Pope Benedict XVI "Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism".

Give up complaining – focus on gratitude. 

Give up pessimism - become an optimist. 

Give up harsh judgements – think kindly thoughts.

Give up worry – trust Divine Providence.

Give up discouragement – be full of hope. 

Give up bitterness – turn to forgiveness. 

Give up hatred – return good for evil.

Give up negativism – be positive. 

Give up anger – be more patient. 

Give up pettiness – become mature.

Give up jealously – pray for trust. 

Give up gossiping - control your tongue. 

Give up sin – return to virtue. 

Give up giving up – hang in there! 

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Worship without expectations is a good thing. It hollows out space in our hearts free from our own self-centredness ready for the living God. It is easy to see expectations regarding God and spirituality at work in contemporary Australia (or anywhere in the West).

Although church-hopping until the hopper finds the church they like has made churches more honest as they cannot assume people’s allegiance, overall it is unhelpful in the spiritual journey. Supermarket spirituality encourages people to think they know how God wishes to be gracious to them and so they search until they find it. This assumption might be hidden behind the search for uplifting music or a gospel minister, but it still assumes the person concerned knows what God wants for them.

Contrary to this, I don’t think we really know what God wants for us, and how much goodness God wishes to shower upon us, and the sheer weight of goodness we miss because we have tunnel vision: we only receive the goodness that our expectations allow. Breaking our addiction to ourselves by not coming to worship with expectations of what God should do and how God should achieve it can be painful. People confuse this spiritual correction going on within us as boredom, or poor preaching, or bad liturgy, etc.

Another example of this is when people stay at a church because they are receiving what they want. If you think about it, it is just the other side of the coin of people leaving because they don’t get what they want.

Coming to church without expectations of how and what God should do broadens our experience of God, and our hopefulness. Sitting in church when you don’t particularly feel God’s presence is good practice for those times when God seems particularly absent.

Feeling like God is absent at church will also give us a new sense of how shocking the crucifixion of Jesus must have been for the first disciples, not to mention a new sympathy for Jesus hanging on the cross is desolation. We are in good company!

And if you are sitting in church and you wonder where God is in all of this, well focus on the Eucharist: it proclaims the death and resurrection of the Lord until he comes. Talk about presence in absence! And the next time we find ourselves nailed to the cross, there will be some formed practice to fall back on.

Revd Dr Warren Huffa

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Hello World!

‘He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’. (John 1:11-12)

Most of us will be familiar with this glorious passage from  John’s Gospel which is often read at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.  It was the best present the world had ever been given, that is, Jesus’ coming into the world. It was a present more precious than anything that had been given before or since. Yet the really sad thing about it was that so many people said: No thanks! Not interested!

In fact, they did quite a lot more than say no thanks. They spat at him, swore at him, nailed him to a piece of wood and killed him. They killed God’s greatest gift to humankind – his precious and holy Son, Jesus.

A serene interpretation of St John the Evangelist by Guido Reni (1575-1642), an Italian baroque painter and engraver noted for the classical idealism of his renderings of mythological and religious subjects.

Further into John’s Gospel, (and in the other Gospels, of course)  we learn that many people rejected Jesus. And when one stops to think about it, all these years on not much has changed. All of us know people who, when considering the Christian faith, have said No thanks. Not interested! 

In some parts of the world, especially in the West, there is a huge move away from the Christian faith which previous generations learned at their parent’s knees. Many children no longer hear Bible stories from their parents or at their schools.

I was reminded of this not so long ago outside a crematorium chapel in London. After the funeral service, one of the mourners enquired about what he thought was a ‘poem’ I had read near the end during the service. Apparently, the so-called ‘poem’ was unfamiliar to most of those present at the funeral. The poem was ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ – the ‘Our Father!’

It was a sharp reminder to me just how far the Church has failed to connect with a whole generation of people. I suppose one could safely assume that if they were unaware of the Lord’s Prayer, then the prologue to St John’s Gospel, one of the great gems of biblical literature, would be a load of gobbledegook to them!

These people grew up without ever having heard it. In this particular case, these people had not so much said ‘No thanks’ or even rejected Jesus; they had yet to hear even some of the basic fundamentals of the faith through the Holy Bible. They had yet to receive and believe in Jesus’ name.

There are great swaths of people to whom God, and Jesus and spirituality and religion are utterly alien. And sadly this trend seems to be growing. As recently as last Friday, the National Secular Society in Britain won a landmark court ruling banning Christian prayers as an official agenda item at hundreds of Town Council meetings in England and Wales. It remains to be seen what official response there will be from senior church leaders at this latest attack on religion.

I guess with it comes to Jesus it’s impossible to sit on the fence. You are either for him or against him. You either accept him or you reject him. You either love him or you despise him.

Certainly in Jesus’ time everyone in his sphere simply had to sit up, take notice and think. His miracles were so amazing, his teaching so challenging, his love so transforming, that you simply had to react one way or the other. You just couldn’t sit on the fence. You couldn’t be a ‘Don’t know’; you simply had to make up your mind. And despite all that Jesus did, still so many people rejected him.

