Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 66, Sunday 14 July 2024, Trinity VII

The Execution of Saint John the Baptist … an early 18th century icon from the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Anopolis, in the Museum of Christian Art in the Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII). Later this morning I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford. I need to find somewehere appropriate this evening to watch the Euro 2024 final between England and Spain.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

Herod’s daughter dances for the head of Saint John the Baptist … a fresco in the Church of Analipsi in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 6: 14-29 (NRSVA):

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 15 But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’

17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18 For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22 When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ 23 And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ 24 She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ 25 Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ 26 The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

The beheading of Saint John the Baptist … a fresco in the Church of Analipsi in Georgioupoli, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

It is about three weeks since we commemorated the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (24 June 2024). Now, today’s Gospel reading recalls his execution of Saint the Baptist.

This Gospel story is full of stark, cruel, violent reality. To achieve this dramatic effect, it is told with recall, flashback or with the use of the devise modern movie-makers call ‘back story.’

Cruel Herod has already executed Saint John the Baptist – long ago. Now he hears about the miracles and signs being worked by Jesus and his disciples.

Some people think that Saint John the Baptist has returned, even though John has been executed by Herod. Others think Jesus is Elijah – and popular belief at the time expected Elijah to return at Judgment Day (Malachi 4: 5).

On the other hand, Herod, the deranged Herod who has already had John beheaded, wonders whether John is back again. And we are presented with a flashback to the story of Saint John the Baptist, how he was executed in a moment of passion, how Herod grieved, and how John was buried.

Did you ever get mistaken for someone else? Or, do you ever wonder whether the people you work with, or who are your neighbours, really know who you are?

I am thinking of two examples. Anthony Hope Hawkins was the son of the Vicar of Saint Bride’s in Fleet Street, the Revd Edwards Comerford Hawkins. He was walking home to his father’s vicarage in London one dusky evening when he came face-to-face with a man who looked like his mirror image.

He wondered what would happen if they swapped places, if this double went back to Saint Bride’s vicarage, while he headed off instead to the suburbs. Would anyone notice? It inspired him, under the penname of Anthony Hope, to write his best-selling novel, The Prisoner of Zenda.

The other example I think of is the way I often hear people put themselves down with sayings such as: ‘If they only knew what I’m really like … if they only knew what I’m truly like …’

What are you truly like?

And would you honestly want to swap your life for someone else’s?

Would you take on all their woes, and angsts and burdens, along with their way of life?

It is a recurring theme for poets, writers and philosophers over the centuries. It was the theme in John Boorman’s movie The Tiger’s Tail (2006). Brendan Gleeson plays both the main character and his protagonist. Is he his doppelgänger, a forerunner warning of doom, destruction and death? Or is he the lost twin brother who envies his achievements and lifestyle?

The doppelgänger was regarded as a harbinger of doom and death. There is a way in which Saint John the Baptist is seen as the harbinger of the death of his own cousin, Christ.

The account of Saint John’s execution anticipates the future facing Christ and some of the disciples, and Christ’s own burial (see Mark 15: 45-47). The idea that John might be raised from the dead anticipates Christ’s resurrection.

As well as attracting similar followers and having similar messages, did these two cousins, in fact, look so like one another physically?

But Herod had known John the Baptist, he knew him as a righteous and a holy man, and he protected him. Why, he even liked to listen to John.

Do you think Herod was confused about the identities of Christ and of Saint John the Baptist?

Is Herod so truly deranged that he can believe someone he has executed, whose severed head he has seen, could come back to life in such a short period?

Or is Herod’s reaction merely one of exasperation and exhaustion: ‘Oh no! Not that John, back again!’

We too are forerunners, sent out to be signs of the Kingdom of God. To be a disciple is to follow a risky calling – or at least it ought to be so.

To be a disciple is to follow a risky calling – or at least it ought to be so.

I once had a poster with a grumpy looking judge and the words, ‘If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?’

Last Sunday’s Gospel reading told of how Christ sent out the disciples, two by two, inviting people into the Kingdom of God. But they are beginning to realise that the authorities are rejecting Christ.

Now with Herod’s maniacal and capricious way of making decisions, discipleship has become an even more risk-filled commitment.

But Herod’s horrid banquet runs right into the next story in Saint Mark’s Gospel where Christ feeds the 5,000, a sacramental sign of the invitation to all to the heavenly banquet – more than we can imagine can be fed in any human undertaking.

The invitation to Herod’s banquet, for the privileged and the prejudiced, is laden with the smell of death.

The invitation to Christ’s banquet, for the marginalised and the rejected, is laden with the promise of life.

Herod feeds the prejudices of his own family and a closed group of courtiers. Christ shows that, despite the initial prejudices of the disciples, all are welcome to his banquet.

