Welcome to St Swithins Church

By The Rev Matt earwicker

Villages - December 2025

Would you like to be famous?

The desire to be famous is as old as literature. The Trojan hero, Hector, as he faces death at the hands of Achilles, determines to die in glory rather than flee to safety. The Roman poet, Horace, claims his poems have brought him immortality: “I have completed a monument more eternal than bronze, higher than the pyramids … not all of me shall die.”

In our modern world, however, the desire for fame has reached a new level. Alongside those who achieve renown through music, sport, theatre or some other great deeds are those who are famous simply for being famous. The winner of Big Brother, Traitors or even I’m A Celebrity haven’t really achieved anything. They have brought some light entertainment into our lives, but their fame comes primarily simply from being in the spotlight.

The story of Jesus Christ is also about someone famous, but of an unusual kind of fame. His parents were so unimportant that they weren’t able to find proper accommodation even though she was pregnant and this was a world where not being hospitable was one of the greatest sins, and yet his birth was heralded by angels and brought shepherds down from the hills to see him. The rituals marking his birth in the temple brought him great attention as the aged Simeon and Anna told everyone who would listen that this was the long-awaited messiah, but then he faded into anonymity for the next 30 years. Even many years later, when he had become so significant that the authorities of his day became desperate to execute him before his popularity led to a rebellion and an inevitable and disastrous Roman attack, they needed his close friend, Judas, to point him out to them with a kiss.

Perhaps it is fitting, then, that every year when we come to the festival that bears his name we have a public debate about whether this is truly his feast. Whether it is the change of name from Christmas to “The Festive Season” or the celebration of God’s generosity being swamped by the commercialism of our own towns and lives. Is Jesus the centre of Christmas, or a mostly-forgotten excuse for a party?

The story of Christmas reminds us that God does not need us to make him famous. If fame and glory was all he wanted, then a few more angel choirs would have done the trick, perhaps, or some grand celestial fly past. But Jesus wasn’t interested in just being famous, even if, as the Son of God, he had more right to that fame than anyone else. He came to restore this world to the one it was supposed to be, to offer forgiveness and the chance to be God’s children again, and to show us a way of love and grace that is so much better than the way of violence and selfishness.

>Sometimes it upsets me to see how Christmas has become separated from the child of Bethlehem, but I know that what he really wants is not that we just remember him. What he most wants is for us to join him in building that kingdom of heaven he talked about so much.

Happy Christ-mass to you all.

Good morning all,

September then is always a month of change, and because of this it can be unsettling. We reflect on or maybe grieve for that which is drawing to a close, and can feel a mixture of anticipation about what is new or next. It is likely that we feel this even more acutely this September, living in a world which feels increasingly insecure from the perspective of fast-changing global politics and conflicts around the world that show no sign of abating. All is changing; all feels very fragile and deeply uncertain.

One of this country’s much-loved hymns is ‘Abide with Me’, famous for being sung at every FA Cup Final since 1927. The words are based on Luke 24: 29 and were written by the Reverend Henry Francis Lyte, with one of the stories about this suggesting that he wrote them in September 1847 – just after he had conducted his final church service and when very ill with tuberculosis. He died two months later.

Putting aside questions of when Lyte wrote these words, the fact remains that they capture the constancy of God’s presence and love, even as the seasons change, our lives change, our world changes; in life and in death:

Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

This then is a beautiful reminder that even though we, and indeed our world, pass through times of change and can feel unsettled as a result, God goes with us. God in Christ abides with us, his presence and love unchanging in our ever-changing world:

“Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. (Luke 24: 29)

Bishop Stephen