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The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for Easter 7 in Year B is John 17.6–19, the central section of Jesus’ so-called ‘High Priestly Prayer’. The reading omits the introduction and opening sentences of the prayer, and stops short before the often-quoted ‘that they might be one’; I have previously commented on the use of this phrase, … Continue Reading
Dr Rhona Knight was a medical doctor in General Practice who then trained for ordination. During the last year, she has been developing a remarkable online resource, The Prayer Room, to help people pray as they experience the pandemic and lockdown as a time of trauma. I asked her about the project. IP: Tell me … Continue Reading
I have always had mixed feelings about New Year resolutions. In previous years, January has always been the biggest time for new gym subscriptions—but most don’t continue the habit past the end of the month, and many gyms run on the subscriptions of people who never come. This suggests that January isn’t the best time … Continue Reading
The lectionary reading for Easter 7, the last Sunday of the Easter Season before Pentecost, is the ‘great prayer’ of Jesus in John 17. The lectionary divides the chapter into three parts over Years A, B and C, which either assumes that preachers and people have a good memory from year to year, or perhaps … Continue Reading
Nick Moore writes: With ever stronger advice against social interaction and the prospect of restrictions on personal movement along the lines of those seen in China and other European countries, the concepts of ‘social distancing’ and ‘self-isolation’ have become everyday talk. Then in the last couple of days, as the Church of England has suspended … Continue Reading
The Church of England communications team has released a prayer for the nation at the time of the General Election, and it has not been well received. I offer here a prayer I wrote for Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio, which they recorded and broadcast earlier in the week. There were three main things on … Continue Reading
This Sunday’s lectionary reading from Luke’s gospel (Trinity 18, Year C) is the Parable of the Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow from Luke 18.1–8. A surface reading, confirmed by most online comments on it, is that basically we need to be nagging God before he will answer our prayer! But a more careful reading, … Continue Reading
The idea of ‘repenting of sin’ causes us a bit of a problem nowadays. It causes us a problem in relation to those outside the church as well as those inside the church and faith. For those outside, there is a sense that Christians are ‘holier than thou’, and are telling them that they are … Continue Reading
If I was given sixpence every time I heard someone quoted John 17.21 ‘…that they might be one…’ then I’d have a lot of change that I wouldn’t know what to do with. It is commonly suggested that, in this, Jesus’ ‘high priestly prayer’, we see his last desire expressed to his heavenly Father, and … Continue Reading
The Sunday lectionary readings for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity in Year C continue with its progress through Luke’s gospel, and we reach Luke 11.1–13 and Jesus’ teaching on prayer. In reading this, we need to be alert to the fact that both the lectionary divisions and the chapter divisions in our Bibles (which are … Continue Reading
As we being the season of Lent, traditionally a period of discipline and denial, the subject of fasting naturally comes up. But before we think about fasting for ourselves, we need to ask: How often did Jesus and the first generation of his followers fast? Was it an occasional thing, focused on specific events or … Continue Reading