We are entering the season of candles and carols and announcements from angels. It’s a time when we look especially for hope and joy: the light amidst the long nights, when we recognise how hard life can sometimes be and celebrate the things that keep us going.

There are a great many things I am thankful for this Advent: I am thankful for the warm and generous welcome we have received arriving in Bodicote, I am thankful for all the many wonderful things already happening in this parish (and for the wonderful people who have been leading them), and I have particularly enjoying my quiet moments in our beautiful church when I unlock in the morning. I am thankful too for the crisp brightness of winter sunshine and for hot cups of tea on cold mornings. Little moments of joy are always worth searching for.

As well as a time to give thanks, Advent is a time of new beginnings. This is the start of a new church year, as well as the start of a new chapter for us together. In the coming weeks we will be hearing again the story of the angel’s message to Mary – inviting her to be part of something extraordinary – the story of God coming amongst us as a tiny child, and we will be celebrating with services as well as our Christmas bazaar and many Christmas-themed events and activities.

I hope to meet many of you there and to get to know you better, and I hope you will feel free to say hello if you spot me or to get in touch if you would like to find a time to talk. A time of new beginnings is a great time for building new relationships and looking for what the future might bring – what an appropriate season for this moment in our parish.

I wonder what this season of new beginnings means for you: what new adventures God might be calling you into? And whilst we’re wondering, what new adventures God might be calling us into as a church? These will be the questions in my prayers these coming weeks.

So in the spirit of thankfulness and hope for what may come, I wish you a blessed Advent and – when it comes – a very happy Christmas.

Revd Emily