Palm Sunday 2018

Revd.  Canon Leonard Doolan

There is a telling little phrase in St. Luke’s gospel (9,53) where the author says ‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

It has a ring of determination to it – a planned or strategic decision. One wonders if there had been any conversations around this decision – had the disciples been given access to the details of the new direction? The little phrase has the resonance of what we would nowadays call ‘intentionality’.

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Passion Sunday 2018 John 12, 20-33

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Many people travel to Greece, mostly now as tourists. The Greeks have also been great travelers, not so much as tourists but in search of work, or trade. A great seafaring nation, Greeks have always been in diaspora.

Our gospel reading this morning refers to Greeks. These are not visitors to Jerusalem, as if they were part of some pilgrim group, but Hellenes. They were ethnically Greek, and firstly Greek speakers, but were also Jewish. Why else would they have been in Jerusalem to worship at the festival?

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Third Sunday in Lent

The Revd. Tony Lane

I vividly remember just a few years ago turning on the TV one evening to watch the news.  The cameras were recording a debate in the Italian parliament, which concerned one of the many  scandals that surrounded the life style of President Berlusconi.   As one might expect the MPs were becoming somewhat excited, even agitated, but that sort of thing probably happens world wide.  What happened next however was certainly ‘not’ anticipated.

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Second Sunday in Lent

Reader Mrs Sherry Angelis

“Get behind me, Satan!”            Certainly, these are extremely harsh words coming from the lips of Christ Himself, especially when the recipient is Peter, one of the Lord’s closest disciples and one of the first building stones from which the Church itself is to be built.  Earlier, this disciple even boldly declares to his master, “You are the Messiah!”  Thus, Christ’s shocking command must have struck Peter to his very soul, since Satan is pure Evil and the supreme enemy of our most Holy God.

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Transfiguration Next Before Lent 2018

Deacon Christine Saccali

I don’t know if you have heard of the Malvern Hills in central England? The area is famous for its water as well as its beauty but Malvern is where I come from and where my father’s family originated. My dad used to say that the next highest land as you circled the globe on that latitude was the Urals located in the Soviet Union then.

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