Dear Friends,

Have you noticed the sounds of Christmas? In most retail centres it is hard to avoid them: the Jolly Festive Songs begin to blare out from the speakers even before Advent has started, and I always feel like Scrooge when I hear them – ‘Bah! Humbug!’ What I am talking about are the real sounds of Christmas. The wonderful, breathy sound of young children practising carols, the bell-like clarity of the soloist singing ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and the bells themselves – particularly here where they sound so beautiful, ringing out across the countryside. Perhaps best of all, if it can be described as a sound, is the expectant stillness of the night on Christmas Eve – when imagination picks up the jingle of the sleigh bells or the exultation of an angel choir.

I often think how still it must have been on that first Christmas night of the Great War in 1914, when the men, huddled against the cold and wet in the trenches, heard the distant sound of singing from the enemy trenches opposite. They joined in – and legend has it that both sides climbed out of their holes and dug outs, exchanged souvenirs, showed photographs of families and even played a game of football before going back to their defensive positions. It never happened again. Men were warned that they would be shot if it did.

Not much ‘Peace on the earth, good will to men’ about that! And how can there be peace when groups and nations regard each other with suspicion and hatred. When old enmities are fostered, when power, control and aggrandisement are more important than personal freedoms. Peace is about justice, truth and freedom – and above all it is about love. The people of the Old Testament expected a Messiah, a messenger from God, who would bring the longed for peace to the world. They expected a king who would come in glory – a king who would zap their enemies and restore power to Israel. What they got was a weak, human child. The Son of God came into our world not in power, but in love. Jesus was born to show us how to love – not just how to love those we know and understand, those who look and think like us, but those who are different. The love of Christ requires us to love the unlovely – and above all to love our enemies.

So peace starts in our hearts. It starts when we can cast off the suspicions and hatreds that divide humankind. It starts when we can make a constant effort to renounce selfishness and to embrace goodness and the love of others. The only weapon that the baby born in a stable brought with him was the weapon of love – love of God and of neighbour – and it is only by following his example that the world will find true peace. The men in the trenches recognised their neighbour in the ‘enemy’ – if we can find space to do the same we shall begin to build a world where the universal sounds of Christmas are not bombs, shells and weeping, but singing, bells and laughter.

I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas,

Jo

Peace in the world, especially in the Holy Land.

All who are lonely or miserable at this time.

All our neighbours.

Sunday 14^th December, Christingle Service at 11 am.

Christmas Eve, Crib Service at 4:00 pm and "Midnight Mass" at 11:30 pm.

Christmas Day service at 10:30 am.