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John Studzinski
Over the next week or two – whatever your degree of vocal prowess or religious belief – you are likely to join in some form of communal singing. Whether it’s ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ or ‘Feliz Navidad’, you will be obeying the exhortation of Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing.”Carols and seasonal songs are so integral to this time of year that we don’t probe the reason for their presence in churches, homes and so many other shared spaces. St Augustine of Hippo, born in the fourth century, can enlighten us. He said: “Cantare amantis est.” In other words, “To sing is the act of a lover,” or, as the Pope put it at the Jubilee of Choirs in Rome last month, “Singing belongs to those who love.” When we love deeply, silence is not enough. Love, with all the trust and joy it engenders, seeks expression, and it finds expression through song.Christmas is the feast of God’s love made flesh. Our carols are songs of love to the God who comes among us. As Pope Leo reminded the singers assembled in St Peter’s Square, song can be a way of praying, lifting the soul towards the mystery we celebrate. When we sing, we join the angels who announced “Glory to the newborn king”.Of course, the spiritual power of song is not restricted to Christmas and the people who celebrate it. It was in Judaism that the Psalms first became shared prayers, and at Hanukkah – the festival of light that so often coincides with Advent or Christmas – families and congregations sing to glorify God as candles glow.In the Qawwali music of Sufi Islam, voices weave together in devotion. In Hinduism there are bhajans, in Buddhism chants, all expressing the universal impulse to give voice to love and reverence. To return to Psalm 100, our songs will ring out as we enter God’s gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.In a world that is so often fractured, communal singing produces both musical and spiritual harmony. So let us sing – not because custom demands it, but because love compels it. Through the simple and affirmative act of raising our voices together in this season of joy, and as members of the human race, we both convey and embody a crucial message: that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.
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Dr Krish Kandiah
Good morning, This time yesterday I was sitting in a cosy barn in the Chilterns, surrounded by a herd of goats and a surprisingly well-mannered donkey. A friend had kindly loaned me his farm to broadcast a live nativity to forty thousand primary school children across the country. During the broadcast, we linked up with Kakuma Refugee camp in northern Kenya. Ajok, a 17-year-old from Sudan, explained what life was like for her there. She told us that her camp houses 200,000 refugees, and that each day she walks 5 kilometres to get to school, where she learns in a class of 130 students. When she gets home, she has to beg for food so her family can eat one meal a day. Despite all the hardship she is a young woman full of hope planning to graduate and become a teacher. A friend at the UNHCR, who runs her refugee camp alongside the World Food Programme and the Kenyan Government, explained to me that, due to international aid cuts, supplies in the camp are severely limited. Ajok’s family have been categorised as “low need,” which means they now receive no food assistance. Ajok’s Christmas will, sadly, be very different from mine. Yet it is her story that echoes most clearly the grittiness of the first Christmas. Her experience of being displaced is not dissimilar from Mary and Joseph’s - who were forced from their home at the worst possible time. Her anxiety over the lack of basic necessities reflects the Holy Family’s desperate search for accommodation in Bethlehem. It is no wonder that Jesus identifies with the vulnerable and the outsider. Matthew’s gospel records him saying: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” Many of us miss this central message of hospitality to outsiders in the Christmas story. Some of us get distracted by the superficial, synthetic trappings of the festive season, others by the belief that immigrants are threatening our nation’s Christian culture. Both approaches fail to grasp the core of the Christmas story and its call to open our doors, our hearts, and our lives to those who need welcome most. Mary and Joseph welcomed precisely those others would have turned away - humble shepherds and road-weary foreigners, sent to them by God himself. Little did Mary and Joseph know at the time that they too would suddenly find themselves fleeing across the border to Egypt - refugees reliant on the kindness of strangers. This is why, in this time of Advent, it is people like Ajok —those struggling simply to get by who have much to teach us. The nearer we draw to the real Christmas story, the more we see just how the true Christ of Christmas is still breaking down walls, restoring dignity and inspiring generous hospitality.
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Bishop Philip North
10 DEC 25
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Vishvapani - A member of the Triratna Buddhist Order
09 DEC 25
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Rev David Wilkinson - 08/12/2025
Good morning. In the midst of despair for many at the lack of international progress on combating climate change, comes a small but significant story of hope. Last week, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published measurements of this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica. It showed the hole continuing to shrink, demonstrating that the ozone layer is recovering. This is a glimmer of hope giving confidence that science and governments can combine in healing the world.Forty years ago, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey first observed this hole caused by the release of chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere, chemicals which are used widely in the production of a wide range of goods, from refrigerators to hair spray. The erosion of the ozone layer exposes the Earth to dangerous levels of ultra-violet radiation. Governments moved swiftly and two years later they adopted the Montreal Protocol. This led to a curtailing of these chemicals even if their concentration in the atmosphere would reach their peak some 13 years later. But the Protocol, built on good science and political willpower, means that by the 2060s the ozone hole will be closed and the planet protected. This achievement needed committed action and long-term vision to solve a problem over many decades. Sir John Houghton, a leading atmospheric physicist, subsequently chaired over one hundred international scientists in producing the first Scientific Assessment Report as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast to the Montreal Protocol, combatting wider global warming was and still is slow progress, resisting considerable pressure from some governments and fossil fuel advocates. When asked whether he ever despaired his reply was ‘absolutely not — it is a totally solvable problem.’ This was based in his confidence in science but also in his deep Christian faith that God was active in the world and had not given up on it. For Christians, the Creator God becoming flesh and blood in the baby born in Bethlehem, is an embodiment of hope. This incarnation shows that God is committed long term to the physical world in both the healing of human beings and the environment and that science is a gift to contribute to that. Further the good news of Jesus is that love can change people from selfish greed to generous service.In a complex world where problems seem so intractable, I am thankful for glimmers of hope, either from science or from the Advent story, to sustain action over the long term and to resist the darkness of despair.
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