Greetings dear fellow companions on the way,
Here we are at the culmination of the church year – the Reign of Christ – and the cusp of the beginning again of the great cycle of birth, life, death and new birth with Advent. And here we are in a world both dazzingly hopefully still beautiful and precious and desperately divided and destructive. I pray that your hearts are holding up and that every emotion, including despair and rage, hope and determination, wild joy and compassion, are welcomed as holy visitors as we seek to heal and regather our energy after the ongoing horror of wars and injustice and shocking election results and social divides that deepen rather than heal.
In my own life I have felt deeply the despair, horror, hope and disbelief of the ongoing war in the holy lands and the presidential election in the US of A despite living in a green quiet corner of the world. And I have also been filled with the hope and joy of the birth of my son’s son, my second and probably last grandchild. (On the same day as my grandson was born, my second husband’s daughter gave birth to a daughter, so we have “twin” grandchildren by different parents!!) Please feel free to share in some of the everyday aspects of my life @companyontheway on Instagram.
I continue to be quite busy providing supply (or Sunday only) services to various little churches scattered through the forest regions of Western Australia in the south west. Our local priest is about to retire and so I shall step up and provide services three Sundays a month for the interregnum next year. This will be a joy and a relief as though I love the communities I visit I am beginning to find the amount of driving through narrow winding roads through our ancient karri forests increasingly taxing. And it will be a pleasure to more deeply companion my neighbours again.
And yes, here we are at the cusp of Advent in Year C. I have refreshed the lectionary based course for your use. It works best if you begin the Monday before the first Sunday in Advent, so this year Monday 25th November.
There is also the Gift of Incarnation course, which although not strictly an Advent study, does explore the incarnational nature of God’s love for the world made for the purposes of love.
Thank you for your company on this journey called the life of faith. Thank you to all who have bought me coffees in person and in the virtual world. And thank you for all the encouraging words. May we continue to know the peace, hope, love and joy of our Creator’s company in all that befalls us, in all our struggles and letting goes, closer to us than our own breath.
Every blessing,
Reverend Sue
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