Daily prayer in Advent 2024: 14, Saturday 14 December 2024

‘And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ (Matthew 17: 10) … the Prophet Elijah by Phyllis Burke in the Carmelite Church in Clarendon Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have passed the half-way into the Season of Advent, and the countdown to Christmas has truly gathered pace. Tomorrow the Third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday (Advent III, 15 December 2024), and the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint John of the Cross (1591), Poet, Teacher of the Faith.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A hilltop chapel dedicated to the Prophet Elijah in a small graveyard east of Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 10-13 (NRSVA):

10 And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ 11 He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; 12 but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.’

Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The theme in the lectionary readings last Sunday for Advent II (8 December) was the Prophets, while tomorrow the theme is Saint John the Baptist (Advent III or Gaudete Sunday, 15 December). Those two themes continue to be linked in this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 17: 10-13), when Christ once again compares the Prophet Elijah and Saint John the Baptist.

The Prophet Elias (Hλίας) or Elijah is a popular dedication for mountain-top and hill-top churches and chapels throughout Greece, because of his association with hilltops and mountains, including, in the New Testament, the mountain of the Transfiguration.

Elijah is one of the most studied prophets in the Old Testament, and perhaps too the loftiest and the most worthy of all the prophets.

Of all the Biblical prophets, the New Testament mentions Elijah more than any other: he is mentioned by name 29 times in New Testament and he is alluded to a few other times.

Some English translations of the New Testament use Elias, a Latin form of the name, and in the King James Version the name Elias appears in texts translated from the Greek. For example, the name Elias is used by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) in ‘This Is the Record of John’, a verse anthem that is sung in many cathedrals and churches tomorrow on Advent III or Gaudete Sunday.

In the New Testament, both Christ and Saint John the Baptist are compared with Elijah and on some occasions they are thought by some to be manifestations of Elijah.

In the Annunciation narrative in Saint Luke’s Gospel, an angel appears to Zechariah, the father of Saint John the Baptist, and tells him that John ‘will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God,’ and that ‘the spirit and power of Elijah will go before him’ (Luke 1: 16-17).

In Saint John’s Gospel, Saint John the Baptist is asked by a delegation of priests and Levities from Jerusalem if he is the Messiah or Elijah. He replies: ‘No’ (John 1: 19-21).

Saint John the Baptist preaches a message of repentance and baptism. He predicts the day of judgment, using imagery similar to that of Malachi, and he preaches that the Messiah is coming. For those who hear him, he does all this in a style that immediately recalls the image of Elijah. He wears a coat of animal hair secured with a leather belt (see Matthew 3: 1-4; Mark 1: 6), and he preaches frequently in wilderness areas near the River Jordan (see Luke 3: 4).

Christ says that for those who believe Saint John the Baptist is like Elijah, who would come before the ‘great and terrible day’ as predicted by the Prophet Malachi (see Malachi 3: 1; Malachi 4: 5-6). In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ compares Saint John the Baptist with Elijah, fulfilling his office but not being recognised for this, yet greater than Elijah (see Matthew 11: 7-14, 17: 10-13).

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Herod Antipas is perplexed when he hears some of the stories about Christ. Some people tell Herod that Saint John the Baptist, whom he had executed, has come back to life, others tell him that Christ is Elijah, and still others think that one of the ancient prophets has risen from the dead (see Luke 9: 7-9).

Later, Christ asks his disciples who do people say he is, and their answers include Elijah, other prophets and Saint John the Baptist (see Matthew 16: 13-14; Mark 8: 27-30; Luke 9: 18-20).

Christ is associated with miracle stories similar to those of Elijah, such as the raising of the dead (Mark 5: 21-23; Luke 7: 11-15, 8: 49-56; John 11) and miraculous feeding (Matthew 14: 13-21, Mark 6: 34-45; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 5-16; see II Kings 4: 42 ff). Yet Christ implicitly separates himself from Elijah when he rebukes James and John for desiring to call down fire on an unwelcoming Samaritan village in a similar manner to Elijah calling down fire on the Samaritan troops (Luke 9: 51-56; cf II Kings 1: 10).

Similarly, Christ rebukes a potential follower who wants first to return home to say farewell to his family, whereas Elijah permitted his successor Elisha to do this (Luke 9: 61-62; cf I Kings 19: 16-21).

We might also ask whether the cup Christ blesses at the Last Supper is the Cup of Elijah.

During the Crucifixion, some of the onlookers mistakenly think Christ is calling out to Elijah and wonder whether Elijah will come to rescue him, for in the folklore of the time Elijah was seen as a rescuer of Jews in distress (Matthew 27: 46-49; Mark 15: 34-36).

In all three Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration, the Prophet Elijah appears with Moses (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36). Elijah’s appearance in glory at the Transfiguration does not seem to startle the disciples, and it appears they are overcome by fear only when they hear the voice from the cloud.

At the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, Christ’s face begins to shine. The disciples who are with him hear the voice of God announce that Christ is ‘My beloved Son.’ The disciples also see Moses and Elijah appear and talking with Christ.

Saint Peter is so struck by the experience that he asks Christ if they should build three booths or tabernacles – one for Elijah, one for Christ and one for Moses.

Saint John Chrysostom explains the presence of Elijah and Moses at the Transfiguration in three ways:

• They represent the Law and the Prophets – Moses receives the Law from God, and Elijah is a great prophet.
• They both experience visions of God – Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel.
• They represent the living and the dead – Elijah, the living, because he is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Moses, the dead, because he does experience death.

