God with us, we give thanks for Mary: for her courage and her joy, and for her faith and trust in you. GIve us courage and joy, faith and trust as we too seek to follow you and seek to discern your presence, and carry you with us as we follow your way.   We…Continue reading Interecessions – The Feast of Mary 2021

Any liturgy associated with Mary seems bound to be littered with words such as ‘obedience’, ‘humility’ and ‘lowliness’’. Presumably the ‘lowliness’ comes from Mary’s song, The Magnificat,: for he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden’. But if you look at this passage in the original Greek, the word is ‘humiliation’. This word is used…Continue reading Sermon – The Feast of Mary 2021

Lord Jesus, You came to us as One who serves. We pray for the world you gave to us, for political and national leaders; that they will seek the good of all, putting aside the temptation of personal gain and resisting the lure of power for its own sake. You taught us that those would…Continue reading Intercessions – The Feast of St. Oswald 2021

John’s Gospel has no account of the Last Supper. Instead it is conveyed through passages like the one we’ve just heard – but they are very dense and hard to grasp.   Today I’m going to focus on the bits about bread. These are: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will…Continue reading Sermon – Proper 14 Year B 2021

  Jesus, bread of life, we pray for your church, that, it may be a place of compassion giving generously to help people in need, and also a place where spirits and souls are tended, fed and healed. As Christians, bless and guide us as we follow you; feed us with the bread that lasts…Continue reading Intercessions – Proper 13 Year B 2021

Proper 13 2021 It wouldn’t be an exaggeration for me to say that I spent several hours contemplating today’s Gospel  before I even began to think about writing my sermon. I really struggle with this passage from John. I struggle because Jesus seems to berate the crowd who followed him. They were poor folk who…Continue reading Sermon Proper 13 Year B 2021

A reminder, once again of the life of St Oswald.  Oswald was a member of the Irthing family – there’s still a village just east of Carlisle called Irthington. He was born around 604, the son of the Northumbrian King Aethelfrith. A victim of political change Oswald became a refugee: he spent his childhood in…Continue reading Sermon – Oswald, King, Saint, Martyr 2021

God of love, we pray for your church in all its traditions and variety, that power will always be used for good, never to exploit, shame or harm. We pray for church leaders and safeguarding officers, And we pray for those who are victims of the misuse of power, for their healing, and for justice.…Continue reading Intercessions – Proper 10 Year B 2021

    The story of the beheading of John the Baptist is a study on the use of power.    We are told that Herod had divorced his wife and married his brother’s wife. He had the power to repudiate his wife – she would have had no say in the matter. She would have…Continue reading Sermon – Proper 10 Year B 2021

For many years humans have believed that we can have as much as we want, or at least, as much as we can afford. We have had a belief in a world of endless resources; a world where everyone can have more, where nothing is rationed or limited. We are, of course, beginning to learn…Continue reading Sermon – Proper 6 Year B 2021