Today
(6th December) is the Feast of St Nicholas, sometime Bishop of Myra, patron saint
of children and sailors, defender of both orthodoxy – believing ‘rightly’
(faithfully) about God – and orthopraxis – acting ‘rightly’ (faithfully) in
accordance with what we profess to believe. And the saint for whom the parish church
I serve as vicar is named.
The
parish church of St Nicholas, Bishopwearmouth, was dedicated as a place of
worship ten days after the declaration that, for a Second time in just over two
decades, we were at War. A declaration of another kind, that, however uncertain
the world we live in, Christ is our hope. Following in the footsteps of Nicholas,
as he followed in the footsteps of Jesus the Christ (the one sent by God to
deliver his people from oppression), the ‘charism’ of this church (charism: the
particular gift God has given this church to serve their neighbours) is to be a
safe haven for those experiencing the storms of life – for those ‘lost at sea’.
This is a place, and a community, I long to see filled with the joy of children
and of people of all ages who have dared to call out to God to deliver them.
The
Feast of St Nicholas always falls in Advent, provides a moment of joyous
celebration (our patronal festival, however we mark it, which this year
included the St Nicholas Fayre) in the approach to Christmas, and – if we allow
it – recalibrates our lives to Jesus.
Photo:
me, dressed as St Nicholas, on his feast day.
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