Tag: new year

Prayers for New Year’s Eve

31st December 2025

The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Psalm 97:6,11

Let’s seek God with all our heart
Amen. Christ be our still-point.
Let’s seek God with all our soul
Amen. Christ be our vision.
Let’s seek God with all our mind
Amen. Christ be our wisdom.
Let’s seek God with all our strength
Amen. Christ be our souls’ companion.

(Adapted from Our Common Prayer)

A reading from Daniel 7:9-10

While I was looking, thrones were put in place. One who had been living forever sat down on one of the thrones. His clothes were white as snow, and his hair was like pure wool. His throne, mounted on fiery wheels, was blazing with fire, and a stream of fire was pouring out from it. There were many thousands of people there to serve him, and millions of people stood before him. The court began its session, and the books were opened. 

Year’s End

As the old year turns to the new, 

as days past give way to days to come 

there is time for remembering and for hoping, 

for forgiving and for planning.

It is a time of reckoning, 

a time to open the books 

and review the record.

Has the year past profited the poor?

Have the rich relinquished their wealth?

Have the young been uplifted 

– and the old respected?

Have strangers been welcomes

– and outsiders embraced?

Have resources been equitably garnered

– and shared?

Have soils been replenished 

– and water supplies restored?

Has the number of endangered species reduced 

– and the number of wild habitats increased?

How will future generations judge us?

How will the earth reward us 

  • or punish us?

Is there time for amendment? 

Is there yet time 

to rebalance the accounts?

God of all time and space, God of eternity and mercy, 

draw a line under what has happened – 

and yet show us, again, how to start over, 

to make good what we have destroyed,

 to replenish the world with love, 

 to live wisely, in harmony, in unity 

with one another and with you.


Pause to reflect


As one year ends, let us give thanks for all that has been good:

For the establishing of a Just Transition Work Programme at COP30, 

For the coming together of the National Emergency Briefing,

For the activists who have made the well-being of the planet a world priority;

For conservation and re-wilding projects that restore life to the earth;

For the individuals who have switched to more sustainable lifestyles; 

For businesses who have focus on ethics above profits;

For churches and faith communities who celebrated creation-tide.

As a new year begins, we pray for renewed commitment by

Leaders and peoples,

Activists and individuals 

Conservationists and farmers

Businesses and investors 

Churches and faith communities.

As we make new year resolutions, 

we ask for vision and strength that we may determined

to live and work together, 

to cherish the earth, 

to protect its flora and fauna, 

and ensure an equal sharing of opportunities and resources.

The Grace

Counting on … day 1

1st January 2025

Today is the Feast of the Circumcision – or Naming –  of Christ. The name given in the Gospels as Jesus is a transliteration of Joshua. Jesus comes from the Latin Iesus (pronounced as three syllables) or the Greek,  Iesous – and both are transliterations of the Hebrew name Yeshua or Yoshua, or the older name of  Yehoshu’a – from which we derived the name Joshua as used in the Old Testament. The Hebrew name means ‘Yahweh saves’.

Our salvation does indeed come from, and start with, God. 

The Naming of Christ

1st January 2023

Reflection (readings follow on)

Today is the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Christ and New Year’s Day.  The first day of the first month is a logical day to begin the new year, but how is it that this day, of all days, is the first? Different cultures and groups celebrate the start of their new year on various different days. For the Israelites it was the first day of Nisan (ie sometime in March as that calendar is lunar). For the Chinese it is a day in late January or early February. Islam follows a lunar calendar and this year’s New Year will be in July. In the church the liturgical year starts on Advent Sunday in late November. The tax year starts on April 1st and the school year from some date in September. There is no one factor that determines New Year’s Day.

That the 1st of January is the Feast of the Naming  and Circumcision of Christ is, as the gospel records- and in line with custom – because it took place eight days after his birth. This naming and circumcising marked him out as an Israelite. What the gospel accounts lack is any indication as to the date when Jesus was born. For the first couple of centuries no one felt the need to affirm the date of Jesus’s birth – as with the feast days of saints, it was the date of death that was commemorated (usually a more certain date). The first recorded celebration of Christmas was in Rome on December 25, 336CE. This day may have been chosen as 25th December also coincided with the winter solstice – according to the calendar of the time. (Since then calendars have been refined and adjusted).  

Whilst in the Roman era, the new year started on 1st January this did not remained fixed for all time. In Angle Saxon England 25th December – the solstice – was most commonly observed as the beginning of the new year. Later under Norman influence, the new year began on 25th March – the spring equinox – and this was the custom until 1752, since when the new year has begun on 1st January. So in a curious roundabout way this Christian Feast of the Naming of Christ is the first day of the new year! 

Today’s readings celebrate the importance of naming and of new beginnings. The first begins with a blessing that God gives so that God’s people may be blessed, and in blessing them they are named Israelites. The name Israel was first given to Jacob after he had wrestled with God and the name means ‘one who struggles with God’. The name suggests a dynamic relationship between God and God’s people!

The Psalmist is overawed by the difference between God and all the wonder of God’s creation and the smallness, the lowliness, of humanity, and at the same time, the Psalmist is amazed that even babes and children know how to praise the name of God. There is something truly amazing about the relationship between on one hand God, and on the other, humanity. This amazing relationship unfolds even further in the words of Paul. God has not just named us as God’s people, God has adopted us, through the birth of God’s only begotten son, as children and heirs of God. It is no surprise then that the name given to Jesus – Yehoshua – means the Lord is Salvation. We are people called to struggle and to be saved!

So today we begin the year of our Lord 2023. May it be a year blessed with care and compassion and action to safeguard the future of all that God has created. 

Numbers 6:22-27

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Psalm 8

1 O Lord our Governor, *
how exalted is your Name in all the world!

2 Out of the mouths of infants and children *
your majesty is praised above the heavens.

3 You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, *
to quell the enemy and the avenger.

4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *
the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

5 What are human beings that you should be mindful of them? *
mortals that you should care for them?

6 You have made them but little lower than the angels; *
you adorn them with glory and honour;

7 You give them dominion over the works of your hands; *
you put all things under their feet:

8 All sheep and oxen, *
even the wild beasts of the field,

9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, *
and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.

10 O Lord our Governor, *
how exalted is your Name in all the world!

Galatians 4:4-7

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Luke 2:15-21

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.