|
DATE |
CHURCH |
SUBJECT |
PREACHER |
BIBLE
REF. |
|
MARCH
2008 |
|
16.03.08 |
Clocaenog Church |
Palm
Sunday:
On Palm Sunday,
the Church recalls the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem on what was
to be the last week of his life. He was accompanied by a large
crowd of people who greeted him as their king. By the end of the
week people were shouting for his death, so what happened to change
their minds? |
Rev. John Davies |
Matthew 21. 1-11 |
|
FEBRUARY
2008 |
|
17.02.08 |
Llanbedr Church |
To be a Person of
Faith is Such Privilege!
The
Bible speaks to us of faith: Faith as a journey into uncertainty
(in the case of Abraham); and faith as a birth in the case of
Jesus talking to Nicodemus – and what John Wesley called the “fundamental
doctrine of new birth.” |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Gen. 12.1 |
|
10.02.08 |
Llanbedr Church |
The Temptation to
Despair:
Today
we meet Christ in the desert. Strange as it may seem there is
something about entering the desert that enables personal spiritual
growth. Jesus obviously recognised this to be true which is why he
went out into the wilderness for those 40 days and nights. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Matthew 4:1 |
|
03.02.08 |
St
Peter's, Ruthin |
Candlemas: Looking
Forward:
Today we meet
Christ in the desert. Strange as it may seem there is something
about entering the desert that enables personal spiritual growth.
Jesus obviously recognised this to be true which is why he went out
into the wilderness for those 40 days and nights. |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
Luke 2:25 |
|
JANUARY
2008 |
|
27.01.08 |
Llanbedr Church |
Know the Living God: It
was on hearing that John had been arrested that Jesus
withdrew: and this close link which Jesus had with John is thought
to be historically verified. The fact that three gospels record that
Jesus was baptised by John is considered to be evidence that this is
historically true. |
Rev. Richard Carter |
Matthew 4. 12 |
|
20.01.08 |
Tabernacl Chapel, Ruthin |
Church Means People:
Statistics show that the majority of people in the United Kingdom
claim to believe in God, and also that most people pray in some form
or another. Similar statistics show that a substantial number of
people in the UK claim to be Christians. This may indeed surprise
us in what many call a secular age. |
Rev. John Davies |
1 Thess. 5. 12-22 |
|
13.01.08 |
Llanbedr Church |
The Baptism of Christ:
I am
sure that all of us will have photographs which have been taken at a
baptism – very likely it will be a posed shot with the Vicar holding
the baby and the parents and godparents standing around the font.
There are some churches which routinely take a photograph of every
baptism and make a kind of collage of the church family which they
put on display. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Matthew 3. 13-17 |
|
06.01.08 |
Llanfwrog Church |
Epiphany
- The Journey of Faith:
Imagine yourself to be directing a film on one of the books of the
Bible. How would you cast the characters? You would probably give
the principal parts to the best actors, assuming you consider the
principal characters as those who appear most frequently and have
the most to say. |
Rev. John Davies |
Matthew 2 1-11 |
|
DECEMBER
2007 |
|
30.12.07 |
Eglwys Llangwyfan |
Pwysigrwydd Amser, Pergylon Amser,
a Phwrpas Amser:
Hyfryd cael eich presenoldeb yma yn eglwys hanesyddol Llangwyfan ar
achlysur ein gwasanaeth arferol i’r ddwy ddeoniaeth, Dinbych a
Dyffryn Clwyd, ar y pumed Sul. |
Yr.Hybarch Bernard
Thomas, Archddiacon Llanelwy |
Salm 90:12
|
|
24.12.07 |
Llanfair DC and Llanfwrog
churches |
Christmas Sermon:
Buying Christmas gifts or even Christmas cards needs a little
imagination. Sometimes receiving gifts and cards does also. The
best Christmas gifts are often what we call the useful gifts.
|
Rev John Davies |
Luke 2. 1-16 |
|
23.12.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Are You Ready?:
This
was the overarching sentiment of an elderly gentleman I visited last
week - he reflected how so often along his journey of life things
had a habit of working out for the best even at times when things
seemed to be hopeless and desperate. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Matthew 24: 36-44 |
|
16.12.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Faith and
Doubt:
During the Season of Advent we keep hearing about “waiting and
watching,” “expectancy,” and “anticipation,” being prepared. And we
read the expectant prophecies of Isaiah which, in general,
are poetries of hope (poetries of wild and visionary hope) which
originate from desperate situations (of exile) and, of course, we
prepare for what has become the most popular Christian festival
of the year (Christmas). |
Rev. Richard Carter |
Matthew 11.3 |
|
09.12.07 |
St Peter's Church, Ruthin |
The God of Steadfastness and Encouragement:
What
is the stream in which the elephant may swim and the lamb may
wade ? It is the description Pope Gregory I gave to the Bible.
