Christmas puddings, ‘tasteless’ seasonal jumpers, Boxing Day chutney and unwanted gifts feature in an unusual recent guide to the festive season, produced by the Church of England.
The ‘Twelve Joys of Christmas’ looks at features of the season that it says, “we’re probably not meant to speak about in church.”
The series of meditations sets out to reply the query ‘Where do I find joy at Christmas?’ The answer is given by writer Nick Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury – considered one of England’s most beautiful and historic cathedrals.
He writes that the enjoyment of Christmas is present in the “excellent news of the birth of Jesus, within the worship offered to God, within the carols and within the readings.”
But he adds that the enjoyment can be found “in the opposite stuff. The stuff we’re probably not meant to speak about in church. The Christmas tree. The presents. The food. The trips and the treats. I sit up for them. I like them. They give me joy.”
The every day meditations, each with a scripture verse, a matter and a prayer, are focused on features of the seasonal story, often neglected by other nativity guides.
Papadopulos explains, “At Christmas, we have fun the divine becoming visible within the earthly. Isn’t it just possible that on this other stuff – this decidedly earthly stuff – we catch a glimpse of the divine? I think that it’s.”
The guide, produced by Church House Publishing, looks at Christmas pudding, describing the seasonal dessert as “an act of religion,” since the puddings are sometimes made a 12 months prematurely. “None of us knows what the subsequent day will bring, let alone the subsequent twelve months,” says Papadopulos, stating that at Christmas “the timeless one enters time – and so time itself is redeemed.”
Novelty Christmas jumpers – a preferred feature of British Christmases – are described as ‘tasteless.’ But, says Papadopulos, “God is tasteless too. That’s actually the center of the Good News.” God doesn’t discriminate or exclude, he writes, “So wear that jumper with pride. You are fearfully and splendidly made.”
The CofE guide also looks at Christmas crackers and the paper crowns inside them, Boxing day chutney, pantomimes, a bracing recent 12 months’s walk – and taking unwanted gifts to a charity shop on the ultimate, twelfth day of the meditations.
Papadopulos writes, “History doesn’t record what happened to the gifts brought by the Magi. On the face of it, gold, frankincense and myrrh weren’t obvious presents for a baby born to a carpenter’s family many miles from home. It seems unlikely that Jesus ever found a use for them.”
The gifts, he explains, were “prophetic symbols proclaiming Jesus’s identity as king, as priest and as sacrificial offering. The Magi see something within the birth of Jesus that nobody else sees.”
CofE churches are being encouraged to present away the guide at carol services during Advent and Christmas, and invite visitors to affix in regular worship, to explore the Bible and construct prayer into their rhythm of life.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
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