DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE
 Rt Rev Séamus Cunningham
Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle
Christmas Message 2016
The story is told of that old grandmother Babushka; she was a good
woman. One night she is about to retire to bed, it is a very cold winter’s
night, the snow is on the ground and suddenly there is a knock on her
door. It is the Wise Men, they are very excited as they tell her about
the King born in Bethlehem and they urge her to come and honour Him.
She looks out of the door, she feels the terrible cold, the blustery breeze
on her face. Babushka looks back at her warm bed, she hesitates and
says, “I will see the Christ-child – tomorrow”. She gets back into her
bed and she is hardly in the bed when there is another knock at the
door. This time it is the shepherds, urging her to come and if not to at
least give them a basket of food to bring to the Christ-child. Again she
looks at the weather, looks at her bed, hesitates but finally replies, “I’ll
bring them myself – tomorrow”.
Well tomorrow comes and Babushka is as good as her word. She packs
some food and off she goes to Bethlehem but she is very disappointed
when she gets there – the stable is empty. She is crest-fallen but
determined, she keeps looking. In fact, she looks for the child for the
rest of her life joining all the wanderers who have ever lived.
Bishop’s House, East Denton Hall, 800 West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 2BJ
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DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE
 Rt Rev Séamus Cunningham
Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle
As she journeys on, day in day out, for the rest of her life she finds
children, finds them everywhere. She finds many a manger. She finds
many a cradle. She finds many a mother nursing her baby. She leaves
gifts at each place hoping that it is the Christ-child. She is now very old
and near death. As she lies dying the Christ-child appears to her wearing
the face of every child she has ever touched and offered a gift to. She
dies happily knowing that, in spite of her first hesitancy, she did indeed
find the child – not in the manger where she expected Him but in the
poor and needy where she never expected Him. The message of
Christmas is that love is the key.
The Christmas message and the Christmas celebration is God’s great
zeal for us, the commitment not to leave us abandoned, not to leave us
in the darkness of political, social or personal tyrannies. The message of
Christmas is summed up in that communication the angel made to Mary
at the Annunciation when he made a play on words he said, “You shall
call His name Emmanuel – which means ‘God with us’”. What you have
then in Christmas is a terrible desire on God’s part to ‘be with us’. To be
a part of the human condition, our losses, our recessions, our
disappointed and fractured relationships, the debts we have had in the
Bishop’s House, East Denton Hall, 800 West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 2BJ
Tel: +44 (0) 191 228 0003 Fax: +44 (0) 191 274 0432 Email: [email protected]
Company limited by guarantee registered in England Number 7732977
Registered Charity Number 1143450
DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE
 Rt Rev Séamus Cunningham
Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle
past year, the difficulties, the addictions, the alcohol, the drugs, things
that turn us upside down a great deal. In all of our entire human
condition the Christmas message is that God doesn’t want to let us
alone – He wants to reach out and be with us. Christmas tells us of
God’s passion for us, God is reaching out to us with our tattered lives,
our tattered hurts, our tattered relationships and our tattered sins – he
is reaching out to us with open arms breaking into our lives. He makes
no distinctions, He embraces the least likely – Christmas is not
sentimentality, it is not soft, it is God’s fulfilled desire to be with us and
that is why we celebrate.
If God is not with us and if God has not embraced our tattered lives we
are missing the whole point of Christmas – there is no hope and there is
no light only darkness and despair; our lives will be empty.
If we celebrate Christmas because of love then we have caught the
message of Christmas and the meaning of Christmas; Emmanuel, the
passionate God has had His way and has hugged us fiercely.
A very happy Christmas to you all.
Bishop’s House, East Denton Hall, 800 West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 2BJ
Tel: +44 (0) 191 228 0003 Fax: +44 (0) 191 274 0432 Email: [email protected]
Company limited by guarantee registered in England Number 7732977
Registered Charity Number 1143450