The Very Reverend Michael J. Pitts
December 2004

Dear Friends,

The Season of Advent invites us to reflect on the coming of the Christ, the anointed one, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But when we come to Christmas, we find that the power and glory of Kingship are hidden in the poverty of a baby, born in a stable to a homeless couple harassed by the power of the Roman Empire.

After two thousand years of celebrating this event, it is easy to forget this contrast. We celebrate Christmas with feasting and gifts. The gifts remind us of the gifts of the royal visitors to the stable, but we tend to remember only the gold and frankincense, the symbols of joy and power. We prefer to forget the myrrh, the symbol of suffering.

This Christmas we celebrate in a time when the gulf between power and wealth on the one hand, and poverty on the other, grows greater every month. As the gulf widens the circle of the powerful grows smaller, while the number of the poor increases exponentially. We celebrate in a world divided, too, by race, religion, tribe and language. We celebrate while the wealthy use power to retain position, and meanwhile pollute the biosphere with the effluence of the consuming lifestyle.

In the celebration of Advent and Christmas there is a threefold time. Christ came, Christ comes, Christ will come. I suggest that, in order to regain a truer insight into the meaning of the story, it may be well to concentrate not so much on the past and future, but on the present. We should ask where the Christ is to be found today, and why he is here.

I believe that Christ comes to us to make us freer and more human, to replace hatred and superiority with love and inclusiveness, to bring peace and justice in the affairs of people and nations, to bring healing to individuals and to the world. I believe we will find him, as did the shepherds and the kings of our Christmas story, among the poor, the powerless, the marginalized and the suffering.

All at Christ Church Cathedral send you greetings at this beautiful season of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. We invite you to join in the many opportunities of telling and hearing the Christmas story, details of which are available here.

Yours sincerely,

Michael J. Pitts,
Dean and Rector