Moses and Elijah show that the Law and the Prophets point to the coming of Christ, and their recognition of and conversation with Christ symbolise how he fulfils ‘the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 5: 17-19). Moses and Elijah also stand for the living and dead, for Moses dies and his burial place is known, while Elijah is taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation.

It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah (see Malachi 4), and the three interpret Christ’s response as a reference to John the Baptist (Matthew 17: 13).

Elijah is mentioned on three other occasions in the New Testament: in Saint Luke’s Gospel, in Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and in the Epistle of James:

1, After he reads from the scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth and is criticised for his teaching, Christ cites Elijah as an example of the rejected prophets when he says: ‘No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town’:

24 And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian’ (Luke 4: 24–27).

2, Saint Paul cites Elijah as an example that God never forsakes his people:

1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’4 But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11: 1-6)

3, Saint James says: ‘The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.’ He then cites as examples Elijah’s prayers which start and end the famine in Israel (see James 5: 16-18).

Inside a hilltop chapel dedicated the Prophet Elias in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Elijah is honoured as a saint in the calendars of both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church on 20 July. In Greece, chapels and monasteries dedicated to the Prophet Elias (Προφήτης Ηλίας) are often found on mountaintops, which themselves are often named after him.

Elijah is revered as the spiritual Father and traditional founder of the Order of Carmelites, to which Saint John of the Cross belonged. In addition to taking their name from Mount Carmel where the first hermits of the order established themselves, the Carmelite traditions about Elijah focus on his withdrawal from public life.

It could be said that to read Saint Luke’s Gospel with insight we also need to read the story of Elijah and Elisha. To read their story, keeping in mind the miracles, the actions, and the teachings of these two prophets, is to add a richness to our reading of the Gospels, but also brings with it a vital understanding of the continuity between Elijah and Saint John the Baptist, of God’s ways in the Old Testament and New Testament.

An icon of the Prophet Elijah in a hilltop chapel near Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 14 December 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 ‘Peace – Advent’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Nitano Muller, Canon for Worship and Welcome, Coventry Cathedral.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 14 December 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.’ (Luke 3: 1-6).

The Collect:

O God, the judge of all,
who gave your servant John of the Cross
a warmth of nature, a strength of purpose
and a mystical faith
that sustained him even in the darkness:
shed your light on all who love you
and grant them union of body and soul
in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with John of the Cross to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Advent III:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint John of the Cross (top) and the Prophet Elijah (below), two windows by Frances Biggs in the Chapel of Terenure College (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 139, Thursday 26 September 2024

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … the Prophet Elijah by Phyllis Burke in the Carmelite Church in Clarendon Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (26 September) remembers Wilson Carlile (1942), founder of the Church Army.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

A hilltop chapel dedicated to the Prophet Elijah in a small graveyard east of Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 7-9 (NRSVA):

7 Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. 9 Herod said, ‘John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ And he tried to see him.

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Prophet Elias (Hλίας) or Elijah is a popular dedication for mountain-top and hill-top churches and chapels throughout Greece, because of his association with hilltops and mountains, including, in the New Testament, the mountain of the Transfiguration.

Elijah, one of the most studied prophets in the Old Testament, is perhaps too the loftiest and the most worthy of all the prophets.

Of all the Biblical prophets, the New Testament mentions Elijah more than any other: he is mentioned by name 29 times in New Testament and he is alluded to a few other times.

Some English translations of the New Testament use Elias, a Latin form of the name, and in the King James Version the name Elias appears in texts translated from the Greek.

In the New Testament, both Christ and Saint John the Baptist are compared with Elijah and on some occasions they are thought by some to be manifestations of Elijah.

In the Annunciation narrative in Saint Luke’s Gospel, an angel appears to Zechariah, the father of Saint John the Baptist, and tells him that John ‘will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God,’ and that ‘the spirit and power of Elijah will go before him’ (Luke 1: 16-17).

In Saint John’s Gospel, Saint John the Baptist is asked by a delegation of priests and Levities from Jerusalem if he is the Messiah or Elijah. He replies: ‘No’ (John 1: 19-21).

Saint John the Baptist preaches a message of repentance and baptism. He predicts the day of judgment, using imagery similar to that of Malachi, and he preaches that the Messiah is coming. For those who hear him, he does all this in a style that immediately recalls the image of Elijah. He wears a coat of animal hair secured with a leather belt (see Matthew 3: 1-4; Mark 1: 6), and he preaches frequently in wilderness areas near the River Jordan (see Luke 3: 4).

Christ says that for those who believe Saint John the Baptist is like Elijah, who would come before the ‘great and terrible day’ as predicted by the Prophet Malachi (see Malachi 3: 1; Malachi 4: 5-6). In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ compares Saint John the Baptist with Elijah, fulfilling his office but not being recognised for this, yet greater than Elijah (see Matthew 11: 7-14, 17: 10-13).

In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Herod Antipas is perplexed when he hears some of the stories about Christ. Some people tell Herod that Saint John the Baptist, whom he had executed, has come back to life, others tell him that Christ is Elijah, and still others think that one of the ancient prophets has risen from the dead (see Luke 9: 7-9).

Later, Christ asks his disciples who do people say he is, and their answers include Elijah, other prophets and Saint John the Baptist (see Matthew 16: 13-14; Mark 8: 27-30; Luke 9: 18-20).

