To read Canon Paul's Christmas homily, click here
The image to the left can be found in St Peter's church Winchester - though most of us have walked past it many many times without ever noticing it! In the Lady Chapel there is a beautiful Jacobean chest in use as the altar, and above it on the wall is a carved panel with three scenes on it - this is the middle one.
Parish historian John Thornhill says:
"We don't know where the whole panel came from, other than it's not linked in any way to the chest. It looks as though it was originally part of something else, possible a reredos behind an altar - but that's purely supposition. What is certain is that the three carved panels are older than the rest of the piece, which is most likely 19th century. The style of the three panels is so similar they almost certainly came from the same item, but what we can't say. They are probably 17th century, English."