Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 44, 22 June 2024

The icon of Saint Ambrose in the new iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 23 June 2024). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (22 June) remembers Saint Alban (ca 250), first Martyr of Britain.

Before today begins (21 June 2024), 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 icons in the new iconostasis or icon stand in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford.

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint Ambrose’s right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding the Bible … a detail in the icon of Saint John the Forerunner in the new iconostasis in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 6: 24-34 (NRSVUE):

[Jesus said:] 24 “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

An icon of Saint Ambrose near the church door in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Stony Stratford iconostasis 7: Saint Ambrose of Milan:

Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the building and installation of the new iconostasis or icon screen in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. In my prayer diary over these weeks, I am reflecting on this new iconostasis, and the theological meaning and liturgical significance of its icons and decorations.

The lower, first tier of a traditional iconostasis is sometimes called Sovereign. On the right side of the Royal Doors or Beautiful Gates facing the people is an icon of Christ, often as the Pantokrator, representing his second coming, and on the left is an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), symbolising the incarnation. It is another way of saying all things take place between Christ’s first coming and his second coming.

Other icons on this tier usually include depictions of the patron saint or feast day of the church, Saint John the Baptist, one or more of the Four Evangelists, and so on.

The six icons on the lower, first tier of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford depict Christ to the right of the Royal Doors or Beautiful Gates, as seen from the nave of the church, and the Theotokos or Virgin Mary to the left. All six icons depict (from left to right): the Dormition, Saint Stylianos, the Theotokos, Christ Pantocrator, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Ambrosios.

The church in Stony Stratford is dedicated to Saint Ambrosios (Ambrose) and Saint Stylianos, and both saints are depicted in the new iconostasis in the church.

Saint Ambrose (339-397) is a Doctor of the Church, Bishop of Milan, and strongly influenced Saint Augustine. He was born in Trier into an aristocratic Roman family. After his father’s death he went to Rome with his mother and brother. He was trained as a lawyer, and was appointed the governor of northern Italy, with his headquarters in Milan.

He was a highly educated and intellectual man who sought to harmonise Greek and Roman thinking with the Christian faith. While Ambrose was the Governor of Milan, Auxentius was the Bishop of Milan. Auxentius was an excellent public speaker and had a forceful personality, but he was a follower of Arius and accepted the Arian heresy which denied the divinity of Christ.

Although the Council of Nicaea reasserted the Orthodox teachings on the divinity of Christ, Bishop Auxentius clung to Arianism and became notorious for forcing clergy throughout the region to accept the Arian heresy.

When Bishop Auxentius died and the See of Milan fell vacant, it seemed likely that rioting would erupt, because the city was evenly divided between the Arians and the Athanasians. Ambrose, who had not yet been baptised, went to the meeting where the election was to take place, and appealed to the crowd for order and goodwill on both sides.

But his deep understanding and love of the Christian faith were well-known throughout Milan, and the Milanese mob saw him as the most logical choice to succeed Auxentius as bishop. Although he was still a catechumen, a child’s voice proclaimed Ambrose bishop, and – against his will but with the support of the Emperor Valentinian – he was elected Bishop of Milan with the support of both sides.

Eight days after his baptism, Ambrose was ordained priest and consecrated bishop on 7 December 374, a date that eventually became his liturgical feast.

As Bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose began his ministry by giving his possessions to the poor and to the Church. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the study of theology, and looked to the writings of Greek theologians like Saint Basil for help in explaining the traditional teachings of the Church to the people during times of doctrinal confusion.

Like the fathers of the Eastern Church, Saint Ambrose drew from the intellectual reserves of pre-Christian philosophy and literature to make the faith more comprehensible to his hearers. This harmony of faith with other sources of knowledge served to attract, among others, the young professor Aurelius Augustinus – a man Ambrose taught and baptised in 387 and who became known as Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Saint Ambrose lived a simple lifestyle, gave away his wealth, wrote prolifically, preached every Sunday and celebrated the Eucharist each day. He found time to counsel many public officials, those who were inquiring about the faith or who were confused, and penitent sinners.

He resisted the interference of the secular powers in the rights of the Church, opposed heretics, and was instrumental in bringing about the conversion of Augustine. He composed many hymns, promoted sacred chant, and took a great interest in the Liturgy.

By his preaching, he converted his diocese to the Athanasian position, except for the Goths and some members of the imperial household. Among those who plotted to remove him from the diocese were the Western Empress Justina and a group of her advisers, who opposed the tenets of the Nicene Creed and sought to impose Arian bishops in Italy. Once, when the Empress ordered him to turn over a church to her Gothic troops so the Arians among them could worship, Ambrose refused, and he and his people occupied the church.

Ambrose composed Latin hymns in the rhythm of ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow,’ and taught them to the people, who sang them in the church as the soldiers surrounded it. The Goths were unwilling to attack a hymn-singing congregation, and Ambrose won that dispute.

