The Saturday before Advent a large group of us, including carers and guests, made our way over to Whalley Abbey Retreat Centre for a quiet day.
Andrew, the Pastoral Leader, had organised the programme for the day, which began with coffee and biscuits before we assembled our fellowship, which was to become both a reflective and thoughtful way in which we thought about Advent and Christmas.
Many thoughts were shared, from ‘What means the most about Christmas to us’. We thought about family, the joy of exchanging presents, the Christmas Dinner and looking back on past Christmases with thoughts of people no longer with us.
After a break and sharing a lovely lunch together, we resumed our programme with Andrew showing us some very inspirational videos to help us think of the main reason for Advent as Christians. It is a waiting time, a time to prepare ourselves for celebrations of the birth of a baby boy, who was to become the saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.
We ended our day with Andrew giving us an assortment of instruments to then singing praises and lifting our hearts to the joy of being in fellowship with God and at one with each other.
We returned home with all of us enriched and inspired by the whole day’s events.
Thank you to Andrew for preparing and leading this day for us all.