The Pope is ruining my Christmas spirit

Apparently the Pope wants to save the world from homosexuality.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go for a long walk, during which I may possibly cry.

Counting Down to Christmas – Part Two

Christmas isn’t yet here, but most of my work has been done. Last weekend was probably the heaviest: Riddells Creek Carols by Candlelight on Friday night; Lancefield Farmers’ Market on Saturday; three services (two in the morning; Blue Christmas in the evening) on Sunday. Then on Monday I suddenly realised that I was tired and had an afternoon nap.

(The Carols by Candlelight on Friday night were so cold! I had intended temporarily wearing my black Santa hat with “Bah humbug” on it as a joke and taking it off once the Carols started. But it was so bloody cold that I ended up wearing it all night to cover my ears and keep my head warm. Then the next day I got sun burnt at the Farmers’ Marker because my little brain couldn’t comprehend going from being frozen to being burnt overnight.)

Now I’ve got a pre-Christmas adrenalin surge. I woke up this morning before my alarm went off at 6 am and did an hour’s gardening before I started work. I’ve got both my liturgies for Christmas Day organised – all I need to do is copy the Order of Service for Mount Macedon. So all I have left to do is write the Christmas Day sermon. The trouble is that I just want to repeat what I said last year on Christmas Day: we celebrate the birth of Jesus because of what happened next; the story doesn’t end here. Can I assume that people didn’t really listen last year and I can repeat myself?

Four services to go – two on Christmas Eve; two on Christmas morning. Then an afternoon watching Doctor Who on the couch!

Missing my stepfather

The 18th of December is the anniversary of my stepfather’s death. He died in 2006, when I was in Switzerland. I love him and I miss him.

John Freeman

Counting down to Christmas

On Sunday a small girl told me that there were eleven sleeps until Christmas. It’s been a long time since I counted down to Christmas that way. Over the past week I’ve realised that I do still count down to Christmas, but now my counting is ticking things off a mental list of things to do. Today the list looks like this: