VICAR

Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and that You enjoyed Christmas festivities this year. I trust that You managed time to put Your feet up and are now tackling the twenties with full focus and panache. I hope this decade is a successful and peaceful decade for You and Your family.

The decade has started with threats and violence, which are not necessarily a bad thing if they are justified. It is a shame that the world cannot attempt to get on, as there are problems we all face which would be solved in a jiffy if the various parties put their heads together and cooperated. It is a shame that as the new decade began there were yet more stabbings across London – what a great waste of young lives.

Where there is darkness, there is always light. Darkness cannot exist without light. As the new decade began, millions scribed positive resolution lists, families reunited, new jobs started and new plans were made. There is always an excitement to the start of a new year and the start of a new decade adds a certain frisson.

Look around You. What is there that You can do to make the world a better place and to live out the lessons of Christianity? Is there a homeless shelter where You can assist? Perhaps a veterans’ centre? Are there lonely people nearby who could do with a weekly cuppa or get invited to Sunday lunch?

Just as many set out this morning for a run to beat the gut-busting meals that have accumulated around their waists these last weeks, what measures are they taking to improve their spiritual health? We are blessed in this country by so many beautiful, old churches – You do not need to attend a service to sit in one at peace and feel as one with God.

I wish You all well for the twenties. I pray for You and Your families. God Bless You All. Have a peaceful Sunday and a successful week to come.

Dear Lord,

We pray for a positive new year and decade to come for our families and loved ones; for our friends and neighbours; for the peoples of the earth. We pray that there will be peace and not war. We pray that these years go down in History as years of importance for progress; fighting homelessness; fighting poverty; educating the masses. We pray too for our souls; for churchgoers and those whose spiritual ground is barren. Let us come together in the 2020’s and build a wonderful world full of cooperation and delight. We ask this in Your Name Lord Jesus. 

Amen