Sermon-Balancing the Books

Dollar Sign 9, Andy Warhol, 1982

A sermon given during a service of Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 17th August 2025 based on the text of 1 Corinthians 10.1-13 and Luke 16.1-9.

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. 

Towards A Theology of Climate Change

Gaia by Juke Jerram, Salisbury Cathedral

Notes from a Church of England Webinar ‘The Theology of Climate Change’ given on Tuesday 21st September 2021 by Reverend Ruth Newton.

This was an interesting webinar given by Ruth Newton, a priest and ‘Eco-Champion’ for the Diocese of Leeds and a member of the Church of England’s General Synod. She is undertaking a Doctorate in Practical Theology at the University of Chester. The lecture proposes a new approach to a theology of Climate Change that is fit for the age of the 'Anthropocene' - one not based on the concept of environmental stewardship alone but that draws on other theological resources from the Christian faith.

Prayers of Intercession - Trinity 17

James B Janknegt – The Wicked Tenants (2018)

Prayers of intercession written for the Choral Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook on Thursday 8th October 2020 Trinity 17/Proper 22 – Year A, based on the Epistle (Philippians 3.4b-14) and the Gospel reading Matthew 21.33-end.

Let us pray to the Lord, who has made us his own.