56 million for frequent fliers, 56 million people in England, 56 million library books, and 56 million readers to date

Flying over Singapore … a small group of frequent flyers who travel 56,000 km (56 million metres) a year are responsible for more than half the global climate emissions from aviation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This month continues to be an exceptionally busy time on this blog. There is a continuing, steady and overwhelming rise in figures for viewing and reading. These figures reached 56 million by mid-afternoon today (15 September), passing the million mark for the eighth time since the end of last month. The figures reached 55 million three days ago (12 September), 54 million two nights before that (10 September 2026), 53 million hits the day before that (9 September 2026), 52 million hits two days previously (7 September), 51 million on 5 September, 50 million on 4 September and 49 million on 31 August.

These viewing and readership figures are still overpowering, and 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 35 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone.

This means half of all hits or reader figures have been within the past six months, with 28 million hits since 20 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. Although we are just half way through September, this is already the busiest month for traffic on this blog, with over 7 million hits by late this afternoon.

Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, seven of them were in this month alone (1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 September), two were in May (1 and 14 May) and one was in April (29 April):

• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 671,341 (10 September 2026)
• 647,187 (5 September 2026)
• 618,234 (8 September 2026)
• 583,320 (11 September 2026)

• 563,301 (9 September 2026)
• 557,448 (12 September 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 513,725 (7 September 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)

The daily average so far this month is 470,000-500,000 hits a day. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

England’s population is more than 56 million people, according to census and official statistics (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 56 million into perspective:

England has a population of about 56.5 million people, according to census and official statistics. The 56,490,048 residents of England make up about 84 per cent of the total population of the United Kingdom.

The Open Library digital collection managed by the Internet Archive lists over 56 million books and texts, while the New York Public Library has about 56 million items in its extensive cultural collections.

A mere 1% of the world’s population is responsible for more than half the global climate emissions from aviation. This comes about through a small group of wealthy frequent flyers who travel about 56,000 km a year.

EBay and three former top executives agreed in July to pay almost $56 million ($55.7 million) to resolve a lawsuit by a Massachusetts couple who fell victim to a bizarre stalking and harassment campaign carried out by several of its employees in retaliation for their coverage of the e-commerce company in a newsletter they publish.

The settlement brings an end to a case brought by David and Ina Steiner after several former eBay employees were prosecuted for targeting them in a cyber-stalking campaign that involved sending them cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody Halloween pig mask. As part of the settlement, eBay agreed to pay $46.15 million to the couple; fund $6 million in charitable contributions to nonprofit organisations; and issue a ‘strongly-worded’ statement about the conduct of the three former executives.

When Europeans arrived in the Americas, they caused so much death and disease that it changed the global climate, a new study finds. European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America, causing large swaths of farmland to be abandoned and reforested, researchers at University College London (UCL) have found.

56 million metres in 56,000 km and 56 million sq m is 56,000 sq km. The total land area of Croatia is approximately 56,594 sq km, making it the 127th largest country in the world. The Greater Bay Area of China, comprising Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province, has a total area of around 56,000 sq km.

56 million minutes equals 106 years, 6 months and 10 days. This means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in March 1920.

I retired from active parish ministry about 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 56 million hits, I am truly grateful to the real readers among that 56 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.

Hong Kong is part of the Greater Bay Area of China, which includes Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province, and has a total area of around 56 million sq metres or 56,000 sq km (Photograph: 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: 92, Friday 7 August 2026

‘Whosever will come after me, let him take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … Station V in the Stations of the Cross by Irene Ogden in Saint Julian’s Church, Norwich (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Ninnth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 2 August 2026). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recalls John Mason Neale (1818-1866), Priest, Hymn Writer. 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.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … Simon of Cyrene takes up the Cross, Station 5 in the Stations of the Cross in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 16: 24-28 (NRSVA):

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

‘For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?’ (Matthew 16: 26) … torn and ragged banknotes in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 16: 24-28), Christ and the disciples are near the villages of Caesarea Philippi, in today’s Golan Heights. Christ has both commended Peter for his faith and warned him of the danger of being a stumbling block.

