Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 17, Tuesday 21 April 2026

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Eucharist on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 19 April 2026). The calendar of the Church of England today remembers Saint Anselm (1109), Abbot of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury and Teacher of the Faith.

The meeting of parishioners to elect churchwardens takes place in the parish hall in Stony Stratford this evening (7 pm), followed by the Annual Parish Church Meeting (7:30 pm). I have yet to decide about making a quick visit to London earlier in the day. 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.

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 30-35 (NRSVA):

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat”.’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John : 35) … an icon of the Last Supper or Mystical Supper in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

Many years ago (2010), I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are? I did some of the research for Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular, and I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programmes in the series unearth about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family and society … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

That is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’ But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles and the meaning of each other’s job titles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’ The questions being asked, deep down, often are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’ Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

‘Where am I from?’ The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel readings yesterday and today:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29). What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

He insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about? Pastoral responsibilities are not reserved exclusively for those of us in ordained ministry.

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

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

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 21 April 2026):

‘Turning Waste into Wonder’ provides the theme this week (19-25 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 48-49. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from Linet Musasa, team member of the Partners in the Gospel Comprehensive Climate Change initiative of the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 21 April 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord, give courage and creativity to all taking part in climate initiatives. Bless Angela Manomana and her young advocates and inspire communities to turn challenges into hope and opportunity.

The Collect:

Eternal God, who gave great gifts to your servant Anselm
as a pastor and teacher:
grant that we, like him, may desire you with our whole heart
and, so desiring, may seek you
and, seeking, may find you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Anselm to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Anselm depicted in the window above the High Altar in Saint Dunstan-in-the-West Church, Fleet Street, London (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

This misspelled Patrick Somerford goes in search of Somerford Keynes, far from Patmos and Milton Keynes

An aerial view of Somerford Keynes, on the borders of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire (geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Patrick Comerford

Many years ago, while I was staying on the Greek island of Kos, I wanted to visit the neighbouring Aegean island of Patmos and the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, with the cave where Saint John wrote the Book of Revelation.

I was travelling alone, and the arrangements were slightly complex, making sure I could the right ferries, with an early morning start but still getting back in time for dinner with the family in the evening. There could hardly have been much of a commission or profit for the travel agent, but in the best Greek tradition of philoxenia, she was attentive to all the details and worked hard for a very small task.

The tickets arrived under my hotel room door early in the morning. But when I looked at them my name was spelled Σόμερφορντ – Somerford. There is no ‘C’ in the Greek alphabet, and so had used the Σ, sigma, although I normally use Γκ in transliterations to get the hard C initial for my surname.

As I headed off for Patmos, I wondered whether Patrick Somerford would ever get on board the ferry. Even more worryingly, I wondered whether I would ever get back to Kos. The trip was 2-4 hours each way; could this turn into a 24-hour marathon?

I should never gave worried, and nothing ever came of it … I seem to fret too much about details like this when travelling, yet few people have ever checked my travel papers in Greece, probably because my looks and body language appear Greek.

But I have always let my imagination run away with itself when it comes to any misspelling of my surname – from Comfort to Somerford – to the real and acceptable variants, from Comberford and Commerford to Cumberford or even (in parts of Wexford) Comerton.

But, 25 years after that one-day pilgrimage to Patmos as Patrick Somerford, the name Somerford came to my attention again, with the death of Jilly Cooper two months ago [2 October] and Queen Camilla’s visit this week to the Bristol set of the television series Rivals.

It is going to be no surprise when I say that I have never read any one of Jilly Cooper’s romantic, horsey novels in the Rivals and Riders series. But one of the minor characters in these Rutshire Chronicles is known as Somerford Keynes.

The Manor House in Somerford Keynes, named after the Keynes family (geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0)

I wondered whether he could be a cross between Patrick Somerford and Milton Keynes, but there is, in fact, a village called Somerford Keynes of the Upper Thames Valley, close to the boundary of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, midway between Cirencester, Swindon and Malmesbury, but still 35 km (22 miles) from Quemerford.

Somerford Keynes is a village that stretches for about 1 km north to south along its main street. The north part of the village, taking in a length of the main street, includes a distinct cluster of buildings to the west, with All Saints’ Church, the Manor House and Somerford Keynes House, formerly the vicarage. Somerford Keynes and the neighbouring village of Shorncote have a combined population of about 550-600 people.

Somerford means a ford that can only be used in summer, while Keynes from the name of the Keynes family, originally from Cahaignes in Normandy.

Somerford Keynes is first named in any document is in a charter in the year 685 when King Ethelred’s nephew Bertwald granted land to Saint Aldhelm, first abbot of Malmesbury. All Saints’ Church is a Grade II* listed building built on Saxon foundations from ca 685, and largely rebuilt in the early 13th century. The tower was added in 1710-1713 and the church was restored in 1875 by the architect Frederick Waller.

In the Domesday Book, the village was part of the lands of the Bishop of Lisieux. William de Cahaignes, who held the manor in 1211, was a member of the Keynes family, who were lords of the manor from ca 1100 to 1300 and who give their name to Somerford Keynes. The Manor House is a Grade II listed building and probably dates from the late 15th century or the early 16th century.

Until 1897, Somerford Keynes was in Wiltshire, but it was then transferred to Gloucestershire – by 3 votes to 2.

I have no idea what sort of character Jilly Copper’s Somerford Keynes is supposed to be like. I imagine he’s nothing like me, and I know he has links either with the Comerford family, no matter how whimsically you spell or misspell my family name, or, for that matter, with Milton Keynes.

All Saints’ Church, Somerford Keynes (geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The intriguing stories that can emerge from research into Irish Jewish genealogy and family history

Stuart Rosenblatt is the leading expert on Irish Jewish genealogy and has been described as ‘a beacon of light for future generations’

Patrick Comerford

Two statistics have been drawn to my attention in recent days that I find intriguing.

