Looking forward to what?

There were a dozen of us at St Catherine's for the Eucharist of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus this morning. Mother Frances gave us a reading about the two different Greek New Testament words for 'new' - neos and kainos. The former is used to refer to something recurrent, like a new harvest, whereas the latter refers to something which hasn't happened before, like the New Testament. What will this year bring to us that is radically new and changes the way things are for the better? I wonder. 

What innovations shall we see which encourage cooperation instead of competition, and draw people together willingly to to even more to work for the common good? It's been amazing to see how food banks and homeless shelters have proliferated in response to need in the past decade, driven not by government policy, but by concerned volunteers, many of them faith motivated. On the news lately concern has been expressed about the pernicious persistence of racism in sport. 

The Labour party has been accused all too readily of failure to deal properly with anti-semitism, while little is ever said about persistent antisemitism and xenophobia among right wing politicians and their resurgent English nationalism. This is seemingly taken for granted, rather than confronted with equal vigour. Tory party political rhetoric and bluster has appealed to cultural and institutionally racist xenophobic attitudes. Anyone who appears or acts different is going to be increasingly at risk from hostile attitudes and actions towards them. The election of the new government didn't halt the antisemitic graffiti or racist chanting at football games. With the electorate conned into lurching further to the right. The genie is out of the bottle. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time. It's not a basis for hope, but change is ever possible. If only that change could be one of repentance!

I had another good long walk around the park this afternoon. My new Samsung Fit device seems to have settled down and is behaving properly in terms of storing and providing me with useful info. 

This evening the New Year's Day Concert from Vienna on telly, a favourite of mine. Now that's a city I look forward to us returning to, one of these days when the surgical ordeal is over.