Comment by Harborough churches: Let's look forward with hope

Viewpoint by Janet Smith, chair of Churches Together in Harborough

A few weeks ago, my husband, a postal worker, received his customary sheets of first class stamps – a gift from Royal Mail to its employees at Christmas. The card that came with it was poignant in its message this year that, “the challenges of the pandemic mean that 2020 has been unlike any other in Royal Mail’s 500 year history…but the way we have pulled together to keep delivering for the country at this difficult time has been remarkable.”

The unveiling of the Royal Mail Christmas stamp issue is for many, and not just philatelists, a pleasant annual surprise. This Christmas, the stamps highlight the story of the Nativity, depicting Mary and the infant Jesus in scenes from windows in six churches across the country, covering a range of eras, styles, and techniques. Included in the set are windows from two churches local to here – one from the Church of St. James in Hollowell, and another from Christ Church, Coalville.

Historically, stained glass, far from helping to beautify medieval churches, was seemingly much more than mere artistic decoration. Scholars believe that these windows played a key role in helping the majority of medieval people, who were largely illiterate, draw a better understanding of their faith, and the clergy were reliant on them to help them teach the faith.

As Christmas fast approaches it will be a different one this year for us all. Our town’s churches will welcome us as always to a range of services, whether held physically or online, during which our clergy and lay leaders will retell the familiar story of the coming of God to earth in the form of a baby, in music and words, surrounded in many instances by the art of our stained glass.

As the poet John Betjeman famously asks in his poem, 'Christmas':

And is it true? And is it true?

This most tremendous tale of all

Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,

A Baby in an ox’s stall?

The maker of the stars and sea

Become a child on earth for me?

With the world still largely held in the grip of the pandemic, we look forward to the hope that has arrived in the rolling out of the vaccine, described by one headline in recent weeks as, “a tiny bottle that holds hope for humanity's future”. As Christians the world over prepare to celebrate Christmas, we look forward to welcoming a tiny baby, who we believe holds hope for humanity’s future, both now and for eternity.

May each of us this Christmas who profess a Christian faith, in the words of a letter in the New Testament to the Apostle Peter, “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, the reason for the hope that you have, with gentleness and grace.”

Janet Smith is chair of Churches Together in Harborough and part of the leadership team of Harborough Baptist Church. Details of Christmas in-building and on-line services from our local churches can be found on individual church websites that can be accessed through https://www.harboroughchurches.org.uk/churches/town.html