But not everyone rejected him. Then, as today, it’s certainly true that a great many people have accepted him and said a mighty big ‘YES’ to him!

John tells us the wonderful good news: ‘But to all who received him, all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.’ (John 1:12)

How did they accept him? Well, by believing in him, certainly, but also by receiving him. Believing on its own is not enough – you need to receive him as well.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says: ‘Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with him and he with me. (Rev 3:20).

You see, Jesus may be knocking at the door of your life right now. Will you open it and welcome him in. Jesus wants so much to know you personally, to be your Saviour and your Lord. Will you receive him into your life? If you do, then you have the assurance that he will remain with you forever, and that together you will enjoy a whole new special relationship with God.

‘But to all who received him, all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. (John 1:12)

Belief is very important – but as John reminds us again today that that by itself is just not enough. You need to receive Jesus into your life as well. It’s the reception of Jesus that really counts, and it’s that that will sustain you through the up-and-downs of everyday life. That’s what will keep you going.

The way we know Jesus is when we begin letting him have influence in our life. When you have not only decided to believe in him, but also truly receive him into your life, that’s when your life will start to change. Reading your Bible, saying your prayers, coming to church often, all that is very important. But allowing Jesus to have influence in your life is quite another thing.

It’s what I like to call having intimacy with him, and some of you heard me say that before.  How much of that is going on for you right now. How much intimacy is there between you and God right now? When was he last real, when was he last alive, when did he last provoke you to joy and envelope you with his loving peace. For me, that is intimacy with God, and it’s that that will keep you going when the going gets tough.

God is just waiting, he’s trying, he’s knocking, he’s urging. Christ is calling us by name to truly receive him into our lives. Once we start really looking and seeing, then he begins to draw himself ever so close, against the current, against those countless voices in our ears, and the many hands that would hold us back from such firm faith, friendship and intimacy.

That at any rate is what he longs to do. For it to happen we have to receive him into our lives and see him as he is himself; not as what we have made him, not how we have chosen to understand him.

We have to let him stand before us so that we can really see him and that for some of us, maybe for the very first time. 

Wherever you are in the world, may the grace and goodness of God go with you and surround you with glory.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Count your blessings, not your troubles. Whenever we encounter a challenge, we always have a choice. We can choose to be a person full of thankfulness or full of complaints. Thankfulness will lead us to have faith, optimism, contentment and hope in God. Complaints will cultivate more worries, fear and concerns. Which path would you choose?

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A Journey to the Heart of Lent

Topic: In the footsteps of Christ – from the Desert to the Cross

This day-long pilgrimage is for all members of St John’s and its daughter churches and will be led by the Revd’s Will Newman, Desmond Cox and Mark Rogers. The venue for the retreat is the Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, which is on a hill above Shatin in the New Territories.

Established in 1930, the Centre promotes Christian spirituality, retreats and Chinese Christian art.

A coach will leave from St John’s Cathedral at 09:15 on Saturday 3rd March and return by 16:30.  If you would like to join the pilgrimage then email your details to: reception@stjohnscathedral.org.hk

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The Rev'd Canon Matthias Der.

The Trustees of St John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong have announced results of the work of the Search Committee of the Board of Patronage. Chaired by Archbishop Paul Kwong, this Committee was convened last year to find a successor to Dean Andrew Chan, following his election as the next Bishop of Western Kowloon Diocese.

The Committee conducted an extensive international search for the best candidate and received responses from priests in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Nigeria.

The Trustees of St John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong are pleased to state that the next Dean of St. John’s Cathedral will be The Rev’d Canon Matthias Der.  Fr. Matthias was raised in Hong Kong and attended the Diocesan Boy’s School. He is the son of an Anglican priest who himself ministered in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Canada.

Fr. Matthias’ 22 years priestly ministry are marked with nurturing Christian discipleship, sharing the gospel and making it relevant to everyday life. Currently, he is incumbent of St. Christopher’s Anglican Church in the Diocese of Toronto.

In 2007 he was appointed an Honorary Canon of St. James’ Cathedral, Toronto. Canon Matthias is married to Rachel and has two teenage daughters.

Upon acceptance of the post, Fr. Matthias said, “It is with excitement and deep trust in God that I look forward to sharing Christ’s ministry with the people of  St John’s Cathedral in furthering God’s kingdom.”

It is anticipated Fr. Matthias will take up his new post in late July this year.

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Hello World!

Today’s gospel bears all the classic hallmarks of Mark’s writing style. The text is crisp, to the point and filled with action. His gospel was written for a Roman audience that favoured dynamic narrative. Throughout his gospel, Mark uses action-packed words like: immediately, suddenly, and at once. He presents the gospel with immediacy and urgency that catches the reader’s attention from the start. He tells the story how it is – straight away he gets to heart of each story without any faffing about. His style and approach to writing is completely different to the other Gospel writers. In an almost journalistic style, he moves from event to event without any padding or filling. It’s all very crisp and succinct.

In today’s story, Jesus has just finished teaching in the Synagogue, and like most of our Sundays, he went off home afterwards to eat. He went with Peter, Andrew, James and John only to find that Peter’s mother-in-law was very ill and he heals her.

