Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 69, Wednesday 15 July 2026

Saint Swithun depicted on the gateway at Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 12 July 2026). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Swithun (ca 862), Bishop of Winchester, and Saint Bonaventure (1218-1274), Franciscan friar, bishop and teacher of the faith.

Later today, I plan to take part in the rehearsals of the choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and I am still in two minds about whether and where to watch the England v Argentina World Cup semi-final afterwards. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The gateway at Magdalen College, Oxford with Saint Mary Magdalen (centre) between Saint Swithun (right) and Bishop William Waynflete (left) of Winchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

Saint Swithun’s Tower in Magdalen College, Oxford, leads from Saint John’s Quad into Saint Swithun’s Quad (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth’ … (Matthew 11: 25).

Sometimes, I am concerned that my prayers are too complicated and too direct. I spend more time explaining to God what I want or need, and explaining to God or justifying to myself what and why I am praying for … telling God how awful the world’s complex problems and politics are, and in a prayerful but passive aggressive way chiding God for seeming to nothing about it, yet.

The prayers of infants and children are often simple, honest and direct, as in the opening lines of Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel reading, thanking God as ‘Lord of heaven and earth’. This morning’s reading is also a warning to me about wanting to appear wise and intelligent to others and not being patient and humble like a child of God.

It’s almost 60 years since the New Vaudeville Band had a novelty one-hit chart-topping success in December 1966 with Winchester Cathedral. Of course, there was no such thing as the New Vaudeville Band – it was a novelty group of session musicians put together by the song’s composer, Geoff Stephens, and the singer John Carter recorded singing through his hands to imitate a megaphone sound:

Winchester Cathedral
You’re bringing me down
You stood and you watched as
My baby left town.

You could have done something
But you didn’t try
You didn’t do nothing
You let her walk by.

Saint Swithun, was Bishop of Winchester in the ninth century, is commemorated in Common Worship today (15 July), although little is known of his life and he is usually associated with aphorisms or superstitions about weather forecasts on this day.

Saint Swithun was a bishop for 10 years and appears to have been a trusted adviser of Egbert, King of Wessex. He had asked to be buried ‘humbly’ and not in a great shrine and, when he died on 2 July 862, his request was fulfilled. However, when a new cathedral was being built, Ethelwold, the new bishop, decided to move Swithun’s remains into a shrine in the cathedral, despite dire warnings that to move the bones would bring about terrible storms.

His body was reburied or translated on 15 July 971 and, although many cures were claimed and other miracles observed, it apparently rained for 40 days, as forecast. Thus the feast-day of Saint Swithun became synonymous with long, summer storms, rather than as an occasion for celebrating Christian simplicity and holiness.

An English proverb says:

Saint Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
Saint Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mare

A variation says:

If on St Swithun’s day it really pours
You’re better off to stay indoors.

Perhaps that’s why Geoff Stephens and John Carter felt let down by Winchester Cathedral almost 60 years ago.

The need to not just pray about our weather but to act politically in response to climate change was brought out in a report in The Guardian on Monday (13 July 2026) that scientists estimate the heatwave in England and Wales in June killed about 440 people a day during its three-day peak. The analysis, led by Dr Clair Barnes at Imperial College London, shows that across the whole of the June heatwave, plus the one in May, about 2,700 people have died prematurely.

The data starkly illustrates the danger of extreme heat, which is being supercharged by the climate crisis. More than 40% of the people affected would not have died without the 1.4C of human-caused global heating to date, according to the analysis. In comparison, about four people die each day as a result of road traffic collisions and about 35 a day because of alcohol and drug use.

Extreme temperatures will worsen as continued fossil fuel burning pumps pollution into the atmosphere, making cuts in emissions and measures to protect people from global heating urgent, experts say. There are real reasons that go beyond folklore and superstition to be concerned about the weather we may have today on Saint Swithun’s Day and for the next 40 days … sunshine or rain.

Meanwhile, if we truly acknowledge God in our prayers as ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ we need to reflect that in taking responsibility for our custody of the earth and we need to do more in respose to the climate crisis.

