T
his year I hung a new decoration on a
branch of my Christmas tree. Not that
it's anything that unusual it's an angel. But
there is something special about this
particular angel. Unlike the one that I put on
the top of the tree which is made with a dolly
dressed in a white flowing dress with tissue-
paper wings, and unlike my other plastic
musician angels each playing a flute or harp,
this one is made out of pieces of broken
glass, each piece of a different colour. And
unlike the others, this angel really gleams
when the light shines through it.
It comes from Bethlehem, where I bought it
not far from Manger Square, from the
workshop of the International Centre, an
impressive foundation with a huge range of
projects and training, many in cultural and
artistic areas, which work to make Christian
hope a reality in the lives of people in the
town. As many of you know, during the
month of October, a group of us from the
Mission Partnership went to visit a number
of Biblelands projects in the Holy Land, and
Bethlehem was one of the places on our
itinerary. Whilst we were there, we had the
opportunity of going to meet the director of
the International Centre, the Revd. Mitri
Raheb, who is a Lutheran pastor. He began
by telling us, as others did during our ten-
day visit, of how many Palestinian Christians
and others besides have over the years
lost their optimism in a political process
which often seems to many to be full of
peace-talking without any real peace-
making. But his story did not stop there! He
went on with great passion to tell us that,
even if it has lost its optimism, the Christian
community has not lost its Christian hope.
Often we can think of our hope as a set of
beliefs that we confess with our lips, or as a
kind of wishful thinking that someone out
there somehow some day is going to make
everything better without our having to do
anything. But as we listened, Mitri Raheb
reminded us that true Christian hope is made
known by what you do today. Christians in
the Holy Land today he said are faced with a
choice: they can choose to emigrate (and
indeed, many Palestinian Christians have
chosen, and are still choosing this option);
they can choose to stop believing in any kind
of justice and become fundamentalists; or as
Mitri poetically put it they can go out today
and plant olive trees, signs of peace and
fruitfulness. "Here in the International
Centre," he said, "we are trying to plant as
many olive trees as we can in as many ways
as we can."
During the violence in Bethlehem in 2002,
bombs fell on the buildings of the
International Centre as on many others, and
both the computer room and Mitri's office
were destroyed. The staff were very
frightened. But in the wake of the violence
Mitri called them together and invited them
to see that `for every disaster there are a
hundred opportunities'. Following his
encouragement they had gone collecting
pieces of broken glass from the rubble, and
since then, in the craft workshops of the
Centre, these pieces of glass have been
combined with pieces of glass from broken
bottles to make Christmas tree angels.
As I look at the angel on my Christmas tree,
glistening in the light, the broken pieces of
glass remind me of the brokenness of our
world, so often torn between the highs and
lows of optimism and pessimism, between
ephemeral dreams and despair. They remind
me too of the Christmas angels' good news:
in coming to us in the Saviour, born in
Bethlehem, God brought the divine and the
human back together again, transforming
what seems to be worthless and hopeless
into something beautiful which shines in the
light of God. This Advent season as we
prepare for Christmas, let us join with
Christians in Bethlehem as we give thanks to
God for the hope that is in us, and let us live
out today the message of the herald angels
who sing, `Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinner reconciled'. K
Mary Cotes
in Newport Pagnell
Moderator's Letter
Angel's message of hope
Phonebox Magazine 59
Trim your heating bills
I
n July 2008, the UK's largest domestic energy supplier warned that
gas bills could rise by up to 35% in 2008. This continues the
upward trend in household gas and electricity costs since 2005.
Can we do anything to slow down these rising energy costs? As
space and water heating account for around 60% of the energy used
in the average home, this is a good place to start. Follow these five
tips to trim your heating bills:
1. Use your programmer to switch the heating and hot water on and
off and set your thermostat at between 18 and 21°C. Every 1°C
above this increases your heating bill by 10%.
2. Avoid using the immersion heater to heat water. The relatively
high unit cost of electricity makes it more cost effective to use
your gas boiler for this.
3. Switch supplier or switch tariff. If you have Economy 7, time your
washing machine and dish washer to exploit the cheaper night-
time electricity tariff.
4. Make the most of each use of a given appliance. Wash clothes
and dishes when you have a full load ready to go. Switch things
off when not in use.
5. Insulate your home. Energy Saving Trust now estimates annual
savings of £160 from installing cavity wall insulation. This is
currently free to over 70s. K
Source: BERR 2008
For further free, impartial energy saving advice, call the
Energy Saving Trust advice centre on 0800 512 012.
Energy Saving Trust advice centre, Thames Valley & Solent
Tel: 01908 699927.
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Copy deadline for the February issue of Phonebox Magazine is 15th January