A contemporary study of 'Christ at Prayer' by the distinguished American artist Richard Hook (1914-1975)

Even though he was tired from preaching and teaching he took time to heal this woman.  Later that evening, people flocked to the house so that Jesus could heal them too. And he did. The last verse in the passage is also filled with action. It describes how Jesus began his Galilean ministry the very next day, and he went all over Galilee preaching and healing those in need.

It goes without saying really that Jesus was one busy man. He was constantly on the go, moving from place to place, preaching, teaching and healing.  So, I think it is fair to ask: where did he get all the energy? How on earth did he keep on going at this pace?   I think part of the secret is in verse 35. “ “Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of the town to a lonely place, where he prayed” (GNB),  and that is the secret of Jesus’ energy and purpose.  It may even explain why Mark included these few verses in his gospel.

Mark witnessed the power of prayer in Jesus’ life and ministry and he wanted to make sure that we realized the source of Jesus’ strength. The source of course was prayer. Those few verses are there to remind us again of the great importance of prayer, and taking time out each day to do it.

Now we all know that prayer is one of the most important resources in daily Christian living. Prayer makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of those for whom we pray. That’s one of the reasons why, the intercessions are such a sacred time in our worship. We are speaking as the people of God.  And God really does hear these prayers.

I once read the story of a little girl in her bedroom getting ready for bed. Part of her nightly routine was to say her prayers before going to sleep. When she was ready to pray, she suddenly jumped up and ran out onto the landing where she cried out to the rest of the household: ‘I’m ready to pray – anybody want anything?’ That little girl certainly understood the power of prayer!

I have no qualms about saying that I can tell the difference to my life on days that I don’t pray. I don’t feel as centred or focussed. I feel less prepared to say ‘No’ to those little temptations that plague us all from time to time. For some it may mean over eating, getting irritable at long supermarket queues, and the like. You know what I mean. When I spend time in prayer I really do feel more focused and even more responsive to God. It’s as the passage from Isaiah says, “God lifts me up on the wings of an eagle.” I believe God does that for everyone and, speaking for myself,  I experience it more fully, or am aware of it more fully when I spend time in prayer.

And not only are we lifted when we pray for ourselves, we help lift and are lifted even more when we pray for others. Isaiah Chapter 40:31 says: “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Jesus knew the truth of that passage. He knew he would “faint and be weary” if he didn’t spend time in prayer. His strength came from his close communion with God through prayer. And it’s the same for us as it was for his first disciples. Part of their strength, and part of their purpose, came from the fact that Jesus prayed for them. There is absolutely no doubt that we can help others and effect a change in their lives through prayer.

Taking time out to be with and to listen to God should be at the heart of every Christian’s life, if one is taking the spiritual life seriously. Most of us say some morning and evening prayer. But maybe for some of us these prayers often consist of over-familiar words which we say in haste while our thoughts race ahead to our daily tasks.  What we need is concentrated, dedicated prayer, prayer that is like a hunger, and that kind of prayer always transforms and fortifies us. It’s a prayer which is not so much asking for things (although that’s part of it); it’s a deep longing of the soul.

How would you describe your daily prayers? What do they consist of? Do you have a regular routine? Is there any kind of structure to what you are doing in your spiritual life? I know that some of you get terribly confused about prayer; I know that because you tell me you do. And when we unpack it and look at the problem it’s more often than not a simple case of the person ‘saying’ prayers rather than ‘praying’ prayers. It’s a very common problem. In a sense, prayer begins where expression ends. The words that reach out lips are often but waves on the surface of our being. The highest form of worship and prayer is silence. And that quest for silence, especially in such a noisy and obtrusive world we live in, is something that Jesus understood very well. And today we are being reminded of that again in the Gospel.

Probably the most beneficial prayer of all is just to be in the presence of God, without saying or doing anything. Just to sit in his presence, as Jesus did with God, and Mary did with Jesus on occasions, and millions of others have done ever since.

To be in the presence of God, without saying or doing anything, is not particularly easy. A lot of people struggle with silence, fearing most perhaps that they won’t know how to cope with quietness and stillness. But even with only a little perseverance you will be richly rewarded by God.  It won’t be long before you see immeasurable benefits to your spiritual life and daily living. You will become more God-focussed and Christ-centred. You will also begin to see that ultimately prayer is not really about words but about deep communion with God, and loving intimacy with God. Prayer then becomes a daily resting place in the presence of the divine, the holy and if you can cultivate that relationship, your life will never be the same again!

Wherever you are in the world may the love and peace of the Lord be always with you.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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I rest quietly here, as a little boat which has been tossed by the waves,

buffeted by the wind, but now rests secure in a sheltered harbour.

Here all my projects lose their power over me. 

My fragmented self is reassembled and I am made whole again.

In your presence, I experience my true worth, 

which consists not in doing but in being. 

I surrender myself into your hands.  I am at peace.  

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Hello World!

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple has found its way into all corners of the Christian world, and every generation of Christians has made something different out of it.  And yet, perhaps more than any other feast in the Christian calendar, this feast day is the least understood, and even less I suspect The Purification or Candlemas…to give today’s feast its other names.

