Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 21, Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent

February afternoon lights at Cross in Hand Lane, Lichfield … our responsibility for creation is at the heart of the mission of the Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Today is the Second Sunday before Lent (24 February 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025). This Sunday was known in the past as Sexagesima, one of those odd-sounding Latin names once used in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays between Candlemas and Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. In many parts of the Church, today is also Creation Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, where I reading when one of the lessons. This is also a weekend of wall-to-wall rugby, and having enjoyed watching Ireland’s Triple Crown victory over Wales and England’s Calcutta defeat of Scotland, yesterday, I hope to find an appropriate place to watch France and Italy playing this afternoon.

Before this day begins, however, 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.

‘He got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake’ (Luke 8: 22) … fishing boats on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 8: 22-25 (NRSVA):

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

‘He woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm’ (Luke 8: 24) … a window in a church in Rush, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

It is very easy to be misunderstood, for someone else to understand our motivations and the reason behind what we do. It is natural, for it is easier to judge than to understand, it is easy to ask questions without waiting for and listening to answers.

And usually answers are not simple and they do not come easily.

So, when it comes to the environment, we all know we as humans are responsible for what is happening. We want someone to do something about carbon emissions – as long as it does not make demands on me that I feel are too demanding.

‘Not in my backyard.’

The workers in factories blame the farmers, the farmers say the people in the towns do not understand their dilemma. Everyone blames the politicians, and Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their acolytes continue to deny the scientific evidence for climate change. Meanwhile, I continue to add to my carbon footprint when I book yet another cheap flight.

‘Not in my backyard.’

The blame sharing that goes on between industry and agriculture ought to be turned around to sharing not just responsibility but developing our vision for a better and brighter future – a better and brighter future that may be a symbol, a sign, a sacrament of what the Kingdom of God is like.

Working together, industry and agriculture, town and country, in sharing our responsibility for the creation and the environment might be a very good way to introduce the partnership that we are supposed to share in – between God and humanity – when it comes to responsibility for the environment and the creation.

God’s creation is good, we are told in the first reading provided in the Lectionary this morning (Genesis 2: 4b-9, 15-25). This is the second account of the Creation narrative in the Book Genesis.

Forget, for a moment, about the mythological ways of telling stories about creation, and think for a moment about the purpose of telling the story, and what lessons it tries to teach. This story tells us that without God’s gift of rain and without human presence ‘to till the ground,’ there would be no growth in the soil.

This second account of creation therefore presents humanity as co-creators with God, or partners with God in God’s plan for bringing creation to full fruition and growth.

Humanity is given responsibility for creation, but there are limits on the use of creation. We are not to see everything as ours, to do with it what we decide. We are created from the soil of the earth – the Hebrew name adam means ‘from the dust of the ground’ – and we are to cultivate and care for the earth (verse 15). Being God’s partners in the creation brings responsibilities for caring for that creation.

The Psalm provided for today (Psalm 65) is a song of thanks for the Earth’s bounty.

All flesh, all people, all humanity, praise God for the harvest of the earth. He answers prayers and he forgives us our transgressions. The place to thank God for the goodness of creation is in prayer and in worship, for God is ‘the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas’ (verse 5).

This psalm praises him for creation, for the earth and the seas, for soil and the rain, for the pastures and the hills, for the meadows and the valleys.

The Gospel reading (Luke 8: 22-25) introduces a miracle of a very different kind. It shows that Christ is the Lord of Creation, that he has authority over chaos in nature as he calms the stormy seas. He will then go on to calm of a stormy personality, bringing together the calming of the waves and the calming of the mind, showing he is the Lord of Creation and the Lord of humanity, of the cosmos and of human order.

Christ and the disciples have left the crowd behind them (see Luke 8: 19), they get into the boat, and Jesus sends them to the other side of the lake crowd away. The act of sending is at the heart of mission. Mission begins with God so loving the world that he sends his only Son so that we may know that love. And Christ then sends those with him on a journey that is fraught with danger to a strange place where they expect to find disturbing realities and disturbing people.

Sending is the foundation of mission – and the sending of the disciples is a sending on mission, just as our dismissal at the end of the Eucharist marks, not so much the end of the liturgy, but the beginning of mission.

Christ invites the disciples get into the boat and sends them to a strange place. But, instead of finding that the boat or the church empowers them for mission, the disciples treat it as a place to take them away from the crowds and the world. They see it as their own cocoon, their safe territory.

How wrong they are. When the storm comes, when the waves batter them, when the wind rises up against them, they find that we cannot be in the church and be without Christ and without the crowd.

Christ falls asleep on the boat and seems unaware of the peril at sea as they sail towards the other side of the lake.

When Christ shows his power over the stormy reality of creation, he challenges the disciples and asks, ‘Where is your faith?’

They are afraid and amazed. Are they more afraid and amazed when it comes to Christ’s command of the wind and the waves than they are of the wind and the waves themselves?

Their faith has been tested, and it has been found to be weak, in the deep waters it is found to be shallow.

So, Christ is the Lord of Creation, and the mission of the Church is only going to work in harmony when God and humanity work in partnership in creation.

If we do this well, then, the reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 4) tells us, the whole of creation is invited into the Kingdom of God.

In his exile on the island of Patmos, Saint John the Divine has an ecstatic vision of the heavenly throne.

Around the throne of God are 24 thrones with 24 elders who are wearing white robes and golden crowns. The number 24 could be read as symbolising a new or perfect creation, doubling the number of disciples, who double the number of the days of creation.

