Rev’d Helen’s Pastoral Letter – December 2019/January 2020

Do you know the season of Christmas really begins at midnight on the 24th December?  You know the song ‘on the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me’ that’s the  12 days of Christmas from 25th December through to 5th January.  Nowadays Christmas is all over on the 26th December, we are partied out and lots of people feel at a low point.  Some of us are not looking forward to Christmas at all –  it’s too painful. With loved ones not with us and so on it can be a really hard time.

I wonder should we be waiting for this season of peace and goodwill?  Some people have trees up in November to evoke this sense of warmth and compassion.  Do we have high expectations of what this season brings us?  What is it like if we just don’t notice the season at all?  Can we live everyday contented, mindful of peace and goodwill?  I think that’s what Charles Dickens was trying to teach us in “A Christmas Carol” with Scrooge’s great change of heart that lasted into each and everyday. 

So what season are we in during December?  Of course it’s Advent (waiting): we have calendars, candles and now a cheeky elf who gets up-to mischief.  These are all to help us wait.  What do we wait for I wonder?  I wait for rest, refreshment and family time.  I also wait for the love of Christmas, God being with us, Immanuel living as a refugee, outcast, on the run, understanding our deepest need of compassion and love and completely giving us the greatest gift of all LOVE.  L-live O-open V-vulnerable E-empowered.  Share this great gift over this season and all seasons and just like Scrooge after he changed.  Living will be a blessing.  Be kind to yourself; loving yourself is also part of love.  And in the words of Tiny Tim ‘God bless us one and all’. 

Helen