Simon Says ...

A Sermon for Evensong   Genesis 41.1-16,25-37 ; 1 Cor. 4.8-13 Only I could see it.   There was a Zubat in the kitchen.   Quickly I lined up my Pokeball and threw it at the creature.   I caught it, and gathered it into my Pokedex.   For the uninitiated, I am talking about the game Pokemon Go .   It is an app for phones and tablets that allows you to see the mystical Pokemon creatures in the real world.   Samuel and I went for a walk yesterday and caught about ten different Pokemon.   The Cathedral, I am sure you are aware, is a PokeGym, and has been welcoming a range of new, younger visitors over the past couple of days.   The Church of Englandhas issued guidelines about this.   More worryingly, so has the NSPCC .   Pokemon Go works with the idea that there are things beyond the reality that we can see and touch and smell.   All it takes is the right software and technology and a new and exciting ...

Luke 7.36-8.3 Some words from the Gospel reading this morning:   Jesus ‘went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.   The twelve were with him, as well as some women’. It’s a great pleasure to be with you this morning.   My thanks to Simon for his invitation, and to you all for your welcome.   I bring greetings to the Cathedral of the Peak from your Cathedral Church in Derby, where we pray for you regularly.   I’m here, I think, because one of the roles I have is as the Director of Curate Training in the Diocese.   So I have been involved with Sue, not least as she prepares to be ordained priest at the end of the month.   I want to say a few things this morning to help us all prepare for that new ministry.   At the end of the Gospel reading this morning we hear that Jesus ‘went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom...

A Sermon for the Mothers' Union Leadership Conference 1 Peter 4.10-11 ; Mark 10.35-37,41-45 It is a great pleasure and a privilege to be here with you today. I am a proud member of the Mothers’ Union , and what convinced me to join was the work you have done on Bye Buy Childhood .   Thank you for that, and for the many different acts of service that you do, individually and collectively.   I would welcome you to the Diocese of Derby, but since most of you are about to go home, let me instead bring you greetings from the Diocese of Derby, where you have been for the past few days, and especially greetings from Derby Cathedral where I serve as Canon Chancellor. Some words from the first reading: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.”   “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.”   It is truly wonderful that you have spent this time learning about servant leadership.   ...

A sermon for the eve of St Philip and St James Isaiah 40.27-end ; John 12.20-26 “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”.   Perhaps that is the reason that we are here tonight.   We want to see Jesus.   There is no better reason for coming to church than wanting to encounter Jesus.   And here in the readings from Scripture, in the silence, in the music, in the prayers, in the architecture, in one another, perhaps even in the sermon, there are opportunities and pointers to help us to see Jesus.   “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. This is why we gather for worship. But it is not just here that we see Jesus.   It is not just in church or during acts of worship that we can encounter our risen Lord.   We encounter Jesus throughout our lives, in the people, places and moments that make up our days.   The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, ‘I greet him the days I meet him , and bless when I understand’.   “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ...

Review of Benigno P. Beltran, Faith and Struggle on Smokey Mountain: Hope for a Planet in Peril (Orbis, 2012). If all the books on the Michael Ramsey Prize shortlist are as good as this, then I’m in for a treat!   It is good to have an author on the shortlist who is not from the UK or the US.   Beltran is from the Philippines.   A Roman Catholic priest, and a teacher of theology, Beltran has also been the chaplain to the most notorious rubbish dump in the world – Smokey Mountain in Manilla.   Here around 25 000 people lived as scavengers, and became a symbol of both poverty and the ecological degradation of the world. This is a deceptively short book.   It is both moving and challenging.   It also covers several different genres.   Most obviously, it is autobiographical.   Benigno Beltran was a Pilipino priest who was sent to study in Rome.   He returned to the Philippines to train seminarians.   On h...

--> Review of Ian Cowley, The Contemplative Minister: Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2015). This excellent little book is for those ‘who are looking for a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure which has become the norm for so many’ (p. 12).   Ian Cowley, who has experience of ministry in South Africa and is now the Vocations and Spirituality Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury, calls us to rediscover our still centre in prayer and rooting in God. Ministry that does not have stillness and prayer at its heart is in danger of losing its relationship to God, of warping a vocation, and not having the counter-cultural edge that should be the mark of all Christian ministry.   Cowley calls us back to silence and simplicity as being of the essence and the heart of ministry, not just extras and ideals.   He draws widely on the traditions of the church, from the contemplative to th...

Synod began, more or less, in silence as we remembered the 21 Coptic Christians martyred in Libya for their Christian faith on the anniversary of their death.   An important moment.   There was little silence thereafter, as we moved into the normal pattern of debates and presentations.   February was a relatively short Synod, across three days.   It was the first meeting of the newly elected Synod other than the short gathering for its inauguration last November.   This means that there were lots of maiden speeches, lots of new voices to listen to. It means that we the newly elected Prolocutors of Canterbury and York (the chairs of the House of Clergy) and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the House of Laity were presented to us.   It feels like the new Synod is still being run in. Business started with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Presidential Address .   This was mostly about the Primate’s meeting, and was clear and helpful.   He spoke of...