While it is yet day

Haddon Willmer

Today

  • On Finding Faith in the City

    Sermon given to the University of Cambridge, Sunday 1 March 1987 at 11.15 a.m. You can read a 2024 introduction to this here. In its report, published fifteen months ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission called for action by Church and Nation to respond to Urban Priority Areas. We must let this call ring in…

  • Two articles about the ‘city’

    Two old articles about the ‘city’ – On Finding Faith in the City (1987) and Images of the City and the Shaping of Humanity (1989) – are published again today on this blog. Why bring these two old articles about the ‘city’ out of the shadows just now? The Grenfell Enquiry, or rather the Disaster itself,…

  • Don’t let the sun go down on your anger

    Riot on the streets answered by stern prosecutions and prisons over-full – will that ensure order, bring peace?  We have often been here before. Read, for example, Austin Lovegrove’s informative and entertaining book, Images of an Australian Enlightenment: The Story of Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie’s Treatment of the Convicts as a History Tale for Today…

  • Prayer and politics

    Praying is no substitute for politics. When we abandon living in the world, when we no longer love the earth, when we ignore the neighbour on the road, prayer is left empty, make-believe piety. We no longer walk with Jesus, Word made flesh, whatever our orthodox profession. Politics, even when it has not collapsed into…

  • Looking for the heavenly Jerusalem – on earth

    GIVEN a choice, would you live in the country or in the city? Many of our cities have declining populations because people get away if they can. We have enough hassle travelling into work in the city, we do not want to live there as well.  Why is the city so uncomfortable? It jams so…

  • Praying in our exiles 

    Sometimes people go far away, for a holiday perhaps. They find themselves alone in strange places and discover the experience is stimulating, educational even.  Millions of people are now tourists; but millions more are refugees and exiles: they find themselves alone and lonely in strange places. Theirs is a destructive experience. Being an exile means…

  • Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

    Sermon on Luke 7.18-23, preached at Moortown Baptist Church, 25 February 2024 You can watch this at the link below, from 26.40 – 56.40 minutes, followed by the hymn ‘Fold to your heart your sister and your brother‘.

  • Love Your Enemies

    “You have heard, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.    (Matt 5:43) These words sound like a call, even a command. But we fear the risk. So the miserable-go-round of the world continues – we have enemies, and we hate them,…