The
optimistic mantra that began, ‘The future’s bright, the
future’s …’ has been ditched. In the biggest global
advertising campaign ever launched, Orange have
introduced their new litany: ‘I am who I am because of
everyone.’ It’s playing on a TV near you.
About us
Worship and Events
Writing
Contact us
|
Serving God in the heart of our community since 1881 St Andrew's Church, Taunton |
 |
|
|
|
||
|
St. Andrew's Colour Supplement Articles by Christians around the world
Items posted here are reproduced by permission, and are intended as a catalyst for thought, discussion and prayer as appropriate. Articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster or St. Andrew's Church, Taunton.
Sunday 10 August
Bumble bees can't fly A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - on Sunday 10 August 2008
Bumble bees can’t fly!
Because of the size and shape of their wings in relation to the size and shape of their bodies it’s aerodynamically impossible for them to fly. Fortunately, no-one has told them that and they carry on flying around in a bumbling sort of way!
Who are you? by Neil Hudson of LICC
Sunday 3 August
Dad's Army by Nigel Hopper of LICC
This week marks the 40th anniversary of Dad’s Army. It is testimony to the enduring appeal of the show that BBC2 has given over its entire evening schedule this Saturday to Dad’s Army-related programming, and that BBC1 will broadcast a special celebration on Sunday evening. And it’s not just those who saw it first time round who are fans – my 9-year-old son has been beside himself with laughter whenever he’s caught one of the recent run of repeats.
Sunday 27 July
Struck by the power of now by Brian Draper of LICC
It’s hard to learn from someone who doesn’t seem to believe the same as us. If we’ve made up our minds that they’re ‘unsound’, our curiosity tends to wither on the vine.
Imagine my own disbelief, therefore, when a ‘Mind, Body and Spirit’ bestseller I’d bought (to check out the opposition) crept up on my blind side and helped me to see things afresh.
Sunday 20 July
Learning to wait a sermon preached on Sunday 20 July 2008 by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
An effective religion is one in which helps us live our lives more fully and purposefully. My Christian faith is no good to me unless it helps me with day to day matters as well as giving my life a long-term sense of direction and meaning. What follows are some recent ways in which I have been helped by trying to apply that faith.
Fan into flame by Jason Gardner of LICC
The controversy surrounding this week’s Lambeth Conference will be seen by some not simply as in-house fighting within the Anglican Communion, but as the final nail in the coffin of Christendom. For some, the ongoing debate over homosexuality marks a divergence between secular and biblical worldviews that cannot easily be reconciled.
Dan and the magic musician
This initiative is commissioned by the Royal College of Organists’ from the University of Bradford, to introduce children to the organ.
It takes the form of an animated story, “Dan and the Magic Musician”, which tells how a child, accompanied by a Magic Musician, finds out that many different types of pipe go together to make up an organ, “the greatest musical instrument of all” – before the Musician tells the audience “you too can learn to play the organ”.
Sunday 13 July
A hymn for Lambeth by Henry Haslam of St. Andrew's Church
The first Lambeth Conference, in 1867, took place at a time of controversy in the Anglican Communion. John Colenso, Bishop of Natal and a distinguished mathematician, had been deposed by Robert Gray, Bishop of Cape Town, on account of his liberal views on such matters as polygamy (if a man had several wives before he became a Christian, should he be told that he can only keep one when he converted to Christianity or should he be allowed to keep them all?). He also objected the doctrine of the eternal punishment of the non-believer and held other views that were considered heretical. Colenso appealed against his dismissal to the Privy Council and they upheld his appeal for technical reasons. Bishop Gray publicly excommunicated him and appointed another bishop with authority over practically the same diocese.
The Incredible Hulk by Jason Gardner of LICC
‘Wrraaaarrggghh! Hulk smash!’ Fan boys have to wait an hour-and-a-half into the new film, The Incredible Hulk, to hear those two, well, nearly three, immortal words roared out by the anything but jolly green giant, but it’s certainly worth the wait. It comes in a smack-down between our verdant-skinned hero and his devastatingly powerful, and equally emerald mutant opposite, The Abomination.
