Christmas arrives for OS on Christmas Eve morning (since he first heard the service in 1980), with the broadcast of The Festival Of Nine Lessons And Carols from King's.
It begins with one boy's voice, singing in the silence:
'Once in royal David's city, stood a lowly cattle shed...',
as humble and understated an event as the Incarnation itself.
Quietly, and with that calm British dignity, the story is read from scripture, the carols are sung, from Genesis to the first chapter of John's gospel. Few experiences are more moving than to sit still and listen to the story told in this manner.
This week, OS ruminated over the past decades of Christmases from 1980.
Some of those years were very good, some incredibly dark. Some years, it was that ninety minutes on Christmas Eve that kept him going. The events of the past thirty years have arrived to this Christmas, with OS's hopes and fears so overwhelmingly met that words fail. The story can't be told for decades yet. But it does find a parallel in the story told at King's.
Merry Christmas, ya'll, wherever Christmas finds you this year. It's a privilege to know that a few folks around the world read his scribbles and benefit from them.
The link to access the webcast is here.
3:00 pm GMT BBC Radio 4
In the US:
10:00 am Eastern
9:00 am Central
8:00 am Mountain
7:00 am Pacific
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