Sermon preached at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill by William Morris on 29 August 2006

A few weeks ago, just as the conflict in Lebanon was starting up, Radio 4 ran a piece on the support of American Christian evangelicals for the State of Israel – and, especially, support for a strong, military response by Israel to any threats it faced from neighbouring countries. The BBC reporter visited a church in one of the Southern states, where, in addition to the usual American flag placed on one side of the altar, there was an Israeli flag, the Star of David, on the other. In explaining this, the minister of the church told the interviewer that he supported Israel because the Book of Revelation makes clear that the Jews must reclaim the Holy Land and build the third temple as a prelude to the final battle, Armageddon. And at Armageddon, good will triumph over evil, at last and definitively, leading to the Second Coming.

Sermon preached at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill
by The Reverend Robert Atwell
3 September 2006

How will history view us? Some historians call the period when the Roman Empire fell apart ‘The Age of Anxiety'. In the fourth and fifth centuries the road system, which had guaranteed the swift and safe movement of food, troops and commerce throughout the empire, began to deteriorate. People were reluctant to travel because they no longer felt safe. There was a loss of confidence in civic life. People began to move out of the towns, which were becoming lawless, and found refuge on country estates which took on the dimensions of fortified enclosures. Rumours of barbarian incursions could generate panic in a city. It was rumoured that the forces of chaos were at the gates of Rome. Civilization itself was under threat.

Pentecost 2006
by The Reverend Robert Atwell

Three weeks ago today I was worshipping in a different St Mary's, in the Frauenkirche in Nuernberg. I was half way through my holiday in southern Germany. It was a holiday full of surprises, not least discovering the rich history of the region. The city we see today is a pale shadow of its pre-war glory. Some magnificent medieval churches survived the war or were later rebuilt, and there is still a fine castle to explore, but most of Nuernberg's medieval past was lost for ever in the Allied bombing.

Preached at St Mary's, Primrose Hill, 21 May 2006, by The Reverend Robert Atwell

According to the poet, Philip Larkin, 'sexual intercourse began in 1964'. Some people might say that it had been around a bit before then, but what is certainly true is that over the last forty years we have become preoccupied with sex and its genital expression. Today, anyone who appears not to be in a sexual relationship is thought an oddity and is immediately suspect. You are either a) an emotional cripple b) a hypocrite or c) repressed; or most likely a combination of all three.