Christmas Message 2023

Dear Friends,

One of the most exciting things to play with is a carboard box! The bigger the better. When we were children, my sisters and I spent ages playing with a huge cardboard box my parents had found for us. We transformed it into all sorts of things: a rocket, a boat, the only limit was our imagination and the eventual disintegration of the cardboard.

Something extraordinary out of the ordinary.

Just like Christmas.

It is lovely to see all the lights and the decorations appear, the festive designs temptingly presented. It is good to celebrate and to treat ourselves. It is also important to remember that not everyone's Christmas follows that pattern and this year especially, we know the desperate need for peace and justice, is apparent across the world. It is a time to mask or lift our 'ordinary' with the sparkle and glitz of the season. Yet as Christians, we also know that our efforts pale in comparison to God's.

God sent into the ordinary world a tiny vulnerable baby, born into a complex and messy time – who would become extraordinary and change the world.

Emmanuel, God with us.

May this season be filled with blessing and peace.

Rev Karen