He saw the Bible as being a means of unity among people, a way of
coming together to know God |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
Romans 15:5 |
|
02.12.07 |
Llanfwrog and Clocaenog
Church |
Are You
Ready?:
The people we read about in the Bible seem to be waiting for some
great event. The prophets of Old Testament times speak of the
coming of the Messiah, who will save the people. Christian
tradition points to Jesus as that Messiah. |
Rev. John
Davies |
Matthew 24: 36-44 |
|
NOVEMBER
2007 |
|
25.11.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Do You Fear God?:
Do we fear God? Do I fear God? In years gone by
fearing God was thought of as being a real virtue. But we are now
living in a thoroughly secular age. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Luke 23:25-43 |
|
18.11.07 |
St Peter's Church, Ruthin |
Anyone Unwilling to Work Should Not Eat:
The Government has announced that a large number of training places
is to be offered to young people to give them skills and trades so
that they can begin to earn a useful living. |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
2 Thess 3.10 |
|
11.11.07 |
Clocaenog Church |
Remembrance Sunday:
I heard on the television news last week that there are in the UK
just five known people still alive who served in the armed forces
in World War 1, and of those five, just one now survives who was in
the trenches. Also, this year, anyone who served in World War 2
would be at least aged eighty. |
Rev. John
Davies |
John 13:34 |
|
04.11.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Kingdom 1:
I am sure that we could come up with many words to describe
Zacchaeus – I am equally sure that a saint would not be one of them!
Having said that, of course, it would depend upon your definition of
a saint and what sainthood is all about. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Luke 19. 1-10 |
|
OCTOBER
2007 |
|
28.10.07 |
Llanfwrog, Cyffylliog and
Llanynys Churches |
Bible
Sunday:
Different people have different views of the Bible. At one level
there are people who take a very fundamentalist and literal view.
At the opposite level there are people who see the Bible as a
collection of parables to teach us about God. |
Rev. John
Davies |
Luke 18.
16-24 |
|
21.10.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Wrestling with God:
Do
you remember World of Sport on with Dickie Davies ITV on a Saturday
afternoon? Back in the early 70s at our home, for some reason, we
didn’t have an aerial which would pick up ITV – but I always
remember watching World of Sport when I went round to see my friend
Nick. The only sport that ever seemed to be on was wrestling! Two of
the best known characters of the day were Mick McManus and Big
Daddy. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
|
|
18.10.07 |
St Peter's Church, Ruthin |
Physician, Heal Yourself - St Luke's Day:
The
saying, Physician, heal yourself, can be found in other
places besides the dialogue between Jesus and the people of
Nazareth. There was the Jewish proverb used by the Rabbis,
Physician, heal your own limp. And an Arabic proverb, A
doctor who cures other people and is himself ill. The Greek
dramatist Euripides has the line, He is a healer of others, but
himself swells with sores. A slightly different line appears in
the Gospel of Thomas, A healer
does not treat his own parents. |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
Luke 4. 23 |
|
07.10.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
The Mustard Seed:
After
that first naive foray I left it for about a week and then went back
at it. And when the same thing happened again I phoned a friend
with a chain saw. It was about two months later that we finally had
it down to the stump and then it took three of us, a lot of heaving,
and a lot of, "you stand there like that, and I'll stand here and
pull this while you push with all your weight from there." |
Rev. Richard Carter |
Matthew |
|
SEPTEMBER
2007 |
|
30.09.07 |
Llanfwrog Church |
The Rich-Poor Divide:
Wealth
and poverty live side by side. Go to any large city, anywhere in
world, London, Paris, New York, Sydney and you will see areas of
great wealth, hotels and restaurants where it costs a fortune to
stay or to eat, but not far from these places, people living in
cardboard boxes on the street and begging. Wealth and poverty are
never far away. |
Rev John Davies |
Luke 16. 19-31 |
|
23.09.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Christians and Money:
Who
would want to be the Chief Executive of Northern Rock Bank? He has
found himself to be in a very precarious and uncomfortable situation
over the last few weeks – needing to borrow money from other banks
to remain solvent but due to world economics finding that this is
not possible. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Luke 16. 1-3 |
|
16.09.07 |
St Peter's Church, Ruthin |
God Values Everyone:
The
rearing of sheep today is a big business. They roam the hills in
their thousands. Tractors and land rangers are used to supervise
them and round them up when there is a need. We have come a long way
from the small time shepherd Jesus was referring to in his parable
of the Lost Sheep. T |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
Luke 15.5 |
|
09.09.07 |
Llanfwrog Church |
The Demands of Jesus on Our Lives:
With some celebrities it is simply their presence which draws the
crowds and the autograph hunters will flock to them. They don’t
have to say anything. People just want to see them. |
Rev John Davies |
Luke 14. 25-23 |
|
02.09.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
The Prayer of Humility:
Within society now we have many homeless people - a situation which
has escalated over the past 20 years or so. But we don’t seem to
have the “gentleman of the road” professional kind of tramp so much.
|
Rev. Huw Butler |
Hebrews 13:2 |
|
AUGUST
2007 |
|
26.08.07 |
Llanfwrog & Llanynys Church |
Freed from the shackles by Jesus:
In today’s gospel we hear of an interesting encounter that Jesus has
with a synagogue leader about how the Sabbath should be kept. The
synagogue leaders made sure that people kept the Sabbath laws to the
letter. |
Rev.
