Our Children's Christmas Celebration was at St. Joseph's at 6.00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and it was great. Real thanks are due to those parishioners who organised it. There were many people present, including some unaccompanied adults, and a lot of children. All agreed that there was something a bit special about the way in which the children and young people worked together: reading, playing musical instruments, taking the collection, welcoming people, carrying around handfuls of straw. Perhaps the last comment needs some explanation.

We took as our theme Christ the New Creation. The readings, which are attached, recounted the first creation: At the beginning of time there was nothing. Just darkness. And it was boring. And God said: This will not do......the new creation at Bethlehem: And as he couldn't come down to earth to help them himself, he decided that the best person to do this would be his son. So that is what he decided to do. And he sent him on that very first Christmas........and the Shepherd's story:The youngest of them, Jacob, was told to go and get the lamb that had just been born, only a few hours before, so that they could give it to Jesus as a present. A new lamb for a new baby. It was all they had.

The bare blank boring corner of the church was suddenly transformed into a stable in a Bethlehem back street. It wasn't a big stable but it had a lot of handfuls of straw as the human conveyor belt of three and four year olds all played their part. The carpet of straw and the feeding trough were ready. Enter the ox and ass - carried by slightly older children. Then Mary and Joseph. Then Jesus. The bare blank boring corner of the church was alive with life. As the Shepherd's Story unfolded the lamb appeared. The crib scene was complete and other children reminded us, in their own words, that in the hurly burly of Christmas we should not forget others, like the children in hospital in our city and the children at war in other cities.

It was a night of surprises when the unexpected was taken for granted. We are still not sure how a basket full of dalmations and a member of the cast of 'Walking with Animals' found their way into the stable. But the ox whom they were snuggled up against didn't seem to mind. Nor did the children. Nor did the adults.