Sermon-And there's another country, I've heard of long ago

Photographs of the Fallen from the William Cory & Son Roll of Honour

A sermon given at The Corynthians Remembrance Service on Friday 7th November 2025 at St Olave Hart Street commemorating employees of William Cory & Son (now Cory Group) who fought and died in WW1 and WW2. The sermon is based on the text of Micah 4.1-5 and inspired by the music sung during the service and the rediscovery this year of the company ‘Roll of Honour’.

Sermon - Looking Love in the Face

Ernest Edward Spears, Frank Wotton Eastlake & Richard Henry Vaughan Thompson

A sermon given during services on Remembrance Sunday 10th November 2024 at St Giles-in-the-Fields based on the text of John 15.9-17 and the stories of some of the men listed on the WW1 memorial at the back of the church. The photographs of Ernest Spears, Frank Eastlake and Richard Thompson were printed in the pew sheet.

Living Remembrance

The temporary cenotaph on the morning of the Peace Procession in 1919 by Sir William Nicholson

Message for the Parish Magazine of St Giles-in-the-Fields, November 2023:

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“Where’s the plague memorial?” A question I’ve been asked more than once since my arrival here, by some of the many visitors who find St Giles through its connections to the plague. They come keen to find out more about the plague pit in the churchyard - reportedly containing over 1,000 bodies – or the first cases of the Great Plague of London (documented by Daniel Defoe), which broke out in the parish. Some visitors seem disappointed when they discover that there is no monument for them to photograph.

A Parish Remembers - War Memorial Stories

While at Christ Church, Southgate I produced an exhibition in 2018 recording just a fraction of the stories I had discovered about the men listed on the War Memorial inside the church. These stories came from obituaries in the parish magazine, online research by others and a great deal of information held at the Bishopsgate Institute. The project involved locating the home addresses of as many of the 146 men as I could and writing to the people who live at these addresses now, giving them information about the war memorial and inviting them to our Remembrance Sunday service. The research was featured in the Armistice Centenary edition of The Church Times and inspired a number of events and activities in the parish organised by others.

I have recently found copies of the display boards and am uploading them below as a record of the exhibition and research. To view the boards at full size, click on the thumbnails below and then right click 'Open image in new tab'.

Start:Stop - Her Majesty's Life of Faith

The People's Monarch - Helen Marshall, Gatwick Airport/BBC South East, 2012

Hello and welcome to St Stephen Walbrook and our Start:Stop reflection, when we start the day by stopping for ten minutes in prayer and reflection. Please come and go as your schedule dictates. You can listen to an audio recording of this week's reflection at this link.

The world is mourning the death of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II; monarch, Supreme Governor of The Church of England and perhaps one of, if not the most prominent advocate for the Christian faith in recent times. 

I confess I have found it impossible to put into words the loss of someone known to 94% of the population of the globe - the single most visually recorded human being in history.  

So, rather than my words, this morning’s reflection, which follows uses her own. Words of wisdom drawn from just some of the public statements and Christmas Broadcasts (CB) she gave over her long reign. Please do take a sheet away with you to reflect on these words further.

Prayers of Intercession - We Remember

We are making a new world. Paul Nash, 1918

Prayers written for the Service of Remembrance at St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 11th November 2020.

The Pomegranate - Symbolism and Meaning

Dahlias and Pomegranates by Henri Matisse, 1947

We are in South Africa for the funeral of my partner’s Mum, Marie. In her garden is a large pomegranate tree. The tree was planted by Henry’s grandmother. It is now summertime here, so the tree is in full fruit, with the ripening pomegranates about to burst open. The pomegranate, or grained apple, is one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the world and has a rich symbolism and meaning.

Living Stones - A Spiritual Tour of Southwark Cathedral

The tour began outside in Humphrey’s Yard, where the Dean, The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn, proudly showed us three new corbels at aisle level on the choir, which were made by stone carvers at the City and Guilds College in Kennington and installed in August last year. They represent Evelyn Sharp, a local suffragist, Doorkins the Cathedral cat and PC Wayne Marques, who was one of the First Responders on the night of the terrorist attack on London Bridge on 3rd June 2017 – he was recently awarded the George Medal.

Church Times Feature-A Parish Remembers

It was a great honour to be asked to write a feature article for the Armistice Centenary edition of The Church Times. The article can be viewed online on the Church Times website here. 
The article describes the research I undertook into the names of the men listed on the war memorial in Christ Church Southgate and how this history was developed, by other members of the parish, during the course of the centenary. 

Start:Stop-Living Stones

Thank you for joining us for Start:Stop. This reflection will last around ten minutes, followed by a period of silence and prayer. The prayer response is on the sheet which you can pick up on the table at the entrance to the church.  Please come and go as your schedule dictates. We begin with a short bible reading, which can be found on page 250 in the New Testament section of the Bible.