{"id":112417,"date":"2026-05-03T18:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/?p=112417"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:18:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:18:57","slug":"the-city-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The City of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;The City of God&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunday 3 May 2026<br \/>\n<\/strong>A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by <strong>Kenneth Padley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Choral Evensong 03\/05\/2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B33EDoklGKw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Revelation 21.1-14<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Martin\u2019s Scorsese\u2019s 2002 movie <em>Gangs of New York<\/em> depicts gratuitous blood-letting between Protestants and Catholics in the late nineteenth-century American metropolis. The message of the film is that violence begets violence \u2013 and that religion acts as an accelerant. The movie ends with a ray of hope as the graves of the chief protagonists decay away against a backdrop of New York appearing to \u2018grow up\u2019 through successive development of the city\u2019s built environment. The implication is that things have moved on and that we are being offered a tale of two cities, a flawed religious past and a progressive secular present.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a twist of irony, the very last shot of <em>Gangs of New York<\/em> portrays the World Trade Centre standing proud against the skyline. This film was recorded prior to 9\/11 but released afterwards. If that final scene had been planned as an assertion of optimistic progress, the conscious decision to retain it in the public release of the film is proof of the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>Given that humanity seems trapped in such a doom loop of renewal and failure, what are we to make of the perfect Jerusalem envisaged by Saint John in today\u2019s reading from the Book Revelation? It is not as if Saint John was detached from reality. He was a member of a minority faith community subject to bouts of persecution by the authorities. Indeed, John wrote Revelation in cryptic code-language as a protest against the oppressive forces of Roman imperialism. Particularly informing the background of his thought was the catastrophe of 70AD when the Romans had razed Jerusalem to the ground after a massive siege. Having seen what he had seen, how could John possibly believe in that radiant vision of a city in which \u2018death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more\u2019?!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to suggest that John imagined the new Jerusalem because he was part of an Easter community, part of a Church which experienced radical otherness in the resurrection of Jesus. If God can raise one person from the dead, might he not also shatter the wheel of brokenness which characterises earthly existence?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like also to suggest that John imagined something as amazing as the new Jerusalem because he was part of a Christmas community, part of a Church which celebrated the truth that God took flesh in Jesus. If matter matters to God not only to create it but also to become incarnated within it, might not material things also be part of his ultimate plan for the future?<\/p>\n<p>When Saint John\u2019s community celebrated the birth of Jesus they sang the words which we now know as the Christmas gospel, John 1.14, \u2018the Word became flesh and <em>dwelt<\/em> among us\u2019. \u2018Dwelling\u2019 in this clause literally connotes living in tents. The original Greek of this verse uses a specific verb which recalls the experience of God\u2019s people in the wilderness, when God\u2019s presence was thought to inhabit their sacred tabernacle, the tent of meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The author of Revelation uses that same, very specific word to describe the divine presence within the new Jerusalem. Revelation 21 verse 3,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See the <em>tabernacle<\/em> of God is among mortals.<\/p>\n<p>He will <em>tent<\/em> with them<\/p>\n<p>They will be his peoples<\/p>\n<p>And God himself will be with them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now the author of Revelation was not a slavish repeater of tradition. Through the Holy Spirit he had been gifted a visionary creative imagination. And so he did not speak of God\u2019s inhabitation of the end times as localised, like in the earthly tabernacle. We know this because of the striking dimensions that he records of the holy city. Immediately after today\u2019s text we are told that New Jerusalem will be as wide as it is long. Now a square makes good sense in terms of urban planning. But then John insists that city will be as high as it is wide \u2013 a cube. That is much more problematic. St John was not setting a challenge to civil engineers nor our imaginations. He was alluding to the Holy of Holies \u2013 the inner sanctum of the tent in the wilderness and the later Temple in Jerusalem which was shaped like a cube.<\/p>\n<p>The Holy of Holies in the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. But because John knew the truth of Christmas, he was not downcast. He knew that if God could tent in the person of Jesus, then God could also build a perfect city where his presence is not locked in a secretive room in a building for the elite but would become a reality for everyone because it pervades the whole city.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, such perfection seems a long way off. So what are we going to do here and now with the frustration of broken communities? To attempt an answer to that question we need to travel to one more city. Back in the year AD410, the imperial capital Rome was overrun by Goths \u2013 that is Germanic invaders, not grungy teenagers. The events of AD410 threw the foundation myth of this greatest conurbation on earth into a tailspin: the self-proclaimed \u2018eternal\u2019 city had fallen.<\/p>\n<p>The defeat of Rome posed a particular propaganda problem for imperial Christians. Since the conversion to their faith of the Emperor Constantine a hundred years earlier, Christians had promoted the cosy assumption that a close union of Church and State would ensure mutual prosperity. However, in AD410, despite fervent prayers to the city\u2019s patrons, saints Peter and Paul, Rome had been conquered. And not only were the invaders foreigners, worse still they were Arian, Christian heretics who didn\u2019t believe that Jesus is God. Why on earth would the Almighty allow such a thing to happen?! Traditional aristocratic pagans suggested that the problem might in fact be Jesus and wouldn\u2019t it be better if everyone got back to sacrificing to the city\u2019s former deities? It was a challenge that invited \u2013 necessitated even &#8211; a robust Christian response.