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John Stott RIP
The Rev John Stott has died. To many reading this, that may not mean much, but John Stott was had a phenomenal influence on the church and it would be wrong not to mark his passing. Stott was, for almost all of his ministry, connected with All Souls, Langham Place in London. He was first…
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What are you reading?
Oh, thank you for asking. It has been a while. Here’s a quick list of what is part read and scattered about. A God of One’s Own – Ulrich Beck – for the modern world to survive, religions need to civilise themselves by encouraging people to chose a God of their own. File under philosophy…
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Congratulations
Congratulations to all still celebrating the arrival of marriage equality in New York. There seems to me to be an unsatisfactory situation in the Episcopal church dioceses over there at the moment with different bishops recommending very different things. These range from saying that clergy in their diocese cannot conduct such marriages to saying that…
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In the press
There’s a good report in the Herald on same-sex couples being allowed to marry for the first time in New York state. There’s a brief comment on the situation in Scotland, where gay couples can enter into a Civil Partnership and then if they wish have a blessing. Part of the report is a bit…
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Dealing with Sundays like this
This was one of those weekends when the sound of preachers ripping up their previously prepared sermons could be heard across the land. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes you just can’t get into the pulpit with what you have previously prepared, for the world has moved on. Everything has changed and something needs to…
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St Strumpet?
The image above is one of our representations of Mary Magdalene whose feast falls today. It comes from Gwyneth Leech’s murals in St Mary’s. We turned towards this image this morning whilst reading the gospel of the day. It is a noli me tangere image – do not touch me yet, a recollection of her…
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Busy, Opinionated and Gobby
Am spending time today gathering material and writing stuff for inspires, the printed magazine of the Scottish Episcopal Church. I’m the editor of the mag but for complicated reasons not to be gone in to here, I’m being a more hands-on editor this month than I have been hitherto and will be commissioning articles for…
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Sermon Preached on 17 July 2011
Here is this week's sermon, which was great fun to preach.
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All Hail Sir George Gilbert Scott
All Hail Sir George Gilbert Scott who would have been 200 years old today had he lasted. Sir George was the architect of St Mary’s Cathedral and many other buildings including some of those at the University of Glasgow, the Albert Memorial in London, St Pancras Station and a couple of dozen other cathedrals and…
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A Reputation for Romance
From what I hear around the West End, St Mary’s has quite a reputation as being one of the best places to find true love. Particularly at Evensong. Who knew?