We started the New Year with a very pretty poster on our board with a nice text on it but I was asked why we didn't have one of those oval boards that almost all other churches have which say, The Millennium is Christ's Birthday. Worship him here now. I don't know. No meeting proposed it. No individual bought us one. No one opposed it. It just didn't happen. I suspect that we have a collective sub-conscious that tells us that some things aren't worth the bother they'll cause and that some people wouldn't like it. Is it Christ's 2000th ? Probably not. Is it even the Millennium? Probably not! Why all of a sudden should the new year be a Christian festival? Hedge it about with enough of these shoulder shruggings and it almost disappears.

In this new century will our own church still reply when asked about its belief, "It all depends what you mean...?" or more positively, "Quite likely!" or, "So so"? I suspect the answer is "Yes". The absence of the oval board is a reflection of this attitude. But what can we do? If the answer to all human questions is actually, "Maybe" there's not much option unless it is to say, "We don't know many answers but let us tell you a story: 'There was once a young woman from the small Palestinian town of Nazareth...'"

Eric Bray
Jan/Feb 2000