Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 53, Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh

Saint Colman’s Cathedral, the Gothic gem by Pugin and Ashlin, is the crowning glory of colourful Cobh and its harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to be in High Leigh these days for the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). But the pandemic means the conference has become a virtual event that began on Monday and that continues until later today.

Before this day becomes a busy day, with much of it devoted to the USPG conference, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning before the day gets busy to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

This week’s theme of island churches continues this morning (21 July 2021) with photographs from Saint Colman’s Cathedral on Cobh, Co Cork.

Saint Colman’s Cathedral was designed by Edward Welby Pugin and George Coppinger Ashlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

It could be said that Saint Colman’s cathedral crowns the harbour town of Cobh, standing on high precipice looking out across Cork Harbour.

This is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, which covering much of east and north Co Cork. Despite its mediaeval appearance, construction only began in 1868, and the cathedral was not completed for more than half a century, due primarily to steeply rising costs and revisions of the original plans.

The architects were AWN Pugin’s son and son-in-law, Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875), and George Coppinger Ashlin (1837-1921), who was born in Cork.

Ten years of extensive planning and fundraising in the parishes in the diocese were carried out before the cathedral was built. The Queenstown Cathedral Building Committee, made up of leading parishioners and chaired by the bishop, faced many complex problems.

During the planning years (1857-1867), the committee debated the style of architecture, the approximate dimensions of the planned cathedral, and providing a temporary church.

According to a plaque in the south transept, the total cost of the cathedral was £235,000. The project was supported financially by parishioners in what was then known as Queenstown and by prominent citizens, who are named in the parish records. The Building Fund also received substantial contributions from Australia and the US.

The draft plans by Pugin and Ashlin were approved by the Building Committee in November 1867. A new temporary parish church opened for worship by early 1868, The old parish church was taken down in February, the site was expanded and developed for building the cathedral, and Bishop Keane cut the first sod on 25 April 1868.

The sharply shelving hillside posed many problems for the contractors who did not have today’s machinery that makes site-development comparatively easy.

Bishop Keane laid the cathedral foundation stone on 25 July 1868, and laid the first stone of the main building on 30 September 1868. The stone had a container with a parchment recording in Latin details of the ceremony.

When the contractors had carried up the external walls to an average of 12 ft, Bishop Keane consulted the architects about having he plans more elaborate plans. The whole character of the work was changed, and, with the exception of the ground plan, none of the original plans were adhered to.

These extra works increased by many thousands of cubic feet of stone the quantity already provided for and substantially increased the cost. Bishop Keane did not live to see the completion of his cherished project, and he died in January 1874. His successor, Bishop John McCarthy, adhered strictly to Bishop Keane’s vision.

Eventually, because of extensive commitments in England and Ireland, Pugin and Ashlin agreed to divide their work, with Ashlin attending to their contracts in Ireland, including Cobh cathedral, while Pugin took responsibility for their projects in England.

Long after EW Pugin died in 1875, Ashlin took on the services of a young Dublin architect, Thomas Aloysius Coleman (1865-1950), a talented draughtsman, to assist in completing the project. Coleman, who helped to bring the cathedral to completion, later become Ashlin’s partner, and the partnership of Ashlin and Coleman continued until 1950.

The erection of the limestone spire – the last of the major external works – was to complete the cathedral’s graceful outline. The detailed drawings of Ashlin and Coleman showed an octagonal spire merging harmoniously with the quadrangular tower and its surrounding pinnacles.

The Cork firm of J Maguire began building the spire in 1911. For four years, stone masons worked to complete the gracefully tapering spire. The last scaffolding surrounding the spire was taken down in March 1915, and the work on the cathedral was virtually completed.

The clerk of works, Charles Guilfoyle Doran (1835-1909), supervised the project until he died on 19 March 1909, when the cathedral was almost complete. Doran was also a leading figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and the Fenian Brotherhood.

The cathedral was finally consecrated on 24 August 1919 by the Bishop of Cloyne, Robert Browne, in the presence of the Archbishop Michael Logue of Armagh, Archbishop John Harty of Cashel and Archbishop Thomas Gilmartin of Tuam, with Archbishop Gilmartin celebrating High Mass.

Saint Colman’s is a gem of neo-Gothic church architecture by Pugin, Ashlin and Coleman.

The Gothic grandeur of the interior, the delicate carvings, the beautiful arches and the mellow lighting combine to life the human spirit.

The carvings recall the history of the Church in Ireland from the time of Saint Patrick to today.

The interior decorations include lists of the Bishops of Cloyne, from Saint Colman in the sixth century to Bishop William Crean, who became Bishop of Cloyne in 2013. The names include Thaddaeus McCarthy, Bishop of Cloyne (1490-1492), who died at Ivera in north Italy as he was returning to Ireland from Rome – he was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1895.

