Sermon by Mark Wakefield on 3rd August 2008
Isaiah 55:1-5, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21 

At our last PCC meeting at the end of June we discussed the job specification and parish profile for the appointment of Robert’s successor and if all goes well we look forward to knowing who he or she is going to be some time in September. Given the importance of this appointment not just to St. Mary’s but to the wider church here in north London, Bishop Peter came along to give us some advice.

Sermon by Mark Wakefield on 6th July 2008
Genesis 24.34-38, 42-49, 58-end/Romans 7.15-25a/Matthew 11.16-19, 25-end 

A few months ago I found myself in my local chemists in a state of some irritation.  I don't like shopping at the best of times - not unless it's for books, wine or food - and on this particular day what should have been a simple shopping trip was turning out to be anything but.

Sermon by Mark Wakefield on May 18 2008
Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-end/2 Corinthians 13:11-end/Matthew 28:16-20 

I suppose you might see it as a sign of the times that if you go into almost any bookshop in search of a religious book these days you’ll find pretty thin pickings. When I was browsing in my local bookshop the other day – which, by any standards, is a pretty good one – there was remarkably little to look at. There could have been no more than five or six narrow shelves in all and what was on offer covered not just Christianity but all the major religions.

To those poems of Creation that we’ve just heard, I want to add one more, if you don’t mind, from one of the most beautiful of all the psalms. It’s the beginning of Psalm 104:

2 You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
3 you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind.
5 You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.
6 You cover it with the deep as with a garment;