On your way into the city there is a billboard that’s designed to catch your attention. The familiar black and red background has remained the same for some years; but the words have changed. Read more

I want to talk today about faith and doubt – and about women.

When you’re a priest you often don’t know what’s going to happen next. In one home I went into a few years ago I met a blue-eyed little blonde who immediately sat on my lap nestling in my arms. That doesn’t happen very often to me nowadays, and only when they’re as young as this one was - under two years old.

Soon afterwards that same day, in another home, I met a neurotic dog. A very neurotic dog. I couldn’t get near her. She just cowered in the far corner of the room. Her owner assured me she was like that with all visitors.

Now what did these two incidents have in common? Read more

Click here for the latest pew sheet: pew sheet: 21/12/08

On a pillar at the back of the church is a plaque. It commemorates a former churchwarden who died in 1923. But it’s not so much the person, but what was done in memory of his life that I want to refer to today. The plaque reads: ‘The electric light was installed in this church in memory of John William Bell.’ 
Now the image of an electric light which can be turned on with a flick of a switch is relevant to our gospel. For the second time in a row, we find ourselves on the banks of the river Jordan, listening, along with a large crowd from the surrounding towns, to a man whose words are not for the fainthearted. Read more

Click here for the latest pew sheet: pew sheet: 14/12/08

Typically, the focus of the second Sunday in Advent is John the Baptist. We’re drawn by him into the wilderness places of our lives to hear a message which is as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. If we are to experience the fullness of God’s life, of God’s love for us, we need to remove the dead wood of old hurts and habits, the tangles of twisted relationships, and to allow the new growth to come forth. As Isaiah says, we need to ‘prepare a way for the Lord.’
But today I want to change tack a little. Read more