An Anglican church in an old pub in Islington, London. Service at 7pm every Sunday.
Our Ash wednesday service marks the beginning of Lent. It is a solemn and beautiful service of reflection and contrition.
The ashes at the centre of the service are a traditional reminder of our mortality, referencing Genesis 3 ‘for dust you are and to dust you will return’.
It takes place on Wednesday 22nd February at 7.30pm at St Andrews the old parish church. (here)
We love this fast paced hard wired digital world with its breathless rush of creativity, opinion, noise and ideas. But there are addictive qualities to it, when through the constant stimulus we are in danger of losing the ability to sit still, to be quiet, to listen, even to sleep.
For 40 days this lent at Church on the Corner we are exploring a digital discipline. Choosing to switch off some of the forms of media which demand our attention and switch on to things quieter and richer. And you are invited to join us.
Starting this week at Church, we are going to be spending time looking at the riches of wisdom in the Psalms. All too often relegated to source material for worship songs, the Psalmists are actually responsible for some of the most honest and vulnerable writings in the whole bible, they explore the heights and plumb the depths of the human experience. They grant permission for us to look at ourselves a little more honestly, and recognise that our struggles and fears are not failings, but are an essential part of our humanity.
Sunday nights, 7pm. Church on the Corner.
Here is a good idea for the New Year. Some of the books which have had the biggest impact on the shape of contemporary Church are the first Christian books that people read. There is a real art to this kind of writing, aimed at those outside or on the threshold of faith. Their simplicity and clarity makes them great reading.
So the suggestion is that we make a New Years resolution to (re)read some of the classic introduction to Christianity books and aim to read them critically and yet humbly. We should be prepared to learn, but also alert to the errors they make, (for those mistakes tend to take root in the Church in disproportionate ways). Just reading a chapter a day will help to root you (to use the language of Psalm 1) in streams of water that will sustain you through the days ahead.
Here are the top four recommendations;
Mere Christianity (1952) – C.S. Lewis
Basic Christianity (1958) – John Stott
Simply Christian (2006) – Tom Wright
The Prodigal God (2008) – Tim Keller
You can find them on Amazon (often at very reasonable prices if you buy second hand) and we will run this as an online book group, so in time there with be a forum for each of these books to share your experiences and reflections. Get stuck in, and see this as a good spiritual discipline for the New Year.
Great music, festive vibe, mulled wine and punchy preaching. Our Carol service is our biggest event of the year, and a great event to invite your friends and workmates to.
You can download the invitation here.
Our advent 2011 project is now live. Check back each morning for updates or follow by the magic of twitter.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
Our annual Advent project is now getting started. You can find out more here.
Most of us were never taught how to pray. We just picked it up along the way by listening to those more experienced in the faith. And often the problem is we only learn the outward expressions of prayer. Even for those who have been taught, we tend to have a rather narrow view of prayer, focussed more on asking for things than any real sense of communion with God.
William Wilberforce, the 18th Century social reformer was a man who knew about busyness; he sacrificed his life and his health for the sake of abolishing the slave trade. But he was also by necessity a man of prayer. And he recognised that prayer was not simply a means of achieving an end, it was the source of life. He wrote “The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint.” If prayer is nourishment for the soul, there is a danger that many of us are essentially malnourished.
Over the coming months we are going to be exploring the riches of prayer in the Christian tradition.
There is something lovely about september. Autumn is one of the most beautiful times of the year, and I enjoy the sense of new beginnings, getting organised, making plans for the year..
It is a new term at Church on the Corner. We have been doing lots of work on the building, and the old place is looking spruce.
The new teaching programme will be on the book of Genesis. Thinking about minor themes such as the origins of the universe, the nature of God and the meaning of existence.
It all gets started this Sunday 4th September at 7pm.
The Greenbelt Festival is, for many of us, the highlight of the summer and a good crowd from church will be attending. If you don’t have plans for the bank holiday I would highly recommend it. Church will be closed this sunday. We will be back for a new term on Sunday 4th September.
Well it was quite a night, as we said goodbye to Bee before she heads off to vicar factory. We recreated our favourite old COTC picture, and we sent her off with songs, prayers, tears and a comissioning from the Ordinal which went a bit like this:
May you be diligent in prayer, in reading Holy Scripture, and in all studies that will deepen your faith and fit you to bear witness to the truth of the gospel.