Christ is associated with miracle stories similar to those of Elijah, such as the raising of the dead (Mark 5: 21-23; Luke 7: 11-15, 8: 49-56; John 11) and miraculous feeding (Matthew 14: 13-21, Mark 6: 34-45; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 5-16; see II Kings 4: 42 ff). Yet Christ implicitly separates himself from Elijah when he rebukes James and John for desiring to call down fire on an unwelcoming Samaritan village in a similar manner to Elijah calling down fire on the Samaritan troops (Luke 9: 51-56; cf II Kings 1: 10).

Similarly, Christ rebukes a potential follower who wants first to return home to say farewell to his family, whereas Elijah permitted his successor Elisha to do this (Luke 9: 61-62; cf I Kings 19: 16-21).

We might also ask whether the cup Christ blesses at the Last Supper is the Cup of Elijah.

During the Crucifixion, some of the onlookers mistakenly think Christ is calling out to Elijah and wonder whether Elijah will come to rescue him, for in the folklore of the time Elijah was seen as a rescuer of Jews in distress (Matthew 27: 46-49; Mark 15: 34-36).

In all three Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration, the Prophet Elijah appears with Moses at the Transfiguration (see Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36).

Elijah’s appearance in glory at the Transfiguration does not seem to startle the disciples, and it appears they are overcome by fear only when they hear the voice from the cloud.

At the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, Christ’s face begins to shine. The disciples who are with him hear the voice of God announce that Christ is ‘My beloved Son.’ The disciples also see Moses and Elijah appear and talking with Christ.

Saint Peter is so struck by the experience that he asks Christ if they should build three booths or tabernacles – one for Elijah, one for Christ and one for Moses.

Saint John Chrysostom explains the presence of Elijah and Moses at the Transfiguration in three ways:

• They represent the Law and the Prophets – Moses receives the Law from God, and Elijah is a great prophet.
• They both experience visions of God – Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel.
• They represent the living and the dead – Elijah, the living, because he is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Moses, the dead, because he does experience death.

Moses and Elijah show that the Law and the Prophets point to the coming of Christ, and their recognition of and conversation with Christ symbolise how he fulfils ‘the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 5: 17-19). Moses and Elijah also stand for the living and dead, for Moses dies and his burial place is known, while Elijah is taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation.

It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah (see Malachi 4), and the three interpret Christ’s response as a reference to John the Baptist (Matthew 17: 13).

Elijah is mentioned on three other occasions in the New Testament: in Saint Luke’s Gospel, in Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and in the Epistle of James:

1, After he reads from the scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth and is criticised for his teaching, Christ cites Elijah as an example of the rejected prophets when he says: ‘No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town’:

24 And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ (Luke 4: 24–27).

2, Saint Paul cites Elijah as an example that God never forsakes his people:

1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’4 But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11: 1-6)

3, Saint James says: ‘The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.’ He then cites as examples Elijah’s prayers which start and end the famine in Israel (see James 5: 16-18).

Inside a hilltop chapel dedicated the Prophet Elias in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Elijah is honoured as a saint in the calendars of both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church on 20 July. In Greece, chapels and monasteries dedicated to the Prophet Elias (Προφήτης Ηλίας) are often found on mountaintops, which themselves are often named after him.

Elijah is revered as the spiritual Father and traditional founder of the Order of Carmelites. In addition to taking their name from Mount Carmel where the first hermits of the order established themselves, the Carmelite traditions about Elijah focus on his withdrawal from public life.

It could be said that to read Saint Luke’s Gospel with insight we also need to read the story of Elijah and Elisha. To read their story, keeping in mind the miracles, the actions, and the teachings of these two prophets, is to add a richness to our reading of Saint Luke, but also brings with it a vital understanding of the continuity and discontinuity of God’s ways in the Old Testament and New Testament.

Where do you find Elijah and Elisha in Saint Luke’s Gospel?

What are similarities and contrasts between Jesus and them?

Why is it easier to face a dilemma with the questions ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ rather than the questions ‘What Would Elijah Do?’

What richness does it add to your understanding of the kingdom?

‘It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared’ (Luke 9: 7-8) … an icon of the Prophet Elijah in a hilltop chapel near Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 26 September 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 ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 26 September 2024) invites us to pray:

Bless our journey with you Lord. May we walk the path that you have laid before us, singing your praises.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
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:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Monastery of Profitis Elias near Pyrgos on the Greek island of Santorini

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

The Skete of Prophet Elias near the Monastery of the Pantokrator Monastery on Mount Athos

Farage embodies all the reasons Betjeman dismissed Clacton as ‘a cheaper Worthing’

The Fish and Eels by Dobbs Weir, close to the Greenwich Meridian Line … a quiet corner of Essex and Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Essex is the county that has elected the most MPs from the Reform UK party – Nigel Farage in Clacton and James McMurdock in South Basildon and East Thurrock. Perhaps I am being too unkind to Essex when I allow these results to bring to mind the observation by the poet John Betjeman that Essex is ‘a stronger contrast of beauty and ugliness than any other southern English county.’

Betjeman says, ‘Most of what was built east of London in the 19th and 20th centuries has been a little bit cheaper and a little bit shoddier than that built in other directions. Southend is a cheaper Brighton, Clacton a cheaper Worthing, and Dovercourt a cheaper Bournemouth.’

I’m sure we all had our ‘Portillo Moments’ late on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning. I certainly had mine – but these two results in Essex are the most disappointing and among the most worrying and disconcerting.

