theme: the church calendar

The posts below all relate in some way to the theme of the Church Calendar. How might we enter into the milestones of each year, as celebrated by Christians around the world and throughout the ages? 

  • celebrating advent

    Each year, I find a slightly different way to move through the season of Advent with intention. I thought I would share with you the ways I am choosing to celebrate this year - it could be you will find one of these practices seems inviting for you too/ I would love to hear how you choose to connect with the deeper truths at the heart of Christmas this year! Read more ...


  • advent & the work of waiting

    This year has held a lot of waiting for many of us and, during Advent, we enter more deeply into this experience of waiting. Indeed, waiting is a posture that marks us as the people of God. So how might we enter into this Advent season of waiting with intention, the better to process our own waiting in light of the larger story? 

    In this post I suggest 6 resources for you to try. Read more ...

  • entering the new year with intention

    I am writing this the day after Epiphany, which is the last day of Christmas. It seems fitting, today, to turn our thoughts more fully towards the new year and all that it brings. Perhaps, like many of us, you had hoped that as the calendar flipped a new and more hopeful landscape would reveal itself. In fact, we still have a way to go before we see the sort of settledness for which we hope. Given this reality, how might we posture ourselves towards the coming year? Read more ...

  • a prayer for spring

    I am sitting on my bed with darkness still shrouding the valley beyond the window. Yet I am aware that the air outside is filled with the chirruping and whistling of all kinds of birds as the waken to a new day. I found that I have the option on my phone to choose this sound as my alarm; it’s so much more gentle to wake up to the sound of birds than to some ghastly claxon! The cheeriness of the birds outside my window tells me that spring is well underway. Read more ...

  • a poem for Ash Wednesday

    For many who go to more traditional churches, today is the day they will receive the 'imposition of ashes.' I did not grow up in a context where we practiced these ways of engaging our bodies in these ways of rehearsing our story with God. These days, though, I have come to appreciate that something deeply formative happens when I bring my body to the process of being with Jesus. Read more ...

  • word for lent: wilderness

    At some point, it seems we all have to pass through a time of wilderness. Everything gets a bit dried out, the path seems rocky, we look in vain for the greening of the landscape that we believe will put everything right again ... May the wilderness do its inimitable work in you and in me. Read more ...


  • new life in the mess

    During this Easter season, I have found myself wondering a lot about what it means for us to experience the power of resurrection life in our ordinary and sometimes mundane lives. This sort of worked its way into me in a new way as I read the account of Jesus preparing breakfast on the beach for his disciples. This is after he’s been put to death and then risen again, so it’s part of a great heralding in of the newness signified by his not-staying-dead. Read more ...