Sunday 6 July
Ordinary Time a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton
We are now in that period in the church’s calendar known as Ordinary Time. As Easter was so early this year we have 23 weeks of this, taking us up to Bible Sunday which is the Sunday before All Saints.
Ordinary Time does not sound very exciting and this is deliberate – for two reasons. Firstly it allows for a sense of celebration when we do have the great religious festivals to keep. And secondly it is the church’s way of marking and honouring the ordinariness of our lives. Let’s face it, most of us have lives that, for most of the time, are quite ordinary – and thanks be to God for that!
Come dine with me
I never turn down the opportunity of a good meal, so when I discovered Channel 4's Come Dine With Me recently I was instantly hooked. I have an aversion to most reality TV shows but this is the exception.
If you are not familiar with it here's the basic plot: five members of the great British public play host to each other in their own homes on successive nights. They secretly award each other points based upon factors such as quality of food, ambience, fun factor and so on. At the end of the week the points are totted up and the host/ess with the mostest wins £1000.
Sunday 30 June
To travel, or not? by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
Travel, it has been said, broadens the mind. A recent Radio 4 programme challenged this belief and suggested that most British travellers do anything but broaden their mind on holiday. Meant in fun, this questioning of why we travel got me thinking.
The body in the library by Ben Care of LICC
There is
little that we like better, it seems, than settling down
to a cosy murder.
A quick body count suggests that this is how many of us unwind – this week alone we can tune into over forty-five hours of detective drama on terrestrial television. Six of the current top ten bestselling hardbacks, and four of the top ten paperbacks, are concerned with one form of crime or another.
Sunday 15 June
Unlikely journeys A sermon preached on Sunday 15th June 2008 - 4th after Trinity (Year A) by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's.
Some time ago I was on a family holiday in Ireland with my parents and my younger brother – we went for three weeks and it rained every day. However we did a lot of exploring of the countryside with the aid of a map and my mother’s navigational skills.
On one occasion we reached a fork in the road. According to the map we needed to take the left fork but the signpost clearly indicated that we should go right. It was raining, there was no-one around and we spent some time checking the map and looking with confusion at the sign post. After a while a gentleman came out from one of the houses nearby and, without speaking to us or even acknowledging us in any way, walked up to the sign post and twisted it round so that it now told us that the left hand fork was correct!
Sunday 8 June
Love, actually by Peter Fulljames of St. Andrew's Church
Love, actually, is what the Trinity is all about. Perhaps also love is what Christian Aid is all about. A poster for Christian Aid Week had a picture of a school in Ghana for children with disabilities, with the words “love – the motivation” and the words of Paul “Love endures, it trusts, hopes, perseveres”. Sometimes people choose to put something in the Christian Aid envelope because it is “Christian”. They recall Jesus saying “love your neighbour as yourself”, they realize the neighbour can be any human being in need – whether in Ghana, or Bolivia or Bangladesh - so to give is an act of Christian love.
But this I know... by Brett Jordan of LICC
I must be one of the few westerners who has never watched an episode of ER. However, I recently received an email with a YouTube link to an excerpt from the latest (14th!) season.
The clip introduces a cancer and guilt-riddled ex-prison doctor (Truman) being counselled by a gentle, sincere and compassionate chaplain (Julia). One of Truman’s roles as a prison doctor had been administering lethal injections to convicted murderers. He relates how one of them was later found to have been framed for his crime, and how he believes he ignored God’s attempt to prevent him from killing an innocent man.
Sunday 1 June
Love your enemy
by Tricia
Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
A sermon preached on the 1st Sunday after Trinity Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18:
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord. "
Wow! What a shock I had when I first discovered this verse. Most of us, if not all, know it well from the NT - Matthew and Mark each attribute the words to Jesus. Luke gives them to a young lawyer as an introduction to the parable of the good Samaritan. But until I was in my fifties, probably, I had no idea that Jesus (or the young lawyer) was quoting Hebrew scripture.
Then, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes it further. He tells us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. It's as if he's asking us "What more are you doing?"
Neither privileged nor private by Nick Spencer of LICC
You might think it would be to discredit your opponents’ facts or undermine their logic but, in fact, the best way is simply to deny them a voice in the first place.
