A blessed and holy Christmas to everyone. I pray you will taste something of the love, peace, and hope of the Christ Child in this liturgy from our Cathedral.
“We join together in this way from many places, on land where Indigenous Peoples have lived for thousands of years. I speak to you from the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe.
On the night when Jesus was born, hundreds of years ago, this land was heavily forested and snow-covered. Perhaps snow was falling, lightly or heavily; or maybe the night-sky was clear, vast, and filled with stars. Maybe there was some moonlight between the trees, causing ice-crystals to softly sparkle.
While people slept, bird and animal night-hunters searched for prey, leaving the marks of wings or tracks in the snow.
Mostly, this land would have been silent—the deep silence of winter in nature; the kind of silence that has you searching for sounds beyond the flow of blood through the veins in your ears.
This land was deeply silent on the night Jesus entered the world, and his love was here and everywhere in that moment, as it is in every moment of our lives, wherever we are.
We are not gathering in person in our churches this year as a gesture of love and concern for others. But we are not deprived of God’s love and concern for us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
So take heart: while cherished traditions have sadly been stripped away from us, the very core of our faith can shine more brightly. Christmas is not about our cherished traditions—it is about God being born anew within us, reminding us to be the love and peace and hope of Jesus every day of our lives.”
Bishop Shane Parker +