Ambrose confronted Maximus, the murderer of the Emperor Gratian. When Maximus refused to do penance, Ambrose excommunicated him.

Saint Ambrose also displayed courage when he publicly denied Communion to the Emperor Theodosius, who had ordered the massacre of 7,000 people in Thessaloniki. It was on this occasion that allusion was made to King David as a murderer and adulterer, and Ambrose retorted: ‘You have followed him in sin, now follow him in repentance.’

The chastened Theodosius took Ambrose’s rebuke to heart, publicly repenting of the massacre and doing penance for the murders. He reconciled himself with the Church and the bishop, who attended the emperor on his deathbed and spoke at his funeral.

The canticle Te Deum Laudamus (‘We praise thee, O God’) was long thought to have been composed by Ambrose in thanksgiving for the conversion of Augustine. He is also said to have been the author of what we now know as the Athanasian Creed.

Ambrose is the first writer of hymns with rhyme and meter, and northern Italy still uses his style of plainchant, known as Ambrosian chant, rather than the more widespread Gregorian chant.

His 23 years in episcopal ministry had turned a deeply troubled diocese into an exemplary outpost of Christianity. His writings remained an important point of reference for the Church well into the mediaeval era and beyond.

Saint Ambrose died on 4 April 397, but because this date so often falls in Holy Week or Easter Week he is commonly remembered on the anniversary of his consecration as a bishop on 7 December. The Greek Orthodox Community of Milton Keynes was founded on 7 December 1989.

The Fifth Ecumenical Council of the Church in Constantinople in 553 named Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine among the foremost ‘holy fathers’ of the Church, whose teaching all bishops should ‘in every way follow.’ Ambrose is regarded as one of the Eight Great Doctors of the Church. The list includes four Latin Doctors – Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great, and four Greek Doctors – Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus.

The three icons to the right on the lower, first tier of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford depict (from left) Christ Pantocrator, Saint John the Forerunner and Saint Ambrosios (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 22 June 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Windrush Day.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections by the Right Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 22 June 2024, Windrush Day) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Windrush generation and their descendants. We acknowledge who they are, their gifts, culture, and talents. We thank You for the many contributions they have made to our society, and we pray a blessing over them and their generations.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
when the gospel of Christ first came to our land
you gloriously confirmed the faith of Alban
by making him the first to win a martyr’s crown:
grant that, following his example,
in the fellowship of the saints
we may worship you, the living God,
and give true witness to 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.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Alban:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the eve of Trinity IV:

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

The lower, first tier of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford, with the central doors open during the Divine Liturgy, and with the icon of Saint Ambrose at the right end of the icons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Last Saturday’s introduction to the Stony Stratford iconostasis

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Saint Ambrose among seven Fathers of the Church above the south door of Lichfield Cathedral (from left): Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, Saint Ambrose, Saint Gregory, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Athanasius and Saint Basil (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Saint Michael’s Church in St Albans is the most significant surviving Saxon building in Hertfordshire

Saint Michael’s Church, St Albans, is the best-preserved Saxon building in Hertfordshire and the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Michael’s Church on the western edges of St Albans in Hertfordshire is near the centre of the site of Roman Verulamium, the Roman Theatre and the Verulamium Museum.

Saint Michael’s Church is the best-preserved Saxon building in Hertfordshire, and many regard it as the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in England.

Saint Michael’s Church was built in the 10th century on the site of the basilica, the headquarters of Roman Verulamium. It may have been here that Saint Alban was tried for being a Christian before he was executed outside the town walls, perhaps where St Albans Abbey now stands.

According to the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris, Wulsin (or Ulsinus), Abbot of St Alban’s Abbey, founded a church on each of the three main roads into the town in the year 948 – Saint Michael’s, Saint Peter’s and Saint Stephen’s – to serve pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Saint Alban.

However, Wulsin may have been abbot ca 860-880, and the earliest parts of Saint Michael’s are at least a century later. The church certainly dates from the late Anglo-Saxon era and there may have been an earlier wooden church on the site.

Inside Saint Michael’s Church, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A stone church was built on a simple plan in the late 10th or early 11th century, with a chancel and a nave. The building includes much Roman material salvaged or purloined from the surrounding Roman ruins of Verulamium, including Roman brick used in the splays of the nave windows.

A north aisle and then a south aisle were added in the early 12th century. They were linked with the nave by arcades of plain round-headed arches cut in the north and south walls of the nave, leaving sections of the Saxon wall as piers. The arcades do not match: the earlier north arcade has three bays spaced irregularly; the later south arcade was built with four bays. The round-headed Norman window at the east end of the north aisle may also date from the 12th century.

When the aisles were added, the church became much darker inside. A clerestory with six Early English lancet windows on each side was added to the nave in the 13th century to increase the amount of natural light. Another Early English lancet window from this period survives in the north wall of the chancel.

Efforts were made to stabilise the south aisle when it became unstable, but it was demolished at a later date.

