Advent: 10 December
Good morning,
on the second Sunday in Advent. Today will see the final Sunday morning service of the Martinmas Semester at St Salvator’s Chapel at 11 am. It will be a service of music and readings. The music will be led not only by St Salvator’s Chapel Choir but also the StAMP Children’s Choir, and there will be a lovely mix of choral and fun Christmassy music. The readings include poems by T. S. Eliot, U. A. Fanthorpe and others focusing on the places of the Christmas story. I’ll draw the threads together in an address. All are welcome. Communion and refreshments follow.
Behind today’s window are an image and haiku reflecting on Joseph. According to Matthew, Joseph the carpenter heard that Mary was expecting a baby. Now while he was betrothed to Mary they were not yet married and so he assumed she had been with another man, and he had decided to break things off with her quietly. But an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, told him the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would be the Saviour. Joseph changed his plans, the marriage went ahead, and he called the child Jesus as the angel had instructed him.
For an image, here is an angel looking down over Nuremberg, Germany:
Never more alone,
he dreamt of Emmanuel,
joined for evermore
Yours,
Donald.