Pages 7 final Adventure.qxp_The adventure is beginning 23/10/2020 16:52 Page 7
The adventure is beginning
7
Introduction Someone once said to me that what they appreciate about books like this, and the one before it, In Love with the Life of Life, is all the different voices. Reading collections like this, they told me, helped them to feel part of ‘a little community of hope’. In The Adventure Is Beginning, Leader of the Iona Community, Ruth Harvey, writes: ‘The first two verses of Isaiah’s prophecy speak of a people beckoning their God, who they know will turn the world upside down. And so we join our voice with the voices of others, welcoming, willing, wooing the arrival of a God who will overturn injustice and will midwife the birth of a new world order …’ I hope that reading this book helps you to feel part of a community of hope – in 2020-2021 we need hope – and I hope that it challenges you to pray and work for a world turned upside down, for the birth of a new world order. One where we, in the West, learn to live with less and climate change is halted, where refugees and asylum seekers are welcomed and cherished, where poverty is made history ... Thank you so much for all that you do in your community and in the community of the world. We are all sparks of the Light. Let’s keep on encouraging and inspiring each other. To root this book and give writers a discipline, the Bible readings are based on the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B. The Bible readings don’t follow the lectionary strictly though: folk were asked to choose a few verses from one reading in the lectionary. While the Bible readings connect to the lectionary for 2020/2021, this book may be used during Advent and Christmas in any year. However if you want to read it in connection with the Revised Common Lectionary, there are four additional daily readings in the Appendix which allow for the book to be used every third year, when the readings fall in Year B.
