A Christmas Prayer For Bethlehem

Noeline has sent a Christmas card from New Zealand with this Christmas prayer from Garth Hewitt taken from 'Making Dreams Come True' (SPCK):

What have they done to the 'Little Town'?

Imprisoned it in a concrete wall.

Bethlehem - once a holy city

Trapped inside a ghetto wall.

Here where angels sang of peace

Where love and hope were born anew

Once surrounded by a heavenly host

Now surrounded by a concrete view.

Yet people crushed and hidden away

Still celebrate on Christmas Eve.

Lighting candles for the Child -

They still remember - still believe.

So light a candle this Holy Night

For Bethlehem and Beit Sahour

And for all the people caught inside

That cold and grey prison wall.

Beit Sahour is a place of peace-building by people from both sides and of international solidarity.