An updated guide to my visits to churches and college chapels in Oxford and Oxfordshire

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, is unique in its dual role as a cathedral and a college chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I have an appointment in the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, tomorrow afternoon (21 September 2026) as a follow up to my stroke treatment four years ago. Over the weekend, I have been planning what to do, where to go and what to see.

Anxiety about timekeeping may mean I end up spending any extra time drinking coffee or browsing in the bookshops. But during those weekend thoughts I also tried to check out which churches, college chapels and church sites in Oxford I have already visited since moving to Stony Stratford and the Diocese of Oxford in 2022.

Once again, as in so many places, I found that as my postings have accumulated on this blog, it has become difficult for me, and so for readers too, to find these postings on this site. The number of churches, chapels and church sites I am visiting continues to grow. So this posting offers links to these and similar postings.

There are at least 74 sites listed here, and this guide is similar to guides to churches in other areas, such as Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, Lichfield and Staffordshire, London, Wexford, Limerick and Dublin. I have also promising myself to compile a similar guide to the churches and college chapels I know and have visited in Cambridge.

I intend to update this list as I wrote about more churches and buildings, indicating the date of the latest update at the end of this posting, and to provide an additional link in the toolbar in the banner at the top of the front page of this site. So this is an afternoon to update that list and to make it easier to find those postings.

Inside Saint Giles Church, Oxford, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Oxford City churches:

1, Christ Church Cathedral (18 September 2022) and here (4 April 2026)

2, (former) All Saints’ Church (now the Library of Lincoln College), The High Street, Oxford (12 June 2024)

3, Saint Aldate’s Church, Oxford (6 April 2026)

4, Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho (29 August 2023)

5, Saint Clement’s Church, Oxford (19 October 2025)

6, (former) Saint Clement’s Church, Oxford (21 October 2025)

7, (former) Saint Clement’s Hall, Oxford (22 October 2025)

8, Saint Ebbe’s Church, Pennyfarthing Lane (23 September 2022) and also here (30 June 2026)

9, Saint Giles Church, Saint Giles (15 April 2024)

10, Saint Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (19 October 2022)

11, Saint Mary Magdalen Church (3 September 2023)

12, Saint Martin’s Church and Carfax Tower (30 October 2023)

13, Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Magdalen Street (3 September 2023)

14, Saint Mary the Virgin, the University Church (19 September 2022)

15, Saint Matthew’s Church, Marlborough Road (27 June 2026)

16, Saint Michael at the North Gate (22 September 2022)

17, Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston (29 September 2026)

18, Saint Paul’s Church (closed), Walton Road (28 August 2023)

19, The Hospital Chapel, John Radcliffe Hospital (1 November 2022)

20, Convent of the Incarnation (Fairacres), Iffley Road, Oxford (21 June 2026)

21, (former) Holy Trinity Church, Blackfriars Road (1 July 2026)

22, The ruins of Osney Abbey, Osney Priory and the cathedral (21 December 2023)

A glimpse of the chapel in Blackfriars, Oxford, through intricately carved stone screen at the liturgical west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Other denominations:

23, Saint Aloysius Church (Roman Catholic), Woodstock Road (11 September 2023)

24, Blackfriars Priory (Dominicans), Saint Giles (9 September 2023)

25, Church of Saint Edmund and Saint Frideswide, Greyfriars, Iffley Road (21 June 2026)

26, Holy Rood Church, near Folly Bridge (26 June 2026)

27, (former) Saint Ignatius’ Chapel (Roman Catholic), Saint Clement’s, Oxford (18 October 2025)

28, Strict Baptist Chapel, Jericho (30 August 2023)

29, Saint Columba's United Reformed Church, Alfred Street (5 February 2024)

30, (former) Summertown United Reformed Church, Banbury Road (15 July 2025)

31, Wesley Memorial Church (Methodist), New Inn Hall Street (24 September 2022)

31, Friends’ Meeting House (Quakers), Saint Giles (12 September 2023)

32 First Church of Christ Scientist (Christian Science), Saint Giles (13 September 2023)

33, Unitarian churches in Oxford (14 September 2023)

‘The Light of the World’ by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) in a side chapel in Keble College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Oxford College chapels:

1, All Souls’ College (2 November 2022)

2, Balliol College (4 September 2023)

3, Blackfriars Hall (9 September 2023)

4, Christ Church (18 September 2022) and here (4 April 2026)

5, Corpus Christi College (3 November 2022)

6, Exeter College (31 October 2022)

7, Harris Manchester College (14 September 2023)

8, Keble College (31 August 2023) and here (16 April 2024)

9, Magdalen College (6 September 2023)

10, Merton College (5 November 2022)

11, Oriel College (4 November 2022)

12, Pembroke College (30 October 2022)

13, Pusey House (21 September 2022) and here (17 June 2025)

14, Ripon College Cuddesdon (29 October 2013)

15, St Edmund Hall (5 September 2023)