Herod is in a lavish palace in his city, but is isolated and deserted. Christ withdraws to an open but deserted place to be alone, but a great crowd follows him.

Herod fears the crowd beyond his palace gates. Christ rebukes the disciples for wanting to keep the crowds away.

Herod offers his daughter half his kingdom. Christ offers us all, as God’s children, the fullness of the kingdom of God.

Herod’s daughter asks for John’s head on a platter. On the mountainside, Christ feeds all.

Our lives are filled with choices.

Herod chooses loyalty to his inner circle and their greed. Christ tells his disciples to make a choice in favour of those who need food and shelter.

Herod’s banquet leads to destruction and death. Christ’s banquet is an invitation to building the kingdom and to new life.

Would I rather be at Herod’s Banquet for the few in the palace or with Christ as he feeds the masses in the wilderness?

Who would you invite to the banquet?

And who do you think feels excluded from the banquet?

We may never get the chance to be like Herod when it comes to lavish banqueting and decadent partying. But we have an opportunity to be party to inviting the many to the banquet that really matters.

Who feels turned away from the banquet by the Church today, abandoned and left to fend for themselves?

And, in our response to their needs, when we become signs of the Kingdom of God, we provide evidence enough to convict us when we are accused of being Christians.

An icon of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in a church in Koutouloufari in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 14 July 2024, Trinity VII):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advocacy, human, environmental and territorial rights programme in Brazil.’ This theme is introduced today by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Diocesan Officer for human, environmental and territorial rights in the Anglican Diocese of Brasilia, who I met at the USPG conference in High Leigh last week. He writes:

The Anglican Diocese of Brasília is at the forefront of an advocacy programme, centrally focused on championing human, environmental, and territorial rights. This programme is crafted with a fundamental goal: to reduce societal disparities, climate justice, and advance human rights (encompassing environmental, civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights). Acknowledging the intricate interplay of human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, the programme’s ethos embodies a comprehensive approach, striving to safeguard both the human community and the natural world.

In the pursuit of justice, the programme operates on multiple levels – engaging with the Brazilian parliament and key stakeholders. By partnering with decision-makers and legislators, it endeavours to enact legislative reforms that uphold human rights standards and ensure environmental preservation. This proactive involvement within the parliamentary arena fortifies the mission to reform policies, promote inclusivity, and challenge any injustices impeding the full realisation of fundamental rights. The Anglican Diocese of Brasília’s advocacy program embodies a discerning commitment to an equitable society, translating the rhetoric of human rights into tangible progress through deliberate and well-informed action.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 14 July 2024, Trinity VII) invites us to pray with this prayer from Churches Together in England:

O God, the creator of the human race,
we thank you for the wonder of our being
and for creating us in your image and likeness.
Open our hearts to give unconditional positive regard to all human beings.
Let no negative perception inform our judgement of other people.

The Collect:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

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

Additional Collect:

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

Father Irenaeus, a monk in the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Wadi Natrun in Egypt, shows me the relics in the crypt of Saint John the Baptist below the northern wall of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 65, Saturday 13 July 2024

The Samaritan Woman … originally part of a 17th century supply of fresh, clean water in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection in connection with this week’s USPG conference;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Samaritan Woman once stood on the corner of the High Street and Conduit Lane in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 10: 24-33 (NRSVUE):

[Jesus said:] 24 “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32 “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”

A plaque remembers where the Samaritan Woman once stood in the centre of Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

I spent much of this week at the High Leigh Conference Centre on the western fringes of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 13 July 2024) invites us to pray as we reflect on these words in Saint Matthew’s Gospel: ‘For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 35).

I spent much of this week at the USPG annual conference in the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. During one early morning walk into Hoddesdon this week, I saw the 17th century statue of the Samaritan Women in the grounds of Lowewood Museum in Hoddesdon but that originally once stood as a fountain in the centre of the town.

Sir Marmaduke Rawdon (1582-1646), a wealthy merchant, built Rawdon House in the centre of Hoddesdon in the early 17th century. He invested in the nearby New River and in 1631, when he provided a conduit from his estate at Rawdon House to Hoddesdon to supply clean, fresh water for the people of the town. Water poured from the pitcher in the Samaritan Woman’s arms into a small pond below.

Sir Marmaduke Rawdon also assisted in building a Market House in Hoddesdon. His son, also Marmaduke Rawdon, built the Grange. The Rawdon family were royalists during the Civil War and their fortunes suffered considerably.

Over the years the statue has been located in various places, until it was taken into storage and restored. It was relocated in 1986 to the gardens of Lowewood House and now stands in the museum grounds.

