Professor Richard Carwardine gave a lecture in St Margaret's Church on Tuesday 7 July to mark the 200th anniversary year of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

In his Easter 2009 sermon in Westminster Abbey, the Dean spoke of the contrast between the solemnity of Holy Week and the joy of Easter, between the reality of suffering and the joy of new life. Christians, he said, need to live and work on both sides of the contrast.

Preaching on the 740th anniversary of the relics of St Edward the Confessor being enshrined behind the Abbey’s high altar, the Dean of Westminster spoke of the saint’s remains uniting Christians and pointing us to heaven.

On the Abbey’s dedication festival, the Dean identified the ultimate purpose of the Abbey as to give greater glory to God. That test must be applied to the Abbey’s daily life and work and to any proposed changes.

A special evening of Samuel Johnson readings on the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Dr Johnson. In association with the Johnson Society of London. Readers: Lance Pierson, Karin Fernald, Michael Bundock and David Nokes. Introduced by: The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky

In his All Souls’ Day sermon, the Dean faces the inevitable truth that we shall all die and asks us to be prepared for our own death.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, Nick Spencer, author of Darwin and God, delivers the 2009 Gore lecture, tracing Darwin's religious biography and asking what we can learn from this most courteous and humane of scientists.

Lying behind the modern democratic political system is a shadow structure that acknowledges the Sovereignty of Christ. The Dean said it was an important question how far elected politicians and we personally acknowledge in practice God’s Sovereignty.

‘Nothing less than Christ will do. We are to be imitators of Christ.’

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. Celebrating the Annunciation in Passiontide helps us see both the beauty of God’s creation and the need for atonement between humanity and God.

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Oscar Romero is commemorated as a martyr in the Church of England’s liturgical calendar on 24 March each year. His image is among ten statues of martyrs of the twentieth century placed over the Great West Doors of Westminster Abbey in 1998.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. This evening the Lord Jesus Christ welcomes us to a meal, to supper with him and his closest friends. The occasion is unusual; this will be no ordinary supper. The circumstances are strange, a little disturbing: there are threats and rumours all around. We are in an odd place: the Lord of all has nowhere of his own, nowhere to lay his head, but a room has been found; preparations have been made.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster.It is impossible for us to know what Queen Elizabeth I thought when she signed the Charter but it would not be surprising if she had thought of the turmoil the Abbey had undergone in the previous twenty years. The Charter makes it clear that she intended to end the turmoil. Of this renewed Collegiate Church, the Charter says that it is ‘in all future times to endure and to be inviolably observed.’ And so it has been for the past 450 years. There seems every reason to suppose it will continue as long as there is time on earth.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. The life of Westminster Abbey is so rich in the anniversaries of the men and women who are buried or memorialised here and of the great events that have happened through the thousand years and more of our wonderful story that to say of any year that it is likely to go down in history as remarkable is to make a bold claim. And yet, it is I believe justifiable in relation to this year that we are all experiencing.

Archbishop Tutu in his sermon on Ascension Day says that through worship we must 'open our eyes to the essential sacredness of life' and oppose injustice.

The late and slow emergence of daffodils and tulips after our long cold winter and in our late spring has somehow seemed right this year. In previous years I have often found a worrying mismatch between a blazing spring full of colour and vibrancy and the penitential Lenten mood of self-denial and abstinence. This year, in London anyway, the emergence of spring has, almost if not quite, waited for Easter: as if now nature with the Church is ready to celebrate the arrival of the season of hope and joy and new life.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. Saturday in the Octave of St Edward is set aside as a day when pilgrims are especially welcomed, as they have been since the 12th century, to St Edward’s Shrine. This Sung Eucharist celebrates St Edward’s life and holiness on the day of the national pilgrimage to his shrine.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. The Dean’s sermon for the feast of the dedication, celebrating the consecration of the Abbey Church (current building) on 13 October 1269.

In the Dean’s All Saints’ Day sermon, he recognised the call for Christians, inevitably influenced by the world, to be positively engaged with the world for the sake of the Gospel.

