Sermons

If we can but bear it, we will see that all around are the fields of paradise.

Monday, 8th April 2024

‘My Lord and my God.’

Sunday, 7th April 2024

Easter Day and Christ is risen. Easter Day and the whole gospel of God.

Sunday, 31st March 2024

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

Sunday, 17th March 2024

God is love.

Sunday, 10th March 2024

The Wedding at Cana

Sunday, 3rd March 2024

‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

Sunday, 18th February 2024

‘What’s love got to do with it?’

Wednesday, 14th February 2024

Let us begin and finish with glory.

Sunday, 11th February 2024

In the first few lines of John’s gospel, I hope anyone would find ideas that are gripping and enticing.

Sunday, 4th February 2024

Returning from Bethlehem.

Sunday, 7th January 2024

The Baptism of Jesus by John in the River Jordan is one of the most important stories in the New Testament.

Sunday, 7th January 2024

The challenge for the Church is to acknowledge, to welcome, the insight of outsiders.

Saturday, 6th January 2024

In the beginning was the Word.

Monday, 25th December 2023

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is not a myth.

Sunday, 24th December 2023

John Baptist’s voice came from the edge, not from the centre of power.

Sunday, 10th December 2023

Today is a summons to believe in God, not ourselves.

Sunday, 26th November 2023

Where is the violence we see and sometimes experience actually coming from?

Sunday, 19th November 2023

What kind of a nation are we and what direction do we want to move in?

Sunday, 12th November 2023

Naming God

Sunday, 5th November 2023

Many of us don’t love ourselves nearly enough.

Sunday, 5th November 2023

God will wipe away every tear.

Wednesday, 1st November 2023

If we wish to be seen as virtuous, then we should commit to a life of virtue.

Sunday, 22nd October 2023

May we hold onto the perspective of the heavenly city as we seek the peace and prosperity of our city.

Sunday, 15th October 2023

This is an astonishing place, and today we honour the Saint whose gift it is.

Friday, 13th October 2023

Discerning the will of God for our lives and obeying God’s commandments.

Sunday, 8th October 2023

This is wonderful, but it is also a little awkward.

Sunday, 1st October 2023

Looking for just one thing.

Sunday, 1st October 2023

St Michael and All Angels Genesis 28: 10–17

Friday, 29th September 2023

How will you engage in community with others in the Church?

Sunday, 3rd September 2023

'Let your gentleness be known to everyone.'

Sunday, 27th August 2023

Humanitarianism is fundamental to the Christian faith.

Sunday, 20th August 2023

There is no gap or limit to God’s mercy.

Sunday, 20th August 2023

The dungeon shook and my chains fell off; I’m gonna grieve my Lord no more.

Sunday, 30th July 2023

Our life and our work can be given the dignity of revealing something of the kingdom of heaven.

Sunday, 30th July 2023

The sower has sown good seed in his field and looks forward to a good harvest.

Sunday, 23rd July 2023

God is with us in our trials and tribulations and will ultimately uphold the righteous.

Thursday, 20th July 2023

‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

Sunday, 11th June 2023

‘Firmly I believe and truly, God is three and God is one’

Sunday, 4th June 2023

The Holy Spirit is the invitation to all people, in all their diversity, to share in the Power of all our powers.

Sunday, 28th May 2023

Hope and Despair

Sunday, 21st May 2023

Ascension Day declares the primary task of the Church universal, its true vocation.

Thursday, 18th May 2023

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’

Sunday, 14th May 2023

We are here to crown a King, and we crown a King to serve.

Saturday, 6th May 2023

Today is the day we traditionally honour St George.

Sunday, 23rd April 2023

The end of today’s second reading is perhaps the finest cliffhanger in history.

Sunday, 16th April 2023

Peace be with you.

Sunday, 16th April 2023

Every broken fragment can now know healing in the light of Easter.

Sunday, 9th April 2023

We must see man and God.

Friday, 7th April 2023

We do not easily use the words provided.

Wednesday, 22nd February 2023

Let anyone with ears to hear—listen!

Sunday, 12th February 2023

Scripture is full of strange phrases.

Sunday, 5th February 2023

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Thursday, 2nd February 2023

Poverty was turned to riches, sorrow into joy.

Sunday, 29th January 2023

We, the Church, have been entrusted with a message to rebalance our brains, and save our souls.

