Viewpoint from Revd Albert Cadmore 12/01/2024
 Revd Albert Cadmore
formerly Parish Priest at West Somerton and Horsey
The early days and weeks of the New Year are, as always, a time for looking back remembering and reflecting, but also a time for looking forward with hope and with that in mind, over the Christmas period I found myself reflecting once more on the Christmas story, and how, at that first Christmas, Mary and Joseph were, to all intents and purposes, homeless refugees seeking shelter. The Roman Emperor Augustus had ordered a census throughout the Roman world. They were turbulent times, and to us it seems a strange way for a census to be taken, but Joseph had to travel more than eighty miles, with Mary, from Nazareth to his home town of Bethlehem. It would have been at least a four day journey, on foot, and certainly a difficult journey, with little shelter or comforts. In effect they were homeless refugees of their time
 My thoughts have turned to the conflict, chaos and turmoil we have all been hearing about in Israel and Gaza since the horrific Hamas attacks of 7th October 2023, and the Israeli military response.. Whilst Bethlehem has not been under attack in the way that the Gaza Strip has, there have been incredibly heightened tensions, situated as it is just south of Jerusalem but within the West Bank territories, homeland for so many Palestinians
In the Christmas story, Joseph, Mary and Jesus went on to flee to Egypt from Bethlehem, because of the danger of persecution from Herod and there are clear echoes in their story in the plight of the Palestinian refugees, fleeing from danger and conflict and heading for the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt. Their plight mirrors the plight of so many, across the world, not least in Ukraine and those trying to reach our shores across the Channel as they so often flee from dangerous situations in their home countries
In the face of all this conflict, and indeed horror, it is not easy to envisage a positive way forward, and yet, if we look back to the Christmas story, and particularly John’s Gospel, we can read how John describes Jesus as, “the Word made flesh, who lived among us, full of grace and truth”. John was looking back to the prophet Isaiah, probably writing a thousand years earlier who prophesied, “For unto us a child is born … and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”
It is in Jesus, the ‘Prince of Peace’, on whom our hope for the world must be founded. Using picture language, John’s Gospel speaks of Jesus, as, ‘the light that shines in darkness, and the darkness has never put it out’. In all the conflict and turmoil, like a flickering candle, a glimmer of hope remains. We must stay focused on that glimmer of hope and pray for peace
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