‘Loving God, at this time of Advent,
fire our imagination
with the sweep of your salvation.’
Advent 2025 – a time, together, to face courageously the heartache of the world, the ‘sweep of salvation’ incarnate in Bondi. In Gaza. In Sudan. In each home where there is unbearable poverty. In each street sheltering a homeless one. In each eco-system facing extinction. And so we, in community, engage our imagination with ‘courage, faith and cheerfulness’ and turn towards a new year with hope.
‘Catch us up
in the cause of your kingdom,
already breaking into this world
yet waiting for its final fulfilment when Christ shall come again.’
During 2025 I have witnessed large and small glimpses of God’s kingdom, ‘breaking into this world.’ We have been exploring together the ‘contours of hope’. What is the shape, the flow, the rhythm of hope that, like contours on a map, show us the rise and fall of the land so we can navigate even in the fog, or confusion, or heartache of daily life.
Taking part in the Community for Spiritual Formation retreat in Larne in April, Sheryl Anderson shared with us that ‘contours enable us to perceive what the land ahead looks like even when we cannot see it. So we plot a path ahead in the not knowing.’
And then later in the year, at the Solas Festival near Perth exploring what it would mean to ‘put integrity on the ballot paper, I shared stories of hope from our Common Concern Networks where hundreds of our Members and Associate Members witness to hope in the political sphere through their daily actions and public Position Papers.
This witness to hope in Christ in the political sphere resonates with what Senator Liz Cheney calls ‘incandescent courage – that blazing truth-telling that refuses to be snuffed out by the pressure of partisanship or the seduction of safety.’
‘And let your Spirit,
wild as the wind, gentle as the dove,
move within us and among us,
to enliven our worship and strengthen our faith,
and send us out with anticipation and joy. Amen.’
So as we turn the corner into 2026, may we journey together, with anticipation and joy, with the peace and the wildness of God’s spirit enlivening and strengthening as we go.
Prayer credit: John Harvey in Candles and Conifers, Ruth Burgess (ed)
USA North East