Sermons

An Advent Reflection on the First Sunday of Advent on the theme of joy. You can watch the entire Reflection at the bottom of the page.

Sunday, 3rd December 2023

Matthew 2:1-12

Monday, 6th January 2020

By grace we are gathered and by grace we shall be gathered.

Sunday, 5th January 2020

We travel in faith, for the nativity story is one of journeys.

Sunday, 29th December 2019

John 1 1-14

Wednesday, 25th December 2019

Luke 2

Tuesday, 24th December 2019

Where we have come from and where we belong now?

Sunday, 22nd December 2019

Here, in this country, we are in changing, exciting, and challenging times.

Sunday, 15th December 2019

"The things which matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least." [Goethe]

Sunday, 8th December 2019

The ambiguity of a king who serves.

Sunday, 24th November 2019

‘See, the day is coming, burning like an oven.’

Sunday, 17th November 2019

Colossians 3:12-17

Saturday, 16th November 2019

The dignity of each person is the foundation of a moral vision for society.

Sunday, 3rd November 2019

This beautiful feast of All the Saints reminds us of the triumph our Lord Jesus Christ won over death.

Friday, 1st November 2019

We are called to be reconciled to one another.

Sunday, 27th October 2019

We have been rooted in a good land.

Friday, 25th October 2019

Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of this third Abbey Church, which took place 750 years ago last Sunday.

Sunday, 20th October 2019

Our celebration today marks a particular moment in the long history of this Abbey Church.

Tuesday, 15th October 2019

The warrior and the saint, on the same axis, West and East

Sunday, 13th October 2019

Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?

Sunday, 13th October 2019

One Saint in particular fascinated Henry: St Edward, King and Confessor

Sunday, 6th October 2019

Why are we all here?

Sunday, 29th September 2019

Lancelot Andrewes

Sunday, 22nd September 2019

What is money for?

Sunday, 22nd September 2019

Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey, who fought for the soul of our beloved Church of England.

Sunday, 15th September 2019

Generations to come will look back at the music of our rich and creative times.

Sunday, 8th September 2019

On being economical with the truth

Sunday, 1st September 2019

Humility

Sunday, 1st September 2019

Encouraging words and actions have the power to motivate and breed success.

Sunday, 25th August 2019

We need to recover a profound sense of the awe and wonder of God.

Sunday, 25th August 2019

There is something more than just keeping to the strict rules or laws.

Sunday, 18th August 2019

'We are haunted by God’s large purposes.'

Sunday, 18th August 2019

It’s not just about being good, it’s about becoming holy.

Thursday, 15th August 2019

Sunday, 11th August 2019

Our vulnerability and our waiting, our faith, will not be in vain.

Sunday, 11th August 2019

Sunday, 4th August 2019

The vice which constantly seeks more possessions.

Sunday, 4th August 2019

Exactly who was Mary Magdalene?

Sunday, 21st July 2019

If we only have the courage to stop and look and listen...

Sunday, 21st July 2019

“With what two crownes is this Citie adorned?”

Sunday, 30th June 2019

Should we think of St Peter as a good role model?

Friday, 28th June 2019

Wanting the best for our children.

Sunday, 23rd June 2019

Christians have been accused of cannibalism since earliest times.

Thursday, 20th June 2019

'Time is how you spend your love.'

Sunday, 9th June 2019

‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’ And he said, ‘I am going to the Father.’

Sunday, 9th June 2019

'He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.'

Sunday, 2nd June 2019

What does it mean to believe in the resurrection when there are no more resurrection appearances?

Sunday, 2nd June 2019

We celebrate today the last of our Lord’s resurrection appearances.

Thursday, 30th May 2019

‘Those who love me will keep my word.’

Sunday, 26th May 2019

We honour the men and women who have served over the years and those who continue to serve in our own day.

Thursday, 23rd May 2019

Tell us plainly what we need to know!

Sunday, 12th May 2019

Patterns of resurrection

Sunday, 5th May 2019

'All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.'

Saturday, 4th May 2019

What on earth just happened? What have we just done?

Saturday, 4th May 2019

We cannot celebrate weapons of mass destruction. But we do owe a debt of gratitude and sincere thanks to all those countless men and women who in the past fifty years have maintained the deterrent, and indeed to their families who have stood by them.

