13th October 20th Sunday after Trinity Readings: Amos 5. 6-7, 10-15; Heb. 4. 12-16; Mark 10. 17-31 Theme: Stewardship Despite the injunction of Jesus that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, at the end of the...
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 6 October 2024 Readings: Gn. 2.18-24; Heb. 1.1-4; 2.5-12; Mk. 10.2-16 Theme: Being Human What does the Bible say about being human? There is much talk today about artificial intelligence and whether machines or robots can be considered to be alive if they possess qualities which intimate at intelligence. When one...
Harvest Festival 29 September Readings: Dt. 26. 1-11; 2 Cor. 9. 6-15; Jn. 1. 29-36 Theme: The First Fruits The opportunity of Harvest Festival allows us the possibility of returning to John’s gospel for this week and to reflect on its meaning for us at this Harvest Festival. The passage from St John occurs just...
17th Sunday After Trinity, 22 September Readings: Jer. 11. 18-20; James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a; Mk. 9. 30-37 Theme: Success and Failure Is my life a success or a failure? As the years go by, this question is one which can pop up from time to time as we reach our latter years. In order to give...
15 September 16th After Trinity Readings: Isaiah 50.4-9a; James 3.1-12; Mark 8. 27-38. Theme: Profit and Loss The cost of discipleship is our theme for today. The realization, declared by Peter, that Jesus is the Messiah comes at a cost for those who are to follow this anointed one. As Jesus explains, the Son of...
8 September 15th Sunday After Trinity Readings: Isaiah 35. 4-7a; James 2.1-10 (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7. 24-37 Theme: Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician Woman After five weeks of reading John’s gospel, last week saw us return to continue our reading of Mark’s gospel until the end of this church’s year in November with the feast of...
By Katerina Katsarka Whitley Ritual is essential in life. National, religious or familial, rituals offer us the comfort of repetition and familiarity as they lend beauty to occurrences that otherwise might be considered mundane. Observe a little child who asks for the same story night after night – this is her ritual – or...
25 August, 13th After Trinity Readings: Joshua 24. 1-2a, 14-18; Eph. 6. 10-20; John 6. 56-69 Theme: The Holy One of God This week brings to a close our five weeks of reading chapter six of John’s gospel. It is a culmination of all the themes that we have considered over the preceding weeks: bread...
August 18th, The twelfth Sunday after Trinity Readings: Proverbs 9. 1-6; Ephesians 5. 15-20; John 6. 51-58 Theme: Flesh and Blood Some of the most often quoted lines from the poet T. S. Eliot come from the final part of his Four Quartets, from Part IV at the conclusion of the Little Gidding section. Let...
August 11, 11th After Trinity Readings: 1 Kings 19. 4-8; Ephesians 4. 25-5.2; John 6. 35, 41-51 Theme: Seeing is Believing. For the Anglo-Saxons ‘seeing is believing’. This mindset typically does not like big fancy ideas and speculative schemes, it wants to see the money! Such a typically Anglo-Saxon trait of pragmatic, no nonsense evidential...
