Christmas 2015
I'm sure most of us have already started preparing for Christmas in terms of beginning to write the Christmas Cards and buy the presents and make arrangements for what we are actually doing over the festive season. But of course there is also the spiritual preparation called Advent, not just the calendars with all the chocolates in. The clergy in our archdeaconry recently went on a day conference about Advent, at which I was horrified to realize that at St James's, we only devote one Sunday morning to thinking about Advent, because the others are all taken over by Christingles, Nativity plays, Christmas carol services or baptisms. Advent is indeed a sobering subject with its focus on Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell and the Second Coming of Christ, all things we'd rather not talk about. We are all mortal and life does not just go on for ever. The current emphasis on the celebration of the lives of individuals at most funerals is good as far as it goes, but all of us fall short of [Read more...]