Anticipation! A sense of expectancy, of hope, excitement or suspense. I wonder, is there something in your life that you are looking forward to with anticipation?

Last year I was looking forward to my trip to Malawi to see my eldest son get married. This year, I looked forward with anticipation to he and his family returning to live in Glasgow (for a while, anyway) and was delighted to be reunited with them in May when Tim and I travelled up to Scotland to see them.

The months of July and August are for many a time of transition; the children at Moorlands Primary Academy will be moving classrooms and they travel up the school; some will be preparing to start in Reception or Year 1, others will be preparing to leave to go to High School in September. A significant part of the transitions at school are the Reception Graduation ceremony and the Leavers Assembly and act of Collective Worship

Before Sunrise, on Sunday 21st April, a good number of people from the churches in Belton & Burgh Castle will gather at the east gate of the Roman fort at Burgh Castle. You are welcome to join us! To be up and out before 5.30am might seem strange to you but let me explain …….

On Good Friday we will have remembered the crucifixion of Jesus the Son of God and how he was taken down from the cross before the start of the Jewish Sabbath and placed in a tomb – Jesus dead and buried.

Politics! Many of us, I know, are fed up with politics, nationally. We have heard very little but Brexit! Brexit! for the past few months, and the date and details for our leaving the European Union are still far from sorted. Often it seems as if the political parties are focussing on what is best according to their own party’s needs, rather than the best interests of the country. Living in a democratically governed country, as we do, politics are an important part of the structures.

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray when they asked him to teach them to pray. In the Bible Jesus tells them this is the way to pray, and the different translations give us slightly different versions, but they all begin “Our Father”. Jesus was teaching his disciples (and us) that prayer is a conversation with someone with whom we have a relationship, Father God. Jesus would have spoken in Aramaic and used the word Abba, which is more like Daddy, but in translation to Greek and then into English becomes Pater, then Father.

The beginning of March sees us celebrate Shrove Tuesday with pancakes and then on Ash Wednesday the season of Lent begins. I wonder what “Lent” means to you?

I very much appreciate the privilege I have of celebrating the loving relationships of couples in our villages. It may be at the exciting time of preparing for marriage when the couples are young or often more mature, or at the end of a life of one partner, when the bereaved husband or wife looks back with real fondness and deep gratitude at the love they have shared and have now lost.

New Year is often a time when we look back over the past year, remembering the good and the bad times that we have experienced; assessing whether it has been a good year or not. So, what has your year been like? I suppose 2018 might be remembered for its weather; the heavy snow we had in March and the hot summer with very little rain. Or, for the endless discussions about what Brexit would look like, with no one knowing for sure, but with many having a strong opinion on it.

The Christmas story of the birth of Jesus is told and retold time and time again in the run-up to the big day. I so love seeing the younger children dressed up as characters in the nativity play at school or in church. The Crib Service on Christmas Eve in All Saints Church certainly is a highlight for me as it is for so many of you; a time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and enjoy the excitement of the children (old and young alike).

Lent – a time of abstinence for some. In many parts of the world Lent begins with a carnival time when God’s goodness to his people is remembered and celebrated. Of course, here in the UK we have the fun of Shrove Tuesday and the making, tossing and racing with pancakes. I know that the Young at Heart group certainly had lots of fun tossing pancakes when they met together.