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DEADLINE FOR FEBRUARY: 18TH JANUARYDEAR FRIENDSGreetings!We are once again approaching the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany; by the time you read this edition of SCAN we will have already celebrated the first week of Advent, on November 30th.Our liturgical colour changes from green to purple as the start of the busiest time of year begins. Excitement and anticipation builds as the weeks of Advent lead us into the joy of Christmastide and on to Epiphany, which ends formally with Candlemas on 2nd February.We are preparing to meet and greet many of you over the festive period, either at our church services, school nativity plays, carol concerts and Christmas bazaars or our regular coffee mornings, breakfasts and such like - and no doubt mince pies.Open Table for breakfast at St Laud%u2019s will continue in December and January as usual, along with our new Soup and Souls community lunch on the first Friday of the month during December and into the New Year.Perhaps at this time of year more than any other our village communities look to our churches as the focal point for both celebrating the birth of Jesus and at the same time remembering all our loved ones who no longer sit with us at our Christmas table to pull crackers, eat, drink and be merry.But what of the other three quarters of the year? Easter for some is still a springtime highlight, and of course it is the pivot of Christian faith, but Eastertide is less well attended than Christmas in most of our churches.What value do you place on the physical and spiritual presence of the Church in our midst? Is the Church in any sense an important component of your life - is it a vital aspect of the village where you choose to live?In each of our villages the church pre-dates just about all the other buildings still in use. Historically, (along with a school and a pub!) the church formed and still forms part of the very fabric of village life, faithfully woven over many centuries into the very hearts and souls of the lives of everyone in the community.Our beautiful, ancient churches are the repositories of faith, hope and love which have inspired generations and upheld human lives through countless joys, sorrows and times of trial.