Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 7, Sunday 9 February 2025, the Fourth Sunday before Lent

‘When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’ (Luke 5: 11 … fishing boats on a shore at Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are less than four weeks away (5 March 2025) and today is the Fourth Sunday before Lent (9 February 2025).

Later this morning, I intend to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. Once again this is an important weekend for Six Nations rugby fixtures. I watched yesterday’s matches between Italy and Wales (and England and France, and plan to find an appropriate place to see the game between Scotland and Ireland this afternoon (15:00). Before today 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.

The Miraculous Draught of Fish (see Luke 5: 1-11) … a window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

‘He saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets’ (Luke 5: 2) … fishing boats and nets at the harbour in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Between now and Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), we are in what the Church Calendar calls ‘Ordinary Time.’

So often, our celebrations in Church ask us to identify with the great saints and martyrs, in contrast to the ordinary people who are so often the focus of Christ’s ministry in the Gospels: ordinary people who are poor or on the margins in society; ordinary people with everyday jobs like fishermen and tax collectors, or publicans and farmers; ordinary people in the villages and towns; ordinary people with a need for healing or who are hurt and broken by loss and grief.

Ordinary people, living ordinary lives in ordinary time. Not sinless people, but ordinary people, conscious of our weaknesses and our failings, humbled in and all too aware of our own sinfulness and flaws.

In the Gospel reading this morning, we hear the renewed call to some of the disciples, including Peter, James and John. These calls come not to people who feel they are worthy of this call, that the deserve this, that they have inherited a call, or who think they are entitled to speak on God’s behalf. They start off as very ordinary people, like you and me.

The three disciples, Peter, James and John, are called not only to speak on Christ’s behalf, but to do what Christ commands and to follow him.

Saint Peter expressed his feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, yet accepts God’s call to speak in God’s name unconditionally and in faith.

This Gospel story (Luke 5: 1-11) is a story of commitment to Christ, to his message and to his destiny. Simon is named Peter for the first time in Saint Luke’s Gospel in this reading (verse 8). Christ calls Simon or Simon Peter to be a disciple, promising him he is to be a ‘fisher of men,’ and Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Christ.

Try to imagine the roles or the calls being reversed.

Can you imagine a Roman Governor accepting the call to work with the disciples in an ordinary fishing boat?

Had Pontius Pilate heard Christ’s call, would he have given up privilege, or paid heed to the inevitable obloquy that would follow his extraordinary use of power?

This Gospel reading opens us to the concept that God does extraordinary things with ordinary people, in ordinary places, in ordinary times.

This episode begins beside the ‘lake of Gennesaret,’ on the south-west shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is pressing in to hear Christ, the Word of God, to hear the Christian message.

Jesus gets into the boat with Simon Peter. There are two boats in this episode, and James and John are also fishing in one of the boats.

Simon acknowledges Jesus as ‘Master’ or teacher. The disciples do what Christ tells them to do, and they are amazed at the consequences. Simon Peter responds by falling down before Christ in humility, pointing to himself as a sinful man, and calling Jesus ‘Lord,’ which becomes an expression of faith.

Peter, James and John are ordinary working men who make an extraordinary and total commitment to Christ; they leave everything, and follow him.

In traditional illustrations, the boat is often used as an image of the Church, while the fish is an image of Christ. In the Early Church, the fish came to symbolise Christ because the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), meaning ‘fish’, is an acrostic for ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’ (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ).

The Church is the boat, Christ is the fish, and God calls us as ordinary people, in ordinary places, in ordinary times, to realise that God sees us – you and me, each and every one of us – to work with him, where he finds us. God sees us in our everyday lives as his partners in the boat. And we are all in this boat together.

It is in being the ordinary people we are, in our ordinary lives, in our ordinary times, in ordinary places, that God calls us. And if we chose to respond, then, like Peter, James and John, we may find we are amazed at the catch Christ brings into the Church through us.

Are we brave enough to face this possibility? Or is that ordinary challenge too much for us? If we have any doubts, remember how Christ says to Simon Peter, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 9 February 2025, the Fourth 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 ‘Founders’ Day.’ USPG and SPCK are celebrating ‘Founders’ Day’ in Saint James’s Church, Picadilly, next week (Monday 17 February 2025). This theme is introduced today with a Reflection by Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research & Learning Advisor, USPG:

USPG has a complicated historical legacy which encompasses the most violent aspects, including involvement in chattel slavery. Founders’ Day poses acute ethical challenges to an organisation reckoning with such a past.

I was struck by the challenges of this when I attended Founders’ Day at Codrington College. At this event, held on the lawn outside the college, staff, students and community met to recognise the ‘good intentions’ of Christopher Codrington, who bequeathed the plantations to the fledgling SPG to found a theological training institution. How, I wondered, could the Barbadians present, descendants of enslaved Africans who laboured in the unthinkable death spaces of the plantations, stand and utter this man’s name? What cost did doing so pose to their spiritual and mental wellbeing? What was the personal price of this act of remembrance, which mentioned nothing of the economy of death which defined the Codrington Plantations under the SPG’s oversight for over a hundred years?

For USPG, commemoration must require a different imaginary and praxis: one that prioritises lament for all that has been lost and destroyed, and seeks justice through deep and painful self-examination of all that has followed.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 9 February 2025, the Fourth Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

‘If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin’ (I John 1: 6-7).

