Suffolk’s most senior Church of England Bishop Rt Rev Martin Seeley delivers his Christmas message

The continuing war in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas in the land of Jesus’ birth, continuing conflicts across the world, as well as what seems increased polarisation and acrimony in our own country.

All are crying out for the angels’ message of peace and goodwill, says Suffolk’s most senior Church of England Bishop during his Christmas message this year.

“In my imagination I can hear the angels’ message to the shepherds, on that first Christmas night. But I hear that message with a distinctive clarity and urgency this year,” said the Rt Rev Martin Seeley.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to all people

“The angels’ message has resonated down through the ages. We are reminded of it each year, and not just in church.

“Peace on earth” is in our Christmas cards, and we see it used by a host of charities, and it appears in shop windows, in the titles of books and songs, all touching a longing we have for peace and goodwill.

“The message pinpoints and challenges so much of what is wrong in our world, and calls us to imagine and strive for how things could and should be.

“And this year the message seems to challenge and call us with an even greater intensity.

“Peace and goodwill both seem in short supply, just as they must have seemed to those shepherds living under Roman occupation.

“The intensity and urgency of the angels’ message calls us who long for peace and goodwill to act.

“And so we must do what those shepherds did. They left their hillside to go to see what it was the angels were proclaiming, and so they discovered a new born lying in a manger.

“For me there is no more powerful moment in the drama of Christmas than to find ourselves with the shepherds, joining Mary and Joseph to gaze at the infant.

“We find ourselves there as we sing carols, or in our community’s or church’s crib scene, or simply as we allow ourselves a few moments to ponder the Christmas story.

“And what do we see? What do we see that can once again rekindle our work for peace and goodwill?

“We glimpse in our hearts what our minds can hardly fathom, that it is God who is born as this human baby. The creator of everything and all of us, becomes one of us.

“And when we look at this new born child, when we gaze at his face, we respond first of all as any of us do when we see a baby.

“Our hearts melt, and we see with wonder and compassion, wishing only for this baby’s care and protection.

“And as we gaze at this child, we know somewhere in our hearts that this who, astonishingly, is the creator of everyone, holds before us every child who has ever lived and will ever live.

“That is the start of peace. To see in his face the face of everyone.

“And as we gaze, we are drawn more deeply into the truth of being human, and to see that there are no strangers, but we are all kin, his kin, his family.

“That is the start of goodwill, to see our kinship in everyone. And kinship is literally the foundation of kindness.

“We cannot change other people, but we can be changed ourselves. And Christmas is for that, for being changed over and over to look on one another with wonder and compassion, with kinship and kindness.

“To not only believe that peace and good will are possible, but to become people who make it so.”