On the plus side, Betjeman says Essex ‘also has the deepest and least disturbed country within reach of London … flat agricultural scenery with its own old red-brick towns with weather-boarded side-streets.’

For Betjeman, ‘The flat part of Essex … is part of that great plain which stretched across to Holland and Central Europe.’

Later this week, I am attending in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, close to the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex, attending the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Previous conferences in High Leigh have provided me with opportunities over the years to visit spart of Essex that are less desolate than Clacton, including Newport and Saffron Walden and Bishop’s Stortford, which is on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex. Betjeman describes this part of England as ‘undulating and extremely pretty in the pale, gentle way suited to English watercolours. Narrow lanes wind like streams through willowy meadows, past weather-boarded mills and unfenced bean and corn fields.

‘From oaks on hill-tops peep the flinty church towers, and some of the churches up here are as magnificent as those in neighbouring Suffolk – Coggeshall, Thaxted, Saffron Walden and Dedham are grand examples of the Perpendicular style. Thaxted, for the magnificence of its church and the varied textures of the old houses of its little town, is one of the most charming places in Britain.’

Essex is often – and wrongly – regarded as a poorer sister of neighbouring Suffolk. But I agree with Betjeman that Essex looks its best in sunlight, ‘when the many materials of its rustic villages, the brick manor houses, the timbered ‘halls’ and the cob and thatched churches, the weather-boarded late-Georgian cottages, the oaks and flints, recall Constable.’

‘Near Essex of the River Lea’ (John Betjeman) … boats on the River Lea dividing Essex and Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Essex, by Sir John Betjeman

“The vagrant visitor erstwhile,”
My colour-plate book says to me,
“Could wend by hedgerow-side and stile,
From Benfleet down to Leigh-on-Sea.”

And as I turn the colour-plates
Edwardian Essex opens wide,
Mirrored in ponds and seen through gates,
Sweet uneventful countryside.

Like streams the little by-roads run
Through oats and barley round a hill
To where blue willows catch the sun
By some white weather-boarded mill.

“A Summer Idyll Matching Tye”
“At Havering-atte-Bower, the Stocks”
And cobbled pathways lead the eye
To cottage doors and hollyhocks.

Far Essex, – fifty miles away
The level wastes of sucking mud
Where distant barges high with hay
Come sailing in upon the flood.

Near Essex of the River Lea
And anglers out with hook and worm
And Epping Forest glades where we
Had beanfeasts with my father’s firm.

At huge and convoluted pubs
They used to set us down from brakes
In that half-land of football clubs
Which London near the Forest makes.

The deepest Essex few explore
Where steepest thatch is sunk in flowers
And out of elm and sycamore
Rise flinty fifteenth-century towers.

I see the little branch line go
By white farms roofed in red and brown,
The old Great Eastern winding slow
To some forgotten country town.

Now yarrow chokes the railway track,
Brambles obliterate the stile,
No motor coach can take me back
To that Edwardian “erstwhile”.

‘At huge and convoluted pubs’ (John Betjeman) … the Coach and Horses, a large 17th century inn in Newport , Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral and USPG: Saturday 10 December 2022

‘Pray for grace to work through … questions and find true wisdom’ (Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar) … Lichfield Cathedral and the Cathedral Close (Photograph © Mark Anthony Walden)

Patrick Comerford

We are half-way through Advent today, having come to the end of the second week of Advent. Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, The reading suggested in the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced by Lichfield Cathedral this year;

2, praying with the Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ (Matthew 17: 10) … an icon of the Prophet Elijah in a hilltop chapel near Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 10-13 (NRSVA):

10 And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ 11 He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; 12 but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Evening lights at the West Front, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Reflect on how the Christian faith was born amidst hesitancy and confusion, of how things half-understood at the time were reframed. Pray for grace to work through the questions and find true wisdom.

Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God, purify our hearts and minds,
that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Collect on the Eve of Advent 3:

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

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week has been ‘Human Rights in the Philippines.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with an excerpt from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) human rights report by USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us give thanks for the courage and commitment of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in its challenge of oppression. May we also pursue justice for the poor and marginalised.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him’ (Matthew 17: 12) … Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (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

Newport’s parish church shares links with cathedrals and churches in Mullingar, Cavan and Athlone

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Newport, Co Tipperary, was built in 1933-1934 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting the church and former barracks in Ahane at the end of last week, and walking through the Clare Glens on the borders of Co Limerick and Co Tipperary, two of us returned to Askeaton through Newport, Co Tipperary, where we visited Church of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Newport, with a population of about 1,800, is about 4 km from the Clare Glens, about 8 km from Birdhill and 16 km from Limerick, and the town is nestled in the foothills of the Silvermine Mountains.

The Newport River is a tributary of the Mulcair (or Mulkear) River and flows through the middle of the town where it is joined by the Cully River.

The town dates back to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the late 12th and early 13th century, and has been known as Newport since the mid-17th century.

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Newport was designed by the Dublin architect Ralph Henry Byrne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Roman Catholic parish in Newport is part of the parish of Newport, Birdhill and Toor in the Diocese of Cashel and Emly, and the most prominent building in the town is the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, standing on a prominent corner on Church Street, and opposite the site of Saint John’s Church, the former Church of Ireland parish church in Newport.

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer was built in 1933-1934 to replace an earlier church, also known as Saint John’s Church, that was built ca 1796 but had fallen into ruin.