Lowewood House was built around 1750, and members of the Warner family lived there from 1835 until 1935. The house was bought by Douglas Taylor who gave it to the town in 1936 for use as a public library and museum. The library was relocated in 1977 and since 1982 Lowewood House has been the home of Broxbourne Museum. The museum has been managed by the Lowewood Museum Trust since 2021 and is open on Fridays and Saturdays.

The statue of the Samaritan Woman has been cleaned and restored recently and a blue plaque at the corner of the High Street and Conduit Lane marks the original location of the statue of the Samaritan Woman. The plaque celebrating the statue and the fountain was unveiled last month (24 June 2024) by the Mayor of Broxbourne, Councillor Sherrie McDaid, as part of the Love Hoddesdon Midsummer Festival.

There is a similar figure in the fountain on the lawn at High Leigh. It is one of outdoor features the gardens created by the Pulhams, a family of landscape gardeners in nearby Broxbourne. I wonder whether it was inspired by the Samaritan Woman in the centre of Hoddesdon and, indeed, whether it too was ever known as the Samaritan Woman?

The Samaritan Women now stands in the grounds of Lowewood Museum in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 13 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘United Beyond Borders.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections on this week’s USPG conference by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 13 July 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words in Saint Matthew’s Gospel:

‘For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 35).

The 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 in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion 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.

Additional Collect:

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity VII:

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 your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The fountain in the gardens in High Leigh has many similariities with statue of the Samaritan Woman in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny (Matthew 10: 29) ... watching a mother swallow feed her chicks in a nest in the ceiling of Aghias Anna Church, Maroulas, near Retymnon in Crete (Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 64, Friday 12 July 2024

The High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon … the venue for this week’s USPG conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI). I am back in Stony Stratford this morning, having spent much of the week at the High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, taking part in the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection in connection with this week’s USPG conference;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘I am sending you out like sheep … do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say’ (see Matthew 10: 16, 19) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 10: 16-23 (NRSVUE):

[Jesus said:] 16 “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

Many of the rooms and features at High Leigh remain unchanged since the days when the Barclay family owned the house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

I have spent much of this week at the High Leigh Conference Centre on the western fringes of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. The house was once the home of the Barclay family, and during the week, I have been reminded of that family’s Quaker roots, their social conscience and generosity, and their later commitment to the life and mission of the Church of England.

With its beautiful Victorian façade, extensive parkland and landscaped gardens, High Leigh could easily provide the location for a television period drama. Its tranquil and spacious setting makes High Leigh popular, yet delegates at conferences also find the time and space to relax and unwind and for reflection.

High Leigh was originally built in 1853, and was bought in 1871 by Robert Barclay (1843-1921), a successful banker and committed Christian. He was born in Walthamstow, Essex, the son of Joseph Gurney Barclay and Mary Walker Barclay. Over the generations, his ancestors had married into many other prominent banking families, and he was responsible for merging 20 banks into Barclay’s Bank.

Robert Barclay’s ancestors were Quakers, but he was an Anglican, and his family also played key roles in the life of the Church of England. He married Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848-1911), a granddaughter of the 19th-century reformer and anti-slavery campaigner, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and she too had many Quaker ancestors in the Gurney and Fry families. They had a large family that included CMS missionaries.

Much of the original 19th century manor house at High Leigh and its period features remain unchanged, including the Woodlands Lounge and the Oak Room.

High Leigh is also known for its gardens, covering 40 acres of beautiful countryside in Hertfordshire, with parkland that is dotted with formal areas, woodland, lawns and ponds. Some of the house’s most prominent outdoor features were created by the Pulhams, a family of landscape gardeners who owned Pulham Manufactory in nearby Broxbourne. It is thought the Pulhams themselves worked on the design and installation of many of the pieces in the garden at High Leigh.

When Robert Barclay died in 1921, the house was sold to First Conference Estate of which he had been a director. First Conference Estate, now known as Christian Conference Trust, was founded in 1909 with the express purpose of providing affordable facilities for various missionary and other Christian societies. The Hayes at Swanwick in Derbyshire was opened in 1910 and High Leigh opened in 1921.

One of the curiosities of USPG’s charters is that ex-officio incorporated members of the council include the Lord High Almoner. The office was held from 1946 to 1953 by Edward Sydney Woods (1877-1953), Bishop of Lichfield (1937-1953), whose wife Clemence Barclay (1874-1952) was a daughter of Robert Barclay of High Leigh. She was born at High Leigh, and they were married in Hoddesdon in 1903. The story is told that Bishop Woods had the distinction of being one of two survivors of a German air raid by hiding under a dining table with Ann Charteris, the future wife of Ian Fleming.

