Short Talks
This section of the website comprises short stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals. More talks/sermons/homilies/articles will be added in due course.
The section of the website entitled The Christian Faith provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments.
Joyful worship
“…they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him…” and “they departed into their own country another way” (King James Bible, Matthew 2:10,11,12)
Unlike modern visitors to the Holy Land, the Wise Men went not as sightseers nor even as pilgrims, but in order to see a Person. And with them they took their own personal gifts with which to pay him homage. It was this intensely personal motive for their journey which caused them to rejoice with exceeding great joy when the star reappeared and pointed them to Bethlehem. For nothing could take the place of the Holy King whom they sought.
The stable
Room in my heart?
“All went to their own towns to be registered” (NRSV, Luke 2:3)
Christmas is a busy time and the first Christmas was no exception. The Emperor Augustus had extended the system of national registration to the vassal Kingdom of Herod the Great. The head of each family was required, in accordance with Jewish tradition, to register in the town from which he originally came and this meant long journeys for those who had moved to other parts of the country.