Church letter

January 2024

Click for the church letter from December 2023

Familiar comforts, new adventures

Phew! There’s the busyness of Christmas over. Did you manage to enjoy it, or does it feel like you simply survived it? I hope you managed to enjoy, at the very least, part of Christmas. That you were able to stop, just for a moment perhaps, and take stock of what Christmas is all about, and remember the awe and wonder of the Christmas story.

Now, here we are, into a new year, with all its newness and potential, and at the same time all its sameness and routines, its reassurances and its concerns. For many, January means: Aargh I still haven’t done my tax return! I promised myself I wouldn’t leave it until the last minute last year, but here we are, still not started again. For me, apart from the tax return business, there is also the familiar pattern of Epiphany in January. There is the familiarity of ‘Cakes & Chaos’, our toddler group, now in its tenth year, starting up once again. We also get into the routine of a regular service pattern at church for a little while, including Connect Four - our monthly, informal, family service on a Saturday afternoon where we connect with one another and with God and the Bible (4pm on the fourth Saturday of the month).

January also sees the first of our fete committee meetings as we gear up for another great community event in the summer. (Put the afternoon of Saturday 15 June in your diary now). We’ll also be doing something completely new in January: digging some archaeological test pits in church as part of the project to bring your church into the 21st century and prepare it to face the 22nd century. (Do not fret, things will be made good again afterwards before, hopefully, the project work goes ahead the following year.)

Then it will soon be Ash Wednesday (14 February), and the start of Lent. Before we know it, it will be Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday (Easter Sunday being 31 March this year). So, is it ‘more of the same’ as we embark on 2024? In some ways, yes it is. Enjoying the comfort of routine and normality. However, the new year is also a time to stop and think ‘what do I want to do this year? What do I want to make happen this year?’ I encourage you to enjoy the familiarity of the routine of the coming year, but also to embrace the new things and the potential of a new year. As we move from 2023 into 2024, make this the year that you turn your wish. your ambition, into a reality.

Revd David Commander, Rector and Area Dean