AN ONLINE Christmas service designed for people working shifts will likely be released on the Church of England website at 6 a.m. on Christmas Day.
Lasting quarter-hour, in order that it will probably be watched in the midst of a break from work, the service was created in response to a request by hospital chaplains, and features a Gospel reading, sermon, prayers, and music.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, features within the service. A former nurse, and Chief Nursing Officer for the NHS, she says that she has “fond memories” of working on Christmas Day.
“Although not at all times easy, it’s a privilege to be with individuals who need us most presently. And after all, we receive a lot from them too.”
Bishop Mullally, who will turn out to be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury in January, thanks those “working within the service of others”.
“Your work reflects the guts of Christ, who got here to not be served but to serve,” she says. “Your dedication brings light and hope into the lives of those that need it most and we pray that it’s possible you’ll know His peace and joy today. Happy Christmas!”
The Archbishop of York also features within the service. In an interview with ITV News on Tuesday, Archbishop Cottrell reflected on a 12 months of being “the one Archbishop standing”, and the things he’s done that “wouldn’t have happened otherwise”.
Among them were a visit to Palestine (Podcast, 20 November) including a visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The doors within the church are “really small”, and so that you “literally can’t get in without bending low.
“I believe there’s a lesson there for me and all of us as we approach Christmas: let’s stop pondering of ourselves as so necessary, let’s humble ourselves a bit.”
In a message recorded in November within the Chapel of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem and released on social media on Tuesday, Archbishop Cottrell said that he “longed for Bethlehem to be noisy again, to be filled with pilgrims, because there will likely be peace”.
In the silence of Christmas night, he invited people to “remember persecuted Christians, and all people who find themselves persecuted the world over.
“And allow us to pray that in that silence Christ will likely be born in us, and that we’ll have the ability to boost our voices in order that there may be heaven on earth.”
Andrea Krogmann/Office of the Archbishop of YorkArchbishop Cottrell beside one in all the low doorways within the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Archbishop Cottrell told ITV News that 2025 had been “one in all the toughest” years of his life. Calls to resign over his involvement in safeguarding cases had prompted “numerous self-reflection”, he said.
“The whole Church of England has needed to resist real, terrible failings. I’m hoping we come out of this 12 months a bit more honest about ourselves, a bit more humble,” he said.
Archbishop Cottrell said that he was looking forward to gathering around “two tables” on Christmas Day: first the “table of the Lord in church, a table where everyone seems to be invited and welcome”, after which the family dining table.
“I’m not embarrassed to say that I really like Christmas,” he said.
In his Christmas message this 12 months the King is predicted to reflect on the “pilgrimage” of life. The speech was filmed within the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, and will likely be broadcast at 3 p.m. on Christmas Day.
