Coming to grips with a Covid ChristmasA Vicar’s tale of finding creativity in tiny solution spacesOur Staff Team has been sharing their ‘Covid Scriptures’: What is it from the word of God that is sustaining them for life and godliness at this unsettling time? An encouraging experience that got me thinking. What would my ‘Covid Christmas Scripture’ be? Joshua 3 comes to mind. There is something about ‘we have not been this way before’ but ‘God goes before us’ that is powerfully captured in that story. I came back to the challenge of planning the autumn term, mapping out our hybrid existence for the rest of the year. That’s when I had what I now refer to as my ‘Covid Moment’. I'm not one to panic – in fact, I love a challenge. But this task sent me into a tailspin! As I sat and stared at my computer screen and that empty Autumn Programme with Advent and Christmas, I just couldn't see it possibly shaping into anything remotely life-giving. I seemed to be frozen in place, fixated on the cognitive dissonance I felt at the very idea of Carols by Candlelight without singing. The tiny solution space that we find ourselves in felt like a straitjacket and I just couldn’t find any wriggle room. So I asked my Prayer Quartet to pray for me... Then I started thinking through the things we can ‘control’ that won’t be subject to changing guidelines… I am passionate about creating ‘sacred spaces’ outside – I call it ‘ministry to those who pass by’. I think there are lots of people searching, who even have ‘spiritual’ thoughts but are nowhere near being ready to engage with Christians or with Church in any overt way. So we use art to proclaim the gospel without words, hoping to draw out those who might one day want a conversation about it all. We are blessed with a beautiful churchyard and talented artist and so we have Art Exhibitions outside. We can still do that. We have a Nativity outside. We can do that as well. We have Christmas lights inside and outside. If I have to climb the trees myself to put the lights up - we are going to have Christmas lights this year. As I began to think about what we can still do – the solution space seemed to expand a little and creative juices started to flow. I began to see possibilities and started having fruitful conversations with people enthused by the encouragement of thinking about what we can do. We started to think about the things that we usually do that we would love to do – even if they have to be expressed differently. A conversation with our Children's Pastor helped us land on an idea for a children’s Nativity, not the same – but actually quite exciting. This really shifted me from the paralysed cannot-do mind-set to being energised with the possibilities of what we can do even in the limited solution space we find ourselves in. And so I started looking for new concepts… There are empty shops in our High Street and we negotiated with the Town Team to put Christmas displays in some of them. At a time when people will feel like too much of what is precious is being stripped away, we want to draw attention once again to that night when the birth of a boy in the backstreets of Bethlehem changed the course of history. And maybe have conversations about how he can change the course of our lives for the better even now… We teamed up with Egham Together to organise a ‘Community Sing’ – similar idea to clapping for the NHS: designated evenings where we invite the community to stand outside our houses with a candle at 8pm and sing a carol together. We want to offer our community opportunities to experience hope in this season of adversity. As soon as I shifted my eyes from what we can't do to what we can do, I found all was not lost after all! And so we have a Christmas Celebration planned and one that we can adapt should circumstances change. We can scale up or down – but still have some of the wonder-full landmarks that help us to celebrate the birth of our Lord, while hopefully holding out a candle of hope to our wider community. After all, pandemic or not – hope was born that night. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. Limited solution spaces have the potential to be creative spaces, offering opportunities to tell the story of the birth of our Saviour. © Esther Prior, 2020 – Vicar at St John’s Church, Egham |