Lumen Church in Bloomsbury: a 200-year-old church that has seen change and won prizes, but faces an uncertain future

Lumen United Reformed Church, close to the corner of Tavistock Place and Wakefield Street in Bloomsbury, is on the site of the former Regent Square Presbyterian Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Lumen United Reformed Church, formerly known as Regent Square United Reformed Church, is in the heart of Bloomsbury, close to the corner of Tavistock Place and Wakefield Street. The church is a prize-winning building, recognised for its innovative architectural design, and has important works of art, including its windows and the details in its courtyard design, and has an interesting place in early 19th century church history in London. But the future of the church now seems uncertain, and there are many doubts and unanswered questions about its future use.

Until recently, Lumen Church had a small congregation worshipping in the Reformed tradition and part of the United Reformed Church, which brings together formerly separate Presbyterian, Congregational and Church of Christ traditions.

In 200 years, Lumen has had three buildings, belonged to four different churches – the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of England, and the United Reformed Church – has had five different names and 17 ministers, and the building is the work of several architects who have worked in very different times and styles.

Looking out onto Tavistock Place and Regent Square though Rona Smith’s window in the café (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church was a Presbyterian Church first founded to serve a scattered, mainly Scots, congregation. The church has its beginnings back in 1808, when the Highland Society of London began a Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian mission and a Gaelic-speaking chapel for migrant workers from Scotland who had arrived in London.

The congregation first met in rented accommodation in Westminster, three miles from the later Regent Square site, and was first led by the Revd Duncan Robertson (1766-1825). In 1813, he took the church to larger premises, the New Jerusalem Chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, built in 1797 for followers of Emanuel Swedenborg. However, a rupture between Robertson and the members led to ‘an almost total dispersal of the congregation’.

The Revd Edward Irving (1792-1834), the minister of the Gaelic church from 1822, received an invitation from the Caledonian Church, Hatton Garden, in the winter of 1821, and with that call he was ordained in the Church of Scotland in July 1822.

Irving was so popular a preacher that services had to be ticketed, with people standing in the aisles and even on the pulpit steps. Those who came to hear him included the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and the future Prime Minister William Gladstone.

Saint Columba in a Maile stained glass window … the church began as a mission to migrant Scottish workers in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

To accommodate the larger congregations, a newer and larger church, the Scotch National Church, was built in 1827 at what was then the very edge of London, at the corner of Regent Square and Tavistock Place. The regency gothic church was the first major commission for the architect Sir William Tite (1798-1873), who designed a miniature version of York Minster, including the miniature versions of the twin towers.

Tite’s greatest undertaking later was rebuilding the Royal Exchange, which opened in 1844, and he designed many of the early railway stations in Britain.

Regent Square Presbyterian Church was consecrated in 1827, and began as a sister church of the established Church of Scotland. It was formed to work among young people from Scotland who had moved to London to work and who ‘in the end are cast away among the manifold temptations of this busy and alluring city’. Prominent figures associated who visited the church during the 19th century included John Ruskin, George Canning, Thomas Carlyle and Sir Robert Peel.

An internal dispute erupted in 1832, when the church doors closed against Edward Irving for allowing members of the lay congregation to interrupt the services by ‘speaking in tongues’. In response, 800 people left Regent Square to form a new church nearby.

Irving and his followers, describing themselves as of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, moved to a new building in Newman Street in 1832, and in March 1833 he was deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland on a charge of heresy. He was re-ordained in the church in Newman Street and died on 7 December 1834.

Saint Luke the Beloved Physician in a Maile stained-glass window … many of the early church leaders included medical staff at local hospitals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church followed the Revd Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) in the Disruption of 1843, when 450 ministers and their congregations, as well as probation ministers, teachers and missionaries seceded from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.

At first, the church was surrounded by open field. But the industrial revolution soon brought the railways. When the more prosperous residents moved away, they were replaced by poor and working class families in a built-up area, alongside university students, medical staff at local hospitals and overseas visitors. As a result, many elders and members came from districts that were more affluent than the locality of the church.

The Presbyterian Church of England was formed in the 1876 with the merger of the English congregations of the mainly Scottish United Presbyterian Church with other Presbyterian congregations in England.

The Young Men’s Bible Class at Regent Square Church was founded in 1877 by an elder, Robert Whyte, with Christian teaching, cultural pursuits such as a literary society and an orchestra, facilities for cycling, football, rambling and swimming, and its own magazine, The Thistle.

Regent Square Presbyterian Church acquired an adjoining, abandoned Baptist chapel in 1911, repaired it and altered it to become the Regent Square Institute, with a hall, gymnasium and reading room that were was used by groups such as Sunday school, the Boys Brigade and evening concerts. The club continued until October 1923, when The Thistle ceased publication, the class closed and the society amalgamated with the young people’s group. By the 1930s, the harsh economic and social climates were reflected in the Regent Square Magazine, which devoted two pages in February 1933 to unemployment. A recreational centre in the church provided games, newspapers, magazines and writing materials, giving local unemployed men somewhere to go and something to do.

During the inter-war years, John Charles Walsham Reith (1889-1971), 1st Baron Reith, attended the church, where his parents had been married. He was inspired to apply for the new post of Director-General of the BBC by a sermon on Ezekiel he heard in the church in 1922.

