The annual ‘Confirmation Morning with the Bishop’ was held early this year, on 24th January 2026, at Bandon Grammar School. Every year, Bishop Paul Colton invites all the young people who hope to be confirmed in the year ahead to meet him for a morning of fun, games, activities, singing and refreshments. With the Bishop’s retirement being announced this year, the Confirmation Morning was organised by the Cork Diocesan Youth Council, to make sure that every candidate was able to attend before the three special confirmation services which will take place in February.
After an ice breaker game the confirmands took part in five different groups and activities.
Cork Diocesan Youth Council members and leaders who run this year’s Confirmation Morning.
Peter Stobart, Director of Music at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, who heads up the Diocesan Church Music Scheme, taught everyone the hymn the Bishop chose to be sung at each of the Confirmation Services in the Diocese this year, Firmly I believe and truly.
A room full of different prayer stations was set up and supervised by Nathan Kingston, who is a leader in CDYC. These stations were designed to reflect, be mindful and pray silently during an otherwise very busy day!
Intentional Discipleship in Cork, Cloyne and Ross is being integrated in the Diocesan programme Charting a Future with Confidence. At the Confirmation morning, the Very Reverend Cliff Jeffers, Dean of Ross, with the help of two ladders, explored with the young people what it means to be a disciple.
The Rev. James Power introduced the candidates to the Holy Bible, with fun questions about the contents of the Old and New Testaments, and other useful skills such as recognising Greek and Hebrew writing.
A session on the Holy Spirit was led by Pioneer Evangelist Sarah Louise Kilroy, where the candidates discovered and discussed the many ways in which the Holy Spirit and our belief can help us with our everyday life.
For many years, Bishop Colton, has spoken to each group of confirmands about prayer. Through his work in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden he discovered, several decades ago, the ‘Wreath of Christ’, a bracelet with prayer beads. Each year he has given a gift of one of these to each young person in the Diocese who has been confirmed to provide one way to help them with their praying. This year, the Bishop addressed all confirmands together and they watched a video message prepared by Bishop Paul, in which he explained everything about the prayer beads.
Students and staff from the Diocese’s three Church of Ireland secondary schools gathered last Monday, 12th January 2026, at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral for a special service marking the conclusion of their shared worship with Bishop Paul Colton ahead of his retirement.
Those present included students and teachers from Ashton School, Bandon Grammar School, and Midleton College, along with principals and deputy principals, members of Boards of Management, school chaplains, and those involved in youth and school work across the Diocese. The cathedral was full, reflecting the strong connections between the schools and the wider diocesan community.
The Bishop with Principals and Deputy Principals of the three Diocesan Secondary Schools.
The service provided an opportunity to give thanks for Bishop Paul’s long-standing involvement with post-primary education in the Diocese. Over many years, he has worked closely with all three schools, supporting their governance, development, and ethos. His contribution has included service on Boards, engagement with staff and students, and advocacy for Church of Ireland education at both diocesan and national level .
During the service, speakers reflected on the Bishop’s commitment to good governance, his support for school leadership, and his consistent emphasis on inclusion, care, and a clear sense of ethos within school life. Reference was also made to the importance of education as a continuum, linking schools, families, and the wider Church community .
At the end of the service, the three schools made a series of presentations to Bishop Paul Colton as a mark of thanks for his longstanding involvement with their communities. These included a set of three sports jerseys and three ties, each reflecting the colours of the schools, as well as three charitable donations to Pieta, the Bishop’s Appeal, and the RNLI. In addition, three paintings depicting the entrance doors of each school were presented, symbolising welcome and connection. Susan Colton was also presented with flowers by three students, one from each secondary school, all of whom had previously been taught by her during her career as a primary school teacher.
Following the service, tea, coffee, and light refreshments were provided for adult attendees, including Boards of Management, school leaders, and representatives involved in youth and education work. This offered an opportunity for informal conversation and reflection after the service.
