Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 21, Thursday 21 November 2024

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 19: 42) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Second Sunday before Advent.

The long odyssey back from Kuching was completed yesterday when we arrived back in in Stony Stratford, having travelled through Singapore, Paris and Birmingham.

Before the day begins, before we begin to sort out matters at home that have been left unattended since mid-October, I am taking some quiet time early 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.

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 1941: 11) … ‘The Holy City,’ a batik by Thetis Blacker in the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 19: 41-44 (NRSVA):

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 1941: 11) … Jerusalem in bright lights in Jerusalem Restaurant in Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44) continues the apocalyptic themes found in our readings as we prepare for the coming of Christ as Christ the King and as the Word made Flesh.

In the Gospel reading on Sunday (Mark 13: 1-8), as Jesus was coming out of the Temple in Jerusalem, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

From there, Jesus and the disciples moved on to the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, where, in another apocalyptic saying, Jesus told the disciples, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.’

Now, in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44), as Jesus looks over Jerusalem, he weeps over the city, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

Like Sunday’s readings, we seem to be living in days when, in the wake of Trump’s election, we ‘hear of wars and rumours of wars’. It is so very easy to alarmed, worrying about the days are to come, and the potential for nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Doubtless, in the months to come, there will be the equivalent of earthquakes in many places, and the equivalent of famines: a dearth or famine of public compassion, political decency, honesty and morality and diplomatic sense and wisdom.

It is even more disheartening that whole segments of American society that call themselves evangelical Christians have voted for the apocalyptic gloom that is facing the world in the four years to come.

The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Very Revd Dr Trevor Morrow, recently reposted on Facebook a response to thinking of Evangelical Christians, particularly in the US, by his Palestinian friend, the Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour, the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College:

‘The irony for us Palestinian Christians is that evangelicals, with their emphasis on prophecy, have lost the capacity being prophetic. You want to prove that the Bible is right? You don’t do this by pointing to self-fulfilling or by pointing to world events as prophecy fulfilment. That is not how you prove that the Bible is right.

‘We prove that the Bible is right by radical obedience to the teachings of Jesus – by proving that Jesus’ teachings actually work and that they can make the world a better place. Let us love our enemies. Forgive those who sin against us. Let us feed the poor. Care for the oppressed. Walk the extra mile. Be inclusive, not exclusive. Turn the other cheek. And maybe, and only maybe then, the world will start to take us seriously and believing in the Bible.’

Reflective words from the Palestinian theologian, the Revd Dr Munther Isaac of Bethlehem

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 21 November 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 ‘Coming Together for Climate Justice’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Linet Musasa, HIV Stigma and Discrimination Officer, Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 21 November 2024) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for the seven provinces in the region of Africa as they carry out the (PCC Provincial Climate Change Campaign) campaign in 47 dioceses Provincial Climate Change Campaign.

The Collect:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament
you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour is also the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College

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 ‘Garden of Eden’ in Bedford offered a panacea for all ills and waited in vain for the Second Coming

The gardens of the Panacea Museum in Bedford … prepared for the Second Coming (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Bedford has a cluster of churches, buildings and sites of importance in religious history. The town is associated, in particular, with John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, and John Howard, the campaigner for penal reform.

Bunyan’s Chapel and Howard’s former chapel stand close to one another on Mill Street. But Bedford is also home to one of the most unusual and eclectic religious movements in Britain, the Panacea Society, which believed Bedford was the original location of the Garden of Eden and the chosen venue for Christ’s Second Coming.

The Panacea Museum offers a glimpse into the lives of members of the Panacea Society, who tried to create their own Garden of Eden in the centre of Bedford in the early 20th century, and who are still remembered for their constant advertising demanding the Bishops of the Church of England open ‘Joanna Southcott’s Box’.

The museum is set in beautiful grounds and is spread across several Victorian buildings on Newnham Road, Castle Road and Albany Road that once formed the society’s headquarters, including the Haven, Castleside and the Founder’s House. It is close to the site of Bedford Castle and the banks of the Great Ouse River, and also near both the Bunyan Museum and the former Saint Cuthbert’s Church.

The Panacea Society was founded at 12 Albany Road, Bedford, by Mabel Barltrop in 1919 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Panacea Society was a millenarian group founded in Bedford in 1919 by Mabel Barltrop. Its members were inspired by the teachings of the Devonshire ‘prophetess’ Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) and campaigned to have her sealed box of ‘prophecies’ opened according by the bishops of the Church of England.

