All News

‘Thanks for posing,’ is not a remark I hear every day, but Neil Pugmire (Diocesan Communications Adviser) did say this to me last Thursday! He had been taking some photographs to be posted on-line during Lent to illustrate actions in support of the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal 2020: ‘Care for God’s Creation’. Earlier Neil and I had agreed that he would only photograph actions that were authentic, in the sense that they reflect what I will actually be doing during Lent in response to the ‘An Action a Day’ activities identified on the diocesan website. So yes, amongst other things I will be supporting ‘Meat Free Mondays’, and using my bike rather than the car.

Read More

‘You are the salt of the earth’ says Jesus to his disciples in our Gospel reading today, ‘but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot’. For his modern-day disciples, Jesus’s words are still laden with the qualities which salt brings to our lives. It is distinctive, and yet it also brings out the best in whatever is salted. It is astringent, an uncomfortable but effective cleanser. It is necessary, for our health and our life. And in water, it lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point, widening the range over which it stays liquid.

Read More

Light

Last month, Cathedral Consort, went on a tour to Lapland. They sang a concert and at a Sunday service that was part of the celebrations to welcome the first sunrise after two months of a polar night. They were fortunate to see the Northern Lights in deep tones of blue and green. In the summer they will have a period of no sunset. Both of these must play havoc with your equilibrium.

Read More

Next week the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. This will be a significant moment for our nation: some will be pleased that the Referendum result has been honoured, others will regard it as a sad and misguided step for the nation. Regardless of your perspective, Leave or Remain, we will all collectively face the same challenges together over the next decade.

Read More

We celebrate today the feast of the Baptism of Christ within the season of Epiphany: God’s glory is revealed as Jesus is baptised and shown to be the beloved Son, as God’s glory was also revealed to the Magi who came to worship the infant Christ, and later at the wedding at Cana when the water was turned to wine – foreshadowing every occasion when poverty is turned to riches and sorrow into joy.

Read More

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ conception is described from the perspective of Joseph. We learn nothing of the conversation he had with Mary on hearing the disturbing news of her pregnancy, and that he is not the father. Rather we learn of the honourable way Joseph intends to act, and then of a revelatory dream, in which an angel tells him that Jesus is the product of a new divine action, in line with a prophecy of Isaiah. The significance of a ‘virgin birth’ is that Jesus will be more than the accumulated best of his ancestors; he will be a unique manifestation of the power of God.

Read More

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ conception is described from the perspective of Joseph. We learn nothing of the conversation he had with Mary on hearing the disturbing news of her pregnancy, and that he is not the father. Rather we learn of the honourable way Joseph intends to act, and then of a revelatory dream, in which an angel tells him that Jesus is the product of a new divine action, in line with a prophecy of Isaiah. The significance of a ‘virgin birth’ is that Jesus will be more than the accumulated best of his ancestors; he will be a unique manifestation of the power of God.

Read More

In between me writing these highlights and you reading it on paper or online, we will know the results of the general election. It seems strange to be talking about something that hasn’t happened yet. It’s like shouting at the top of your voice in the wilderness waiting to hear an echo.

Read More

The second Sunday of Advent is traditionally the time when the church thinks of prophets and prophecy. In the week of the General Election, it feels like we are living somewhere in between Isaiah’s prophecy and vision of an ideal society in Isaiah 11, and John the Baptist’s condemnation of the self-satisfied and complacent – in his case that applied to the religious authorities in Matthew 3.

Read More

Happy New Year. I’m speaking of course of the church’s liturgical year. We press the reset button this Sunday and begin once again the journey through the worshipping calendar starting with the period of watching and waiting for the Saviour’s birth this Christmastide.

Read More

The Feast of Christ the King reminds us that God is sovereign over all things. Every part of our existence falls under the dominion of Christ, and that for Christians there can be no valid idea of the secular: no place or activity should be disconnected from God. All things were created by, and exist for, God. It is interesting to note that to describe a space as secular, as a place without the presence of God, is to describe what Christians believe Hell to be like.

Read More

The weeks between All Saints and Advent are sometimes referred to as the ‘Kingdom’ Season. We give thanks for those who have gone before us and we look forward to the reality of God’s Kingdom which lies ahead for us all.

Read More

On Sunday morning I will be standing on the steps of the Guildhall, taking part in the City Council’s Remembrance Sunday Service, concluding with a wreath laying ceremony. It also includes an act of commitment, in which all respond to the question ‘Will you strive for all that makes for peace?’ with the words, ‘We will.’

Read More

All Saints’ Sunday

The Church of England’s introduction for this new liturgical season - All Saints to Advent - says: “No Christian is solitary. Through baptism we become members one of another in Christ, members of a company of saints whose mutual belonging transcends death.” This is particularly relevant for the coming few weeks of remembrance. I would like to draw your attention to the ways we will remember them.

Read More

It is becoming almost axiomatic to say that we seem to be living in times of uncertainty over what appear to be binary issues at least politically. Brexit may be on or off. There may or may not be a ‘deal’. We may have an election in December or not. It is as if the new religion is not nationalism so much as Schrodinger.

Read More