An analysis of DNA findings suggests that nearly half of the population of Ireland may carry Jewish ancestry, according to Stuart Rosenblatt, the leading expert on Irish Jewish genealogy.

In a 20-page study published in the IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (Vol 26, Issue 6, Series 10, June 2021), Elizabeth C Hirschman Hill, Richmond Gott Professor of Business Department of Business and Economics, University of Virginia-Wise, says DNA evidence suggests many Lowland Scots and Northern Irish people have Jewish ancestry.

She says she has used the newest genealogical DNA methodology of phylogenetic trees to identify a large population of Jewish descent in the Scottish Lowlands and Northern Ireland. She proposes that the majority of these ‘Lowland Scots and Northern Ireland colonists’ were likely crypto-Jews who had arrived in Scotland in three phases: with the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066; after the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290; and after the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the 1490s.

She believes evidence is found that both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic branches of Judaism are present among these Lowland Scot and Northern Ireland residents. I was interested that the family names she included in her study are Hunter in Ireland and Kirkpatrick in Ireland and Scotland.

I am not convinced of her methodology, deductions or arguments, and she seems to be unsure about the understanding of lineage of Levites and cohanim in Jewish communities. Nevertheless, it is a curious hypothesis.

The leading expert on Irish Jewish genealogy, undoubtedly, is Stuart Rosenblatt. He also says DNA findings now suggest that nearly half of Ireland’s population may carry Jewish ancestry.

On a mailing list I am part of, Stuart was described earlier this week as ‘a beacon of light for future generations’ whose ‘quiet determination preserves the memory of a people.’

Stuart Rosenblatt is the founder of the Irish Jewish Genealogical Society, and he was the newly-elected president of the Irish Genealogical Society when I was invited to give a lecture in Dún Laoghaire on ‘The Comerfords in Ireland: Disentangling Myths and Legends to Find True Origins’ over ten years ago (10 February 2015).

Stuart was a genial host, and we had wonderful conversations about Comerford genealogy and Jewish genealogy and shared our thoughts on genealogical methodology that evening as he brought me to and from Dún Laoghaire Further Education Institute. We have both collaborated on research for programmes in the popular genealogical television series, Who Do You Think You Are?.

It has been said among genealogists and within the Jewish community in Ireland that never before in genealogical research has anyone attempted what Stuart has achieved – recording the full story of an ethnic Jewish minority across an entire nation, spanning all 32 counties in his Irish Jewish Roots project.

Over more than three decades, he has meticulously compiled an archive of 75,771 names, each entry containing up to 110 pieces of information. His work now fills 22 bound volumes, with copies in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, the National Library, the National Archives Dublin, the Irish Jewish Museum and the Genealogical Society of Ireland.

This archive is more than genealogical data – it is a bridge to identity. It aids descendants of Irish Jews worldwide, whether they seek to trace relatives, secure an Irish passport, or walk the streets where their ancestors once lived.

The records show many lineages go back 300 years, and the oldest stretch as far back as 1555, when most Irish Jews were of Spanish-Sephardic heritage. Today, most Irish Jews can be traced back to Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews from Lithuania and neighbouring nations who arrived in Ireland the 1870s.

Stuart has travelled throughout Ireland, gathering overlooked sources such as school registers, midwife journals, nursing home logs, memorial notices, and prayer books with handwritten inscriptions – fragments that official records rarely capture. His dedication is unwavering and at 81, he still works on it at his own expense, joking that his commitment is ‘eight days a week.’

His project began in the Irish Jewish Museum, housed in the former Beth Hamedresh Hagadol Synagogue on Walworth Road, Portobello, in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’. There he came across dusty boxes filled with genealogical fragments, and ouft o this chaos he created 16 separate databases, later merging them into a searchable programme.

Since then, the archive has become a living resource, accessed by scholars, families, and institutions worldwide. His work has supported television research, inheritance cases, DNA studies and countless personal projects.

‘Circumcision records are rare,’ he told an interviewer for the Jewish News Service, ‘although in one record, Revd Abraham Gittleson, in an entry under ‘Observations’ noted that the nurse fainted! And that stood out!’

The second statistic that has come to my attention in recent days and that I find intriguing is found in an analysis of the figures in the 2021 census for the Jewish population in England and Wales by ethnic group and nationality.

The figure for the total the Jewish population in England and Wales in the last census is 269,293, or 0.5% of the overall population. Of these, 230,399 (85.56 per cent) are classified as white, and among them 927 (0.34 per cent) are described as Irish, and 161 (0.06 per cent) as Irish Travellers.

For the first time, the census category ‘Irish Traveller’ was introduced for the first time in 2011, and in the 2021 Census of England and Wales, the Gypsy/Irish Traveller community numbered 67,757, or 0.1% of the population. But it means that 1.36 per cent of Irish Travellers identity themselves or declare themselves as Jewish, so that the proportion of Jews in the Irish Traveller population in England and Wales is higher than the proportion of Jews in the total population in England and Wales (0.24) or the proportion of Irish Travellers in the total population in England and Wales (0.1).

The other intriguing figures in those census returns in England and Wales include (and I am selecting randomly) 178 Roma Jews, 159 Chinese Jews, and 422 who say they are Arabs.

These are intriguing and fascinating breakdowns of statistics. But behind each statistic and each figure is a human story, and I’d love to hear more of those stories. Who are the Irish Traveller Jews living in England today? Where do the Chinese Jews comes from? How do the 422 Arab Jews feel about events over the past two years in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank?

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

The Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ in Portobello (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 86, Sunday 3 August 2025, Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII)

‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones’ (Luke 12: 18) … a large barn near Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth in rural Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church, and today is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 3 Augus 2025). Later today, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Today in the Hebrew Calendar is also Tisha B’Av, which begin at sundown last night (2 August 2025) and ends at nightfall this evening (3 August 2025). It is an annual fast day that commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, and many other disasters in the course of Jewish history.

