The Bishop of Reading, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell
(Oxford Diocesan Publications Ltd)
The Church of England has launched a new website for Advent with a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury encouraging people to slow down and take some time out to self reflect and consider the meaning of Christ’s coming for their own lives.
The Bishop of Reading, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, tells us what he thinks would help people – and the church – get the most out of Christmas.
CT: Do you think that rushing through Christmas without a second thought is a trap that we as Christians can fall into?
SC: Yes I think so. Christmas carols would be a good example. I love singing Christmas carols but it feels like we start singing them in October and a bit of ancient Christian wisdom would be the balance between the feast and the fast. There is that song ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’. But actually if every day is Christmas then no day is Christmas.
The ancient pattern of Christian life is where there is a Christian year with seasons and actually the seasons tell the story and each season has its own gift to bring and the gift of the season of Advent is heightening expectation and preparing, not just for welcoming Christ at Christmas but for that day when we will see Him face to face. When we start rushing over that and singing the carols too quickly we miss all that and what it can bring.
When we wait, then when Christmas does come you enjoy it all the more. It’s not about enjoying Christmas less but heightening your enjoyment by going through this time of expectation.
CT: Do you think Christians do this enough? The Archbishop mentions in his message the importance of using Advent to go back to the Bible and the prophesies.
SC: I think as a Church we would benefit from getting back in touch with some of those rhythms which are there in our history of which the church year, the Christian calendar was always seen by Christians as one of the primary ways in which you would meditate upon the whole of the life of Christ through the different seasons.
The more difficult seasons such as Advent and Lent which require fasting and penitence and waiting are pretty counter-cultural to the way we live today. We just need to encourage people to enter into these a bit more deeply.