Although few people openly seek to silence their adversaries, when those adversaries happen to be religious (as has often been the case with the HFE bill this week), it is so much easier to deploy the “religion is private” card than actually to engage with their arguments. Hence Jackie Ashley in Monday’s Guardian: ‘There is no sensible conversation between the opposing views to be had… live according to your beliefs, but don't try to impose them on the rest of us.’
Sunday 11 May
What's wrong with Mark? by Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton
As some of you will have spotted, the gospel for this year is Matthew. There will be bits of John and the others thrown in from time to time, but it is mostly Matthew.
Now, as we know, Mark is the first gospel and Matthew bases his account on what Mark wrote. The question becomes: if we had a perfectly good story of the life of Jesus, why did Matthew think it was necessary to “improve on” Mark?
Pentecost A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - on Sunday 11 May 2008
Michele Guinness is a writer, a Christian, a vicar’s wife. She’s also Jewish. She tells the story of a Passover meal she and her husband organised for their congregation. As one man was leaving the hall he said to her, “Well that was very nice, thank you. It’s good to know that the Jews use our psalms as well”.
Jesus was Jewish, he knew the psalms and he would have celebrated Pentecost as well because Pentecost was a Jewish feast long before the disciples started speaking in tongues. Indeed, it still is a Jewish feast.
A listening prayer
By
Gordon Atkinson
I can't imagine absolute
silence, neither can I hear it. Even when I'm in a quiet place, my mind
produces its own ghostly, seashell sound. The noise in my head is a
faint but high-pitched whine accompanied by a lower rumbling that sounds
like an engine pulsing away in the distance. These seem to be the
default sounds of my brain. It's what I hear when there is nothing else
to hear.
Sunday 20 April
St. Stephen A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - Sunday 20 April 2008
St Stephen’s day is, of course, on the 26th December and for that reason I think it often gets overlooked. So I thought that today would be a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the story of Stephen, who he was and how he became the first Christian martyr.
Martyr, incidentally means “witness” and perhaps as we follow Stephen’s story we’ll remember that he was the first Christian whose witness to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life brought about his death, not on a cross but under a hail of stones and rocks.
You're hired! by Jason Gardner of LICC
I sacked Simon Smith. Yep, I gave this week’s hapless contestant on The Apprentice his marching orders. OK, the TV evidence is that it was the lovable epitome of all things shrewd and opportunist, Sir Alan Sugar, who fired him – but at least I was there to back up his decision. As part of the studio audience for The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, the follow-up show that interviews each week’s victim, I got to wave my red card at Simon when the mob was asked how we’d have handled him.
What a nightmare it was... a letter from Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
How often do we use that phrase when things have gone wrong. Yet, a nightmare is a dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death. I had one recently and I woke in tears. Yet, that was tame when you consider what the disciples went through from Palm Sunday up to and including Easter Day.
Sunday 13 April
Emmaus road a sermon preached by by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church, on Sunday 6 April 2008
‘Jesus drew near and went with them’
A dearly loved parish priest always started his wedding address with this text. And what a good message it is, especially for newlyweds as they set out on their married life.
‘Jesus drew near and went with them’
But this is starting in the middle of Luke’s story of Easter Day. We seldom hear the full story as Luke tells it: READ MOREEmmausA poem by Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury
First the sun, then the shadow so that I screw my eyes to see my friend's face, and its lines seem different, and the voice shakes in the hot air.
Sunday 6 April
Seven Ways to Change the Workd by Nick Spencer of LICC
God, according to Alastair Campbell’s diaries, is a political ‘disaster area’. ‘British people are not like Americans,’ he wrote on 20 March 1996, who ‘seem to want their politicians banging the Bible the whole time.’ In Britain, by contrast, those ‘who didn't believe didn't want to hear it; and the ones who did felt the politicians who went on about it were doing it for the wrong reasons.’
Sunday 30 March
Discipleship and the bill by Nigel Hopper of LICC
‘Those MPs who have approached me’, the Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff told Radio 4 recently, ‘have said: “I don’t think this is right. I accept the teachings of the church, yet I’m a government minister, or I’m a Labour MP. Can I discuss with you the moral dilemma I have?”’
