12/01/2024

Happy New Year! I may be the first person to wish you this. This edition of the Nar Valley News covers both December and January. So, I do wish you a happy 2025. But the church year, like the school year and the financial year, starts at a different time. It starts now, with the season of Advent. Advent means "arrival" and it is when we look forward to the arrival of Jesus. Like a healthy pregnancy, it is an exciting time of expectancy. It includes both the business of getting ready and the patience of waiting. And at the end there is a baby. Life will never be the same again. I hope that you have a wonderful Advent and Christmas. I hope that you have the chance to find a balance of activity and rest. And that church is part of that. We have a good range of events happening in our village churches. Do look at the programme on the centre pages. Church buildings also offer great spaces for a moment's quiet. They are open every day. Just pop in when you feel like it. God welcomes you. At Christmas we have the chance to welcome God. God comes as a fellow human being. He comes to be with us, not to lord it over us. It is a lesson that we all - both within and without the church - need to learn again and again. Human power games are not God's way. In this closing year the church has been called out on this by brave survivors of abuse and their allies. And humanity has continued to breed war and ecological disaster. Let's pray and work for a better future. To a troubled world, peace. To a searching world, love. To a waiting world, hope. Angela