Purple magnolia

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward At St Andrew's Church, Orpington 7.30pm Eucharist, Thursday 22 May 2008 Corpus Christi (Deut 8.2-3 and 14-16; I Cor 10.16-17 and John 6.51-58) Jimmy Mizen is the child who was killed recently, the day after his 16th birthday, in Lee. His mother Margaret has, of course expressed great sorrow. But she has also done something extraordinary. She expressed her own sorrow, but also sympathy for the sorrow which the parents of the man who has been charged with killing her child must be feeling. She felt sorry for them – she felt sorry for the parents of the man who has been charged with the murder of her son. And too right – how sad they must feel. But an extraordinary thing for her to be able to say. In doing so, I think she was recognizing the importance of community. She recognized that community didn't just include her family, her church, her children's school – which were all tremendously important to her – community went

A sermon given by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward At All Saints' Church, Orpington 9.30am Eucharist, Sunday 18 May 2008 Year A, Trinity Sunday Isaiah 40.12-17, 27-31; Psalm 8; 2 Cor 13.11-13; Matt 28.16-20 At a time such as this, when we are faced with at least two major natural disasters at the same time, and the colossal human disaster unfolding as a result, we are all challenged. All philosophy, theology, and human attempts to understand or explain struggle to cope. We are all hurt and made speechless in the face of such things. Today is the feast of the Trinity. I believe at a time like this that this real jewel of Christian doctrine starts to show its true strength. I'd like to explore what a distinctively Christian theology – the way Christians describe God as being in some ways three and in some ways one – what the Trinity – might have to say in such extreme events as we witness now. One way of talking of God as Trinity is about three particular ways of encountering him.

A sermon given by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward At All Saints' Church, Orpington 9.30am Eucharist, Sunday 4 May 2008 Year A, Easter 7 Acts 1.6-14; 1 Peter 4.12-14; 5:6-11; John 17.1-11 A particular joy for me this year, my first spring in Orpington, has been experiencing the delights of things that grow: people's gardens, the parks and fields and woods, even the verges with their daffodils and fruit trees. There is a magic about gardens, about the life which seems to overflow from every nook and cranny – especially in my patio. Especially with the blossom out, in the early evening as the sun is setting, our gardens and streets can seem other-worldly – almost a faery land, like something out of a Midsummer Night's Dream, where the forest is the domain of faeries and magic, where mysterious things can happen, where mere mortal human beings can only see a half of what is really going on. In story a garden can be a place where this world and another, strange world come into con