PARISH NEWS - Castor Church

THE RECTORY
JANUARY 2013
The six weeks after Christmas are known in the Church as Epiphany-tide. After The celebrations
of the Nativity in Christmas-tide, during Epiphany we celebrate the Manifestation (Showing
forth) of the Christ-Child to the World, and start the process of understanding who this child
was to become and his significance. In England, the celebration of the Night before Epiphany,
Epiphany Eve, is known as Twelfth Night (The first night of Christmas is December 25–26, and
Twelfth Night is January 5–6). Twelfth Night was a time for a special supper but also a time for
plays and songs - such as “Here we go-awassailing”. The first episode, however, recalled during
Epiphany is the Visit of the Three Kings or Three Wise Men from the east bringing their gifts.
Tragically there seems to be a shortage of wise men in the east at the moment
as we survey the momentous and tragic events unfolding in the lands of the
Middle East. And gifts from the east too seem pretty undesirable as we
survey the violence, suicide bombing, treachery and lack of compassion
shown for fellow-humans by the men of violence.
Having visited Syria and loved my time there I can hardly bear to read of
the dreadful events taking place; the sheer brutality on all sides, not
just the Assad government it should be noted, and the destruction of
historic and beautiful places. Syria is a land of such history and
culture. There are extraordinarily magnificent stone buildings still
standing, built while our Anglo-Saxon forebears were living in wattleand-daub
wooden huts; wonderful literature preserved from a time
when written records in England during the Dark Ages had ceased to
exist. The two oldest cities in the world, Aleppo and Damascus, are
both world heritage sites. The first Christian churches
on record outside Jerusalem were founded just a
few years after the Crucifixion (say by AD35 or
earlier) in Antioch and Damascus. Christianity
gained a foothold very quickly in the Roman
Province of Syria and by the time of the
conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine
the Great (proclaimed Emperor in York in AD
306) it is estimated that over sixty-percent of
Syrians were Christians. All this was to change of
course after the Arab-Muslim invasion of Syria in
the 7th century but even as late as 1940 it is
estimated that thirty-percent of Syrians were
still Christians. And it was actually the Greekspeaking
educated Christian Syrians that
preserved the learning of the ancient Greeks
and translated it into Arabic for their new
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