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Viewpoint from Rev Jo Wood 01/12/2023
 Rev Jo Wood
Team Rector (designate), Flegg Parish Churches
Incumbent of the Flegg East District churches of Ormesby St. Margaret, Ormesby St. Michael, St. George's, Rollesby, All Saints', Filby, and Ss. Peter & Paul, Mautby
There is always hope
I wonder if you’ve had moments we’re you’ve just watched the news/read the newspaper, seen what’s going on in the world and felt the absence of anything hopeful. The sense that things aren’t going to improve and get better even though that’s what we hope for. I think we all as humans have that underlying need to have hope
If you search for songs with a ‘hope’ theme the list is longer than you’d think! Emelie Sandé sings ‘I just hope I'm not the only one’, Jack Jackson sings ‘you better hope you’re not alone’
 Experts say that the antidote to any despair might be ‘hope’. It’s one of the most powerful and essential human mindsets, and possible to achieve even when it feels out of reach. “Hope is a way of thinking,” says Chan Hellman, a psychologist who’s the founding director of the Hope Research Center in the USA. “We know it can be taught; we know it can be nurtured. It’s not something you either have or don’t have”
As we begin our journey through Advent this year with the prospect of Christmas fast approaching. I wonder if we need to be reminded that the hope that God offers us is much more robust and rooted in the reality that he came in human form as a vulnerable baby to bring hope
As we enjoy time catching up with friends and family over the next few weeks and the Christmas itself, let’s take the opportunity to be 1) thankful that we live in peace in comparison to others across the world and don’t often fear for our safety; 2) take the opportunity to be generous with what we have so that those in more vulnerable situations financially and otherwise might have the chance for that grounded hope to be nurtured in their situation and circumstance.
As we meet in the churches in the Flegg Parish Churches team during Advent we will be praying for the hope of the Christ child to stir in our hearts and remind us that we are not alone. We draw strength from knowing the buck doesn’t stop with us, but we take responsibility for our part in making our community a more hope filled place
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