Inside Saint Michael’s Church, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The south chapel was added in the 13th century, and the easternmost arch of the south aisle became the entrance to the chapel. Three of the chapel’s windows are round-headed 13th century late Norman arches: two in the east wall and one in the south wall.

The south chapel is taller than the nave, so the more easterly windows on the south side of the clerestory now look into the chapel instead of outside. The church may also have been given a west tower in the 13th century.

The chancel and the north aisle were rebuilt ca 1340 and the chancel arch was enlarged. The Decorated east window, an ogee-headed south window and matching tomb recess in the chancel, and one of the windows in the north aisle, all date from this time.

Three of the single lancets on the north side of the clerestory were replaced in the 15th century with two-light square-headed windows, two large windows were inserted in the south wall of the south chapel and one in the south wall of the chancel.

The piscinas in the chancel and south chapel, and the octagonal font also date from the 15th century. The font is now known to have been carved from a single piece of stone. The 13th-century clerestory was given a new roof on stone corbels late in the 15th century.

Mediaeval wall paintings in the south chancel and the Ascension window by Burlison and Gryllis in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Also in the 15th century, a wooden tympanum was inserted in the 14th-century chancel arch and a ‘Doom’ was painted on it, spreading over the upper part of the east wall of the nave. A rood screen was added to the chancel arch at that time. It has since been removed, but stone stairs to it survive on the south side of the arch next to the south chapel.

The tower may have been remodelled in the late 15th or early 16th century. In its final form it had paired bell-openings, an embattled parapet and a polygonal stair-turret that was taller than the tower. A late Perpendicular west window of three lights was inserted in the west wall of the nave, probably early in the 16th century.

St Alban’s Abbey was suppressed in 1539 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The patronage of Saint Michael’s then passed from the abbey to the nearby Gorhambury Estate. One of the owners of Gorhambury was the Tudor politician, author, philosopher and early scientist Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

The 17th century monument in the chancel to Francis Bacon who died in 1626 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The most significant 17th century monument in Saint Michael’s is the monument to Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban, who died in 1626. It is in a round-arched recess inserted in the north wall of the chancel.

Bacon had a successful political career, becoming Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England before being forced out of office on charges of corruption. He then retired to Gorhambury, outside St Albans, where he devoted his time to the study of philosophy and developed what became known as the scientific method, the basis for modern science.

The monument is a life-sized sculpture showing Bacon sitting in an armchair in a relaxed pose. The sculptor may have been Nicholas Stone. A copy of the statue sculpted by Henry Weekes (1845) is in the chapel in Trinity College, Cambridge.

The octagonal font, wooden pulpit and Victorian pews in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Michael’s present wooden pulpit, tester and altar table date from the late 16th or early 17th century. The east wall of the south chapel may have been rebuilt in the early 17th century. Between its two lancet windows is a circular one that may date from this time. The present roof of the south chapel may also date from the 17th century.

The royal coat of arms on the west wall of the Lady Chapel dates from the reign of Charles II.

A west gallery was inserted in the nave late in the 17th century, and box pews were also added.

The church was restored in 1866 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. He had the box pews and west gallery removed and added the Gothic Revival south porch, which uses one of the 12th-century arches of the former south aisle.

The 19th century oak pews date largely from Scott’s reordering in the 1860s, and some incorporate late mediaeval or early modern linenfold panelling.

The south chapel or Lady Chapel in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, who left his mark on St Albans Cathedral at the same time, remodelled the west end of Saint Michael’s in 1896-1898 to his own designs and at his own expense. When he had the west tower demolished, the possible 13th century origins of the tower were discovered under its late Perpendicular external fabric.

Grimthorpe replaced the tower with a northwest tower in a ‘fanciful’ Gothic Revival interpretation of Early English Gothic. He extended the nave to the west, demolishing its old west wall and late Perpendicular west window, and also added a vestry on the site of the south aisle.

During these Victorian-era restorations, the 15th-century tympanum was taken down and the rest of the ‘Doom’ painting was obliterated.

The architect John C Rogers carried out further restoration work in 1934-1935 and added a second vestry on the north side of the chancel in 1938.

As well as Francis Bacon’s monument, Saint Michael's has some notable monumental brasses, including a 14th-century brass to John Pecock and his wife Maud in the south chapel.

Nathaniel Westlake’s window in the south chancel illustrates verses in the canticle ‘Te Deum’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The oldest glass in the church dates from the 17th century, and is a 13th century lancet window on the north side of the chancel, beside the Bacon monument. It may have come from the chapel in Gorhambury House. It shows the impaled heraldic arms of local families: Grimston impaling Croke, Grimston and Bacon impaling Cooke.

The other stained glass is mainly Victorian and the windows include:

Clayton and Bell: the Transfiguration (east window).

Burlison and Gryllis: the Ascension (south chancel); the visit of the Magi (north aisle); the Nativity (north aisle).

Nathaniel Westlake: a couple receiving Holy Communion at their wedding (bottom right), a woman and child by a man’s deathbed (bottom left), and above an illustration of words in the canticle Te Deum, ‘Make them to be humbled with thy saints in glory everlasting’ and ‘The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee’ (south chancel).