Strange that really as this feast is actually a holy day of obligation. And maybe that’s part of the problem. In our pick ‘n mix age, people don’t feel obligated to anything. Today, obligation to just about anything has all but gone, except in circles like the military. But to all of you reading this on-line I say: Welcome to Candlemas!

Presentation of Christ in the Temple. An altar panel painted by Hans Holbein the Elder in 1502. It is part of a fine collection of master paintings in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

St Luke is the only gospel writer to mention Mary and Joseph going to the Temple in Jerusalem to carry out the requirements of the Law of Moses. They were good people. They obeyed the law and followed the custom of forty days after Jesus’ birth, they brought him to the temple to be redeemed; that is, to be offered to God by way of the practice of offering a sacrifice.

Not among the wealthy, they would have purchased the two birds necessary for the sacrifice, probably unable to afford the higher price for a lamb.

This young couple had had some amazing experiences already because of this child, and it wasn’t about to stop.

Then Simeon steps in, takes the child from Mary’s arms, and they are left standing there with two birds in Joseph’s hands.

Simeon had been a faithful and devoted attendee at the Temple – and today, prompted by the spirit, he goes once again in the expectation that this is the day when the promise of God will be revealed.

I’m not sure whether Simeon knew how this was going to happen, but on this day he finally sees what he has lived and hoped for all his life. This one moment in time – brief compared to his long wait – he now not only sees, but touches the light, the salvation, the ancient promise fulfilled. For Simeon it is no longer just an idea, a thought, a feeling: it is real, here, and it is a living thing.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, faithful Jews were looking for the comfort, the consolation for Israel, the fulfilling of the prophecies in Isaiah to the faithful remnant of Israel.  And Simeon has now discovered it, and with such longing in his heart sings the words of the beautiful and much-loved  Nunc Dimittis in which he expresses his sense of relief and joy.

Then we have Anna, a prophet, devoted and trusting of God’s promise. So much so that most of her long life has been lived in the Temple in constant prayer and fasting. Her realization of what is before her leads her to tell everyone who this child is. Her life would never be the same again.

While Simeon tells that in this child’s journey there will be troubles ahead, he and Anna would not see the ministry and subsequent events in Jesus’ life. What they did see and recognize is enough to assure them of the devotion and love of God for his people. Their hearts and souls can rest in this assurance – their hope rewarded.

Like Anna and Simeon, we also have the revelation of God’s promise in Christ; we also can see the light and catch a glimpse of what is yet to be – the promised future.

Like Simeon and Anna we also live in hope of the continuing presence of God’s work and purpose in our lives and the world – as we often affirm in the Eucharist:  “Christ will come again”.

We have another forty-day period coming up in our church year – Lent. It’s a time for reflection on our discovery of light in our own darkness – our own times of bewilderment and gloom.

Perhaps we can also reflect on what we do with the real, living light of the gospel. Do we recognize our Simeons and Annas? Do we nurture and encourage the young (in age, as well as in faith) to grow and trust in God.

Do we want all the answers and promises right now because we have seen in part what is yet to be, or can we live in hope, trusting God?

Do we reach out with the light of the Gospel to each other here within this church community? And do we carry it outside so that we might reflect that light by our own example of godly living? They are a few of the things we can ponder in our own hearts during the coming penitential season of Lent.

The ancient feast of Candlemas has inspired generations of people down the ages; it inspires us also in our own time.  That day Mary, the mother of our Lord, went in the temple carrying the light – JESUS.  And in our own time, Mary still offers and shares this light with us, and invites us to share with gladness and joy the light that we carry.

Jesus is our light. He is our light in a manger; he is our light in the temple; he is our light nailed to the cross on Calvary. Let us then approach him in great humility. Let us ask him to dwell in us and give us the grace that like Mary we too may be worthy to carry him with us so that with him we can conquer the darkness of evil.

Mary carried the Jesus-Light in the temple, and today we are to carry the same Jesus-Light not only into this temple, but also to carry him with us and share him with a world that is in great need for Light.

Following the fine example of Simeon, may we all go out into the world in peace to love and serve the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul.  And may God give you the grace to put all your trust in his promises, and the patience to wait a lifetime for their fulfilment. Amen.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Hello World!

I am sure that everyone can think of a wedding that particularly stands out in your memory, one that had an extra special air of sincerity or happiness about it.  And I am not thinking here about your own wedding! Sometimes it’s the special chemistry between the bride and groom that shines through. Other times it’s the feeling of love and togetherness that exudes from the family. Weddings are usually (though not always!) happy celebrations, and parents as well as the bridge and groom never forget them. Even if your wedding didn’t work out the way you had had hoped, you will never forget your wedding day.

Marriage at Cana by 14c Italian master Giotto

I can’t even begin to think of the number of weddings I have presided at or attended during 25-years as a priest. Really rather a lot and everyone of them has been different. Some have been grand affairs in large churches or cathedrals or palatial villas. Others have been much more intimate gatherings. And if today’s trend continues, sadly many more in the future will be held in secular buildings or open spaces. No two weddings are exactly the same.

Today you can find a great many books and other material offering advice on wedding etiquette. In fact, it’s an industry in itself, boosting the profits of caterers, musicians, florists and wedding planners, to name a few.