The Collect:

O God,
you know us to be set
in the midst of so many and great dangers,
that by reason of the frailty of our nature
we cannot always stand upright:
grant to us such strength and protection
as may support us in all dangers
and carry us through all temptations;
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:

Go before us, Lord, in all we do
with your most gracious favour,
and guide us with your continual help,
that in all our works
begun, continued and ended in you,
we may glorify your holy name,
and finally by your mercy receive everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:
Lord of the hosts of heaven,
our salvation and our strength,
without you we are lost:
guard us from all that harms or hurts
and raise us when we fall;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch’ (Luke 5: 4) … a fisherman at work at Torcello in the Venetian lagoon (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 2024: 118, Thursday 5 September 2024

The Miraculous Draught of Fish … a window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 1 September 2024). Sunday was also the first day of Autumn, when the Season of Creation began, and it continues until 4 October.

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 Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)

Luke 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):

1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch’ (Luke 5: 4) … a fisherman at work in the Venetian lagoon at Torcello (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Do you ever ask whether you are worthy of the call of Christ – the call to follow him, the call to be a disciple, the call that was first answered for you, on your behalf, at your baptism?

There are times when I have to question my worthiness to be priest. I am not a priest because I think it is my right to be one, or because I thought at one stage this would be a good career move. I am a priest because, despite my resistance to the call over many years, I believe God called me – called me many years ago, more than 50 years ago, at the age of 19.

This morning, in the Gospel reading (Luke 5: 1-11), we hear how the renewed call to some of the disciples, including Peter, James and John, come not to them because they are worthy of this call, or have inherited a call, or have a right to speak on God’s behalf.

Peter, James and John are called not only to speak on Christ’s behalf, but to do what he commands and to follow him. In his response, Simon Peter expresses his feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, yet accepts the call to speak in Christ’s name, unconditionally and in faith.

Our Baptism has ethical implications for our discipleship: in the community of the baptised, ethnic and social barriers are shattered, for ‘Christ is all and in all.’

In our Gospel story, we hear a story of commitment to Christ, to his message and to discipleship. Christ calls Simon or Simon Peter to be a disciple, promising him he is to be a ‘fisher of men,’ and Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Christ.

This story begins by the ‘lake of Gennesaret,’ on the south-west shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is pressing in to hear Christ, the Word of God, preach the ‘word of God’ or the Christian message.

Christ gets into the boat with Simon Peter. There are two boats in this episode, and James and John are also fishing in one of the boats.

They not only listen to Christ, but they do what he tells them to do, and they are amazed at the consequences. Simon Peter acknowledges Jesus as ‘Master’ or teacher, and responds by falling down before Jesus in humility, pointing to himself as a sinful man, and calling Jesus ‘Lord,’ which becomes an expression of faith.

Peter, James and John make a total commitment to Christ, leave everything, and follow him.

In Christian art, the boat is often used as an image of the Church, while the fish is an image of Christ.

In the Early Church, the fish came to symbolise Christ because the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), meaning ‘fish’, is an acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ, ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

Some years ago, when I was visiting Kaş, a pretty town on the south coast of Turkey, I visited the former Church of the Annunciation. Kaş had once been a Greek-majority town known as Andifli, but the Greek ethnic community was expelled in 1923 in one of the early examples of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 20th century Europe.

For 40 years, the Church of the Annunciation on the acropolis or hilltop above the town lay deserted and crumbling. But in 1963, 40 years after these people were expelled from Andifli, their former parish church was requisitioned as a mosque, and – despite its age – was renamed Yeni Cami (New Mosque). A minaret was added, along with a fountain with a quotation in Turkish, rather than Arabic, from the Quran: ‘We made from water every living thing’ (Surat al-Anbiyya, the Prophets, 21: 30).

Inside, the church was aligned facing east, a new mihrab or prayer niche facing Mecca and a minbar (pulpit) were inserted into the south wall, the frescoes were stripped away and the icon screen was removed. All obvious Christian symbols, including crosses, were picked out of the hoklakia or pebble mosaic in the courtyard. But no-one noticed the significance of the fish, symbolising the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), so that dozens of fish symbolising Christ and the Christian faith are still scattered though this pebble mosaic.

This is, truly, the story of the ‘big fish that got away.’

Have you ever spoken of someone or some thing as a ‘good catch’? A person you had an emotional or romantic interest in? A job you wanted? A house you wanted to buy?

Can you imagine how Christ sees you as ‘a good catch’?

If the Church is the agent of Christ, do we do a good job in drawing in his ‘good catch’?

Are we trusting enough to do what he asks us to do as his disciples?

And are we trusting enough to know that he sees you, you and me, as ‘good catches’?

But there are more and more ‘good catches’ that he wants us to draw into the boat, into the Church. And the way to do this is to listen to what he says and what he asks us to do. ‘When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’ (Luke 5: 11).

What he has been asking us to do in the readings this week – what he asked us to in his reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which we read as the Gospel reading on Monday morning (Luke 4: 16-30, 2 September 2024) are:

• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
• to let the oppressed go free
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

The Ichthus symbol remains discreetly unnoticed in the pebble mosaic of the former church courtyard in Kaş (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 5 September 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘To Hope and Act with Creation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection on Creationtide.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 5 September 2024, International Day of Charity) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for charities across the world, for all that they do to provide help and support. We thank God for generous hearts even in the toughest of circumstances.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’ (Luke 5: 11) … fishing boats on a shore at Mount Athos (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

‘He saw two boats there at the shore’ (Luke 5: 2) … two boats offering fishing trips in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 94, Monday 12 August 2024

Fishing boats and fishing nets in Rethymnon in Crete … Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI).

