{"id":143577,"date":"2026-02-26T18:54:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143577"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:56:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:56:54","slug":"church-times-lord-rowan-williams-reflects-on-the-art-of-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143577","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Lord Rowan Williams reflects on the art of preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A\u00a0sermon\u00a0is not \u201can op-ed for a newspaper\u201d, the former Archbishop of Canterbury\u00a0Lord Williams<\/a>\u00a0has said. \u201cYou are not just there to comment on current affairs, and I am always rather wary when I hear a sermon which is dominated by what\u2019s in the media to the extent that you are not quite sure whether anything more than a general moral perspective is coming out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He offered the comments in a new podcast<\/a>, Preaching Well<\/em>, launched by the Bishop of Loughborough<\/a>, the Rt Revd Saju Muthalaly, who said that he had created it because \u201cthe Church urgently needs voices who can speak God\u2019s truth with clarity, mercy, and conviction.\u201d He hoped that it would \u201cbuild confidence in preachers and encourage those who long to proclaim the gospel in ways that stir hope, deepen faith, and lead us towards Jesus Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Williams is the first guest in the new series. Sermons should help the congregation to \u201clook more clearly at the nature of the God that has addressed us\u201d, he said. \u201cThen bits of the contemporary jigsaw begin to fall into place a bit more. . . If that\u2019s the kind of God we believe in, then there are some reactions and engagements with the world around us that will make sense and some that won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon \u201cprompts people, encourages people, to a certain level of self-awareness\u201d, he said, \u201cso that somebody might go out from listening to sermon and be able to say not just \u2018I have never thought of that,\u2019 but \u2018I have never seen that in myself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

A sermon is not \u201can op-ed for a newspaper\u201d, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams has said. He offered the comments in a new podcast, Preaching Well, launched by the Bishop of Loughborough, the Rt Revd Saju Muthalaly 🎧#Sermon<\/a> #RowanWilliams<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/8RKZylcfyb<\/a><\/p>— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 26, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>