New Kid on the Blog

So time to share a sermon, this one from July 7th, to give a little background to where my thinking processes have moved to since I regularly wrote here sooooo long ago, and to give an idea of where I think we should be going, as a church, as people of God, and as those who seek to follow Christ... With our new church website I can't embed it here, but here's the link: https://www.stjohnthedivine.bc.ca/podcasts/media/2019-07-07-let-us-not-grow-weary-of-doing-what-is-right

Yesterday was the middle of Pride Week here in Victoria and St John's marked it, in partnership with Christ Church Cathedral and our wider Diocese of Islands and Inlets (aka the Diocese of British Columbia), with our regular Eucharist in the morning, and with a special Eucharist in the evening at which our Bishop Logan McMenamie presided and preached. It is a sermon worth sharing - so here's the link to the recording of it: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjohnthedivine/episodes/2017-07-06T13_09_14-07_00 Some of what Bishop Logan said related to my own thoughts earlier in the morning - which wasn't recorded, but I have the script, so I thought I would share it here too! Cast Out I want to begin by sharing something that you might not know, but it’s important information that I think bears sharing in this hallowed setting. It’s just this – there’s a new Spider-Man movie released this week ! I know, exciting, eh? It’s the third ‘reboot’ – of the fra...

As my dulcet tones (ahem) have been absent from this blog for a while, here's the podcast of this last Sunday's sermon....

After my wonderings about preaching ( What are we doing when we preach ?) Karma decided to bite me a la derriere and I found myself having to prepare three sermons for today - Two Eucharists and a funeral address.  Rather than post the two Eucharistic Sermons here I will put them up on New Kid Deep Stuff and you can peruse/read/comment/respond as you wish. The funeral address was for the funeral, won't be putting that one up! Same set of readings ... different groups of people, though some overlap (so I couldn't cheat by using the same sermon twice!} So here's what I ended up with: One, thinking on the Gospel reading for today, is concerned with ' Shaking the Dust from our feet' The other, using the Psalm and Proverbs reading for today is talking around ideas of ' The word, the law and The Word' . And the common (sometimes) artificial contrast betweee 'Law and Grace' in the church - one which isn't a Jewish understanding of 'Law' ...

I feel the need to write, but can honestly say I don't quite know what to say.  This last six months has been a whirl of activity and colour, life, questions, worship, prayer, discover, reinforcement and faith, hope and love.  I feel very warmly welcomed and quickly at home here as part of the congregation of St John the Divine , as part of this Diocese of British Columbia and in this city of Victoria . Sketch by Martin Machacek. The Church is active, vibrant, welcoming and alive.  The people who I am fortunate enough to count as colleagues are dedicated and fun to work with, those who give so much time in voluntary service to the Church are committed and faithful.  There are many activities which take place in the course of each week and the church offers a variety of worship, groups, events, ministries and social action.  Of course it's not perfect, nor is the Rector who serves it.  But we, together, are seeking to celebrate those aspects of the ...

It's been a good, thoughtful Advent.  The Advent Doors project which I talked about in my last post have been very well received and highlighted a lot of creative ability within the members of St John the Divine, Victoria . I've also been writing for the staff blog - including a tribute to Nelson Mandel a, some thoughts about changes we are making/have made at the Churc h, about the process of choosing a Bishop for British Columbia (a very different affair from Episcopal appointments in the Church of England) and some reflections on Social Media and retelling the Christmas story . I keep on preaching, with sermons podcast each week, which you are welcome to listen to and comment on.  As an Arch-liberal I a surprised I don't have quite as many responses as I thought I would!  Lots of support here in the congregation! If you want to have a catch up on the Advent Sermons, then here they are embedded... Advent 1 Advent 2 Advent 3 Advent 4