St Cross Vicar’s Letter for December 2011 - January 2012

As I write the season of Advent is just around the corner - a season of getting ready to welcome the coming of Christ.  Indeed the word advent comes from the Latin verb which means to come.   Closely linked with the theme of welcome is that of belonging and this is the theme that the children in Year one at Manor Park School have been considering.  As part of their project they visited St Cross recently to learn about how people are welcomed into the Church through the sacrament of baptism and what it means to belong to the family of God which stretches around the world and indeed between heaven and earth, embracing not only we ourselves, but also all who have gone before us as well as those to come after.  On entering the church and seeing the large font in the baptistery, the children were asked what is the font for and one child answered that it is for baptism and that is when we are 'joined up to God' -- a lovely answer and one to reflect upon!

During Advent this year we shall take part in something called 'Posada'.  Posada is an old Mexican tradition where young people dressed as Mary and Joseph travelled from house to house asking for a room for the night and telling people about the imminent arrival of Jesus in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  On Christmas Eve they would visit the local church to re-enact the nativity and place figures of Mary and Joseph in a crib.  Modern day Posada uses nativity figures of Mary and Joseph and sometimes a donkey too who travel from place to place.  This gives each 'host' the chance to welcome the figures into their home, worshipping and reaching out to their communities with the real message of Christmas, and in a symbolic way preparing to welcome or make room for Jesus in their lives.  Whether or not you are a host family, you may still like to spend some time this Advent thinking about how you might welcome Jesus afresh into your home and into your life.

My next letter will not be written until February so now I want to tell you of another 'welcome' that we celebrate at the end of the 40 days of Christmas on the feast of Candlemas.  (At St Cross in 2012 this will be celebrated on 5th February).  Candlemas marks the occasion of Jesus' Presentation in the Temple when he was welcomed by the elderly folk, Simeon and Anna, who had longed for and prayed daily for the coming of Christ as a Light for the world.  Happily we shall be welcoming two children by baptism at that service and like Jesus they will first be presented and then after the baptism, welcomed into the family of Christ.

As you reflect on how you may welcome Christ into your life and into your home this Christmas you may like to think of what for you makes up for a wonderful welcome.  I experienced that recently on arriving at a small hotel in the Lake District for an overnight stay.  I was shown to my beautifully furnished room by a kind receptionist and then invited to sit by a log fire in the lounge to while away the time before a deliciously cooked dinner.  I was reminded of this ancient Celtic Blessing for Hospitality:

I saw a stranger yestreen,

I put food in the eating place,

drink in the drinking place,

music in the listening place,

and in the sacred name of the Triune,

He blessed myself and my house,

my cattle and my dear ones,

and the lark said in her song

Often, often, often

goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.

From the Book of Cerne in A Pilgrim's Manual Paulinus Press 1985

As I wish you every Blessing for Christmas I also pray that you may both receive and give some very blessed welcomes!

Rev. Jayne Shepherd, Vicar of St. Cross