Sunday, 8th January 2023

A reflection on a much-overlooked part of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew that encourages us to live as children of light in the world.

Sunday, 1st January 2023

Is the coming of the Son of Man at an unexpected hour a threat or a promise?

Sunday, 27th November 2022

Jesus rules from the cross and from the place of risen glory.

Sunday, 20th November 2022

The unknown warrior's burial somehow represents us all.

Sunday, 13th November 2022

‘O where shall wisdom be found?’

Sunday, 6th November 2022

‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.’

Sunday, 30th October 2022

Forgiveness isn't fair.

Sunday, 30th October 2022

‘Vanity of Vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.’

Sunday, 23rd October 2022

What does it mean to talk about being dedicated today?

Sunday, 16th October 2022

'I have called you friends.'

Sunday, 9th October 2022

What do you want?

Sunday, 9th October 2022

‘May you live in interesting times’

Sunday, 2nd October 2022

Jesus has given us a pattern for living and for loving.

Sunday, 2nd October 2022

Will we perish like fools or learn to live together as brothers and sisters?

Sunday, 25th September 2022

George Herbert

Sunday, 25th September 2022

Honest and the knowledge that a different sort of community exists in God and can be ours.

Sunday, 25th September 2022

The pattern for many leaders is to be exalted in life and forgotten after death. The pattern for all who serve God – famous or obscure, respected or ignored – is that death is the door to glory.

Monday, 19th September 2022

Sunday, 11th September 2022

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Sunday, 4th September 2022

God’s justice.

Sunday, 28th August 2022

Invited to Dance

Sunday, 28th August 2022

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Sunday, 21st August 2022

Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message?

Sunday, 14th August 2022

When God peers into my life, what does he see?

Sunday, 14th August 2022

This beautiful world is now in crisis.

Sunday, 7th August 2022

Ask, search, knock.

Sunday, 24th July 2022

Do not take yourself too seriously, but take the faith extremely seriously.

Sunday, 17th July 2022

"Music and poetry have in all ages been counted divine..."

Sunday, 10th July 2022

What are you supposed to be? That interests me this morning.

Sunday, 3rd July 2022

There has been much talk of borders in recent weeks.

Sunday, 19th June 2022

The difficulty about that trinitarian doctrine is the difficulty of comprehending a love that goes so deep.

Sunday, 12th June 2022

Love bade me welcome.

Sunday, 1st May 2022

Every eye will see him. No one, not a single Thomas, will be left in any doubt.

Sunday, 24th April 2022

It brought Jesus to his knees – a striking posture for God.

Thursday, 14th April 2022

Passion, as a term, has a deeper more ancient usage.

Sunday, 3rd April 2022

Today is a day to unite against evil. Today, we stand alongside each other to pause and pray.

Tuesday, 22nd March 2022

'Death is swallowed up in victory.'

Tuesday, 22nd March 2022

The story of Jacob’s ladder is one which has a fascinating reception history.

Sunday, 20th March 2022

Jesus was being tempted to be first the Provider; second, the Possessor; and third, the Performer.

Sunday, 6th March 2022

To begin to understand the present precarious situation in Ukraine we first need to understand what has happened in the past.

Sunday, 20th February 2022

Sleep, in heaven, is impossible.

Sunday, 20th February 2022

“What will you be satisfied with?”

Sunday, 13th February 2022

There is a difficult balance to be maintained between day to day duties, and the wider concerns of society.

Sunday, 23rd January 2022

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Sunday, 16th January 2022

Through Cana, we can see the fullness of life Christ came to bring.

Sunday, 16th January 2022

What does the grace of baptism accomplish?

Sunday, 9th January 2022

You are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you.

Sunday, 9th January 2022

God is love, and love is his first gift to us.

Sunday, 2nd January 2022

What is hope, and what do we hope for?

Sunday, 19th December 2021

Let our longing be worthy of the kingdom which John proclaimed.

Sunday, 12th December 2021

Memory and hope belong together.

Sunday, 5th December 2021

Pax Christi in regno Christi—‘the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ’.

Sunday, 21st November 2021

We often fail to get angry about the right things, in the right way.

Sunday, 14th November 2021

‘Why pray when you can worry?’

Sunday, 7th November 2021

Jesus wept. It is the shortest sentence in the Bible. Possibly one of the most eloquent.

Monday, 1st November 2021

As the clocks go back and COP26 begins...

