‘the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.’ Have you ever felt overwhelmed? I am sure you have. The unimaginable scenes from Washington DC this week were of being overwhelmed. [The surprised joy of those doing the overwhelming, the insurrectionists, … contrasted with the very real fears …] Senators […]
Sermons
The word became flesh
Recently one of my nieces became pregnant with her first baby. I shall never forget that moment when she told me with joy shining in her eyes, and showed me the baby’s heart beat on her phone. It was only 8 weeks from conception, a tiny, fragile little foetus, yet already the heart was beating […]
Fr Crispin CR – preached at CR 13th December 2020
John 1. 6-8, 19-28 John the Baptist said, ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “ Make straight the way of the Lord.” The four Gospels agree that John wanted everyone to Repent and be baptised, He believed that ‘A day of wrath and doom impending’ was imminent, God’s Messiah would come […]
1 Corinthians 1: 3-9 Mark 13; 24-End
When we’ve lived as committed Christian believers all our lives, brought up in a Christian family, gone to Christian schools, higher education all Christian too, then theological College and ordination, it’s hard to see how amazing, how exciting, how turning the world upside down it must have been at the beginning, when it was all […]
Chaplain’s Letter to Companions – October 2020
Dear Friends and Companions, I hope that you are all well. I know how depressing the news can be and I know that many of you are living under restrictions that are making life difficult for you. Many people have friends who have been ill with the virus and some have been bereaved. Among the […]
Remembrance Day Sermon Upper Church
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 and Matthew 25: 1-13 Our ability to remember is a great gift. Memories from childhood of long summer holidays playing football with friends until dusk will always be ones that I shall treasure. We all guard some particular memories as special in our lives and they represent a precious repertoire of […]
What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?
A few years ago I was visiting one of my favourite countries, Romania, and was with a friend in the city of Timisoara. The new Archbishop of Timisoara came to a service and turned out to be very nice, relaxed and humble and had none of that pompous self-importance that some Orthodox bishops have. But […]
Render Unto Caesar – Nashua
In today’s gospel the Pharisees and the Herodians ask Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Jesus says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” I grew up in Zimbabwe, or Rhodesia as it was called then. It’s a country I loved, and still […]
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Matthew 21.33-end
Today’s Gospel is an allegory. The various features in the story need to be interpreted to understand its meaning. The vineyard is the kingdom of God and its owner is God, who demands the grape harvest from the tenants. The tenants are the leaders of God’s Chosen People the Jews. The story is a judgement […]
For you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ ‘O House of Israel, are my ways unfair?’
If you came to the College last Monday, there have probably already been occasions when you have heard yourself saying, ‘the way of the Lord is unfair.’ Wrenched from my family and friends, from my church, into this unfamiliar place. If not, there is time yet … The words appeared in the reading at […]