St Pauls and St Barnabas Belfast

Harvest Sunday at St Paul's & St Barnabas. Luke 9:57-62 brings us three people who wanted to follow Jesus, but on their own terms. One came with unbounded enthusiasm but without counting the cost. Another always had a reason to delay. A third couldn't commit fully because his attention was divided. Jesus' response to each is searching and direct: no one who puts a hand to the ploug...

Bishop George Davidson, Bishop of Connor, preached at the St Paul's and St Barnabas 175th Anniversary Confirmation Service on Wednesday 30th. His text was Matthew 21, the parable of the two sons, and his theme was the gap between what we say and what we do. Six candidates, Owen, Glenn, Ian, Francis, Lisa, and William, were confirmed at this service. The Bishop began by reflecting on what it me...

God Is Not Finished Yet. That is the word Rev Ross Mungovan brought to St Paul's and St Barnabas on Wednesday 30 September 2026, the 175th anniversary of the founding of the church. Preaching from Haggai 2:1-9, Ross addressed a community looking back with gratitude and forward with faith. The prophet Haggai spoke to returning exiles who looked at the ruins of Solomon's Temple and wept. God...

On 27 September 2026, St Paul's & St Barnabas marked 175 years of Christian worship and witness in Belfast. In this special anniversary service, guest preacher Revom from Wichita, Kansas,called the congregation to remember the faithfulness of God across the generations, to rejoice in all he has done, and to reach those who have not yet come. One generation commends your work to another. Th...

Moses is on the mountain. The people grow restless. Aaron melts under the pressure of the crowd and fashions a golden calf from the gold God himself had provided. And when Moses returns, one man stands between the sins of his people and the righteous anger of God — arms outstretched, pleading for mercy, willing to be blotted out if the people cannot be forgiven. In this sermon from Exodus 32, Rev...

Before God gives a single commandment at Sinai, he tells Israel who brought them there: I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Grace before law. Identity before instruction. In this sermon from Exodus 19–20, Rev Andrew Irwin opens the Ten Commandments not as a moral obstacle course but as a covenant gift — the shape of freedom for a people already rescued. Worship comes firs...

They had seen it all — the plagues, the sea, the freedom. And a month into the wilderness they wanted to go back. In this sermon from Exodus 16, Rev Andrew Irwin traces the story of the manna: bread from heaven, grace before rebuke, covenant sufficiency for the whole community, the Sabbath as defiance against Egypt's relentless logic, and the deepest lesson of all — that the God who rescued hi...

A new Pharaoh who does not know Joseph. A people once welcomed, now enslaved. And two midwives who fear God more than they fear the most powerful ruler in the known world. In this sermon from Exodus 1:1–22, Rev Andrew Irwin opens the great Exodus narrative and explores what it looks like to be the people of God when the world is changing around you — how the blessing of God continues in spite of o...

Three verses. A soul humbled, stilled, and hoping. In this sermon from Psalm 131, Rev Andrew Irwin takes us through one of the shortest and most quietly powerful psalms in Scripture — exploring how confidence in God produces humility rather than pride, how the gospel gives us a contentment the world cannot manufacture, and why David's closing command still rings out to every generation: put yo...

Let love be genuine. It sounds straightforward — until you look closely at what Paul actually means. In this sermon from Romans 12:9–16, Rev Andrew Irwin unpacks what sets the church apart from any other gathering: a love without masks, without performance, without keeping score — devoted inward to one another, fervently dependent upward on God, and open outward to the city around it. The world ca...

The Spirit who emptied the tomb lives in you. So you are not a slave to fear — you are a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, groaning with all creation toward a glory that will make all of this worth it. In this sermon from Romans 8:12–25, Rev Andrew Irwin asks what we live by — not merely what we live for — and answers with Paul: not by fear, not by sight, not by survival, but by the Spirit of s...

The same seed. The same sower. Four very different soils. In this sermon from Matthew 13:1–23, Rev Andrew Irwin opens the Parable of the Sower and asks what state our hearts are in when the seed falls. Are they hard, shallow, choked with competing loves — or receptive, understanding, and bearing fruit? And for those who know where they stand in Christ: will we keep scattering, keep praying, and ke...

