2007
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5 January 2007 Sermon for Epiphany Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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14 January 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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21 January 2007 Sermon for Matins
Reverend Dr Jane Hedges, Canon of Westminster
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21 January 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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28 January 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
Sister Elizabeth Anne CSMV, Chaplain
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11 February 2007 A Sermon by the Most Revd & Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York At the Service of Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Janani Luwum, Archbishiop of Uganda (16 February 1977)
The Most Revd & Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York
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1 January 2007 Address given at the Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of The Very Reverend Michael Mayne, Dean Emeritus of Westminster
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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5 February 2007 Sermon for Matins
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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18 March 2007 Sermon at the Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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4 February 2007 Sermon for Matins: Dawkins and The God Delusion (part 1)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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11 February 2007 Sermon for Matins: Dawkins and The God Delusion (part 2)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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18 February 2007 Sermon for Matins: Dawkins and The God Delusion (part 3)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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25 February 2007 Sermon for Matins: Dawkins and The God Delusion (part 4)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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21 February 2007 Sermon for Ash Wednesday Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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25 February 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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8 April 2007 Easter Day Evensong
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster,
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8 April 2007 Easter Day Eucharist
The Very Reverend John Hall, Dean,
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6 April 2007 Good Friday
The Very Reverend John Hall, Dean,
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3 March 2007 Sermon at the Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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25 March 2007 Sermon for Eucharist: Annunciation of Our Lord
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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1 April 2007 Sermon for Palm Sunday Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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27 March 2007 Sermon for a service to mark the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act
The Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury,
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29 April 2007 Sermon for Matins
Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
I want to talk this morning about what I realise is a slightly technical subject, but the Church of England has designated today as 'Vocations Sunday', when preachers are encouraged to help members of their congregations think about whether any there should offer for ordination. That is a big, life changing decision, and one that, of course, each person has to decide for themselves. But let me say as someone who has been ordained for some 37 years it is not a decision I personally have ever regretted making.
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13 May 2007 Sermon for Eucharist: The Two Hands of God
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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27 May 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was addressing a cathedral full of people celebrating the 300 years' existence of a Church of England school. This was now a primary school. He asked the pupils what language a child would speak if he or she had lived in isolation from birth for seven years and had never spoken to a single person. There were various answers. Some child answered: Latin. Another, perhaps hoping to please an Archbishop brought up in Swansea, suggested Welsh. No one had the right answer, until the Archbishop persuaded a random adult to have a go. Of course, such a child would have no knowledge of language and no words to utter. There is no need for language if there is no one with whom to communicate. Language is about discourse, building a community, about mutual understanding.
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3 June 2007 Sacred: the Abrahamic Religions and their Books (part 1)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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10 June 2007 Sacred: the Abrahamic Religions and their Books (part 2)
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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17 June 2007 Sacred: the Abrahamic Religions and their Books (part 3): The New Testament
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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17 June 2007 Sermon for Eucharist: There is still so much to do - so much for us to do
Most Reverend Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town
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24 June 2007 Sacred: the Abrahamic Religions and their Books - The Quran
Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian
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29 June 2007 Sermon for St Peter's Day
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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1 July 2007 Sermon for Civic Service
Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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29 July 2007 Sermon for Matins
Reverend Robert Wright, Canon of Westminster
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5 August 2007 Sermon for Matins: Faith
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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12 August 2007 Sermon for Matins: Hope
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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19 August 2007 Sermon for Matins: Love
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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2 September 2007 Sermon for Matins: Introduction to series on Benedict
The Reverend Canon Jane Hedges, Canon Steward
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26 August 2007 Sermon for Matins
The Reverend Canon Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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9 September 2007 Sermon for the Eucharist
The Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
At the end of last month an article in one of the Sunday newspapers began like this: “More than any previous generation, we are choosing to enjoy life like there’s no tomorrow. Food, booze, sloth, sun and sex are all part of our hedonistic existence.” The article asked, “So, just what can you get away with?” and went on to offer “a hedonist’s guide to what’s good and what’s bad for you.” The article’s title was a question: “Is the good life killing you?” Today’s readings ask similar questions about life and death, about what is good for us and what is bad for us. The answers they offer are rather more challenging than those offered by a Sunday newspaper journalist.
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9 September 2007 Admission of Choristers
The Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Samuel Arnold was organist of Westminster Abbey for nine years until his death at the age of 62 just over two hundred years ago. At the same time he was organist of the Chapels Royal and director of the Academy of Ancient Music. He appears to set an example of dedication and commitment, eminently respectable and unremarkable. But there is more.
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9 September 2007 Sermon for Matins: St Benedict Series Two
The Reverend Dr Jane Hedges,
I wonder how many times each of you here this morning has Moved House during your life-time? And how many times you have changed your job? And how many major journeys you have made to different parts of the world?
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16 September 2007 Benedict Three: Change and Conversion
The Reverend Dr Jane Hedges,
In a recent survey about the most popular children’s book the one which came out top was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” ~ a simple story about a tiny caterpillar who during the course of a week munches his way through apples, strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, ice cream, cup cakes and many other things besides and by the end of the week is no longer a tiny caterpillar but a huge great fat one!
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23 September 2007 Benedict Four: Balance/Work
The Reverend Dr Jane Hedges,
During our recent family holiday I participated in an activity which was referred to as tree top acrobatics.
This involved wearing a harness and being attached to a safety wire while travelling between trees on zip wires, swings, monkey bars, tight ropes and wobbly bridges.