Three other bishops also died in exile: Robert Barry (1662) in Nantes; John Sleyne in Lisbon (1712); and John O’Brien in Lyons (1769).

The High Altar in Cobh Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The tower has a carillon with 49 bells, one of the largest in Europe, installed in 1916. An automated system strikes the hour and 15-minute intervals while it also rings the bells in appropriate form for Masses, funerals, weddings and events.

The carillon is also played on special occasions and generally every Sunday afternoon.

Each year on the anniversary day of the consecration of the cathedral, candles are lighted before the 12 crosses on the nave pillars that mark the places where the walls were first anointed with chrism.

Bishop Keane had the architects change the whole character of the work at an early stage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!’

Inside Cobh Cathedral, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (21 July 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for open minds and sensitive ears, so that we may better listen to voices from the margins. May we work better to bring about justice for the oppressed.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The rose window and the organ in Cobh Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

An example of the interior decoration in the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘Who is my neighbour?’ A question for the Church in ‘Such a Time as This’

The Good Samaritan Window in Christ Church, Spanish Point, Co Clare … the question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ ran through today’s discussions at the annual conference of USPG (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I spent much of today online, taking part in the second day of this year’s annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The conference was due to take place from in the High Leigh Conference Centre outside Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. However, this year’s USPG conference is now a virtual conference, and all conference sessions are taking place online. Appropriately, the conference theme is ‘Such a Time as This.’ We have not witnessed ‘such a time as this’ on a global scale of pandemic, ecological crisis and racial divisions in living memory. This year’s conference is addressing questions such as:

Four live-streamed sessions are taking place throughout these three days, and today’s themes have included ‘Prayer, Presence and Provision in the Pandemic’ and ‘Racial Justice: Recovering Spiritualities, Restoring Justice.’

This morning we looked at ‘Prayer, Presence and Provision in the Pandemic.’

This morning’s speakers constantly returned to the question: ‘Who is my neighbour?’ The question was first asked this morning in our Bible Study, led by Canon Delene Mark from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, as she invited us to look at Luke 10: 25-29, and to ask what does it mean to love our neighbour living in this pandemic era.

She suggested that the natural instinct is protect ourselves, our families, and our immediate neighbours. But looking at two other passages (I Corinthians 13: 4-7; I John 3: 16-21), she reminded us of love that must be expressed in truth and action, that compels us to show compassion and mercy and to seek justice for all.

She also shared this prayer:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.


And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

Dr Yap Wei Aun of the Diocese of West Malaysia in the Church of the Province of South-East Asia, also took the example of the Good Samaritan, and asked who is our neighbour in this pandemic crisis. He reinforced the idea that no-one is safe until all are safe, and many speakers repeated the need for global vaccine equity.

Two archdeacons from the Diocese of Southwark in the Church of England, Archdeacon Rosemarie Mallett of Croydon and Archdeacon Alastair Cutting of Lewisham and Greenwich, shared a conversation about their experiences of living in this Covid-19 era.

They discussed how churches are facing real needs for reconstruction, resilience and repair, and how people need to express lament for their losses, including loss of income, loss of people, loss of jobs and loss of celebrations, as well as underlying anger and needs for forgiveness.

They shared their experiences of many parishes suffering economically but growing spiritually. Archdeacon Alastair said the Church needs to give more, to share more and to love more.

The windows in the USPG office in London … a background for some speakers at this week’s USPG Conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

About 120 people took part in the conference today, chaired by the Revd Paul Gurnham. Other speakers this morning included Bishop Jacques Boston of Guinea in the Church of the Province of West Africa, and Attorney Floyd Lalwet, the Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.

Our worship this morning was led by the ‘Voice of Praise Choir’ from Saint Matthew’s Church in Central Zimbabwe and this afternoon was led by the Diocese of Belize Youth Group.

This afternoon, we also received greetings from Archbishop Hosam Naoum of Jerusalem and Archbishop Howard Gregory of the West Indies, Bishop of Jamaica.

Our afternoon discussions focused on ‘Racial Justice: Recovering Spiritualities, Restoring Justice.’

This began with our Bible Study was led by the Revd Augustine Tanner Ihm, a curate in Manchester and winner of the Church Times ‘Theology Slam 2020.’ His study was based on the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19: 1-10).

He reminded us of the death of George Floyd in the US and the recent racist abuse of three black English footballers, including one from Manchester where he is a curate. He spoke of why Black Lives Matter and of compassion for the marginalised, and challenged us to think about those times when we have been complicit in systemic racism. Where have we seen overt or covert racism? What challenges might we be challenged to make?

The Revd Bertram Gayle, from the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands in the Church of the Province of the West Indies (CPWI), spoke of the Church in Jamaica, which has been disestablished for 150 years. But this is a very different experence to that of the Church of Ireland since then. He believes the Church in Jamaica has been slow to embrace indigenisation and needs to divest itself of power, prestige, pageantry, pomp and privilege, to embrace intentional cultural engament and to become more Jamaican.

