Blog

  • Guess the country of origin

  • Stained Beauty?

    Have I ever said out loud that generally speaking, I think stained glass is one of the more over-rated art forms….?

  • A sermon for Y’All

    Here is a sermon that I preached on Sunday. You can find the audio here. (This one is more fun to listen to than to read, I think). I have learned in the course of my travels that it sometimes takes people a few minutes to atune to the way I speak. I’ve learned that…

  • The Pink List

    I see that I’ve been named on the Pink List – the list of prominent LBGT people produced by the Independent on Sunday. Feel hugely honoured and humbled to be keeping company with such heros. Check them out: Pink List

  • Not merely patronising

    Bishop Victoria Matthews is not merely patronising, she is actually wrong. Wait, you want me to back up a bit? OK. The story so far: We’ve been considering the idea of an Anglican Covenant for years and this year the Scottish Episcopal Church decided to reject it and did so in a very clear synodical…

  • Six Points for Preachers

    I’m scheduled to attend a conference on preaching soon so inevitably I’m thinking about how preaching works and about how to extend my homiletic repertoire. Someone asked me a good question yesterday – “How did you improve as a preacher”. It is a good question because it is affirming and something that all preachers should…

  • Is it a sin?

    Is it a sin, I find myself asking rhetorically, for men and women to be treated differently by institutions? Is it a sin for women and men to have unequal access to power and privilege. My own view is that it is not merely wrong for gender to be a determining factor in what someone…

  • Who we are

    Right, here is a little verbatim to get you thinking. The scene is a concert given by a famous jazz musician a few weeks ago in an American cathedral. I’ve been nudged to the front to sit with the bigwigs. As we sit waiting for the music, I hear this conversation going on somewhere behind…

  • Cathedral as Emergent Community

    Cathedrals are doing quite well. Now, as with all generalisations and stereotypes, this is both sometimes true and sometimes not. However, it is something that quite a lot of people are talking about. The recent Grubb Institute report had some astonishing statistics suggesting that large portions of the adult population in England had entered a…

  • Guest Post: How to Hear a Sermon by Rosemary Hannah

    In this guest post, Rosemary Hannah reflects on how to hear a sermon. Rosemary teaches in TISEC, has just written the definitive biography of the Third Marquess of Bute and is a member of the congregation at St Mary’s. ‘I always listen to the sermon, knowing the word of God will reach me through it,’…