The Festival of Pentecost
Ok, this is somewhat cheeky …but there is so much one could say about Pentecost and about the Holy Spirit … so here are some of the things I didn’t fit into my sermon … linking what the Catechisms say … I believe that…
Thought for the Week
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Last week at the European Lutheran Conference in Germany the Bishop of the Kyrgyzstan Lutheran Church, Kenzhebek Botobaev, made a presentation to a number of people who were ‘friends of his church’. I was one who received a special Kyrgyz gift – an ak-kalpak…
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Last week I ruminated about the Church as busi-ness and what I saw as the tension between organ-isational conformity and chaotic freedom. We need both and both can get us into trouble. This week I’m drawn to the thought of alliances, fellowship, and identity…
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
For whatever images one has of the Christian Church – congregation, body (of Christ), people (of God), a spiritual house (made of living stones), branches (of the vine), the household (of God), the Christian Resources Exhibition held this week at Sandown Park, Esher added…
The Fourth Sunday of Easter
As you know, I see things I read from time to time that seem ‘just right’ for this ‘thought for the week’. It has been an interesting thing for me this Easter season having decided to read and preach 1 Peter (the second reading…
The Second Sunday of Easter
When I wrote last week’s bulletin ‘blurb’ I didn’t expect things to keep going regarding Prime Minis-ter David Cameron’s contention that Great Britain is a Christian country. But the quote attributed to Harold Wilson ‘a week is a long time in politics’ seemed to…
Palm Sunday
I laughed out loud in the car. This wasn’t a smile or a grin but a laugh that went for a few miles. I’m still smiling as I type. Not sure why it tickled me so much – after all, it was just a…
The Fourth Sunday in Lent
I remember visiting the Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain, having heard what a magnificent building it was. (And it is … well, worth a visit.) I had heard about the altar and was keen to see it only to discover that it was hidden behind…
The Third Sunday in Lent
There are over 7,000 languages in the world (according to SIL International) and over 1,000,000 words in the English language (according to the Global Language Monitor). Translating English into another lan-guage or another language into English is still quite an art even with…
The Second Sunday in Lent
Part of the problem I think for many people is that they don’t want to think of themselves as sinners. I specifically before have no criminal record; faithful in marriage; kind; honest; etc t be any of those things s status before God and standing under the cross…