Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's letter June 2008

February 2009

A junior government minister recently got herself into deep trouble, when responding to a journalist, by talking about the first ‘green shoots’ of recovery on a day when large numbers of job losses were announced and the economic crisis seemed to be going from bad to worse. Because of the notorious political history of the phrase ‘green shoots’ much criticism was heaped upon this minister. And yet it’s surely often the case that recovery from a bleak situation begins just at the time when things seem at their worst – the darkest time coming just before the dawn? Let’s hope that things do start to look up in the financial state of our world very soon.

February can seem a very bleak month indeed – cold, wet and wintry. Despite this, the hours of daylight are getting noticeably longer and real green shoots are actually beginning to appear. In pagan times the Celts kept the feast of Imbolc at the beginning of February, a feast which celebrated the awakening of the land and the growing power of the sun. Food stocks were growing low and the rituals of Imbolc, which included the lighting of fires, were designed to harness divine energy to enable things to grow again. In this bleak month, even without a pagan festival to celebrate, we can all begin to sense spring around the corner with its promise of new life and hope.

In the Christian era Imbolc was replaced by the Feast of Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. The pagan fires gave way to the lighting of candles to commemorate the infant Christ’s presentation in the temple forty days after his birth, when Simeon declared him to be ‘the light that lightens the Gentiles’. This light shows us that in Christ we too can be offered to God and be found acceptable to Him. Unlike our pagan ancestors we do not need to harness divine energy to enable things to grow again, but we are given the opportunity to use the grace given to us in Christ, the light of the world, to help us to grow in our life in Christ.

And on the subject of spiritual growth February also brings us Lent. Perhaps we see Lent as a rather bleak time, a time for penitence and giving things up, a wintry sort of time. But the word ‘Lent’ means spring – Lent is a spring time of the Spirit, a time for new life and growth. We can look forward to this opportunity to renew our Christian commitment, and prepare for the joy of Easter.

So this February can be a time when ‘green shoots’ begin to appear not just in nature but in our spiritual lives too. And, thank God, we begin this month with a new father in God – Bishop Andrew – who will help us all to nurture these green shoots and help them to grow into sturdy plants.

Fr John

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