Archdeacon Leslie Nathaniel, Archdeacon of the East, Germany and Northern Europe, spoke of how the Diocese in Europe is a multicultural diocese that is working in practical way to challenge racial injustice, seeking to move from exclusion to inclusion, from lament to action.

Bishop Fanuel Magangani of the Diocese of Northern Malawi in the Church of the Province of Central Africa reminded us through a visual presentation from Likoma Cathedral of the connection between Malawi and UMCA and USPG.

Today’s programme included a meeting of the trustees of USPG, when my six-year term as a trustee of USPG came to an end at that meeting along with two other trustees, Richard Barrett and Martin Canning. I may be stepping down as a trustee, but I am cretainly not stepping back from USPG, and hope to continue and develop what has been almost a lifelong commitment to USPG.

At previous conferences, in both High Leigh and Swanwick, I have spoken at or facilitated workshops, chaired some conference sessions, and presided at the closing Eucharist. I am missing the opportunity meet many old friends and colleagues in person. At every conference, much of the important personal contacts are made on the sidelines, at meals, in workshops, or even during the social occasions at the end of the day. The daily Eucharist at conferences have brought us together in communion and fellowship.

I am missing all these opportunities over these three days … including friendships formed in the evenings in pubs like King William IV, the White Swan, the Star and the Rye House, the opportunities for walks along the Lea Valley or in the Hertfordshire and Essex countryside around High Leigh, Hoddesdon and Broxbourne, visits to neighbouring Bishop’s Stortford, Newport and Cambridge, or a late lunch in the Fish and Eels after the last day of conference.

Perhaps, too, I had become a little too comfortable with flying in and out of Stansted Airport regularly for trustees’ meetings and conferences.

The conference continues tomorrow (10 am to 12 noon), when the topic is ‘The Cry of Creation: Creativity in the Church.’

An afternoon stroll on an afternoon in July along the Lea Valley that separates Hertfordshire and Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 52, Canon Island Abbey, Co Clare

Inside the abbey church on Canon Island … an Augustinian foundation dating from 1189 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to be in High Leigh these days for the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). But the pandemic means the conference has become a virtual event that began yesterday and that continues until tomorrow.

Before this day becomes a busy day, with much of it devoted to the USPG conference, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning before the day gets busy to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

This week’s theme of island churches continues this morning (20 July 2021) with photographs from Canon Island, which I visited three months ago (25 April 2021).

Canon Island Abbey on Canon Island … the island was granted to the monks of Clare Abbey by the O’Briens of Thomond (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Canon Island is a 270-acre island in the Shannon Estuary, about 2.5 km east of Kildysart, Co Clare, and about 1.5 km from the shore on the mainland. It is the largest of 29 small islands that span the crossing of the Shannon and Fergus estuaries, and the abbey ruins stand on the north-east corner of the island.

Canon Island is home to Canon Island Abbey, a ruined Augustinian monastery built in the late 12th century at the north-east corner of the island. Canon Island, or Innisgad, sometimes referred to as Canons’ Island, was once known as Elanagranoch.

The island was granted to the Augustinian Canons of Clare Abbey in 1189 by Domnall Mór Ua Briain (Donald O’Brien), King of Thomond. The abbey was founded in the late 12th century, but it was a separate community and was not dependent on the larger Clare Abbey.

The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine originated in a reform movement instigated by Pope Leo IX (1049-1054) and aimed at restoring religious discipline among parish clergy in Italy by grouping them into regular communities. Although they lived collegially, the canons were not monks but secular clergy whose primary function was parish ministry and pastoral care.

The Augustinian canons were introduced to Ireland in the first half of the 12th century after Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, visited the Augustinian canons in Guisborough, Yorkshire, ca 1126-1127, and visited the abbey of Arrouaise, in north-west France, in 1137-1138.

Many new Augustinian houses in Ireland were sponsored after 1176 both by the Irish and by the Anglo-Normans. By the end of the 12th century, the canons regular had become the predominant order in Ireland.

Clare Abbey was founded in 1189, when the short-lived diocesan status of Saint Senan’s island monastery of Iniscathaigh (Scattery) and its attached churches was under review. Scattery was too small to survive as a viable diocese. When Bishop Aodh Ó Beacháin died in 1188, this was an opportunity to revise the diocesan boundaries, Scattery became a rural deanery, and its ‘termons’ or outlying churches were subsumed into the Dioceses of Killaloe and the Diocese of Limerick on either side of the Shannon Estuary.

The foundation for Canons Regular at Clare Abbey in 1189 may have been part of redrawing and reforming diocesan boundaries, and many parishes attached to Clare Abbey were previously linked with Scattery.

