Catching Up at Christmas: Stories, Seasons, and Shared Journeys
For many of us, Christmas brings not only celebration and worship, but the quiet joy of catching up. Letters, cards, emails, and conversations arrive carrying the stories of a year just lived—moments of challenge and grace, places visited, ministries shared, and friendships sustained across distance and time. These exchanges remind us that we are part of something wider than our own daily routines: a community bound together by faith, memory, and hope.
Sharing these plans and reflections at Christmas feels especially fitting. As we exchange stories of where we have been and where we are going, we are reminded that God is present in both the remembering and the hoping. Each letter read and each conversation held becomes a quiet testimony to faithfulness—God’s and our own.
It has been especially good this Christmas to reconnect with friends and colleagues, including hearing from Maggie Woods, our previous co-chair. Reading about what she has been doing over the past year was a real gift—a reminder of shared ministry and of how God continues to work through familiar faces in new contexts. Such updates feel like Epiphany moments in their own way: glimpses of light that encourage us and renew our sense of calling.
This autumn included the BEH District Day and the Hastings District Day, sharing her trip to Rwanda.
There has also been much to share about the ongoing links with Rwanda, where partnership, prayer, and mutual learning continue to shape our understanding of global church and shared discipleship. These connections stretch our horizons and root our faith in something beautifully bigger than ourselves.
Looking ahead into next year, there is much for Maggie to anticipate. In May, she will gather for West Midlands Day on 8 May, followed by Diss, Norfolk, on 13 May. September will see a gathering in Newcastle upon Tyne (date to be confirmed), and later in the year there will be a District Weekend at Cheddar, also with details to follow. Good to hear all that she is continuing to do.
May this season of catching up strengthen our bonds, deepen our gratitude, and encourage us as we step into a new year. As we listen to one another’s stories, may we recognise the threads of God’s grace running through them all, calling us onward together into the year ahead.
Leonora
