This holiday season gave us that wonderful opportunity to bond together and recall all the love and friendship we enjoyed the past year. It was a good a time to renew relations, and reach out to our neighbors, our relatives and friends. It was an opportune time to show gratitude for all the blessings we now enjoy, after all the trials the world has been through the past year. We are thankful for the gift of life, the gift of simple joys, the gift of family and friends, especially now during these tragic times brought to us by this pandemic.

And so, to all our friends out there, here’s a simple message of glad tidings and brotherhood to one and all. Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a better year ahead for all of us!

But even as we count our good fortune, let us not forget to share them…

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has left a wonderful legacy to the Church. It’s a spirit of courage and joy, a boldness in proclaiming the Gospel especially in the face of injustice, and a tempering of this with good humour and love.

Canon Mark Oakley, Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge posted this challenging tweet on December 26th. A wonderful challenge for church leaders, and other christians too, for 2023. Fr Mark also wrote to The Times:

And here he coined the wonderful word ‘Tutufication’ This year, 2023, lets work on ‘Tutufication’ – by standing up ‘with grace and good humour’ for freedom, justice, rights of minorities and the overlooked. And we can do that in our parish situation here at St Chrysostom’s, as indeed we try to in our church work and worship, and we can do this beyond the parish too.

Let’s take up Fr Mark Oakley’s challenge, and lets…