A very warm welcome to our worship on this Advent Sunday. “Prepare the Way for the Lord, make his paths straight.”

In the current all too frantic “build up to Christmas” it is sometimes easy to forget that Advent is traditionally a time of waiting, and expectation. This hopeful and reflective strand to our tradition can rather be swept aside by the press of a consumerist culture. In so far as it is possible for you, why not try to build into your daily routine a short time of “waiting” in which you simply sit and listen, firstly to your own heart, and then, if possible, to God? It does not need to be very long, but it is a good chance to “Prepare the way for the Lord” in your own heart and life. If done every day you can really be sure that you are “building up to Christmas” on the inside as well as on the outside.

You might like to know that I am also “waiting” – but not just for Christmas and the coming of Christ. In January of next year I shall be joining the Bishops of Reading and Dorchester with about twenty other clergy from the Reading area, as Bishop Andrew leads us on a pilgrimage to Ethiopia. Please pray for Andrew, Colin, myself, and the others as we prepare for this great expedition which will be taking in some of the very wonderful and ancient Christian sites in this huge, varied, and beautiful country. The Christian faith has been present there since the 4th century, and the Ethiopian Orthodox church is one of the oldest in the world. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you all on my return towards the end of that month.

Your Rector Canon Kevin Davies