James Lawrence: Sermons from Blackburn Cathedral
Canon James Lawrence is Canon Missioner at Blackburn Cathedral, one of England's great historic churches. In this collection, you will find sermons spanning more than three years of Sunday and festival preaching — through the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and the long stretch of Ordinary Time.
James preaches with intellectual rigour, pastoral warmth, and a gift for connecting ancient texts to the questions of contemporary life. His sermons range across the great themes of Christian faith: the nature of God, the call to discipleship, the work of the Spirit, the demands of justice, and the inexhaustible mystery of grace.
This collection was assembled as a gift and archive for those who have heard James preach at Blackburn Cathedral, and for anyone who wishes to encounter these sermons for the first time.
James Lawrence: Sermons from Blackburn Cathedral
Latest Episodes
Ash Wednesday 2026
As Lent begins again, James preaches on the dust to which we return — and the breath of God that first animated it. A sermon on mortality, mercy, and the strange freedom of knowing how small we are before a God of inexhaustible grace.
Feast of the Conversion of St Paul 2026
On the feast of Paul's Damascus Road encounter, James explores the most dramatic conversion in Christian history — asking what it means for a life to be turned inside out by a meeting with the risen Christ, and what this says to us today.
Feast of the Baptism of Christ 2026
At the Baptism of Christ, James returns to the theme of repentance — exploring how Jesus's own baptism inaugurates a ministry of transformation, and what it means to follow him into the waters of new life and new identity.