05 April 2015: Easter Day 10.30 Sung Eucharist Revd Simon Cowling Acts 10. 34-43; Mark 16. 1 – 8 John Grubby who was short and stout and troubled with religious doubt refused about the age of three to sit upon the curate’s knee. G K Chesterton, who wrote those lines, was a man of deep Christian…
Address 1: Bethany Matthew 26. 6-13 It is the final week of Jesus’s life. Like many pilgrims to Jerusalem at the time of Passover, Jesus has found board and lodging outside the city. The place he is staying, Bethany, is about two miles east of the city and Matthew has already told us that Jesus spent…
Bolton Priory 29 March 2015: Palm Sunday 10.30 Sung Eucharist Revd Simon Cowling Isaiah 50. 4-9a; Mark 15.1- 39 It may be that you have not succumbed to the spell of Hilary Mantel, specifically the first two novels in her Tudor trilogy dealing with the turbulent career of Thomas Cromwell – the man who was responsible, among other things,…
The Rector Bolton Abbey Parish Magazine April 2015 Love is come again Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain, He that for three days in the grave had lain. Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen: Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green. Two friends, walking together one Sunday towards a village,…
22 March 2015 10.30 Sung Eucharist The Fifth Sunday in Lent The Right Revd Tim Ellis Hebrews 5. 5-10; John 12. 20-33 It might be fairly said that William Temple was one of the most dominant characters in twentieth century Church history-perhaps the most dominant. Bishop of Manchester from 1921-1929; then Archbishop of York from 1929…
10.30 Sung Eucharist The Fourth Sunday of Lent Revd Simon Cowling Colossians 3. 12-17; John 19. 25b-27 But you, Jesus, good Lord, are you not also a mother? Are you not that mother who, like a hen, collects her chickens under her wings? Truly, master, you are a mother. Last week, along with all the…
08 March 2015, Lent 3 10.30 Sung Eucharist Louis della-Porta I Corinthians 1. 18-25; John 2. 13-22 May our minds, Lord, be open to hear your word, may our hearts be open to receive your love. Amen. During the quiet winter months whilst nature is sleeping, the Church certainly isn’t, as it takes us on…
01 March 2015, Lent 2 10.30 Sung Eucharist Revd Simon Cowling Romans 4. 13-end; Mark 8. 31-end Winston Churchill, Oswald Mosley, and Aneurin Bevin all did it; more recently Shaun Woodward and Clare Short. All of them ‘crossed the floor of the House’; that is to say they changed their party allegiance while sitting in…
22 February 2015, Lent 10.30 Sung Eucharist Revd Simon Cowling 1 Peter; Mark 1. 9-15 An old man was asked, ‘How can I find God?’ He replied, ‘In fasting, in watching, in labours, in devotion, and above all, in discernment. I tell you, many have injured their bodies without discernment and have gone away from…
18 February 2015 Ash Wednesday 19.00 Sung Eucharist Revd Simon Cowling 2 Corinthians 5. 20b-6.10; Matthew 6. 1-6 & 16-21 ‘What are you giving up for Lent?’ I suppose the fact that this question is still so frequently asked at this time of year, even in parts of our society not noted for their churchgoing,…