Lumen Church hopes to become home to a new congregation in the near future (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During World War II, the Regent Square Institute was hit by a bomb on 21 September 1940. Evening meetings were discontinued, the institute activities were moved to the Wakefield Street halls, and the monthly church magazine was reduced to four pages.

A V2 rocket destroyed Presbyterian Church House on the afternoon of 9 February 1945, with loss of life, including four senior church officials. The church and halls still stood, but there was considerable damage, the structure was unsafe, and the church was unusable. For the next 15 years, the lecture hall served as a ‘temporary’ church, and another smaller hall served as ‘temporary’ accommodation for yet another six years.

Church House on the corner of Wakefield Street was rebuilt by 1956, and it was agreed to dismantle the old church and build a new but smaller one. The War Damage Commission’s offered a grant of £44,300 and the plans for a new church were approved in 1964.

The dalle de verre stained glass window by Pierre Fourmaintraux depicts the Resurrection (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The new church was designed by the architect Courtenay Theobald, who also built 50 bridges. The distinctive concrete arches used for the roof trusses probably owe their inspiration to his many bridges. The new church was opened on the 11 June 1966 with about 300 people present, including representatives from other local churches.

The church featured a dalle de verre stained glass window by Pierre Fourmaintraux (1896-1974) depicting the Resurrection. The window includes over 1,000 pieces of one inch thick glass in 21 panels. Each piece was expertly cut by hand, by scoring the glass on the surface and hitting it with a hammer on a small anvil so the piece would break cleanly. The surface of the glass was chipped, so that sunlight striking the glass goes in all directions.

Pierre Fourmaintraux was born in France, and first worked in his father’s ceramics factory, where he first worked. He married the English impressionist painter Rachel Winslow (1880-1974) and they moved to England. He worked for James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars Glass Studio) in 1956-1969 as chief designer of slab glass and abstract designs.

His windows were especially popular in Roman Catholic churches and those he trained in the dalle de verre technique included Dom Charles Norris, who became one of its most prolific British proponents and whose work I have seen in Saint Bernardine’s Church in Buckingham.

The 11-metre-high conical ‘sacred space’ reaches through the full height of the building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church joined the newly formed United Reformed Church (URC) in 1972, when the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions merged and the church later adopted the name Lumen United Reformed Church.

The institute and the halls were sold in 2007 to finance a major remodelling of the church, and they are now used by the Soka Gakkai International Buddhists. Church House on the corner of Wakefield Street and Tavistock Place, is now United Reformed Church House, the main offices of the URC.

The church was remodelled in 2008 by Theis and Khan Architects, who redesigned and extended it into a multi-faith community hub. It was their first church project and they completely remodelled the building. Their redesign retained the original building’s volume and coherence, and the 1966 window by Fourmaintraux was moved from the west side wall to make it central to the church.

The RIBA award-winning renovation added an 11-metre-high conical ‘sacred space’ that reaches through the full height of the building to penetrate the church roof, receiving direct natural light. The light inside alters with weather and seasons, and was intended to convey a sense of peace and separation from the bustle of the outside world. The position of this sacred space at the heart of Lumen provides a secluded area for contemplation.

The renovation of Lumen Church has won awards from the RIBA (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

New amenities including an entrance, lift, toilets, offices and multi-use spaces. A community café has a north window overlooking Regent Square with geometric metalwork designed by the artist Rona Smith. This is an 8 metre tall bronze screen suspended within the alcove of the window, gently arcing into the interior space.

A garden courtyard is planted with herbs and silver birch trees, providing a modern form of a cloister with an arcade around the courtyard. Alison Wilding created a new font, a drinking fountain and a garden fountain, drawing on the themes of ‘living water’ and light.

Lumen also has a small gallery that has showcased the work of local artists, photographers and students.

Lumen’s small worshipping community included people of different backgrounds who continued to worship there until 2020, when Covid-19 brought services to an end for a group that was already struggling. Although regular Sunday services have ended, the venue continues as an active community space that is home to several community church groups and it continues its links with Gaelic cultural events. Today Lumen says it hopes to become home to a new congregation in the near future.

United Reformed Church House beside Lumen Church is the main offices of the United Reformed Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Turning to a war-time poem by George Seferis that recalls ‘calm’, ‘beautiful’, ‘bleeding’ Crete, but a ‘strong, innocent island’

The old harbour of Chania … George Seferis fled Athens to Chania in 1941 and wrote ‘Days of June ’41’ as he fled from Crete into exile (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks, I have been a series of occasional blog postings and photographs of a dozen modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki, the second city of Greece. In a posting on Thursday ( October 06), I looked at a marble monument that honours Sokratis Karantinos (1906-1979), a prominent theatre director and critic who was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG) in the 1960s.

The inscriptions on the sculpture include a dedication to Sokratis Karantinos and a poignant verse by the Nobel Prize winning poet George Seferis:

Θυμότανε κανείς γέροντες δασκάλους που μας άφησαν ορφανούς
One remembered old teachers who left us orphaned

This haunting quotation is from the closing stanza of ‘The Last Day’, a powerful poem written by Seferis in Athens in February 1939. The line expresses a profound sense of spiritual and cultural abandonment. For Seferis, the ‘old teachers’ (or elders/spiritual leaders) represent the guiding authority of tradition, wisdom, and moral stability. By leaving the younger generation ‘orphaned’ they left them without direction in a broken world.

