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The Pastoral Letters - The Problems in Crete
The Pastoral Letters - The Problems in Crete
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Problems in Crete Titus 1.10-16 There is a famous puzzle which young philosophers love. Imagine a postcard, blank on both sides except for a single sentence on each. You pick it up and read it. The side you’re looking at says, ‘The statement on the other side of this card is …
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - The Sending of Timothy
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - The Sending of Timothy
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sending of Timothy Thessalonians 3.1-5 The young adult daughter of some friends of ours went on a trip round the world, and was so enjoying life that, at one stage, she didn’t phone home for several weeks. Her parents had no way of getting in touch, and were beside themselves…
2 Corinthians - The Vision and the Thorn
2 Corinthians - The Vision and the Thorn
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Vision and the Thorn 2 CORINTHIANS 12.1-10 Daedalus was a legendary Greek sculptor and craftsman, famous throughout the ancient world for his many clever inventions. It’s probable that he really did exist, though many of the stories about him and his work are clearly made up …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - The Two Olive Trees
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - The Two Olive Trees
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Two Olive Trees ROMANS 11.16-24 ‘This place isn’t big enough for both of us!’ We’ve all heard it, or perhaps even said it. Sometimes it’s in an office where two managers are both wanting their plans to go ahead. Sometimes it’s in a sports team where two players both want to b…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Two Types of Slavery
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Two Types of Slavery
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Two Types of Slavery ROMANS 6.15-19 One of our newspaper columnists came up with a bright idea for achieving two purposes at once. British society (in common with many others in the Western world) is facing a worrying rise in youth crime. Many young people have no jobs, no pu…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Timothy's Report
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Timothy's Report
by SPCK - N T Wright
Timothy’s Report Thessalonians 3.6-10 Learning to read Paul is a bit like learning to enjoy great music. It’s quite easy to whistle a tune that you’ve heard on the radio or sung in church. The tune probably only lasts for ten seconds or so, and you can recognize and remember it. …
2 Corinthians - Unbearably Crushed
2 Corinthians - Unbearably Crushed
by SPCK - N T Wright
Unbearably Crushed 2 CORINTHIANS 1.8-14 You watch from a distance as a friend walks down the street. You see him turn and go into a house. He strides in cheerfully and purposefully. You wait for a few minutes. Then you see him come out again – only now you see, to your horror, th…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Unclean Desires, Dishonoured Bodies
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Unclean Desires, Dishonoured Bodies
by SPCK - N T Wright
Unclean Desires, Dishonoured Bodies ROMANS 1.24-27 Imagine someone who knows nothing of music coming across a violin bow. It would be very puzzling. It has obviously been carefully made, they might think; but what is it for? It’s too narrow to be a kind of polishing implement; it…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe
by SPCK - N T Wright
We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe Acts 23.23-35 Richard Adams’ celebrated novel Watership Down draws the reader into the dramatic and complicated world of a group of rabbits. We follow with increasing sympathy and fascination as Hazel and his companions go on their journey. (Adams…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 4 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 4 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 4 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 7: 21-29 Gaze on a building project near you. First the fencing goes up, then the site is levelled and allthe rubble cleared away. Dust swirls around and covers your jeans. The land is surveyed and the plan pegged out. The rooms look so sma…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 25 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 25 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 25 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 22: 34-46 Gaze on a religious community, set deep in the isolated countryside, where monks or nuns live together all their lives, and must learn to ‘get on’. Look around at the places set on the long refectory table, and place yourself the…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Christmas Luke 2.41-52 Gaze on the chaos of a pilgrimage – the coaches lined up one by one in the car park, people trying to remember which their coach was, and do they recognize the driver? Imagine Mary and Joseph, missing Jesus, but confident he’s with anoth…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 15 Jeremiah 23.23–9 Hebrews 11.29—12.2 Luke 12.49–56 Hebrews continues its great description of faith in today’s reading. From Moses down to the relatively recent past in the Maccabean revolts, the author of Hebrews reminds his readers of the story that they have inherited…
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
by Andrew Pratt
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving, but faith, like fashion, leaves to sink or swim. No God indeed? perhaps as others paint 'him'. No goddess either? Faith is just a whim? We look at life and context moulds our seeing, …
Prayer: Sometimes the things we
Prayer: Sometimes the things we
by Andrew Pratt
Prayer: Sometimes the things we Sometimes the things we face undermine our resolve and destroy our confidence. Problems tower above us and we see no way to overcome them. When these things happen, as they have, and probably will again, give us, O God, humility and simplicity. Con…
Prayer: Trust beyond imagination
Prayer: Trust beyond imagination
by Andrew Pratt
Prayer: Trust beyond imagination God, parent and guardian, stand by us in our weakness we pray, that when even our imagination can see no way through, a spark of faith is kept alive in our hearts; Kindle it, we pray. At those times when are tempted to challenge and condemn others…
This day we remember the passage to freedom
This day we remember the passage to freedom
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: This day we remember the passage to freedom Proper 18 Year A Exodus 12: 1 – 14 This day we remember the passage to freedom, the Exodus journey, redemption at hand the Passover meal we recall at this season, the sign of God's faithfulness brought to the land. This day we rem…
We offer worship, held in hope