The Chapel Barn at High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 12 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘United Beyond Borders.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections on this week’s USPG conference by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 12 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for all those who feel lonely and excluded. Who feel like they are on the outside looking in. May we do more to be welcoming and understanding that we are all equal in God’s eyes.

The Collect:

Eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master
in the school of your service
and a guide to many called into community
to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put your love before all else
and seek with joy the way of your commandments;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Benedict
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The bell tower above the entrance to the High Leigh Conference Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Sent out in mission with USPG from High Leigh, ‘to embrace each other and grow together in love’

The High Leigh Conference Centre in this morning’s sunshine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The USPG conference in High Leigh this week came to an end after our ‘Sending Eucharist’ today. Many theologians speak of mission as sending. The South African theologian David Bosch says the ‘classical doctrine on the missio Dei’ is rooted in ‘God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit’ and ‘the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit sending the church into the world.’

He writes in Transforming Mission: ‘Our mission has not life of its own: only in the hands of the sending God can it truly be called mission. Not least since the missionary initiative comes from God alone … Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is church because there is mission, not vice versa.’

He says: ‘To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God's love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.’

So, ‘Sending Eucharist’ was an appropriate description of our closing worship today at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. As the ‘Sending Eucharist’ came to a conclusion, we were sent out with a ‘Sending Out’ prayer from Common Worship Times and Seasons:

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, will you dare to walk into God’s future, trusting him to be your guide?

By the Spirit’s power, we will.

Will you dare to embrace each other and grow together in love?

We will.

Will you dare to share your riches in common and minister to each other in need?

We will.

Will you dare to pray for each other until your hearts beat with the longings of God?

We will.

Will you dare to carry the light of Christ into the world’s dark places?

We will.

Bishop Dalcy Badeli Dlamini of Eswatini, who presided at the Eucharist, has been leading the Bible studies throughout the week. The new chair of USPG, Bishop David Walker of Manchester, was the preacher. I was invited to lead the intercessions alongside Carol Miller, the USPG Church Engagement Manager.

Art work by Ukrainian refugees in Poland illustrated the cover of the ‘Sending Eucharist’ at the USPG conference today (Photoraph: Patrick Comerford, USPG/Rachel Weller, 2024)

In our Bible study earlier this morning, Bishop Dalcy led our discussions with the passage: ‘He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing’ (Deuteronomy 10: 18).

She challenged us with five questions:

1, What is your understanding of the phrase defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing’?

2, How does this understanding shape your ministry approach to the vulnerable and marginalised in your context?

3,What practical ways can the church apply to minister to the vulnerable and marginalised in today’s context?

4, How can you implement the principles of justice, love and compassion found in Deuteronomy 10: 18 to create a community without borders?

5, What challenges or hindrances might you face in living out the call to embrace justice love and compassion as you minister to the vulnerable and strangers in your context, and how can you overcome them?

Her closing comment this morning was a quotation from Nelson Mandela: ‘I am because you are.’

Bishop David Walker of Manchester took office as chair of USPG later this morning when he chaired a panel discussion at which we asked ‘What’s Next?’ and ‘Can we unite beyond borders?’ The panellists included many of this week’s speakers.

We began this morning with Morning Worship led by George Hesketh from Liverpool, a member of the Tsedaqah Community (Triangle of Hope), a missional community based at Liverpool Cathedral and made up of young people living together in community for a year.

I am now on my back to Stony Stratford. I took a train from Broxbourne to Cambridge, and now there are bus journeys to Bedford and to Milton Keynes before I get home.

A walk in the woods at High Leigh this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 63, Thursday 11 July 2024, Saint Benedict

An icon of Saint Benedict (right) and Saint Francis (left) in Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge … Saint Benedict is remembered in the Church Calendar today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI). Today, the Church remembers Saint Benedict of Nursia (ca 550), Abbot of Monte Cassino and Father of Western Monasticism.

I have been staying this week at the High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, where the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) began on Tuesday (9 July). The conference continues until lunchtime today (11 July). I hope to visit Cambridge again later this afternoon before catching a bus through Beford and Milton Keynes back to Stony Stratford later this evening.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection in connection with this week’s USPG conference;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts’ (Matthew 10: 9) …old coins in an antique shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 7-15 (NRSVUE):

[Jesus said:] 7 “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for labourers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Some of the resources and materials at the USPG conference this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

The USPG conference in High Leigh continues until lunchtime today. We begin this morning with Morning Worship led by George Hesketh from Liverpool, a member of the Tsedaqah Community (Triangle of Hope), a missional community based at Liverpool Cathedral and made up of young people living together in community for a year. The Triangle of Hope links the Diocese of Kumasi in Ghana, the Diocese of Liverpool in the Church of England and the Diocese of Virginia in the US.

