Preaching
The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
In the past four years, I have preached over 300 sermons in parishes, chapels, and schools, as well as at Christ Church Cathedral. Most of these events have no record: the sermons were preached without notes and were not recorded. Below is a growing collection of videos, and eventually some audio recordings (e.g. from the BBC) or, in the last resort, notes/text.
For Holy Week, I am preaching a series at Christ Church Cathedral, titled God’s Blood. It is inspired by St Paul’s language in Acts 20:28, and explores how the passion of Christ fulfils God’s promise to remember each of us in the depth of our need and hurt, writing our names ‘on the palms of his hands’ (Isaiah 49:16). Each address will appear on the Christ Church YouTube channel. The outline:
Palm Sunday: ‘Surely, God will save us’ (Ps 69.1-14, Isaiah 12, Luke 19:1-9)
Monday: ‘Who is this?’ (Ps 89.1-8, Isaiah 63.1-9, Revelation 5)
Tuesday: three meditations on Paradox, Pardon, and Passion during the performance of Buxtehude’s Membra Iesu Nostri
Wednesday: ‘Why are we here?’ — an address midway through Philip Moore’s Via Crucis
Maundy Thursday: ‘If I your Lord and Master’
Good Friday: ‘I have written you on the palms of my hands’ (Ps 73.1-4, 12-25, Isaiah 49.13-18, Galatians 2.19-21)
Some Recent Sermons
‘Glory for the weak’: The Sunday before Lent, Christ Church Cathedral
‘Taste’: 23 February 2025, Selwyn College Chapel (at 46:26)
Other sermons
‘Humility in Oxford?’ —Trinity XVII, Christ Church Cathedral
‘To whom shall we go?’ — Trinity XIII, St Bene’t’s
‘Wonders in the deep’ —Trinity IV, Christ Church
‘The mystery of the kingdom’—Epiphany IV, Christ Church
Pentecost 2023, Christ Church
‘To know God truly’ —Trinity Sunday 2024, Christ Church
‘A burning and shining light’— Advent III, Christ Church
Homilies (extemporaneous)
I made it a practice from 2020 to the present to preach as many homilies as possible without more than a few minutes of pre-meditation. I would even ask those inviting me to preach not to tell me the readings until I arrived, if they were different from the lectionary. The bulk of the 300 sermons preached in the past several years were extemporaenous. My aim was to learn to focus on reading or listening intently during the liturgy, responding to those who were present and listening, and sensing the right words to say in the moment. The recordings listed below are primarily from Christ Church, where there is a practice of recording the lunchtime service on Wednesdays. (The videos will also give a sense of how I celebrate a weekday, eastward-facing, BCP Eucharist.)
Curacy sermons
Here are some sermons from the end of my curacy, when we first began recording regularly during the pandemic in 2020. They have a different feel, since many were pre-recorded in my office or in other locations without anyone present.