J<span style="font-size: 0.875rem; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">January is an odd month. After all the flurried, hurried clamour to get our LED lights up and Christmas trees lit – some as early as before even Advent began, we then began the nuances of when to take down the decorations. I saw some come down the day after the Christmas Bank Holidays, others wait till New Year, others until Twelfth Night, and then others (like me), dismantling things bit by bit even now, mid-January. I was away this past second week of January for work, on my first (and not last) sortie to Harrogate where the town is still festooned in LED lights, to my delight and in defiance of those who tell me ‘it’s bad luck to leave the decos up after 6 January’.</span>

The Christmas tree at St Andrew’s was delivered in the second week of December, a kind gift from our patron. It was decorated beautifully by a local family. And there it sat, all Christmas long, in a church that remained largely empty, because our dear friend ‘Rona’ ensured we all stayed away to protect ourselves and each other, cheated yet again of another opportunity to sing carols and hear the readings of Christ’s birth. So in the aftermath of an odd Christmas, we start an equally odd January, bemused by stories of refugees, disaster, inhumanity, sleaze, partygate and illness. So maybe we need some constant reminders of the Christmas light, and this is why I was slightly smug and content when the Rector didn’t actually mind the Christmas tree still being up in church, with the crib still out on my own sideboard on the second Sunday of January. Because Christmas doesn’t end on Twelfth Night. It leads to the visit of the wise men, celebration of the Epiphany and a reminder to carry the light of Christmas into the new year. Some churches leave the decorations up till Candlemas on 2 February.

This new year will need illuminating as it brings with it all the hopes and fears that the carol sings of. Uncertainty in leadership, finances, worries about health and wellbeing all mean we have plenty of stuff to pray about. I am aware of people around us for whom Christmas was going to be their last, and I prayed at the wet but meaningful Holdenby House Carols in the Rain, that we all might celebrate Christmas as though it were our own last; not in a morbid sense, but with the need to concentrate on our own stairtread as we climb the staircase, rather than trip up because we focused too much on the top stairs.

The church buildings may have been quieter and emptier, but there was continuing prayer throughout the period and discussions on how we might celebrate Christmas next year. Whether or not the lights are still twinkling, the decorations still in the garden or safely stowed in the loft, the message of the word made flesh bringing light into the world sustains us in the challenges, hopes and fears, as normality ensues in the barer undecorated houses around the community.

As we move into February, St Andrew’s Church Council will meet and receive reports which will include the success of the Christmas Market whose profits will benefit church funds, alongside the sale throughout the year, of greetings cards and refreshments. We’ll hear the financial report and how we squeezed through 2021 with £6270 worth of tax efficient planned giving, and with receipts, grants and fundraising, pushing total income up to £16,437. We then paid £6091 to the Diocese for the provision of our priest and housing, who claimed only £650 in expenses. Our church running costs rose from £3603 to £5409 with utility bills at £1044. This meant that our total outgoings were around £14,637, turning last year’s deficit of £2099 to a surplus of £2040, which is ironic when for many months last year, our churches were unused.

Contrary to popular belief, the church is not rich, and its assets are largely not disposable which is why we will rely on as much creativity as possible in keeping the place in good order and open for us and future generations. We have authorised repairs to the bells (so they can be rung for the Platinum Jubilee) and await reports on repairs we know will be needed to the roof and the East Window. I refuse to be gloomy though, because small signs of growth keep coming. We already have three baptisms planned in the next four weeks when we’ll welcome six newest members of the church. There are plans for the Jubilee, to incorporate the wider community, our neighbours at Harlestone Park. There are hopes to explore more Markets and events – from ‘Dragged back to Church’ (watch this space) to Cocktail Cabaret, from ‘Tea and Toast’ for mums and carers dropping kids off at school, to Arts & Crafts, Calligraphy, Toys Swap Shop and Quiz Nights. No longer can it be about ‘bums on seats’ on Sundays, but about church being its people and having the building open to all. And the people who sustain this can no longer just be those who occupy the Sunday seats. We need the wider community to be involved, regardless of what they do on a Sunday, and certainly not as a condition of being in church at a service or contributing to the collection plate, welcome though both things will always be.

So herein lie some hopes and fears for the year ahead. I may herd in the now unlit reindeer on the front garden, or hop up the ladder to remove the icicle lights. Or then again, I may leave them and repurpose them in some way for the Jubilee. Either way, I want to be reminded of the Christmas messages to sustain my New Year. Because of family events, I didn’t get a chance to contribute to the last edition of the newsletter. So I now wish you a Happy Christmas and New Year as we move into February. Characteristically unapologetically for either the months behind or ahead. You choose

Sam Dobbs

Churchwarden