Come away and rest

A person reading is slightly obscured by books in the foreground

Bishop Steven encourages clergy to ‘come away and rest’ during the summer months, making space for time off and honouring the Sabbath.

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A message for Lent

A sermon for the beginning of Lent, preached in St Mary’s Iffley and Keble College Chapel on 11th February. The readings for the day were 2 Kings 2.1-12; 2 Corinthians 4.3-6 and Mark 2.1-9.

A New Year’s Day message

Bishop Steven shares his reflections on 2023 and looks ahead to the year to come.

A Christmas Day message

Bishop Steven shares his message of joy at given at a service at Christ Church Cathedral on Christmas Day.

A Christmas Reflection on the Lord’s Prayer

This Christmas season as many people may be feeling alone, feeling the pressure of the busyness of preparations, missing loved ones or struggling to get into the spirit of Christmas as they face conflict at home and around the world. The Bishop of Oxford reflects on the Lord’s Prayer, looking at Christmas through the lens of the familiar words we have been taught by Jesus himself.

Make Christ known in our lives and through our words

May we all do our best to follow in the way of Christ, in gentleness and love, to be a more Christ-like Church in this time of great peril for our world, and to make Christ known in our lives and through our words.

Safeguarding Sunday service

Over 200 people came together in our cathedral church on Sunday 19 November to give thanks for the work of our Parish Safeguarding Officers and all those who serve with them, to pray for the safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults across the churches and chaplaincies of our diocese and to commit ourselves afresh to this ministry which we share.

Existential risk in this and future decades

So great are the challenges we face, that this and any government will need deeper humility combined with greater practical wisdom to lead the nation forward. I focus my remarks on my own two areas of focus in this House: the climate and artificial intelligence – both areas of existential risk in this and future decades.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God

Peace is far more than a truce: an absence of conflict, violence and war. Peace is the presence of human flourishing, of well being, of harmony, of lives well lived from childhood to old age. Shalom describes the world we long for; the world we pray for Sunday by Sunday; the world each of us is trying to build.
Spirit of God awakens a new life, both dead and alive, detail of stained glass window by Sieger Koder in church of Saint John in Piflas, Germany

Rooted in God the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The future of humankind is not unlimited enhancement, mechanisation and automation says Bishop Steven in his presidential address to Diocesan Synod. Artificial Intelligence has great potential but also carries significant jeopardy. Christians need to engage in an informed way as this technology develops for the sake of present and future generations, remembering that we have a distinctive understanding of human dignity and person hood and what it means to be human.