16, Saint John’s College (20 September 2022)

17, Trinity College (10 June 2023)

18, Wadham College (2 September 2023)

19, Wycliffe Hall (31 December 2012)

The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Bicester, a fine example of the work of the church architect Desmond Williams (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Oxfordshire:

Bicester:

1, Saint Edburg’s Church, Bicester (28 September 2025)

2, The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Bicester (2 October 2025)

3, Bicester Methodist Church, corner of Sheep Street and Bell Lane (4 October 2025)

4, (former) Methodist Church (Wesley Hall), Sheep Street, Bicester (4 October 2025)

5, (former) Congregational Church, Chapel Lane, Bicester (4 October 2025)

6, the Dissenters’ chapel, the cemetery at Saint Edburg’s Church (4 October 2025)

7, (former) Priory excavations, Old Place Yard, Bicester (4 October 2025)

Bloxham:

8, Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham (1 November 2022)

Headington:

9 Saint Anrew's Church, Headington (27 September 2026)

10 Corpus Christi Church (Roman Catholic), Headington (28 September 2026)

11, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry (not available yet)

12, Headington Baptist Church (28 September 2026)

Thame:

13, Saint Mary’s Church (Church of England), Thame (5 October 2025)

14, Saint Joseph’s Church (Roman Catholic), Thame (9 October 2025)

15, Saint Joseph’s Cottage, convent of the Sisters of Providence (9 October 2025)

16, The Prebendal House, Thame (5 October 2025)

Saint Mary’s Church, Bloxham, and its 198 ft spire can be seen from miles around, a key landmark in Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Church history and church life in Oxford:

1, The mediaeval Carmelite and Benedictine houses in Oxford (16 September 2023)

2, former mediaeval Greyfriars Friary (28 June 2026)

3, The Martyrs’ Memorial, Saint Giles, Oxford (17 September 2023)

4, Grandpont House (Opus Dei), near Folly Bridge (21 June 2026)

5, Plaque to four Catholic Martyrs, 100 Holywell Street (21 June 2026)

6, The Divinity School, Oxford (not available yet)

Kidlington:

7, Church House (Diocesan Offices), Kidlington (16 October 2022)

Old Greyfriars Street at Westgate is a reminder of the presence of the Franciscans in Oxford for over 300 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Jewish life in Oxford:

1, Oxford Jewish Centre (16 September 2022) and HERE (1 April 2022).

2, Site of mediaeval synagogue, opposite Pennyfarthing Lane (16 September 2022).

3, The Oxford Centre for Hebrew Jewish Studies, Clarendon Institute, Walton Street (16 September 2022).

For churches in other parts of the Diocese of Oxford, including Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, see here (30 August 2026)

The Oxford Jewish Centre provides for all Jews in Oxford and holds services with Orthodox, Masorti and Progressive prayer, sometimes simultaneously (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Last updated: 30 September 2026

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 109, Tuesday 25 August 2026

‘For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence’ (Matthew 23: 25) … teacups in a painting in a restaurant in Listowel, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII).

I am singing with the choir at a funeral in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this afternoon. 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.

‘You … have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith’ (Matthew 23: 23) … the statue of Justice by John Van Nost (1721) in Dublin Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 23: 23-26 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 23 ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

25 ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.’

‘For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law’ (Matthew 23: 23) … two Sabbath spice boxes, part of the ritual of welcoming the Sabbath, in the Jewish Museum, Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Beatitudes at the beginning of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says eight groups of people are blessed: ‘the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness …’ (Matthew 5: 3-10).

Now, as we come close to the end of this Gospel, we have seven groups of people who are condemned as hypocrites and against whom Jesus pronounces seven woes.

In the Gospel reading normally read on the Monday of this week, we hear the first three of these seven woes: woe to you who ‘lock people out of the kingdom of heaven’ (verse 13) … who ‘make the new convert twice as much a child of hell’ (verse 15) … and ‘blind guides’ who swear by the ‘gold of the sanctuary’ (verses 16-22).

We hear two further woes today (Matthew 23: 23-26): for those who tithe mint, dill, and cummin but neglect the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faith; and these who care about the details of domestic purity but neglect the cleanliness of their hearts and inner thoughts. Then, we hear the final of the seven woes tomorrow (Matthew 23: 27-32): a double woe on those who on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

A ‘woe’ is an exclamation of grief, similar to what is expressed by the word alas. In pronouncing woes, Jesus is prophesying judgment on the religious leaders of the day for their hypocrisy. He calls them hypocrites, blind guides, snakes and a ‘brood of vipers’.

Before Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of religious leaders, they have been following him to test him and try to trick him with questions about divorce (Matthew 19: 3), his authority (Matthew 21: 23), paying taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22: 17), the resurrection (Matthew 22: 23), and the greatest commandment of the law (Matthew 22: 36).

Jesus prefaces his seven woes by explaining to the disciples that they should obey the teachings of the religious leaders – as they teach the law of God – but not to emulate their behaviour because they do not practice what they preach (Matthew 23: 3).

