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.
2008
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6 January 2008 The Feast of the Epiphany
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
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6 January 2008 A Common Word 1
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky,
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13 January 2008 A Common Word 2
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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20 January 2008 Christian Unity
Father Andrew Cameron-Mowat SJ,
As we celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I turn to a French Dominican theologian for insight and inspiration, to a man whose influence on the progress of Christian Unity was of vital importance during the years before, during, and after the Second Vatican Council.
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20 January 2008 A Common Word 3
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
Luke’s Gospel gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). A lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher’, he asked, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus asked him what is written in the Law. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind’, he replied. ‘And your neighbour as yourself’.
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27 January 2008 A Common Word 4
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
In the last two weeks I have discussed love of God and love of the neighbour. These two topics are of course bound up with each other and with the idea of ‘a common word’, as the letter makes very clear. We don’t leave these commands behind when we come to the third and last section of the letter on ‘A Common Word’.
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1 February 2008 Sermon for Candlemas Eucharist
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Simeon was ready for death. He was righteous and devout. As he waited for death he longed that God’s promise would be fulfilled, that he would see the Lord’s Messiah. He had been waiting a long time for what his eyes had now seen. “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” He had been longing and waiting. Now he had seen.
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2 March 2008 The Eucharist
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
David Blunkett was the first blind person to be a senior member of Her Majesty’s Government. He was first Secretary of State for Education and Employment and then Home Secretary. Later he was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He remains a Member of Parliament. When he was a boy at school, his teachers encouraged him to think that his highest possible ambition might be to become a piano tuner. He aimed higher and, although his career in politics has not been smooth, he must have given hope to countless other blind people that they too could aspire as high as anyone who is sighted.
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2 March 2008 Atonement 1
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster,
In the three Matins sermons that I shall be giving on the three Sundays left in Lent I want to talk about a concept central to Christianity, although one that has never been formally defined by the Church. It is the notion of atonement: that through the death of Jesus God had brought about some sort of reconciliation between himself and humankind. It is an idea expressed in almost all the books of the New Testament.
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9 March 2008 Atonement 2
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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16 March 2008 Atonement 3
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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21 March 2008 The Last Hour
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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21 March 2008 The First Hour
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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21 March 2008 Good Friday at Chapel Royal
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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23 March 2008 Easter Day Sung Eucharist
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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30 March 2008 Matins
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
I suspect I am not the only person here this morning who watched the fourth and final episode of the BBC series ‘The Passion’ last Sunday, which portrayed the resurrection stories.
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22 April 2008 Livability: service of celebration to mark the coming together of Grooms and Shaftesbury
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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1 May 2008 Ascension Day Sung Eucharist
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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4 May 2008 Abbey Eucharist Easter 7. 2008
The Reverend Robert Wright, Canon of Westminster
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4 May 2008 Matins
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
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8 May 2008 The Funeral of Gwyneth Dunwoody in St Margaret's Church
The Reverend Robert Wright, Rector of St Margaret's Church
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11 May 2008 Pentecost Sunday
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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11 May 2008 Matins: Mary 2
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
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18 May 2008 Mary 3
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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22 May 2008 Corpus Christi 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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25 May 2008 Mary 4
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
May is traditionally Mary’s month. Through May I have been speaking the place of Mary in the life and worship of the Church. Today I want to look at teaching about the beginning of her life, at the way in which she was prepared by the Holy Spirit to be the mother of Jesus.
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29 June 2008 St Peter's Day 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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2 July 2008 Sermon preached by The Bishop of Gloucester, The Right Reverend Michael Perham, Chairman of the Hospital Chaplaincies’ Council
The Right Reverend Michael Perham, Bishop of Gloucester and Chairman of the Hospital Chaplaincies' Council
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13 July 2008 Sermon
The Most Reverend Drexel Wellington Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies
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13 July 2008 Choristers’ farewell
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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13 July 2008 Matins
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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20 July 2008 Matins
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence
When Christian men and women have striven to explain the nature of Christian faith and, in particular, the arguments for belief in God, in the past they often relied on various areas of human knowledge where there was no obvious explanation of how something came to be. So they pushed the need for such an explanation on the notion of God and on such a basis argued for his existence.
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20 July 2008 Matins
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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27 July 2008 Matins
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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3 August 2008 Matins: Psalm 85
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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10 August 2008 Matins: Psalm 88
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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17 August 2008 Matins: Psalm 92
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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17 August 2008 Eucharist
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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24 August 2008 Matins: Psalm 67
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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31 August 2008 Matins: Psalm 107:1-32
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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11 September 2008 The Battle Of Britain
The Venerable Ray J Pentland QHC, Principal Anglican Chaplain & Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force
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29 September 2008 Michaelmas 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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30 September 2008 Wisdom in a Troubled Time
The Right Reverend Dr N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham
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13 October 2008 Translation of St Edward the Confessor 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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19 October 2008 Dedication Festival Eucharist 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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26 October 2008 St Margaret's Last Sunday after Trinity 2008
The Reverend Robert Wright, Rector of St Margaret's Church
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29 October 2008 Address: Armed Forces Memorial Dedication
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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2 November 2008 All Saints' Day 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
"Who are these robed in white and where have they come from? These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev 7: 13f.)
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3 November 2008 All Souls' Day 2008
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
November is a month for remembrance. Yesterday we remembered and gave thanks for the saints. Today we remember all our faithful brothers and sisters who have departed this life but who are not known or recognised as saints.