Chaplaincy of Aquitaine

2023 Theme: Renewing Hope

Tony introduces this year's theme in the January Prayer & News Update

Firstly, can I wish you all a slightly belated Happy New Year and I hope that you will have been able to spend a pleasant Christmas period despite the amazing number and variety of cold and flu bugs that seem to be doing the rounds.

It’s at this time of year that I have always announced our theme for the coming year and this year I have chosen the theme “Renewing Hope” along with a verse from St Paul’s letter to the Romans. In Chapter 15 verse 13 we read: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I have to admit to a slight play on words here, as the words used in the theme are slightly ambiguous. I sincerely hope that by building our trust in God we will, indeed, find that hope is renewed in us. But at the same time, God’s hope is a renewing hope – leading us to greater joy and peace and building us up both individually and as a church. Thus hope is being renewed in us and is also renewing us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I have often spoken of how I believe that Hope is perhaps the single most important part of the Christian faith. This hope isn’t just a wish for something nice but is a deep trust in God’s goodness so that we can know that, ultimately, our future is safe in His hands.

As we move into yet another year of deep uncertainty and, indeed for some, of real fear, how much do we need to know that the future is in safe hands? I am constantly awed by hearing of the experiences of people in our Anglican Chaplaincy in Kyiv as they face the reality of the Russian aggression. Of news from the Henry Henderson Institute in Malawi where we have helped to supply clean water to the school kids living with the reality of the climate change in which we have all played our part. Of Christians in countries like North Korea or Afghanistan who live with the reality of religious persecution, imprisonment or even death. And yet, so often, these are the people who do appear to be “overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

In 2022, through ChapAid you have all shown immense generosity in helping to provide help for people such as these. My prayer for us all this year is that, with the help of the Holy Spirit our trust in the God of Hope will grow and grow, filling us with His joy and peace so that we too can overflow with hope, a hope that will then, in turn, flow out over those around us locally and throughout the world so that in the darkness of war, repression and poverty we might play our small part in kindling the light of Christ in everyone’s heart.

May I wish you an very hopeful New Year and I look forward to journeying with you all on every step of the way.

God bless,