Advent 3
Advent 2
Advent 1
Christ the King
Pentecost 26
Pentecost 25
All Saints day
Pentecost 23
Pentecost 22
Pentecost 21
St Francis day
From the locum
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (c. 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet, and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he became a beggar and itinerant preacher.
One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis was canonised by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228. He is commonly portrayed wearing a brown habit with a rope tied around his waist, featuring three knots symbolising the three Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the sultan al-Kamil and put an end to the conflict of the Fifth Crusade. In 1223, he arranged for the first live nativity scene as part of the annual Christmas celebration in Greccio.
Francis is associated with patronage of animals and the environment. It became customary for churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of the fourth of October, which became World Animal Day. He was noted for his devotion to the Eucharist. Along with Catherine of Siena, he was designated patron saint of Italy. He is also the namesake of the city of San Francisco.
Fr Michael
St Michael's day
From the locum
In the Anglican tradition, the angels named in the Bible are saints—Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel are named in the Old and New Testaments, and Saint Raphael and Saint Uriel are named in the Apocrypha (in Tobit and in Esdras). They share a saints' day with all the angels, on September 29th. Christians have many different opinions and feelings about angels, but I hope at the very least we can agree that they are important figures in the Bible! The feast of Saint Michael and All Angels is a day to celebrate how they glorify God in their words and deeds.
(A photo of two Michaels! the one on the right is a 14th Century icon in the Byzantine Museum in Athens).
Pentecost 18
Pentecost 17
Pentecost 16
Pentecost 15
Pentecost 14
From the locum
This week our lectionary readings are all about choices. On the one hand there is the choice to abandon our devotion to God and God’s ways. In this morning’s Gospel selection from John, many of Jesus’ followers find his call to be completely united with him – to believe that he is the source of life and to take him into their beings (eating his flesh and drinking his blood) – too much to handle and they abandon Jesus. But, his disciples, although they may be feeling like they want to go, recognise that life is found in Christ and so remain faithful. In the Old Testament related reading, Joshua calls the people to choose where they will put their devotion, while making his own commitment to God clear and public. In a similar way, Psalm 34 describes the differences between those who stay faithful to God and those who are “wicked”. Linked with our choice to follow Jesus there is a call to prayer in this week’s Lectionary. In the famous passage from Ephesians, Paul calls the believers to prepare themselves for the attacks of evil by putting on God’s armour (making a choice to stay faithful), and he calls them to prayer for themselves and for him as he seeks to spread the Gospel.
The theme this week’s readings is simple and clear: everyday we will be faced with the choice to remain faithful to Christ or to turn away, and we will need the intimacy with God that comes through prayer and through sharing in the life of Christ to remain true to our calling. In a world where religion is being questioned and falling out of fashion, and in which many parts of the Church are in decline, this choice, and the call to prayer, are as important as ever.
Fr Michael
Pentecost 13
From the locum
I know that as I write this for inclusion in “The Tidings”, I am "preaching to the choir", as I am writing to people who will probably make their way to church this morning for the very Word and sacrament about which I am preaching. But I also know that from time to time, each of us can find ourselves feeling distanced from God. And so, this is a word to the wise that when that happens, know that staying away from the altar is not the way to find healing. Keep coming. Keep asking for and expecting the peace which Jesus alone can give. You need the nourishment you find here as much as you need something to eat and something to drink.
You are also in contact every day with others who have found themselves apart from church. This is the place where God can speak to their hearts through our readings and the sermon and the Spirit’s presence in them in worship. It is also the place where they can receive the bread and wine of communion and so experience Jesus’ very real, sustaining presence in an irreplaceable way: the nourishment you need for your hungry soul.
It is returning, again and again, week after week, for Jesus’ presence in Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist that we are enabled more and more to be like Jesus. And in those times in life when challenges arise and we are not sure we have what it takes, we return again to be sustained by Jesus’ presence. And if we begin to feel unworthy of God’s love, we know that we can always return to the altar, confess, and receive forgiveness. Then through the Christ’s presence in the sacrament, we are fed for the coming week. For Jesus gave us this bread so that we might live.
Fr Michael
Pentecost 12
From the locum
In the Gospel reading appointed for today, the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, the evangelist uses one of the many metaphors spread across John's gospel to explain the identity of Jesus – the Bread of Life.
As someone who loves bread, and the fresher the better, this description of Jesus's identity and purpose resonates deeply, and would have done so even more in the society of John's day, where bread was made daily and was a fundamental element of people's diets.
And so, in a way we see the culmination of our readings today. What started with David's heartbreak and despair has pointed us again and again to God's love being our foundation stone in troubled times through the ages. Now John reminds us that to be able to live these lives of love we are called to, we need to stay very close to Jesus. To take scriptures, prayer and our walk with Jesus on a day by day basis; constantly taking in the nourishment of Jesus' extravagant love, as Paul described it, and love-based wisdom to help us address the daily challenges that will constantly arise for us and force us to make a choice. Will we choose to react out of fear (of loss of face, respect, status, position, possessions, loved ones, health, life etc), or will we choose to be nourished enough by Jesus in our everyday life that we can truly be imitators of God and live in love?
I don't know about you, but it is easy for me to go off track in taking in Jesus as my daily bread. The rush of deadlines, workloads, concerns for family and friends – and myself. How easy it is to not take the time to dwell in God's presence and be nourished and restored by God's love. And when that happens, how easy it is to react out of tiredness, defensiveness, anger or fear. And oh, how different it is when I have taken those daily opportunities to be fully in God's presence, and how differently I respond!
Fr Michael