Revd. Antony William Ball – Pastor, Isleworth Congregational Church
It was with both shock and sadness that we learnt of the death of Antony in hospital on the 30th of April.
Read on...Category: Rev. Antony W. Ball
He [Christ] is, moreover, the head of the body, the Church…
by Rev. Antony W. Ball That image of Christ as the head of the body, the Church, is one to which St. Paul returns over and over again in his letters – it was clearly one of his favourites. In his first letter to the Corinthian Church he comments that “There are varieties of gifts […]
Read on...Not a Church-going Family
by Rev. Antony W. Ball My family very rarely went to Church. We were brought up to respect the Church in some kind of vague, all-embracing way, but we were not a Church-going family. In particular, the great festivals of Christianity ‘left me cold’, as it were. I knew Christmas was about Jesus being born […]
Read on...St. George
by Rev. Antony W. Ball We don’t usually make a fuss about ‘saints’ days’ in our ‘free’ Churches – the Anglican Church I attend for Morning Prayer most weekday mornings has no such inhibitions – but maybe George, the patron saint of England1 (whose day is April 23rd), does deserve some mention. St George was […]
Read on...At the sight of him the guards shook with fear and lay like dead
by Rev. Antony W. Ball The ‘him’ in that text is an angel1. All the Gospels tell the story of Joseph of Arimathaea going to Pontius Pilate (the Roman Governor of Judaea) to ask for permission to take the body of Jesus down from the cross in order to give it a ‘decent burial’ in […]
Read on...What’s Lent all about then?
by Rev. Antony W. Ball Lent is the name for the period of forty days leading up to Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday, which this year is on February 17th but, of course, there’s much more to it than that. Almost certainly the ‘forty days’ comes from time Jesus spent in the desert or wilderness […]
Read on...Epiphany
by Rev. Antony W. Ball In the Western Church the Epiphany is usually associated with the visit of the astrologers1 to the Baby Jesus (and in the Eastern Orthodox Church with the baptism of Jesus) and it is celebrated on January 6th in the west and Jan 28th in the east. But what nationality would […]
Read on...Visual Assumptions
by Rev. Antony W. Ball Now in this same district there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch through the night over their flock, when suddenly there stood before them an angel of the Lord, and the splendour of the Lord shone round them. They were terror-stricken… Lk ii 8-10a NEB . I know […]
Read on...Pray for the peace of Jerusalem…
by Rev. Antony W. Ball Immediately before what should have been our Church Meeting last Wednesday evening (aborted because inquorate), I confessed that I didn’t know how to pray for Jerusalem – and I still don’t, even after Mr. Daniel Bark’s excellent presentation during our morning service last Sunday, which put the present conflict into […]
Read on...Church Membership
by Rev. Antony W. Ball to all who did receive Him,to those who have yielded Him their allegiance,He gave the right to become children of God… Jn i 12 (NEB) Last Wednesday evening, our Church Meeting asked me to write an article for our newsletter on what it means to be a Church Member – […]
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