Joanna Southcott was a self-proclaimed prophetess from Devon. Originally a member of the Church of England, she joined the Wesleyans in Exeter around 1792. She was persuaded that she had supernatural gifts and wrote and dictated prophecies in rhyme. She then proclaimed she was the Woman of the Apocalypse, referred to in Revelation 12: 1-6, and predicted a messiah would spark ‘the millennium’ or the Second Coming in England.

Joanna Southcott announced at the age of 64 that she was pregnant with the new Messiah, the Shiloh of Genesis 49: 10, and that she was going to give birth on 19 October 1814. Of course, the child was never born, and when she died on 26 or 27 December 1814 a post-mortem revealed she never was pregnant.

Her prophesies were kept in a sealed wooden box, which she instructed must only be opened at a time of national crisis and in the presence of all 24 current bishops of the Church of England, who were to spend time beforehand studying her prophecies.

The allotments on the corner of Albany Road and Castle Road … the Panacea Society claimed this was the Garden of Eden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Panacea Society was founded in 1919 by Mabel Barltrop (1866-1934) at 12 Albany Road, Bedford. She was the widow of the Revd Arthur Henry Barltrop (1856-1906) and the mother of four children, and she originally heard of Joanna Southcott through the writings of Alice Seymour (1857-1947).

Mabel Barltrop had lived at 12 Albany Road, Bedford, close to the remaining ruins of Bedford Castle, from 1904. With her 12 followers or apostles, she founded the Community of the Holy Ghost in 1919 at Albany Road, which they claimed was the site of the Garden of Eden. For them, Bedford was a new Glastonbury and the sacred centre of Britain, and at Albany Road they sought to create their paradise on earth, which they believed Jesus would return to one day.

Barltrop took the name Octavia, identified herself as the Shiloh mentioned in Joanna Southcott’s prophecies and went on to declare herself the ‘daughter of God’. She decided in 1923 that her husband had been Jesus and declared that she and her followers were waiting not for the second coming but for the third coming of Christ.

The Community of the Holy Ghost was renamed the Panacea Society in 1926. A central purpose of the society was to persuade 24 bishops of the Church of England to open Southcott’s sealed box of prophecies. As part of this demand, the society placed advertisements in national and provincial newspapers and magazines and on the sides of buses.

A psychic researcher Harry Price (1881-1948) claimed to have come into possession of the box in 1927 through a rival group. He arranged to have it opened in the reluctant presence of Bishop John Hine of Grantham, but it contained only a few oddments, some miscellaneous papers, a broken horse-pistol and a lottery ticket.

Price’s claims to have the true box were disputed by Octavia’s followers in Bedford, and they continued to press for the true box to be opened. In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, the society collected over 100,000 signatures to petitions calling on bishops to open the box.

The terrace at Albany Road, bookended by Mabel Barltrop’s house at No 12 (left) and the Ark at No 8 (right) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Panacea Society also offered healing of all diseases, including cancer, to people who wrote to the headquarters in Bedford, sending them one-square-inch pieces of linen blessed by Octavia and telling them to place the linen in a jug of water, pray, and drink the water four times a day. Doubtless, many regarded their linen patch as a panacea for all ills.

The society had its headquarters on Albany Road. Another property, an end-of-terrace house at No 8 Albany Road, was named the Ark and was maintained as a residence for the Messiah after the Second Coming. They even agonised over colour schemes and whether Christ would need a shower.

Southcott’s box was a corded, nailed box the size of a coffin and weighing 156 lb, said to contain the ark of the testament predicted in the Book of Revelation. It was kept in the Bishops’ House on Newnham Road, bought by the society in 1930 and prepared for the day the Church of England bishops would come to open the box. It has bedrooms, bathrooms and a dining room, as the society expected the bishops to stay for about three days.

The Ark at No 8 Albany Road was prepared to house Christ at the Second Coming (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mabel Barltrop died in 1934, and Emily Goodwin then led the society until she died in 1943. The Panacea Society began to dwindle in numbers in the 1930s, as did the membership of Alice Seymour’s smaller rival group. As old members died, the society rarely recruited new ones. About 70 members were living in the Bedford community in the 1930s, and about 30 members were still living there in 1967.

Despite this, the Panacea Society continued placing advertisements in newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s that I still remember, making those demands on the bishops of the Church of England. In the 1970s, the society rented billboards that proclaimed ‘War, disease, crime and banditry, distress of nations and perplexity will increase until the bishops open Joanna Southcott’s box.’

Only two members of the Panacea Society – John Coghill and Ruth Klein – remained by the 1990s. The society was wealthy, owned several properties in the Castle Road area of Bedford and was reported to have assets valued at £14 million. It started to sell off some of its property in 2001 in order to retain its status as a charity.

