The altar was draped in white, the liturgical color of Christmas. (Could Irving Berlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, have known "White Christmas's" many-textured meanings?} The creche was in its usual place below the altar, and the principal hymns (Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, etc.) were on the program.
But there the similarity to recent Christmases ended. The pews were mostly empty, the worshippers wore masks, and the music, though tuneful and enhanced by skilled soloists, did not fill the church. As the priest said during the sermon, the truth of Christmas is that God incarnate lay in a trough where animals fed (manger).
Modern Christians have often decried the season's commercialisation and pomp. Well, in 2020 we got what we wished for.
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
----------Christina Rossetti