The gathering marked a significant moment for the three schools as they concluded their shared services with Bishop Paul, while also acknowledging his long and valued contribution to education within the Diocese.
in the Cathedral Church of Saint Fin Barre, Cork by
The Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross
The Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross
One of Cork’s, or more specifically, Bandon’s famous sons – Graham Norton – hosts a talkshow on BBC and gets about 2.9 million viewers for each episode. I was watching it a few weeks back. One of Graham’s guests that night was the American-French award-winning actor Timothée Chalamet – two academy awards, five Golden Globes, four BAFTA’s and a Grammy. Chalamet was born in 1995 and is considered one of the most talented actors of his generation. I think I first noticed him when he played King Henry V in the film,The King. You’ll all have a chance to see him on RTE One at 6.15 p.m. if you wish, this evening, as he plays Willy, in the film Wonka.
He was on the Graham Norton show because of his latest film, Dune: Part Three which he has just finished filming and which will be released by this time next year in the USA and Canada. Strangely, the conversation turned to Chalamet’s hair because he had lost his long flowing locks of hair (something I became familiar with decades ago). Chalamet revealed that he begged the film director Denis Villeneuve not to cut his hair so short. For the film he had been given a 3 mm haircut but the director wanted it even shorter at 1.5 mm. (When you’ve a head like mine you are very familiar with this sort of terminology, I assure you). Chalamet begged him. He said on the show:
I begged him. I said, ‘Please, please…’ Cause you know…our hair, weirdly we’re all attached. It’s kind of like our personality. These follicles that grow out of our heads.
The great British actress Emma Thompson, was also a guest on the show that night. She suggested he could’ve sold his locks of hair on Ebay. ‘Somebody could’ve stuffed a cushion with them and made a lot of money.’ she suggested. There and then she told him the story of Samson. ’Samson’ she said, ‘your hair contains your power.’
Chalamet looked perplexed. ‘I’ve never heard that,’ he said, ‘I’ve no clue what you are talking about.’ This talented and educated young man had never heard the story of Samson and Delilah – the Israelite strongman who drew his strength from his long Nazirite hair; and Delilah, the Philistine who betrayed him for silver, discovered his secret and had his hair cut. Emma Thompson said she would take him for Margaritas after the show and tell him the story. To hilarious laughter, Graham quipped ‘Margaritas and read the bible to Timothée Chalamet.’
The conversation gave me pause for thought. Not hearing the story, is not the fault of that intelligent and talented young actor; it was someone else’s responsibility to communicate the story and to tell it to him: a salutary tale for all of us in how we pass on the stories of our faith in our homes, in schools and to the world at large. It’s a basic dynamic of communication – if I have a message to convey to you, then the onus is on me to proclaim it so that ‘you get it’, as it were. If you don’t get the message, that’s my challenge. You may lose out but I am the one trying to get the message to you, so that’s my problem, not yours.
Famously, in part of his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul said:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10.14)
Now, as I approach retirement next year, I can tell you that this was a key and challenging verse (and argument) to me in my own discernment of vocation nearly 50 years ago. So here I am – this is the last of 57 Christmas Day Sermons preached while in office (more than one some years), since I was ordained in 1984. Every Christmas Day sermon was different but essentially, the message was exactly the same each time. Passing on and proclaiming the message is the task of us all – not just the preacher’s – all of us, who take to ourselves the name of Christ, as Christians. We are all called to be messengers of the good news of salvation:
In our first reading, Isaiah refers to that messenger and proclamation. He says:
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ (Isaiah 52.7)
Some might consider Samson and Delilah a niche story in a way that the Christmas story certainly is not. People the world over, regardless of their personal belief, it seems, and their spiritual outlook, celebrate Christmas, in a myriad of ways. And one hopes that in similar countless ways, the core elements of the Christmas Gospel are well known, even if not correctly interpreted, grasped and owned personally. So the onus is on us to keep telling and retelling this story and all the other stories at the heart of our faith.
