Theological libraries across the globe are groaning under the sheer weight of scholarly volumes dedicated to the Sermon on the Mount, with countless academics dissecting every Greek syllable to uncover the deepest nuances of what was spoken on that hillside.
Let’s be honest: most days, life feels less like a serene walk with God and more like trying to assemble a particularly fiddly piece of flat-pack furniture while the instructions are being chewed by the dog and you’ve misplaced the allen key.
In the relentless bustle of modern family life, the notion of “quiet time” can feel like a bit of a tall order. For a tired mother or father, the distance between the kitchen sink and the “quiet conversation of prayer” can feel like a very long way indeed…
Let us be honest with one another: prayer is often rather harder than the hymnbooks suggest. We have all been there – starting a prayer only to find our minds have wandered to the shopping list. If this sounds familiar, take heart. You are not a failure; you are simply human. In Colossians 4:12, we meet Epaphras, who was ‘always struggling’ in prayer. The Greek word is agonizomai – the root of our word ‘agony’. But this wasn’t mere suffering; it was an athletic contest, a wrestling match in the arena of intercession. Discover why there is profound joy to be found in the holy sweat of persistent prayer…
When a post-exilic prophet spoke of God’s name being great “from the rising of the sun to its setting,” he uttered words that must have seemed impossible to his struggling community in Jerusalem. Yet today, young people in Britain, America and Europe are returning to churches their parents abandoned, whilst Iranian, Syrian and other Arab Muslims risk everything to worship Jesus in secret house churches across the Middle East. Malachi’s ancient prophecy is unfolding before our eyes in ways that challenge our assumptions about where faith flourishes and who the missionaries really are. This isn’t just history or theology – it’s the story of what God is doing right now, in the most unexpected places, through the most unlikely people.
The story of God’s provision, it seems, is meticulously signposted, and our Anglican tradition, with its cherished three-fold cord of scripture, tradition, and reason, is wonderfully equipped to follow the breadcrumbs from prophecy to fulfilment and finally to our parish altar.
As Anglo-Catholics and those who cherish the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham, we adore the great Christian Feast of the Nativity. Every year, we prepare our hearts through Advent, hungrily awaiting the joyous moment when we sing carols and celebrate the Incarnation of Our Lord. Midnight Mass is a Read more
Season 1, Episode 1 of FROM THE PEWS with David and Shaun
Bible readers, upon opening the New Testament, encounter the long list of names that begins the Gospel of Matthew and we work our way through them not really taking them in. It is a common experience to find such genealogies challenging or indeed uninteresting
One of the great joys of reading the Bible with the mind of the Church is spotting the threads of divine gold woven through its pages. A story that begins in a garden finds its astonishing conclusion in a city-garden, and the One who spoke the first “Let there be light” is the same Lamb who is its eternal lamp.
There are many descriptions of the word of The Lord and we’ve picked our favourites and put them in a handy poster for you!