The second grouping of these woes, which we read today, condemns the scribes and Pharisees for tithing mint, dill, and cummin but neglecting the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faith, for worrying about clean cups and plates outside, but neglecting the state of their inner thoughts (Matthew 23: 23-26).

The scribes and Pharisees are accused of making a big deal of small things like tithing spices, while they ignore more crucial matters. They diligently count their mint leaves to give every tenth one to the temple, but they neglect the more important matters of the law, such as justice, mercy and faith (verse 23).

Jesus is not saying tithing the mint, dill, and cumin is wrong. He says they should not neglected proper tithing, but it must be done with a good heart. Jewish law and tradition specifies tithes on some produce, generally food. But there was no tithe required for wild herbs, although this is debated in the Mishnah: ‘R. Eliezer says, “Dill is subject to the law of tithes [in regard to its] seeds, leaves and pods.” But Sages say, “Nothing is subject to the law of tithes [in regard to both its] seeds and leaves save cress and field rocket alone”.’ (m. Ma’as. 4: 5).

There is an issue of justice here. If a tithe that is not required in the law is demanded, then it not only deprives them of what is lawfully theirs, but in this case it may even deprive them of fully enjoying the Sabbath.

On the Sabbath, it is said, the ‘Sabbath Queen’ or the ‘Sabbath Bride’ descends from Heaven to heal the sufferings of the Jews. The arrival and departure of ‘Her Majesty’ is marked by ceremonies. When she enters, everybody is happy; when she leaves, there is a strange sadness. But people take comfort in a symbolic tradition that includes inhaling the aroma of spices contained in an ornamental box, often made of silver, the spice box.

Spice-boxes are an essential part of Havdalah (הַבְדָּלָה, ‘separation’), the ceremony marking the symbolic end of Shabbat and ushering in the new week. The spices are usually kept in decorative spice-boxes to beautify and honour the mitzvah and are handed around so that everyone can smell the fragrance. In many Sephardi and Mizrahi communities, branches of aromatic plants are used for this purpose, while Ashkenazim have traditionally used cloves.

A special braided Havdalah candle with more than one wick is lit, and a blessing is recited. If a special Havdalah candle is not available, two candles can be used, and the two flames joined when reciting the blessing. The traditional prayers include: ‘Praised are You, Adonai our God, who rules the universe, Creator of all kinds of spices.’

Turning to hyperbole, Jesus says the religious leaders can strain out a gnat when they are drinking but can swallow a camel (verse 24). In other words, they were careful to avoid offence in minor things of little importance, but ignore things that are much more difficult to swallow.

In the fifth woe, Jesus compares them to cups and plates that are scrupulously cleaned on the outside but left dirty inside. Their religious observances make them appear clean and virtuous, but inwardly, in their hearts, they are full of ‘greed and self-indulgence’ (verse 25).

It is not that washing my hands or cutlery and crockery before I eat is a bad idea, or that I am a hypocrite if I do so. If I habitually fail to wash my hands and the cups and plates before I eat, I am going to get sick, quickly and often.

But if I forget why I have to wash them, I am a hypocrite if I then expect others to do so. Indeed, sometimes we leave ourselves in danger of going hungry if we insist on everything being spotless before we eat: those facilities are not always to hand on a long train journey or a long flight, for flight, or while I’m at an all-day cricket match or at a rugby fixture.

The Pharisees had their own rituals, and I would be silly to think that only they had these problems. We all have our own rituals associated with eating and cleanliness.

It is said one of the principal causes of domestic arguments in the kitchen is about what way to stack the dishwasher, and how to empty it. Should the knives stand up or down? Which sides do you place the glasses and the cups on? Do you rinse the plates before they go in? To tell the truth, it probably does not matter. But it is still irritating to open the dishwasher and to find someone else has packed it.

The level of questioning of the Pharisees is about a ritual that is probably more important than how to stack the dishwasher. And the level of criticism from Jesus is not as rude as we might first think.

But when he says the Pharisees are hypocrites, Jesus is challenging them to drop the mask and to own the words they speak and to own the reasons for those rituals.

Can you imagine how much more positively people at large would view the churches if every parish and church put as much care into seeing that our children are not abused or infected with racism or discrimination or hatred as much as we put into seeing that the cups are clean for the tea and coffee after church, or as much as we attend to the cleanliness of the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

If we are worried about how clean the patten and chalice are at Holy Communion, how clean the church is, how clean the coffee cup is when it comes out of the dishwasher, how much more should be worried about how clean the Church is as an institution, how worthy it is to be called – for us to be called – the Body of Christ.

