Churches Together in Warwick issue Christmas message to residents

The organisation has 10 member churches from in and around Warwick
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The Churches Together in Warwick team have issued a Christmas message to all residents.

Churches Together in Warwick has 10 member churches that are in and around the town.

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This year's message came from Rev Jonathan Hearn, moderator at Churches Together in Warwick

The Churches Together in Warwick group have issued a Christmas message to all residentsThe Churches Together in Warwick group have issued a Christmas message to all residents
The Churches Together in Warwick group have issued a Christmas message to all residents

The words in many Christmas cards wish us a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”.

In the past we probably thought nothing of these sentiments – we were more interested in what friends have written than what the card itself said.

I wonder if this year these words seem slightly inadequate given the year we have had, the restrictions in place and the advice that even if we can do certain things to ask ourselves whether it is necessarily the most sensible thing to be doing.

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I can imagine many of us have been wrestling over how we are going to spend Christmas this year and perhaps also having some challenging conversations within families.

But if we pause a moment and reflect on that “first Christmas” perhaps there are words in that story which can offer us a slightly different perspective.

The story came about because the Emperor ordered a census and required everyone to return to their own “family” homes.

For Mary and Joseph this meant a trip to Bethlehem when Mary was very close to her due date.

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Given the circumstances of her pregnancy and the culture of their times they might have wondered what sort of reception they would receive – indeed there was no warm welcome and

they had to make do with a stable.

However at the start of the story both Mary and Joseph had been told not to be afraid, God was in the mix somewhere.

And on that night when Jesus was born, shepherds in neighboring fields were also told not to be afraid as the angel came with good news of great joy to all people.

A Saviour had been born who offered a peace, which wasn’t dependent of everything being right – indeed his peace is always available and perhaps sometimes is only discovered when life is not as we would want it to be.

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So instead of wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year may we as Churches Together in Warwick wish you God’s Peace this Christmas and His Presence with you throughout 2021 regardless of what’s going on around us.

For more information about Churches Together and the member churches go to: www.ctwarwick.org.uk

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