Renewing Hope Advent Calendar 2018 - December 3rd, by Hospital Chaplain Jane LLoyd

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Welcome to our Renewing Hope Advent Calendar, sent to all Grapevine subscribers. Each day until Christmas Eve, we will open a snapshot of ministry and mission in our Diocese during the Advent period.

Renewing Hope Advent Calendar

DECEMBER 3rd

Being in hospital over Christmas can be very isolating, but as our Chaplain to Poole NHS explains, in the second of our Advent Calendar stories of Renewing Hope, it can also be a very special place to welcome a new born Christmas baby.

“Risen with healing in his wings” – Hospital Chaplaincy at Christmas

Canon Jane Lloyd - Chaplain, Poole NHS

Seventy years ago, Nye Bevan’s visionary creation of the NHS promised free health care for all, from cradle to grave and just as then, today hospitals still do Christmas!

“The National Elf Service!”
Staff at Poole NHS dress up to bring some festive cheer to their patients

On Christmas Eve there will be carol singing throughout the hospital and over the Christmas period nearly three thousand turkey dinners will be prepared.
Why do we remember the words of carols which we only sing at Christmas?
Is it because they are so evocative?

I love ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, especially its third verse:

‘Light and life to all He brings; Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild he lays his glory by; Born that Man no more may die,
Born to raise the Sons of earth; Born to give them second birth.’

And at the Hospital, the first baby born in the hospital on Christmas Day is always special– it is as if we are welcoming the Christ Child anew; but instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, this baby will be offered a woolly hat, booties and mittens.
So this Advent, please pray for patients and staff on Christmas Day, and for chaplains, reminding us that the Christmas word ‘Emmanuel’ means ‘God-is-with-us’, in sickness and in health, in our living and through our dying, in birth and in death.

Chaplain Jane LLoyd with her granddaughter Ella Jane, born in Poole Maternity Unit

If you are posting photos or messages on social media, please use the hashtags
#dosalnativity and #dosalchristingle
to tie together all the events, photos and messages from across our diocese.

#FollowTheStar is the official Church of England Christmas campaign
and #Christingle50 is the national celebration for the Children’s Society.
Feel free to enrich the national picture with your local content, using these tags.

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