Christmas letter

Revd Kay’s Christmas letter- Dec‘25
Last Christmas our heating and hot water system broke down on Christmas Eve, just as
all our family were arriving for the festivities. Then to top it all we discovered that the
Turkey, despite being well within date, had gone off…..what a disaster! We spent pretty
much the whole Christmas break without heating or hot water and a lot of improvising on
the food front! Still, we made the best of it. Most of us even managed a Boxing Day swim.
Somehow, such events can make us count our blessings. So many go without heating or
have to make choices between being warm or being fed. The Homelessness Monitor
England 2025 was commissioned by the charity ‘Crisis’ and led by Heriot-Watt
University. In this report for 2025 it stated, ‘The total number of households experiencing
the worst forms of homelessness (‘core’ homelessness, which includes rough sleeping,
sofa surfing, and staying in hostels, refuges, or unsuitable temporary accommodation)
now stands at just under 300,000’. Homelessness is an ever present and growing issue
in this country. In this season of goodwill to all people, spare a thought for those on the
streets this Christmas and also those who give up their Christmases in order to help run
night shelters and soup kitchens for the street homeless.
Over 2,000 Years ago Mary and Joseph were without accommodation in Bethlehem.
Seeking shelter for the heavily pregnant Mary became urgent as she went into labour
after the long and arduous journey that they had been on (a journey of approximately 70-
80 miles by foot). There were no rooms anywhere, but they were eventually permitted to
take shelter in an animal stable (which was probably more like a cave).
This was how God decided to send his one and only son into the world as a helpless
babe in a borrowed stable. Such a history-making birth from such an ignoble beginning.
It set the tone for Jesus’ adult ministry, a ministry to the disenfranchised, the powerless,
the voiceless, the vulnerable, the broken, those often excluded from community.
As we journey through Advent and towards Christmas with all the extravagance and
overeating and overspending that accompanies this season for many today, I wonder
what Jesus would make of it all? What would Jesus see as the appropriate celebration of
his lowly birth on earth?
Wishing you all a warm, safe and healthy Christmas and New Year full of the blessings of
good friends, neighbours and families.