Dear Friends

Advent, Christmas and the New year provide us, if we will allow it to be, with a God given chance to stand back from the business of our lives and to reflect on what has been, what is and what may be to come. The old tradition of 'New Year Resolutions' is very much a part of this pattern.

The Penitential Season of Advent, which has an ancient and honourable place in the Christian calendar, is a time of preparation and waiting. It is a time of movement from Darkness to Light and ends at midnight on Christmas Eve - right in the middle of the first Communion service of Christmas.
This may seem odd at first sight, but there is something appropriate about marking that transition (from darkness to light) with such a service. During Advent we are asked to prepare ourselves for what is to come. This means Christmas, of course, with its celebration of new life and of God's Gift to us of His Son in the past. It also means looking forward to a time when that Son will return to His people. Advent reminds us to look for and pray for that moment - whenever it may come - and not to be caught unprepared. The chance is there to make amends with God and with one another and to move forward with clear minds and consciences into the Light of Christmas.

(I am often tackled indignantly by those who do not understand why some clergy will not allow Christmas Carols to be sung until

Christmas Day. Perhaps what I have written will answer the question: despite the commercial pressures Christmas does not come until December the 25th! Many of us, myself included, take a less precise view and Carols tend to be sung during the final week of Advent.)

There is a tendency among some to be more than a bit cynical about Christmas simply because of the date that the Church has chosen for it. It is, of course, at about the same time as the ancient Winter Solstice and, yes, that is certainly one of the reasons why we celebrate Christmas on December 25th. We do not know precisely on what date Jesus was born, we are not even very certain about the year, but the symbolism of using the world's (well, the Northern Hemisphere's) darkest time for the arrival of new life, light and a regeneration of faith has to work! From late December onwards the days grow longer as the sun overcomes the darkness and so it is with our Spiritual life. We understand Jesus to be the Light of The world and the source of its life. His birth brought spiritual light into the darkness of a world that had moved far from God and through His life, ministry and death He 'drew all things to Himself' and conquered that darkness just as surely as the sun makes its way through the Winter days to the Spring and Summer beyond.

I do very much hope that you can find time to observe your own Advent. We all very much need to this year, with the anguish that the world has experienced of late and the fear that has been placed in all our hearts. Our Christmases need to include this too and our New Year Resolutions should reach out to all who suffer, all who are without the basics of human dignity and all who live with a darkness in their souls.

David and Maddie, Jack and Joan, Chris and Jenny, Lorna and Bob and Molly and I all join to wish you the 'Peace of God which passes all understanding' this Advent, Christmas and New Year.
Chris Walter