New Kid on the Blog

Again with the sermon! Yep, for a little while I will be posting the sermons I preach here at the blog... the podcast is not being updated quite yet!  Besides, posting here gives more space for comment and conversation, should you so wish. Today's sermon was inspired by some conversations had recently at the Clergy Day for the Diocese of British Columbia , by an excellent presentation by the Rev'd Canon Dr Richard LeSueur , by looking again at the Vision for our Diocese , and by looking back at an earlier (excellent) sermon by colleague Rev'd Canon Kevin Arndt and my own sermon from a year ago ! So here's the taster, as usual click [more] to get the full text! Malachi 3:1–4 Hebrews 2:14–18 Luke 2:22–40 The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2015) Year B RCL Principal This last Thursday we had a Clergy Day, one of our twice a year opportunities to meet up with colleagues from all the Islands of this Diocese, and to have some input and c...

Today's sermon had a lot of reaction, and because our usual podcaster is out of commission for a while I thought it might be helpful to post it on the New Kid Deep Stuff blog - so here's a taster, and you might want to go off and visit following the link at the end of this bit :-) Comments, as always, welcome - join the conversation here or at the original post.. . Readings The Conversion of St Paul (2015) Year B RCL Principal To Be Converted, or continued, or both… Today is, as you may have guessed, the festival of the Conversion of St Paul.  So I am going to begin by asking - as one should to an Anglican audience - "how many of you have been converted…?!??!" No, not really. I could tell you my conversion story, though… imagine a tubby little boy who looks just like me but without a beard, oh and mousey browny-blond hair.  This little lad is in a small chapel tent in a field of tents in a place called Polzeath (or Polzeth as many call it) and he’s chatti...

There has been a LOT going on lately, trip to Vancouver with family, Synod, meetings  - plus everything has had a feeling of being 'up in the air' as we consider and reconsider vision - for the Parish, for our Diocese, and in our everyday life. But the everyday rituals and events of Church life continue, including our Midweek Eucharists.  So here is a sermon what I wrote for today.  Taster here, full text at New Kid Deep Stuff (click [more] for link) James Hannington Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and His Companions Martyrs, 1885 — Commemoration Matthew 10.16–22 16  ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.  17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;  18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.  19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you...

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' ...

At our late Spring Church Retreat which took place in Camp Pringle on the beautiful shores of Shawnigan Lake in May I took a workshop/lecture/seminar thing for which I wrote my notes out longhand in a notebook - very oldschool - and it meant that I didn’t have them available to share. At the request of a number of members of the Church and the Quo Vadis group I have transcribed them and offer them here and at St John The Divine Staff Blog for comment and consideration! Religious but not Spiritual The trend to call oneself “spiritual but not religious” has reached epic proportions,  and so has the response within the community of faith which is the Church.  One book, by  Lillian Daniel , is entitled When Spiritual But Not Religious Is Not Good Enough  and expresses her frustration at what is, in her understanding, an epidemic of ‘self-made, self-centred, self-absorbed religion, passed off as an innovative spiritual approach’.  As she writes she t...

To keep things moving on the blog, here's the sermon from Sunday.  I have been thinking about the purpose and nature of preaching lately - but such lofty thoughts will need to wait....

Now I am not saying anything I have not said before, in fact I have even used some of the illustrations before - eg the Ray Harryhausen reference - but why this sermon for The Presentation of Christ has felt so difficult to write is a surprise to me.  Perhaps it is the way I've felt the need to put lots of things I have discussed over years into one place.  Also, I seem to be 'outing' myself as an uber liberal - but I am not too concerned about that... The Presentation of Christ Presentation (20 14 ) Year A RCL Principal Malachi 3.1-5 Hebrews 2.14-18 Luke 2.22-40 A Sword Will Pierce your Own Heart also God is here! You’ve already heard that phrase a few times this morning.   That bold proclamation which is the foundation of today’s Gospel reading – when Anna and Simeon encounter the baby Jesus and proclaim ‘God is here’ – both in word and in action.   Simeon through the words we have come to know as the Nunc Dimitus, Anna with words of p...

What Am I After All What am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; I stand apart to hear--it never tires me. To you your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?                                                                                                       Walt Whitman   (1819-1892) What complex things we human beings are.  At any given moment we combine layers of experience, belief, fear, hope, love, truth, deception and so much more as we present ourselves to the world around.  I love Whitman's poem above, which seems to express something of that complexity of our identity, and encouraging us to ...

Only a few days late! Enjoy... Lent 2 (2008) Year A RCL Principal Genesis 12.1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4.1-5,13-17 John 3.1-17 Different Disciples One of the problems I have had with Christian life is not about being a Christian – it’s about how other people see Christians. Apparently we are all the same, often thought of as goody-goody’s, not really connected to the real world, we’re hypocrites, and we’re judgemental. And that’s just the comments I’ve received from my visits around the villages – my usual response is, ‘well, there’s always room for one more’ On the other hand, one of the great joys of being a Clergyperson who doesn’t really fit the stereotype is that I can shock people into thinking about whether there prejudice or stereotypes about the Church have any grounding in reality! They usually don’t – to be honest I don’t know any clergyperson that fits any of the stereotypical wet, slightly bumptious, clueless but amusing picture painted by the sitcoms. [more]