Friday, 3rd May 2019

‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us?’

Sunday, 28th April 2019

We pray for a lasting peace in the world and for friendship to continue with Turkey and all the other nations with whom we were in conflict.

Thursday, 25th April 2019

One of the most enduring images of this last week was the majestic golden altar cross seen glowing among the ashes of Notre Dame cathedral.

Sunday, 21st April 2019

Now we enter fully into the joy of the risen Lord.

Sunday, 21st April 2019

The passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ stand at the centre of our historic inheritance in this country.

Friday, 19th April 2019

Our Lord Jesus Christ offered his back to the smiters and his body on the Cross on Good Friday.

Thursday, 18th April 2019

Above all, this coming week is all about grace.

Sunday, 14th April 2019

Today is the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end

Sunday, 7th April 2019

Where will I end up?

Sunday, 24th March 2019

How far will we go for our neighbour? How far will we go to live a properly Christian life?

Sunday, 17th March 2019

Lent 2019 is an exciting, but testing time to live the holy life.

Sunday, 10th March 2019

First, we must approach God in penitence, acknowledging our sinfulness.

Wednesday, 6th March 2019

Have you ever wondered how Jesus might have engaged with social media?

Sunday, 3rd March 2019

Our relationship with creation

Sunday, 24th February 2019

Seeing in the dark

Sunday, 17th February 2019

Against the odds

Sunday, 17th February 2019

Seeing in the light

Sunday, 10th February 2019

'There are two eyes of the soul, reason and love.'

Sunday, 3rd February 2019

In God’s house, it’s old and young together, needing each other, valuing and validating each other.

Sunday, 3rd February 2019

Everything comes together when we think not of the sacrifice of animals but of the redeeming sacrifice of the first-born Son of God

Friday, 1st February 2019

Jesus is talking about us, challenging us to live the social ramifications of his message.

Sunday, 27th January 2019

In the Gospels we find lots of references to wedding feasts.

Sunday, 20th January 2019

It is a pleasure to welcome the students and staff and the wider community of Alleyn’s School to the Abbey to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Edward Alleyn’s educational trust that has given rise over the centuries to three significant and successful schools in Dulwich.

Friday, 18th January 2019

‘Utterances that are interminable or spasmodic; artistic works or performances without recognisable form; leadership which appears random or impractical – all these fail to communicate because they do not work within the constraints imposed by the rhythm of human activity and the conventions of culture and civilisation’

Tuesday, 15th January 2019

This time of year seems to me to leave us in a state of querulous anxiety.

Saturday, 12th January 2019

We must live like Jesus in loving service of our fellow men and women, now in this blessed year, 2019

Sunday, 6th January 2019

There is so much we do not know...

Sunday, 30th December 2018

The heart of the joy of Christmas gives almost universal pleasure.

Tuesday, 25th December 2018

‘When the angels had left them, the shepherds said one to another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”’

Monday, 24th December 2018

In but a couple of days’ time the feast will be upon us.

Sunday, 23rd December 2018

Is it possible or sensible to talk of a Golden Age? And if so, when might there have been a Golden Age?

Tuesday, 18th December 2018

Today we start the new Church Year with the beginning of a new season of Advent.

Sunday, 2nd December 2018

Divine love and justice has begun to erupt into the world we know.

Sunday, 25th November 2018

“Everything not invented by God was invented by an engineer”

Thursday, 22nd November 2018

If our God is able…

Sunday, 18th November 2018

We celebrate today the canonisation of St Oscar Romero, bishop and martyr, that took place in Rome on 14th October 2018.

Saturday, 17th November 2018

I wonder if you ever experience dreams?

Sunday, 4th November 2018

In this new era of moral challenge, do we, as Christians, have anything to offer?

Sunday, 4th November 2018

Do any of you like to sit quietly at home on a Saturday evening? If you do, it seems you are not.

Saturday, 3rd November 2018

We do not believe we lose any of those who have died and gone before us from our greater company.

Friday, 2nd November 2018

May we all be encouraged by the saints to become ourselves fully.

Thursday, 1st November 2018

Vanity of vanities

Sunday, 28th October 2018

Possession with purpose

Sunday, 21st October 2018

How do we experience and understand silence?

