Praying with the Psalms in Easter: 8 May 2022 (Psalm 74)

‘Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?’ (Psalm 74: 1) … sheep grazing on the Curragh of Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I am back in Stony Stratford after visiting London yesterday for a church service and a dinner. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Before this day begins, I am continuing my morning reflections in this season of Easter continues, including my morning reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 74:

Psalm 74 is the second psalm in Book 3 in the Book of Psalms, which includes Psalms 73 to 89. In the slightly different numbering scheme in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is psalm is numbered as Psalm 73.

This is the third of the ‘Psalms of Asaph.’ These are the 12 psalms numbered 50 and 73 to 83 in the Masoretic text and 49 and 72-82 in the Septuagint. Each psalm has a separate meaning, and these psalms cannot be summarised easily as a whole.

But throughout these 12 psalms is the shared theme of the judgment of God and how the people must follow God’s law.

The attribution of a psalm to Asaph could mean that it was part of a collection from the Asaphites, identified as Temple singers, or that the psalm was performed in a style associated with Asaph, who was said to be the author or transcriber of these psalms.

Asaph who is identified with these psalms was a Levite, the son of Berechiah and descendant of Gershon, and he was the ancestor of the Asaphites, one the guilds of musicians in the first Temple in Jerusalem.

Asaph served both David and Solomon, and performed at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (see II Chronicles 5: 12). His complaint against corruption among the rich and influential, recorded in Psalm 73, might have been directed against some of court officials. The words used to describe the wicked come from words used by officials of the cult or sacrificial system.

Several of the Psalms of Asaph are categorised as communal laments because they are concerned for the well-being of the whole community. Many of these psalms forecast destruction or devastation in the future, but are balanced with God’s mercy and saving power for the people.

Psalm 74 is a Maskil of Asaph or contemplation, and a community lament, voicing the pleas of the people in their exile and captivity in Babylon.

The theme of Psalm 74 revolves around the opening verse, which asks: ‘O God, why do you cast us off forever?’ The psalm, which forecasts destruction, comes across as a cry out to God, asking when salvation will come and when God will save the people from the depths of their despair.

Amid the cries of despair, a voice of praise to God comes through.

Psalm 74 had echoes for the community of the people during their captivity in Babylon. The enemy had damaged everything in the sanctuary and destroyed all the places of worship.

Asaph, one of the three temple singers assigned by King David to the Temple, wonders why God’s anger has allowed this invasion or this destruction to happen.

This psalm may divided into four sections:

1, The opening verses of this psalm (verses 1-3) implore God to remember God’s people ‘who you acquired long ago’, ‘your heritage,’ and to remember Mount Zion, ‘where you came to dwell.

Verse 1 portrays the image of the people as God’s flock, ‘the sheep of your pasture.’

2, The psalm continues (verses 3b to 11) by describing the destruction of the Temple by the enemies of God.

3, Then, in verses 12-17, the psalm recalls and praises the might of God.

4, The psalm ends (verses 18-23) by imploring God to remember Israel and to come to the aid of the people.

The enemy is not named, but may refer to King Nebuchadnezzar. According to the Targum, the reference is to Antiochus Epiphanes.

With Bishop David Hamid at a USPG conference in High Leigh … he introduces this week’s theme in the USPG Prayer Diary

Psalm 74 (NRSVA):

A Maskil of Asaph.

1 O God, why do you cast us off for ever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago,
which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.
Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

4 Your foes have roared within your holy place;
they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked
the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrated the dwelling-place of your name,
bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, ‘We will utterly subdue them’;
they burned all the meeting-places of God in the land.

9 We do not see our emblems;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name for ever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand;
why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
do not forget the life of your poor for ever.

20 Have regard for your covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamour of your foes,
the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Celebration in Casablanca.’ It is introduced this morning by the Right Revd Dr David Hamid, Suffragan Bishop in Europe:

‘It is not very often in the Church of England that we have to expand a church building in order to accommodate a growing worshipping congregation. That is precisely what has happened in Saint John the Evangelist Church in Casablanca.

‘Saint John’s has been home to Anglicans and other English-speaking Christians since 1906. In recent years the numbers of Christian migrants from all over the world has increased. In response, a plan was developed to build a community centre and extend the church building to almost double the capacity for attendance at services.

‘Among the growing sector of the congregation of Saint John’s are Filipino migrants. This year, Father Virgilio Fernandez, a priest from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente who is serving here with the support of USPG, has been appointed as the locum priest in Saint John’s to assist with the care for this community.

‘The dedication of the church extension was celebrated in September 2021. A civic ceremony welcomed political, diplomatic and ecumenical dignitaries and gave thanks to the collaboration from the Moroccan authorities. Celebrations continued with a Christian liturgy for the re-hallowing of the Church, the blessing of new stained-glass windows, baptisms and confirmations.’

The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (8 May 2022, Easter IV) invites us to pray:

Miraculous God,
you make the impossible possible.
May we continue to have hope in
you and in each other.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Two days in London and Birmingham to talk about the work of USPG

With the trustees of USPG earlier this year at the annual conference in High Leigh, Hertfordshire

Patrick Comerford

I am in London this morning to take part in an all-day meeting in Southwark of the Trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), and then I travel back to Lichfield this evening, before attending a regional meeting of USPG volunteers in Birmingham tomorrow.

Sunday next [26 November 2017] is Mission Sunday but is also the Feast of Christ the King. As I take part in these two days with USPG and think about the sermons I am preaching next Sunday in Castletown and Rathkeale, I shall also be thinking about how USPG’s work in mission reflects the values of the Kingdom of God.

In recent days, USPG has been closely watching developments in Zimbabwe, where Anglican leaders have reported that the church and country are safe.

Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare, a former USPG staff member, has described the ousting of President Mugabe as ‘one of the most peaceful takeovers anywhere in the world’ and added that ‘people are going about their daily work and chores as if nothing had happened.’

In recent weeks, USPG joined the Partnership for World Mission conference in standing in solidarity with the Churches in the Philippines and calling for the release of Bishop Carlos Morales.

Earlier this month, USPG supported the Asian Theological Academy, which met in Manila, with clergy and seminarians from the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, the Iglesia Filipino Independiente, and ecumenical partners addressing ‘Migrant Labour: A Theological and Pastoral Response.’

Representing USPG, the Director for Mission Engagement, Canon Richard Bartlett, said: ‘This is a crucial issue for the churches of the Philippines to continue to engage with.’ He said ‘6,000 Filipinos leave the country every day to work overseas. The Church’s ministry to them, their families, and its engagement as a prophetic voice in the many and complex social issues raised by this mass movement of people is vital. USPG is grateful to be challenged by, and to be supporting this important work.’

