Category: Reflections

Week 3: The complexity of relationships

The Mystery of Everything – a Lent course based around the film ‘The Theory of Everything’ Week 3: The complexity of relationships It’s not easy to give reflections without having the film, ‘The Theory of Everything’, based on a book by Jane Hawking with her story of hers and Stephen’s life together, but for those of...

Week 2: The enigma of weakness

The Mystery of Everything – a Lent course based around the film ‘The Theory of Everything’ Week 2: The enigma of weakness It’s not easy to give reflections without having the film, ‘The Theory of Everything’, based on a book by Jane Hawking with her story of hers and Stephen’s life together, but for those of...

Week 1 The experience of wonder

The Mystery of Everything – a Lent course based around the film ‘The Theory of Everything’ Week 1: The experience of Wonder It’s not easy to give reflections without having the film, ‘The Theory of Everything’, based on a book by Jane Hawking with her story of hers and Stephen’s life together, but for those of...

Lent Study: ‘The Mystery of Everything’

‘The Mystery of Everything’ is a new and original Lent course by Hilary Brand, which takes the multi-award winning film about Stephen Hawking, ‘The Theory of Everything’, as its starting point. The course explores ways in which the mysteries of the universe and of everyday life – and the acceptance that we have more questions than answers – can reinvigorate our faith and spiritual journey. The course is based around five weekly group sessions entitled: ‘The experience of wonder’, ‘The enigma of weakness’, ‘The complexity of relationships’, ‘The encounter with frailty’ and ‘The hope beyond brokenness’.

We shall run two sessions:

Tuesdays, 7.30–9.00 pm, starting on Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Wednesdays, 1.00–2.30 pm, starting on Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Everybody welcome

Salt of the Earth: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Produced by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland Day 1 – Let the Stone be Rolled away Ezekiel 37:12–14 I am going to open your graves. Psalm 71:19–23 Your power and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. Romans 8:15–21 We suffer with him so that we may also be glorified. Matthew 28: 1–10 He...

John Bradley: A Last Word

Dying, and yet we live (2 Corinthians 6:9) I’ve been at death’s door several times but so far found it not wheelchair accessible, but it looks as if this time I might manage it. Frank Sinatra sang that as he faced ‘life’s final curtain’, at least he could say, ‘I did it my way’ and that...

Sermon- Light in dark times: explaining our theme – Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Advent is an invitation to make a pause in our busy lives. A great opportunity to examine our lives.

This year our theme for Advent is: Light in dark times.

Light and darkness are very well-known Christian metaphors that represent constant struggle between the forces of good and evil. We can find the use of this metaphor also in other religions, literature, music, drama, art and film among others ( to read more click on title)

Advent Meditations 2015: Light in Dark Times – Week 3: Glimpses of Light

Glimpses of Light Philippians 4:4–8 I wish you joy in the Lord always. Again I say, all joy be yours. Be know to everyone for your consideration of others. The Lord is near; do not be anxious, but in everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God, which is beyond...

Remembrance Sunday – How do we live as God calls us to do?

We all have our own stories to tell – the things that we remember, that have been good positive memories or painful difficult ones. Sometimes things turn out well, despite the difficulties, and sometimes they don’t. In times of war, people so often find themselves running- sometimes to safety, sometimes to even greater danger and they may find that people help them or they may not. But it’s not just the big international situations of conflict that may be part of our story. We may have been bullied: at school, at work, at home. We may have neighbours we can’t cope with. We may have conflicts at home, in our churches, our neighbourhoods. And in all this Matthew’s gospel has Jesus telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. How do we begin to do that? Is it even reasonable to expect us to? ( to read more click on the title)

Many who are first will be last and the last will be first

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Mark 10:17-21

Sometimes when we think we have everything, God challenges us to realise that we’ve maybe got it wrong. Amos, who never really wanted to be a prophet, had to tell the people that it was justice and the way they ran their economic affairs that really mattered, rather than their worship and words about God. The young man in the gospel story had to learn the same lesson. He’d kept all the commandments- what more did he need to do? The answer was deceptively simple: put God first, not what you think will give you security.

So what is the lesson we need to learn when we look at how to manage our affairs, as individuals, as a church, as a community?

What are Harvest Festivals all about?

Deuteronomy 26:1–11, Matthew 6:25–33

Harvests are fragile times. Will there be enough to eat and still to plant for next year? OK – yes be thankful when everything comes right, but what about when the harvest fails? What about droughts and floods? And how does our celebration of harvest work in with the new UN sustainable development goals? The passage from Deuteronomy is about giving thanks for harvest, but more than that, it’s about recognising the God who has led the people out of captivity, a life of death and hopelessness, into freedom in the promised land. Does that sound familiar at all? And when Matthew speaks about not being anxious about food and clothing, it’s in the context of placing our trust, our priority on God, who cares for all of creation. The world has enough for us all. It can be a safe space for us all, despite its fragility. But we need to believe that all of creation matters and every person within that. And if we believe it, then live it. Maybe that’s what the Harvest Festivals we celebrate in our churches are really all about.