Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 27, Saturday 1 March 2025

‘The Preaching of the Kingdom of God' (see Mark 10: 13-16) … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. We have come to the beginning of a new month and the beginning of the meteorological Spring. Tomorrow is the Sunday before Lent (2 March 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship celebrates Saint David (ca 601), Bishop of Menevia and Patron of Wales. There is a break in the Six Nations championship this weekend, and so there are no international rugby matches this afternoon. But, as this is the first Saturday of the month, I hope to drop in this morning to Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’), the Greek café at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall in Stony Stratford.

Before this day begins though, 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.

‘Suffer the Little Children to come unto Me’ window by Harry Clarke (1926) in Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Three children in street art in Singapore by Yip Yew Chong, who draws inspiration from his childhood and everyday life experiences (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Orthodox Church, the final Sunday before Lent is known as Cheesefare Sunday and also as Forgiveness Sunday. After the dismissal at Vespers this evening, the priest stands beside the analogion of lectern, or before the ambon, the steps leading up to the icon screen. The people come up one by one and venerate the icon, after which each person makes a prostration before the priest, saying, ‘Forgive me, a sinner.’

The priest also makes a prostration before each, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’ The person responds, ‘God forgives’, and receives a blessing from the priest. Meanwhile, the choir sings quietly the irmoi of the Paschal Canon, or else the Paschal Stichera. After receiving the priest’s blessing, people also ask forgiveness of one other.

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 13-16) in the lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of England echoes a similar story just a few verses earlier (see Mark 9: 36-37), which we read on Tuesday (25 February 2025).

These stories are easily trivialised. They are not just about being childlike in an almost Victorian way that romanticises childhood. But, in fact, they are about the dignity and worth of children.

I hear few sermons or discussions in churches about the exclusion, demeaning exploitation, abuse, violation, enslavement, or killing of children. The extent of abuse of children, teenagers and young adults throughout the Church is shocking, vile and revolting. The front-page report in the current edition of the Church Times this weekend reveals that ten members of the clergy in the Church of England, including two bishops, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth.

They include Archbishop George Carey and Bishop Paul Carey, two prominent evangelicals, and figures whose names have been linked with the Scripture Union, the Church Mission Society and Zambezi Ministries, all leading evangelical bodies, and prominewnt evangelical chuches including All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, and Saint Aldate’s, Oxford. The Makin Report must demand more introspection and self-examination among conservative evangeicals, who too often deflect from their own deeply probelmatic issues by being vocal about other debates about sexuality, including divorce and remarriage and same-gender marriagegender-related issues such as the ordination of women.

A Victorian romantic image of childhood needs to be balanced with a challenge to the continuing Victorian experiences of many children, listening to the cries of children in the slums, in the sweat shops and in the brothels, to the cries of children behind the bedroom doors of respectability, and to the children who were abused within the boundaries of Church activities.

And, in the Orthodox tradition of Forgiveness Sunday, there are many priests, bishops and church-based organisations who need to kneel before the people humbly, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’

Refugee children at the Ukrainian Space daycare programme in Budapest … this week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day):

This week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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), was ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day and Zero Discrimination Day) invites us to pray:

‘Be joyful, keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things’. Today, as we remember David, patron saint of Wales, let us pray to God who calls people in every generation to be faithful witnesses to his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your servant David
to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries
for the people of Wales:
in your mercy, grant that,
following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ,
we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Collect on the Eve of the Sunday before Lent:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them’ (Mark 10: 14) … a refugee child’s painting in Ukrainian Space in Budapest (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 26, Friday 28 February 2025

A summer wedding in a monastery in Crete … but the Gospel reading may bring us to ask whether a marriage should last longer than love (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (23 February 2025), we have come to the end of a month, March begins tomorrow, and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Before this day 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.

From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’ (Mark 10: 6) … ‘The Arnolfini Wedding’ by Jan van Eyck (1390-1440)

Mark 10: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ 3 He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ 4 They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ 5 But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” 7 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

Wedding flowers strewn on the lawn at Lisnavagh House, Co Carlow, in the late evening … what happens when love fades in a marriage? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 1-12) challenges us to think about the differences between how we see God’s ways and the actual working out of God’s ways. It challenges us to think about the foundations of faith, which are weak if they depend on God meeting our expectations, and are weakened when God does not meet our expectations.

The Gospel reading also challenges old ideas and customs – in the Pharisees’ tradition about divorce. But, instead of accepting yet another tradition, how might we accept what Christ says as a way of challenging custom and tradition, and as a way of being brave enough to come to new conclusions that reflect the priorities of God and the compassion of Christ?

If our family life and domestic situation become desperate, our income dries up, our family breaks up, we find ourselves down in the dumps and marginalised, do we blame God? How is God with us in our woes?

Do we see material success, prosperity, family life and children as rewards from God?

Is faith, like love, not without seeking reward?

Or do we only love – and believe – because there are rewards?

When this Gospel reading occurs as a Sunday reading, many decide to preach on one of the other readings. But if they do this, they leave us in danger of thinking that Christ is too harsh on those who go through a divorce.

I know only too well how people who go through a marriage breakdown and divorce, and who still cling on to going to church, perhaps just by their fingernails, may well ask, ‘Where is the Good News in this reading?’

So, what is happening here? Herod Antipas was the Governor of Galilee. He had divorced his wife Aretus to marry Herodias, the wife of his brother, Herod Philip. This caused such a scandal that when Saint John the Baptist confronted Herod about it – he was beheaded (see Mark 6: 18-19).

If Christ says it is unlawful for a man to divorce his wife, does he end up like John the Baptist?

If he says it is acceptable, does he contradict the teaching of the Torah and leave himself open to the charge of blasphemy?

The Pharisees were divided on the legality of divorce and the grounds for divorce. So, the question is a trap in another way. They say: ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her’ (Mark 10: 4). The Law of Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife, if he finds ‘something objectionable about her’ (Deuteronomy 24: 1).

Mind you, it never said a woman could divorce her husband (see Mark 10: 12).

A man could simply ‘write a certificate of dismissal’ (verse 4), without going through any formal legal proceedings. ‘Something objectionable’ could cover a multitude, from adultery to an eccentric hair-do on a bad hair day. Indeed, by the time of Christ, divorce was allowed for the most trivial of reasons, and was so common that many women suffered.

However, instead of falling into the trap being set for him, Christ asks the Pharisees: ‘What did Moses command you?’ (Mark 10: 3). In other words, what does the law say? He tells them Moses allowed this ‘because of your hardness of heart’ (Mark 10: 5), perhaps hinting at how hard-hearted men were now making women suffer even more.

There are other places in the New Testament where Christ, and Saint Paul and Saint Peter, accept that a man may divorce an unfaithful wife. Saint Mark alone mentions the possibility of women also divorcing. This may have been normal in non-Jewish contexts, but cases of Jewish women initiating divorce are rare.

In this reading, Christ reminds those around him of God’s original intention. Marriage is a covenant relationship in which the two people become one and live in mutual love and affection.

Christ devotes much of his teaching time interpreting scripture in a way that gives priority to human wellbeing. For example, the Sabbath is made for us rather than we being made for the Sabbath. Similarly, we could say he is saying here that the order of marriage is made for us, not that we are made for the ordering of marriage, or worrying about the minutiae in the details religious people construct around marriage.

The way Christ interprets scriptural law ought to provide a clue to how we interpret his teaching.

Today, many of us may appear to be on the side of the Pharisees on the question of divorce. Divorce is common today and most of us accept it as a reality. Our laws and our customs, like those of the Pharisees in this Gospel story, assume divorce happens.

On a first reading this morning, Christ appears to be harsh and uncompromising. But many marriages get stale or toxic, relationships can dry up or lose focus, self-destruct, or break down. Things go wrong for far too many reasons.

A divorce may be a burial for a dead marriage. Divorces do not kill marriages any more than funerals kill people … although one of the tragedies today is that many couples are burying their relationship when it is only sick or injured.

Is it not possible that the promise to be together until death can refer to the death of the relationship as well as the death of the person?

Is it not possible to recall that the original intent of our loving and caring God who gave us the gift of marriage was to make our lives better?

Does that desire of God evaporate when we are no longer in a marriage?

From the opening of this story, it is clear the Pharisees are not seeking Christ’s wisdom or compassion. Instead, they are trying to trap him. But marriage is not a trap and not a matter of expediency in which the wife is the inalienable property of an abusive or violent husband, or the husband the inalienable possession of a controlling or narcissist wife.

Of course, the covenant of marriage is still just as valid today. Ideally, when two people marry, they commit themselves to an exclusive relationship of love and devotion in a new entity.

But that is easier to say than it is to face up to reality, which includes the complexities of child-rearing, careers and competing religious, social and economic claims and responsibilities.

Ideally, we are not to live alone, but in loving and committed relationships. In an ideal world, there would be no such thing as divorce. But we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a fallen and broken world in which human nature always falls short of the glory of God. Whether we like it or not, divorce is a reality and we have to live with that.

Sadly, when people go through a divorce, the church is often the last place they can turn to for help and understanding, as I have experienced.

But divorce is like a death. It is the death of a relationship, and so people grieve, and they need sympathy and to be consoled. Would you dare chastise someone who was grieving after the death of a family member?

I was reminded once by a divorced priest and colleague that when God says: ‘I hate divorce ... I hate divorce’ (Malachi 2: 16), that of course God hates divorce because he has gone through the sufferings and grieving of divorce through our faithlessness and wandering.

God hates divorces because God has suffered divorce.

What a profound insight.

Too often, in debates, passages of Scripture taken out of context, or one-sided interpretations of the tradition of the Church, can be used to set a trap so that people are forced to accept only one standard or practice for marriage in the world today. But in this Gospel reading, Christ responds to those who seek to trap him by refusing to accept to be trapped into accepting their interpretation of Scripture or Tradition.

Instead, he challenges those around them to think for themselves and to think with compassion.

Let us not use this reading to trap Jesus through hardness of heart. And let us not use this reading to trap vulnerable, suffering and grieving people who remain open to loving and being loved.

We must face questions about marriage and divorce, about who can be married and who can be divorced, as challenges that ask us to think outside the box, without trying to trap Jesus or to trap those who are faced with honest questions about marriage and about divorce.

Enjoying a country house wedding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 February 2025):

This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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 ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 28 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we praise you for the Church of the Resurrection and their faithful service to you and their community. Bless Father Nevsky and the team’s ministry with strength, wisdom, and continued impact as they bring hope and healing to those in need.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Cretulescu Church (Biserica Crețulescu) in Bucharest city centre, was built in the Brâncovenesc style … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 25, Thursday 27 February 2025

‘Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?’ (Mark 9: 50) … salt on café table in Cobh, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (23 February 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today celebrates the life and work of George Herbert (1633), Priest, Poet. Before this day 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.

‘And if your eye causes you to stumble’ (Mark 9: 47) … the London Eye (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 9: 41-50 (NRSVA):

41 For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

42 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

49 ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

‘It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell’ (Mark 9: 47) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 9: 41-50), I should point out that verses 44 and 46 are omitted in most translations. This is not an error on my part or on the part of the translators or publishers, but because these are identical to verse 48, and are not found in the best ancient authorities.

To put the story in its context or setting, Christ and the disciples are in Capernaum. But on the way there, as we heard earlier this week (Mark 9: 30-37), the disciples were arguing with one another about who is the greatest. Christ has told them not to seek position or prestige.

We then read yesterday how one of the Twelve, John, complains that someone who is not part of their inner circle has been casting out demons in Christ’s name. But did the disciples welcome him? Did they praise him for bringing comfort to distressed people and for restoring them to a good quality of life?

Christ then rebukes the disciples for attempting to stop this exorcist who is curing in his name. On the other hand, Christ warns us against putting an obstacle or stumbling block in the way of ‘little ones.’ He reprimands the disciples for being smug and jealous and unwelcoming. Instead of being smug among themselves, arguing about who among them was the greatest, the disciples should have been like this man, bringing comfort to those who were in trouble, looking after those who were thirsty both physically and spiritually.

The disciples are warned against their enthusiasm and their values, like salt losing its saltiness (verse 49).

In reality, despite what is said here, salt does not easily lose its taste. However, in Judaism, salt symbolised purity and wisdom and was used to season incense and offerings to God in the Temple. Should it become ritually unclean, it had to be thrown out and was no longer to be used by the worshipping community or in its liturgies. Similarly, if Christians lose their faith they are no longer part of the worshipping community and its liturgy, and may as well be discarded or thrown out.

Roman soldiers were given salt rations and this Sal is the origin of the word ‘salary.’ A soldier failing in battle or falling asleep at his post was ‘not worth his salt.’

As people of faith, let us be worth our salt; let us never lose our taste for justice, let us be at peace with one another, and seek to bring peace and justice into this world, in season and out of season.

Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest is known for its Byzantine library and music … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 27 February 2025):

This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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 ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 27 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, in the face of suffering, we ask for hope. Comfort the people of Ukraine, especially those who feel despair and grief. Let them experience your presence and hold fast to the hope that you bring, even in the darkest of times.

The Collect:

King of glory, king of peace,
who called your servant George Herbert
from the pursuit of worldly honours
to be a priest in the temple of his God and king:
grant us also the grace to offer ourselves
with singleness of heart in humble obedience to your service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The church and the monastery of Stavropoleos in Bucharest are richly decorated … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 24, Wednesday 26 February 2025

‘We saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him’ (Mark 9: 38) … a gargoyle in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (23 February 2025), and Lent begins this day next week, on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Before this day 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.

‘We saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him’ (Mark 9: 38) … a gargoyle in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 9: 38-40 (NRSVA):

38 John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ 39 But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us.’

‘We saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him’ (Mark 9: 38) … a gargoyle in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the ahort Gospel reading at the Eucharist tody (Mark 9: 38-40), one of the Twelve, John, complains that someone who is not part of their inner circle has been casting out evil in Christ’s name.

To put the story in its context or setting, Christ and the disciples are in Capernaum. But on the way there, as we heard in yesterday’s reading (Mark 9: 30-37), the disciples were arguing with one another about who is the greatest. Christ has told them not to seek position or prestige.

John now complains that someone who is not part of the inner circle has been casting out demons in Christ’s name. But did the disciples welcome him? Did they praise him for bringing comfort to distressed people and for restoring them to a good quality of life?

Christ rebukes the disciples for attempting to stop this exorcist who is curing in his name. It is a reminder that God can work through those who are not followers of Christ.

On the other hand, Christ warns us against putting an obstacle or stumbling block in the way of ‘little ones.’ He reprimands the disciples for being smug and jealous and unwelcoming (verses 42-50).

Instead of being smug among themselves, arguing about who among them was the greatest, the disciples should have been like this man, bringing comfort to those who were in trouble, looking after those who were thirsty both physically and spiritually.

I once worked as a journalist in The Irish Times. A former colleague there, who was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland a few years before me, was visiting me at home one evening. I asked him what the difference was between the two – being a journalist and being a priest. And with a grin he told me: ‘Not much. I continue to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.’

Perhaps not in so many words, but in today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist Christ tells the disciples that they should be afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.

Christ the Pantocrator in the dome of a Romanian Orthodox church in Bucharest … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 26 February 2025):

This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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 ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 26 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, inspire us to act with generosity and compassion where we are. May our hearts be moved to help those affected by war, whether through giving, prayers, or practical assistance.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A Romanian glass icon … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (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

Tales of the Viennese Jews: 21, Marianne Faithfull and a self-styled baroness who resisted the Nazis in Austria

Marianne Faithfull, who died last week at the age of 78, had a strong Jewish family background in Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Germany

Patrick Comerford

Marianne Faithfull, the singer, muse and actor who helped write and inspired some of the Rolling Stones’ greatest songs, died last week at the age of 78. She was 17 and I had just started secondary school when she took every teenage boy’s world by storm with her hit version of ‘As Tears Go By.’

The story of Marianne Faithfull’s disturbing early life, her brave efforts at recovery, and her death last week brought back so many of my teenage and school years. They reminded me too of the amazing story of her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, who styled herself Baroness Erisso, and called me back again to a blog series, ‘Tales of the Viennese Jews,’ which I began in November 2019, although I had not returned to it since the story of Max Perutz almost for four years ago (18 May 2021).

The Tales from the Vienna Woods is a waltz by the composer Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), written just over a century and a half ago, in 1868. Although Strauss was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, he was born into a prominent Jewish family. Because the Nazis had a particular penchant for Strauss’s music, they tried to conceal and even deny the Jewish identity of the Strauss family.

However, the stories of Vienna’s Jews cannot be hidden, and many of those stories from Vienna are told in the exhibits in the Jewish Museum in its two locations, at the Palais Eskeles on Dorotheergasse and in the Misrachi-Haus in Judenplatz.

Rather than describe both museums in detail in one or two blog postings, I decided after a visit to Vienna in November 2019 to post occasional blog postings that re-tell some of these stories, celebrating a culture and a community whose stories should never be forgotten.

The newspaper obituaries last week focussed on Marianne Faithfull as a singer, actor, her brave battle for recovery from addiction and against cancer, and her short relationship with Mick Jagger, and portrayed her as the archetypal wild child of the 1960s.

She had a convent school education, and was often described as the daughter of an aristocratic baroness who had survived the Nazi occupation of Austria. Both details added to the media attention to her lifestyle in the 1960s and 1970s.

Marianne Faithfull’s mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, who called herself Baroness Erisso

In recent years, the singer also explored her Jewish background and her Jewish ancestry featured in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?. She once declared she had to thank her Jewish roots for her renditions of the songs of Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill and for an innate flair for their music.

Recent genealogical research reveals that, despite her Catholic background and schooling, Marianne Faithfull was Jewish by all rabbinical definitions. Although she never practised Judaism, her mother, her maternal grandmother, and all her ancestors on that side of her family are Jewish, which meets the definition of being Jewish according to halacha or Jewish traditional law.

Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, who called herself Baroness Erisso, was a dancer in Weimar Berlin and was then living in Vienna when World War II began. Eva’s mother Flora was born into a well-known Jewish family; she converted to Christianity when she married an Austrian aristocrat Artur Wolfgang Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1875-1953), but she still attended synagogue on High Holy Days.

Marianne Faithfull’s father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British intelligence officer during World War II and later Professor of Italian Literature at Bedford College, London University. He met Eva in Vienna after the defeat of the Nazis.

Marianne Faithfull’s mother was known as Eva but was born Hermine von Sacher-Masoch (1912-1991) on 4 December 1912 in Budapest, then the second city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Eva’s father, Artur Wolfgang von Sacher-Masoch, was an Austrian writer who used the pseudonym Michael Zorn. His family was descended from central European minor nobility through Leopold Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Sacher – the title ritter indicates an hereditary knight, and is somewhat equivalent to the title of baronet. Leopold combined his own family name with that of von Masoch, to keep alive the name of the family of his wife, who was the last descendant of a Slovak family of minor aristocrats. He did this when the Habsburg emperor gave him the title of ritter to recognise his work as the imperial police commissioner in Lemberg, present-day Lviv in Ukraine.

Another family member was the writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), whose last name and scandalous novel Venus in Furs gave rise to the word ‘masochism’.

Eva’s mother, Flora Ziprisz (1881-1955), was born into a central European Jewish family whose members included many prominent medical doctors. She was known in her family as Flora but was born Elisabeth Rosa Ziprisz on 29 September 1881 in Karánsebes, then in Hungary and now Caransebeș in the Banat region in south-west Romania. Flora’s mother, Therese (Deutsch) Ziprisz, was also born in Caransebeş.

Flora’s father, Eva’s grandfather, Dr Wilhelm ‘Vilmos’ Ziprisz (1844-1922), was born in the Banat region on 23 November 1844 in Neusatz or Novi Sad, once known as the ‘Serbian Athens’. It was then an important city on the Danube in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian. Today it is the second largest city in Serbia.

He was a son of Salamon Ziprisz, a member of a leading Jewish family from Bač, now in Vojvodina in Serbia. He studied medicine in Vienna under Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, and later became a doctor battling the diphtheria and cholera in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He publicly vaccinated his daughter Flora with the smallpox vaccine to show villagers that it would not poison them. He died in Vienna at the age of 78 on 28 April 1922.

Despite strong disapproval from both their families, Flora married Artur Wolfgang Sacher-Masoch in Caransebeș on 9 January 1901 when she was 18. She converted to Christianity – not an uncommon experience at the time – but continued to attended synagogue on High Holy days.

The main building of the Jewish community in Vienna, housing the Stadttempel or City Synagogue at Seitenstettengasse 4 … Eva Sacher-Masoch moved with her family to Vienna in 1918 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

After the collapse of the Hapsburg empire, Austrian abolished and outlawed all aristocratic titles. As a child, Eva was known as Eva Sacher-Masoch. She spent her early childhood living on her family’s estates near Caransebeș, and moved with her family to Vienna in 1918. Her brother was the novelist Alexander Sacher-Masoch (1901-1972), author of Die Parade.

As a young woman, Eva moved to Berlin where she studied ballet at the Max Reinhardt Company. She danced in productions by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, as well as in the cabaret scene of Weimar Berlin, depicted in the film Cabaret. In one anecdote, she recalled how she was befriended by a prostitute on the Kurfurstendamm who would see her home safely at night.

As World War II loomed, Eva returned to her parents’ home in Vienna and lived with them throughout the war. The family opposed Hitler since the Anschluss or forced annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. Flora thought of herself as a Hungarian patriot, first and foremost, but was as shocked as any other Jew by the Nazi racial laws.

Despite their Jewish ancestry, Flora and Eva were protected to a degree because of Artur’s World War I military record, his standing as the writer Michael Zorn, and perhaps his aristocratic claims. This may have saved Flora from having to wear a yellow star and from being sent to the death camps but did not remove the constant fear, and Eva was officially labelled a mischling or ‘a mongrel’.

At times, the family secretly helped Jews fleeing Austria, and hid socialist pamphlets in their home. Artur joined the anti-Nazi resistance, and ended up being arrested and hung by his hands in torture chambers in his 60s.

Soviet troops liberated Vienna in April 1945, but Eva and Flora were among 100,000 or so women in Vienna who were raped by Red Army troops. A Russian soldier found Eva and Flora hiding in a room. He raped Eva, but she then picked up a gun and shot him before he could do the same to Flora; later Eva had an abortion.

In post-war Vienna, Eva met a British intelligence officer, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull (1912-1998), a lecturer in Italian at Liverpool University. They married in 1946, moved to England and were the parents of a daughter Marianne, born Marian Evelyn Gabrielle Faithfull in Hampstead, London, on 29 December 1946.

The family lived for a time in Ormskirk, Lancashire while the father completed his PhD at Liverpool University. Marianne then spent part of her childhood in Braziers Park, a commune in Oxfordshire formed by John Norman Glaister in which Robert Faithfull played an instrumental role.

The couple divorced in 1952. Despite Austrian law, Eva chose to style herself Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, despite Austrian constitutional laws. Research for Who Do You Think You Are? revealed Eva’s claim to a title was exaggerated though rooted in reality.

To help support her daughter, Eva taught dance at Bylands School, a private boarding school near Basingstoke, Hampshire. She later lived in Reading, Berkshire, where she worked as a waitress at a Sally’s Café on Friar Street. Eva’s mother Flora came to live with them and died in Reading at the age of 74 in July 1955.

Eva and Marianne seem to have lived in straitened circumstances, and Marianne’s childhood included bouts of tuberculosis. She went to a primary school in Brixton, London, and had a bursary to attend Saint Joseph’s Convent School, Reading, where she was a weekly boarder and part of the Progress Theatre’s student group.

Eva died on 22 May 1991. Dr Robert Glyn Faithfull died on 5 February 1998, aged 85.

Marianne Fathfull’s mother Eva von Sacher-Masoch, who was half-Jewish, and her mother Flora, who was a Hungarian Jew (Photo courtesy of http://www.cabaret-berlin.com)

Despite Eva’s bohemian past, Marianne Faithfull said she broke her mother’s heart when she embarked on her own wild time. As a singer, she was discovered at 17 by the Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham. Her first single, ‘As Tears Go By’, was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and made her a star. She would dismiss any rumours that she had had a hand in writing the song.

Her life quickly became a whirlwind. By 18, she was married to the artist John Dunbar and the mother of a son, Nicholas. Her affair with Mick Jagger ended in 1970, and that same year she lost custody of her son. She survived a suicide attempt and spiralled downwards, spending two years sleeping rough in Soho and addicted to heroin. Later in life, she was seen as the rock ’n’ roll casualty who had survived to tell her tale.

She acted in films including The Girl On A Motorcycle with French actor Alain Delon, as well as theatre productions. She entered a new phase with an understated performance as Maggie in Sam Garbaski’s film comedy-drama Irina Palm that was lauded by critics at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007.

She also fought anorexia, hepatitis and breast cancer, broke her hip in a fall and was in hospital with Covid-19. Her final album was an experimental collaboration in 2021 with the Australian multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, She Walks In Beauty.

Although Marianne Faithfull was raised a Catholic, she was proud of her Jewish heritage through her mother and grandmother and once said music by Kurt Weill, a cantor’s son, was ‘very much the tonic scale from the temple.’ She had never been to a synagogue nor heard the music there. ‘But I think there must really be some genetic memory of my Jewish background,’ she once told the Jewish Chronicle.

Marianne Faithfull would say she had lived out her dreams and her nightmares. She died on 30 January 2025.

May her memory be a blessing, זיכרונה לברכה‎

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎



Tales of the Viennese Jews:

1, the chief rabbi and a French artist’s ‘pogrom’

2, a ‘positively rabbinic’ portrait of an Anglican dean

3, portraits of two imperial court financiers

4, portrait of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis

5, Lily Renée, from Holocaust Survivor to Escape Artist

6, Sir Moses Montefiore and a decorative Torah Mantle

7, Theodor Herzl and the cycle of contradictions

8, Simon Wiesenthal and the café in Mauthausen

9, Leonard Cohen and ‘The Spice-Box of Earth’

10, Ludwig Wittgenstein and his Jewish grandparents

11, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his Jewish librettist

12, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and the railways in Vienna

13, Gustav Mahler and the ‘thrice homeless’ Jew

14, Beethoven at 250 and his Jewish connections in Vienna

15, Martin Buber and the idea of the ‘I-Thou’ relationship

16, Three Holocaust survivors who lived in Northern Ireland.

17, Schubert’s setting of Psalm 92 for the synagogue.

18, Bert Linder and his campaign against the Swiss banks.

19, Adele Bloch-Bauer and Gustav Klimt’s ‘Lady in Gold’.

20, Max Perutz, Nobel laureate and ‘the godfather of molecular biology’.

21, Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025) and her mother Eva Hermine von Sacher-Masoch (1912-1991)

Belfast’s oldest surviving purpose-built synagogue is in need of immediate rescue

The former synagogue on Annesley Street, near Carlisle Circus, Belfast … a working synagogue from 1904 to 1965 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

In my recent walk about the streets of Belfast, in search of Jewish history, sites and memories, I visited both the site of the former synagogue on Great Victoria Street and its successor, the former synagogue on Annesley Street, near Carlisle Circus.

The synagogue on Annesley Street, at the Crumlin Road end of Antrim Road, was built in 1904 and continued in use for 60 years until 1965. Since the disastrous demolition of the earlier synagogue on Great Victoria Street in the 1990s, the former synagogue on Annesley Street is the oldest purpose-built synagogue in Northern Ireland. But it has been derelict and abandoned for many years now, and severe intervention is needed to ensure its survival as part of Jewish heritage and as part of the architectural heritage of Belfast.

The foundation stone of the new synagogue was laid on 26 February 1904 by Lady Jaffé, wife of Sir Otto Jaffé, Lord Mayor of Belfast, who paid for its construction, and the new synagogue was consecrated on 31 August 1904.

The synagogue was designed by the Belfast-based architectural partnership of Young and Mackenzie, with Benjamin Septimus Jacobs of Hull as the consulting architect. Young and Mackenzie was formed by Robert Young and his former pupil John Mackenzie in the 1860s. Young’s only son, Robert Magill Young, became a third partner in 1880.

By the early 20th century, Young and Mackenzie was the most successful architectural practice in Belfast. They were the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the north-east, including the Assembly Hall on Fisherwick Place, as well as more than a dozen Presbyterian churches in Belfast and Magee College, Derry. Their work in Belfast included the Northern Bank, Ocean, Robinson and Cleaver and Scottish Provident buildings on Donegall Square, the Linen Hall Library and Victoria College, as well as the Italianate villas on Lennoxvale, including Edgehill.

Young and Mackenzie also designed Bryce House on Garinish Island, off Glengarriff, Co Cork, for the island’s owner, John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician. Young retired in 1912 at the age of 90 and both he and John Mackenzie died in 1917. The partnership continues in Belfast.

The consulting architect for the synagogue on Annesley Street was Benjamin Septimus Jacobs (1851-1931) of Hull, who designed the mikvah and baths. Jacobs also designed the mikvah or ritual baths at the Adelaide Road synagogue in Dublin, and the Western Synagogue in Hull. He designed many prominent buildings in Hull and was also the first Mayor of Keighley.

The new synagogue was built in the Rundbogenstil style, a 19th-century historic revival style of architecture once popular in Germany and in the German diaspora. It is a German expression of Romanesque Revival architecture that combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque and Renaissance architecture with particular stylistic motifs. The Annesley Street synagogue is a unique example of this style in Belfast.

The brick and stucco synagogue was built by James Henry and Sons. The internal features are said to be largely unchanged. The small single-storey projection was used as the mikvah. Small extensions in 1928 provided additional facilities.

A Star of David above the door of the former synagogue on Annesley Street, near Carlisle Circus, Belfast (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The ministers and rabbis during the six decades the synagogue was served the Jewish community in Belfast have been traced in recent years in research by the Belfast Jewish historian Steven Jaffe, by Stuart Rosenblatt in his work on Jewish genealogy in Ireland, in the work of JCR-UK (Jewish Communities and Records), an online project on Jewish communities in Britain and Ireland, and through listings, reports and entries in the Jewish Year Book and the Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History.

The Revd (later Rabbi) Jacob Rosenzweig (1875-1956), later known as John Ross, was the minister, reader, teacher and secretary of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation in 1905-1914. He was born in Ravah in Poland and was the brother and son-in-law of rabbis. He was in Wales from the 1890s as the minister of Bangor Hebrew Congregation (1894-1905), and lectured in Hebrew at Bangor University College and the University of Wales.

While he was in Belfast, he returned to Poland in 1911 for his semicha or rabbinical ordination. He resigned in 1914 and became involved in the linen trade in Belfast and twice served as President of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation (1924-1928 and 1936-1938). He died in in 1956 and left a large library of Jewish books to Queen’s University Belfast, the Ross-Rosenzweig collection.

An early contemporary of Jacob Rosenzweig or John Ross was Rabbi Gedalia (George) Silverstone (1871-1944) who was in Belfast from 1901 to 1906. He was born Gedaliah Zylbersztejn in Jasionowka, now in north-east Poland but then in the Russian Empire. His father and grandfather were also rabbis, and when he was a child his family moved to Liverpool. He was a rabbi in Belfast in 1901-1906, working mainly with the immigrant community in North Belfast. He then moved to the US, where he was the first Orthodox rabbi in Washington DC. He died in Jerusalem and is buried on the Mount of Olives.

Rabbi Zusman Hodes (1868-1961) was the rabbi in Belfast from 1906 to 1916. He was born in Lithuania and lived in Baltimore, Maryland (1889-1896), before moving to Dublin, where he lived from 1901 to 1906. He was the rabbi of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation (1906-1916), principally serving the immigrant community in north Belfast, until he moved to Birmingham in 1916 as rabbi of the Birmingham Beth Hamidrash, later Birmingham Central Synagogue.

No 33 Bloomfield Avenue in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ was the home to successive Chief Rabbis of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Undoubtedly, the most famous rabbi in Belfast was Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888-1959), although he was only in Belfast for three years (1916-1919). He was born in Lomza, Poland, the son of Rabbi Joel Leib Herzog, and his family moved to Leeds in 1898. He studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and University College London, where he was awarded a doctorate (DLitt).

Rabbi Herzog was minister of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation in 1916-1919, and then moved to Dublin in 1919 as chief rabbi of Dublin, including six congregations in the city. He was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland in 1922. During his time in Dublin, he lived at No 33 Bloomfield Avenue, off the South Circular Road, in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’ area in Portobello.

He moved to British Mandated in Palestine in 1936 as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine. The story is often told that after World War II, Rabbi Isaac Herzog set out on a mission to bring lost children back to Jewish homes. As he went from orphanage to orphanage and convent to convent across Europe, he had no documentation to prove children were Jewish. Yet he had heard the stories and deep down knew there had to be hundreds, if not thousands, of missing children still in orphanages and convents.

One day, he devised a plan. He walked into orphanages and spoke out loud, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Instinctively, many of the children raised their right hands to cover their eyes, showing their undoubted Jewish origins. And so, Rabbi Herzog saved 500 children and brought them home.

Following Israel’s independence, he became the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel in 1948. He died in office in Jerusalem in 1959. His Belfast-born and Dublin-educated son, Chaim Herzog (1918-1997), was the President of Israel in 1983-1993; his grandson, Isaac Herzog, has been the President of Israel since 2021.

Rabbi Jacob Shachter (1886-1971) was in Belfast from 1926 to 1954. He was born in Romania, where he obtained semicha in 1911. He was a rabbi in Galatz before moving in 1920 to become the rabbi of the New Romanian Synagogue in Manchester. He was appointed the rabbi of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation in 1926, and became the longest serving rabbi in Belfast (1926-1954).

He was an army chaplain in Northern Ireland during World War II, and also had responsibility for the welfare of the Jewish community evacuated from Gibraltar to Saintfield, Co Down. When he retired in 1954, he moved to Jerusalem, where he died.