‘For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate’ (Matthew 23: 25) … a cup of coffee at Pavlos Beach in Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 25 August 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 23 to 29 August 2026 (pp 32-33), is ‘Legacies of History’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Dr Rachele Evie Vernon O’Brien, a Jamaican-born theologian and advocate.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 25 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, forgive us for where our words have not matched our actions. Renew us, your Church, to live out the love we proclaim.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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 all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin’ (Matthew 23: 23) … the former Tithe Barn in Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 19, Thursday 18 December 2025

‘When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’ (Matthew 1: 24) … a mosaic in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, Co Westmeath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, and Christmas Day is just a week away. This week began with the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025), also known as Gaudete Sunday.

We are catching a train to London later this morning for some pre-Christmas family meetings and perhaps lunch together. But, 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, 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.

The betrothal of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary … a panel in the Saint Joseph Window by the Harry Clarke studios in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Kilmallock, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 1: 18-24 (NRSVA):

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child … a statue at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), we continue in a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked yesterday (17 December). It is followed today (18 December) by O Adonai, O Root of Jesse tomorrow (19 December), and then O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 1: 18-24), continues the Nativity narrative in the first Gospel. This is a reading about choices, about obedience to God’s plans, and about the fulfilment of God’s plans for all nations.

So often we talk about the Virgin Mary and her obedience, about Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the birth of Christ But it means Joseph is often pushed to the side of the stage. Joseph says ‘Yes’ too, but he says it silently; he has no scripted lines; he has no dramatic part or role; he is mute; but he is obedient.

And, like the earlier Joseph, his Biblical namesake, he too is dreamer of dreams and a doer of deeds.

Saint Matthew’s nativity story lacks the romantic imagery of Saint Luke’s account, whose heady mixture of heavenly angels with earthy shepherds is missing. Instead, the hope of all the earth takes shape under the sign of arrangements being made for a betrothal that is apparently violated. The gifts of God’s grace and the promise of God’s reign are hidden, are to be searched for and to be found in the midst of what appears be a tawdry story.

The Virgin Mary may have been a mere teenager at the time, just 14 or 15. And, like so many other teenage brides, she turns up for her wedding – pregnant! Joseph knows he could not possibly be the father. He decides to do the right thing and take off, quietly dropping out of the arrangement.

If Joseph goes ahead, then this child is going to be known in his family, among his neighbours, perhaps by everyone who needs to know, as illegitimate for the rest of his life. His critics indelicately remind Jesus of this in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself’ (John 8: 41). The original Greek is more direct, crude and blunt: they taunt him that they were not conceived through illicit intercourse.

These fears and sneers, those social judgments and wagging fingers, must have been confronting Joseph like a nightmare. Yet the angel of Joseph’s dream makes a startling suggestion. He tells him to marry Mary, and then he is to name the child. To take on naming the child requires becoming his father. And this is suggested not as a nice thing to do, a courteous thing to do, a gallant or gentlemanly sort of thing to do. Joseph is told why: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (verse 21).

It is not a promise of immediate reward. Joseph is not promised that if he does this he is going to earn points towards the forgiveness of his own sins; that God will see him as a nice guy; that unexpected prosperity is on the horizon; or even that if he lives long enough, this child may grow up, be apprenticed to him, take over the family business, and act as a future pension plan.

If Joseph is not the father of the Child Jesus, he must have wondered what the angel meant by ‘his people’ and ‘their sins.’ But the forgiveness here is spoken of in apocalyptic terms. It is the declaration of a new future. To be forgiven is to receive a future. Forgiveness breaks the simple link between cause and effect, action and reaction, failure and disaster, rebellion and recrimination.

Advent is a time of repentance, forgiveness and expectation. It is a time of preparation, anticipation and hope. It is a time for dreaming dreams, and putting behind us all our nightmares.

Joseph dreams something wonderful. God would enter the world; God would be born to his new, young wife, Mary. But to believe this, Joseph had to trust not only his dream, but to trust Mary, to trust the future child, to trust God.

Do you love the people you trust and trust the people you love?

To trust the Virgin Mary, Joseph must have truly loved her. But trust in this predicament must have gone beyond trust. Joseph must have truly glimpsed what it is to trust God, to have hope in God, to love God, to have faith in God.

Joseph dreams a dream not of his own salvation, but of the salvation of the world.

Sometimes, like Joseph, we are supposed to trust God and then get out of the way. Do you trust that God is working through the people you love? Do you trust that God is working through people you find it difficult not to love but merely to like … working through God’s people for their salvation?

Too often we forget about poor Joseph. We tend to focus on the story of the Virgin Mary, but the Annunciation occurs not just to Mary, but to Joseph too. And they both say ‘Yes.’

And Joseph says a second ‘Yes’ too later when he agrees to the angel’s prompting to flee with Mary and the Christ Child to Egypt.

Joseph listens, God sends a messenger again, Joseph dreams again, and he remains true to God, he answers God’s call.

Joseph has no speaking part; he just has a walk-on part in this drama. But his actions, his obedience to God’s call, speak louder than words. Yes, God appears over and over again, to men, women, to ‘all sorts and conditions of people.’

Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to all children who seem unwanted and who are easily pushed to one side. Joseph’s ‘Yes’ is not only a ‘Yes’ to the Christ Child but a ‘Yes’ to the promises the Coming Christ brings to all who are marginalised and in danger today, for because of his ‘Yes’ God is among us.

Advent is an opportunity to echo that ‘Yes’, time and time again.

Mary’s ‘husband Joseph [was] a righteous man’ (Matthew 1: 8-19) … Joseph and the Christ Child depicted at Saint Joseph’s Cottage in Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 18 December 2025):

The theme this week (14 to 20 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 18 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Sisters as they travel across the islands by boat, canoe, and on foot. May their journeys be safe, and may their pastoral care, Scripture teaching, and witness bring encouragement to isolated communities.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Joseph depicted in a stained-glass window in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Saint Ignatius Chapel, Saint Clement’s, was the first Roman Catholic chapel built in Oxford after the Reformation

Saint Ignatius’ Chapel in the Saint Clement’s area was the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic place of worship in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing in recent weeks about the St Clement’s area in Oxford, including two of the interesting pubs there: Port Mahon, with its curious naval connections, and the Oranges and Lemons, which has been joyfully repainted and redecorated.

During the past year, I have passed along St Clement’s on the bus, on my way to and from hospital appointments. But is only because I decided to go back one day to see the newly-decorated Oranges and Lemons that I accidentally stumbled the former Saint Ignatius’ Chapel. It is the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic place of worship in Oxford. But it is tucked away in Angel Court, behind a former school next to the Port Mahon. It is secluded – almost hidden – and I had never noticed it from the bus.

Saint Ignatius’ Chapel was built in 1793 by a Scottish-born aristocrat and French-educated Jesuit missionary priest, Father Charles Leslie (1748-1806). He was a younger son of Patrick Leslie, 21st Baron of Balquhain, and had been a Jesuit missionary priest in Woodstock, Tusmore, and Waterperry, 11 km east of Oxford, before moving into Oxford and to the Saint Clement’s area in 1790.

When the Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1791, some legal restrictions on Roman Catholics were removed, allowing them to build their own places of worship and to open their own schools. Other attitudes were changing in Oxford at the time: the university had recently welcomed refugee priests from France and had conferred degrees upon Roman Catholics; and the Saint Clement’s already had some Roman Catholic associations through foreign craft workers moving into the area.

A small Roman Catholic presence had continued in Oxford after the Tudor Reformation, and it is especially associated with Edmund Campion, a fellow of Saint John’s College. Campion’s Decem Rationes was printed secretly at Stonor Park, Henley, in 1581 and 400 copies were found on the benches of the University Church at the commencements that year. Campion was executed later that year.

Two Catholic priests, George Nichols and Richard Yaxley, were arrested for celebrating Mass at the Catherine Wheel inn in Magdalen Street East, and were hanged in Holywell with two of their helpers on 5 July 1589. Another Catholic priest, George Napper, was hanged at Oxford Castle on 9 November 1610 for celebrating Mass.

During the reign of James II, in an attempt to impose Catholicism on the university, Bishop Bonaventure Giffard was imposed as president of Magdalen College and the fellows were expelled. The restoration of the fellows after James II is marked at a special banquet, the Restoration Dinner, in Magdalen College on 25 October each year.

The chapel was built in 1793 in the garden of Leslie’s house in St Clement’s, but set back from the road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There were about 60 Roman Catholics in Oxford by 1791 and they wished to attend services. Father Charles Leslie decided to meet their needs and raised funds for a new chapel.

The chapel was built in 1793 in the garden of Leslie’s house in St Clement’s, but set back from the road because of anti-Catholic feelings that were still strong in Oxford. The chapel opened in 1795, and was namedSaint Ignatius – not after Saint Ignatius of Antioch, whose feastday was yesterday (17 October), but after Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits (feastday 31 July).

A burial ground was consecrated in 1798, and Leslie was joined at Saint Ignatius the following year by the last resident chaplain at Thame Park, Father William Hothersoll, who left Thame after the Catholic mission in Oxford moved to the St Clement’s area.

The decision to move the Jesuit mission from Waterperry to Saint Clement’s did not bring an appreciable increase in the Roman Catholic population of St Clement’s, and the congregation of 160 was drawn from Roman Catholic families throughout Oxfordshire.

The Jesuit chapel was out of bounds for undergraduates, and two university proctors would stand outside the chapel on Sundays, looking out for any undergraduates.

After Sunday Mass, the congregation would have breakfast at the Port Mahon next door.

Father Charles Leslie was a notable figure in Oxford and e is said to have been the original of Mr Keith, the priest of JG Lockhart’s novel Reginald Dalton. He had a stroke at the age of 59 and died on 28 December 1806 at the age of 58.