During that conference, Richard was also able to visit Bishop Carolos in prison.

USPG has also taken part in an interfaith meeting at Saint Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, discussing Faith Reflections on the Sustainable Development Goals, and has responded positively to the five bishops who have called on the Church of England to divest from Exxon Mobil. The effects of fossil fuel investment are having a negative impact on many of our partners around the world, and USPG stands in solidarity with them.

In Birmingham tomorrow, I am hoping to hear about USPG’s work on Climate Justice, a volunteer’s experience in Brazil, the work of Partners in Mission, and about Victoria Howard’s work during her placement in the Seychelles.

This is an exciting time to be involved in the work of USPG, one of the oldest mission agencies in the Anglican Communion, and I look forward to being inspired and stimulated during these two days.

Patrick Comerford goes Blackberry picking

Ripening blackberries above the rectory garden walls in Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

This full-page feature is published in the October 2017 edition of Newslink, the magazine of the Church of Ireland United Dioceses of Limerik, Killaloe and Ardfert (p. 18). It is based on an earlier posting published on this blog on 18 September 2017:

Patrick Comerford goes Blackberry picking

The blackberries are ripening in the fields in the glebe land behind and beside the Rectory in Askeaton. Sunday afternoon [17 September 2017] was almost like a summer’s day, with warm, bright sunshine and blue skies. After two church services – in Saint Mary’s, Askeaton, and Saint Brendan’s, Kilnaughtin – two of us went picking blackberries in the warm autumn sunshine. They are growing high on the other sides of the walls of the rectory garden, and many of them are now in full fruit, plump, juicy and ready for eating.

I was surprised earlier this summer when I was at High Leigh in Hoddesdon for the USPG conference, and noticed during my walks in the countryside that the blackberries were already ripening at that early stage on the laneways and by the roadside in East Anglia. But as we were picking the blackberries yesterday, I was reminded of childhood days at this time of the year in the 1950s or the 1960s, picking blackberries in the laneways and narrow roads close to my grandmother’s farm outside Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and the childhood joys that stayed with me as an adult in more recent years picking blackberrries before Michaelmas and the end of the blackberry-picking season in Kilcoole or Greystones in Co Wicklow, or along Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield.

I was reminded too of the poem ‘Blackberry-Picking’, written in the 1960s by the late Seamus Heaney for Philip Hobsbaum.

Blackberry-Picking,
by Seamus Heaney

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.

Source: Death of a Naturalist (1966)

Catching glimpses of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like

Evening lights at Stowe Pool and Lichfield Cathedral ... ‘a little snatch of heaven’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary’s Rectory,
Askeatron, Co Limerick

30 July 2017

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity

11 a.m.: The United Parish Eucharist

Readings: Genesis 29: 15-28; Psalm 105: 1-11, 45b or Psalm 128; Romans 8: 26-39; Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52.

May I speak to you in the name of + the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Have you ever found yourself lost for words when it comes to describing a beautiful place you have visited?

If you have ever been to the Bay of Naples or Sorrento, how would you describe what you have seen to someone who has never travelled beyond Limerick and Kerry?

You might try comparing the first glimpse of Vesuvius with looking at the Galtymore Mountain or even Carrauntoohil … but even Carrauntoohil is not as high as Vesuvius, and it would hardly describe the experience of climbing the rocky path, looking into the caldera, or the overpowering whiffs of that sulphuric smell.

For someone who has been as far as Dublin, and been on the DART, you might want to compare the Bay of Naples with the vista in Dalkey or Killiney … but that hardly catches the majestic scope of the view.

You might want to compare the church domes with the great copper dome in Rathmines … but that goes nowhere near describing the intricate artwork on those Italian domes.

You might compare the inside of the duomo in Amalfi with the inside of your favourite parish church … but you know you are getting nowhere near what you want to say.

And as for Capri … you are hardly going to write a romantic song about Tarbert or Aughunish Island, or even the stacks off Kilkee.

Comparisons never match the beauty of any place that offers us a snatch or a glimpse of heaven.

And yet, we know that the photographs on our phones, no matter how good they seem to be when we are taking them, never do justice to the places we have been once we get home.

We risk becoming bores either by trying to use inadequate words or inadequate images to describe experiences that we can never truly share with people unless they go there, unless they have been there too.

I suppose that helps to a degree to understand why Jesus keeps on trying to grasp at images that might help the Disciples and help us to understand what the Kingdom of God is like.

He tries to offer us a taste of the kingdom with a number of parables in this morning’s Gospel reading:

● The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed … (verse 31).

● The kingdom of heaven is like yeast … (verse 33).

● The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field … (verse 44).

● The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls … (verse 45).

● The kingdom of heaven is like a net in the sea … (verse 47).

‘Do they understand?’ They answer, ‘Yes.’ But how can they really understand, fully understand?

Some years ago, after a late Sunday lunch at the café in Mount Usher in Co Wicklow, I posted some photographs of the gardens on my website. An American reader I have never met commented: ‘A little piece of heaven.’

We have a romantic imagination that confuses gardens with Paradise, and Paradise with the Kingdom of Heaven. But perhaps that is a good starting point, because I have a number of places where I find myself saying constantly: ‘This is a little snatch of heaven.’ They include:

● The road from Cappoquin out to my grandmother’s farm in West Waterford.

● The journey along the banks of the River Slaney between Ferns and Wexford.

● The view from the east end of Stowe Pool across to Lichfield Cathedral at sunset on a Spring evening.

● The Backs in Cambridge.

● Sunset behind at the Fortezza in Rethymnon on the Greek island of Crete.

● The sights and sounds on some of the many beaches I like to walk on regularly … here, I have introduced myself to Ballybunion, Beal and Kilkee, and there are the beaches along the east coast that I still return to, beaches in Achill, Crete … I could go on.

Sunset on the beach in Rethymnon earlier this month (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Already this year, I have managed to get back to many of these places.

At times, I imagine the Kingdom of Heaven must be so like so many of these places where I find myself constantly praising God and thanking God for creation and for re-creation.

But … but it’s not just that. And I start thinking that Christ does more than just paint a scene when he describes the kingdom of heaven. Looking at this morning’s Gospel reading again, I realise he is doing more than offering holiday snapshots or painting the scenery.

