Happy New Year!  Having had a lovely week of visiting family and friends at all points south of home, I am now back to work - with cold fingers and toes despite having both heaters on full blast!  There are a few mm of snow on the roads, less on the roofs/rooves, but generally life is plodding along as 'folk dressed up like eskimoes' face the return to work.  Quite how the man in the coffee shop can cope with wearing a tee-shirt is beyond me, must be very warm in there - I'll check later when my toes are really, really cold.

Anyway, New Year, and that lovely sense of freshness as the diary pages are still crisp and white and the possibilities seem endless.  Even while the problems of last year rumble on unabated, it is good to dare to dream of the year ahead.  As I settle into my 'new' place it is exciting to begin to anticipate how the story will unfold, the new things God will show us and draw us to share in, as well as the continuation of good things already established.  Lots of challenges ahead no doubt but lots to enjoy too.

Happy and Hope-filled 2010 everyone.

Christmas Day in Glasgow was a really joyful occasion.  We shared together in worship before being joined by overseas students, lonely people and a few families for a lovely Christmas Lunch, interspersed with carols.  It was a great day, and the buzz of conversation, gales of laughter and smiling faces (and even the inevitable grumble from professional moaners!) combined to make it a real expression of love in action.

After a day off, we met again for worship on 27th, and despite poor weather conditions and several folk being away, had a good congregation including a few visitors as we pondered the differing emphases of the Luke and Matthew birth narratives and wondered 'what happened next' for shepherds and magi (not recorded anywhere) before asking ourselves 'what next' following our own encounter with the infant Jesus.

All in all a great few days.

PS If any 'Gathering Place' folk want copies of these or other photos, I can put them on a disc for you.

Half listening to the BBC news last night I caught the words 'David Taylor MP' and 'died'.  Looking up I saw a photo of my former MP who, at the age of 63, had died suddenly after a heart attack whilst out walking at a local beauty spot with his family.  It was something of a shock - this affable and accessible MP was well known through North West Leicestershire and a familiar face in Dibley and district.

I wouldn't say I knew him, but we were on first name terms - a characteristic of his style of working - and certainly many of my former congregation knew him quite well.  Living about 6 miles from Dibley, David was a stalwart of his local parish church, I believe a church warden at one point, and he gladly came and spent an evening at our "thing in a pub" talking about faith and politics with those who would come, around a dozen of us.  That says a lot about this man, who would interrupt a busy schedule to be among his people.

David was happy to be a back-bencher and revelled in constituency life.  Whether or not you shared his views (and he was quite often in trouble with the whip being more 'old labour' than 'new') you had to admire his conscientious hard work and genuine concern for those he represented.  Having already decided to step down at the next election, Daivd's term of office was already nearing its end, leaving a legacy of love and respect.  My thoughts are with his family and his constituents at this time of loss.  Well done, good and faithful servant.  RIP.

By the wonders of advance posting and Google search engines...

Hope yours is truly special

I would love to claim that I took this photo, but actually I stole it from the web.  The snow in the photo is far deeper, crisper and, um, evener than the stuff I attempted to photograph this morning.  The combination of my lack of photographic skill, the level of light and possibly my very basic camera meant that the lovely view I saw with my eyes never quite made it to pixel-land.  If you time it right, there is a wonderful trick of the light whereby a street light shines through the rear-most dome of the Kibble Palace giving it a golden glow piercing the darkness of an early Glasgow morning.  The former BBC building and other nearby residential blocks form stark silhouettes against a purple-gold-fuchsia sky and it is truly a sight to behold.  Then a few moments later it is gone as daylight floods the city, the traffic roars along arterial roads and work begins.

In this part of the city we have very little snow, though side streets resemble skating rinks and last night I found myself uttering a middle-aged 'tut' at the child who was sledging down the path of the Botanics (why when there is all that grass....?).  As the nation struggles on, we are able to enjoy something that only university cities can appreciate - the stillness of the lack of students.  The city is given back to its longer term residents for a few days and we enjoy the space that results (though I suspect some of the cafes desperately miss the trade).

As radio and television issue warning after warning of snow and chaos, and as we sort out our own contingency plans (the snow on the roof is probably about 1 to 2mm, and there is no more evidence of plaster spalling, in case anyone is worried!) it is good to take a moment to enjoy the wintry city.  Later today I will be out and about making a couple of visits, procuring the last few bits I need for upcoming events and enjoying (in a way probably only I do) the buzz of last minute shoppers desperately seeking that elusive gift.  And then, before we know where we are, it will be over again.  All the preparation concentrated into a few short hours of high intensity before life moves on.

I will be taking a few days out from blogging and then, after conducting a wedding on Monday, a week off to visit (roads permitting) family and friends at various degrees of southness from here.  So this is my Christmas card for 2009.

The golden glow shining through the glass dome has a kind of defiance that echoes the words of the gospel - the lights shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot defeat it.  2009 has seen a lot of changes, and for a lot of people whose paths crossed mine a lot of darkness, my prayer for all is that the indefatigable light of Christ glimpsed this Christmastime will bring courage, hope and peace for a future as yet unknown.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you are doing this Christmas, may God bless you.