The history of the parish dates from at least the 13th century, when the parishes of Kilnarath, Kilvellane (now Ballymackeogh) and Kilcomenty were counted in the Diocese of Cashel, and Kilnarath is mentioned in the Papal tax list in 1291.

By the beginning of the 18th century, Newport had several ‘Mass Houses’ and Father Daniel O’Connell was the parish priest for almost half a century, from 1704 to 1751. He was succeeded in turn by Father William Kennedy who was Parish Priest of Kilnarath and Kilvellane, without Birdhill, in 1751-1795, and Father Thomas Cooke, in 1795-1804.

Inside the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Dr Cooke wanted to replace the ‘Mass Houses’ in Newport with one parish church in the town, but he was refused a site by the local landlord, Sir Edward Waller. Undismayed, the priest took possession of a hollow swamp and dried-up riverbed in what was regarded as ‘no-man’s land,’ and completed his church within two years. This early stone-built Saint John’s Church was cruciform in shape, with a slate and oak roof.

Dr Cooke was succeeded as parish priest by Father Laurence Bourke (1804-1813), an early graduate of Maynooth, and by Father Thomas Morrissey (1813-1821), who died in an epidemic that swept the area.

Father James Healy (1821-1844) added pews and three galleries to Saint John’s Church. The aisle was lengthened and a new belfry was added by Father James Howard (1888-1928). The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Newport in 1900, and the nuns attended Mass early each morning.

The projecting tetrastyle pedimented portico of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Sisters of Mercy donated the site for a new church in 1928, and the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer was designed by the Dublin architect Ralph Henry Byrne (1877-1946). Tenders were invited in February 1933, and the builder was A Breslan, Bushy Park Road, Terenure.

Ralph Henry Byrne, who designed the church in a classical style, was born in Largo House, 166 Lower Rathmines Road, Rathmines, on 25 April 1877, the third but second surviving son of the architect William Henry Byrne (1844-1917), who had been a pupil of JJ McCarthy. He was educated at home and at Saint George’s School, Weybridge.

In 1896, he was articled to his father for five years, and then spent six months in the Harrogate office of Thomas Edward Marshall, before joining his father’s practice as a partner in 1902.

Byrne’s father became blind in about 1913 and died on 28 April 1917. RH Byrne continued the practice under the name of William H Byrne & Son, and in 1936 his nephew by marriage, Simon Aloysius Leonard, joined the partnership.

The site for the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer was donated by the Sisters of Mercy in Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Byrne, who worked from 20 Suffolk Street, Dublin, was elected a member of the RIAI in 1902, proposed by George Coppinger Ashlin, seconded by Thomas Drew and William Mansfield Mitchell. He was elected a fellow (FRIAI) in 1920 and was vice-president in 1938, four years his church in Newport was completed.

Byrne is known principally for the restoration of the Church of Our Lady of Refuge, Rathmines, after the disastrous fire in 1920, with a new, much higher dome (1920-1928).

His other works include the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Athlone (1930-1936), the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar (1931-1936), the Church of the Rosary, Harold’s Cross (1938-1940), the Cathedral of Saint Patrick and Saint Felim, Cavan (1938-1943), the Church of the Four Masters, Donegal, the completion of Saint Senanus Church, Foynes, Co Limerick (1932), commenced by JJ McCarthy, and rebuilding Saint Mary’s Church, Croom, Co Limerick (1929-1932).

Ichthus symbols above the doors below the gallery in the church in Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The foundation stone was laid on 9 July 1933, and the church cost £20,000 to build. It was formally opened on the Feast of Christ the King in October 1934. Meanwhile, the former Saint John’s Church continued to be used as a community centre and dance hall until 1980.

The church is impressive and stands out in the town, with its classical style, its tetrastyle pedimented portico and its campanile. It is an interesting example of a mid-20th century church, designed with a neo-classical composition and details such as the colonnaded portico with a pediment over, and the Venetian windows that were reused from the earlier Catholic church.

The church has a double-height front with a projecting tetrastyle pedimented portico with cross finial, and Corinthian columns set above a flight of granite steps. There are eight-panel, vertically-divided timber doors at the entrance. The large round-headed window over the entrance doorway is flanked by niches with statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Patrick.

There are round-headed openings on the first floor, square-headed openings with block-and-start surrounds on the ground floor, and Venetian windows with render pilasters and keystones on the side elevations, all with leaded lights.

The church has a four-stage tower at the north-west corner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The church has an interesting, four-stage tower at the north-west corner with a lantern that has an octagonal top.

There are round-headed windows in the lantern of the tower, with render pilasters and keystones flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature and segmental pediments.

There is a semi-circular apse at the rear of the church, and lower projecting porches at the sides.
The church has a copper roof that is set behind a parapet. There are rendered walls with banded string courses and with render quoins on the lower walls.

The altar and other furnshings in the new sanctuary are made of bog oak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Byrne also designed a marble high altar and rails that were executed by CW Harrison & Sons. This was moved and the church was reordered to meet the needs the liturgical reforms introduced after Vatican II.

Later, the marble altar was replaced with an altar of bog oak while Father Joseph Delaney was the Parish Priest of Newport (1990-2013).

The church is an important element in the streetscape due to its design, scale, prominent location, and position opposite the Church of Ireland graveyard and beside the convent school.

