Sermon preached at St Mary's, Primrose Hill by The Reverend Mark Wakefield on Sunday 5 August 2007

Eccles 1.2, 12-14, 2.18-23/Col 3.1-11/Luke 12.13-21

It won’t have escaped the notice of many of you that militant atheists are more than usually vocal at the moment in their condemnation of all things religious. Knocking the whole idea of God is currently something of a publishing phenomenon, with Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” near the top of the paperback bestseller lists and the journalist Christopher Hitchens’ book “God is Not Great” also doing well. And all this in an age when God was supposed to be dead.

A Sermon preached on the Feast of St Mary Magdalene at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill by The Reverend Robert Atwell on Sunday 22 July 2007

Poor Mary Magdalene always gets a bad press. Tradition identifies her as the penitent prostitute in the Gospel who anointed Jesus and dried his feet with her hair, and as such she appears in countless paintings in Western art. In the Middle Ages, and still throughout the Islamic world, the reason women cover their heads is because aside from young girls, only prostitutes wear their hair loose. The veil was a sign of modesty. Historically it’s why nuns have also worn veils.

Sermon preached at St Mary's, Primrose Hill by The Reverend Mark Wakefield on Sunday 8 July 2007

Isaiah 66:10-14, Galatians 6:7-16, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

As those of you who have read the latest church magazine will know, I work for the BBC and have spent most of my life in broadcasting in one way or another. If there's one thing just at the moment that's guaranteed to generate a heated debate amongst media types, it's the question of whether television in general and the BBC in particular has, to use the current, rather ugly phrase "dumbed down."

Sermon preached at St Mary's, Primrose Hill by The Reverend Robert Atwell on the Nativity of St John the Baptist, Sunday 24 June 2007

'What's in a name?' Evidently quite a lot if we are to believe this morning's gospel with its account of the row over what should be the name of Elizabeth and Zechariah's new-born son. John was not a popular choice among their friends and relatives, but John it was to be. The choice represented a break with the past and heralded a new departure in this ancient priestly family. As their neighbours speculated, 'What will this child become?' (Luke 1.80).