NEWS
Season’s Greetings to all members of the Free Churches Group
As we stand in the precious gap between 2025 and 2026, the story at the centre of this season still speaks with amazing clarity. The nativity is far more than a tender scene—its truth is bold, unsettling, and filled with promise. A child is born into a world shaped by imperial power, social strain, and communities struggling under the pressure of political decisions made far above them. Yet through this child, God’s presence breaks into ordinary life with a courage that cannot be silenced.
This year has carried its own troubles and joys. Across the nations, households have endured financial uncertainty, stretched public services, political volatility, and widening fault lines in our common life. Too many live with the unspoken ache of isolation, exhaustion, or grief. Many communities feel unseen. And yet, in the midst of this, signs of grace continue to rise: communities supporting one another, churches standing with those pushed aside, people choosing compassion even when the world encourages impatience and fear.
The Christmas story meets us here as witness and as revelation.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it” (John 1:5).
This is the heartbeat of the incarnation: that God steps into places where people struggle to breathe freely, and affirms their dignity without condition. God’s presence arrives in vulnerability, aligning with those who know what it is to be overlooked or pushed to the margins.
The family at the centre of the Christmas story journeys under imperial decree, their later flight from danger, and their resilience in the face of injustice mirror the world we inhabit. Families today move across borders seeking safety; communities navigate pressures created by systems that count numbers and neglect lives; people hold hope through journeys they did not choose. Christmas reveals that God is already there—in the displacement, in the uncertainty, in the fragile courage that keeps families moving toward life.
As the Free Churches, our vocation is rooted in this truth. We are called to shape communities where justice is lived, not merely spoken; where compassion is genuine; where the voices of those most affected by the decisions of the powerful are not nudged to the edges but brought to the centre. Our witness must speak to the world as it is, while insisting on the world that can be.
The year ahead will bring its share of demands. Yet it also carries possibility—new alliances for justice, fresh commitments to healing, deeper solidarity with the vulnerable, and renewed courage to speak truth in public life. May we enter the coming year with hearts attuned to God’s movement: steady, compassionate, and bold.
My prayer for us all is that we step into the future with clarity of purpose; that we continue to lift the voices of those long unheard; that our churches become places where hope takes root in real and tangible ways; and that the light that rises in the Christmas story shines through our common life with strength and grace.
May peace, courage, and God’s liberating love accompany you into the year ahead.
Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson
Moderator of the Free Churches Group
Pop-Up Nativity
Over the last few years, the Education Team at FCG has enjoyed a fruitful and productive working relationship with Open The Book, through our work as part of the Pray for Schools steering group.
You may well have already come across the dynamic work done by the Christian charity, Open The Book, who support programmes to develop Bible reading in primary schools. Their work is thought provoking and engaging.
This year they have been celebrating two decades of involvement and sharing by churches and volunteers in primary schools. They have some excellent resources you can use and share - why not take a look at the materials for the Pop-Up Nativity? Go on… Open The Book…! Share the Good News
(image courtesy of ProChurch Media at Unsplash)
Christmas Reflection by Stephen Mugglin
Photo credit: Freely Christian Photos
I came across the following when seeking out some words of wisdom for a carol service. Stephen Mugglin has captured the essence of ‘peace on earth’ and how there are times when we need to go and find that peace amid the busyness that is a constant presence in our place of work – the healthcare system, and times when we need to create that peace for those in our care.
Debbie Hodge
Christmas Reflection by Stephen Mugglin
High in the woods of Pengrove Pass, where the water and the sky seem to sing the same song, there stands in a clearing beside the lake a little log cabin built by a friend. It stands empty most of the year now, for the children who once played and laughed there have long since moved on. Still there isn’t any sadness, for each morning the dawn catches its own reflection in the stillness of the lake, and peace covers all.
Photo by Charl van Rooy on Unsplash
I was scheduled to spend Christmas in Pengrove Mills, a town further down the river, but an unexpectedly busy autumn and fall had made me long again for the solitude of the mountains, at least for a little while, and so December found me in the cabin by the lake.
Mountains seem to have a wisdom all their own, and trees growing along the slopes in the pure air whisper their thoughts together in the silence. It’s a world of enchantment far and near, for the same snow that paints the distant hills also spreads a blanket over the cabin. Here earth and sky seem so close, mountain peaks just a snow-breath away, and time a cousin of eternity.
This was the year I celebrated Christmas twice - once in the cold loneliness of the hills, and later in the warmth of the town - once by myself in the calm of the night, and again with the sound of friends all around - once with the stars shining deep in the lake, and then with bright lights in every window. But much as I enjoyed the time in town, it was the silence around the cabin that reminded me most of the Song of the ages and the Light of the world. Alone on the hillside, I knew the peace that had come to earth.