Christmas Day was wonderful not least because it followed a totally familiar pattern. 

Church, a perfectly adequate sermon (I preached); presents, bubbles, toasts (including absent family and friends); pulling crackers (paper hats, trinkets, and jokes); food (10 pigs in blankets, 5.2 roast potatoes per person and much more); wine (superb, not house, brought by a friend); the King at 3.00pm; flaming brandy over the Christmas pudding; and a game for everyone (not charades). It couldn’t have been better. 

There were to be thirteen of us but that was not a problem as I have a stuffed toy wombat to make it fourteen to sit down. However on Christmas Eve my younger son happened to meet an 83 year old American travelling on her own so we invited her. I put the wombat back on top of the wardrobe.

Every Christmas my mother used to say, “You behave so much better if there’s someone who’s not family.” She was right of course but I’m sure we would have behaved well anyway. Peggy, the American, was wonderful. She and I agreed that often, when travelling, the best times are the ones you hadn’t planned for. And I remembered from the Letter to the Hebrews, ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’

Familiar patterns are wonderful and unfamiliarity is wonderful as well.

At the door of the Church of the Annunciation at Nazareth there was a sign:

 ‘Please, No Explanations in the Church’. 

It was there to stop tourist guides doing their thing with tour groups and thereby  destroying the peace of the church for those who simply wanted to be there with God or simply to be still.

It’s a sign I would like to see by the door of every church, especially at Christmas. This is not a time for explanations in the church. In a sense I rather doubt there is ever much of a time for explanations in the church: The church is there for people simply to be.

As an old friend spends his time reminding me – we are not human doings we are human beings. That above all is everything Christmas is about – being. 

Being with family, friends, food, presents all of that and for me being with God  – The Divine Being who is always with me – God With Us.

Merry Christmas

One of the joys of a Sunday morning is the walk to St Agnes for the ten o’clock Eucharist. Part of the walk is through Kennington Park. Every Sunday morning there’s an organised ‘run around the park’ for small children. It’s actually twice around the park. Some run with parents, some with brothers or sisters and some on their own having, I guess, left a parent or friend at the starting/finishing point. Some of the St Agnes children run and then come on to church.

As well as the runners there are volunteers at different points along the circuit. They wear reflective jackets and have signs saying ‘runners’. They also have rattles which they shake as the young runners go past and they call out, ‘well done!’ and ‘keep going!’ They are there come rain, frost, sun or whatever and they are cheerful. I’ve come to know some of the volunteers and they shake a rattle when I go past – walking. It’s most encouraging.

On Monday evening I took the 148 bus from Elephant and Castle to Victoria. I was going to a Carol Service. A mobile phone went off and I wasn’t sure if it was mine and as I searched my pockets apologised to the woman sitting next to me. We also acknowledged the young woman in front of us who had a child in a buggy. The child was asking endless questions and the woman patiently answered them. It was rather lovely.

After a while my neighbour asked if I was going as far as Kensington as she wasn’t sure where she was to get out. I wasn’t but when she said that she was going to somewhere called ‘St Mary Abbots’, as I had once been a curate there, I was able to explain exactly where to get out and asked why was she going there.

It turned out that she was going to a Carol Service too. Her Carol Service was organised by a charity called Missing People. Her son had gone missing while on holiday in the USA, “fifteen months and eleven days ago” she told me. She has only this one son. No husband, no other children, only Alex. I had asked his name. She showed me a photo of him on her phone. He appeared to be in his twenties. She had bought the flat she lived in because it was easy for him to get to work from there.

I don’t know the name of the woman. I didn’t ask her that. She lives somewhere near at Elephant and Castle where we got on the bus. She was dignified and calm. Since the day Alex went missing she had heard nothing of him at all. Despite all the searching and enquiries – nothing. She said that the charity Missing People and especially its volunteers had been wonderful.

It’s the volunteers who do it.

When I began to broadcast my ‘Thoughts’ on Radio New Zealand more than twenty years ago I made three rules for myself. I would not do sport. I would not do politics. I would not do negative.

I’ve had no trouble in obeying my first rule as I know so little about any sport. I have written about swimming but not as a sport only as exercise and as a time for social engagement. The same applies to Strength and Balance – exercise not sport.

Last week I came dangerously close to breaking my rule about politics so I must be careful not to go there again.

In older age I find it increasingly difficult to avoid being negative. However to write about that would be to break my rule. So I wont.  

I have been thinking a lot about the Israeli Hamas conflict.  I don’t really know about it because I’m not sure what information from the media I can trust as being accurate. The whole situation concerns me deeply.

And then a friend came to dinner and we were talking about the dilemma of not knowing the facts. I told him that I am very distressed by much of what I see on television and hear on the news. The images are awful and the stories tragic. Here in London and throughout the UK there have been demonstrations and feelings run high.

My friend suggested that we judge people by the company they keep. I agreed. I did make the qualification that Jesus was often accused of keeping ‘bad company’ – tax collectors and sinners. 

He reminded me that the friends and allies of Hamas are Iran, Qatar, North Korea, Syria and Russia.  The friends and allies of Israel are the countries of the democratic west including the United Kingdom. Many of the Middle Eastern countries remain silent.

That is a reality which has given me something to think about.