This page has the latest thought from our Vicar Marcus, followed by the latest Diocesan letter.
Vicar’s Thought for the month of December 2024
As I write, it’s just 40 days to Christmas. By the time you read this, it will be even closer to Christmas. In the last few days the weather has taken a turn for the colder, and we’ve already had a mild frost.
So my mind turns to Christmas, with great expectations of Christmas carols, mince pies, Christmas cake, presents, and, yes, someone probably saying “Bah, Humbug”. But I love Christmas. In some ways it contains every human emotion we can feel: The joy of new birth; the anxiety that brings forth words like “Is it really only 2 days left?”; “So much to do, so little time”; “Why do we do it?”; little faces in the half-light of a just-too-early morning in joyous expectation of presents to unwrap; the empty places that speak the bitter-sweet memory of Christmases past and those people who no longer populate our Christmas present.
So in all of that light and dark, bitter and sweet, can we find a true meaning of Christmas? Well, yes. It’s not to be found in excess, but in the tasty morsels shared at tables with friends, neighbours and family. Nor is it to be found in the over-spend, but in the un-expected, thoughtful present, perhaps costing little, but now enjoyed. It’s Christmas lights and fires in the darkness, and the bright warmth that shuts out the cold. And in all these things I see perhaps something of our pre-Christian past, and the gift, the Christ-child, offering bright blessings as He sleeps in the manger.
In this Light of the World, we may, perhaps see good times past, happy memories, the anticipation of presents to open and the joy of this present moment.
When it comes, have a Happy Christmas: enjoy and be a bringer of it.
Marcus
Letter for December 2024 from the Dean of Hereford
I’m not going to wish you a merry Christmas yet even though this is probably my best opportunity to infest the whole diocese with my festive cheer. As I write, the thoughtful season of advent has not even begun so I don’t want to sing gloria at you, or bellow ho-ho-ho. Expressions of seasonal enthusiasm have changed, and I wonder how many people today really understand the original language of Christmas anymore. “To us is born a saviour” What does that mean and why should it matter?
Advent is about looking at ourselves and at the world and realising just how much we need that saviour. Christians understand that Christmas would be pointless if we didn’t – just a marketing ploy cooked up by sellers of toys and frozen party nibbles to get us all to spend as much money as possible. But what if you have never been told? If a fire engine screeched to a halt outside your house with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, you might wonder what it was doing there if your house was not on fire. You might be mildly interested but you would hardly celebrate your salvation! In the same way this baby whose birth we celebrate on Christmas Day and who we hail as Saviour is presumably similarly underwhelming if you cannot see anything that we need saving from!
Sometimes it feels easier to believe in evil than in God. But if you do believe that evil exists- if you see it in all its brutality in our daily news, if it touches you in grief, loneliness, hatred, jealousy- then you perhaps may dimly begin to understand why we need our Saviour. If you look at the impact of individual and corporate greed or the priorities and conduct of those who run our society you may begin to understand why we need our Saviour. If you look at crime, war, corruption and oppression, then you may perceive our deep need of salvation
Perhaps we all vaguely sense the need for a Saviour because we can all see some of what is wrong. It is only a step from that yearning for things to be better to realising that science and virtue-signalling won’t deliver and that our only hope of real and change is in God. Whether we recognize Him in the Christmas story repeated every year by those persistent folk in the churches and our tiny children with their tea towels on their heads is another question altogether.
Perhaps this year it might be time to look a bit deeper and see what all the fuss is about. Coming soon to a church near you.
Dean Sarah