Sermons

Resurrection

This sermon was delivered by Bishop Steven at the Choral Eucharist on Easter Day (1st April) at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.  Happy Easter. The Lord is risen. Today is the 1st April and it seems a very good day to announce my plans…

Joy to the World 

A very happy Christmas. One of the best carol services I took part in last week was in prison. There were about 100 prisoners and staff and volunteers gathered for the service. The very ordinary dining room was turned into a chapel. The music…

The Great Identity Crisis

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15.13) Jesus words from John 15 have a special resonance this evening: Remembrance Sunday. They are inscribed on many a war memorial or chapel built…

On the value of prophets and short sighted seers

I visited Greyfriars church in Reading yesterday for the 9.30 and 11.30 am services.  Greyfriars are part way through a sermon series on Micah and the sermon was on passages in Micah 2 and 3. 

Wisdom at the crossroads

A sermon at the institution of the Revd. Dr. Will Lamb as Vicar of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin with St. Cross and St Peter in the East

An Easter Jubliate

Matins on Easter day is a song of joy.  Heart deep, world wide, heaven high, life long. For forty days the Church has fasted.  We have denied ourselves the Alleluia and the Gloria. We have walked the way of the cross.  We have journeyed…
Oils

Lift up your hearts

Thank you for your welcome to the Diocese over these last seven months. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers. I have been asked many times “How can we pray for you?” I have normally quoted some words spoken by the Bishop in the ordinal:…

Mercy and Judgement

A reflection for Ash Wednesday “Blessed are the merciful”, says Jesus, “for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5.7). “Mercy is the very foundation of the church’s life” writes Pope Francis (Amoris Laetitia, 310) I want to…

How to be angry

My subject this evening is anger and “How to be angry”.  It’s not a theme we address very often.  What part does anger play in our lives and in our world?  If we could measure it, it seems to me the sum total of anger in the world would…