Dear Friends,

 

As I write this, Christmas draws ever closer, and the mention on the Archers this evening of someone doing their ‘last minute Christmas shopping’ filled me with dismay, since I have barely started mine. (There should be a special ‘late night opening for clergy’, I think, at this time of year 10pm – midnight, maybe?).  I really ought to be ready – I’ve preached enough Advent sermons on the subject of ‘readiness for the coming of Christ’; but then, how many of us always practise what we preach?

 

But I am full of good resolutions for next year! I have become fed up with carrying around, all the time, the ‘Church Book and Desk Diary’, full of ecclesiastical information and very cumbersome, which gives the impression that clergy lives are totally bound up with the life of the Church. No, I thought, I’ll make a bid for freedom in 2008, and bought a slim-line, light-weight diary in which to record the events of the year. To my surprise, on opening it, I saw that it gave a whole page to New Year Resolutions. The heading of the page reads: ‘I am setting the following goals for me to achieve in 2008 and I commit myself to making them happen’. Underneath are 10 sections: Physical, Mental, Self-development, Money/finance, Career/work, Family, Social, Spiritual, Emotional, and Property. I think that’s quite a challenging list, and I can think of all sorts of aims, under all those headings, that I could put down for the year….

 

The New Year will begin for me, and, I hope, for a good number of you, at All Saints, when we shall, as in previous years, gather for a brief ‘Watch-night service’ at 11.30, when we’ll ask God’s blessing on the year ahead, come what may. I know I won’t be able to keep those good resolutions in my own strength alone, so what better way to begin than in the presence of God? Then, as the bells ring in 2008, we’ll pour out some bubbly and drink a toast to the New Year.

 

Christmas celebrates the fact that in Jesus Christ, God entered into the experience of being human, with all its weaknesses and failings (as well as the good bits!). We can also be thankful that, as we move on into the unknown future, he will remain with us (‘Emmanuel – God with us’) : ‘and it’s from the old I travel to the new – you’ll be travelling along with me’, as the song puts it. I hope that thought will help me to keep my New Year resolutions. If I do, I might be better organised – in fact, I might even be ready for Christmas this time next year…. We’ll see!

 

This will certainly be a challenging year for All Saints’ Wraxall, as we move ahead into fund-raising for the new Cross Tree Centre, now that planning permission has at last been granted.

This year will test our commitment, our generosity and our trust, and I am sure we shall learn a great deal along the way. Please pray for God’s blessing on our plans, and ask yourself what  part you will play in realising those plans.

 

I wish you a calm and peaceful Christmas, and may it bring you joy – whether of the quiet or the noisy variety! Special thoughts and prayers for those in our parish family for whom this will be a difficult Christmas. You may find the lines which follow this helpful – it is a reading I have loved since I first came across it over 30 years ago.

 

Love and Christmas Blessings to you all –

and may the New Year be a good one.

 

Rosey