John Coghill was 22 when he joined the society in 1934, the year Octavia died, and he was an active member until he died in 2008. The last member, Ruth Klein (1932-2012), died in 2012, and the Panacea Society ceased to exist as a religious community.

Today, the Panacea Charitable Trust holds the society’s assets, said to be worth about £34 million and including 29 properties. It maintains the museum and gardens and sponsors academic research into prophetic and millenarian movements.

The bishops never came to Bedford, and Joanna Southcott’s box was never opened. It remains under the guardianship of the trust, but it will not reveal where the box is kept for ‘security reasons.’ Instead, a replica is on display in the museum.

The Bishops’ House on Newnham Road was never lived in. It has been preserved in its entirety and is now part of the Panacea Museum. The museum was developed from 2012 and incorporates several buildings and the gardens that formed the original community’s campus.

• The museum is open every Thursday to Sunday between February half-term and the end of October, from 11 am to 5 pm. Entry to the museum and is free, with the last entry at 4:30 pm. More information about visiting the museum is available on the society’s website here.

The Bishops’ House on Newnham Road was never lived in but has been preserved as part of the Panacea Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (144) 19 October 2023, Week of Prayer for World Peace (5)

‘I have to deal with … my anger, with care, with love, with tenderness, with non-violence’ (Thich Nhat Hanh) … street art in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIX, 15 October 2023). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers the life and work of Henry Martyn (1812), Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India and Persia. Today is also the Feast of Saint Frideswide, Abbess and Patron of Oxford, a woman of vision and courage.

I plan to stay up late tonight, watching the by-election results in the constituencies of Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire. But, before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began on Sunday, and so my reflections each morning this week are gathered around this theme in these ways:

1, A reflection on the Week of Prayer for World Peace ;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began with ‘A Call to Prayer for World Peace’ signed by faith leaders in 1974

A Week of Prayer for World Peace, Day 5:

The International Prayer For Peace:

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe

Day 5, Reconciliation: For strength to reconcile rather than seek revenge:

If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow.
– Chinese Proverb

I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight … I have to deal with it, with my anger, with care, with love, with tenderness, with non-violence.
– Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk

‘I wonder how humanity managed to survive.’

Captain Kirk: ‘We overcame our instinct for violence.’
– Star Trek

Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself … War has its roots in human nature.
– Francis Meehan

But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
– Christian

One Race – the Human Race

Religions are different; the diversity of religious practice quite extraordinary. This leads to two common reactions: that only one religion is true, or that all are really the same. Here the Guru offers another view, starting not from religion but from the One God in whom we find our commonality.

One man by shaving his head hopes to become a holy monk.

Another sets up as a yogi or some other kind of ascetic.

Some call themselves Hindus: others call themselves Muslims. Among these there are the Shiah, there are the Sunnis also.

Yet human beings are of one race in all the world; God as Creator and God as Good, God in His Bounty and God in His Mercy, is all one God. Even in our errors, we should not separate God from God!

Worship the One God, for all people the One Divine Teacher.

All people have the same form, all people have the same soul.
– Guru Gobind Singh (Sikh)

Jains believe that violence in thought and speech is as bad as physical violence, so they try to control things like anger, greed, pride and jealousy.
– Jain

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
– Christianity

‘If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow’ (Chinese Proverb) … street art in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 11: 47-54 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 47 ‘Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. 48 So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute”, 50 so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.’

53 When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile towards him and to cross-examine him about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Today is the Feast of Saint Frideswide, Abbess and Patron of the Diocese of Oxford … a stained-glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Shenley Church End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:

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 ‘Helpline to women in need.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (19 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for The Church in North India – for their congregations, their mission, and their church leaders.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who by your Holy Spirit gave Henry Martyn
a longing to tell the good news of Christ
and skill to translate the Scriptures:
by the same Spirit give us grace to offer you our gifts,
wherever you may lead, at whatever the cost;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Henry Martyn and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Week of Prayer for World Peace began on Sunday 15 October 2023

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

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (35) 13 May 2023

The Prophet Nehemiah and the old man Simeon in a window at the entrance to the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are at the end of the Fifth Week of Easter. Two of us have been staying in York for much of this week, and we got back to Stony Stratford and Milton Keynes late yesterday.

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. Following my recent visit to Lichfield Cathedral, I am reflecting each morning this week in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The window showing the Prophet Nehemiah and Simeon at the entrance to the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Nehemiah and Simeon window; two heraldic windows:

The Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral is currently the venue for the exhibition ‘Library and Legacy,’ showcasing the collections in the cathedral library.

