CHRISTMAS 2023 PAUSE FOR THOUGHT BBC Radio Manchester

It was the Rector's privilege to offer the Christmas message for BBC Radio Manchester.  This was broadcast on Christmas Eve, during Phil Trow's show, and can be found on BBC i-Player, where it is preceded by a bit of chat with Phil.
Here's the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gy82hn

It's one hour and sixteen minutes into the program.  The text of it is below.

BBC Radio Manchester Christmas Thought for the Week

Sunday 24th December 2023, Phil Trow’s Show, 1’16”

Ideas for this pause for thought were crystalised last night after a WhatsApp message from my Canadian step-mother, who’s at least five generations Canadian, of Scottish descent, and lives with my Canadian dad in SW Ontario, in an area famous for its association with the Six Nations of native Americans. Native traditions and customs abound. She asked me whether I knew of The Huron Carol, which I did not, but now I do. It was written in native language by a Christian Missionary, a Jesuit Jean de Brébeuf, in the middle of the C17 and later translated into English.

In the carol, Jesus is not born in a stable, but in a lodge of broken bark, the shepherds are hunters, the wise men are chiefs from afar, the gifts not gold, frankincense and myrrh, but fox and beaver pelts. The baby Jesus was not wrapped in a linen cloth but in a rabbit skin.

The genius of the Christmas story is that it translates into different cultures: a young girl finds herself with some troubling news that she is pregnant; it’s a time of upheaval, in a country unloved by its foreign governing, imperial powers, a shortage of accommodation; and after the birth in as safe a place as possible, it’s not long before this unlikely family is on the road again, and, for their safety become refugees.

The people who come to the temporary but indelible lodgings are seekers. One journey is short, but not without risk; the other long and arduous. For all the obstacles, they witness what we all seek: peace, truth and love. It takes some of us longer than others: but they will be found if we are willing. They are found in this small child, the epitome of the innocence we miss in a cynical world.

As a Christian, as a priest, I yearn for and find peace and truth and love in what we call the nativity scene: small, domestic, intimate, but universal. I pray all may be touched by the profound, life-giving meaning in this story, however it is relayed; and that we find it individually and as societies. I hope we all find this in the days ahead, in all the hurly burly of joyful celebration, and that we may we spare thought for those who find this time not so easy, at home or abroad.

“Jesous Ahatonhia”, in the language of the Huron/Wendat people.

“Jesus, he is born”, in English.

Every time we find peace and truth and love, and find ourselves smiling, despite everything else, then Christmas comes, much more than once a year.