Anglican Mainstream

By John Bingham, Telegraph

BRITAIN must not respond to economic hardship at home by turning “inward” and cutting aid to those in far greater need, the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury has insisted.

In his first Christmas sermon since being thrust into the spotlight as successor to Rowan Williams, the Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, warned against national self-pity and selfishness, becoming obsessed with “our own small battles”.

And in a possible signal of the direction he is likely to take the Church of England in when he takes over as Archbishop, he placed poverty at the centre of his Christmas message urging Christians to “reach to the jagged edges of our society”.

He earlier contrasted the fast and efficient response to flooding at home with a desire to cut aid for people in poorer countries.

And he spoke about the “paranoia of the ultra-rich” who liken calls to pay higher taxes to the threat from totalitarianism.

Bishop Welby, who formally takes over as Archbishop in February, told the congregation in Durham Cathedral that it is “very easy to be despondent” about the Church – with its divisions over issues such as women bishops – and the wider world, citing the massacres in Congo and Syria and the mass shooting in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, he said, Britain remains in the “doldrums” while trust in once respected institutions has been battered by scandals involving Parliament, the police and the media.

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Christmas Day

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From The Telegraph

Delivering his final Christmas Day sermon from Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Rowan Williams will also acknowledge how the General Synod's vote against allowing women to become bishops last month has damaged the credibility of the Church.

But, he will point out a reason to be positive, in the recently published census statistics, which indicated that 59% of people still identified themselves as Christian.

Dr Williams, who steps down at the end of the month after a decade as head of the Church of England, will speak of some of the people he has had the privilege to meet during his tenure.

"When people respond to outrageous cruelty and violence with a hard-won readiness to understand and be reconciled, few if any can bring themselves to say that all this is an illusion," he will say.

"The parents who have lost a child to gang violence, the wife who has seen her husband killed in front of her by an anti-Christian mob in India, the woman who has struggled for years to comprehend and accept the rape and murder of her sister, the Israeli and Palestinian friends who have been brought together by the fact that they have lost family members in the conflict and injustice that still racks the Holy Land – all these are specific people I have had the privilege of meeting as Archbishop over these 10 years; and in their willingness to explore the new humanity of forgiveness and rebuilding relations, without for a moment making light of their own or other people's nightmare suffering, or trying to explain it away, these are the ones who make us see, who oblige us to turn aside and look, as if at a bush burning but not consumed."

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Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas sermon in full

By Cristina Odone, Telegraph

By Ben Johnson, LifeSite News

If properly understood, the Christmas holiday would be enough, not only to end abortion, but to destroy all sin.

Even sentimental secularists wince when they connect the feast of Jesus as a Baby with the millions of discarded unborn. As resourceful people, they change the subject or take shelter in a quick mental hiding place of their own construction.

But Christians, especially in the pro-life movement, would benefit from dwelling on the meaning of the Incarnation.

At Christmas, all the world adores Jesus as the babe in the manger. They may revel in the teachings of kindness and hope that Christmas ushered in. Some look forward to the redemption wrought through the Cross.

But it is that Infant humanity, as well as His divinity, that saves us.

Our savior united two seeming warring natures by becoming God and man at the same time, and for eternity. Where once he dwelt in splendor in Heaven, He deigned to be born as a human being, with all its exigencies, uncertainties, and trials. At the same time, He never ceased being God, to Whom hosannas ever ring. In Him these two natures were joined but not mixed, united but not diminished.

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By Albert Mohler

Families across the Christian world are gathering for Christmas even now, with caravans of cars and planeloads of passengers headed to hearth and home. Christmas comes once again, filled with the joy, expectation, and sentiment of the season. It is a time for children, who fill homes with energy, excitement, and sheer joy. And it is a time for the aged, who cherish Christmas memories drawn from decades of Christmas celebrations. Even in an age of mobility, families do their best to gather as extended clans, drawn by the call of Christmas.

