Sing But Keep On Walking : Readings, poems and prayers for Advent

Sing But Keep On Walking moves between the islands of Mull and Iona and the hills of the West Bank and Jerusalem: places ‘on the edge’. And, like in Palestine two thousand years ago, that’s where God comes to us, in human form, as living Word, as light out of darkness. Some images recur – like flocks of migrating birds or flowing water, like stories of people who work with their hands: sculptors, a carpenter, a baker. Real people, whose lives are celebrated. ‘I’m writing amid political chaos and climate crisis,’ says Jan, ‘with no easy answers … But we can speak truth to power, walk side by side, sing justice. We can live an alternative.’O God, you challenge us to pilgrimage,and you walk with us on those journeys we did not choose. Keep us singing: with joy, with courage, with hope. AmenJan Sutch Pickard is a storyteller and poet living on the Isle of Mull. She is a former Warden of Iona Abbey, and volunteered with the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, serving on different occasions in two West Bank villages.