But, 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.

‘So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves’ (Luke 12: 21) … inside an antique shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14 But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15 And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16 Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18 Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20 But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones’ (Luke 12: 18) … … old barns at Frating Hall Farm, near Colchester, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

I did not watch the first episode of Destination X a few nights ago; I never watched any of the episodes of the X Factor, Traitors, Love Island or Big Brother. Nor am I too fond of television quiz programmes, or programmes that ask silly questions of people. I enjoy Have I Got News For You? and Would I Lie to You? But I cannot see the point in Pointless or most other quiz shows.

You have programme presenters sitting there, looking smug with both the questions and answers, researched by paid researchers, and the poor members of the public sitting there, anxious about obscure questions about the crew members of the Moon Landing in 1969, or the No 1 hits in 2005, or celebrity weddings in 2025.

I could not, for the life of me, answer any one of those questions. But some poor people, for the sake of €100 or €1,000 – never, it seems, on the way to being a millionaire – are made to look silly or ridiculous.

Quite frankly, I find it demeaning. I enjoy the fun of table quizzes as fundraisers. But I have never wanted to hoard up all the answers for a television quiz, or, for that matter, for a parish table quiz. As I advance in years, I know this is anxiety that I do not need, and it is probably knowledge I am better off not storing up.

But I found myself watching one of those programmes accidentally as I was idly flicking through the channels to see what was on the television, to be told: ‘I could never go on a programme like that with you!’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Because I could never answer: “What is his favourite piece of music.” Or: “If money was no barrier, what would he buy?”’

Well, there is a lot of good music to listen to.

But if money was no barrier, what would I buy?

Would it make me happy?

Would it make anyone else happy?

Would it tell anyone that they are loved, loving, worth loving, that I love them, that I really enjoy their love? And I don’t meant what passes for love on Love Island.

On the other hand, I understand why the man in this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 13-21) does many of the things he does.

He has a bumper crop one year, and not enough room to store it. Was he to leave what he could not store to rot in the fields?

It is a foundational principle of all economics, whatever your political values – from Marx and Malthus to Milton Freedman – that the production of surplus food is the beginning of the creation of wealth and the beginning of economic prosperity.

Even if you are a complete ‘townie,’ it should bring joy to your heart to see the fields of green and gold these weeks, for the abundance of the earth is truly a blessing from God.

And it would have been wrong for this man to leave the surplus food to rot in the fields because he failed to have the foresight to build larger barns to store the surplus grain.

It provides income, creates wealth, allows us to export and so to import, allows us to plan for the future. Surplus food is the foundation of economics … and it makes possible generosity, charity and care for the impoverished.

For the people who first heard this story, just image those people who first heard this parable – they would have imagined so many images in the Old Testament of the benefits of producing surplus food.

Joseph told Pharaoh to store surplus food in Egypt and to prepare and plan ahead for years of famine (see Genesis 41: 1-36). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of the very brothers who had sold him into slavery (see Genesis 42), and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

The production of extra grain in the fields at the time of the harvest allows Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi to glean in the corners of the field behind the reapers (Ruth 2: 1-4). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of Boaz and his family line, and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.

When the people of God go hungry, the provision of surplus food is seen as a sign of God’s love and God’s protection … whether it is:

• the hungry people in the wilderness who are fed with manna (see Exodus 16), which is alluded to in this morning’s psalm (Psalm 107: 1-9, 43);

• or the way the Prophet Hosea reminds the people, in the Old Testament reading this morning (Hosea 11: 1-11), that God is the God who can say throughout their history: ‘I bent down to them and fed them’ (Hosea 11: 4);

• or the hungry people who are fed with the abundant distribution of five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 1-14; see Mark 8: 1-9);

• or the Disciples who find the Risen Christ has provided for their needs with breakfast (John 21: 9-14).

Surplus food, wealth, providing for the future, building bigger and better barns … yet it is never an excuse to ‘relax, eat, drink, [and] be merry’ (Luke 12: 19).

This Gospel reading offers the abundance and generosity of God’s provision as a sign of God’s love, for us as individuals and for all around us.

The rich man is not faulted for being an innovative farmer who manages to grow an abundant crop.

The rich man is not faulted for storing up those crops.

The rich man is not condemned for tearing down his barns and building larger ones to store not only his grain but his goods too.

The rich man is not even condemned for being rich.

The man condemns himself, he makes himself look foolish, for thinking that all that matters in life is my own pleasure and my personal satisfaction.

We are human because we are made to relate to other humans. There is no shared humanity without relationship. We are made in the image and likeness of God, but that image and likeness is only truly found in relationship … for God is already relational, God is already revealed as community, in God’s existence as Trinity.

This man thinks not of his needs, but of his own pleasures. He has a spiritual life … we are told he speaks to his Soul (verse 19). But he speaks only to his own soul. His spiritual life extends only to his own spiritual needs, to his own Soul; it never reaches out to God who has blessed him so abundantly, the God who in the Psalm reminds us that he ‘fills the hungry soul with good’ (Psalm 107: 9).

His spiritual persona never reaches out to or acknowledges God who has blessed him so abundantly, or to the people around him who have needs and who could benefit from his charitable generosity or from his business acumen.

In failing to take account of the needs of others, he fails to realise his own true needs: for a true and loving relationship with God, and a true and loving relationship with others.

He has no concern for the needs of others, physical or spiritual. He is spiritually dead. No wonder Saint Paul says in the epistle reading that greed is idolatry (Colossians 3: 5).

But if he has stopped speaking to God, God has not stopped speaking to him. And God tells him that night in a dream that this man is spiritually dead.

God says to him in that dream that his life is being demanded of him (Luke 12: 20).

But, did you notice how we never hear how he responds, how we never hear whether he dies?

The story ends just there.

The Gospel reading on the last Sunday of next month [28 September 2025, Trinity XV] is the story of the rich man who kept Lazarus at the gate, and then died (see Luke 16: 19-31). But unlike that rich man, we are never told what happened to the rich man in this morning’s Gospel reading.