John Davies |
Luke 13:10-17 |
|
19.08.07 |
St Peters Collegiate
Church, Ruthin. |
Faith is being sure of what we hope for:
In a month's time the clergy of the
St. Asaph Diocese will all be required to go to Lancaster University
for four days of in service training. The subject - Conflict
Resolution. This is a very fashionable subject these days. |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
Luke 12:49 |
|
12.08.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Faith is being sure of what we hope
for: in
actual fact, hope always comes before faith because without a sense
of hope then there is nothing to have faith in! |
Rev.
Huw Butler |
Heb. 11:1 |
|
05.08.07 |
St Peter’s, Ruthin |
Parable of the Rich Fool:
That "life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" is
little comfort for those who lost their homes and businesses in the
recent floods. |
Rev. Richard Carter |
Luke 12:13-21 |
|
JULY
2007 |
|
29.07.07 |
St
Meugan’s and St Peter’s, Ruthin |
The Lord's Prayer:
We’ve
read in our gospel reading this morning how Jesus taught the
disciples what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Presumably they then
learned it and repeated it frequently, and that’s how we now say it
so often. |
Alyson Goldstein |
Luke 11.1-13 |
|
22.07.07 |
St Garmon, Llanarmon & St
Cynhafal, Llangynhafal |
Mary Magdalene is an Apostle:
We
don’t often think of her like this - as an apostle. We don’t often
think of women as apostles because the official "twelve apostles"
were all men. But all four gospels single Mary Magdalene out as the
very first person who saw the risen Lord. |
Rev. Richard Carter |
John 20.17 |
|
15.07.07 |
St Peters Collegiate
Church, Ruthin. |
The Good Samaritan:
The
Good Samaritan is probably the best known and loved parable of
Jesus. It is interesting to notice that some of the parables, such
as the parable of the sower for example, are explained by Jesus in
order for the disciples to understand the “heavenly meaning” of the
earthly story. |
Rev. Huw Butler |
Luke 10:33-35 |
|
08.07.07 |
St Peters Collegiate
Church, Ruthin. |
Let us love one another:
If we respect others, even though they may be of a different
generation, another faith, another race and language, a way of life
we are not used to, an opposed political position, we are fulfilling
that last commandment Jesus gave on the night before he died |
Rev. Canon Dr. R. Bayley |
1 John 4.19 |
|
01.07.07 |
Llanfwrog & Llanynys Church |
The Urgency of Following Jesus:
When a Samaritan village
turns Jesus away and he moves on, he tells people that if they want
to follow him then it's a commitment to be taken seriously. |
Rev. John Davies |
Luke 9: 51-62 |
|
APRIL
2007 |
|
15.04.07 |
Llanbedr Church |
Christ Has Risen:
The cross is, in
this sense, easier to preach about because suffering and death are
things that we can relate to - they are literally all around us -
they are part and parcel of our existence - we know them to be true
- we experience them ourselves. |
Rev.
Huw Butler |
John 20:25b |
|
08.04.07 |
St Peters Collegiate
Church, Ruthin. |
Easter Sunday:
On Good Friday
Jesus died on the Cross. His body was taken down and laid in a tomb.
On the first Easter Day the stone was rolled aside and the grave
clothes left empty. Jesus had risen from the dead. |
Rev. Canon Dr. Raymond Bayley |
Luke 24.11 |
|
MARCH
2007 |
|
25.03.07 |
Llanfwrog Parish Church |
Journey to the Cross:
On this Passion
Sunday as we begin to think more intently of Jesus’ journey to
Jerusalem and to the Cross, we too think about our faith and how we
make our journey of life with Jesus. |
Rev.
John Davies |
Phil. 3:4b-11 |
|
18.03.07 |
Llanbedr Parish Magazine |
Family Values:
Mothering Sunday is an excellent opportunity for affirming “family
values” in terms of our own personal families and also in terms of
the wider Church family |
Rev.
Huw Butler |
Phil. 3. 12-21 |
|
11.03.07 |
Clocaenog & Llanfwrog
Church |
God Gives up on No One:
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
|
Rev. John Davies |
Luke 13. 1-19 |
|
04.03.07 |
St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Ruthin. |
Lent:
The baptism of Jesus was followed by a journey into the wilderness,
and this must have been something like a maze for him. Physically it
was a maze. |
Rev. Canon Dr. Raymond Bayley |
Luke 4 |
|
FEBRUARY 2007 |
|
25.02.07 |
Llanfwrog
&
Rhewl Church |
The Temptations of Jesus:
The season of Lent is in Christian tradition associated with the
forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. |
Rev. John Davies |
Luke 4. 1-13 |
|
04.02.07 |
Llanfwrog &
Llanynys Church |
Candlemas: is a half way point between Christmas and Easter,
a time to look back on Christmas and a time to look forward to Holy
Week and Easter. |
Rev. John Davies |
Luke 2. 22-40 |
LATEST NEWS