<\/p>\n<p>Into this void of fear and doubt, the greatest writer of the early Church wrote the greatest apology of the age. It took 13 years to complete. The man was a Bishop from North Africa, Augustine of Hippo. And his book is called the <em>City of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>At its heart, Augustine\u2019s <em>City of God<\/em> is an exploration of the problem of evil. It is an enquiry into why life on earth is characterised by cyclical patterns of rise and fall. Augustine\u2019s response is to argue that evil is not an active force but a privation, an absence of goodness. And he concluded that this privation is found in every realm on earth. The world, Augustine insisted, is a mixed society of vice and virtue. This entanglement permeates even the Church: Augustine could not accept a na\u00efve division between those who claimed allegiance to Jesus on the one hand versus everyone else on the other. Augustine understood all society to be characterised by a commingling of good and evil. And he likened this division to Babylon and Jerusalem, an earthly \u2018city\u2019 (inverted commas) which glories in itself and a heavenly \u2018city\u2019 which glories in the Lord.\u00a0 These two cities live alongside one another until that day when God ushers in his new and perfect Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Augustine\u2019s <em>City of God<\/em> is a healthy antidote to unrealistic optimism in the human capacity for progress. It turned the critique of the pagans because it explained why even an ostensibly Christian Rome might have fallen. And it asserts that we must still strive for the best on earth while simultaneously lifting our horizons through faith to that new and perfect city which is to come, Jerusalem the Golden, that end time realm where the God of Christmas and Easter will dwell fully with all his people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;The City of God&#8217; Sunday 3 May 2026 A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by Kenneth Padley &nbsp; &nbsp; Revelation 21.1-14 &nbsp; Martin\u2019s Scorsese\u2019s 2002 movie Gangs of New York depicts gratuitous blood-letting between Protestants and Catholics in the late nineteenth-century American metropolis. The message of the film is that violence begets violence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":112420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The City of God - Salisbury Cathedral<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The City of God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8216;The City of God&#8217; Sunday 3 May 2026 A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by Kenneth Padley &nbsp; &nbsp; Revelation 21.1-14 &nbsp; Martin\u2019s Scorsese\u2019s 2002 movie Gangs of New York depicts gratuitous blood-letting between Protestants and Catholics in the late nineteenth-century American metropolis. The message of the film is that violence begets violence [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Salisbury Cathedral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1885\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Battle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Battle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chloe Battle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c\"},\"headline\":\"The City of God\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1338,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sermon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/\",\"name\":\"The City of God - Salisbury Cathedral\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1885,\"caption\":\"Detail of stained glass window, illustrating Holy Jerusalem.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/the-city-of-god\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The City of God\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/\",\"name\":\"Salisbury Cathedral\",\"description\":\"Salisbury Cathedral Website\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c\",\"name\":\"Chloe Battle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chloe Battle\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\\\/author\\\/chloe-battle\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The City of God - Salisbury Cathedral","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The City of God","og_description":"&#8216;The City of God&#8217; Sunday 3 May 2026 A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by Kenneth Padley &nbsp; &nbsp; Revelation 21.1-14 &nbsp; Martin\u2019s Scorsese\u2019s 2002 movie Gangs of New York depicts gratuitous blood-letting between Protestants and Catholics in the late nineteenth-century American metropolis. The message of the film is that violence begets violence [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/","og_site_name":"Salisbury Cathedral","article_published_time":"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1885,"url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chloe Battle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chloe Battle","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/"},"author":{"name":"Chloe Battle","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c"},"headline":"The City of God","datePublished":"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/"},"wordCount":1338,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Sermon"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/","url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/","name":"The City of God - Salisbury Cathedral","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-03T17:17:34+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-05T09:18:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1885,"caption":"Detail of stained glass window, illustrating Holy Jerusalem."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/the-city-of-god\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The City of God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/","name":"Salisbury Cathedral","description":"Salisbury Cathedral Website","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8605b985e5645bd7d21cb1133f609c","name":"Chloe Battle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09adfd1825b18361f5d2e992dd9d0e2aebc09da58d15c799ccb9e8c5560ad18e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chloe Battle"},"url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/author\/chloe-battle\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Heavenly-Jerusalem-detail-window-N13-scaled.jpg","formatted_date":"03 May | 2026","primary_category":"Sermon","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112422,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112417\/revisions\/112422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salisburycathedral.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}