A letter from the Rector, at the beginning of Advent

Advent is the season the church keeps badly. We are asked to wait, and waiting is the one thing modern life has arranged to make unnecessary — so the four weeks arrive and we fill them, and by the time Christmas comes we are too tired to notice it.

I want to suggest something small this year. Not a discipline, not a programme: just that you keep one thing undone. Leave one decoration until the last week. Do not listen to the carols until the carols are sung here. Let the tree be a little late.

The psalms we are reading through on Sunday mornings were written by people walking uphill, singing to keep going. None of them are in a hurry. They are not resigned either — there is nothing passive about them. They simply assume the journey takes as long as it takes, and that the destination is worth the walk.

We will keep the Advent candles lit through the month, and the Lady Chapel is open on weekday afternoons if you would like somewhere quiet. I am usually about on Wednesdays.

With my prayers for a slow and unhurried December.