He tries to describe the Kingdom of Heaven in terms of doing, and not just in terms of being:

● Sowing a seed (verse 31);

● Giving a nest to the birds of the air (verse 32);

● Mixing yeast (verse 33);

● Turning small amounts of flour into generous portions of bread (verse 34);

● Finding hidden treasure (verse 44);

● Rushing out in joy (verse 44);

● Selling all that I have because something I have found is worth more – much, much more, again and again (verse 44, 46);

● Searching for pearls (verse 45);

● Finding just one pearl (verse 46);

● Casting a net into the sea (verse 47);

● Catching an abundance of fish (verse 47);

● Drawing the abundance of fish ashore, and realising there is too much there for personal needs (verse 48);

● Writing about it so that others can enjoy the benefit and rewards of treasures new and old (verse 52).

So there are, perhaps, four or five times as many active images of the kingdom than there are passive images.

Are our images of the kingdom passive or active? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

One of my favourite T-shirts, one I saw in the Plaka in Athens some years ago, says: ‘To do is to be, Socrates. To be is to do, Plato. Do-be-do-be-do, Sinatra.’

The kingdom is more about doing than being.

At the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG the week before last I heard about a number of activities that, for me, offer snatches of what the kingdom is like:

1, Bishop David Hamid spoke about the work of Saint Paul’s Church, the Anglican Church in Athens, in partnership with USPG, working with refugees and asylum seekers who continue to arrive in desperate and heart-breaking circumstances on the Greek islands.

2, Bishop Margaret Vertue, from the Diocese of False Bay in the Western Cape, who spoke in her Bible studies each morning of how the Bible relates to the work of the Anglican Church in South Africa with victims of gender-based violence and people trafficking.

3, Rachel Parry, a USPG staff member, who spoke of Bishop Carlo Morales, Bishop of Ozamis in the Philippines who was arrested at gunpoint in May and is still languishing in jail, simply because of his commitment to working with the peace process in his own country.

4, Jo Musker-Sherwood, Director of Hope for the Future, who shared how her experience in mission with USPG has led her to work at lobbying politicians and empowering churches in the whole area of climate change.

5, Carlton Turner, who has moved from the Bahamas and the West Indies to Bloxwich in the Diocese of Lichfield as a vicar, and who talked about how God creates out of chaos, how God’s pattern for growing the Church is about entering chaos and bringing about something creative, something new.

Throughout that week, we were offered fresh and engaging signs of the ministry of Christ as he invites us to the banquet, as he invites us into the Kingdom – works that are little glimpses or snatches of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

This morning’s Eucharist, and the barbecue we are sharing afterwards, should, in their own ways, be glimpses of, snatches, of the heavenly banquet.

And this afternoon, this evening, whenever you go home after the barbecue, I challenge you to think of three places, three gifts in God’s creation, that offer you glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to think of three actions that for you symbolise Christ’s invitation into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Give thanks for these pearls beyond price, and share them with someone you love and cherish.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

On the Backs in Cambridge at Sidney Sussex College Boathouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collect:

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

Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Christ ‘is the true vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live’ … an icon of Christ the True Vine in the parish church in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert. This sermon was prepared for the United Parish Eucharist in Askeaton on Sunday 30 July 2017.

Moving from crisis to Kairos in the fields of God’s harvest

Fields of green and gold in rural Hertfordshire near the High Leigh Conference Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 July 2017,

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity,

9.30 a.m., Castletown Church, Co Limerick, Morning Prayer.

11.30 a.m., Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, The Parish Eucharist.

Readings: Genesis 28: 10-19a; Psalm 139: 1-11, 23-24; Romans 8: 12-25; Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43.

May I speak to you in the name of + the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

I have been away for a few days, at the annual conference of the mission agency USPG, the United Society Partners in the Gospel, which is one of the oldest Anglican mission agencies.

I am a trustee of USPG for some years now, and I am almost a life-time supporter of USPG although I have also worked for other mission agencies.

We were meeting in the English countryside, about half an hour west of Stansted Airport and about an hour south of Cambridge.

This is a beautiful part of England, on the edges of East Anglia, on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex. The fields are green and gold under the blue skies and the spreading chestnut trees. The Lea Valley is busy with barges and boats on the rivers and canals. There are country pubs with decking that allows you to sit in the sun on the river banks. And the blackberries are early in coming to full fruit in the hedgerows along the country lanes.

This is a part of England where east meets west, for during one walk along a country lane and crossing one of those rivers I realised I was crossing the meridian line, the Greenwich Mean Line.

But east meets west in another way in the conversations at the USPG conference in High Leigh last week.

The conference theme was ‘Serving Church, Strengthening Communities.’ We were looking at how USPG is involved with Anglicans around the world, engaged in enlivening faith, unlocking potentials and promoting justice, empowering churches and communities to be the agents of change in the communities they serve.

The speakers were from these islands, but from places across the world, from the West Indies to South Africa and India, from Brazil to Burma, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

We looked at mission through five themes: protecting health, growing the Church, enabling livelihoods, promoting justice and responding to crises. We were challenged to relate the mission of the church to social justice, gender-based violence, climate change and the refugee crisis in Europe.

As a trustee of USPG, I chaired the question-and-answer session on Wednesday morning with Bishop David Hamid, the Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Europe, who spoke movingly of the refugee crisis that is a major part of the mission of churches in his diocese:

● in Tangier, Casablanca and Gibraltar, where Africa meets Europe;

● in Malta and Lampadusa, where refugees arrive in their thousands every day in perilous conditions;

● in Finland, where refugees from South Sudan are being settled in a climate and environment that is so alien to them.

But, of course, I was particularly moved that I was asked to chair this session when he also spoke of the refugee crisis in Greece.

Bishop David told us that many NGO agencies are moving out of Greece to the next humanitarian crisis, and declaring that there is no crisis in Greece. But he said the crisis continues and the Churches are there, remaining on the ground for the long-term.

He told us that 60,000 refugees and migrants are still stuck in Greece, and as they move on they are replaced by more.

He said the Churches in Greece had moved from a crisis to a Kairos moment, finding they are present at the right and appropriate moment.

The response to the crisis in Greece began when Canon Malcolm Bradshaw of Saint Paul’s Church, the Anglican Church in Athens tried to respond to the plight of 17,000 refugees in November 2014. By June 2015, this number had almost doubled to 31,000, and there was a shortage of food and water on the islands.

The Churches came together following an alert about 500 people who were stranded in August 2015 on the small island of Farmakonisi, which is barren and has no natural supply of fresh water.

He reminded us of the tragic story of three-year-old Alan Kurdi from Syria, drowned on a beach in Turkey in September 2015 while his family was fleeing from an ISIS attack on their home and were trying to reach the Greek island of Kos, just 30 minutes away. That tragedy and the image of his body lying on a beach near Bodrum mobilised a wider public response.

By that month, September 2015, 5,000 refugees were arriving every day in Greece. USPG responded immediately and launched an appeal on behalf of Bishop David’s diocese.

Bishop David described this as the greatest crisis to hit Europe since World War II. But he said it had transformed the ministry in his diocese and brought the churches in Greece together for the first time in their response. A crisis moment has turned to a Kairos moment.

The word κρίσις (krísis) is used 46 times in the New Testament. It refers to a judgment or a decision that requires deciding between right and wrong.

The word καιρός (kairos), used 86 times, refers to an opportune time, a moment or a season such as harvest time. The word is used specifically to refer to ‘the appointed time in the purpose of God,’ the time when God acts.

A Kairos moment is a moment when we move from the crisis when we choose what is right for the Kingdom of God to seizing the opportunity to live out the values of the Kingdom of God.

The mission of USPG, the mission of the Church, is not only about responding to the crisis moments we face, but offering moments that give us glimpses, snatches, of what the Kingdom of God is like.

We work with all sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds, from countries all over the world. We don’t discriminate against people, deciding the needs of some are worthy of response than those of others because of religion, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, age or gender.

The need is compelling enough to call for our response in Christ’s name.

When I posted about this from the conference on Wednesday, a reply on Facebook said: ‘It is good that Jesus gave us the solution to all refugee problems. It is interesting he gave it in the form of a command … ‘Pray for your enemies!’

I had to tell this distant cousin: ‘Refugees are not our enemies. Once again you use Prayer to push a frightening political agenda. The command is simpler. Love one another. That’s 50% of the Gospel, and then the other half fits in simply, Love God.’

In the refugee crisis in Europe, there is no room for discrimination.

So, turning to this morning’s Gospel reading, who is being burned … and who is doing the burning?

And who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth?

Contrary to the shoddy readings of this passage that I often hear, Christians are not asked to burn anyone or anything at all. And, if we have enemies, we are called not to burn them but to love them.

The word we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizánia), a type of wild rice grass, probably a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.

Christ explains to the Disciples that he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).

The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41).

It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today.

It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).

The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Paul, a doulos or slave, or servant of Jesus Christ), (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1), and the same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1) to introduce themselves in their letters.

In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3).

In other words, the Apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.

When it comes to explaining the parable to the Disciples in the second part of our reading (verses 36-43), the references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.

The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).

On my strolls through the fields of green and gold near High Leigh during breaks from the USPG conference, I could see how farmers are baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places already. In a few weeks’ time, many farmers will be burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and for planting new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.

It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the Kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.

Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out.

Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.

But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.

The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.

The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat, what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.

We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them or we see them as different, as outsiders, as a challenge to issues that we mistake for core values.

The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.

This morning’s reading is not a set of instructions on how to behave in the Church or in mission today. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.

When governments and security forces have said they are rooting out violent jihadists from society, the average, gentle, ordinary Muslim has suffered grossly. When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals, for families, for friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.

When I want a Church or a society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect or society of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!

But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and they may discover the same about me.

In the Orthodox Church, before the Divine Liturgy begins, the deacon exclaims to the priest: «Καιρός του ποιήσα τω Κυρίω» (Kairos tou poiesai to Kyrio), ‘It is time [Kairos] for the Lord to act’ – in other words, the time of the Liturgy is a Kairos moment, an intersection between our time and Eternity.

As we worship God in Church this morning, we are invited to enter into God’s Kairos moment, to once again be part of God’s response to the crises in the world, to be signs of the Kingdom.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Priest-in-Charge, the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes. This sermon was prepared for Sunday 23 July 2017.

Fields of green and gold south of Cambridge last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Collect:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water.
Refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

With Bishop David Hamid at the USPG conference after Wednesday’s session on the refugee crisis

Anglican mission agency USPG appoints a new CEO

The Revd Duncan Dormor, Dean of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, is the new CEO of USPG

Patrick Comerford

The Revd Duncan Dormor, Dean of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, is to be the next CEO of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Duncan Dormor succeeds Janette O’Neill, who is retiring after six years with USPG.

The appointment was agreed at a meeting of the trustees of USPG in High Leigh earlier this week and was announced this morning [21 July 2017].

Commenting on his appointment, Duncan Dormor said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to be offered this opportunity to lead USPG as it works with partner Churches across the Anglican Communion in seeking to transform the lives of individuals and communities through the power of the Gospel.’

He continued: ‘Faithful to its history, radical in its proclamation, I have long admired the way in which USPG acts in solidarity to empower local churches across the globe in ways that respect their autonomy and culture.’

He said: 'Having spent many years in ministry with young people, I know first-hand of USPG’s thirst to engage with the pressing global challenges of injustice and poverty that scar our world and I would seek to harness such vision to deepen and renew the life of the church across the world through USPG.’

Canon Chris Chivers, Chair of the Trustees of USPG, added: ‘I am thrilled with this appointment. Duncan Dormor brings energy and passion, dynamic communication skills and a proven track-record in enabling organisational change to this important post.’

He said: ‘His deep faith in Jesus Christ, his significant international experience in relation to St John’s College and Cambridge University, his global vision, alertness to the perspective of younger generations, concern for justice and reconciliation, and inspiring work as writer and speaker, make him well-placed to lead the team who will shape the next phase for USPG in new and exciting ways.’

The Master of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, Professor Chris Dobson, said: ‘Duncan has been an absolutely outstanding Dean of Chapel at St John’s and has been a valued member of the college for almost 20 years. In that time, he has also made huge contributions to the pastoral, musical and academic life of the College. We shall miss him very much indeed, but I know that he relishes the prospect of using his energy, experience and passion for justice in this exciting new role.’

Duncan Dormor was an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Human Sciences before studying for an MSc in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. For three years, he worked for Dr Jack Dominian as the Information Officer of the family research and outreach organisation One Plus One.

In 1992, he returned to Oxford to take a degree in theology while training for ordination at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He was ordained in Lichfield Cathedral in 1995 and served as a curate at Saint Peter’s Collegiate Church in Central Wolverhampton. He became Chaplain of Saint John’s in 1998 and was appointed Dean in 2002.

As Dean of the Chapel, he has had overall responsibility for the life of the chapel and its community, for the conduct of worship, the work of the choir and for the oversight of pastoral care within the College community.

Duncan is Director of Studies for Theology at Saint John’s College. He lectures in the Divinity Faculty and is the author of many publications.

He has co-edited (with Jeremy Morris) An Acceptable Sacrifice? Homosexuality and the Church, a collection of essays by nine Cambridge theologians with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. With controversy about same-sex relationships within the Anglican Communion rumbling on, this book gives lay people and clergy alike the resources to think through this complex subject in relation to scripture, tradition and reason, and attempts an honest exploration of some of the key difficulties posed for the Church by the question of homosexuality.

Previous publications include Just Cohabiting? The Church, Sex and Getting Married, in which he provides a short history of the church’s complicated and uneasy attitudes to sexuality and marriage and argues for a radical reappraisal of the Church’s position, proposing that in a chaotic climate for relationships, in which couples desire marriage yet fear commitment, the church should embrace cohabitation as part of the process of ‘becoming married.’

Anglicanism: the Answer to Modernity, originally published in 2003 and re-issued in 2005, is a collection of essays addressing the intellectual future of the Church of England in a confident, faithful and open way.

Duncan has also contributed to a number of other edited collections, including Religion, Gender and the Public Sphere (2013) and Religion and Youth (2010) and he contributes regular reviews to The Church Times and Theology.

He is the Chair of Governors at Saint John’s College School. He is also responsible, as secretary to the Livings committee, for the presentation of clergy to 40 parishes in the Church of England with which Saint John’s College has long historic connections.

Duncan Dormor serves on General Synod of the Church of England as Proctor for the University of Cambridge and on the Mission and Public Affairs Council of the Church of England. He is also on the Governing Council of Westcott House, a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee, and a Trustee of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Could ‘Hobson’s Choice’ ever be between Limerick and Cambridge?

Hobson Street behind Sidney Sussex College takes its name from Thomas Hobson, who gave Cambridge Hobson’s Conduit and gave the English language ‘Hobson’s Choice’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Earlier this week I spent a few hours in Cambridge, visiting Sidney Sussex College, browsing in the bookshops, and enjoying a few of my favourite quiet corners, away from the tourists who throng the city on summer days.

I was on my way to the USPG conference in High Leigh and I had a quiet and undisturbed breakfast that morning in a coffee shop in Pety Curry, facing Christ’s College and the junction where Hobson Street meets the corner of Sidney Street and Saint Andrew’s Street.

Hobson Street runs from this corner behind Sidney Sussex College up to King Street, is Hobson Street. Hobson’s Passage is used to store bins and as a narrow shortcut between Hobson Street and Sidney Street, where it emerges between Waterstone’s bookshop and a former cinema.

Hobson Street and Hobson Lane take their name from Thomas Hobson (1544-1631), who built a conduit to supply water to much of Cambridge in the early 17th century but who is best remembered outside Cambridge for the phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice.’

Thomas Hobson, who lived at Chesterton Hall, had extensive estates in Grantchester and was one of the great benefactors of Cambridge.

A blue plaque on Hobson House at 44 Saint Andrew’s Street recalls Thomas Hobson and ‘Hobson’s Workhouse’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

A blue plaque on what is now Hobson House at 44 Saint Andrew’s Street mentions his workhouse, the Spinning House, also known as ‘Hobson’s Workhouse,’ where the poor were housed and given simple work such as spinning.

In 1610-1614, Thomas Hobson built Hobson’s Conduit as a watercourse to bring fresh water into Cambridge from springs at Nine Wells, near the village of Great Shelford, at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills.

Cambridge was plagued by the plague in the 16th century, when many of the university staff and students were dying as well as the townspeople. The plague made no distinction between town and gown, and they slowly realised that it was killing people not because of God’s condemnation or judgment, but because of poor sanitary conditions. The ditch around the town was clogged with sewage and rubbish and was a major cause of disease.

In 1574, Andrew Perne, the Master of Peterhouse, proposed diverting a stream from Nine Wells through Cambridge, and proposed digging the King’s Ditch to improve sanitation. The design was revived by the Master of Sidney Sussex College, James Montagu, and was built at the expense of the university and the town.

What remains of the conduit flows beside Trumpington Street and past Brookside, where it is at its widest. An octagonal monument to Hobson at the corner of Lensfield Road once formed part of the Market Square fountain but was moved in 1856 after a fire in the market. The flow of water runs under Lensfield Road, and then along both sides of Trumpington Street in broad gutters towards Peterhouse and Saint Catharine’s College, and also along Saint Andrew’s Street. The conduit currently ends at Silver Street.

The waterway came to have Hobson’s name because he was involved in building it and because he endowed the Hobson’s Conduit Trust for its maintenance.

The original Trumpington Street branch of Hobson’s river still functions as sluices along Trumpington Street, where it is known on the east side as the Pem (after Pembroke College) and on the west side as the Pot (after Peterhouse).

At this time of the year, the city council controls the flow of water through the sluices, letting water flow in the open conduits in Trumpington Street between April and September, with feeds running into Peterhouse and Pembroke College.

The Market Place branch was completed in 1614, and brought fresh water to the Market Fountain in the centre of the Market Place. However, the flow of water to this branch was cut off in 1960.

Hobson House on Saint Andrew’s Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
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The Saint Andrew’s Street Branch, which was added in 1631, flowed from the conduit head along Lensfield Road and Saint Andrew’s Street towards Drummer Street. There it split into feeds running into Christ’s College and Emmanuel College, as well as a public dipping point. Much of the open conduit along Saint Andrew’s Street was covered in 1996, but it can still be seen in the conduit opposite Christ’s College, where people waiting for a taxi sometimes think they are stepping over a broken drain.

Hobson was also a carrier, delivering mail from Cambridge to London. He had large stables with 40 horses at the George Hotel on Trumpington Street, which is now part of Saint Catharine’s College. From there, he rented horses to university students and staff – perhaps horses then were the equivalent of bicycles in Cambridge today.

Hobson’s practice in renting his horses has given the English language the popular, but often misused, phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice.’

Hobson’s choice is not “Morton’s Fork,” a choice between two equivalent options that may lead to undesirable results, nor is it a dilemma, which is a choice between two undesirable options; it is not a false dilemma, where only two choices are presented although there are others; nor is it a Catch-22, which is a logical paradox.

When Hobson realised his best horses were being over-worked, he began a pattern of rotation, requiring customers to choose the horse in the stall closest to the door. This prevented the best horses always being chosen and being overused.

When his customers objected, his retort was: ‘Take that or none,’ or ‘Take it or leave it.’ It was a choice that came to be known as Hobson’s choice.

Hobson was a resident of Saint Bene’t’s Parish, which I treasure as effectively my parish church when I am in Cambridge. In 1626, he presented a large Bible to Saint Bene’t’s Church, and when he died in 1631, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the chancel of Saint Bene’t’s Church. Milton wrote two humorous epitaphs on Hobson, one which refers to the cart and wain of the deceased.

David’s Bookshop in Saint Edward’s Passage ... an attractive and quiet corner of Cambridge, away from the busy throng of summer tourists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

In a humorous and interesting but intentional misinterpretation of the nature of Hobson’s Choice, the Limerick historian Seán Spellissy says the phrase ‘Hobson’s Choice’ found a second home in Victorian Limerick.

Timothy O’Brien, a large landowner in Co Limerick and Co Clare, had a townhouse in the Crescent, Limerick, and two beautiful daughters, Mary Jane and Emma Margaret. Both were courted by a young man, William Doyle Hobson (1823-1871), from Meylar’s Park near New Ross, Co Wexford.

William Doyle Hobson was a grandson of Lieutenant-General William Doyle, Deputy Adjutant-General in Canada, who died in Waterford the year he was born. For some time, William was unable to decide which of the Doyle sisters he would marry. Eventually, in 1850, he married the second daughter, Emma, who was then 18; her elder sister Mary Jane never married.

Emma and William were the parents of at least five children, and many of their descendants would continue both the Doyle and O’Brien family names. William worked with the Customs at the port of New Ross, but moved to Whitby with promotion. When he died in Truro in 1871, a widowed Emma returned to live in Limerick with her young family.

Emma died at Roseneath, Corbally, in January 1907 at the age of 74. She was buried at Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick, where the funeral was conducted by Dean O’Brien and the Precentor of Limerick, Canon Eyre Archdall.

Within two months, her sister Mary Jane died on 25 March 1907 at Lanahrone House, Corbally, the Limerick home of her nephew, Frederick St Clare Hobson, Emma’s son and by now sub-sheriff and a magistrate for Co Limerick.

After Emma had married William Doyle Hobson, Mary Jane had lived in George’s Street and Barrington Street, Limerick, and then with her sister Emma at Roseneath. In her old age, Mary Jane had been taken care of by the children of the sister William Doyle Hobson had decided to marry.

Hobson’s Choice is rarely a matter of love or marriage, or of horses and carriage – or, for that matter, between Cambridge and Limerick. If you are left waiting in departure lounges at Stansted Airport when your flight is delayed for over an hour on a Wednesday might, I find I am left with Hobson’s Choice when it comes to coffee – a choice not between good coffee and bad coffee, but between whatever coffee is on offer (good or bad), or no coffee at all.

Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick … Emma Hobson was buried here when she died in January 1907 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

A summer afternoon by the river in rural England

The Fish and Eels by Dobbs Weir, close to the Greenwich Meridian Line (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

There was a Q&A section in The Guardian many years ago in which a reader posed a dilemma along these lines: is it better to live in an ugly house with a beautiful view, or in a beautiful house with an ugly view?

After the USPG conference ended in High Leigh yesterday, I had time on my hands before catching a late evening flight to Dublin, on my way back to Limerick and Askeaton.

Instead of catching the first available train to Stansted, I decided to go for a walk in the Lea Valley by the New River, which supplies water from Hertfordshire to North London.

I have described this before as a ‘Wind-in-the-Willows’ land, with houses whose gardens slope down to the river bank, where the branches of willows brush their tips against the surface of the river water.

It was a short walk of no more than 3 km or so, along the river bank, by Admiral’s Walk Lake across the railway line and crossing the Greenwich Meridian Line from West to East to Dobb’s Weir, where the Fish and Eels is a pretty pub on the river bank by the weir and on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex.

To answer that question in The Guardian many years ago, the Fish and Eels is both pretty to look at from the weir and a pretty place to sit on a summer afternoon watching life on the river.

Like the Hedgehog in Lichfield, the Fish and Eels is a country pub in the Vintage Inns chain, with rural charm and rustic character. Its picturesque surroundings provided me with the perfect setting for a much-need afternoon break enjoying a glass of wine on the deck looking out onto the river.

The Fish And Eels dates back to the 17th century, when it was one of the inns known to Izaak Walton, the author of the Compleat Angler and the biographer of John Donne, Richard Hooker and George Herbert. Later it was owned by the Christie family brewery, and from here they sold Christie’s ales, brewed in Hoddesdon on the site of the Bell Inn on Burford Street.

This became a popular Victorian riverside inn and had had many landlords down the years. The most notorious or celebrated – depending on your point of view – was probably the Revd Samuel Thackeray who, was defrocked when he took to inn-keeping in the 1900s.

Thackeray shocked his clerical colleagues when he decided to become the landlord of the Fish and Eels, at Hoddesdon. Thackeray was educated at Cambridge and in 1872 he became the headmaster of Dartford Grammar School and curate of Bexley Heath. Subsequently he was the assistant chaplain at Tilbury Fort and held curacies at Saint Luke’s, Victoria Docks, All Saints’, Newington, and Christ Church, Greenwich.

Until 1906, he was the chaplain of the Gordon Road Workhouse in Camberwell, and while he was there he applied for the licence at Fish and Eels Hotel.

It was said he seldom visited the workhouse, except on Sundays, despite being paid £110 a year, and left a manager in charge of his pub on Sundays. He later conducted services in his inn on Sundays, and sometimes on weekdays. He claimed he wanted to promote temperance, as opposed to total abstinence, and quipped that he had brought together the publican and the sinner.

‘I shall be the publican behind the bar, the sinners will be in front of me, and Christ, I hope, will be in the midst of us,’ he said on his arrival in 1907.

But the Bishop of Southwark and the Camberwell Guardians objected strongly and asked him to resign his chaplaincy. Thackeray declined, and guardians went to court for an order to remove him from office.

A Christian Socialist, he was a member of the Independent Labour Party and published a book, The Land and the Community, in which he argued for the nationalisation of land. Thackery was also an accomplished musician, and soon after becoming a publican he obtained a licence for music and dancing in his pub.

Owing to ill-health, he eventually gave up his tenancy of the Fish and Eels and later became a curate in East Peckham.

Blackberries coming to full fruit on the side of a country lane on the Meridian Line near Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Meanwhile, the blackberries are ripening along the sides of the country lanes and the narrow roads in this corner of Hertfordshire and Essex.

Perhaps it is because of the late winter followed by the strong sunshine of recent weeks.

I grew up thinking of late August and early September as the time to go picking blackberries. The blackberry season in Britain and Ireland begins in June, but it reaches its peak in August and continues until the first frosts in November.

At the end of the season, we are always warned as children by a more superstitious older generation not to go picking blackberries after Michaelmas (29 September). But at the other end of the season, I think it would have been unusual to find full, juicy blackberries in the mid-July.

People in East England argue whether these parts of Hertfordshire and Essex are really part of East Anglia. The purists say Norfolk and Suffolk alone – the North Folk and the South Folk – constitute East Anglia; others are willing to extend the boundaries into Cambridgeshire and parts of Essex of Hertfordshire, albeit with an air of condescension.

