“In Luke’s gospel we are told that the shepherds gathered around the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid. The first Christmas — the birth of the Son of God — was such a humble, ordinary event, and one of the things that strikes me most is that the tiny baby in that manger gathered complete strangers in complete awe around him. When I think about Christmas, I think about those who will gather around tables to share food and gifts and stories, about those who will put aside old arguments and hurts just for a day to be together as family. I also think about those who have no one to gather with, for whom Christmas opens old wounds or reminds them of their loneliness and I wonder what more we can do to invite those people in, to gather with us,” says Archbishop Jeremy Greaves