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Dear Friends, March and April, Lent and Easter are obviously coupled but feel like very different times. Seasonally, March is early spring and can still become very cold, April is ‘normally’ milder, even having warmer days. Whilst I like March with its yellow daffodils, I prefer April and the mild, occasionally warm, breeze. Lent is largely in March. During Lent we focus our energy and faith on Jesus’ experience in the wilderness where he was tempted by the Devil. Jesus’…

Happy New Year everyone. Christmas urges us to find the Christ, like the shepherds and the wise men. The New Year invites us to follow the one that we have rediscovered, the King in a manger, in a stable, in Bethlehem. In one sense, as a Christian, the only New Year’s resolution we need to make is to follow Jesus Christ, acknowledging him as Saviour and serving him as Lord. Everything else in life finds its proper place when Jesus…

Christmas Greetings from the Manse Dear Friends What’s at the heart of Christmas? It’s a family: particularly a mother and a baby; a very special baby, who despite being special, was born into the crudest abode. The room of his birth would have been the home to the household animals, their stable, a barn. We know this because the newborn Jesus was placed in the manger, the trough, from which the animals drank, but on that night it was used for…

Dear Friends I heard on the radio recently that there is a desire by some to end ‘daylight saving hours’ across Europe and hopefully in Great Britain too. I was surprised to learn that it’s only 117 years since it was introduced. To our benefit it means that the mornings are a little lighter in winter, but the darkness begins to close in quickly later afternoon and evening. It’s not surprising then that themes of light become commonly expressed as…