Good Friday Service 2021

Luke 14:1, 7-14 Don’t think of this dinner party as a casual gathering of old friends. This is one of the social occasions of the year. The party is being held at the home of the “host and hostess with the most-est.” This gathering will be featured in next week’s Hello! with pictures showing fortunate…

John 8:31-36   The current television show using the tried and tested formula is Would I lie to you, in which contestants tell incredible stories, allegedly about themselves, and the other team has to guess whether they’re telling the truth or not.  Sometimes the really incredible is, in fact, true, and sometimes the really incredible…

Mark 8:27-38   You may remember the 2001 film Iris, which told the life of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, particularly the tragic onset of dementia in her life.  Or more recently the film The Iron Lady which depicts something similar of Margaret Thatcher, although more controversially released before she died.   We all know…

Luke 23:32-38 When the European missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were savagely opposed by many of the indigenous peoples. Among them was a young chief of the Cree named Maskepetoon. Eventually he responded to the missionary’s work, and became a Christian. Shortly afterwards, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father. Maskepetoon rode…

Job 19:23-27a Luke 20:27-38 If you ever have the misfortune to travel on the M25 between the A3 and the M40, you’ll often encounter what are known as variable speed limits. The theory is that these stop the traffic bunching together by slowing traffic down, so that it doesn’t catch up with the traffic ahead…

Isaiah 43.1-7 Luke 3.15-17, 21-22 A chap out walking his dog one evening was pleasantly surprised when a beautiful and, to him, young woman warmly greeted him. He obviously looked rather surprised, because she apologized and explained, “Oh, I ‘m so sorry. When I first saw you I thought you were the father of two…