Christmas 2020 – St Mary’s Church, Chartham – The Stable  

We were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of baby Jesus in a stable in December last year. So with this in mind, an external nativity was erected in the churchyard of our wonderful St Marys Church in the middle of Chartham. Life size cutouts of a shepherd, by Philip Kiss (who also made the crib), a sheep and its lamb and three wise men drew one’s attention to inside a stable where figures made by Dee Hickman, Mary and Joseph cared for their baby Jesus lying in the crib. They were observed by an ox and an ass, modelled by Adam Pleasance, looking through a back window of the stable. The stable was constructed from pallets provided by Kent Sectional Buildings and they also assisted with transport by Tim Kidd. Baubles were suspended from the roof in the stable and visitors were invited to take them to place on their Christmas trees in their homes. The foundation of our Christian faith is that Jesus died and was resurrected to enable God to forgive the sins of we who believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  

The purpose of the nativity was to lead our Chartham community into the origin of Christmas. It also drew us all into what in Africa is termed “Ubuntu”, which refers to those people being generous, hospitable, friendly, caring and compassionate, and they share what they have. For our Chartham community it also means “my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs”; rather than “I think therefore I am”, it refers to “I am human because I belong”.

The external nativity was an invitation to the Chartham community to join our St Marys family in all our activities, even during this formidable Covid19 epidemic, and to increase our activities to support our greater community.

We thank all those involved in creating the nativity as well as the community of Chartham who cared for it – there was absolutely no theft or vandalism for the two weeks it stood outside our church, thank you.