I have always said there are no secrets in this Parish, so you probably know that I am attempting to learn French (or re-learn French) by attending classes in Bangor. And the other Saturday, we had our Christmas ‘night out’. Now there are just three guys and two girls in the class, and our French teacher is a girl. When I turned up at the Chinese Restaurant, one of the men was sick, the other had some kind of family crisis, and there was I, left! Even after strongly suggesting that they should have a girl’s night out together themselves, they insisted I should stay, and so there was I with three very attractive girls at a table for four. And it suddenly struck me, what if someone I knew were to walk in to that restaurant right now, what on earth would go through their minds!? But, that evening, I learnt a lot about make-up and putting on mascara, Trinny and Susanna and all sorts of things! Chinese waiters with Belfast accents, a French teacher of Algerian, Muslim origin, Christmas Decorations and the Chinese New Year around the corner. And we talked about all sorts of things; Civil Partnerships, tolerance and you name it. What a real mix! At the end of it all, I felt there was a real feeling of ‘live and let live’. Very impressive, really.

The other week, Christine received this calendar in her ‘In-tray’ in work, and it’s entitled a ‘Multi-faith Calendar 2006’. Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Bahai, Judaism and some I can’t even pronounce. Its major sponsors are the PSNI and the NIO. At the end is a list of all the holy days of all the religions. It is produced by ‘diversiton; respecting diversity in the workplace’. Fascinating stuff! But, I know, some get a bit upset when ‘Christianity’ is listed simply as one religion of many, and it’s not given the pre-eminence that it deserves. That suggests to me a lack of confidence in their Christianity. What I would find more annoying is that we’re not meant to call Christmas, ‘Christmas’, anymore! Do you remember me telling you that Brian had told me that it’s meant to be the Festival of Lights, but that offended Hinduism or something else, and since then, I have heard Christmas called ‘Winterval’ or ‘The Winter Festival’. Do you know that 75% of Britons do not know what Christmas is about? So, in a sense, it doesn’t matter what you call it, you can call it anything!

If we’re all meant to be so tolerant and if everyone is supposed to have the right to their own worship and culture and all the rest, then why can’t Christians still have the right to call Christmas ‘Christmas’? I think, somehow, that’s missing the point of respecting diversity.

I revel in diversity. I only see it as a good thing. In our recent ‘Ad Clerum’, the Bishop’s letter to his clergy, the Bishop says when speaking about inter-faith worship,

“In this whole area, we need to walk a creative path of welcome and openness, respecting other faith traditions, while being true to the faith revealed uniquely in Jesus Christ”. I can go with that. It’s what we believe, isn’t it?

However, he wasn’t so accommodating when it came to his paragraph on Civil Partnerships! The ‘inclusivity’ that had been implied earlier, and the words ‘welcome’ and ‘openness’ and ‘respect’ were not actually applied to those of a different sexual persuasion. I appreciate it is a somewhat different debate, but there is something not quite right here.

I don’t remember the exact details of a meeting with a Roman Catholic Priest and a group of ‘protestors’ about some issue. The atmosphere was tense, and there was anger and resentment in the air towards the Priest, particularly. The Priest got up near the end of the meeting and said, “You know as Christians, you, as a group, are obliged to love me. In fact it is your duty to love me, and I do not feel this happening today”.

A true story exists from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of when a young boy had to undergo several weeks of intensive treatment for cancer. On his way home from hospital, he wasn’t so worried about the cancer, but about the embarrassment of going back to school with no hair. When he arrived home, and walked in the front door and turned on the lights, about twenty of his friends jumped up and shouted ‘Welcome home!’ He looked around the room and couldn’t believe his eyes – all twenty friends had shaved their heads! It took that experience to make him feel affirmed, included and loved. This is the comment which was written after that story, it said, “When we become Christians, we are adopted into an extended family of love and support”. That’s nice, isn’t it? Does it actually exist?

If we truly believe that Christianity is not just a world religion, but the world religion, then we must believe, as we are told, that God so loved the cosmos that he sent his only Son. The cosmos. All of it, the universe and the stars, all the people in it, however bad and gross we may be…

Christmas casts its light on the whole universe, not just on you and me.

If you look up our Website, you will find a wonderful Christmas message. The light that now shines on our Church building is symbolic of the light that shines in the universe, all because of this incredible birth of this holy child.

Would that it be that, at this Christmas time, all our Churches be places where people of every persuasion and colour and orientation, be places of welcome, and where people feel affirmed, included and loved!