Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. We shouldn’t be all that surprised really, since the Christmas movies have been beaming in on one of our channels since late August, I think. The shops have had all
their Christmas goods on display since Halloween and charities and churches have sent out their Christmas appeal letters looking for support in order to keep their organisations and activities running.

The Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh have designated Advent Sunday 1st December as a special day of prayer for peace in the Middle East and have
launched an appeal through the Bishops’ Appeal to have special collections at all of our churches to support those whose lives have been thrown into such chaos and upheaval and unbelievable suffering as a result of the wars raging in that region.

Christmas always strikes me as a very emotional and personal time. If life is good and you are happy and healthy you look forward to gathering with family and friends, sharing a special meal together and singing carols and perhaps coming to worship together if you are a household of faith.

It’s a very different experience if you have lost someone you loveand you feel that loss acutely in the midst of all the celebrations around you. You perhaps want to avert your eyes from all the jollity and parties and celebrations going on around you and retreat into yourself. You long for when the festival will be over and life returns to something resembling routine and normality again.

Children look forward to presents and school plays and concerts with proud parents beaming on at their performances. The other side, of course, is that many children don’t have enough. They are trapped in situations of poverty
and neglect and domestic violence and these are never comfortable realities to consider.

Over the coming weeks we hope each household will receive an invitation to Christmas services and events in St. Finnian’s. We recognise the complexity and challenge of the season for many, but we also see it as an
important opportunity to talk and share about a word that lies at the heart of the Christian understanding of this time of year and that word is hope.

God’s son Jesus Christ was born into a world that facedmany challenges all those years ago. There was imperial oppression, there were malevolent forces at work that sought to kill babies and young children. There was a lot of poverty and economic struggle. Wars raged and a little baby was born in very stripped back and challenging circumstances. This baby was foretold
centuries before by prophets and hailed as the promised or anointed one, the Messiah who would make things new, who would offer hope, shine light
into people’s darkness and walk alongside them no matter what they faced.

This is the one we herald and celebrate today and in this season. We long for people to encounter Him which is why we hold special services and events. We want to put the Christ child at the front and centre of all our celebrations.

There are traditional opportunities to do that in carol services and the First
Communion of Christmas and family celebrations of Christmas. These are events to invite neighbours and friends to alongside outreach events like
our movie night on Friday 6th December where we want the community to enjoy a Christmas movie with us, sing some carols and take away some thoughts and gifts that remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

Wherever and however you celebrate Christmas this year, whether it’s welcoming home family from faraway places or you have a quieter more reflective time on your own, we want to take this opportunity to wish
you a happy and peaceful season.

The church’s liturgical calendar offers us the season of Advent as a way to build up towards it and make some spiritual preparations. The short
30 minute services on Thursdays in Advent are a good vehicle for this, offering an opportunity to draw aside from all the busyness and activity to be still and worship.

It’s a season too in which we are preparing to say farewell to our curate Reverend Andy Hay as he prepares to take up his new appointment as priest-in-charge of Clonallon and Warrenpoint with Rostrevor on 6th January. There will be a presentation to Andy after our Service of 9 Lessons and Carols on 22nd December and he will be sharing in our Christmas services.

Over the past three and a half years he has made an enormous contribution to the parish with his thoughtful Bible teaching, pastoral care and imaginative outreach ideas. We wish Andy and his family every blessing as they move on to their next season of ministry and assure them of our
prayers.

If anyone would like to have Holy Communion in their home or are unable to get out to any of our special services, do please let one of the clergy know and we would be glad to come.

As we look forward to these weeks, please be mindful of all those for whom it is a painful and difficult season. Checking in on those who have been
through difficult times, praying for them, phone calls and cards are all greatly appreciated as we seek as a community to support one another and make the presence of Jesus real and known in our community.

With very best wishes

Jonathan Pierce (Rector)

Telephone 02890 793822