Advent: 17 December 2022
Good morning, We woke up yesterday to snow in St Andrews. For a few hours, the town was blanketed with snow, with white rooves, branches and pavements underfoot. As we’ve reached R in our Advent Calendar, what R was…
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Advent: 16 December 2023
Greetings, We’ve reached a letter with the highest scrabble score of 10 in today’s Advent Calendar – Q. What could Q be for? Well, how about Quirinius, whom some children believe only appears in the Nativity story to…
Advent: 15 December 2022
Greetings, Behind today’s window in our Advent Calendar A to Z is the letter P. P is for… peace. In some ways, the Christmas story doesn’t have much about it that is peaceful. Mary is initially disturbed by the…
Advent: 14 December 2022
Good morning, O is for… Ox and Ass, the two animals traditionally depicted as attending the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Neither is mentioned in the two gospels which tell the story, Matthew and Luke, but early…
Advent: 12 December 2022
Greetings, We enter a new working week with a window opening on to M…. for Mary, the mother of Jesus. Of those we have lost in 2022, one of the most significant is Hilary Mantel. Her trilogy of novels about Thomas…
Advent: 11 December 2022
Good morning, on the third Sunday of Advent. As yesterday’s letter was K, we now open the next window to find the letter M. Why? Because of course Christmas means Noel. Here is a window on to the Quad from a CEED…
Advent: 10 December 2022
Greetings, We open the window for 10 December today in our Advent Calendar A to Z and discover the letter K inside. K is for… King and Kingdom. This has been the year when Prince Charles became King. He’ll give his…
Advent: 9 December 2022
Greetings, Our Advent Calendar has reached a letter full of possibilities – J. J could be for Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, or Jerusalem, where the Magi first travelled. But instead, let’s focus on the J whose…
Advent: 8 December 2022
Good morning, on Thursday 8 December, which means that behind our Advent Calendar window we find the letter I. I is, of course, for the place Jesus wasn’t born – the inn, in which there was no room. Instead he was…
Advent: 7 December 2022
Greetings, This Advent Calendar comes to you from London, where I’ll be conducting the University’s London Alumni Club’s Carol Service this evening. We’ll be gathering at St Columba’s Church of Scotland, Pont Street…