Fish on a glass panel on the internal doors of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Advent with USPG:14, Saturday 12 December 2020

‘Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him’ (Matthew 17: 12) … Elijah in the Chariot of Fire, depicted in a window in Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Newport, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, I am using the Prayer Diary of the Anglican Mission Agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) for my morning reflections each day, and the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced at Lichfield Cathedral for my prayers and reflections each evening.

I am one of the contributors to the current USPG Diary, Pray with the World Church, introducing the theme of peace and trust later this month.

The theme of the USPG Prayer Diary this week (6 to 12 December 2020) is ‘A Promise of Hope,’ which is the theme of USPG’s Christmas project this year.

Saturday 12 December 2020:

Let us pray for the people of Kenya as they mark their Independence Day today.

The Collect of the Day (Advent II):

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
Give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Advent Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Matthew 17: 10-13 (NRSVA):

10 And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ 11 He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; 12 but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s morning reflection

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

Burrishoole Friary … monastic ruins on a remote Mayo coast

The ruins of Burrishoole Friary, near Newport, Co Mayo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

This weekend’s return visit to Achill Island at the invitation of the Heinrich Boll Memorial Weekend allowed plenty of opportunities to meet old friends, and for walks on the beautiful, long sandy beaches of Achill, including, of course Dugort and Keel.

I had one long, last walk on the beach in Dugort before leaving the island … although I am sure I shall back again soon.

On the way back to Dublin, we stopped 3 km outside Newport for my first-ever visit to the ruins of Burrishoole Friary, beside a quiet tidal estuary on a remote stretch of the Mayo coastline.

I have often seen the signposts for Burrishole and had intended to take a detour to visit the friary and coastline here, but I seemed to miss the opportunity on every occasion.

The first recorded clergyman in Achill in modern times was not the Revd Edward Nangle, who was the subject of so many papers this weekend, but the Revd John Horsley Beresford. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1803 by Bishop William Bennett of Cloyne and was soon after appointed Vicar of Burrishoole, Kilmeena and Achill by his father William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam and first Lord Decies.

The quiet shoreline at estuary below the in ruins of Burrishoole Friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Back in the mists of time, Richard ‘fitzThomas’ Comerford (1564-1637), who inherited Ballybur Castle at the age of 24, was involved in securing the title of the Earls of Ormond to large tracts of land in Co Mayo, including Achill Island and Burrishoole, under Butler family claims that dated back to at least 1281.

Richard was a contemporary and kinsman of Justice Garret Comerford (ca 1558-1604), a judge and politician, who was sent by Lord Ormond to Mayo to report on the wreckages of the Spanish Armada. These included the Rata Encoronada, which was wrecked near Ballycroy, and the Gran Grin, wrecked at Burrishoole in Clew Bay.

The Gran Grin was wrecked in Clew Bay, at “Borreis … which place belongs to the Earl of Ormond.” This was Borris or Burris, a townland with western borders fronting onto the sea at Clew Bay. The name lives on in the smaller and more southerly area now defined as Burrishoole, but in the 16th century it applied to a much wider area.

Achill Island and the Barony of Owle were claimed by the Ormond Butlers. Those claims dated from 1238, and although the territory passed to the de Burgo family in the late 14th or early 15th century, the Butler claims were reasserted by Black Tom.

Inside the ruins of Burrishoole Friary, near Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The friary at Burrishoole, which I visited this afternoon, was founded by Sir Richard de Burgo of Turlough for the Dominican order in 1469. He was Lord Mac William Oughter and the Chief of the Burkes of Turlough and is known in Irish as Risteard an Cuarscidh, or Richard of the Curved Shield.

At the foundation of the friary, de Burgo resigned his lordship and entered the friary, where he remained a friar until his death four years later.

Meanwhile, the friary had been built without the permission of the Pope, and it was not until 1486 that Pope Innocent VII instructed the Archbishop of Tuam to forgive the friars and pardoned all those that began building before receiving his approval. Although it is known locally as Burrishoole Abbey, the name is inaccurate as the Dominican order did not have abbots, and the foundation was a friary rather than an abbey.

Burrishoole Friary flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The friary flourished in the century that followed, with friars taking on the roles of pastors, physicians and hospitallers for the surrounding parish. The abbey had a troubled history, and the Dominican friars were repeatedly expelled although they returned time and time again, even after the Dissolution of the Monastic Houses at the Reformation.

Richard de Burgo, the founder of the friary, was an ancestor of Risteárd an Iarainn (‘Iron Richard’) Bourke, the second husband of Granuaile, who owned nearby Rockfleet Castle. Their son Tiobaid na Loinge is buried at Ballintubber Abbey, while their daughter, Honoria de Burgo (Nora Burke), joined the Third Oorder of Saint Dominic in the order of Saint Catherine of Siena from Father Thaddeus Ó Duanne when she was only 14 in 1563.

Although her parents were powerful and wealthy figures in the area, she withdrew from world concerns and built a small convent close to the abbey where she lived with her fellow sisters.

Around 1580, when a band of soldiers arrived at her convent, she fled to the mountains in search of sanctuary, and later returned to her convent.

Later, in 1652, it is said, the abbey was attacked and plundered by Cromwellian troops. They brutally treated two nuns, Sister Honoria Bourke, who was still alive, and Sister Honoria Magaen. The two nuns, now over 100 years old, fled to Saint’s Island in nearby Lough Furnace. They were later captured, stripped naked, their ribs broken and were left to die in the bleak mid-February. Sister Honoria sought refuge in the hollow of a tree, but was found dead the following day. The sisters were buried together.