Around the throne too are four living creatures – a lion, an ox, a human person and an eagle – who came later to represent the four evangelists.

God is worshipped by these 24 elders or priests and by these four living creatures or evangelists as the Lord God who has created all things and by whose will all things exist and are created.

Later, as this vision continues, we are told that this is Lamb on the throne (see Revelation 5: 6-8).

In our liturgy and worship, the Church invites the whole of Creation into the Kingdom of God. Indeed, at the heart of the liturgy, our worship, is our concern for the whole of God’s creation.

There are five marks of mission that we agree on in the Anglican Communion. The fifth mark is, ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’

Our co-responsibility for creation is not peripheral to mission, it is at the heart of mission, and underpins it.

At the General Synod of the Church of England some years ago (2019), the Revd Andrew Lightbown expressed concern that the material prepared for a debate on mission and evangelism was ‘a bit thin — I worry that mission and evangelism is reducible to conversion.’

If we reduce mission to evangelism, and miss out on the centrality of the liturgy of the Church and on our responsibility for creation, then the Church misses out on the opportunity to invite all creation, through the Church, into the Kingdom of God.

The Church of the Resurrection, the Anglican church in the centre of Bucharest … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are introduced by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett of Bucharest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent):

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 is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania, and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate:

On 1 March, Romanians celebrate an ancient Spring festival by wearing intertwined red and white threads. The colours are of blood and snow, recalling a legend in which the hero dies fighting to free the captured sun. Where his warm blood dissolved the snow, the first snowdrop appeared. The story’s themes are profoundly Christian, echoing Jesus’ words about life coming out of death in John 12: 24.

This week also marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the face of war, it’s hard to believe in the triumph of life over death. On our news screens and in the stories of refugees, we encounter so much suffering and heartache. But Jesus knows the depth of our pain and the cost of the world’s evil. By his death, Jesus brings us the hope of eternal life. That hope doesn’t lessen the grief and tragedy of war, but it points us to a new future where the victory of love is final. In that hope, we can discern the signs of God’s future breaking into our present moment; the radical generosity and hospitality that people have shown to those whose lives are affected by war, the many acts of love and service shown by individuals, institutions and communities.

In our broken and fallen world, we cannot escape our own suffering or the suffering of our neighbours. But Jesus promises us that life will spring from death, like a grain of wheat in the earth.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 February 2025, the Second Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (John 12: 24).

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

Inside the Church of the Resurrection … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are introduced by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett of 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

73 is a prime number, or a lucky prime, or even a star number, rather than the fading sunset or twilight

No 73 Emerald Hill, Singapore … a prime number that is also a star number (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We RE on our way to the Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in Milton Keynes, which may not be the most joyful way to mark or celebrate my birthday this afternoon. Perhaps we shall go for a meal out later in the day, and have a drink in Stony Stratford on the way home to mark the evening.

Shakespeare talks in Sonnet 73 of

… … the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west

But I have a lot to be thankful for on this birthday as I look back over the last 73 years.

In those 73 years, I have lived through the reign, rule or time in office of three British monarchs, seven Popes, seven (soon to be eight) Archbishops of Canterbury, eight Irish Presidents, eight Church of Ireland Archbishops of Armagh, 14 (or 15) US Presidents (depending on how you count Trum), 16 Greek heads of state, 17 Taoisigh, 18 British Prime Ministers … it almost sounds like singing out the 12 days of Christmas.

Despite Shakespeare’s words, I still feel as though I am in the prime of my life, as befits reaching yet another prime number, rather than in ‘the twilight of such day’ or even ‘after sunset fadeth in the west’.

The number 73 is a natural number, a prime number, and is what is known in mathematics as a star number, a twin prime, a lucky prime and a sexy prime. It also the number of books in the Catholic Bible, and another way of saying ‘best regards’ when signing off some conversations.

73 as a star number (up to blue dots) … 37, its dual permutable prime, is the preceding consecutive star number (up to green dots)

In mathematics, 73 is the 21st prime number, and an emirp – a prime number that results in a different prime when its decimal digits are reversed – with 37, the 12th prime number. It is also the eighth twin prime, with 71 – a twin prime is a prime number that is either 2 less or 2 more than another prime number, such as either member of the twin prime pair 17 and 19, 41 and 43, or 71 and 73.

The number 73 is the fourth star number. In mathematics, a star number is a centred figurate number, a centred hexagram (six-pointed star), such as the Star of David, or the board Chinese checkers is played on. The numbers 73 and 37 are also consecutive star numbers or equivalently consecutive centred dodecagonal (12-gonal) numbers, respectively the fourth and the third.

The numbers 73 and 37 are successive lucky primes and sexy primes, both twice over. In number theory, a lucky number is a natural number in a set that is generated by a certain ‘sieve’, similar to the sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes, but eliminating numbers based on their position in the remaining set, instead of their value. And, in number theory, sexy primes are prime numbers that differ from each other by 6. For example, the numbers 5 and 11 are a pair of sexy primes, because both are prime and 11 – 5 = 6. In the same way, 73 - 67 = 6, and 79 - 73 = 6.

73 at a front door in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Amateur radio operators and other morse code users commonly use the number 73 as a ‘92 Code’ abbreviation for ‘best regards’, typically when ending a QSO or a conversation with another operator.

No 73 was a 1980s children's television programme on the ITV network that ran from 1982 to 1988.

In 1982, the TV Times summed up the show: ‘From the outside No. 73 looks like a tumbledown house, but once inside it’s a different world. The house, in the south of England, is rented by an eccentric old lady called Ethel, who is like a fairy godmother to the children in the area.