Ward and Hughes: two lancets showing the Beatitudes and a roundel with the Star of David (Lady Chapel, east end); Christ blessing the children (Lady Chapel, south wall); early events in the life of Christ, including the Wedding at Cana, the Presentation in the Temple, and the visit of the shepherds (Lady Chapel, south wall); Christ carrying the Cross and the angels announcing the Resurrection (Lady Chapel, south wall).

Hardman: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (north aisle); Saint Peter and Saint Paul (north facing clerestory); Saint Alban and Saint Stephen (north facing clerestory).

The west window, installed in 1866 and moved to its present place in 1899, depicts the three archangels, Gabriel, Michael and Rapael.

The surviving section of the ‘Doom’ painting is painted on a semi-circular section of wood (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

For me, though, the most fascinating survivals in the church are three remnants of mediaeval painting. One of the timber roof beams is painted, as well as a lancet window embrasure in the nave. But the most interesting painting is a section of a ‘Doom’, a depiction of the Day of Judgement painted on a semi-circular section of wood.

The Doom, dated to the 15th century, acted as a tympanum at the top of the chancel arch. The Doom was boarded over at the Reformation and was covered by layers of lime wash. It was only rediscovered in 1808 during building work. The entire scene was sketched, and the tympanum rescued, before the arch was rebuilt in its present form.

A tapestry on the south wall depicts the 1808 drawing of the entire Doom painting. As for the tympanum, it shows six figures rising up from their coffins on the Day of Judgment. Two of the figures wear a crown and another appears to be wearing a bishop’s mitre.

Saint Michael’s has been a Grade I listed building since 1950 because of its extensive late Anglo-Saxon fabric, the phases of expansion in the High Middle Ages, the 15th century nave roof, the tympanum with surviving part of the 15th century Doom painting, the late Elizabethan or early Jacobean pulpit, and Bacon’s Jacobean monument.

The three archangels, Saint Michael (centre), Saint Gabriel and Saint Rapael, in the west window in Saint Michael’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

• The Revd Jonny Lloyd, former Minor Canon and Precentor of St Albans, is the Vicar of Saint Michael’s. Sunday services are at 8 am, Said Eucharist; 9:30 am, the Parish Eucharist; with a mid-week Eucharist on Wednesdays at 10:30. The church is open daily.

Saint Michael’s Church is open daily (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (26) 30 November 2023

The Christ the King or Cooper Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, is inspired by the canticle ‘Te Deum’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. This week began with the Feast of Christ the King and the Sunday next before Advent (26 November 2023).

The Church Calendar today celebrates the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle (30 November).

Later today, I am travelling to Dublin for the launch of Christmas and the Irish, a new book edited by my friend and colleague Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth, and which includes three essays by me on the Christmas theme. But, before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

Throughout this week, I am reflecting on Christ the King, as seen in churches and cathedrals I know or I have visited. My reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on Christ the King;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The pet swan of Saint Hugh of Lincoln is an amusing detail in the Christ the King or Cooper Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Cooper Window, Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted:

I attended the funeral of a friend in Lichfield Cathedral yesterday, and earlier in the day I reflected on images of Christ the King in Lichfield Cathedral and other churches in Lichfield, including the reredos donated by the Cooper family to the former Saint Mary’s Church.

The Cooper family is also associated Cooper Window in the south aisle of Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, which depicts Christ the King at the centre of images inspired by the canticle Te Deum.

The window in Berkhamsted was made in 1885 by Nathaniel Hubert Westlake (1833-1921), a leading designer in the Gothic Revival movement who was also inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites. His work includes the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, and many windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and windows and ceilings in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

Westlake worked under William Burges for a while before joining the stained-glass firm of Lavers and Barraud in 1868. He later became a partner and finally the sole proprietor of Lavers, Barraud & Westlake, established in 1855 by Nathaniel Wood Lavers (1828-1911). The firm changed its name several and was later known as Lavers, Westlake and Co, and then NHJ Westlake, London, before closing in the 1920s.

The perpendicular stone tracery in the Cooper window in Berkhamsted probably dates from the 15th century. The Victorian glass was installed in the late 19th century in memory of the sheep dip manufacturer William Cooper (1813-1885).

William Cooper should not be confused with the 18th-century poet and hymn-writer William Cowper (1731-1800), who was born in Berkhamsted and who is also commemorated in windows in Saint Peter’s. William Cooper set up a factory in 1852 on the east side of Berkhamsted that became famous worldwide for the production of sheep dip.

Westlake’s work in the Cooper window is a fine example of Victorian stained glass. The images and text are all based on the ancient canticle Te Deum, celebrating God’s great glory.

The three-light window depicts Christ enthroned surrounded by angels, saints and martyrs, including Saint Edward the Confessor, with ewelled 3D-like robes, and Saint Hugh of Lincoln, the 13th century bishop, accompanied by his pet swan.