The chapter house was decorated with frescoes and stained glass in the late 15th century by Thomas Heywood, who was Dean of Lichfield in 1457-1492. The glass in the Chapter House once contained figures of the apostles, with other depictions above. These all predated the Cromwellian era, and were destroyed by the Puritans during the Civil War in the mid-17th century.

In the 19th century, the glazing of the chapter house displayed armorial bearings, more or less correct, in imitation of glass known to have ornamented the cathedral in the past. This armorial glass gradually gave way to glass representing scenes in the history of the cathedral. Six of the windows were glazed with these images in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the original but unfilled plan was to fill all the windows in the Chapter House.

The windows I am looking at this morning, are the window showing Nehemiah and Simeon, and the two surviving heraldic windows in the chapter house.

A two-window window at the north end of the passage leading into Chapter House shows the Prophet Nehemiah and Simeon the Old Man in the Temple.

The Prophet Nehemiah is holding a key under a scroll with the words ‘We will not neglect the house of our God’ (Nehemiah 10: 39). Simeon is depicted in the Temple holding the Infant Christ, under scroll with the words ‘Mine eyes have seen thy salvation’ (Luke 2: 30).

Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.

Simeon at the Temple is the ‘just and devout’ man of Jerusalem who, according to Luke 2:25–35, meets Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child as they enter the Temple to fulfil the requirements of Jewish Law on the 40th day from the birth of Jesus in the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

As many of the windows in the Chapter House tell stories of the building or rebuilding of Lichfield Cathedral, this window prepares the visitor appropriately for that series of windows by Burlison & Grylls and CE Kempe.

This window is by Burlison & Grylls and dates from 1879. It is in memory of William Yeend, a cathedral verger, although the memorial inscription is now largely indecipherable.

The two surviving windows with heraldic illustrations in the Chapter House show the coats-of-arms of many former cathedral clergy and families closely associated with the life of the cathedral.

These arms are not labelled or identified, although two shields in particular caught my eye during this visit. One of these shows the arms of the Fitzherbert family. Thomas Comberford (1472-1532) of Comberford married Dorothy Fitzherbert a year or two after had been admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in Lichfield in 1495. She was the mother of both Canon Henry Comberford (1499-1586), Precentor of Lichfield, and Richard Comberford, sometimes confusedly identified as the ancestor of the Comerfords of Ireland. Her immediate family members included Thomas Fitzherbert, Precentor of Lichfield, William Fitzherbert, Chancellor of Lichfield and William Fitzherbert, MP for Lichfield in 1553. The relics of Saint Chad eventually passed from the Jesuits around 1740 to the Fitzherbert family of Swynnerton, near Stafford.

A second shield to draw my attention was that of the Stanley family, which caused me that afternoon to return to the tomb of John Stanley in the south aisle of the cathedral. But the story of that tomb is, I think, appropriate for another day.

The Fitzherbert arms (left, middle row) in one of the surviving heraldic windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

John 15: 18-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.’

One of the two surviving heraldic windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral with the Fitzherbert arms (left, middle row) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘The Work and Mission of the Laity.’ USPG’s Regional Manager for Africa, Fran Mate, reflected on Sunday on the work and mission of the laity.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Saturday 13 May 2023):

Let us pray for the Anglican Communion. May the Churches seek to nurture disciples who are confident of their faith and assured in their mission to love their neighbour.

Collect:

Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

One of the two surviving heraldic windows in the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral with the Stanley arms (left, bottom row) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (5) 13 April 2023

King David depicted in the East Window by Nathaniel Westlake (1888) in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Easter Day on Sunday (9 April 2023) ushered in all our hopes and joys.

I am in Prague for a few days, on a very brief mid-week visit to the Czech capital. But, before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. In these days of Easter Week, I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the stained-glass windows in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Prophet Jeremiah depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The East Window, Middle Circle:

The East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, dominates the chancel and the whole church. This is a spectacular Rose window by Nathaniel Westlake in 1888, with eight lobes around a large central circle and.

This window was the final element in the scheme of decoration in the church carried out from 1870 on under the supervision of the Stony Stratford-born architect Edward Swinfen Harris.

The window provides a magnificent climax to the interior of the church, drawing the attention of worshippers and visitors to the high altar below it.

The central panel window depicts the Crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary and Saint John, Christ standing beside the Cross. The inner circle surrounding the central panel depicts four scenes I described yesterday (12 April 2023).