To their dismay, Christ now speaks openly about his imminent death and resurrection. He then describes true discipleship: first, a disciple must follow him and renounce self-centeredness (verse 23). Those who are prepared to give even their lives for his sake and for the sake of spreading the good news will find true life verse 24). But those who opt for material well-being deny their true selves and lose out (verse 26).

There is a cost to discipleship, but the challenge to take up the Cross and to follow Christ is open to all.

God in Christ has come to enfold humanity. The cross will not stop the proclamation of the Good News, nor will it keep salvation history from breaking into the cosmos.

So often, in the face of criticism, the Christian response is either to shut down or to retreat to a different understanding of God and Jesus. But Christ tells the people that if they want to follow him on the journey, there is a cost to discipleship.

We are challenged to take up our cross and follow Christ on that journey.

Christianity cannot be reduced to an individual mental or philosophical decision. It is a journey with Christ and with not only the disciples but with the crowd, the many, who are also invited to join that journey.

If Saint Peter knew what was ahead of him, perhaps he might have been even more vocal in rebuking Christ in yesterday’s Gospel reading. But the triumph comes not in getting what we want, not in engineering things so that God gives us what we desire and wish for, so that we get a Jesus who does the things we want him to do. The triumph comes in the Resurrection.

True discipleship and true prayer mean making God’s priorities my priorities: the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the isolated, the marginalised, the victims, the unloved. If that is difficult, nobody said that being a Christian was going to be easy, that being a Christian would not cost anything.

As the German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have put it, being a disciple means having to pay the cost of discipleship. There is no cheap Christianity and there is no cheap grace.

The late Pope Francis once put it another way. Referring to discipleship and the traditional Lenten fast, he asked, ‘Do you want to fast this Lent?’ And then, he answered:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness; fill your hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words; be silent and listen.

‘Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 24) … the Stations of the Cross in Saint Gregory’s Armenian Church, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 7 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 on Sunday 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 (Friday 7 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord Jesus, renew hope in your missions, parishes, and communities. Give your people a missionary heart - open to all, ready to accompany those who suffer, and to speak words of hope.

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

A Cross in the north aisle in Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge (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

Remembering the 200th anniversary of Raffles, his role in Singapore, and his opposition to slavery

The original statue of Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore … he died 200 years ago on 5 July 1826 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Stamford Raffles, who died on 5 July 1826 on his 45th birthday. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826) is best remembered as the founder of modern Singapore. Tradition says he first landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819 at Raffles Landing. The site is at Boat Quay in the Civic District, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore’s central business district.

Stamford Raffles was the British colonial governor of the Dutch East Indies in 1811-1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen in 1818-1824. He was involved in the capture of the island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars, although it was returned under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1824. He also wrote The History of Java (1817), and the Rafflesia flowers are named after him.

Raffles played a major role in further establishing the British Empire’s reach in East and South-East Asia. He secured control over the strategically located Singapore from local rulers in 1819 to secure British access along the Strait of Singapore and in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

His ventures were initially not endorsed by the British government and led to tensions between the British and the Dutch. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 established their respective spheres of influence, with the Dutch relinquishing their claims to Singapore while Britain ceded Bencoolen to them. A port was subsequently established in Singapore, and maritime trade between Europe and Asia increased rapidly.

While Raffles is largely credited for the founding of contemporary Singapore, the early running of day-to-day operations was mostly done by William Farquhar, who served was the first Resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823.

However, his historical role has become a subject of public debate, with critics characterising him as an imperialist. These perspectives argue that celebratory narratives of colonialism can overlook the history of the population that predated his arrival.

