Thought for the Day-Freedom

Paul and Silas in Prison, Washington Allston, Kemper Art Museum

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Tuesday 12th May 2026 based on the text of Acts 16.22-34.

Sermon-Hidden in Plain Sight

The Black Boy, William Lindsay Windus, 1844

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 8th February 2026 based on the texts of Romans 8.18-25 and Matthew 6.25-end on the day the church marked Racial Justice Sunday.

Sermon-Who is the Greatest?

The Second Lord Baltimore Cecilius (Cecil) Calvert (1605-1675) by Gerard Soest, c. 1670

A sermon given during Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields at 11am on Sunday 24th August 2025 (Saint Bartholomew, Apostle) based on the text of Acts 5.12-16, Luke 22.24-30 and referencing the International Day for the Remembrance of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its Abolition. The service was followed by the baptism of Ava Coumbe.

Sermon-Multiplying Freedom

Am Not I A Man and A Brother, 1800 - International Slavery Museum

A sermon given during a service of Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 3rd August 2025, the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, based on the texts of Romans 6.19-23 and Mark 8.1-9

Thought for the Day-The Price of Freedom

Robert Wedderburn, Museum of Colour

A brief ‘Thought for the Day’ given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on July 30th 2025 based on the text of Matthew 13.44-46.

Today the Church of England remembers anti-slavery campaigners William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano (who lived in the area and was buried just off Tottenham Court Road) and Thomas Clarkson. It is perhaps also a day when here at St Giles especially we should remember Robert Wedderburn, whose book ‘The Horrors of Slavery’ he dedicated to Wilberforce, who was a frequent visitor while Wedderburn was incarcerated – branded one of the most dangerous reformers in England.

Sermon - A Tale of Two Letters

'A Slave's Plea for Freedom' - 4th August 1723 (Lambeth Palace Library)

A sermon given at the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 22nd October 2023 (Year A) based on readings from Isaiah 45.1-7, 1 Thessalonians 1.1-10 and Matthew 22.15-22 and resources prepared by the Church of England marking Black History Month.

Start:Stop - I have called you by name, you are mine

From My Naam is Februarie - Slave Calendar produced by Cape Town’s Iziko Slave Lodge

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can listen to an audio version of this reflection at this link.

This week we turn to words which come from what some call the second part of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, which addresses the people of Israel in exile in Babylon; an event Isaiah prophesied as a divine judgement against Israel for turning away from God. Instead of showing who God is by their living lives in accordance with His commandments, society had become riven by injustice and inequality, with the powerful abusing their wealth and influence for personal gain.

In this passage, Isaiah does not proclaim the failures of Israel but instead he is used by God to provide an ‘oracle of salvation’; offering hope at a time when the gods of the people of Babylon seemed stronger than the God of Israel. 

Start:Stop - Paul the Persuader

We are all one in Jesus Christ by Soichi Watanabe, 2009

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, in which we stop for ten minutes to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link.

Whether it’s the issue of Brexit or Free School Meals, our news bulletins are never short of personalities attempting to practice the art of persuasion. At times it can feel as though we are inundated with requests to sign online petitions aiming to precipitate yet another policy u-turn. Perhaps we have put pen to paper, writing to our MP or others in authority, encouraging them to change their position on an issue of concern to us.

Paul’s letter to Philemon might be seen as the epitome of persuasive Christian letter-writing and, I think, has much to teach us in this regard;