Sermons by Bob Cooper

All Souls Requiem Eucharist

On this solemn feast of All Souls, we gather as the Church Militant to pray for those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. We stand at the threshold between this world and the next, united in the great mystery of the Communion of Saints, where the veil between heaven and earth gr… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 2nd November 2025

4th Sunday before Advent | 2 November 2025

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen In 2018, Dan Price, CEO of a Seattle company, cut his million-dollar salary to raise his workers' minimum wage to $70,000 a year. What led to that decision? A lawsuit from his brother forced Price to confront something… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 2nd November 2025

All Saints 1 November 2025

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit. Amen. In the year 651, the great missionary bishop Aidan lay dying on the island of Lindisfarne. This Irish monk, who had brought the Gospel to Northumbria and established a monastery that would light the lamp of faith across nort… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Saturday 1st November 2025

Washing in Unfamiliar Waters

A friend of mine, a hospital chaplain, once told me about visiting a particularly cantankerous elderly patient. This gentleman—let's call him Arthur—had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with "God botherers." But hospital policy meant my friend had to at least check i… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 12th October 2025

Michaelmas Sermon

High above the Tiber River in Rome stands the ancient Castel Sant'Angelo, crowned by a magnificent bronze statue of St. Michael the Archangel. This fortress bears its holy name because of a miraculous vision. When there was a devastating plague ravaging Rome in the sixth century, Pope Gregory… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 28th September 2025

Sermon for VJ Day 80th Anniversary

In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Mrs. Elizabeth Hartwell worked at the old Guildford telephone exchange on North Street, and on the morning of August 15th, 1945, she was among the first in our town to hear those crackling words coming through the telephone l… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 17th August 2025

Trinity 5 | 20 July 2025

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to truly see each other - not just glance at one another as we pass by, but really see the person standing before us. Our readings this evening invite us into that ki… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 20th July 2025

Luke 10 | Third after Trinity

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I have always worked on the maxim that if I am never in fashion, then I cannot be out of fashion and consequently have seldom succumbed to the zeitgeist of passing fads. And so, forty years after the its publication, and six… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 6th July 2025

Trinity Sunday | 15 June 2025

When I was a parish priest, I would always invite a guest preacher on Trinity Sunday as frankly it is always a tricky one on which to preach and so the way around this was to invite someone else. I am glad to see that Fr Simon is carrying on this great tradition; however this time it is me that is… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 15th June 2025

Ascension Day | Lifted Up, Sent Out, and Empowered

I love Ascension Day; a vital yet often underappreciated celebration in the Christian calendar. Forty days after Easter Day, we remember and rejoice in the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven—that profound and triumphant event marking the completion of His earthly ministry and the beginnin… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Thursday 29th May 2025

A Sermon for Mothering Sunday | Choral Evensong

A few hundred meters from St Peter’s basilica, standing on the banks of the Tiber, is the Villa Farnesina. Cool in the summer heat of Rome, and with an excellent gelato and espresso provision in is a place of sanctuary from the Roman sun.  On the ground floor are two incredible frescoes… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 30th March 2025

Sermon | Lent 3 Choral Eucharist

I am not a big fan of figs. Fig rolls, oh yes, the Queen of biscuits in my book, bring them on, but figs themselves I can take or leave them. They are rather too sweet for my pallet. Plus, I have to say that watching someone eat figs can be a dangerous activity. Allow me to explain. One of the… Read more

Sermon by Bob Cooper on Sunday 23rd March 2025