From the Parish Priest
Dear friends,
By the time you are reading this, you will be in the middle of your family and community Christmas celebrations. I do hope that they are all going to plan and are suitably joyful!
But this is the January Edition, and so it is about January that I should write. We know that as soon as Christmas Day is over, the High Street, or now perhaps I would be better saying the Online Shopping world, quickly removes all vestiges of Christmas, whether they be decorations or canned music, and move on.
What many people forget is that Christmas does not last just for one, or even 12 days. Like many of the other major seasons of the church’s year it lasts for 40 days, and includes within it two other major festivals. The Feast of the Epiphany is kept on the 6th January. It is when we remember and celebrate the visit of the Magi, or wise men to the infant Christ. It is a festival of sharing, in which the Magi represent Christ being revealed to the whole world, not just to the people of Israel.
This reminds us all that it is “our duty and our joy” to share the good news of the birth and love of Christ, and to celebrate it, no matter how difficult it may seem. We will be celebrating the Epiphany with a Celebration Service as advertised.
I do hope that the new year gives us plenty of opportunity to share the good things we have with one another. The restrictions caused by Covid19 have stopped many of us sharing things, events, and our homes, which has been a great loss to us all. Once we are allowed to, let us make sure that we make up for lost time, and enjoy sharing our lives, time and resources with our family, fiends and neighbours, who, and wherever they may be.
With love and prayers,
Philip