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. David wrote those words not from a place of comfort but from the depths of despair, running from enemies, wondering if God had turned away. In this sermon on Psalm 23, preached at the evening service at St Paul and St Barnabas, North Belfast, we explore what it means to trust God through the storms of life when the pain goes so deep that no human comfort...

Twelve ordinary, unremarkable people. No qualifications, no status, no shared background — a tax collector who worked for Rome and a zealot who opposed it, standing together under one King. In this sermon from Matthew 10:1–8, Rev Andrew Irwin explores how Jesus calls his disciples to himself before sending them out, why the work of God always begins by abiding in his presence, and what it means to...

Jesus went through all the towns and villages — the ordinary, overlooked places — with compassion, teaching, proclaiming, and healing. He looked at the harassed and helpless crowds and saw not a crisis but a harvest. In this sermon from Matthew 9:35–10:8, preached in the wake of a hard week in North Belfast, Rev Andrew Irwin reflects on what it means to see our city with the eyes of Christ, why pr...

What do we do when things change and the ground beneath us feels less solid? Psalm 33 answers simply: we praise. In this sermon, Rev Andrew Irwin explores the four movements of Psalm 33 — the joy of collective worship, the God who made the heavens by the breath of his mouth, the security of knowing he is in control and sees each of us individually, and the hope that flows from a life shaped by pra...

For Christ, and His City — Rev Ross Munro on Nehemiah 1 In this sermon at St Paul's & St Barnabas, Belfast, Rev Ross Munro of The Gathering Belfast preaches from Nehemiah 1, on the night The Church Flute Band joined us for a Pentecost Sunday evening of praise, music, testimony, and gospel encouragement. From a cupbearer in the citadel of Susa, seven hundred and sixty five miles from a city in...

For Christ, and His City — Rev Ross Munro on Nehemiah 1 In this sermon at St Paul's & St Barnabas, Belfast, Rev Ross Munro of The Gathering Belfast preaches from Nehemiah 1, on the night The Church Flute Band joined us for a Pentecost Sunday evening of praise, music, testimony, and gospel encouragement. From a cupbearer in the citadel of Susa, seven hundred and sixty five miles from a city...

Pentecost is not simply a day we remember — it is the ongoing life the church is called to live. In this sermon from 1 Corinthians 12:3–13, Rev Andrew Irwin reflects on the Spirit who makes salvation real, who gives life and unity to the church, who distributes gifts for the common good, and who takes people of every difference and joins them together as one body under the Lordship of Christ. Prea...

The last image the disciples have of Jesus is not anger or distance. It is his hands raised over them in blessing as he ascends. In this sermon from Luke 24:44–53, Rev Andrew Irwin explores how the risen Christ opens the Scriptures, sends his people as witnesses, promises power from on high, and takes his throne — and why, in a world full of uncertainty and weariness, the church can still return w...

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you wanted to say something, but the culture, the language, the whole world around you was so different you didn't know where to begin? Paul did. He stood in the middle of Athens — a city of temples and idols, the philosophical capital of the ancient world — and somehow found a way to speak hope into it. He didn't start with condemnation. He di...

A locked room. A frightened band of disciples. And a risen Jesus standing among them with the most surprising opening line in the New Testament. In this sermon from John 20:19–31, Canon Mark Eldredge — visiting from the American Anglican Council — asks why the very first thing Jesus said to his disciples after rising from the dead was "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Not &q...

In this sermon from Acts 2:42–47, Rev Andrew Irwin reflects on the four pillars of the early church and asks what it would look like to get the simple things right — the teaching of the Word, the breaking of bread, common life in grace, and the rhythms of everyday faith — and why, when a church does, God builds it. Preached at St Paul's & St Barnabas, Belfast — Sunday 27 April 2026. www.sp...

Two disciples. Seven miles. A stranger they should have recognised. On the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, Cleopas and his companion have all the facts — the empty tomb, the angels, the reports that Jesus is alive. They can practically summarise the gospel. And yet hope is past tense. They are walking away, downcast, confused, and completely missing the one walking right beside them. In this sermon...

On the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb in the dark — grieving, searching, and not yet understanding. She finds the stone rolled away, the grave clothes lying empty, and angels where a body should be. And then, in a moment that changes everything, the risen Jesus speaks her name. In this Easter sermon from John 20:1–18, Rev Andrew Irwin reflects on the restless searching that...