From the Rev Richard Washington February 2025

Rev Richard Washington
Team Vicar, Great Yarmouth Parish

Am I odd in actually rather liking this time of year?
 
I’m quite an early riser, and I love that fact that in getting out of bed sometimes at 5.30am, sometimes at 6am, I get up in the darkness. After walking my dog and having breakfast, I turn off all the lights in my house. I light a candle in my study and sit down to pray. My prayer consists of sitting in silence, with only the light of the candle in the room. It is at this time, between 7 and 8am, that the true light of the sun starts to appear, however obscured by cloud and mist. And as the month of February creeps on, this light comes a tiny bit earlier each day, raising my spirits and giving comfort that light is truly coming into the world. By mid-March these quiet mornings will become lighter and lighter, bringing the hope of an anticipated spring into my heart. So it is that at this time of year, from the beginning of February, we really do start to emerge from the long, dark period of short days and long, winter nights
 
At Church, this same period begins with Candlemas on 2 February, the 40 days after Christmas and the end of the Christmas and Epiphany season. It thus ends the long period of revelation and celebration that began with Advent, when we started preparing for Jesus' coming, through Christmas when we celebrated his incarnation, and Epiphany when we were reminded of who he is and what he means for us. And now, as we move into February and beyond, just as the light of the sun will start to break through earlier and earlier, so too in this same period of fading darkness we can be filled with hope as we pray that the light of God’s Son will dawn in our hearts and break through into the world
                                                                            
                                            Revd Richard

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