My dear friends,

... Upon the tremendous fact of the Incarnation of God in human flesh, which we commemorate at Christmas, hangs all our hope and all the hope of the world.

It is a sad comment that one should have to appeal to Christian people to observe Christmas in a religious spirit as a holy day, and not merely as a secular holiday. If we do not believe in the message of Christmas it would be well if we had the honesty to say so and ignore the season altogether. The trouble is that we profess to believe in its message but act as if we did not.

Apart from its religious message Christmas has no meaning. Apart from Christ the Christmas message of love, fellowship, brotherhood, and peace, are empty words. Christmas without Christ is a body without a soul.

These words will, I know, fall upon many deaf ears. As on the first Christmas Day, Christ will be crowded out and there will be "no room for Him in the inn."

To all our people I make a most earnest appeal to keep Christmas as Christians should, and not allow the social and holiday spirit to come before the religious. To parents I appeal to impress the deep significance of the Christmas message upon their children. I ask all Church people to meet the other members of the Christian Family in our Father's house. And I appeal to all the confirmed who are in the parish on Christmas Day to gather round the holy table, that we may lift our hearts in thankful worship for the unspeakable gift, that we may realize afresh our fellowship in Christ, and receive the new life and power he wants to give us through the sacrament. ...

John E G Sweetnam   (for Christmas 1920)

Please forgive me if I quote a previous vicar's letter. John Sweetnam's granddaughter e-mailed me to ask for information about him: he ministered here in 1918-1929, and I have been reading his parish magazines. It seems he was an "evangelical" in the days when that was unusual and unpopular, and I have also heard that he was very keen on getting the youth involved ... perhaps to the discomfort of the older members?

Some things were different in 1920. The population was 10,000 not 14,000. The average age of those who died that month was 24. The building still had a spire. The main service was matins, not communion.

But some things were the same in 1920 as they are now. The message of Christmas was the same. Temptations to focus on the social and holiday spirit were the same. That's why I reprint his message - it still applies!

John P Hartley