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Dear Friends
It's been quite a year. President Barack Obama's inauguration launched it with such hope, but then amongst other things there has been an awful death toll in Afghanistan, serious recession-induced strain on many households, the death-dealing earthquake at L'Aquila in Italy and for the synod, the distraction of a radical review of structures, not forgetting the more personal challenges many of us have stoically faced behind our front doors. It has not ended as it began.
Under the circumstances it would be easy for us to look to the Christmas message for some unshakeable stability. And in a way that is what we're offered by the news of 'God with us', with its love that nothing can snatch away from us. But actually the child of Bethlehem heralds not so much a reliable status quo as a constantly transforming, renewing upheaval. The Spirit-influenced Christian life is all about constant evolution, gradual development and sometimes radical change, in pursuit of God's commonwealth of justice and joy. That the world and the church are in transition is not therefore a sign of God's absence, so much as of God's active presence; that difference-making with-us-ness.
Of course, if being caught up with Christ is inevitably about change, we do need something by which to check that the conversion is taking us in the right direction. Some of those much-loved Christmas narratives perhaps offer a few benchmarks by which to keep an eye that the changes are good ones: for example, the shepherds advocate a bias to the poor; the magi urge us to address the spiritual hunger in people of every race and culture; the angels model how we should be forever immersed in worship - 'lost in wonder, love and praise.'
We follow Christ ultimately not to tread water, nor to be cosseted, but to know an inextinguishable light as we traverse life's different and unknown pathways. That, rather than the longing for soporific changelessness, is what gives us hope for 2010. So be it, as we strive for peace in our time, as we emerge from recession - lessons learned and priorities changed, as we implement new mission-enabling structures for the synod, and as we embrace all that the New Year offers us personally.
Bethan and Jess join me in wishing you all an inspiring Christmas and a New Year that does not end where it began.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Uden
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