I wonder, how was 2025 for you? Perhaps it’s been a year of saying ‘goodbye’, or perhaps it’s been a year of saying ‘hello’. Maybe 2025 has been a year of good stuff. Then again maybe 2025 has been a year of bad stuff.Or what about, starting a new hobby, or job or relationship, or post-illness recovery?Or a year of just trying to make it through with family, financial, and work challenges?The chances are that 2025 has brought a whole host of things to your door, the ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘rather have avoided that completely’. The turning of the year is as good a time as any to take a moment to pause and to look back, to reflect on the year that has been, the challenges that have been faced, the impossibilities that have been overcome. There are all sorts of ways we can do this. One Christian practice often used at the end of a day, or year, is an Examen, basically asking, how was that (looking back), how are things (looking at now) and what are you hoping for (looking forward). This may or may not be a useful practice.Maybe something as intentional as an Examen feels a bit forced, but perhaps pause and have a think, what moments of delight caught you off guard this year? It doesn’t have to be anything big like winning the lottery. As I write this I’m reminded of one such moment for me this year. When at 7pm one Sunday evening I was supposed to be heading out the door to set up for a course starting at 7:30pm when at just the moment I was about to leave one of my children came in for a hug. So we hugged, and chatted and it was the best reason to be late I could ever have.Merry Christmas and God bless you in the big stuff and all the small things as you head into 2026, watch out for those wonderful moments when wonder breaks through.Tim
By the end of November we will be in Advent. Advent Sunday falls on the 30th of November this year and once we are there we can no longer deny it – Christmas is approaching – and fast!In Advent this year as we journey through the Sundays of the season I thought we’d follow the traditional Advent pattern but a bit more intentionally, with the four Sunday’s of this penitential season of preparation with its historic focus on waiting, for the ‘now and the not yet’.Traditionally the four Sunday’s of Advent can be described as being focused on: HOPE – PEACE – JOY – LOVE.Hope, peace, joy, love. Words that are always important, but words that feel especially weighty this year, after a year when it might be convincingly argued that those words have been missing from much of our shared public life and discourse.With that in mind we’ll be thinking about HOPE unending, PEACE unstoppable, JOY unbound and LOVE untamed.The promise we find in the ‘preparation’ and ‘waiting’of Advent is the promise that God will make all things new, that God’s good promises are for our future. But also that we can work towards - and get a glimpse of God’s good things in this season too.Who would have thought that four little words could be so counter-cultural.HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, go on then, don’t mind if I do.BlessingsTim
As October begins, we are in the midst of Prayerfest25 here in Madeley. Eight days of celebrating a legacy of prayer in and for Madeley that goes back at least 1050 years. 1050 years ago, land was granted by Royal Charter, to build a church and monastery. The latter of which may never have been built. Prior to AD 975 it is almost certain that people prayed in this village.Prayer is often a reflex, “Oh Lord”, we might cry out when something awful has happened. We might pray with a guttural cry rather than a reasonable thought.Prayer might also be a more contemplative affair, setting aside a moment or two each day to pause, to give thanks to God and to acknowledge something greater in our lives than our own motivations.By the first day in October Prayerfest25 is well and truly underway, but there is still plenty to get involved with.On Wednesday 1st October 2025 7:30-9:30pm we’ll be hosting a free Collage and Prayer Workshop at All Saints’. An opportunity to try a form of creative prayer.On Thursday 2nd October 3:45-4:30pm at All Saints’ we’ll be hosting, Pausing Place, a quiet and relaxed session for children and families, making space for prayer and storytelling.On Friday 3rd October 7:30-9:30pm at All Saints’ we’ll be Launching John Lloyd’s new booklet, The Adventure Of Prayer, followed by a panel discussion about prayer, with wine and nibbles. This is going to be a very special session for the church.Also, on Saturday 4th October from 10:00am-4:00pm at Betley Methodist Chapel we’ll be hosting a Quiet Day with a Harvest Theme, led by Sadie Blankley and Rev Tim.There is so much to get involved with, do take some time and have a look at all the events taking place!BlessingsRev Tim.
It’s September and I’m beginning to raise my eyes to the horizon to the great pattern of services and activities that have already begun to take shape as we head towards the end of the year.But before that we’ve got lots of exciting things going on in September and October. Special events, special services and lots of ways to engage.Looking towards September, in Madeley between the 6th and 7th of September we’ll be welcoming the Extreme Tour, a group of nearly a dozen musicians who will spend the weekend popping up in different places around the parish, singing songs and chatting to whoever they encounter.And then at the end of September and on into October All Saints’ will be hosting PrayerFest2025, celebrating 1050 years since a Royal Charter granted land to be used in Madeley for a church and monastery. 1050 years! That’s amazing, I’ve never found a record that the monastery ever got built, but that is an extraordinary bit of history there! To celebrate there will be a whole host of events taking place in Madeley and also in Betley too.On Saturday 4th October between 10:00am-4:00pm Sadie Blankley and I will be hosting a Quiet Day with a Harvest Theme. It will be a wonderful day with opportunities to step away from the busy-ness of the world and to pause.I’m praying that as the leaves start to change colour that new rhythms might begin to emerge, rhythms of peace and prayer, that as we gear up after the relative quiet of summer (unless you have children at home!) we might all step into helpful patterns that carry us forwards.Tim
