From the Rector - December 2025

Christmas Invitation

At this time of the year many people ask the question, ‘what are you doing for Christmas?’ Will you be hosting Christmas lunch for seventeen relatives, going to stay in an hotel, having a quiet day by yourself and a good walk, or have you been invited to share the day or part of it with neighbours or family? It is wonderful to have a familiar and regular pattern of Christmas activity which gives special meaning to this time. It is always nice to be invited to share it with others, and it is also great to ring the changes and try something new occasionally. Whatever you will be doing at Christmas this year, I hope you will be able to include attending a church service, and will be able to take others along with you. Whatever your year has been like, this is a special chance to celebrate what is good, and what is precious to us, as we sing again of God’s gift of joy to the world in the birth of the Saviour. However you feel about the year ahead, in a secular world beset by many difficulties and woes, this is a chance to pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace to bring safety, kindness and understanding in all places of trouble, as well as to our own lives. Christmas services give us a warm glow of inner peace, but they can also point us to what is truly important in our lives. The gift of the Christ child which we celebrate can help us reevaluate our priorities, put our anxieties in perspective and renew our resolve to live with a better focus and a new clarity of purpose and action. In both Stonesfield and Combe our Carol Services are on Sunday the 21st of December: at St Laurence in Combe at 3pm and at St James the Great in Stonesfield, at 6pm. At Stonesfield we have an all age service telling The Story of Christmas at 3.30pm on Christmas Eve, then evening services in Stonesfield at 9pm and Combe at 10.30pm. Then on Christmas morning you are warmly welcome to join us at 8am and 11am in Stonesfield and at 9.30am in Combe.

 Before Christmas I also commend to you the ADVENTures meetings at St Laurence in Combe, which are times of thoughtful reflection, music and poetry to prepare us for the Christmas season.

I wish you a very Happy Christmas. 

Revd Ralph Williamson - Rector