Epiphany is my favourite season of the Christian year. There is a richness to the season and some powerful themes emerging from the incarnation of the Word of God that the church is able to proclaim effectively in the public square. The word ‘epiphany’, which we have adopted from the Greek language, means ‘revealing’ and ‘unveiling’. When we have an encounter with someone or something we call it a ‘manifestation’. In the Western Church we most often associate the Epiphany with the story of the wise men, the Magi, arriving in Jerusalem to greet the young Christ-king. God is being ‘unveiled’, ‘made manifest’, to Gentiles from a land far away from Judea.In the Eastern Church the Epiphany has a much wider story base. It’s as much about the revealing of the Son of God at his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, and also the wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus is declared as having ‘first manifested his glory’.In Epiphany we relate the evident unity of the whole of humanity through our shared experience across the globe to the call for peace and justice and the equity of all nations. This is why the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is in the season of Epiphany. This is why we preach about and pray for the missionary task of the church which ultimately is about bring humanity together as one in all its diversity. This is why it’s a good opportunity in Epiphany to pray regularly for the church’s interfaith work and also for our local colleagues who lead the other faiths in their many responsibilities.There are some lovely Epiphany hymns that we can recall. One is by Christopher Wordsworth who draws the baptism and the wedding at Cana into our Epiphany orbit:Manifest at Jordan’s stream,Prophet, Priest, and king supreme;And at Cana wedding-guestIn thy Godhead manifest. The early Victorian hymn writer James Montgomery captured the universal dimension of Epiphany in some of the word from his carol, Angels from the Realms of Glory:Though an infant now we view him,He shall fill his Father's throne,Gather all the nations to him,Every knee shall then bow down:This sums up the Epiphany vision that we will enter into on the twelfth day after Christmas and which will continue to root our worship right up until the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on 2nd February. We have an opportunity with all the troubles the world faces at this time to make the universal vision of Epiphany meaningful for ourselves and our communities.The Very Revd Peter RobinsonThe Dean of Derby
During Advent, in the run up to Christmas, we pray: ‘even so, come Lord Jesus’.Our prayer longs for the fulfilment of God’s promise that the risen Jesus will come again in glory and, at last, death shall have no more dominion, every tear shall be wiped away, sword will be turned into ploughshare, and, by God’s merciful judgement, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.Our prayer also hopes, in the meantime, for the fulfilment of God’s promise that the risen Jesus will be with us always to the end of time. ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ is a prayer not just for the end of all things but for today. It is a prayer that remembers that Jesus first came to ordinary people in the midst of their everyday life.I’ve been having conversation, in the run up to Christmas, with people in Derby and Derbyshire whose everyday today echoes the ordinary lives of those in the first Christmas story. I’ve heard stories of sheep farming, chatted with a hotel owner, learnt about midwifery, talked to a broadcaster, met with an educator and listened to a child. (You can hear these Christmas Conversations through Advent via the diocesan website www.derby.anglican.org or my Bishop Libby Lane Facebook page).God chose to become part of everyday people’s ordinary lives when Jesus was born. Those we read about in the gospels weren’t particularly special people, weren’t especially good or religious, wouldn’t have made history except that God chose to share their lives. God chooses that still. And so, we glimpse heaven in the ordinary, as I did through my conversations.As I pray this Advent, in the run up to Christmas, ‘even so, come Lord Jesus’, I’m hoping to catch sight of God in the everyday lives of people around me, people like you – the ordinary people of Derby and Derbyshire. Not because we’re particularly special or especially good but because this is how God chooses to be known. And until the end, when Jesus comes in glory, we find the Kingdom of God among us.The Rt Revd Libby LaneBishop of Derby
Every day, my phone sends me a ‘memories’ montage or a ‘featured photo’ from my gallery and very often, in a moment’s pause in my day, I’ll look and be reminded of people, places and events some of which may have faded in my mind, and smile or ponder.November is, in many ways, a remembering month. Nationally, we pause on the 11th and again on Remembrance Sunday itself, and also on November 1st, All Saints Day, as we remember those who have walked the path of faith before us, some giants of the faith and others known to us personally. Many churches hold special services to remember the faithful departed at this time and that can bring a mixed bag of reaction in the midst of being helpful, especially if memory is jagged or bruised or grief is raw.November also marks the transition from autumn to winter, the blaze of colour turning to a soggy mush of decaying leaves and debris (that threaten to clog drains and gutters as the season changes), moving us to let go of summer and prepare for winter, psychologically and maybe with a hint of anxiety as we see how long we can go without putting the heating on and step into ever-shortening days.And yet we know that the seasonal cycle will repeat, sadly with greater variation as the climate changes, but spring will come again and so we, almost without realising it, set our hearts and minds to take stock, to remember and to draw strength from the certainties of life as we live with change.Some of the Old Testament psalms (poems) do just that and it’s a way of building hope for the future. Psalm 136 reminds us repeatedly as it remembers history, events and stories, of the deepest truth: God’s ‘steadfast love endures forever’. That line repeats at every verse, all 26 of them, driving home the fact.Remembering is usually far from straight-forward and it can be incredibly painful. But, as we remember and reflect, let’s take time to recognise and give thanks for the thread of God’s steadfast love for each and every one of us that weaves its way through our stories, individual and collective – a love that ‘bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, a love that never ends’. That’s the love that is the Kingdom of God, good news for all, that meets us in Jesus.May you be able to recognise and know that for yourself in this season of remembrance and on into the future.
