• Mary Magdalene – Pray for Us

    Am terribly saddened to hear news just in from the Bishop of California that two of the icons of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco have been destroyed.

    One was of John Donne and this one was of Mary Magdalene.
    Mary Mag

    I saw her every day when I spend three weeks living at Grace Cathedral last year. She always seemed to me to be particulary striking, serene and somehow unsettling. She was a bearer of the divine, in other words.

    There are images which some people cannot bear. This proved to be one one such.

    Mary Magdalene and John Donne – pray with us for a world free from violence, free from attack, free from fears within and fears without.

    Amen.

5 responses to “Sermon – 16 February 2014”

  1. Jimmy Avatar

    “The pack mentality of Episcopal collegiality”
    Practice this line a little-did you?

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      Trots off the tongue.

  2. Fr. Ron Smith Avatar

    Thank you, Father. I enjoy your prompts to the Church at large – to come out of its chrysalis and bring the Good News of Christ to a needy world. I’ve taken the liberty of putting this article on my own web-site – kiwianglo – I hope you don’t mind. My response to the Sunday Gospel was much like your own. Agape, Fr.Ron

  3. Lawrence Rosenfeld Avatar
    Lawrence Rosenfeld

    I convene the Committee of Lay Persons who support our parish’s Seminarians. We are, in part, tasked with giving feedback when s/he preaches.

    We “did” Matt 5:21-37 at Bible Study Wednesday evening under the leadership of our bright, energetic, capable and well-prepared exchange seminarian from Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and then she preached on Sunday. So by the time Fr. Kelvin’s sermon reached my in-tray, I had had the better part of a week to wrestle with this difficult passage – and the advantage of much discussion about it.

    My personal feeling is that I want to come away from Mass or Bible study with a renewed and possibly enhanced sense of how my faith informs my everyday life and my relationships with others. Turns out that over the past month our little neighborhood has been the scene of a certain amount of conflict. The irony is that the prime source of the conflict has to do with some of our neighbors trying to “build community,” in ways that have actually driven a wedge between them and others.

    Thinking about the Gospel reading (and the lectionary bit from I Corinthians) in the context of my life away from Church has been incredibly profound. Thank you so much for your sermon which added dimension to my ruminations and allowed me to keep the inner dialogue ongoing and fresh.

  4. Fr Steve Avatar
    Fr Steve

    As a preacher I was pleased to “hear your voice”
    The content was of course ‘spot on’
    Very much appreciate your public ministry (mine is drawing to a close) and wish you well with the Rectorial Election.

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