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Churchwardens’ chat
Maureen, our Vicar, is continuing to convalesce after knee surgery so for the December magazine “Maureen’s Musings” have been replaced by “Churchwardens’ Chat”
December 2018
The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.
And so the opening verse of John Betjeman’s famous poem Christmas heralds what feels like our headlong rush into Advent and rapidly on through the Christmas Festive season.
Christmas celebrations fill our time with decorating, wrapping, travelling, parties, special events and gatherings, all designed to persuade us to engage with the joy and cheer of Christmas.
That feeling of “rush” is even there in the words of one carol: “For Lo the days are hastening on . . . “ And indeed the life of St Chad’s Church feels no different; barely have we commemorated through our All Souls service and Remembrance Sunday services last month before we join the same headlong rush.
We very much appreciated the attendances at the services on these important occasions, thank you so much.
Elsewhere in this issue of the magazine will be notices of the Christmas Tree Festival, carols at the Dartmouth Arms and the Pigot Arms, then our familiar services of Christingle, nine lessons and carols, the crib service and midnight communion before, phew!, Christmas day itself.
As we welcome you warmly to all these events and services, the Bishop of Hereford reminds us that embodied in the Christmas message is that God gave us not what we wanted but what we need. After all, the birth of Christ was not glamorous. The gospels tell us is that God in Christ stepped into the depths of our broken, sad and troubled world to bring us what we need: peace, reconciliation, forgiveness and transformed lives.
It cost Him everything and like all gifts He has to be received. This story is not old fashioned, it is timeless and His transforming presence is priceless.
Indeed . . .
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
Our warmest seasonal greetings
Gena and Iain