The Most Liminal Time of the Year

Oddly enough, the shortest day was quite a long one.

It's always a tricky one - was last night the night we sing the traditional Beaker song, "Raise your banners high, Don't die, Sun, don't die" - or is that tonight?

We're doing it both. That way all bases are covered.  We gathered this afternoon to watch the sun sink below the horizon somewhere over Woburn, had a bit of a sob, then went off to the seminar on "Shane McGowan's Teeth and the Remnant Motif". Quite a neat little rhyme as well, if you're from Luton.

So the Beaker Folk are in a state of panic, wondering if the sun will rise tomorrow. Spoiler alert: yes it will. Unless other arrangements are made. And we've put on a 14 hour screening of Last of the Summer Wine Christmas specials. Many have nothing to do with Christmas, or Yule, or indeed any kind of 21st Century reality. But they numb the pain, blot out the rain, and will get people - one way or another - through to 8am tomorrow when I daresay the sun will rise through Duckhenge, which we've carefully re-arranged for the purpose.

It's the most liminal time of the year. The old year's about done, but it's not the new. Yule is here, yet it's a few days till Xmas. And the Beaker Folk, having finished work but not yet reached Christmas, lay themselves down on the damp ground and howl for the light to return.

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Want a good laugh? Want to laugh at the church? Want to be secretly suspicious that the author has been sitting in your church committee meetings taking notes? Then Writes of the Church: Gripes and grumbles of people in the pews is probably the book for you. From Amazon, Sarum Bookshop, The Bible Readers Fellowship and other good Christian bookshops. An excellent book for your churchgoing friends, relatives or vicar. And don't forget it's nearly Christmas!