... well maybe... starting work on Advent 1, circulating stuff for midweek reflections, searching the web for things for Christmas Eve (Christmas Day I haven't even begun to contemplate yet)... I have odd flutters of excitement, moments of frustration and generally a sense that I should be taking the chance to draw breath before it all gets going.

Last night I spent a happy hour wandering around the centre of Glasgow looking at the lights and admiring the huge nativity scene.  Initially cold and crisp, the weather turned to rain then sleet before the sky cleared to reveal a beautiful full moon.  There is something quite magical about cold, dark nights, punctuated by twinkling lights, cheeks reddened and noses nipped by the frosty air, something that carries me back to other times and other places, with other people ... and yet remains entirely contiguous (continuous?) with the here and now.  For sure, it is all a long way from what we purport to be recalling, but it is a defiant hopefulness in what otherwise would be a dark and gloomy time of year.

I have yet to do any Christmas shopping (so far I have a stack of cards waiting to be written and a few ideas of things to buy!) but I do know what I will be using for my perosnal reflection in Advent, which feels positive, and maybe even the right way round.

The next few weeks will be pretty manic, and I will revel in every moment of them, not becuase I must, but because I may.  From cookies to crafts to carols to contemplation, Advent 2013 is filled with promise and I am looking forward to it.

I read this quotation today in a book I had to read and now need to review...

One can be an Evangelical in virtually any ecclesiastical setting, accept a state church, a hierarchical church government, infant baptism, and still be, apparently, an 'Evangelical'.  But not a Baptist. Baptists profess the acceptance of 'no creed except the Bible'.  When some Baptists attempt to impose a man=made creed upon the Baptist fellowship, does this effort stem from a Baptist , or from, let us say, a fundamentalist mentality?  Some Baptists have been Calvinists, others Arminians, fundamentalists, Liberals, tongue-speakers, faith-healers, evolutionists, non-evolutionists, premilleniumists, postmilleniumists, amilleniumists, ecumenists, non-ecumenists and so forth, but none of theses ideological factors made them Baptists.  A real Baptist is a believer who holds tenaciously, courageously and charibtably, to Baptist convictions.

Cited on p111 of T Watson Moyes Our Place Among the Churches, Scottish Baptist Ecumenical Relations in the Twentieth Century: from Principled Denominationalism to Evangelical Separateness.

Put in simple terms, it more or less equates to saying that what holds us together is the Declaration of Principle, which allows for very broad diversity.

I don't want to pre-empt my book review, but this book combines some profound honesty with graciousness.  It is not a happy tale, but one that friends south of Hadrians' Wall would benefit from knowing more about.

Well with all the cakes sold, most of the bringings bought and some generous donations in, I can announce that we raised £260 and a few pence for Elpis.  That was a great weekend's work.

We also have a huge stack of shoeboxes ready to go off with Operation Christmas Child to bring hope to children who would otherwise have a pretty bleak time.

And we had so many children present that I didn't have enough hyacinth bulbs to dole out one each, so they had to have one per family (parents probably relieved not to have to nurture too many plants!).  So one per family and two to the two people I think were the most senior present.

The church meeting that followed got through a lot of stuff in an hour, and we were all out of the building by about 2:30.

So now it's time to chill for a while!  Overall a good weekend's endeavours.

Thanks to the bakers and partakers we had a good morning and raised £100.81 for Elpis, which I am sure will be put to excellent use in supporting vulnerable young women.  If you missed out and are in our neck of the woods tomorrow morning, we will be selling bakes of all sorts after the service to top up the gift we are able to make to this charity.

We will also be gatherig in shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and holding a Church eeting- so a busy day ahead.

Every year, around this time, I am busily sorting out Advent reflections, downloading new music for meditation, searching for new slants on Advent candle liturgies and generally wondering where the year has gone.

As has been my practice most years since ordination, I try to get 'Christ the King' Sunday as a day off, not because I have any issues with it as a theme, but because I need a quick breather before the busy time that is Advent and Christmas.

As the light fades on another Friday afternoon, I think I'm almost there. 

I have found a candle liturgy with which I am reasonably happy (still wondering if it needs a few tweaks as the balance week to week is a little odd in places) and which will allow me to use one of my favourite Advent hymns verse by verse as the Sundays pass by.

By the wonders of technology, I have purchased some music to use within the Advent reflections... it is currently residing on some metaphorical cloud in cyberspace, but I can download it when I'm home and have the desired medium loaded up.

I even got as far as searching for some ideas for the Christmas Eve service...

Always a slightly odd time of year for me... thinking ahead how to make Advent and Christmas menainful, enjoyable and special for other people, and trying to work how to fit in all the friends and family visits in the few days off that we share thereafter!