‘Each week she opens her door and is visited by superstars and famous personalities who provide a madcap spectacle of music, competitions and fun. Ethel is assisted in looking after her guests by her nephew Harry and her boyfriend Percy.’

73, paired with 75, on a front door in York (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare focuses on the theme of old age and uses autumn, twilight and a dying fire as extended metaphors for growing older.

The poet invokes a series of metaphors to characterise the nature of what he sees as his old age. Each of the three quatrains contains a metaphor: Autumn, the passing of a day, and the dying out of a fire. Each metaphor proposes a way the younger person may see the poet.

Sonnet 73, ‘That time of year thou mayst in me behold’, by William Shakespeare:

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

‘As after sunset fadeth in the west’ … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 12, Sunday 5 January 2025

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … drummers in a religious parade in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and lasts not until Epiphany tomorrow (6 January), but until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

Today is the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II), although many parishes and churches may transfer their celebrations of Epiphany to today. I hope to be singing with the choir at rhe Epiphany Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning. The celebrations include the traditional Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January, and our celebrations of Christmas traditionally end tonight, on the Twelfth Night, which is then followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. The Twelve Days of Christmas are a festive period linking together these two Great Feasts of the Nativity and Theophany, so that one celebration leads into another.

Nowadays, the Twelfth Day is the last day for decorations to be taken down. Some folklore holds that it is bad luck to take decorations down after this date. But in Elizabethan England, the decorations were left up until Candelmas, and this remains the tradition in Germany and many other European countries.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Twelve drummers drumming’ … drummers waiting for a religious procession to begin in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1: [1-9,] 10-18 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … folk dancers and drummers on the streets of Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the twelve drummers drumming as figurative representations of the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.

The Gospel reading this morning (John 1: [1-9,] 10-18) should be familiar reading for most of us during these weeks: the third and principal option for the Eucharist on Christmas morning was John 1: 1-14; and on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2024), the Gospel reading was John 1: 1-18.

The first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel can be divided in two parts: the Prologue (verses 1-18) and a second part (verses 19-50) that shows that John the Baptist was preparing for the coming of the Messiah.

The Prologue is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh’, sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …’, first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

The opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος (En arche en ho logos, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And for many, the Fourth Gospel, Saint John’s Gospel, is one of the great works of literature, as well as being my favourite book in the Bible.

The author of this Gospel was identified by Saint Irenaeus as Saint John the beloved, Saint John the Divine, or Saint John the Theologian, who lived in Ephesus until the imperial reign of Trajan (ca 98 CE).

As a boy, Irenaeus had known Saint Polycarp, who was Bishop of Smyrna, near Ephesus, and who is said to have been a disciple of John. Ever since then, the tradition of the Church has identified this John as the author of the Fourth Gospel.

The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. We are all familiar with the dramatic presentation of the Prologue to this Gospel as the Gospel reading on Christmas Day. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

Raymond Brown has presented a translation from the Greek of the Prologue in poetic format:

1 In the beginning was the Word;
the Word was in God’s presence,
and the Word was God.
2 He was present with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being,
and apart from him not a thing came to be.
4 That which came to be found life in him,
and this life was the light of the human race.
5 The light shines on in the darkness,
for the darkness did not overcome it.

(6 Now there was a man sent by God, named John 7 who came as a witness to testify to the light, so that through him all might believe – 8 but only to testify to the light, for he himself was not the light.)

9 He was the real light
that gives light to everyone;
he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world,
and the world was made by him;
yet the world did not recognise him.
11 To his own he came;
yet his own people did not accept him.
12 But all those who did accept him,
he empowered to become God’s children –
those who believe in his name,
13 those who were begotten,
not by blood,
nor the flesh,
nor human desire,
but by God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
And we have seen his glory,
the glory as of an only Son coming from the Father,
rich in kindness and fidelity.

The Prologue lays the foundation for the development of the ‘realised eschatology’ of the Fourth Gospel. When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose. In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among his people as one of them, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.

The writer relates the Logos in turn to God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); a specific circle of disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and later in the Prologue to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17). Finally, in verse 18, the intimacy of the relationship of the Logos to the Father is re-emphasised in language similar to that used in John 13: 23-25 to describe the intimacy between ‘the beloved disciple’ and Christ himself.

The Prologue is a model and a summons to us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation and to apply this concept in all its comprehensiveness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe, and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?

Pages from The Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete hand-written and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in the Holy Writ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II):

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 ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG:

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Melanesian Brotherhood by Ini Kopuria, an Indigenous Solomon Islander and former police officer. His vision was for an order of Indigenous brothers who would share the gospel in Melanesia.

The Melanesian Brotherhood is now the largest Anglican religious order in the world, with brothers living in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and across the Pacific Islands. They are known for their work in evangelism, choir singing, and peace-making.

We remember particularly the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood. During the conflict in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s, the brotherhood followed God’s call to peace-making, helping mediate between opposing groups, negotiating the release of hostages, and coordinating a weapons amnesty. In 2003, seven brothers were murdered whilst working for peace: Brother Patteson Gatu, Brother Alfred Hill, Brother Robin Lindsay, Brother Ini Paratabatu, Brother Nathaniel Sado, Brother Tony Sirhi, and Brother Francis Tofi. They are commemorated as martyrs and Christian peacemakers.

