Colourful rising sun and Jesus as a refugee secures Bishop’s Christmas Card Competition win for Ysgol Ysbyty Ifan pupil

A colourful and dramatic image depicting Jesus’ family as refugees is the winner of the Bishop of St Asaph’s Christmas Card Competition.

The winning design, by ten-year-old Elan Jones from Ysgol Ysbyty Ifan, has been turned into hundreds of Christmas Cards which Bishop Gregory Cameron is sending to family, friends and colleagues around the world.

This year’s competition attracted more than 1,300 entries from 51 church schools across the Diocese of St Asaph. The theme was the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt.

Bishop Gregory said: “I think it’s splendid that all our 51 church schools will work with me in a competition to design a Christmas Card every year. It gives me a distinctive and beautiful card and showcases the excellent work that our church schools do in providing education for young people. This year’s winner Elan Jones has produced a very colourful and dramatic picture of the Holy Family’s journey into exile in Egypt. It’s a reminder that God shares in human suffering and is particularly close to refugees and those on the edge of society.”

Elan has received a prize of a book token, and a certificate along with copies of the card to send to her family and friends.  Prizes and certificates are also awarded to second and third place who this year are:

• 2^nd prize: Maisey Edwards (11 years of age), St Mary’s VA School, Overton
• 3rd prize: Oliver Edwards (4 years of age), Ysgol Llansantffraid

Certificates are also awarded to designs achieving Very Highly Commended or Highly Commended status.

In previous years, Bishop Gregory has awarded prizes himself, attending special assemblies for the occasion.  For the second year running, due to Coronavirus this is not possible. Instead, the Bishop has sent a video message of congratulations to the winner, which was watched this morning (Tuesday 14 December). You can watch the video message below.

In it he says, the winning design is “a lovely picture showing the Holy Family escaping into Egypt after learning about the threat from King Herod to their safety. The judges of the competition particularly loved the colourfulness of it and the colourfulness of the rising sun behind the Holy Family as they make their journey towards Egypt… I’m very happy to say that this card is now being sent to many different places around the world to my friends and colleagues in the church, also to members of my family and contacts I’ve built up I my ministry. It’s really good to be able to send a unique design.  Thank you very much Elan for your design; thank you very much everyone for supporting the competition.”

The Headteacher at Ysgol Ysbyty Ifan, Nia Jones, reported: “The children all had a lovely surprise this morning when watching the Bishop’s message!”

The Diocese of St Asaph looks after 51 Church in Wales Schools, including one shared faith Secondary School. Church schools are committed to celebrating the rich heritage of faith, language and culture in Wales and provide a natural point of community focus, supported by a network of clergy and churches across the Nation.

The Diocese of St Asaph is part of the Church in Wales, an autonomous Province within the worldwide Anglican Communion of Churches.  The diocese is a community of more than 200 churches and 51 church schools, covering the counties of Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham and parts of Gwynedd and Powys.