Tisha BeAb or Tisha B’Av (תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב), literally ‘the Ninth of Av,’ an annual fast day in the Hebrew calendar, begins this evning. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, about 655 years apart but on the same date in the Hebrew calendar. Tisha B’Av begins at sundown this evening (12 August 2024) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (13 August 2024).

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 Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Go to the lake and cast a hook’ (Matthew 17: 27) … a lone fisher at Torcello in the Venetian lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 22-27 (NRSVA):

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, 23 and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.’ And they were greatly distressed.

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’ 25 He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26 When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free. 27 However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.’

‘Fishing Trips’ … fishing boats and tourist trips in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

I have been a vegetarian most of my life, but the rewards of fishing at the Lake in Capernaum in this morning’s Gospel reading is worth working with. Ernest Hemingway, in The Old Man and The Sea, says ‘Il faut (d’abord) durer … It is necessary, above all else, to endure. It is necessary to endure.’

Over half a century ago, when I hitchhiking in the Peaks on the borders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire in my late teens, and staying in Ilam Hall, I came across the work of that great Anglican writer, Izaak Walton (1593-1683), known not only for his biographies of John Donne, George Herbert and Richard Hooker, but also known as the author of The Compleat Angler.

In The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline; like discipleship, it has to be learned, and learning requires practice before there are any results. And sometimes, whether it is fishing in a river, fishing in a lake or fishing in the sea, the best results can come from going against the current.

Walking along the piers in coastal fishing towns and villages in Ireland or on summer holidays on Greek islands, I sometimes watch the careful early morning work of the crews in the trawlers and fishing boats, and I am reminded that good fishing does not come about by accident. It also requires paying attention to the nets, moving them carefully, mending them, cleaning them after each and every use, hanging them out to dry.

And fishing is also about noticing the weather, watching the wind and the clouds. Good fishing takes account of contexts … it is incarnational.

Time and again in the Gospels, the Kingdom of God is compared to a huge net cast over different numbers of people and species. We are the ones called to cast that net, and we cannot hang any sign outside on our office doors saying: ‘Gone Fishin’.

Nor can we stand by the bank or on the shore, content with two sizes of fish. We are called to go after the ones that others let get away, not just those who come to Church regularly, but also those people who sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death.

Peter is sent to go fishing in the lake. He is told to take the first fish that comes up and that he is going to find a treasure beyond his expectations. It is an image of what working for the kingdom of God can be like.

There are days when fishing seems pointless, and there will be days when we are happy with our work together. And as we work together, hopefully, there will be days when we are surprised with what we can achieve together, all in Christ’s name and all for the sake of the one that otherwise might get away.

A fishing boat and fishing nets on the Greek island of Samos in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 12 August 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager Asia and Middle East, USPG, on the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s new programme launched in accompaniment with USPG, ‘Whom Shall I Send.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 12 August 2024, International Youth Day) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all youth workers and ministries within the worldwide Anglican Communion and all the young people in their care.

The Collect:

O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

‘Gone Fishin’ … fishing nets in Howth in north Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Seven more churches in Leicester that might go on my list of places to visit

Figures above the west door of the former Church of Saint John the Divine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Over the past few weeks, I have been posting about the many places of worship and associated with belief systems that I have visited or seen during my visits to Leicester last month.

They have included Leicester Cathedral, Church of England parish churches, churches in the Baptist, Congregational, Methodist and Orthodox traditions, Quaker meeting houses, synagogues, mosques, Hindu, Jain and Sikh places of worship, and the Secular Hall.

But my one-day visits to Leicester last wmon theek were fleeting and far too short to get to visit all the places I was interested in. Some I managed to photograph, and I have started to put together a list of churches and other places of worship I saw from the outside and that I may consider searching out on future visits.

Saint Nicholas Church is said to be the oldest place of worship in Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

1, Saint Nicholas Church, Saint Nicholas Circle:

Saint Nicholas Church, said to be the oldest place of worship in Leicester, is next to the Jewry Wall, a remnant of Roman masonry, to the east is the site of the Roman forum. Saint Nicholas Church is on Saint Nicholas Circle, just off Vaughan Way, part of the city’s inner ring road, and is the official church of the University of Leicester.

The church was built on a pre-Christian religious site. There are Roman tiles in the tower, and the Roman pillars in the churchyard came from the nearby Forum or Basilica. However, this does not mean it was a Roman church. Leicester was an important Roman town, and the tiles were taken from ruins there in Anglo-Saxon times, while the Roman pillars were used as grave markers before the advent of gravestones.

The Roman pillars in Saint Nicholas churchyard came from the nearby Forum or Basilica (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

It has been suggested that an Anglo-Saxon minster on the same site was the cathedral of the early Diocese of Leicester (679-874), and the current church may contain some material from this building.

The church was consecrated in 879, and parts of the church fabric date from ca 880 AD, with an architectural survey suggesting possible Roman building work. There are two Anglo-Saxon window openings inside the church. These were formerly outside windows, but the church was later extended. The church retains almost all of the original nave and crossing tower. The tower is Norman.

The church was in an extremely poor condition by 1825, and plans were made for its demolition. Instead, due to lack of funds to build the planned replacement church, it was extensively renovated in 1875-1884, including the building of a new north aisle.

Renovation continued into the 20th century. A 15th-century octagonal font from the redundant Church of Saint Michael the Greater, Stamford, was moved to Saint Nicholas. The porch was brought from the original Wyggeston’s Hospital, founded in the 16th century by William Wyggeston, who was Mayor of both Leicester and Calais.