Did he die of fright?

Did he die after drinking too much?

Did he wake up and carry on regardless?

Or, like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, did he wake up and realise his folly, and embrace the joys of the Incarnation?

These may not be the sort of questions you would be asked on Who wants to be a millionaire?. However, I am challenged not to pass judgment on the Rich Man. Instead, Christ challenges me, in the first part of this reading (Luke 12: 13-15), to put myself in the place of this man.

If we are to take the earlier part of this Gospel reading to heart, perhaps we might reserve judgment on this foolish rich man, just like Christ reserves judgment on the man who wants a share of his brother’s riches.

Perhaps, instead of judging this young man with the benefit of hearing this story over and over again, perhaps in the light of the first part of this Gospel reading, we might reflect on this Gospel reading by asking ourselves two questions:

‘If money was no barrier, what would I buy?’

and:

‘Would that choice reflect the priorities Christ sets us of loving God and loving one another?’

‘And I will say to my soul … relax, eat, drink, be merry’ (Luke 12: 19) … summer lunches in Rethymnon and Iraklion in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 August 2025, Trinity VII):

The theme this week (3 to 9 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Indigenous Wisdom’ (pp 24-25). This theme is introduced today with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG:

The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil is dedicated to a journey that merges faith with a profound respect for the earth and its people. In listening to the voices of Indigenous groups who have lived in harmony with creation for centuries, the Anglican Church in Brazil is reminded – and challenges us – to a deeper, spiritual connection between land, people, and God.

Whether it’s the sound of crashing waves or tweeting birds, creation speaks. The beauty of creation teaches us of God’s presence in the land, the waters, and the skies. In this simplicity, it draws us to listen to God - not just with our ears, but with our spirits. As Jocabed Solano, of the Gunadule Indigenous people group in Panama, explained: ‘The earth is the first theologian … it reveals God not only to us but through us.’

We also need reminding of our inter-connectedness, something that the modern world seems quick to replace with a drive for independence. Winston Tarere from Fiji urges us to: ‘Reconnect with the sacred rhythms of the earth, ocean, and skies as kin and family.’ Referring to the earth as family might be new to us, but it’s Indigenous wisdom. It reminds us that, similar to our own families or friends, we need the earth, and it provides for us in return.

And so, it is obvious to see why Isabel Dessana, of the Desana people in the Amazon, concludes: ‘Our ancestors' wisdom sustains us; it is our source of hope.’ The fight for land is more than a political battle—it is a spiritual one, a fight for identity, for survival, for the sacred bond between people and place.

Keep an eye out for the USPG Harvest Appeal 2025, which focuses on the Diocese of Amazônia and the urgent need for climate justice. Learn more at www.uspg.org.uk.

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 3 August 2025, Trinity VII) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Luke 12: 13-21.

The Collect:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
Graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ 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:

Lord God,
whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘And I will say to my soul … relax, eat, drink, be merry’ (Luke 12: 19) … waiting for dinner at Kyria Maria restaurant in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Patrick Blanco Commerford and his fictional family life in the Netflix series ‘Élite’ in Spain

‘Élite’, a Spanish teen drama series for Netflix, follows the stories of the Blanco Commerford siblings, Patrick Ari and Mencía

Patrick Comerford

In recent days I have been reading Naomi Klein’s prizewinning Doppelganger, A trip into the mirror world, which tells of the other Naomi Klein, her conspiracy theorist ‘double’. One is a leading academic in Canada and a regular columnist in The Guardian; the other is a fire-breathing, far-right propagandist, a frightening forewarning of what a second Trump term threatens to bring us.

There are times when I find it unnerving to come across someone else who shares my name, whether or not I am related to the other Patrick Comerford.

Of course, there are other people named Patrick Comerford who are Facebook friends or contacts, and we enjoy sharing birthday greetings and Christmas messages from one Patrick Comerford to another.

The name appears throughout my family history, from my uncle Patrick Thomas Comerford (1907-1971), an older brother of my father, back to Patrick Comerford (1584-1652), a 17th century Bishop of Waterford and Lismore who died in exile in France 300 years before I was born.

Indeed, I have found the name Patrick Comerford as early as 1549 – almost 500 years ago – and my other namesakes have included 16th century Bailiffs and Sheriffs, merchants who visited Spain and Portugal immediately before the Armada, a Cork wine merchant who whose daughter was a poet and whose grandson was a Church of Ireland rector (the Revd Patrick Comerford Law), a war hero from Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford, who died at sea during World War I, a Carlow county hurler, a star of Cork theatre, parish priests and missionaries in London, Glasgow, Nigeria, Mexico and the US.

But these are real Patrick Comerfords, and not doppelgangers or mirror images. They are real people in my family history.

On the other hand, Patrick Blanco Commerford is quite a different character from these bishops and missionaries, wine merchants and war heroes, actors and hurlers.

Patrick Blanco Commerford, his twin sister Ariadna ‘Ari’ Blanco Commerford, and their younger sister, Mencía Blanco Commerford, are among the principal characters in Élite, a Spanish teen drama series created by Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona for Netflix.

The show is set in Las Encinas, a fictional elite high school in Spain that caters to privileged and wealthy teenagers. Élite initially focuses on three working-class students – Samuel, Nádia and Christian – who win places at Las Encinas through a scholarship programme, and on the social and romantic interactions they have with several students. The series ran for eight seasons from 5 October 2018 to 26 July 2024.

Although the series has its share of light-hearted moments, Elite mainly centres around the trials and tribulations of its protagonists, exploring ‘hot-button’ issues like sexuality, classism, parental neglect, and illicit activities including drug use, crime and murder.

In Season 4, as a new year begins at Las Encinas, a fresh mystery unfolds with the arrival of the new principal, Benjamin (Diego Martín), and his children – Ari (Carla Díaz), Mencía (Martina Cariddi), and Patrick (Manu Ríos) Blanco Commerford.

