Letter from Stephen Brian

Dear Reader

The comedian Stephen Fry once expressed astonishment that so many people found time to write to the BBC to complain about something-or-other.  He pointed out that, by contrast, most normal people are too busy getting on with their lives even to write to their relatives and friends.

I know what he means.  If you are anything like me there will be lots of people in your past whom you only have contact with at Christmas - and then only through an exchange of cards.  But we should be grateful for that.  I’m not a great fan of those round-robin ‘summary of the year’ sheets that lots of people send out with their Christmas cards these days (I apologise if you are one of them, and even more so to any readers of this who were intending to send me one!) but I do greatly appreciate the human contact of a word or two penned in a Christmas card from someone who probably lives a very busy life but nevertheless finds the time to send that albeit brief ‘hello - we’re still here and we remember you!’ message.

It’s just enough to keep in touch - hanging on to that friendship with our fingertips! We may not have seen each other for many years, but for those few seconds the writer of the card held a picture of me and my family in their minds, as I did them. 

Christmas is great for keeping in touch, and for a lot of people it provides an opportunity to keep in touch with God as well.  There may have been little conscious contact throughout the rest of the year, but all over the country there will be thousands of ‘regular’ churchgoers paying their annual visit to their local church and singing the carols they love to hear and sing; and a good thing too.  They are all very welcome, as are those who have perhaps managed to keep open the channels of communication during the rest of the year too.  All are equally welcome - that seems to be the message of God’s unconditional love for his children - and Christmas is a good reminder of it.

Now I know you’re probably reading this in early December, but this is the last chance I will get, so.....

Happy Christmas!

Stephen Brian

Letter from Gill Lee

(Sorry - no letter yet!)

Gill Lee