Dear friends,
Advent is the season leading towards Christmas and it is a time of longing, learning, anticipation, and preparation. Our theme for Advent this year at FCC is Gestating Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. During our planning meeting where I was the only woman, the men felt the word “gestating” was scientific and foreign. But I told them as a woman, I found the word so beautiful, powerful, and life-giving. We eventually chose to adopt this theme, and I hope as a faith community, we will begin to appreciate the depth of what it means to gestate hope, peace, love and joy in our lives and in the world, with God’s help.
This Sunday, Mark will be preaching on ‘Gestating Peace.’ The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, though it more properly means wholeness. When we think about peace as wholeness and recognise how incomplete the world is, we can’t help but long for something more. To seek peace is to yearn.
Please come join us as we consider what it means to gestate peace this Sunday!
Shalom
Pauline