The narrative takes a turn when Ari is found on the brink of death, and each plot thread, revealed through flash-forwards, sheds light on the circumstances leading to this incident.

Benjamin’s three children, Ari, Mencía and Patrick, along with Philippe Phillipe Florian von Triesenberg (Pol Granch), the heir to the throne of a Central European principality who gets caught up in a scandal, join the same class as Samuel, Guzmán, Rebeka, Ander and Omar.

The dynamics between the new and the veteran students start to develop. At the same time, Mencía becomes involved in prostitution under the influence of Armando, a businessman associated with her father Benjamin. Eventually, it becomes clear that the attempted murder of Ari and Armando’s death are intricately linked.

Benjamin is arrested for Samuel’s murder. Ari, Patrick and Mencía Blanco Commerford drop out due to their father’s arrest and then have to repeat their final year.

Carla Díaz plays Ariadna ‘Ari’ Blanco Commerford (seasons 4-6), Patrick’s twin sister and Mencía's older sister. She is caught in a relationship between Samuel and Guzmán. and is seriously injured in season 4. Her attempted murder is central to that season.

In season 5, Ari continues her relationship with Samuel, while having an affair with Iván, and she then has an affair with Nico in season 6.

Martina Caridd plays Mencía Blanco Commerford (seasons 4-6). She forms a relationship with Rebeka while also working as a prostitute. In season 6 she becomes close to Sara and Raúl, a strange toxic couple, trying to help Sara to get away from him.

Manu Ríos plays Patrick Blanco Commerford (seasons 4-6), Ari’s twin brother and Mencía's older brother. in season 4, who becomes involved as the lover of both Omar and Ander. In season 5, he has an affair with Iván’s father, Cruz, and at the end of the season he falls in love with Iván.

In season 6m Patrick and Iván have a turbulent relationship even if they love each other, and Patrick decides to go away from him for a while before he wakes up from a coma, to then coming back together happily.

Diego Martín plays Benjamín Blanco (seasons 4-6), the new school principal and father of Patrick, Ari and Mencía Blanco Commerford. At the end of season 5 he goes to jail after he accidentally murders Samuel, but he is released at the end of season 6.

We never get to know the name of the mother of the three siblings. She has died before her husband and her children are introduced to the series, but under the Spanish conventions for family names her family name must have been Commerford.

When their father is released from jail at the end of season 6, the Blanco Comerford siblings, Patrick, Ari and Mencía, move away with him to start a new life. The series is the second most followed Spanish-language TV show. With that sort of success, perhaps the Blanco Comerford siblings, Patrick, Ari and Mencía, may return in a new series in the future.

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 87, Sunday 4 August 2024

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Sunday Eucharist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today (4 August 2024) is the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X).

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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.

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 24-35 (NRSVA):

24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28 Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ 30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

Some years ago, I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are?

I did some of the research on Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular many years later, and occasionally I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programme unearths about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family, in society and in place … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

But that is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’

But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’

The questions being asked, deep down, are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’

Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

I was asking that question in my reflections on Friday morning.

Where am I from?

The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29).

What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

And did you notice how he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him?

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about?

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. In the Epistle reading provided for today (Ephesians 4: 1-16), the Apostle Paul begs us to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called, bearing with one another in love (verse 2).

That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … an image from Saint Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral, Orlando (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 4 August 2024, Trinity X):

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 ‘Understanding each other by walking together’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update from the Right Revd Eduardo Coelho Grillo, Anglican Bishop of Rio de Janeiro:

A strong and brave inter-religious movement has been taking place in Rio de Janeiro now for more than 10 years. Under the motto ‘we understand each other as we walk together’, different religious groups have been walking together through some of the most important streets of the city in an atmosphere of trust and respect.

That is a symbolic act of communion in a country historically stained by the enslavement of Indigenous and African peoples. Over 300 years, so-called western Christian society has ‘demonised’ Indigenous peoples and African religious experiences, generating prejudice, scorn and violence. In many places in Brazil, Umbanda and Candomblé religious places of worship have been targets of violence and destruction.

And yet every September, we see this march through Rio de Janeiro as the fruit of greater tolerance, respect and acceptance, as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, spiritualists, and members of the Baha’i, Wicca, Umbanda, Candomblé and other faiths walk together.

There is an increasing wave of intolerance, fundamentalism and religious violence these days in Brazil that has led to disturbing acts of both emotional and physical violence. But we still believe that love overcomes hatred as we have been making clear at public events of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. We are firmly grounded in the words of Galatians 3: 28.

This reflection is taken from USPG’s Bible study – For such a time as this which can be found at uspg.org.uk/resources/study-courses

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 4 August 2024, Trinity X) invites us to pray with this prayer from the Anglican Church of Canada:

God the Creator, the strength of the people,
we honour you.
Listen to the thoughts of your people.
We respect the truth of your spirit world and care
for your creations to the east, to the south, to the west and to the north.
We honour you by deeds and not words.
We live by the ways you have entrusted to us within the circle of life.

The Collect:

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions
make them to ask such things as shall please you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have willed that the gate of mercy
should stand open for those who trust in you:
look upon us with your favour
that we who follow the path of your will
may never wander from the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘They found him on the other side of the lake’ (John 6: 25) … a summer scene on the Lakes of Killarney, Co Kerry (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

When a senior judge says ‘journalists are decent people’ and defends the role of the press to scrutinise

Michael Fabricant with Ian Hislop on ‘Have I Got News For You’ … politicians are happy to be panellists until satire catches them out

Patrick Comerford

One of my favourite columns in the Church Times is the back-page interview each week.

In this week’s edition of the Church Times, Sir Mark Hedley Mark Hedley, a retired High Court judge, is talking to Terence Handley MacMath.

