Tower and Town, December 2014 (view the full edition)Clergy Letter: A Christmas Letter From ChristchurchI have to confess that I love everything about Christmas. It’s exhausting, but such a wonderful time. I love that, too! It’s a time to make contact with people - even if it is only the once a year card. It’s about remembering all the people who have touched our lives over the years. It’s a time to catch up on news, sometimes good, sometimes sad. 
I love the chance to share Christmas carols and parties with a wide variety of groups; sometimes for clergy December is just one long party. Best of all are the services, and for me the most special time in the whole Christmas season is the Christmas Eve Midnight Communion. In a quiet church with subdued lighting - probably candles - we sing and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The communion serves to remind us of the link with Easter, too. Christmas is about God who loves us enough to come and share our humanity. Whether we believe or not doesn’t alter the fact of God’s love. Christmas is about God who is involved in our lives and understands what it means to be human - surely this is the best reason of all to celebrate Christmas. It has been said that without Christ Christmas is just another winter festival. I believe that without Christ there is no real meaning to the celebrations. As you celebrate Christmas this year, in whatever way you choose to celebrate, may you glimpse something of God and the wonder of his love for you. There is a Christmas poem I love: U A Fanthorpe’s BC:AD Look it up for yourselves in her Christmas Poems (2002); the last lines are:- “... this was the moment Every blessing for Christmas and all that 2015 will bring to you. Heather Cooper |