The poem was written on the brink of World War II and during the oppressive Metaxas dictatorship and captures a pervasive sense of powerlessness, impending doom, and total annihilation. The line quoted on the sculpture highlights a deep disappointment with the previous generation, whose cowardice, political missteps, or silence left ordinary people completely vulnerable to the oncoming historical catastrophe.

George Seferis (1900-1971) was a poet, Nobel laureate and diplomat, and many of his poems became popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s when they were set to music by the composer Mikis Theodorakis and sung by artists like Maria Farantouri, turning his poems into songs of protest and resistance.

In recent days, I have also turned to his poem ‘Days of June ’41’, written by Seferis 85 years ago as he fled first to Crete in 1941 during World War II, and then went into exile in Alexandria and South Africa. This poem, later included in his collection Logbook II (Ημερολόγιο καταστρώματος Β), is datelined ‘Crete – Alexandria – South Africa, May-September ’41’.

The poem is set primarily in Alexandria but in it Seferis expresses his pain for Crete and the longing of an exile:

After the Germans had taken Crete

The new moon came out over Alexandria
with the old moon in her arms
while we were walking towards the Gate of the Sun
in the heart’s darkness – three friends.

However, unlike many other well-known poems by Seferis, ‘Days of June ’41’ was never set to music by Theodorakis and so never recorded by Maria Farantouri. But it is on the curriculum in second level schools and is well-known among many people in Crete because of its references to the island.

Giorgos Seferis is a major figure in Greek literature and in 1963 became the first Greek Nobel laureate for literature

George Seferis (Γιώργος Σεφέρης) was born Giorgos Seferiadis (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης) in Smyrna (now Izmir) in Asia Minor in 1900. He went to school in Smyrna and then to the Gymnasium in Athens. When his family moved to Paris in 1918, he studied law at the University of Paris and became interested in literature.

He returned to Athens in 1925 and joined the Foreign Ministry the following year. He had a long and successful diplomatic career, that began with postings in London (1931-1934), where he was introduced to Eliot and Pound, and Albania (1936-1938), where he first met his future wife Marika Zannou.

Seferis moved to Crete with the Free Greek Government during World War II, and then into exile in Egypt, South Africa and Italy. Meanwhile, in 1941 he married Maria (‘Maro’) Zannou, the mother of two young daughters from her previous marriage to Andreas Londos.

He returned to liberated Athens in 1944, and continued to work in the Foreign Ministry, with diplomatic postings in Ankara (1948-1950), London (1951-1953) and Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq (1953-1956). He was back in London again as the Greek Ambassador from 1957 to 1961, his last post before he retired to Athens.

In 1963, Seferis became the first Greek writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is one of the two Greek poets to have been honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature – the other poet is Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996), who was born in Iraklion in Crete, and together Seferis and Elytis can be credited with the modernisation of Greek literature.He received several honorary doctorates from Cambridge (1960), Oxford (1964), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1964), and Princeton (1965).

After the colonels’ coup in 1967, Seferis went into voluntary seclusion and many of his poems were banned by the regime, including the musical versions written and arranged by Mikis Theodorakis.

His poem ‘Denial’ (Άρνηση), first published in 1931 in his collection Turning Point (Στροφή, Strophe), became an anthem of resistance to the colonels. He died on 20 September 1971, and was buried in the First Cemetery in Athens. ‘Denial’ (Άρνηση) was sung by the crowds lining the streets of Athens at his funeral. He had become a popular hero for his resistance to the regime. His widow Maria cut off her hair and flung it into his grave.

He has commemorative blue plaques on two of his homes in London – the Greek Ambassador’s residence at 51 Upper Brook Street, off Grosvenor Square, and 7 Sloane Avenue.

Seferis’s exclusive use of demotic, or common, Greek as his language of choice earned him a privileged place among his generation of Greek poets, while his wide travels provide the backdrop and colour for much of his writing.

As well as Strophe (1931), his early poems include E Sterna (The Cistern, 1932), and Mythistorema (1935). Later collections include Tetradio Gymnasmaton (Book of Exercises, 1940), Emerologio Katastromatos (Logbook I, 1940), Emerologio Katastromatos B (Logbook II, 1944), Kihle (Thrush, 1947), Emerologio Katastromatos Γ (Logbook III, 1955) and Tria Krypha Poiemata (Three Secret Poems, 1966).

Seferis first became acquainted with TS Eliot in London in Christmas 1931, when he found a copy of the poem ‘Marina’ in a bookshop on Oxford Street and was struck by its Mediterranean feeling. He published his translation of Eliot’s poetry in 1936 in The Waste Land and Other Poems, prefaced by his first essay in print, ‘Introduction to TS Eliot’, itself a major moment in modern Greek literature. Seferis also translated WB Yeats, DH Lawrence, Ezra Pound and WH Auden.

The name of Tsouderon Street in Rethymnon honours a former Greek prime minister who was born in the town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Seferis arrived in Chania from Athens in April 1941 as German Nazi forces were sweeping through the Greek mainland. As the Nazi army advanced towards Athens in 1941, the Greek Prime Minister of the day, Alexandros Koryzis, died by suicide on 18 April. He was succeeded as Prime Minister on 21 April by Emmanuel Tsouderos (Εμμανουήλ Τσουδερός) (1882-1956), who was born in Rethymnon in Crete.

