A sword will pierce your own soul too. It’s not exactly the kind of thing that you’re likely to find in a lovely Hallmark Mothering Sunday card is it? It’s the not what you’d expect to hear at a Christening party either. A sword will pierce your own soul too. It had all been going […]
This morning we are looking forward to Lent, and especially the way in which many of the folk of St Andrew’s different congregations are going to be exploring Lent with the help of this book,“Learning to dream again”. In the introduction the author suggests three themes that can help us to develop a Christian wisdom: […]
You know, sometimes Jesus says some uncomfortable things and this morning’s reading from Mark’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ life has to contain some of his most uncomfortable teaching. We are just about exactly half way through Mark’s book, and this is the turning point. Up to now we’ve seen Jesus teaching, healing, and performing miracles […]
Last Sunday there was an interview with Stephen Fry broadcast in Ireland that got a fair amount of coverage in the newspapers and online discussions. It is fairly well known that he is an atheist, and he was appearing on a show called “The Meaning of Life” talking about all kinds of issues from his […]
Do you ever watch the news and wonder what on earth is going on? The war in Syria has been going on for over three years now. The Israelis and Palestinians are bombing each other. Over 600 people arrested for viewing child pornography. People we know having affairs and breaking up families, bullies in the […]
I was watching a TV programme a couple of days ago, the main character in which has lung cancer. He’d come to the end of a course of treatment, had some tests, and it turned out the cancer was in remission. The tumour had shrunk by 80%. His wife organised a party for all their […]
As I was reflecting on the readings for tonight the word that stuck out for me was, “glory”. It’s a word that we use every week in our worship, coming as it does in the first line of the Gloria, “Glory to God in the highest”. But it’s also a word that we come across […]
Our reading from Ephesians this morning jumps right into the middle of this letter’s opening paragraph, a hymn of praise to God. In this praise we find an important truth about God. “He works everything out in conformity with the purpose of his will.” I find this to be quite a difficult thing to understand. […]
I’m really pleased to be here, with the opportunity to preach this morning. Of course, I’m always enjoy preaching, especially to such a fine bunch of folks as you lot, but today I’m especially excited. That is because today is Trinity Sunday, and I love the Trinity. I think that it is one of the […]
On the third of August, 2007, a seventeen month old child was taken to a London hospital, where the child was pronounced dead. The child had very severe injuries. Now three people await sentencing for, “causing or allowing the death of a child”. During the course of the last week there has been extensive news […]