Canon Island is one of the endowments included in the charter granted by Domhnall Mór to Clare Abbey, but a date for building the abbey on Canon Island is uncertain. Thomas Westropp, the Limerick historian and antiquarian, described the abbey ruins in the late 19th century. He places some portions of the buildings in the late 12th century. There is no written reference to the church, however, until the end of the 14th century. By then, it had already fallen into disrepair.

A papal document in 1393 describes the abbey as ‘so destroyed alike in respect of its buildings as of its books, chalices, and likewise of its temporal goods as to be threatened with ruin.’ The papal letter offered indulgences to any who helped repair the abbey.

In the papal letters, it is invariably called Monasterium Beatae Virginis. Later papal mandates to the abbots indicate Canon Island was one of the major religious houses in the Diocese of Killaloe.

The Mac Giolla Pádraig (Fitzpatrick) family and the Mac Mahon family frequently contested the control of the abbey in the 15th century.

Dermot Mac Giolla Pádraig was abbot from 1426-1478. Serious charges were brought against him in 1452 by Thomas Mac Mahon, ‘a deacon of Killaloe,’ who accused the abbot of wilful murder or of having aided or abetted murder, as well as breaches of the vow of celibacy and of simony.

A papal mandate was issued to the Precentor of Emly to look into the case and, if he found the complaints true, to remove Mac Giolla Pádraig, and install Thomas as abbot instead. The complainant, Thomas Mac Mahon, had received a dispensation from a ‘defect of birth’ or canonical illegitimacy as ‘a child of unmarried noble parents.’

Eleven years later, in 1463, another Dermot Mac Giolla Pádraig, perhaps the abbot’s son, also received a dispensation from ‘defect of birth’ as the son ‘of an Augustinian abbot and an unmarried woman.’ Indeed, the position of abbot remained in the Fitzpatrick family for virtually the whole of the 15th century.

For the greater part of the 15th century, the canons served as the working clergy of the surrounding parishes, including Kilmaleery on the opposite side of the Fergus estuary, and they were involved in the parochial life as far north as Kilmurry and Kilfarboy in Ibrickane.

Bishop Mahon O Griobtha of Killaloe, who died on the island in 1482, is buried in the abbey, but his tomb has not been identified.

The remaining abbey buildings include a church with Romanesque windows, two adjoining chapels, a belfry, a cloister and a large square tower. Roofs are missing from all the standing buildings. Buildings to the east would have had a sacristy, chapter house and dormitory for the monks. The south range had a kitchen and refectory.

The side chapels, tower and cloisters were added ca 1450. An early cashel wall partly surrounds the abbey. The abbey’s cemetery has several graves.

The monastery was dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII in 1540. The abbey then consisted of four acres of arable land, 14 acres of mountain and pasture, together with some islands nearby and the tithes of Kildysart and the vicarage or vicar’s share of the tithes of Kilchreest (Ballynacally).

The island, monastery and its assets and income were granted to Donogh O’Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond. But the Augustinians continued to live on the island until it was attacked by Cromewellian forces in 1651. Local folklore says the Cromwellians decided there was nothing of importance on Canon Island. They were on their way back down the river, it is said, when the monks rang the bell. The Cromwellians returned and killed 27 monks.

Tradition says three monks surviving. As they fled, they buried chalices, holy books and manuscripts, but they have never been found. The monastery ceased the function after that time.

Canon Island remained part of the Thomond estate until the late 17th century, when Henry O’Brien (1620-1691), 7th Earl of Thomond, granted the property to Richard Henn of Paradise, Ballynacally, and the island eventually passed to local families. The last families left the island in the early 1970s.

Canon Island is part of the parish of Kildysart. It has continued to serve as a place of burial and it remains a traditional pilgrim site for people on both sides of the estuary. An annual pilgrimage of island descendants and nearby villagers was revived by the late Father Michael Hillery, Parish Priest of Kildysart. Pilgrims gather in Kildysart, Bunratty, Foynes and Askeaton and travel by currach and boat to the island.

The East End of the abbey church … Canon Island may have been a key part of diocesan reorganisation in the late 12th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 12: 46-50 (NRSVA):

46 While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ 48 But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49 And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’

The West End of the abbey church … there is no written reference to the abbey until the late 14th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (20 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the peaceful co-existence of different religions and cultures. May we particularly pray for the work of the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

An ogee-shaped tomb niche in the abbey church … the monastery is called ‘Monasterium Beatae Virginis’ in Papal letters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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

The modern bell at Canon Island Abbey … the Cromwellians are said to have returned to the island when the monks rang the bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A missed opportunity for three days at USPG’s conference this week

‘For Such a Time as This’ … the theme of the USPG annual conference this week

Patrick Comerford

I had planned three days in England this week, taking part in this year’s annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The conference was due to take place from lunchtime today until Wednesday in the High Leigh Conference Centre outside Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. I had booked an early flight to Stansted this morning (19 July) and a return flight to Dublin on Wednesday night (21 July).

