Bishop John has written his Christmas message for inclusion in parish magazines.
Find the text you can copy here:
This will be my first Christmas among you in Liverpool and I am looking forward to experiencing how you do Christmas in Liverpool. Over many years in many places, I notice how churches build their own fabulous traditions around Advent and Christmas and I am excited to see how you mark this great festival.
But I am reminded that in our extravaganza and paraphernalia of festivities, we can lose sight of the harsh realities of the nativity story: a stable, the cold night, the Inn’s closed door, refugees fleeing to Egypt, the brutal slaughter of the innocent.
These harsh realities mirror the harsh realities of the world we live in. We see war, natural disasters, chronic anxiety, and poverty all around us. God embraced this world when sending Jesus at Christmas and God asks us as a church, who face challenges of our own, to lift our heads and show love to the world. To be encouraged by the nativity story and encourage others because of it.
As in previous years, the Church of England tries to come together with a campaign for Advent and Christmas. This year’s theme – Follow the Star: Join the Song – highlights how singing can help draw us closer to God and each other through the journey from Advent to Epiphany. I encourage you to use their resources and take part in their invitation to sing the First Nowell as part of a way of bringing people to church.
And then together we are singing a song of God’s hope for God’s world. A hope that can only come through our belief in Jesus and Jesus’ story from Christmas to Easter.
So sing this song of hope as you celebrate Christmas in your place. And renew in yourself a commitment to being that light of hope in God’s world.
Have a blessed, peaceful, hope-filled Christmas.