By now the signs that Christmas is fast approaching will be all around us. Actually, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is already here! With Christmas trees and lights decorations our shops and advertisers seeking to tempt us to spend more on gifts then we would otherwise intend to, there seems to be a decreasing amount of time and space for the season of Advent.

In recent years Churches have attempted in different ways to push back at Christmas to allow time for Advent to work on us. One common approach is clergy, in letters like this one, bemoaning the increasing secularisation of society with Christmas (or worse still Winter Festival) becoming over commercialised and devoid of all meaning. This approach, tempting as it is, has dangers: One Anglican priest a few years ago attained notoriety in his parish by "banning Christmas"; as the local paper reported it! Perhaps a more helpful way to celebrate Advent is to remind ourselves why it is such a gift to the Church; and what it has to say to us all.

Advent is a time of expectation. While we wait patiently for God to break into our lives, into our Church, into our world; we do so expectantly. God will come; it is up to us to be prepared to search and look for God's coming. In our waiting during Advent, we live out the prayer that Anselm prayed: 'Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me.'

Advent is also a time for audacity; for rejoicing in the great hope of God's plan of salvation for the world. The stories of John the Baptist and Mary remind us of the way God's plan is gifted and trusted to individuals like us, and yet sometimes our picture of God and what we say about life in the kingdom is not audacious enough. During Advent one year, a newspaper once interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and the President of the Methodist Conference. The reporter asked the question, 'What do you want for Christmas?'. The Archbishop replied immediately, 'World peace', the Pope responded, 'Goodwill and understanding between all peoples', and getting the wrong end of the stick, the President of Conference replied, 'A small box of chocolates will be fine, thank you!.'

Advent invites and inspires us to glory in the majesty and awe of the Coming God; leaving aside the smallness of our hopes and dreams and paucity of our visions for a just a few weeks. Let's make the time to discover more of the fullness of God in our expectant waiting this year, so that our joy at Christmas might be complete.

Peace,
Dan

Circuit Family Worker

We were very pleased to appoint David Greet as our new full-time worker with families and young adults. David began his work on 6th October. The first meeting of the new Management Committee gave consideration to the first phase of the work and over the next couple of months David will be engaging in a series of meetings with key people at St. Andrew's, Scartho, St. Christopher's and Immingham Trinity. The aim is to share vision of how these churches would like to develop their work with families and young adults and to assess what resources, human and otherwise, are available for it. We hope to see plans for specific projects emerging in the first part of 2009. Please keep David and his work in your prayers.

The Circuit also advertised a part-time post, but there were no applicants for this. The Circuit Leadership Team has decided not to re-advertise at the present time but to wait and see how the work develops.

Thank you

Two of our Local Preachers, Mr Cyril Copley and Miss Pauline Redford have now retired from active preaching. Between them they have clocked up an impressive 91 years of service! We do thank them for all that they have done and wish them well in the future.

A Welcome

Mrs. Nikki Coles, Mrs. Margaret Freeman and Mrs. Liz Hudson have completed their period 'on note'. The Local Preacher' Meeting has placed them 'on trial' as Local Preachers, so they are now responsible for services in their own right and their names will become familiar on the Plan. We hope this ministry will bring joy and fulfilment. Please pray for them as they continue a demanding programme of study.

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