Sermon preached by Anne East, Reader Emerita 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13, Matthew 28: 16-20 “For I rote to you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” (2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4.) Paul had a deep affection for the people of Corinth. From his very first visit, recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul builds a relationship with them – he lives there for 18 months, staying with a...

May I speak in the name of the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit In the blink of an eye everything changed There was before and now there is after Before it was dark After it is light Before there was grief After there is joy Before there was despair After there is hope But to be in the after you have to have walked through the before And the before ended in fear and confusion The followers of Jesus of Nazareth were in total shock from the events of Thursday and Friday....

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and redeemer And it was night Judas, one of the twelve, had betrayed Jesus, and Jesus had known he would Betrayal is the most visceral and agonising of human emotions, and one many of us have felt. We see Jesus at his most human His confrontation with betrayal has left him “troubled in spirit.” He’s agitated, stirred up, and shaken. We can so easily imagine what that feels...