Christmas messages: West Midlands Bishops and church leaders speak of joy, compassion and bringing communities together
The topics of finding joy, stopping people feeling isolated and the power of faith were all discussed by Bishops and church leaders from across the region in their Christmas messages.
Across the West Midlands, Bishops and church leaders have been crafting their messages to send out to congregations in the Diocese of Lichfield and Worcester and across the West Midlands in the run up to Christmas.
Each leader has taken the time to look at the topics which matter most to them at the end of 2025, as well as to wish their congregations a merry Christmas and happy new year.
The Bishop of Dudley and Acting Bishop of Worcester, Rt. Rev. Martin Gorick, said the season was a time to ask about what brings people joy and spoke about the things at Christmas time which brought him joy.
He wrote: "What brings you joy at Christmas? I know it's been a hard year for many and a hard year for our world. Not much peace, not much joy, it seems.
"But at this time of year in churches, it is a privilege to see the joy on people’s faces, particularly children, as they come for Christingle and crib services. We see their excitement and expectation as we remember the tiny baby born in a stable.
"As a vicar, I’ve always found Midnight Mass services on Christmas Eve particularly special, singing carols together and feeling the peace of Christ, as well as the joy of his birth.
"And then after the service, I’ll walk home on my own in the peace and quiet of the early morning. Knowing the joy and the peace of Christmas in my heart.
"I hope that the joy and peace of the Christ Child will be God's gifts to you as well as to me this Christmas time."
The Bishop of Lichfield, Rt. Rev. Michael Ipgrave, said that goodwill is for life, not just for Christmas, in his message.
He wrote: "At this time of year, many still seek out the 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In it an angel visits a frustrated businessman at Christmas.
"The angel shows him the value of his life, letting him glimpse how things would have been if he had never been born.
"How then to value the birth of Jesus Christ, the baby whom Christians acclaim as Emmanuel, ‘God with us’? The angels’ message on a hillside by Bethlehem over 2000 years ago: ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to all’ has given us the enduring association of ‘goodwill’ with Christmas.
"Goodwill, that subversively inoffensive Christmas gift, can nudge us into a generous act, a kind word, a forgiving conversation, being less grumpy and can even transform relations between people and groups.
"Showing goodwill puts others first whether we hardly feel it or if it comes at great cost or risk to our life.
"Recent barbarous events in Sydney moved me to great sorrow and much prayer, and also showed the power of goodwill.
"Ahmed al-Ahmed, a bystander, put himself at grave risk, halting a terrorist’s murderous rampage through those celebrating the Jewish festival of lights, Hannukah, which prompts adherents to acts of kindness.
"His actions were costly for him; for those whose lives were spared, they were transformative.
"His act brought light into the darkness of murder. He did not ask who those at risk were; he did not check that they were people like him; he did not judge whether they deserved to be saved; he acted because goodwill to others flourished in his heart.
"Goodwill is and always should be gloriously indiscriminate. In this case, its unfettered power was that a Muslim man defended a Jewish community in a country where the majority affiliation is Christian.
"That is deeply subversive: reminding us that goodwill is for all, just as the God who comes at Christmas is for all, and also not just for Christmas, but forever too.
"Likewise, the goodwill the angels proclaimed is not just for a season but for an age lasting for as long as Christ is with us: also forever.
"In an era where we are rightly concerned about those who are weaponising and politicising Christian faith, perhaps the antidote is instead to weaponise goodwill.
