When he delivers his annual message on Christmas Day, Justin Welby is expected to mention the “desperate struggles of hospital wards” as well as those who make perilous journeys in small boats. Mr. Welby is expected to tell those in attendance that, despite war and conflict around the world, as well as financial pressures on people closer to home, there is “unconquerable hope” in the birth of Jesus Christ. In his first Christmas message since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Mr. Welby will praise the late monarch, who “in obedience to the Christ-child lived a life of service and put her interests ahead of those she served,” he says. The Archbishop, who recently visited a church-run foodbank in Canterbury, is expected to express his concern for those affected by the UK’s cost-of-living crisis, which he describes as causing “immense anxiety and hardship” for many people. In Jesus Christ, God reaches out to each of us here; to those who, like his family, have no resources, into the dark cells of prisons, into the desperate struggles of hospital wards, to those on small boats, to the despairing, and even to the condemned and wicked, and says, ‘Take me into your heart and life, let me set you free from the darkness that surrounds and fills you, for I, too, have been there,” he is expected to say. For in me, whoever and wherever you are, whatever you have done, there is forgiveness, hope, life, and joy.” Referring to suffering of millions facing famine amid fighting in South Sudan and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Mr Welby is expected to appeal to the leaders of both countries to bring an end to violence and in turn “bring hope to millions”. “Even if the world forgets injustice and pays no attention to a war, God is present in the world through Jesus,” he is expected to say. God demonstrates in this child that He does not abandon us. When the darkness appears to be winning, we are tempted to turn inward. But God never gives up on anyone.” The Archbishop of Canterbury will deliver his Christmas sermon at the 11 a.m. Christmas Day Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral.