Saint Swithun (second from left) in the second row of saints and martyrs on the Great Screen in Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 15 July 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 12 to 18 July 2026 (pp 18-19), is ‘The Land of the Highlanders’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Most Revd Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 15 July 2026) invites us to pray

Dear Lord, for the Highlands, we pray that it may be honoured as a shared gift and not controlled by a few. Open paths for fair access, sustainable living, and flourishing local communities.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
by whose grace we celebrate again
the feast of your servant Swithun:
grant that, as he governed with gentleness
the people committed to his care,
so we, rejoicing in our Christian inheritance,
may always seek to build up your Church in unity and love;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Swithun revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The choir, Great Screen and High Altar in Southwark Cathedral … Saint Swithun is said to have set up a college of priests in Southwark (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Winchester Palace, once one of the largest buildings in mediaeval London

The 14th century rose window in Winchester Palace, once the London palace of the mediaeval Bishops of Winchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

During last week’s visit to Southwark and Southwark Cathedral, two of us also visited the ruins of Winchester Palace, once one of the largest and most important buildings in mediaeval London.

The palace was built in the early 13th century as a home for the powerful Bishops of Winchester, but was mostly destroyed by fire in 1814. A few walls are all that remain of the palace, but visitors can see the impressive remaining walls of the Great Hall, including the magnificent rose window in the west gable.

Winchester Palace was first built in the 12th century by Bishop Henry de Blois, a brother of King Stephen, and the great hall was probably built ca 1136. The palace was built to house the bishops comfortably when they were in London on royal or administrative business.

Winchester had once been the capital of the Saxon kings of England. Southwark was once the largest manor in the Diocese of Winchester, and the Bishop of Winchester was a major landowner in the area. Traditionally, the mediaeval Bishops of Winchester were also the king’s royal treasurer, the equivalent of the Chancellor of the Exchequer today.

The Bishop of Winchester attended the king at his court in Westminster and at the Tower of London and also attended Parliament. Winchester Palace served as the London townhouse of the Bishops of Winchester. Many bishops similarly had palaces in London, such as Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and Ely Place, the townhouse of the Bishops of Ely.

Winchester Palace was in the parish of Southwark, then in Surrey, on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite the City of London and on what is now Clink Street, near Saint Saviour’s Church, now Southwark Cathedral.

The remains seen today are part of the Great Hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The hall was enlarged and the rose window built in the 14th century, possibly by Bishop William of Wykeham (1367-1398).

The remains seen today are part of the Great Hall. The gable wall of the hall has doors that once led to the buttery, pantry and kitchen, and it has a magnificent rose window. Below the hall was a vaulted cellar, where goods such as wine could be stored, with a passage to the river wharf.

The rest of the palace was arranged around two courtyards housing many buildings, including a prison, brewhouse and butchery. As the bishop’s private retreat from the stresses of mediaeval governance, the palace also had a tennis court, a bowling alley and pleasure gardens.

Below the hall was a richly decorated vaulted cellar with direct access to a wharf on the River Thames for bringing in supplies. Royal visitors were entertained at the palace, including The Great Hall would have been lavishly decorated in the 15th century, and was often used to entertain royal guests.

James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort held their wedding feast there in 1424 after their wedding in what is now Southwark Cathedral. She was a niece of the then Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, and of King Henry IV.

The palace was associated with the Liberty of the Clink on the south bank of the Thames. This was an area free from the jurisdiction of the City of London, and it became an area where activities suppressed in the City could flourish openly.

Gaming houses, bowling alleys, theatres and brothels abounded. It took its name from the notorious Clink prison which lay within the Liberty and gave rise to the slang expression ‘in the clink,’ or in prison. The Bishops of Winchester received rents from the many brothels, leading to the local prostitutes being known as the ‘Winchester Geese.’

During the English Civil War, Sir Thomas Ogle was imprisoned there. During his time in prison, he tried to draw Thomas Devenish, a member of John Goodwin’s Independent congregation, into a royalist plot to split the Parliamentarian Independents from the Presbyterians in order to boost Charles I’s numbers in Parliament.

From 1682 to 1686, the palace was remodelled, adding Corinthian columns and pilasters, to give a more contemporary Renaissance look. The sculpture and masonry was by Edward Strong the Elder.

The palace remained in use until around 1700, when it was converted and divided into tenement housing and warehouses. These were mostly destroyed by fire in 1814. Part of the great hall and the west gable end with its rose window became more visible after a fire in the 19th century fire and were finally revealed in the 1980s during redevelopment of the area.

The remains of Winchester Palace are a Grade II listed building and as a Scheduled Monument are under the care of English Heritage. Winchester Palace is managed by Bankside Open Spaces Trust, which has planted a mediaeval-style garden in the remains of the Great Hall.