The presbytery was replaced in 1909 by a new school building designed to house 200 pupils (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The chapel holds a significant place in the story of John Henry Newman (1801-1890), later Cardinal Newman and now a canonised saint. Newman, whose feastday was celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church last week (9 October), is to be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in two weeks time (1 November 2025). He was a curate in the Church of England parish of Saint Clement’s before he became a leading figure in the Tractarian or Oxford Movement. After becoming a Roman Catholic on 9 October 1845, he attended Mass in Saint Ignatius, regularly walking from Littlemore to St Clement’s during his remaining months at Oxford. But he was disparaging about the little chapel, and described it as ‘what to outward appearance is a meeting house’.

Father James Corry, the Jesuit priest at Saint Ignatius in 1871, worried about its size: ‘Even if I were a storm, what can I do in a tea kettle?’ His prayers were answered when the large and imposing Church of Saint Aloysius or the Oratory was built on Woodstock Road.

Saint Aloysius was designed by Joseph Hansom, and opened in 1875 by Cardinal Manning. Saint Ignatius continued to be used as a chapel of ease and some families and undergraduates preferred to continue to worship there. The last Mass was celebrated there in 1911.

Meanwhile, from 1869, the chapel had been in use as a school for girls and infants. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), when he was the priest at Saint Aloysius in 1878-1879, spent much time at Saint Ignatius’ Chapel and school, teaching and ministering to the poor and infirm in that part of the city.

The presbytery was replaced in 1909 by a new school building with Venetian windows and designed to house 200 pupils, although the chapel continued in use as a school room. Saint Ignatius’ School was renamed Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in 1932, and the school remained there until 1968 when it moved to modern buildings in Headley Way, New Marston.

The chapel and school buildings have been converted into commercial and business premises, and the discreet courtyard off St Clement’s is now known as Angel Court.

A blue plaque was unveiled at the former chapel on Saint Ignatius Day, 31 July 2018, by the Bishop William Kenney, Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham and the Revd Dr Joseph Munitiz SJ, former Master of Campion Hall, Oxford. A reception was held afterwards at the Port Mahon next door.

The plaque reads: ‘Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board The Former Chapel of St Ignatius The first Roman Catholic place of worship at Oxford after the Reformation Built by Fr Charles Leslie SJ in 1793 Campion Hall’.

A blue plaque was unveiled at the former chapel on Saint Ignatius Day, 31 July 2018 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 159, Saturday 18 October 2025, Saint Luke the Evangelist

Saint Luke depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII, 19 October 2025). Today in the Church Calendar is the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist (18 October).

Later in the day, I hope to spend some time at the AGM and annual conference of Christian CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). Originally, it was going to take place in Cardiff Qaker Meeting House, but due to expected rail strikes today, it is going online. The guest speaker, Paul Ingram, is speaking talk as planned. He is a former Senior Fellow of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), a think tank focusing on nuclear disarmament based in London and Washington DC. He has been vice-president of the Oxford University Student Union (1998-1999), co-leader of Oxford City Council (2000-2002), Warden of Oxford Quaker Meeting House (1994-1997), and has served on the Quaker Council for European Affairs and several Quaker committees.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Saint Luke depicted in a window in Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 10: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you”.’

Saint Luke in a spandrel beneath the dome in Analipsi Church (Εκκλησία Ανάληψη) or the Church of the Ascension in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Church Calendar, today [18 October] is the Feast of Saint Luke (Λουκάς) the Evangelist, traditionally remembered as the author of the Third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles.

I have never quite worked out why Saint Luke among the four evangelists is traditionally represented in Church art and architecture as a winged ox. But I find he is an interesting Biblical figure, not just as an evangelist, but as a writer who provided fascinating accounts of his travels – in all, he names 32 countries, 54 cities and nine islands – but also as a key figure in the tradition of icons and iconography.

Although Saint Luke is not one of the Twelve, he figures throughout the New Testament. Apart from the Gospel he gives his name to and the Acts of the Apostles, he is also mentioned in the Epistle to Philemon (verse 24), Colossians (4: 14) and II Timothy (4: 11), which is part of the Epistle reading in the Lectionary readings for today.

Later traditions claim Saint Luke is one of the Seventy at the heart of the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today, that he is one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, or even that he is closely related to the Apostle Paul. But Saint Luke, in his own statement at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, tells us he was not an eyewitness to the events of the Gospel. On the other hand, he repeatedly uses the word ‘we’ as he describes Saint Paul’s missionary journeys in the Acts of the Apostles, indicating he was personally there so many times.

Yet, both Saint Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are detailed in history, expression, and narrative that are held in regard by Biblical historians and archaeologists for their historical accuracy and trustworthiness.

Saint Luke is also known as the ‘glorious physician,’ and – especially in the Eastern Church – as an icon writer.

It is said that Saint Luke was born in Antioch in Syria (now in Turkey) to Greek-speaking parents. As a physician, he was said to have had a skill for healing, but that he left all this behind around the year 50 CE and joined Saint Paul after they met in Antioch.

