Dean's Message
A Christmas Message from the Dean
Hope, Peace, Joy, Love
Those four virtues are our themes during Advent. We light a candle each week as we wait with anticipation the coming of Jesus both as an infant at Christmas and as our Saviour in the time to come.
But the Advent wreath doesn’t have just four candles. It has five.
Each Christmas we celebrate the remarkable gift of the incarnation: Emmanuel – God with us. The gift of presence is one of the greatest gifts we can receive, and one of the greatest gifts we can give.
I’ve been struck by the beauty of simply “being there” this Christmas. As we celebrate moments of joy, our presence is a gift. I think of adoring parents sitting in hot school halls seeing their children walk across the stage to collect a certificate, or deliver their single line in the nativity play. I think of the widow, baking gingerbread, delivering it, and taking time to sit and enjoy it over a cuppa with the recipient. I think of the full table on Christmas day with friends and family who have navigated the chaos of Christmas Eve airports simply to be there. Who knows, with Christmas miracles, even teenaged children and workaholic dads might be fully present to each other as they take their eyes of their screens and head outside for some backyard cricket
And, I’ve been struck by what a gift simply “being there” is in the hard times of this season too. Being there as a shoulder to cry on as the bills pile up and the rejection letters continue to come. Being there in the doctor’s office to hear the painful news. Being there in the dimly-lit, artificially cold room, standing around a body, asking ‘why’.
We spend a lot of time thinking about Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.
This Christmas I give thanks for the 5th candle. The gift of turning up, the gift of sitting down, the gift of holy presence. Because the central candle reminds us of the central truth. God IS with us. Let’s celebrate by being there for others.
The Very Rev'd Ben Truman, Dean of Christchurch