Many clergy receive little training in the arts of preaching and it is assumed that they will learn by gaining experience. The renowned American preacher Herbert O'Driscoll suggests that congregations do not want to be given a map showing them how to get to the coast, they want to be drenched in the spray. Narrative preaching is a means of achieving such immediacy. By dramatic story-telling, it invites listeners into enter the text imaginatively and enables them to experience sermons as transformative events. This book aims to provide not just a theoretical introduction, but a resource that uses sermons in the narrative style to reflect on how to prepare and construct them and how to deliver them effectively in the context of worship.

Grasping the Heel of Heaven honours the immense legacy to the church of Michael Perham. A skilled and imaginative liturgist, a passionate advocate of women's ministry, an inspirational dean and bishop, a wise and patient administrator, he was above all a faithful priest who loved the Church as the body of Christ. In all his ministry he sought to nourish that body by encouraging its worship and prayer and shaping its governance in the light of gospel ideals. In this volume, friends and colleagues bring their own expertise to reflect on some of the topics and themes that were most important to him, including: * Being transported and transformed by liturgy * The making of Common Worship * The full inclusion of the ministry of women * How structures and decision-making express an understanding of God * Unity despite differences in and through God * The gospel as good news for all Together, the contributors reflect the numerous ways that Michael Perham saw heaven touching earth and earth glimpsing heaven.

How language works in the worship of the church has been vigorously debated during the period of liturgical revision in the twentieth century coming at the end of what is known as the Liturgical Movement. Focussing upon the Church of England and the Anglican tradition, this book traces the history of `liturgical language' as it begins in the Early Church, but with particular emphasis upon the English Reformation liturgies, their background in the Medieval Church and literature and their long and varied life in the Church of England after 1662. Inter-disciplinary in scope, yet rooted in a literary approach, the volume provides a rigorous study of the effect of liturgy upon the theological and devotional life of the Church.

Dust That Dreams of Glory collects together never-before-published seasonal material for Lent and Holy Week by the much-loved Anglican priest and writer Michael Mayne. Michael Mayne was one of Anglicanism's most compelling and attractive voices, a gifted preacher and writer whose works have remained popular. This collection offers material from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, including a sequence of seven meditations on the words of Christ from the cross. These unpublished writings are offered as both a preaching and devotional resource at a time of the year when many seek fresh ways of opening up familiar texts.

This is My Body is a compelling and unforgettably powerful story of trauma, illness, recovery and transformation, told with honesty, courage and resilient good humour. Jennie Hogan, an Anglican priest, has a history of brain injury and illness going back to childhood. In this gripping memoir, memories of the athletic, competitive and fun-loving schoolgirl jostle alongside accounts of invasive emergency medical treatments and the long processes of recovery. She reflects on what it means to live with uncertainty, to become reconciled with a new identity, and how trust and hope can be regained as a vocation flowers despite the odds. Jennie draws on her experience and her beliefs to pose challenging questions about our relationships with our bodies in an age that is obsessed with body image and physical perfection. She explores the nature of faith in times of crisis, the reality of pain and disability, and what it means to be human and vulnerable, yet made in the image of God.

Worship is a dynamic, living encounter that should never be static. In the Church of England, although Common Worship provides texts for every season and occasion, the church constantly needs to refresh its worship, just as it reshapes its presence in local communities. In this comprehensive volume, a wide range of experienced liturgists, musicians and pastoral practitioners consider the principles that will determine the character and quality, as well as the content, of our worship in the future. It explores how new forms can meet new needs while remaining faithful to the church's essential understanding of worship. Over twenty chapters consider how emerging forms of worship can be: - Relational, accessible and inclusive - Rooted in Scripture, the Creeds, and Spirit-filled - Sacramental, symbolic and multi-sensory - Transformative, pastoral and prophetic The contributors are all members of the Group for the Renewal of Worship, a broadly evangelical group within the Church of England and including senior clergy, musicians, theological college tutors in liturgy and former members of the Liturgical Commission.