Saint Nicholas was a city centre church without a large residential parish by the 1950s, when Saint Nicholas was allocated for the spiritual needs of local university students.

Saint Nicholas has become an Inclusive Church, with a mission to welcome people of diverse sexualities, identities, abilities, origins, and socioeconomic situations. Saint Nicholas is open for worship, and is normally open to visitors on Saturdays.

The site of the chapel of Saint Ursula’s Hospitalor Wyggeston’s Hospitalatf the Leicester Cathedral Gardens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

2, Saint Ursula’s Chapel, Wyggeston’s Hospital:

The chapel of Saint Ursula’s Hospital, commonly called Wigston’s Hospital, or Wyggeston’s Hospital, once stood on the site of the Leicester Cathedral Gardens. The hospital was founded by letters patent in 1513 and 1514. The chapel and the adjoining almshouse were demolished almost 150 years ago in 1875.

The site of the chapel and the hospital was revealed in 2013 and 2014 when archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) carried out a series of watching briefs while the Cathedral Gardens were being laid out as a new public open space to the south and west of Leicester Cathedral. As part of this development, ground-works were undertaken within both the graveyard of Leicester Cathedral and the Saint Martin’s House carpark.

The hospital was named after its main benefactor and founder, William Wyggeston (1472-1536), a wool merchant and three times mayor of Leicester and an MP for the Borough. The hospital facing Saint Martin’s Church and churchyard included an almshouse, a great hall, a chapel dedicated to Saint Ursula, and a master’s house.

The hospital was to be called ‘the Hospital of William Wigston, Junior’, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katherine and Saint Ursula and her Companions. The chaplains were to be appointed by the founder or his brother Thomas, a canon of Newarke College who died in 1537, during their lives, and then by the Dean and Chapter of Newarke College, the Mayor and Justices, and the Abbot of Leicester.

The chapel had a considerable quantity of painted glass, most of which was removed at the beginning of the 19th century to Ockbrook parish church in Derbyshire. Some of the windows were blocked up at the same time. The chapel also contained the tombs and monuments of several of the masters and confraters, including the first master, William Fisher.

The old hospital was vacated in April 1868 but the building remained standing until 1875. However, the archaeological excavations found no evidence of the remains of Saint Ursula’s Chapel or the great hall that once fronted onto Peacock Lane and adjoined the main hospital building.

The former Church of Saint John the Divine was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1854-1855 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

3, Saint John’s Chambers, Ashwell Street:

Saint John’s Chambers facing onto Ashwell Street is the former Church of Saint John the Divine, a former parish church designed in 1854-1855 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and converted into apartments late 1980s. It is close Victoria Park and Leicester train station.

Saint John the Divine was a good example of his style and was one of the first Leicester churches to be built following what are known as ecclesiological principles. The interior was built with arcades of round piers and foliage capitals, and included stained glass windows by William Wailes and a wrought-iron screen made in 1903 by CH Lohr.

The west front of Saint John’s Chambers facing onto Ashwell Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church was mainly in the style of ca 1300 that Scott favoured, although that character is now compromised by modern window frames and skylights in the steep roof. The church was redundant by the 1980s and was converted to apartments in the late 1980s.

The west front, facing Ashwell Street, has an elaborate doorway with nook shafts, below a band of five cusped lancets, and a rose window in the gable. The aisles have pointed windows with modern domestic window frames. The three-stage tower has angle buttresses and a north-east polygonal turret. The plain parapet was added in the 1950s when the spire was removed.

Saint James the Greater … Henry Langton Goddard was influenced by Torcello Cathedral and churches in Venice and Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

4, Saint James the Greater Church, London Road:

Saint James the Greater is a Grade II* listed church south of the city centre, on the London Road and opposite Victoria Park. The church was founded as a daughter church of Saint Peter’s Church, Leicester, in 1881, when a temporary wooden church was built. A decade later, the decision was made to build a permanent church due to the growth in the congregation.

The church was designed by the Leicester architect, Henry Langton Goddard. The Bishop of Peterborough, Mandell Creighton, wanted the new church to be impressive architecturally, reflecting its status in Leicester. On his advice, Goddard visited several churches in northern Italy.

Following that visit, Goddard’s external design for Saint James was influenced by Torcello Cathedral on the Venetian lagoon and its interior decor by churches in Venice and Florence. The foundation stone was laid on 28 October 1899, and the building was consecrated on 25 July 1901.

The interior of Saint James the Greater … an image on the noticeboard across the road from the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The west front of the church was completed between 1911 and 1914 and was dedicated by Creighton’s successor Edward Carr Glyn, Bishop of Peterborough, on 24 September 1914. Saint James the Greater became a parish in its own right on 25 June 1918.

The Diocese of Leicester considered closing the church in the 1950s due to falling numbers. However, the Revd Lawrence Jackson, who was appointed to the parisin 1959, managed to bring people back to the church through his remarkable ministry. The church had one of the largest congregations in the diocese by the time Lawrence moved to Coventry in 1965.

Saint James the Greater continues to have an active congregation. It hosts a variety of events, has two church halls and remains one of Leicester’s best-known churches.

Holy Cross Priory is a priory of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

5, Holy Cross Priory:

Holy Cross Priory is a Roman Catholic priory of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans. The Dominicans first came to Leicester in 1247, establishing a priory at Saint Clements Church in the north-west corner of the old city walls in the reign of Henry III. Blackfriars in Leicester was dissolved during the Tudor reformation in 1538, along with the other Dominican houses in England.

