Britannia Radio

The news has been depressing and I have here been trying not to gloss
over the problems we all face in our different ways. Those who have
lost their jobs and feel their families threatened; those who
savings have diminished and their income as a result; those who are
frightened for the future; the elderly hit by those things and being
most affected by inflation this year: - all these may find Christmas
difficult,

But from my standpoint may I say that perhaps this year we can find
joy in remembering what is on offer around us. It costs nothing and
needs little except perhaps a sense of wonder. Somewhere near all of
us our Churches will be telling the Christmas story and what a story
that is! It has been told the world over for two thousand and more
years and is more magical that Peter Pan or Dickens Christmas
Carol. It often comes in services of Nine Lessons and Carols where
we ourselves can sing both the new carols and the carols that we
sang with our parents and grandparents and they with theirs.

Our churches are looking after the lonely and homeless at Christmas -
and the rest of the year too! If you feel hopeless come and help.
That's often pure magic too.

And for those already amongst the blessed believers I hope you will
also find strength, joy and peace in the Glad Tidings the Angels
brought.

Don't believe that 'nobody goes to Church". It's not true ! In the
Church of England alone weekly worshippers are more than the
attendances at all league football matches and monthly congregation
are about double that. The Roman Catholic Church shows similar
figures and the Methodists, the Free Churches and others all bear the
same message. In my own church with a regular congregation totaling
about 300, last Christmas all our services were full to capacity with
3,000 people in total. (They were all squeezed in finally) . The
joy in the faces of the children at the Christmas Eve Crib service -
all 700 of them - had to be seen to be appreciated. All the
churches are reporting record attendances already and St Albans
Cathedral has put on double the number of Carol Services this year to
meet the demand.

There's somebody out there who cares; so if the world seems all too
much come and join in!

Charles Moore in today's Telegraph writes

In a recent newspaper interview with a nun who had emerged after 50
years in an enclosed convent to do a course as an art student, her
strongest impression was that "People in London are rushing, always
rushing - as if time were a tyrant rather than a gift." This
Christmas would be a particularly good moment to throw off the
tyranny and accept the gift.

The doctrine of Christmas is that it is the redemption of time.

This column's mantra about the change brought about by the credit
crunch has been Everything is Different Now. At this season, I can
produce rather higher authority, and for a much greater change. This
is from the Epistle to the Hebrews, chosen, in the Book of Common
Prayer, for Christmas Day. (It is also, I would argue, the most
perfectly paced long sentence in the English language.)

"And, Thou, Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall
perish, but thou remainest; and they shall all wax old as doth a
garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be
changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

Have a Happy Christmas

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