Canon for Mission and Growth writes column for Medway Messenger

The Revd Canon Rachel Phillips writes a regular column for the Medway Messenger. Canon Rachel is part of a group called ‘Churches Together’ who write for the Medway Messenger on a regular basis about aspects of religion and faith in Medway.

In her column published on the 13th December 2018, Canon Rachel discusses how Christmas is not just for Christmas. Inspired by the recent Dickensian Christmas festival in Rochester, she looks at the traditional image of a Christmas as seen in A Christmas Carol before turning to the origins of Christmas as a Christian Festival. The Christian Festival of Christmas has its origins in the fourth century. The Romans began celebrating Christmas as a festival of light at the darkest time of year – a reminder that Jesus described himself as the Light of the World, showing us what God is like and how God wants us to be.  Christmas as a celebration of Jesus’ birth matters to Christians because we believe that, in his human birth, God became like us so that we might become like God. She finishes by considering the theme of personal transformation, a fundamental part of A Christmas Carol and that perhaps Charles Dickens is not the man who invented Christmas but the man who reinterpreted Christmas.

To read the full article, pick up a copy of the Medway Messenger.