Congregations

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. (Romans 8:26) How heartfelt are St Paul’s words about prayer! How often have wanted to pray, only to find ourselves lost for words, or tangled in complicated thoughts? As much as it can be a

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (I Corinthians 2:12) It can seem as if we are citizens of two worlds: we live our lives in the everyday world that is governed by

Icon and idol God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Greek Orthodox world was shaken to its foundations by disputes over the use of icons. Great treasures of early Christianity were lost as angry mobs destroyed the images of saints

How we behold each other There is a wonderful story, The Rabbi’s Gift, quoted by Scott Peck in his book A Different Drum, about the abbot and the rabbi, two old friends who have known each other for many years. When the abbot visits the rabbi in despair because his monastery is about to be

Victory over the world One of the greatest artistic creations known to humanity is the winged Nike – the Victory of Samothrace. Although scholars cannot date the statue, it seems likely that it was erected as a thanks-offering after a great victory. This makes its form and its effect on us all the more remarkable.

‘No-one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6) At first sight, these words in John 14 can be off-putting, embodying a kind of Christian exclusivism. There is another way of looking at them, which leads to a different conclusion. This takes as its starting point a question: which human beings’ lives show evidence