Sermon-Who is Jesus? Who am I? Who am I becoming?

Georges Rouault, Christ (1925–27)

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 27^th September 2026 (Year A, Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity) based on readings from Philippians 2.1–13; Matthew 21.23–32 and a week before our Confirmation Service.

Sermon-I Look Up to Him. I Look Down on Him.

 

Contempt of Hatred (Expressive Head), by Ernest Joseph Bailley, c1792 (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent)

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 13th September 2026 (Year A, Proper 19) based on the texts of Romans 14.1-12 and Matthew 18.21-35 and drawing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together”.

Great Fire Anniversary Sermon-Stirring Up Old Coals

The Great Fire of London, depicted by an unknown painter (1675), as it would have appeared from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September 1666.

A sermon given at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 6th September 2026 during a service of Holy Communion on Great Fire Anniversary Weekend. The service took place the day after our Faith & Fire Discovery Day, exploring the Great Fire through the lens of science and faith. The sermon is based on readings from Romans 13.8–end, Matthew 18.15–20 and the words of an Great Fire Anniversary Sermon preached at St Olave Hart Street on 2nd September 1682 by Reverend William Wray, the text of which can be read at this link. 

Thought for the Day-Seeing Salvation

Earthrise by William Anders, Apollo 8, NASA, 1968

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Tuesday 7th April 2026 based on John 20.11–18

Easter Vigil Sermon-The green blade riseth

The nave of St Olave Hart Street following bomb damage c1941

A sermon given during the Easter Vigil at St Olave Hart Street on Saturday 4th April 2026 based on the Vigil Texts of Genesis 1.1 – 2.4a, Exodus 14.10-end; 15.1a, Jeremiah 31.31-34 and the texts at Holy Communion Romans 6.3-11 and Matthew 28.1-10 and the astounding history of this church.

Thought for the Day-All the World's a Stage?

Actor’s Mask, Paul Klee, 1924, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

A Thought for the Day offered at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 27th August 2025 based on the text of Matthew 23.27-32

Thought for the Day – Spiritual Friendship: Barnabas and the Holy Trinity

Friendship, Pablo Picasso, 1908

A Thought for the Day given at St Giles-in-the-Fields on the Feast of St Barnabas the Apostle, Wednesday 11th June 2025 at 1pm based on the texts of Acts 11.19-30 and John 15.12-17.

Thought for the Day-A Sermon for a Fractured Church

Woodman (Waldarbeiter) by Georg Baselitz, 1969

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street, City of London on Tuesday 7th January 2025 and St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 8th January 2025 based on the text of 1 John 3.22-4.6. You can listen to an audio recording of the passage and this reflection at this link. 

Sermon-The Most Reluctant Convert

C.S.Lewis on the cover of Time Magazine, 8th September 1947

A sermon given during the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 15th December 2024 (the Third Sunday in Advent, Year C). Based on readings from Philippians 4.4-7 and Luke 3.7-18.

Sermon-That is The Question

Henry Moore - Three Seated Figures - 1975

A sermon given during the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 20th October September 2024 (Year B, Proper 24) based on readings from Isaiah 53.4-end, Hebrews 5.1-10 and Mark 10.35-45 (the request of James and John).

Jesus knew that one of the most effective ways that power and authority can be intentionally transferred – and withheld – is by asking questions. Do we know what we are asking?

Thought for the Day - Regenerating 'The Waste Land'

If Not, Not by Ronald Brooks Kitaj 1975-6

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 16th October 2024 based on the texts of Galatians 5.18-end and Luke 11.42-46 and inspired by the text of T.S.Eliot's 'The Waste Land' which was published on this day in 1922.

Sermon-Unto thee shall all flesh come

A sermon given at Evensong at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 6th October 2024 inspired by the life and writings of abolitionist and radical Robert Wedderburn one of the ‘St Giles Blackbirds’ and readings from Deuteronomy 26.1-11 and John 6.26-35. This sermon was given on Harvest Sunday and during Black History Month.

Thought for the Day - And the greatest of these is love

War & Peace (Peace), Candido Portinari, 1957

A Thought for the Day given at the lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 18th September 2014 based on the text of 1 Corinthians 13

A reflection on the primacy of love in the Christian life, inspired by the writing of Dag Hammarskjöld who died on this day in 1961.

Sermon-A visit to Caesarea Philippi

Reconstruction of the Sanctuary of Pan at Banias (Wikipedia)

A sermon given during the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 15th September 2024 (Year B, Proper 19) based on readings from James 3:1-12 and Mark 8:27-38 (Peter’s declaration at Caesarea Philippi).

Knowing something about the place in which the events of today’s gospel reading took place can help illuminate our understanding of it’s message.

Thought for the Day-Encountering Jesus the Healer

Jesus Heals the Sick, Markey Robinson

A Thought for the Day given during the celebration of the Eucharist at St Mary-le-Bow on Wednesday 4th September 2024 based on the text of Luke 4.38-end and beginning with an imagined Whatsapp exchange between Simon Peter and his wife.

Sermon-The lives of St Giles through the scriptures

The seal of the hospital of St Giles

A sermon given during Evensong at St Giles-in-the-Fields on St Giles Day, Sunday 1st September 2024, based on the text of 2 Corinthians 12.1-10 and Matthew 5.1-12 and Psalm 131 (texts specially chosen for this day. For more suggested texts for St Giles Day, see this post

Sermon-"I don't believe it!"

Traffic Jam by Peter Saul, 2002 (produced for the 50th Anniversary of Greenpeace)

A sermon given at Evensong at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 25th August 2024, drawing on the work of poet and hymn writer William Cowper (and Victor Meldrew’s screenwriter David Renwick)

Victor Meldrew claimed that a bank holiday traffic jam is the perfect metaphor for our journey through life. This bank holiday eve, the work of poet and hymn-writer William Cowper offers us a more sanguine – and realistic - metaphor to challenge Victor’s hopeless, Stoic philosophy….

Sermon-The Good Samaritan

Martin Luther King's first public speech in the UK at Bloomsbury Baptist Church, October 1961

A sermon given during Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 25th August 2024, The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity based on the text of Luke 10:23–37.

Drawing on Martin Luther King's final sermon to explore the parable of The Good Samaritan. 

Thought for the Day-The Great Shepherd of the Sheep

The Good Shepherd by John Kohan

A Thought for the Day given at the lunchtime service of Holy Communion at 11am on Wednesday 21st August 2024 at St Giles-in-the-Fields based on the text of Ezekiel 34.1–11 and inspired by the anniversary of the foundation of the World Council of Churches.

Sermon-The Art of Why?

Job: A Masque for Dancing - Original Production at The Cambridge Theatre, July 1931 (V&A Collection)

A sermon given during Choral Evensong at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 28th July 2024 based on the text of Job 19.1-17. A canter through the artistic masterpieces inspired by the Book of Job - one of which was premiered in this parish.