Dear Friends,
It is with great joy that we gather together again with Christians everywhere, to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s ‘Word made flesh’.
This is the 159th time that Christmas has been celebrated on this site. In 2011 both this Parish and its School will be 160 years old, a milestone that will be celebrated appropriately throughout the year.
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.
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.
Our cash collections at Christmas are all given to the Christian World Service Appeal. CWS is a proven agency which addresses the underlying causes of poverty and injustice through its community-based development programmes. In the past the government has supplemented the funds raised by churches, but this situation is changing, leaving some CWS partner programmes unsupported. Our contributions are needed this year more than ever. Envelopes are available today, as gifts are tax deductible. Please give generously at this time when we ourselves receive so much.
May those of you who are having annual holiday at this time keep safe, and return refreshed for the year ahead.
May God bless you all
Fr Peter Williams