The Dominicans were absent from Leicester for more than 280 years, but returned to the city in 1819. The first public building on New Walk was a Roman Catholic chapel built in 1819 on the site of what is now Holy Cross Priory. However, Holy Cross was not established as a Dominican priory until 1882.

The west door of Holy Cross Priory … the foundation stone was laid in 1929 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

By 1929, the church had become too small and Father Vincent McNabb began to raise money for a new, larger church. The foundation stone was laid in 1929, the choir and transepts of the church were completed by 1931, and the High Altar was consecrated in 1931. The church was finally completed and formally consecrated in 1958.

The friars have ministries in the University of Leicester, De Montfort University and Leicester Royal Infirmary and also at Blackfriars, Oxford.

Saint Stephen’s Church was moved stone-by-stone to New Walk in 1891 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

6, Saint Stephen’s United Reformed Church:

Saint Stephen’s Church is a 19th century church in New Walk, on the corner of De Montfort Street and overlooking De Montfort Square. It is notable as ‘the church that moved.’ It was originally built where Leicester Railway Station now stands, but when the present building replaced the earlier Campbell Street Station in 1891, the church was moved stone by stone to its present New Walk location.

The architect James Tait (1834-1915) also built a Sunday School centenary building, now a bar, in New Walk. He also designed nearby Clarendon Park Congregational Church.

Saint Stephen’s was first built as a Presbyterian church, and became a United Reformed church when the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists came together to form the United Reformed Church.

The spire of Saint Stephen’s, together with the trees in De Montfort Square and Robert Hall’s Statue, make a fine contribution to Leicester’s streetscape.

Clarendon Park Congregational Church decided to remain outside the United Reformed Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

7, Clarendon Park Congregational Church, London Road:

The Clarendon Park Congregational Church is on London Road in the Stoneygate area, near Clarendon Park. The Bond Street chapel once shared by Congregationalists and Presbyterians became a Unitarian chapel in the late 18th century. After that, the first Congregational church in Leicester was built in 1801, and many others were built in the 19th century, including the church on Oxford Street, which is now a Jain Temple.

The Clarendon Park Congregational Church was also designed by James Tait and built in 1886. It is built of granite rubble with ashlar dressings and a roof of red tiles, and is a designated Grade II listed building.

The church is part of the Congregational Federation, formed in 1972 by Congregational churches that did not enter the union of the Presbyterian Church of England with the Congregational Church in England and Wales to form the United Reformed Church.

The west door of Clarendon Park Congregational Church, London Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Other churches in this series:

Church of England:

1, Leicester Cathedral (22 May 2024)

2, Saint Mary de Castro (26 May 2024)

3, Saint George’s Church, former Church of England, now Serbian Orthodox (2 June 2024)

Baptist:

4, Central Baptist Church, Charles Street (8 June 2024)

Congregationalist:

5, (Former) Congregationalist Church, Oxford Street (23 May 2024)

Methodis

6, Bishop Street Methodist Church (6 June 2024)

Society of Friends (Quakers):

7, (Former) Quaker Meeting House, Prebend Street (25 May 2024)

8, Quaker Meeting House and Drayton House, Queen’s Road (25 May 2024)

Unitarian:

9, Great Meeting Place, Broad Street (1 June 2024)

Jewish synagogues:

10, Leicester Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, Highfield Street (24 May 2024)

11, Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation, Avenue Road (31 May 2024)

Islam:

12, Masjid Umar mosque (1 April 2011)

Hindu:

13, Iskcon (‘Hare Kishna’) temple, Granby Street (5 June 2024)

14, Shree Geeta Bhavan Temple and Hindu Community Centre, Clarendon Park Road (5 June 2024)

15, Shree Sanatan Mandir, Weymouth Street (2 March 2011)

16, Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Colton Street (5 June 2024)

Jains

17, Jain Temple (former Congregational Church), Oxford Street (23 May 2024)

Sikh:

18, Sant Nirankari Mandal, Prebend Street (25 May 2024)

Secular:

19, Leicester Secular Hall (4 June 2024)

The 18th century sundial over the porch of Saint Nicholas Church, Leicester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (28) 2 December 2023

Eric Gill’s last work is the Crucifixion in the Chapel of Saint George and the English Martyrs in Westminster Cathedral, showing the Crucified Christ as Christ the King (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we have been in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. Advent begins tomorrow with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023).

There is a lot of activity in Stony Stratford later today, including street dancing and music, the Christmas Fayre in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, the Lantern Parade this afternoon and switching on the lights on the Christmas Tree in Market Square at 5 pm.

But, before this day begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

Since the Feast of Christ the King last Sunday (26 November), I have been reflecting each day this week, I have been reflecting on Christ the King, as seen in churches and cathedrals I know or I have visited. My reflections have followed this pattern:

1, A reflection on Christ the King;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Byzantine-style mosaic in the tympanum in Westminster Cathedral shows Christ as the enthroned Pantocrator (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christ the King in five cathedrals:

To conclude this week’s series of reflections on the theme of Christ the King, this morning I am looking at six images of Christ the King in five cathedrals: Westminster, Coventry, Llandaff, Cobh and Torcello, in four countries – England, Wales, Ireland and Italy.

I know of at least two images in Westminster Cathedral depicting Christ as Christ the King. John Betjeman once called the cathedral ‘a masterpiece in striped brick and stone in an intricate pattern of bonding, the domes being all-brick in order to prove that the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete.’ HS Goodhart-Rendel, in his English Architecture since the Regency, says it is ‘a work of extraordinary beauty and grandeur.’

