I make no predictions for 2008.  There is so much speculation in the media before news is made public that there is a real anticlimax when the news itself comes out. Advertising compounds the situation by pressing us to imagine how life could be if we purchased the latest product rather than learning to feel good about ourselves as we are here and now.

So let me offer you a challenge for 2008. Don’t live in the future, but be true to the present, pledge yourself to put more effort into living in today. At the very least that could lead to a massive reduction in the gossip that St Paul placed right up among the most serious sins he confronted in the early Christian church.

So let me wish you a happy 2008, and pray that you will live it, to the full, one day at a time.

The Rt Revd David Walker

Bishop of Dudley

Ends

The Diocese of Worcester is one of 44 dioceses in the Church of England. It covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in the County of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south east Wolverhampton and Sandwell.