The middle circle depicts six Biblical figures – King David and five prophets: Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Daniel and Job – and two representations of the IHS monogram.

The story of Moses has already been told in three of the panels in the inner circle surrounding the central image of the Crucifixion.

This window is by the stained glass artist NHJ Westlake (1833-1921). He was a partner and finally the sole proprietor of Lavers, Barraud & Westlake (1855-1920s), a London-based firm that changed its name several times and became Lavers, Westlake and Co, and eventually NHJ Westlake, before closing in the 1920s.

The Prophet Isaiah depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Luke 24: 35-48 (NRSVA):

35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.

44 Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

The Prophet Amos depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘USPG’s Lent Appeal: supporting young mothers affected By HIV.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by USPG’s Fundraising Manager, Rebecca Allin, who reflected on the 2023 Lent Appeal supporting young mothers affected by HIV, and their children.

The prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (13 April 2023, Thursday of Easter Week) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for children around the world. May we pay attention to their needs and learn from their spirit of enquiry and openness.

The Prophet Daniel depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Collect:

Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.

Post Communion:

God of Life,
who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Prophet Job depicted in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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 paired IHS monograms in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral and USPG: Sunday 4 December 2022

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Matthew 3: 3) … walking along Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Advent began last Sunday, and today is the Second Sunday of Advent.

Later today, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. However, before this day 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.’

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Matthew 3: 3) … the Dark Hedges near Gracehill, Co Antrim (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 3: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”.’

4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Saint John the Baptist in a stained glass window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Reflect on how Jesus gives his disciples a share in his work (ministry). Think about the opportunities we have to take up that work. What would it look like? What would my role be? How can we help one another take on a share in Jesus’s work?

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.

USPG Prayer Diary:

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

Human rights in the Philippines have been under threat for years. Perhaps the most appalling example of the stripping away of human rights is the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, which governed from 1965 until 1986. Marcos used martial law to increase the detention, torture and murder of students, journalists, activists and religious leaders who spoke out against the government. Over 3,000 people were killed, 35,000 tortured and 70,000 arrested by the Marcos regime.

The legacy of terror continued during the presidencies of Arroyo and Aquino before Duterte made things even worse. Ferdinand Marcos Jr has just been elected President of the Philippines and many are scared his regime will match the human rights record of his father.

The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) is an independent nationalist church, formed in 1902. The IFI self-identifies as a church ‘for God and for country’, where their interpretation of country centres on the people of the Philippines, the poor and marginalised in particular. Consequently, the IFI have worked to protect indigenous people from the persecution perpetrated by successive governments.

To read more about the IFI’s human rights activism and what the international community can do to help the Philippines, visit: www.uspg.org.uk/human-rights-in-the-philippines.php

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (Advent II) in these words:

O come, Prince of Peace,
and hear the voice of the oppressed.
Pull down the mighty,
exalt the meek
and bind up the broken hearted.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea’ (Matthew 3: 1) … a mosaic in Saint John’s Monastery, Tolleshunt Knights, shows Saint John the Baptist with his parents Saint Zechariah and Saint Elizabeth (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

A sermon outline with USPG for Advent II, 4 December 2022

Patrick Comerford

The Second Sunday of Advent
4 December 2022

Reading: Matthew 3: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”.’

4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

The Second Sunday of Advent, recalls the Prophets

The Second Sunday of Advent, recalls the Prophets. The Gospel reading, in a way, is a reminder of the promises of the Prophets. But, for some of us, it may seem a little out of place, for it is customary to recall John the Baptist on the Third Sunday of Advent.

Lighting the second candle on the Advent Wreath this Sunday, it is customary to think about the Prophets, leaving John the Baptist for the Third Sunday of Advent [11 December 2022], when the Gospel reading explains how Saint John the Baptist, and his mission point to Christ (see Matthew 11: 2-11).

On the other hand, this Gospel reading links with the promises of the prophets, anticipating the coming of the Messiah, telling us that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near, and quoting the Prophet Isaiah.

The introductory verses emphasise John’s preaching, not his baptising. John first and foremost is a prophet and a preacher, calling us to repentance, true conversion, turning around and reorienting ourselves.

John is like the one described by Isaiah as ‘the voice … crying out in the wilderness.’ Yes, we go on to hear a description of John’s baptising, but this Gospel reading places a greater emphasis on the meaning of that baptism and on the message of John.

Constantly, parallels are drawn between John the Baptist and the prophets, particularly Isaiah and Elijah.

