Hogmanay again - time to reflect - after a fashion!

Many of my fellow pisky bloggers are reflecting on their past year as 2014 draws to a close.  I enjoy their reflections, e.g. Kelvin or Pip - but always hesitate, fingerless-gloved fingers above the keyboard (I lie about the gloves - the rectory study is pretty warm) - while I wonder where to start. Most years pass and I don't comment, but this year I will have a go! But to keep it fresh, here's a few things that did NOT happen this year...

Once again, aliens did not invade the earth, seeking to annihilate the human race and scavenge the resources of the planet. The fact that the 'plot' of Independence Day did not unfold has not, however, prevented the rise of the extreme right wing in British politics, blaming Bulgarians, Poles and Sylvanian families for the woes of the world in the absence of evil green space beings. Plus ca change. 2015 will again, I suspect, fail to see the alien invasion. But the right wing politics will continue to grow.

Time has not ended this year with a trumpet call, rivers of blood (etc, etc., see The Revelation of St John for details) and the dead rising from the their graves (or reconstituting themselves from the scattered ashes of their more carboniferous components). This has once again failed to happen, despite the ongoing apocalyptic signs (wars, rumours of wars etc. - see the gospels) and the development of modern understanding of the functionality of the universe.  This has disappointed a very great many people. Because if it did happen there would be a...

Revival in the church! Which has also not particularly happened this year. My own suggestion for a new strapline for my own Scottish Episcopal Church ("Mumbling in Cold Buildings Since 1688"), a small homage to Eddie Izzard, might have helped reverse the gentle, non-apocalyptically inflated decline, and it was even (unwisely) made at a national meeting about that sort of thing, but thankfully no one took too much notice of it. The wisdom of trying to grow healthy, inclusive, socially engaged Christian communities is good, and continues to go on. In places.

But 2014 has been a good year. Many challenges, both locally and nationally, have appeared, and some are still being worked through. 2015 will be more of the same...