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Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Christmas is acoming in! It is, after all, October. The Christmas card catalogues came in August, the Christingle order form in September and this month borough councils everywhere will be lovingly hanging up the decorations, ready for them to be blown down in the gales in November. If you ever read those magazines that are left at the back of the church for your edification you will note that the Church Missionary Society is trying to reintroduce, in England, the celebration of Advent. This is a sound idea in a topsy-turvy world but it is a tad too late, cathedral choirs will, even now, be brushing up on their repertoires ready for the epidemic of corporate pre-season carol services.
Maybe we should be glad that there is a peripheral interest in the Christian religion. Notwithstanding the fact that three quarters of the so-called Christmas cards on offer show scenes which have absolutely nothing to do with the Christ child and half the remainder are actually about the Epiphany, there lurks at the back of the minds of the population a vague memory of what it is all about.
If religion is dead and nobody cares about faith any more why are parents clamouring to have their children admitted to Church of England and Roman Catholic Schools? Why is RE a growth subject in many of our educational establishments? This crazy go-ahead government introduced civil naming ceremonies, at two hundred pounds a throw, to save families the embarrassment of having to go to church. Despite this plot by the Big Brother state to sideline us we, and many other churches, are overwhelmed with baptisms. People are rather coy about admitting that they are Christians but, deep down, they still do believe, and they want their children to do so, too.
Tucked away in the lectionary provision for 11th October is the name of James the Deacon, a truly northern saint, who lived in times when the faith was far more precarious than it is now. He seized upon the opportunity to keep the flickering flame alive. We should try to do the same, what we have is worth keeping, and people out there really do appreciate it.
May God bless you all, Fr. Allan
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