Tag: Jesus Christ

Seeking the Truth and Grace of God together

Photo from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Thoughts during The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Last week at a funeral, I met a relative of the girl who had died. It was a Christian funeral but he was a Muslim relative. He was amongst members of the family who came from France but he had been brought up in Algeria.
Despite the language and faith differences we managed to have quite a chat! Inevitably we touched on our differing faiths but soon found level ground when we talked about Abraham, known biblically as the ‘father of the nations’. The Muslim faith together with the Christian and the Jewish faiths all have Abraham in common. We can all trace our roots back to him which is why we sometimes refer to being Abrahamic in origin.
I always enjoy these chance encounters because, if we concentrate on what we hold in common, they are often very enriching. God, Prayer and worship are the bedrock of all our religions.

Later, I thought about the many conversations and dealings I have had with those of other faiths. For example, I support a small charity named, Abraham’s Children in Crisis, which touches the lives of a group of children and young people living in the West Bank of Israel. Most are Muslim but there are no barriers and some are Jewish.
They are supported in their education and medical care by Christians here in Britain.
I know their names; what they look like; how they are struggling and how they support each other. I thought of them often during these troubled times. In a small way I try to share their fragile lives.

Some time ago now I was at a wedding which was a double one – in that it was held first in London at the Cyprian Orthodox Cathedral because the husband was an Orthodox Christian. We then travelled to Kolkata for a Hindu ceremony because Rumi was of the Hindu Faith. Both ceremonies were fascinating and very moving. I was enriched by the experience . One of my special Internet blog friends is KK who is also an Hindu so I feel a sense of closeness to him because of Rumi’s wedding.
Another Rumi has a special place in my life because I am deeply inspired by his poetry. He is the famous 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic.Within Christianity I have discovered and engaged with many differing believers in Jesus Christ, whom we claim as our Lord and King.
My own journey of faith began with its roots partly in Roman Catholicism. I was then sent to a Methodist Sunday School and I am now a strong adherent to the Anglican practice of the Christian Faith. Who knows where I’ll end up!

I am pondering these thoughts because this week, followers of Jesus Christ are keeping Christian Unity Week.
Many things have happened throughout our history to divide us and even within particular denominations there is much brokenness and need for repentance but there is, at heart, a God who loves us and cares for us as His children.

It sometimes feels that what gets in the way of Unity – the sense that we are united as all God’s children- is because every church or group seem to think that they alone have the truth.(Bit like some world political leaders just now!)
How false is that!
I think that’s why I love and respect what the former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, says that only in heaven is there Truth. On earth there are truths. God is the only real truth and all over the globe people are seeking to answer that profound question of Pilate to Jesus at his trial – what is truth?
Truth on earth, Rabbi Sacks says, is not, nor can it aspire to be, the whole truth. It is limited, not comprehensive; particular, not universal. What propositions conflict is not necessarily because one is true and the other false He suggests that the difference is because we are coming at something from different angles but both are only part of the truth
I believe that we can only look to God for the real answer and anyone who claims to hold THE truth exclusive of others, is bound to be mistaken.  We can only learn truth if we listen to others and share our insights with each other and, of course, listen to God together in prayer.
There is so much to learn and be excited by the story of people’s journey of faith and the joy and encouragement that brings to my own journey. We all have so much to share with each other and so much to discover about God.

There is much in Judaism I admire and there is much in Islam that I respect.  My Hindu hairdresser in the North taught me a lot about prayer in the family.  I love the joyful and convincing hymn-singing and biblical insights of the Methodists.  I like the ritual and devotion of the Roman Catholic Church.  I love the ceremonies of High Anglicanism; the intellectual honesty of Anglican theology; the exuberant praise worship of our evangelical brethren. 
I draw strength from Celtic insights into the sacredness of places and people; I enjoy the simple rhythm of Taizé; I find enrichment in ancient prayer forms like the Labyrinth; I adore the Orthodox Liturgy. 
I am reduced to silence by the witness of monastic places like Bec  in Normandy, where prayer is the breath of the place;
I like the simplicity of worship in a quiet rural church and my heart soars during Anglican Cathedral Evensong. I am loving being spiritually fed by Pope Leo!
I find talking and listening to other believers fascinating. 

And God is in all that and in much, much more.  He is bigger than all our concepts of Him or He would not be God. 
Wide Vision goes with deep exploration. God is always teaching us something new. 
Evelyn Underhill spoke of all our differing expressions of faith as ‘Chapels in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit’. I like that.

We are all part of the Universal People of God. What gives any church real authenticity is if, in the words of Michael Ramsey, we are filled with the grace-giving presence of Jesus Christ.  Grace-filled churches have no need of labels.  They simply reflect God and so try to live in close friendship with GOD, the  giver of Grace and Truth. 

[Mr G. 2oth January 2026]

Immediately ~ (εὐθύς),

St Mark’s day is normally celebrated on April 25th, except in years when Easter Week takes precedent.
In 2025, therefore, it is kept on April 29th.