Sunday 23 March
Setting out a sermon preached on Easter Day 2008 by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
I was the same age as many of the children here today when I set out on my journey of faith. My parents also took my younger sister to church, and when she was three she was playing with the hassocks before the service. But when she heard the organist playing, she looked up & asked, ‘Mummy is that Jesus practising?’
The Lord is here A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - on Maundy Thursday 2008
What would it be like if Jesus was here with us this evening? Later we’ll affirm that the Lord is here; his Spirit is with us. But what if he was actually here, sitting in a pew in front of you, behind you, up in the choir stalls?
We wouldn’t necessarily know him, of course. We might think he’s a visitor or someone responding to our Easter card and invitation.
From Christmas to Easter a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton
With Christmas and Easter being so close together this year, it is a good opportunity to see the links between the two. I read recently in a short book by Fr R E Brown (SS) that gospels are written “backwards” – like novels, they work up to a conclusion which is already in the writer’s mind before the story begins.
The crunch by Paul Valler of LICC
When America sneezes, the infection quickly spreads through the global financial system. As a result of her recent ‘credit crunch’, lenders and debt junkies alike worldwide are being crushed by the weight of defaults. Greed has suddenly given way to fear, destroying the market value of major banks that have looked at their reserves and found they have none. Slashed interest rates confront us with the truth that money is not as valuable as we thought.
Sunday 16 March
Best of British by Jason Gardner of LICC
‘I pledge allegiance to the Queen, and to the Union Jack. I solemnly swear to mow my lawn in stripes and eat fish and chips once a week and chicken tikka masala once a month. I will endeavour to holiday in a static caravan in Bognor every year, and from this day forward will, without fail, watch the Last Night of the Proms and the FA Cup Final.’
Sunday 9 March
Thank you for the music By St. Andrew's Webmaster, Adrian Smith
I have a confession to make.
I haven't been to church since Christmas. I've been going through one of those phases that I experience from time to time when 'church' doesn't help. In fact, it becomes a source of stress and a catalyst for depression. Far from being nurturing or uplifting it feels like yet another demand in my life, which already feels overburdened. Rather than seeing the good things about the place, everything is a disappointment. I feel angry with people for no good reason. I anticipate being asked to do things and expect that people will be negative, critical and nit picking about the things that I have done. So I stay away, because I find it impossible to hide how I feel, and attending in that frame of mind is unfair on other people and unhelpful to me.
Sunday 2 March
Tethered to Christianity By Gordon Atkinson
I saw my father preach the other day. His hair is now white, and the skin on his face has loosened with age, but this is the same man whose face I saw above the pulpit throughout my childhood. He stood like a captain in the bow of the ship that he loves, confident that the vessel would rise and fall with his voice and break the waves of human need as it sailed to the promised land.
Life in cold blood by Ben Care of LICC
After a chilly day spent wandering through the Chiltern Hills, I stopped at the corner of a field, pausing for a moment to take in the view. Suddenly, a stag burst through the hedgerow to my right. Then – after a split-second pause – twenty wild roe deer followed him, one after another.
Sunday 24 February
The assurance of hope a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton
Dear Friends,
As you read this we will be approaching one of the great high-lights of the church’s calendar: Holy Week and Easter. With the onset of spring, as the bulbs and blossoms proudly display their colours and the days are noticeably longer, Easter inevitably brings a sense of new hope.
Water a sermon preached by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church on 24 February 2008
Water. cool, clear water. Cleansing, refreshing, life-giving.
Not dirty, muddy, sewage-infested water. Disease-ridden, polluting, threatening. What flood victims found in their homes, last summer, and what some people found in their homes for a second time, last month, in Gloucestershire. On toilets and living with writersBy Gordon Atkinson - Real Live PreacherA few years ago we were replacing the flooring in one of our bathrooms. I decided to do it myself, even though I'm not very “handy,” as they say. I had to remove the toilet and replace it after the tiles had been laid. This was something I had never done before. Cloverfield by Jason Gardner of LICC
I wonder if, before switching on the nightlight and retiring downstairs, the parents of the young J J Abrams told him there were monsters not only under the bed but also under the floorboards and clutching the limbs of the trees outside his window. The creative force behind TV’s Alias and Lost, Mission Impossible 3 and the current box-office hit Cloverfield has an unnerving knack for making you feel that, just off camera, just out of sight, some colossal, terrible force is about to make its presence known and change the way you think about life forever.