All too many Christians, in my view, despise society’s jumping on the Christmas band-wagon, in ways that appear utterly unrelated to the simple message and miracle of the baby in the manger – Emmanuel – God with us – the Word of God who lived for a while among us. I take a different view. The continued celebration of Christmas, even with its secular and commercial distortions and excesses, is an enduring opportunity for Christians to proclaim the Christmas good news. If we don’t harness the Zeitgeist we are missing out. My eye turned to a headline in The Times on 19th December in which it was reported that one vicar was packing out the pubs in his parish ‘leading the singing of carols until closing time’ according to the headline. Not such a novel strategy really; after all, many of our carols were written, as our musicians here know, for raucous, rousing singing in all sorts of settings.
The second reading we had today – Hebrews – is a very ancient text. Already in the first century, within about 50 or 60 years of Jesus’ death, it was being quoted, including, in or around 96 A.D., for example, by Clement I, Bishop of Rome. We’re not exactly sure who wrote Hebrews or for whom it was written. Indeed, this is unlike any other letter in the New Testament, because while it finishes up as a letter, it doesn’t start out as one.
But here we are 2000 years later still hearing it at our Christmas liturgy today:
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. (Hebrews 1.1-2)
For every one of the previous 56 Christmas Sermons when the Hebrews reading was being chosen, I exercised the option given to cut that reading short at just those four verses. It is after all, one of the writer’s main points – the finality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ‘Long ago God spoke … but in these last days God has spoken to us by a Son …’ So there you have it! That Son – Jesus Christ – is greater than anyone of God who has gone before, for he is the Son of God. Jesus is God’s ‘final Word’ so to speak. Selecting the readings this year for this 57th Christmas Day sermon, I asked that we go down the optional route, and include up to verse 12 – deliberately – so that we would also hear these words:
And,
‘In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.’ (Hebrews 1.10-12)
This is actually a quotation from Psalm 102 (verses 25-27). Everything is temporary and passing, but God is eternal. Everything created, including the cosmos, is temporary or subject to change or destruction, but God is unchanging. And now these words are being applied to Jesus. We hear them today so that we can draw faith, hope and love confidently from them on our own journey and in our own situations. And I invite you to do just that as you hear the message of Christmas this year.
Ashton School had its first Christmas Carol Service here in 1973, the year the school was founded. The entire school was marched down from the Blackrock Road. Three of us – 13 year olds – not ideal because our voices hadn’t properly broken – were picked to sing the parts of the Kings in the carol ‘We three kings’. We didn’t distinguish ourselves musically. A total contrast to our own choir and musicians here who, throughout my 27 years as bishop have so enriched and inspired our Christmas celebrations with their music.
Bishop Perdue was the Bishop in those days and the first time I consciously remember hearing the Christmas Gospel was him reading it. By the time Bishop Poyntz became Bishop in 1978, I was in the choir myself and he liked to read the Christmas Gospel from the sanctuary and, in my mind’s eye (and ear) I can still see and hear him holding the Book of Common Prayer aloft – for he read it from that – ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….’ (John 1.1)
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since. We know this so well in our own experience. The world, society, the Church, every institution in society has changed beyond recognition in the years since. Life and the human predicament have pummelled many people the world over. There have been enormous changes since I first read that Gospel myself as your bishop at Christmas 1999.
But, the essence of our humanity and our human needs and longings have not changed – our need for love, security, companionship, food, quietness of mind, well-being and so much more never change. Most important of all, God has not changed; and the message of the Christmas Gospel has not changed.
And,
‘In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.’ (Hebrews 1.10-12)
‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1.14)
On Tuesday 23rd December 2025, three members of the executive committee of S.H.A.R.E. Cork – Peter, Saoirse and Jack – visited Bishop Paul Colton and Mrs Susan Colton at their home. Susan Colton was delighted to discover that one of them, who is actively involved in this Cork charity, is one of her own past-pupils.
