Christmas Eve
O little town of Bethlehem, h ow still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless sleep t he silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth t he everlasting Light. The hopes and fears of all the years a re met in thee tonight. These words will be sung by thousands tonight, and regarded by most of them as harmless sentimentality, which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on your point of view. But I've always found it the most profound and challenging of Christmas Carols. I've noted this year, having more time for observation than I used to, the controversies stirred up in the media by opponents and defenders of religion. The Advent season brings Richard Dawkins out of the woodwork as reliably as daybreak makes the birds sing, and everybody else joins in the fun. Media pundits queue up to offer their views on the state of the Christian religion, the Church of England, and the future of Christmas itself, and meanwhile the churches engage...