I first got to know Sir Mark and his wife Erica at a dinner in Liverpool Cathedral, where I had been invited to preach by the then Dean of Liverpool, now Archbishop Justin Welby. We later met for dinner in Bray while Mark and Erica were on holidays in Ireland, and we kept in touch with one another for many years.

Sir Mark is retired, but remains busy as Chancellor of the Diocese of Liverpool, a chaplain at Liverpool Cathedral, a Visiting Professor in Law at a local university, as well as being a trustee of several charities and a reader. He was brought in to investigate recent conflict at Wymondham Abbey, in Norfolk, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has awarded him the Canterbury Cross for services to the Church of England.

It is good to read a judge of Sir Mark’s standing and reputation tell a newspaper: ‘I’m keen on the press scrutinising what we do. It’s our best protection by far. My father and two brothers were journalists, and my confidence that journalists are decent people was usually borne out. Judges of the family division have extraordinary discretionary powers over life and death, and people absolutely need to be aware of what we do.’

I firmly believe that his applies not only to judges but to politicians and government ministers too, particularly in a time when freedom of speech seems to be under attack in a systemic and calculated way under successive Conservative governments, with the connivance and support, sadly, of some media outlets such as the Daily Mail and the self-styled GB News, which is more like a propaganda machine than a news channel.

Sir Mark has every reason to believe that ‘journalists are decent people’ and to be protective of the freedom and rights of the media. He recalls in his interview this week that ‘ father became the chief sub-editor of a Fleet Street daily’ and that two of his brothers were journalists.

But the present political climate leaves me to fear that there is a co-ordinated onslaught on media freedoms by Conservative politicians and supporters today. Four examples illustrate and support my arguments and my fears:

1, Why satire and humour are too much to take:

The BBC News at Ten presenter Clive Myrie was pulled from the live broadcast at the last minute last Friday after making several jokes about the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he hosted Have I Got News For You.

All the reports say this was due to a timing schedule after Clive Myrie made about the lying and convicted former Prime Minister while hosting the comedy show. But last week’s episode of Have I Got New For You was recorded on Thursday night before it was aired at 9 p.m., and he was pulled from presenting Friday’s News at Ten due to be broadcast on BBC1 at 10 pm.

Perhaps the ‘timing schedule’ means the two programmes were too close to one another. But it also shows how Conservative politicians and supporters are unable handle jokes about Boris Johnson, and cannot tell the difference between political satire and news on the one hand and news and journalism on the other.

The irony is that Boris Johnson and other Conservative politicians, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, have regularly appeared as hosts and panellists on Have I Got New For You.

Johnson has been a host on four occasions, and has been a panellist three times, on both Ian Hislop’s and Paul Merton’s team. His appearances on the show helped to cement his public persona as a buffoonish eye-roll inducing caricature, and he used the show as a platform to endear himself to a public that regards self-deprecation an art form.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been a panellist twice, on both occasions on Paul Merton’s team, while Michael Fabricant, whose unquestioning loyalty to Johnson was repaid with a knighthood, has been a panellist on Ian Hislop’s team.

The MP for Lichfield received a hostile reaction from viewers after appearing on the news quiz show alongside poet John Cooper Clarke and guest host Jo Brand. But even before the show went out he tried to manage expectations, claiming on Twitter even before he had seen the final edited version: ‘If I appear awful on #HIGNFY, it’s because all the good bits were cut out of the 2 hour recording. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.’

He attracted controversy early on in the broadcast after a segment focussing on proposals to ask landlords to help ascertain the legal status of foreign tenants, with Fabricant saying of the stars of classic comedy Rising Damp: ‘They look foreign to me.’ It was a massive racist bombshell just two minutes into the show.

Fabricant got another mention on last week’s show – the same show that seems to have landed Clive Myrie in hot water. Ian Hislop said: ‘The only people who are defending Boris are the people who he gave an honour three days ago. There is a case I think for suggesting that the political honours that he gave out should all be nulled.’ Paul Merton then added: ‘There’s a coterie of weirdness about him, isn’t there? People like Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries, Michael Fabricant. It’s like the human version of The Muppets.’

2, Sidelining and ignoring questions:

Earlier this week, Rishi Sunak did not take a question from the Guardian during his question answer time with the media.

As the Guardian points out, it is not unusual for news organisations deemed unsupportive to be low on the list when questions are assigned. But if politicians only allow themselves to be questioned by and to come under scrutiny from their own supporters, we do not have a free press.

Thankfully, this tactic can come back to haunt politicians who are not open to questioning and scrutiny. The Prime Minister may have been hoping for a more helpful question when he called Tom Harwood from GB News – which few journalists (and probably few politicians) accept as a serious news outlet.

To everyone’s surprise, and to Sunak’s surprise too, Harwood asked if the fact that Conservatives are distributing leaflets in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election attacking plans to build 300,000 homes meant the government was no longer committed to this target itself. And he asked if some of Sunak’s own policies had contributed to inflation.

In response, Sunak ignored both points and just attacked Labour. Harwood was not impressed, and tweeted: ‘Sunak refuses to answer my question on Tory Party literature in Uxbridge attacking a 300,000 homes a year housing target … Also completely avoided answering whether his uprating benefits and pensions by 10.1%, and reinstating effective bans on onshore wind and shale gas exploration have proved inflationary. Just spoke about Labour. Makes the ‘I’m a different kind of politician’ claims ring hollow.’

Selecting the news outlets you respond to, favouring them at press conferences, and then ignoring their questions bodes ill for the future of press freedom in this land.

3, Clear conflicts of interest:

Conservative politicians and supporters are quick to accuse the BBC of bias, as Clive Myrie learned in the past week. But they see no conflict of interest in Jacob Rees-Mogg hosting his own unregulated show on GB News.

He is another MP who has been knighted for nothing other than his unquestioning loyalty to Johnson. But even he was left stunned on air recently by the journalist and political commentator Marina Purkiss told him the Tories were drawing attention to issues that have little impact on people’s lives in a bid to distract them from the party’s own failings.

