How can local churches respond to the mounting climate crisis? What might our ecological futures look like? Do we need a change of heart as well as a change in behaviour? In a three-part sermon series (July 18th, September 5th & October 31st), St Peter’s explores Christian responses to the ecological crisis. On Climate Sunday on September […]

      How can local churches respond to the mounting climate crisis? What might our ecological futures look like? Do we need a change of heart as well as a change in behaviour? In a sermon series (July 18th, September 5th & October 31st), St Peter’s explores Christian responses to the ecological and climate crisis. […]

  It is good to be able to be sent on my way with such huge appreciation and affection. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to my present and for all the well-wishes I have received over the past months. I trust the new vicar will feel as much loved as I have been. […]

  From Sarah Dallas Licensed Lay Minister   Like many people last week, I reflected on the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. The simplicity and austerity of the service was moving. Solemn and restrained, yet filled with feeling. In this extraordinary chapter of life we are living through, those values touch a chord. They remind us of simplicity, and […]

  The Feast of Candlemas, which the church celebrates this Sunday, is an ancient holy time. It comes 40 days after Christmas marking the end of the glorious season of Epiphany and a turning towards Lent/Holy Week & Easter. In northern Europe it is the end of the darkest time of the year. Traditionally it […]

January 2021 Dear Friends, Epiphanytide, the weeks following Christmas, the most beautiful of church seasons, is a time of revelation and truth. The stark outline of trees against an ever-changing sky sharpens the contrasts. Bright stars illumine the way. The bible texts set for these Sundays follow the beginnings of the ministry of Jesus; his […]

In the New Testament, peace has nothing to do with pastel painted scenes of beaches and waterfalls and mindfulness exercises to attain inner peace. Peace comes through struggle and pain. When Jesus talked about peace, the Greek word used most frequently in the gospels does not mean an absence of conflict or war. The word eirene describes an […]

Dear Friends, Historians are in demand these days. Medieval archaeologists have been examining the impact of the Black Death that killed roughly half the known population of Europe, North Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East in the 1300s. The shockwaves of the pandemic can be traced for over a century. It is sobering to […]

Dear Friends,   For the past month we have been marking ‘Creationtide’. This is a relatively new season in the church calendar, established in 2007 by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The season runs from 1 September 1st to October 4th, which is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi (patron saint of […]

Dear Friends,   SEPTEMBER 2020   As many amongst us face a ‘new term’ in these challenging times, the psalms invite us to ‘Sing to the Lord a new song…’   Sunday worship has now resumed in church with A Service of the Word – 45 minutes of seasonal prayers, readings and reflections – with […]