The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

Advent Journey The idea of a journey, even a pilgrimage, is at the heart of the season of Advent. The four Sundays that take us up to Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, are stages on the way to awakening, if we let them be. The Advent countdown, and those four Sundays are like those piles of stones, those cairns which mark ones progress up the hill, through the mist, to the mountain top where you can see for miles and the sun shines. The message of Advent is that it is worth taking that journey, it is good to be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus.   Over the years I have taken many photographs of paths.  Somehow the image of a path, whether up hills or over precarious bridges or down into dark unexplored dells, is a metaphor that captures something of the spiritual life. It’s a journey that begins with some trepidation, when it feels like it might be a good idea to stay at home, and then rewards with delight and … to use a very good and almost s...

I went to a very moving exhibition yesterday. Schools from across Rochdale borough gathered to show off their artwork, poems and presentations around the themes of faith. The day was organised by Sacre , the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education. Each local authority has one and the Diocese of Manchester is represented along with other faiths. Doesn't sound much fun - but it was very impressive. There were poppies everywhere ! Children had painted them, made large ones out of papier mache and done small red poppy prints with polystyrene. I asked the children what they were remembering and they told me about the many dead, and some told me of the brave soldiers' sacrifice. Many pictures showed the horror of war like this one. Poppies have touched the hearts of the nation more than ever this year. Jon Snow presented Channel 4 news from outside the tower of London the other day. I have met several people who have been. It is a modern place of pilgrimage.It's touche...

I visited an older member of one of the parishes recently. Widowed for many years she sat there with her TV times nearby. We had a good chat, remembering family, church, the changes in the town. We laughed and prayed. She said she would love to come back to Church, and she so appreciated people kindly keeping in touch. She was very very lonely. Loneliness is the theme of an article by George Monbio t. He talks about the age we now live in - the Digital Age - and says it says plenty about our artefacts but little about society. We are social creatures and we need each other. Mammals are shaped by contact with others and we need each other, we are inter-dependent. This we have been reminded off wonderfully in our harvest festivals when we looked at a piece of fruit and thought about the dozens of people that had been involved in growing, picking, transporting, and selling it to us. And all the bugs and bees and sun and rain that helped it grow. We depend on so much, from God and from eac...

  Compassion We read so often in the Gospels that our Lord "had compassion". Jesus looks at people weeping and he has compassion. He sees the hungry, and he worries. He sees his friend's weeping and he weeps too. He suffers with them. Com as in companion, passion as in the passion that Jesus went through on his way to death on the cross. Being alongside others is what us ordinary folk trying to be good friends of Jesus do. When we enter into their sadness, and hopefully their joy sometimes too, we are like Christ, compassionate. So it's very simple to be a Christian. If we take compassion as the essence of what Jesus is to us today then it's no mystery how to be a follower of Jesus. It's simply about compassion, sharing others' pain, standing alongside the poor, the grieving, the sick, the mistreated.   Music and liturgy are for me the great ways we reconnect with compassion. Music touches the heart and the mind and when the words are good they move u...

It's the same idea whatever words you use ! St Paul in Galatians (5.22-23) tells us that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance . That's what the King James version says eloquently if somewhat mysteriously !. The NRSV, witch is the favoured translation of vicars like me uses these words: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. I quite like the Message Bible which expands, indeed adlibs: But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commit...

Originally published 2017 Well can you or can't you ? Do you have it in you or don't you ? Well you don't know unless you try do you ? Are you worried that people will laugh at you if you get it wrong ? I came across the group Can't Dance Can this week. They use the space that is St Chad's church hall. I was immediately taken with the idea and the title. You may think you can't dance, but you can ! There are no doubt other applications. What about Can't Sing, Can or Can't Cook, Can ? For a variety of reasons we get it into our heads that something can't be done. We tried it and did not succeed as we thought we might. Someone told us we could not manage it. Or maybe all the reasons not to came from deep within us. If you look at their website you see the smiling faces of those who have discovered the joy of achieving something they never thought they could do. Dancing. There are pictures of older people dancing with umbrellas as well as children a...