But wherever that boundary falls, the countryside around the High Leigh Conference Centre, on the fringes of Hoddesdon and on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex, provided some welcome opportunities for short country walks this during breaks from the USPG conference.

The fields are green and golden under the broad blue skies, and as I strolled through this rural idyll it was difficult to concede that I was just a short distance from the commuter belt for many people who work in Greater London.

There are woodlands and parks nearby, and as I walked through these fields of green and gold this week, I thought of the wheat and the tares that we are reading about in our Gospel reading next Sunday. And I wondered too how farming in England is going to survive after the calamity of ‘Brexit.’

Boats on the river between Hoddesdon and Broxbourne, where East is East and West is West, and Essex and Hertfordshire are divided (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Churches remain on the ground in Greece for the long-term

A plaque in a quiet corner at the High Leigh Conference Centre, the venue for this year’s USPG conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

While NGOs are moving out of Greece to the next humanitarian crisis, declaring that there is no crisis in Greece, the Churches are there, remaining on the ground for the long-term.

Bishop David Hamid of the Diocese of Europe was speaking this morning of how the Church is responding to current crises. In his focus on the work of the Anglican Church in Greece, he told the USPG conference in High Leigh this morning that 60,000 refugees and migrants are still stuck in Greece, and as they move on they are replaced by more.

He said the Churches in Greece had moved from a crisis to a Kairos moment, finding they are present at the right and appropriate moment.

The response to the crisis in Greece began when Canon Malcolm Bradshaw of Saint Paul’s Church in Athens tried to respond to the plight of 17,000 refugees in November 2014. By June 2015, this number had almost doubled to 31,000, and there was a shortage of food and water on the islands.

The Churches came together following an alert about 500 people who were stranded in August 2015 on the small island of Farmakonisi, which is barren and has no water.

The story of three-year-old Alan Kurdi from Syria who drowned on a beach in Turkey in September 2015 mobilised a wider public response. USPG responded immediately and launched an appeal.

But by September 2015, there were 5,000 arrivals a day in Greece. Bishop David described this as the greatest crisis to hit Europe since World War II, but he said it had brought the churches together in their response.

I was chairing the question and answer session this morning. The questions he put to the conference asked:

‘How important is the Anglican partnership that USPG brings? What added dimension does this bring to our work of emergency relief and development?’

‘How do you balance and weigh up the often competing priorities: immediate aid to relieve suffering; long-term assistance and accompaniment; advocacy for justice and change? What are the criteria for judgment?’

With Bishop David Hamid at the USPG conference in High Leigh this morning

In our Bible study this morning, Bishop Margaret Vertue of the Diocese of False Bay, South Africa, looked at today’s Gospel reading in the Lectionary (Matthew 11: 25-27) and reflected on the role of the Church in the area of gender-based violence.

God is always with me, but, she asked, am I always with God?

She spoke of the plight of women forced into prostitution and people trafficking, and the victims, male and female, of gender-based, domestic and sexual violence.

She described the Gospels as ‘God’s photo-album of Jesus’ ministry,’ and challenged us to think of where we might be in that album. ‘You may be the answer to the prayer you are praying.’

Once again she challenged us in those words of wisdom from the Carthusian monks of Grand Chartreuse, and asked: ‘I became human for you, will you become God with me?’

In our final session, members of USPG’s fundraising and communications and mission engagement teams spoke of their work as staff members, the Advent focus on Madagascar and of future conferences.

This year’s conference came to a close in the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, this afternoon [19 July 2017] with our Closing Eucharist, at which the celebrant was Bishop Saw John Wilme of Toungoo in Myanmar.

The preacher was Janette O’Neill, who told the conference this week that she is about to retire as USPG’s general secretary. The deacon was the Revd Dr Evie Vernon, USPG’s Programme Adviser on Theological Education, and our closing prayers were led by Canon Chris Chivers, Principal of Westcott House in Cambridge and chair of USPG trustees.

The bell tower above the old house at High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

A modern willow sculpture at an old Tudor pub in Hoddesdon

‘The Willow Arch’ by Hazel Godfrey at the Star, a late mediaeval pub in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Hoddesdon has an unusual combination of late mediaeval and stark 20th century architecture. A short walk along Lord Street leads from the High Leigh Conference Centre into the centre of Hoddesdon.

On the way into Hoddesdon, Lord Street is lined with engaging examples of Victorian and early 20th century housing. But Tower Heights in the centre of the town is one of the ugly examples of late 20th century tower blocks.

Yet, Hoddesdon has a number of interesting and historical listed buildings, including Rawdon House and Rathmore House, and late mediaeval public houses such as the White Swan, King William IV and the Star.

Close to High Leigh, the King William IV at No 197 Lord Street is a 17th century timber-framed building, with modern brick and roughcast walls, and an old tile roof.

The White Swan in Hoddesdon … ‘visually the most striking timber-framed inn’ in this part of Hertfordshire and Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The White Swan was once described by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘visually the most striking timber-framed inn’ in this part of Hertfordshire and Essex, and it has been an old favourite of mine since I first took part in a conference in High Leigh in 2006.

But I also wrote about the Star just two years ago [20 July 2015], following the discovery of a series of 16th century wall paintings of ‘national importance,’ which were uncovered in September 2014.

The Tudor-era paintings, located on plasterwork the north wall of the bar, depict half-figures and biblical verses. The architects believed there might be more images on other walls and began further investigations as well as examining further details found on one of the beams supporting the ceiling.

The paintings depict fascinating examples of Elizabethan clothing and millinery and exhibit a high level of technique. At the time, it was said discoveries of this quality are extremely rare and that the implications for art history give them national importance. The paintings had been hidden behind panelling for hundreds of years in the pub originally known as the Lyon and later as the Salisbury Arms.

A Tudor skyline in Hoddesdon yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Today this is the Star, and it is just three or four doors further along the High Street from the White House. When I walked into Hoddesdon from High Leigh yesterday [18 July 2017] to buy The Guardian, I also stopped at the Star, next door to the local newsagent, to admire ‘The Willow Arch,’ a new sculptural work by the local contemporary Basketmaker and Willow Artist, Hazel Godfrey.

Hazel Godfrey makes her sculptural work using natural materials, primarily willow. She is committed to an ethos of sustainability and manages her own willow plantation in North Hertfordshire, which provides for the mainstay of her weaving, although she also uses other natural materials such as cane, bark, leaves and found items.

Hazel was born and raised in Hertfordshire and studied for an honours BA in Applied Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. She has been a practising artist since 2008, when her work formed the centrepiece of a Gold Award winning stand at the Chelsea Flower Show.