In this, their centenary year, we give thanks for Ini Kopuria and his vision, for the life and sacrifice of the martyrs of the brotherhood, and for the one hundred years of faithful witness and service offered by the Melanesian Brotherhood to people across the region.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II) invites us to reflect on these words as pray:

‘For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God’ (II Corinthians 1:20).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

All praise to you,
almighty God and heavenly king,
who sent your Son into the world
to take our nature upon him
and to be born of a pure virgin:
grant that, as we are born again in him,
so he may continually dwell in us
and reign on earth as he reigns in heaven,
now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God our Father,
in love you sent your Son
that the world may have life:
lead us to seek him among the outcast
and to find him in those in need,
for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Collect on the Eve of the Epiphany:

O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (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 stroll by the sea and into the rainforest, but avoiding the crocodiles in Bako National Park

Sunday afternoon by the beach at Bako, north of Kuching, looking out at the North China Sea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We spent our last Sunday afternoon on this visit to Kuching with a walk in the rainforest and the jungle, two boat journeys on the shores of the South China Sea, an encounter with the wild life of Sarawak, and a walk on the beach – but without going for a swim for of crocodiles in the water.

Bako National Park is 37 km from Kuching, and we caught a ‘Grab’ there late on Sunday morning after I had attended the Cathedral Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching.

Many visitors make a full adventure of their visit to Bako, and stay overnight. The park covers the northern part of the Muara Tebas peninsula of the Bako and Kuching Rivers in Sarawak. It was established in 1957 fishing and former timber logging area, and it is the oldest though one of the smallest national parks in Sarawak, with an area of 27.27 sq km.

Waiting for a boat at the enrance to Bako National Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

It took us about an hour to get from Kuching to Bako. The first part of the journey was a 30-40 minute journey by road to the village of Kampung Bako. From the jetty there, a boat took about 20-30 minutes to bring us to the beach and the park HQ at Telok Assam.

The coastline of steep cliffs, rocky headlands and stretches of white, sandy bays has been created by millions of years of erosion of the sandstone. Many of the rocky headlands have been carved by the waves into fantastically shaped sea arches and seastacks with coloured patterns formed by iron deposition.

Some of the rock formations can be seen at the entry to the Teluk Assam Beach, which fronts the park. The most famous seastack was shaped like a cobra’s head and could be seen on a boat ride from the headquarters or one of the beaches. But this collapsed earlier this year.

Five minutes by the beach at Bako on Sunday afternoon (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Bako is one of the most popular parks in Sarawak, and the rainforest and wildlife are the main attractions. It has multiple biomes, including rainforest, abundant wildlife, jungle streams and waterfalls, secluded beaches, and trekking trails. But the park also has a picturesque coastline, dotted with small bays, cliffs, beaches and rocky features. The scenery constantly changes from place to place or even along a single trail.

A network of 18 marked walking trails of different lengths allows visitors access to many parts of the park. Many of the beaches and many of the seastacks can be reached by boat from both Kampung Bako or Teluk Assam, and the colour-coded trails offers= a range of walking and trekking options from short and easy walks near the park HQ to full-day hikes through the rainforest and the jungle.

Some of the most popular trekking trails include Telok Pandan Kecil, which leads to a small beach; the Lintang loop, which passes through nearly all of the habitat types found in the park; Telok Paku, a short and relatively easy trail located close to the park HQ that passes through beach and cliff vegetation; and Telok Delima, which passes through dipterocarp forest and finishes at an area of mangroves. However, most of the long-distance trails in the east side of the park seem to be closed for maintenance.

Five minutes on the boardwalks in Bako on unday afternoon (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Following the trails and treks, you can move from beach vegetation, through mangrove forests, then climb a hill to walk through narrow strip of dipterocarp forest before the forest thins out as you enter the kerangas or heath forest.

When you reach the plateau you come across scrubland where the poor soils only support bushes and grasses. There are no tall trees here but pitcher plants line the sandy trail and ground orchids grow in the impoverished soil.

Bako displays almost every type of plant life that is found in Borneo, with over 25 distinct types of vegetation from seven complete ecosystems: beach vegetation, cliff vegetation, kerangas or heath forest, mangrove forest, mixed dipterocarp forest, padang or grasslands vegetation and peat swamp forest. The unusual plant life includes a variety of carnivorous plants – four species of pitcher plants, sundews and bladderworts – as well as a huge variety of tree and other plant species.

Bako is one of the best places in Sarawak for wildlife experiences. The animals are used to human visitors. The star attraction is undoubtedly the proboscis monkey, with their huge noses and pot bellies.

It is said that there are 275 proboscis monkeys at Bako. They are often spotted around the park HQ and accommodation blocks at Telok Assam. But they are now an endangered species and I saw none on Sunday afternoon.

However, we saw two Bornean bearded pigs, and the other animals there include long-tailed macaques, silver-leaf monkeys, langurs or lutungs, plantain squirrels and otters. All these are in the forest and can be seen near the camp headquarters at Telok Assam beach. Bako is also home to a number of monitor lizards and snakes, most of which are harmless.

Two Bornean bearded pigs by one of the forest lodges (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Over 150 species of birds have been recorded in Bako. The nocturnal creatures there include the colugo, pangolin, mousedeer, various species of fruit-eating and insect-eating bats, tarsier, slow loris and palm civet.

The canteen by the beach has a self-service buffet with limited rice dishes, snacks and drinks. People who are staying overnight are recommended to bring fruit and snacks from Kuching.

It is possible to stay overnight in Bako, but the overnight accommodation at park lodges, hostels and a campsite is basic. Many of the rooms need renovation and repairs, towels are not provided, and there are no blankets or towels in the hostel. One travel agency does not recommend the campsite, because ‘troops of macaques often raid tents, sprinting away with clothes, bags, toothpaste or anything that tickles their fancy.’

The steep cliffs, rocky headlands and white, sandy bays have been created by millions of years of erosion of the sandstone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

At one time it was possible to swim at the park’s beaches, but this is no longer advisable. Although we dipped our feet in the water and the waves as we got off the boat and strolled along the sandy shore at the main beach before checking in at the park HQ, we were told how there have been several sightings of crocodiles on the beaches and in the bays in Bako.

The crocodile population in the wider Kuching area has expanded over the last decade and they are moving into areas where previously they have not been seen. Crocodiles were always found in the Bako River but now they are occasionally sighted in the park’s waters.

Sarawak Forestry has put up ‘Do Not Swim’ signs all around the park, and visitors are told not to go wandering off into the mangroves at low tide.

We stuck to the trails and mangrove boardwalks, before catching a boat back to Kampong Bako in the late afternoon and then made our way back to Kuching. Perhaps on a future visit we may take a packed meal, a bottle of wine, watch the sun set in the South China Sea and stay overnight.

Paying attention to the warning signs about crocodiles (Photograph: Charlotte Hunter, 2024)

Stepping back in time in Siniawan Old Town, the ‘Cowboy Town’ with its night market

Siniawan, 20 km outside Kuching, is known for the weathered, ageing wooden buildings, its night markets and its street music(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Last weekend, we spent an evening in Siniawan, a small town in the Bau district, about 20 km outside Kuching. It is known for the weathered, ageing wooden buildings lining the Main Street, its night markets selling street food, and its street music.

The Main Street is lined with old wooden townhouses, and Chinese lanterns light up the street making it a beautiful place to spend an evening dining out.

During the day, Siniawan is a serene place, reminiscent of a bygone age. Weathered, ageing wooden buildings are living artefacts, telling tales of a time when they provided shelter and space for commerce and for leisure.

As the sun sets, Siniawan undergoes a transformation, turning into a vibrant night market that draws locals and visitors alike. Red lanterns strung across the streets light up the town, casting a warm glow over the bustling market and creating a lively, festive atmosphere. The Siniawan Night Market every Friday, Saturday and Sunday adds to the atmosphere.

During the day, Siniawan is a serene place, reminiscent of a bygone age (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Siniawan is in the heart of the Bau district, just 40-minutes from Kuching. Visiting Siniawan, with its century-old charm and well-preserved traditional wooden shophouses, is a step back in time.

The main street is made up of two rows of double-storey rustic-looking shops, with vertical wooden panels and unpainted fronts. Because of its resemblance to the Old ‘Wild West’ in cowboy films, Siniawan has been nicknamed ‘Cowboy Town’.

Siniawan has a population of about 3,600 people: most are Bidayuh (750 families) or Chinese (700 families), and there are 100 Malay families. The Chinese people there are mostly descended from people who came from Guangdong Province, and the common dialect is Hopoh Hakka.

On the edge of town is the Shui Yue Gong temple, with a century-old statue of the deity Guanyin depicted in a cross-legged posture. Mount Serumbu is just 2.7 km away.

The Shui Yue Gong temple on the edge of town has a century-old statue of Guanyin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Siniawan grew up on the banks of the Sarawak River (Sungai Sarawak Kanan) 200 years ago, when a small group of Hakka Chinese settlers made their home along the side of the river in the early 1820s. It was a strategic location at the high point of the Sarawak River, as few boats could travel much further up, and a bustling trading settlement quickly grew up.

But nothing significant happened until James Brooke, arrived in Sarawak in 1839. As part of brokering a peace deal between the Sultan of Brunei, who then ruled Sarawak, and the rebel Malay and Bidayuh tribes, Brooke agreed to protect the local people from the Iban or ‘Sea Dayak’ people who raided their homes and killed their people.

Brooke became the White Rajah of Sarawak in 1841 and built his first fort in Sarawak at Fort Berlidah, just few hundred metres downriver from Siniawan. Fuelled by the gold rush in nearby Bau and with the protection offered by Brooke, Siniawan grew quickly. The population was boosted by Hakka Chinese traders and miners who came across from the Sambas district in Dutch Borneo, now West Kalimantan, and the community began to thrive.

After building Fort Berlidah, Brooke built a bungalow on the summit of Mount Serembu, naming it the ‘Peninjau’ or ‘lookout’. He was visited at the bungalow by the future British Consul in Brunei, Sir Spenser St John, in 1851. By then Siniawan had about 300 Chinese shopkeepers and traders. St John marvelled at the lively Siniawan market, and noticed both the inter-action between different ethnic groups and the influx of Chinese and Malay gold miners.

Brooke invited Alfred Russell Wallace, a prominent anthropologist, to stay at the bungalow in 1854. Wallace and worked alongside Charles Darwin in developing the theory of evolution by natural selection, and came to Borneo to research primates, especially the orangutan, and other animals.

Siniawan grew up on the banks of the Sarawak River 200 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

However, this period of peace was short-lived. When Brooke introduced taxes on gold and opium, he was resisted by the Hakka Chinese of the Bau goldfields, led by Liu Shan Bang. On 18 February 1857, Liu Shan Bang led a force of 600 Chinese miners down the Sarawak River, through Siniawan, to attack the Brooke government in Kuching. They attacked the Astana, Brooke’s residence, and burned down many buildings in Kuching.

Brooke narrowly escaped the onslaught and survived, most Europeans found shelter in the grounds of Saint Thomas’s Anglican Church, but five Europeans and many local people were killed, properties were burnt and the town was left in disarray.

