Sermon - Good Friday : Hands which bless the world

Renato Guttuso, Mano del Crocifisso 

It was a great privilege to be invited to preach for the Pascal Triduum at St George’s Bloomsbury in April 2023. The first time I have preached at all three services and the first time I have spoken in front of so many people at once. I drew on my experience visiting the Holy Land last year and based each sermon loosely around part of a prayer attributed to St Teresa of Avila ‘Christ has no body now on earth but yours’ and the theme of connection, disconnection and reconnection. On Thursday the focus was ‘Feet which walk to do good’ and connections to the embodied love of Jesus through the symbolic washing of feet and the sharing of the Last Supper. On Friday the focus was ‘Hands which bless the world’ and our disconnection from the embodied love of Jesus when he died on the cross. On Sunday the focus was ‘Eyes which see life anew’ and our re-connection to the love of Jesus through Mary Magdalene’s vision in the garden at dawn. The sermon on Sunday drew each reflection together to encourage us to choose to live life as pilgrims – not tourists. To embody the love of God we have now received through the Spirit of the risen Christ.

A sermon given at the Good Friday Liturgy on Friday April 7th 2023 at St George’s Bloomsbury. (Year A) based on John 18.1-end of 19.

The Death of Jesus - Reflection for the Churches Together Good Friday Walk of Witness

This is my reflection for the Churches Together in Southgate, Oakwood and Cockfosters Good Friday Walk of Witness. Each church in the partnership reads a passage from scripture, then gives a short reflection and leads prayers based on the passage during the service which takes place after the walk. Due to one church being in an interregnum and not able to offer anyone else to give a reflection, as Lay Chair of the Ecumenical Partnership this year, I gave the following reflection - my first experience of doing something like this. Thank you to Sandra Anderson for reading the bible passage and prayer, to save my voice – still recovering from the 'flu!

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.