We publish a Parish Magazine 4 times a year and in each Magazine there is a letter from the vicar or a member of the ministry team.
What does it take to make a good Christmas? This year I discovered a most wonderful company that manages to tick several boxes on my wants and needs list: Good Chocolate; Donations to Charity; Fairtrade ingredients; and MEANING.
Some of you may have read the article in the Lent and Easter edition of this magazine about 'The Real Easter Egg'. The Meaningful Chocolate Company had seen a gap in the market for producing an Easter Egg with the Easter story on the box.
It explained the Christian understanding of Easter on the pack. It also supports charity and development projects - buying everything from medical equipment for new mums here at home, to chickens and securing fresh water for farmers in Africa.
This Christmas they have launched Meaningful Christmas Tree decorations: six beautifully wrapped chocolate decorations complete with stickers and a card telling the basic points of the Christmas Story.
It follows a recent ComRes survey which found that only 12% of adults in the UK, and just 7% of 18-24 year olds, know the Christmas story.
An invitation to have a meaningful Christmas is often the message you get from the church. But what does it really mean? What is a meaningful Christmas?
For some it will be the excitement of buying, wrapping and sending lots of presents, for others it is decorating the house and creating a wonderful dinner, for others it will be the delight receiving both of the above.
It can be a" of this, but it can also be so much more. For people to have a meaningful Christmas, they need to know the significance of the event. To understand the celebration of Christ's birth and the implications that had on the world not just 2,000 years ago, we have to be prepared to tell the story. We cannot assume people know what happened.
This Advent and Christmas perhaps you can find time to stop and revisit the story. Read it in a way that will help you and perhaps your family recapture why we celebrate. There are versions for children and adults alike, books, pictures, prayers, music, films, and now in chocolate. There are so many different ways to hear the story. And perhaps if you know the story you might like to share it with others in a way that will reveal the excitement, hope and joy of Christ among us.
I commend to you our special events and services for Advent and Christmas, from a quiet prayer morning, to services of reflection and mediation as well as the traditional crib and carol services.
With every blessing for a Happy and Holy Christmas.
Philippa
P.S. The chocolate tree decorations are available through Traidcraft.