Purple magnolia

First published in Praxis : News of Worship, Volume 71 Autumn 2021 www.praxisworship.org.uk   As a parish priest who moved post in summer 2020 my experience of the Eucharist during the pandemic has varied enormously. There has been a movement between the private and the public, which has echoes for me of the difference between the last supper and the feeding of the 5,000. The last supper in that upper room, prepared for in advance, in private, where everybody’s name is known. The feeding of the 5,000 in public, a bit haphazard, with crowds that really no one can number. What happened My first lockdown experience of the sacrament was each Sunday watching an on-screen Eucharist from St Alban’s Abbey with my congregation at Holy Innocents, Kingsbury in the suburbs of North West London. Although it was not our own cathedral I chose St Alban’s as it was nearby and what they provided (a livestream of a sung Eucharist at 10am) fit perfectly with our usual pattern. We joined togeth

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward at the Church of All Saints, Orpington Sunday 13 December 2009, the third Sunday of Advent, year C Readings: Zephaniah 3.14-20; Philippians 4.4-7; Luke 3.7-18 Advent is a time of expectation. Our lives and relationships are full of expectations. I heard on the radio the other day the story of a daughter who didn’t fulfil her father’s expectations. The daughter is Patricia Scotland, who, after coming from the Caribbean at the age of 3, grew up as one of 12 brothers and sisters in Walthamstow. She became a lawyer, at 35 the youngest person to become a QC since William Pitt the younger. She is currently the chief government lawyer – and leaving aside a recent scandal when she failed to photocopy a document – throughout her career she has done a great deal of good for all sorts of people, work particularly inspired by her Christian faith, and which has resulted in a long list of awards and accolades. She did not, however meet her father

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward at the Church of All Saints and the Church of Unity Orpington Sunday 22 Novembe 2009, Christ the King year B Readings: Daniel 7.9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1.4b-8; John 18.33-37 Here we are now in the last Sunday of the year, this feast of Christ the King. This feast doesn’t just come on its own, but it fits with some themes of the last month or so, this is one of those times when the natural world and the church world and the secular world come together. November starts with All Saints – the day after Halloween – All Hallows’ Eve – which is a celebration but also a time for thinking of those who have died and have lived especially holy lives. All Saints’ is followed by All Souls – traditionally 2 November, in this church marked on Remembrance Day in the afternoon with a memorial service – a service of mourning, for those who have died recently. And Remembrance Day is another occasion for thinking of those who have died, especially in war

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward at the Church of Unity, Orpington Sunday 27 September 2009, 16 after Trinity, Proper 21, year B Readings: Numbers 11.4-6, 10-16, 24-29; James 5.13-20; Mark 9.38-50 Does one person’s success mean another person’s failure? Does one person’s prosperity mean another’s poverty? If one person is rich, does that necessarily mean that someone else is poor? For every winner there is a loser, for every first there is a last, so it seems in our world. Resources are limited. Sometimes one person having plenty does mean that others do without – look at Zimbabwe and the ostentatious wealth of those in power will the people descend into more and more extreme poverty – here is a case where no doubt the wealth of the rich is literally made up of what the poor should be receiving. Or on a more parochial level think of a buffet supper – what happens if the first person to fill up his or her plate takes all the cheese? There is nothing left for the rest

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward at the Church of All Saints, Orpington Sunday 20 September, 15 after Trinity; Proper 20; Year B Readings: Jeremiah 11.18-20, James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a; Mark 9.30-37 Someone said to me recently that having children was the first time in his life he had done something that wasn’t selfish. In his view of himself, having children was the first thing he did which put someone else first. I am impressed by his humility in saying this, and by his enthusiasm for his new way of life. It also must be a sad realisation for him that in his first 30-something years before he had children, in his own view, he had never done anything that wasn’t selfish - although I'm sure that wasn't really true, it was what he said he thought of himself. It took the true turning upside-down-topsy-turvyiness of life with a new little baby for him to put someone else first. The other side of this is that this man was also very successful in all that he did – in t

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward at the Church of All Saints, Orpington Sunday 6 September 2009, 13 after Trinity / Proper 18 Readings: Isaiah 35.4-7a; James 2.1-10, 14-17; Mark 7.24-end “Left Behind” is a series of 16 novels have sold in their millions in America. They are based on a theological doctrine of “the rapture”- this is a belief mainly held by some American Christians. It is derived from a completely literal reading of the Bible, including, the book of revelation and phrases in the letters. The belief is that at some time in the future, there will be a ‘rapture’, when everyone in the world who is a true Christian believer is taken away – and all the rest of us are left. The novels are about that period, what happens when a seemingly random selection of people are instantly removed from whatever they happen to be doing – whether flying planes or performing surgery – and the subsequent wars and battles, which go on for 16 novels, when you include the ‘preque