A QUESTION OF FAITH

With Father Frank Daly of St Peter’s Church, Hinckley

AT this time of the year 14 years ago, I was about to spend my first Christmas in Hinckley and was taking some young people out around the parish to deliver small gifts to our elderly and housebound parishioners as a sign of respect and gratitude. We passed several houses all lit up like Blackpool and the young lady (now an opera singer!) sitting in the back of the car piped up, “don’t these house-blingers make you sick?” – an expression I had never heard before! We note the extraordinary and often very expensive lengths to which people will go to ‘make it a happy Christmas’ for themselves and their family, when all around them can appear to be somewhat bleak and challenging, as if ‘happiness’ can be organised or bought. Sadly they are often disappointed. ‘Black Friday’ went on for a very long time! Any reader of this publication will know only too well the reasons to be downhearted, afraid and even broken-hearted, given the many terrible things that have happened here as everywhere this year. Violent crime, disagreement in families, misfortune, tragic death and all sorts of nastiness that we struggle to believe are never far from us, and this means that we are often unable to see the real reasons to be cheerful for a resident of this borough at this time. But thankfully, they are certainly there. Countless acts of kindness are done for people all over the place and not just at Christmas either – care for people who are homeless or victims of domestic abuse, a weekly community kitchen at the Salvation Army, Street Pastors, the Foodbank, counselling for addicted young people, groups to involve and engage our children and young people like the uniformed bodies, all of which entail many people giving up hours of their time for free, and so much more that none of us ever get to hear about for the obvious reasons. The AlterNativity project has just finished and many people have used it to do their Christmas shopping, the work of Churches Together is a constant source of delight and encouragement and let us not forget the efforts of our Borough Council to provide opportunities for us to gather together so frequently during the year without the huge cost of having to find entertainment for our families especially during the summer holidays. Furthermore, how many gestures of care and friendship are constantly made to people individually by others? There are indeed very many reasons to be cheerful and grateful. For the Christian of course the biggest reason of all is the Saviour of the world born in poverty as a homeless refugee, a tale that never fails to cheer and fascinate even those with no particular religious affiliation. Please know that every one of you will be welcome in your local church this Christmas should you discover the need to celebrate this wonderful feast with us, and you will be welcome to join us in the Market Place on Friday December 14 at 4pm when we will be singing carols together for half an hour and taking the opportunity to wish each other a truly peaceful and happy Christmas, which I and all in St. Dominic’s Community in particular most certainly want to wish every reader of this newspaper over the coming days and weeks.