Sermon - Cast off our cloaks

Emabutfo by Nandipha Mntambo, 2009

A sermon preached at St Stephen Walbrook on Thursday 28th October 2021 (Year B, Last after Trinity, Proper 25), based on Mark 10:46-52 and incorporating text from music and hymns sung during the service.

Good News in a Nutshell
During the pandemic, we saw aspects of our society from a new perspective – but the discourse about how to address poverty and injustice seemed to fall back to the familiar party lines. Can we (the church) find a renewed calling in the example of Bartimaeus; helping the world to learn how to throw off our cloaks, instead of flashing our political colours at each other like matadors, learning how to debate in a respectful way, seeing beyond the same old arguments? Then we will be acting like true disciples.

Further Prayers for Morning Prayer - Peace Within Thy Walls

Peace window, United Nations Building New York by Marc Chagall, 1964

Further prayers written for Morning Prayer by telephone conference call from St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 27th October 2021

Sermon - Eat My Words

Richard Bruce Nugent, “Jesus and Judas,” 1947 (Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art)

A sermon preached at St George’s Bloomsbury on Bible Sunday, 24th October 2021 based on readings from Isaiah 55:1 -11, 2 Timothy 3:14 to 4:5 and John 5:36b-47

For many years I helped to organise a church fair. It was a traditional affair, with bunting, competitions and dancing around a maypole. At first I was given the task of helping to organise the book stall - probably because after the Boy Scouts I was the youngest person involved and best placed to lug the books out onto the village green! 

Often we would receive donations of large family bibles to sell. Delicate pages of gold leaf bound in embossed leather; treasure held securely in place by a clasp or buckle. Unwanted heirlooms, whose previous owners thought that a beautiful Bible would be snapped up at a church fair.

How wrong they were! 

Year after year we would carry these heavy bible back to the store room in the church hall!

Prayers of Intercession - Servant of All

Jesus washes the disciples feet by Luke Allsbrook, 2017

Prayers of Intercession written for the Sung Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook on Thursday 21 October 2021 (Year B, Trinity 20, Proper 24) based on the text of Hebrews 5.1-10 and Mark 10.35-45

Start:Stop-Celebrating St Luke

Descent of the Holy Spirit, Roman Barbakh, 2017 (Icon Art)

An audio version of this week's reflection can be found here.

This week the church celebrated the Feast of Saint Luke. All we know about Luke comes from the bible; including Gospel attributed to him as well as the Acts of the Apostles, which most consider to have been written by the same author. 

Luke was a highly educated man, well versed in both the Hebrew Scriptures and Greco-Roman forms of literature as we can see from his sophisticated and creative writing. Together, the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles make up more than a quarter of the New Testament. Studies have demonstrated Luke’s wide ranging vocabulary - his gospel contains over 800 words not found elsewhere in the New Testament. 

This passage, unique to Luke’s Gospel, describes the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. It introduces many themes that are developed later including, perhaps, an indication of Jesus’ death.

Sermon - Finding rest in a non-binary life

Trinity in the Burning Bush, Jyoti Sahi, 1973

A homily given and prayers written for Choral Evensong at St Stephen’s Church, Rochester Row on Sunday 17th October 2021, the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity based on readings from Joshua 14.6-14 and Matthew 12.1-21.

Prayers of Intercession – The Rich Man

The Last Shall be First & The First Shall Be Last by J. Alan Cumbey, 1957 - 1992

Prayers of Intercession written for the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 10 October 2021 (Year B, Trinity 19, Proper 23) based on the text of Mark 10.17-31

Prayers of Intercession – Business Harvest Festival

The Sunshine Roof, Cyril Power 1934

Prayers written for the Business Harvest Festival at St Stephen Walbrook on Thursday 7th October 2021

Even More than Hymns – Preparing for Choral Classics

Gerard Sekoto, Choir Singers

It was a great joy to lead Choral Classics at St Stephen Walbrook on 23rd September, which you can watch at this link. Our theme then was ‘More than Hymns’ – Choral settings of some of our favourite hymns. Preparing for Choral Classics involves finding out about the music being performed and selecting two poems or readings that fit the theme, ensuring the choral works and the script to link them together lasts between fifteen and twenty minutes. This post contains some of the information I didn’t have enough time to include in the script for the service and shows some of the alternative options I considered for the two readings.

Start:Stop-Celebrating St Francis of Assisi

The San Damiano Cross, the image of which inspired Francis of Assisi

Introduction

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. My name is Phillip Dawson. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link. 

Last week the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee published its report on ‘The UK's footprint on global biodiversity’ which highlighted the growing number of animal and plant species that are threatened with extinction. The UK’s consumption patterns, the report concluded, remain unsustainable and overseas development assistance that seeks to integrate poverty and environmental objectives remains rare. 

Someone who understood all about the integration of poverty and the environment   was Saint Francis of Assisi, who was remembered by the church this week. The spirituality that Francis embodied; one which integrated justice, peace and ecology, was unique in European Christianity at the time. Today Francis is inspiring a renewed focus on the relationship between humanity, its Creator and His creation, not least by the current Pope, who took his name.

Renouncing the riches and prestigious clothes of his merchant father, Francis of Assisi embraced a life of material poverty, working for food or begging for alms. He didn’t leave an environmental footprint of his own because he was always walking in the footprints of Christ.

The reading for the Feast of St Francis of Assisi is taken from the Gospel according to Saint Luke. 

Prayers of Intercession - The Great Family of Faith

Family Group, Henry Moore, 1949, cast 1950-51 

Prayers of Intercession written for the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 3rd October 2021 (Year B, Trinity 18, Proper 22) based on readings from Mark 10.2-16 and Hebrews 1.1-4, 2.5-12 and Psalm 8 and phrases from the sermon given by Reverend David Peebles.

(Divine) ‘Nature and Personhood’ ? - A personal reflection on the Christian Aid Annual Lecture 2021

Reh im Klostergarten (Deer in Monastery Garden) by Franz Marc, 1912-13

Distinguished economist Sir Partha Dasgupta gave the address at the first Annual Christian Aid Lecture that took place at St Martin in the Fields on 6th September 2021 which can be viewed at this link. His lecture set out to show how our disconnection from nature results not only in environmental damage but impoverishes our understanding of the economics of poverty and development. The themes raised in his lecture; stability, regulation and transformation of behaviour through communitarian institutions; the importance of relationship; have obvious parallels in Christian communities, particularly monastic communities of the nature envisaged in the Rule of St Benedict. 

BOOK REVIEW: Grace is not Faceless - Reflections on Mary by Ann Loades

Grace is not Faceless - Reflections on Mary by Ann Loades, published by DLT Books in 2021

Introduction and Context

Martin Warner, the Bishop of Chichester, introduced ‘Grace is not Faceless’ during a seminar at St Augustine’s College. It was especially interesting to hear his perspective on the text, a collection of essays by Ann Loades published earlier this year, because he was a student of the author and explained that like all the best teachers, she has an infectious energy for her subject which cannot but inspire her students. He explained that Ann Loades was the first British academic to write a book about feminist theology (Searching for Lost Coins, published in 1987).