Posted on: 4th December 2025

Over the summer I read Chine McDonald’s excellent book Unmaking Mary. It had a profound effect on me and I’ve spent much of this year reflecting on Mary. This week it has felt more acute as we enter into the Advent season and we begin to reflect on Mary’s visit by an angel.

We see in Luke’s account in Luke 1:26-38 how God, the story of Mary and the angel gives us a picture of how God uses what the world might overlook to work out his purposes on Earth. She didn’t have power or fame and yet, she was ‘beloved’ and that was enough. 

As Kayla Craig writes: 
Advent invites us to reflect on how we, like Mary, are invited into God’s redemptive narrative - no matter how ordinary or small we might feel - for each of us has the potential to carry God’s love into a weary world. 

I think that’s a wonderful truth but it’s also quite scary. I think Mary probably felt the same. Her response “How will this be?” shows the natural human response to want to understand how things work and the doubt that we all carry from time to time and yet, the angels response “Do not be afraid” reminds us that God knows our innermost thoughts and moves towards us. 

As I finish my second month leading the team at LCCT I’m constantly struck by the way the projects we govern carry God’s love into a weary world, be it through community kitchens, wellbeing groups, support for young families or supporting asylum seekers and refugees. I’m immensely proud to be part of an organisation that is bringing so much hope into the lives of those living in Leeds. 

As we journey through this advent season, may you know that you, like Mary, can be called ‘beloved’ and that you hold the potential to carry God’s love into a weary world. 

I finish with a benediction, also written by Kayla Craig: 

May you step into this Advent season wrapped in the quiet assurance that you are seen, known, and so very loved. May your small yes to trust God be enough. 

May the light who moves towards us in every season meet you in the ordinary and overlooked corners of your life. 

Go in hope, go in peace, go in belovedness.