‘We always give thanks to God for you all… constantly remembering before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

In this last briefing of 2020, I want to echo St. Paul’s words to the church in Thessalonica, and to give my heartfelt thanks for all that you have given during this extraordinary and difficult year. From the moment that lockdown began – and even in the past 72 hours since Boris’ announcement on a new tiering system – both clergy and laity alike have demonstrated immense energy and resourcefulness, supporting one another and the wider community in quite remarkable ways.
 
Some such support has hit the headlines, locally and even nationally. Much more has remained quiet, unobtrusive and largely unsung. But the Lord who rewards all who ‘give a cup of water in my name’ sees and knows and rejoices.
 
Of course it’s not been easy, and it’s not got any easier as the months have rolled on. Paul’s opening words to the Thessalonians speak first of their ‘work’, then of their ‘labour’ and finally of their ‘endurance’; and the Greek words he uses convey the first invigorating stage of a marathon (work) followed by a patch when the going gets tougher (labour) culminating with the final stage where everything is aching horribly and we come close to ‘hitting the wall’ (endurance).
 
But the secret of it all, he continues, lies in that invigorating little trio of qualities which lie at the very heart of the Christian story: faith, hope and love. ‘And the greatest of these’, he was later to write, ‘is love’.
 
And so may you know that invigorating trio this Christmastime, as we engage afresh with the transforming message of the ‘Word made Flesh’, who ‘dwelt among us, full of grace and truth’.
 
Every blessing,
 
+Andrew       
 

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