The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles at Raffles Landing in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born on 5 July 1781 on board the ship Ann, off the coast of Port Morant in Jamaica, to Captain Benjamin Raffles (1739-1811) and Anne (née Lyde) Raffles (1755-1824). The young Raffles went to school at the Mansion House Academy, Hammersmith, where his subjects included Latin, Greek, French, arithmetic, book-keeping and geography.

At the age of 14, he started working as a clerk for the East India Company. In 1804, at the age of 23, Raffles married Olivia Mariamne Devenish, a widow 10 years his senior.  He was sent to Penang Island in British Malaya in 1805, starting his long association with South-East Asia. The British invasion of Java took a total of 45 days, during which Raffles was appointed the lieutenant-governor of the Dutch East Indies by Lord Minto before hostilities formally ceased. As lieutenant-governor, Raffles restricted the local slave trade and tried to replace of the Dutch system of forced agricultural labour.

Raffles was devastated when his wife Olivia died on 26 November 1814. He left Java shorty before it was handed back to the Dutch after the Napoleonic Wars. He set sail for England in early 1816 to clear his name and on his way he visited Napoleon, who was in exile on St Helena, but found him unpleasant and unimpressive.

Back in London, Raffles was knighted in 1817 by the Prince Regent, the future George IV, and on 22 February he married his second wife, Sophia Hull, and they later set sail to Bencoolen, present-day Bengkulu in Indonesia.

Raffles arrived in Bencoolen on Sumatra on 19 March 1818, where he became the lieutenant-governor, and he set about reforms immediately, abolishing slavery.

At the time, Major-General William Farquhar was the British Resident of Malacca. Raffles sailed to Malacca in late 1818 to secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura, where he secure permission to set up a settlement. At this point in the history of Singapore, the name Lion City was used.

Raffles Hotel, named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, first opened in 1887 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819 at Raffles Landing. He established a post at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula on 29 January 1819, having ascertained there was no Dutch presence on the island of Singapore. Raffles and Farquhar found Temenggong Abdul Rahman with 400-500 residents in Singapore in Captain John Crawford recalled meeting ‘upwards of 100’ Chinese people there.

A formal treaty was signed with Hussein Shah who claimed to be the ‘lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingga and Johor to Mount Muar’. Hussein Shah had been the crown Prince of Johor, but while he was away in Pahang to get married, his father died, and his younger brother was made sultan, supported by some court officials and the Dutch. Raffles decided on behalf of the British Crown to recognise Hussein Shah as the rightful ruler of Johor.

Raffles declared the foundation of what was to become modern Singapore on 6 February, with control of the island transferred to the East India Company with much pomp and ceremony. Farquhar was officially named the Resident of Singapore, and Raffles was named as ‘Agent to the Most Noble the Governor-General with the States of Rhio (Riau), Lingin (Lingga) and Johor’. A small military presence was established with the trading post and, after issuing orders to Farquhar and the remaining Europeans, Raffles left the next day, 7 February 1819.

Raffles returned to Singapore, on 31 May. By then, the initial 500 villagers had grown to become 5,000 merchants, soldiers, and administrators, packed onto the island. Back in Singapore, Raffles established schools and churches in the local languages, he allowed missionaries and local businesses to flourish, a European town was built to segregate the population, separated by a river, carriage roads were built, and cantonments were built for soldiers, before Raffles sailed for Bencoolen once again on 28 June.

In 1820, Raffles appointed Thomas Otho Travers (1785-1844) as the Resident of Singapore, but Farquhar remained in charge. Travers was born and died in Cork, and his wife Mary Leslie was also Irish.

Boat Quay and Raffles Place, the commercial and tourism heart of Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, personal tragedies began to accumulate on Raffles: His eldest son, Leopold Stamford (1819-1821), died during an epidemic on 4 July 1821; his youngest son, Stamford Marsden (1820-1822), died of dysentery on 3 January 1822; and his oldest daughter Charlotte (1818-1822) died 10 days later. A devastated Raffles grew restless and depressed, and decided to visit Singapore for one last time before retiring and heading home to England with his wife Sophia and their only surviving child, Ella.

Raffles was back again in Singapore in October 1822. By then, the colony was a bustling hub of trade and economic activity. But Raffles was disappointed that Farquhar continued to tolerate the slave trade. In response, Raffles drew up the Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan, and levelled of a small hill south of Singapore River to create Commercial Square, now Raffles Place.

He originally allocated a piece of land between Hill Street and North Bridge Road in his Town Plan of 1822 for an Anglican church. However, due to a lack of funds, it was another 12 years before work began on building the first church, which eventually became Saint Andrew’s Cathedral.

Raffles dismissed Farquhar in April 1823, and took direct control. John Crawfurd, who had followed Raffles for over 20 years, became the new Resident of Singapore. Raffles also called a meeting that led to the founding of Raffles Institution.

In the final few weeks of his last stay in Singapore, in 1823, Raffles drafted a series of administrative regulations that aimed to govern Singapore, he outlawed gambling, imposed heavy taxation on drunkenness and opium smoking, and banned slavery, a police force and magistracy were set up, and what had been a trading post became a proper city.

Now feeling that he had completed his task in establishing Singapore, Raffles finally boarded a ship for home on 9 June 1823. On the way back, during a final stop in Bencoolen, tragedy befell Raffles once more when his youngest daughter, Flora Nightingall, who was born on 19 September, died on 28 November.

Raffles finally arrived back in England on 22 August 1824, over a year after he left Singapore. His longest tenure in Singapore was only eight months, but ever since he has been regarded as the founder of Singapore.

Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles first convalesced in Cheltenham and then moved to Berners Street, London, at the end of November 1824, before moving to his country estate at Highwood in North London. By then he was seriously much too ill and he died of apoplexy or what we might today call a stroke at Highwood House in Mill Hill, north London, on his 45th birthday, 5 July 1826.

Because of his firm opposition to slavery, Raffles was refused burial inside Saint Mary’s Church, Hendon, by the vicar, the Revd Theodor Williams, whose family had made its fortune in Jamaica in the slave trade. The actual whereabouts of his body was unknown until 1914, when it was found in a vault. A life-size figure in white marble by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1832 sits in Westminster Abbey.

Raffles was survived by his second wife Sophia Hull and their daughter Ella. Ella died in 1840, aged 19. Sophia remained at Highwood House until her death in 1858, at the age of 72.

Two Singapore Slings … and a bag of peanuts … in the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In Singapore, his legacy is commemorated by the Raffles’s Landing Site and the use of his name for many places and institutions, including Raffles City, Raffles Hospital, Raffles Hotel, Raffles College, currently National University of Singapore (NUS), and in the names of a number of primary and secondary schools.

There are three public statues of Raffles in Singapore, one made of white polymarble along the Singapore River, another made of bronze in front of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and a contemporary bronze sculpture at Fort Canning Park.

The black statue of Raffles that stands in the shadow of the clock tower of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall in Empress Place, Singapore, was originally located in the middle of the Padang, facing the sea. It was placed there to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession, but it was moved as part of Singapore’s centenary celebrations in February 1919. The statue was moved again at the end of the Japanese occupation, but was placed back in its location after World War II.

However, tourists generally give more attention to a copy of the original statue, a white statue of polymarble made from a cast of the black statue. The copy stands by the Singapore River near Empress Place at the spot believed to be his original landing site. It was placed there in 1972 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore.

Writing about Raffles in the Guardian in 2012, Victoria Glendenning said: ‘He was an idealistic entrepreneur, a romantic imperialist, passionately anti-slavery, and more concerned with transforming the lives of the peasants than making immediate profits for the company. He made no fortune for himself. Volatile, inconsistent, energetic, resilient, he wanted fame, and he wanted to do good.’


Following Raffles on a boat journey on the Singapore River, passing Raffles Landing (Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 53, Monday 29 June 2026, Saint Peter and Saint Paul

The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul holding the church in unity … an early 18th century icon in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary time in the Church Calendar. The week began with Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 28 June 2026) and today is the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (29 June). This time of the year is known sometimes as Petertide, because of the ordinations at this time 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.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the paired niches above the south porch in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Buckingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 16: 13-19 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’

The statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the porch of the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on Queen Street, Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Last week I was marking the 25th anniversary of my ordination as priest (24 June 2001) and the 26th anniversary of my ordination as deacon, on both occasions by Archbishop Walton Empey in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin In recent days, many of ordained colleagues have been posting photographs on social media celebrating the anniversaries of their ordinations too.

Today is the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles (29 June), and this time of the year is known in Anglican tradition as Petertide, one of the two traditional periods for the ordination of new priests and deacons – the other being Michaelmas, in the days close to 29 September.

The Cambridge poet-priest Malcolm Guite has said on his blog that Saint Peter’s Day and this season are appropriate for ordinations because Saint Peter is ‘the disciple who, for all his many mistakes, knew how to recover and hold on, who, for all his waverings was called by Jesus “the rock,” who learned the threefold lesson that every betrayal can ultimately be restored by love.’

Saint Peter argues with Saint Paul at Antioch, and Paul rebukes Peter for seemingly trying to insist that Gentiles must become Jews if they are to convert to Christianity (see Galatians 2: 11-13). But if Saint Peter gets it wrong in Antioch, he goes on to get it right at the first Council of the Church in Jerusalem (see Acts 15: 7-20). He later refers to Saint Paul as ‘our beloved brother’ and his letters as ‘scripture,’ even when they may be difficult to understand (see II Peter 3: 16-17).

A later Church tradition says Saint Peter and Saint Paul taught together in Rome, founded Christianity in the city, and suffered martyrdom at the same time, so that an icon of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, standing side-by-side, is a popular icon of Church unity and ecumenism in the Orthodox Church.

In the Orthodox Church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul are seen as figures of Church Unity, sharing a common faith and mission despite their differences. They are often seen as paired, flanking images at entrances to churches, and the icon of Christian Unity in the Orthodox tradition shows the Apostles Peter and Paul embracing each other – signs of the early Church overcoming its differences and affirming its diversity.

As they embrace each other in these icons, Peter and Paul are almost wrestling, arms around each other, beards so close they are almost intertwining. This icon reminds me of Psalm 133:

How very good and pleasant it is
when [brothers] live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life for evermore.

So, despite many readings of the New Testament, especially the Acts of the Apostles, that see Peter and Paul in conflict with each other rather than complementing each other, they can be models for Church Unity.

We may rejoice in the Church that our differences may complement each other. Pope Francis marked the feast of Saint Peter and Paul in 2020 by stressing the importance of unity in the Church and allowing ourselves to be challenged by God, urging people to spend less time complaining about what they see going wrong, and more time in prayer.

He noted that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were two very different men who ‘could argue heatedly’ but who ‘saw one another as brothers, as happens in close-knit families where there may be frequent arguments but unfailing love.’

God, he said, ‘did not command us to like one another, but to love one another. He is the one who unites us, without making us all alike.’

Saint Peter and Saint Paul depicted in the window commemorating William Cowper in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Churh, Olney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 29 June 2026, Saint Peter and Saint Paul)

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 yesterday with a reflection by the Very Revd Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 29 June 2026, Saint Peter and Saint Paul) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, you called apostles to proclaim a love that disrupted power and turned the world upside down. Help us, as living stones, to support one another in courageous truth-telling and bearing witness against empire.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul
glorified you in their death as in their life:
grant that your Church,
inspired by their teaching and example,
and made one by your Spirit,
may ever stand firm upon the one foundation,
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

Saint Peter and Saint Paul depicted in statues on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in the Ordinary Time 2026: 30, Saturday 6 June 2026

‘He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury’ (Mark 12: 41) … the Treasury at Delphi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the First Sunday after Trinity (7 June 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Ini Kopuria (1945), Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood.

