Bishop of Exeter's Christmas Message 2024

Watch Bishop of Exeter's Christmas Message 2024 - Tindle News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I love Christmas, and one of the things I love about Christmas is getting ready for

00:07Christmas and the anticipation and the expectation, whether that's decorating trees, buying presents

00:14or cooking as a way of preparing hospitality for people, getting caught up in the generosity

00:21that seems to me to light the heart of Christmas.

00:25Boris Johnson recently suggested that the Church was not providing for people's spiritual

00:32hunger and so people were turning to food in order to sate their desires, as it were.

00:39But I think that the material is one of the ways in which we show our spiritual values

00:44of love and generosity towards others.

00:47So actually, the material is a really important means by which we express our Christian spirituality.

00:55And indeed, isn't it true that at the heart of the Christian faith is this generosity?

01:01We have a God who comes to us in the form of a baby, wanting to establish relationship

01:07with us, to show us how we are loved and how he wants to grow with us, and how he shines

01:13for us in the midst of any darkness that we may be undergoing.

01:18So my prayer for you this year is that you may be caught up in this generous God and

01:24the generosity of Christmas.

01:26Do consider if you're feeling lonely or down coming along to a Church service, but whether

01:33you do or not, my prayer for you is that you have a peaceful and a joyful Christmas.