60 million tourists in Greek airports, ‘60 million and more’ slave deaths, $60 million for Trump but not for Gaza, 60 million readers of this blog to date

Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport in Iraklion … more than 60 million passengers travelled through Greece’s 39 commercial airports from January to August 2026 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached a new record, with a total of 60 million readers or hits by about 9 pm last night (4 October 2026). Already, September has been an exceptionally busy time on this blog, with a steady, overwhelming rise in viewing and reading figures, having passed the million mark on 10 occasions last month alone.

These viewing and readership figures continue to be overpowering as this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 39 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone, and more than 10.4 million last month (September), the highest total in any single month since I began blogging.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been within a little more than six months or so, with 30 million hits since 29 March 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year, the daily figures have often been overwhelming.

Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, seven were last month alone, two were in May and one was in April. Although traffic has slowed down in the past few weeks, the daily averages remain high, with an average of almost 350,000 hits a day last month, and about 130,000-140,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

The dozen most popular posting on this blog over the years, in rounded figures, have been:

1, About me (1 May 2007), 95,000 hits
2, All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well (5 September 2008), 43,000 hits
3, ‘When all that’s left of me is love, give me away’ … a poem before Kaddish has gone viral (15 January 2020), 37,000 hits
4, What is a degree from Cambridge Theological Seminary worth? (29 July 2010), 35,000 hits
5, The Transfiguration: finding meaning in icons and Orthodox spirituality (7 April 2010) 33,000 hits
6, Poems for Lent (3): ‘Indifference,’ by GA Studdert Kennedy (27 February 2012), 25,000 hits

7, Poems for Lent (39): ‘All in an April Evening,’ by Katharine Tynan (3 April 2012), 23,000 hits
8, Talking about history, memories, war and vision in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (13 February 2015), 22,000 hits
9, Poems for Easter (2): ‘Easter Wings’ by George Herbert (9 April 2012), 19,000 hits
10, A year later, I get to find and visit Castle Matrix (19 February 2018), 19,000 hits
11, A visit to ‘Howth Castle and Environs’ (19 March 2012), 18,000 hits
12, Readings in Spirituality: the novelist as a writer in spirituality and theology (26 November 2009), 17,000 hits

Geologists at Trinity College Dublin have found that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth 60 million years earlier than previously thought (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 60 million into perspective:

Around 50 to 60 million people lived in the combined eastern and western Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. The population of the United Kingdom had passed 60 million by 2001, according to a report in the Guardian on 25 August 2001.

About 60 million people worldwide are living with an amputation.

Beloved, the 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison set after the American Civil War, tells the story of formerly enslaved people in Cincinnati. The epigraph to Beloved, ‘60 million and more’, is drawn from a number of studies on the African slave trade, which estimate that about half of each ship’s ‘cargo’ died in transit to America.

The children’s author and comedian David Walliams has sold more 60 million copies of his works worldwide. Hachette UK Distribution ships more than 60 million books globally each year.

Donald Trump spent $60 million of taxpayer dollars on his birthday UFC fight on the White House lawn in June.

When Trump claimed last year that the US gave $60 million in aid to Gaza, Federal officials could not answer questions about which agency or group received the funding and when. The State Department had previously said the US had approved a $30 million grant for aid but that by then the funds had not been distributed. Eventually, it turned out that the US gave $3 million in Gaza food aid, contradicting Trump’s lies about $60 million.

The centre:mk in Milton Keynes had a £60 million investment programme in recent years, with a multi-year transformation involved a significant modernisation of the space, a new multi-storey car park, and a 75,000 sq ft Primark letting.

More than 60 million passengers travelled through Greece’s 39 commercial airports from January to August 2026, with a record-breaking 4.5% increase in traffic compared to the same eight-month period in 2025.

The Greek government is offering a financial support package worth nearly €60 million to help ferry operators cope with rising marine fuel costs while preventing additional fare increases for passengers. The initiative comes as the price of marine gas oil (MGO), one of the sector’s main operating expenses, continues to fluctuate. Although fuel costs have increased significantly, ferry companies had avoided introducing another round of ticket price rises.

Geologists from Trinity College Dublin have found that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth three billion years ago – a full 60 million years earlier than previously thought. These life forms were responsible for adding oxygen to the atmosphere, which laid the foundations for more complex life to evolve and proliferate.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean basin on Earth, covering more than 155 million sq km or 60 million sq miles or more than 30% of the Earth’s surface.

60 million minutes is equal to 114 years, 0 months, 29 days and 16 hours, which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in September 1912, weeks before Thessaloniki was incorporated in the modern Greek state.

I retired from active parish ministry 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week. As this blog moves beyond 60 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among that 60 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.


A walk on the beach at Damai in Sarawak … the Pacific Ocean covers more than 60 million sq miles (Patrick Comerford)

A series of 11 heraldic paintings in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, tells the stories of four dioceses

Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching ... painted heraldic decorations represent the Diocese of Kuching, the dioceses in the Church of the Province of South East Asia and dioceses that are part of the story of Anglican missions in the region (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Above the choir and chapter stalls in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, a series of nine painted heraldic decorations represent the Diocese of Kuching, its partner dioceses in the Church of the Province of South East Asia, and four other dioceses that are part of the story of Anglican missions in the region.

In addition, the cathedral also displays the coats of arms of both the State of Sarawak and the Federation of Malaysia.

It is difficult to find technically correct heraldic descriptions for some of these coats-of-arms, and in some cases they have been adopted without any heraldic authority. But I am grateful to Mark Scott, Somerset Herald at the College of Arms in London, who has kindly helped me to identify and describe many of these heraldic displays.

The coats of arms of Church of the Province of South East Asia and its four provinces, in a poster the Kuching diocesan offices beside Saint Thomas’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

These coats of arms are of interest to specialists in ecclesiastical heraldry and church history. But they also tell part of the story of the relationship of the Anglican Church in Sarawak with the Brooke Rajahs of Sarawak and the short-live British Crown Colony and of the subsequent incorporation of Sarawak into the modern state of Malaysia.

They also tell the story of the relationship between Diocese of Kuching with the neighbouring Anglican dioceses in Malaysia, Singapore and throughout South-East Asia.

The coat of arms of Church of the Province of South East Asia above the chapter and choir stalls in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Church of the Province of South East Asia, made up of four dioceses – Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and West Malaysia – was formed 30 years ago in 1996 as the 37th Province in the Anglican Communion. It is self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating and truly indigenous.

At first, the See of Calcutta provided episcopal supervision for Anglican work throughout much of south and east Asia, and beyond, as far as Australia and New Zealand. The first Anglican church in what is now Malaysia was on Penang island, where the Church of Saint George the Martyr, was built in 1819 and consecrated by Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, first Bishop of Calcutta.

In time, because it was so widespread, the Diocese of Calcutta became impractical, and new dioceses were formed. As a result, for example, the Diocese of Australia was formed in 1836 and the Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak was formed in 1855 as a missionary diocese under the oversight of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Today the Church of the Province of South East Asia covers a geographical area of 329,800 sq km with a population: 23.8 million. The coat of arms of the province, which appears to be without a full, technical heraldic description, has a white cross on a blue background, that echoes both the Saint Andrew’s cross used by the Diocese of Singapore, which its four quarters or segments may acknowledge the four dioceses that form the province.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching in the chancel in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Kuching:

Francis Thomas McDougall (1817-1886) was the first Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak (1855-1868). He was consecrated bishop in Calcutta on Saint Luke’s Day, 18 October 1855, by Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta, under a commission from Archbishop John Bird Sumner of Canterbury.

His consecration was the first of an English bishop to take place outside Britain and Ireland. He was styled Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak because Labuan was a British territory and Sarawak was not. The Church in the Straits Settlements, including Singapore, Penang and Malacca, was separated from the Diocese of Calcutta in 1869, and placed under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Labuan. This arrangement lasted until 1909, when the Diocese of Singapore was founded.

After the Japanese occupation and World War II, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak were joined into the Diocese of Borneo. The Diocese of Borneo was divided in 1962, forming a new Diocese of Jesselton (Sabah), including Labua, while the rest of the diocese, including Brunei, was reconstituted as the Diocese of Kuching.

The arms of the Diocese of Kuching have inherited elements from the arms granted to the Bishopric of Borneo in 1949 and that were transferred to Kuching in 1964.

They are described in heraldic language or blazoned as: Per pale gules and sable, a cross crosslet fitchy or. This describes a shield that is divided vertically down the middle, red and black, with a gold cross that has three smaller crosses at the top and to the side, and a pointed tip at the end.

At the time of the grant, Sir George Bellew (1899-1993), the Dublin-born Somerset Herald (1926-1950) and later Garter Principal King of Arms (1950-1961), pointed to these arms as an example of how with grants of arms ‘it is still possible to design simple arms without infringing those already in use.’

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching echoes the colours and imagery of the coat of arms of the Brooke family, Rajahs of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The shield incorporates the red and black split design associated with the Brooke family, Rajahs of Sarawak, combined with a gold cross. The dominant colours mirror the historic colours of the Sarawak state flag and the heraldic arms of the Brooke dynasty, founded by James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak.

The coat of arms used by the Brooke dynasty for over a century, from 1841 to 1946, were: Or (gold or yellow), a cross engrailed parted per pale gules (red) and sable (black), charged in fess point with an eastern crown or (gold or yellow); crest: a brock or badger proper (natural colours); motto: Dum Spiro Spero (‘While I Breathe, I hope’).

This blazon describes a gold or yellow shield, with a red and black cross that has wavy edges, surmounted by a crown that was added in 1848. The badger or brock in the crest is a pun alluding to the dynastic surname, and its symbolism is remembered, for example, in the name of the Badger Bar in the Sarawak Club.

The coat of arms of Sir James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak, granted by the College of Arms, London, in 1848 (Image: PMostEpic/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The arms of Sir James Brooke were: or (gold), a cross engrailed per cross indented azure (blue) and sable (black), in the first quarter an estoile of the second (blue); crest: on an eastern crown a brock proper ducally gorged or. Motto: Dum Spiro Spero.

The azure and sable or blue and black colours were abandoned for red and black two years after the succession of his son Sir Charles Johnson Brooke (1868-1917). His achievement was: arms: or (yellow or gold), a cross engrailed parted per pale sable (black) and gules (red); crest: on a wreath of the colours a brock proper; motto: Dum Spiro Spero.

His son, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1917-1946), altered the arms by introducing a five-pointed crown, symbolising the five divisions of the kingdom, centred around Kuching, Sri Aman and Simanggang, Sibu, Miri, and Limbang. Shortly before World War II, the engrailed edging of the cross was abandoned and replaced by a simple cross parted per pale.

The simplified coat of arms of the Brooke family as Rajahs of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Sir Charles Brooke abdicated in 1946 after the Japanese occupation (1941-1945), and Sarawak became a British Crown Colony. A new coat of arms was adopted on 10 March 1947: or, on a cross parted per pale sable and gules, charged with a five-pointed eastern crown or.

The arms of the British Crown Colony of Sarawak continued to be used as the state coat of arms when Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore in 1963, and were used until 1973.

The design of the shield also provided the basis for the Sarawak flag used until 1973, and the state flag reverted to these original colours in 1988. At the same time a new state coat of arms was adopted, in which the state flag became the shield, displayed on a hornbill.

The arms of the Diocese of Sabah, first granted to the Diocese of Jesselton, seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Sabah:

The British Colony of North Borneo changed its name to Sabah on 31 August 1963, and joined the Federation of Malaysia as an independent state. The Diocese of Sabah, covering Sabah and Labuan, was formed in 1962 as the Diocese of Jesselton. Originally, it was part of the much larger Diocese of Labuan and its Dependencies, established in 1855. When the Diocese of Singapore was formed out of that earlier diocese in 1909, the area of the present-day Diocese of Sabah fell under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak, which was reorganised as the Diocese of Borneo in 1949.

The Diocese of Borneo was divided in two in 1962, forming the Diocese of Kuching and the Diocese of Jesselton, which was renamed the Diocese of Sabah when Jesselton, the capital city, was renamed Kota Kinabalu in 1967.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sabah are the arms of the former Diocese of Jesselton: argent (silver or white), issuant from a base vert (green) thereon three barrulets wavy argent (silver or white) a mountain sable (black), in chief five crosses three and two couped gules (red).

A variation in the colours in the official grant of arms of the Diocese of Sabah, seen in a poster marking the 20th anniversary of the Church of the Province of South-East Asia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

These arms have some echoes of the arms adopted in 1948 by the former Crown Colony of British North Borneo. The diocesan arms incorporate representations of the South China Sea, with historical connotations of the early Christian missionaries travelling by sea, or of the fields of Sabah, beneath Mount Kinabalu.

However, there are variations in the colours in the official grant of arms, as seen in the chancel in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, and those used by Diocese of Sabah today.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Singapore seen in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Singapore:

The Diocese of Singapore dates back to 1826, shortly after Singapore was founded by Stanford Raffles and at first the Anglican presence there was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Calcutta.

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Simgapre, was named after the patron saint of Scotland in honour of the Scottish community who first donated to the building fund. Singapore was transferred from the Diocese of Calcutta to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak in 1869, and Saint Andrew’s Cathedral became the cathedral church of the diocese in 1870. It officially became the Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak in 1881, and in 1909 Singapore was made a separate diocese covering the Straits Settlements, Peninsular Malaya, Siam (Thailand), Java, Sumatra and the adjacent islands.

It was renamed the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya on 6 February 1960. The diocese was dissolved on 8 April 1970 when it was divided into two new dioceses, the Diocese of Singapore and the Diocese of West Malaysia.

The official grant of arms to the Bishopric of Singapore are blazoned or described in heraldic language as: azure (blue) a saltire argent (white or silver) between four garbs or (gold or yellow), on a chief of the last (gold or yellow) a pastoral staff and a key in saltire purpure (purple).

The principal element in the arms of the Diocese of Singapore is the shield of Saint Andrew, similar to the symbol seen on the flag of Scotland. The four bunches of wheat symbolise the harvest of the mission fields, the crozier is a symbol of episcopal office, the key represents episcopal authority, and the crozier and key are crossed in the shape of Saint Andrew’s saltire.

The emblem the Diocese of West Malaysia displayed in Kuching Cathedral in the style of a diocesan coat of arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of West Malaysia:

A new and independent diocese, the Diocese of West Malaysia, was formed from the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya in 1970, and it was incorporated by an Act of the Malaysian Parliament in 1971. Saint Mary’s Cathedral is beside Independence Square or Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur.

An official formal heraldic blazon for the arms used by the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia is not found in standard armorial databases, it does not follow traditional heraldic designs and heraldry remains largely unregulated in Malaysia.

However, the arms used by the diocese draws heavily on local symbols and Malaysian cultural motifs seen in the shape and design of the cross and the depiction of a hornbill.

The coat of arms of the Archbishops of Canterbury above the bishop’s throne in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Canterbury:

The blazon for the coat of arms of the Diocese of Canterbury is: Azure (blue), an archiepiscopal staff or (gold) ensigned with a cross formy or (gold), surmounted of a pallium argent (silver or white) edged and fringed gold, charged with four crosses formy fitchy sable (black).

These are similar to the arms used by the Archbishops of York, Armagh and Dublin. The pallium on all these is a white lamb’s wool band shaped like a ‘Y’ and is an ancient symbol of metropolitan authority.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of London seen in the chancel in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of London:

The Bishop of London historically had responsibility for the administration, oversight, and provision of the Church of England in all British overseas colonies. From the 17th century on, Anglican congregations and chaplaincies in British territories outside England – including North America and the West Indies – were within the remit of the Diocese of London.

After the American Revolution in 1776, the North American mainland colonies left this oversight, leaving only the British West Indies under the London bishop's direct care. To manage expanding global territories, the Church of England began forming separate colonial dioceses starting in 1787 with Nova Scotia, eventually forming 41 distinct overseas dioceses before they gained autonomy by 1863.

The technical heraldic description (blazon) for the coat of arms of the Diocese of London is: gules (red), two swords in saltire proper hilts and pommels or (gold).

This is a red shield, with two swords crossed in an ‘X’ shape or saltire. They represent Saint Paul, who is often depicted in iconography with an up-turned sword. He is the patron saint of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of London.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Calcutta seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Calcutta:

The Diocese of Calcutta was formed as an Anglican diocese in 1814. The Bishop of Calcutta was the Metropolitan of India, with a vast geographical province that initially included the entire British empire in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), British territories across south and south-east Asia and Australia.


From 1863 on, former colonial dioceses were separate from and independent of the Church of England, although, exceptionally, the Archbishop of Canterbury has retained some metropolitan jurisdictions outside England.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Calcutta is recorded as: Gules (red), a pastoral staff or crozier in bend or (gold), headed argent (silver), surmounted by an open book argent bound or; on a chief indented ermine, two palm fronds in saltire vert (green), debruised with a mitre with infulae or (gold.

This is a red shield, representing holy zeal and martyrdom, with a bishop’s gold crosier placed diagonally across the shield, surmounted by an open Bible.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sydney displayed in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Sydney:

The Diocese of Australia was formed in 1836 and William Grace Broughton became the first Bishop of Australia. The Diocese of New Zealand became a separate diocese in 1841 and the Diocese of Tasmania in 1842. When the Diocese of Australia was divided in 1847 into four separate dioceses – Sydney, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne – Broughton remained as Bishop of Sydney.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sydney granted to William Broughton, first Bishop of Sydney, is: azure (blue), four mullets of eight points in cross argent (silver or white). This is a blue shield with four eight-pointed silver stars arranged in the shape of a cross, representing the Southern Cross constellation, with four of its primary stars.

The present coat of arms of Sarawak seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The arms of Sarawak and Malaysia:

The traditional arms of Sarawak are: Or (gold or yellow), a cross engrailed parted per pale gules (red) and sable (black), charged with an eastern crown or (gold or yellow). Motto: Dum Spiro Spero (‘While I breathe, I hope’).

The arms of the British Crown Colony of Sarawak were based on the arms of the Rajah and were the state coat of arms when Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore in 1963. These arms were used from 1947 to 1973: or (gold or yellow), on a cross parted per pale sable (black) and gules (red), an Eastern crown of the field.

The current coat of arms of Sarawak dates from 31 August 1988. The shield features a symbolic wing-spread kenyalang or rhinoceros hornbill with a shield bearing the state flag. The hornbill’s wings have 13 feathers, which represent the states in Malaysia. The hibiscus represent the Malaysia’s national flower which appears on the right and left sides of the bird’s legs and the hornbill perches on a banner with the words Bersatu, Berusaha, Berbakti (‘Unity, Effort, Service’).

The coat of arms of Malaysia displayed in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The coat of arms of Malaysia (Jata Negara Malaysia) retains many of the design elements used in the arms of the Federated Malay States during British colonial rule, and it resembles European heraldic designs. The shield is supported by two tigers for supporters, and the crest is a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-point star representing Islam and the states of Malaysia.

The shield consists of a chief or upper portion and a lower section that is divided in three per pale (longitudinally). The chief is gules (red) charged with five krises (Malay daggers), representing the five former Unfederated Malay States: Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis.

The dexter section (the viewer’s left) shows the former coat of arms of Penang; the upper middle section below the chief shows the colours of the Federated Malay States (red, black, white and yellow); while in the lower middle section are three sections representing the new states of Sabah, Singapore and Sarawak which joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. In the sinister section (the right side from the viewer’s point of view) is a Malacca tree (Phyllanthus emblica), after which the state was named.

The two tigers supporting the shield are traditional Malay symbols, and were inherited from the earlier armorial ensigns of the Federated Malay States and Federation of Malaya.

The motto, Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu (‘Unity is Strength’), is in both Latin and Jawi script.

The arms of the Diocese of Lichfield, seen on the railway bridge at Upper John Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A missing coat of arms:

The inclusion of the arms of Canterbury, London, Calcutta and Sydney affirms the historic links between the Diocese of Kuching and those four other dioceses. But if a fifth diocese was to be represented, I would suggest the Diocese of Lichfield.

The Diocese of Lichfield and the Diocese of Kuching have been linked together since the Lambeth Conference in 1988. But the two were linked before that when the second bishop, Walter Chambers (1870-1881), who was ordained a priest in Lichfield Cathedral by Bishop John Lonsdale of Lichfield in 1849, moved to Borneo to assist Bishop Thomas McDougal, the first Bishop of Borneo. Chambers became Archdeacon of Sarawak in 1868 and became Bishop of Sarawak and the Straits Settlements when McDougal resigned in 1870.

The coat of arms of the iocese of Lichfield are described in heraldic terms in this way: Per pale gules (red) and argent (white) , a cross potent and quadrate (Cross of Saint Chad) between four crosses patée all counterchanged. I like to imagine the per pale or vertical division of the field and the shape of the central cross may have had some incluence on the design of the arms of the Diocese of Kuching.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching on the lectern in the chapel in the Bishop’s House in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 88, Monday 3 August 2026

‘He made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side’ (Matthew 14: 22) … a fishing boat on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026).

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.

Punters on the Backs and the River Cam behind King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 14: 22-36 (NRSVA):

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, 36 and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Boats at Salter’s by Folly Bridge in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections

In last year or two, I have enjoyed being on boats in Sarawak and Singapore, barge trips on the Grand Union Canal, and watching rowers and boats in York, on the Backs in Cambridge, on the river in Oxford and in York. I even had the pleasure many years ago of one college boat club in Cambridge asking to use one of my photographs in a fundraising drive.

It is almost 60 years since I first went rowing as a teenager on Lough Ramor in Virginia. But I had long thought that I would be left regretting that I had taken up courses in Cambridge when I was too late in life to learn, or to re-learn, how to row.

I had come to enjoy rowing as a sport and an activity, but in a very passive way.

Then, shortly after I arrived in Askeaton in 2017, one evening, as I was standing at a slipway by the banks of the Rover Deel, I was invited suddenly and unexpectedly to get into a boat and to row.

I was fearless. It was a pleasure I had often hoped for and wished for. And for almost an hour, we rowed upstream, under the bridge at Askeaton, and as far as the castle, and then downstream past the factory, although not as far as the estuary. When I suggested that I might be too old to learn, or re-learn, how to row, I was told brusquely and with humour that once I stopped learning I had stopped living.

Later that same week, I watched children and teenagers hop in and out of boats, freely and fearlessly, confident of their own ability and the ability of those who were training them.

Fearlessly. But as I was messing about on boats in Crete some weeks earlier, hopping on and off them in the sun as I visited smaller islands and lagoons, I thought of how this was a pleasure that I was paying for and wondered but how many refugees were full of fear as they boarded boats in the dark trying to arrive on Greek islands, having paid exorbitantly for the risk and the dangers.

Fearlessly. What are your worst fears?

I know, at present, many of us have fears arising out of the wars between Russia and Ukraine, the wars involving the US in Iran and the Gulf, Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and the global insecurity created by the mercurial decision-making by the Trump regime.

As we grow up and mature, we tend to have fewer fears of the outside world, and as adults we begin to cope with the fears we once had as children, by turning threats into opportunities.

The fears I had as a child – of snakes, of the wind, of storms at sea, of lightning – are no longer the stuff of recurring nightmares they were as a child. I have learned to be cautious, to be sensible and to keep my distance, and to be in awe of God’s creation.

But most of us have recurring dreams that are vivid and that have themes that keep repeating themselves. They fall into a number of genres, and most psychotherapists identify a number of these types of dreams that most of us deal with in our sleep at various stages in adult life.

They include dreams about:

• Drowning.

• Finding myself unprepared for a major function or event, whether it is social or work-related.

• Flying or floating in the air, but then falling suddenly.

• Being caught naked in public.

• Missing a train, a bus or a plane.

• Caught in loos or lifts that do not work, or that overwork themselves.

• Calling out in a crowd but failing to vocalise my scream or not being heard in the crowd or recognised.

• Falling, falling into an abyss.

There are others. But in sleep the brain can act as a filter or filing cabinet, helping us to process, deal with and put aside what we have found difficult to understand in our waking hours, or to try to find ways of dealing with our lack of confidence, feelings of inadequacy, with the ways we confuse gaining attention with receiving love, or with our needs to be accepted, affirmed and loved.

There are two choices in the lectionary for Gospel readings at the Eucharist today: Matthew 14: 13-21, or Matthew 14: 22-36. The first choice was also the Gospel reading yesterday.

In this second, alternative Gospel reading (Matthew 14: 22-36), Saint Peter’s plight seems to be a working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type that many of us experience at some stage: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Peter sees Christ walking on the lake or floating effortlessly above the water. At first, he thinks he is seeing a ghost. But then Christ calls to him, and Saint Peter responds.

Once he recognises Christ, Saint Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water, and comes towards Christ. But he loses his confidence when he notices the strong wind, he is frightened, and he begins to sink.

He cries out: ‘Lord, save me.’ Christ immediately reaches out his hand and catches him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

They get back into the boat, the wind ceases. And those in the boat worship him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Was the sight of Christ walking on the water an illusion?

Was Peter’s idea that he could walk on the water the product of an over-worked mind while he was sleeping?

Did he realise he was unprepared for the great encounter?

Did the wind cease when he woke from the dream?

All of these questions are over-analytical and fail to deal with the real encounter that takes place.

Even before the Resurrection, in his frailty, in his weakness, in his humble humanity, Saint Peter calls out to Christ: ‘Lord, save me’ (verse 30).

Do the others in the boat fall down at Christ’s feet and worship him because he can walk on water? Because he can lift a drowning man out of the depths? Or because they recognise that in Christ they can find the end to all their worst dreams and nightmares?

Despite the heatwaves we have been experiencing this summer, we know too, as they say, to expect the unexpected when we are on water, whether it is a river or a canal, a lake or at sea. Everyone needs to know that the weather can turn, the waters can become choppy, and this can be a frightening experience, even on rivers, close to the river bank and close to firm land.

As seasoned boat-handlers, the Disciples know not to try walking on water. They know the risk of sudden storms and swells, and they know the safety of a good boat, as long as it has a good crew.

But since the early history of the Church, the boat has symbolised the Church.

The bark (barque or barchetta) symbolises the Church tossed on the sea of disbelief, worldliness, and persecution but finally reaching safe harbour. Part of the imagery comes from the ark saving Noah’s family during the Flood (I Peter 3: 20-21). Christ protects Peter’s boat and the Disciples on the stormy Sea of Galilee (see also Mark 6: 45-52; John 6 16-21). The mast forms the shape of the Cross.

It is an image that appears in Apostolic Constitutions and the writings of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. We still retain the word nave for the main part of the church, which, architecturally often looks like an up-turned boat.

So, I do would not want any of us to risk walking on water, or to play stupidly in boats on the river or on a lake, and certainly not off the coast or out to see.

But if we are to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to be aware that it comes at the risk of feeling our dreams may be the nightmares of others.

If we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we may need to step out of our safety zones, our comfort zones, and know that this comes with a risk warning.

And if we are going to dream dreams for our parishes, for the Church, for the Kingdom of God, we need to keep our eyes focussed on Christ, and to know that the Church is there to bring us on that journey.

Let us dream dreams, take risks for the Kingdom of God, step outside the box. But let us keep our eyes on Christ and remember that the boat, the Church, is essential for our journey, and let us continue to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 3 August 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 (2-8 August 2026, pp 24-25), is ‘Faith Under Pressure in Nicaragua’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Reflection by the Most Revd Juan David Alvarado, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church in Central America.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 3 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, strengthen your Church in Nicaragua as it faces fear and persecution. Grant courage and protection to all who continue to witness to your truth.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Learning, or re-learning, how to row on the River Deel at Askeaton, Co Limerick

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 67, Monday 13 July 2026

‘Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me’ (Matthew 10: 38) … an icon by Hanna-Leena Ward in her recent exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 12 July 2026). Later this evening, I hope to be involved in the service in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church welcoming the Revd Dr David Jarratt as the new Rector of Stony Stratford.

