Standing in the Arena: The Feast of the Glorification
Just over 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt made a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris entitled ‘Citizenship in a Republic’. It was a speech about civic participation in society. Part of this speech became well known, a rally cry if you like, to stand up and be counted, to do your bit. It is not the critic…
Far from the madding crowd
The idea of a crowd of people gathering, at the moment, in the world we now live in, is somehow disconcerting. It feels strange. Like something we used to do. Think of crowds and now think of thousands of people on Brighton beach enjoying the sun at the expense of keeping distant. Think of Leeds…
A Community of Love
O Trinity! O Unity!Be present as we worship Thee,And with the songs that angels singUnite the hymns of praise we bring. Today we remember that we worship a God who exists as a community of love. That is probably the best way to understand what the Trinity is. We have a God who exists as…
The Unpredictable Breath of God
We all have our habits, and our traditions, and our ways of doing things. Whether everything that we do now reflects exactly what was done in the past, is a moot point: many of the things that the church deems to be traditional are actually relatively new expressions of faith and practice. It comes as a shock…
Farewell, loss and corporate grief
7th Sunday of Easter, 2020 Readings: Isaiah 65:17-end, Revelation 21:1-8, John 17:1-11 In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The last few months have been for all of us, quite a journey. That journey, we each have to acknowledge, has been a journey through loss and…
A Call for Wisdom
Sadly there are very few courses you can take to become qualified in Wisdom. There is no Module 1.1 Wisdom for the 21st Century, there are no degrees or doctorates which will automatically make you ‘wise’. You cannot buy a degree in wisdom, even online! You have to earn it, or rather learn it, or rather be schooled in…
Love and Community: Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich- A saint for our times. Friday 8th May. ‘If I look singularly to myself, I am as nothing; but in general I am united in charity with all my fellow Christians, and in this oneness of charity stands the life of all mankind who shall be saved. For God is all that is good,…
Courage: St Etheldreda
A recent article in the Church Times, advised preachers to avoid sermons about Wonder Woman, a recent cinematic blockbuster. I have to admit, preaching on the Feast day of St Etheldreda, the temptation is certainly there to cast Etheldreda as a holy superhero. Such a response would favour the myth of Etheldreda, over what may have been the very ordinary but…
Preaching Truth through Personality
Preaching Truth through personality, You will know I’m sure that the title above comes from Phillips Brooks, the great American Preacher- but I want to use this title as a kind of foil. I want to begin to unpack what we might mean, when consider our identity as a preacher- and use Brooks idea of…
Open the Doors
In the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To be a wit-ness is to see something, to observe something or come to know something. It usually means you saw or heard something happen, and the testimony of your eyes or your ears is important to establish the truth. The four Gospel’s, Matthew, Mark, Luke…
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