CHRISTMAS is coming and the goose is getting worried.

Advent not only offers time and space to prepare for the big event, but also to rehearse – relive – the story of God's coming among us as one of us.

For many people the story has become so familiar that the most extraordinary event in history becomes almost blandly boring. We Christians need to recover our sense of wonder and excitement as we celebrate afresh God surprising earth with heaven at Christmas.

Advent beckons us to learn to wait. Not to grasp at the instant gratification offered by a consumer world in which quick satisfaction or self-fulfilment are the discounted items on permanent sale.

Waiting cannot be rushed. Yet, it creates a unique space in which we can learn to relive the biblical story at walking pace, staying with creation, the prophets, the heralds of the Kingdom of God, the hope of redemption and a future coloured by more than death and destruction.

There's another fresh start for us in the new year when Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley takes up her role as the new Bishop of Ripon, bringing her experience as a theological educator and as an experienced bishop from the wider Anglican Communion.

We look forward immensely to the gifts she will bring to the life and mission of the Ripon Episcopal Area – and indeed to the whole of the Diocese of Leeds – as she helps people and parishes in the beautiful north of our patch to be surprised by the joy of the incarnation.

I am hugely grateful for the inspiring, faithful and diligent ministry of the Archdeacon of Richmond & Craven who has steered the Episcopal Area through the months since Bishop James retired. I now look forward to the next phase of our common life and mission.

But first, Advent. Then Christmas. Then the joy of knowing that God is for us – Immanuel.