Sunday, 21st October 2018

May we commit ourselves to dedicate our lives to the service of God in Christ and to the service of his people.

Sunday, 14th October 2018

Nobody lights a lamp in order to hide it. They put it on a lampstand, so that people who come in can see the light.

Saturday, 13th October 2018

Our response to tough times should not be to turn away from God.

Friday, 12th October 2018

Beyond catastrophe

Sunday, 7th October 2018

The justice of God Jesus embodied was one of mercy, constantly merciful, straining every sinew to encourage and to find the good in people, offering his life to open a new way of peace and love for sinful human beings to the holiness and beauty of God.

Monday, 1st October 2018

The Church mediates to all people, not least those who have been dealt the toughest cards.

Sunday, 30th September 2018

How we judge others says far more about us, than how we are judged by others.

Sunday, 16th September 2018

The Lord’s Prayer; how we should pray, and with what attitude and with what motives.

Sunday, 9th September 2018

The quiet victory of the pale Galilean.

Sunday, 9th September 2018

What is true religion? What does the Lord really require?

Sunday, 2nd September 2018

‘I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see; I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother, and I found all three.’

Sunday, 19th August 2018

Jean-Baptiste Vianney never set out to please people. Rather he proceeded purposefully in seeking to please God.

Sunday, 5th August 2018

What is the fantasy business you would set up if you could give up your day-job and throw caution to the wind?

Sunday, 5th August 2018

Throughout the year, at Morning Prayer and at Evensong, we hear readings read from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Sunday, 29th July 2018

Bread has been an object of human desire, a sacred object even, for thousands of years.

Sunday, 29th July 2018

Who’s in charge? It can matter quite a lot.

Sunday, 15th July 2018

Lo, the full, final, sacrifice

Sunday, 17th June 2018

Everyone loves a good story.

Sunday, 17th June 2018

Ordinary Time

Sunday, 10th June 2018

Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

Sunday, 10th June 2018

Seeing through tears.

Sunday, 3rd June 2018

Might it have been said to Jesus, "Wonderful, Master, but what does it mean"?

Thursday, 31st May 2018

It is God "that breathes fire into the equations of the universe."

Sunday, 27th May 2018

"Together we form the temple of the Holy Spirit."

Sunday, 20th May 2018

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit of God will uplift us and transform us.

Sunday, 20th May 2018

The clamour for attention.

Sunday, 13th May 2018

Waiting expectantly

Sunday, 13th May 2018

This is a day of triumph. ‘God is gone up with a triumphant shout: The Lord with sounding trumpets’ melodies.’

Thursday, 10th May 2018

Jesus said, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.

Wednesday, 9th May 2018

It was once assumed that the internet would make our lives hyper-rational; but we’re constantly distracted, addicted, manipulated, and angry.

Sunday, 6th May 2018

The reassurance of the whole story - but the challenge of our part within it

Sunday, 29th April 2018

There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Sunday, 29th April 2018

Wednesday, 25th April 2018

Meanings of Resurrection

Sunday, 15th April 2018

How will I respond to the challenges I face living in the betwixt-and-between world of faith to which God beckons us?

Sunday, 8th April 2018

"Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted."

Sunday, 1st April 2018

Sunday, 1st April 2018

Thursday, 29th March 2018

Conversion: seeing differently

Sunday, 25th March 2018

Dealing with failure

Sunday, 11th March 2018

Sunday, 11th March 2018

Sunday, 4th March 2018

Wednesday, 14th February 2018

Transfiguration and the meaning of glory

Sunday, 11th February 2018

Thursday, 1st February 2018

Sunday, 21st January 2018

Sunday, 21st January 2018

Sunday, 14th January 2018

Sunday, 7th January 2018

Sunday, 31st December 2017

Sunday, 31st December 2017

Monday, 25th December 2017

Sunday, 24th December 2017

Sunday, 24th December 2017

Sunday, 17th December 2017

Sunday, 3rd December 2017

Sunday, 5th November 2017

Thursday, 2nd November 2017

Wednesday, 1st November 2017

Sunday, 29th October 2017

Sunday, 22nd October 2017

Sunday, 15th October 2017

Friday, 13th October 2017