My grandmother always said: “Where there is life there is hope.” Crossing the threshold into the New Year, let’s look hopefully ahead. Be glad of small blessings. We may feel our world is falling apart, with its conflicts and natural disasters.

We may have personal anxieties or losses to bear, darkening our feelings in what are already short, wintry days. Whatever we are feeling, let’s aim to be positive. A Maori proverb says: “Turn you face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.”

The words of Minnie L Haskins, engraved on the entrance to Memorial Chapel of King George VI in Windsor point to our greatest source of hope: And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown".

And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".

Let’s be hopeful and have faith in Our Lord and Redeemer.

Mark Potter

St Dunstan's Church