Oxhill News

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South Warwickshire, England.

The Oxhill News

December 2015

This months News

Contents

 

Deanery News

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.

For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.

Refugee, by Malcolm Guite, in ‘Waiting on the Word’

As I write this, the Diocese has just been granted, subject to the outcome of the consultation period, permission for change of use to allow us to use Offa House as a short-term welcome centre for refugees from the Syrian refugee camps.  This will allow us to open Offa House as a place of Christian welcome and hospitality, safety and refuge, for those whose lives have been marred by dreadful atrocities and hardship – some of ‘the million displaced people…..fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel’.

At Christmas God gave us a baby, and so gave us himself, as a vulnerable, open and dependent baby, who experienced and in present in every human situation.   God was saying, ‘Here I am, and I love you, and I am with you’ – you and I and the ‘million displaced people’. In Advent we look with longing and perhaps impatience for God to join us: as Christmas we celebrate the fact that he has. 

Please pray for the negotiations surrounding the future of Offa House, the ‘million displaced people’, and also for ourselves, that with them we may know the immense joy of Jesus being among us.

The next Deanery event is the Deanery Synod on Tuesday, February 2nd, at 7.30pm in St. Edmund’s Church, Shipston.  That date is Candlemas, when we turn away from Christmas and turn towards Easter.  We are really looking forward that evening to welcoming Barbara Lang, who spent many years as a Salvation Army Officer working in South Africa – and we look forward to welcoming all who would like to meet her.

Have a very blessed Christmas.

Jill

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Last modified: January 20, 2016