On her Facebook page, Hazel says she is inspired by nature and loves working with natural materials. Her work is in private collections and gardens, nature reserves, community spaces and schools throughout Britain.

Hazel takes part in Herts Open Studios annually and is a member of Herts Visual Arts, Hertfordshire Basketry, and the National Basketmakers’ Association. She is involved annually with the arts side of the Rhythms of the World music festival in Hitchin. More recently, she led the county basketry group in making work to celebrate Luton’s involvement in the Olympics.

Today [19 July 2017] is the last day of USPG’s annual conference in High Leigh. Last night, the skies broke, and Hoddesdon was covered by a lengthy and heavy thunderstorm. I may not be walking into Hoddesdon this morning to buy the paper, but it was inspiring yesterday to see a new work of art that was connected with nature in this part of England.

The Star on High Street, Hoddesdon, with Hazel Godfrey’s ‘Willow Arch’ to the right (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Seeking justice in climate change and in health care

Step-by-step towards justice … in the High Leigh Conference Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

At the USPG conference in High Leigh this afternoon, we were challenged to think about promoting justice issues that involve protecting health and demanding climate justice.

Jo Musker-Sherwood, Director of Hope for the Future www.hftf.org.uk , spoke of the impact of global warming and climate change, with examples from her experience in Peru. There 95 per cent of people rely on water stored in glaciers on the heights of the Andes for their water supplies, and Peru is heavily dependent on water for hydro-electricity.

She spoke about the challenges to faith in a changing climate, and spoke of the work of Hope for the Future, which aims to give a platform to Churches working on climate change issues, and spoke of lobbying Parliament and MPs.

The campaign works with people of all faiths and none, but at its heart it remains a deeply Christian campaign.

She suggested MPs often do not take seriously people they suspect do not live out the values that they lobby on. The climate movement has developed an unfortunate reputation for lecturing at people and threatening them about the consequences of heeding the threats posed by climate change.

She offered signs of hope in the face of a problem that is becoming increasingly dangerous.

She asked us to consider that ways in which our identities are connected to fossil fuels and how this awareness impacts our response to climate change.

And she asked what we think are the biggest opportunities for tackling climate change in our churches and our dioceses.

Bishop Saw John Wilme of Toungoo, a diocese in the Church of the Province of Myanmar, spoke of his Church’s work in providing health care for people in the country we also know as Burma.

It was a timely reminder of how often we take clean water for granted in this part of Europe. Access to water is essential for clean clothes, basic hygiene, combatting malaria, and so is essential to basic health care. Yet many people in Myanmar find it difficult to access sources of clean water.

Since the new government was formed in 2014, the country has started to change, but there are still conflicts, minority ethnic tribes suffer discrimination, there are many checkpoints, the army still controls many key ministries, and former generals control many businesses.

‘We all want peace,’ he said, but those who control the big weapons continue to control the agenda.

In trying to reach the unreached, the Anglican Church in Myanmar has been involved in setting up hospitals and engaged in building healthy communities in partnership with USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

The day began at High Leigh with the Morning Eucharist celebrated by the Revd Canon Joabe Cavalcanti, a colleague trustee of USPG. During the day, we have also had workshops on protecting health, growing the Church, enabling livelihoods, promoting justice, responding to crises, and USPG’s ‘Journey With Us’ short-term mission programme.

The Council of USPG meets this evening, and the day ends with Night Prayer led by Father Herbert Fadriquela, Anglican chaplain to the Filipino Community in the Diocese of Leicester.

Welcome to the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

‘I became human for you, will you become God with me?’

‘What overwhelms us?’ … in the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

‘What overwhelms us?’

‘What can we do about being overwhelmed?’

These questions were put to us this morning by Bishop Margaret Vertue of the Diocese of False Bay in South Africa. She was speaking at the USPG conference in High Leigh.

Bishop Margaret, who is the second woman to become a bishop in Africa, was leading this morning’s Bible study (Matthew 11: 20-24).

She challenged us to think of whether we respond in love and not in judgment. And, drawing on the wisdom of the Carthusian monks of Grand Chartreuse, she asked: ‘I became human for you, will you become God with me?’

To illustrate how we might respond in love and not in judgment, she shared ‘The Story of a Sign’ by Alonso Alvarez Barreda, with music by Giles Lamb. This short film from Purplefeather illustrates the power of words to radically change our message and our effect upon the world:

Today is Mandela Day, when everyone in South Africa is encouraged to donate time to charity and charitable work.

Describing the situation in her diocese in the Western Cape, she said apartheid had a pauper’s burial, so South Africa is still an angry nation and very volatile.

In the Anglican Communion, this is a ‘Season of Intentional Discipleship, and in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, this is the ‘Year of the Young.’

One-third of the population of the Western Cape live in the area of the Diocese of False Bay, where there are over 6 million people, and 40 per cent of these people live in the grips of poverty, only 24 per cent of learners ever finish school, and for many there is no opportunity to be educated beyond grade 12.

She spoke of the prevalence of gender-based violence, human trafficking, which is a modern-day slavery.

But she asked us to consider our own contexts and to discuss: ‘What overwhelms us? What can we do about being overwhelmed?’

And she asked, in the words of the wisdom of the Carthusian monks of Grand Chartreuse: ‘I became human for you, will you become God with me?’

Later in the morning, the Revd Dr Carlton Turner, from the Commonwealth of the Bahamas in the Church in the Province of the West Indies, spoke on ‘Growing the Church.’

God’s pattern for growing the Church is about entering chaos and bringing about something creative, something new.

He discussed the threats to life in the Caribbean, the legacy of slavery and colonialism, the natural disasters, including hurricanes, tropical storms and volcanoes, and the social and political and economic chaos. ‘When the US sneezes, we catch a cold.’

But it is also a region of amazing creativity, with carnivals and festivals, and a rich variety of languages and cultures, such as reggae and calypso.

Referring to the move from Chaos to Creativity of Pentecost, he spoke of recent violent incidents in Manchester and Finsbury Park as examples of situations where chaos can lead to creativity.

Referring to next Sunday’s Gospel reading, he suggested that good and bad co-exists together, but we are at risk if we try to weed them out. Growth means diversity. Diversity is key to growing the Church, as it flows outward.

‘God grows God’s Church,’ he said. We do not do what we do alone.

Given the complex and chaotic world in which we live, he asked, how can we work together to bring about something new, creative for the world to share in?

God is creative and unpredictable and the Spirit continues to move over the chaos of our world to bring about the new Creation. How does this challenge our mission and management frameworks and practices?

In the grounds of the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)