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Viewpoint from Rt Rev Ian Bishop 26/12/2025
 Rt Rev Ian Bishop
Bishop of Thetford, Diocese of Norwich
I do hope it has been a very Happy Christmas for everyone? Like most clergy post-Christmas, I will be drawing breath after an avalanche of Carol Services and Christmas events. It’s an exhausting but exhilarating season of hope and joy, built around the timeless nativity story
In a troubled world, the space to enjoy the warmth of the Christmas season is a tonic to the troubling geopolitical earthquakes and climate change anxieties that constantly surround us. Suddenly the adverts are full of tempting and distracting offers of summer sunshine and it’s only a couple of short months to spring! But the challenge of the hungry, lonely, homeless, sick and poor can’t be ignored. Despots and tyrants threaten peace and stability, even in Europe. As the New Year begins it feels as though the uncertainties are shaking our community stability and radical voices from left and right are competing to say, ‘we have the answer’
If you’re a New Year resolution type, I really hope that you can be resolved to build, with me, a kinder, gentler world. I regret the divisiveness of so much of our political debate. We need to build community and promote reconciliation, at home, at work and in our communities. St Paul talked about a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5) that is the ministry of the Christian Church. Jesus spoke powerfully about a different way to hold societal relationships, ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you’ (Luke 6:27). It’s not an easy way to live but it bridges gaps, restores what is broken and strengthens community cohesion
In Yarmouth and Gorleston the Churches work tirelessly to unite and bind together and sow the seeds of hope. Projects like the Pathways café and the foodbanks in Yarmouth and Gorleston will be busy bringing practical and spiritual help to those in need of post-Christmas support, whoever they are. In doing so they become the glue that brings us together and the binding that holds us as one
2026 will be the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi. Whilst he probably never wrote the prayer, the famous prayer attributed to him articulates a fine resolution for us all.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me show love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
and where there is sadness, joy
May the year ahead give us all the opportunities to work together for the good of all
+Ian Thetford
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