December - Hope for all

Christmas is a hopeful time of year – especially for children. They will be hoping that Santa has them on his list, and they will be getting the presents they’ve been asking for. Hope is an important part of human life – life is difficult if we have no hope.

Many people will be hoping for some time off from work, for a time of celebration, and for some time with the family. For others, though, this will be a difficult and a hopeless time. For all of us I believe the Christian message is full of hope, especially at Christmas.

We celebrate that Jesus, the light of the world, has come into a dark world marked by pain and suffering, disappointment and frustration, despair and hopelessness. In him there is hope. In him there is life. Here is good news!!

We can also celebrate a lot of good things achieved in 2007, our first year as a united benefice of All Saints' Church and St. Peter's Church, working together. We can also look forward with hope for the new year

As we look forward we welcome our new Associate Minister, the Revd. Tony Foster, and his wife Mary. Tony will be ministering at St. Peter's and All Saints', and you can get to know him a bit better here.

Another sign of hope is the new life in ‘Churches Together in Crewe’, our ecumenical group in the town. We are signing a covenant, in which we commit to working together as Christians in Crewe, to share the message and hope of Jesus Christ. I hope you can be at the Oakley Centre on 22nd January to see the covenant signed.

Next year the churches in Britain are launching a new initiative, called Hope 2008. It's about churches working together to transform our community by doing something practical and constructive to give young people and old people hope for the future. We need ideas of how we can improve people’s lives - perhaps by visiting those who are housebound, or by turning an odd patch of ground that no one uses anymore into a communal garden.

But whatever we do, the aim is to bring tangible signs of God’s love to the area. We believe people are tired of living a hopeless existence. They want to lead a different kind of life – which is why Jesus came to this earth.
So may I wish you a Happy Christmas and a Hopeful 2008.