Posts from 2026

Dearest friends, Forty days after Easter, the Church celebrates the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. It can sometimes feel like a quieter feast, overshadowed by the joy of Easter or the fire of Pentecost, yet the Ascension is one of the great turning points in the Christian year. Without it, the story of salvation would feel unfinished. The Ascension is not simply Jesus “going away.” It is the moment when the risen Christ returns to the Father in glory,…

Dearest friends, Why are we blessing motorbikes? It’s a good question! Why are we blessing them at the Cathedral rather than here in church, if this is a new worshipping community for us? Another good question! We bless motorbikes in a tradition that goes back to at least the 1950s. In 1959 Father Bill Shergold got up the courage to wander into the Ace Cafe and invite bikers to come to his church for Evensong. It was not an easy…

Dearest friends, St Joseph the Worker is a quiet but compelling example of discipleship lived out in ordinary life. He is not remembered for preaching sermons or performing miracles, but for his faithfulness in daily work, his obedience to God, and his care for those entrusted to him. Our world often measures worth by status or achievement. St. Joseph reminds us that holiness is found in the hidden and the humble. As a carpenter, he sanctified ordinary labour, showing that…

Dearest friends, St George is often remembered as the dragon-slayer. Whether or not we dwell on the details of that story, its meaning is clear enough: here is a man who faced evil, not with fear or compromise, but with courage rooted in faith.  The dragon, in Christian imagination, has long stood for all that opposes God—sin, injustice, fear, and death itself. And so George’s victory is not really about heroism for its own sake, but about trust that, in…

Dearest friends, Divine Mercy Sunday – Finding peace through mercy. In the 1930’s a Polish nun called Sr. Faustina (now St. Faustina) experienced a series of visions of Jesus. Amongst her visions, Jesus asked her to paint this very special image – an image of the Divine Mercy of God flowing from his Sacred Heart.  Her visions were centred around Jesus, bringing her to a place where she could see the mercy of God at work in the world around…

Dearest friends, The empty tomb stands as a symbol of the greatest hope and the greatest story ever told. Of a man who came to earth, was crucified, died, buried, descended into hell, and on the third day rose again! He came to take away our sin, to bring us into a new life in God. So as we start this journey together on Thursday evening, as darkness descends and altars are stripped. We must remember that darkness will never…

Dearest friends, Palm Sunday has always struck me as a delightful and fun day. I can so easily get caught up in the expectation and the joy of the people of Jerusalem as Jesus enters the city.  I can see and hear the children as they run to meet him. This great teacher, this man who is God, Jesus who has given us so many signs and such wonderful love.  The noise, the smells, the hands held high waving palm…

Dearest friends, As we look towards Holy Week the falvour of Lent starts to change. Instead of focusing on our own fast, we start to turn our eyes to the coming of The Passion.  Where in our lives can we more fully place our eyes on Jesus and the path before Him? What difference does that make in our own lives? This is a question that we’ll try to answer at the last session of Bread of Life on Maundy…

Dearest friends, St Joseph stands quietly in the pages of the Gospel, and yet his silence speaks volumes. He is not recorded as saying a single word, but his life is full of faithful action. In a world that often celebrates noise, recognition, and self-assertion, Joseph shows us another way: the way of humble obedience. When the angel spoke to him in a dream, Joseph did not argue or delay. He simply rose and did what the Lord asked. He…

Dearest friends, At the well in Samaria, Jesus asks a simple question: “Give me a drink.” What begins as an ordinary encounter becomes a moment of transformation. The woman arrives carrying her water jar, expecting a routine task, but leaves with something far greater — the promise of “living water.” Lent invites us to recognise our own thirst. We often draw from wells that cannot truly satisfy: success, approval, comfort, or distraction. Yet Christ meets us in the ordinary places…

Dearest friends, On March 1st, if it were not a Sunday, we would be celebrating the Feast of St. David. We’re told that St. David’s final words were ‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do’. These words are actually taken from his final sermon on the Sunday before he died – he was a prodigious preacher and founded monastic settlements over Wales, the South West of England and even…