In a few weeks time we may well be singing, amongst many other favourite Christmas Carols, “In the bleak mid-winter” but whether or not we sing it there’s no doubt whatsoever that many across our country will be living through, or trying to live through, a very bleak mid-winter indeed. Hugely increased energy prices and a cost of living crisis which has not been experienced in this country for decades is upon us, and its effects will not be fully known for some time, though the hardship and inevitable suffering that many will endure will definitely cost us dear in the short, medium and probably long term.

As we all think and pray about ways of keeping warm and of balancing budgets I have been astonished (well, reasonably astonished!) at the Christmas advertising and marketing campaigns which are now (as I type in the middle of November) well underway across all forms of media. Watching them you could not be blamed for thinking, “cost of living crisis – what crisis”? At the same time and across the country Churches, and many other religious and secular institutions are offering “warm spaces” for people to come to, and we and many other Churches will be collecting for special appeals for food and for support for rising energy prices for the least well off in our communities.

In the midst of so much turmoil and suffering across our world – Ukraine, Somalia and Yemen to name but three affected countries – we are all called to give not only our hearts, as the last line in Christina Rossetti’s beautiful Carol urges us, but also to dig deep into our pockets to help all those less fortunate than ourselves. Christmas is indeed, as we are constantly reminded by the advertisements, “a time of giving” and we will all be having to think, pray and reflect on just how and what we will be giving this Christmastide, and especially, to whom?

And for those “...beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low” (It came upon the midnight clear – Edmund Sears) it behoves us, as we remember and celebrate with gratitude and joy once again the birth of the Christ child this Christmas, with all that this means, to help them, in whatever way we can, in Sears words to “....rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing”.

With best wishes and prayers for a very happy, joyful, peaceful and as warm as possible Christmas!

The Revd Alec Brown.