Peregrine O Cleirigh, one of the Four Masters, is also buried in the abbey. He said in his will, dated February 1664: “I bequeath my soul to God and I charge my body to be buried in the monastery of Burgheis Umhaill.”

Records from 1756 show that the community at the Burrishoole consisted of five Dominican friars: Father Francis MacDonnell (prior), Father Anthony MacDonnell (sub prior), Father Dominic Barret, Father Dominic Healy and the youngest Father Francis Bourke.

The abbey fell into ruins in the 18th century, and the collapse of its roof in 1793 hastened its demise.

The grave of Father Manus Sweeney inside Burrishoole Friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Father Manus Sweeney, who is buried within the friary church, was a local priest who was hanged on the market crane in Newport in 1799 for his he part in the 1798 Rising.

He was a contemporary of Father John MacDonnell, the last prior (1798-1800). Local lore tells of friar named Horan who continued to live near the friary in the early 19th century. The last friar to take the habit for Burrishoole was John Hughes from Co Galway who became a Dominican friar in 1862 at Esker, Co Monaghan.

Today, the nave, chancel, tower and south transept of the friary church remain, and there are ruins of domestic buildings and a cloister to the north.

The O’Kelly tomb, dating from 1623, inside the ruins of Burrishoole Friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The oldest inscribed tomb in the friary is the O’Kelly altar tomb in the south transept, with a Latin inscription dated 1623.

The friary is a National Monument and the grounds are used as a local cemetery.

From Newport, we drove on to Castlebar, and through Turlough, the ancestral home of the de Burgo family who founded Burrishoole. We diverted to visit Foxford, where we had lunch at the Foxford Woollen Mills

It was late in the evening when we arrived back in Dublin, cherishing memories of another beautiful weekend on Achill Island and in Co Mayo.

Stopping off in Newport in Essex and stepping back in time

Stepping back in time in Newport, Essex, this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

A place with a name like Newport sounds like somewhere by the sea or close to a beach. Think: Newport, on the road from Westport to Achill Island; Newport, Rhode Island; Newport on the Island of Wight; Newport, east of Cardiff, in South Wales; or perhaps even Newport Beach in California.

But there many places named Newport that are inland in England, including Newport near Telford in Shropshire, about 12 miles west of Stafford; Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire; Newport in Gloucestershire, between Bristol and Gloucester; and Newport in East Yorkshire.

This morning I found myself going for a walk in Newport in Essex. I have often noticed this pretty village from the train on my way to Cambridge, but never before have I taken time to visit this place.

In previous years when I have arrived for the Us (USPG) conference in High Leigh, Hoddesdon, I have spent extra time in Cambridge, or taken a walk though some of the towns in this part of Essex and East Anglia, including Hoddesdon, Saffron Walden and Bishop’s Stortford, photographing their churches and their timber-framed houses and pubs with pargetting and over-hanging jetties.

This is the charming countryside described lovingly by the late poet laureate John Betjeman:

The deepest Essex few explore
where thatch is sunk in flowers
and out of the elm and sycamore
rise flinty 15th century towers.

Newport in northern Essex is in a rural conservation area only five miles from Stansted Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Newport, with a population about 2,500, is a large village in Essex, between Saffron Walden and Bishop’s Stortford, south of Cambridge and about 66 km (41 miles) north of London. It nestles in the arable fields of northern Essex, in a rural conservation area close to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire and about five miles from Stansted Airport.

Newport is the centre point of the long-distance path known as the Harcamlow Way, a figure-of-eight walk between Cambridge and Harlow. This means there is a large number of walks radiating from its centre, including walks towards Saffron Walden, the English Heritage property of Audley End House, or Prior Hall Barn in Widdington.

I caught a bus early this morning from Stansted Airport through the villages of Ugley (which is pretty) and Widdington, to Newport, and was transported back in time as I walked along its pretty High Street, and found myself taking turns here and there to see the old houses or to visit the local parish church.

There may have been a settlement named Wigingamere here when King Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, was engaged in the reconquest of the Danelaw ca 917-921. But the earliest certain mention of the name Newport for this village appears in the Domesday Book in 1086. The name is thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning “new town” or “new market,” rather than a modern-day seaport. “Port” was often a name for a market in Saxon times, and Newport once had a flourishing market.

The village grew and prospered until around 1300, but it declined soon after that. The market ceased and Newport was overtaken in importance by neighbouring Chipping Walden, now known as Saffron Walden.

Because Newport once had a large royal fish pond, it was also known as Newport Pond. But the pond had dried up by the 16th century and the name fell into disuse.

Newport Free Grammar School was founded by Dame Joyce Frankland in 1588 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Later in the 16th century, Newport Free Grammar School was founded by Dame Joyce Frankland in 1588. Hannah Woolley, the 17th century writer of books on cookery and household management, lived in Newport and was the wife of the schoolmaster around 1646.

King Charles II probably drove through the village on his way to Newmarket and the 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys visited a house in Newport, although it is not known which house he stayed in.

A remaining sign from the Toll Bridge in Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The main road through Newport was greatly improved with the creation of a turnpike trust in 1744, bringing new people and new trade to the village. This growth continued with the arrival of the railway in 1845.

Until recently the village had six large mixed farms, and the Enclosure Acts of the 18th century had no effect on the village. Newport was covered by the 1856 Enclosure Act, but it was not until 1861 that the last open fields were enclosed and mediaeval strip-farming finally came to an end.

