Christmas Colours

Christmas at All Saints has a beauty that lifts the heart. Hundreds of candles illuminate the church ( a big job for the man with the match!) The tree scintillates with light and colour. Then there's the vestments.. purple on Christmas Eve; gold on Christmas Day and red on the feast of St Stephen. The vestments were made by Peter Stringer, an artist with needle and thread. He has left behind a legacy of colour and beauty to inspire.

As I donned the gold chasuble of Christmas I asked myself again "Why wear this?" It is extraordinarily beautiful. It speaks of the beauty of the Lord. That is the point, I guess. It isn't about me it's about God. Everything in worship should focus upon God.

I preached at the AoG Conference when I was 26 to a crowd of over 2000. I worked at the sermon with relentless enthusiasm and quite a bit of prayer. On the night I knew I couldn't have done better. I looked pretty sharp too in my aubergine suit and pink and aubergine tie. Two years later a young man said to me, "I remember you preaching at the Conference." "What do you remember," I asked. "I remember that aubergine suit," he said, "it was amazing." I wanted him to remember the sermon but he remembered the suit.

The suit of the 26 year me made a statement about me. The chasuble of Christmas made a statement about God. This Christmas at All Saints we again beheld the beauty of the Lord.

The Bible's tough bits.

Morning prayer is at 8.30 in each of the 3 churches of our team in turn. It is open to all but frankly it is usually just myself and my Curate, Laura. We don't get to read our favourite 'nice' bits of the Bible but faithfully use the lectionary for our OT and NT readings. So the other morning we were confronted with the grizzly spectacle of "vomit covered altars and no spot without filthiness." (Isaiah 28) Not the most inspiring picture first thing on a morning when you have just had your breakfast!

There are as many hearting sinking as heart lifting bits in the Bible but it is all Bible! Some times it is more brutal truth than blessed truth. When I was a prison chaplain I was often asked for a Bible by prisoners. I usually encouraged them to begin with the Gospel of John but some insisted on starting with the Old Testament. One shocked criminal said to me, "It's very violent this Bible! I didn't know God was so bloody vengeful and vicious." I felt a slight fit of pique that a violent robber serving 6 years should offer a moral judgement on the character of God!


Scripture is difficult. Exclusive devotion to sugar coated verses is not honest. A more questioning theology may lead to vulnerablity but it has a ring of reality. God is in the reality not the sentimentality.