This month’s question is: ‘What do we owe the people who are working on Christmas Day?’

The Rev Alistair Cumming, locum minister St Andrews in the Grange, Guernsey and Presbytery Clerk to Presbytery of England

David McPhie, reader, United Church of Bute, Rothesay

“’What shift are you working this year’, ‘Are you off for Christmas’, ‘I worked Christmas last year’.

“Words which will echo around the mess rooms and canteens of many of our police, fire and ambulance stations, hospitals, care homes and many many more places, as staff discuss who will be working over Christmas this year.

“The rosters are published and the staff know that they will provide the usual high quality service for their communities at Christmas. They will go home and tell their families to make other arrangements as they will be working over Christmas. They know that for this festive period they will put community before families. They do so selflessly, and we acknowledge their service and off er our thanks.

“Those who work over Christmas and the many who volunteer to work and provide a service do so in order that we can all enjoy our festive time. For them Christmas is not a holiday. We often take for granted the services that are provided for us at Christmas, we often say thanks to those who we see working on Christmas Day, but do we think for a moment about their families who also have to see loved ones going out when others are sitting around the Christmas tree. We should not only pay tribute to those who work over Christmas but also we pay tribute and off er our thanks to their families.