In the window lights, images of angels and saints are shown surrounding Christ. The saints’ names are written faintly in their haloes. Several bear mottoes on scrolls of paper, a sort of mediaeval equivalent of cartoon speech bubbles, with Latin quotations from Te Deum:

Prophets and angels in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

1, Top section: The small lights in the top contain figures of prophets and angels bearing the mottoes: ‘Tibi omnes Angeli (proclemant)’ – ‘To thee all Angels cry aloud’, and ‘Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus’ – ‘The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.’

Saint John the Evangelist and the Virgin Mary in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

2, Left light upper, two kneeling figures: Saint John the Evangelist, motto: ‘Te gloriósus Apostolorum chorus’ – ‘The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee’. The Virgin Mary, motto: ‘Te per orbem terrárum sancta confitetur Ecclesia’ – ‘The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee’.

Christ enthroned in majesty in the centre of the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

3, Central light middle, the central figure: Christ enthroned in majesty. Christ is shown sitting on a throne in heaven after the Resurrection, his right hand raised in blessing. Christ’s hands and feet bear the scars of the Crucifixion, and above his head the hand of God the Father points down in blessing.

Saint Joseph and Saint John the Baptist in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

4, Right light upper, two kneeling figures: Saint Joseph holding a wooden staff with lilies blooming from the top, a symbol from the mediaeval ‘Golden Legend,’ and the motto: ‘Te ergo quæsumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemísti’ – ‘We therefore pray thee, help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.’ Saint John the Baptist, motto: ‘Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus’ – ‘The noble army of martyrs praise thee.’

King Edward the Confessor and Saint Hugh of Lincoln in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

5, Left light lower, two English saints: King Edward the Confessor was one of the last Saxon Kings of England before the Norman Conquest, He appears to be wearing exquisitely jewelled three-dimensional robes in this window. Saint Hugh of Lincoln is with the swan with whom he had a lasting friendship and who followed him everywhere. He was the Bishop of Lincoln from 1186 until he died in 1200, and he was canonised in 1220. It is sometimes said Saint Hugh of Lincoln installed the first Rector of Saint Peter’s in 1222, but by then he had been dead for 22 years, and the Bishop of Lincoln at the time was Hugh of Wells.

Saint Clement and Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

6, Central light lower, two saints: Saint Clement (Pope Clement I), a first century pope, is said to have been consecrated by Saint Peter himself. He is shown wearing the papal tiara and vestments and holding a papal cross. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with the wheel of her martyrdom, the Catherine wheel, is carrying a palm branch, a symbol of martyrdom. The east chapel beside the south transept in Saint Peter’s Church is dedicated to Saint Catherine.

Saint Leonard and Saint Thomas Beckett in the Cooper window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

7, Right light lower, two martyrs: Saint Leonard, according to legend, freed prisoners from their chains, and he is traditionally depicted holding broken manacles. Many churches in Sussex and the Midlands are dedicated to him. Saint Thomas Beckett was at one time in charge of Berkhamsted Castle, and was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, on the orders of Henry II. He is depicted here with a sword piercing his bishop’s mitre.

The artist’s hidden initials ‘NHW’ are etched in the stained glass in two places, one at the end of Saint Joseph’s robes, above the pavement in the bottom left corner, the other on the end of Saint Clements’s robes, to the right of his papal staff.

William Cooper’s nephew, Sir Richard Powell Cooper (1847-1913), eventually became the sole proprietor of the business, and was given the title of baronet in 1911, associated with Shenstone Court, near Lichfield. Sir Richard’s son, Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper (1874-1946), inherited the family business and title, and donated the reredos depicting Christ the King to Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, and the Friary site to the City of Lichfield.

Coopers was bought by the Wellcome pharmaceutical giant in 1973. The Berkhamsted works eventually closed and most of the buildings have since been demolished.

Images of Christ the King can be seen in two other windows in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted.

The east window (1872) by Clayton and Bell is a memorial to the poet William Cowper. It depicts the Christ the King flanked by the women and disciples going to the empty tomb at the first Easter. The inscription at Christ’s feet is taken from Cowper’s hymn, ‘The Saviour, what a noble flame’: ‘Salvation to the dying man, And to the rising God.’ The original Chancel is now the vestry, and the window is not available to public viewing.

The south transept window (1873), also by Clayton and Bell, depicts the Resurrection of the Dead described in the Book of Revelation. It is a detailed, picturesque window, crowned by an image of Christ the King in the top section.

Christ the King is depicted in the William Cowper window, the East Window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 4: 18-22 (NRSVA):

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Christ the King (detail) in the South Transept window in in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 30 November 2023):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (30 November 2023, Saint Andrew) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for a greater awareness of the prejudices we carry. May we be open to one another and change our way of seeing.

