Bishop Devotion December 2024
Christmas carols more than a tradition – they share the life-giving story!!
Christmas carols are a significant part of our Christmas tradition….
It is believed that the first Christmas Carol ‘Angels Hymn’ was sung in 129AD, and over time Christmas carols increased in their popularity, with many of the Christmas carols we sing today, being written in the 1800s.
So, what are your favourite Christmas Carols?
- O Holy Night
- Silent Night
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Come All Ye Faithful
- Come, O Come Emmanuel
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- Once in Royal David’s City
- We three kings
- Joy to the World
- The First Noel
- Away in a Manger
- Or something else
So why have these and other carols become some entrenched in our Christmas tradition?
Perhaps it is because of three things I have come to appreciate about them.
- Their tunes and settings bring you the sense of Christmas, which involves both joy and a sense of reflecting on the true meaning of and need for Christmas.
- Many of the carols we sing remind us of part of the Christmas story, and the significance of these Christmas events.
- They share with us the truth that as Jesus, God came to us as the greatest gift of all, giving us forgiveness for all our sins, and therefore making it possible for us to have true hope, love, peace and joy.
So may you join in with singing Christmas carols loudly, not just because they are a tradition, but because they tell more of the God story and as we do, we are actually joining in with some of the first people who encountered baby Jesus…. the shepherds
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:20)
May your Christmas be full of the story of God and what He gives you and the world. Amen
Bishop Richard
Sydney
17 December 2024
