Benefice-Priest in Charge
Katrina Dykes
MESSAGE FROM KATRINA - JANUARY 2020
Dear friends,
I wonder what 2020 holds for us?
Aside from plans to leave the European Union , we can look forward to the UEFA Football European Championship taking place across 12 European countries for the first time and the 2020 Summer Olympics from Tokyo. If you are a cricket fan you might be looking forward to the ICC T20 World Cup from Australia in October. Then there will be the long run up to the United States presidential election in November!
There may be family events or special holidays planned for some of us. I have heard of churches having extra bookings for weddings as couples have waited for the 2020 date and I wonder whether we will see a spike in the birth rate as we did for the millennium.
What you are looking forward to in the coming twelve months.
Many New Year toasts and quotes express the hope for a better year to come than the one past and an opportunity for a fresh start.
"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let every New Year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard's Almanac," 1755
"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." T.S. Eliot
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." C.S. Lewis
"May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door." An Irish New Year toast
Of course we none of us know what the coming days will bring. Likely there will be good news, successes and celebrations and probably some challenges to be overcome along with a few disappointments as well.
I do wish you all joy and happiness and all good things for the New Year. And I also wish you strength and courage to endure the difficult times, good friends to share the burdens you carry and peace and hope in your heart that transcends the ups and downs of life.
As a Christian I have faith in a God who is alongside us and available for us to turn to in good times and bad. He is the source of my hope not just at the start of a year but for each day within it. When I have gone through experiences that I thought I could not endure, I have found in him both a strength I could rely on and unconditional acceptance of me however rubbish I felt.
Along with all the good wishes and resolutions for the New Year, I offer you these words from the prophet Isaiah chapter 54 verse 10
“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Rev’d Katrina
I wonder what 2020 holds for us?
Aside from plans to leave the European Union , we can look forward to the UEFA Football European Championship taking place across 12 European countries for the first time and the 2020 Summer Olympics from Tokyo. If you are a cricket fan you might be looking forward to the ICC T20 World Cup from Australia in October. Then there will be the long run up to the United States presidential election in November!
There may be family events or special holidays planned for some of us. I have heard of churches having extra bookings for weddings as couples have waited for the 2020 date and I wonder whether we will see a spike in the birth rate as we did for the millennium.
What you are looking forward to in the coming twelve months.
Many New Year toasts and quotes express the hope for a better year to come than the one past and an opportunity for a fresh start.
"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let every New Year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard's Almanac," 1755
"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." T.S. Eliot
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." C.S. Lewis
"May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door." An Irish New Year toast
Of course we none of us know what the coming days will bring. Likely there will be good news, successes and celebrations and probably some challenges to be overcome along with a few disappointments as well.
I do wish you all joy and happiness and all good things for the New Year. And I also wish you strength and courage to endure the difficult times, good friends to share the burdens you carry and peace and hope in your heart that transcends the ups and downs of life.
As a Christian I have faith in a God who is alongside us and available for us to turn to in good times and bad. He is the source of my hope not just at the start of a year but for each day within it. When I have gone through experiences that I thought I could not endure, I have found in him both a strength I could rely on and unconditional acceptance of me however rubbish I felt.
Along with all the good wishes and resolutions for the New Year, I offer you these words from the prophet Isaiah chapter 54 verse 10
“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Rev’d Katrina
