Time is racing by - I am amazed that's it more than ten days since I posted here. So much for good intentions! Today I seem to have been wearing a multiplicity of hats, fulfilling a range of roles, from sermon writing to updating paperwork for a committee I chair, to answering queries for another committee, to the joy of Supervision for another minister. Sometimes, though, it's good to take off all the hats, and just be... which is why, this year, I being far more intentional about down time and days off... so far, so good!

Having lived in an office where my bookcases were hidden behind my advent drapes for over a month it was so lovely, this week, to take them down and see my books once more!  And it's also nice, if not entirely liturgically correct to revert to green.  The Christmas Day candle now takes on the role of 'Christ Candle'  until it burns too short, probably around the start of Lent.

And my clothes are definitely old, predating my move to Glasgow.  I am nothing if not environmentally sound when it comes to clothes!

Beginning a series of series in Luke (the gospel, not the Luke-Acts combo) and hoping it engages other people, as I am enjoying working on it,

Epiphany - the revelation to the Gentiles, the visit of the Magi, a new insight or understanding, an 'aha' moment... 6th January, or Christmas Day if you are of an Orthodox tradition.

Unless you are hanging on until Candlemas (2nd Feb) then today is the day to pack away your decorations, if you haven't already done so.

Whatever you think about today, I hope that the days ahead bring some smiles and some moments of new or renewed insight.

This afternoon, I have spent a happy half an hour taking at look at what new things have been published for use during Lent and Holy Week.  I am, I think, excited by the titles, and encouraged by the blurb, so I just hope the books live up to them.

It is one of the those strangenesses of the 'greeting-card' world I inhabit, that you have to keep at least one major festival ahead of the game in your thinking.

'Hope and the Nearness of God' by Sister Teresa White (Bloomsbury) and 'Forty Women' by Ros Clarke (IVP) will each give me something worth reflecting upon, I am sure. If any readers have suggestions, I'd be interested to hear about them.

Hopefully, I will be posting here, and not just in church social media.

So, once again it's January, and once again I have parted with money in order to keep this blog going.  The last year was a bit rubbish from a blogging perspective - keeping the Church social media presence active took priority (rightly).  But not everyone reads social media  (how wise) and not everything I think about is relevant or appropriate for that platform, so I will try to be more intentional about posting here.

Today was our first service of the year, our 94th successive Sunday on Zoom (I counted twice!) and it was well attended.  Now left wondering what to do with the Advent candles - I still have the stumps of the previous set too.  I do have a friend who makes candles, so maybe that's a possibility?  What do others do with old candles?