And yet, the sentiment and joy of the season is often accompanied by very different emotions and memories. At some point, every Christian home is invaded by the pressing memory of loved ones who can no longer gather — of empty chairs and empty arms, and aching hearts. For some, the grief is fresh, suffering the death of one who was so very present at the Christmas gathering last year, but is now among the saints resting in Christ. For others, it is the grief of a loss suffered long ago. We grieve the absence of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and siblings. Some, with a grief almost too great to bear, suffer the heartbreak that comes with the death of a child.

For all of us, the knowledge of recent events of unspeakable horror and the murder of young children make us think of so many homes with such overwhelming grief.

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By Tim Shipman, Daily Mail

David Cameron quotes Gospel of St John in annual message

• Ministers have come under fire from churchmen and MPs over the plans
• Cameron made numerous Bible references during his Christmas message
• Speech appeared to be designed to defuse anger over the proposals

David Cameron offered an olive branch to Christians last night, issuing the most overtly religious Christmas message by a prime minister in recent times.

He quoted from the Gospel of St John in an apparent attempt to parade his religious credentials while controversy rages about his government’s plans to introduce gay marriage.

Ministers have come under fire from churchmen and MPs over the plans, on which the Commons will vote in the New Year.

Mr Cameron has regularly ignored advice that politicians in the modern age should not ‘do God’. But the Prime Minister went further than ever last night when he quoted from the Bible, referring to Jesus as ‘the light of all mankind’ and the ‘Prince of Peace’.

He spoke about the ‘extraordinary year’ featuring the ‘spectacular’ Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, when ‘we cheered our Queen to the rafters and praised the efforts of the Armed Forces’.

But the most striking passage of his message came when he turned to the meaning of Christmas.

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Read also:  Cameron's Christmas message described "as the most Christian of its kind from an incumbent prime minister" by Tim Montgomerie, Conservative Home

and Cameron's olive branch to the Church in Christian Christmas message by John Bingham, Telegraph

By Julie Henry, Telegraph

For years, primary school Christmas plays have been as likely to revolve around a snowman, an elf or a reindeer than the baby Jesus, as teachers opt to avoid the Christian story in favour of secular ones.

But new figures suggest the traditional nativity play is making a comeback, with parents demanding a return to performances based on the biblical tale.

An increase in the number staged this month which focus on the Christian nativity has been reported by companies which provide schools with scripts for plays.

The comeback follows years of concern that teachers were ditching the story of the birth of Jesus in favour of secular productions for fear of upsetting pupils of other faiths.

Musicline, which sells both nativity and non-nativity Christmas plays to schools, said that this year the nativities accounted for 58 per cent of sales, up from 50 per cent last year.

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by Peter Saunders, CMF

Do you feel you are just going through the motions this Christmas spending money on unneeded gifts?

Some friends told me recently that they had given each of their children a £50 allowance to buy Christmas gifts for people living in developing countries.

Their kids had grasped the opportunity with both hands, putting careful thought into their purchases, and even adding some of their own savings in an effort to make a real difference in the lives of those they were seeking to help.

The idea of 'buying a goat for Christmas' is not new but it is amazing to see the huge variety of other gifts that are now available on line. And for not much outlay at all.

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Read also Ancient Briton's suggestion

By Julian Mann

Former Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox's recording of In the Bleak Mid-winter is quite magnificent. It was therefore disappointing to find this version of Christina Rossetti's masterpiece sung by Miss Lennox on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show in December last year.

The censored verse? Yes, you've guessed it: -

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign;
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Shorn of that declaration of the wonder of the Incarnation, the poem is reduced to little more than a romantic love song.

Was that Boris Johnson sitting on the couch enjoying Miss Lennox's Incarnation-less version of this beautiful Christmas carol? One wonder whether the London Mayor's intellectual curiosity moved him to ask Mr Marr about the reason for the missing verse on the state broadcaster.

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From ACL Sydney

If you missed “Carols from St Andrew’s” on Christmas Eve on ABC TV, you can see it on the ABC website.

The Queen's Christmas message, which focuses on marriage, the family and the Christian faith, can also be read in full here

'Do not be afraid' – here is the most common command in the Bible! The very presence of the angels at Christ's birth tell us that the world is not a closed-off system. And fully to take in the Light, Life and Hope of Christmas, become small again, like a child!

Reproduced with kind permission of The Sermon.