Barnaby, our Rector writes a regular blog. We hope these posts will give you something to think about, something to inspire, challenge and comfort you and to help you grow in your relationship with God.
As Ludovic, Leopold, Caroline and I waited outside Clandon station, seeing train after train cancelled, we realised that the snow had brought our transport system to a grinding halt. If you wanted to get somewhere fast, the Beast from the East was exceptionally irritating. We live in a very busy world, with timetables, meetings, and read on
As you read this, Lent will have started, and you will have enjoyed your pancakes, and will be missing chocolate, or wine, or cheese, or whatever it is that you have given up, if you have given anything up. The seasons of giving things up, a second shot at my New Year’s resolution, if you read on
We have been really enjoying reading Rowan William’s Being Disciples (SPCK 2016) this Lent. Williams has a beautiful, deep way of describing the Christian life. In these posts, I hope to share some of the things which our Lent groups have found most helpful about the book. So here, in the first post are some reflections read on
What is fasting, a practice found in every culture on the planet, all about? At times it was probably understood, to use Austin Farrer’s phrase, as a sort of ‘hunger strike’, designed to influence God and his disposition towards us (Farrer, The Crown of the Year, Dacre Press (1952), p. 22). But surely, God doesn’t need to read on
Tonight, those of you who want to will walk up to the altar rail, and I will trace the sign of the cross on your forehead in ash, as I say ‘From dust you came and to dust you shall return. Turn from sin and be faithful to Christ’. This ‘ashing’ is a symbol, not read on
In a couple of weeks, I’ll go with most of the bishops, priests and deacons of the diocese of Guildford to the cathedral for a special Maundy Thursday service where we will recommit ourselves to God’s service. Maundy Thursday doesn’t really feature as a significant day for the many people these days. For most it read on
We have been using Paula Gooder’s excellent Lent study guide The Joy of the Gospel to help us read Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium in the Clandons this Lent, and we have been really enjoying it. Evangelii Gaudium offers a way of understanding evanglisation which is motivated by the gospel itself, that is, motivated by love, freedom and joy, rather than guilt read on
John 8.1-11 I wonder what images we conjure up when we hear the word ‘God’, perhaps we think we are very sophisticated and are beyond childish images, that we think of God as loving and forgiving, but look carefully enough at what your imagination assembles when you hear that word, and you will soon see read on
It is one of the familiar moans of priests, that Christmas starts too early. We probably all get a bit fed up with Sainsbury’s re-doing their seasonal aisle immediately after Halloween. But there is deeper grouchiness about celebrating the 25 days of Christmas. Not only are we generally so weary of Christmas by the time read on
