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. Here is the Christmas 2009 letter:
I write this article on the feast of All Saints, where I shared with the 8.00 am congregation my joy of going around supermarkets in the run up to Christmas with a big smile on my face.
It is the joy of enjoying and appreciating the run up to Christmas instead of getting swept away with all the hassle that people often feel comes with the Christmas season.
For the month of December has come around again. It is a month, in church life, marked out as a month of contrast. The first two thirds of this month are dominated by the comparative austerity of Advent. Advent is a four week period of time marked out as both solemn and penitential. It is a time of preparation when we need to ask ourselves if we are ready for what is to come, and we don't mean the onslaught of food and family, but a time to be prepared for our Lord's return, although we know not the time or the hour.
Preparing for Christmas itself, with the many events both sacred and secular does indeed take a lot of planning, we have our daughter's birthday to throw into the melting pot as well as our Lord's, but getting the balance is important.
We make of Advent what we can. As it draws to a close we anticipate the great feast of the Nativity. At Christmas time we celebrate 'Immanuel', 'God with us' as we rejoice in God's greatest gift - the gift of his Son. Enjoy Christmas but appreciate Advent.
I close with a caveat - please try and keep Christmas at bay and appreciate the time of Advent. Preparing for Christmas is not just about getting presents and decorations, it is finding time and space to prepare ourselves spiritually for the coming of Christ.
At this time of year, the church and the world often part company.
Society as a whole celebrates its festivals and special occasions in anticipation (fireworks in October, Christmas decorations and adverts in November). The Church, by contrast celebrates 'the eve of', and the Octave (eight days afterwards) and indeed at Christmas the 12 days until the feast of the Epiphany.
Whilst the Church rejoices in Christmas throughout the last days of December, the commercial television channels will bombard us with stuff about Easter and Summer Holidays!
Finally, have a holy, happy and blessed Advent and Christmas.
Philippa Segrave-Pride
Philippa Segrave-Pride