Christmas across the country will look slightly different this year due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis – here’s how things will look for the Rt Rev Stephen Conway.

Ely Standard: Ely Cathedral special services over three days to ordain new deacons to the diocese. All the services were shown live on YouTube. The bishop, the Rt Rev Stephen Conway, is seen at the first of the ordination services. Picture: YouTubeEly Cathedral special services over three days to ordain new deacons to the diocese. All the services were shown live on YouTube. The bishop, the Rt Rev Stephen Conway, is seen at the first of the ordination services. Picture: YouTube (Image: Archant)

Bishop Stephen said: “In normal times, my Christmas is, as they say, ‘a game of two halves’.

“December is usually filled with carol services and social events, just as in our schools and parishes there are nativity plays, crib services, parties and lunches.

“As we get to Christmas itself, I love to be in the cathedral, full to standing room only, with the enormous tree lit, singing all the traditional favourite carols.

“Then we gather for Midnight Mass, and in deep darkness we proclaim that ‘Christ is born’, that light shines in the darkness.

Ely Standard: Ely Cathedral special services over three days to ordain new deacons to the diocese. All the services were shown live on YouTube. The bishop, the Rt Rev Stephen Conway, is seen at the first of the ordination services. Picture: YouTubeEly Cathedral special services over three days to ordain new deacons to the diocese. All the services were shown live on YouTube. The bishop, the Rt Rev Stephen Conway, is seen at the first of the ordination services. Picture: YouTube (Image: Archant)

“On Christmas morning, like most other bishops in the Church of England, I take a service in one of the prisons in the diocese, proclaiming light and hope there too.

“This year it will be different – we’ll miss the parties and the socialising, and most of us will miss friends and relatives that we usually see at this time of year.

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“We won’t be packed into churches because although we expect there will be services in our churches, they won’t be quite what we’re used to, and we almost certainly won’t be able to sing carols together.

“Churches and schools, like families and businesses, are having to think of new ways of doing things, learn new patterns of living in these anxious and uncertain times.

“The events of this year have jolted us into thinking about who and what we really value.

“Christmas 2020 brings us back, as every year, to what is most important: we will still be celebrating the hope that the birth of Jesus Christ offers; we will still be proclaiming light shining in the darkest places of our world.”