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Decisions make a difference

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  I like lots of sports and one of the inevitabilities of watching sport with a favourite team is that occasionally you will get cross with a referee! I support Liverpool football club and last week they played Manchester City - Manchester City were leading 1-0 when Liverpool scored what was obviously a perfectly good goal, but it was disallowed!  Now that made a big difference because instead of going on to win the game 3-1 as they would have done, they ended up losing 3-0! Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Decisions make a difference!  Sometimes, a word we speak, a path we take, a moment missed or embraced, can seem really small, but we probably recognise that even the smallest decisions can shape the biggest outcomes.  Today our readings encourage us to pause, to reflect, to ask about something far bigger than football…   About what story our life is telling and who’s writing the next chapter? About what kind of future we are shaping with the choic...

Remembrance 2025

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The silence that takes place on Remembrance Sunday is never empty. It echoes with stories, with sacrifice, with love. Today, on this Remembrance Sunday we gather not just to remember the fallen but to ask what their memory calls us to become. In the shadow of war, we seek wisdom. In the pain of loss, we proclaim hope. And above all, we stand firm in the love of Christ—a love that no battle, no grave, no sorrow can ever overcome. Our readings this evening invite us to remember with sadness and sorrow, but also to do so with wisdom (1 Kings 3:1–15) and with the assurance of God’s unbreakable love (Romans 8:31–39). Remembering isn’t something we simply do—it’s something that shapes us. It’s not passive, but active. It’s not just about looking back, but about learning, growing, and being transformed. And from our readings, we are called to live wisely and love boldly. In our Old Testament reading, Solomon, the successor of King David, is portrayed as wealthy and powerful, yet he seek...

You’re a saint

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  Today we celebrate All Saints Day—a feast not just about remembering, but about mission. It’s a day when the Church is called to say, “This is what we’re made for.” And here, in this patronal festival, we’re reminded that this church—this community—is part of that great group of saints. We are not just remembering saints today; we are called to become them. There’s a story about Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor. He spent 14 years in prison under a brutal Communist regime—four of those years in solitary confinement, locked in a box underground. When he was finally released, his son asked him what he had learned.  Wurmbrand replied, “I forgot much of the Bible. But I remembered three things: there is a God, Jesus is His Son, and love is the best way.” That’s the gospel in its simplest form. And it’s the heartbeat of sainthood. We often think of saints as distant figures, perhaps seen most clearly in stained glass windows—people like the gospel writers or sometimes St Paul ...