DAPHNE and I are looking forward to our 11th Christmas in Jersey.
The years have flown by very quickly.
We feel very much at home in this beautiful Island and are so grateful to God for all the friends we have made since we got off the ferry in October 2005.
Some people we have got to know through the churches I work with, not just the Anglican ones but across the family of God’s people in all the different churches of the Island.
It is a great privilege to have such excellent colleagues in Msgr France, Graeme Halls who heads up the Methodist Church and John Stewart-Jones and the team at Freedom Church.
It is like a beautiful rainbow, not all the colours are the same but each one has a characteristic of their own and when you put them together you have a wonderful expression of the light and life of Christ.
Not all our friends are made through the churches.
This Island is blessed with excellent leaders. Sir John and Lady McColl are the third Lieutenant-Governor partnership with whom we have worked and I am so grateful for their support, encouragement and wisdom in my work and ministry in Jersey.
I am also on my third Bailiff. William Bailhache was one of those who interviewed me before I was appointed and he and Jenny serve the Island with great diligence and distinction.
I know that it is very easy to knock politicians. I think that my colleagues in the States have the best interests of Jersey at heart whatever their political opinion.
Senator Ian Gorst, wonderfully supported by Dionne, leads our political life with great integrity.
This could read as one member of the Establishment just saying nice things about the others but it is so easy to take people for granted, and Christmas is a good time to stop and thank God for those who serve us as a community and to remember the friends God has given us.
Some friends you don’t even know you have until they stop you in the streets of St Helier to have a chat or even offer to buy you a drink in the pub.
I am hopeless at remembering names but want to say a huge thank you to all the people in Jersey who have made our ten years here so enriching and rewarding.
The NatWest Island Games and the 70th anniversary of the Liberation demonstrated just what can be accomplished when people work together.
It was so special to see in both events people from different generations bringing their experience and enthusiasm to build two unforgettable occasions.
In the story of the birth of Jesus we see the different characters making their individual contributions, some motivated by faith others by power and greed.
The Roman Emperor wants to raise extra revenue so Joseph and Mary have to go to Bethlehem to be registered for the new tax. Mary, probably still a teenager, is told that she will be the mother of God’s son.
Joseph is told to marry her and look after both mother and baby.
The Shepherds stop work not only to listen to the message of the angels but to go and find out for themselves whether the story is true.
They discover Mary, Joseph and, in a simple manger, the baby Jesus.
The Wise Men who have been searching all their lives for spiritual truth journey for months before arriving in Bethlehem and finding Jesus.
The story of friendship in a world of loneliness and love in a world of division is as real and relevant now as it was 2000 years ago when it happened.
Some of us will have Family Christmases with children and grandchildren opening presents around us.
Others, perhaps with friends, or even on our own will have memories of Christmases in years gone by.
As we look to the future and wonder what sort of world we will pass on to our children, the Christmas story of God’s love and understanding assures us that we need never be alone because there is one friend who will always be there, as he was for the shepherds, the wise men and Mary and Joseph: the One whose birth we celebrate, Jesus.
Daphne joins me in hoping that you have a wonderful Christmas, and may God richly bless you in 2016.
