What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Christmas Day Sermon 2012

    Many of you will be aware that I recently have returned from a big sabbatical trip to churches in Canada and the United States.

    I was there to learn and reflect and grow and I did that by making contact with the most interesting folk I could find in church life on the other side of the North Atlantic.

    Inevitably I spent quite a lot of time poking around churches over there and coming from this cathedral, I was interested in what cathedrals over there were up to.

    Which is how I found myself in the National Cathedral in Washington DC just a day or two after the American Election in November.

    It is a mighty building. Far bigger than we are but when I saw it, it was not looking its best. Still recovering from an earthquake which wobbled all its stonework, they have netting strung all across the nave to catch falling fragments. So you stand in this enormous church unable to look up and appreciate the great spaces.

    Unable to look up, instead I went down. For underneath the nave is a maze of twisty passages which lead (more…)

4 responses to “Sermon for Michaelmas”

  1. Eamonn Avatar
    Eamonn

    ‘breaking open the same word of God and finding it feeds us all according to our earthly needs and god given personalities’.

    Ought to be emblazoned over the door of every church.

    Reply
  2. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    Azrael – is that not the named fourth great archangel?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Oh, I knew someone was going to get picky about other Archangels.

      I deliberately said something about them being named in the bible. Raphael sneaks in because of Tobit.

      I think if you want to bicker you’ve a better case with Uriel than Azrael.

      Azrael is better know in Islam and Sikhism (oddly) than in Christianity. Uriel meanwhile gets a singsong in the Creation. However, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael have got a bit more of a secure biblical foundation.

      Reply
  3. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    The more archangels the better, mind you …

    Reply

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