ONE of the few books that I re-read is a set of lectures originally given at Harvard in 1940 by the composer Stravinsky. In his Poetics of Music, he rehearses his conviction that the way to true originality as a composer resides in knowing the rules and the history of music, and submitting to their disciplines and constraints: we learn from others, who learned from their forbears. Freedom and creativity come from self-discipline, learning, and memory.

As with music, so with preaching. The preacher learns primarily how to preach by preaching, of course. But the preacher can also learn from others. Thirty-five years ago, a very wise priest told me that one of the best ways to learn about preaching is to read other people’s sermons, and he was not wrong.

Lucy Winkett is the Rector of St James’s, Piccadilly, in the heart of London, and this book is a collection of some of her recent sermons. They are, in the main, taken from the time when Covid began to thrust the Church into very strange and dislocating times, and they follow the course of the liturgical year from Advent Sunday to Remembrance Sunday.

Not all will have been preached to a “live” audience, of course; so there were added challenges to the preacher in not being able to see her hearers — although this particular preacher is a regular (and very fine) contributor to Thought for the Day; so has experience of the kind of communication already.

So, what do we have here? A deep, reflective intelligence applied to the scriptures, and an application of such reflections to the world as it is experienced in all its beauty, ugliness, and confusion. And a sense that any good news for us now is not despite, but, rather, woven into, the changes and chances of our human journey.

Let the last words be those of the author: “Persistently, courageously, we will continue to say in season and out of season that we turn to Christ. And that cosmic eternal Christ that we turn to, rooted in the prophet and poet Jesus, is an inexhaustible source of love, acceptance and a call to peace. . .”

“In today’s polarized world, we have no option but to keep looking energetically for ways to say that this persistent, emotionally intelligent — yes, tolerant, creative, merciful and inclusive — Christian faith is possible; that our Scriptures are beautiful and challenging and that we love them; that the Eucharist gives us a vision of the future where all are welcome and all are fed; and that, as in the gospel, the poorest among us know what it is to have to have that kind of persistence in a life that is often too precarious. Persistence both in prayer and in life.”

This sort of thing used to be called “Anglican”. Music indeed.

The Revd Peter McGeary is the Vicar of St Mary’s, Cable Street, in east London, and a Priest-Vicar of Westminster Abbey.

Reading the Bible with your Feet
Lucy Winkett
Canterbury Press £14.99
(978-1-78622-330-2)
Church Times Bookshop £11.99

Listen to Lucy Winkett talk about the book on a recent episode of the Church Times Podcast