CHRIST’s birth is “today’s story”, relevant to all those who are suffering, the Christmas-morning congregation at Canterbury Cathedral will hear — though not from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
As Archbishop Welby prepares to leave office, the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, will give the Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral.
“The story of Christmas is not yesterday’s story that is being celebrated in the present, encased with tinsel and mistletoe as if it belongs in a fairytale,” she is expected to say. “The story of Christmas is today’s story, relevant to the thousands of people in pain due to being abused, dislocated, in refugee camps, fleeing violence, war, climate change, famine and starvation.”
In extracts released on Christmas Eve, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin says that the story of Christmas “is real and costly, not in terms of the currencies that we use but of human cost. . . The story of Christmas is today’s story — still costly, continuing to reflect vulnerability and the pain of rejection, the pain that comes with repeatedly knocking at the door of the Inns of our lives and hearing the words ‘There is no room.’”
The Archbishop of York is due to preside and preach in York Minster. He is expected to speak about the manger in Bethlehem as a site of transformation.
Bishops across the Church of England have released Christmas messages, of which several refer to conflict in the world. The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, says: “Our world is in many ways as dark and dangerous as Roman-occupied Israel. We need joyful news as much as ever.”
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, refers to her trip to the occupied West Bank this year (News, 28 June), which included visiting Bethlehem, “that place where the Christmas story first unfolded.
“I was there to listen to the voices of Palestinian Christians, to be silent as they express their struggles living in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, and their turbulence at the silence of the wider world,” she says.
She reflects that “silence can be about colluding with the dark. Silence can be about listening and shining a light. We’ve been rightly and painfully reminded of all this in the Church of England in recent weeks.”
Bishop Treweek goes on: “God can seem silent amid the noise of media and social media, and amid the world’s noisy hatred and vengeance and abuse of power, and yet God’s love and hope are powerfully present if only we would listen. May there be moments of silence to hear the voice of the angels, just as on that first Christmas night bright against the dark night sky of the Bethlehem hills.”
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, speaks of a “difficult and eventful year here on planet Earth”, including a “crisis of confidence” in the Church of England.
“We’ve seen elections and a change of government here and across the world. We’ve seen terrible sufferings and conflict in the Middle East and the Ukraine and elsewhere. We’ve seen the continued effects of climate change. We see a growing mental health crisis caused by technology,” Dr Croft says.
Christians, he says, “dare to believe we found an answer to that question. We dare to believe that Almighty God, maker of the universe, became a human person in Jesus. That one truth proclaimed in the Gospel of John tells us who we are; loved and called and mended by God.”
The Acting Bishop of Ely, Dr Dagmar Winter, says in her Christmas message that “In an ever more unpredictable world, it is our Christian calling to create those safe spaces where children can thrive, free from harm, in an atmosphere of love and of trust. This Christmas, I want to say a special thank you to all those of you who work so hard to protect and care for others, so that together we can all thrive.”
In her message, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, reflects that there are signs all around us that Christmas is here, but the child lying in a manger is “the most surprising and shocking sign of all. . . In the vulnerability of a baby, God became human. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. And that’s an amazing sign to live by.”
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, says in a message to be broadcast on Christmas Day that “we’re doing something deeply subversive at Christmas — subverting the expectations of what power looks like, of how God might be expected to behave.
“And I hope that this Christmas we will rediscover, perhaps look for it in a different way, but rediscover the presence of God, not in our prejudices and our expectations, but in the baby who frustrates our ways of seeing, our ways of thinking. A baby who is vulnerable, born into a world as full of contradictions and danger as ours today.”
In messages broadcast on regional radio, the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, and the Acting Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Revd Martin Gorick, both referred to conflict in the Middle East.
“As we pray for peace and for justice in our troubled world, I pray, too, for light and joy in our homes and in our hearts,” Bishop Gorick said.