I’ve just finished Jason Goroncy’s ‘Descending on Humanity and Intervening in History: Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of P.T.Forsyth’ (2013: Pickwick, 373 pp.).Forsyth (1848-1921) was an amazing man, astonishingly erudite for a practising pastor. Today we’d call him a ‘polymath’, certainly an ‘autodidact’. The modern church-goer eschews such sermons ’employing 100 words when ten would […]
Today we are saying goodbye to a very special person, Rob Haley. Rob was born on a cold, foggy evening on the 19th of July 1924, in Bunyip, a small town in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia: the first child to Alf and Florence Haley. Last week – on 13th May 2014 – he passed away peacefully […]
I talk to lots of clergy – in conferences and one to one ¢â‚¬“ and have a pretty good idea about their preaching styles, and the other preachers they read for inspiration. (An interesting thing happened on the way to writing this chapter, Mothers ¢â‚¬â„¢ Day 2014. My wife has produced one of the two or […]
by Nils von Kalm http://nilsvonkalm.com There has been a lot of controversy over the Noah movie, mainly from Christians. The controversy has been around the fact that the movie doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t follow the biblical story in many ways. In fact it has a bit of a Lord of the Rings feel to it, particularly with the inclusion of the rock-like […]
By Jan Coates We have times when we put aside reason and intellect, and accept through faith things we cannot explain or understand. So, this is Trinity Sunday. I have to say that the concept of the Trinity is not all that mysterious to me ¢â‚¬“ being a multiple personality (like most Mums), it isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t […]
You see things and say ‘why?’ But I dream things that never were And I say ‘why not?’ (Robert Kennedy’s slogan for his ill-fated campaign for the American presidency. Stole it from G B Shaw, who probably stole it from the Greek poet Aeschylus). The impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does it. […]
This is a word not found in secular Greek. Graeco-Roman philosophers sometimes commended selfless generosity, but it was not a highly significant virtue for them. Christian goodness is embodied in Jesus Christ. The best of the saints, says Sangster, have a peculiar kind of goodness. ¢â‚¬ËœIt unconsciously proclaims itself. One feels it as an […]
Zion, City of Our God Sermon by Fleming Rutledge July 8, 2012 Psalm 48, Revelation 7, 19-21 There are a lot of apocryphal stories about the great theologian Karl Barth, but this one sounds just like him. A well-meaning lady asked him, ¢â‚¬Å“Dr. Barth, will we see our loved ones in […]
Grace Church in New York Posted: Nov 17, 2013 By Fleming Rutledge At Grace Church in 1993 we had a series of Wednesday evening sermons on the Four Last Things of Advent: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell ¢â‚¬”in their traditional order. The sermon is unchanged from Advent 1993 and the names of parishioners have not been […]
A challenge to us all, from someone who’s paid a high price to be an advocate for peace and justice for all… ~~ WCC 10th Assembly 8th October 2013 Sermon Father Michael Lapsley, SSM Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories Cape Town, South Africa Peace be with you. I greet you all as […]