Then there are all the rules and guidelines about what to wear, advice on speeches and toasts, and even on who should pay for what. Weddings are expensive, as those of you know who have married-off sons and daughters! Then there is all the proper etiquette. You will even find suggestions about how to deal with divorced couples, and some useful tips for the best man or chief bridesmaid. The list is endless.

In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus attending a wedding in Cana of Galilee. This one appears to have been a small town wedding. The story is so clear that you can picture yourself there. His disciples are there with Jesus, as well as his mother, Mary. No doubt there was a lot of entertainment; weddings were occasions for the whole village to meet together socially. And back then in the Middle East, weddings usually lasted for a week or more, since people came from long distances.

Experts on the social customs of first century Palestine tell us that running out of wine would be considered a major embarrassment to say the least. It wasn’t just a minor social inconvenience. It was a major problem at the event. It would be like inviting people to your own wedding or party and running out of food half-way through the festivities. The family is running out of wine – hugely embarrassing and upsetting.

This is the exact predicament that Mary senses. If something isn’t done about it, this family would be ridiculed and remembered as the family which ran out of wine! Simply stated, the bride and groom would never live it down!

Mary asks Jesus to help when she says, “They have no wine.” Jesus at first seems indifferent but after his response his mother tells the servants to do what Jesus tells them. Jesus performs his first miracle– his first sign. It’s called the “Sign of Cana.”

In the Bible, wine, because of all that it symbolizes, is one of God’s most precious gifts. It gladdens hearts, and that of God himself; it is a blessing from heaven.

On a religious level too, wine has special significance, and its abundance strongly suggests the happiness and joy of the messianic age.

Now to be sure, Jesus didn’t have to perform this miracle, but he did because of the needs of those around him. He did it out of love and concern for everyone at the wedding celebration. Jesus spent his life on earth for the sake of others. He didn’t change water into wine to satisfy his own ego.

What does all this mean for you and me in Hong Kong in January 2012?

What about us? Do we use our gifts for the service of others? In his numerous writings, St Paul frequently reminds us that each of us has gifts. Indeed, he says: there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in us, in everyone.

I wonder what you consider to be your special gift or gifts. Perhaps you have the gift of being a good listener; a good musician; a good speaker with words; good with food preparation, cooking and baking; good with young people; good with older people; good with computers; good with embroidery; good with organizing; good to greet people, good at making people feel comfortable at home. Are you using your gifts for ministry in help further the mission at Emmanuel, St John’s or at the church where you worship regularly?  Or are you thinking – “Well, the priests and committee members can do all that?”

And don’t say you don’t have any gifts! Everyone has talents, gifts and skills they can use in life and for the ministry of the church. Pray to know these gifts, pray this week to recognize and use your gifts and talents in God’s service. That’s your task this week–identify one gift you have and then figure out how you will use it in the church to help others.

The “Sign of Cana” is not merely a nice, comfy story from Jesus’ life recounting a day when he happened to be at a wedding. It is a revelation of the glory of Christ, which is the source and object of our faith, as well as an invitation to contemplate the glory of the Lord throughout this Epiphany season.

Won’t you let Jesus turn your life from water into wine? When you next take bread and wine at Holy Communion ask God in your prayers, (and remember that you are asking the Eternal Bridegroom), to affirm your gifts and make you one with him as you do his work in the vineyard.

Wherever you are in the world may you be richly blessed in all your future endeavours.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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(Flor McCarthy)

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Happy New Year to you all: I hope this New Year, and indeed the whole year, will be happy for you and your families and for the causes that concern you. And I hope this year will be happy not simply in some superficial sense of the absence of the things that irritate or annoy or the presence of things that give us momentary pleasure, but happy in the more biblical sense of blessed. I hope you will be blessed this year: that whatever lies ahead of you will involve some deepening of your experience, some lessening of your fear and anxiety and the replacement of a facile optimism that this is the best of all possible worlds with an enduring trust that “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”.

“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.’’ (Luke 2.21)

If my memory still serves me right, this is the first time in 25 years that we have observed this particular Festival on a Sunday. It is transferable and can be moved to Monday 2nd January when it falls, very occasionally, on a Sunday, and that is what has happened in this place in the past as preachers, released from the constraints posed of two specific events ― one of them of a surgical nature ― have taken to waxing lyrical on the Second Sunday of Christmas about the auguries for the new year and the Christian hope for a better year for God’s Church, mankind and the world.

A contemporary drawing of Jesus Christ

The naming of Christ is hardly a trigger for a collective ‘body swerve’; it is an obvious aspect of the Christian feast. ‘Jesus’, in Hebrew, means ‘Yahweh saves’. Devotion to the name of Jesus meant that in the middle ages there were various moves to establish a separate feast day for it. The Book of Common Prayer reflects this by calling 1 January The Circumcision and 7 August The Name of Jesus. The ASB and Common Worship Lectionaries have re-united both on 1st January but the General Roman Calendar of 1969 keeps 1January as the octave of the Nativity and the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, while the Name of Jesus is celebrated on the 3January by Catholics if following their 1969 Calendar, or on the Sunday between the Octave of Christmas and Epiphany, (or 2 January) if the provision of the 1962 Calendar is being followed. Any reference to the Circumcision seems to have been excised from the title of both of those Roman Catholic feasts.

