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....
There’s the story of the young Welshman who was thinking of making a marriage proposal to two women – Blodwyn and Maria. He couldn’t decide between them and so, as a good Christian, went to pray about it at church. He knelt in the nave facing the altar and cried, Lord, Lord, should it be...
We are made in the image of God – as the Bible says in Genesis. Tzelem Elohim in Hebrew, Genesis 1:27 but also James 3 – you find it! Somehow or other we are created like God. How? Well as a species we are notoriously creative. Gardening is key in that. Joanna arrived with her...
The Sunday after Easter, you may remember, there was a baptism in church at San Pedro. The boyfriend is a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt. Further South the Ethiopian Orthodox Church claim a founder of their denomination to be the eunuch baptised by Phillip in the river. Ethiopia did not exist then, the translation is...
Love me love my dog is very British, Peter Shelly had a hit with it in 1975. The nation of pet lovers. I met someone recently who’s mother had died after a period of terminal illness, and who’s dog had to be put down, suddenly. The grief for the dog seemed to overwhelm the grief...
Mostly people are very secretive about seeing things. I mean visions. Most of us – maybe all of us dream but we are mostly able to distinguish between a dream and reality. Perhaps that is why we are secretive. If we see a vision does it mean that we are mentally unstable – and who...
There are two certificates on the wall of my father’s and step mothers’ apartment, both signed by Phillip. Both were members/officers of the order of the British Empire and HRH Prince Phillip was the Grand Master. You would have had to be locked away in a cave not to know that His Royal Highness Prince...
