Dear One and All,

'The end is nigh' is a message the Revd Dr Colin Morris refers to in his Advent sermon in the Methodist Recorder. He asks 'How nigh is nigh?' And I know what he means, as when I was a boy I often used to see a man with such a placard, wrapped around his torso and I wondered what he meant. My father simply dismissed him as 'a nut' and I suspect many others would have been led falsely, into the belief that this was the authentic message of Christianity.

As we came towards the millennium many people warned of complete catastrophe. Some said aircraft would fall out of the sky, nuclear rockets would be triggered, power supply would fail and the banks would have huge computer failures. Armageddon! And yet two minutes after midnight nothing much had changed; the secular prophets of doom were about as reliable as the placard man.

In 1971 a Methodist minister told the Times newspaper that by 2011 the Methodist Church would have collapsed - we're still here! I have known many fellow Christians spend inordinate amounts of time trying to work out some Da Vinci type code as to when the Lord will return. Speculative and ultimately a waste of time for St Mark tells us 'but about this day or hour none knows...only the Father' (Mk 13:32)

Advent is a season when we may allow ourselves to be prepared 'we are the clay and you are the potter' (Is.64:8) for the coming of the Christ-child, God-with-us. The hymn writer Philip Doddridge puts it this way:

"Ye servants of the Lord,
Each in his office wait,
Observant of his heavenly word,
And watchful at his gate."
(Hymns and Psalms 248)

What Advent allows us is the opportunity to make a place for Christ in our hearts. What Christmas offers us is the full gift of Christ in our lives and the opportunity of allowing that gift to mature, deepen and transform who and what we are. So concern yourself not with messages of doom but hear and know the truth of the hymnody which speaks;

"O'come thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here."
(Hymns and Psalms 85)

May you all have a blessed Advent and Christmastide and a peaceful new year.

Every blessing,

Revd Simon H Leigh
Superintendent Minister