Christ the King crowns the South Transept window in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
call us by your holy word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection (Images of Christ the King in Lichfield Cathedral)

Continued Tomorrow (Church of Christ the Saviour, Ealing Broadway)

Saint Andrew (centre) among an array in the reredos in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted … today is Saint Andrew’s Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Christ the King in the reredos donated by Sir Richard Cooper to Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Barnabas Jericho, a Pre-Raphaelite church in Oxford with literary and Anglo-Catholic traditions

Saint Barnabas Church in Jericho, Oxford, has inspired writers from Thomas Hardy to John Betjeman (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Barnabas Church is the Church of England parish church in Jericho, Oxford, close to the Oxford Canal and the old Jericho boatyard, and a 15-minute walk from the centre of Oxford. The church features in a wide range of literature, from Thomas Hardy and Gerald Manley Hopkins to PD James and AN Wilson. The poet John Betjeman wrote a poem about the church.

Saint Barnabas Jericho, which I visited last week, is affectionately known as ‘Jericho Basilica.’ I was struck by how vast, broad, tall and spacious the church is, with large arches, a majestic sanctuary and altar and a striking Venetian bell tower or campanile.

Saint Barnabas was built in the Victorian era to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of the workforce of the nearby Clarendon Press, later the Oxford University Press, on Great Clarendon Street, as well as the poor and working class people living in the growing west Oxford suburb of Jericho.

The new parish was carved out of Saint Paul’s parish in Oxford in 1869; Saint Paul’s, in turn, had been formed 30 years earlier from parts of the parishes of Saint Thomas and Saint Giles.

Saint Paul’s Church was renowned for its elaborate ritual and processions, and it was drawing so many worshippers in the 1850s that another church was needed for Jericho.

The campanile or bell tower of Saint Barnabas Church was completed in 1872 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Barnabas Church was founded by Thomas Combe (1796-1872), Superintendent of the Clarendon Press, and his wife Martha (1806-1893), who are now commemorated by a blue plaque installed by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. They were supporters of the Oxford Movement and good friends of John Henry Newman, and he was a churchwarden at Saint Paul’s.

Combe was also a patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. William Holman Hunt came to live at his home, the Printer’s House in Jericho, where he painted ‘The Light of the World’ for the chapel in Keble College.

The church was built on land donated by George Ward, a local landowner and member of the Ward family of coal merchants and boatbuilders. George Ward’s brother William Ward was Mayor of Oxford on two occasions, 1851-1852 and 1861-1862.

Inside Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, designed by Sir Arthur William Blomfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The new church reflected Tractarian values both in liturgy, by promoting ritual and the high doctrine of the Sacraments, and in mission, by promoting education, health reform and social justice.

The architect was Sir Arthur William Blomfield (1829-1899), a son of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London. He had previously designed Saint Luke’s Chapel for the Radcliffe Infirmary.

Blomfield decided on an Italian Romanesque basilica-style design but, in accordance with Thomas Combe’s wishes, built the walls out of cement-rendered builders’ rubble.

Blomfield possibly modelled Saint Barnabas on either the San Clemente in Rome or the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. Saint Barnabas has a distinctive square tower, in the form of an Italianate campanile, that is visible from the surrounding area.

The church was consecrated by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and opened for worship on 19 October 1869.

The majestic mosaic of Christ the King rests above a dramatic gilded canopy or baldacchino over the High Altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The campanile or bell tower was completed in 1872, and has a ring of ten, distinctive, tubular bells, and the hours and quarters are sounded on them. The bells and clock were installed in 1890 and are a remarkable example of Victorian engineering. However, the current appearance of the campanile, with a slightly flatter roof, is the result of a structural alteration in 1965.

On entering Saint Barnabas Church, one is struck at the breadth, and height of the interior space, by the majestic mosaic of Christ the King resting above a dramatic gilded canopy or baldacchino over the High Altar and by the great openwork iron cross suspended above the nave, based on Fr Montague Noel’s SSC cross and memorably borrowed by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure.

The church has an ornate and gilded sanctuary, a High Altar, flanked with symbols of the four Gospel writers, and above the High Altar a canopy or gilt baldachino.

The choir is several feet above the main floor of the church, and the high altar is reached by five or more steps. The seven sanctuary lamps hanging before the altar lamps were donated in 1874-1875 by the then Duke of Newcastle and some of his undergraduate contemporaries from Christ Church Oxford. The Duke of Newcastle inherited by marriage Hope Castle, formerly Blayney Castle, a late 18th century house in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.

The pulpit by Heaton, Butler and Bayne has panels depicting patristic figures painted by Charles Stephen Floyce (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The pulpit was added in 1887 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne with the panels depicting patristic figures painted by Charles Stephen Floyce (1857-1895).

This pulpit replaced an earlier, cylindrical timber pulpit with columns and a moulded cornice that is now at Saint Peter’s, London Docks, the parish church of Wapping established in 1856 as an Anglo-Catholic mission.

The mural by James Powell and Sons on the north wall illustrates the canticle Te Deum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The beautiful cut-glass or opus secule mural by James Powell and Sons on the north side of the nave was installed in stages between 1905 and 1911. It depicts apostles, saints, martyrs and angels, with the words of the canticle Te Deum Laudamus below.

