Dear All,

When I was a green young Vicar in my first parish, we used to have an annual Nativity Service led by our Day School. One year a man in his fifties - I think a grandfather of one of the children - came up to me a few days before the event and asked ‘why do we always have to have the same story at these dos, Vicar?’ I asked him what he meant. ‘You know, he said, that one…’ and he began to fumble for words. ‘Do you mean the story of Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus?’ I asked. He clicked his fingers and looked grateful for the prompt I had given him: ‘Yes!’ he said: ‘that’s the one!’