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This is a time full of feasting. Everywhere you go it seems you’re offered a plate of mince pies or piece of stollen, perhaps with a glass of mulled wine. You can’t escape it—biscuits and coffee at church become wine and cake week after week. Or at least that’s normal in the UK, I’m told… Continue reading Feasting at Christmastime
Advent is a season of questions. Which is good, because I’ve got plenty. Have you? Sometimes people act like you can’t ask questions in church life, as though you just have to ‘have faith’, which is true but not in the way that people who usually say it mean. I think they act like this… Continue reading Questioning God
This is a nostalgic time of year. I’ve written this ahead of time so I don’t know what Christmas TV we’ll be treated to but I expect it will include a Christmas special or two from something that hasn’t been on the screens for a few years, and a bunch of old favourites being shown.… Continue reading A Pillar of Salt
This is the time of waiting. It doesn’t look like it if you look around you though. We must be one of the most impatient cultures yet to grace the face of the earth, which is why I’m convinced we need to recover some sense of Advent as a counter-cultural act. This is the time… Continue reading Learning to wait
Advent started yesterday, on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Most of us, if we observe advent at all will start on Wednesday with the opening of our calendars on the first of December. We consider it our three and a half week countdown to Christmas. Which is all well and good, preparing for feasts makes… Continue reading Advent begins in the dark
Advent starts on Sunday, which will confuse some of you because you’re expecting it to start next Wednesday. Others of you will be appalled at the idea of ‘doing Christmas’ in November—well we won’t be, we’ll be celebrating Advent. Advent is dark. Advent is bleak. Advent is about staring at the wretched core of the… Continue reading Advent is coming
When the Wise Men arrived to find the child with Mary and Joseph they: Rejoiced exceedingly with great joyMatthew 2.10 Which I think is just about the most wonderful expression I’ve heard in a long time. There’s something about the way the Bible uses language that even in translation is beautiful. I can’t remember the… Continue reading Fuelling your Joy
The church calendar is anathema to our tradition. We wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Except for Christmas obviously. And Easter. And Mothering Sunday (though it’s no longer about Mother Church). But otherwise, yuck. Advent is about chocolate and Lent is the rankest popery. Ok, I’ve got that out of my system. That’s my… Continue reading Learning the Calendar’s Wisdom
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