Category: Reflections

Joshua 1: 1–10, John 10: 7–11 By Revd George Mwaura Today’s readings invite us into a journey – a journey from slavery to promise, from wandering to settling, from survival to abundance. And as we celebrate Father’s Day, it is fitting that we reflect on the heart of God as our Father. A Father who does...

At Christ the Cornerstone we stand, Upon the Rock of God’s own hand; Through years gone by and days to come, His faithfulness will lead us on. We look ahead with hope and prayer, Trusting God’s Spirit’s loving care, As we seek one whom He will call To walk beside and serve us all. A faithful...

Genesis 18: 1–15, Matthew 9: 35 – 10: 8 By Grace Hunting LLM Have you ever waited so long for something that you stopped believing it would ever happen? Perhaps it was a prayer that seemed unanswered, a dream that never materialised, a healing that never came, or a promise that appeared impossible. You know what...

Psalm 65:4–13, Matthew 6: 25–34 By Revd George Mwaura In our reading this morning, the psalmist praises the Creator whose generosity sustains the earth – listen: ‘The river of God is full of water. The pastures of the wilderness overflow. The valleys deck themselves with grain.’ Creation in this psalm is not silent. It sings. It...

The Earth is not silent. She speaks in melting ice, in rivers that run too warm, in forests burning where green once breathed. She speaks in storms that arrive without warning, in winds that carry dust across fields where crops once grew. But still, there are voices who say, “There is nothing to fear.” Still, there...

Genesis 1: 1 – 2: 4a, Matthew 28: 16–20 By Revd George Mwaura There’s a story of a Sunday school teacher who asked the class, ‘Can anyone explain the Trinity for me?’ An eight-year-old girl seated at the front thought for a moment and said, ‘Well… God is kind of like a 3-in-1 shampoo: Father, Son,...

1 Peter 2: 2–10, John 14: 1–14 By Rt Revd Katrina Scott, Archdeacon of Cheltenham and Acting Archdeacon of Gloucester God of love, Open our ears to hear your word afresh And open our hearts to respond in our lives. Amen ‘Heaven itself cannot contain you.’ Those were the first words in the Dedication Service for...

Inspired by Luke 24:13-35-the Road to Emmaus – a post-resurrection poem. On the road where hope had thinned to thread, and grief spoke louder than memory, you came, unnoticed. Not in lightning or triumph, but in questions, gentle, insistent, opening the sealed rooms of the heart. You walked our pace, held our silence, gathered our fragments...

1 Peter 2: 2–10, John 14: 1–14 By Revd George Mwaura There is something deeply human about wanting stability. We long for something that does not move when everything else does, something we can rely on when life becomes unpredictable, when health falters, relationships strain, or the future feels unclear. Many of us know what it...

Acts 2: 14a, 22–32 & 1 Peter 1: 3–9 By Tom Donoghue, URC East Midlands Mission Development Officer In the Easter 2 Lectionary readings for today I was intrigued by the New Testament passages which have been read for us. We have a rather intriguing perspective which take us straight to times after Pentecost, after the...

Psalm 95 & John 4: 5–42 By Revd Michael Burns, Chaplain for Younger People 1992–2000 Exactly 34 years ago next Friday, this Ecumenical City Centre Church was dedicated by the Presidents of Churches Together in England in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2. Those of us present that morning knew it was the culmination...

Acts 10: 34–38 & Matthew 3: 13–17 No Favourites: God’s Radical Welcome By Revd George Mwaura It’s no secret that people want to belong. We want to be seen, known, and welcomed – well, I do.  But if we’re honest, most of us have, at some point, walked into a room, maybe even a church, and...

Light and Hope for the New Year!
By Revd George Mwaura

January always reminds me of my childhood days. The school year in Kenya begins in January and so about this time there is a lot of excitement among children and – it’s much warmer. I hope that the Christmas excitement is over and you still have a fighting chance to keep your New Year’s resolutions. I see plenty of similarities between New Year and children – innocence and endless possibilities. …
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‘Faith for the Feeble, the Weak and the Fearful’ Sermon for Advent 3 Sunday, 14 December 2025 by Revd Geoffrey Clarke, Moderator of URC East Midlands Synod.
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Active Hope in the Darkness
By Revd George Mwaura

We gather on this First Sunday of Advent, not to escape the darkness, but to name it, and to proclaim that our waiting is not a passive resignation, but purposeful resistance. The world laments. Wars rage in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan. Hunger stalks its victims in Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Climate catastrophe displaces millions as we have witnessed this week in Indonesia and other south-east Asia countries. The darkness is not metaphorical; it is the cold reality of children sleeping in rubble, of mothers watching their infants starve, of entire peoples erased from their lands. And into this darkness, Advent whispers: Wait.

But this is not the waiting of helplessness. The Hebrew prophets knew no such passivity. Isaiah’s vision of swords beaten into ploughshares was not wishful thinking, it was a revolutionary manifesto. When he cried, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,’ he was calling for an active preparation: straightening the crooked systems, levelling the mountains of injustice, filling the valleys of inequality. Understand this: Christian hope, properly understood, is not optimism. Oh, no! Optimism is the privilege of those insulated from suffering. Hope, on the other hand, is something far more dangerous: it is the defiant conviction that darkness does not have the final word, coupled with the willingness to act as if the Kingdom were already breaking in.

Jürgen Moltmann taught us that Christian hope is not about the future as mere tomorrow, but about God’s future invading our present. We wait in darkness, yes, but we wait as light-bearers. We do not idle in despair; we labour in anticipation. This Advent, our hope must be embodied: in advocacy for the displaced, in solidarity with the suffering, in resistance to the powers that profit from war and environmental destruction. We light candles therefore, not to prettify the darkness, but to defy it! To say that even the smallest flame is an act of theological rebellion.

The Incarnation we await is God’s descent not into gilded comfort, but into the raw heart of crisis. Jesus was born in a stable, in a country under occupation, and threatened by imperial violence from his first breath. As you can see, our hope is in a God who does not transcend suffering but transforms it from within. So, we wait. But we wait awake – eyes open to injustice, hands extended in mercy, voices raised in prophetic witness. We wait as those who know the end of the story and therefore cannot be silent in the middle chapters. Today we proclaim, come, Lord Jesus. And until you do, make us your coming.

Amen!