CHRIST’s birth is “today’s story”, relevant to all those that are suffering, the Christmas-morning congregation at Canterbury Cathedral will hear — though not from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
As Archbishop Welby prepares to go away office, the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, will give the Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral.
“The story of Christmas isn’t yesterday’s story that’s being celebrated in the current, encased with tinsel and mistletoe as if it belongs in a fairytale,” she is anticipated to say. “The story of Christmas is today’s story, relevant to the 1000’s of individuals in pain resulting from being abused, dislocated, in refugee camps, fleeing violence, war, climate change, famine and starvation.”
In extracts released on Christmas Eve, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin says that the story of Christmas “is real and dear, not by way of the currencies that we use but of human cost. . . The story of Christmas is today’s story — still costly, continuing to reflect vulnerability and the pain of rejection, the pain that comes with repeatedly knocking on the door of the Inns of our lives and hearing the words ‘There isn’t any room.’”
The Archbishop of York is resulting from preside and preach in York Minster. He is anticipated to talk concerning the manger in Bethlehem as a site of transformation.
Bishops across the Church of England have released Christmas messages, of which several consult with conflict on the planet. The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, says: “Our world is in some ways as dark and dangerous as Roman-occupied Israel. We need joyful news as much as ever.”
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, refers to her trip to the occupied West Bank this yr (News, 28 June), which included visiting Bethlehem, “that place where the Christmas story first unfolded.
“I used to be there to hearken to the voices of Palestinian Christians, to be silent as they express their struggles living within the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, and their turbulence on the silence of the broader world,” she says.
She reflects that “silence will be about colluding with the dark. Silence will be about listening and shining a light-weight. We’ve been rightly and painfully reminded of all this within the Church of England in recent weeks.”
Bishop Treweek goes on: “God can seem silent amid the noise of media and social media, and amid the world’s noisy hatred and vengeance and abuse of power, and yet God’s love and hope are powerfully present if only we’d listen. May there be moments of silence to listen to the voice of the angels, just as on that first Christmas night vivid against the dark night sky of the Bethlehem hills.”
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, speaks of a “difficult and eventful yr here on planet Earth”, including a “crisis of confidence” within the Church of England.
“We’ve seen elections and a change of presidency here and internationally. We’ve seen terrible sufferings and conflict within the Middle East and the Ukraine and elsewhere. We’ve seen the continued effects of climate change. We see a growing mental health crisis attributable to technology,” Dr Croft says.
Christians, he says, “dare to consider we found a solution to that query. We dare to consider that Almighty God, maker of the universe, became a human person in Jesus. That one truth proclaimed within the Gospel of John tells us who we’re; loved and called and mended by God.”
The Acting Bishop of Ely, Dr Dagmar Winter, says in her Christmas message that “In an ever more unpredictable world, it’s our Christian calling to create those protected spaces where children can thrive, free from harm, in an environment of affection and of trust. This Christmas, I need to say a special thanks to all those of you who work so hard to guard and look after others, in order that together we will all thrive.”
In her message, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, reflects that there are signs throughout us that Christmas is here, however the child lying in a manger is “probably the most surprising and shocking sign of all. . . In the vulnerability of a baby, God became human. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. And that’s an incredible sign to live by.”
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, says in a message to be broadcast on Christmas Day that “we’re doing something deeply subversive at Christmas — subverting the expectations of what power looks like, of how God is perhaps expected to behave.
“And I hope that this Christmas we’ll rediscover, perhaps search for it another way, but rediscover the presence of God, not in our prejudices and our expectations, but in the newborn who frustrates our ways of seeing, our ways of considering. A baby who’s vulnerable, born right into a world as stuffed with contradictions and danger as ours today.”
In messages broadcast on regional radio, the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, and the Acting Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Revd Martin Gorick, each referred to conflict within the Middle East.
“As we pray for peace and for justice in our troubled world, I pray, too, for light and joy in our homes and in our hearts,” Bishop Gorick said.