He may have accompanied Saint Paul on his missionary journeys before staying on in Troas (Troy) after Saint Paul left, although it is also possible that he was with Saint Paul in Rome until Saint Paul was martyred (see II Timothy 4: 11; Acts 28: 16). Tradition says Saint Luke died in Thebes, in central Greece, at the age of 84.

Saint Luke gives us the great poetry of the canticles Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79) and Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32). He alone gives us the Annunciation, the Visitation, the birth of Saint John the Baptist, and the Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple. He introduces us to Elizabeth and Zechariah, the angels and the shepherds at the first Christmas, Simeon and Anna, the Christ Child lost in the Temple, the Good Samaritan, the unjust steward, the Prodigal Son, the healed Samaritan, Zacchaeus the tax-collector in Jericho, and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus.

Saint Luke devotes significantly more attention to women. He presents Christ as the constant friend of the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalised, the sidelined, healing the sick, comforting even the despairing thief on the cross beside him.

As I am challenged by the ways of the world, I sometimes wonder how – like Saint Luke the Gospel writer and Saint Luke the Iconographer – I can present the world with meaningful and accessible accounts and images of who Christ is.

As I pray each morning about the work of the Anglican mission agency USPG, I find inspiration in the commitment of Saint Luke the early missionary, with his accounts of the missionary work of the early Church.

Without Saint Luke, we may wonder how we would have come to know about the earliest missionary endeavours of Saint Paul and the Apostolic Church.

Saint Luke remains an attractive and interesting Biblical figure … as an evangelist, as someone who presents Christ in ways that can be understood in the language of the people, whether word or image, as someone who gives healing a proper place in ministry, as a friend of the poor and the sick, the marginalised and the stereotyped, as someone who, in all his travels and travails, remains faithful unto death to the ministry he is called to and is charged with.

Saint Luke depicted in a stained-glass window by Catherine O’Brien of An Túr Gloine in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale … Saint Luke’s Day is on 18 October (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 18 October 2025, Saint Luke the Evangelist):

The theme this week (12 to 18 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘A Life Dedicated to Care’ (pp 46-47). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update on Sister Gillian Rose of the Bollobhpur Mission Hospital, Church of Bangladesh.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 18 October 2025, Saint Luke the Evangelist) invites us to pray:

Lord, we thank you for the example of Saint Luke, a healer and servant of your word. May we, like Saint Luke and Sister Gillian, serve others with compassion and care, offering both physical healing and spiritual comfort to all in need.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you called Luke the physician,
whose praise is in the gospel,
to be an evangelist and physician of the soul:
by the grace of the Spirit
and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel,
give your Church the same love and power to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

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.

The Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVIII:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Luke depicted in a window in Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Thame, Oxfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

ss window in Saint Michael’s Church, Tipperary (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

Saint Joseph’s Church in Thame has stories of secret priests and links to the ‘Gunpowder Plot’

Saint Joseph’s Church in Thame, Oxfordshire, was designed by John D Holmes and was built in 1996-1997 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Saint Mary’s Church, the mediaeval Church of England in Thame, I visited Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church on Brook Lane. It is a modern church, built in 1996-1997, but the church also led to me learning more about the traditions and stories surrounding the Roman Catholic presence in the south Oxfordshire market town.

There were few Roman Catholics in the Thame area in the centuries after the Reformation, although at times they may have had a safe house at Thame Park.

Roman Catholic worship is known to have taken place at Thame Park in the early 17th century, when Lady Agnes Wenman lived there. She was a Catholic and the wife of Sir Richard Wenman (1573-1640), who was later given the Irish peerage titles of Baron Wenman of Kilmainham, Co Meath, and Viscount Wenman of Tuam, Co Galway, in 1628.

Agnes Wenman came from a Catholic family and was the daughter of Sir George Fermor of Easton Neston, near Towcester, Northamptonshire, and his wife Mary, daughter and heiress of Thomas Curzon and a god-daughter and maid of honour of Mary I of England.

The Jesuit missionary priest John Gerard had stayed as her guest disguised as a layman, and she was a friend of Elizabeth Vaux, a sister-in-law of Anne Vaux, an ally of Henry Garnet, the Jesuit priest. This led to suspicions that she was involved in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and both she and her husband were questioned separately in December 1605m but Henry Garnet was executed in May 1606. Agnes Wenman died in 1617.

Inside Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame, looking towards the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In the following century, another Lady Wenman was also a prominent Roman Catholic at Thame Park. Lady Eleanor Bertie (1737-1804) was a daughter of Willoughby Bertie, 3rd Earl of Abingdon, who was suspected of having Jacobite sympathies. She was brought up a Catholic by her mother, Anna Maria Collins, and at the age of 29 she married the 24-year-old Philip Wenman, 7th and last Viscount Wenman, in 1766.