Circumcision, undeniably, introduces a degree of awkwardness, which, I suspect, dates from the Victorian era in the 19th Century, and has resulted in a certain prudishness that lingers to this day and can be found in many societies, especially among the Christian elements in the former British Empire. One often hears the local Chinese society of Hong Kong described as conservative and, while many attitudes have changed in the 45 years I have been about in Hong Kong, there are still strong remnants of those Victorian undertones, and talking about the private parts of the body is, how can I say…politely frowned upon…and well toned down.

Twenty years ago, I was new to the ordained ministry and, occasionally, I over-stepped the mark by revealing personal reminiscences (to some they would be hailed as testimonies), which, I liked to think, enlivened and introduced a little contemporary relevance to my sermons. On a Sunday evening, at Evening Prayer ― The Governor, Lord Wilson, and the Permanent Secretary, UK Foreign Office, were in the front row ― I was expounding upon a Pauline text (Galatians 5.12) and I recounted the advice my mother received from our family doctor in 1938 amidst the darkening clouds of impending war in Europe. ‘The Nazis may invade,’ opined the good doctor, ‘and when Hitler’s SS goons line up all the British males and order them to drop their trousers, those circumcised will be labelled Juden, daubed with a yellow Star of David and marched off to concentration camp, never to be seen again’. His warning was well heeded by my parents but the sequel was endured 20 years later in the ward of a Sydney teaching hospital when the patient, drowsily regaining consciousness and becoming increasingly aware of pain, was greeted jovially by the eminent surgeon: “It went well. You’re something of a star. The operating theatre’s viewing gallery was chock-a-block…a great crowd of interns and medical students turned up to watch”.

When I recounted these events…and the profound embarrassment experienced at the time, on the telephone to a close friend and Priest Vicar at Westminster Abbey, he exploded: ‘You talked about circumcision in the company of The Queen’s representative in Hong Kong. Good God!”

Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham ‘and his children for ever’. The theme of today also picks up Christ’s keeping of the Law, and the idea that it was the first occasion on which Christ shed blood invites reflection on the New Testament made in that blood. The bloodshed and nakedness have also allowed theologians to emphasise the humanity of Christ at times when the recognition of his humanity was felt to be under threat.

In contrast to such hugely important concerns, you will appreciate that on this joyfully welcomed day of massively wished-for happiness, I am reminded, while on my feet in this pulpit, that in 2012 our world will face great challenges ― politically, economically and socially. It is possible that history will adjudge that we are poised at one of the great pivotal moments in the human story.

So what are the blessings of religion that I am wishing you as I greet you with the traditional Happy New Year this morning?

Well, against the catalogue of religion’s shortcomings, we have to recognise that religions are, and remain, the resource and the inspiration of almost all the greatest achievements of human creativity, whether in art or architecture or agriculture, music, poetry, drama, spiritual exploration, even, in origin, the development of the natural sciences. This creative resourcefulness of religions remains as vital now as it has been in the past.

We may discover through our week-by-week assembly here clues about how to be better people by reinforcing our shared values and our sense of what is most important in human life. For all the manifest flaws of our religion (which are related to our manifest flaws as individuals and as communities), the sense of God which we glean through our worship, our openness to God’s word in scripture, our sharing of bread and wine, and our care for one another, give us resources for living, and living creatively and humanly, in a world that often seems to have lost its capacity for creativity and humanity. That, I think, is a not insubstantial blessing for us who gather in church at the beginning of a new year.

More than usually at this time of year, there is a temptation for clerical critics of consumerism to claim vindication. The global economy is beset with structural weaknesses. Weak growth and the continuing debt crisis are measured not only in raw statistics of GDP but also in lost jobs, deprivation and anxiety for the future. Protesters outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Wall Street in New York and the Hongkong Bank in our city, decry corporate greed. But it would be a great mistake for well-meaning Christian leaders to confuse the message that the Son of God was born in a manger with an anti-capitalist jeremiad. To do so will simply put the Church in opposition to its congregants in the pews.

Reinhold Niebuhr, the Protestant priest and ethicist, once noted that “all political positions are morally ambiguous because, in the realm of politics and economics, self-interest and power must be harnessed and beguiled rather than eliminated”. Many clerical pronouncements unfortunately overlook such ambiguity and assume that there is one, obviously right course in policymaking.

It is a moral cause and a Christian obligation, declaimed down the ages by the prophets and in the Beatitudes, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. But concern for the poor and hostility to injustice are not the monopoly of the protesters. They are keenly felt by families who face financial pressures of their own, while working hard and retaining a firm belief in the value choices that a free society allows them.

