From the Vicarage - January

What will you be doing to ‘bring in’ New Year? Will it be partying, or snoozing, getting over the night before, or stepping out into the newness of it all with vigour and determination?

I recently read the following advice:-

“You’ve got a whole 365 days ahead of you, so feel free to pace yourself and start the year off slowly, with enjoyable yet relaxed activities!” Sounds like good advice to me or is my appreciation of these sentiments simply a sign that I am older than I once was?!

New Years can come at us in many ways. Some of us will know what lies ahead, or at least think that we do, and some of that might be events and activities which we are looking forward to and intend to embrace with open arms. Others of us may feel that the months ahead will include things we consider to be challenging, or daunting even. Most of us, if we are honest, walk something of a tightrope between our desire for something familiar and our desire for something new.

One of the ancient, and to some familiar, prayers of the church is one set for Compline, or for the end of the day. It says this...

“Be present, O merciful God,

and protect us through the silent (or noisy) hours of this night (or day), so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may rest upon your eternal changelessness...”

There are parts of that prayer which I would happily adapt – as I already have, above. Why does it need to only be a prayer for the end of a day – why not the beginning of a day, or a New Year? There are also words I might want to insert – like the word ‘frantic’ alongside 'fleeting’ to describe our whirlwind of a world, or the word ‘worried’ alongside 'wearied’ to describe our potentially agitated responses to those ‘changes and chances’ which can lift us and drop us in equal measure. But the prayer brings us to its conclusion, ‘resting upon (the) eternal changelessness’ of God. A God who is changeless might, for some, cause concern. For me, the answer as to what is this changelessness of God is given to us in the opening words of the prayer. We can rest in God’s changelessness because God is ever present and ever merciful, as well as eternal – or everlasting.

However we step out into 2025 – with light or heavy hearts, a spring in our step or dragging a comfort blanket behind us, let us step out knowing we do not face life’s ‘changes and chances’, the lifts and the falls of our journey, alone or unloved. We can rest in God’s eternal and merciful and changeless presence. We may have put away our carol sheets with their words of “O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!” But Emmanuel means ‘God is with us’ and that is a truth which is changeless and abiding!

Love and Blessings to You All this New Year

- Carolyn (Vicar)