On behalf of the parish community of S. Michael and All Angels, Christchurch, I welcome all of you as we gather together once more to welcome the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s ‘Word made flesh’.
May those of you who are visitors to S. Michael’s be blessed by your visit, and may God keep you safe as you go upon your way. Some of you are people who have moved away, but for whom S. Michael’s will always be home. We love to welcome you back. Others will be seeking to keep this festival in a significant way, and so have come to this holy place. May the Spirit of the Christ-child grow in you, and may you discover with all of us that indeed ‘God is with us’, as he always promises.
Today in this lovely church, decorated with candles and flowers, and filled with music and wonderful people of faith and goodwill, we celebrate the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate the birth as we attend to the Christmas crib and place the Christ-child there, as we listen to the readings from the Scriptures and let their wisdom and proclamation seep into us and shape us, and as we gather at the altar and receive God’s gracious gift of himself, offered before us, in the Body and Blood of Christ. We do all this in the confidence that, whatever our state in life at the moment, whatever the cloud that may cover us and ours, Jesus Christ is living within and among us. He alone brings new life and in the darkness enables us to find light.
Our cash collections at Christmas are all given to the Christian World Service Appeal. I hope that this year the Appeal will be supported as generously as always, so that we may help CWS to keep hope alive for people in some of the world’s dark places. This agency has a proven track record and we can give through it with confidence (gifts are tax deductible). Envelopes are available at the back of the church. It is good for us to be intentionally generous to those who have few resources, at a time when we spend so much on ourselves.
May those of you who are having annual holiday at this time keep safe, and return refreshed for the year ahead.
Thank you, on behalf of us all, to those who have done so much to make our celebration of the festival so very special. Musicians, servers, readers, sacristans, flower arrangers, printers and publishers, cleaners, pastoral visitors, clergy, and all the rest who keep this wonderful ship afloat.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
