Sermons

“Salvation has come to this house today.” (Luke 19.9) It was in July 1911 that Charles Gore presided at a service here for the laying of the foundation stone of the Chapel of the Resurrection. He and Walter Frere were not at one on the liturgical arrangements. Gore was “all for incense” but refused to […]

The gospel tells us that the Church is the people. “You are the body of Christ”. Every church building is for the people, the People of God. Having church buildings is an inevitable consequence of the gospel. In Jesus God entered into human life, taking flesh. And so our relationship with God is not just […]

Looking at today’s readings, I was wondering what I might preach about. As I was doing this, it came to me that the very idea of wondering, even the very word wonder might be worth exploring. When I was a small boy, I was, with my parents, on our way to Norfolk in my father’s […]

‘Poor, little, talkative Christianity’ – that was E.M. Forster’s somewhat tart observation, and indeed it has to be acknowledged that ours is a religion which is very verbal, and very vocal, and which from the beginning has invested a great deal of energy in the whole business of communication. Today’s celebration and commemoration, ‘the last […]

When I was an ordinand, a returning student of the College, I found myself at the end of one year at Mass in Lower Church presided over by the then Principal and at which all the others present were leavers preparing to be made deacons. There was a hitch. When it came to the Creed, […]

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts Be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. The last time I stood here was also the first time I stood here: It was Palm Sunday Evensong and I preached on John 14: 15-21: If you love me […]

The two portions of scripture appointed for today make a daunting prospect for any preacher for they both provide large scale generalised statements about the requirements for a Christian.  Holding everything in common, and making sure that we go through the right door who is Jesus Christ, all well and good for generalised waffle, but […]

  EXODUS 14; 1-END; 15;20-21, PS 16 1 PETER 1; 3-9 JOHN 20; 19-end   Preaching today, Low Sunday, is a bit of a challenge– it’s bound to be an anti-climax after the amazing Easter celebrations, and yet it’s the day when brethren of the  Community of the Resurrection try to celebrate the Resurrection together.. […]

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts Be acceptable to you O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen   So here we are, once more, at the beginning of Holy Week. Once again we have embarked on the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem and have listened to the […]

Raising of Lazarus “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer…” This is not what we would expect. We would expect Jesus to drop everything and go, either to be with Lazarus when he died, or to heal him. Instead, Jesus […]