AN ONLINE Christmas service designed for people working shifts will be released on the Church of England website at 6 a.m. on Christmas Day.
Lasting 15 minutes, so that it can be watched in the course of a break from work, the service was created in response to a request by hospital chaplains, and includes a Gospel reading, sermon, prayers, and music.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, features in the service. A former nurse, and Chief Nursing Officer for the NHS, she says that she has “fond memories” of working on Christmas Day.
“Although not always easy, it is a privilege to be with people who need us most at this time. And of course, we receive so much from them too.”
Bishop Mullally, who will become the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury in January, thanks those “working in the service of others”.
“Your work reflects the heart of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve,” she says. “Your dedication brings light and hope into the lives of those who need it most and we pray that you may know His peace and joy today. Happy Christmas!”
The Archbishop of York also features in the service. In an interview with ITV News on Tuesday, Archbishop Cottrell reflected on a year of being “the only Archbishop standing”, and the things he’s done that “wouldn’t have happened otherwise”.
Among them were a trip to Palestine (Podcast, 20 November) including a visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The doors in the church are “really small”, and so you “literally can’t get in without bending low.
“I think there’s a lesson there for me and all of us as we approach Christmas: let’s stop thinking of ourselves as so important, let’s humble ourselves a bit.”
In a message recorded in November in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem and released on social media on Tuesday, Archbishop Cottrell said that he “longed for Bethlehem to be noisy again, to be full of pilgrims, because there will be peace”.
In the silence of Christmas night, he invited people to “remember persecuted Christians, and all people who are persecuted across the world.
“And let us pray that in that silence Christ will be born in us, and that we will be able to raise our voices so that there might be heaven on earth.”
Andrea Krogmann/Office of the Archbishop of YorkArchbishop Cottrell beside one of the low doorways in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Archbishop Cottrell told ITV News that 2025 had been “one of the hardest” years of his life. Calls to resign over his involvement in safeguarding cases had prompted “a lot of self-reflection”, he said.
“The whole Church of England has had to face up to real, terrible failings. I am hoping we come out of this year a bit more honest about ourselves, a bit more humble,” he said.
Archbishop Cottrell said that he was looking forward to gathering around “two tables” on Christmas Day: first the “table of the Lord in church, a table where everyone is invited and welcome”, and then the family dining table.
“I’m not embarrassed to say that I love Christmas,” he said.
In his Christmas message this year the King is expected to reflect on the “pilgrimage” of life. The speech was filmed in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, and will be broadcast at 3 p.m. on Christmas Day.
