholic priests in Oxford were hunted down at the Catherine Wheel Inn in Magdalen Street, which was owned by a Catholic widow.

All four men named on the plaque were arrested at the Catherine Wheel Inn. The priests were held in Bocardo in Cornmarket Street, then the city gaol, and the two laymen in Oxford Castle, then the county gaol, before being sent to London, where they were questioned and tortured in the Bridewell and in the Tower of London.

The four were returned to Oxford on 30 June 1589. The two priests were convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Holywell Gallows, and their parts parboiled in a cauldron before being fixed to the wall of Oxford Castle, where they were mutilated by Protestants. Two days later the heads and quarters were removed by the authorities and placed on high poles over the four town gates of Oxford. The two laymen who had been convicted of felony were simply hanged. All four martyrs were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.

A plaque to four Catholic Martyrs at 100 Holywell Street, at the corner with St Cross Road and Longwall Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Grandpont House, near Folly Bridge, takes its name from a long causeway on the River Thmas known as Grandpont that once stretched along almost the full length of Abingdon Road.

Grandpont House sits on stone arches over a water channel off the River Thames. It was built in 1785 for Sir William Elias Taunton (1744-1825), the City Solicitor and Town Clerk of Oxford. The Taunton family owned Grandpont House until 1847, when it was acquired by Brasenose College. It was the home in the 1850s and 1860s of Thomas Randall (1805-1887), a tailor who may have been the inspiration for the Hatter in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Prince Hassan, son of the Khedive of Egypt, lived in the house in 1869-1872 while he was studying law at Brasenose. The chaplain of Brasenose, the Revd HC Wace, was living at Grandpont House In the early 20th century. Another Brasenose Fellow, William Holdsworth, Vinerian Professor of Law, was living there From 1922 to 1944.

Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, who spent five summers in England, was keen to open an Opus Dei in Oxford. He visited Grandpont House in 1958 and the house and grounds were bought in April 1959. Grandpont House is one of several properties which is owned and operated by Netherhall Educational Association, which is linked with Opus Dei.

Grandpont House was bought by Opus Dei after Josemaría Escrivá visited in 1958 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Aldate’s Church in the heart of Oxford is at the heart of conservative evangelical movements

St Aldate’s Church in the centre of Oxford is one of the best-known evangelical churches not only in Oxford but throughout the Church of England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

After the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, on Maundy Thursday (2 April 2026), we were all invited across the street for light refreshment in St Aldate’s Church, where we were welcomed by the Rector, the Revd Stephen Foster, and offered coffee and pastries.

St Aldate’s Church in the centre of Oxford, is on the street named St Aldate’s, opposite Christ Church and beside Pembroke College. The church is one of the best-known evangelical churches not only in Oxford but throughout the Church of England. It has a large congregation and a team of about 30, including clergy, pastoral and administrative staff, but has been criticised in a number of recent reports for its handling of controversies.

Curiously, there never was a saint named Saint Aldate. The church stands on a site that has been used for Christian worship since the Saxon era, and the first early church may have been one of three churches within the monastic precincts of Saint Frideswide’s Priory. The church was first recorded early in the 12th century. The name of the church is a corruption of ‘old gate’ and suggests a much earlier foundation, but the original dedication or saint’s name had been forgotten by then.

The first major parts of the church, the nave and chancel, were built in the 12th century, forming the central part of the building as it now stands. The south and north aisles were added in the 14th and 15th centuries to accommodate the growing population of Oxford. Since then, the church has been extended and remodelled over the centuries.

Half the advowson was given to Abingdon Abbey before 1135, the other half was given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by 1122, and by 1200 the two houses agreed to share it, presenting alternately.

The mediaeval church had a chaplain as well as the rector. Many later mediaeval rectors were pluralists or had other interests: for instance, Thomas Browns, instituted in 1412, was the legal adviser to Osney Abbey.

The parish was enlarged in the 14th century with the addition of Saint Edward’s parish, and in 1524 with the addition of Saint Michael at the South Gate.

John of Ducklington paid to maintain a chaplain to celebrate Mass in the chapel he built for his family in 1334. The chantry was dedicated to Saint Mary, and was still there in 1535. Other chantries in the church included the Chapel of Saint Saviour, which survived until 1547, when it was known as Holy Trinity Chantry.

The advowson passed to the Crown at the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformations.

Thomas James (1573-1629), was the rector in 1602-1614, was also the first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (1598-1620). John Wall, the rector in 1617-1637, was a canon of Christ Church in 1632 and remained so throughout the political and religious upheavals of the mid 17th century.

Meanwhile, Charles I gave the advowson St Aldate’s to Pembroke College in 1629. John Bowles, rector in 1641-1667, was expelled from the university and probably from St Aldate’s in 1648, and from Saint Giles’s in 1651, although he was St Aldate’s again in 1652. St Aldate’s then remained without a permanent minister until the nonconformist Henry Hickman was appointed in 1656. One opponent later said that ‘the pope would provide him with a mitre and the devil with a frying pan’.

After the restoration, John Bowles returned to St Aldate’s in 1660 and died in 1667. His successor was John Hall (1633–1710), who was the rector in 1667-1710, and at the same time also master of Pembroke College (1664-1710), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford (1676-1691) and Bishop of Bristol (1691-1710). He was the last of the English bishops to hold to traditional Puritan views.

Inside St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, on Maundy Thursday after the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, St Aldate’s was served by members of Pembroke College, although most of the late-18th and early-19th-century rectors were non-resident. John Wilder (rector 1724-1743) and William Hawkins (1796-1801) both published attacks on ‘religious enthusiasm’, or Methodism.

The Archdeacon of Oxford threatened action against the churchwardens in 1827 unless they repaired the chancel, spire and roof immediately, but the main work was postponed until 1829. The interior was remodelled in 1832 under HJ Underwood. In 1843 the room over the south aisle was demolished, and the north aisle or chapel was extended eastwards to the end of the nave, a late mediaeval window being reset in the new work. Around that time, the 14th-century tracery of the east chancel window was replaced.

The last non-resident rector resigned in 1849. The Revd Henry Swabey (1826-1878) , who was the rector from 1850-1856, faced opposition from the churchwardens over free seats and from parishioners over his slightly High Church tendencies, such as his introduction of daily prayers and weekly Communion, but he attracted Sunday congregations of 400-500 in the morning and about 200 in the afternoon. Later, he was secretary of SPCK (1863-1878).

Pembroke College continued to present regularly until 1859, when it sold the advowson to Samuel Hanson, who then vested it in Simeon’s Trust, an evangelical body, in 1860.

Canon Alfred Christopher (1820-1913), who was the rector in 1859-1905, made St Aldate’s a centre of evangelical life in Oxford. He was also responsible for rebuilding and enlarging the church: the north and south chancel aisles and the north vestry were added, and the 13th century west tower and spire were rebuilt in 1873. He also founded the mission church at Saint Matthew's, Grandpont. The East Window is a memorial to him and its theme is the call to ‘Preach the Gospel to every creature’.

Later alterations to the interior, including raising the Communion table by one step in 1905, furnishing the south chancel aisle as a chapel in 1918, and erecting an oak reredos with six figures of saints in the chancel in 1920, gave the church a less obviously evangelical appearance.

Meanwhile, the parish of Saint Matthew’s, Grandpont, was formed out of the southern part of St Aldate’s parish in 1913. But congregation numbers began to fall at St Aldate’s at the end of the 19th century, and the decline accelerated in the early 20th century.

The church was revived under the Revd Christopher Maude Chavasse (1884-1962), who was the rector in 1922-1928. Chavasse and his twin brother Noel competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, and he was an army chaplain in World War I. Later, Christopher Chavasse was the first master of Saint Peter’s Hall, Oxford (1929-1940) and Bishop of Rochester (1940-1960).

The parish of Holy Trinity, originally taken from Saint Ebbe’s parish, was united with St Aldate’s In 1956.

Further remodelling of the building was completed in 2002. The pews were removed to create more seating room for a growing congregation, under-floor heating, carpet, Jerusalem stone tiles, wood flooring, and a state of the art audiovisual system with projector screens and television monitors were installed to create what was described as ‘a modern venue for a living church.’

The north wall was knocked open to create a spacious glass vestibule that opens the church up to St Aldate’s Street, and the graveyard at the front has been landscaped to open up a garden at the front of the church.

The interior of St Aldate’s has been heavily altered over the centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Most of the congregation of St Aldgate’s live outside the parish, with members drawn from throughout the city and surrounding towns and villages. Because of the nature of university life, the congregation is fluid and it is estimated that up to 30% change each year. During university terms, up to 400 students attend the Sunday services.

Channel 4 broadcast a documentary, ‘Revelations – How to find God’, on the Alpha course in St Aldate’s in 2009. But recent reports and controversies surrounding St Aldate's Church have focused on allegations of LGBTQ+ hostility, the use of controversial prayer practices, ‘conversion’ therapy and past failures on safeguarding disclosures.

St Aldate’s was cited in reports in 2023 and 2024 by student and advocacy groups regarding LGBTQ+ safety in Oxford churches. The reports alleged the use of ‘exorcism’ as part of practices described as conversion abuse or attempts to change LGBTQ+ people, which some reports allege continued under different leadership forms despite changing stances.

Under a previous rector, Canon Charlie Cleverly, and through the work of the Revd Simon Ponsonby, the church was criticised for conservative, evangelical teachings that caused distress and accusations of homophobia.

The Makin Review on abuse by the late John Smyth revealed in 2024 that the Revd Michael Green (1930-2019), who was Cleverly’s predecessor as rector in 1975-1982, was informed about Smyth’s abuse in 1982 but said he was ‘sworn to secrecy’ and did not report it.

More recent reports note a change in tone under the current rector, the Revd Stephen Foster, but they continue to report concerns among advocacy groups about ‘secrecy and silence’ on these past issues.

The issues at St Aldate’s are part of a wider conversation about pastoral practices, conversion therapy, and LGBTQ+ inclusion within Church of England and university chaplaincies.

The Revd Stephen Foster has been the rector since 2021. He first took a law degree at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and was a criminal barrister in London. He began his training for ordination in Cambridge in 2010, and his MPhil degree focused on the connections of justice and love. He was the Preaching Pastor at Holy Trinity, Brompton, and the National Director at Alpha UK before moving to St Aldate’s.

• The four Sunday services in St Aldate’s are at 10 am, 12 noon, 4 pm and 6 pm, and there is a full mid-week programme, but I found it impossible to tell from the church website when or if the Holy Communion is celebrated on Sundays.

The East Window in St Aldate’s has a mission theme and is a memorial to Canon Alfred Christopher (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

‘God, by His bow, vouchsafes to write This truth in Heaven above: As every lovely hue is Light, So every grace is Love’

‘What but the gentle rainbow’s gleam, / Soothing the wearied sight, / That cannot bear the solar beam, / With soft undazzling light?’ (John Keble) … a rainbow seen at the beach in Portrane, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Sunday before Lent, and many churches and parishes, including Saint Mary and Saint Giles,Stony Stratford, have marked today as Transfiguration Sunday. In the past, the Transfiguration was traditionally marked on 6 August and this Sunday, the Sunday before Lent, was known as Quinquagesima.

The three Sundays before Lent once had special Latin names in the Book of Common Prayer, names that were shared in most traditions in the Western Church. Although these Sundays are usually counted as ‘Ordinary Time’ in many traditions today, some Anglican parishes still use the original Latin names, and they are reminders that Lent and its disciplines are imminent.

These three Sundays were known as:

Septuagesima Sunday: the Third Sunday before Lent, which this year fell two weeks (Sunday 1 February 2026), although most parishes and churches celebrated it as the Feast of the Presentation, and some as the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany IV). In the early Church, no Gloria or Alleluia was sung on that Sunday because it was the first Sunday of the call to Lenten discipline. Although the word Septuagesima means ‘seventieth’, this Sunday falls only 63 days before Easter.

Early Christians began observing Lent the day after Septuagesima Sunday. This is because Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays were not days of fasting in the early Church. So, if the faithful wished to fast for 40 days before Easter, they would start the Monday after Septuagesima Sunday. Today, only Sunday is a non-fast day, and so Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026).

Sexagesima Sunday: the Second Sunday before Lent, which was last Sunday (8 February 2026). In the Early Church, Lent would have started on the previous Monday. In some parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church, that Sunday is known as ‘No Meat Sunday,’ and the dietary observances for Lent begin on this day.

Quinquagesima Sunday: the final Sunday before Lent, or the Sunday before Ash Wednesday (15 February 2026). It is 50 days before Easter, hence quinquagesima or ‘fiftieth.’

Today [15 February 2026] is the Sunday before Lent, is Quinquagesima Sunday, and as a reflection today, I have been re-reading John Keble’s poem, ‘Quinquagesima Sunday,’ recalling the traditional name once used for the Sunday before Lent.

John Keble (1792-1866) was an Anglican priest and poet, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement. He was born on Saint Mark’s Day, 25 April 1792, in Fairford, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Revd John Keble, a former Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was Vicar of Coln St Aldwyn’s. The choir sang his ‘Blest are the pure in heart’, written in 1819, as the anthem at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this morning, and we sang another version as the Post-Communion hymn.

John Keble studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1810, at the age of 18, he graduated with a double first in classics and mathematics. He became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1811 and he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Oxford in 1815 and priest in 1816.

Keble published The Christian Year in 1827. He wrote the poems to restore a deep feeling for the Church Year among Anglicans, and it received such acclaim that it became the most popular volume of verse in the 19th century. One of the most popular poems in The Christian Year is the well-known hymn, ‘New every morning.’

The Christian Year went into 95 editions in Keble’s lifetime, and by the time the copyright expired in 1873, over 375,000 copies had been sold in Britain and 158 editions had been published.

The success of The Christian Year led to Keble being appointed Professor of Poetry in Oxford University (1831-1841).

His ‘Assize Sermon’ in Saint Mary’s University Church, Oxford, in 1833 was the spark that ignited the Oxford Movement. He was appointed Vicar of Hursley, Hampshire, in 1835, and he settled down to family life and remained there for the rest of his life as a parish priest at All Saints’ Church.

He edited an edition of Richard Hooker’s works in 1836. The most important of his prose writings, however, was his treatise on Eucharistic Adoration.

John Keble died 160 years ago, on 29 March 1866 at the age of 74. Within three years of his death, Keble College, Oxford, was established at Oxford ‘to give an education in strict fidelity to the Church of England.’

Keble College, Oxford, was established in 1870 as a tribute to John Keble, a founding figure in the Oxford Movement (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Quinquagesima Sunday by John Keble:

Sweet Dove! the softest, steadiest plume,
In all the sunbright sky,
Brightening in ever-changeful bloom
As breezes change on high; –

Sweet Leaf! the pledge of peace and mirth,
“Long sought, and lately won,”
Blessed increase of reviving Earth,
When first it felt the Sun; –

Sweet Rainbow! pride of summer days,
High set at Heaven’s command,
Though into drear and dusky haze
Thou melt on either hand; –

Dear tokens of a pardoning God,
We hail ye, one and all,
As when our fathers walked abroad,
Freed from their twelvemonth’s thrall.

How joyful from the imprisoning ark
On the green earth they spring!
Not blither, after showers, the lark
Mounts up with glistening wing.

So home-bound sailors spring to shore,
Two oceans safely past;
So happy souls, when life is o’er,
Plunge in this empyreal vast.

What wins their first and fondest gaze
In all the blissful field,
And keeps it through a thousand days?
Love face to face revealed:

Love imaged in that cordial look
Our Lord in Eden bends
On souls that sin and earth forsook
In time to die His friends.

