Search Results
Open with God Book - April - World Health Day
Open with God Book - April - World Health Day
by Christine Odell
April – World Health Day (7 April) Calendar of Prayers Reading Mark 1.29-34a Ask those present to be silent, to become aware of their own bodies: breathing, pulse and senses as well as aches, pains and rumblings! Comforting God, you have consoled us with the promise that, at the …
Lights for the World
Lights for the World
by Dave Hopwood
Feet of Clay and the Breath of God Bible Ref: Isaiah 42; Matthew 5-8 & 10; Mark 3; Luke 6 Each of the following sketches (scenes) can be used to form the basis for a complete act of worship or used as individual scenes on separate occasions. Each scene will require a narrato…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 18 Jeremiah 18.1–11 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Luke 14 has more than its fair share of ‘hard sayings’. Hate your family; give up your possessions. A nice clear message for the end of the summer holidays. And, to back it up, a solemn warning: such carrying the cross requ…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - At Last
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - At Last
by SPCK - John Goldingay
At Last Genesis 20: 14- 21: 14 My parents married later in life than was usual in their day, and I previously mentioned that it was some years before I was born. My mother used to tell me she couldn’t imagine there was a baby more welcomed into the world than I was. A generation …
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not You But God Genesis 45:1-28 Last night we had a group of students in our home for dessert after class. One of them asked what is my favorite book in the Bible (the answer is Ecclesiastes) and then what is my disabled wife’s favorite book. I am not aware that she ever had one,…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sixth Sunday of Easter John 14.23-29 Gaze on John, frowning with concentration as Jesus continues to deliver his lengthy ‘farewell’. He is straining to remember it all, and to understand how all the twists and turns build into the overarching vindication of God’s purpose in J…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Proper 2 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Proper 2 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 2 Luke 6.17-26 Gaze on the waiting room in a busy hospital. Pale walls bear replica Monets and dull still lifes of sallow fruit, and these are meant to calm you somehow. Lino echoes with each nurse’s step. People sit around, some chatting quietly, others gaze ahead, each p…
Walking Backwards to Christmas - Chapter 6 Martha
Walking Backwards to Christmas - Chapter 6 Martha
by SPCK - Stephen Cottrell
Chapter 6 Martha Walking Backwards to Christmas In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Christmas Day Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Christmas Day Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christmas Day John 1: 1-14 Gaze on the darkness of the midnight sky over a rough sea. Gaze on a lighthouse, painted bright white, seeming to grow out of the rocky island it is built upon. This is not a place of safety. Waves lash the rocks, the wind roars and spray covers you wit…
Psalms for Everyone - Death Cathches You When You Don't Expect It To
Psalms for Everyone - Death Cathches You When You Don't Expect It To
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Death Catches You When You Don’t Expect It To Psalm 49 We recently buried the second-oldest member of our congregation, who until she faded away quickly at the end had regularly attended church. We drove quite a way to the cemetery, and I wondered why, until I discovered that her…
Open with God Book - December - World Aids Day (1 December)
Open with God Book - December - World Aids Day (1 December)
by Christine Odell
December – World AIDS Day Calendar of Prayers Reading Mark 1.29-34; 40-44 Loving God, we find disease hard to bear and even harder to accept and understand. Why is it that the freedom of your world involves so much suffering for your children?...
Times and Seasons - We will remember them
Times and Seasons - We will remember them
by Andrew Pratt
We will remember them I saw them coming back down the long and winding road. It was a strange home coming. Few cheered. Trudging by they wheeled round the church. The sandstone clock tower had seen it all before. Time had been marked by the tombstones in the church yard. Continue…
What if, within this present age and time
What if, within this present age and time
by Andrew Pratt
What if, within this present age and time, we heard again the prophets' strident call, received afresh the challenge Christ once gave, and sought to give to God our all in all? Verses 2-3 follow Tune: CHILTON FOLIAT Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 23/1/2014 Stainer & Bell Ltd,…
Times and Seasons - So easy now to judge – original sin?
Times and Seasons - So easy now to judge – original sin?
by Andrew Pratt
So easy now to judge – original sin? So easy now to judge: that one was right, another wrong. But we were never there in the narrow trench or corridor of power. We never heard the thunder’s fire, nor found ourselves strung up upon the wire. We never had to make that bleak decisio…
52 Reflections on Faith - God and the world: Separate or together