21st October 2026

This coming weekend the clocks go back. What changes do you find yourself making at this time of year? What are you anticipating? Some people find the shortening hours of daylight a particular challenge. Others may revel in the excuse to curl up in front a fire, wrapped in a thick jumper and with a mug of tea; or in walks on cold, crisp winter days.

In part, it turns my thoughts towards Advent (and dare I say it in October, even towards Christmas!). Should I book a retreat, buy a book, or a chocolate calendar…?

I’m drawn to a new book from The Iona Community: “At home in the dark. Prayers & poems for Advent & Christmas”. The online description includes the following text:

These are reflections for Christmas as it is actually lived: amid joy and grief, waiting and uncertainty, celebration and loneliness, a fragile planet and a world longing for peace. There is room here for candlelight and starlight, angels and shepherds, but also for food banks and refugees, protest and injustice, loss and the everyday struggles of ordinary life.

Yet darkness is not the end of the story. Again and again, these writers discover light in unexpected places: in community and compassion, in resistance and imagination, in laughter, love and the promise of new beginnings.

It sounds real and challenging and hopeful, all at the same time.

As the nights get longer, may we draw our attention to Jesus, Light of the World, and know for ourselves the truth that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Ruth Allen