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘I have not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10: 34) … the Sword of State of James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 34 to 11: 1 (NRSVA):

Jesus said:

34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

39 Those who find their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward;
and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person
will receive the reward of the righteous;

42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple –
truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

11 Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

‘Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones’ (Matthew 10: 42) … ‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz on the steps of Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the weekday Gospel readings at the Eucharist in recent days, we have been reading in Saint Matthew’s Gospel how Christ calls the Twelve together and prepares them for their ministry and mission. In today’s reading, he concludes that preparation of the Twelve for this mission, as both their teacher and their master.

It is a wonderful piece of drama and poetry. Most English-language versions of this passage present it as prose narrative. But the original Biblical Greek is drama and poetry, so that its impact is powerful.

At the Last Day, Christ will speak out on behalf of those who are his faithful witnesses faithfully, but will deny those who deny him. The smallest act of kindness to those who marginalised and despised is the same as taking up my cross and following Christ.

To re-present that poetic and dramatic impact, I have presented the Greek text in poetic form at the end of this reflection.

In verses 34-36, Christ gives a new interpretation to the apocalyptic vision in Micah 7: 6, a verse thought to foretell the breakdown of society as the end-times approach (see also Ezekiel 38: 21). Spreading the gospel will have unfortunate consequences. There will be tension and division, even within families, between those who accept Christ’s message and the demands it makes, and those who oppose it.

Christians must put loyalty to Christ above family loyalties (verse 37). Following Christ involves the risk of death, and involves taking up the cross, a sure and certain death for those who rebel against the rulers of the day (verse 38). We are then presented with a paradox: those who try to save their own earthly lives will lose all, but those who die for Christ will find eternal life (verse 39).

Many years ago (2008), I was reading through some insightful essays submitted as part of an adult education course in theology. I was excited so many thinking people were engaging with their faith in a challenging, questioning way, seeking to explore and deepen their understanding of how relevant Christianity and the Church are to the world and its problems.

These were not raw, naïve students. They displayed a wide variety of age and background, and came with a variety of experiences that challenge our stereotypical image of the Church. Yes, there were suburban housewives and businessmen, immigrants, truck drivers and young people from rectory families. And they brought amazing, often unconventional, questions and insights to the discussions.

But they sat side-by-side – and sat comfortably side-by-side – with the other students: the single mother with teenage sons; the refugee who had seen horrific outrages, only to find herself marginalised in a new country; a farmer who travelled a round trip of hundreds of miles just to learn more, and to be challenged more deeply by the Christian faith.

Well, no-one said it was going to be easy, did they?

The Christian faith should be challenging. Our reflections on it should be challenging and should challenge us. And, as we integrate that reflection, our discipleship should be challenging to the world … even when that means that there is a price to pay.

If we are unable or unwilling to speak up about our beliefs in time of plenty, how difficult will it be to speak up for Christian values, the Christian point of view, when things are difficult, when things are tough?

Staying quiet when I should speak out will deal a death blow to my morals and my morale. Silence in the face of injustice and suffering is a silent denial of my faith, and of Christ.

For me, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gonville ffrench-Beytagh and Desmond Tutu stand out as people who knew the consequences but nevertheless took up their cross and followed Christ, and are worthy of the name Christian (Matthew 10: 38). They knew that despite their physical fears were, and the fears they had for the families, who would also suffer socially and physically, that they had little to fear spiritually.

How often do we take the easy option out? How often do we give nice names to the bad things we do? How often do we pretend that we are doing the wrong thing for the right reasons? Or simply because we are doing what is expected of us, what were told to do?

How often good labels have been hijacked to disguise the dreadful. The slogan on the gates outside Auschwitz, Dachau and other Nazi death camps was: Arbeit mach frei – ‘Work makes you free.’

The word ‘apartheid’ does not mean racism. It actually means ‘separate development’, which sounds good except there were no hopes of development and opportunity for anyone but the white people in South Africa.

As he was leading the United States further-and-further along the nuclear arms race, developing new nuclear missiles that would eventually contribute to economic recession, President Ronald Reagan declared in his second inaugural address in 1984: ‘Peace is our highest aspiration. The record is clear, Americans resort to force only when they must. We have never been aggressors.’ They even named one new nuclear weapon ‘Peacemaker’ and named a nuclear warship Corpus Christi.

But it was always so throughout history. In an oft-quoted passage in De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, the Roman orator and historian Tacitus quotes a British chieftain Calgacus speaking about Rome’s insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder: ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (‘where they make a desert, they call it peace’).

The British chieftain’s sentiment was meant as an ironic contrast with the slogan, ‘Peace given to the world,’ frequently inscribed on Roman medals.

This phrase from Tacitus is often quoted alone. The poet Lord Byron, for instance, adapts the phrase in Bride of Abydos (1813):

Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it – peace.

The same poetic irony is found when Christ says to his disciples in this Gospel reading: ‘Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have come not to bring peace, but the sword’ (Matthew 10: 34).

It is not that Christ is encouraging his disciples to be warmongers – what a gross misreading of his teachings that would be. Nor is he encouraging family rows, encouraging sons to storm out on their fathers, mothers to nag and niggle at their daughters (Matthew 10: 35).

But he is warning his disciples that it is not going to be easy. They are not going to have a quiet time. Those who want a quiet life as Christians can forget about it. And their hopes of a quiet life as passive Christians will vanish quickly.

Are we prepared to stand up for our faith and its values even at the risk of being ridiculed? Even when this upsets the peace of our families, our communities, our society and our land?