Sunday, 31st October 2021

The story of blind Bartimaeus is moving one.

Sunday, 24th October 2021

Building a Beloved Community with Living Stones

Sunday, 17th October 2021

When in 2007 we came to refurbish the shrine of Hereford’s own saint, Thomas Cantilupe, it was to Westminster Abbey that we chiefly looked.

Saturday, 16th October 2021

Where do you think you belong?

Wednesday, 13th October 2021

Within all searching and reaching out, there lies a motivating factor, and that factor is hope.

Sunday, 19th September 2021

Do we do any better than the Pharisees when it comes to hearing the ethical imperative?

Sunday, 29th August 2021

The future of humanity starts with a true conversion of mind and heart.

Sunday, 22nd August 2021

The song that Jesus sings is a redemptive song—a song of love and mercy.

Sunday, 25th July 2021

Without darkness and weakness, how would the need for real humour arise?

Sunday, 4th July 2021

St Paul himself wrote that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, male or female, bond or free. The old binaries are superseded.

Sunday, 4th July 2021

The life of our heavenly patron St Peter reminds us that even when we get it wrong, the love of Christ will hold us close.

Tuesday, 29th June 2021

How is your soul?

Sunday, 6th June 2021

Today is a feast of food, and it is a feast of the body.

Thursday, 3rd June 2021

God is for us, God is with us, and God is ahead of us.

Sunday, 30th May 2021

I imagine the prophet Ezekiel as a scary chap.

Sunday, 23rd May 2021

We are made for freedom—made to soar—made to share the unlimited life of heaven.

Thursday, 13th May 2021

Over the last year nurses, midwives and health visitors across the world have been a sign of hope. You have rolled up your sleeves and given of yourselves more than either we or you would have imagined, and we are profoundly thankful.

Wednesday, 12th May 2021

The Factory Act and The Slavery Abolition Act. A year of change and urgent reforming opinion - firm jaws, glittering eyes.

Sunday, 9th May 2021

Jesus said, Abide in me… I am the Vine, you are the branches.

Sunday, 2nd May 2021

There is something important about the strangeness of scripture.

Sunday, 18th April 2021

We make our remembrance in Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was formative for His Royal Highness.

Sunday, 11th April 2021

Eight years ago in a parish in Winchester, after the Easter Vigil, I was greeting folk at the Church door.

Sunday, 11th April 2021

Easter morning. John’s Gospel. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Mag-dalene came to the tomb.

Sunday, 4th April 2021

A very strange day for a preacher, for it is not really a day for words.

Thursday, 1st April 2021

The beginning of the Church is often ascribed to Pentecost and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Monday, 29th March 2021

Talk about sin has been unfashionable for a long time now.

Sunday, 14th March 2021

For St Peter it doesn’t get much better than Moses and Elijah.

Sunday, 14th February 2021

'Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.'

Sunday, 7th February 2021

Putting right what was wrong.

Sunday, 13th December 2020

Come Holy Spirit and fill our hearts afresh with the fire of your love.

Wednesday, 11th November 2020

There is a file full of letters on my desk. Some of them, probably, written by people now sitting here.

Saturday, 31st October 2020

Even the Dean of Westminster could not, should not tell you what the outcome will be...

Sunday, 18th October 2020

Holiness is not an idea, or an aspiration. Holiness is bones and flesh, a life lived and died.

Saturday, 17th October 2020

And then… the gospel.

Sunday, 11th October 2020

Law as vocation, law as framework, law as the constant doing right and justice as a culture that we share.

Thursday, 1st October 2020

Sunday, 20th September 2020

Our choosing to be saved is significant and important.

Sunday, 13th September 2020

To be a Christian is to live in a love that will be rejected and a hope that will be redeemed.

Sunday, 30th August 2020

'Will we be able to say a final ‘No’ to God?'

Sunday, 16th August 2020

Anyone who has ever helped a child learn to walk will know just how important eye contact can be.

Sunday, 9th August 2020

We give thanks for this offering, and for its multiplication.

Sunday, 2nd August 2020

Here is Paul’s big idea: however bad it looks, God intends salvation.

Sunday, 19th July 2020

Matthew 11:25-27

Sunday, 5th July 2020

John 20: 24-29

Sunday, 19th April 2020

Gospel: John 20: 1–18

Sunday, 12th April 2020

From two of the Passion Sunday readings: Ezekiel 37: 1–14, John 11: 1–45

Sunday, 29th March 2020

Ephesians 5:8-14

Sunday, 22nd March 2020

The sin of detraction

Sunday, 8th March 2020

Genesis 12:1-4

Sunday, 8th March 2020

Let us not omit our questions in the search for truth.

