大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Lucy Winkett

Good morning.

Whether you鈥檙e partying tonight, or going to bed before the bells ring, the turn of the year is a time for reflection and taking stock. Three years ago, at the turn of 2020, only a few knew for sure the sort of disruption and suffering that a global pandemic would bring that year. And every year since then has held both provocation and challenge as the multiple consequences of an air borne virus and the measures taken to combat it have wreaked havoc in our institutions and patterns of living. What is ahead this year is still unclear. The turning of a new year is in some ways of course the same as any other moment: calendars are just ways of organising time. But the rhythm of the earth鈥檚 rotation and our planet鈥檚 rotation around the sun mean that we move from Old to New Year tonight, with all the attendant reflection that this means. The 18th century preacher and founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote a particular prayer for use at this time of year. It鈥檚 incredibly moving, the Covenant Prayer, used in Methodist chapels and churches across the world.

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will,
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for you
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
Let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal,
and now glorious and blessed God, you are mine and I am yours.
So be it.

And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.