Bishop Rachel’s Christmas 2024 message to worshipping communities

“This year, there have been times when I’ve been with God in prayer and felt overwhelmed by so many issues in the Church, in our nation, and across our world. And in this diocese there are so many challenges as well as so many joys, so many people and places on my heart and mind.

“But repeatedly, God stops me in my striving to focus my heart on who God is, and to simply express my thankfulness for God’s love and mercy beyond our imaginings, to proclaim ever more strongly that ‘yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory’. Listen to those Christmas angels…

Bishop Rachel’s Christmas 2024 message for worshipping communities shines the spotlight on hope and on moments of calm and bright. Bishop Rachel encourages church and worship leaders to share this message in worship and in gatherings over the Christmas period.

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Full transcript:

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‘Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.’

“No doubt you’ll be singing that carol in church buildings, schools, chapels, community spaces, perhaps even in your home, although I wonder how calm you are really feeling amid all the Christmas activity when the world both near and far seems a long way from calm and bright. And to be honest that first Christmas, I’m not sure how calm Joseph and Mary felt as Mary went into labour far from home.

As for the shepherds on the hillside, things might have become very bright with all those angels but it was all pretty terrifying – I don’t think calm would have been their word of choice. Perhaps a calmness did descend after the shepherds had departed, but despite those words of the carols, speaking of the holy infant so tender and mild, let’s not live with any delusion about this baby.

Here is Jesus Christ; God come to Earth, to shatter the bonds of injustice, to unsettle us in recognising the mess of our lives and our broken relationship with God, with one another, and with creation, to ask us to take up our cross and to follow him.

And yet, yes the one who brings good news, who brings calm in the storm, who speaks of a peace which the world cannot give, who promises restoration, transformation, and the coming in of a kingdom of justice and joy; God who will be with us in our tears and pain and in our joy and laughter.

Here is the child who is God come to Earth saying “I love you, I choose to be with you, among you and to ensure that the darkness will never overcome the light”. And even in this birth, there is the assurance that death will never have the final word – here is hope.

This year, there have been times when I’ve been with God in prayer and felt overwhelmed by so many issues in the Church, in our nation, and across our world. And in this diocese there are so many challenges as well as so many joys, so many people and places on my heart and mind.

But repeatedly, God stops me in my striving to focus my heart on who God is, and to simply express my thankfulness for God’s love and mercy beyond our imaginings, to proclaim ever more strongly that ‘yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory’. Listen to those Christmas angels.

This Christmas I want to express my deep thanks to you, children, young people, adults, clergy, laity; thank you for sharing together in this mysterious and messy adventure across all the different contexts of this diocese.

Thank you for living the good news of Jesus Christ who offers us life in all its fullness. This Christmas be confident in that sharing.

And I’m praying for you to have moments of calm and bright, when you can look into the crib and join with the angels in singing ‘Glory to God’, and amid your hopes and fears to hear those beautiful words from God in Psalm 46; “Be still and know that I am God”. I wish you a peaceful and hope-filled Christmas.

Thank you.