Patrick Comerford - The Vision
Channel: Morturn
Date: 27/01/2015

The Vision is the third of a series of films covering the life of Patrick Comerford. Following an afternoon spent at St John Hospital, Lichfield with the historian, photographer and filmmaker David Moore, in this very powerful and moving film Patrick talks about his grandfather and the impact that the first world war had on him.

Patrick is a Church of Ireland (Anglican) priest, Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and previously Director of Spiritual Formation there, and also a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. 

Patrick first arrived in Lichfield in his teens, he began his career in journalism as a freelance contributor to the local newspaper, the Lichfield Mercury. Patrick continue to be grateful for the encouragement and opportunities provided by the Lichfield Mercury and its then editor, Neil Beddows, in the early 1970s.

He originally came to Lichfield following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather James Comerford about 70 years earlier. Like him, Patrick was seeking the story of origins of the Comberford family, which was intimately linked with Lichfield for many generations, spanning centuries of the history of the family.

Patrick now teaches the modules on Liturgy, Worship and Spirituality, Anglican Studies in an Irish Context, and Church History. He has studied journalism in Japan and theology at the Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD, the Kimmage Mission Institute, and Maynooth, with further studies at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge) and the Institutum Liturgicum (London). He holds a BD from Maynooth, a Postgraduate Diploma in Ecumenics from Trinity College Dublin, and has certificates from the IOCS, Cambridge, the Institutum Liturgicum, London, and NSK, Tokyo. He received the Oulton Prize for Patristic Studies in 2008.

As s former journalist, Patrick was Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times for eight years, has worked with some of the main Anglican mission agencies, and is a member of the board and council of USPG (Anglicans in World Mission). 

He is the author of Embracing Differnce (2007), Reflections of the Bible in the Quran (2009) and A Romantic Myth (2009).

He is a contributor to Christianity (2001), The Laity and the Church of Ireland, 1000–2000 (2002), Untold Stories (2002), the Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003), The Wexford Man (2007), The Lure of Greece (2007), China and the Irish (Dublin 2009, Beijing 2010), Celebrating the Oxford Movement (2009), Victory or Glorious Defeat (2010), A History of Enniscorthy (ed Colm Tóibín, 2010), and Treasures of Irish Christianity, Volume II, A People of the Word (ed Salvador Ryan and Brendan Leahy, 2013).

He is a member of the General Synod, the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue, the Anglican Affairs Working Group, and a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. He was the chaplain to the Anglican Primates’ Meeting in Dublin in 2011.

His research interests include mission theology, Christian–Muslim relations, Orthodox spirituality, patristics and the role of architecture in creating liturgical space.

Patrick enjoys travelling, in Ireland, England, Greece, and around the world. My other favourite countries include Romania, Italy, Turkey and Egypt.

Links;

Patrick Comberford
http://www.patrickcomerford.com/
http://comerfordfamily.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.theologicalinstitute.ie/about/the_revd_patrick_comerford.php
https://www.facebook.com/revpatrickcomerford

Lichfield Discovered
https://lichfielddiscoverd.wordpress.com/

The Friends of Sandfields Pumping Station
http://www.sandfields.org/

St Johns Hospital
http://stjohnslichfield.com/