First Friday Letter The World Methodist Council
January 2023
Greetings from the Vice President Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh – a Happy New Year to you all (in Irish!). This comes hoping that you have experienced blessing and joy over the Advent and Christmas time and may look forward with hope in 2023. This first Friday in January falls on the Feast of Epiphany when the church celebrates the coming of the magi to Bethlehem to see the baby ‘born to be king.’ The High Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice, Ireland, shows them being led to the Child by Joseph. At this time too, our Orthodox sisters and brothers celebrate Christmas. In Ireland, this twelfth day of Christmas, January 6th, is known as Nollaig na mBan – Women’s Christmas. This is the day when the traditional roles in the household are reversed and women get the day off, they visit with their friends, generally relax and enjoy the last of the Christmas cake! Other traditions associated with today include one that declares that the water in wells turns into wine at midnight and that, at that hour too, animals are given the gift of human speech. H’m! However, on a more serious note, this is a time to reflect on what happened after the magi left Bethlehem, on the angel’s warning to Joseph and on the subsequent flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. At Nollaig na mBan, it is fitting to take time to think of and to pray for millions of women in today’s world who must care for their children in situations of danger and oppression; women whose giftings and talents have been curtailed by ideologies and policies; women whose lives have been plighted by discrimination and violence. As a people for whom the world is our parish, we continue to be shocked by the ever-deepening plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, deprived of almost all freedoms and of opportunities for education and self-fulfilment; we are horrified by the circumstances which force women to choose between staying in places of danger and deprivation or braving the choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea in small, overcrowded boats; our hearts break for women and girls in Nigeria subject to kidnap and abduction by militant Islamic groups; we weep for women in Ukraine who see their homes and their crops destroyed by war; we mourn with women whose children are dying of starvation in Yemen because food supplies are not being allowed through by wearing factions. And the list goes on… World Methodist Council
The Incarnation points to Immanuel – God with us. The mother of the Child Jesus, in her time of unexpected pregnancy and of uncertainty as to her status in her community, is able to sing of a God who has performed mighty deeds with his arm; who has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts; who has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble; who has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. Writing to the Christians in Corinth several decades later, the Apostle Paul observes that, when any part of the body is in pain, the rest suffers with it. Physically speaking, we all know that to be the case – spiritually, may we also know it to be true and may we do whatever is in our power, socially and economically, as individuals and as ‘the people called Methodists,’ to lessen pain wherever it is found. Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his might! Powers and dominions lay their glory by; Proud hearts and stubborn will are put to flight, The hungry fed, the humble lifted high. Tell out, my soul, the glories of his word! Firm is his promise, and his mercy sure. Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord To children’s children and for evermore. Gillian Kingston
Photo of a carving from the Magi on High Cross of Muiredach by Finola Finlay First Friday Letter page 1