Bishop Robert shares his Christmas message for our diocese.

Please do share this with your chaplaincies and in your newsletters. 

Watch and read the message below.

Download the video via this WeTransfer link.

This morning, Helen and I bought and decorated our Christmas tree. The farm where we always buy our trees didn't have many left. The farmer said that post-COVID, people have been buying their trees earlier, even at the end of November!

Certainly, this year I reckon we need more than ever a sense of Christmas cheer. During Advent the Church has been reading through the book of Isaiah. It's a book which contains powerful themes of longing and pleading and lament, "Oh that thou wouldest Rend the heavens and come down. Wake up, put on strength oh arm of the Lord." But out of that lament arises a sense of hope. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, they shall repair the ruined cities and with this the prophecy that a child will be born who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Prince of Peace.

One of the nice things about being Bishop in Europe is being able to collect Christmas decorations from different countries in the diocese. Many of our tree decorations are from Moscow. The star at the top of the tree is from Kyiv, Ukraine, and then this year when we visited Leipzig the Chaplain's wife gave us a handmade Medallion of Peace. These decorations reflect the bringing together in my own heart of Russia, Ukraine and the longing for peace.

December 2023, witnesses a time of global anguish with terrible conflict in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and so many other places less in the headlines. Lives are devastated, cities destroyed, the land ruined. As we pause this year to celebrate the birth of Christ we do so in the midst of turmoil and complexity. Actually we do that every year, but this year the Christmas cards I've received indicate an especial awareness of the danger and disorder that currently beset us. And amongst the wider global distress and uncertainty, I'm also keenly aware of the trials of personal and family life, of those battling with serious illness, of folks spending their first Christmas without a close family member, and I'm aware that for some, Christmas Is the loneliest time of the year.

The Ukrainian star on our Christmas tree has on its reverse side a crib, and this crib signifies God's real and tangible commitment to the world through becoming a vulnerable human baby. The Christmas story isn't an escape from the harsh reality of the world but God's way of engaging with that reality. Jesus is the Emanuel, the God who is with us. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah's hopes and He remains our hope as individuals and nations. In 2023 we have much of about which to be worried, much to be concerned, and much to lament, but let that lament be the doorway to a new hope. Let's be bold enough to imagine a new future in which the devastated cities are rebuilt, the broken hearts mended, the tears wiped away.

May God give us hearts open to the needs of the world, minds prayerful and compassionate, souls nourished by faith, and inspired by hope.

In the name of Jesus Christ the child born for for us.

I wish all of you across our vast diocese a happy, holy and peaceful Christmas.