On 23 February 1857, Brooke’s nephew Charles Brooke, led a force of Ibans to join the local Bidayuh tribes in retaliation. They pursued the Chinese up the Sarawak River and a series of bloody battles were fought in the Siniawan area. Bodies lay scattered along the river and some of the places were given names such as Buso (‘stinking’) and Bau (‘smelly’). Liu Shan Bang finally fell at Jugan Hill outside Siniawan on 24 February 1857.

Many of the wooden houses lining the Main Street of Siniawan were built in the 1910s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Many of the wooden houses lining the Main Street of Siniawan were built at the height of the town’s glory days in the 1910s. Unlike Sino-Portuguese buildings in West Malaysia, with their typically colourful façades and elaborate decorations, the architecture in Siniawan is Javanese, as it was easier to get carpenters from there through Singapore.

During the boom times of the 1920s, the single main street of Siniawan included an hotel, a Chinese theatre, a casino, a brothel and an opium den.

The town suffered during the Japanese occupation in 1941-1945, with economic decline, migration and environmental challenges. A period of stability but eventual decline followed the end of World War II.

The Brooke dynasty finally ceded Sarawak to Britain, and by the time Sarawak became part of the new Malaysia, the gold fields were spent and Siniawan had settled down to an ordinary and peaceful existence.

Two serious incidents of monsoon flooding on the river forced many residents to move from Siniawan for safety and to build new houses. In addition, a new road network and bridges at Batu Kitang and Batu Kawa reduced reliance on the Sarawak River for transportation and by-passed Siniawan, leaving the little town isolated and almost forgotten.

Red lanterns light up the town at night, casting a warm glow over the bustling market and creating a lively, festive atmosphere (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The timber-built shophouses still stand today, with their original façades. Local people started to name the rustic town ‘Cowboy Town’ because of its resemblance to the frontier towns of the Old Wild West.

The Siniawan Heritage Conservation Committee was formed in 2009 to rekindle local pride in the town’s heritage and history. The initiative led to the opening of the Night Market on weekend evenings, selling street food and drink and creating a lively atmosphere with karaoke and music.

The first Siniawan Fiesta was held in 2016, with local Country Music bands and crowds descending on the ‘Cowboy Town’. In the years that have followed, the crowds grew and the programmes included ethnic cultural music and a week-long Siniawan Heritage Country Music Fest was staged.

The festival has become a major event, with over a week of festivities and up to 30,000 people dancing their way up and down the High Street. Siniawan is no longer a sleepy town but has been turned into a vibrant street. Yet it can seem untouched by time and unspoiled by progress.

Siniawan is a vibrant place but can seem untouched by time and unspoiled by progress (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Patrick’s Chapel and school in Semadang, south of Kuching, are resplendent in green, white and orange

Saint Patrick’s Chapel (left), in orange and white, and Saint Patrick’s School (right), in green and white, beneath the mountain in Semadang, south of Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Father Jeffry Renos Nawie of Saint Augustine’s Church, Mambong, has brought us on whirlwind tours of over a dozen Anglican churches and chapels in his part of the Diocese of Kuching over the past two weeks or so.

He has also brought us to see the orangutans in the rainforest in Semenggoh Nature Reserve and we have spent a morning together in the Sarawak Cultural Village, an award-winning Living Museum at the foot of Mount Santubong.

We have received warm welcomes in all seven of his churches and chapels clustered around Saint Augustine’s Church. During our visits, I remarked on how the influence of the early missionaries from SPG means many of these churches and chapels in the Diocese of Kuching are named after saints and martyrs who are popular in the names of churches in England – Saint Augustine of Canterbury, for example, Saint George, Saint Edmund, Saint Clement, Saint Alban, Saint Giles, Saint Gregory and so on.

Of course, there are churches named after apostles and evangelists too, such as Saint Thomas, Saint John, Saint Paul, Saint Matthew and Saint Matthias.

To my delight, then, the last church Father Jeffry brought us to see is Saint Patrick’s Chapel, a mission chapel in Semadang that dates back to the 1930s, and neighbouring Saint Patrick’s School, which dates from 1953.

Saint Patrick’s Chapel, Semadang, was first built in the 1930s and was rebuilt and dedicated in 2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Semadang is about a 1½-hour drive south from Kuching city centre, half-way between Kuching and the border with Indonesia, and just a few miles north of the Equator.

The Sarawak River in this area is known as the River Semadang (Sungai Semadang). A stretch of the river, from Kampung Semadang to Kampung Danu in the upper reaches, is gaining popularity as a place for kayaking, raft safaris, water sports and outdoor activities such as hiking.

The two villages are home to the Bidayuh community and the attractions include clear rivers with plenty of fish, beautiful caves and forested areas. Kayaking on the river and below the waterfalls is a growing tourist attraction.

Inside Saint Patrick’s Chapel in Semadang, facing the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The annual Semadang River Fishing Festival is one of few occasions when fishing in the river is allowed and it attracts thousands of visitors to this part of the rain forest and mountains of Borneo. The villagers look after the stretch of water closest to them and they see themselves as the guardians and protectors of the river.

The Bengoh Cultural Carnival is among other annual events that also attract large numbers of visitors to the area.

The majority of people living in this area south of Paduwan are from the Bidayuh community, but there are also small numbers of Iban people and Chinese people in the area too.

The altar and chancel area in Saint Patrick’s Chapel, Semadang (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

We drove south to Semadang and Saint Patrick’s Chapel and School from Kuching, through Padawan, passing Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, the Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial Hospital and a local police academy.

