From The Vicar
The Revd Bruce Wakeling
‘Christmas? Well, it’s really for the children isn’t it?‘ I wonder how many times I’ve heard that or something like it. And every time it has annoyed me! As I am now in my sixties, I could be said to have left childhood a long way behind; and I love Christmas. Yes, really! This Vicar loves Christmas, even though it does generate a fair bit of work. I’ve always loved Christmas, and no one is going to shut me out of the enjoyment of it just because I’m not young. But more seriously than that, Christmas really isn’t just for children and those, like me, who still haven’t grown up. It truly is for all.
When Jesus was born, most people didn’t notice. But some smelly shepherds whom nobody would have wanted to invite round – they did. Christmas was for them. And some foreign wizards, who got up to all sorts of things that good Jews shouldn’t do, they noticed. Christmas was for them. Although the Jewish people didn’t notice and were under brutal foreign occupation, it was their Messiah who had just been born. Christmas was for them. And one of the soldiers of that occupying force, the Romans, watching the baby who had grown up dying on the cross, declared him to be truly the Son of God. Christmas was for them. Whether you are young or old, poor or rich, happy or sad, whatever your talents, whatever your ancestry, whatever your beliefs or lack of them, Christmas is for you. It is for you that Jesus was born into our world in a stable and died for all on the cross. Christmas is for YOU!
As usual, we at St Andrew’s Church will be celebrating the awesome event of Jesus’ birth in a number of different events and services. ON the morning of Saturday 3rd December we have the Advent Event for children. From Saturday 10th to Monday 12th we are holding our Christmas Tree Festival, and on the evening of Saturday 10th there will be a concert of Christmas and other music. Our traditional Carol Service is on Sunday l8th at 6.30pm. And then the main events of Christmas – our Family Crib Service on Christmas Eve at 4.00pm and Midnight Mass beginning at 11.30pm. On Christmas Day itself we have the one service at 9.00am. And, don’t forget, Christmas has twelve days and runs into the Epiphany season, beginning on 6 January.
Christmas really is for all. Whether or not we see you at St Andrew’s Church over the Festive Season, may Christmas be truly blessed for you, and may the truth of God-with-us lighten your darkness now and always.
Bruce Dec 2011
