The Bishop of London gave the sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral on the 25 January 2015.
Stephen Williams retires as Senior Chaplain to the Universities in the Diocese of London at Easter. By then he will have served in University Chaplaincy for 34 years. As Senior Chaplain he has engaged with HE institutions with perseverance and imagination.
After a five year period of notable achievement Andy Brookes has taken the decision to step down as General Secretary and CEO of the London Diocesan Fund (LDF) with effect from the end of this month.
The nativity plays taking place in so many of our church schools and parishes tell the simple story of how God so loved the world that he was generous and gave himself to us in a vulnerable child. That child points the way to a generosity of spirit which, thank God, I see all around us as this year of Our Lord comes to its end.
Christmas is coming and tonight the singing and the mounting drama of the bible readings are preparing us for the joyful festival of the birth of Jesus Christ.
At the request of Archbishop Justin, last week Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, former Bishop in Europe, and Canon William Taylor, Vicar of St John Notting Hill, went to Iraq in a gesture of solidarity from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England as well as from the Diocese of London.
Over the past ten years the BLMF has granted over £3 million in funding to a broad range of over 150 projects across London. It has supported much imaginative work across the Diocese helping our parishes to flourish and to make a real difference within some of the most deprived communities in our city.
The Bishop of London was the first speaker at the rally, which also heard from speakers such as actress Emma Thompson and designer and activist Vivienne Westwood.
I spent the first half of the morning at Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop listening to reports from Church communities in the Middle East. A tragedy of historic proportions is unfolding and there is a threat to the very survival of the Christian population in some of the most ancient homelands of our faith.
The Bishop of London preached in the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) on Sunday 31 August to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II.