A day later, a newly-married Seferis arrived in Crete on 22 April 1941 as part of the team preparing the way for a Free Greek government that would go into exile. As the army command prepared to capitulate, a defiant and heroic Tsouderos fled from Athens to Crete with King George II on 29 April 1941. Back in his native Crete, Tsouderos reorganised the Greek forces to resist the Germans.

In Chania, Seferis stayed at the Hôtel Ellas (Hotel Hellas). He was the secretary to Tsouderos’s Minister of Press, Emmanouil Nikolaoudis, and supervised the publication of the very first edition of the Government Gazette printed outside mainland Greece.

Just days before arriving in Crete, Seferis married Maria ‘Maro’ Zannou in Athens on 10 April 1941. Their time at the Hotel Hellas in Chania was brief, but Sfereis documented their presence there in a brief, pencil-written note to his close friend, the author Lawrence Durrell, written on the back of a page torn out of the hotel’s guest book.

But Seferis spent only three weeks in Chania. Tsouderos fled again during the Battle of Crete and headed the Greek government in exile until 13 April 1944. Seferis and his wife Maria Zannou escaped Crete by ship to Alexandria on 16 May 1941, four days before the German airborne invasion of Crete and the beginning of the Battle of Crete.

Over 25 years later, Seferis returned to Crete again briefly in April 1967 to read his poems and to give a talk to the Lyceum of Greek Women, founded in in 1911 by Kalliroi Siganou Parren, who was born in Rethymnon. It was one of his last prominent public appearances in Greece before the colonels seized power on 21 April 1967 and forced him into an outspoken, self-imposed public silence and resistance.

Unlike other well-loved and well-known poems by Seferis, such as ‘Arnisi / Sto Perigiali’ or ‘Epiphany’, which were set to music by composers like Mikis Theodorakis, ‘Days of June ’41’ has no popular musical setting.

Seferis wrote ‘Days of June ’41’ while he was fleeing the Nazi invasion of Greece, moving first to Crete, then to Alexandria and moving on to South Africa with the Greek government-in-exile.

Despite spending less than a month on Crete, for Seferis it had become ‘the beautiful island’, ‘the calm island’, ‘the strong, innocent island’, and you can hear his pain as he thinks out loud of how Crete is bleeding, how the people are being killed, their ‘bodies like broken branches, / like roots uprooted’:

… the beautiful island is bleeding,
wounded; the calm island – the strong, innocent island.
And the bodies like broken branches,
like roots uprooted.

The poem reflects displacement, exile, the loss of youth and physical vitality (‘we believed in the omnipotence of the body’), the trauma of war in Crete (‘the beautiful island is bleeding, wounded’), and wandering through blacked-out war-time Alexandria with his close friends.

In the narrow streets of old Chania … ‘the beautiful island is bleeding, / wounded; the calm island – the strong, innocent island’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Μέρες του Ιουνίου ’41, Γιώργος Σεφέρης

Βγήκε το νέο φεγγάρι στην Αλεξάνδρεια
κρατώντας το παλιό στην αγκαλιά του
κι εμείς πηγαίνοντας κατά την Πόρτα του Ήλιου
μες στο σκοτάδι της καρδιάς — τρεις φίλοι.

Ποιός θέλει τώρα να λουστεί στα νερά του Πρωτέα;
Τη μεταμόρφωση τη γυρέψαμε στα νιάτα μας
με πόθους που έπαιζαν σαν τα μεγάλα ψάρια
σε πέλαγα που φύραναν ξαφνικά·
πιστεύαμε στην παντοδυναμία του κορμιού.
Και τώρα βγήκε το νέο φεγγάρι αγκαλιασμένο
με το παλιό· με τ’ όμορφο νησί ματώνοντας
λαβωμένο· το ήρεμο νησί, το δυνατό νησί, το αθώο.
Και τα κορμιά σαν τσακισμένα κλαδιά
και σαν ξεριζωμένες ρίζες.

Η δίψα μας
ένιππος φύλακας μαρμαρωμένος
στη σκοτεινή πόρτα του Ήλιου
δεν ξέρει να ζητήσει τίποτε: φυλάγεται
ξενιτεμένη εδώ τριγύρω
κοντά στον τάφο του Μεγάλου Αλεξάντρου.

Κρήτη – Αλεξάνδρεια – Νότιος Αφρική, Μάης ‒ Σεπτέμβρης 1941

Days of ’41’, George Seferis

After the Germans had taken Crete

The new moon came out over Alexandria
with the old moon in her arms
while we were walking towards the Gate of the Sun
in the heart’s darkness – three friends.

Who wants to bathe in the waters of Proteus now?
We looked for metamorphosis in our youth
with desires that played like big fish
in seas suddenly shrinking;
we believed in the body’s omnipotence.
And now the new moon has come out embracing
the old; and the beautiful island is bleeding,
wounded; the calm island – the strong, innocent island.
And the bodies like broken branches,
like roots uprooted.

Our thirst
a guard on horseback turned to marble
at the dark Gate of the Sun –
he doesn’t know how to ask or anything: he stands guard
exiled somewhere around here
near the tomb of Alexander the Great.

