Worship:

Reading:
Then and Now (from The Angel and the Paper Bag and Other Stories by Cecily Cupit) A few years ago, I was looking at the gospel story of Christmas with some migrant women. They'd never heard it, you see. So I told them how Mary and Joseph weren't rich - and one of them told me she had been. But it had taken all they had to escape from their country. I told them the land was ruled by a foreign power, who made them go to Bethlehem - and one of them told me how her family had been made to go to a Pol Pot camp, walking with what they could carry. I told them Mary had to travel in the latter stages of pregnancy - and one of them told me how she had crossed the desert from Iran on a camel, and finally arrived in Australia eight months pregnant. I told them Mary and Joseph reached Bethlehem with no money, nowhere to stay, no friends or family to help - and they all just nodded. One of them told me of the child who'd been born, and died, in a jungle camp. I told them the family had to move again, to escape being massacred by a corrupt ruler - and they told me which of their family had been murdered by corrupt rulers. We didn't even get to the bit about the wise men - I began to wonder why I was telling them this. Until one of them asked could she borrow the book, to read at home. She said she wanted to know how it all turned out. That's why I was telling them. I knew how it all turned out. And they didn't.

Reflection: Individually reflect upon this reading
1. What is the most striking part for you?

2. How does the reading make you feel?

Share your reflections in triplets then continue together to discuss:

1. If you were an asylum seeker,
    which parts of the Nativity stories would you find most helpful and why?

2. What might God be saying to us as a country receiving Asylum Seekers through the Nativity stories?

Life Focus Questions:(As a whole group)

How could our Church or SCC respond in the coming year to the problem of Asylum Seekers?

Prayers:
Pray for countries from which citizens are fleeing, for those who flee and for the countries to which they seek to come. Perhaps a world map could be used to focus the mind and the prayers.

Major Nativity Biblical Texts:
Matthew Chapters 1 & 2
Luke Chapters 1 & 2
John Chapter 1 verses 1-18
Isaiah Chapter 9 verses 2-7; Chapter 11 verses 1-10; Chapter 63 verses 7-9.