Christmas

Over Christmas I watched a film about Prince Harry among AIDS sufferers in Africa. The way he is working through his issues seems more positive than negative. He said 'Doing good is fun. Bad is boring'. In her Christmas speech his grandmother said 'Jesus Christ shows me the value of doing small things with great love' . That chimes with the charism of the Aidan and Hilda Community.

On Christmas Day four Aidan and Hilda Voyagers shared the Feast here at our new house in Berwick-Upon-Tweed: Carol Few, Judith Line, Sally Simpson and myself. On December 26 we four joined three friends and a dog at Wooler. On December 27 Kevin and Lesley (new Open Gate Wardens) came for more food and stayed late. Sally and I have shared in Holy Communion every day with new friends in local churches.

A newspaper review interviewed families in different parts of UK who voted on opposite sides in the Brexit referendum and who still feel so deeply that they are torn apart. We did not realise how deep this would go, and how we must respect those who mourn and those who celebrate. Research into the USA election reveals that pundits and pollsters got the result wrong because significant numbers of people who felt ditched by 'the system' and who usually do not vote, not only turned out to vote, but refused to engage with pollsters or even with exit polls. We are a world-wide community who are called to 'reconnect with the streets'. This connecting is, above all else, what God did with the whole human race at the first Christmas. The re-connecting must multiply greatly as we enter a new year.