And what most welcome and serene
Dawns on the Patriarch’s eye,
In all the emerging hills so green,
In all the brightening sky?

What but the gentle rainbow’s gleam,
Soothing the wearied sight,
That cannot bear the solar beam,
With soft undazzling light?

Lord, if our fathers turned to Thee
With such adoring gaze,
Wondering frail man Thy light should see
Without Thy scorching blaze;

Where is our love, and where our hearts,
We who have seen Thy Son,
Have tried Thy Spirit’s winning arts,
And yet we are not won?

The Son of God in radiance beamed
Too bright for us to scan,
But we may face the rays that streamed
From the mild Son of Man.

There, parted into rainbow hues,
In sweet harmonious strife
We see celestial love diffuse
Its light o’er Jesus’ life.

God, by His bow, vouchsafes to write
This truth in Heaven above:
As every lovely hue is Light,
So every grace is Love.

John Keble (1792-1866) … his poems in ‘The Christian Year’ include ‘Quinquagesima Sunday’

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 13, Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany

The wise men or Magi waiting to be placed in the crib in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and it ends not today, the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), but continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, although many parishes and churches may have held their celebrations of Epiphany on Sunday (4 January 2026), with the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors. The Feast of the Holy Epiphany or Holy Theophany (Γιορτή των Αγίων Θεοφανείων) is being marked today (6 January) by the Greek Orthodox Community in Stony Stratford with Orthros (9 am), the Divine Liturgy, the Great Anointing and the Blessing of the Great Ouse.

On Mount Athos, the monks will celebrate the great feast of Christmas according to the old calendar tonight, and at 9 pm (Greek time) the radio station of the Holy Mountain will broadcast live the Christmas Vigil from the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi on Mount Athos (listen live HERE).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 2: 1-12 (NRSVA):

2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel”.’

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Newman University Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 2: 1-12) recalls the story of the visit of the Magi, one of the three Gospel stories associated with Epiphany. The other two traditional Epiphany are the Baptism of Christ, which we read about next Sunday (Epiphany I, 11 January 2026, Matthew 3: 13-17) and the following Sunday (Epiphany II, John 1: 29-42, 18 January 2026), and the Wedding at Cana, which we read about two weeks later (Epiphany IV, 1 February 2026, John 2: 1-11).

These days after Christmas can be a letdown for many people. For weeks, sometimes months, in advance, we had been preparing for the dawning of that one single day.

We write Christmas cards, draw up lists, go shopping, wrap the gifts, put up the tree and the decorations, listen to carols and Christmas songs, wear amusing Christmas jumpers and silly Santa hats, go to office parties, plan family meals, bring in the holly and the ivy, and light candles on the Advent wreath.

Then Christmas Day comes and goes in 24 hours, just like any other day.

Then what?

Few notice that yesterday was the twelfth day of Christmas. Fewer still realise that the Christmas season includes today’s important Feast of the Epiphany and that it continues until the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas on 2 February.

By now, in most homes and workplaces, the decorations are down, the cards have been binned, the trees have been recycled, the presents have been used and put away, and for some these days are something of an anticlimax.

The angels, the shepherds and the magi are ‘yesterday’s men.’ What are we to do?

Some of the best answers are provided in the poem ‘The Work of Christmas’, written by Howard Thurman (1899-1981), an African-American theologian, academic and civil rights leader, and included in his book The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations (1973):

The Work of Christmas, by Howard Thurman:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in a window in Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany):

The theme this week (4-10 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hidden Histories’ (pp 16-17). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Matthew Anns, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager at USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 6 January 2026, the Epiphany) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we praise you that through your Son you provide a way for healing and reconciliation.

The Collect:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
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 bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator of the heavens,
who led the Magi by a star
to worship the Christ-child:
guide and sustain us,
that we may find our journey’s end
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The visit of the wise men or Magi depicted in the East Window in the chapel of Oriel College, Oxford (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