Christmas time 'both joyful and deeply poignant'

The newly appointed Bishop of Sodor and Man has said the Christmas season could be "both joyful but also deeply poignant" for many people in the community.

Right Reverend Tricia Hillas was installed as the Isle of Man's 88th bishop at a ceremony in Peel last month.

The former youth worker said the festive period was "full of laughter and lightness" for some.

But she said there were "different levels of joy", and for others the season would be accompanied by "the sense of the people that would have been with us at one time".

Since taking up the role, Bishop Hillas has spent time getting to know more about some of the communities in the island, particularly in the north.

That has included spending time at the Isle of Man Prison in Jurby, where she met the senior team and some of the inmates, as well as attending several carol services.

The role came with a seat in the island's parliament as a member of the Legislative Council, and Bishop Hillas took part in her first sitting of Tynwald just three days after her enthronement.

She said she had been struck positively by "how seriously" the members took the responsibility they had.

"We've had some very serious conversations and that's been really an opportunity to understand more about the significance of the impact on people's lives," she said.

Among the items on the agenda for the upper chamber has been the Assisted Dying Bill 2023.

Bishop Hillas said there was "not a clear, simple, straightforward answer".

She said among the key issues were "the sense of wanting people to have dignity, of wanting people to not suffer, of wanting people to be able to live well, and to live safely and that actually they don't need to be afraid".

"So all of those different aspects of this one issue are really profound and I think what I found really important was all that and more came out in the discussion," she said.

She said the debate in the chamber was approached with "a great deal of attentiveness to the seriousness of what was before us" and was "hugely challenging" for everyone.

"I think for a lot of us in that conversation it was a costly conversation, it takes a lot out of everyone," she said.

Reflecting on the recent turmoil in the Church of England after a report highlighted failings in preventing and reporting abuse, she said it was "having to face some very important and challenging questions, and not least it needs to be asking those questions of itself".

"I do feel that deep sense that if anywhere should be a place of safety and dignity for all of us, not least the most vulnerable of us, then it should be the church.

"And when it isn't that makes me deeply angry, but also deeply determined to be part of finding ways to put that right."

Turning to Christmas and its meaning, she said there was a "depth" to the season, which was about "that real story of people who faced this inordinate challenge and yet in the midst of that came joy and hope and inspiration".

"That means that at times we'll be full of that joy, that laughter, and the brightness and the lightness.

"With that comes also for many of us that sense of the people that would have been with us at one time, and so there's something about Christmas which is both joyful but also deeply poignant.

"And that sense of God coming into the poignancy of life means that there is space in the quiet as well as the joy.

"I think the depth of it for me still comes back to that sense of wherever we are, and whatever Christmas this year feels like to us, that God is there in it with us."

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