Each Sunday five separate sermons are delivered at Westminster Abbey or St Margaret's. The Abbey's clergy and guest preachers address current theological issues, religion and world events, and the interpretation of biblical texts.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
The first in a series of sermons on ‘What can we realistically believe about God?
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
Continuing with the series on ‘What can we realistically believe about God?’ this looks at the God of the Bible.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
Continuing the series of addresses on what we can realistically believe about God this examines the relation of science to notions of God.
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Jesus did not change water into wine to revive the wedding party but as a sign that his life-giving sacrifice would render obsolete the rituals of the old covenant.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
Continuing with the theme of ‘what can we realistically believe about God?’ this looks at God and suffering.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
The conclusion of the series of address on what we can realistically believe about God
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Within the beauty of the Candlemas celebration, we must discern the battle between light and darkness and align ourselves with Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
The Reverend Dr Jane Hedges, Canon in Residence
During February Jane Hedges is looking at the subject of the Seven Deadly Sins and the series will be continued in March by Dr Nicholas Sagovsky. In this sermon she examines how the list of seven emerged and then talks about the sin of "Sloth" .
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
The Reverend Dr Jane Hedges, Canon in Residence
In the second of the series on the Seven Deadly Sins this sermon looks at the subject of Lust. It explores Biblical attitudes to sexual immorality and goes on to look at the contribution the Church can make in today’s society in encouraging healthy attitudes towards sex and the establishment of stable, loving relationships.
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
‘Nothing less than Christ will do. We are to be imitators of Christ.’
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
Greed has been defined as ‘an excessive, single-minded desire for gain’. Both Old and New Testaments provide stories to warn against greed. It’s all too easy to point the finger at others for being greedy. In a materialist society, we all need to cultivate the antidote to greed: generosity.
The Right Reverend John Oliver, Honorary Chaplain and Trustee of RABI
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
In the story of the prodigal son, the elder brother needs to face the truth and reconciliation too.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
Pride is the sin where our sense of our own power and importance runs out of control, and we end up putting ourselves in the place of God. Pride blinds us to the reality that, wonderful though human beings may be, we are just creatures, like other creatures, and it is good for us humbly to accept what God has willed for us. As Dante says, ‘In his will is our peace’.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
Gluttony is one of the traditional deadly sins. In English, the word is mostly used for overeating, but it can be used of anything done to excess: being a glutton for food or wine or money or sex. We fast in Lent so we can be free from the kinds of excess which choke us spiritually. When we try seriously to confront our gluttony, we begin to feed the wellsprings of joy and generosity which bring fertility to the soul.
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
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
The Times reported ‘stirring scenes’. On 25th April 1916, it said, Anzac Day was ‘celebrated in London and throughout the Dominions.’ King George V and Queen Mary ‘were present at an impressive service in Westminster Abbey, in remembrance of a great deed by those of our brothers who died at Gallipoli … in the high cause of Freedom and Honour’.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
At the start of a series on what we can realistically believe about Jesus this examines Philip Pullman’s book ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.’
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
Jesus looked at in his first century context
Canon Guy Wilkinson, Secretary for Inter-Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
In this month’s matins addresses I have been looking at the question of what we can realistically believe about Jesus, and it would be impossible to address that question without at some time looking at the miracle stories associated with Jesus in the Gospels. What are we to make of them?
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 Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
What historical events lay behind the Resurrection
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
The gift of the Holy Spirit day by day, which we celebrate at Pentecost, frees us from fear and self-regard and focuses our attention on the final purpose and goal of our lives, our chief end: to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
‘May the wounded loving heart of our great God reach and wound our hearts this day with his vulnerable love.’
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
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.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
Over the next few weeks I want to talk about five classics of Christian literature. Each is in its own way a book that helps us pray – to come directly into touch with God.
Reverend Gary Bradley, Chaplain to the Lord Mayor of Westminster
Embracing so much of what Jesus Christ said about leadership, is what we celebrate today as we give thanks for our Lord Mayor and City and pray for them.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
This week I want to look at a longer book, written shortly after The Cloud of Unknowing: The Ladder of Perfection by Walter Hilton. Hilton invites us all, nuns and monks, lay people and clergy, to experience in prayer what God longs to give us – which is above all the gift of his peace.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
Today I want to talk about the most popular of all the fourteenth century mystical writings, The Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich. This is the record of Julian’s own experience, of sixteen visions or ‘shewings’, which she had on 8 and 9 May, 1373.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
This week I shall speak about a book written in Latin, The Imitation of Christ. Thomas à Kempis knows a great deal about the secrets of survival in a world that seems to be spinning out of control. For Thomas, our relationship with Christ is the key to living with serenity and joy.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence
I want to speak this morning about a little book from a later period: the Practice of the Presence of God. Though the book is about the experience of a Carmelite (that is a Catholic) lay brother, it was a favourite of John Wesley, and my copy was published by the Methodist Epworth Press.
The Reverend David Hutt, Canon Emeritus of Westminster
On Sundays here at the Abbey there’s no visiting, that’s to say, services are the priority and worship takes precedence over all else. But an important part of the medieval monastic building may be visited freely and that’s the area of the cloisters you will pass through after this service.
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs considered in the light of some words of Jesus.
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Last week I had some space in the diary that allowed me to spend a little time on the floor of the Abbey amongst the thronging visitors. I was loitering at one point in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel, smiling at people as they passed and soliciting overwhelmingly appreciative comments. One or two people stopped to ask me questions. One question was about the number of tombs and the space they took up in the chapel. It eventually became clear that this visitor, for whom English was not her first language, had assumed that the Lady Chapel was, in old times, the place where women worshipped whilst the men worshipped elsewhere. I can imagine a slight sense of indignation that the women gathered in so small a place, even though so beautiful, by comparison with the space allocated to the men. I was not at all clear at the end of our conversation whether she quite understood that the Lady Chapel was the chapel dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady.
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
The Gospel we have just heard is about squabbles over who sits in the best seats at banquets, in the synagogue - or in church. The news this week makes all that seem very petty as we see the pictures of the terrible flooding in Pakistan.
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