The Bishop of Swindon, the Rt Rev Michael Doe, gives his special Christmas message: THIS is my tenth Christmas in Swindon and it will be my last, as I move on after Easter.

It has been a decade in which we have grown in numbers, in confidence, and in significance on the national scene.

I've got used to two questions Where is your Cathedral? Answer: in Bristol. And where is the "soul of Swindon?"

The answer to that is difficult. To some, especially those who only commute in to earn a salary, Swindon can seem soulless.

We have moved from making trains to making cars and making money. There are profits to be made from mobility, technology and the global economy but, at Christmas, we are reminded of other things, like community, tradition, relationships, and our deeper needs for hope and peace.

So the challenge is to rediscover these things, the things that give "soul" to a person and a place.

Christmas takes us back to a Bethlehem stable 2,000 years ago. In the midst of life with an occupying power, a corrupt government, an uncaring town and a frightened family, a baby is born who changes everything.

But the message lived out by the man who grew from this baby, could not be more up-to-date.

It is that the most important thing is love. If we are to rediscover our own soul it will not come from anything we manage for ourselves. It will come from knowing we are loved and accepted. Only then can we begin to grow into the kind of person God wants us to be.

If we are to find the soul of Swindon it will only come from being willing to get involved in civic and community life.

Last month I took part in the opening of the new St Andrew's church centre in Walcot, where the church is playing a crucial role in neighbourhood renewal.

On the same day we laid the foundations for a church school in North Swindon, where the churches want to contribute to building a community.

Christmas is good news for those who want to break out of the inward-looking lifestyle. The God who is born into our world, whether that's Bethlehem or Swindon, opens a new way of being ourselves and new ways of living together.