S.H.A.R.E. is Students Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly and, since the 1970’s when it was founded by Brother Jerome Kelly at Presentation Brothers College Cork, has developed 140 independent living houses in seven complexes in the Cork City area. Each year the 39 strong Executive Committee is made up of Transition Year students from schools throughout Cork City with over 100 students at any one time collecting on the streets of the city throughout the 12 days before Christmas. Many of the students fast for 24 hours in the course of this annual fundraiser for the charity.
Usually, Bishop Colton makes the journey to the S.H.A.R.E. crib in the city centre of Cork himself, however, in a small seasonal twist for his last Christmas as Church of Ireland Bishop, he invited the representatives to visit the crib at his home instead this year.
Bishop Colton said:
It has been both a joy and an inspiration to witness, to be associated with and to support the work of these young people of Cork in their work for older people in our city throughout the last 27 years. S.H.A.R.E. is at the heart of generosity and caring in Cork and its prime movers are the young students. They do the work and that isn’t just confined to the 12 day Christmas fast and collection. There are weekly visits to the older people and social activities also. I have found that the energy and dedication of these young people has energised me over my years as bishop in my own ministry. They are magnificent.
The group enjoyed a chat with Bishop Paul and Mrs Susan Colton in their drawing room, where talk ranged from the work of S.H.A.R.E. to memories of past Christmases, changes in Cork over the years and the opportunities for charities and service in the community. Christmas treats were very much part of the occasion, prepared by Susan Colton, whose hospitality added a note of homeliness to the formal setting.
The visit concluded with the group looking at the Colton’s Crib, where Bishop Paul presented the three representatives with his annual donation.
With Bishop Paul Colton are Peter, Saoirse and Jack from S.H.A.R.E. Cork
Bishop Fintan Gavin and Bishop Paul Colton at the Blessing of the S.H.A.R.E. crib in 2023.
As bishops serving the people of Cork, we send our warmest Christmas greetings to all who live in our city and county — to people of faith, and to all people of goodwill.
Each year, when we sit at the Christmas table, whether on our own, with family, friends, or a neighbour, we bring with us all that the year has held. We bring our joys: a new birth or marriage, the seeds of a new relationship or friendship, the courage to take a new step in life, or the quiet relief of finding peace after a challenge or entering a new stage in life. Alongside these blessings, we also bring our disappointments, our grief, and the worries and troubles that have burdened us during this year. Beneath all the decorations and celebration, Christmas remains about the real lives we live and share. It is there, in the midst of ordinary, lived experiences, that God chooses to meet us.
That is why so many are drawn to the Christmas crib, whether in a church or in our homes. The crib at Bethlehem is not complicated. Its simple honesty touches us. It reminds us that God loves us and keeps His promises. He has sent His Son among us – to meet us in our churches, in our homes and workplaces, in our communities, in our relationships, our struggles, and our hopes – so that we may have new life and new light.
At Christmas, we are invited to be touched again by that light — the light of God born as one of us, Emmanuel, “God with us”. Our world needs it still: the light that overcomes the darkness of war, the shadow of injustice, and the cries of those who hunger, suffer, or feel they have nowhere to turn. It is a light that also speaks to challenges closer to home, including poverty, homelessness, loneliness and the quiet struggles carried behind many front doors.
Christmas is not something distant or confined to a story long ago. It happens wherever people love one another: when a neighbour checks in; when a hand is offered; when forgiveness replaces anger; when someone makes room — in a home, in a schedule or in a heart — for another person. That’s where God draws near.
Faith, hope and love are at the heart of Bethlehem, at the heart of our crib at home or in church, and at the heart of our own lives. The light of Christmas draws its rays from the Saviour born at Bethlehem. It is multiplied and reflected when every one of us, in our own way, allows our lives to be touched by its radiance — and when we choose, in small but real ways, to bring that light to others.
May your Christmas be filled with His light and His peace. Lord Jesus, be close to us this Christmas. Fill our hearts with Your peace. Help us bring Your light to our homes, our schools, our workplaces, and our communities. Amen.
+Fintan Gavin and +Paul Colton
The Bishop of Cork and Ross and The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross
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