A Christmas Message for Quorn - Andy Reed MP

This time of year is a chance to reflect on the last twelve months. My work remains as busy ever but as a family we have had busy time too. Most has been pleasurable though.

Obviously the season is all about the arrival of the baby Jesus and we were delighted this year with the safe arrival of our second child Emily in March. To say that children take over your life is a bit of an understatement. Once there are two the dynamics change all over again. My admiration goes out to those with more.

The arrival of a child does make me stop and think about the priorities of life. I now look at life in a completely different way. For many years I have been involved in campaigning about poverty, especially in developing countries. Seeing starving children and knowing that millions will not survive to the age of five because of simple curable diseases has a whole new dimension when you hold your own child.

Quorn is a good place for us to be with children. We continue to make use of the local services, including frequent use of the Toy Library and the Library; most importantly everything is within walking distance. Finally thanks to the 'take-aways', who keep us nourished on a regular basis. How we are spoilt in Quorn!

At this time of year we can indulge ourselves a bit too much. As we have a strong faith as a family, we will hope to celebrate the season for what it is - the celebration of the birth of Christ. The temptation to get sucked into the consumerism is all too great - but we can celebrate without losing the true meaning and not appearing to be too mean on the present front. Take Christ out of Christmas and you are left with M&S !.

So a happy Christmas to all. Enjoy the season's festivities, and enjoy it like a child.

A Christmas Message from Revd Howard Ketton, Baptist Pastor.

Quorn is a rural village of beauty and great interest but, unlike many such villages, its farms of yesteryear are almost gone. However, those few farms that remain will all have, I'm sure, barns in which equipment, hay, chickens and other livestock reside.

It's a barn which becomes the centre of interest in the story of the Lord Jesus' birth. I'm fairly certain it was not as clean or wholesome as our British barns - nor would it have the space or capacity but, like all barns, it was reasonably dry and warm when the night airs were about.
The barn in our story was attached to an inn - used by travellers to house their transport, donkeys, camels and the like. It was not a place anyone cared about except Mary and Joseph on that night when they desperately needed a place in which their child could be born. How welcome Mary must have found it when, with the door closed, she could, in private, give birth to her son.

How quickly, though, the door was opened again as the innkeeper came to acknowledge the birth and, not too long afterwards, as it was opened again to shepherds all agog from their angelic visit.

The open door of the barn to welcome visitors is symbolic, of course, of the open welcome Jesus still offers to all who will find Him; it is symbolic of the open love Jesus offers to all who will follow Him; it is an invitation to all who are dispirited, frightened, lonely or despairing to come and find a welcome and hope.

The Christmas story is the story of God opening the door of heaven to all mankind so that God and man might be re-united. I pray that, this Christmas, you might (if you haven't already) accept the invitation of a gracious God to enjoy "new life" in Him and with Him.