The Bishop of London’s Christmas message to the Diocese

Posted by Kendall Harmon

I am looking forward to the Christmas festival more than usually this year. Some times in the past it has been obscured by the light pollution from which we suffer in great cities during the season of getting and spending. This year we have been forced to face up to the darkness in this very perilous world and as a result it is perhaps easier to see the star which leads us to the significance of the birth of Christ. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

The Copenhagen Conference, as I speak, is drawing to its inconclusive end, promising further negotiations. The wisdom of the world has been on display with its sectarian mentality. It has helped me to see freshly once again the astonishing and dangerous generosity in the Christmas story. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. The messenger of God comes to Mary and instead of replying that the promised god-send did not fit in with her own life plan, she said "Behold the hand maid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word".

The sectarian mentality and the frequent lack of interest in anything that was "not invented here" are huge obstacles on the road to God's future for the world. Dante the great poet of the Christian West, at the end of his Divine comedy, describes that future as "all the scattered leaves of the universe bound by love in one volume". The Church is called to be the transforming community created by the generosity of God working to open a fissure in the world so that God's future can enter in. This is why we pray "thy kingdom come" to open up the present to God's end time.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas

1 Comments
Posted January 5, 2010 at 12:01 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. evan miller wrote:

While I infer from his reference to the Copenhagen Conference that he has bought into the global warming hoax, otherwise, I think this an excellent message.  Stewardship of all that the Lord has given us is certainly called for and the amount of food we waste is a scandal.

January 5, 11:03 am | [comment link]
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