Bishop of Plymouth gives Christmas message
Rev Nick McKinnel read a blessing for the city and its residents
Plymouth's Anglican Bishop has released a Christmas message, exclusively for Greatest Hits Radio.
Reverend Nick McKinnel read a blessing for the city and its residents this festive season.
Read Bishop Nick McKinnel's Christmas message in full:
"Every year with our Christmas cards, we get a number of photocopied newsletters from our friends and family.
"Usually the content is reassuringly normal. Babies born, grannies staying, family holidays, exams passed, children all geniuses. And of course this year, overshadowed by COVID and how people have reacted to that.
"One Christmas letter we got a few years ago was different. It came from a young couple with a new baby. Earlier in the year, their house had caught fire and all of their possessions were destroyed, the man suffered burns, which put him into hospital for three months.
"Clearly it had been a traumatic event for all of them, but the baby was safe. And because of that, they wrote, they hadn't minded losing everything else.
"No doubt, they valued their photographs and furniture, but beside the baby, those things counted for nothing.
"At Christmas, lose the baby and you lose the whole meaning, the whole purpose of the celebrations.
"This year, our Christmases maybe simpler. Perhaps there may be empty chairs at our Christmas dinner table.
"That first Christmas was quite a simple affair. A young couple with their baby in a manger, but like the shepherds, the wise men, those Kings who traveled to Bethlehem let's bow before the infant Christ and think how awesome it is that God should enter into our world as a vulnerable baby to share our lives and open the way to God.
"May you have a joyful Christmas and a new year filled with hope."