One of the key words in the Gospel occurs 42 times in St Mark’s Gospel – the word is  euthus” (εὐθύς), which is translated as ‘immediately’, or ‘straightway’. The use of this word gives the Gospel account a sense of urgency. There is an emphasis on the active and dynamic ministry of Jesus.
My poem ‘euthus’ below is inspired by the word and its meaning.

Euthus – immediately!

Straightway,
he takes up the pen,
dips it in the ink:
words flow onto parchment
at once.

Getting it down immediately
as readers wait:
impatient to hear this story of faith.

We long for phrases
that awaken and challenge the heart;
ideas that lift souls
in search of meaning;
feet, itching for travel,
on our pilgrimage to God,
are now hope-filled.

Eagerly,
we follow way-markers,
constructed not with stones
but with the pen.

Our souls need feeding
and our minds are thirsty for truth.
The parchment lays itself open to the pen,
which breathlessly recounts the story:
the wonderful Good News
that enlivens us.

Straightway,
words take shape:
‘The beginning of the Good News
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God……..’

Mr G
St Mark’s Day, 2025

God’s Spirit poured out

Fairfield Horseshoe, Lake District, with the Helvellyn range to the left. Photograph by Gill Henwood

God’s Spirit Poured Out

Then afterwards
 I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
   your old men shall dream dreams,
   and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
   in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

Today’s daily meditation from the Church of England (14th Feb) was by Tom Clammer, who gave his thoughts on the Book Of Joel, Chapter 2 verses 28 – 32 .

Tom Clammer led his readers to make a connection between the prophecy of the Old Testament prophets, like Joel and what, in hindsight they are prophesying about, or rather whom.
Tom invited his readers to make the link between prophecy and fulfilment by making the connection with the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Tom Clammer makes this point:

“What happens between Ash Wednesday and the  feast of Pentecost is, of course, the Passion, death and  resurrection of Jesus. When we read of portents in the  heavens and on the earth’, when we think about darkness  and blood, we are not only sitting firmly in the tradition of  the Old Testament prophets; we are also in the story of  Good Friday.” 

He then makes a further link between the darkness  experienced by Jesus which enfolds him in his suffering and death. This, he says, is the cost to Love, the cost to our salvation, the price Jesus pays. In paying it, Jesus  makes the utterly self-emptying offering, is indeed  amazing grace, and the gift to us is the closeness and  intimacy of the Holy Spirit.

In the pouring out of God’s Spirit in the Crucified’s action we are reminded that it is the connection made between us and Christ Crucified; between Jesus and the world of the prophets, we are caught up in what Tom Clammer calls an extraordinary act of love.
As ever in our involvement with God, we are not spectators but fully involved.

In the context of the passage from Joel, that involvement calls us to become dreamers of dreams and sharers of visions. For this, we must, Tom Clammer insists, pray. At the end of today’s Reflection he makes both a plea and an injunction: to pray once again  for the Holy Spirit of God to make us receptive to the  dreams and visions that might inspire us for the living of  our Christian faith today.  

And here lies the challenge for me and I think for many.
So many of us are infected with a ‘deep negativity’ which enforces a downward drag of the Spirit of God within us. Very little in the news from ‘the affairs of men’ (and it’s mostly men who are leading us downwards!), give us much to hope for, in the world, in nations and also in churches.

Yesterday I met a neighbour in my road and we passed the time of day. In our own ways we have a deep love of God. As we talked, her two children, aged 6 and 8, politely waited. I said that I felt that my post-war generation had failed in building a fair, just and hope-filled society. I looked at her children and added that I fear for them and all young people throughout the world. What sort of society, world, climate or alternative kingdoms such as that of the animals, are to be our legacy to those growing up today?
What hope can we give to them and what vision?

This is the challenge that came to me when I continued to  think of today’s reflection from Joel.

Old men, like me, are being called again to dream dreams, and our young are being led to see visions and all, whoever they are, must become people from whom the Spirit of God pours.
That can only be so if we move away from negativity to an enrichment of a life which, despite those who are despots and dictators would wish it otherwise.

There is a Proverb in Chapter 29 of the King James Version of the Bible, which reads:
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
That was quoted to me many years ago now, and I have never forgotten it
(though, sadly, I haven’t always practiced it!)

We cannot do this alone because as a well-known prayer puts it, we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.
So we must turn back to God. His joyous, glorious vision is always reflected in creation, in a world teeming with real life and growth. God’s love is waiting always to pour over and through us.
In that love our visions and dreams begin and blossom.

My friend Gill’s latest photo gives me both inspiration and hope in all this, because as a biblical poet once said in a Psalm (21)
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

[Mr G. 14th February 2025]

[][][] The Revd Canon Dr Tom Clammer trained for the priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge, before serving his Title in the City of Gloucester. After curacy Tom was incumbent of seven rural villages in the Diocese of Gloucester, before becoming Canon Precentor of Salisbury Cathedral. He retired from the cathedral in 2019, and now combines a ministry of spiritual direction and writing with teaching posts at Cuddesdon and Sarum College.