The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

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...

The band U2 sing in the song titled Grace Grace, it's the name for a girl It's also a thought that changed the world And when she walks on the street You can hear the strings Grace finds goodness in everything In my first sermon at St Mary's in the Baum, Rochdale last Sunday I preached about Grace. Here's the link if you want to listen to it. And here is a rather nice picture of the Church open for the heritage weekend. People were so welcoming (and grace-full) to visitors.

We have landed in a new community. The Falinge district of Rochdale is very different from West Derby where we used to live. We have moved from bungalow to house, suburban to town centre and urban, private housing. It's a place of much diversity too. Down at the end of the street are some flats managed by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing . Here's a picture of one block - Glastonbury. Flats are currently available....... Wendy and I attended the launch of Near Neighbours on Monday. It's a Church Urban Fund programme which distributes money to help Churches and other faith groups work across difference to build up neighbourliness. As we look at our new community, indeed our new town, we want to get to know our neighbours.They are near but we don't know many yet. I bumped into a man on the way back from the launch. He said "Please pray for me Vicar" and went on to describe how due to drinking his liver was failing. He certainly had a jaundiced yellowy look...