Stony Live 2026, Stony Stratford’s Festival of music, dance, recitals, readings and the arts, begins today (6 June 2026) and continues until next Friday (14 June 2026), and today’s events include live music and dance on the streets. Also today, Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, the pop-up Greek café that opens every first Saturday of the month, is open from 10:30 am and 3 pm. in the Swinfen Harris Church Hall beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford. Meanwhile, 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.

‘A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny’ (Mark 12: 42) … small coins for sale in an antique shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 38-44 (NRSVA):

38 As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’

41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

A two lepta coin issued in Greece in 1857 … the widow’s two lepta were the smallest coins in the Mediterranean world

Today’s reflections:

There is a saying in the US that refers to something as rare or as odd as a $2 bill – although that saying may change if Donald Trump pursues his vanity project of printing $250 dollar notes with his own image on them.

$2 bills or notes actually exist, but their scarcity means many people are not aware they are still being printed and in circulation. This has inspired several urban legends and misinformation about $2 bills and people often find it difficult if not impossible to spend them.

Some shops and businesses are unfamiliar with $2 bills and question their validity or authenticity. Significant numbers of the notes are removed from circulation and collected by people who believe $2 bills are scarcer and more valuable than they actually are.

In the mid-20th century, $2 bills acquired a negative reputation as it was said they were widely used for betting at horse races, tips at strip clubs, and for bribery when politicians were seeking votes. For most of their history, $2 notes have been unpopular, and are seen as unlucky or awkward to spend. $2 notes were often returned to the Treasury with corners torn off, making them mutilated currency and unfit for reissue.

So, during my brief visits to Singapore I was curious to find a $2 note is in common circulation there and the most common small note in general use.

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 12: 38-44), the poor widow at the Treasury in the Temple donates not a $2 dollar bill but two small copper coins, two lepta. Saint Mark’s Gospel says these two small copper coins are worth a κοδράντης (kodrantes), the smallest Roman brass coin, rendered as a penny in the NRSV translations and a farthing in the KJV (Mark 12: 41-44). It was also equal to one-sixty-fourth of a denarius, which was considered a fair day’s wage.

This poor widow arriving at the Treasury in the Temple would have had nothing of her own. All her husband’s (husbands’) wealth has gone to her husband’s (husbands’) family. Without children, she is left with no visible means of support.

All she has are two of the smallest coins known in the Mediterranean basin – two lepta in Greece are worth only two cent. Until recently there were 100 lepta to the drachma, and until the drachma was withdrawn from circulation there were 370 drachmés to the Euro.

At any time in history, the two lepta coins she had were worthless. But they are all she has. She has little to live for, and she has little to live on. Yet all she has to live on she offers to God. Christ-like, she gives up everything.

In the Kingdom of God, there will be neither lost lepta nor squandered zillions, neither high priests nor widows. All that will matter is whether we have lived our lives as lives that point to the Kingdom of God.

The wealth of the Sadducees, like their faith, died at death. The wealth of the woman, like her faith, multiplied beyond calculation in the Kingdom of God.

Generosity, as in this reading, must always be freely given, but should never be sought.

When it is sought, it becomes coercive, and can never be properly measured.

When it is freely given, it can never be measured but always becomes a sign, a real expression not just of the generosity of the giver, but of the faith of the giver. And then, God becomes the true giver, and the true receiver.

$2 bills are the smallest banknotes in general circulation in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 6 June 2026):

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

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 6 June 2026) invites us to pray:

God of light, may your Church continue to bear witness through prayer, presence, and care, showing that even in danger, hope endures. Help us, too, to be the ‘salt of the earth’ and the ‘light of Christ’ (Matthew 5: 13-14) in our daily lives.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
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 and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity I:

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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

Old 1, 5 and 10 lepta postage stamps from Greece … the widow’s two lepta were the smallest coins in the Mediterranean world

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