What a lovely outreach morning... we took part in the Radio Stoke Christmas Coffee morning - a four hour extravaganza fuelled by festive snacks, brews and lots of live music from our house musicians.  Most people also stayed for a soup and sandwich lunch before heading off in to the driech afternoon.

According my head count, 25% of those who came don't attend regularly, and a few regulars were absent.

From 'The Snowman' to 'White Christmas'... from 'O Little Town' to 'Silver Bells' we traversed the landscape of seasonal music, having lots of fun along the way.

Well done everyone who worked so hard, especially E, A and G on guitars and S-J on vocals.

Way back when, we had a Coexist poster on the wayside pulpit at The Gathering Place.  Today I saw this festive version on social media.

The message of Christmas is one of goodwill to all... not just to those who look like me, think like or believe like me.  And that is a tough call... 

Goodwill does not mean that differences don't matter, because some definitely do: some need to be named and called out.

Goodwill is about loving my neighbour, even, or especially, when that's difficult.

Coexistence can be lowest common denominator kind of tolerance... it can also be delight in and celebration of diversity... my hope and aspiration is for the latter, and I try to do my tiny bit to bring it to being.   

I had the privilege of spending two days with something like 60 other Baptist leaders at a retreat centre in Northamptonshire.  As we neared the venue, I remarked to a colleague that my Dad had been a patient at a hospital in Creaton, where the centre was, during the 1970s.  Out of curiosity, I did an internet search, and lo and behold, the retreat centre was in fact the place where the hospital had once stood.

This morning, a group of us went for a walk and passed the URC that had once been paired with the one I attended as a teenager (and which a little bit of research showed me is now part of a partnership of ten churches with two/three ministers.) 

It was curious adding some new and very different memories to a place I had never expected to visit again... seeing how much has changed and how the landscape was actually remarkably similar to how it had been all those long years ago.

None of this was what we were meant to be pondering, but it was interesting to me.

Today is full of Christmas cheer - even if it is still Advent!

This morning our youngest deacon and leader of our children's work, J, will facilitate our Pop-up nativity using the Grumpy Owl resource (see here).

So, since, if you have an owl, you also need a pussy cat (if no beautiful pea-green boat) it's the Sophie jumper this morning.  Over the coming days, look out for Sasha, Rudolph and others from my cheesy collection of jumpers!!

Really looking forward to the chaos and joy of this morning's service.