Sunday 17 February
"Perfect love drives out fear"? by Nigel Hopper of LICC
“People may be
surprised but I
hope that that
surprise will be
modified when
they think about
the general
question of how
the law and
religious
community –
religious
principle – are
best and most
fruitfully
accommodated.”
So said Rowan Williams on Radio 4’s The World at One last week when questioned about the likely response to his suggestion of greater recognition for Sharia Law in Britain. Needless to say, people’s surprise has been anything but modified. He’s been openly criticised, called on to resign and to reflect on whether he wouldn’t be happier in a university post, where it would be more acceptable to ‘kick around these sorts of ideas’.
Sunday 10 February
No secrets hidden: a sermon preached on Ash Wednesday 6 February 2008 by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church
Ash Wednesday 2008 Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21
“Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.”
I think this prayer will be at the heart of my reflections this Lent.
It offers a key to an understanding of both our readings this evening but perhaps particularly of the Gospel reading.
Sunday 3 February
Our eyes have seen Thy salvation A sermon preached on Sunday 10 February 2008 by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church
Katharine's sermon will appear here at around midday on Sunday.
The golden arches at the pearly gates? by Ben Care of LICC
It’s been fascinating tracking the frantic re-branding of McDonald’s over the past year. Dirty, plastic seating has been stripped out from many branches, and replaced with smart, green ‘linger’ zones, contemporary artwork and mood lighting. Alongside Big Macs, fresh salads are available for one’s delectation and only ethically certified coffee served. Rumours abound that a famous fashion designer will shortly redesign the employees’ uniforms. Now, in its latest coup, McDonalds has become an academic institution. It is one of only three organisations given ‘Awarding Body’ status by the government, enabling them to grant A-level style diplomas to their staff – an act of canny corporate largesse or a genuine attempt to value their staff?
Sunday 27 January
Fishing nets by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
Fishing nets made of twine.
Flax seed scattered on the earth, watered by the rain, and warmed by the sun burst forth into new life. The fields turn green as the leaves burgeon, then ripple like sky blue silk as the summer breezes blow. The plants are harvested, processed and become thread some of which is woven into fine linen and some twisted into ropes and twine.
Looking forward to 2008 by Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton
Having only just started to settle in myself here at St Andrews, 2008 will hopefully be a year to build on the work of previous vicars and also of the team who guided the parish through the vacancy.
Sunday 20 January
Closed for the season ? More musings from webmaster Adrian Smith
There is something extraordinarily melancholy about a seaside resort out of season. Blackpool's promenade in a late afternoon, mid-January drizzle has had its soul washed away. Souvenir shops, amusement arcades and fish and chip cafés are hidden behind slatted shutters. Roller coasters and big wheels stand hulking and motionless in the mist. The few people to be seen are the year round dwellers of serried bungalows, huddled grey shapes that seem lacking in hope. The tacky illuminations advertising McDonalds, Doctor Who and a local radio station are dead. The Golden Mile is closed for the season and what's left behind is an air of desperation, a vestige of a summer life.
Sunday 13 January Don’t put your Christmas away in a box Bishop Peter Maurice, Bishop of Taunton, guides us into the New Year We have had our fill of Christmas celebrations and now it is time to get back to the routine of every day and to get on with life as best we can. It is as if we really do not think that what we have celebrated at Christmas will make any real difference to who and how we will be in the days and weeks that follow. Sunday 6 January
Precious gifts a sermon preached at Epiphany - Sunday 6 January 2008 by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
Light plays a central part in the Christmas and Epiphany stories. And more and more I realise that light is a precious gift, especially at this time of year when the light arrives late and departs early.
It seems that God thought so too. For light features very early in the story of creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and earth; an earth that was formless, empty and dark. And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1.3-4) Light arrives first! Before any other form or thing on our planet.
A special gift by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church
A special gift .......... that's what the card said. Peter, our middle son, asked what we would like for Christmas. Well, when you reach our age, there isn't much we want, not that can be bought for money, anyway,
|
Page updated 10/08/2008
