A new post!!! Rather than giving up on social media for Lent, I am going to take up blogging again. However, this time I shall do it on the parish blog: https://badshotleaandhale.org/2017/03/01/lent-so-what-now/

What's it all About?

What’s Christmas all about?  Have you found yourself  wondering this at Christmas time?  If so come and join a group of others discovering together what Christmas and other faith issues mean.  “Just Looking” will be running in February and March 2011 in Amersham at a time convenient for those who want to come.  If you are interested please let Alan Crawley know – 01494 433826, Twitter @revdalan (please use direct message)

Feed In Tariffs

On today's show my guest, Lesley Fellows, referred to two companies, among many, who are involved in providing green energy solutions that qualify for the governments Feed in Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive.

They were Ice Energy and The Solar Coop.  If you do decide to get in touch with them, please mention that you heard about them through Radio Christmas.

I'm sure that there ought to be some form of disclaimer here, but just to say that I have no experience of these people, so make your own minds up!

Thought for the day

This is my thought for the day for Radio Christmas this morning.  If you have come here because you have already heard it and want to know the answer (if you haven't ignore this bit!) then click to see more at the bottom.  If not then here it is!

Well. Here it is. Merry Christmas. Everybody’s having fun.

At least I hope that is the case. It is certainly true here at Radio Christmas, despite all the last minute panics to get ready, and I hope that it will be true for you as Christmas draws near. But Christmas can also be a difficult time – difficult for those who’ve recently lost jobs, difficult for those who’ve got ill relatives, difficult for those who’ve lost loved ones recently or at this time of year.

And perhaps it’s superficially difficult for those of us who have to pack extra shopping and partying into our already full lives. It’s all rather “Goodness, another year has gone by since last Christmas”.

And then of course there are the perils of Christmas Day itself “You’d better watch out”, “you’d better not cry” we find ourselves saying to children at 4 in the morning (if we aren’t careful).

I don’t want a lot for Christmas, but that doesn’t seem to make it any easier.

But I get ahead of myself – in church terms we are in Advent – and as churches we are watching and waiting – preparing. Not only for Christmas but also for the coming of Christ.

Now I don’t want to get all precious and stop people singing carols before Christmas, but I do want to encourage everyone to spend some time in the next 3 ½ weeks thinking about what Christmas means to them.

What – you say, another thing to add the long list that I’ve already got?

Well, do you know what is important to you about Christmas? Perhaps you do – but I suspect that many of us don’t!

Is it that Snow is falling all around us, children playing having fun, eating and drinking too much – or is it something else?

Of course with many of the things that we hold dear we can easily be disappointed “They said there’ll be snow at Christmas”, “they said there’ll be peace on earth”.

The birth of Jesus tells us that God loves us, loves us enough to send His Son to show us how to live. Not in a fearful way – but in a way that allows us to live our lives fully and fearlessly. Jesus birth and death show us that it isn’t what happens to us that gives or takes away our happiness, it is how we respond to those events. And if we are loved my experience is that we can cope with anything – and need be afraid of nothing.

And so this is Christmas, a vivid life giving example that God loves us; and in response may we be able to say: It’s Christmas time there’s no need to be afraid.

Oh – and it’s also time for a bit of fun – I don’t know whether you spotted them, but I quoted the first lines from 9 Christmas songs in this piece. If you want to find out where they were you can listen again on www.radiochristmas.co.uk or have a look at my blog: revdalan.blogspot.com.

Marked up copy below the fold.

Radio Christmas

Back for a few one off special posts, rather like a reluctant movie star out plugging the latest film.  This is to alert people to the existence of Radio Christmas which is a (very) local radio station to Amersham and the surrounding areas, but which can also be heard over the web (see home page) and for which a best selling (?) iPhone app is available.

This is a wonderful local community project raising money for Streetkids in South America, and also building community in the wider Amersham area.

I have a show, Call Reverend Alan on Thursday lunchtimes 2nd, 9th and 16th December at 1pm (hence the point of the plug!).

 I'm also doing Thought for the Day on 1st December at about 7.45.

The show will be an opportunity to call, email or tweet in and ask questions of my guests and myself , as well as listen to some of the things that my guests are up to and a few songs.  As I write, the schedule is:

2nd December: Rev’d Dr Lesley Fellows, Member of Oxford Diocesan Environmental Group, International Moderator, No Anglican Covenant Coalition and blogger.

9th December: Rt Rev’d Dr Alan Wilson, The Bishop of Buckingham (and blogger)

16th December: Rev’d Paul Willis, Co Founder Wycombe Night Shelter












16 December: Rev’d Pippa Soundy Assistant Curate St Michael and All Angels, Amersham on the Hill, Community Minister to the Church Mission Society, based in Oxford

Au revoir

After yesterdays post I thought that I was going to spend some time thinking about whether I wanted to continue blogging at the present.  However, my reaction to the idea of stopping - at least temporarily - was such that I know that it is something that I want to do.  And once the decision is made...

It has been fun sharing with you all, but for the time being, as Jimmy Young (Jeremy Vine to you younger types) used to say on the JY prog TTFN.

One parting thought!  If George Osborne wants to know where to start cutting then he could try the MoD - why do we need the 4th largest military spend in the world, why do we need nuclear, even if we just paid the soldiers and military contractors to sit at home we would save the hardware costs.  And shouldn't matters of war now be a UN issue?

To Blog or not to Blog

While I was away last week I didn't blog - and it was good!  Then I get back and find this from Clayboy.

I wrote quite a long time ago about blogging and many of the themes remain.  I still think that blogging is for me, and I still think that there is a stress to me in blogging.  The most obvious solution would be to blog less often.  However last week I was talking to a counsellor and they talked about the weekly relationship - and how if the time between meetings stretches out things get saved up to say, and are more thought through, whereas turning up weekly the unconscious has more opportunity to get out.  I think the same is true of blogging.  Posting daily means that some days there is nothing to say - and yet they are sometimes the days when I learn most as I write something down that I didn't know.

The thing that I didn't write about in the earlier post was the community of bloggers.  It feels antisocial to blog but not to read others blogs, to blog but not read and sometimes respond to comments - but both of these activities can be very time consuming.

What am I going to do?  Not sure!  Watch this space.