Yesterday I was involved in leading and speaking at a wedding ceremony for a friend who helps at the Feast. Following their registry office ceremony during the week, they were keen to mark their decision before God and their friends. Their wedding is very poignant given the recent reconciliation between the bride and her parents and as a result the ceremony felt like a celebration of a family reunited along with the happy couple.
In my role as a pastor at King's Church I have taken plenty of weddings and funerals over the past 20 years. Families are often complicated and these gatherings can therefore bring out the best but also the worst. Christmas is exactly the same. Expectations are usually very high and so a lot rests on a short amount of time.
This year Rebekah and I with our 4 children are going to spend Christmas with my sister and her family. This is the first time she has been in the UK for Christmas for many years having recently returned from living in Australia.
The residents of the project generally have no or very little contact with their own families so approaching Christmas can be difficult. The Jericho Road Project team make sure every resident has a good option for where to go on Christmas day. One of our amazing volunteers hosts Christmas day for a group of residents and friends made at the Feast. She even drives to collect people and drop them off at the end of the evening. Some residents have made enough connection with people at King's Church that they get multiply invites for Christmas Day!
The Christmas Feast is on the 18th December – everyone gets a present, a three course Christmas dinner is served for 250 people plus we have quizzes and entertainment. It is quite an amazing event! The Feast then starts again on the 8th January 2020.
I expect that most people want more than anything else at Christmas for family interactions and friendships to be strong and satisfying. When I speak at weddings, one of the things I usually say is that good marriages are a daily investment. A very expensive glamorous wedding day doesn’t give you a great marriage. The wedding yesterday reminded me again that if we want good relationships we need to invest in family throughout the year rather than depend on a few hours or days at Christmas.
Comments