She encouraged viewers to consider whether it was debates over Roald Dahl being rewritten that would really impact their lives or whether it was the crisis in the NHS.

In a complete misrepresentation of reality, Rees-Mogg told Purkiss she should ‘stand up for freedom of speech.’ She said: ‘Mr freedom-of-speech here. Did you or did you not vote people to stop protesting if it was annoying?’ Rees-Mogg gave a token reply that public protest was ‘very important,’ but then tried to justify himself, alleging the new laws are important to ‘get the balance right.’

Purkiss challenged Johnson’s unquestioning loyalist to explain how freedom of speech would ‘make people’s lives better.’ She added: ‘Me making my case on this programme, which I will never come back on, is just so people understand that this is not going to help them.’

Rees-Mogg, who has shown his own contempt for Parliament in recent years with his louche body language, continued to repeat the claim and that he is using his platform to give people ‘freedom of speech’ in a bid to make their case. He added that the ‘left don’t like this.’

Martina Purkiss responded: ‘I didn’t realise I was on the left. I just realised I was a decent person. I’m not a massive lefty. “I just realised what you lot are doing in government is disgusting. You lie and you lie and you’ve got no contrition for what you’ve done to people. Your Brexit. Do you care?’

4, Pressures on programme makers:

Perhaps that was a rhetorical question. Because the truth is that people like Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Fabricant and Boris Johnson simply do not care.

Although Clive Myrie returned to news broadcasting this week, the way he has been treated, if not disciplined, serves to illustrate the nasty pressures brought to bear on BBC programme makers and producers by Conservative politicians and supporters, who are quick to offer criticism and to attack, but are unwilling to accept any criticism themselves and who fail to understand the subtlety – and the necessity – of political satire and humour.

One BBC producer recently told me of the extreme pressure she and her colleagues for any and every programme that seems to be critical, even in the most detached way, of any Conservative figure. These complaints come immediately, sometimes even before a broadcast has finished, and each complaint needs to be filed properly, investigated thoroughly and reported on comprehensively – an expectation that is required in law of the impartial BBC but not required of Tory-backing outlets such as Sky News and GB News.

Even when the complaints are investigated, more follow – but you’re not going to hear about that officially from the BBC and you are certainly not going to read about it in the Dail Mail. And you are certainly not going to hear about it from Jacob Rees-Mogg on GB News.

When Sir Mark Hedley was a High Court judge, he tells the Church Times, he kept a notice before him that reminded him: ‘The real world is not in this court.’ He says: ‘You’re seeing the last half per cent of human awfulness most of the time, and it can be a distorted view.’

To avoid the public receiving the distorted view of life that Conservative politicians would foist on us, we need to be vigilant about the freedoms of the press and of broadcasters. We need to defend the right to humour and satire in programmes like , to defend the rights and discretions of programme makers in the BBC, and we need to stop prime ministers ignoring questions from newspapers like the Guardian, and we need to ridicule them for sidestepping questions, even from outlets such as GB News.

Marko Zekov Popović: the mysterious major from Montenegro and his ashes in Dublin

Marko Zekov Popović (1881-1934) … moved from Montenegro to Italy, Mexico, China and London, but his ashes are in Dublin

Patrick Comerford

I spent a day in Dublin last week, being interviewed by a Montenegrin television station about Prince Milo Petrović, the dashing and charming political exile from the Balkan state who lived in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s, moved to Connemara in the 1960s, and who eventually died in Limerick and is buried in the churchyard at Saint Mary’s Cathedral.

This promises to be a fascinating documentary about the man, his Ruritanian claims and his exotic life in exile, including his interesting love life and affairs in England, the US and Ireland and his exotic claims to be a member of the royal court of Montenegro.

Much of the interview time on Friday morning was spent in the chapter house in Christ Church Cathedral. Later in the day, we did some more filming in the cathedral’s atmospheric crypt. But, Inevitably, we spent a lot of Friday afternoon filming in the south ambulatory, where a gilded casket with the cremated ashes of Major Marko Zekov Popović is placed on a high ledge.

The inscription on a brass plate below the casket describes Popović as the ‘Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer of Montenegro’ and notes that he died in London on 26 October 1934.

But, I was asked, why were his ashes brought to Dublin? Who placed them in the cathedral? I found myself even questioning the exotic claims made for Popović in the few, short words on this small plaque.

Most of the available evidence in English for the life of Prince Milo was provided himself in his conversations with his daughter, Milena Thompson. They provide the substantial but often unsubstantiated biographical details and claims in her self-published account of his life.

But there is little evidence in English for the life of Major Popović, and many of his biographical details have only come to light in recent years through research in Montenegro by Novak Adžić, a lawyer and historian, and Dr Šerbo Rastoder.

Major Marko Zekov Popović (1881-1934) from Njeguš, who claimed the title of Alajbarjaktar or ‘Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer of Montenegro,’ was one of the prominent exiled advocates of Montenegro’s independence and identity after World War I. After the incorporation of Montenegro into a new state that would become Yugoslavia, he lived in exile from 1919 until he died aged 53 in London on 26 October 1934. Arguments continue about whether he died of natural causes or was poisoned and murdered.

Marko Zekov Popović was born in Njeguši in the Cetinje region of Montenegro on 20 April 1881, and would later claim he had inherited the position of hereditary alaibarjaktar of Montenegro’s army from his father Zeko Mašanov Popović.

Montenegro was a tiny Balkan principality whose independence was recognised by the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, and the country was unilaterally proclaimed a kingdom in 1910.

When Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1912, Marko Zekov Popović went to the front as a lieutenant in the Montenegrin army and took part in the first Balkan War in 1912-1913, which delineated the borders between Montenegro and neighbouring Serbia and Albania.

