“May the child of Bethlehem bless our homes and communities this Christmas”
There was a story in the Yorkshire Post recently which stopped me in my tracks. Younger people are now five times more likely to say they have no friends than they were a decade ago. One in twenty young people report having no close friends at all.
Behind those statistics are individual lives: young people who may be surrounded by thousands of connections online, and yet find themselves lonely. The research speaks of the pressures of growing up through austerity, a pandemic, social media and a housing market which can make the first steps into adult life increasingly difficult.
It reminds us of something we can easily forget: friendship is not an optional extra. We are made for relationships. We need other people, and we need to know that we belong.
As we approach Christmas, I find myself thinking about how much our world has changed, and yet how enduring these human needs remain.
Next year marks around 1,400 years since Saint Paulinus, sent north by Pope Gregory the Great, came to this part of England, baptised King Edwin and helped establish Christianity here in York. As Paulinus’s successor, I am conscious of how different our world is from the one he inhabited. And yet the Church’s calling remains: to serve the changing communities in which it is set, and to proclaim the unchanging hope of the Christian story.
For Christmas tells us something extraordinary about belonging.
In Jesus, God does not remain distant from humanity. God comes among us. He enters our world as a vulnerable child, dependent upon others, welcomed into a family and born into circumstances far removed from comfort or privilege.
The Christian claim is that, in this tiny child, God has come to make his home among us.
Perhaps that is why the Christmas story still speaks so powerfully. It tells us that no one is made to be alone, and that every human life matters to God.
This Christmas, I invite you to find your way back to Bethlehem – perhaps in a carol service, through a familiar Christmas tradition, or simply by opening the Bible and reading the story again.
And as we kneel before the manger, may we hear its invitation: to make room for one another, to notice those who are lonely or without a home, and to become communities in which people can discover friendship, welcome and hope.
May the child of Bethlehem bless our homes and communities this Christmas, and remind us that there is always room for one more at God’s table.
Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York
To find out about services happening near you over Christmas, visit www.achurchnearyou.com. The Church of England Advent and Christmas theme for this year is The Gift of Christmas. Visit www.churchofengland.org/faith-life/what-we-believe/advent-and-christmas/advent-and-christmas-theme-gift-christmas to find out more.
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