The church is in striking, bright orange and white colours, and the school beside it is in bright, striking green and white colours, so that the whole site strikes this Irish visitor as a bright eye-catching display of green, white and orange.

Perhaps the colour scheme is nothing more than coincidence, and I imagine few other visitors notice the vivid and colourful combination or make a mental association with the Irish flag.

Saint Patrick’s School, Semadang, seen from the porch at the west end of Saint Patrick’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Patrick’s Chapel dates from the 1930s, and was probably given its name by missionaries from the Anglican mission agency SPG (now USPG, United Society Partners in the Gospel). The present church building was consecrated on 3 May 2009 by Bishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching, who presided at the Cathedral Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, this morning.

Bishop Bolly also became the Archbishop of the Church of the Province of South East Asia in 2012 and was installed in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching. He retired in 2017.

The present priest-in-charge of Saint Patrick’s is the Revd Kamor Diah. Parishioners told us how Saint Patrick’s has a congregation of about 200 on Sundays, but these numbers can reach 800 at major festivals and celebrations.

Visiting Saint Patrick’s School in Semadang, beside Saint Patrick’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Next to Saint Patrick’s Chapel, Saint Patrick’s school in Semadang is also affiliated to the Diocese of Kuching. It was established in 1953 and took in its first students in 1955.

The school has been rebuilt, renovated and upgraded in the years since.

From Saint Patrick’s chapel and school, we crossed the River Semadang on a traditional rope and wood suspension bridge that can only take people on foot. There were boats in the river below, and a traditional Bidayuh roundhouse on the other side of the bridge.

It was a morning when we managed to visit at least half a dozen churches, and we stopped for coffee in Paduwan on our way back to Kuching.

But more about these churches in the rural villages in the Diocese of Kuching in the weeks to come, hopefully.

Crossing the suspension bridge over the River Sarawak at Semadang, from west to east … at the east side are Saint Patrick's Chapel (Anglican) and School (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Catching the sunset over the South China Sea and walking the beaches at the resorts in Damai

A walk on the beach at sunset at Damai Beach Resort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Although Kuching stands on the banks of the Sarawak River, and for decades served as a working port and harbour, it is quite a distance from the sea. Kuching is built on a coastal plain with lots of rivers flowing into the sea, but it is about 15 km inland from the sea.

So, although we have been here since mid-October, I only had my first walk on a beach in Sarawak last weekend.

We had watched one or two races during the closing hours of the Sarawak Regatta on Sunday afternoon. But a long and steady shower of tropical rain throughout later in the afternoon, accompanied by a showcase thunderstorm, brought a dampening end to the regatta that had been going on all weekend.

It was our first wedding anniversary, and we thought we might celebrate with a romantic dinner in a nearby restaurant without walking too far or getting too wet.

But suddenly, later in the afternoon, the rains stopped, and it was possible to catch just a tiny glimpse of the skies between the dark and brooding clouds. On the spur of the moment, we decided to head north to the Santubong Peninsula and the slopes of Mount Santubong, and to go for walks in the sunset along the shores by the resort hotels facing out onto the South China Sea.

By the shores of the South China Sea at Damai Lagoon Resort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Santubong Peninsula is cut off from Kuching by the Santubong River, and I had been in the area a few days earlier visiting the Sarawak Cultural Village. It took us 40 or 50 minutes to get back there late on Sunday afternoon, and we first stopped at the Damai Lagoon Resort.

Damai Lagoon Resort is a five-star resort between Damai Bay and Damai Beach and describes itself as the ‘Jewel of Sarawak.’ It was previously known as Damai Puri Resort and Spa, and before that as Holiday Inn Damai Lagoon, and it went through a major renovation and rebranding before reopening last year.

The tide was in and we walked along the hotel terrace and by the waves, looking out to the South China Sea. Although the cloud cover left us without a clear view of the sunset, we could see the Talang Talang islands off the coast and wondered about the marine park with its turtles – but it was getting dark and we would have needed a permit too, and lot more planning.

We then walked through Damai Central Permai Rainforest Resort, an eco-resort by the sea and under the rainforest covered foothills of Mount Santubong. The treehouses there mean guests can sleep among the rustling trees and wake to the sound of the sea lapping against the shore.

By the waves in front of the Damai Central Permai Rainforest Resort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

It was a five-minute walk from Damai Central to the Damai Beach Resort, with 90 acres of grounds by the sandy beach of Teluk Bandung, also facing the South China Sea.

It seemed like a long time since I had a walk by a beach or by the sea. My last beach walks had been during a short visit to Bray, Co Wicklow, last June, and before that when I was back in Crete in April, when I stayed in Rethymnon and also visited the beaches at Platanias, Panormos and Hersonissos and the sea at Iraklion.

Now I had not just one but two walks by beaches north of Kuching and facing out onto the South China Sea.

As dusk turned to darkness we decided to linger a little longer over dinner at the Damai Beach Resort before calling a taxi for the 45-minute drive back into Kuching.

On the previous evening, during the Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, commemorating All Souls’ Day, one of the hymns we sang was ‘The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended’, written in 1870 by the Revd John Ellerton (1826-1893).

As we were returning to Kuching in darkness on Sunday evening, I kept thinking of one particular verse in that hymn:

The sun that bids us rest is waking
our brethren ’neath the western sky,
and hour by hour fresh lips are making
thy wondrous doings heard on high.