After two false starts, building started in 1895 under Cardinal Herbert Vaughan (1832-1903) Archbishop of Westminster, with John Francis Bentley (1839-1902) as the architect. The cathedral was dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Latin dedication above the portal arch reads: Domine Jesus Rex et Redemptor per Sanguinem tuum salva nos, ‘Lord Jesus, King and Redeemer, heal us through your blood.’

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel was decorated in 1960-1962 in a traditional, early Christian style. The mosaics were designed, Boris Anrep, also known for his decorations in the Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

One image of Christ the King in Westminster Cathedral is by the English sculptor Eric Gill. The Stations of the Cross and the carving of the Crucifixion in the Chapel of Saint George and the English Martyrs are among the finest examples of Gill’s work.

The Crucifixion above the Altar in the Chapel of Saint George and the English Martyrs is the last work by Gill, who died in 1940. It shows Christ not as a victim but gloriously triumphant over death. On the left stands Saint Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, and on the right Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, both executed on the orders of King Henry VIII in 1535.

The second image of Christ the King in Westminster Cathedral is in the deeply recessed arch over the main, central entrance. The tympanum shows in a Byzantine-style mosaic (from left to right), Saint Peter kneeling with the Keys of Heaven, the Virgin Mary, Christ as the enthroned Pantocrator, Saint Joseph holding a lily, and King Edward the Confessor kneeling in royal regalia.

Christ blesses the world with his right hand, and in his left hand he holds the Book of Life, with the Latin inscription: Ego sum ostium per me si quis introierit salvabitur, ‘I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved’ (John 10: 9).

In Coventry Cathedral, Graham Sutherland’s powerful tapestry. ‘Christ in Glory,’ depicts the risen Christ in the glory of God in Heaven. The tapestry is in the Lady Chapel and dominates the view along the cathedral nave.

The design depicts Christ seated in a mandorla or almond-shaped aura of light – often used in mediaeval art to show Christ as a divine being. The figure of Christ is surrounded by beasts representing the four evangelists – Mark (winged lion), John (eagle), Luke (calf) and Matthew (winged man) – as well as an image of Saint Michael, to whom the cathedral is dedicated.

The design and creation of the tapestry preoccupied Sutherland for almost a decade. The tapestry measures 23 metres tall, 12 metres wide, weighs about a ton and has over 900 colours. It was woven in one continuous piece by hand, from behind, on a 500-year-old loom made from two tree trunks, in a workshop near Aubusson in France. It is made from Australian and French wool that was hand-dyed using water from the local river.

Sir Jacob Epstein worked closely with Sir Basil Spence and Graham Sutherland in Coventry Cathedral.

Epstein’s ‘Majestas’ in Llandaff Cathedral was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter with funds allocated to replace stained glass lost in bombing during World War II. Christ looks not at the congregation at his feet but through the clear glass of the cathedral west to the wider world beyond. The aluminium figure is 16 ft high, weighs 7 cwt and was cast by the Morris-Singer works in Lambeth.

On the eve of the rehallowing of the nave on 10 April 1957, Bob Evans, the new curate of Llandaff, found himself sitting silently in the nave alongside Epstein. He asked the sculptor: ‘Was it difficult for you, a practicing Jew, to create a Christ for a Christian congregation?’

Epstein replied, ‘All my life I have searched for truth and beauty and, in the end, I discovered that it is in the idea of the Christ that they are to be found.’

After Epstein died in 1959, the original plaster figure from which his Majestas was cast was gilded and moved to Riverside Church in New York.

Christ the King is depicted in in the central tympanum of Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co Cork. Christ is seen with the emblems of the four evangelists: Matthew (winged man), Mark (lion), Luke (bull) and John (eagle). The composition includes Saint Patrick (right) and Saint Ita (left). The Twelve Apostles are in the lintel (from left): Philip, Thomas, James the Greater, John the Apostle, Simon the Zealot and Peter; and right Paul, Matthew, Matthias, Andrew, Bartholomew and James the Lesser.

On the island of Torcello in the lagoon of Venice, the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta is a magnificent Byzantine-Italian cathedral. It rises above the island, with the Bell Tower and Church of Santa Fosca alongside.

The cathedral was founded in 639, and underwent radical rebuilding in 1008. The basilica includes many earlier features, and has much 11th and 12th century Byzantine work.

The mosaic in the right apse depicts Christ Pantocrator enthroned between two archangels, Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel, with the Lamb of God in a medallion of the vault.

‘Christ in Glory’ … Graham Sutherland’s powerful tapestry in Coventry Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 34-36 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

Sir Jacob Epstein’s figure, ‘Christ in Majesty,’ is raised above the nave in Llandaff Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 2 December 2023):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (2 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

As we prepare for Advent Loving Lord, let us be reminded that you are a light to the world.

Christ the King in the central tympanum of Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Post Communion Prayer may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week.

Additional Collect

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Collect on the Eve of Advent I:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection (Church of Christ the Saviour, Ealing Broadway)

Continued Tomorrow

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

Christ Pantocrator enthroned between the Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel, in the south apse of the basilica in Torcello in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Barnabas Jericho, a Pre-Raphaelite church in Oxford with literary and Anglo-Catholic traditions

Saint Barnabas Church in Jericho, Oxford, has inspired writers from Thomas Hardy to John Betjeman (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Barnabas Church is the Church of England parish church in Jericho, Oxford, close to the Oxford Canal and the old Jericho boatyard, and a 15-minute walk from the centre of Oxford. The church features in a wide range of literature, from Thomas Hardy and Gerald Manley Hopkins to PD James and AN Wilson. The poet John Betjeman wrote a poem about the church.

