December message

Dear Friends,

I’ve recently had the pleasure of joining Tony and Trixie, the wonderful editors of this special Christmas edition, as they presented the prize for our delightful December magazine cover. The cover is brilliant in how it depicts the church at the heart of Christmas, showing Father Christmas and the Telescope amongst other gifts that bring us joy this Christmas season.

You’ll see in this Christmas edition adverts for a Santa run, raising money for our fabulous Kinnerley School. There are adverts for Christmas get togethers, concerts at our local churches, and please do look at the service schedule for our local village churches.  Together Knockin Heath Chapel, Dovaston URC, Kinnerley, Melverley, Knockin, Maesbrook and Maesbury churches have something for everyone this Christmas.

With all the awful events happening around our world, it’d be understandable for people to not feel very Christmassy this year. Even the words of some of our more popular Christmas carols are causing discussion about whether they are suitable in this current climate.

Into this melee of emotion enters God. Not God as some distant unknowable deity, but God as a human baby. There lies the heart of the Christmas story, a God who wants to be in relationship with us so much, he is willing to come and dwell among us, to live and die a human life to show us how it should be done.

Jesus, through what we technically call the incarnation, entered human existence and showed us a different way to live. Never has his message of love your neighbour as yourself been more needed. So, this Christmas season, I invite you to focus on relationships, to love those near and dear to you and to delight in their presence. Remembering also that loving those far and wide is our Christian imperative too.

God bless you and have a wonderful Christmas.

Revd Chris