After a short period of peace, the Kingdom of Montenegro entered World War I in 1914 on the sallied ide of the Central Powers in 1914, and Popović became an artillery captain. Montenegro was defeated by the Austro-Hungarian army in 1916, King Nicholas went into exile in France and the occupation continued until October 1918.

At the end of World War I following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Popović was blocked from returning to Montenegro and was detained on a ship. The Podgorica Assembly in November 1918 voted to depose the exiled King Nikola and for the unification of Serbia and Montenegro under the Karađorđević monarchy. Montenegro became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).

At the beginning of January 1919, Montenegrin loyalists, led by the former minister and president of the Montenegrin National Assembly, Jovan S Plamenac, and commander Krsto Zrnov Popović, launched the ‘Christmas Uprising against’ incorporation with Serbia in the new kingdom.

The armed struggle lasted for several days. In the fighting around Cetinje, Captain Marko Zekov Popović took part in the fighting in Katun and was one of the organisers of the uprising in the Katunska Nahija area. Citing his oath of loyalty to King Nikola, he refused to surrender and went into political exile.

A boat took Popović, Prince Milo Petrović and other supporters of King Nikola of Montenegro from Kotor to a refugee camp in San Giovanni di Medua. After arriving in Italy, Popović and other exiles settled in Monte Cava, near Rome. Some reports said they were plotting an invasion of Montenegro with Italian support.

Popović was still in Italy when the Montenegrin court and government-in-exile in Paris promoted him to the rank of major in the Montenegrin army on 19 July, backdating his promotion to 3 January 1919 NS (21 December 1918 OS).

Popović and a 70-strong group of exiles in Italy signed a declaration in Gaeta on 20 April 1920, addressed to the exiled Prime Minister Jovan S Plamenac, then on a political mission in London, pledging to continue the fight for an independent Montenegro.

The exiled King Nikola died in exile in Antibes on 1 March 1921, and Popović was a member of the delegation of exiled Montenegrin troops at his burial at the Russian Orthodox Church in San Remo in Italy later that month.

King Nikola and the Kingdom of Montenegro are mentioned briefly by F Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, when Jay Gatsby reminisces on his heroic endeavours during World War I, for which the king confers on him the highest honour of the kingdom, the Orderi di Danilo.

But the exiled Montenegrin army in Italy was disbanded in 1921. After Mussolini’s fascists came to power, the Montenegrin refugees were told to leave Italy. Popović left with Prince Milo Petrović Njegoš in 1922, and they went from one exile to another, first staying in Mexico, then travelling to China, before finally moving to London, where they were living in 1925. They were accompanied by the journalist and publicist Jovan-Jovo Čubranović.

Meanwhile, the Committee for the Defence of Montenegro was formed in Dublin in 1924, and was active in representing the three friends in promoting Montenegrin independence, organising forums and lectures, and lobbying political circles and the press. They argued there was no international treaty by which Montenegro had ceased to exist as an independent state.

They formed the Montenegrin Party (federalists), and Čubranović spoke as a member of the Montenegro National Defence in Dublin in 1925, demanding the withdrawal of Serbian troops from Montenegro.

Another prominent exile, Milo Vujović, formed the Montenegro People’s Party of Peasants and Workers and published the newspaper Crnogorski Glasnik or Montenegro Herald in Detroit. In San Francisco, Nikola Petanović-Naiad founded the Alliance for a Free and Independent Montenegro and edited the monthly magazine The Montenegrin Mirror or Crnogorsko Ogledalo in 1927-1931. Petanović published articles by Marko Zekov Popović and wrote about him as one of the key exiled figures in the Montenegrin struggle. Other committees lobbied throughout Europe and North America

Eventually the exile groups turned on the late King Nikola, claiming he had ruined the freedom of Montenegro and its people, bringing them ‘to the brink of ruin’ and treacherously serving the interests of Belgrade.

Reports in the Montenegrin Mirror throughout 1931 regularly refer to the activities of Major Marko Zekov Popović and ‘his unwavering, consistent and courageous fight for the right, honour and freedom and independence of Montenegro.’

An anonymous feature in the Montenegrin Mirror in June 1931 says Popović ‘will one day become a legend and future writers among the southern Slavs will compete by telling about his life.’ It said that since the fall of the Montenegrin state, he and Prince Milo had ‘visited every important country in the world.’

The urn and plaque in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, commemorate Marko Zekov Popović, the Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer of Montenegro (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Major Popović died in London on 26 October 1934. Some of his fellow exiles said he had been killed or poisoned. He was cremated, and his ashes in a small casket were brought to Dublin and placed on a shelf in the south ambulatory in Christ Church Cathedral. I noticed once again last week the curious coincidence that below the shelf with the urn and ashes of Popović, the niches are filled with Byzantine-style icons of archangels by the Revd Olive Donohoe, presented to the cathedral in 2019.

But the presence of his urn and ashes left me with more questions about Popović than answers while I was being interviewed last week.

Why was an Orthodox Montenegrin cremated after his death in the 1930s, at a time when cremation was not only frowned on but condemned by all Orthodox churches?

Why was Popović not buried in London with a funeral in an Orthodox church – Serbian, Greek or Russian – instead of being brought to Dublin?

Why did Prince Milo bring the ashes to Dublin and place them in an Anglican cathedral?

And why is Popović described as holding such a Ruritanian-style office? It is difficult to imagine that as Montenegro only ever had one king it could have had many hereditary office-holders.

Perhaps Prince Milo was creating facts on the ground – or on the cathedral shelf – assembling the appearance of a retinue of courtiers, with his own special, highly-decorated and lavishly-styled ‘wingman,’ adding to the romantic veneer of his presence among the circles in which he wanted to move in after moving from London to Dublin.

It is telling that the film The Prisoner of Zenda, which popularised the term ‘Ruritania’, was released in 1937, just as these ashes were being placed on this shelf in Christ Church Cathedral.

But more about Ruritania and Montenegro on another day.

Marko Zekov Popović … why did his ashes end up on a shelf in Dublin?