Feria

Dear Friends in Christ,

A thought on the last day of the Church Year. We begin Advent tomorrow and shall start our annual journey all over again. In Saint Luke 21, the verses 34-36, our Lord gives us a warning, which is more applicable now then ever. The message yet is so plain : 'Dont get caught up in the stresses of your daily lives. In our fast-paced lives this warning is again very true and our Lord tells us to be viligant and fully awake at all times . There is an encouragement to pray for strenght to whitstand the ways of the world. There is no better time as we prepare to start a new Church Year , to become fully aware of those things, which cause us anxiety and those matters, which take us away from our true focus.Pray for strenght, pray for one another as we end this Church Year on this very day.

This is then a good opportunity to wish all those, who share in these meditations a blessed and meaningful season of Advent.At this time of writing I recall some of the Advents Services, which I participated in as a Chorister in Saint Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Wellington , New Zealand. Do you know the Advents responses? You know those, which start with a solo : ' I look from afar , and lo, there is a cloud covering the whole earth' and then follows a series of solo's and responses by the choir and the sound echoes through the Cathedral . Kings College, Cambridge in the UK have their Advents carol service in the evening and they start the service off with the responses. The Church is in darkness when it all starts off, and then finally after the processional hymn ' Come Thou Redeemer of the Earth' , the lights are slowly turn off. And, friends in Christ that is what Advent is all about - a journey from darkness into Light. This is the journey which I want to make, join me on this journey whereever you are.

Thanks be God.

Ed Bakker