In between, I was hoping to have breakfast in Cambridge this morning and to spend some time in the bookshops in Cambridge, take some walks in the countryside in East Anglia, thinking about a return visit to Sidney Sussex College or to the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies, and looking forward to a walk along the Backs in this warm summer weather, either this morning or on Wednesday afternoon after the conference had ended.

However, even before the pandemic lockdown regulations were changed by Boris Johnson’s government, both the conference organisers at USPG and management at High Leigh wisely recognised the risks that might be involved in holding what we now know as a ‘corporeal’ meeting that would have drawn so many people together in one place.

The wisdom of this decision is in sharp contrast to the fool-hardy government change in regulations in Britain today and the way last week’s UEFA Euro final in Wembley was allowed to create a ‘super-spreader event’ outside the stadium.

Instead, this year’s USPG conference has become a virtual conference, and all conference sessions are taking place online.

This is my last conference as a trustee of USPG after serving two terms of three years, and I am missing the opportunity to meet many old friends and colleagues in person. At every conference, much of the valuable work is done and the important personal contacts are made on the sidelines, at meals or even during the social occasions at the end of the day … and I am missing all these opportunities. And I know I am going to miss the celebration of the morning Eucharist that creates real fellowship and communion between all participants in the conference each year.

Appropriately, this year’s conference them is ‘Such a Time as This.’ The title is inspired by Mordecai's suggestion to Esther that she may find herself in her present predicament or position to intervent on behalf of a people who face relief and deliverance or perishing (Esther 4:14).

We have not witnessed ‘such a time as this’ on a global scale of pandemic, ecological crisis and racial divisions in living memory. This year’s conference is addressing questions such as:

What do these major global factors say to the mission of the Anglican Church?

How can USPG and our partners speak prophetically into these important issues alongside supporting Churches in their community responses?

Four live-streamed sessions are taking place throughout these three days, with the first session this afternoon (19 July) looking at ‘Solidarity and global mission in the Age of Covid.’

The keynote speaker this afternoon was the Revd Duncan Dormor, General Secretary USPG.

He spoke of USPG’s vision for the Churches of the Anglican Communion to experience deeper fellowship together in Christ and be sources of transformation within their communities and beyond.

He spoke of the need for deepl listening, the courage to say difficult things and a commitment to ecological justice, telling us ‘there is no redemption without God’s creation.’

A round-up of the work of USPG over the past 12 months was provided by both Rachel Parry and Canon Richard Bartlett, which included many webinars, online seminars and online sermons. The annual founders’ day or Bray Day webinar in February, addressed by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was attended by over 300 people from over 30 countries, making it the largest USPG online event so far.

Our worship was led from the Anglican Church of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, and our Bible Study was led by the Revd Angela Bosfield Palacious of Christ Church Cathedral, Nassau, in the Anglican Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Church of the Province of the West Indies (CPWI).

The conference programme resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning (20 July 2021). The day’s themes include ‘Prayer, Presence and Provision in the Pandemic’ and ‘Racial Justice: Recovering Spiritualities, Restoring Justice.’

In addition, tomorrow’s programme includes a meeting of the trustees of USPG, and my six-year term as a trustee of USPG is due to conclude at that meeting.

The High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddeson in Hertfordshire … the originally planned venue for this week’s USPG Conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 51, Saint Ciarán’s churches, Cape Clear Island

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life of Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to be in High Leigh these days for the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). But the pandemic means the conference has become a virtual event, beginning today, and continuing until Wednesday.

Before this day becomes a busy day, with much of it devoted to the USPG conference, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning before the day gets busy to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

I introduced this week’s theme of island churches with Saint Mary’s Cathedral on Scattery Island yesterday (18 July 2021), and this series has already featured Saint Thomas’ Church in Dugort on Achill Island, Co May (28 March 2021).

This morning (19 July 2021), my photographs are from the church and church ruins on Cape Clear Island, off the coast of West Cork, which I visited last month.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island ( Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Visiting the island last month, I also found I was visiting Ireland’s most southerly churches.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron saint, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of its successor, the Diocese of Ossory.

Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder, to distinguish him from another sixth century Saint Ciarán, Abbot of Clonmacnoise. He shares the feast date of 5 March with his mother, Saint Liadán, and his disciple and episcopal successor, Saint Carthach the Elder.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on Cape Clear Island: Saint Ciarán’s Beach (Trá Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Well (Tobar Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Church (Séipéal Chiaráin) and Saint Ciarán’s Graveyard (Reilg Chiaráin); it is said almost every family on island has someone with the name Ciarán.

Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired some colourful stories. Before he was conceived, his mother, Saint Liadán, dreamt a star had fallen into her mouth. She related this dream to the tribal elders, who told her she would give birth to a son whose fame and virtues would spread around the world.

