Our Bishops and Bishops Designate are busy this Advent season sharing the good news of Jesus' birth with hundreds of people across the diocese.
In the lead up to Christmas, Bishop Steven created a Lego Advent wreath which he shared with children, challenging them to do something similar. Each bishop has also created a Christmas video message, which you can find on our YouTube channel - alongside some special videos from our link dioceses, showing how the season is celebrated across the world.
What would you like to see?
Christmas services | Christmas messages | Christmas videos
Christmas services
Bishop Steven will be preaching at Christ Church Cathedral on Chistmas Day. You can watch on the Cathedral YouTube channel.
The Revd Canon Mary Gregory, who will be consecrated Bishop of Reading in the new year, will be leading the Christmas Day service at Coventry Cathedral, where she is working as Canon for the Arts and Reconciliation.
The Revd Canon Dave Bull is preaching at the midnight communion service on Christmas Eve at All Saints Marlow. Dave is currently Team Rector with the Marlow 4U churches, and will take his place as Bishop of Buckingham in the new year.
Bishop Gavin will visit Bullingdon Prison for their morning service on Christmas Day.
Bishop Steven and Bishops Designate Mary and Dave will appear on your local BBC radio station on Christmas Day.
Christmas messages
Read a message from Bishop Designate Mary below, and stay tuned for messages from our other bishops and bishop designate.
Bishop Steven's Christmas sermon from Christ Church Cathedral will be available on his blog from Christmas Day.
Read the Christmas message from... Bishop Designate Mary | Bishop Designate Dave | Bishop Gavin
Bishop Designate Mary
Almost always, the birth of a baby prompts us to look forward. There are all the practical preparations to make, of course – crib, pram, tiny clothes, first teddy bear – but we also dream of what the baby will be like and who they will become. The birth of a baby also invites us to reimagine ourselves, to work out who we will be to them and with them and for them. Wonderfully, in their birth we are reborn – as parent, grandparent, sibling or aunt; reborn, too, to innocence and hope and possibility.
At this time of year, of course, we’re marking the birth of a very particular baby, of Jesus, God born to be with us, for us. And just like the birth of any other baby, Jesus’ birth centuries ago in Bethlehem, his re-birth in nativity plays and carols services and cribs – his birth and re-birth invites us to look forward and to reimagine ourselves.
Because Jesus is born, we can look forward, with hope, because he is the Prince of Peace who births light in our darkness, and will one day birth us, through death, to life without limit, world without end.
Because Jesus is born we can look forward, with deeper understanding and renewed purpose, because he embodies God’s words; words that now, in him, we can see and are called to imitate in reshaping the world as a place where all can flourish, where all can know that they are loved.
And because Jesus is born, we’re invited to reimagine ourselves as children of God, sisters and brothers of Jesus.
Early in the new year, I’ll take up my new ministry as Bishop of Reading. This is not a birth, exactly – although I’m so aware that as a ‘baby bishop’ it’ll feel as if I’m learning to walk and talk all over again. This is not a birth, exactly, but it is a new beginning – and not just for me.
This new beginning will invite us:
- to reshape ourselves as the people of God;
- to discover what God is calling us to for such a time as this;
- to take good risks as we serve those around us;
- to become more and more ourselves so that we can flourish together.
A baby has been born! And that birth means, for us, renewed hope and purpose and understanding; means being born again into a fresh awareness of our identity as children of God. I’m so looking forward to all that lies ahead – to see what will be birthed amongst us in the months and years to come.
And so, happy, happy Christmas!
Bishop Designate Dave Bull
Our minds are full of so many wrong ideas about God: that God is distant, that he's uninvolved, that he doesn't care about our lives. How do we know which of our thoughts about God are true or not true?
Well, Christmas is God coming to meet us in person, in Jesus. Christmas is God's way of saying, this is who I am. This is what I'm like.
At the beginning of John's Gospel, we hear these grand words:
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
These words are imposing and epic, just as we'd expect if they're about God. But a few verses later we read, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
Another translation says, "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood."
This is God, the grand, imposing, epic God, wanting to become part of our everyday lives.
I think of it like waiting for a friend in a coffee shop. You sit there with your coffee on the table, waiting for the door to open and for your friend's face to appear, for you to hear their voice and for them to sit down with you and have a really great conversation.
I've just been waiting for my daughter to return from her first term at university. She's been living away from home for three months for the first time. And I can't tell you how much I've been longing to see her face again, to hear her laugh, to hug, to sit down and talk and talk about all there is to catch up on. There's nothing like seeing someone we love in person.
Christmas shows us that God wants to meet us personally and relate to us in the person of Jesus. So as we wait for Christmas, I wonder do we realise that God is waiting for us? What if God is waiting for you? What if he's waiting to have a personal conversation with you?
Will you sit down and talk with him?
Happy Christmas.
Bishop Gavin Collins
One of the great Christmas and Advent themes is that of light coming into the darkness. And I'm aware that this December has seen a particularly dark time for many in our world, with ongoing wars in Ukraine and Russia, in Gaza and Israel and the Middle East. Closer to home, recent floods and physical devastation for many. And of course, in our own Church, the recent turmoils and strife and victims of abuse.
This Christmas time, it's important to remember in the darkness, whatever that may be, in the lives of each of us, that we're a people of hope.
We're called to know God's hope and to be bringers of that hope to those around us in our churches, our families and communities, in our nation.
The light comes into the darkness, and in John's Gospel we're promised the darkness will never overwhelm it. The central message of Christmas is that there, in coming into the stable in the form of the baby Jesus, we have Emmanuel, God with us. God with us, that means that God is never against us and God is never far away from us.
But that in the darkness of our lives, whatever that may be in our own particular settings, we can know the truth, the strength, the certainty of God with us, God's comfort, God's guidance, God's peace. And so this Christmas time, for each of us in our lives, our ministries, our churches, and as we go out into our communities and the people we serve, may we know the light of God in our lives and shining from us through his Holy Spirit to bless and touch the lives and the people around us.
May you know God's blessing this Christmas and in all that the coming New Year holds for you.