The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

I blessed the pub as well as the rushes ! Perhaps it was the glass of Moorhouses bitter I'd drunk, or the friendly community, but I strayed from convention and blessed the pub as well as the rushes, musicians and dancers. I didn't forget the residents of Littleborough. I'd never been to a rushbearing, so was thrilled to be there. I was covering as the local priest, Father Ian, had COVID. There is no Church of England authorised set of words for a rushbearing so I had to do my own research and soon discovered that this was a tradition that spoke to our contemporary crises. It seems that the rushes were cut down and brought to church each year for two reasons: to provide insulation for cold churches and to protect the knees of the faithful on hard floors. This was long before central heating or pews. Care of people and grateful use of natural resources came together in the rushbearing. The local landowners would give the rushes, and presumably paid the workers for...