Two minutes on the beach at Damai Beach Resort at dusk (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Sikh Temple in Kuching tells the story of a presence in Sarawak for more than 150 years

The Sikh Gurdwara in Kuching – one of three Sikh temples in Sarawak – dates from 1910 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Sikh temple in Kuching or Gurdwara Sahib Kuching, with its golden domes, is one of the most notable landmarks in the city. It is the religious and cultural centre of the Sikh community in Kuching, and is one of the symbols of the religious and ethnic pluralism and diversity of Sarawak.

The temple is on Jalan Masjid, close to the Kuching Mosque (Masjid Bandaraya Kuching), another landmark religious building in Kuching known for its Mughal-style golden onion domes and its gilded cupolas.

When the temple and the mosque are viewed from the steps of Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral and the Padang Merdek, the main square in the heart of Kuching, they form a stunning panorama that embraces three traditions that are part of Sarawak’s identity: Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.

The Sikh Gurdwara is one of three Sikh temples in Sarawak – the others are in Sibu and Miri – and it dates back to the arrival of the first Sikhs who came to Kuching to work in the police force during the era of the Brooke administration.

The Sikh Gurdwara (left) and the Kuching Mosque seen from Saint Thomas’s Cathedral and the Padang Merdek (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When a Chinese uprising started in 1857 in the gold mining town of Bau, about 33 km from Kuching, Sir James Brooke, the first white Rajah of Sarawak, fled to Singapore and took refuge with the Governor of the Straits Settlements.

While he was in Singapore, Brooke recruited Sikh men for a new Sarawak police force, and the first 13 Sikhs, led by Dewa Singh Akhara, arrived in Kuching in the 1860s. Sikhs who came later were prison wardens, worked and as security personnel with the Sarawak Shell Company in Miri, or joined the Sarawak Rangers, formed in 1872.

By 1880, there were 80 Sikhs in Kuching, and there were 110 Sikhs by 1906. The Sikh congregation, consisting mainly of police personnel and watchmen, decided to build a Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching in 1910. The government gave a site, measuring 0.37 acres, and made it obligatory for all Sikhs in Kuching to contribute at least one month’s salary towards the building fund.

Inside the Darbar Sahib or congregation hall on the second floor of the Sikh Gurdwara in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The construction of a two-storey wooden building began on 1 March 1911, and the Gurdwara Sahib opened on 1 October 1912. An additional veranda was built around the around the new wooden temple.

A second Sikh temple was built in Miri in 1915, and a third temple was built in Bau in the early 1920s for the policemen and security personnel guarding the mines. By then, the Sikh population had grown to about 500 in Kuching and 240 in Miri.

A Sikh jailer was beheaded in 1932 during an expedition against rebel chief Asun of Kanowit and is believed to be the first Sikh to die in uniform in Sarawak.

Sarawak’s first Sikh hero was Constable Kartar Singh who had saved an English couple, the Jeffersons, from their burning home in Miri in 2 September 1939.

More than 300 Sikhs with their families were living in Kuching by the late 1930s. The management committee bought a shop in Carpenter Street in 1935 and a shop on India Street in 1940, and the rent from these two shops helped the upkeep of the Gurdwara Sahib premises.

The Gurdwara Sahib overlooks an interesting corner in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Japanese attacked Kuching early hours on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1941, and captured the Kuching police station manned by a few Sikh policemen. By late afternoon, the whole town was in their hands as the Punjabi was forced to retreat.

On Christmas Day, the Punjabi Regiment sailed up the Sarawak River to the border with Dutch East Indies or Indonesia before the Japanese caught up with them. Meanwhile, the Japanese had supported the Indian Independence League led by Chandra Bosem but could not persuade the captured Sikhs to support the league or join the Indian army.

The battalion medical officer, Subedar IMD Kalyan Singh Gupta, was held with the 50 men under his command at the Batu Lintang prisoner-of-war camp, where they were beaten and tortured for six months. Other Sikhs were held in Miri, where they were given half rations and daily beatings and subjected to forced labour. Sikhs in Kuching were among the many civilians tortured to death for helping the inmates detained by the Japanese at Batu Lintang during World War II.

After World War II, many Sikhs returned with their families to India. The Sikh temple in Bau closed in late 1950 as the Sikh population there declined. Many of those who remained in Sarawak worked in the police and as watchmen.

The langgar hall or dining room is on the first floor of the Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching has been repaired on several occasions. But, as the Sikh Sangat or community grew in numbers over the years, the building became inadequate. The original wooden structure was finally demolished in 1980 to make way for a new temple with golden domes, which opened on 18 April 1982 by Ong Kee Hui, the then Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Environment.

There are six golden-coloured domes on top of the Gurdwara Sahib building. The Darbar Sahib or congregation hall is on the second floor, and the langgar hall or dining room, kitchen, library, office, a store and a guest are on the first floor. The Granthi’s quarters, store, guestroom and a hall are on the ground floor. During renovations in 1997, a lift was installed to improve accessibility.

There is an exhibition on the Sikh religion, history of Sikhs in Sarawak, Sikh culture, musical instruments and old photographs on the ground floor. A Punjabi school is run by volunteer teachers.

Dr Gurdarshan Singh Hans, who was born in 1943, is the first local-born Sikh to become a doctor in the State of Sarawak, and was the first Sikh in Sarawak to have been made a Datuk in 2001 by the State Government of Sarawak. The Borneo Sikh Games have been held every second year since 2004.

The Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching is currently completing a renovation and extension programme. About 75 Sikh families support its religious activities and weekly prayers are held on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m., and usually end with a meal prepared by the community.

The Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching is completing an extensive renovation and extension programme (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)