(Translation © Björn Thegeby, 2020)

George Seferis was in exile in Chania in 1941 and returned to visit Crete in 1967 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 11, ‘Monument of Sokratis Karantinos’ at the Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki

The marble monument at the Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki honours Sokratis Karantinos (1906-1979), the first artistic director of the State Theatre of Northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have been recalling in recent weeks how I have come across a collection of photographs of a dozen modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over these few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through the streets of Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The sculptures I have looked at in recent weeks include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris at the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower, the Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas in Fanarioton Square, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ or ‘Stolpersteine’ by Gunter Demnig, and the ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’ or ‘Monument of Peace’ commemorating the peace activist Grigoris Lambrakis (1912-1963), at the junction of Ermou street, Eleftherios Venizelou street and Spandoni street.

A marble monument by an unknown sculptor at the Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki honours Sokratis Karantinos (1906-1979), the first artistic director of the State Theatre of Northern Greece and a prominent theatre director and critic. He was involved with the foundation and the early years of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG), and was its first artistic director (1961-1967).

The inscriptions on the sculpture include a dedication to Sokratis Karantinos and a verse from the poet George Seferis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The monument was erected on 30 October Avenue by the Municipality of Thessaloniki in 1989. The pedimented upper part of the monument is in the style of a relief marble funerary stele, with a relief carving of a theatre stage in the middle.

The inscriptions on the sculpture include a dedication to Sokratis Karantinos and a poignant verse by the Nobel Prize winning poet George Seferis:

Θυμότανε κανείς γέροντες δασκάλους που μας άφησαν ορφανούς
One remembered old teachers who left us orphaned

This haunting quotation is from the closing stanza of ‘The Last Day’, a powerful poem written by Seferis in Athens in February 1939. The line expresses a profound sense of spiritual and cultural abandonment. For Seferis, the ‘old teachers’ (or elders/spiritual leaders) represent the guiding authority of tradition, wisdom, and moral stability. By leaving the younger generation ‘orphaned’ they left them without direction in a broken world.

The poem was written on the brink of World War II and during the oppressive Metaxas dictatorship and captures a pervasive sense of powerlessness, impending doom, and total annihilation. The line highlights a deep disappointment with the previous generation, whose cowardice, political missteps, or silence left ordinary people completely vulnerable to the oncoming historical catastrophe.

In the context of Greek theatre history, Karantinos was universally revered by generations of actors and colleagues as a δάσκαλος (dáskalos), a master or teacher. The choice of this specific line highlights the profound sense of loss felt in the theatrical community in Greece when Karantinos died in 1979.

Sokratis Karantinos (Σωκράτης Καραντινός) was a theatre director, theatre critic, drama teacher and actor. He was born in Athens, the son of the owner of the Olympia Theatre and theatrical entrepreneur Nikolaos Karantinos, and a brother of the architect Patroklos Karantinos (1903-1976). He was raised in Athens and spent part of his childhood in Constantinople (Istanbul). After studying in Germany, France and Austria, he returned to Greece in 1933 and became the director the New Drama School. At the time, he also worked as a journalist and theatre critic.

During and after World War II, Karantinos worked with the Athens Theatre, the National Theatre, the Attica Stage and the Greek National Opera. He then became director of the Theatre School of the Athenaion educational association, professor at the University of Athens, first artistic director of the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki (1961) and director of the Drama School of the National Theatre.

As a theatre director of the NTNG, he staged more than 15 theatrical productions. He became artistic advisor and director at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) in 1972 and remained there until 1974.

He died in Athens on 2 June 1979.

The name of 30 October Avenue (Λεωφόρος 30ης Οκτωβρίου, Leoforos 30is Oktovriou) recalls 30 October 1944, when the city was liberated from occupying German forces. The Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki (Βασιλικό Θέατρο Θεσσαλονίκης) on 30 October Avenue is the main winter stage for the National Theatre of Northern Greece. It is located at 2, 30 October Avenue in White Tower Square in Thessaloniki and has seating for 721.

The Royal Theatre continues to be the main stage of the Theatre and remains one of the main pillars of Thessaloniki’s cultural life. As well as theatrical performances, the theatre also hosts concerts, festivals and other cultural events, keeping the cultural tradition of the city alive.

In the side streets of Thessaloniki after night falls (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)

7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)

8, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square (8 October 2026)

9, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ (‘Stolpersteine’) by Gunter Demnig (9 October 2026)

10, ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis by Vasilis Doropoulos, Ermou Street (14 October 2026)

11, The Monument of Sokratis Karantinos, 30 October Avenue (22 October 2026)

Next: Citizens’ by Manolis Tzompanakis, Aghias Sophias Square

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 167, Thursday 22 October 2026

The 15th-century font with images of the Seven Sacraments and the Crucifixion in Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX, 18 October 2026).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?’ (Luke 12: 51) … the Peace Globe in the nave in Norwich Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

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

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

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

Today’s Reflection:

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

I cannot resist finding irony in the coincidence just two days before we mark United Nations Day and the beginning of UN Disarmament Week, while the US continues to wage an undeclared against war against Iran and is now openly facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Gospel reading is a passage in which Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (verse 51).

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

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

This is the death of earth.

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

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

Fire and water were a challenge for me earlier this year when I visited Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, the Church of England parish church in Walsingham. I was speaking at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage in March, and I had two separate opportunities to visit the Church of England parish church.

Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, and is built from flint with stone dressings. In addition to nave and chancel, there are north and south aisles and north and south transepts. The west tower has a lead needle spire. The church was destroyed in a major fire in 1961; although the original tower and north porch survived. The rest of the church was rebuilt and it is a Grade I listed, building, while the churchyard walls and gates are separately listed Grade II. The original dedication of the church was to All Saints. When Father Alfred Hope Patten (1885-1958) was appointed the Vicar in 1921, he changed the dedication to the present double dedication of Saint Mary and All Saints.

The church has a 15th-century font that illustrate the Seven Sacraments and the Crucifixion. The font survived the fire in 1961, but the 17th-century font cover did not, and the 1964 font cover is a replica of the original. The beautiful baptismal font has now been placed at the west end of the church, close to entrance. The font is a challenge to all who enter the church and is placed exactly where it should be, for Baptism is entry to the Church.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Kingdom of God he proclaims is governed:

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

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

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

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 22 October 2026):

The theme this week (18 to 24 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Inclusive Education in Handeni’ (pp 48-49). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Father John George Sembuyagi, Programme Lead, Diocese of Tanga, Anglican Church of Tanzania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 22 October 2026) invites us to pray:

God of unity, we pray for your church in Handeni that it may be known as a place of welcome, where hearts and minds are open to recognise and celebrate the gifts present in every person.

The Collect of the Day:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
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 our Father,
whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world
from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life,
and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God, our light and our salvation:
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and looking on your beauty
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘I have a baptism with which to be baptized’ (Luke 12: 50) … the baptismal font in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

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: 162, Saturday 17 October 2026

‘Before you pray, forgive’ … words attributed to Shakespeare in a restaurant in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the both the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX) and the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist (18 October 2026).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Ignatius (ca 107), Bishop of Antioch and Martyr. The AGM and conference of Christian CND is taking place online today. Later today, I hope to attend the unveiling of the Mapstone, a new sculpture by Broadbent Studios in the Market Square in Stony Stratford. The sculpture was commissioned by Stony Stratford Town Council and I was involved in this project from the beginning through the Town Centre Working Group, including the choice of location, the community engagement meetings, the commissioning and the tendering process.

Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Father Forgive’ … the challenge of forgiveness in Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 8-12 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 8 ‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; 9 but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.’

‘Can You Forgive Her?’ … two volumes of Trollope in an antiquarian bookshop in Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Luke 12: 8-12), Jesus warns sternly that ‘whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.’

I have long had a problem with how ‘the sin against the Holy Spirit’ is explained in some evangelical thinking. But I also have a problem in thinking about and discussing what can and cannot be forgiven.

Throughout Saint Luke’s Gospel, forgiveness has a significance that is impossible to ignore. Forgive. Forgive it all. Forgive it now. Forgive it for any reason you want. Forgive for the right reason. Forgive for the wrong reason. Forgive for no reason at all. Just forgive.

Remember, Saint Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer includes the helpful confusion: καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν: καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ‘and forgive us our sins for indeed we ourselves are forgiving everyone who is [monetarily] indebted to us’ (Luke 11: 4) – the monetary indebtedness is obvious in the original Greek.

We pray it, but do we put it into practice?

The arrival of the Kingdom of God is no occasion for score-keeping of any kind, whether monetary or moral.

Why should I forgive someone who has sinned against me, or against my sense of what is obviously right? I don’t have to do it out of love for the other person.

I could forgive the other person because of what I pray in the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday if not every morning.

I could forgive because I know I would like to be forgiven myself.

I could forgive because I know what it is like to be me when I am unforgiving.

I could forgive because I am, or I want to be, deeply in touch with a sense of Christ’s power to forgive and free someone just like me.

Or I could forgive because I think it will improve my life and sense of wellbeing.

It boils down to the same thing: deluded or sane, selfish or unselfish, there is no bad reason to forgive.

Extending the kind of grace God shows me in every possible arena – financial and moral – can only put me more deeply in touch with God’s grace.

We who have the experience of real grace, we who have been invited to the Heavenly Banquet, we who pray in the words of the Psalm, ‘Remember not our past sins; let your compassion be swift to meet us’ (Psalm 79: 8), we who believe, as the Apostle Paul says, that Christ ‘gave himself a ransom for all’ (I Timothy 2: 6) – we have a better reason than most people to forgive.

The sculpture ‘Reconciliation’ by Josephina da Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 17 October 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, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 17 October 2026, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty) invites us to pray:

Father, we bring before you the harsh reality of poverty and the pain it continues to cause. We lament the injustice and suffering that persist, and ask for your mercy, that through faithful presence, practical support, and enduring hope, lives may be restored.

The Collect of the Day:

Feed us, O Lord, with the living bread
and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation
that, following the teaching of your bishop Ignatius
and rejoicing in the faith
with which he embraced a martyr’s death,
we may be nourished for that eternal life
for which he longed;
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:

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

Collect on the Eve of Saint Luke:

Almighty God,
you called Luke the physician,
whose praise is in the gospel,
to be an evangelist and physician of the soul:
by the grace of the Spirit
and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel,
give your Church the same love and power to heal;
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.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XX:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Coliseum in Rome seen from the Basilica of San Clemente … Saint Ignatius of Antioch (17 October) was martyred in the Coliseum and his relics were moved to San Clemente in the year 637 (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

The sculptures of Thessaloniki: 10, ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’ by Vassilis Doropoulos, Ermou street

‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis by Vassilis Doropoulos in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have been recalling in recent weeks how I have come across a collection of photographs of modern sculptures in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki and how I realised I had written little about these sculptures over the years.

