Mid-Winter Christmas In The Time of Covid-19
On Good Friday, Rev. Chris Dodds took a bold step. He placed a large cross and a chair out in front of St Aidan’s in Miramar, and put out a handmade sign reading “how can I pray for you?” It was a simple and counter-cultural gesture in a time of distance, to try and carve a path of intimacy with his neighbourhood. While Chris acknowledges the awkwardness of maintaining two metres distance while doing prayer ministry, he says this was an immensely profound experience: “I got to pray for a dozen people including frontline healthcare workers who were feeling anxious, an Air New Zealand pilot who was unsure if he would keep his job, and a couple whose relationship was struggling under the pressures of lockdown.”
From this initial gesture, Chris began to wonder how they might engage more publicly with the Peninsula community in the time of Covid-19. A plan was hatched to do a Mid-Winter Christmas for the neighbourhood. Using the twelve feast days as a framework, Peninsula Parish are preparing to lead their community through a journey of celebration, grief, connection, and generosity. “The twelve days of Christmas provide such a great roadmap to journey through some of the big things on peoples minds at the moment. The advent themes of hope, joy, peace and love are so essential right now.” A key part of the project involves encouraging neighbours to light a Christmas tree in their windows, “we want to bring light back into the neighbourhood during what can be a dark time for some people.”
The Mid-Winter Christmas has grown from a seed to include a number of churches on the Miramar Peninsula including the Salvation Army, Strathmore Community Church, and Miramar Uniting Church. There are rumours of brass bands and parties breaking out, and a growing critical mass of neighbours interested in creative ways to have connection while continuing to observe government guidelines.
For Chris, this is about faith being both a personal and a public pursuit. “People have a lot of pain at the moment and they need a place to put it. At a most basic level we are trying to reintroduce light into our neighbourhood at a time when the days are getting shorter and darker.” Chris is passionate that the Church must be a community that is gathered and sent, and that in the time of Covid-19 this is true for our neighbourhoods as well. “We have been gathered in our little bubbles for a long time, now is the moment to extend that hospitality wider into our streets.”
The Peninsula Parish Mid-Winter Christmas will happen from June 21 to July 1. For more information, visit www.midwinterchristmas.nz
By Scottie Reeve
