Advent and Christmas –  an amazing time of opportunity!

Hard though I find it to believe, this will be my fourteenth Christmas as Vicar of St Paul’s, Bedford and my forty-first as an ordained minister in Priestly Orders.  I still recall with pleasure the excitement which overwhelmed me in 1971 when, as a newly ordained priest, I experienced for the first time the frantic busyness and hectic rush which is part and parcel of the festive season, contrasting, as it does, with the deep wonder and mystery which surrounds the birth of the Christ child.  I realised that, like no other time of the year, the opportunities which the season presented for encouraging people and families into church; the enthusiasm with which various choral ensembles, not least church choirs and instrumental groups, showed for getting together to make music and perform carols old and new; and the memorable school Christmas dinners and community events, all of which were embraced as part of the demands and joy of this holy season.  Forty years on, even though various traditions and ways of keeping Christmas may have changed and the invitations be somewhat different, Christmas still remains an ‘amazing time of opportunity’ to share the good news of the birth of the Saviour.

 

To every Christian person, the birth of Jesus Christ should bring real joy and encouragement.  Through all that happens within church and beyond, Christians are called to demonstrate this.  It may be a Carol fest, a Crib Service, Christingle, Christmas Tree Festival, or celebrating together in our various groups, but no opportunity should be over-looked, or taken for granted.  In Old Testament times there was much talk about the good life, but very little evidence of it.  There were volumes set down on the importance of organising our lives, but little compassion or love for the world and humanity.  So God intervened.  He sent his Son into the world to demonstrate his love and to go out among people who would accept it. That life, we know, ended with the Cross and Resurrection.

 

This means that Christians should never be sentimental about Christmas. Through the life and death of Jesus, the Cross and the Crib belong together.  And it is for the church, in season and out of season to extend the Incarnation by revealing Christ in daily worship and living, thereby making known the love and peace which he brings.

 

I hope you will do all you can to encourage family, friends, and neighbours to join us for the various Christmas celebrations, be it Midnight Mass, Christmas Morning Family Eucharist or some other Carol Service.  I would ask you particularly to note that this year we shall be holding our main St Paul’s Carol Service on a weekday – Wednesday, 21st December at 8.00pm.  Otherwise all the Christmas Services are as usual.

 

New Year 2012 and the Feast of the Epiphany - trans. to Sunday 8th January

New Year’s Day falls in 2012 on a Sunday.  Services that day will be as usual with an 8am Holy Communion, followed by 10.15am Parish Eucharist, with Evening Prayer (said) at 4pm in the Trinity Chapel.  The major Festival of the Epiphany, or, as it is sometimes known The Arrival of the Wise Men in the Stable at Bethlehem, will be celebrated on Sunday 8th January with a Procession at the 10.15am Choral Eucharist and the first Choral Evensong of 2012 will contain special Epiphany music.  This will be sung at 4pm with no sermon, but including a Procession.

 

St Paul’s Patronal Festival – Sunday 29th January 2012

It has long been the tradition for us to keep our Patronal Festival on the Sunday nearest the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.  This falls in 2012 on Sunday, 29th January, thereby offering us a glorious excuse for a celebration right in the middle of winter!  This year we welcome as our visiting preacher, the Right Reverend Norman Banks, consecrated earlier this year to be Bishop of Richborough, having served over the past ten years as Vicar of Walsingham.  For me, it will be a particular joy to welcome him to St Paul’s since we became friends when he lived and worked in St Albans, teaching history at Townsend Church of England Secondary School, before going to Theological College: all this, of course in distant days when I was on the staff of St Albans Cathedral!  So gifted a teacher did Bishop Norman prove to be that they invited him back the following year, as soon as he had completed his first year at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, to resume teaching at Townsend for the remaining five weeks of the summer term.  It was then, in the summer of 1980, that he came and lodged in my flat for a couple of months in the Deanery.  Now, his journey comes full circle as will shortly be moving to work from St Albans in the house in Abbey Mill Lane, previously occupied by the Bishop of Hertford.

 

Our celebrations in honour of St Paul will also include an informal ‘Question and Answer’ session with Bishop Norman, a Parish lunch and Festival Evensong at 4pm.  Do make a note of the day in your diaries now and join us for some or all of what promises to be a special day.

 

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18 – 25th January.

Arrangements for this significant week when we meet for lunch time prayers and encounter our brothers and sisters of other Denominations across the town are still being finalised.  However, I can tell you that the All Bedford Churches United Evening Worship will be held at Bunyan Meeting on Sunday, 22nd January at 6.30 pm, when the preacher will be our own Bishop of Bedford, the Right Rev’d Richard Inward.

 

Finally, the St Paul’s Ministerial team join me in wishing each and everyone a very happy Christmas and all blessings in 2012.

Father John