Bishop Nick has filmed a Christmas Day video message for our website and social media platforms with the following message:
"I recently went to see an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and was surprised in the enormous courtyard to see this black thing on the floor.
"It was only when I got close up I discovered it wasn’t a bin bag with something in it, but a sculpture of a six-day old baby by Anthony Gormley.
"Within the grandeur of all of those buildings, and the amount of space, this tiny little metal baby on the floor looked incredibly vulnerable, and it was incredibly affecting for a lot of people who were walking past and realising what it was.
"I think at Christmas that’s a very powerful image for me, because we live in a world of sometimes great grandeur, and enormous uncertainty, in which we often feel very, very vulnerable, a bit like that baby.
"At Christmas we remember God came among us, opted to come among us as one of us, not in great power and glory, but in the vulnerability of that baby of Bethlehem, with all that the world could throw at him, and he made himself subject to that.
"That’s what we’re celebrating.
"Our world is quite uncertain - we live in very uncertain times ecologically, politically, economically and so on, but we have a God who has opted to come and be where we are so that when we pray, when we talk to God, we know that He understands what’s going on - he’s lived it, he’s incarnated it, and that is what Christmas is all about.
"I hope that as we enjoy Christmas, in all its variety, we won’t escape the vulnerability of the baby and the God, who surprises earth with heaven, coming among us on Christmas Day.
"Have a very happy Christmas."
+Nick
[VIDEO::https://youtu.be/A8nN8qAj1cY]