The description of John’s clothing of ‘camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist’ draws on descriptions of Elijah as ‘a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist’. Although John positively denies that he is Elijah, later in this Gospel Christ speaks of John in terms of the ‘Elijah who is to come’.

Unlike Elijah, though, John performs no miracles; it is because of his preaching that John is identified as a latter-day Elijah. He fearlessly confronts the powers of the day, both secular and religious. John also heralds the coming Day of the Lord – which is part of the prophesy drawing on Elijah at the very end of the Old Testament (see Malachi 4: 5-6). In this way, John acts as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

John’s preaching emphasises the coming of the Kingdom of heaven. The word used here for kingdom points first and foremost to God’s rule or reign, not to the realm over which he rules. As the Lord’s Prayer reminds us, where God’s will is done, there his kingdom comes. When God’s kingdom comes, his will indeed shall be done on earth as in heaven, and justice shall be firmly and truly established. And Advent is a time to prepare for, to anticipate, to look forward to the coming of those days.

Because the kingdom is at hand, John calls those who hear him to repentance. The word here means a change of direction, a change of heart, a change of mind. Those who take John’s preaching seriously must reorient their thinking, their priorities. Their whole outlook must change once they realise the nearness and the demands of God’s reign.

Is John trying to shock some of the people out of a false sense of security and into spiritual awareness when he uses strong language: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’

Christ has not yet arrived at the Jordan, but John’s message is not primarily about himself, but about the one who is to come (see verse 11-12), who is spoken of in apocalyptic images of the final judgment.

John’s promises about the promised, coming kingdom of heaven is linked with the prophetic call to make the Lord’s paths straight.

How do we make the Lord’s paths straight?

Where do people encounter difficult roads in their journey in life?

When do we allow ourselves to hear the cry of people in the wilderness?

As we await the coming of Christ – not only as the Child at Christmas but as Christ who ushers in the hopes of all in the wilderness – confront the fears of people on the margins? And, how do we embody, live out, the hopes of people on the move today?

The popular hymn ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ says that despite the dark places in the world today, ‘The hopes and fears of all the years / are met in thee tonight.’

As a sign, as a symbol, of how those hopes and fears are being met this year, USPG and the Church of North India sees the faces of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child in the people being helped through this year’s Advent and Christmas appeal.

This is the Advent Hope and the Christmas present we can offer this year. The fears of those who cross borders, who face the threat of violence and the dangers of human trafficking, are being challenged by those who are working through the Diocese of Durgapur and USPG.

This is one way we can help to ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,’ to ‘ make his paths straight.’ With our support, they are no longer like voices crying out in the wilderness. They are heard, and through this work we became signs of our faith, or hope, in the promises of the coming kingdom.

This sermon outline for the Second Sunday of Advent, 4 December 2022, was prepared for USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) and the ‘Journey to Freedom’ appeal in Advent 2022

‘When heavy burdens oppress us and our spirit grows faint with us … Give us strength, O Lord’

Patrick Comerford)

The Jewish New Year 5783, Rosh haShanah, began last Sunday night (25 September), when two of us were guests in the Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue, and Yom Kippur this year is on 5 October, beginning on Tuesday evening (4 October) with Kol Nidre.

This evening marks the beginning of the Shabbat between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur, and is known as Shabbat Shuvah (שבת שובה‎), the ‘Shabbat of Return’, or Shabbat Teshuvah (שבת תשובה‎), the ‘Sabbath of Repentance.’

This is one of the Ten Days of Repentance. The name derives from the Haftarah or reading from the prophets for this Shabbat, which opens with the words, ‘Return O Israel unto the Lord your God’ (Hosea 14: 1).

The word shuvah and the word teshuvah share a common root. Teshuvah or repentance is a core concept of the High Holidays. The word literally means ‘return.’ Services on Shabbat Shuvah are typically solemn and focused, and the Haftarah portion deals with themes of repentance and forgiveness.

Sephardic Jews read Hosea 14: 2-10 and Micah 7: 18-20, while Ashkenazi Jews read Hosea 14: 2-10 and Joel 2: 15-27. The selection from Hosea focuses on a universal call for repentance and an assurance that those who return to God will benefit from divine healing and restoration. Hosea focuses on divine forgiveness and how great it is in comparison to the forgiveness of humanity. The selection from Joel imagines a blow of the shofar that unites the people in fasting and supplication.

Along with Shabbat Hagadol, the Shabbat preceding Passover, this is one of the two times a year when it is customary for rabbis to deliver longer than usual addresses on timely topics, emphasising the severity of transgression so that people turn their hearts toward repentance. These sermons on Shabbat Shuvah traditionally focus on the themes of repentance, prayer and charity.

