Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's Letter

December 2009

Mention December and everyone naturally thinks of one thing – Christmas! This is hardly surprising as the festive season is celebrated by almost everybody whatever their religious commitment or lack of it. For Christians Christmas is the great festival of the incarnation – the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and what could be more important than that?

But if we mention December to church folk, they should surely also think about Advent as well, an important season in its own right: ‘a season of expectation and preparation, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time’ (Common Worship – Times and Seasons). Surely if we wish to keep Christmas properly, we must first keep Advent faithfully. We need to listen attentively to the Advent theme of the coming of the Lord expressed in the prayers of the liturgy, the scripture readings and of course to the words of the great Advent hymns. It is especially important not to forget the Advent teaching on judgement and the End Time because these are an important aspect of our faith.

Unfortunately, because of the modern tendency to celebrate Christmas in advance (the first Llandudno hotel ‘turkey & tinsel’ decorations appeared in October!) it is becoming harder and harder to attend to the themes of Advent. Carols seem to take over from Advent hymns almost as soon as the season begins. We can’t fight against this, even if we wanted to. Schools and organizations of many kinds expect to hold their Christmas services and events in the run up to the festival. But we can and must do everything we can to see that Advent gets a proper ‘look in’ and that at least for faithful church folk the season is kept as well as it can be in the circumstances.

So I do wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas and that when the great day comes you may all know the peace and joy of the new-born King. But firstly may I wish you a wonderful Advent, full of the promise of the coming of the Lord.

Fr John

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