Praying Together 11 January 2026

In the cycle of the Church Year, the Sunday following the Twelve Days of Christmas is celebrated as Epiphany – God making Himself known to all through Christ – rich, poor, old young regardless of race or status. Typically, it is a time when we talk about the significance of the Magi – the Wise men – who journey from afar to worship the new-born King, demonstrating that God’s love abounds for all – not just the Jews, but Gentiles too. The readings make a pleasant change from the previous Gospel story describing the horror of the despicable Herod’s actions resulting in the slaughter of the innocent boy children; we tend to pass over that story quickly to get back to some nicer news.

But let’s not. Instead of concentrating on the ‘Three Kings’, let’s look at the children. It’s not a unique story – it echoes the story of Moses and many others in history who tell of infanticide commanded by corrupt and brutal leaders. We wonder why, and discover similar motivations.

Those leaders fear of a new generation replacing the status quo with accompanying loss of authority and power. In many cases, there is an accompanying desire to destroy a community by killing the male children, while leaving the women to a fate of slavery.
This is compounded in many cultures by regarding children as unimportant, of no value unless they maintain a bloodline, generate income, and become old enough to work or supply the next generation of sons.

In our Christian tradition (but sadly by no means worldwide), we don’t do these things – we treasure our children as part of the Kingdom, loved as much by God as is a lifelong worshipper (or grumpy Rector!). But the issue of how to support their Epiphany remains in our daily lives and especially in our church. Children are noisy, need special attention and special age-appropriate programs; they add to the financial burden of the church but don’t put money on the collection plate. None the less, we are commanded to bring them. We do not have a choice.

We are to Encourage them and make them feel welcome.

Matt 18:5 – Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Matt 19:13-15 – Let the little children come to me

We are responsible for their Christian Education – telling the stories of Jesus in understandable words – better still by setting an example in our daily lives, not just for a hour on a Sunday morning.

Deut. 6:1-8 – The commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tell them the stories of Jesus and what He has done. Tell them about faith

Ephesians 6:4 – Bring children in the training and instruction of the Lord

We are to Pray – the most important of them all. If you can do nothing else, Pray for our children. Psalm 127:3 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”