Church News
A recent survey of the Church of England, the largest of its kind, has shown more than 33,000 social action projects – from food banks to debt counselling – are run or supported by churches, according to fi gures setting out for the fi rst time the full scale of the Church of England’s service to communities.
We are pleased to play our part in that in supporting the work of a Food Bank, clubs for the elderly and the young.
One of my sadness’s is that so often good news stories are not told. In my role I get to see so many quiet, unspoken acts of kindness, people going the extra mile and people just looking out for their neighbour. A great example is the Good Neighbour scheme in Corfe Mullen for those who might need that extra helping hand once in a while, with local volunteers willing to respond.
In a society where so often all the news we hear is of tragedies and calamities, not only is general anxiety rising but subtly we are being robbed of hope which has been called the forgotten virtue of our time. Perhaps a problem today is not that we hope for too much, but we hope for too little. St Thomas of Aquinas said that ‘hope was born of something diffi cult but not impossible to attain’. There is no need to hope if we can easily attain what we see or if it is completely beyond our grasp.
Christmas is the celebration of when hope came into the
world in the form of Jesus Christ who was the very life,
love, goodness and joy of God and who calls us to follow in his way. The Christian understanding of hope is in the unshakeable conviction that God loves us and wants the best for us. This may not always be easy to grasp or even fully believe, but it is our hope. When Jesus entered the world as a vulnerable babe he came as one of us, walking alongside us to point the way to God and as the carol says ‘the hopes and fears of all the years are met in him.’
May this Christmas be a time of renewed hope for us all. We hope that you might come and join at your local church for one of the special Christmas services – perhaps carols by candlelight on 16th December followed by mince pies and mulled wine, or why not bring the children along to dress up and join in the nativity on Christmas Eve at 4pm.
Wishing you a merry and hope-fi lled Christmas. Jane Burgess
Rector
stnicholascm@gmail.com
www.parishofcorfemullen.church Facebook: /StNicsCorfeMullen
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karen@broadstonelink.co.uk
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