Bishop Mary's Christmas Message 2025
Bishop Mary reflects on the gift of hope with a little help from St Bride’s CinW Primary School.
Transcript:
We invest so much effort at Christmas seeking to purchase the best presents. But often the most meaningful gifts are not the most expensive, but might be quite simple or unexpected, perhaps from surprising people or places.
This echoes something of the mystery at the heart of Christmas which tells of God choosing to be born amongst us in poverty: God with us, bringing love, peace and a renewal of hope.
The longing for an incoming of hope is shared both by those who belong to faith communities, and those who simply yearn for the world to become a better place.
The challenges we face provide much cause for fear. War continues to threaten and divide, and hopes for lasting peace feel fragile. We can no longer deny the damage we’ve caused to the environment, and in our connected world the needs of the poor and vulnerable are present on the phones in our pockets all day long. The Church is not immune from troubles too. Conflict, division, failure and difficulty surround us all.
And yet into this, Christmas shines a gift of great hope, one that’s illustrated by this carol so beautifully sung by children from our diocese. “Silent Night” is said to have been written as a last-minute Christmas solution for a church with a broken organ. Its simple chords being easy to play on other instruments or to perform a capella. It spread quickly across Europe and there’s the famous story of troops in the first world war singing this in French, English and German from across the trenches during a Christmas truce.
Where we feel overwhelmed by the problems of the world, Christmas reminds us that God’s surprising ways are not like our own.
God’s answer to human violence and fear is not more force, rather it’s vulnerability and tenderness: A baby small enough to hold, fragile enough to need protecting and yet powerful enough to change the world. Christmas offers a revolution of tenderness.
An amazing gift, a holy gift. May all our hearts be open to receive the surprising power of God’s peace and hope this Christmas.
Merry Christmas!