Saint Barnabas Jericho, which I visited last week, is affectionately known as ‘Jericho Basilica.’ I was struck by how vast, broad, tall and spacious the church is, with large arches, a majestic sanctuary and altar and a striking Venetian bell tower or campanile.

Saint Barnabas was built in the Victorian era to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of the workforce of the nearby Clarendon Press, later the Oxford University Press, on Great Clarendon Street, as well as the poor and working class people living in the growing west Oxford suburb of Jericho.

The new parish was carved out of Saint Paul’s parish in Oxford in 1869; Saint Paul’s, in turn, had been formed 30 years earlier from parts of the parishes of Saint Thomas and Saint Giles.

Saint Paul’s Church was renowned for its elaborate ritual and processions, and it was drawing so many worshippers in the 1850s that another church was needed for Jericho.

The campanile or bell tower of Saint Barnabas Church was completed in 1872 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Barnabas Church was founded by Thomas Combe (1796-1872), Superintendent of the Clarendon Press, and his wife Martha (1806-1893), who are now commemorated by a blue plaque installed by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. They were supporters of the Oxford Movement and good friends of John Henry Newman, and he was a churchwarden at Saint Paul’s.

Combe was also a patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. William Holman Hunt came to live at his home, the Printer’s House in Jericho, where he painted ‘The Light of the World’ for the chapel in Keble College.

The church was built on land donated by George Ward, a local landowner and member of the Ward family of coal merchants and boatbuilders. George Ward’s brother William Ward was Mayor of Oxford on two occasions, 1851-1852 and 1861-1862.

Inside Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, designed by Sir Arthur William Blomfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The new church reflected Tractarian values both in liturgy, by promoting ritual and the high doctrine of the Sacraments, and in mission, by promoting education, health reform and social justice.

The architect was Sir Arthur William Blomfield (1829-1899), a son of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London. He had previously designed Saint Luke’s Chapel for the Radcliffe Infirmary.

Blomfield decided on an Italian Romanesque basilica-style design but, in accordance with Thomas Combe’s wishes, built the walls out of cement-rendered builders’ rubble.

Blomfield possibly modelled Saint Barnabas on either the San Clemente in Rome or the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. Saint Barnabas has a distinctive square tower, in the form of an Italianate campanile, that is visible from the surrounding area.

The church was consecrated by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and opened for worship on 19 October 1869.

The majestic mosaic of Christ the King rests above a dramatic gilded canopy or baldacchino over the High Altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The campanile or bell tower was completed in 1872, and has a ring of ten, distinctive, tubular bells, and the hours and quarters are sounded on them. The bells and clock were installed in 1890 and are a remarkable example of Victorian engineering. However, the current appearance of the campanile, with a slightly flatter roof, is the result of a structural alteration in 1965.

On entering Saint Barnabas Church, one is struck at the breadth, and height of the interior space, by the majestic mosaic of Christ the King resting above a dramatic gilded canopy or baldacchino over the High Altar and by the great openwork iron cross suspended above the nave, based on Fr Montague Noel’s SSC cross and memorably borrowed by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure.

The church has an ornate and gilded sanctuary, a High Altar, flanked with symbols of the four Gospel writers, and above the High Altar a canopy or gilt baldachino.

The choir is several feet above the main floor of the church, and the high altar is reached by five or more steps. The seven sanctuary lamps hanging before the altar lamps were donated in 1874-1875 by the then Duke of Newcastle and some of his undergraduate contemporaries from Christ Church Oxford. The Duke of Newcastle inherited by marriage Hope Castle, formerly Blayney Castle, a late 18th century house in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.

The pulpit by Heaton, Butler and Bayne has panels depicting patristic figures painted by Charles Stephen Floyce (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The pulpit was added in 1887 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne with the panels depicting patristic figures painted by Charles Stephen Floyce (1857-1895).

This pulpit replaced an earlier, cylindrical timber pulpit with columns and a moulded cornice that is now at Saint Peter’s, London Docks, the parish church of Wapping established in 1856 as an Anglo-Catholic mission.

The mural by James Powell and Sons on the north wall illustrates the canticle Te Deum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The beautiful cut-glass or opus secule mural by James Powell and Sons on the north side of the nave was installed in stages between 1905 and 1911. It depicts apostles, saints, martyrs and angels, with the words of the canticle Te Deum Laudamus below.

However, when funds ran dry, it was impossible to complete the project, and this fine work only exists on one side of the church.

The reredos and altar in the Lady Chapel were commissioned by Martha Combe in memory of Thomas Combe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Lady Chapel on the north-east side of the church was completed in 1888. The reredos and altar are earlier, dating from 1873. They were commissioned by Martha Combe in memory of her husband Thomas Combe, who died in 1872, were designed by Blomfield, and are the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The reredos was extended in 1906 with 11 additional panels by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in memory of Martha Combe. The figures painted by may have been the artist Henry George Alexander Holiday (1839-1927).

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in Saint George’s Chapel, designed by the architects Bodley and Hare in 1919-1920.

The church’s first permanent organ was installed in 1872 and the present organ was installed in 1975.

The memorial in the choir to Father Montague Henry Noel, the first parish priest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The first Parish Priest, Father Montague Henry Noel, SSC (1840-1929), was the Vicar of Jericho in 1869-1899. He was a first cousin of Charles Noel (1818-1881), second Earl of Gainsborough, whose family weddings are discussed in my chapterer ‘Four Victorian weddings and a funeral’ in Marriage and the Irish: A miscellany, edited by Salvador Ryan (Wordwell: Dublin, 2019, 283 pp), pp 163-165.