Until the 20th century, Newport depended mainly on agriculture, although a variety of local trades was followed in the past, notably the leather trade, wool combing and, later, in malting.

The greatest changes have taken place in recent years, so while 900 or so people, largely agricultural workers, lived in 220 houses about 100 years ago, by 1971 the population had grown to over 1,200. Since then, all the livestock farms have closed, fields, orchards and farm premises in the centre of the village have been built over, and about 2,500 people now live there in over 900 houses.

Hardly anyone in Newport is engaged in agriculture today. The occupations are drawn from a diversity of industries, mostly outside the village, and many people commute to London, Saffron Walden or Cambridge.

The Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin was first built in the early 13th century and dates mainly from the 14th and the 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The first church in Newport was built probably in the late Saxon period. The present parish church, Saint Mary the Virgin, was first built in the first half of the 13th century and much of it dates from the late 14th and the 15th century.

Saint Mary the Virgin is a bright and spacious Grade I building, with the capacity for a congregation of about 300. The church is open for prayer and reflection every day. There is an open, well-kept churchyard which, however, includes a few tombs that are in need of repair.

Repairs to the nave roof were carried out in 2001/2002 at a cost of £140,000 and the external faces of the tower were repaired and the glazing of the west window conserved in 2004 at a cost of £94,500. The pews were replaced by chairs in 2005/2006 at a cost of £6,500.

The quinquennial report in 2010 listed many items needing attention, including the lead chancel roof and internal roof structure, the parapet walls and gutters, the stair to the first floor porch, the south aisle buttress and the north transept gable. Work is also needed on the clerestory windows, and full re-decoration.

A late 13th century iron-bound oak chest In the south transept may have been used as a battlefield altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

In the south transept there is a late 13th century iron-bound oak chest said to have been used as a battlefield altar. PA row of plaques in the north transept commemorate the headmasters of the nearby local grammar school.

The church also has two organs. However, all that remains of the original Walker organ are the pipes at the west end of the church. In 2010, a stand-alone organ was bought second-hand from Bardwell in Suffolk and installed in the east transept.

The Crown House dates mainly from the late 16th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Apart from the church, the two most interesting buildings in Newport are the Crown House and Monks Barn.

The Crown House at Bridge End dates mainly from the late 16th century, although the date over the door says 1692.

The house has 17th century pargetting and a shell hood over the door with a crown above, added in the late 17th century.

Monks Barn ... a Wealden-type house dating from the 15th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Monks Barn is a Wealden-type house dating from the 15th century and featuring an oriel window supported by a carved wooden bracket. A Wealden hall house is a mediaeval timber-framed hall house that is traditional in south-east England. Typically, these houses were built for yeomen, and they are most common in Kent, which had the once densely forested Weald, and east Sussex.

A late mediaeval carving in the wooden frame of Monks Barn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

In the early 20th century it was divided into two cottages, but it is now one house, with an interesting mediaeval wood carving of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child attended by two angels, one playing the harpsichord, the other playing the harp.

Newport Free Grammar School, founded in 1588, retains its name, but began taking boys of all abilities in 1976, and is now fully comprehensive and co-educational.

Jamie Oliver’s father runs the The Cricketers in neighbouring Clavering (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The chef Jamie Oliver went to Newport Free Grammar School and lives in the nearby village of Clavering, where his father owns a pub, The Cricketers.

Matt Holland, who also went to school here, played international football for the Republic of Ireland from 1999 to 2006. Although born in England, he qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland through his grandmother who was from Co Monaghan. He earned 49 caps, scored five goals, captained the side in three internationals, and was in the Ireland squad at the 2002 World Cup, scoring the equaliser against Cameroon in the opening game.

He has played for West Ham, Bournemouth, Ipswich Town and Charlton Athletic, and turned down a £4.5 million move to Aston Villa. Since retiring in 2009 he has worked in the media, including RTÉ, the BBC and Talksport.

Martin Philip Caton, Labour MP for Gower since 1997, was born in neighbouring Bishop’s Stortford and also went to Newport Free Grammar School.

The Coach and Horses is a large 17th century inn at the north end of Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The village has two public houses. The Coach and Horses is a large 17th century inn at the north end of the village. The White Horse is an equally old but smaller pub in the centre of the village.

The White Horse is an 17th century inn in the centre of Newport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

In addition, the Newport Club is a private members’ club, but in all respects serves as a local pub, down to still flying the English flag with Saint George’s Cross, hoping bravely, I imagine, for a dignified exit from the World Cup tomorrow evening [24 June 2014].

Newport Club ... still flying the flag for England today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Newport has a lively community with activities for all, ranging from scouting to local history. These are identified in Newport News, the twice-yearly village magazine. Newport has a tennis club and youth organisations, and the Village Hall is used for a farmers’ market and a variety of community activities, including the HOL (Hennigan O’Loughlin) School of Irish Dancing on Friday afternoons.

There was more to explore and inquire about. Where did Elephant Green get its name? And why is one of the houses on Elephant Green named Ivory Cottage?

Perhaps Newport had its own intrepid explorers long before Stansted Airport could even have been dreamed of.

But I had a train to catch to Broxbourne so I could get to the High Leigh Conference Centre near Hoddesdon for the Us conference.

How did Elephant Green and Ivory Cottage get their intriguing names? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)