Tsedaqah is a Hebrew word that means ‘righteousness' or ‘to do justice', the very reason that the community was formed. The instruction in Micah 6: 8 inspires its mission as a community. Community members seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, values echoed in the words of the Tsedaqah Prayer.

After breakfast, the Bible study is led once again by Bishop Dalcy Badeli Dlamini of Eswatini, who is leading the Bible studies throughout the week.

Later this morning there is a panel discussion that asks ‘What’s Next?’, followed by our ‘Sending Eucharist’, when I have been invited to take part in leading the intercessions.

Some of the resources and materials distributed at this week’s conference and that we have been invited to take back to our dioceses and parishes include United Beyond Borders: Migration And Movement, a new five-week study course for churches, clergy, study days or small groups. It explores migration and the global movement of people, with stories from the world church, including Filipino migrants in London, internally displaced people in Maynmar, human trafficking in Brazil, regugees making the journey from Calais, and life on the margins for people displaced by natural disaster in Malawi.

Revive was formerly known as Koinonia and has been named to capture the spirit and energy of life at USPG, with stories about people from around the global church who inspire USPG with God-centred action. The latest Spring edition includes features on the Revd Thandu Noketshe, his wife Bulewa, and their family’s exchange from South Africa to the Caribbean, an international and ecumenical conference in Freiburg on racial justice, and a consultation in Tanzania on human trafficking.

Resources being produced for later this year include the 2024 Harvest Appeal inviting parishes or dioceses to provide essential support to improve food security and economic resilience in Zululand. It is built around the story of ‘Grace’ who collects runner beans from a farm in the Diocese of Zululand.

Evening lights at the High Leigh Conference Centre … the venue for this week’s USPG conference (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 11 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘United Beyond Borders.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections on this week’s USPG conference by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 11 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for the time and fellowship at the USPG conference. May partnerships and friendships new and old develop and flourish.

The Collect:

Eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master
in the school of your service
and a guide to many called into community
to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put your love before all else
and seek with joy the way of your commandments;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Benedict
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Inside the Chapel Barn at the High Leigh Conference Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Making Christian mission disruptive and challenging the links between mission, violence and oppression

Professor Kelly Brown Douglas with the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor of USPG at the USPG conference in High Leigh this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Christian mission is disruptive and it must come alive, according to the Very Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas, when she challenged us today to rethink our paradigms of mission, and to think again about how the old models of mission were related to violence and oppression.

She was the keynote speaker this morning at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), with the theme of ‘United Beyond Borders’. She is a leader in womanist theology and racial reconciliation, the Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral.

Professor Brown Douglas asked us to think what just peace looks like. For her, forging a just peace means rethinking mission, and a shift from mission that is focussed on the conversion of individuals. In the past, mission has made victims of the recipients of mission that was part of colonialism, making them easy theological excuses for exploitation, often with racist aspects.

She linked the cultural and structural violence of imperialism and colonialism with the rise of white right Christian nationalism, and said the past model of mission was antithetical to building the kingdom and a world characterised by a just peace.

True mission is not about thrusting a particular culture and way of life on people, she said, but is about fostering the kingdom of God, the Missio Dei and a loving and just world that is characterised by a just peace.

Christian mission requires we listen to and understand the perspective of the victims of the conversion paradigm of mission and the violence that went with it. Violence breeds violence, she said, insisting violence is never initiated by the oppressed but is initiated by those who oppress.

We were challenged to think about how do we foster justice and the values that underpin justice and peace-making, the justice that God desires, and how do we live them out. This is the work of Christian mission, and it is not a project or event but a way of life, we were told. We heard that we are compelled to rethink mission and to create new models of mission that opens us to being just peacemakers in our world. ‘This is what spreading the good news of the Gospel is about … this is the work of Christian mission.’

The bell tower at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Bradon Muilenburg, the Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France, was the keynote speaker this afternoon. He is originally from Michigan and has also worked with the Taizé community in France.

He spoke of his works along border lines and his day-to-day experiences in Calais. His work is supported by USPG, the Diocese of Canterbury and the Diocese in Europe.

He spoke of the distress of a family he heard about last night who were separated from their four-year-old child, and did not know whether the child was still alive or dead. ‘It cannot keep going on like this,’ he said. The child was found in a hospital in London this morning, but it is not always like this, and he spoke of two seven-year-old girls from Iraq who had drowned.

The reality is so different from the political rhetoric, he said. Too often people were spoken of as statistics. Referring to the language of reports in newspapers, he suggested we should not think that refugees are being dehumanised – it is we who are being dehumanised. We need to take fear away from the conversation, he said.

The refugees have experienced war, torture and injustice, they have been pushed back and teargassed at borders, yet they hold onto hope. People who have lost their own children have treated his child like their own family. ‘They shouldn’t have to face death again to be able to claim asylum.’

He spoke too of the work of Maria Skobtsova House, in the heart of Calais, offering sanctuary and hospitality to vulnerable refugees in the spirit of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Maria Skobtsova, ‘Saint Mary of Paris’.

He encouraged us to continue hoping and continuing our small efforts, and quoted the poem ‘Stubborn Ounces’ by Bonaro W Overstreet:

(To One Who Doubts the Worth of
Doing Anything If You Can’t Do Everything)

You say the little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.
I don’t think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favour of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.

Our Bible study this morning was led once again by Dr Dalcy Badeli Dlamini, Bishop of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. She looked at the idea that ‘for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3: 26-28, NRSV).

Bishop Dalcy is the second woman bishop in Eswatini, and she is leading the Bible studies throughout this week, bringing fresh perspectives on leadership, faith and community.

Looking at the cross, she reminded us that the vertical line draws us up to God, while the horizontal line calls us to reach out to one another. We are called to put aside any differences that society has dictated to us.

She then asked us to consider five questions:

1, What do you understand by the phrase ‘all one in Christ Jesus’ in the context of Galatians 3: 26-28?

2, How does being ‘children of God through faith in Christ Jesus’ in Galatians influence your understanding of unity and equality in your context?

3, How can the church integrate the message of unity and equality in Galatians 3: 26-28 in its daily interactions and ministry with people from different religious and social status?

4, What practical steps can you take to overcome conflicts and divisions in our churches/contexts today?

5, What measures can the church put in place to reflect the unity and equality Paul speaks about in the passage of scripture?

Once again, there was a choice between three workshops this morning:

1, Beyond borders: Gender Justice female Leadership in the Anglican Church – this workshop was an invitation to explore the opportunities, strengths, and challenges for female leadership in the Anglican Church. The facilitators were USPG’s Senior Regional Managers Fran Mate and the Revd Davidson Solanki.

2, The Past in the Present: Mission, Empire and Racial Justice – this workshop explored the legacies of a history marked by slavery and racism that offer unique possibilities in the present. The facilitators were Dr Jo Sadgrove, the Revd Dr Evie Vernon and the Revd Garfield Campbell.

3, Seeing Differently – an interactive workshop using a real-life case study to recognise and reveal attitudes leading to exclusion of others in plain sight, drawing on the experiences of Gypsy Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches workshops.

The High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire … the venue for the USPG conference this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The USPG conference began yesterday in the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and continues until tomorrow.

The annual meeting of the council of USPG this afternoon included the appointment of new trustees, reports on the vision and strategy of USPG, and reports on USPG’s work in Rethinking Mission, Energising Church and Championing Justice as the global mission agency, transforming mission thinking, practice and solidarity at the heart of the life of the Anglican Communion.

There were reports on USPG’s work with partners across the Anglican Communion in many areas, including theological education, economic justice, human trafficking and climate change. Staff members, including new members of staff, spoke of the diversity of their work and key highlights from the last six months, including this year’s Lent Appeal and a new website due to be launched in the weeks to come.

Today opened with morning worship led by Derby Guerrier from Haiti, and members of the Tsedaqah Community (Triangle of Hope), a missional community based at Liverpool Cathedral and made up of young people living together in community for a year. The Triangle of Hope links the Diocese of Kumasi in Ghana, the Diocese of Liverpool in the Church of England and the Diocese of Virginia in the US.

Tsedaqah community members work in a variety of social justice projects across the Liverpool City Region, in conjunction with the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool and Liverpool Cathedral.

Tsedaqah is a Hebrew word that means ‘righteousness' or ‘to do justice', the very reason that the community was formed. The instruction in Micah 6: 8 inspires its mission as a community, and community members seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. This passage from Micah was also the reading at our Evening Worship.

This morning’s worship included a prayer for immigrants from Pope Francis:

Merciful God, we pray to you for all the men, women and children who have died after leaving their homelands in search of a better life. Though many of their graves bear no name, to you each one is known, loved and cherished.

May we never forget them, but honour their sacrifice with deeds more than words. We entrust to you all those who have made this journey, enduring fear, uncertainty and humiliation, in order to reach a place of safety and hope.

Just as you never abandoned your Son as he was brought to a safe place by Mary and Joseph, so now be close to these, your sons and daughters, through our tenderness and protection. In caring for them may we seek a world where none are forced to leave their home and where all can live in freedom, dignity and peace.

Merciful God and Father of all, wake us from the slumber of indifference, open our eyes to their suffering, and free us from the insensitivity born of worldly comfort and self-centeredness.

