What I said on Sunday – The Assumption


Last Sunday we kept the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It should, of course, really be on the 15th and in recent years we have kept it on the sunday of the octave. This year we were just a little bit naughty and pre-empted the feast. Here’s my sermon

Revelation 11.19-12.6,10; Luke 1.46-55

Today we come together to honour the mother of Jesus. Every year on or around the 15th August Christians around the world come together to give thanks for the role played by Mary in bringing about our salvation. For without Mary’s “yes” to God there would have been no incarnation. Continue reading →

Which version of the Bible do you prefer?


I’ve been thinking ahead to Bible Sunday and wondering how we might celebrate the Bible. In Church we now use the New Revised Standard Version at our services, but I have been wondering what version of the Bible people actually prefer themselves. Let me know by using the poll below. If you have a particular favourite passage from the Bible, why not leave a comment sharing what it is and why.

What I said on Sunday – Trinity 9


I decided to preach on the New Testament reading this week, from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 4.1-16

She always knew that if she kept out of the others’ way then she would be alright. She knew that if she just kept her head down then she wouldn’t be bullied. She understood that she would always be bottom of the pile. It was just how things were. And that worked fine. And they all managed to co-exist. And for all of her life that’s how things were for Flixie. And Fursey was happy as long as he ran the show. Continue reading →

What I said on Sunday – Trinity 8


Here’s my sermon for last Sunday. The gospel reading is the feeding of the five thousand followed by Jesus walking to the disciples across the Sea of Galilee in the storm.

Ephesians 3.14-end; John 6.1-21

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” (John 6:9)

It’s been said that you should always expect the unexpected.

On the website Yahoo! Answers, a site where you can ask questions on any subject in the hope that someone else has the answer, someone posed the question “Do you always expect the unexpected?” To which someone else has replied: Continue reading →

Superstar and Godspell and the Archbishop


I mentioned in this week’s sermon on Mary Magdalene the two musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. Both have great music and yet present quite different portraits of Jesus. Archbishop Michael Ramsay went to see both of them in the early seventies and this fascinating report of his comments on them appeared in the Montreal Gazette.

What I said on Sunday – Saint Mary Magdalene


This Sunday was the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. Here is my sermon. During it I refer to an icon I have in my study of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women. I purchased it from the excellent Orthodox Store Skete.com and you can see details of the actual icon here.

John 20.1-2, 11-18

Andrew Lloyd Webber wants to find Jesus. Continue reading →

Sunday 15th Evensong


Just a reminder to our evensong congregation that this Sunday there is no service at St John’s as we are joining everyone
up at St Lawrence’s for the anniversary service for the Guild of Friends of St Lawrence’s.

What I said this Sunday – Trinity 5


Here’s my sermon from last Sunday. During the sermon I mention the names of two clergymen from my past – I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent!

Mark 6.14-29

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3)

There’s an old saying: “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family!” Not absolutely accurate, of course, when you think about it – but essentially it means that your parents, your grandparents, your brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts – they are all who they are! You can’t just decide one day that if you don’t like them or aren’t getting on to change them for someone different. Friends you can change if you fall out – family you can’t. Families! We all have them, yet what a mixed blessing they can be! On the one hand, they can be a wonderful place of nurture and support. At the other extreme, they can be an awful place of hurt and abuse. But for the most part our experience of families is neither completely one nor the other, but full of contradictions. They can nurture and protect us, but also be stifling and discouraging at the same time. George Burns, the American comedian, once said “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family – in another city!” Continue reading →

What the priest I live with said this Sunday – Trinity 4


We’ve had a bit of a break from preaching as you may have noticed. Two weeks ago we were in Rome having gone out for a conference and a short break added on to it, and last week was our annual parish pilgrimage to Walsingham. This week Mother Anne-Marie was preaching.

Mark 5.21-end

I expect virtually everyone of us here has been a Jairus or the women suffering from haemorrhages. I don’t mean literally but we will have sat at the bedside of a seriously ill friend or family member fervently wishing we could do something to make them well. Or we will ourselves have been ill with one of those chronic illnesses that most wear us down. The woman had been suffering for 12 years with something no physician could cure. Even in our day of medical and surgical solutions there are things doctors cannot make better. We can have hips and knees replaced but arthritis cannot be cured in the fingers or the feet and the pain wears people down. In our day the woman in the story might have been made better by a hysterectomy, but that carries with it a cost. Not everything, even today, can be put right Continue reading →

What I said this Sunday – Trinity Sunday


Three things to cover this week, which seems rather appropriate for Trinity Sunday. First, Trinity Sunday itself. Second, we had a baptism of two children from the same family. Third, it was of course the Diamond Jubilee. The names of the children have been changed.

John 3.1-17

Those of you who are addicted to TV gameshows – and I’m sure that even if none of you would admit it you’re out there – will probably remember the hugely popular gameshow presented by former Butlins Redcoat Ted Rogers that ran for ten years from 1978 to 1988. In all that time it never had fewer than 12 million viewers, numbers that today’s television executives can only dream about. Personally, I’m baffled as to why it was so successful. It was, of course, 3-2-1 – the only show on TV where you could end up, if you were unlucky, winning a brand new dustbin and nothing else. Continue reading →