Last Sunday, we celebrated the Ascension of the Lord. Today we celebrate the return of the Lord in a new manner through the coming of the Holy Spirit. This feast of Pentecost is also called the feast of the Church because it is the time when we celebrate the coming into being of the Church....
This Sunday, we reflect on the Ascension of the Lord to Heaven. Our first reading from Acts speaks of the Lord being lifted up to heaven in a cloud and taken out of the sight of his Galilean followers. These followers then return to Jerusalem, to the upper room where Peter, John, Mary and the...
It was probably near the Acropolis, on the Areopagus, the rocky outcrop opposite the beautiful Parthenon building, which was originally the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, that Paul gave his speech to the people of Athens. “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked...
We came up here by car from Gibraltar, but just imagine you are in a carriage on a train or on a coach or even a plane. You don’t stare but you can’t help noticing the faces of the other passengers. Many of them look sad. So why are they sad? There are many reasons...
At San Pedro we read the following sermon, first preached by James Leggett in 2002. The disciples were behind locked doors because they were afraid. They were behind locked doors on Easter Day, and a week later, they were still huddled behind locked doors, frightened, hiding, and, at least in Thomas’ case, filled with doubt....
We have arrived at a day marked by a whole series of different events and it is easy to lose the thread. What is this liturgy about? Is it about service – the foot washing? Is it about the Passover sacrifice? Is it about how the deepening darkness of the conflict that Jesus had...
We have come to the central week of the Church’s year. Over the next few days we shall have before us the mystery of Christ’s suffering, dying and rising. For us as Christians there is nothing more important than this event. The fact that for us and for our salvation Christ came, suffered, died and...
Another very long Gospel reading this morning – and perhaps we need to remind ourselves why this comes about. Originally, Lent was a time of preparation for baptism and confirmation – which only happened once a year at the Paschal Vigil on Holy Saturday, the night before Easter day. And as part of the...
There are all sorts of significances attached to this Sunday in the way that it has fallen this year. All of which could merit several sermons! So first of all, this is Laetare Sunday. The word from the beginning of the traditional Introit for this Sunday’s Eucharist, which in turn directs us in a...
Today in this series of homilies which are looking at the Person of Christ with the help of the readings through Lent and the Church of England’s Lent Course, Dust and Glory, we think about Christ as the Living Water. Now matters of thirst and water come into the first reading from the book...
