The four Anglican bishops who cover the area of the north-west Midlands which make up the Church of England’s Diocese of Lichfield have issued their Christmas Messages.
The diocesan Bishop of Lichfield and the Area Bishops of Shrewsbury, Stafford and Wolverhampton issued their messages as the near-600 churches which make up the diocese face the busiest part of the year with tens of thousands of people expected to attend special Christmas services in the next few days.
Special services ranging from Christingle services for children through to more traditional Christmas Carol services for the whole family are taking place across the diocese which stretches from the Wales to the borders of Leicestershire and Warwickshire; and from the Staffordshire Moorlands in the north to Kinver in the south. The diocese is one of the largest - and most historic - in the Church of England; and the Christmas services taking place in the next few days encompass all styles from traditional choral worship through to modern praise-bands.
Details of Christmas services taking place in each locality can be obtained from www.achurchnearyou.com.
A Christmas Message from the Bishop of Lichfield
In the final episode of Little Dorrit the financial empire of Mr Merdle the corrupt banker has collapsed. Because virtually everyone who is anyone has invested with him universal ruin follows. At a key moment Merdle is called “the man for our age”, and the millions watching it in the run up to Christmas 2008 must have sighed deeply and pondered on the irony that he is a man for our age too.
“Business” has been good for our generation. It may no longer be quite true, if it ever was, that “an Englishman’s word is his bond” but on the whole the massive increase in prosperity we have all enjoyed since the last war has been possible only because traders and shopkeepers have been generally honest and corruption has been the exception rather than the rule. Fear and greed have, however, been lurking not far below the surface and not all fortunes have been made entirely honestly. It is quite natural that business people should try to be free of regulatory red tape but some of the complexity of modern life has been introduced precisely because tax consultants have found ever more ingenious ways of enabling their clients to avoid paying tax and the government has tried to catch up with their serpentine manoeuvring. Business has become less concerned with the ethics of handling other people’s money and few of us noticed. It is still not clear why the financial regulatory bodies on both sides of the Atlantic did not discover what was going on until too late.
It’s not all bad news, though. The weather is cold enough for us to have to talk of ‘climate change’ rather than ‘global warming’; there is more ice than ever in the Antarctic. Mortgage rates have halved; fuel prices have dropped. The amount of traffic on the roads and of shoppers in the high street looks healthy enough. Europe is looking at safeguarding Sunday again.
In Lichfield Diocese, as in most others, we are uncertain as to how the downturn will affect parish budgets. But the Archdeacon of Walsall tells us that Back to Church Sunday was a great success, with thousands accepting an invitation to try out worship again. The Cathedral is only one of many churches which have had to lay on extra carol services this Christmas, including special Shoppers’ Carol Services for those wanting a pause in the frenzy of shopping. It is far too early to say if people who have found their financial investments have them down are thinking about a spiritual investment but there is enough encouragement for us to be confident in praying for the spiritual renewal of the nation and to be diligent in welcoming visitors and guests this winter. Some of them will want to return after the decorations have been taken down, looking for something more permanent to trust in. It is a challenging and fascinating time to be a Christian and part of the Church.
Last weekend the grandchildren came to stay and one of the highlights was when the two-year old, who cannot yet manage all his consonants, turned to me and said, “Grandpa, I love you.” At the heart of Christmas is the great gift of being told that we are loved. In some of the Renaissance paintings reproduced on our Christmas cards the new baby reaches out to his mother to tell her that her saviour loves her unconditionally and for ever. With banks, businesses and finance houses collapsing all around us it is good to know that there is a promise that will not fail, a covenant which cannot be broken and a love which is inexhaustible. That which all of us secretly long for is what God has planned to give us. What greater gift can there be than this?
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God.
+Jonathan Lichfield
The Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill
Bishop of Lichfield
A Christmas Message from the Bishop of Shrewsbury
As Christmas approaches fear is all around us. Some people have already lost their jobs and others are anxious that it won’t be long before they too are unemployed. There are young couples who are fearful of defaulting on their mortgages and losing their homes. Some elderly are worried that the drop in interest rates has resulted in their income plummeting. How on earth are they going to pay their fuel bills this winter? For quite a few people this Christmas is not going to be much of a celebration. Fear lurks just under the surface.
The problem with fear is that is isolates us from others. We are tempted to pull back into our shells to protect ourselves from threat and so we become lonely at the very time when we need others.
The angel’s message on the first Christmas day was to people who might have had reason to worry. They had few worldly goods or luxuries. They lived on the edge of society, up in the hills above Bethlehem where they protected the sheep from the wild wolves. The angel came to these men with a startling message: ‘Do not be afraid. Behold I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord’. The angel told them to set off on a journey to find the Christ child. It cannot have been easy, picking their way down the steep, winding paths to the little town below.
When they arrived all they found was a young peasant girl, supported by her husband, cradling a new born baby. Yet, they realised that this innocent, vulnerable child was nothing less than God himself in human form. This amazing truth – called by Christians the incarnation – has inspired and strengthened countless people down through the ages. The knowledge that God has come to live among us has the power to help us confront our fears and enable us to reach out to others who are needier that we are.
As the carol puts it: ‘the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight’
+Alan Shrewsbury
The Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith
Bishop of Shrewsbury
A Christmas Message from the Bishop of Stafford
Recently I read a book which tells the true story of a family in Aberdeen who found a crow in their garden. It was clearly young and had fallen from its nest - and there was no way it could get back up. So the family adopted it, built a rough and ready cage next to their house with some straw for a nest and a permanently open front. Twenty-four years later the crow was still there.
Crows are exceptionally intelligent birds, but they get a bad press among humans - we talk about “crowing” over something, or “scarecrows.” This particular crow soon learned how to use the cat flap to gain entry to the house: it was frightened by neither the cat nor the humans inside. The book is full of wonderful stories. But it isn’t in the least bit sentimental. And at the end the author says that what she has learned most from living next to this bird is this: that most of us spend our lives living very close to other creatures - birds, animals, and other human beings - and yet we show very little interest in any of them. We live in parallel universes: we live our lives and they live theirs. Which is so sad: we have so much to learn from one another.
What’s this got to do with Christmas? The story of Christmas is about a God who wasn’t content to live in a parallel universe, and decided to come and live among the creatures he had made - to show them what life was meant to be about, and teach them how to live it well. He came to share our world so that we could one day share his. The Christmas story is about the divine and the human coming together - a young family in an overcrowded stable, but with the Son of God in their midst.
When Jesus grew up, he spent his life trying to break down the barriers that exist, the parallel universes that keep people and creatures from getting to know one another. He cared for Samaritans as well as Jews; he talked about sparrows and trees and farmers sowing seed. When he died, he broke down the biggest barrier of all, and offered us the chance to share eternal life.
Alas we often prefer to live in parallel universes. Old people rarely spend time with kids; white people don’t have many black or Asian friends; foreigners don’t always bother to learn the local language; families don’t talk much to gay people. Even the church can become just another private club, speaking a language no one else understands, showing little interest in the world outside.
But we live in strange times. The whole world is facing a terrifying recession. Jobs are going, famous institutions closing down, pensioners losing their well-deserved income. Where’s it going to end? No one knows. But we can choose how to respond. Either we can bury our heads in our hands, close our doors and ignore those outside. Or we can do the opposite: a recession can and should bring people together, united in a shared concern for the common good.
Here’s a New Year Resolution worth keeping: think of someone you’ve never really got to know, or lost touch with, someone who isn’t like you - a teenager if you’re old, a granny if you’re young, a Muslim if you’re a Christian, a local Staffordian if you’re from foreign parts. Get to know them a bit. Try stepping into someone else’s parallel universe and see the world from their point of view.
Because that’s exactly what God did at Christmas - and, if we ask him in, he’ll come again today.
Happy Christmas!
+Gordon Stafford
The Rt Revd Gordon Mursell
Bishop of Stafford
A Christmas Message from the Bishop of Wolverhampton
Like most of the country I was hooked by the X Factor. Who knows, I may have even decided the outcome. It could have been my vote for Alexandra that made all the difference, although I suspect perhaps not ….
When she started to sing ‘Hallelujah’ at the end of the final I started to get Goosebumps. I’ve loved that song for years, Leonard Cohen’s original, Jeff Buckley’s brilliant version and recently, my wife’s very creditable piano rendition which floats through the house calming our hyper-excited children.
And so, ‘Hallelujah’ was surely to be the Christmas No. 1. Brilliant! Up there with the great Christmas No 1’s like John Lennon’s ‘Merry Christmas, War is Over’ and Band Aid’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’. But then Alexandra reached the thrilling climax of the song and I braced myself for the words I know so well, words which speak to me of faith and joy and hope, despite the reality of pain and loss:
“And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”
Except she didn’t sing that. Alexandra’s version features the alternative ending Cohen wrote later:
“It’s not someone who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”.
There will doubtless be some readers who feel more in tune with the idea of a “cold and broken hallelujah” this Christmas. The recession is biting deep and for many of us there is greater insecurity and anxiety this Christmas. For some there will be real hardship and suffering.
The Christmas story, though we wrap it up in sentiment, is a gritty affair. Think exhausting journey, heavily pregnant. Think stable. Think childbirth. Think, shortly afterwards, running for your life from a murderous tyrant. But the human factors, the sweat, hardship, tears, and fright, though real, are overwhelmed by the wonder and the mystery, the joy and the beauty of the Christ child’s birth and its extraordinary impact on the lives of those who witness it.
But that’s what love does. Love transforms everything. The most joyful homes this Christmas will not be the wealthiest or even necessarily the healthiest. They will be the places where love is real, where there is kindness and generosity, selflessness and a willingness to forgive. Places where “even though it all went wrong” (a disaster with the Christmas Turkey? a row? a lack of money to buy presents?), love won out and a proper, heartfelt “Hallelujah” could still be sung.
Churches will be full this Christmas with people, like myself, who want to thank God for the gift of love, most wonderfully expressed in the birth of his Son. A gift that, if we choose to receive it, will transform our lives, our homes, our communities and our world, warming all that is cold and restoring all that is broken. Hallelujah!
+Clive Wulfrun
The Rt Revd Clive Gregory
Bishop of Wolverhampton