Advent Sunday 2020 (29th November 2020)

Happy New Year!

No, that isn't a typo or a mistake. Advent Sunday is the first day of the Church's year.

Today we reach the end of a truly awful ecclesiastical year, and near the end of an equally awful calendar one - 2020 has been a year the likes of which none of us will ever want to repeat, one of the most difficult and challenging around the world that most of us can ever remember.

The first Sunday in Advent, Advent Sunday, as well as being the first day of a new Church year is also the official start of the run up to the Christmas season.

Of course, the shops have been full of Christmas stuff for months - this time since even before Halloween - and I would normally make a few mildly caustic comments about that, but not this year. The retail sector has been having a terrible time - as what is happening to Arcadia shows, from the largest national retail chain down to he smallest corner shop -  and I can't blame any retailer for taking all possible safe and legal measures to get as much business as possible, in order to try to keep their businesses afloat and as many as practical of their employees in jobs.

But now we have finally reached the point where it is officially appropriate to display Christmas messages and decorations, sing Christmas carols, and look forward to Christmas.

Advent is about looking forward to someone or something who is coming: for Christians it means the baby Jesus. This winter we are also looking forward in hope that the brilliant scientific teams who have been working on a treatment which might liberate us from this dreadful pandemic will finally have a safe, effective vaccine approved and ready to be issued. For a little longer we still have to follow the social distancing rules to protect one another but hope is on the horizon.

I will post a formal Christmas greeting later in the Advent season, but as we near the end of this ghastly time I hope that everyone who reads this - yes, I really do mean everyone - finds some peace and happiness over this Christmas season.

Here is a link to a lovely Advent service published on Facebook this morning by my local church, St James' Whitehaven, and the Whitehaven mission community.

https://fb.watch/23g-jlJbYq/

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