Baptism Homily-Another verse in an ancient song

State Baptism of a Child of Noble Blood, Anonymous, c1612, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A homily given on the baptism of [N] by The Reverend Phillip Dawson at St Olave Hart Street in the City of London on Saturday 19th September 2026.

Heart & Voice - My Spirit Sang All Day

The Joy of Life (Bonheur de Vivre) by Henri Matisse, 1905

It was a great pleasure to introduce Heart and Voice on Wednesday 23rd October 2025 at 12.45pm at St Stephen Walbrook - thirty minutes of sublime choral music and readings sung by our talented Choral Scholars. My script is below. 

Choral Classics - Celebrating John Donne

The last look of John Donne by Marsden Hartley (American, 1877-1943) - Brooklyn Museum

It was a great pleasure to introduce Choral Classics at St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 25th January 2023. My script is below. You can watch the recording below (the video will not appear in ‘mobile view’ – please click “view web version” at the bottom of the home page if reading on a tablet or phone) or watch on YouTube at this link.

The woman with the alabaster jar

Mary Magdalene, Jan van Scorel (c1530)

A nameless woman

breaks her alabaster jar

and pours out the scent of life -

Her life for His.

A postscript to the gospel.

A man who need not be named

fills his hands with the spoils of betrayal.

The stench of death. 

His death for His.

Whose life do we remember?


(A poem in response to Mark 14.1-11, one of the readings at Morning Prayer on Monday 14th October 2019).

BOOK REVIEW : Friday's Child - a collection of poems for Good Friday by Brian Mountford

After leaving Christ Church Southgate in 1986, Reverend Brian Mountford became Vicar of the University Church in Oxford - the country’s most visited parish church. He retired in 2016 after thirty years of ministry there and is currently Acting Chaplain of Corpus Christi College.