From the Minister
January 2026
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! Wishing you a wonderful 2026 and praying it brings you many blessings.
As we start the New Year we enter into January, not my favourite month, something which I think I am not alone in feeling. There is a wonderful poem by Brian Bilston, which sums it up rather well!
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
Unless a leap year is its fate,
February hath twenty-eight.
All the rest hath three days more,
excepting January,
which hath six thousand,
one hundred and eighty-four.[1]
After the excitement of Christmas, January always seems rather bleak. We are still in the midst of winter darkness, there are very few signs of the coming spring and our waists are too large and our purses too small, following the Christmas excess. January provides us with a good case for hibernation!
Actually, there is nothing wrong with that, as we all need quiet times to regroup, refresh ourselves and regain strength. God rested on the seventh day and Jesus took quiet time alone in the hills and the wilderness. Rest enables creativity to happen.
In our recent Advent course at Glemsford we focused on caring for God’s creation and we spent one session looking at signs of hope. We had some pictures of things that at first didn’t seem hopeful, yet which often contained the potential for new life – dead leaves that when composted feed new plants, bulbs and seeds, which may look dry and dead, but each contains the potential for a new plant and a chrysalis that is shaped like a dried leaf, which houses a miraculous transformation. Perhaps January, although seeming long and dark, gives us the opportunity to nurture new plans and find energy for new growth?
This January, be kind to yourself and allow for a bit of hibernation time, but look too for those signs of hope that remind us of God’s faithfulness through the seasons – a shoot from a bulb or the first birdsong of the year. May we build up the strength to bloom in this New Year too.
God bless.
Ruth.