Sundays and sermons through the summer

After Pentecost (8 June this year), the church calendar moves into what’s known as ‘ordinary time’. It’s the period of time outside of the major Christian festivals, and usually at St Paul’s, we take this as an opportunity to move away from the regular set church readings for Sundays (the lectionary) and focus on theme-based readings and sermons. So, we’ve got a series each for June and July, before returning to the lectionary for the quieter holiday month of August. More information below.

June: Better together

Following on from Pentecost and Rev Darius’s sermon about how Pentecost brings us to a culture of radical belonging together, we have 3 more sermons exploring the theme of ‘better together’

It’s a sermon series rooted in the book of Acts and inspired by the theology of Willie Jennings. We’ll explore how the Holy Spirit forms a people who belong to God, to one another, and to a new kind of community shaped by grace.

In a time when isolation and individualism are on the rise, this series invites us to recover the beauty and cost of gathered worship: a place where we are called, connected, and transformed together.

July: Ordinary time

This series runs with the theme of ‘ordinary time’ and explores four deep questions many of us carry beneath the surface: questions that often arise in ‘ordinary’ life, it its routine and repetition. The Gospel gives us not just answers, but a way of living with presence, hope, and trust in God, even in the most unextraordinary days.

The questions are:

• 6 July: Is there purpose to the daily grind?
• 13 July: Does anyone really see me?
• 20 July: Is there more to life than ‘groundhog day’?
• 27 July: Do I matter? Does my contribution really count?

We’d love it if you could join us for all of these. If you can’t make it on the Sundays, you can catch up on YouTube.

August: guest priests

We return to the lectionary in August, and apart from the first Sunday (3 August), Rev Darius is away on holiday. In the 4 Sundays that he’s away, we have other priests who will preach and preside at communion.

• 10 August: Fr Michael from our neighbours St Barnabas Bethnal Green
• 17 August: Fr Brian, the vicar of St Barnabas Bethnal Green
• 24 August: our very own Rev Billy
• 31 August: Rev Selwyn Cush-Etter (curate at St Luke’s Millwall on the Isle of Dogs)

Sundays in August are usually quieter at St Paul’s, with many people away on holiday. But we hope that you can join us for the service, in person or online.

Don’t forget that you can catch up with our sermons and services at any time (whether you’ve missed that Sunday or not) at the St Paul Old Ford YouTube channel.