Some of those essays I was reading from those students on that adult education course encourage me when it comes to worrying whether people prefer peace at any price or taking a costly stand, even when it challenges prevailing values today.

Many of them had looked at the way we treat immigrants, migrants and refugees in our society. Yes, they observed the rising levels of racism in our society. Yes, they noticed the inadequate welfare and support payments they receive. But they were even more challenging about the way they thought the Church was too comfortable about the problems we are facing in society today. We are too inward-looking, most of them said in their essays. We are too much of a club.

They had stopped and looked at ordinary, everyday parishes. There is no fear of fathers being set against their sons, mothers against their daughters, daughters-in-law against mothers-in-law, or of finding foes within the household (Matthew 10: 35-37). Most of them found our parishes were too like comfortable families or clubs, not open to the worries, concerns and fears of the outsider.

Do we love the clubbish atmosphere in the Church more than we love the Church, the Gospel and Christ?

Or are we prepared to speak out, not worrying about the consequences, knowing that ‘whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it’ (Matthew 10: 39).

Matthew 10: 34-42 in Greek:

34 Μὴ νομίσητε ὅτι ἦλθον βαλεῖν εἰρήνην ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν·
οὐκ ἦλθον βαλεῖν εἰρήνην ἀλλὰ μάχαιραν.

35 ἦλθον γὰρ διχάσαι ἄνθρωπον κατὰ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ
καὶ θυγατέρα κατὰ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῆς
καὶ νύμφην κατὰ τῆς πενθερᾶς αὐτῆς,
36 καὶ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οἱ οἰκιακοὶ αὐτοῦ.

37 Ὁ φιλῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος·
καὶ ὁ φιλῶν υἱὸν ἢ θυγατέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος·

38 καὶ ὃς οὐ λαμβάνει τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ὀπίσω μου, οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος.

39 ὁ εὑρὼν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσει αὐτήν,
καὶ ὁ ἀπολέσας τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν.

40 Ὁ δεχόμενος ὑμᾶς ἐμὲ δέχεται,
καὶ ὁ ἐμὲ δεχόμενος δέχεται τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με.
41 ὁ δεχόμενος προφήτην εἰς ὄνομα προφήτου
μισθὸν προφήτου λήμψεται,
καὶ ὁ δεχόμενος δίκαιον εἰς ὄνομα δικαίου
μισθὸν δικαίου λήμψεται.

42 καὶ ὃς ἂν ποτίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων ποτήριον ψυχροῦ μόνον εἰς ὄνομα μαθητοῦ,
ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ μὴ ἀπολέσῃ τὸν μισθὸν αὐτοῦ.

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matthew 10: 40) … a multilingual welcome at Saint Paul’s Church, Marylebone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 13 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 12 to 18 July 2026 (pp 18-19), is ‘The Land of the Highlanders’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by the Most Revd Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 13 July 2026) invites us to pray

Lord God, we pray for the people of the Scottish Highlands, for communities shaped by loss, resilience, and hope. Strengthen those who remain, and renew the life of the land and its people.

The Collect of the Day:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
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:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water:
refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matthew 10: 40) … a warm Greek welcome at the Pepi Hotel in Rethymnon

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 54, Tuesday 30 June 2026

‘And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him’ (Matthew 8: 35) … waiting gondolas near Saint Mark’s Square in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 28 June 2026) and yesterday was the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so that these days are sometimes known as Petertide.

Today also brings us to the end of the first half of the year. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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


‘And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him’ (Matthew 8: 35) … five minutes by the river in Oxford with boats, scullers and swans (Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 8: 23-27 (NRSVA):

23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ 26 And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. 27 They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’

Boats on the river near Folly Bridge in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 23-27) comes after the account usually read on the Monday of this week (Matthew 8: 18-22) of how the crowds following Jesus being so great that he tried to get away to the other side of the lake. Now in this morning’s reading, Christ and the disciples are leaving the crowd and crossing to the other side of the lake or sea. But a storm blows up, and the disciples show how weak they truly are, with all their doubts and fears.

As we work our ways through the storms of life, we have many questions to ask about the purpose or meaning of life. Often, we can feel guilty about putting those questions to God. Yet, should we not be able to put our deepest questions and greatest fears before God?

In this Gospel reading, the frightened disciples challenge Christ and ask him whether he cares that they are perishing (verse 25). But he offers them words of peace before doing anything to remedy the plight in which they have been caught, and goes on to ask them his own challenging questions: ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ (verses 26). They, in turn, end up asking their own challenging question about who Christ is for them.

I enjoy being on boats, whether it is on punts or by the boat clubs in Cambridge or Oxford, island hopping in Greece, or cruising on rivers from the Shannon to the Seine or Sarawak. But I also recognise the fears of the disciples in this reading, having found myself in unexpected storms on lakes on the Shannon and on the waters of the Mediterranean. In retrospect, they were minor storms each time, but those memories give me some insights into the plight of refugees crossing choppy waters every day in the English Channel and in the Mediterranean.

The plight of the disciples in this reading seems like the working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type many of us experience at different stages: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.

Christ is asleep in the boat when a great gale rises, the waves beat the side of the boat, and it is soon swamped by the waters. He seems oblivious to the calamity that is unfolding around him and to the fear of the disciples. They have to wake him, and by then they fear they are perishing.

Christ wakes, rebukes the wind, calm descends on the sea, but still Christ challenges those on the boat: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Instead of being calmed, they are now filled with awe. Do they recognise Christ for who he truly is? They ask one another: ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’ (verse 27). Even before the Resurrection, Christ tells the disciples not to be afraid, which becomes a constant theme after the Resurrection.

Do those in the boat begin to ask truly who Christ is because he has calmed the storm, or because he has calmed their fears?