The Roman Catholic population of Thame in 1767 was five: Lady Eleanor Wenman, her sister, her two servants and a hatter’s widow. Lady Eleanor allowed Mass to be celebrated in the chapel at Thame Park, with the approval of her husband, and she supported a number of Jesuit chaplains at Thame Park, including Father Bernard Cassidy (1713-1788), also known as Bernard Stafford. He was from Ireland and had been the Jesuit Superior in Oxford from 1771. When he died, he was buried in the chapel at Thame Park.

The last chaplain at Thame Park, Father William Hothersoll, left in 1799 to join a fellow Jesuit priest at Saint Clement’s in Oxford, after the Catholic mission moved there. Eleanor Wenman died in 1804. The date of the last Roman Catholic mass at Thame Park chapel is not known. The chapel at Thame Park was substantially renovated and enlarged in 1836 and became an Anglican chapel.

Inside Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame, looking towards the liturgical west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

For a while, the town welcomed French priests escaping persecution during the French Revolution. But there was no formal Catholic provision in Thame until the early 20th century.

Colonel Harman Grisewood and his Roman Catholic wife open the chapel in the grounds of the Prebendal House in Thame on 5 January 1913 as the Chapel of the Holy Family. Father Randolph Traill was sent by the Diocese of Birmingham to begin a mission in the area, and he living in the Prebendal Lodge in 1920. The chapel within the grounds of the Prebendal House is thought to have been built ca 1234.

The Grisewood family left the Prebendal by 1924. Colonel Grisewood’s son, Harman Joseph Gerard Grisewood (1908-1997), had a long career with the BBC. In his autobiography, One Thing at a Time (1968), he recalled his Catholic childhood in the 1910s and 1920s in the rambling 13th century house at Thame, with its own chapel and its own resident priest, Father Traill.

He recalled a terrifying incident when one day he and his brother, on an outing with their nanny and a nursemaid, were stoned in their prams by villagers as they approached Saint Mary’s Church of England parish church.

A new church was built in in Brook Lane, Thame, in August 1922, and was dedicated to Saint Joseph. Father Traill brought a statue of Saint Joseph from the Prebendal chapel to the new church.

The population of Thame started to grow rapidly after World War II as employment changed from farming to engineering, and by 1958 the parish numbered 270 people. Saint Joseph’s Hall, a prefabricated timber building was built beside the church in 1963 as a parish hall.

The church was extended in 1972 and 1983, but the town grew rapidly yet again in the 1980s, bringing increased pressures for a larger church. Building work on a new church began in September 1996, the church from 1922 was demolished in January 1997, and the new church was – completed in June 1997. Many of the stained glass windows in the original church were preserved and restored in the new church.

The church was blessed and opened by Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville of Birmingham on 20 June 1997.

Saint Luke and Saint John depicted in a window in Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Joseph’s Church in Thame is one of the newer churches in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. It has a traditional design, with a large, well-lit interior and furnishings and stained glass of some quality.

The new church and parish rooms were designed by the architect John D Holmes. The church faces south, has a spacious, well-lit interior and high-quality furnishings and stained glass. This description follows conventional liturgical orientation.

The church has brick-faced walls in stretcher bond with a slate roof. The plan is nearly square, with a narrower sanctuary in the liturgical east. There are two cross-roofs over each side with large windows. At the east end of the nave roof is a small flèche. There are diamond-shaped windows in the apex of east and west gables.

The entrance is in a link building at the liturgical west that leads into a narthex connecting the church and the parish hall. A large slate plaque commemorating the opening of the church is set below a window beside the entrance.

An abstract design in a window on the (liturgical) south side of Saint Joseph’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The four-bay interior has a boarded timber ceiling on laminated timber portal frames. The dadoes under the windows, the west wall and the east chancel arch are all of brown exposed brick. The chancel is plastered, with a timber ceiling.

The sanctuary furnishings are by David John in matching stone. The semi-circular sanctuary steps project beyond the chancel arch. A modern crucifix hangs above the tabernacle. The font at the west end has a circular bowl on a square stem.

All the windows have stained glass by Bowman’s Stained Glass of Aylesbury (1997). Those at the north-west, north-east, south-east and to the sides of the sanctuary depict the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Thame, apostles, evangelists and saints, while those to the north and south are largely abstract. The small gable window at the west depicts the Ecce Homo, and the east window the dove of the Holy Spirit. There is an etched glass screen at the narthex.

Saint Joseph’s Cottage near Saint Joseph’s Church was once a convent for the Sisters of Providence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Joseph’s Cottage nearby was once a convent for the Sisters of Providence, who ran a nursing home and care facilities and provided support for a local hospice. The legacy of the convent and the sisters continues through a local foundation, the Foundation for the Sisters of Providence.

As for the chapel at the Prebendal House, it is still in private hands but it no longer functions as a chapel.

• The Sunday Masses in Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame, are: 6 pm Saturday, Vigil Mass; 9 am and 11 am, Sunday. The Parish Priest is Father Michael Puljic.

The sanctuary furnishings in Saint Joseph’s Church, Thame, are by are by David John (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)