It is still Christmas! Despite the fact that many of my social media and facetoface friends have taken their trees and decorations down, it is still the season to be jolly, as one particular carol puts it. Indeed on Sunday morning (1 January 2017), St Cybi, Holyhead will be filled with strains of Christmas carols. No one will mind, given that the vicar made the congregation 'deeply wail' with Advent songs and hymns in the run-up to the festive season.
The churches of Bro Cybi (www.holyheadparishchurches.co.uk) were well attended over the Christmas period, with a couple of services stretching our health and safety rules to their maximum elasticity.
I have no doubt that I fudged my lines at times. I did not tell people the entirety of the gospel message, and I will reflect deeply about this in coming months. I did tell them about the gift of Jesus and that they were deeply loved and cherished by God. In communities on the edge, this is not trite but essential. The gospel that God is alongside them and that they are in and of themselves quite brilliant is foundational, before we dare say anything else or I would say I have the right to add anything.
I am sure that some folk we will not see in church again until next Christmas, although that does not mean we have not seen many before. Some families who come to Messy Church only feel at home in something as chaotic as a crib service. That service is a time when messy meets inherited.
We also see people when they come to have their children baptised, get married, or we meet them at the point of bereavement. Such come into our space, because they have been before and relationships have begun to be forged.
For me the far bigger question is how we might enable more members of our regular congregations to be present at Christmas and other special events (Easter, Harvest et al) so that the meeting between the wider parish and the church might not be reduced to that of a parish priest and her or his people.
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