Advent 15 – 15 December 2021
Good morning,
We encountered some sheep in yesterday’s Calendar, and heard of the shepherds looking after them in MacMillan’s music. Today we turn to the angel who spoke to them, bringing news of great joy of the Saviour’s birth in Bethlehem, now wrapped in cloth. One way we have responded to the story is by making angels and putting on the Christmas tree often right at the top, perhaps indicating the sky. Here is a poem by our Quaker Chaplain, Barbara Davey, about one such angel placed on the top of a tree (and a picture of the angel). But this angel, “retrieved/ from her bomb-struck home” brings the biblical angel’s promise of peace into a paradoxical focus. Perhaps that’s why the angel’s words of peace are still so alluring to us – because our world is still hoping in the face of so much conflict for the promise’s fulfilment.
Berlin Angel
There were always candles,
spiralled and dark red
weighing down the branches
in fir-cone shaped holders.
At the top of the tree
my mother would place
a fragile angel, retrieved
from her bomb-struck home:
a ball of wood as a head,
for a skirt, crimpled strips
of golden foil, no hair,
and beads of watery glass
where her hands should hang.
The wings were patterned paper
gently unfolded and spread,
pleasing in their symmetry.
Holding her now
on my palm, she’s light
as a bird storm-driven
from a wrecked faraway land.
Had circumstances been different, many would have been gathering this evening in St Columba’s Church of Scotland, Pont Street for the London Alumni Club Carol Service. The fragility of Barbara’s angel finds an echo in the fragility of all our plans just now. In the closing hymn we would have sung:
Hark! the herald angels sing,
‘Glory to the new-born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Here is St Salvator’s Chapel Choir singing that magnificent hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8rmySULI0I
Let’s hope we can join together in reality next year to sing together of the angels.
Yours,
Donald.