Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
Grateful to have spent a fantastic day in @hereforddiocese at the weekend, talking all about prayer to mark the end of the Diocese’s Year of Prayer. We engaged together in prayer, through contemplation, art, on the streets of Hereford and in the 24-hour prayer space. Prayer is foundational to our relationship with God and there are many rich and fulfilling ways in which to pray.
During the day, as I joined the weekly service of Prayers for Peace at @hfdcathedral, we heard a beautiful Poem for Peace from Sasha, a Ukrainian student.
Prayer means coming to God and saying, ‘I can’t do it alone. I’m completely dependent on you, even for my next breath.’
That dependence on God takes us into his presence. To be a Christian means to be caught up in the love of God.
Photos 1, 2, 3 and 5 credit: Lewis Markey
What have you been eagerly waiting for? Or patiently waiting for? All of us have hopes we hold dear and fears that may never be realised. It can be easy to be so aware of what we lack that we either hope too much or too little. Today I pray for those who are waiting for life-changing things, that God may bring peace and comfort in the not-yet of waiting.
How do we keep hoping for something better when we can’t see how that will happen, or know how long it will be? Today I pray that we would be able to see the signs of God at work even where God appears far away, know how to join in as God calls us to work with him so that his kingdom would come, and trust that he holds all things, beyond what we can imagine.
We often talk of Christmas as a time of hope fulfilled. In the birth of Christ, as the famous carol goes, ‘the hope and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.’
But Advent is the time before that hope is fulfilled – the time when our hopes have not yet been answered, and yet we are challenged to continue hoping.
During the talks on Northern Ireland at the time of the Troubles, a British Minister involved was asked, ‘Minister, are you optimistic?’
‘No,’ he replied, ‘but I am hopeful.’
Vaclav Havel, the former President of then Czechoslovakia, said, ‘Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.’
Hope is the quiet certainty that, in Christ, all things will, one day, be made right, even if we don’t know how yet.
Optimism depends on ourselves. It looks inwards. It believes that we can fix things. But when things don’t turn out exactly how we want, it can lead to despair.
Hope looks to God alone. In him, all our hopes will be fulfilled.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. It marks the beginning of a season of waiting, a dark season of longing for the lights and warmth of Christmas.
We find waiting very difficult.
Waiting confronts the illusion that we are in control. It’s very easy to believe this in our modern world, where technology provides us with any information we can dream of instantly, where our infrastructure and modern medicine insulates us from our precariousness and fragility.
Waiting reminds us of our powerlessness in our lives in so many ways. We recognise our inability to predict the future, to know the outcome of situations we long to see resolved.
To realise we are not in control of our lives can feel hugely shocking and destabilising. And yet at Advent, we reflect on the fact that the one we are waiting for is the one who we can ask to be in control of our lives.
This one does not come with power and fire. He will come, as Rowan Williams writes in his marvellous poem ‘Advent Calendar’, ‘like crying in the night, like blood, like breaking, as the earth writhes to toss him free. He will come like a child.’
I pray that this Advent, you may release all that you are waiting for into the arms of the babe in the manger. In His presence, may our waiting finally cease.
Families, in all their shapes and sizes, are the foundation of society. In my annual @ukhouseoflords debate today, I urged the Government to put families at the centre of policy making and to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Read the full speech via the link in bio.
This time of year can be particularly tough for missing loved ones who have died.
During #NationalGriefAwarenessWeek, please know that if you are grieving you don’t have to suffer alone. There are charities, communities and people you can talk to.
I’m especially proud to be patron of @atalosscharity, which is helping thousands of people work through the pain of bereavement. And I’m particularly grateful for churches across the country that are providing great comfort, offering ways to mark loss and remember loved ones.
I pray that you may find the comfort, hope, and peace of the Christ Child this season.
Visit the AtaLoss website via the link in bio.
Archbishop @stephencottrell_aby and I would love it if you could #JoinTheSong this Christmas. Enjoy it, learn it by heart and sing aloud the carol we love so much, ‘The First Nowell’, set to a new tune.
Learn more at the link in bio. 🎶
@thechurchofengland
Lovely to host Lambeth Palace staff and guests at our community carols service yesterday evening. I pray that, over Christmas, all feel the warmth of light and life of he who will come like child.
Lovely to host Lambeth Palace staff and guests at our community carols service yesterday evening. I pray that, over Christmas, all feel the warmth of light and life of he who will come like child.
Lovely to host Lambeth Palace staff and guests at our community carols service yesterday evening. I pray that, over Christmas, all feel the warmth of light and life of he who will come like child.
It has been great to host the Presidents of @thecouncilofchristiansandjews at @lampallib today. Creating a space where we can hear from leaders across many Christian and Jewish denominations in the UK is immensely valuable. We may have different perspectives but are united against antisemitism, and we must act now.
It has been great to host the Presidents of @thecouncilofchristiansandjews at @lampallib today. Creating a space where we can hear from leaders across many Christian and Jewish denominations in the UK is immensely valuable. We may have different perspectives but are united against antisemitism, and we must act now.
It has been great to host the Presidents of @thecouncilofchristiansandjews at @lampallib today. Creating a space where we can hear from leaders across many Christian and Jewish denominations in the UK is immensely valuable. We may have different perspectives but are united against antisemitism, and we must act now.
My prayers for this year’s climate conference #COP28
Looking forward to spending Saturday in @hereforddiocese – joining communities at @spsj_hereford and @hfdcathedral to pray together. We will explore various forms of prayer and all are welcome. Visit the link in bio for more details.
I’m pleased that the Anglican Communion Fund is once again taking part in the @biggiveorg’s #ChristmasChallenge.
The money raised supports churches across the #AnglicanCommunion in reaching out to communities in need.
Over the past year, the ACF has supported the Church in Pakistan in increasing access to education for women and girls. This is just one of the various initiatives that has grown through your generosity.
Each donation made before 5th December will be doubled. Show your support this Christmas through the link in bio.
In 2022, parishes in Myanmar were hit with a rat plague, destroying harvests and causing great food insecurity. Through your giving to the Anglican Communion Fund, local churches were able to provide rice to all in need – a testament of God’s love in an area plagued by conflict and natural disasters.
Every donation to the ACF’s @biggiveorg #ChristmasChallenge before noon on 5th December will be doubled and used to support churches across the #AnglicanCommunion to respond to local needs and crises. Show your support this Christmas via the link in bio.
You can help churches share God’s love around the world this Christmas through the Anglican Communion Fund’s @biggiveorg #ChristmasChallenge.
Through your giving last year, the ACF supported the Anglican Church in Kenya in planting for a sustainable future. Training was provided to local church leaders and climate champions to implement a Communion Forest Project, preserving biodiversity and improving ecosystems in the wake of deforestation. Education was also provided in schools and churches to encourage care for creation – which is more important now than ever.
Until noon tomorrow, each donation will be doubled. Show your support via the link in bio.