Sunday, 1st March 2020

What is evil? How would we have knowledge of it?

Sunday, 1st March 2020

Ash Wednesday, John 8

Wednesday, 26th February 2020

It is a risky business to have a commitment to something.

Sunday, 16th February 2020

Luke 2:22-40

Sunday, 2nd February 2020

Aren’t gifts supposed to last?

Sunday, 19th January 2020

Look, here is the Lamb of God!

Sunday, 19th January 2020

Today, again is Epiphany, today is Theophany.

Sunday, 12th January 2020

Matthew 2:1-12

Monday, 6th January 2020

By grace we are gathered and by grace we shall be gathered.

Sunday, 5th January 2020

We travel in faith, for the nativity story is one of journeys.

Sunday, 29th December 2019

John 1 1-14

Wednesday, 25th December 2019

Luke 2

Tuesday, 24th December 2019

Where we have come from and where we belong now?

Sunday, 22nd December 2019

Here, in this country, we are in changing, exciting, and challenging times.

Sunday, 15th December 2019

"The things which matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least." [Goethe]

Sunday, 8th December 2019

The ambiguity of a king who serves.

Sunday, 24th November 2019

‘See, the day is coming, burning like an oven.’

Sunday, 17th November 2019

Colossians 3:12-17

Saturday, 16th November 2019

The dignity of each person is the foundation of a moral vision for society.

Sunday, 3rd November 2019

This beautiful feast of All the Saints reminds us of the triumph our Lord Jesus Christ won over death.

Friday, 1st November 2019

We are called to be reconciled to one another.

Sunday, 27th October 2019

We have been rooted in a good land.

Friday, 25th October 2019

Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of this third Abbey Church, which took place 750 years ago last Sunday.

Sunday, 20th October 2019

Our celebration today marks a particular moment in the long history of this Abbey Church.

Tuesday, 15th October 2019

The warrior and the saint, on the same axis, West and East

Sunday, 13th October 2019

Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?

Sunday, 13th October 2019

One Saint in particular fascinated Henry: St Edward, King and Confessor

Sunday, 6th October 2019

Why are we all here?

Sunday, 29th September 2019

Lancelot Andrewes

Sunday, 22nd September 2019

What is money for?

Sunday, 22nd September 2019

Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey, who fought for the soul of our beloved Church of England.

Sunday, 15th September 2019

Generations to come will look back at the music of our rich and creative times.

Sunday, 8th September 2019

On being economical with the truth

Sunday, 1st September 2019

Humility

Sunday, 1st September 2019

Encouraging words and actions have the power to motivate and breed success.

Sunday, 25th August 2019

We need to recover a profound sense of the awe and wonder of God.

Sunday, 25th August 2019

There is something more than just keeping to the strict rules or laws.

Sunday, 18th August 2019

'We are haunted by God’s large purposes.'

Sunday, 18th August 2019

It’s not just about being good, it’s about becoming holy.

Thursday, 15th August 2019

Sunday, 11th August 2019

Our vulnerability and our waiting, our faith, will not be in vain.

Sunday, 11th August 2019

Sunday, 4th August 2019

The vice which constantly seeks more possessions.

Sunday, 4th August 2019

Exactly who was Mary Magdalene?

Sunday, 21st July 2019

If we only have the courage to stop and look and listen...

Sunday, 21st July 2019

“With what two crownes is this Citie adorned?”

Sunday, 30th June 2019

Should we think of St Peter as a good role model?

Friday, 28th June 2019

Wanting the best for our children.

Sunday, 23rd June 2019

Christians have been accused of cannibalism since earliest times.

Thursday, 20th June 2019

'Time is how you spend your love.'

Sunday, 9th June 2019

‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’ And he said, ‘I am going to the Father.’

Sunday, 9th June 2019

'He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.'

Sunday, 2nd June 2019

What does it mean to believe in the resurrection when there are no more resurrection appearances?

Sunday, 2nd June 2019

We celebrate today the last of our Lord’s resurrection appearances.

Thursday, 30th May 2019

‘Those who love me will keep my word.’

Sunday, 26th May 2019