Sermons And Gubbins

This poem was written for our third poetry group meeting (for which I was on holiday!). The theme that we were given for our poem was 'walking'. I hope you enjoy reading it!   I Would Walk  I Would Walk 500 Miles. I'd Walk Upon The Water. I'd Walk On By crooked coins 'gainst crooked stiles. I'd Walk all the way Back To Georgia. I'll take a Walk On The Wild Side. I'll Walk This Way, all afternoon. I'll Walk Like An Egyptian, with a Pharaoh's pride. I'll go Walking On The Moon. I'll walk The Long And Winding Road. I'll go Walking By The River in the pampas grass. I'll go Walking To a New Orleans zip code. I'll be Walking On, Walking On Broken Glass. I would be ever Walking On Sunshine; I'll go Walking On The Sun. I'd Walk The Wire, I'll Walk The Line.  I'll walk until my Walk Of Life is done. I'd Walk On The Ocean's deepest floor; I will walk all along the midnight zone. I'd even Walk The Dinosaur, If...

T his poem was composed for the second meeting of our poetry group. We were set the theme of 'Manchester: the place we call home'. I decided to find the most common languages spoken in our city; it is, after all, an adopted home to people from all around the world. Apologies to anyone who speaks these languages... I've made my best attempt (using Google Translate) to ensure the phrases are correct! I hope you enjoy reading it (my attempt at a phonetic translation is below the poem, including the languages for each line) Manchester یہ   شہر   ہمارا   گھر   ہے۔ هذه   المدينة   هي   بيتنا ਇਹ   ਸ਼ਹਿਰ   ਸਾਡਾ   ਘਰ   ਹੈ Magaaladani waa gurigeena 这座城市是我们的家 આ   શહેર   આપણું   ઘર   છે এই   শহর   আমাদের   বাড়ি Ev bajar mala me ye این   شهر   خانه   ماست Esta ciudad es nuestro hogar Αυτή η πόλη είναι το σπίτι μας Acest oraș este casa noastră Це місто наш дім To miasto jest naszym domem Cette vi...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on Sunday 21st May, the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The Gospel was John 17:1-11 . I hope you enjoy reading it! Before I start this morning, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge Peter, who is leading our intercessions today. Today is a really hard week to lead the intercessions, because today’s Gospel is basically one long prayer, and so, maybe you can guess what I’m going to be preaching about! Sorry about that, Peter! Don’t change anything in what you’ve written in response to my sermon today though! Don’t worry; I’ll make that clearer later as to why! Who knew the Pope had a holy hotline? All the commentaries I’ve read on today’s Gospel passage talk about it being a model for prayer. And I think there is certainly something in that. In the other three Gospels, the disciples ask Jesus to show them how to pray, and he duly does as he is asked. “ When you pray, ” he says, “ pray like this… ” And then we get the most famous prayer ...