Rabbi Dr Alexander Carlebach (1908-1992) was in Belfast from 1954 to 1965. He was born in Cologne and studied at a yeshiva in Lithuania and at universities in Cologne, Leipzig, Paris and Strasbourg, and from 1933 at Jews’ College, London. He served in Golders Green and after World War II was with the Jewish Relief Unit in Germany. He was minister of the North Hendon Adath Yisroel Synagogue in London when he was invited to become the rabbi in Belfast (1954-1965).

Rabbi Carlebach was awarded a doctorate by the University of Strasbourg in 1955. He retired in 1965, moved to Israel, and died in Jerusalem in 1992.

The synagogue on Annesley Street continued in use until 1965, when it was replaced by a new synagogue built at 49 Somerton Road. The new synagogue was designed by the architect Eugene Rosenberg, assisted by Karl Kapolka. The foundation stone was laid on 3 May 1964 and the synagogue was consecrated on 25 October 1964. The synagogue on Somerton Road was designated a Listed Historic Building in 2015.

Meanwhile, the building on Annesley Street was acquired by the Mater Hospital and was used by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust as a physiotherapy gym and storage facility. It has been empty for many years but remains the oldest purpose-built synagogue Northern Ireland.

The former synagogue was designated an historic building in 2002. The proposals for its future have included a centre for participative democracy and a semi-permanent exhibition on Belfast’s Jewish community. But it looks sad and lonely today and continues to deteriorate, covered in graffiti and subjected to vandalism, and without intervention in the immediate future it is in danger of being lost to future generations.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

The former synagogue on Annesley Street, Belfast, is covered in graffiti and its condition is deteriorating (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 45, 23 June 2024, Trinity IV

An interpretation of the ‘Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ above the Royal Doors in the new iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 23 June 2024), but in the calendar of the Orthodox Church this is the Day of Pentecost. Later this morning I hope to be part of the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the icons in the new iconostasis or icon stand in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford.

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The image of the ‘Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ in the new iconostasis in Stony Stratford is above the Royal Doors and beneath an icon of the Mystical Supper or Last Supper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Mark 4: 35-41 (NRSVUE):

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

A Romanian version of ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ or the ‘Mandylion’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Stony Stratford iconostasis 8: ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ (‘Mandylion’):

Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the building and installation of the new iconostasis or icon screen in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. In my prayer diary over these weeks, I am reflecting on this new iconostasis, and the theological meaning and liturgical significance of its icons and decorations.

The lower, first tier of a traditional iconostasis is sometimes called Sovereign. On the right side of the Beautiful Gates or Royal Doors facing forward is an icon of Christ, often as the Pantokrator, representing his second coming, and on the left is an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), symbolising the incarnation. It is another way of saying all things take place between Christ’s first coming and his second coming.

Other icons on this tier usually include depictions of the patron saint or feast day of the church, Saint John the Baptist, one or more of the Four Evangelists, and so on.

The six icons on the lower, first tier of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford depict Christ to the right of the Beautiful Gates, as seen from the nave of the church, and the Theotokos or Virgin Mary to the left. All six icons depict (from left to right): the Dormition, Saint Stylianos, the Theotokos, Christ Pantocrator, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Ambrosios.

Immediately above the Royal Doors or Beautiful Gates, and beneath the icon of the Mystical Supper or Last Supper is a carved interpretation of the ‘Icon not Made by Hands’ or ‘Mandylion’.

According to Orthodox tradition, the ‘Image of Edessa’ – as it is also known – was a square or rectangle of cloth imprinted with a miraculous image of the face of the living Christ, which would make it the first icon. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it is often known as the Mandylion.

According to legend, King Abgar of Edessa (present-day Urfa in south-east Turkey, near the border of northern Syria) wrote to Christ, asking him to come to cure him of leprosy. King Abgar received a reply from Christ, declining the invitation. However, he says that when he has completed his earthly mission and has ascended, one of his disciples will visit the king and heal Abgar.

Later, it is said, the Apostle Thaddaeus or Jude came to Edessa, bearing the words of Christ, and by these words the king was miraculously healed.

Later legends say that when the successors of King Abgar reverted to paganism, the Bishop of Edessa placed the image inside a wall, and set a lamp before the image, sealing them behind the wall. The image was uncovered later on the night of a Persian attack, and saved the city from the Persians.

This legend was first recorded in the early 4th century by Eusebius of Caesarea in his History of the Church (1.13.5-1.13.22). Eusebius says he transcribed and translated the actual letter in the Syriac chancery documents of the King of Edessa. However, he does not mention any image.

In the year 384, Egeria, a pilgrim from either Gaul or Spain, was given a personal tour by the Bishop of Edessa, who told her of many miracles that saved Edessa from the Persians. He gave her embellished transcripts of the correspondence between Christ and King Abgarus. She spent three days visiting every corner of Edessa and the surrounding area. However, her account makes no reference to any image or icon in Edessa.

The first reference to an image of Christ is found in a Syriac text, the Doctrine of Addai, ca 400. Addai is the Disciple Thaddeus, and the messenger is the painter Hannan or Ananias who paints the image and brings it back to King Abgar, who treasures it in his royal palace in Edessa.

The image is said to have resurfaced in 525, during a flood of the Daisan, a tributary stream of the Euphrates that passed by Edessa. This flood is mentioned in the writings of the court historian Procopius of Caesarea. During rebuilding work, a cloth bearing human facial features was discovered hidden in the wall above one of the city gates of Edessa.

Writing soon after the Persian siege of Edessa, led by the Emperor Chozroes I in 544, Procopius says that the text of Christ’s letter, by then including a promise that ‘no enemy would ever enter the city,’ was inscribed over the city gate, but does not mention an image.

The first record of an icon like this comes half a century later from Evagrius Scholasticus, who writes in his Ecclesiastical History (593) about a portrait of Christ, which is of divine origin (θεότευκτος) and which miraculously helps the defence of Edessa during the Persian siege in 544.

The later, developed legend, says the painter was unable to capture Christ’s image because he was so dazzled by the light shining from his face. Instead, Christ wiped his face on a towel after washing himself and left an image behind.

So the legend develops from a letter, but without an image (Eusebius), to an image painted by a court painter (Addai), to a miraculously-created image supernaturally made when Christ presses a cloth to his wet face (Evagrius).

This last and latest stage of the legend became accepted in Eastern Orthodoxy, so that the ‘Image of Edessa’ was ‘created by God, and not produced by human hands.’ This idea of an icon that was acheiropoietos (αχειροποίητος, ‘not-made-by-hand’) is a later enrichment of the original legend. I have come across similar accounts of supernatural origins for other Orthodox icons in Greece.

It is said the Holy Mandylion disappeared again after the Arab Sassanians conquered Edessa in 609. A local legend says conquering Muslims threw it into a well in what is today the city’s Great Mosque.

However, other accounts say the Image of Edessa was moved to Constantinople in the in 944, when Edessa was besieged by John Kourkouas and it was exchanged for a group of Muslim prisoners.

The Image of Edessa was received with great celebrations in Constantinople by the Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, and placed in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos on 16 August. The earliest known Byzantine icon of the Mandylion or Holy Face dates from the following year, 945, and is in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.

It is said this icon repeatedly gave exact imprints of itself. One of these, ‘On Ceramic,’ was imprinted when Ananias hid the icon in a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, ended up in Georgia.

The Image disappeared during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 in the Fourth Crusade. It later reappeared in Paris as a relic belonging to King Louis IX in Sainte-Chapelle, Paris – not to be confused with the Sainte Chapelle at Chambéry, which housed the ‘Shroud of Turin’ for a time.

It has not been seen since the French Revolution, but some accounts claim the Mandylion of Edessa is now in the Pope’s private Matilda chapel in the Vatican.

The Eastern Orthodox Church feast of this icon is on 16 August (29 August New Style), and commemorates its translation from Edessa to Constantinople.

I had a number of icons in my study in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, in the house where I lived in Dublin and in the Rectory in Askeaton. One of those icons, in a quiet corner, was a Romanian version of ‘The Icon not made by Hands’ or the Mandylion, but, like the original, it has been lost or mislaid during the course of many moves in recent years.

In front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford, another new fitting in the church is the chandelier or polyelaios (πολυελαιος).

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Psalm 135 and Psalm 136 (134 and 135 in the Septuagint) are called the Polyeleos (Πολυέλεος) or ‘Many Mercies,’ named such after the refrain ‘for his steadfast love endures for ever,’ or ‘for his mercy endures forever’ (ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ) in Psalm 136.

The Polyeleos is sung at Orthros (Matins) of a Feast Day and at Vigils. On Mount Athos and in some Slavic traditions, it is read every Sunday at Orthros On Mount Athos, it is considered one of the most joyful periods of Matins-Liturgy, and the highest point of Matins.

In Athonite practice, all the candles are lit, and the chandeliers are made to swing as the psalms are sung, it is also accompanied by a joyful peal of the bells and censing of the church, sometimes with a hand censer that has many bells. At vigils, it accompanies the opening of the Royal Doors and a great censing of the nave by the priests or deacons.

Because of its liturgical importance, beautiful settings for the Polyeleos have been composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff and other composers.

The Polyeleos also gives the name polyelaios (πολυελαιος) to the chandelier in many churches in the form of a very large circle with many candles and often adorned with icons of saints.

The polyelaios is suspended by a chain from the ceiling. During the chanting of the Polyeleos psalms, all the candles are lit, and it is pushed with a rod so that it turns back and forth during the singing to symbolise the presence of the angels and adding to the joy of the service. This custom is still a practice in the monasteries on Mount Athos and in many Orthodox monasteries.

The chandelier or ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) in front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford is another new fitting in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 June 2024, Trinity IV):

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 ‘Anglican support and advocacy for exiled people in Northern France.’ This theme is introduced today with a programme update by Bradon Muilenburg, Anglican Refugee Support Lead in Northern France, the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and USPG:

They spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days. Genesis 50:3 (NRSV).

‘Grief is the price we pay for love.’ – Queen Elizabeth II

Jacob fled famine and died in exile. Egypt responds with something akin to a royal state funeral: 70 days of national mourning.

Let’s follow their example and hold space for lament this week in our prayers. As the Church, let’s grieve the continued suffering and deaths of refugees far and near home.

The day I’m writing this reflection marks seven days since I was at the burial of a little girl from Iraq named Roula, that’s one day for each year she lived. Her life was cut short because she was allowed no safe route to claim asylum in the UK.

Lament means facing harsh realities. It means refusing to use the luxury of power to distract ourselves. We must pass through grief, then we will find hope. The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for all of us on the other side.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 June 2024, Trinity IV) invites us to pray:

Bless all who seek refuge on this earth.
Meet their needs for safety and home.
Move the hearts of your people to show them welcome.
Cause wars to cease and bring justice to the nations
so that no one will need to flee again. – Diocese of Salisbury.

The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Collect on the Eve of Birth of John the Baptist:

Almighty God,
by whose providence your servant John the Baptist
was wonderfully born,
and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Saviour
by the preaching of repentance:
lead us to repent according to his preaching
and, after his example,
constantly to speak the truth, boldly to rebuke vice,
and patiently to suffer for the truth’s sake;
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.

Standing beneath the ‘polyelaios’ (πολυελαιος) or chandelier in front of the iconostasis in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The introduction to the Stony Stratford iconostasis (15 June 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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