However, when funds ran dry, it was impossible to complete the project, and this fine work only exists on one side of the church.

The reredos and altar in the Lady Chapel were commissioned by Martha Combe in memory of Thomas Combe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Lady Chapel on the north-east side of the church was completed in 1888. The reredos and altar are earlier, dating from 1873. They were commissioned by Martha Combe in memory of her husband Thomas Combe, who died in 1872, were designed by Blomfield, and are the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The reredos was extended in 1906 with 11 additional panels by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in memory of Martha Combe. The figures painted by may have been the artist Henry George Alexander Holiday (1839-1927).

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in Saint George’s Chapel, designed by the architects Bodley and Hare in 1919-1920.

The church’s first permanent organ was installed in 1872 and the present organ was installed in 1975.

The memorial in the choir to Father Montague Henry Noel, the first parish priest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The first Parish Priest, Father Montague Henry Noel, SSC (1840-1929), was the Vicar of Jericho in 1869-1899. He was a first cousin of Charles Noel (1818-1881), second Earl of Gainsborough, whose family weddings are discussed in my chapterer ‘Four Victorian weddings and a funeral’ in Marriage and the Irish: A miscellany, edited by Salvador Ryan (Wordwell: Dublin, 2019, 283 pp), pp 163-165.

When the church opened in 1869, Lord Gainsborough donated a rare silver Russian chalice and paten dating from 1639, from Pryluky, now in north-central Ukraine.

Subsequent vicars were CH Bickerton-Hudson (1899-1901), C Hallett (1902-1911), HC Frith (1911-1916), AG Bisdee (1917-1947), D Nicholson (1947-1955), LG Janes (1956-1960), HN Nash (1960-1967), JE Overton (1967-1980), EM Wright (1980-2007), JW Beswick (2008-2018) and CM Woods (since 2019).

Saint Barnabas maintains the Anglo-Catholic liturgical traditions dating from its foundation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church maintains the Anglo-Catholic liturgical traditions dating from its foundation. The parish says the mission at Saint Barnabas is to be place of timeless beauty, encouragement and compassion.

The parish was united with the neighbouring parish of Saint Thomas the Martyr in 2015 to form the new parish of Saint Barnabas and Saint Paul, with Saint Thomas the Martyr, Oxford. The first vicar of the new parish was Father Jonathan Beswick SSC.

The present Vicar of Saint Barnabas is the Revd Christopher Woods, one of my former students and a former Chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, a former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and a former Vicar of Saint Anne’s, Hoxton, in the Diocese of London.

The Revd Canon Prof Sue Gillingham is the Permanent Deacon of Saint Barnabas. She recently retired as Professor of the Hebrew Bible in the University of Oxford. She is Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral.

Father Matthew Salisbury, a self-supporting curate, lectures in music in the University of Oxford and is Assistant Chaplain at Worcester College. He is also National Liturgical Adviser of the Church of England.

The honorary assistant priests include Father Robin Ward, Principal of Saint Stephen’s House, Oxford, and Father Zachary Guiliano, chaplain of Saint Edmund’s Hall, Oxford, a Research Fellow in Early Mediaeval History, and recently Acting Precentor of Christ Church Cathedral.

The Revd Professor Sarah Coakley, who now lives in retirement in Washington DC, is an Honorary Assistant Priest during the summer months. She lived in Jericho when she was a Lecturer and Fellow in Oriel College in the 1990s. She has been a professor in both Cambridge, where she was the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity (2007-2018), and Harvard, where she was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity (1995-2007). She presided at the Sunday High Mass this week (27 August 2023).

Earlier this year (January 2023), the parish voted to welcome the ministry of women priests and bishops. The Revd Dr Melanie Marshall, acting chaplain in Balliol College, was the first woman to preside at the Parish Mass (14 May 2023).

The liturgy at the Sunday High Mass in Saint Barnabas is formal but the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The main act of worship is on Sundays at 10:30 am, when the Sunday High Mass is marked by traditional ceremonial, beautiful ritual, uplifting music and preaching and teaching that is engaged and powerful. The liturgy is formal but the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly.

The Daily Office and Mass are throughout the week, although the Daily Mass times vary from day to day. The church is open daily from 9 am to 6 pm.

The church and parish celebrated the 150th anniversary in 2019-2020 with a series of services, concerts and events. The church hosts many events throughout the year, including concerts, lectures and exhibitions.

Saint Barnabas Church features in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church was chosen by Thomas Hardy, who had worked as an assistant to Blomfield, for a scene in Jude the Obscure (1895), where he describes the church’s levitating cross – seemingly suspended in mid-air by barely visible wires and swaying gently – beneath which lay the crumpled, prostrate figure of Sue Bridehead, forlornly covered in a pile of black clothes.

