“May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen” (NZPB p52).

Will we make the choice to live as those who love the way of God and therefore find the depth, refreshment from the true source of life? Or do we choose a life of being blown around in the breeze avoiding the true source of life that provides us with rootedness, security and life?

Isaiah has been called by God to bring the people to account for their actions. They had turned away from God and that was being shown in how they were treating their brothers and sisters. Isaiah recognises his own faults and he is forgiven by God.

Light is a powerful symbol that represents everything that is in opposition to the darkness that we experience as humans. Light is a symbol of the presence of Christ, the hope (trust) that we have in Jesus and the Good News, that which he both proclaims and embodies in human form.

Creation, law and heart are made perfect and united through God in which we are to be active participants.

In the Middle Ages Mary's Song inspired the Feast of Fools celebrated after Christmas usually around New year. This feast was a literal acting out of the Magnificat as a rather strange way of witnessing to God’s kingdom that inverts human power structures and raises up the oppressed to places of honour.

We are to give up our insatiable desire to consume and replace it with the expectation of the coming of Jesus.

Advent is a time of reflection and preparation for when time will end and Jesus will come in power and glory bringing our waiting to completion.

What we look to is the theological virtue of Hope. A virtue that helps us grow our relationship with God.

The Kingship of Christ holds the place of ultimate authority over all aspects of human life.

God is portrayed throughout the psalter as being the protector, in a way that no human is able.

Casting a shadow over a lot of religious thought is the concept of judgement.

We live in a society that has in many ways abandoned its traditional patterns of mourning.

A time to relax and to reflect on the efforts made by trade unions to get this balance.

God gives us shelter from both rain and sun and picks us up when we stumble

We are held in God’s loving embrace in life and in death

“We have to teach our children to follow Christ as the world will teach them not to.”