The traditional prayer Avinu Malkeinu (אָבִינוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ‎, ‘Our Father, Our King’) is recited throughout the Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur inclusive.

This prayer has been described as ‘the oldest and most moving of all the litanies of the Jewish Year.’ It refers to God as both ‘Our Father’ (Isaiah 63: 16) and ‘Our King’ (Isaiah 33: 22). Each line of the prayer begins with the words ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ (‘Our Father, Our King’), followed by phrases, prayers or petitions.

The prayer book Service of the Heart offers this responsive reading for the Sabbath of Repentance:

When heavy burdens oppress us, and our spirit grows faint with us, and the gloom of failure settles on us,

Give us strength, O Lord, and the vision to see through the darkness to the light beyond.

When doubts assail us concerning your justice, and when we question the value of our earthly life, because suffering hides you from our vision,

Give us faith, O Lord, and the strength to bear pain without complaint, and the patience to await a deeper insight into your purposes.

When, through self-indulgence, or from a blind following of the multitude, or by suppression of the voice of conscience, our sense of duty grows dim, and we call evil good and good evil,

Give us discernment, O Lord, and a heart more awake to the rights of others, and a spirit more responsive to their needs.

When, because we are immersed in material cares, or in the eager pursuit of worldly aims and pleasures, the thought of you fades out of our consciousness,

Let all things witness to you, O Lord, and let them lead us back into your presence.

The master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria the Arizal taught that the seven days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur – which always include one Sunday, one Monday, and so on – correspond to the seven days of the week, each day representing all the corresponding days of the year: the Sunday embodies all Sundays; the Monday embodies all Mondays, and so on. These days are days to use wisely.

Meanwhile, this weekend, in what is described as a ‘Reverse Tashlich’, members of the Jewish community in Milton Keynes are taking part in a litter pick on Sunday. Several synagogues around the world are doing similar activities this weekend, as a ‘Reverse Tashlich’.

Traditionally with tashlich, people empty their pockets into a stream or lake, to symbolise throwing away their sins. This weekend, instead of throwing things, people are being invited to pick up rubbish, doing some Tikkun Olam - to make the world a better place.

Shabbat Shalom

The rain falls down on ‘Last Year’s Man’: new thoughts after Purim

‘Last Year’s Man’ is the second track on Leonard Cohen’s album, ‘Songs of Love and Hate,’ released 50 years ago in 1971

Patrick Comerford

Leonard Cohen released his third studio album, Songs of Love and Hate, 50 years ago on 19 March 1971. The album was recorded the previous September, and all eight songs are written by Cohen: Avalanche, Last Year’s Man, Dress Rehearsal Rag, Diamonds in the Mine, Love Calls You by Your Name, Famous Blue Raincoat, Sing Another Song, Boys, and Joan of Arc. There is a bonus track on the 2007 remastered edition: Dress Rehearsal Rag.

I had already become an avid reader of Leonard Cohen’s poems, and I listened to this album throughout the summer of 1971. I was in my late teens, and it was a summer that became nothing less than life-changing in terms of my spiritual growth and maturity.

Today has been the feast of Purim, a day recalling and celebrating how Esther and her uncle Mordecai overturned the genocidal scheming of the evil Haman and his plot to annihilate the Jews of Persia. It is a true story of Love and Hate.

In my Friday evening reflections this evening, I find myself listening once again to the album Songs of Love and Hate, especially the second track, ‘Last Year’s Man,’ with its images of ‘a lady’ with a secret identity who ‘was playing with her soldiers in the dark’ – perhaps an image of Esther; of Bethlehem being ensnared in the evil plots of Babylon – perhaps an image of the dreadful fate Haman had plotted; and of the murderous schemes of Cain – who represents not only Haman but all who would want to plot the extermination of the people.

This song has remained on the periphery of Cohen’s classic songs, and is often interpreted as a song about an obsessive love that Cohen has experienced, still seeking this unrequited love.

But the song is filled with Biblical images, and like many of Cohen’s songs it can has its parallels with the songs of many of the Biblical prophets, who see God as faithful to people, keeps on loving them, and yearns for their return, and the people as a wayward, unfaithful spouse or lover.

‘Last Year’s Man’ is no-one less than God, who is the great architect, the Creator, who is dismissed too easily in today’s, modern culture as no longer relevant or credible.

In our wars, violence and lifestyles today, we frustrate God’s plans, we spoil and sully his plans for humanity, and we dismiss him as ‘last year’s man.’

