Fr Luke Miller

I preached this afternoon at Westminster Abbey. I never quite say what I have in the text in front of me, for a sermon is a living thing, open one prays to the Spirit even in the process of delivery. So, though  this was not quite what I said, this is the text I took with me.  The readings were: Job 13:13-14:6 and Hebrews 2:5-end A few months ago one of my sons was walking down the corridor in his regional university when a couple of lads and will up to him and asked him in the patois of the London gangs, “what is your Ns mate?” Having been brought up in North London he gave the right postcode and a sticky moment passed off safely. Part of the terrible attraction of the gangs which are causing so much grief and fear in so many parts of London is the search which is summed up in our text this evening: what is man that there are mindful of him? Young people search to know who they are and in a perverse way membership of the gang gives the security, structure and fami...

At the General Synod I wore my Sea Cadet Uniform for one day to draw attention to the great work done by lots of clergy and licensed lay ministers in uniformed youth organizations, especially the Cadets. The Church Times printed a picture of me speaking. Many Cadet Organizations seek Chaplains and it is a rewarding and enjoyable ministry which touches the lives of many young people in amazingly positive ways. In the Sea Cadets we say that we are #NeverOrdinary and that is certainly true. I was speaking on the new Church Representation Rules and welcoming the provision being made for  congregations of church plants to have representation in Synodical structures. You can see my speech here  starting at 22:42, and the text I spoke from is below. Of course what one wrote down is never quite what one says! It fell to me with the support of our indefatigable synodical secretary to steer through the London Diocesan Synod synodical representation for those worshi...

At General Synod earlier in the month I had hoped to be called in the debate on the Miscellaneous Provisions Measure (No2) - which all seems very dry but is quite important. Miscellaneous Provisions Measures gather up matters that are important enough to need legislation but not important enough to warrant a Measure on their own.  I wanted to speak about Clause 6 on the appointment of Quinquennial Inspectors. Had I been called this is what I was going to say: Quinquennial inspections of churches are of crucial importance. They help churchwardens, PCCs and all those in the parish who bear the responsibility for care of churches. They also support archdeacons in our support of the people at the sharp end to whom we must all be enormously grateful. The Quinquennial Inspector is ideally someone who has a deep knowledge of the of building they are inspecting. A person who knows how to nurse a concrete structure into its 80th year as the reinforcement corrodes...

John 20:9 Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Sermon Preached at S Mary Paddington Green Easter Day 2018 The resurrection is not described in the Gospel. What is described is the way that the followers of Jesus came to realise it had happened. Peter and John running to the tomb and finding it empty, with that wonderful human detail that makes it so real: John is younger and can run faster, but Peter, the elder, impetuous Peter, he is the one who goes into the tomb first. The women meeting the angels but, “do not look for the living among the dead.” Mary of Magdala does not recognize Him, but supposed Him to be the gardener . Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead. If they hadn’t how can we – how can we understand the teaching of scripture that He has risen from the dead? Because He has – this our whole purpose in being here today,...

S Andrew by the Wardrobe is host to an Indian Orthodox congregation. They cast petals on the ground on their Palm Sunday procession. Seeing them there as I came home yesterday put me in mind of a poem of S Therese of Lisieux, An Unpetalled Rose The text is here . The poem meditates on the first trembling steps of the child Jesus, beginning with what seems the sentimental desire to unpetal a rose 'So that your little foot might rest ever so softly on a flower.' The wobbling attempts of the toddler are but the first steps on the way of the Cross. The poet realises this as she suggests that her life should be unpetalled; not standing proud like the flowers in the vase, but unpetalled and cast on the processional path: 'The rose in its splendor can adorn your feast... but the unpetalled rose is just flung out to blow away... like it, with joy I abandon myself to you." So often we want to be heroes of the faith, obvious in our devotion, strangely selfish in our ver...

As I came back from meeting on March 21, 2017 I was called by a colleague who told me that I should look at the news. Almost the same time my phone buzzed with a message from the police chaplain. I lead for the Faith Sector across Greater London for what is known as "resilience". That means that I chair the group that tries to make sure that people of faith respond well in the face of major incidents. That afternoon I was in touch with the police chaplain was with his colleagues providing support for officers, and with the chaplain to Parliament who was locked down with MPs and peers, staff and all those others who had been in the Palace of Westminster at the time of the attack. Every incident leaves us with a lot to learn. A few days after the attack I had a conversation with the lead chaplain at St Thomas's Hospital about a vigil they were holding. Thousands of patients and staff had seen the incident and that community needed hel...

Sermon Preached at S Martin of Tours Ruislip Lent 3 2018 John 2:19 Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 The events of today’s Gospel are set on a building site . The original Temple of Solomon  was destroyed by the Babylonians; the rebuilt Second Temple had been destroyed by the Greeks; now Herod was building a new one. But there were insecurities. In Scripture there were hints that the Temple would not last forever. Jeremiah for example predicted the destruction of the temple. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that around A.D. 62 one Jesus bar Ananias warned of a coming destruction, and there was tension in the air, a sense of fragility and impending failure. The Future of the Church I spent quite a lot of time last week in the same kind of atmosphere of concern, tension and worry about the future of the church. You are 80 times more likely to find an 80-year-old in church then yo...