When we clergy address our congregations, I suggest we guard against exhibiting some relic of that puritanical suspicion of seasonal conviviality and enjoyment. It would be easy, and even tempting, to call for a greater sense of the spiritual by counterposing it to the false god of consumption. But it is a false dichotomy and poor theology to suppose, with Wordsworth, that in getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

The wish to better one’s lot and provide financial security for one’s dependants is far from an ignoble motivation. There are worse things even than material acquisitiveness for the sake of it. As John Maynard Keynes observed, with a wisdom matched by topicality given the recent death this week of Kim Jong-Il, a despot who maintained a population in a hell of penurious captivity: “It is better that a man should tyrannise over his bank balance than over his fellow citizens.”

The people will be expecting messages from the pulpit in the days to come that illuminate the soul searching of Christians and of society as a whole in difficult times and will enrich individual faith and public life. Christians who believe in a liberal society under the rule of law and who reflect prayerfully on the choices that they make are entitled to spiritual guidance.

For it is a mark of suffering humanity to be conflicted in an honest quest for truth. The Christmas message is that God came to share the human condition by becoming fully human, in Jesus of Nazareth. The Incarnation does away with the division between the spiritual and the corporeal. Its celebration calls not for self-mortification, but for humility and gratitude.  The joys of this Christmas Season, including this New Year’s Day, reside in that ultimate mystery, and also in family, fellowship and the pleasures of the senses. Amen.

Fr John Chynchen

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Hello World!

When you look back at 2011 what comes to your mind? How were you able to serve the Lord in 2011? Did you do it to the best of your ability? How many people turned to God because of your personal witness and actions? How was your mission life in 2011? Did your spiritual graph go down or up in the year that has just past?

What are your plans for 2012? What are your New Year resolutions? What bad habits are you going to avoid in 2012? My advice is to make a firm plan and stick to it; and don’t forget to include God’s presence in your life and decision-making. That way God can guide you and help you to accomplish whatever you want to achieve during the next 12-months.

A New Year and a new journey begins for us all

Many of you may still have on a wall at home or at work a 2011 calendar. Well, I looked over mine last night, the one that has hung in my cathedral office all through 2011. Before you throw your old one away, I invite you to do the same and have a quick look through it, whether its a calendar or a diary. As you do so, think about all the many things you did during 2011 – all that happened during last year.  Like me, you too will remember the many happy days you enjoyed – the vacations, family reunions, parties, and other special occasions marked on your calendar. You might also be reminded of some sad times, the death of a loved one, or some unfinished business or situations which taught you something about yourself or those around you.

Well, here we are again at the start of a brand new year with our brand new calendars or diaries. They all begin from 1st January 2012. If yours is anything like mine, then it is probably still fairly blank and empty, apart perhaps for a few important birthdays and anniversaries you have already entered.  But I’m sure it will fill up quickly. And as we begin another year we realise that there’s a lot of the old one we want to take with us – good things we’ve learnt, good memories, and good experiences.

But quite likely there is also a lot of the old year we don’t want to take with us. Things we may be ashamed of – days when we were disappointed or hurt, days when we remember arguments and problems in relationships.

Everyone starts the New Year with a new, clean calendar and diary. 2012 is not yet one day old.  Yet we know that life is a rich tapestry of highs and lows, a real mixture, and it won’t take long before that mix is again part of our lives.  Joys, good times with family and friends, but also the fruit of selfish pride and carelessness in human relationships.

The Church never starts New Year with New Year resolutions. It doesn’t gather the congregation together on New Year’s Day and simply say – ‘try and do better next year’. No, because the Church doesn’t work like that; it doesn’t yield to the ways of the world. It doesn’t begin with human effort or, for that matter, doe it rely on human effort to improve things.

Actually, the Church doesn’t have much confidence in the world or in the ability of human beings to change the way things are. Rather, the Church believes only God can make a difference. Only God can renew and recreate and give new starts to new years.

For that reason the Church has always begun the New Year celebrating the name of Jesus. If we are to have any hope for 2012, if we are to leave behind the guilt and mistakes of 2011, if we are to be able to look forward with confidence, it is because of Jesus Christ, the Son of the heavenly Father and our Lord and Saviour.

Everyone hopes that at the start of a new year things will much better for us and for the world. But rarely does it seem to turn out quite like that. We shall doubtless hear more about the financial mess plaguing the world, affecting the lives millions of people. Doubtless too we shall experience more natural disasters around the globe, and tragically more acts of absurd and destructive terrorism – proof enough that we are fallen people.

We are not what we should be. We can be so cruel to one another, neglectful and uncaring. At least that is the impression given, until we realise that the world is also full of good people, many living lives of heroic goodness with integrity, and who are caring and generous. We hear more of what is negative about our world rather than what is positive. Of course, we mustn’t be naïve and pretend that there is no evil or sin in the world. There is. But we must never forget all the good that is being done, and much more than we often realise or acknowledge.

It is this thought that is uppermost in my mind today, New Year’s Day. It is right to complain about the evil around us, but we must also celebrate what is good and inspirational and life-giving!

When writing about the start of a new year, the great, late Cardinal Basil Hume spoke about a possible New Year resolution. “Be prepared”, he said, “to change yourself for the better. There is always a tendency within each of us to be selfish, to be greedy, and to be too materialistic in outlook and behaviour. It is always a struggle to be good and to do well, but those unattractive tendencies have to be resisted every day”.

