THE FIRST SUNDAY OF EPIPHANY
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
10th January 2026
Those of you with a rural background might be familiar with the old New Year custom of Wassailing. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon Waess Hael meaning Good Health, the wassail is a rumbustious carol sung from house to house and in orchards as a kind of evocation of wellbeing and fruitfulness. Its purpose, to sway fortune and fate for the good, would suggest pagan roots, a secular equivalent of the Epiphany custom of blessing chalk and inscribing above the doorways of houses this formula: 20 + C + M + B + 26. It looks like one of those teasers in the quiz pages of the newspapers but it is fact a New Year/Epiphany prayer of blessing. The letters evoke the traditional names of the Magi or Three Kings, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, using them as an acronym for the prayer, Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which is Latin for Christ Bless this House. And it is framed by numbers representing the current year.
Wassailing and the chalking of doorways are colourful customs which bring light and cheer to the darkest and most challenging time of year. But, of course, such customs do not guarantee good health and fortune any more than does the greeting Happy New Year! The cycle or pattern of life continues its inexorable progress but the deeper message of this season is that, however intense the darkness we face, the light of Christ will always shine through. As one of the best contemporary hymns of the season says, In a world where people walk in darkness let us turn our faces to the light. The true light is as vulnerable as a new born child and as a man dying on a cross. Yet, somehow it can never be extinguished. It is the hope that sustains through all seasons and circumstances of this mortal life and beyond.
Charles Booth
The Pew Sheet with notices and readings is attached.
Further contributions to the Blessing Bin for the Community Larder and donations of underwear (new), toiletries and sanitary products for rough sleepers would be most welcome.
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