Inspire us, as nations, communities and individuals, to see that those who come to our shores are our brothers and sisters.

May we share with them the blessings we have received from your hand, and recognise that together, as one human family, we are all migrants, journeying in hope to you, our true home, where every tear will be wiped away, where we will be at peace and safe in your embrace.

We were also invited to respond to a prayer from the Jesuit Father Dan Hartnett:

God of love and compassion: may we always recognise your spirit:

• in the refugee family, seeking safety from violence;
• in the migrant worker, bringing food to our tables;
• in the asylum-seekers, seeking justice for their families;
• in the unaccompanied child, traveling in a dangerous world.

Give us hearts that break open whenever our brothers and sisters turn to us.

Give us hearts that no longer turn deaf to their voices in times of need;

Give us eyes to recognise a moment for grace instead of a threat.

Give us voices that fail to remain silent but which decide instead to advocate prophetically.

Give us hands that reach out in welcome, but also in work, for a world of justice until all homelands are safe and secure.

The impaled arms of the Barclay and Buxton families in High Leigh … a reminder of the Barclay family who once owned High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 62, Wednesday 10 July 2024

‘Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority’ (Matthew 10: 1) … the Twelve Apostles, an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI). I am staying this week at the High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, where the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) began yesterday (9 July) and continues until tomorrow (11 July).

Later this evening, undoubtedly, I shall find an appropriate place to watch the England v Netherlands semi-final in Germany, and appropriate company to share the excitement and anxiety. I remember when England and the Netherlands last met in a fixture like this it was 1996 and I was on holiday in Crete, staying in Mika Villas in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection in connection with this week’s USPG conference;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The 12 disciples in an icon of the True Vine in the church in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 1-7 (NRSVUE):

1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’.”

The Very Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas is the keynote speaker at the USPG conference in High Leigh this morning

This morning’s reflection:

The annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) began yesterday in the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and continues until tomorrow. The conference theme this year is ‘United Beyond Borders’, and I am reflecting on the conference in this prayer diary throughout this week.

Today begins with morning worship led by Derby Guerrier from Haiti, a member of the Tsedaqah Community (Triangle of Hope), a missional community based at Liverpool Cathedral and made up of young people living together in community for a year. The Triangle of Hope links the Diocese of Kumasi in Ghana, the Diocese of Liverpool in the Church of England and the Diocese of Virginia in the US.

Tsedaqah community members work in a variety of social justice projects across the Liverpool City Region in conjunction with the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool and Liverpool Cathedral.

Tsedaqah is a Hebrew word that means ‘righteousness' or ‘to do justice', the very reason that the community was formed. The instruction in Micah 6: 8 inspires its mission as a community. Community members seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. These values are echoed in the words of the Tsedaqah Prayer.

The conference Bible studies later this morning are being led once again by Bishop Dalcy Badeli Dlamini, Bishop of Eswatini in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. She is the second woman bishop in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and she is leading the Bible studies throughout this week, bringing fresh perspectives on leadership, faith and community.

The Very Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas is the keynote speaker this morning. She is a leader in womanist theology and racial reconciliation, and is the Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral.

Bradon Muilenburg, the Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France, is the keynote speaker at the conference this afternoon. He works along border lines and his day-to-day experience of ministry in Calais is expected to bring many of this week’s discussions to life.

I have a choice between three workshops during the day:

1, Beyond borders: Gender Justice female Leadership in the Anglican Church – this workshop is an invitation to explore the opportunities, strengths, and challenges for female leadership in the Anglican Church. The facilitators are USPG’s Senior Regional Managers Fran Mate and the Revd Davidson Solanki.

2, The Past in the Present: Mission, Empire and Racial Justice – this workshop explores the legacies of a history marked by slavery and racism that offer unique possibilities in the present. The facilitators are Dr Jo Sadgrove, the Revd Dr Evie Vernon and the Revd Garfield Campbell.

3, Seeing Differently – an interactive workshop using a real-life case study, to help us recognise and reveal attitudes leading to exclusion of others in plain sight, and it involves Gypsy Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches workshops.

Bradon Muilenburg, the Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France, is the keynote speaker at the conference this afternoon

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 10 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘United Beyond Borders.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections on this week’s USPG conference by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 10 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for all who are gathered for the USPG conference. Give wisdom to all who speak and grant that all attending have open hearts and minds.

The 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 in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion 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.

Additional Collect:

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The logo of the Christian Conference Trust, which runs the High Leigh Conference Centre, in reception area at High Leigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

A week of breaking down the barriers and opening the gates with USPG at High Leigh

Bishop Dalcy Badeli Dlamini of Eswatini leading the Bible study at the USPG conference in High Leigh today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

The annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) got under this morning in the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and continues until Thursday.

