Hark, the glad sound - the Saviour comes!

Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost (Ezekiel 37: 11b) The roof is ribs of stone with no lungs to loose them, no hammer to prize fossilised saints from the cliffs, no spark to make the stone-carved stars shine. If there were angels in the architecture they too are petrified. Visitors pause admiring the arches, commending the craft yet not seeing (not saying?) there is no life here. No. Life is buried here. Fossils are not extinct, but frozen captive in cold stone. There is a hammer to set the saints free, to make the stars shine. I cannot wield it. I do not grieve for death, I grieve that I cannot stir life. I wait for resurrection. As it is written: Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. These bones shall live. These ribs shall rise. This place shall breathe and carry me on its breath.

This goes to a fine, but difficult and obscure tune - I wanted to use the tune because I like it, but perhaps underestimated its difficulty for a congregation! Might work for baptism or for the Easter Vigil, or maybe to accompany sprinkling of a congregation - written in celebration of the dedication of a new font bowl. In the stillness before God spoke words of creation over water the Spirit was brooding in love; and the water thus hallowed is hope of salvation to a world where dry hearts wait for rain from above. As God brought them from Egypt, the people of Israel went safe through the sea where their captors were drowned. Through the river they came to the land that was promised and they drank from the rock in the desert’s dry ground. In the Jordan all righteousness found its fulfilment and Jesus was known as the Father’s dear Son; in the promise thus given is life for all people washed, watered and welcomed, with Jesus made one. Praise God who gives water to feed and sustain us, p...

Frideswide is an obscure saint and very strongly located not just in Oxford, but in Christ Church. I wrote this hymn for her feast day (and our patronal festival) in 2022. It's dedicated to Richard Peers, then our Sub Dean, a priest of huge integrity, wisdom and gentleness from whom I learnt a lot. The tune is Highwood, because I love it. This is the house which holy Frideswide founded strong in God’s peace, unshaken, unafraid, choosing a life of prayer, of love and service, she taught God’s truth and brought God’s gracious aid. Once in this place, she healed God’s hurting people; here from her faith she built a house of grace; now in her presence we her light remember as she beholds our God with glowing face. Here stands the shrine, its fragments found and mended – marble and stone once carved with faithful care – craft that remade it after years of absence; her silent presence and her steadfast prayer. And here we come, to ask again for healing, kneeling in worship at the broken ...

 One of the pieces of liturgy specific to cathedrals is the annual Chrism Mass (or Eucharist with renewal of ministerial vows and blessing of the oils for the ministry of the Church). It's a huge joy and a huge privilege, even though when it happens on the traditional Maundy Thursday, it is also a logistical nightmare. The renewal of ministerial vows is relatively new; the blessing of oils for the three anointings of priestly ministry (oil of exorcism for baptism, oil of healing, oil of chrism for the invocation of the Holy Spirit) very old, and the symbolism of those oils being blessed on Maundy Thursday by the bishop in their cathedral and then taken to the people of the diocese by the clergy carries a lot of theological depth about the ministry of the church flowing from the self-giving love of Jesus and through those ordained to service. There is one published hymn about the oils for ministry, and after several years as precentor I'd got quite tired of it. So I wrote anothe...

A hymn for the beginning of new ministry, in a place where prayer has been valid. (Hebrews 11:32-12:2) (Written to celebrate the installation of Sarah Foot as Dean of Christ Church in 2023.) With saints of all the ages we praise our holy Lord, whose death has opened heaven, whose life was once outpoured, who lives and reigns forever, who makes his people one: one with the saints in glory, with hope of life to come. Our kindred are the saints who worked wonders with each breath  and we like them are called by the God who conquered death. So strengthened and befriended by those who went before, may we like them bring healing, and like them hope restore. *Here Frideswide sang God's praises, here prayer was daily heard, a House on firm foundations and trusting in the Word, and at this new beginning our prayers and praise arise: O bless our priests and people, God merciful and wise. We pray for all who worship, we pray for all who lead; our loving God will give us the daily strength we ...

Called to worship, called to service, called to bring God’s presence near; called to preaching, prayer and blessing speaking peace to conquer fear. Thirty years of joys and sorrows, priestly service gathered here.   We have walked where Christ has called us, borne our cross and suffered pain. To God’s call we have been faithful, and in loss have found our gain. For indeed our God is faithful, and we give our thanks again.   Called to tell salvation’s story, brought in safety through the sea; brought into the new creation, from the weight of sin set free. Called to speak of God’s forgiveness — at our voice let sorrow flee.   Here we stand where earth and heaven meet in praise and offering; here we make Christ truly present, hearts and lives the gifts we bring. Where our hands share blood and body, hearts and souls and voices sing.   In this house of prayer and teaching, where our songs of praise arise, Lord, receive our great thanksgiving joy that echoes to the skies....

(sermon preached at Christ Church, Advent 4, 22nd December 2019) On this fourth Sunday of Advent, our liturgy directs us to Mary and the part that she plays in the great cosmic drama of God with us, the salvation of the world. The prayers we have prayed as we have lit each candle on the Advent wreath have moved us at a gallop through the story of salvation history – the first candle is the patriarchs and matriarchs, the second the prophets, the third John the Baptist, and the fourth, today, Mary. The prayer Canon Foot prayed as Hamish lit today’s candle reminds us that the light we have been waiting for throughout Advent dawns in Jesus, the child of Mary. And yet our Gospel reading wasn’t about Mary at all. Those of you who were at Matins heard St Luke’s familiar story: in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a virgin whose name was Mary… But in our reading, instead, the angel goes to see someone else. The angel goes to see Joseph. Unlike Luke, St Matthew t...

a sermon  preached at Christ Church for College Communion on 14/10/2018. Trinity 20 Hebrews 4: 12-end Mark 10: 17-31 +May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Strength and our Salvation. Today is a very exciting day. In a few hours, in Rome, Oscar Romero will be canonised – made a saint. (The question of how one makes a saint is one for another day!) Oscar Romero was the RC Archbishop of San Salvador in the late 1970s, until his death in 1980. As Archbishop, he spoke out in an increasingly corrupt society against social injustice, against poverty and exploitation, against a government that ruled by fear, torturing and assassinating their political opponents. And he died by assassination, shot as he celebrated Eucharist, by a government that was frightened by the truth he spoke. Oscar Romero was one of the major figures in liberation theology, the Catholic theology that grew up in the secon...

A sermon for Epiphany 4, preached at College Communion at Christ Church on Sunday 27th January 2019. Epiphany 4 Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Luke 4: 14-21 If you had the chance to be present at one event in the life of Jesus – to witness one moment from the gospels – what is the moment you would choose to see? Perhaps the birth of Jesus? Or the feeding of the five thousand? The Sermon on the Mount? The crucifixion? The Resurrection? The Last Supper? We’re unlikely to get our wish. But the moment we would choose has something to do with what we think about Jesus – what is most important for us about his message, his life, his identity. And there’s no wrong answer! Everything about Jesus is important. Everything the gospel writers wrote down was something they judged important enough to remember, and to teach new Christians about – communicating something important about who Jesus was. The Gospel stories are moments, incidents where Jesus, his identity...