The New Chapter Poster

Yesterday as I arrived for Lunchbreak at Amersham Free Church I was struck by the poster next to the church entrance on Woodside Road.  It is beautifully produced, well-lit at night and invites the community to join the congregation in a ‘new chapter’ in our church’s life together.  I think it’s a great poster and I’m grateful to those who both thought it up and put it up!

Many ‘new’ things have come my way over the last month – something inevitable about that in any new ministry.  I chaired my first Church Meeting at AFC last night, I’m getting used to the liturgical framework of our services, I’m discovering the church’s Christmas schedule and adapting to the ‘joy’ of attending not one, but two local ministers’ meetings because our church is both URC and Baptist.

Yet the truth is that I’m also being brought up to speed with some ‘old’ issues too – and that’s something I’m also grateful for.  This week I’ve been reading a backlog of minutes, meeting with people organising a building project and listening to pastoral stories.  It sometimes feels to me as if I’m making something of an ecclesiastical jigsaw and slowly the pieces are coming together.

On Sunday those of us in church will enter another sort of new chapter – Advent.  The old Christian Year is behind us and a new one begins this week.  I know for many Advent is a special time of year – as the light fades we find great comfort and hope in the hymns, readings and prayers of this season.

So, as we turn the page – as we begin a new chapter (in more ways than one):  ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel...’

With best wishes,

Ian