Sharing some thoughts

Well, happy Christmas and happy  new year .  2015 is now upon us and who knows what it will bring. You may have made resolutions, or thought of things that you could take up, or perhaps you have just let it pass you by as another day.  I have never really been one for new  years  resolutions however when I was 9 I had been given a girl guides diary. It was great, it even had a pencil in the spine and I decided that I would write in this diary every day. I did this faithfully and still have it. I particularly enjoy reading the things that I cared a lot about. I enjoyed family time, Church, friend time and I had a best friend who I adored. On one page I talked about how amazing she was, put then at the bottom of the page there is a little star telling me to move forward. I did and there stapled into my diary is a sheet of paper where I have used pink biro which says,  ‘ She  is no longer my friend. I don’t like her because she called me a ( and I apol...

Today is an important day as we celebrate the life of St John the Evangelist to whom this church is dedicated, and today’s gospel poses an incredible challenge to us as we think about the life of St John and also about our church. The gospel reading (John 12:20-36) was set in the context of the Feast of Passover, one of the holiest days of the Jewish faith. Jewish people would travel long distances to celebrate the festival together at the Temple. Some of these people were the Greeks who met Philip in our reading – and came up with the simple but incredibly profound words, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’. Sometime ago I was talking with Bishop David Yeoman, who was then the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff, and he said that when he was travelling in Africa, a Bishop came up to him on the Saturday evening and asked him to preach at the big confirmation service the following day. Bishop David hurriedly prepared what he thought he was going to say and the following morning climbe...

from Helen May I speak in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy  Spirit. AMEN This morning I want to begin by explaining that we are all just like penguins and tigers. Please don’t try and work this out by  yourselves!! In the build up to today there have been many adverts on the television and many discussions about dreams and hopes. As ever people have been asked if they were hoping for a white Christmas, what would they really like for Christmas, who they would like to spend Christmas with and what they may like to  eat. One advert that stuc k out for me this year was the J ohn  Lewis advert. I n the advert there is a little boy whose toy penguin has come to life. This penguin is constantly with the little boy, they go everywhere together and the little boy even feeds the penguin some of his  breakfast! Life  is fun for both of them but then …. One day the little boy notices that every time the penguin sees a couple on the  TV  or walki...

If you listen to music on quite a lot of TV or radio channels at this time of year one of the songs you will hear played quite a lot is the Band Aid 3 rd release of ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’. And so many of you will know the first line of that song, ‘It’s Christmas time and there’s no need to be afraid…’ However for many Christmas time is a time of feeling afraid and it has, it seems, always been so – When Isaiah foretold the birth of Jesus he described Him as light coming into darkness, and perhaps most famously of all as the Angel appeared to Mary she was told ‘do not be afraid’ – after all she was a young unmarried virgin engaged to a carpenter who wasn’t the father of the baby… why should she worry !!! And then in our gospel reading this evening (Luke 2:1-14) the angel appeared to the shepherds and again offered the words, ‘Do not be afraid…’ I wonder how many of us on a dark mountain top wouldn’t be afraid if we heard an angel speaking to us !!! And yet what is s...

A hospital chaplain had a great idea to  publicise  some of the  Christmas events in the maternity unit using the slogan , ‘It’s a boy’ , obviously referring to  the birth of  Jesus.  Unfortunately the publicity wasn’t going quite as planned, particularly the ordering of the banner … W hen walking through a crowded waiti ng room of expectant parents the chaplain’s  phone rang and it was the company making the banner once again checking the details of the wording and the size – rather exasperated  he shouted  more loudly than he intended, ‘It’s a  boy !  5 feet long and 2 feet  high ! ’  Some of the  ‘mothers-to- be ’  looked just a little  worried ! Today on this 4 th  Sunday in Advent we think about Mary, the mother of Jesus and her w illingness to answer God’s call – a call as worrying as if she’d been told she was to have a child 5 feet long and 2 feet high…  And the thoughts of Mary are ...