Sermons

Here at St George's we are lucky to have a number of people who preach regularly. They include the vicar, curate and the readers as well as visiting preachers who are invited to join us from time to time.  Some of their sermons are available here to download so that you can read them and think them through.  

A sermon is a proclamation - a call to the congregation to be transformed.  The sermon is part of the conversation between God and his people which leads to conversion and is, therefore, sacramental.  The sermon is not just a piece of intellectual or entertaining (or, even, boring) fluff in the middle of a Sunday service, but an integral part of the whole and often, therefore, unable to stand alone: it belongs within that act of worship.

Sometimes this is why the preacher chooses not to put the sermon on this website; other times it's because it hasn't been written out fully, or needs further work.  Of course we, the congregation, often don't hear everything the preacher says and often can't remember it. Part of the task of the listener is to ask ourselves what it is that God is saying to us; what it is in the preacher's words that God wants us to hear. 

 

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said this about preaching:

"Why is it difficult to talk about God?  Because God is different, and the source of difference, and the source, the wellspring of change.  It is difficult because when we draw near to God things change unpredictably.  The bread and wine become the instruments of the light and life of Christ delivered into our hands and into our lives.  It is difficult because Christian speech is about silence and the Word, about dying and rising.  That is why it is the challenging role  of the preacher, wrestling with that difficulty, to remind us why difficulty matters.  Difficulty is central because change is difficult and difficult to understand. Transformation is not obvious.  It is about becoming other.  The preacher goes into the pulpit to proclaim that difficulty, that difference, proclaiming the events and the transactions that we really need to know about if we are not to be left locked up in a prison of our own imaginations and wills and feelings.  Preaching is springing us from the trap of our egos.  Which is why, of course, the pulpit is just the tip of the iceberg, a sign of that whole process of speaking and acting which attempts very inadequately to say what it is that has changed through that unspeakable transaction, transformation and difference that occurs through Jesus Christ." 

 

 We hope that the sermons you read here will lead you to that transformation.

 


 

2012 Sermons:

Date Occasion Preacher
24th January Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Nick Chamberlain
19th January The Third Sunday of Epiphany Nick Chamberlain
12th January The Second Sunday of Epiphany Pauline Pearson

 

2011 Sermons:

 

Date Occasion Preacher
25th December Christmas Day Nick Chamberlain
24th December Midnight Mass Nick Chamberlain
24th December 6.00pm Carol Service Nick Chamberlain
18th December The Fourth Sunday of Advent Alun Ford
4th December The Second Sunday of Advent Nick Chamberlain
27th November Advent Sunday Alun Ford
20th November Christ the King Nick Chamberlain
6th November The Third Sunday before Advent Nick Chamberlain
23rd October Last Sunday of Trinity Alun Ford
16th October The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Nick Chamberlain
18th September The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity Alun Ford
31st July The Sixth Sunday after Trinity Alun Ford
17th July The Fourth Sunday of Trinity Alun Ford
7th July Welcome Eucharist Pauline Pearson
3rd July The Second Sunday of Trinity Pauline Pearson
19th June Trinity Sunday (Evensong) Nick Chamberlain
19th June Trinity Sunday Nick Chamberlain
5th June Seventh Sunday of Easter Nick Chamberlain
18th - 24th April Holy Week & Easter Pauline Pearson
23rd January Third Sunday of Epiphany Colin Dixon
2nd January Second Sunday of Christmas Nick Chamberlain

2010 Sermons:

 

Date Occasion Preacher
24th December Midnight Mass Colin Dixon
7th November Third Sunday before Advent Joan Grenfell
24th October Dedication Nick Chamberlain
29th August 13th Sunday after Trinity Chris Wardale
22nd August 12th Sunday after Trinity Chris Wardale
15th August Blessed Virgin Mary Chris Wardale
1st August 9th Sunday after Trinity Nick Chamberlain
2nd May Easter 5 Nick Chamberlain
4th April Easter Day Nick Chamberlain
4th April Easter Day Liturgy Nick Chamberlain
2nd April Good Friday Address 3 Nick Chamberlain
2nd April Good Friday Address 2 Nick Chamberlain
2nd April Good Friday Address 1 Nick Chamberlain
2nd April Good Friday Liturgy Nick Chamberlain
1st April Maundy Thursday Nick Chamberlain
31st March Holy Week - Wednesday Nick Chamberlain
30th March Holy Week - Tuesday Nick Chamberlain
29th March Holy Week - Monday Nick Chamberlain
24th January Third Sunday of Epiphany Nick Chamberlain
3rd January Second Sunday of Christmas Allison Fenton
3rd January Second Sunday of Christmas (BCP readings) Allison Fenton

 

 2009 Sermons:

 

Date Occasion Preacher
25th December Christmas Day Morning Nick Chamberlain
24th December Christmas Eve Midnight Mass Nick Chamberlain
24th December Christmas Eve Carol Serviece Nick Chamberlain

9th August

Trinity 9 Matthew McKenna
26th July

Trinity 7

(sermon given at St Hildas)

Matthew McKenna
19th July Trinity 6 Nick Chamberlain
21st June Trinity 2 Nick Chamberlain
5th July Allison Fenton's First Mass Brother Damian SSF
12th April Easter Day Stephen Hampton
12th April Easter Day Vigil Stephen Hampton
10th April Good Friday (1) Stephen Hampton
10th April Good Friday (2) Stephen Hampton
9th April Maundy Thursday Stephen Hampton

 

All sermons are saved as PDF files and will open in a new window.