St Thomas Blog
Keep up to date with news and views from St Thomas Church!
Trinity 5 The parable of the sower
Sunday 12th July 2020
Parables are often the way that Jesus taught his disciples.These simple seeming stories contain a radical message about the Kingdom Jesus came to bring. It's a good exercise to try writing a modern parable for yourselves - it's harder than it looks! See what you think of the talk below and the text here.
Lockdown Library
Thursday 9th July 2020
Ann King created a Lockdown Library during this pandemic crisis. George writes: In the course of Lockdown and when all manner of shops, venues and libraries were closed for what seemed to be forever the excited voice of a three-year old called out and carried down the silent street. "Look, Daddy! Here's the library!" She reached up, took her father's hand and led him to what was, for her, a place of promise, a place of hidden treasure to be revealed. In many ways her delight was repeated in what was to become a virtual stream of children and adults, many of whom voiced their own thankfulness when they came across 'St Thomas Lockdown Library'. From a seed of an idea, it…
The Feast of St Thomas
Friday 3rd July 2020
Happy Feast Day! 3 July is the traditional feast day of St Thomas the apostle. While our ribbons still mark all those things we have lost in these strange times, we also give thanks for the life of St Thomas, who saw our Lord's wounds and believed, declaring: My Lord and my God. There is the video of a talk below and the text here. We will also be marking this on Sunday at our live Zoom worship.
Trinity 3 - a strange homecoming...
Sunday 28th June 2020
Rev.Sarah
Rev. Sarah talks about the theme of homecoming within today's Bible readings and considers how this applies to our current situation. You can read her sermon here.
Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Sunday 28th June 2020
One of the incidents in the Bible most closely linked with Peter is his denial of Christ in the High Priest's courtyard just before the crucifixion. Eric Auerbach (Mimesis 1953) writes of this event from a literary perspective: A tragic figure from such a background, a hero of such weakness, who yet derives the highest force from his weakness, such a to and fro of the pendulum, is incompatible with the sublime style of classical antique literature. But the nature and scene of the conflict also fall entirely outside the domain of classical antiquity. Viewed superficially, the thing is a police action and its consequences; it takes place entirely among everyday men and women of the common people; anything of the…
Trinity 2
Sunday 21st June 2020
Rev. David Nixon
Fr David grapples with some big issues around suffering, Covid 19 and the nature of God. You can read his sermon here.
God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath by Tom Wright.
Wednesday 17th June 2020
Book Review God and the Pandemic by Tom Wright So here's the thing. While the world and life around our Christian Church and personally became a whirlpool, a maelstrom of uncertainty, confusion and unpredictability due to the coronavirus; while globally the relative stability of the fabric of international affairs has been severely disrupted: while those who have direct power over the quality of our own personal and national lives have been caught off guard in this crisis, compounding that with knee-jerk, impoverished decision-making with all its now devastating effects - Tom Wright's book can be an enormous help to us personally, and corporately as the Church, in understanding how we should see our place now and the attitude, the character…
Trinity 1
Sunday 14th June 2020
Ian Totterdell, Churchwarden
This week Ian talks about how God is active to heal people and bring them to Himself, and how He wants His followers (i.e. us!) to join Him in that task. Read what he has to say here
Corpus Christi 2020
Thursday 11th June 2020
Following our practice for Ascension Day, we have recorded a simple Mass for Corpus Christi. You can read the talk here.
St Thomas Lockdown Library
Wednesday 10th June 2020
Jenny Tuckett
St Thomas Library is shut for the duration. So is the City Library. And we have all this extra time to read! Spotting a 'niche need' Ann in Wardrew Road started a small lockdown library by popping a few spare books on the wall outside her house, with a notice: 'Take or swap a book and enjoy!'. Thus began St Thomas' Lockdown Library, now an established cultural feature and go to walking destination in these bleak days when libraries, bookshops, cinemas and theatres are all closed. Ann's venture has taken off, with many regular visitors including - most importantly - children, their parents, carers, neighbours and people from afar who have heard about it. Everyone has a story to…