We make new gods of power, wealth and war, we invent our own new superstitions. But God still has plans and hopes for his wayward people, and waits like a faithful husband for the lover who has turned away to return.

There is an echo of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah and other prophets in the promise:

And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
that the wilderness is gathering
all its children back again.

The relevant passages include Isaiah 64 and 65, Jeremiah 31, Hosea 1 and 2, and Micah 7.

At first hearing, there may be a Jewish reference in the description of ‘a Jew’s harp on the table.’ But a Jew’s harp is not Jewish at all, and we have to search deeper in this song to draw water from the well of Jewish mysticism in which Cohen so often found refreshment.

In Jewish mysticism, it is God the Creator who breaks through the cracks – whether they are in skylights or in unmended drums – to pour his light into the world. ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,’ as Leonard Cohen sings his song ‘Anthem’ (The Future, 1992).

In their writings, both Leonard Cohen and the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have introduced me to the writings of the 16th century Jewish mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), whose teachings are known as Lurianic Kabbalah.

According to Isaac Luria, God created vessels into which he poured his holy light. These vessels were not strong enough to contain such a powerful force and they shattered. The sparks of divine light were carried down to earth along with the broken shards.

The Kabbalah of Rav Yitzhak Luria had a notably strong effect on Cohen, and his key ideas are reflected in that line, ‘There is a crack in everything, it’s how the light gets in.’

This divine brokenness is a key to many of Cohen’s poems and songs, according to his rabbi, Mordecai Finley, who says Lurianic Kabbalah gives voice to the impossible brokenness of the human condition. ‘The pain of the Divine breakage permeates reality. We inherit it; it inhabits us. We can deny it. Or we can study and teach it, write it and sing its mournful songs.’

Cohen hints in his songs that redemption – the tikkun olam that will repair the broken world – remains possible.

He returns to the Judaism of his childhood and youth, wraps the tefillin around his upper arm, and finds new insights in the Torah: ‘And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin.’

Cohen regularly ended his concerts with the Priestly Blessing (ברכת כהנים; birkat Cohanim). It is also known in rabbinic literature as raising the hands or rising to the platform because the blessing is given from a raised rostrum.

The Jewish Sages stressed that although the Cohanim or priests pronounce the blessing, it is not them or the ceremonial practice of raising their hands that results in the blessing, but rather it is God’s desire that his blessing should be symbolised by the hands of the Cohanim.

Lord Sacks says the Torah explicitly says that though the Cohanim say the words, it is God who sends the blessing: ‘When the Cohanim bless the people, they are not doing anything in and of themselves. Instead, they are acting as channels through which God’s blessing flows into the world and into our lives.’

In many communities, it is customary for men in the congregation to spread their tallitot or prayer shawls over their own heads during the blessing and not look at the Cohanim. If a man has children, they come under his tallit to be blessed.

A tradition among Ashkenazim says that during this blessing, the Shekhinah becomes present where the Cohanim have their hands in the shin gesture, so that gazing there would be harmful.

An understanding of how the God’s light is thought to be present through the outstretched fingers of the Cohanim may lie behind Leonard Cohen’s lines in ‘Anthem’:

There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

The light of God breaks through in the crack in the skylight, and the rains fall like a blessing on all God’s creation.

Shabbas Shalom

Last Year’s Man by Leonard Cohen:

The rain falls down on last year’s man,
That’s a Jew’s harp on the table,
That’s a crayon in his hand.
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
Far past the stems of thumbtacks
That still throw shadows on the wood.
And the skylight is like skin for a drum I’ll never mend
And all the rain falls down Amen
On the works of last year’s man.

I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
Oh one by one she had to tell them
That her name was Joan of Arc.
I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while;
I want to thank you, Joan of Arc,
For treating me so well.

And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight;
All these wounded boys you lie beside,
Goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived;
Bethlehem the bridegroom,
Babylon the bride.
Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
And Bethlehem inflamed us both
Like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
That I had to draw aside to see
The serpent eat its tail.

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain,
So I hang upon my altar
And I hoist my axe again.
And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began,
When Jesus was the honeymoon
And Cain was just the man.
And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
That the wilderness is gathering
All its children back again.

The rain falls down on last year’s man,
An hour has gone by
And he has not moved his hand.
But everything will happen if he only gives the word;
The lovers will rise up
And the mountains touch the ground.
But the skylight is like skin for a drum I’ll never mend
And all the rain falls down Amen
On the works of last year’s man.



‘Last Year's Man’ by Leonard Cohen, Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC