By the time you read this the festivities will be over. I do hope you all had a peaceful and joyous Christmas. It was lovely to see so many of you at our services and at the various events during December.
One of my duties this year was to lead The Peace Light service at the Mid-Wilts Scouts Headquarters in Potterne. I knew little about this event until 2014.
You can find details on the internet: www.peacelight.org.uk but in essence it is a Peace initiative that draws on the support and help of the Scouts and Guides to spread the gift of Peace worldwide. A lantern is lit in Bethlehem and from there it passes into Europe, arriving in England during the second weekend in December. On Monday 15th December in Potterne around 6o scouters brought lanterns from groups as far as Dorset and Gloucestershire – a wide circle. A short service took place to welcome the Peace Light and to light the lanterns to take them back to local districts. The message to pass on was:
“May the kindly spirit of Christmas spread its radiance far and wide, so all the world may feel the glow, of this Holy Christmastide. So may this light of peace today that has travelled many miles bring joy and hope to many, and fill each face with smiles. So may every heart and home continue through the year to feel the warmth and wonder of this season of good cheer. And may it bring us closer to God and to each other with every stranger known as friend, whether sister or a brother.”
Maybe this can be our New Year’s resolution together.
Next year I hope we will, at Christ Church, be able to arrange our Christingle so that the Christingles can be lit from the Peace Light and so enable us all to be at one with others in the world supporting Peace as one body in Christ. Helping to bring Peace at a time when there is so much unrest and terror can only be to continue what God sent Jesus to initiate.
May you have a blessed and happy 2015.
With love and best wishes
Ann