It is said that when Ciarán heard from sailors about a new religion in Rome he went there and embraced Christianity. He was ordained in Rome and after 30 years there returned as Bishop of Ireland. He built his first church on the island, and legends claim the people of Cape Clear were the first in Ireland to accept Christianity.

His first disciples included a boar, a fox, a brock and a wolf: they all became monks and worked together to build the community.

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. The east gable and north and south walls survive to near full height (1.8 metres), but the upper part of west gable is missing.

There is an arched doorway near the west end of the south wall, a lintelled window near the east end, a single-light window in the east gable with an unusual foil or drop in the centre, and small aumbries in the north and south walls near the east gable.

The church was in ruins by 1693, but it remains Ireland’s southern-most church.

Toberkieran or Saint Ciarán’s well is a few steps away from the church ruins and churchyard. Beside the well, a flat-topped standing stone has a cross-like carving in relief. On the north-east face is an incised Latin cross, with expanded shaft terminals. On the south-west face is a very worn Latin cross with expanded terminals. There is a slight trace of another incised cross on the south-east face, with an indecipherable incised carving beneath.

A steep climb leads north-east behind the harbour, with a 15-minute walk to island’s present church. Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1839. It is part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands, and is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

This simple church is typical of earlier 19th century churches that are plain in style and modest in scale. Despite replacement windows and doors, it retains notable features, including a bellcote at the west end.

This is a single-cell, double-height church, with a four-bay nave and a recent single-storey sacristy. The pointed arch openings have replacement uPVC windows, a replacement timber battened door and tympanum. Inside, there is a fine open truss roof, polychrome tiles and a carved timber confessional.

The other sites on the island include megalithic standing stones, a 5,000-year-old Neolithic passage grave, the ruins of Dún an Óir, a 14th promontory fort or castle built by the O’Driscolls in the 14th century and destroyed by cannon in the early 1600s, and a signal tower dating from the Napoleonic Wars. More modern additions to the island include a lighthouse, a bird observatory and two Irish summer colleges for secondary school pupils.

The island population is about 140. The primary school was built in 1897, and the island has a restaurant, shop and pubs, and a new café overlooking the harbour opened at the beginning of this summer.

Cape Clear’s remote location and the wild scenery, sparkling harbours, cliffs, bogs and the lake all contribute to the island’s unspoilt charm.

The ruins of the 12th century church beside the North Harbour … Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired colourful stories (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 12: 38-42 (NRSVA):

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ 39 But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. 41 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!’

Saint Ciarán’s Church, built in 1839 … the southern-most church still in use in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the USPG conference, giving thanks for all in attendance and those who planned the event. May we use this opportunity to amplify voices from across the Anglican Communion as we seek to deepen existing partnerships and begin new friendships.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Inside Saint Ciarán’s Church … part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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 Ciarán is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 91, Swanwick Conference Centre, Derbyshire

The chapel in the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

This morning (18 May 2021), my photographs are from the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, which was the planned venue for last year’s USPG conference until the Covid-19 conference forced its cancellation. This year’s conference is planned for the High Leigh conference centre in Hertfordshire (20 to 22 July 2021), and I still have hopes that the roll-out of the vaccine and the easing of travel restrictions may mean I can take part in the conference this year, the last year in my six-year term as a trustee of USPG.

I have also taken part in many USPG conferences in Swanwick in the past (2008, 2010, 2016), sometimes leading workshops and taking part in council and trustee meetings. Archbishop Alan Harper of Armagh was the keynote speaker on the final day of the conference in 2008.

I first attended a peace conference in Swanwick in 1976, when I first met people like Bruce Kent of CND and Harry Mister of Housman’s Bookshop, and I have been back on many occasions since. These visits have often afforded opportunities to take a few extra days off in Lichfield.

Swanwick is near Alfreton, and less than two miles from Ripley, the Derbyshire town that was named by the Guardian in 2016 as the ‘most English town’ in England.

The old country house, Swanwick Hayes – now the Hayes Conference Centre – was built by the Derbyshire industrialist, Francis Wright, in 1860s as a wedding present for his son, FitzHerbert Wright (1841-1910), when he married Charlotte Rudolphine Louise von Beckman (1848-1932), the daughter of a German pastor, in 1865.

Fitzherbert Wright’s father was a leading Derbyshire industrialist, while his mother, Selina FitzHerbert, was a daughter of Sir Henry FitzHerbert (1783-1858) of Tissington Hall, an early 17th-century Jacobean mansion near Ashbourne. The FitzHerberts acquired Tissington by marriage in 1465. The old moated manor at Tissington was replaced with the new mansion in 1609 by Francis FitzHerbert, and it remains the home of the FitzHerbert family. Today, it is the home of Sir Richard Ranulph FitzHerbert. These connections are recalled in the name of the Tissington Room on the ground floor of Lakeside, where I stayed on my most recent visit.

