Advent Sunday

It is the beginning of a new year for us in Church land. And the call is to wake up, to be alert, to be prepared. I have always been a morning person, jumping out of bed even before the alarm. I suspect it goes back to my father's way of greeting us. "Rah girls! Rah boys! It's time to get up!" And you knew that with our large clan all clamouring for one bathroom you had better be out of bed as soon as possible or you were likely to be late for breakfast.

The question rings out to us as we enter this time of preparation in the church year. The secular world is preparing for Christmas. It is easy to see the preparations. It is easy to become distracted by them. The question is, are we spiritually awake? Do we have a sense of responsibility for our spiritual development? We keep hearing from programs such as Natural Church Development that we (at least we Anglicans) are spiritually asleep. How do we actively nourish our relationship with God? How do we bring about the kingdom of Shalom, of God's peace?