Passing Notes January 2015
I have a monthly-ish e-mail newsletter, Passing Notes. The January edition is out now. You can sign up to receive future editions as e-mails.
Flash Compline 27th January 2015
There will be a Flash Compline service at 8.30pm on Tuesday, 27th January 2015, at the north end of the Millennium Footbridge. Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow along with the text and see what you can pick...
Transfiguration — Demo recording
"Transfiguration-Mariawald-Abbey" by Master of St Severin - Victoria and Albert Museum, . Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Some time ago I set Thomas Thurman's poem, "Transfiguration", as a flexible anthem. It can be sung unison and organ, but if there are more voices can expand to soprano and alto, or even soprano, alto and baritone. I've finally gotten around to doing a...
Flash Compline 16th December 2014 8.45pm
There will be a Flash Compline service at 8.45pm on Tuesday, 16th December 2014, at Christ Church Greyfriars, near St Paul's tube - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow along with the text and see...
C of E throwing money at the wrong problem.
I am trying to make sense of the alleged plan to groom talent for high office in the Church of England. The short version seems to be this: there is a plan to create a "talent pool" of people suitable for "high office" (to include bishops and deans, but also incumbents of "large parishes" -- which could easily be the only stipendiary posts left in some dioceses), and give them mandatory business...
Flash Compline 12-12-2014 8.30pm
There will be a Flash Compline service at 8.30pm on Friday, 12th December, just north of Southwark Cathedral, near London Bridge tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow...
Minster-Shaped Church?
One proposal for the flourishing of the parish system in the Church of England The Church of England, we keep being told, has a problem: not enough resources to have a priest (or even a deacon) in every parish church. Some will say this is about a shortage of young vocations to fill stipendiary posts, others will be blunt and say it's because we don't have enough money to pay for that many...
Flash Compline Wednesday 3 December
There will be a Flash Compline service at 9.30pm on Wednesday, 3rd December, in the gardens of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident...
Sermon for All Souls
I did some preaching again yesterday, at a Choral Evensong for All Souls. The readings were Lamentations 3:17-26, 31-33 and 1 Peter 1:3-9, and this is roughly what I said: All Saints this morning was a chance to celebrate all those who have illuminated the Christian faith for us. In contrast, this evening's commemoration of All Souls is an opportunity for a quieter reflection, remembering those...
Sermon for Bible Sunday
I preached for the first time on Sunday evening, at St Mary's Addington. The readings were Isaiah 55.1-11 and Luke 4.14-30. This is what I said: Today is Bible Sunday, a chance to consider the place of Scripture in our lives as Christians. In the Church of England much of our liturgy quotes the Bible directly. This service of sung Evensong doesn't just have the two spoken readings, but at least...