Most of us come to this service tonight with vivid memories of departed relatives and friends, with a sense of loss and with a degree of pain. We remember those we have loved and who have loved us, those we love still, but from whom we are now parted. For some, the sense of loss and pain is recent and sharp; others have come to terms with the loss and find the pain deadened by the years. We know that those from whom we are parted would not have wanted us to grieve – and yet, naturally, we do, even when we are thankful for a long life well lived, or for a period of acute suffering and privation ended. Where death has been sudden or tragic death, we can be left mystified, bewildered as to what happened and why – and what might have been.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. In his sermon at the Midnight Eucharist the Dean of Westminster reflected on the longing that we should see the mystery at the heart of the universe: God’s love.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. In his Christmas day sermon, the Dean of Westminster speaks of the gentle love of God revealed in God’s Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. Today’s feast offers us an opportunity to renew our commitment to receive afresh the grace and power of God through his Word and in his Sacraments so that we can more effectively share his love with others.

A Service of Blessing for the Benedictine Torch took place at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 2 March at 12 noon. The Addresses were given by the Right Reverend Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield and Chairman of Governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome; and the Archabbot of Montecassino. Westminster Abbey was the first non-Roman Catholic Church to host the lighting of the Benedictine Torch.

A Christchurch Earthquake Memorial Service was held at Westminster Abbey on Sunday 27 March 2011. The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall gave an address and The High Commissioner for New Zealand HE Derek Leask read an Address from the country’s Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Key.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. ‘Rise heart; thy Lord is risen.’

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. Yesterday, after six weeks of solemn penance during the Lenten fast, Westminster Abbey rang again with the sound of the Easter song Alleluia as we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. On Good Friday, we remembered the death of Jesus on the Cross, the ultimate sacrifice of self-giving love. Yesterday, Easter Day, we celebrated the new life of the risen Jesus Christ, the vindication of that sacrifice, the guarantee that the triumph of generous service and self-giving love is the secret at the heart of the world, the touchstone for all that is true and good.

Prof. Alister McGrath, one of the world’s leading authorities on Richard Dawkins and the New Atheism, speaks about the challenges of radical secularism. Beginning from the premise that New Atheism is the start of an important theological conversation, Prof McGrath moves on to discuss some of the major themes and a Christian critique of them. *Please note the last few minutes of the talk was not recorded*

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. It is the love of God revealed in our Lord’s life, death and resurrection that is able to transport us to heaven, God’s love alone, his self-giving love.

06 October 2011

In the first of Westminster Abbey’s autumn series of King James Bible lectures Lord Judge lectured on the historic and legal context of the King James Bible and the relationship between the king, the rule of law and the church and our constitutional development.

13 October 2011

In the second of Westminster Abbey’s autumn series of King James Bible lectures Lord Bragg, the author and broadcaster, covered the impact of the King James Bible on cultural life and literature in England between 1611 and now.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams pays tribute to the work of the National Society.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. Our task on the feast of St Edward, in honour of our founder and benefactor, is to re-imagine, to conceive afresh in our minds, the influence and reach of our Christian faith within this nation and the nations of our world and to act and react accordingly.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. As we celebrate the dedication of this church, we whose lives are associated with this holy place - and all who join us in worship today - should dedicate ourselves anew to being the place of God’s glory on earth.

In the final of Westminster Abbey’s autumn series of King James Bible lectures Nick Spencer spoke on the political impact of the Bible, how the British commitment to equality, freedom, democracy and toleration emerge from the biblical roots of our political history.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. The way of the saints is a way we can tread as well as the saints. Our weak wilfulness is no barrier to God, whose love is made perfect in weakness.

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster. In our minds and hearts, this afternoon, as we come to receive the bread and wine, which are the Body and Blood of Christ, the fruits of Christ’s sacrifice, we bring as it were to stand beside us the souls of all those we love and see no longer.

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. What is a good translation? Not one that just allows me to say, when I pick it up, ‘Now I understand’. Of course, if I’m faced with a text in a strange language, I need to be able simply to read it; but a good translation will be an invitation to read again, and to probe, and reflect, and imagine with the text. Rather than letting me say, ‘Now I understand’, it prompts the response, ‘Now the work begins.’