Rather than leave these photographs and memories in forgotten files on my laptop or in the cloud, I started an occasional series of blog postings on some of those modern sculptures I have rediscovered in Thessaloniki. Over these few weeks, I am inviting you to join me in a minor odyssey of recovery and discovery as my mind wanders through Thessaloniki, looking at these sculptures again.

The sculptures I have looked at in recent weeks include the monumental statues of Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Eleftherios Venizelos, the Jewish Memorial by Konstantinos Lentaris in the campus of the Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, the bust of Admiral Nikolaos Votsis in front of the White Tower, the Monument for the Jewish Holocaust on the edge of Eleftherias Square, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas in Fanarioton Square, and ‘The Stumbling Stones’ or ‘Stolpersteine’ by Gunter Demnig.

The bronze sculpture of the ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’ or ‘Monument of Peace’ by the painter and sculptor Vassilis Doropoulos (1942-2025) commemorates the murdered peace activist Grigoris Lambrakis (1912-1963). The work stands at the junction of Ermou street, Eleftherios Venizelou street and Spandoni street.

Dr Grigoris Lambrakis (Γρηγόρης Λαμπράκης) was a pacifist, politician, physician, academic, Olympic athlete and marathon runner. At the Berlin Olympics in 1936, he sought out and posed for a photograph with Jesse Owens, the Black athlete whose victories infuriated Hitler and defied Nazi ideology.

Lambrakis took part in peace demonstrations in Greece and across Europe in the 1960s, including the Aldermaston marches organised by CND and the Committee of 100 in 1963. His murder in 1963 is one of the most infamous political assassinations in Greece.

The murder of Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963 is one of the most infamous political assassinations in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The sculpture honouring Lambrakis in the heart of Thessaloniki is a symbol of the strife in Greece after the Civil War and in the run-up to the colonels’ coup in 1967. It shows a pleading and frightening figure reaching for a dove of peace. The sculpture incorporates elements of socialist realism, making a powerful visual statement about the importance of peace.

Grigoris Lambrakis had been at a demonstration in Thessaloniki calling for nuclear disarmament and was returning to the Aigli Hotel when he was attacked by Spyros Gotzamanis and Manolis Emmanouilidis on the evening of 22 May 1963. They were driving a three-wheeled vehicle, struck him fatally on the head with a club, while 180 police officers and the local police leaders were blocking off the area.

Reports later showed, the attackers and the key figures in plotting the murder were linked with the state and. But, despite the fact that the murder caused a political earthquake in Greece with reverberations across Europe, only nine out of the 31 original defendants were sentenced.

As Lambrakis lay dying in hospital in Thessaloniki, hundreds of students gathered in streets along with the poet Yiannis Ritsos and the composer Mikis Theodorakis, singing the poem Epitaphios, written by Ritsos following a political murder in Thessaloniki in 1936 and set to music by Theodorakis.

Lambrakis died on 27 May 1963. His funeral in Athens on 29 May 1963 from the Metropolitan Cathedral to the First Cemetery became a massive demonstration, as more than 500,000 people protested against the right-wing government and the royal court, which was seen to support the right-wing extremists, and the Epitaphios by Theodorakis and Ritsos was sung again throughout the streets.

The murder caused a political earthquake, the Prime minister Constantinos Karamanlis, resigned in 1963 and went into exile in Paris, and there were reverberations across Europe. But only nine of the 31 defendants were sentenced.

The events inspired Vassilis Vassilikos to write his political novel Z: Fictional Documentary of a Crime. The title stands for the first letter of the slogan «Ζει» (‘He Lives!’) became a popular graffito in cities and towns throughout Greece in the 1960s.

The Greek-French film director Costa-Gavras (Κώστας Γαβράς) made the film Z in 1969, starring Yves Montand as Lambrakis, Jean-Louis Trintignant as the investigator Christos Sartzetakis, was also jailed by the colonels, and Irene Papas as the widow of Lambrakis. It was nominated for five Oscars and won two.

The score included a piece first written by Mikis Theodorakis in 1962 for Ένας όμηρος (A Hostage), a Greek performance of The Hostage by Brendan Behan. The piece Το γελαστό παιδί (The Smiling Kid), with Greek lyrics by Vasilis Rotas, was transformed into a tribute to Lambrakis in the film Z.

Some years ago, my friends Paddy Sammon, a former Irish diplomat once based in Athens, and Damian Mac Con Uladh, an Irish journalist from Ballinasloe now based in Corinth, researched the Irish background to what has become a Greek classic of resistance to oppression. As Damian Mac Con Uladh has written, every Greek knows can sing some of the song, which they learned at school commemorations.

Maria Farantouri, who went into exile after the colonels seized power in 1967, sang the song at solidarity concerts across Europe. ‘It became a hymn not only for the Irish liberation movement, but also for every liberation movement in the world, and Greek democracy,’ she told an RTÉ documentary.

When the junta sent in tanks against protesting students at the Athens Polytechnic on 17 November 1973, killing at least 24 people over a number of days, Maria Farantouri added a couple of stanzas to the song, and changed the date from August to November, deliberately linking the song to that event.

After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, numerous places, including a football stadium in Kallithea and streets and squares in villages, towns and cities across Greece have been named in honour of Grigoris Lambrakis. The Athens Classic Marathon is run in his memory every November.

