The beautiful Lo Newborn Jesus by Nicholas Gawley (Premiere - 14th Dec, 2025),
Performed by our fabulous Benedict Preece and the Graduati Singers at St Stephen's, Gloucester Road
In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
Although, quite unlike today, one could not have found a more prosperous time in the economic history of the UK than the year 1872, when Ms Rossetti wrote this beautiful poem, at a time when the UK accounted for over 1/4 of all global trade, the disparity between wealthy and poor and issues of social justice and equality could well resonate with many today as much as they did then. The vast gulf created by the industrial revolution of the Victorian Age, as with our own industrial revolution of recent years, saw an increasingly divided society and one which left many behind – as highlighted in such timeless cautionary classics as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which can be enjoyed along with Leo with Dean Robert’s narration by clicking on this link: https://youtu.be/74PRFf4xUQg?si=Zwjcw52-_06ivCE2 . Despite the conspicuous and opulent wealth of some of the Age, Rossetti decides to imagine the character being poor and yet, as with the shepherds following the star to the manger, this is the foundation for the most marvellous gift possible – her love. As we know, all the human wealth and earthly power of man is but nothing to the Lord but the kindness we can do unto one another by acts large and small, the love shown to others is what truly matters.
This has been a difficult, confusing and painful year in which established identities have vanished; once reliable friendships and alliances lost; homes, relationships, careers and lives upended and destroyed and when every time one watches the news there seems always to be more depressing examples of the betrayal of trusts; the crushing disappointment of abuses of power or the absence of integrity, decency, kindness and wisdom but every so often there is a sign of hope and of someone holding that flame. One is nervous to trust, to put one’s faith in someone in case they might abuse that faith but this is the risk always with love – in fact the act of love is an act of blind trust where the outcome is not always known and far from certain, for the act of love is to give and not to count the cost; the gift of love is in finding that the trust was warranted and has been repaid if not to oneself but onwards. Mistakes might be made but if the intention is pure then the act of kindness, the act of love is in itself an act of Godliness and as stated by Victor Hugo in his quintessential work about divine love, compassion and the power of redemption, Les Misérables, “to love another person is to see the face of God”.
When visiting with groups I am often asked why evil exists in the world and why God, and an all-powerful God at that, allows for such acts of depravity, hatred and genuine wickedness to take place. In truth any sane person must admit to never knowing the answer to this question but one makes, I make, a stab in the dark and say that this is the price of having free will. Each and every one of us has the ability to choose to be good, to choose to be bad and in truth whether through deliberate action or mistake – and mostly through a combination of both, everyone is within the spectrum for I do not believe that anyone is entirely evil and nobody is wholly good. Were everyone to be good, were everyone to be pure and if nothing bad ever happened then would we even have the capacity to notice goodness anymore? Goodness would just be the norm. Would we have the ability to see kindness, to feel the comfort of others or to experience love and to appreciate it for the gift it truly is, whether familial, fraternal or romantic? As explored in one of DR’s most popular hymns, the light can only be seen for the darkness but ultimately we, with our faith and our own determined acts, will see that the light is more powerful than the darkness and we must all have faith that this dark period through which we are all as a global community travelling, will get better and that there will be a new dawn and a fresh radiant light which will be all the brighter and feel all the warmer because of the vale that we have had to walk through prior. Like the Carol of the Bells, which before being re-written for Christmas at the end of the C.19th started as a Ukrainian springtime song welcoming home the swallows from their winter absence, a brighter time will come for Ukrainians, for Palestinians, for Jews and for so many others that face unimaginable difficulties, threats and persecution.
As I write this I am moved to recall a particularly sunny day back in the Summer when I was invited to visit with the embracing community of St Andrew’s church in Handsworth with Fr Clement and his lovely wife Aktor where GC members had made the most beautiful memorial gardens on a theme of pilgrimage, cleverly picking out aspects of the church and of the scriptures and resonating with the lovely windows. I was humbled and honoured to have been asked to speak and host the fine tea and then to plant one of my roses, the Thomas á Becket, that I created with my dear late friend David Austin who was based not far away at Albrighton. It was a joy to explore the intricate and carefully thought-out and created gardens – some of them even dedicated to DR and to me which I found most touching. Joan, my host and one of the team of creators who had put so much hard work and thought into the project, was so filled with passion and with love for her community and her endeavours and it was heartening to see how much industry and how much engagement had come through this with so much goodness and so many new skills and knowledge acquired as a result and collaboration and friendships forged. The fact that, at least in part, this had come as a result of the dreadful and far too premature death of DR was a complicated issue to conjure with for me as indeed it has been on many other such occasions. Of course I would rather he had not left me but, in having passed, so much goodness came as a result not just in the beauty of the gardens of St Andrew’s but in so many other new gardens and works of art inspired by and dedicated to his memory, many of which I have had the honour to open / visit this year and will go on to do more next year. These works include his and James Macmillan’s wonderful new Oratorio, Angels Unawares, commissioned by John Studzinski and to be performed at the formal world premiere by our lovely friend Harry Christophers and his Genesis Sixteen choir on June 2nd at the Cadogan Hall (with a private performance before that to take place in Rome). The Spring cannot come but for that it follows the Winter. There is no Resurrection without the Cross. Light will overcome the darkness and, with God’s grace, we will get through this scary and uncertain time in our history when the bleak cold of the iron and the stone that has replaced the life-giving waters will be melted by the light and warmth of the stable and the promise of the babe in the manger and the love he brings to the world with his message of hope.
I hope that each of you is able to find light and warmth today on this most glorious and happy of days in our Christian year, whether in the loving embrace of friends and family or in the kindness you show to others. May you have the strength required to face the uncertainties and fears ahead and please be sure of my continued prayers and thoughts for each of you. I have been so touched by your countless letters and emails through this year and hope that I have managed to respond to most of you directly but even if not please know how very much your love and encouragement has meant and how deeply and profoundly touched I have been by all your kindness from both long-term members of the Garden Congregation and also new members who are only now finding our wonderful community and watching the films anew. This, I have to confess, does stretch my memory banks at times as folk ask the most wonderful and insightful questions about things to do with one particular day’s broadcast or another and because after doing the several hours of work on making the films and then uploading and then getting on with the baking and harvesting for the charity stall and the work in the gardens or the house and tending to the animals before planning the service for the next day, I have never seen many of the films (can I admit that!?) so I often find myself in the same position as our new members in actually watching only now for the first time! In other news and following many enquiries – the work in Santiago still goes from strength to strength and thanks to the wisdom and hard work of Bishop Carlos, Nancy Mead, Edie Morrell and my other wonderful fellow board members and our excellent man on the ground, Felipe, not only the work of the Casa Anglicana but also the ministry to pilgrims across the city is growing (if you would care to get the latest news or to support our work in Spain then do please visit: www.anglicanpilgrimcentre.org ). The long-awaited GC website is STILL being worked on as I fear the producers have been rather slower than hoped but as DR, who always likened me to St Mark with his constant impatient mentionings of “euthus!” (“Immediately!”), would always remind me that “patience is a virtue” - I fear it has always been one that I have struggled with acquiring!!
May you and yours have the most blessed and Happy Christmas - and remember to keep the light burning and thank you again for all your kindness and support of me and the GC through this past year!
All my love,
Fletcher (and Leo and Lilly - and the sheep!) x