It was the kind of activity that having begun I thought, “Why on earth did I ever get talked into doing this!”
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30 September 2007 Sermon for Choral Evensong (Broadcast on BBC Radio 3)
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
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30 September 2007 Sermon for Eucharist
The Reverend Canon Robert Wright, Canon of Westminster
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1 October 2007 Judges' Service
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
A priest of the Anglican Communion is perhaps not best placed at this time to accuse government of incoherence. In any case the charge is not likely to be seen as very damaging; government might plead guilty. This audience will readily agree that coherence is difficult to achieve for any large and multi-faceted organisation, whatever the guidelines might suggest.
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30 September 2007 Benedict Five: Community
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8 October 2007 Commemoration of John Lyon Founder of Harrow School, St Mary’s Harrow on the Hill
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
The year 1572 was mired in blood. On 24 August that year, St Bartholomew’s Day, began in France a massacre of the Protestant Huguenots, which saw 2,000 people slaughtered in Paris and thousands more in the provinces during the days that followed. The Wars of Religion in France would not be resolved until Henri IV’s Edict of Nantes 26 years later.
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7 October 2007 In dialogue with Socrates 1: Our sense of right and wrong
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky,
This morning, and over the next three weeks, I shall be speaking about one of the world’s great teachers. Like Jesus, he never wrote a book, but the fragments of his teaching were gathered up in dramatic dialogues, and then developed by his most prominent disciple into a whole system of thought.
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14 October 2007 Evensong for the Feast of Dedication
The Reverend Robert Wright, Canon of Westminster,
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12 October 2007 Feast of the Translation of St Edward the Confessor 2007
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
Edward had promised as a young man before he became king in 1042, at the end of a long period of Danish rule, that if the fortunes of his royal house were restored, he would go on pilgrimage to Rome. When he became king, the need to preserve his kingdom overwhelmed his earlier vow, and he was allowed instead to endow a monastery dedicated to St Peter on Thorney Island where he had established his royal palace.
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2 October 2007 Sermon at Evensong, to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Charles Wesley
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
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14 October 2007 In dialogue with Socrates 2: Who is an Enemy of the State?
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon in Residence,
Yesterday we heard fresh news of the repression currently going on in Burma. Three more of the leaders of the recent pro-democracy protests were arrested. They were named by Amnesty International as Htay Kywe, Thin Thin Aye and Aung Htoo. There are reports that hundreds, if not thousands, including many monks, have disappeared after the demonstrations of last month and that some have been horribly tortured. These people did not advocate violence.
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21 October 2007 In dialogue with Socrates 3: ‘I vow to thee My Country’ – What?
By The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky,
Through the Sundays of this month I am following the trial, imprisonment and death of the philosopher Socrates, who was executed in Athens about four hundred years before the birth of Jesus. We can do this because we have a vivid collection of texts describing his teaching and his death. It is readily available in the Penguin translation called The Last Days of Socrates.
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21 October 2007 Sung Eucharist
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster,
‘All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.’; so said the author of our epistle this morning from the second epistle of Timothy.
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28 October 2007 Sermon on The Jesus Prayer
The Reverend Robert Wright, Canon of Westminster
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28 October 2007 Morning Prayer: In dialogue with Socrates 4: ‘What happens when we die?’
The Reverend Dr Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon of Westminster
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1 November 2007 All Saints’ Day 2007
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
I returned this morning from Australia where I accompanied the Abbey choir on their sell-out two-week tour and discovered something of recent developments in Anglican education there. As in England so in Australia, the number and the popularity of Anglican schools is growing. This may seem unusual at a time when the Church is considered by many commentators to be in decline, to be losing its place and influence in society and its power to proclaim the gospel. Yet it is true.
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2 November 2007 All Souls’ Day 2007
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster,
Here at Westminster Abbey as in so many places throughout the world, November is a time for remembering. Next week will begin to emerge in St Margaret’s churchyard the field of remembrance which will allow many thousands of people to remember with thanksgiving and affection their comrades, relations and loved ones who died in the world wars of the 20th century and in many other conflicts.
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2 December 2007 Sermon for Matins: Death
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
The Four Last things, Death, Judgement, Hell and Heaven are traditionally issues to be examined in the period of Advent, so I intend to use this and the next three Sundays to consider those matters in these addresses at matins. And we start with something that will catch up with all of us eventually, namely death.
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9 December 2007 Sermon for Matins: Judgement
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
In these addresses at Matins in Advent I am considering the four last things of death, judgment, hell and heaven, so today we come to the second of those, judgement.
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16 December 2007 Sermon for Matins: Hell
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
In the third of this series of Advent addresses on the four last things today we come to the somewhat gloomy subject of ‘Hell.’ What, if anything, can we realistically believe about that?
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23 December 2007 Sermon for Matins: Heaven
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster
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24 December 2007 Christmas Eve 2007
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
Welcome to the light and warmth of Christmas Eve in Westminster Abbey. Welcome to this refuge from the darkness of a winter’s night.
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25 December 2007 Christmas Day 2007
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
I imagine you like stories. A good story can be very life-enhancing. But it often leaves questions. I want to know why the story was told. Some stories are just to get the teller out of trouble or to make them look big or to make people laugh. Some stories are harmless tall tales. Some are legends or fables or urban myths. Some have been told for hundreds of years.
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30 December 2007 Sermon for Matins: The Nativity Stories
The Reverend Robert Reiss, Canon of Westminster