Nativity Stars over Consett and hopes for reconciliation ...........

In September of this year I was living for a short while in Taormina in Sicily as Chaplain to the Chiesa Anglicana dedicated to St George and the ex pat congregation there.

Taormina is a multicultural, multilingual community, a place where visitors from many nations intermingle on the edge of the Mediterranean.

It is a beautiful place with Roman, Greek and Italian history literally underfoot and around wherever you travel.

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame wrote a lovely song:

The Lights of Taormina.

There’s laughter in the darkness
Music floating in across the bay
He’s half listening and wondering
How he could have let her slip away
So long ago but still he wants to know
If anyone has seen her
And he’s sitting out in the night
Looking down upon the lights of Taormina

 Well now I have swapped the lights of Taormina for the lights of Consett.

 Looking out from the rear of the Vicarage the lights are in the near distance but on a clear night above them soars a spectacular starscape, suggesting universes far away and nearer.

 From the front of the Vicarage this evening it is possible to see Tad's Nativity Star with its promise of of peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

 The Bishop of Europe, The Right Reverend Dr Robert Innes choose the theme of reconciliation  for his Christmas Message this year.

 The Bishop quotes St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians: 'God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ'.

 It is this reconciliation that we celebrate at Christmas and possibly especially this Christmas.

 It's not just the endlessness and depressing coverage of Brexit where reconciliation is so necessary but it is the very fabric of our society, locally and globally where reconciliation is the key to rekindling hope, enabling families that have drifted apart to come together, communities that have lost direction to rediscover human and social purpose and nations to commit to work together for peace. 

 As Bishop Robert observes, reconciliation is a deep and demanding idea. It means bringing back together people who have fallen out. Overcoming conflict, forgiving, accepting, welcoming  and renewing broken relationships.

 This is the both  the promise of and the gift represented by Christmas, the birth of the Christ Child, it is the message of the Nativity that we have erected at the Lych Gate of St John's for passers by to see.

 It is a tableaux. It is seasonal. But it is also a sermon. 

 It is a message of hope. 

 That the birth of the Son of God, born to change hearts and minds, will bring people  together in reconciliation with God and each other.

 Like the lights of Taormina or indeed the lights of Consett. 

 The light shining this Christmas illuminates our humanity with the gift of the hope of reconciliation. 

 A gift to be shared as widely as may be possible.

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