Simon Says ...

Review of Frances Young, God’s Presence: A Contemporary Recapitulation of Early Christianity (Cambridge University Press, 2012). The final book on the Michael Ramsey Prize shortlist for 2016 is a work of systematic theology.   Frances Young is a very distinguished theologian.   Her writing on the New Testament and early Christian theology is well known and is part of a corpus of writing that dates back to the 1970s.   This book is an integration of all the different concerns of her theological life, as an academic, a theologian of both the New Testament and the early church, a Methodist, a preacher and the mother of a profoundly disabled child, Arthur.   All of these different aspects to Young’s work and writing inform and shape this book. That theme of integration is also the way in which Young approaches the topics of her theology in this book.   In each chapter she offers a prelude of snapshots, showing the way the subjec...

I want you to imagine for a moment that the Dean of Derby preached this morning, a sermon of erudite and orthodox Anglican theology.  Then this evening, along comes the reforming Canon Chancellor and purports to correct, nay to refute the Dean’s teaching, accusing him of popish heresy and of ignoring the Scriptures.  And that this is a pattern that overall continues for several years.  This is, of course, not what is happening here tonight.  I do not stand here to refute the Dean’s heresies.  Rather I stand here to speak of a man for whom this experience of sermon and counter-sermon was a regular occurrence.  The man is Richard Hooker, and he has come to be seen as the greatest apologist for Anglicanism, and even by some as the inventor of Anglicanism! To understand how this came about, we must look a little at what had happened to the Church of England in his lifetime.  Richard Hooker was born in Heavitree near Exeter ...

A Sermon for the Clypping of St Mary's, Wirksworth Clypping is an ancient way of celebrating a patronal festival of a church.  'Clyppan', an Old English word, means 'to embrace' or 'clasp'.  The congregation surrounds the church, holding hands in a circle: the church is 'embraced' as a symbol of love and  affection.  The origins of the festival are obscure, but it is said to hvae originated as a pagan custom, later adopted by Christianity.  It has been associated with Candlemas, Shrove Tuesday and Easter Monday as well as Patronal Festivals.  St Mary's, Wirksworth is one of the few churches to retain this ancient custom. Genesis 28.10-17 ; John 15.1-11 Some words from our first reading: “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it”.  Never let it be said that the Bible paints a glossy and rosy view of its heroes.  Jacob has lied and tricked his brother out of his inheritance and his father’s blessing, and n...

A Sermon for Evensong Genesis 50.4-26 ; 1 Corinthians 14.1-19 . Some words from this evening’s second reading: “I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also”. This seems a splendid opportunity to give a plug for something that will be coming in the autumn: a course of study called ‘How to read the Bible (without switching off your brain)’.   It is aimed at those within the church who would like to know more about the Bible, and also at those who are not in the church but are interested in what Christians believe.   I very much hope that those who come along will have a more rounded picture of the Bible by the end, and will learn something about what it says (and what it doesn’t), how the Bible was written, how Christians read the Bible and also how the Bible forms part of our prayer and worship.   A brain is required, but not a huge background kno...