This week’s conference theme is ‘United Beyond Borders’.

The conference opened this morning with a welcome from the General Secretary of USPG, the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, and with worship.

Duncan spoke of his recent visit to Calais to see the work of a joint refugee action project between the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and USPG. The project seeks to ensure that refugees receive the basic support that they need, and to provide hospitality, support and care.

This morning’s Bible study was led by Bishop Dalcy Badeli Dlamini, Bishop of Eswatini in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, who chose as her theme: ‘Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise’ (Isaiah 60: 18).

She asked us what forms of violence do people in our countries or contexts today; what does the phrase ‘violence shall no more be heard in your land’ mean to us and in our contexts today; how can we apply the concepts of ‘walls called Salvation, and your gates called Praise’ to unified and secure community in our contexts; and what practical steps can we take to assure our communities and church spaces reflect the salvation and praise spoken of by Isaiah?

Bishop Dalcy is the second woman bishop in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and the fourth woman bishop in Southern Africa. She succeeded Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya, who died of Covid-related causes early in 2020.

After an early career as a primary school teacher, Dr Dlamini was ordained in the Diocese of Swaziland in 2006, and her experiences include parochial ministry and school and university chaplaincy. She has PhD in Practical Theology from the University of Pretoria.

She moved to the Diocese of St Mark in 2020, and was Diocesan Dean of Studies and Rector and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Polokwane. She has been involved in the international Anglican/Lutheran Commission and the Steering Group of the International Anglican Women’s Network.

Bishop Dalcy is leading the Bible studies throughout this week, bringing fresh perspectives on leadership, faith and community.

This afternoon’s keynote speaker was Bishop Anderson Jeremiah, the new Bishop of Edmonton and a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of London. He spoke of geographical border-making and how borders have been used to define, exclude and control and as a ‘Euro-centric’ creation.

He compared this with the symbolic borders defining identity and belonging, the difference between the sacred and the profane, the secular and the religious, and defining who belongs within religious communities, differentiating between the ‘pure’ and the ‘impure’.

Borders are geographical, but they can also be intellectual, political, ideological, doctrinal and theological, he pointed out.

He also discussed the rise of far-right populism across Europe and the way far-right politicians use borders to garner support among people who feel alienated by changes in society.

He contrasted these ideas with the preaching of the Kingdom of God by Jesus found in Saint John’s Gospel, redrawing and crossing the borders created by both the Roman Empire and the religious political and cultural authorities of his day.

He also quoted: ‘So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God’ (Ephesians 2: 19-22, NRSV).

He invited us to compare this with the emphasis in the Message version: ‘That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all –irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.’

He challenged us to face up to the borders and new boundaries we construct in our communities, and to reorient ourselves in the Church. He called us to critical pilgrimage and prophetic rebellion, decentring ourselves and constantly questioning authorities, offering radical theological alternatives rooted in the teachings of Jesus.

Bishop Anderson Jeremiah was born in Tamil Nadu in India in 1975 and studied at the University of Madras, the University of Edinburgh and the United Theological College, Bangalore. He has served in hospital and university chaplaincy in India and in parish ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Until recently, he was the canon theologian in the Diocese of Blackburn and Associate Dean (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University. He was consecrated bishop by Archbishop Justin Welby in Canterbury in April and was installed as the Bishop of Edmonton in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, in May. He is married to the Revd Dr Rebecca Aechtner and they are the parents of two daughters.

His commitment to justice and peace, rooted in his experience as a Dalit Christian, has set a powerful tone for the conference.

Later this afternoon there was a choice between workshops.

‘Beyond Borders’ was a workshop on Gender Justice and female leadership in the Anglican Church. This workshop was led by USPG Senior Regional Managers Fran Mate and the Revd Davidson Solanki and explored the opportunities, strengths, and challenges for female leadership in the Anglican Church.

‘The Past in the Present’ was a workshop on Mission, Empire and Racial Justice. This workshop was facilitated by Dr Jo Sadgrove, the Revd Dr Evie Vernon and the Revd Garfield Campbell, and explored the legacies of a history marked by slavery and racism and the possibilities in the present.

‘Seeing Differently’ was an interactive workshop using a real-life case study, recognising and revealing attitudes leading to exclusion of others in plain sight. There were examples of Gypsy Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches.

This choice of workshops is being offered at the conference again tomorrow.

The other speakers this week include the Very Revd Dr Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral, and Bradon Muilenburg, the Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France. Brandon works along border lines and his day-to-day experience of ministry in Calais is expected to bring many of this week’s discussions to life.

A walk in the countryside near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire before today’s rainstorms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)