Hark! The Herald Angel sings of hope and justice for all

Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44
BERTRAND Russell once wrote, in a much quoted passage, "on man and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark." The coming of winter with its gloomy evenings, its bleak, foggy days, its icy roads and cold winds, helps to remind us that Russell's vision of a world without hope is often brought closer to home for many people at this time of year. While many arc beginning the annual round of mid-winter
junketing in a sort of bonanza that helps them to forget the darkness outside and the uncertainties within, for others there is no bonanza, because what this season brings for many people is the emptiness of a Christmas without hope, on their own perhaps, of feeling lonely, at odds with their families, sometimes in want, their desolation heightened by the celebrations which everyone else seems to be enjoying.
In my local newspaper the season of Advent is heralded by a series of advertisements urging everyone to book their preChristmas meals, sompt Lions