Minister's Letter January 2026
Revd John Henry
Tickhill Methodist Church
The New Year
I can remember as a child often feeling quite down in January, post-Christmas.
Leading up to Christmas was the exciting time of anticipation, after Christmas and all the parties it did rather seem somewhat of an anticlimax.
Nowadays I am so aware January can be a difficult time for many people as we face those grey days, before the early signs of spring kick in.
However, I think there is something we can take from January that can lift our spirits.
It is the thought that we have a New Year with all its possibility.
For many years I have collected a little book called the friendship book; I have a number of them on my shelves. Some of them dating back to the 1970s.
I remember one entry which was for the 1st of January some years ago and the author was reflecting on a scene, which was a snow scene.
That scene was untouched, no footmarks, no tractor tyre trails even though the scene was captured on a farm; the author made much of the fact that the snow was fresh and, in his words, ‘unspoiled’.
He/she went on to apply to it all to the New Year. Yet unmarked, fresh and new.
Of course, that only works in a measure, because it is the case that for some the New Year brings certain things with it, certain things to face and challenges to negotiate.
However, let's take the promise of the New Year with all its possibility and indeed a fresh determination to have courage and resolve.
Every Blessing,With every good wish; Reverend John Henry, Methodist minister. Minister of Tickhill Methodist Church & Superintendent of Doncaster Methodist Circuit.
- Tickhill Methodist Church
- Northgate
- Tickhill
- South Yorkshire
- DN11 9HY