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The uniting power of the cross. A talk for the week of prayer for Christian Unity

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John 12:31-37 It is good to meet together, especially as we disagree on many things We disagree on where authority ultimately lies, on how to balance faithfulness and inclusion, on the sanctity of life – both at the beginning and end, gay sex, on the nature and priorities of the church, on war and peace, on the Kingdom of God and the relation between the now and then, on migration and where boundaries are drawn, gender roles, the number of sacraments and what happens at baptism and communion, on whether everyone will be saved, on music, councils, liturgy and style of worship. I could go on. And yet, despite the differences, we have much in common. An audio of this talk can be found here When I worked in St Andrews Anglican Church in Moscow, I was invited to speak with some students at the Tikhon Orthodox university about the differences between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy. But I asked if instead I could speak on similarities. Because while the differences are very obvious, what we have i...
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Conversion, Grace, and the Cost of Discipleship: Paul on the Road to Damascus

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Acts 9:1-22 Today we are looking at the account of the conversion of St Paul, although in the reading he is known by his old name of Saul. It was a huge experience for Paul. It was an encounter which shaped the rest of his life: not just what he did but how he thought. An audio of the talk can be found here It is so important that we are told the same story three times. Here, in Acts 22 when Paul is speaking to a mob who wanted to lynch him and in Acts 26 when he is standing in front of the local governor and nobility. In both those cases Paul is explaining to his listeners why he does what he does. Four things that I would like to highlight 1. Paul’s experience on that road from Jerusalem to Damascus convinces him that it is all about Jesus. The day begins with him on the road to Damascus with a bunch of heavies, going to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem. And then he is floored, literally, by a blinding light and a voice from heaven. He asks the voice, ‘Who a...
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Baptism as a way of living

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Matthew 3:13-16 Today we focus on the baptism of Jesus. The Baptism of Jesus. Mosaic from the dome of the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna (late C5th/early C6th). The figure on the left is the the personified river Jordan (cf Psalm 114:3) We are in the season of epiphany - literally, from the Greek, epi - fanos, means ‘a shining forth, a revealing’ Epiphany is about revelation. Listen to an audio of this talk So we read about the revelation of the star to the wise men, and the revealing of Jesus to us. It is like when a car manufacturer has a new product. They announce that a new model XYZ is coming out next year. They put up the adverts. They give us teasers. And then they pull off the blanket and reveal the car. Well, this season of epiphany is the pulling off of the blanket and the revealing - not of the car - but of the Son of God. That happens at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus comes to be baptised, and he is revealed as the Son of God. The voice of the Father comes from heaven and the Spi...
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From tears of grief to tears of joy.

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Matthew 2:13-18 We’ve only just had Christmas and in our readings we are now, only three days later, in a real mess. ‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ are in Egypt having had to flee Herod, who wants to destroy Jesus. The audio of this talk can be found here And there is overwhelming desolation in Bethlehem. Mothers weeping for their dead babies. Their children, their world has been torn apart “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children because they are no more”. It is a quote from Jeremiah 31. The massacre of the innocents. The scroll reads (in slavonic) 'Rachel weeping for her children'. Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation. She was the mother of three of the tribes of Israel, and she died – incidentally in Bethlehem where she was buried - giving birth to Benjamin. Ramah, in the North of Israel, is one of the cities of Benjamin. In Jeremiah 31 Rachel is said to weep because her child...
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The Baby in the Manger and the Ladder We Can’t Climb. Christmas day 2025

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The big event for the Church this year has been the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene creed. Those are the words we say when we begin ‘I believe’ in every communion service. In 325 Emperor Constantine brought together all the bishops, the church leaders, many of whom had, until a few years earlier, been persecuted for their faith. He wanted them to come to an agreement on who Jesus really was. Was he human, or was he God-human? It was a passionate debate.  It was so passionate that even Santa Claus got locked up in a cell for the night. Nicholas the bishop of Myra, who later became St Nicholas, Santa Niklaus, was so impassioned that he punched his opponent in the face and was taken to the cell to cool off for the night. I guess that year he was on the naughty list. But at the heart of it was a discussion about Christmas, and the baby lying in the manger. Who was he? The people on the human side of the debate said that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he was the greatest and most Go...
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The Light of Christ. A talk for midnight Christmas Communion 2025

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We had a Christingle this afternoon. This is my Christingle. It looks like one of those old sputniks The key thing about the Christingle is the candle – signifying Christ the light of the world. But it got me thinking. If the orange represents the world, how many oranges would I need to fill the real earth? And the answer is 5 septillion, where a septillion is 1 with 24 0’s after it – give or take one or two! And if we had 5 septillion oranges we would need 5 septillion candles. They would produce as much light as the entire global energy output for one year multiplied by a trillion times. That is quite a long way short of what the sun produces, but it would still make the earth quite a bright bauble in the celestial sky, which could be seen from 15 trillion miles away John writes that in the Word, in Jesus Christ, was life and the life was the light of all people. I guess John is remembering the opening chapter of the Bible.  ‘In the beginning God created ..’  And the wind of...
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The three wise women of Bethlehem. Chistingle 2025

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Christingle 2025 I loved the school nativity play.  It was about Bethlehem – and the imagined police force in Bethlehem. They had a problem. There were so many people coming for the census that there was no room in the town. So the police force were trying to keep people out Joseph and Mary were OK – because they had come for the census But the shepherds – no, and the wise men – definitely no, and the angels – a categorically definitely loud no no no! We hear about Bethlehem in Christmas readings We sing about Bethlehem: O little town of Bethlehem It was an old town. Its name means 'house of bread', so probably there were lots of bakers there. I wonder whether they had any shops selling oranges? But when people thought about Bethlehem, they didn't think about three wise men, but two wise women. There was Rachel.   She lived a long time before Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey. Rachel was one of the mothers of the Jewish people. One quarter of the nation looked back ...
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