FitzHerbert Wright had interests in local ironworks and coalmines, and was a county councillor and JP. When he was retiring from the Butterley Company as managing director in 1903, he paid for a new tower as a gift for the Parish Church of Saint Andrew, which was built at the crossroads in Swanwick in 1860.

FitzHerbert Wright died on 19 December 1910, and in 1911 the family sold the house for £11,500, about a fifth of its original building cost, to the First Conference Estate Ltd. It was converted into the Christian conference centre that operates to this day.

During World War II, the Hayes was used as a prisoner of war camp for German and Italian prisoners. Franz von Werra, a Luftwaffe officer, escaped from here, but was recaptured at nearby RAF Hucknall as he tried to steal an aircraft. He later made the only verified German escape, from Canada.

Today, the Hayes is one of the largest conference centres of its type. But past stories are cherished with names on rooms such as Butterley, Tissington, Haddon, Chatsworth and Alan Booth. Perhaps I shall return to Swanwick soon.

The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick … the original house was built in 1865 by the FitzHerbert Wright family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 17: 1-11 (NRSVA)

1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.’

Swanwick Hayes was built in 1860s as a wedding present for FitzHerbert Wright (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 May 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for the work of theological colleges across the world church. May the work of these institutions help us to better understand God and the path He intends for us.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Night settles on the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick (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 Andrew’s Parish Church on The Green in Swanwick, Derbyshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 90, High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon

The Barn Chapel in the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, we are in an ‘in-between week’, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. My photographs this week are from places I associate with the life of USPG. Earlier in this series, I introduced the Chapel in the USPG offices in Southwark and its stained glass windows (20 March 2021).

.

This morning (17 May 2021), my photographs are from the High Leigh Conference Centre, outside Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire. High Leigh is the planned venue for the USPG conference once again this year (20 to 22 July 2021), and I still have hopes that the roll out of the vaccine and the easing of travel restrictions may mean I can take part in the conference this year, the last year in my six-year term as a trustee of USPG.

I have taken part in many USPG conferences here in the past (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019), sometimes leading workshops, taking part in council and trustee meetings, and I presided at the Eucharist at the end of the 2012 conference. I was also the chaplain in 2006 at a joint conference of the Friends of the Church in China and the China Desk of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), when I led daily worship and celebrated the Sunday Eucharist.

The High Leigh Conference Centre is a beautiful Victorian country house, set in extensive parkland and landscaped gardens, surrounded by some of Hertfordshire’s most beautiful countryside. The house was built in 1853 by Charles Webb, a gold lace manufacturer, and was bought in 1871 by Robert Barclay, a member of a well-known banking dynasty and a committed Christian, who renamed it High Leigh.

For generations, members of the Barclay family were leading Quakers, and there is a Friends’ Meeting House on Lord Street, leading from Hoddesdon out to High Leigh. By the time they came to live at High Leigh, the Barclays were committed Anglicans.

On the stairs to the room where I was staying in High Leigh on the last occasion, the walls are lined with Victorian photographs of the Barclay family and their staff, and a stained-glass window in the original parts of the house shows an impaled Barclay coat-of-arms that has a bishop’s mitre as one of the two crests.

Robert Barclay (1843-1921) was the son of Joseph Gurney Barclay and Mary Walker Barclay; his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848-1911), was a granddaughter of the 19th century reformer and campaigner against slaver, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and their large family included many missionaries. Joseph Gurney Barclay (1879-1976), who was born at High Leigh, left Barclay’s Bank to be become am Anglican missionary in Japan, where his wife Gillian died in 1909.

Another son, the Revd Gilbert Arthur Barclay (1882-1970), was a vicar in Cumbria, Leicester and Essex, and an army chaplain and hospital chaplain. A daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Barclay (1885-1932), who was born in High Leigh, was a missionary in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Her sister, Clemence Rachel Barclay (1874-1952), married Bishop Edward Sydney Woods (1877-1953) in Hoddesdon in 1903. He was the Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Suffragan Bishop of Croydon, and Bishop of Lichfield (1937-1952).

Robert Barclay continued to live at High Leigh until he died in 1921. His family then sold the property on favourable terms to First Conference Estate, a company he had been a director of, so that the house could become a Christian conference centre. The generosity of the Barclay family is celebrated in a plaque in the Oak Room.

Hoddesdon is a parish is in the Diocese of St Alban’s, and the parish church, the Church of Saint Catherine and Saint Paul, is in Paul’s Lane.