Bankside Open Spaces Trust has planted a mediaeval-style garden in the remains of the Great Hall of Winchester Palace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A mixture of sunshine and rain with Saint Swithun’s successor

All glass and mirrors? ... in the Silk Road Café in Dublin Castle this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

In December 1966, the New Vaudeville Band had a novelty one-hit chart-topping success with Winchester Cathedral. Of course, there was no such thing as the New Vaudeville Band – it was a novelty group of session musicians put together by the song’s composer, Geoff Stephens, and the singer John Carter recorded singing through his hands to imitate a megaphone sound:

Winchester Cathedral
You’re bringing me down
You stood and you watched as
My baby left town.

You could have done something
But you didn’t try
You didn’t do nothing
You let her walk by.

It was good to be back in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, for the Cathedral Eucharist this morning [25 May 2014], after a few weeks absence.

I was last in the cathedral on a Sunday morning a month ago [27 April 2014], and have spent Sundays since then on Achill Island, in Zion Parish, Rathgar, and taking part in a residential weekend with part-time MTh students.

I sat in the chapter stalls this morning, happy to be fed spiritually in word and sacrament. The Revd Garth Bunting presided, Canon Mark Gardiner preached as the canon-in-residence and the setting sung by the Cathedral Choir was Missa Bell’ amfitrit’ altera by Orlande de Lassus (1534-1594).

Lassus was a Dutch or Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, from present-day Belgium. Today he is regarded as the principal representative of the mature polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school, and one of the three most famous and influential musicians in late 16th century Europe, alongside Palestrina and Victoria.

Later, two of us went to lunch in the Silk Road Café at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle with an old friend, Bishop Tim Dakin of Winchester and his wife, the Revd Sally Dakin, after bringing them on a tour of the cathedral and the cathedral crypt.

I have known Bishop Tim since we both worked for the Church Mission Society about 10 years ago. He was the General Secretary of the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) before becoming Bishop of Winchester in 2011.

Timothy John Dakin was born in 1958 in East Africa, where his parents were church missionaries working in Tanzania and Kenya. In our conversations this afternoon, we shared memories of shared friends from the present and the past, and also explored some interesting connections, for his father was ordained deacon and priest in Lichfield Cathedral.

The future bishop was Principal of Carlile College, the Church Army college in Nairobi, from 1993 to 2000, and an assistant curate at All Saints’ Cathedral, Nairobi, before being appointed General Secretary of CMS in 2000. Two years later, I joined the staff of CMS Ireland.

While he was working with CMS, he was also an associate priest in the parish of Ruscombe and Twyford in the Diocese of Oxford and an Honorary Canon Theologian of Coventry Cathedral.

He was appointed Bishop of Winchester on 6 September 2011, he was consecrated in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, on 25 January 2012, and was enthroned in Winchester Cathedral was on 21 April.

As a bishop of the Church of England, his responsibilities include Higher and Further Education. He is also the visitor to five Oxford colleges including New College, Oxford, and Saint John’s College, Oxford, and the prelate of the Order of the Garter.

The Revd Sally Dakin is a priest in the Parish of Saint Barnabas in Reading. Sally and Tim Dakin have two adult children, Anna and Johnny.

With Bishop Tim Dakin and the Revd Sally Dakin outside the Deanery at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, this evening (Photograph: Barbara Comerford, 2014)

By early afternoon, there was no sign of the threatened rain, and from the Silk Road Café and Christ Church Cathedral we headed to north Co Dublin, stopping briefly in Rush to look at the abandoned portico of Kenure House.

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon for cricket in Rush, and by the time we got to Skerries the place was basking in unexpected sunshine. Summer was returning this afternoon to Skerries, which was hosting a street festival and a cycling race.

We parked on Red Island, and we walked around the harbour, where there was an exceptionally low tide. Last Sunday, Skerries was soaking in heavy, winter-like rain.

We sat for a short time in the sunshine at Stoop Your Head on the Harbour. All along the harbour front, people were enjoying the unexpected sunshine, flowing from the bars and restaurants onto the street.

Later, we stepped in behind the Sailing Club, and strolled along the length of the South Strand. By the time we got back to Christ Church Cathedral late in the evening the bright sunshine had disappeared and the rain had returned.

Bishop Tim is a successor to Saint Swithun, who was Bishop of Winchester and later became patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. He died ca 862, but his historical significance as a bishop is overshadowed by his association with the tradition that the weather on his feast day (15 July) will continue for 40 days.

An English proverb says:

Saint Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
Saint Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mare

A variation says:

If on St Swithun’s day it really pours
You’re better off to stay indoors.

Perhaps that’s why Geoff Stephens and John Carter felt let down by Winchester Cathedral almost half a century ago. I wonder what happens if we have weather like today’s on Saint Swithun’s Day … sunshine or rain?