Bringing hope into the world

“A leader” said Napoleon Bonaparte, “is a dealer in hope.” At the start of 2025, this is a tough challenge for leaders everywhere! Conflicts continue around the world. The climate emergency is ongoing. At the polls, voters in many countries express their dissatisfaction with the status quo. As we look around us, can hope mean anything more than mere wishful thinking? As we look on all the challenges that exist, have we anything more to say than “I hope that that somehow, somewhere, something will turn up”.

More than ever, the Christian understanding of hope is what we need. Christian hope is broader, deeper, stronger altogether than any ‘wishful thinking’. In scripture, hope is not just a vague desire that something good in the future will somehow happen. Rather, the Biblical understanding of hope is of a confident expectation and desire that good in the future will come. It’s an assurance based in our pre-existing experience of God’s goodness, God’s love, the faithfulness that he has already shown towards us.

Scripture also contains the idea that while hope is something which comes primarily from God, it is also something in which human beings have a part to play, a contribution to make. The letter to the Hebrews says this: “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.” (Hebrews 6:10-11)

God graciously calls us to join in bringing hope into the world. Our

work, our love, our diligence matter. The contribution we make is important in bringing into being the future that God wants for us. At the start of this new year, we are called to take the lead: to be signs, symbols, dealers in the hope for which our world longs today.

Rt Revd Michael Beasley,

Bishop of Bath and Wells

What is Christian Meditation??

The meditation begins with a short reading followed by twenty minutes of silent contemplative prayer, also known as meditation.

We meet every Thursday at 7pm in St. Mary’s Church

(entry by the Priest’s Door or  by arrangement))

Our meetings are open to all, you do not need

to be a member of St. Mary’s Church.

If you would like to join us please let me know in order that I may keep you updated regarding venue.

If you have no experience of Christian meditation or you would like to discuss anything about this please feel free to contact me. Meanwhile I look forward to welcoming you at our meetings.

Robin Bailey, 

I’m sure by now I have had the chance to wish most of you a Happy Year! But just in case Shanah Tovah!

This is the typical Hebrew greeting that the Jewish community offer each other at New Year, which translates as “Good Year”.

As we know Jesus, a faithful Jew, would have actually spoken Aramaic. Aramaic is a language closely related to Hebrew, and as such Shanah Tovah is the closest approximation to what He might have said.

But reflecting on this I was led to think that New Years don’t just happen on the 1^st January. Indeed, the Jewish new “Rosh Hashanah” is celebrated between 22nd-24th September 2025.

In this way, our Anglican church year ends with Christ The King, and begins on the first Sunday of Advent on around 1^st December.

And last year our visit to New York coincided with Chinese New Year on 10^th February, when we were lucky to witness the wonderful lantern festivals and dragon parades.

But “New Years” also come in the world of work.

If you work in finance, and particularly tax, the start of the year is around 5^th April.

And personally, I’ve always struggled with 1^st January, as the start of the year. This is because from 5 years old I was in school either as a pupil or teacher, consequently the 1^st September has always been my “new year”.

In this way we might reflect that “New Years” actually happen constantly throughout the year, and are moments of change, when we transition from the old to the new.

Of course, Jesus Himself was a new beginning, and a transition from the old to the new (and I don’t mean the Testaments here). Jesus came to bring new life, as Paul reminds us in Romans 6, through His death and resurrection

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life”

And we attest to this through Baptism and Confirmation, and each Sunday as we reaffirm through our Confession, Creed and the Eucharist, our commitment to follow Christ.

But also in His ministry, Jesus preached new beginnings and offered new life to those He met. In fact, the Gospels are littered with stories about people who encountered Jesus, and transformed from an old way of living to new one. One of my favourites is the tale of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector in Luke 19. I’ll leave you to read this for yourself, but it is a wonderful illustration of how change can come at any time, and in unexpected places, leaving us transformed, and changed for the better.

So as we move into the new year, and continue our journey with Jesus, let us too be open to unexpected change that will transform us, and our church for the better. Knowing as Jeremiah spoke that God has a plan for us to prosper, and just like Zacchaeus, through faith God has give us all we need for this coming year (whenever it starts or finishes!!!).

So may I end with the rather lovely, and slightly longer Hebrew New Year greeting, that I’m sure Jesus would have used to his own friends and family, and literally means “may you have a good and sweet new year.”

Shanah tovah umtukah

Dear Friends

As I sit to write this it is a rather cloudy and overcast mid-October morning. The sky is rather grey and mournful, and as the mist settles over the roof tops, there’s gentle rain in the air.

And although a few days away from November, it seems to set the tone for a month, November, that has become a time of reflection and looking back, most especially on the lives of those who have gone before us.

We begin the month with All Saints, and a time when we remember, and celebrate, people in the life of the church who have witnessed to God’s work in and through their own lives. And how they’ve set us an example of how to live out the Gospel, in our own time and place.

People have been called throughout time, to live and work for Christ, adapting His call to live out the Gospel to their surroundings, and offering themselves in service to the needs they find around them.

But as we look to the past, we should also take the opportunity to look around ourselves today, in our Churches, homes and places of work; where I’m sure if we look carefully, we will recognise different “saints” that are around and about us, in our everyday lives. Those who, even thought they might not name it, are following Jesus’ example to witnessing to God’s love through word and action.

And in the same way, we will also take time to stop and commemorate those who we’ve loved and lost in our own lives, on All Souls Day.  A

time when we remember, and give thanks for those who have had a

direct impact on us, those who have given us life, those who have nurtured us, both in our physical selves, but also our spiritual lives.

As a Nation, we will also pause on 11^th November at 11am to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for justice and freedom, on Remembrance Day. This day, alongside All Souls and All Saints, allows us to celebrate – not war, for there is nothing to celebrate in the loss of life – but rather the bravery and courage of those who have stood up against wrong, and acting upon the example given to them by Christ, sought, and remain to seek for, a world that is free from hate and fear. And as such, We Will Remember Them.

And so to finish, I’m reminded of a prayer that I have often used on such occasions, which I now leave with you today:

Loving God,

grant to us today your special blessing as we gather to remember loved ones who have died.

Surround us with your love and help us to know your comforting presence in our lives.

And as we give thanks for the many memories of a life shared, may we find assurance and comfort in the hope we can find in Christ Jesus.

Amen

Every Blessings

Nick