Yesterday was the feast of the Holy Innocents.  In the sermon preached by Father Roger he spoke of this in relation to the Christmas Story.  He told us the Christ's birth is spoken of in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew's version is not so pretty. Jesus was born into a tough world. The Wise Men visited.  Herod wanted to kill Jesus. This was nothing to him who had murdered various members of his family. Herod killed all the children under 2 years of age in the area around Bethlehem.  The Holy Family managed to escape to Egypt. The Wise Men arrived not as portrayed in all nativity scenes when the child was still lying in a manger, but when Jesus was probably a toddler (hence the killing of the under twos) and the Holy Family would be living in a house. Nowhere in the Gospels does it say that the Wise Men were kings.

These events which happened during the very early years of Jesus reflect Old Testament events, Moses was hidden from Pharaoh, Herod's murders were like those of Pharaoh's killing of children. The murder of the Holy Innocents today would possibly be called collateral damage. Children have always been valued by their families. In days gone by, children were the insurance policy for their parents, They would work once old enough and then look after their parents in their old age.   Today, children matter even more.  In the long list of Herod's atrocities, the murder of children would hardly make a footnote in history, but our Church and God remember them. They have their own day, 28th December, very close to that of St Stephen (26th) who was the first Christian martyr.

When Mary and Joseph returned from Egypt, they moved north to Galilee, well away from Jerusalem, the political centre at that time.

The choir was officially "off duty" today, but those, not suffering from the dreadful virus, came to join in the worship and mixed up their seating arrangements! Despite the small number in church today, we still had our coffee and tea after service. Thank you to the people who make us our beverages every week. Some of the many unsung heroes who make St Mary's go like clockwork!