The Eighth Sunday after Trinity2 August 202010.30 Morning ServiceRevd Nicholas Mercer Every week we say the Nicene Creed in our service of Holy Communion It was adopted at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and is a touchstone of the Christian faith But, like so many creedal statements, we so often say the words without giving them…
Ash Wednesday26 February 2020Revd Nicholas Mercer Today is Ash Wednesday It is the start of the beginning of Lent which is a penitential season in the Church In the Bible and in the Medieval Church, covering ones head with ashes was considered a sign of repentance, sorrow and mourning Quite literally we mark the start of Lent…
25 March 2018 Palm Sunday Revd Jonathan Cain Isa. 50: 4-9a.; Mark 15: 1-39 TV watching for Rebecca and I is something that generally happens late at night, beyond the time at which we would sensibly turn off the light and sleep. Consequently, we usually take it in turns to nod off, and spend time…
07 January 2018 Epiphany Revd Jonathan Cain Isaiah 60: 1-6; Matthew 2: 1-12 With this ambiguous earth His dealings have been told us. These abide: The signal to a maid, the human birth, The lesson, and the young Man crucified. But not a star of all The innumerable host of stars has heard How He…
31 December 2017 10.30 Sung Eucharist The First Sunday of Christmas Canon Simon Cowling Isaiah 61.10 – 62.3; Luke 2. 15-21 I used to smoke quite heavily. Illicitly purchased cigarettes, bought singly as a fifteen year old from a newsagent who chose to turn the proverbial blind eye, led to an addiction which lasted some…
11 June 2017 Trinity Sunday Revd Jonathan Cain Isaiah 40: 12-17 & 27-end, Matthew 28: 16-end The Church Times last week published an article by Eve Poole called ‘From Alpha to VUCA: the art of unknowing’. The article caught my eye partly because I saw the author speak at the Greenbelt Festival a couple of…
22 January 2017 10.30 Sung Eucharist Epiphany 3 Canon Simon Cowling Isaiah 9. 1-4; Matthew 4. 12-23 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O Sion. Babylon. The city to which the Jewish people of the kingdom of Judah were sent into captivity and exile when their capital…
15 January 2017 10.30 Sung Eucharist The Second Sunday of Epiphany Revd Dr Christopher Armstrong Isaiah 49. 1-7; John 1. 29-42 We have found the Messiah The reading from Isaiah suggests the coming of Godhead to his world as a glorious pageant of light and universal illumination. The prophet, who is a brilliant poet and…
08 January 2017 10.30 Sung Eucharist Epiphany Revd Jonathan Cain Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12 A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down…
13 March 2016, Lent 5 10.30 Sung Eucharist Revd Canon Professor John Rodwell Isaiah 43. 16-21; John 12. 1-8 I wouldn’t want to be thought a nosey-parker, but creative eaves-dropping, well that’s a different matter. Or so the writer Alan Bennett has taught us, catching other peoples’ conversation and, fashioning it into stories, thus telling…