Fr Luke Miller

The London Resilience Forum gathers together those who respond in London to major incidents. Chaired by Deputy Mayor of London, Dr Fiona Twycross and supported by the London Fire Brigade , London Resilience is a partnership comprising the emergency services, local government, the army and other responders such as the RNLI, Public Health England, and the Environment Agency. There are three 'sector panels' for the Business Sector, the Voluntary Sector, and the Faith Sector, which I chair. Last week the London Assembly's Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee took evidence about how the partnership works to enhance London's ability to cope with stresses. You can watch my evidence to the Committee from 1:06:45 Five years ago when I took the chair of the Faith Sector Panel the question was ' why is there a Vicar in the room ?' It is now recognised that the contribution of the Faith Communities to London's resilience is of huge importance and the qu...

A couple of weeks ago now my colleague the Acting Archdeacon organised a study day on estates ministry in the Two Cities. In his opening remarks he made the point that here in the centre of London our estates are "hidden". Both by deliberate acts of planning and also in that they are at the back of our minds. The font where I was baptised The Church of the Holy Spirit This set me thinking about my own engagement with ministry on estates, and indeed with living on estates. I was born on an estate, the Riddings Estate in Scunthorpe where my father was the first priest in charge of the then newly built Church of the Holy Spirit . I was baptised in a font made out of a piece of unworked iron ore underneath a spire formed of three steel girders made in the Appleby Frodingham Scunthorpe steel rolling mills. Then after a brief moment in which he served in a rural Lincolnshire parish while being the deputy youth officer for the diocese of Lincoln, we moved to Leeds where...

Reflection in S Stephen Walbrook at the launch of the Musicians' Church Website S Cecilia  was a martyr who had nothing specific to do with music. The story has it that she was a young girl who was to be married to a rich Roman who required her to adopt paganism. She refused, asserting her faith and that she was betrothed to Christ, and was sentenced to death. They put her in the hypocaust to suffocate her. It did not work, so her throat was cut. Following  Jesus Christ was and for so many is a matter of sacrifice, and the fine music of a S Cecilia Mass does not mask the fact that the feast celebrates the martyrdom of a young woman.  The antiphon for the opening of her mass used to run: As the organ played for her wedding, music sounded for her in heaven . Later the main school for church musicians in Rome was next to her church and she was their natural patron. From the act of witness of a young girl so much great good has come since she has inspired ...

With thanks to Fr Tim Handley of S James Garlickhythe who drew my attention to this passage from Jeremy Taylor.  [The Eucharist] is the greatest solemnity of prayer, the most powerful liturgy and means of impetration [fervent request], in this world. For when Christ' was consecrated on the cross, and became our high priest, having reconciled us to God by the death of the cross, he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God, and was admitted to the celestial and eternal priesthood in heaven; where, in the virtue of the cross, he intercedes for us, and re-presents [ie makes present an eternal reality here and now. ] an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf. That he is a priest in heaven, appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul. That there is no other sacrifice to be offered, but that on the cross, it is evident, because "he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and, therefore,...

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...