My dear Sisters in Christ,

Greetings to you in Our LORD and Saviour, Jesus Christ! I hope this Advent Season finds you well and preparing for the coming festivities that always surround the remembrance of the birth of our Blessed Saviour.

The beginning of Advent is a wondrous time of year. Not only is it the beginning of our liturgical church year calendar, but it also places us once again at the beginning of that long road from a small manger in Bethlehem to a bare hill and a cross in Jerusalem. I have decided to do something new this year, a new liturgical church year resolution if you will, to begin on the First Sunday in Advent. It is very simple really. I plan to use the Daily Offices in our Book of Common Prayer in daily practice. Yes, this will necessitate getting up half an hour early each morning for Morning Prayer; and yes, it will require setting aside a similar amount of time in the evening before going to bed. It will also require having the Bible close at hand to look up and read the daily Psalms and Lessons. All of this is true. However. How can that compare to the closer walk with our LORD which comes when one is faithful to read daily in His Word and faithful to center one’s daily life round the prayers and readings of our common Prayer Book? It’s a good bargain; no, it’s a great bargain. Too many times we daily race through life, going from one fire to the next; one stressful situation to another. We as women, consciously or not, have bought into the secular mad rush that has become our common way of life. But that’s not what we as Christians are called to do. We are not called to conform our lives to the world; we are called to be the beacon on the hill for others to see and follow. We are called to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12:2). Yet, how can we be transformed if we don’t take the time to conform…conform ourselves to God’s Word instead of our lives to man’s world? So, my question to you at the beginning of this Advent Season, as Christ comes into the world and sets his face, immovable, unshakeable, toward Jerusalem, is what will your new liturgical church year resolution be? Will you join me in mine? Will you set one of your own which, like our LORD, is immovable and unshakeable? I’m praying that you will.

May our LORD bless you and keep you this season and for all the seasons to come.

In Christ Alone,

Nancy Jones
Chair, Women of the Church
Diocese of Mid-America
Reformed Episcopal Church