Start:Stop - Fasting and Feasting

Paul Cézanne, ‘Still Life with Skull' (ca. 1895-1900) 

You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link. Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook for the first week of Lent. We begin with two short verses from the Gospel of Luke.

Morning Prayer - Holy Cross Day

It was a great privilege to lead Morning Prayer for the online community of St Augustine's College of Theology, where I am a student. One of our readings this morning tells the story of the Original Sin, in the Garden of Eden. I have come outside to film the service - our front garden is slightly Eden-esque with lots of palms and banana trees!

I am using the Common Worship order of service which you can access at this link. 

Psalms 2, 8 and 146
Genesis 3.1-15
John 12.27-36a

Please follow along by watching the video below.

Night Prayer - St Augustine of Canterbury

It was a great privilege to lead Night Prayer (Compline) today on the St Augustine's College of Theology Facebook Page as we celebrate our patron saint, St Augustine of Canterbury. Please follow along by watching the video below.

Start:Stop – Revisiting the legacy of Augustine of Canterbury

Hello and welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, my name is Phillip Dawson.

This week we remember a man who set out from a deserted city on a dangerous journey north. No, not Dominic Cummings and his much dissected trip to Durham – but St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, who, with his mobile monastery of forty lay and ordained men, journeyed one thousand miles by sea, river and land from Rome and, on their second attempt, arrived in Canterbury, where they built a cathedral, a school and hospital and baptised thousands of new Christians; sowing the seeds of faith that would grow to become the Church of England.

Start:Stop - Restless Hearts : St Augustine & Anton Bruckner

Start:Stop offers the chance for busy commuters to Start their day by Stopping to reflect for ten minutes. Starting every quarter hour between 7.45am and 9.15am on Tuesday mornings at St Stephen Walbrook, in the heart of the City of London, we invite people to drop in for as long as they can to hear a sequence of bible readings, reflections and prayers or simply to sit and reflect. For more information visit our website. This reflection is from Tuesday 28th August 2018.

Anton Bruckner & Augustinian Spirituality

The Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle at the Royal Festival Hall, 30 May 2018. Photograph: Monika Rittershaus

Brahms called him a "country pumpkin," the Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick defined his work as a sequence of "empty and dull patches that stretch to unsparing lengths”; his Mass in F was declared unsingable - (he had to pay the Vienna Philharmonic eight months of his own salary to perform it) - but the composer Anton Bruckner persevered. He said:

"They want me to write in a different way. I could, but I must not. Out of thousands I was given this talent by God, only I. Sometime I will have to give an account of myself. How would the Father in Heaven judge me if I followed others and not Him?"

Is such self-assuredness evidence of a vain, self-conceited man - or someone with complete faith in God's providence? Whatever your view, one must admire Bruckner's unswerving sense of vocation!