Sunday 16th November 2025

Some passages of Scripture never made it onto embroidered cushions or Sunday School memory cards. This week’s reading from Genesis 16 is one of them. It tells the story of Hagar, a woman used, silenced, and driven out by those who should have known better—by those we often place on a pedestal. And yet, it is Hagar, not Sarah or Abraham, who gives God a name: El Roi—"the God who sees me."

On this Safeguarding Sunday, we are reminded that the Church must not only see like God, but also act like Him. The same God who met Hagar in the wilderness and the haemorrhaging woman in the crowd still meets the hidden and hurting among us today. So come. Bring a friend. Bring a neighbour. Bring your silence, if that’s all you have. Because here at St John’s, even the wilderness has a spring.

N.B. Last week – on Remembrance Sunday – I shared about The Chinese Labour Corps. If you’d like to learn more about them and support my campaign to have a memorial installed at St. Paul’s Cathedral, follow this link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/clcmemorial You can catch my interview on BBC Radio Oxfordshire here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/814068148063042

With prayers and hope,

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