A CHRISTMAS message from Reverend Dr Dee Dee Haines the Minister of the Trinity Methodist Church in Douglas for isleofman.com readers:
"No doubt we have all been wondering about how we would bear the altered circumstances of Advent and Christmas now that the pace of life has been slowed by extreme weather conditions.
"Due to a caring attitude for congregations that would be at great risk during extreme weather conditions Trinity Methodist Church, like many other churches, had to cancel its yearly Carol Service leaving many unable to participate in the ritual of singing carols and the reading of portions of scripture that paint a rich and vivid account of the birth of Jesus.
"We may be wondering about what we've missed and what has been lost. If we did not attend a carol service we did not hear the cry 'o come, o come, Emmanuel' from the lips of those who feel captive in a world that sings a different song.
"If our school play or nativity was cancelled the high drama of 'angels who wing their flight o'er all the earth' remained unsung by those who need to know that there is something more to this world that what our eyes can see.
"If the church was prevented from meeting and no voice stood to proclaim the ancient words of Luke 'In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world' we have not heard the first words of a narrative that changed the world.
"Every day we are exposed to competing stories. Most of us are caught up in the stories of our culture that tell us that we need more. More presents, more food and drink, more lights, more music, more travelling, more everything. We hear from a variety of powerful story bearers that persuade us to believe that we need more activity, more work and production.
"This is the story we are exposed to in emails we do not summon and the story proclaimed in the privacy of our homes by those who wish to convince us that the more we possess the safer we will be. It too is an ancient story that reaches as far back as the beginning of the biblical story.
"When Jesus is born in a stable in humble circumstances in the midst of others who do not possess an abundance of political, economic or social power, we hear an alternative story. We learn that in God's kingdom the least are counted as important.
"As the story unfolds we learn that this is not a report for the powerful but a story that teaches a new way of understanding power. We experience, first hand, that God does not dwell in some far away realm but makes self known in the midst of human community.
"In the continued story of Jesus we learn that scarcity is a myth. We don't need to possess more because there is enough for all. And we discover the possibility that less is really more.
"In years gone by missing one carol service would not place this story at risk. But in today's world, where there are so many stories competing for our attention, it would do us good to take the time to read the gospel narratives aloud at our family gatherings. It might lift our spirits and renew our hope to hear the words of the carols drifting over our dining tables and buffets.
"More than anything it is the practiced telling of this story to our children that helps them, and us, to be shaped and nurtured by a counter-cultural narrative that says we are not valued by what we possess but instead by whom we are as human creatures, loved and precious in the sight of God.
"May you take the time to tell this story and to live this story and may it make a difference in your life and in our life together, here in the Isle of Man, and far beyond our shores."
