Ministry Team Letter for the Month
Dear Friends,
Do you have a favourite carol ?
This time of year is special partly because of the distinctive music; whether it’s carol singing, Christmassy pop music, or concerts and classical music, like Handel’s Messiah.
Music, like it or loathe it, in the month of December, signals the season and in the Church, the four week season of ‘Advent’, leading up to Christmas.
Singing, has been shown to be good for health and well-being and encouraging a sense of togetherness. It’s integral, to many ceremonies and celebrations, including Christmas. Usually, this is one time in the year, when even people who don’t usually sing, end up having a go.
Maybe it’s the upbeat and lively tunes, many of folk music origins, or perhaps carolling is a way of making Christmas special, even when the religious reason doesn’t resonate.
Not everyone likes carols. In the perennial favourite, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, the miserly, mean character of Ebenezer Scrooge, is revealed by his response to a young, hungry carol singer:
"... at the first sound of 'God bless you, merry gentlemen! Let nothing you dismay!', Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."
It took Bob Marley’s ghost and hauntings by the Spirit of Christmas Past and Present and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, for Scrooge to ‘get’ the message, of the carol.
Dicken’s story of 1843, at a time when carol singing, was having a huge renaissance, is about a man, finding redemption. Scrooge came to understand how he had ‘gone astray’ in life; he had stopped caring for others.
Through a crisis, he learns how to practically share the ‘tidings of comfort and joy’, at the heart of Christmas and the chorus of one of the oldest English carols, God rest you merry, gentlemen.
In the spiritual preparation and conscious slowing down, that the Church encourages in Advent, we have the opportunity to question afresh, how and why, the coming of Christ, in the past, in the present and yet to come, makes a difference to how we live our lives. Faced by the challenges and uncertainty around us, the changeless story and meaning of Jesus Christ’s birth, can be a deep source of comfort and joy to us too, even in the midst of loss, grief and fear.
This year, like every year, there are people around us and across the world who cannot feel festive, or happy at Christmas, because of their experience and circumstances. Thankfully, celebrating Christmas is not about feeling happy. It’s about affirming the hope that the Christ child embodies.
God’s coming to us, to be with us, as a vulnerable baby born into obscurity and poverty, is like God waving a white flag to catch the attention of our warring world. He says to us through his Son; I come to you, in peace, to show you the way to wholeness and healing, the way to make things right again in my creation, to create a kingdom of justice and mercy, where all, are loved.
Perhaps one of the most important questions we can ask this year, in the context of all that is happening, is: how can we bring comfort and joy to others? We could follow the advice of God rest you merry, gentlemen:
… With Christian love and fellowship
each other now embrace,
and let this Christmas festival
all bitterness displace
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy …
Wherever and however, we all end up singing, or listening to music and carols this year; outdoors, indoors, at home, or online … we hope you do find comfort and joy, this Advent and Christmas.
God bless you and keep you ….
The Revd’s Deborah & Neil
Team Rectors of Wareham
