Tag Archives: Gaudete Sunday

Sermon: Rejoicing and repenting, or vice versa

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

We know that poverty and disaster can cause people to feel ashamed if they need help. Australia was for so long considered to be a ‘working man’s paradise’ that it was even a joke in an Agatha Christie story. A wealthy young man disowned by his uncle asks his uncle’s butler whether he should leave for Australia.

Rogers coughed discreetly.
‘Well, sir, I’ve certainly heard it said that there’s room out there for anyone who really wants to work.’
Mr Rowland gazed at him with interest and admiration.
‘Very neatly put, Rogers. Just what I was thinking myself. I shan’t go to Australia – not today, at any rate.’[2] Continue reading →

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Reflection: Rejoice!

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

One hundred and six years earlier Charles Dickens wrote of the reborn Scrooge, who had become ‘as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew,’ that ‘it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge’. Keeping Christmas well does not just mean rejoicing ourselves, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us. Continue reading →

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