Robert Martin, the biographer of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, records a university friend of Hopkins as saying ‘When I want a spiritual fling I go to St Barnabas.’ It was here too that PD James imagined the bodies in A Taste for Death, although she transposes the church to London in the book.

Saint Barnabas’s lofty Byzantine tower was described by AN Wilson in his novel The Healing Art as ‘the most impressive architectural monument in sight.’ The first Morse novel, The Dead of Jericho, is set by the canal and boatyard and the railway shunting yards close to the church.

The church was acclaimed by John Betjeman in his poem ‘St Barnabas, Oxford.’

Mary Trevelyan was the organist and choir trainer at Saint Barnabas Church for many years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Mary Trevelyan (1897-1983), who was born in Stony Stratford, was the organist and choir trainer at Saint Barnabas Church for many years. She was the eldest child of the Revd George Philip Trevelyan (1858-1937), Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Wolverton (1885-1897).

Mary Trevelyan is remembered for her work as the warden of Student Movement House in London. But two recent books also discuss how for many years she was the close companion and long-time friend of the poet TS Eliot. She believed they were romantically committed to one another and she had expected to marry him after the death of his first wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood.

The icons and Baptistry in the west apse of Saint Barnabas, Jericho (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘St Barnabas, Oxford’ by John Betjeman

How long was the peril, how breathless the day,
In topaz and beryl, the sun dies away,
His rays lying static at quarter to six
On polychromatical lacing of bricks.
Good Lord, as the angelus floats down the road
Byzantine St Barnabas, be Thine Abode.

Where once the fritillaries hung in the grass
A baldachin pillar is guarding the Mass.
Farewell to blue meadows we loved not enough,
And elms in whose shadows were Glanville and Clough
Not poets but clergymen hastened to meet
Thy redden’d remorselessness, Cardigan Street.

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in Saint George’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (69) 5 August 2023

The ‘Te Deum’ window by Christopher Rahere Webb in Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (6 August 2023), which may also be celebrated as the Feast of the Transfiguration. Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr (642).

Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.

Having looked at the ‘Te Deum’ window in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth, on Monday (1 August) at the end of a series of reflections on the windows in Tamworth, I continued my morning reflections this week in these ways:

1, Looking at a depiction of the canticle ‘Te Deum’ in a church;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Christ the King seated in Glory in the ‘Te Deum’ Window, Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The ‘Te Deum’ Window, Sheffield Cathedral:

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Sheffield Cathedral dates from 1930. It is part of the 1930s extension and was planned as a new Lady Chapel of the reoriented cathedral.

The vaulted ceiling is carved with roses, lilies and sunflower motifs. The wooden stalls and canopies were designed by Sir Ninian Comper. The reredos commemorates Freemasons who died during World War I.

The chapel is dominated by the great ‘Te Deum’ stained glass window, made in 1948 by Christopher Webb (1886-1966). The window is in memory of the Rev George Campbell Ommanney (1850-1936), Vicar of Saint Matthew’s Parish, Sheffield, in 1882-1936. It was the gift of Ommanney’s friend Thomas Clifford Watson.

At the top of the window, inspired by the canticle Te Deum, is the dove of the Holy Spirit.

In the centre of the window, Christ is seated in glory, surrounded by prophets, martyrs and the faithful through the ages, as celebrated in the canticle.

The rich colours and beautiful detailed figures are characteristic of Christopher Rahere Webb, a major stained glass artist who was active from the 1920s into the early 1960s. In his small Orchard House Studio in St Albans, with only one or two assistants, Webb created hundreds of stained glass windows, many replacing ones destroyed during World War II.

Webb’s uncle was the architect Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930) and his older brother, Geoffrey, was also an accomplished stained glass artist.

Webb was given the middle name Rahere in honour of the Augustinian canon who founded the Priory and Hospital of Saint Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield. It was derelict by the end of the 19th century, and its restoration was entrusted to Sir Aston Webb, assisted by his brother Edward who was churchwarden there and whose passion was architecture.

‘When you took our flesh to set us free, you humbly chose the Virgin’s womb’ … the lower part of the ‘Te Deum’ window in Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 14: 1-12 (NRSVA):

14 At that time Herod the reports about Jesus; 2 and he said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 3 For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ 5 Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod 7 so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ 9 The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; 10 he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. 12 His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

‘Throughout the world, the holy Church acclaims you’ … the ‘Te Deum’ window in Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Reflections from the International Consultation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Very Revd Dr Sarah Rowland Jones of the Church in Wales.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (5 August 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

God of all grace, whose love desires the flourishing of all Your children, send us out to witness to this transforming power and to be agents of such amazing grace, Amen.

Collect:

Lord God almighty,
who so kindled the faith of King Oswald with your Spirit
that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom
and turned his people to the light of Christ:
grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit,
may always bear our cross before the world
and be found faithful servants of the gospel;
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.

Post Communion:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Oswald:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘The glorious company of apostles praise you’ … the ‘Te Deum’ window in Sheffield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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 Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul has been the cathedral of the Church of England Diocese of Sheffield since in 1914 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)