2010

 We have just sung, “God be in my head, and in my understanding…”   It is a prayer we could do well to pray each day as we are faced with decisions, with living out our more»

It was a fashionable Presbyterian inner suburban ‘old money’ congregation in the United States.  It was time for serving communion which, in traditional Presbyterian fashion, meant more»

 There was a prayer that used to be recited daily by Jewish men.  I don’t know whether it still is, or if it happens in every Jewish community, but it apparently was a pretty more»

When I realised late last week that today, 15th August, that Mary the mother of Jesus was being celebrated by the world’s Roman Catholics in the Feast of the Assumption, and by all the more»

I was going to begin this sermon by saying, “As I was saying the last time I preached in this chapel...”  But then I realised that the last time was in 1972 and none of you were more»

From the written word and the spoken word, reveal to us your true and everlasting Word, O God, our strength forever. Amen. “If I get the full-time job, I’m going to visit more»

“It doesn’t matter how old they are, they are always your children.”  Many of you will recognise that sentiment which came from a woman in her late sixties, commenting on the more»

I once nearly met Desmond Tutu.  It was in Christchurch, in 1988, I think.  I was walking along a mid-city street at lunchtime when I noticed a short black figure striding towards me.  more»

 From the written word and the spoken word, reveal to us your true and everlasting Word, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. My grandmother, for most of her nearly 93 years, has more»

 On this equivalent weekend in 1998, I had a choice to make.  On one hand I could choose to spend Saturday night in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  The church, built on more»

 Paul: an appealing or an appalling apostle? is the eye-catching question which is the title of a DVD lecture series by Jesus Seminar scholar, John Dominic Crossan.  Of course, a question more»

 “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 28).  There can be more»

Let’s get a few things straight about Paul and about his letters.  I find it sometimes is useful to remind myself of some things which are frequently overlooked – I was going to say more»

 Much to the relief of my parish in 1981, while the Springbok rugby team was touring New Zealand and New Zealand was experiencing considerable divisions, I was on the other side of the world on more»

In my twenty-two years at St Lukes we have had a significant shift in the policy on who may conduct weddings in the church.  In 1988 I inherited my predecessor’s policy, one agreed to by more»

 There is something deliciously inconsistent about us at St Lukes celebrating Pentecost.We are, so far as many in the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand are concerned, so hopelessly liberal that more»

 When David asked me to lead worship and to preach today I looked up the lectionary readings, noted that one was from the Book of the Revelation of John and quickly glanced at the other more»

 This time three weeks ago I was at a Conference of Progressive Christians. We were bound together by a shared conviction that the Christian church is in trouble. The humane and compassionate more»

 On the occasion of his baptising his grandnephew, Joshua Irwin,and of the Rev Graeme White baptising his granddaughter, Alexandra Bygrave Let us pray:Lord of this technical agewhere so more»