LETTER FROM THE VICARAGE - DECEMBER 2024 AND JANUARY 2025

We reproduce here the monthly letter from our Vicar as it appears in our parish magazine, the Parish News.

Letter from the vicarage

Dear Friends,

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

One hundred and ten years ago, some amazing, incredible events took place over Christmas 1914, along certain sectors of the Western Front during World War One. Soldiers on both sides began to call out to one another 'Christmas Greetings', one group of German troops began singing the Christmas carol 'Stille Nacht' on Christmas Eve and, the British soldiers responded with the English version of 'Silent Night'. Many troops from both sides left their trenches and exchanged gifts, British, 'Bully Beef' (Corned Beef in a can) for German sausage. There was even a football match in 'no man's land', which has been immortalized in statue to commemorate the event. This memorial is in the Belgian town of Mesen, the closest to what has become the most well-known site of the Christmas Truce at Ploegsteert or 'Plugstreet' as it was nicknamed by the British. This spontaneous ceasefire over a couple days at Christmas was not destined to last, and hostilities recommenced, with some of those involved being withdrawn from the front and replaced with troops not connected to the informal truce.

St. Paul writing to Christians in Ephesus, as quoted above, told them to leave behind the negative and hurtful ways of the world, and to seek a new path, treating one another with respect. There are many conflicts that are presently on-going in our world today, tearing families and loved ones apart, dividing communities and reinforcing ethnic and religious tensions that need to be addressed. This Christmas we celebrate the birth of the 'Prince of Peace', as prophesied in the Book of Isaiah chapter 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, And the government will rest on His shoulders, And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” For Christians believe that it is only through Jesus that true and lasting peace can be brought into our world. Jesus came to reconcile us to God, which He did, thirty years or so later, by His death on the cross of Calvary and His rising from the tomb on Easter Day. His whole ministry was about restoration, as the prophet Isaiah states a few chapters further on, “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1. Seven centuries later, Jesus began His public ministry by reading out these same words in the Synagogue in Nazareth and applying this passage to Himself. Luke 4:18-21 “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So let us this Christmastide, and New Year, give thanks for the many Blessings we receive across our villages, remembering those who are seeking to bring peace to so many divided communities across God's world. Let us pray that 2025 will be the year that many people who have been torn apart by the ravages of sin, can begin to reestablish dialogue between the many waring nations, factions and groups. In the words of the prophet Isaiah 2:4, “He (God) will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” May that be our prayer for the new year.

Clive and Marion