Christmas message from Rt Rev Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone reading this message for such a warm welcome back to Lancashire.
Rt Rev. Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of LancasterRt Rev. Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster
Rt Rev. Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone reading this message for such a warm welcome back to Lancashire.

Six months on I’m still enjoying the role and it is such a privilege to be the Bishop of Lancaster. I’m finding ‘buried treasure’ in our parishes across the Diocese.

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Recently we held a Diocesan Conference for clergy and for lay people from across Lancashire. It was great to get a chance to meet so many people in one place. My heart has been warmed with hope for Lancashire.

We want to see our celebrities glitter and shine in the limelight. And we start to expect the same ‘glitter and shine’ of God. And that’s when we get disappointed.

The incredible thing about God is at Christmas you won’t find him on the red carpet. Instead the Christmas story tells us He turned up in the forgotten place, fragile, overlooked.

And yet in the forgotten place, the stable in Bethlehem, the most incredible miracle of the universe happens. The God who flung galaxies into space becomes a baby. He comes to be like us. He’s not the God of the celebrities. He comes into the pain of Christmas and the fragility of human relationships.

He is right there. And in the darkest place he quietly lights a beacon of his love.

Rt Rev Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster