December 2025

Dear Friends

And so, another year draws to a close and the mid-winter festival of light looms large on our horizons. For those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ, that festival is focused on the coming of the One true light, as John describes Jesus in his Gospel Ch1 vvs 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

It's been another dark year. Maybe you, like me, have been rationing your intake of news on a day-to-day basis. Everyone seems to be at war with everyone! Strident voices, vested influences and personal agendas proliferate and without an agreed sense of where the foundations of morality are to be found we flounder in a sea of un-tethered opinions and unscrupulous individuals. Where can we find true light indeed? Truth to live by, values to aspire to and hope to embody and share? Well, happily, gloriously and maybe improbably, in the babe of Bethlehem still. As John says in verse 5 "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." The good news to be celebrated this Christmas season, as each Christmas season, is that there is a source of true light to steer and navigate our course by in this life; the person, saving work and teaching of Jesus Christ. John 1 vvs14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us….. full of grace and truth." He doesn't impose himself on us but invites us to believe and follow him. But we must decide. Is he the truth as he claims to be? I am reminded of the Poem One Solitary Life:

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never travelled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned--put together--have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.

It will be great to see you.

Kind regards

Revd, Steve Paynter
Stevedpaynter@gmail.com
01793 296870

A Prayer:
Dear God, as we celebrate Your Son's birth, we pray for His light and peace to dwell in our hearts, in our families and in our communities. Heal conflicts, bring comfort to the hurting, and let Your love fill every heart with mercy and grace. Help us be Your hands and feet to those in need.
Amen.