[Home]  [Holy Trinity]  [St. Tudno's]  [Parish life]  [Bells]  [Contacts]

Letter from the Rectory
PARISH OF LLANDUDNO, NORTH WALES

January  2008

Rector of LlandudnoWhere do you ‘see in’ the New Year? Is it at a party with lots of friends, or at an event in a hotel, pub or club? Perhaps you prefer to celebrate it quietly at home with your family, or maybe circumstances mean that you have to see in the New Year on your own.

At one time many churches had ‘Watchnight’ Services on New Year’s Eve and they encouraged their members to prepare for, or to ‘see in’, the New Year with an act of worship. For the most part these services seem to have died out and very much doubt if many would want to come to such an event these days. But although we no longer have a special service on New Year’s Eve there are still opportunities to celebrate the beginning of a New Year with special acts of worship.

New Year’s Day is actually the feast of the Naming of Jesus also known as the ‘Circumcision’. On this day the Church remembers the occasion when, in obedience to the Law, the infant Jesus received the outward sign of the Covenant in his flesh and was also officially given His name. Our Lord’s name has a tremendous significance. It means ‘Yahweh saves’. Indeed we know that Jesus is the one who saves! So on New Year’s Day why not come along to the Eucharist to honour the name of Jesus and to dedicate the New Year to His Holy Name, acknowledging Him afresh as Lord and Saviour.

Then on the Sunday after Epiphany (13th January), we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. For Christ this event marked the beginning of His Ministry and as He entered the waters of Jordan He was able to identify with the sinful humanity that He had come to save. When we celebrate Christ’s Baptism we are given a wonderful opportunity to give thanks for our own Baptism, the beginning of our life in Christ. At the 10.30 am service on that day we bless water and are invited to use it to mark ourselves with the sign of the cross on our foreheads so renewing our baptismal covenant with Christ. This lovely ceremony, which is a fairly recent one in Anglican liturgy, had a truly ecumenical inspiration being based partly on the Easter Orthodox custom of blessing the waters at Epiphany and the Methodist Covenant Service which takes place every January.

What better ways than these could there be of beginning 2008 and dedicating the New Year to the glory of God? I wish you all a very happy New Year!

                                                                                          Fr John.




Previous letters:

January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
Debember 2007