When the church opened in 1869, Lord Gainsborough donated a rare silver Russian chalice and paten dating from 1639, from Pryluky, now in north-central Ukraine.

Subsequent vicars were CH Bickerton-Hudson (1899-1901), C Hallett (1902-1911), HC Frith (1911-1916), AG Bisdee (1917-1947), D Nicholson (1947-1955), LG Janes (1956-1960), HN Nash (1960-1967), JE Overton (1967-1980), EM Wright (1980-2007), JW Beswick (2008-2018) and CM Woods (since 2019).

Saint Barnabas maintains the Anglo-Catholic liturgical traditions dating from its foundation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church maintains the Anglo-Catholic liturgical traditions dating from its foundation. The parish says the mission at Saint Barnabas is to be place of timeless beauty, encouragement and compassion.

The parish was united with the neighbouring parish of Saint Thomas the Martyr in 2015 to form the new parish of Saint Barnabas and Saint Paul, with Saint Thomas the Martyr, Oxford. The first vicar of the new parish was Father Jonathan Beswick SSC.

The present Vicar of Saint Barnabas is the Revd Christopher Woods, one of my former students and a former Chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, a former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and a former Vicar of Saint Anne’s, Hoxton, in the Diocese of London.

The Revd Canon Prof Sue Gillingham is the Permanent Deacon of Saint Barnabas. She recently retired as Professor of the Hebrew Bible in the University of Oxford. She is Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral.

Father Matthew Salisbury, a self-supporting curate, lectures in music in the University of Oxford and is Assistant Chaplain at Worcester College. He is also National Liturgical Adviser of the Church of England.

The honorary assistant priests include Father Robin Ward, Principal of Saint Stephen’s House, Oxford, and Father Zachary Guiliano, chaplain of Saint Edmund’s Hall, Oxford, a Research Fellow in Early Mediaeval History, and recently Acting Precentor of Christ Church Cathedral.

The Revd Professor Sarah Coakley, who now lives in retirement in Washington DC, is an Honorary Assistant Priest during the summer months. She lived in Jericho when she was a Lecturer and Fellow in Oriel College in the 1990s. She has been a professor in both Cambridge, where she was the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity (2007-2018), and Harvard, where she was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity (1995-2007). She presided at the Sunday High Mass this week (27 August 2023).

Earlier this year (January 2023), the parish voted to welcome the ministry of women priests and bishops. The Revd Dr Melanie Marshall, acting chaplain in Balliol College, was the first woman to preside at the Parish Mass (14 May 2023).

The liturgy at the Sunday High Mass in Saint Barnabas is formal but the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The main act of worship is on Sundays at 10:30 am, when the Sunday High Mass is marked by traditional ceremonial, beautiful ritual, uplifting music and preaching and teaching that is engaged and powerful. The liturgy is formal but the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly.

The Daily Office and Mass are throughout the week, although the Daily Mass times vary from day to day. The church is open daily from 9 am to 6 pm.

The church and parish celebrated the 150th anniversary in 2019-2020 with a series of services, concerts and events. The church hosts many events throughout the year, including concerts, lectures and exhibitions.

Saint Barnabas Church features in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church was chosen by Thomas Hardy, who had worked as an assistant to Blomfield, for a scene in Jude the Obscure (1895), where he describes the church’s levitating cross – seemingly suspended in mid-air by barely visible wires and swaying gently – beneath which lay the crumpled, prostrate figure of Sue Bridehead, forlornly covered in a pile of black clothes.

Robert Martin, the biographer of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, records a university friend of Hopkins as saying ‘When I want a spiritual fling I go to St Barnabas.’ It was here too that PD James imagined the bodies in A Taste for Death, although she transposes the church to London in the book.

Saint Barnabas’s lofty Byzantine tower was described by AN Wilson in his novel The Healing Art as ‘the most impressive architectural monument in sight.’ The first Morse novel, The Dead of Jericho, is set by the canal and boatyard and the railway shunting yards close to the church.

The church was acclaimed by John Betjeman in his poem ‘St Barnabas, Oxford.’

Mary Trevelyan was the organist and choir trainer at Saint Barnabas Church for many years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Mary Trevelyan (1897-1983), who was born in Stony Stratford, was the organist and choir trainer at Saint Barnabas Church for many years. She was the eldest child of the Revd George Philip Trevelyan (1858-1937), Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Wolverton (1885-1897).

Mary Trevelyan is remembered for her work as the warden of Student Movement House in London. But two recent books also discuss how for many years she was the close companion and long-time friend of the poet TS Eliot. She believed they were romantically committed to one another and she had expected to marry him after the death of his first wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood.

The icons and Baptistry in the west apse of Saint Barnabas, Jericho (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘St Barnabas, Oxford’ by John Betjeman

How long was the peril, how breathless the day,
In topaz and beryl, the sun dies away,
His rays lying static at quarter to six
On polychromatical lacing of bricks.
Good Lord, as the angelus floats down the road
Byzantine St Barnabas, be Thine Abode.

Where once the fritillaries hung in the grass
A baldachin pillar is guarding the Mass.
Farewell to blue meadows we loved not enough,
And elms in whose shadows were Glanville and Clough
Not poets but clergymen hastened to meet
Thy redden’d remorselessness, Cardigan Street.

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in Saint George’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)