Monthly Archives: December 2011

Readings: Hebrews 1.1-4, John 1.1-14 Preacher: Canon Robert Titley December has been a month to reveal the glorious, ghastly confusion of our world, and it’s still not over: a typhoon in the Philippines, an orgy of terrorism in Iraq as … Continue reading →

Reading 1 Corinthians 13 Preacher Canon Robert Titley Whenever someone is contemplating a big thing, a good question to ask is, Why now? After all, it doesn’t do to jump into some life-changing enterprise, or do it ‘lightly or wantonly’, … Continue reading →

Reading Luke 1.26-38 Preacher Canon Robert Titley In our present population, more perhaps than at any time since before the Middle Ages, there is a large percentage of men and women and children who have no knowledge of the Christian … Continue reading →

Readings Malachi 3.1-4.4, Philippians 4.4-7 Preacher Canon Robert Titley This evening’s rather pithy second reading is supplied by Paul’s equally pithy letter to the Philippians. At just over three pages long (compared to, say, the fifteen pages of his letter … Continue reading →

Readings Isaiah 61.1-4,8-11; John 1.6-8,19-28 Preacher Canon Robert Titley  December 2011 will go down as a historic month, but which city will top the historians’ list? Will it beDurban, because this was the moment the world at last began get … Continue reading →

Sermon on Luke 1: 26-38 I begin with a quote from a book review in last week’s Church Times: ‘”Always question authority”. That’s what Sarah Burton tells her girls in Andrew Davies’ recent television adaptation of Winifred Holtby’s novel South … Continue reading →

I realise most eyes are now focused on the birth of a boy next weekend, but today’s gospel reminds us of the centrality of women – Elizabeth and Mary – in the Christmas narrative.  Mary, whom the church traditionally honours … Continue reading →

On the third Sunday of Advent, we focus on John the Baptist, the prophet whose role was to prepare the way for Jesus. And traditionally, this is also Guadete Sunday, gaudete being the Latin word for ‘rejoice’. It finds its … Continue reading →

Readings Isaiah 40.1-11, 2 Peter 3.8-15a, Mark 1.1-8 Preacher Canon Robert Titley The early Roman empire, out of which the New Testament comes, was a world not so very different from ours. One thing we have that they didn’t, though, … Continue reading →