Rev’d David Coleman is eager to get to know local congregations’ initiatives, and to hear of your trials and joys, and to lead or share leadership of worship, when appropriate, taking note of your own tradition.
Encouraging the committed core of congregations is also a high priority. David is an experienced, ordained minister in the United Reformed Church, a mainstream Christian church in the UK, and is also a Member of the Iona Community, having led programmed weeks at the Abbey.
Invite David to visit you by getting in touch through our staff page here
In preaching and in presentations, David makes exciting use of multimedia, and is well-equipped to work in very varied venues, not just on Sundays, or Sunday mornings. Extensive reflective video resources: Index HERE . And shorter, 'stilling videos' [2 mins in a natural setting, no words] HERE.
A visit from the chaplain is an opportunity to celebrate what it means to be an Eco-Congregation. Continue reading to follow his thoughts and reflections:
Chaplain's Blog
Prayer for Christ the King Sunday
Advent Candle Prayers With Creation
Downloadble PDF, and Audio files .
Advent Candle Prayer 1 Audio MP3
Advent Candle Prayer 2 Audio MP3
Advent Candle Prayer 3 Audio MP3
Advent Candle Prayer 4 Audio MP3
Advent Candle Prayer 5 Audio MP3
PDF – Please download
Continue reading →Riches in Heaven – really!
Riches in Heaven, really.
In gathering material for Season of Creation, I’m sorry that I don’t actually have any budget to ‘reward’ contributors. It’s on a ‘riches in heaven’ basis, and I can certainly assure every contributor of my own deep personal gratitude, as someone who, for now, receives the means of their livelihood from work on what should be an indissoluble connection between Christian faith and human care for the rest of the Creation we are.
In the course of this work, I’ve been deeply moved by the simple realisation that, in Bible languages, the spiritualising distinction made in modern English between ‘sky’ and ‘heaven’ is meaningless. That whatever else you mean or need to mean by ‘heaven’, the skyness of heaven should always be kept in view: that God’s Creation of ‘Heaven and Earth’ is one unified Creation.
John Bell wrote a piece a few years ago about astronauts ‘looking down on heaven’ from an orbiting platform. If you can get your head round that, the rest will make sense.
People do love to get carried away with the immensity of the Universe, though this can be a distraction from this particular ‘Sky & Soil’ or ‘Earth Sea and Sky’ of the planet which is shared as home by such a mind-expanding diversity of interdependent life, but the bottle-garden of planet Earth is what we’re given, what we’re part of, what we share. Not as property, but as home.
This is why, a couple of years ago, I grumpily took issue with an internet ‘meme’ from Archbishop Justin Welby, in which he suggested that “Prayer is not about sending requests into the sky. It’s about allowing God to make us more like Jesus Christ.”
No problem with the second half, but the inadvertent implication, that the “sky” is some sort of neutral and pointless dumping ground, rather grated. And indeed, much of what EcoCongregations engage in does involve “requests to the sky”. Or giving, for the good of Creation.
It’s also why, when we do engage, prayerfully and practically in ‘climate’ or ‘nature’ actions, both our of love for the Earth and our fellow creatures, and in response to the crises of nature, climate, and biodiversity, there’s a very real sense, even if it may not be measurable, in which we add to the ‘riches of heaven’ in the health of the climate, the treasures we enjoy and share in a breath of fresh air.
One example Jesus gives is a cup of cold water. Water, of course, is part of the Water Cycle – well-known to the Prophet Isaiah who mentioned it in the same breath as the endlessly recycled and repurposed Word of God (ch 55). That wee bit of reality does help to add meaning, and something of the ‘reward’ Jesus was quite happy to mention, to the horror of those dear folks among us who try so perversely hard to make out that Christian good works have to be without benefit to those who do them.
Perhaps a mid-way is to observe that doing good certainly does us good, in terms of mental health, and spiritually, even if, by the standards of our culture, it may not always be “profitable”.
A while ago, I took the decision to sponsor the planting of a tree in acknowledgment of the carbon impact of each of the video sermons, of which I’m probably making about 12 a year.
It’s a personal action, very much a minimum and in no sense an ‘offset’, in the way which is used by our society to justify the continuation of deadly lifestyles based on burning fossil fuels. Business as usual with fossil fuels is not excused by the odd sapling. But if you fly and plant trees, why not stop flying and carry on with the trees?
Since my wee dozen added to the EcoCongregation Grove is not a ‘secret’ you’ve discovered, but something I’ve shared, yes, ‘I’ve blown that aspect of my reward already’, but it’s not for David. Rather, this is on behalf of the community of our movement, EcoCongregation Scotland. A movement which will only continue to exist due to the sacrificial giving of members and member churches. But a movement which enriches the lives of Scottish Christians -and therefore their communities, human and otherwise.
I’ve just paid for three trees in acknowledgment of my Advent reflections, filmed at locations of pumped-storage hydro power stations. Those words don’t sound glamorous. But they raise questions about the cost of our decisions to the landscape, to nature, to the Earth, to the Heavens.
For me. nonetheless, this grain of reality: a tiny addition to the riches of the Sky, for the good of all makes me smile. As should every ‘climate’ action you undertake, especially as a congregation.
Enjoy your riches in heaven. The Earth will too!
Continue reading →A talk at Mass, following Corpus Christi
Hymn Poem for St Columba’s Day [9th June]
David J. M Coleman . Tune – of course – St Columba, trad.
I’ve come to see the many interactions of significant saints with fellow creatures as far more than a trivial or decorative detail in their ‘lives’ as transmitted to us, but rather a vital and authentic affirmation of God at work in these fellow humans as God’s creatures amongst creatures. It might be worth looking into the stories of Mungo/Kentigern, Cuthbert, Brigid amongst others.
This hymn-poem is written to celebrate the Feast of St Columba [June 9th ] : verse 1 references his blessing for the terrifying sea-monster/whale, his personal and honoured welcome for the exhausted migrating crane, and his appreciation of the mourning sadness of the monastery’s cart-horse who was aware that Columba was reaching the end of his life.
Verse 2 recalls his Jacob-like involvement with angels as the connective tissue of sky ands soil/Heaven and Earth: together one unified Creation, and reminds us that the Lord’s Prayer/Our Father is a prayer for the whole of our fragile, threatened world.
And although Columba did seek times of quiet and retreat, he was ready speak and sing out powerfully, ‘armed’ with the Psalms and spiritual song which were his non-violent arsenal for justice and transformation. The discernment of when to intervene boldly in the turmoil of /nature’ , and when to leave well alone is part of our discipleship. All of which can inspire us in our partnership and interaction with our fellow-stakeholders in God’s Rainbow Covenant with ‘All Flesh’, as followers of Christ, the Word become Flesh.
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1) To bless God’s creatures whom we fear;
to welcome those in need;
to honour care our kind receive
is following Christ indeed.
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2) As Heaven and Earth are woven tight
by angels’ warp and weft;
we pray each day that sky and soil:
be blessed and not bereft
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3) Christ spoke as sternly to the waves
as to our chosen wrong;
to those who speak out: loud and just
Christ’s blessing shall belong
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4) So saints who cherished and who learned
from fellow creatures’ care
shall guide commitment, prayer and deed
and bless the home we share.
Continue reading →
