Counting the cost of Christmas In late October, the popular BBC R4 consumer programme You and Yours asked how much listeners planned to spend this Christmas? It signalled the start of our annual national anxiety fest, as once again we heap countless unrealistic expectations upon each other. All will be focussed on ensuring at great cost that for one or two days in mid-winter everything will be ‘just right’, everybody warm, reassuring, peaceful and generous with each other. Truly, the year that soon draws to a close has brought many grim events – some of which continue to weigh heavily upon our collective human heart. The desire to blank out the darkness and despair is understandable. But an authentic Christian celebration of Christmas offers a realistic way of acknowledging that pain, expressing prayerful yearnings for justice and peace, and renewing the rich experience of shared communal blessings and joy. When, as the Gospel declares on Christmas Eve, ‘the Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it’, it speaks of a conviction that the Eternal Creator God entered our time and space in Bethlehem, was born as Jesus to live, suffer violence and be killed - but also be raised by Resurrection from death. This was and remains the great Sign, Promise and Hope that God has, in our place and on our behalf, overcome humankind’s great enemy (death), and so turned a corner in human history. Our share in that unshakeable Hope and new life remains to this very day for each to receive. By listening carefully to the traditional Christmas readings in church, on radio or TV, and to the best Christmas carols, this enduring message can be heard again, strikingly and memorably expressed – and, in one sense, it’ll cost us not a penny. The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
Counting the cost of Christmas In late October, the popular BBC R4 consumer programme You and Yours asked how much listeners planned to spend this Christmas? It signalled the start of our annual national anxiety fest, as once again we heap countless unrealistic expectations upon each other. All will be focussed on ensuring at great cost that for one or two days in mid-winter everything will be ‘just right’, everybody warm, reassuring, peaceful and generous with each other. Truly, the year that soon draws to a close has brought many grim events – some of which continue to weigh heavily upon our collective human heart. The desire to blank out the darkness and despair is understandable. But an authentic Christian celebration of Christmas offers a realistic way of acknowledging that pain, expressing prayerful yearnings for justice and peace, and renewing the rich experience of shared communal blessings and joy. When, as the Gospel declares on Christmas Eve, ‘the Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it’, it speaks of a conviction that the Eternal Creator God entered our time and space in Bethlehem, was born as Jesus to live, suffer violence and be killed - but also be raised by Resurrection from death. This was and remains the great Sign, Promise and Hope that God has, in our place and on our behalf, overcome humankind’s great enemy (death), and so turned a corner in human history. Our share in that unshakeable Hope and new life remains to this very day for each to receive. By listening carefully to the traditional Christmas readings in church, on radio or TV, and to the best Christmas carols, this enduring message can be heard again, strikingly and memorably expressed – and, in one sense, it’ll cost us not a penny. The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean for Wisbech Lynn Marshland richard.hines@outlook.com
Jesus said, ‘I came that all may have life, and have it abundantly.’ This year, the National Health Service, marks 75 years since it was first established. It was started because the government at that time believed everyone should be able to get healthcare - no matter how much or little money they had. Since earliest times, Christian doctors and nurses, inspired by the example and teaching of Jesus, have been at the forefront of efforts to alleviate human suffering, cure disease, and advance knowledge and understanding. It was Christians who began to change society's attitude towards the sick, disabled and dying. In AD 369, a man called Basil in Caesarea founded a 300-bed hospital. This was the first large-scale hospital for the seriously ill and disabled. It cared for victims of the plague and was the first of many built by the Church. It was not until the 18th century that the Christian hospital movement re-emerged. It reminded Christians to remember the poor and needy in their midst. They came to understand afresh that bodies needed tending as much as ‘souls’. New institutions were built by devout Christians for the 'sick poor', supported mainly by voluntary contributions. And Christians were at the forefront of the dispensary movement (the prototype of general practice), providing medical care for the urban poor. Indeed, modern nursing owes much to Christian influences. For centuries the majority of nursing, like most medicine, was carried out by monastic orders in their own hospitals. In many ways, the Christian faith and medicine are natural allies; medicine offers people unique opportunities to express their faith in practical caring for others, embodying the command of Christ: 'whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me'. The Rev’d Dr Richard Hines Rural Dean
