From the Parish Priest
Dear friends,
I am sure that you are all working out how you will celebrate Christmas this year. Things are different. They are inconvenient and frustrating., and we will have to do things differently.
In church there will be no singing together, no mince pie and mulled wine after services, no church Christmas Parties. The way we celebrate will need to change and, indeed , has changed, but what we celebrate is the same. Nothing has changed in the beauty and truth of the story of God’s incarnation. Nothing has changed in the beauty and truth of the infant in the Ox’s stall, and nothing has changed in the grace and love of God that we celebrate in church, and around the table or fireplace with our family and friends.
We live in an age where the external is so important, where what someone wears, or the car they drive, or where they live can be seen as far more important than what they say or who they are. We live in an age where people feel they have to “push the boat out” to keep up with their neighbours or current social trends, whether for Children’s birthday parties, Wedding Celebrations, or wearing the right brand of trainers.
The Truth of Christmas is the same, whether you are celebrating round your own table or fireplace with your immediate family, or in the banqueting hall of the Ritz hotel. We cannot make Christmas any more special than it is by embellishing it, and we will not make it any less wonderful by celebrating it more simply.
However you will be celebrating, May I wish you a very Happy and Holy Festival, and all my hopes and prayers for you and your families in 2021
With love and prayers
Philip
3 replies on “Philip’s December Message to the Benefice”
A very thoughtful message for this Christmas and for every Christmas.
Oh Brother man fold to thy heart thy brother!
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer
For he whom Jesus loved hath truly spoken:
The holier worship which He deigns to bless
Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken,
and feed s the widow and the fatherless.
Follow with reverent steps the great example
Of Him whose holy work is doing good
So shall the wide earth be our father’s temple,
Each loving life a psalm of gratitude.
Then shall all shackles fall; the story clangour
Of wild war music o’er the earth shall cease;
Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,
And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.
Dear Philip, I first read these words in my early teens and have always
found them comforting. “Help, help and rescue!” Piglet cried (translate into BR – my IT knowledge is very poor, and my grandchildren all live too far away to show me how to fill the crossword.
To you and all your family – may joy, peace, hope and love surround you.
Oh Brother man fold to thy heart thy brother!
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer
For he whom Jesus loved hath truly spoken:
The holier worship which He deigns to bless
Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken,
and feed s the widow and the fatherless.
Follow with reverent steps the great example
Of Him whose holy work is doing good
So shall the wide earth be our father’s temple,
Each loving life a psalm of gratitude.
Then shall all shackles fall; the story clangour
Of wild war music o’er the earth shall cease;
Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,
And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.