A street named in honour of Grigoris Lambrakis in Koutouloufari in the hills above Hersonissos, east of Iraklion in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Greek sculptor Vassilis Doropoulos (Βασίλης Δωρόπουλος), who created the ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis in Thessaloniki, was born in Mesopotamia in Kastoria on 13 August 1942.

He moved to Paris with his mother in 1965, and there he studied painting and sculpture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions, received many awards, and produced medals and sculptures for the Paris Mint.

His best-known works include his ‘Monument to National Resistance’ in Korydallos (1986) and his ‘Memorial of National Reconciliation’ (1989), symbolising reconciliation after the Greek Civil War in 1946-1949, at Klafthmonos Square in Athens, which has since become known as National Reconciliation Square or Ethinikis Simfiliosis.

Vassilis Doropoulos died in Athens last year (21 September 2025), having lived for much of his professional life in France.

The Lambrakis sculpture was donated by Apostolos Fokas, proprietor of the Fokas department store on Ermou street. An additional board explains that Lambrakis was assassinated by para-state thugs and the sculpture is not only a tribute to Grigoris Lambrakis but a reminder of the necessity for peace and social justice.

Z is a 1969 political thriller film directed by Costa-Gavras, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jorge Semprún, adapted from the 1967 novel by Vassilis Vassilikos. Audio in French with English and French subtitles (Click on CC for subtitles)

In this series:

1, Introduction (21 September 2026)

2, Aristotle by Giorgos Georgiadis, Aristotelous Square (22 September 2026)

3, Alexander the Great by Evangelos Moustakas, Alexander’s Garden (23 September 2026)

4, Eleftherios Venizelos by Giannis Pappas, Plateia Dikastirion (24 September 2026)

5, The Jewish Monument by Konstantinos Lentaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (25 September 2026)

6, Admiral Nikolaos Votsis by Georgios Dimitriadis, in front of the White Tower (1 October 2026)

7, The Monument of the Jewish Holocaust by Nandor Glid, Eleftherias Square (2 October 2026)

8, ‘The Woman of Pindos’ by Kostas Domboulas, Fanarioton Square (8 October 2026)

9, ‘The Stumbling Stones’ (‘Stolpersteine’) by Gunter Demnig (9 October 2026)

10, ‘Marathon Runner of Peace’, the monument to Grigoris Lambrakis by Vasilis Doropoulos, Ermou Street (14 October 2026)

Next: Monument of Sokratis Karantinos, 30 October Avenue (22 October 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 159, Wednesday 14 October 2026

‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them’ (Luke 11: 46) … ‘A Case History’ (1998) by John King, also known as ‘The Hope Street Suitcases’ in Liverpool (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford


We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 11 October 2026).

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them’ (Luke 11: 46) … pilgrim figures in a shop window in Santiago de Compostela (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 42-46 (NRSVA):

42 ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’

45 One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ 46 And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.’

‘For you love … to be greeted with respect in the market-places’ (Luke 11: 43) … the statue honouring Samuel Johnson in the Market Square, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 42-46) at the Eucharist, Jesus uses hyperbole once again as he challenges the lawyers, telling them: ‘For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.’

How often, I wonder, do people feel that they are bearing the heavy burden of sins that have been projected onto them that were never sins in the first place?

People who have been told they are sinful because of their sexuality, because of the stigma of a broken marriage, divorce and remarriage, a failed relationship, the bullying or abuse they suffered and endured as children?

How many people are told that their poverty, low self-esteem, poor housing of low-paid and meaningless employment are things they have brought upon themselves?

How many people face discrimination, rejection, marginalisation or oppression, only to have that compounded by being told they are the authors of their own plight? In this way, the victims are victimised again, and the oppressed are doubly oppressed.

The General Confession at Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer may be difficult to read today, not only because of its dated language and phraseology, but because of its gender-specific pronouns, and its undue emphasis on God’s ‘wrath and indignation’. But it still remains a positive attitude to the burdens we need to share, for it is phrased in the plural. We must ‘bewail our manifold sins and wickedness’.

We are invited to knell together as we say together:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we from time to time most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of sins is ‘is grievous unto us’ and ‘the burden of them is intolerable’.

We are to share that burden with one another. We are assured that forgiveness is available to all, and when we get up off our knees we are to experience the promise of ‘newness of life’, not individually but collectively. We are reminded at the very beginning of this morning’s Gospel reading that we must never ‘neglect justice and the love of God’.

The General Confession at Holy Communion in the 1662 ‘Book of Common Prayer’ is phrased in the plural … a reminder that we share one another’s burdens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 14 October 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, 11-17 October 2026 (pp 46-47), is ‘The Lord Has Done Great Things’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Guilherme Moura Bejo, candidate for Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of São Paulo, and co-ordinator of the Diocesan Youth Group.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 14 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, we pray for the course being put together in the Diocese of São Paulo. May it nurture the faith of all who take part as they grow in wisdom, empathy, and courage to live out their calling.

The Collect of the Day:

O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts
; 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 and blessed God,
you have fed us with the body and blood of your Son
and filled us with your Holy Spirit:
may we honour you,
not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Faithful Lord,
whose steadfast love never ceases
and whose mercies never come to an end:
grant us the grace to trust you
and to receive the gifts of your love,
new every morning,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘For you love … to be greeted with respect in the market-places’ (Luke 11: 43) … a busy afternoon in the Market Place, Durham (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