As always, Hume is absolutely spot-on! What he is saying is simply this:  that regardless of yesterday’s failures, yesterday’s hurts and setbacks, we should remember that everyday there has to be a new start, and to achieve inner-change is not just up to us. We need to recognise that God is working deep within us, and is always prompting and inspiring us to become more and more like Christ. He so much wants us to become people who are kinder to each other, more respectful to each other, more generous to each other. If all of us made every effort to do this every day, then the world would be a much better place, and we would all be so much happier.

So, let us all begin the New Year full of joy and hope and expectation, not least because as Christians we begin it with confession, and hearing the good news of the absolution that our sins are forgiven.  And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.  Forgiven by God and renewed and energized by him, we can confidently face 2012, and cope with anything life throws at us.

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2012.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Sat 24th December – Christmas Eve

11.00pm Midnight Mass

Sun 25th December – Christmas Day

11.00am Family Eucharist with Carols

Sun 1st January 2012 – The Second Sunday of Christmas  (New Year’s Day)

Please note that on New Year’s Day there will not be a 09:00 Holy Communion Service, but the 10:15 Family Eucharist Service will be held as usual.

Christmas & New Year Services at St. John’s Cathedral

Sun 18th December – The Fourth Sunday of Advent
8:00am Said Eucharist
9.00am Sung Eucharist
10.30am Holy Eucharist (Mandarin)
11.45am Holy Eucharist
2.00pm Sung Eucharist (Pilipino)
6.00pm Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Sat 24th December – Christmas Eve
5.00pm Christingle Service
6:00pm Cantonese Service
11.30pm Midnight Mass

Sun 25th December – Christmas Day
8.00am Said Eucharist
9.00am Sung Eucharist
10.30am Holy Eucharist (Mandarin)
11.45am All Age Worship with Eucharist
2.00pm Sung Eucharist (Pilipino)
6.00pm Evensong

Sat 31st December – New Year’s Eve
11.00pm Watchnight Service (Sung Eucharist)

Sun 1st January 2012 – The Naming & Circumcision of Jesus
8.00am Said Eucharist
9.00am Sung Eucharist
10.30am Holy Eucharist (Mandarin)
11.45am All Age Worship with Eucharist
2.00pm Sung Eucharist (Pilipino)
6.00pm Eucharist with Prayers of Healing

See also: St. John’s Cathedral and Daughter Churches Advent & Christmas Services Programme

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A young Australian student is spending Christmas in a shabby boarding house in London. Like many students, his main problem is money.  He has to keep to a very tight budget.  His slender allowance might have been enough five years ago, but not now in the winter of 2011.  For him there is little joy in Christmas, sitting for hours in his drab little room or having to spend too many daylight hours in department stores just to keep warm.

A detail of Hong Kong's contribution to an international exhibition of nativity scenes in the Bethlehem Peace Center. Since opening in 2000, the center continues to promote peace, democracy, religious tolerance and cultural diversity in Palestine and around the world.

There is a young single mother living in a tiny studio flat in New York, under the constant threat of eviction. Without family, without friends, she lives only for her little child. She has to do without many things herself to make sure that Santa doesn’t forget her little boy. And that will probably be her only joy this Christmas.

And there’s an elderly lady living alone in Hong Kong. Her husband died three years ago and her few surviving relatives are scattered all over the world. She has nobody left now to keep her company at Christmas, except a few greeting cards, and the memories of all those other Christmases when the house was full of happy children’s voices and the delicious smells of Christmas cooking.

For these three people and, sadly, for so many others, Christmas is the loneliest time of year. They’re just so glad when it’s all over, when the fairy lights, Christmas trees and decorations have all been taken down, and people return to their routine everyday existence.

For them Christmas is like what it must have been for Mary and Joseph as they trudged the streets of Bethlehem looking for shelter and found there was ‘no room’. No room then and no room now. And the tragedy of all this loneliness, especially at Christmas, is that it need not be. Of all the ills that society is plagued with today, loneliness is perhaps the worst, if only because it is the most unnecessary. It is our selfishness, our neglect, our indifference which causes loneliness in others.

In some parts of the world there is a custom of lighting a candle and placing it in a window as a sign that Mary, Joseph and Child are welcome here. There may be a neighbour down the road who sees that candle and desperately needs that welcome. As we prepare to lift our glasses to absent friends and family at Christmas, we should look around our parish, workplace, or wherever, and check to see if there is anybody we have left out. If we can’t have those we would most like to have at Christmas, there is always somebody else we can share some quality time with. Our friendship and hospitality is the best present we can give to those who feel alone and isolated. And it is likely to be the best present they will receive this Christmas.

Remember again the Christmas story at Bethlehem. It began so pathetically with Mary and Joseph searching in vain for a house to welcome them, and ends so incredibly with them entertaining their first guests, the Shepherds and the Wise Men in their first home, a humble stable.

Wherever you are in the world, I pray that the love of the Christ Child will draw near to you, to those you love, and also to the growing number of people who find Christmas an especially tough and lonely time. My special prayer this Christmas is that they will catch at least a glimpse of the glory of God through the warmth and kindness of our welcome, friendship and hospitality.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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