The High Leigh Conference Centre is a beautiful Victorian country house, long associated with the Barclay family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 16: 29-33 (NRSVA)

29 His disciples said, ‘Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.’ 31 Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

An image of the Virgin Mary in a quiet corner at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (17 May 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the relationship between the Anglican Church in Korea and USPG.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The impaled Barclay and Buxton coats-of-arms with an episcopal mitre at High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The parish church of Saint Catherine and Saint Paul in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem …Peace be within your walls’

‘‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ (Psalm 122: 6) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I spent much of today (12 May 2021) at a meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This was a virtual meeting by Zoom, rather than an actual physical meeting in the USPG offices in Southwark, and I missed the actual contact we have with one another at those physical meetings: the throw-away remarks, the asides, the knowing glances, the one-to-one contact with one another over shared coffees, over lunch, or as we hang around in ones and twos, lingering a little longer after the meeting ends in the afternoon.

All of these contacts, which are difficult if nor impossible online, help to build confidence, nurture friendships, bridge any gaps between trustees and staff, and develop the ethos and values of USPG

I particularly miss each and all of these opportunities as this was one of my last meetings of trustees. I am due to step down after six years as a trustee at the USPG annual conference, which takes place at the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire on 19 to 21 July.

I am still hoping against hope that I may be able to take part in this year’s conference. So, it was a personal pleasure to have been asked to provide a review of the meeting as our agenda reached a conclusion this afternoon.

In our prayers this afternoon we remembered five people associated with USPG who died since our last meeting:

• The Right Revd Botomazava Théophile, Bishop of Antsiranana, Madagascar, died 8 March 2021
• The Revd Herbert Frederick Giraud Floate, SPG/USPG missionary in the Seychelles and on Rodrigues (Diocese of Mauritius), died 17 March 2021
• The Revd Brian Taylor, SPG/USPG missionary in the Diocese of Kuching, Malaysia, died 25 March 2021
• The Right Revd Collin Theodore, member of the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ in Delhi and former Bishop of Rajasthan, died 15 April 2021
• Dr James Tejosh Das, former General Secretary of the Church of Bangladesh, died 20 April 2021

Given the current news these days, I found it appropriate to conclude those prayers today with verses from Psalm 122, which is a ‘Song of Praise and Prayer for Jerusalem’:

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
‘May they prosper who love you.
7 Peace be within your walls,
and security within your towers.’
8 For the sake of my relatives and friends
I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.

‘For Such a Time as This’: hoping to take part in USPG’s 2021 conference

‘For Such a Time as This’ … the theme of this year’s USPG conference

Patrick Comerford

With the roll-out of the vaccine in both Ireland and Britain, I am still holding out hope that I may be able to get to the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) later this summer in the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire.

The conference last year was due to take place in Swanwick, Derbyshire, from 20 to 22 July 2020, with the theme ‘Rejoice in the Lord always: God’s People in God’s Mission’, immediately before the Lambeth Conference. I had been hoping to spend some days in Lichfield too before or after the conference. But both conferences were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have not been back in England since March last year, and I have not been in High Leigh since July 2019.

I am in Dublin this evening to visit my GP tomorrow for a check-up on my sarcoidosis and an injection for my Vitamin B12 deficiency. But I am also hoping to get a date for my first Covid vaccine.

Should my first and second jabs come through on time, and should travel between these two islands become possible, then perhaps – just perhaps – I may be able to take part in the conference, with even the possibility of a visit to Cambridge.

The USPG conference this year has the working title, ‘For Such a Time as This,’ similar to the title of USPG’s Lenten course this year, ‘For Such a Time.’

We have not witnessed ‘such a time as this’ on a global scale of pandemic, ecological crisis and racial divisions in living memory. What do these major global factors say to the mission of the Anglican Church?

How can USPG and its partners speak prophetically into these important issues alongside supporting Churches in their community responses?

For the first time this year, the USPG Annual Conference will be both a physical and a virtual event. The full conference takes place from 4 pm on Monday 19 July to 2 pm on Wednesday 21 July at the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire.

Key sections of the conference will be livestreamed for a virtual audience in four two-hour sessions over those three days.

The annual meeting of USPG Council takes place on Tuesday 20 July, and my six-year term as a trustee of USPG comes to a conclusion at that meeting.

The all-inclusive fee for the full conference is £190. It is also possible to register for the day conference on Tuesday and for the online conference. In the event of the conference being cancelled due to further Corona virus restrictions, a full refund will be given to everyone who has registered for the physical conference.

Needless to say, all my travel plans are more in hope than in anticipation today, and subject to the roll-out of the vaccine and changes in government guidelines on trave.

Meanwhile, USPG supporters are being invited to join USPG later this month for a ‘Global Mission Webinar’ on USPG work in the Philippimnes.

The webinar, from 10 am on Thursday 29 April expects to hear three different speakers from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) share their experience and knowledge of the mission of the Church among the Lumad communities of Philippines.

Speakers are introducing case studies from grass roots mission work, along with challenges and opportunities that are being encountered by the Church in their accompaniment programme.

Find out more about these events on the USPG website HERE.

The High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddeson in Hertfordshire … the venue for the USPG Conference this year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)