Through the storms of life, through the nightmares, fears and memories, despite the failures of the Church, past and present, we must not let those experiences to ruin our trusting relationship with God. Despite all the storms of life, throughout all our fears and nightmares, we can trust in God as Father and trust in the calm presence and words of Christ among us.

‘Then … there was a dead calm’ (Matthew 8: 26) … boats in the calm waters at Mesongi on the Greek island of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 30 June 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 28 June to 4 July 2026 (pp 14-15), is ‘Living Stones’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Very Revd Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School.

The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 30 June 2026) invites us to pray:

Loving God, we pray for the Episcopal Church in the US. Make it a spiritual house where truth and justice shape our life together.

The Collect of the Day:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Then there was a dead calm’ (Matthew 8: 26) … calm on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 41, Friday 15 May 2026, Saint Matthias the Apostle

Saint Matthias the Apostle depicted in a window in Saint Peter’s Church in Padungan, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 10 May 2026), and yesterday was Ascension Day. The Church Calendar usually celebrates the Feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle on 14 May, but because of Ascension Day yesterday, his celebration has been transferred to today.

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

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint Matthias the Apostle depicted in a side panel in a window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 9-17 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’

Saint Matthias is usually missing from icons of the 12 Apostles, in which Saint Paul replaces Judas … an icon in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

‘I chose you. And … I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another’ (John 15: 16-17).

The Acts of the Apostles recall how Saint Matthias was chosen as one of the Twelve to replace Judas (Acts 1: 15-26).

I sometimes wonder whether Saint Matthias saw the humour in being second choice. After all, he was the second choice – not the first choice, but the second choice – to succeed Judas among the Twelve.

Imagine how Saint Matthias might have felt. The first time round, he was not good enough to be among the Twelve. But Judas was, and he would betray Christ. So too were Peter, James, John and Thomas. They were called to be among the Twelve, but Peter would betray Christ three times before his crucifixion, James and John had ambitions beyond their station, while Thomas would refuse to believe until he met the Risen Christ on his own terms.

After the Ascension, 120 believers met to pick a successor to replace Judas Iscariot. But even then, even on the second time round, Matthias is not the first name mentioned, he is not the first choice. Instead, the first name to come forward is that of Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus.

Nobody ever since remembers Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus. His saintly life, such as it was, has passed into oblivion. It may only be as an afterthought that someone suggests the name of Matthias. And then, they cannot make up their minds. Instead, they cast lots, and the lot falls to Matthias.

I doubt any of us would be happy to hear we have been selected or nominated for any role in the Church, for example, at PCC, select vestry or synod meetings, by tossing a coin, drawing names from a hat or rolling a dice as others pray about whether we are suitable or qualified.

Saint Matthias is unnamed before this account. He is not named in the Gospels and after one reference in Acts there is no further mention of him. He is the forgotten apostle, like the ‘Fifth Beatle’, the sub who is called from the bench when the game is in the 89th minute. Having made an unexpected entrance onto the stage, Saint Matthias walks off once again. And we hear nothing more about him.

In icons and stained glass windows depicting the Twelve, Judas is generally replaced by Saint Paul, and Saint Matthias is seldom depicted. His name, identity and life story have been forgotten, apart from making him the patron saint of alcoholism and smallpox, and of a few small towns. We are not sure when he died or where he is buried.

When we were back in Kuching 18 months ago, Charlotte and I presented a church bell to the people of Saint Matthias Chapel in Sinar Baru, about 21 km south of Kuching in Sarawak. They had told us how the chapel had a bell tower, but no bell, and how they were praying and hoping for one that would be heard throughout the surrounding countryside, calling people to church on Sundays.

It was our wedding anniversary that weekend, and we thought about the possibility of a thank-offering and how it might be another way of ringing our wedding bells a year later.

We bought an old, second-hand bell at Ho Nyen Foh’s tinsmith shop in Bishopsgate Street, one of the streets running between Carpenter Street and the Main Bazaar in Kuching’s old Chinatown. It may have been a ship’s bell, or a school bell, he could not remember which. It may have been a second-hand bell, but it certainly was not second-best – it was what the people of Saint Matthias had been praying for, and it was true symbol of love in so many ways.

The Early Church writer Clement of Alexandria says the apostles are not chosen for some outstanding character, and certainly not on their own merits. The apostles are chosen by Christ for his own reasons, but not for their merits.

If Saint Matthias had not been worthy of being called first time round, how is he worthy now to join the Twelve?

Like Saint Matthias, we are often in the place where we are in life only because the person who was there before us failed: Joshua led Israel because Moses failed in the wilderness; David became King because Saul failed; Matthias became an apostle because Judas failed.

Discipleship, being a follower of Christ, is never about my worthiness, my merits. It is Christ alone who calls us.

Saint Matthias was elected not because he was worthy but because he would become worthy. Christ chooses each one of us in the same way. We have been grafted into the company of the Children of God, not through our own merits, but by God’s grace.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Saint Matthias depicted in a window in Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 15 May 2026, Saint Matthias the Apostle, transferred):

The theme this week (10-16 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Parenting with Purpose’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, former Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 15 May 2026, Saint Matthias the Apostle, International Day of Families) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we lament that many families in the Solomon Islands and across the world struggle to live in peace and safety. Bring your healing and guidance to restore trust and nurture love within every home.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who in the place of the traitor Judas
chose your faithful servant Matthias
to be of the number of the Twelve:
preserve your Church from false apostles
and, by the ministry of faithful pastors and teachers,
keep us steadfast in your 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:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Presenting a church bell to Saint Matthias Chapel, Father Jeffry Renos Nawie (right) and the people of Sinar Baru, south of Kuching

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