The Christmas message sent to all members of the Anglican Diaspora Message Board.
As we come to the end of another year, it seems that Christmass gives us a chance to present the year that is gone to the Christ-child.
We come with tales of joy of new missions or the growth of jurisdictions, of finding a spiritual home or ententes cordiales.
We come with tales of sadness, of squabbling, excommunications and persecutions, of bitterness and a sense of hopelessness - not exactly gifts to bring a newborn baby! The uniqueness of Christ at the centre of Creation means we have no choice what we bring - we bring ourselves.
As we gather around the manger at our Midnight Masses, our Christ-mass, and our Offices on the Feast, we have no choice but spiritually to rub shoulders with all Christians, all straining to gaze upon the Infant Christ. It seems that Christmass offers us its own Ordinariate in which the Ordinary is God Himself as Man. The shelter of this Ordinariate may be a cold, dank and smelly stable, but it is our job to turn it into the palace of a king, for it is here, in Christmass that we find the shelter from the Time's all-consuming storm and the chaos of the world. For what reason has Christ Ordained us, clergyman or lay?
As we gaze upon the Child, we forget all the prophecies of doom, because we gaze upon the Fulfilment of Prophecy, and the End of Humanity as being separate from God. This is our destiny, and what a true Joy it is.
Merry Christmas!
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