May you lead Christ’s people in proclaiming his glorious gospel, so that the good news of salvation may be heard in every place.
May you faithfully minister the doctrine and sacraments of Christ so that the people committed to your charge may be defended against error and flourish in the faith.
May you, knowing yourself to be reconciled to God in Christ, strive to be an instrument of God’s peace in the Church and in the world.
May you endeavour to fashion your life to the way of Christ, that you may be a pattern and example to Christ’s people.
May you work with your fellow servants in the gospel for the sake of the kingdom of God.
May you in the strength of the Holy Spirit, continually stir up the gift of God that is in you, to make Christ known among all whom you serve.
A Blessing:
God who has called you is faithful.
May the Father, whose glory fills the heavens,
cleanse you by his holiness
and send you to proclaim his word.
May Christ, who has ascended to the heights,
pour upon you the riches of his grace.
May the Holy Spirit, the comforter,
equip you and strengthen you in your ministry.
And the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Gracious God,
We pray for peace in our communities this day.
We commit to you all who work for peace and an end to tensions,
And those who work to uphold law and justice.
We pray for an end to fear,
For comfort and support to those who suffer.
For calm in our streets and cities,
That people may go about their lives in safety and peace.
In your mercy, hear our prayers,
now and always.
Amen
We come to the end of our time in John’s Gospel tonight. It is the first time in 10 years that I have spent serious time studying this beautiful book, and I have found it a rich journey. There were some lovely moments when our passage tied in with something striking in the news, and i particularly enjoyed preaching the feeding of the 5000 during the uprising in Egypt. You can read the sermon here.
Then there is the video reflection on the theme of ‘life’ from our final John sermon which you can find here, and, below are my thoughts on the Chapter 21 question. I hope you have enjoyed your time in John’s gospel as much as I have.
Epilogue – the two endings of John?Continue reading “John’s Gospel – Epilogue”
WOWEII stands for ‘Womens weekend in Islington’. After the amazing Women’s Weekend away (WOWA), this year the girls are getting together closer to home.
It is going to be a lot of fun, a great way to get to know women in the church and have some much needed time with God and together. We are now collecting £15 from everyone who wants to come to cover food and activities) so if you are coming please bring money along to church.
[Gentlemen – Further to the woweii announcement, our pub trip is still on. It’s still at the Lord Clyde on Essex Road and it’s still from 7pm Friday night.]
WOWEII Programme below.
Not satisfied with riding to our weekend away in Sussex, EA is now setting out to ride across the States on a push bike over the next two months. It is a remarkable expedition, in aid of the American Lung Association. She is blogging here, and you can follow the route here (where you can sponsor her too). Have and amazing time EA. We will be following and praying and look forward to see you in September.
Photo’s from our Soul in the City Project on the Bemerton Estate, in partnership with KXC and Kings Cross Baptist.
We finally got our corner blackboard cleaned up and running. I quite like the idea of quotations on it, so would welcome suggestions.
Here are some potential future ones, all from Albert Einstein.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
Easter is the greatest show on Earth.
At Church on the Corner we will be entering into the drama of the story,
from the Last Supper through Good Friday, to the new dawn of Easter Sunday. Join us.
The Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, 7.45 All Saints Church
On Good Friday at 7.45pm we will hold our traditional Service of Shadows at COTC.
On Easter Saturday at 7pm we will be joining the Easter Liturgy at St Paul’s Cathedral
Then Easter Sunday 9am & 10.30 Services at St Andrew’s Church.
There will be no evening service at COTC on Easter Sunday
We’ve been thinking about Lent, and what the things are that we are dependent on. And top of many of our lists was the permanant connectivity that we now take for granted. Email, Facebook, Twitter, TV, iPod, Radio are all amazing tools, but when we become dependent on them they are noise which drowns out who we really are. This Lent we are disconnecting. 40 days of limiting the ways we use media, to rediscover what we have to say, to connect in older ways, or just to be silent. You might want to record your experiences in some way – write, draw, photograph; let us know how it unfolds for you.
UPDATE We developed this further in our 2012 Disconnect project
Church on the Corner