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Easter Sermon
Here's the preaching of the resurrection from this morning's Great High Mass. If Christ were not risen, we would not be gathered here. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. A number of years ago, before I came to St Mary’s, I was engaged in the…
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Triduum #6 The Feast of Feasts
Easter is the Feast of Feasts and that means celebrating in a very special way. I know myself that I need to go through all the passion first. I know that nothing feels like Easter when you’ve gone through the whole triduum. I claim every year that the experience will change your life if you…
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Triduum #6 The Vigil
Some churches celebrate the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday in the evening. Some do it on Easter Day in the morning. Which is right? Well, if you think that the origins of the Easter Vigil lie in the practise of the early church then there’s some justification for either, or perhaps better, both. The idea…
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Triduum #5 – Holy Saturday
Well Holy Saturday is an odd day and no mistake. Jesus is gone, he’s in the tomb and all the world waits. Well, all the world gets on with its own business generally. There are no sacraments today. The font is empty of water, there is no Eucharist, there will be no weddings. In St…
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Good Friday 2011 Devotional Address
Here is what I had to say this afternoon during the three hours. It was the sixth of six devotional addresses all given by clergy from St Mary's. You can catch up with them all on the St Mary's website by clicking here. In the name of God the Father and of the Son and…
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Triduum#4 – Good Friday Evening
Generally in St Mary’s we have a Good Friday service or devotion of some kind in the evening, but it does differ in character from one year to the next. In recent years, we’ve had a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion, a Tenebrae service and services like tonight’s which is simply a meditation in words and…
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Triduum #3 – The Three Hours
St Mary’s is actually the first church that I’ve worked in which has had the tradition of three hour devotions on Good Friday, so I know well enough that its not the only thing to do on Good Friday. However, its a very particular devotion and one that I’ve grown to love. Indeed, its hard…
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Triduum #2 – Veneration of the Cross
At St Mary’s we have a service of Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday morning at 0930. Its a very simple service – a few prayers and an opportunity again to reflect on the Passion readings. Here we use the Passion from the gospel of the year on Palm Sunday and John’s Passion on…
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Triduum #1 – The Maundy Thursday
Every year I make the promise to people that if you keep the Triduum at St Mary’s (or any church that keeps it) then it will change your life and change your faith. Indeed, I usually say that it is like a lens through which we should see everything else that we do in church…
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St Mary’s Newsletter
Just this weekend I’ve installed some new software in order to make it easier to send newsletters to the congregation. There was a working system up until about six months ago, but it failed when I moved servers and it has been one of the longstanding entries on my to-do list to reinstate some kind…