Advent 2006
Last
night a
half-moon
was smiling
through the
bare branches of
beech, ash, birch and
rowan giving way before
dawn to the complaints of
a ‘moping owl’ bemoaning
the night’s lost opportunities
amidst the bare undecorated trees
of Advent in Argyll, gaunt and still
after Atlantic gales, and red squirrels
hoarding till the distant Spring with tardy
toadstools lingering longer than ever in the global
warmth. An Advent journey once again, ‘such a long
journey into the dead of winter’ yet laced with the recollections
of a year’s fast guttering flame, beginning brightly with Claire and
Mike in splendid Winchester, wed on the very spot where Mary Tudor
married Hapsburg Philip then College Hall where young George of Fuinary
once wined and dined. A year cascading seamlessly through family treasures on
the Isle of Sark ,of MacKinnons and MacDonalds whose artistic genius now awaits
Christine’s return to Skye whilst dear Catriona’s Gaelic falls strangely silent in the memory
as does the Baltic Cruise with renewed friendships in Helsinki to be succeeded by the joy of
tuneful wedding bells in Edinburgh amid St Cuthbert’s warm embrace for Simon and Mary and
their guests from near and far. Next came Iona’s Gaelic week and autumn visits full of friendships old
and new on Arran and Goat Fell with the new hip climbing fast and well and on to Heronslake’s abiding
faithfulness in glorious Devon and Cornish Eden’s miracle, pregnant with promises of new life for trees and
forests no longer scarred but luxuriantly re-foliating a waiting world revealing hope of what life might become,
an Advent hope of which we shared in Manchester, Cardiff and London, in exploring Britishness in Milton
Keynes , Forty Years On at St Colm’ s and in Glenrothes, a Silver Jubilee in Runcorn, with Friends of St
Cuthbert in Edinburgh and the World Church in Penrith, as well as the Churches of Argyll and the Isles on
Iona, celebrating Oban as a Fairtrade Town, and not least the Vigil at the jagged gates of Faslane’s folly.
With thoughts of Ruth teaching amidst the Vietnamese, of Iain on Primrose Hill, Hana and Benjo in Langside’s
Battlefield School, Catriona’s social concerns in Castlemilk, Damir once again enabling immigrants, and
Alexia a new sister for Andrew and for Cara. And now to decorate the Christmas tree and to remember
friendships old and new so that the branches may be evergreen with seeds of hope and angels singing songs
of
Peace and
Love of
God
Last
night a
half-moon
was smiling
through the
bare branches of
beech, ash, birch and
rowan giving way before
dawn to the complaints of
a ‘moping owl’ bemoaning
the night’s lost opportunities
amidst the bare undecorated trees
of Advent in Argyll, gaunt and still
after Atlantic gales, and red squirrels
hoarding till the distant Spring with tardy
toadstools lingering longer than ever in the global
warmth. An Advent journey once again, ‘such a long
journey into the dead of winter’ yet laced with the recollections
of a year’s fast guttering flame, beginning brightly with Claire and
Mike in splendid Winchester, wed on the very spot where Mary Tudor
married Hapsburg Philip then College Hall where young George of Fuinary
once wined and dined. A year cascading seamlessly through family treasures on
the Isle of Sark ,of MacKinnons and MacDonalds whose artistic genius now awaits
Christine’s return to Skye whilst dear Catriona’s Gaelic falls strangely silent in the memory
as does the Baltic Cruise with renewed friendships in Helsinki to be succeeded by the joy of
tuneful wedding bells in Edinburgh amid St Cuthbert’s warm embrace for Simon and Mary and
their guests from near and far. Next came Iona’s Gaelic week and autumn visits full of friendships old
and new on Arran and Goat Fell with the new hip climbing fast and well and on to Heronslake’s abiding
faithfulness in glorious Devon and Cornish Eden’s miracle, pregnant with promises of new life for trees and
forests no longer scarred but luxuriantly re-foliating a waiting world revealing hope of what life might become,
an Advent hope of which we shared in Manchester, Cardiff and London, in exploring Britishness in Milton
Keynes , Forty Years On at St Colm’ s and in Glenrothes, a Silver Jubilee in Runcorn, with Friends of St
Cuthbert in Edinburgh and the World Church in Penrith, as well as the Churches of Argyll and the Isles on
Iona, celebrating Oban as a Fairtrade Town, and not least the Vigil at the jagged gates of Faslane’s folly.
With thoughts of Ruth teaching amidst the Vietnamese, of Iain on Primrose Hill, Hana and Benjo in Langside’s
Battlefield School, Catriona’s social concerns in Castlemilk, Damir once again enabling immigrants, and
Alexia a new sister for Andrew and for Cara. And now to decorate the Christmas tree and to remember
friendships old and new so that the branches may be evergreen with seeds of hope and angels singing songs
of
Peace and
Love of
God
