baked bread breakfast buns

Lammas: The Spiritual Power of Everyday Bread

August 7, 2022Posted inSermons
In 2001 a group of people gathered outside a church in the in town of Alamogordo, New Mexico and started a fire. They did not set fire to the church – this was not some sort of anti-religious arson attack – far from it. In fact, this group gathered to set light to a large pile of books that they deemed to be anti-Christian, satanic, and corrupting the minds of the youth by promoting witchcraft. All of these books in the pile that went up in smoke that day by one author J. R. R. Tolkien. Yep, they burned Lord of the Rings. Which is somewhat ironic as, if they had bothered to read it and comprehend what they were reading, they would soon have discovered that, for all its talk of wizards and magical creatures, it is one of the most Christianity influenced stories to have ever sat on a bookshelf.

“Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out”: The Example of Mary?

July 17, 2022Posted inSermons
Our reading from the Gospel of Luke today is one that causes many people to get cheesed off with Jesus. Here are two women, one leaves all the work for the other to do and when she has the nerve to finally ask Jesus to tell her lazy sister to finally get up and do some work, what does he do? Criticises hard working Martha and praises lazy Mary! Where is the justice in that?
Icon of the New Testament Trinity

A Unitarian Sermon on Trinity Sunday

June 12, 2022Posted inSermons

“It is often supposed in orthodox circles that Unitarian ministers spend a good deal of time in their pulpits attacking the official doctrine [of the Trinity], whereas in reality we hardly ever mention it.” – so said the Unitarian Minister and one time Principle of Manchester College, Oxford, Sidney Spencer. Well today I am going to mention that doctrine and, in speaking about a doctrine concerning the nature of God anyone, myself included, can run into problems. In some respects, then, this is not an easy sermon for me to preach.

The Pentecost; the Holy Dove appears above, below sits the Virgin surrounded by Apostles, after Dürer

Pentecost: The Role of The Spirit in Unitarianism

June 5, 2022Posted inSermons
“God is Dove” is what, on first glance, I read to myself from the memorial to George Dare on Friday. Of course, I quickly realised that this reading was the result of a dyslexic Minister trying to read fancy calligraphy. The quote on Dare’s memorial is, of course, “God is Love”. Yet, “God is Dove” might be strangely apt for today’s service.

Meetings and Partings

June 6, 2021Posted inSermons
So, this is it. The day is finally here. My last service of my first official ministry and my first time saying this sort of goodbye. The theme of this service ‘Meetings and Partings’ was taken from one of the Engagement Group sessions that I led with you this year. That Engagement Group was, appropriately, on liminal space. As I speak to you now, about to leave my official role as Student Minister behind at the end of this month and not quite fully knowing what is next, liminal space is exactly what I’m about to be entering into.

New Year: Predictions and Perspectives

January 3, 2021Posted inSermons
About a week ago, my Dad forwarded me an article that he found highly amusing. It was published on the website of the Daily Mirror with the headline ‘Nostradamus terrifying predictions for 2021’. Now I’m know that the tabloid press is commonly perceived as having no aversion to kicking people while they are down, however to do such to the hopes of an entire population first struck me as being in bad taste and highly frivolous. It still strikes me as very frivolous, but we might be able to use it to our advantage. It is, after all, a very useful and, depending on one’s sense of humour, fun, way to think about the future.

Queerness, Shepherds and the Holy Family

December 30, 2020Posted inSermons
Liturgically it is not too late for another Christmas address. We are, technically on day 5 of what is a 12-day long festival of Christmastide! The life of Jesus queered social boundaries from the start. Who outside the Holy Family should hear of his birth first but shepherds. Shepherds were, according to the religious orthodoxy of the day, seen as ritually and physically unclean. They were at the mercy of the constant demands of their flocks and had no time for the meticulous program of ceremonial hygiene that would have been demanded of the average person.

First Sunday After Christmas

December 27, 2020Posted inSermons
So in this past week we arrived out of the season of Advent into Christmas. Many of us completed our Advent calendars, listened to carols from King’s College, Cambridge, and left appropriate festive fair by the fireplace for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day you might have been lucky enough to have your family with you for a great dinner, you might have called friends and family members from afar, or maybe you felt slightly green around the gills after over indulging in the chocolate from your selection box.

History of LGBTQIA+ People in Unitarian Ministry

November 7, 2020Posted inTalks
I wish to start with a brief plug. As part of my ministerial training, I need to conduct a rights of passage service. So, if any of you here this afternoon wish to get married, you are especially welcome to contact me! You might laugh at this but one of my other options is conducting a funeral and I’m sure I will get even fewer willing volunteers for that! Why can I make the offer of being able to marry people in this queer space so confidently? Because the chapel of Harris Manchester College is the only Oxbridge college chapel registered to preform both opposite and same-sex marriages. But why, in this age, is it the case that HMC is the only college chapel to offer marriage equally to all who want it to the full extent that the law allows? In part it is because of the college’s Unitarian heritage.